#he was killed in the same season he was introduced how did anyone have time to hate him what

[11queensupreme11]

Yes, I am making a reaction fic....... eventually lol

i know it says i started this back in 2023, but all i really did was make a cover. i didn't start making any chapters until a few months ago hehe

BUT ANYWAYS YES YOU READ THAT RIGHT! i am making a reaction/reading the books/watching the movies fic for arsenic blues!!!! in this case, it will be ror reacting to pjo

for anyone interested to learn more, go under the cut!

(this started off as me just giving you some info about cerulean cyanide, but then i ended up ranting about how much i loved the pjo tv show lol, soooo if you haven't watched it, don't go down)

first off, THIS IS MY FIRST TIME MAKING A REACTION FIC! i've read a lot of them, but i have no experience in actually making one. i'm kinda nervous ngl 😅

secondly, i've already started... somewhat. i've copied all chapters of the lightning thief into a google doc and made necessary edits, but i haven't written any reactions... YET. i want to include the ror gods AND humans as members of the audience, and since i haven't written about the ror humans as thoroughly yet, i won't be writing the reactions until i get to act 2 of arsenic blues, since that's when the ror humans are introduced. this is important for me because i don't have their characterizations down yet, and won't until i actually start writing about them and their dynamics with percy. same goes with cú chulainn, he's a literal love interest, but won't get introduced until act 2!

thirdly, because of what i said up there ^ cerulean cyanide won't be published until act 2 is finished to avoid spoiling what happens during ragnarok and the god's apocalypse.

fourthly, IT WILL BE INTERMIXED WITH THE TV SHOW!!! i fucking LOVED the show and (most of) the changes that were made, so i'm totally going to add them into percy's past that the ror characters will be reacting to.

so what elements of the show should you expect to see? glad you asked!

POSEIDON 💙

poseidon in the books is great, but i loooooove the new stuff they put in the tv show. in the books, we're mostly told that poseidon loves percy and there are times where it's shown, but it's kinda hard to pick up since the books are written in PERCY'S POV, and since poseidon is literally restricted from interacting with him, it's hard to notice how much he actually loves his son when he's not even allowed to be AROUND the dude who's perspective takes up the whole series.

but in the tv show, it's not just percy's perspective that's explored! that little moment poseidon had with sally told us SOOOO MUCH about how he actually felt for the both of them. and when he and percy finally met??? THE ANGST AND LONGING THEY BOTH SHOWED UHDFSIGVSVGD I LOVED IT SO MUCH

AND THE FACT THAT HE NOT ONLY SAVED PERCY FROM ZEUS BUT ALSO SURRENDERED??? HE GAVE UP HIS PRIDE AND PRIDE IS SUCH A HUGE AND IMPORTANT THING FOR GODS BUT HE GAVE IT UP WITH NO HESITATION AHHHHHHH 😭

so yes, expect to see a lot of the poseidon scenes from the tv show

HERMES BEING AT THE LOTUS CASINO

i actually really like the fact that hermes was shown in here instead of the next season. some people were confused as to what the point was for having him in the casino and why he tricked the kids into staying at the casino longer, but i found this post on tumblr that explains why he could've been there:

in the last olympian, we (and percy) find out that hermes knew all along what luke's fate would be; that he would rebel against the olympians, bring forth kronos, become his host, etc. he knew ALL OF THAT. but he was never allowed to tell him (ancient laws), so he tried to CHANGE luke's fate in order to save him even though he knew it was pointless.

we get a bit of that in the tv show. hermes was there because he wanted to change luke's fate. he tricked the kids into staying at the casino longer so they would pass the deadline. war would come, and luke would get away with his thievery and nobody would know it was him because they're all too busy trying to kill each other. but ofc, like always, it didn't work because you can never change fate.

i love how the show showed us that hermes was trying to change his fate in the first season whereas in the books, it only started in the second book where he was introduced for the first time.

THE GODS' CRUELTY AND THEIR LOVE

the gods' cruelty and apathy was much more obvious in the show's first season compared to the first book. in the first book, most of the gods shown were jerks at best but the tv show really showed us how horrible of a family they are (most of them at least) to each other and their kids

like what show!ares said, his family loves to stab each other in the back, they love to hurt each other to get a higher leg up; they're not really a family. the audience and percy becomes VERY aware of that unlike in the books where it's more sugar-coated at the start.

we're shown very early on that they're not good people, but at the same time, we're shown that some of them DO care.

hephaestus was abused and mistreated by his family, but he refuses to be like them which is why he released percy from his trap; because he realizes that he and annabeth are good kids (ending the cycle). hermes loves his son and desperately wants to change his fate despite being told over and over again that its pointless. poseidon loves percy and wishes to be a proper family with him and sally, but isn't allowed to.

there are some good gods out there, which is why percy decided to stand by them instead of taking luke's offer to bring it all down. he's been shown that some gods ARE good. unlike in the first book where you don't really meet any decent gods, so book!percy honestly didn't have much of a reason to defend them, yet he did anyway when luke left camp. the show gave him (and us) a better reason to actually defend them

in the show, he's exposed to the god's cruelty, but he sees that it's not as black and white as he once thought "oh all the gods are bad and none of them care for their kids >:(", he sees the good in some of them and it's enough to make him want to save them instead of letting them crash and burn (like luke, who's blinded by his anger and hatred *cough cough* fatal flaw!!!! *cough cough*).

LUKE AND PERCY'S RELATIONSHIP

SHOW!LUKE WAS SO MUCH BETTER THAN BOOK!LUKE IMO.

book!luke was trying to kill percy very early on and was pretty much pretending to be his friend the whole time. yes his intentions and character get fleshed out as the books go on, but his relationship with percy... didn't offer much.

then there's show!luke who genuinely liked him and wanted to recruit him rather than kill him (that's why there's no scorpion scene). his betrayal was more personal and painful for percy. the fact that annabeth was there to watch it all happen was even better (not for her though LOL).

(and dont even get me started on how show!luke didn't hate grover like in the books. the genuine fear in his eyes when he found out that percy gave the shoes to him and the way his eyes got all misty??? he fully blames thalia's "death" on him and him only THE ANGUISH WAS SO 😭😭😭)

AND I THINK THAT MIGHT BE ALL?

so yes, these are some of the changes you should expect to see!

i wanna really contrast how different things are between the ror and pjo verse. ror gods are very close and tight-knit whereas the pjo gods are... well, "a mess" as percy so eloquently put it.

ror gods aren't forced under the tyrannical rule of zeus, their zeus is chill and just wants to have fun. they have no restrictions to follow and their divine laws aren't as oppressive

whereas pjo gods are under the tyrant rule of zeus and can't even interact with their kids.

ror gods are independent while pjo gods have to rely on the preservation of western civilization to stay alive and use demigods to break rules, etc etc.

pjo gods (some, at least) are kinder and have no issues falling in love with humans and loving their demigod children while ror gods are cruel assholes who commit genocide against humanity despite being the ones to create them

and etc etc.

ANYWAY, I HOPE YOU GUYS ARE AS HYPED UP AS I AM!!!! 🥳🥳🥳 can't wait to start writing reactions for the first time ever 🫨

[ultfreakme]

I do not want to make assumptions.....but since Season 2 Arc 1 of Arcane, I've had a sneaking suspicion that the Piltover vs Zaun plot isn't going to be tackled well- as in they are not going to actually address the class issues and the exploitation in a direct manner for long. Caitlyn's redemption arc and propping up Jinx as the saviour over Ekko was what made me even more suspicious.

By making it Jinx instead of Ekko who is clearly in the right, who is reasonable and from the Undercity, they make Caitlyn look more reasonable. The implication that Firelights are part of the division between Zaunites is adding insult to injury with Ekko's complete disappearance in Act 2.

I actually like Jinx's arc but she shouldn't be the leader of Zaun's revolution. It should be Ekko.

I have seen a lot of media dealing with systematic issues and exploitation. I don't remember a single story made by a large corporation which kept dealing with the problem start to finish and properly condemned the oppressors. A nice shortcut I've seen, is introducing an even bigger threat than the "warring factions" of Rich v Poor or Exploiter v Exploited.

This seemingly resolves the conflict because the bigger threat unites the two fronts and forces them to set aside their differences, but it doesn't actually solve the pre-existing problem in the slightest.

I was hoping Arcane wouldn't, but it is barreling towards the same mistake by making Viktor the big bad of the story (and Singed as side character big bad). By highlighting Singed as someone who is especially heinous, it is playing into affirming the biases Piltover's people have about the undercity. Caitlyn's justified in throwing this guy into an inhuman hellhole because he's especially evil. Forget about how it was under Caitlyn's rule that Isha got put in there, it was actually Ambessa's fault! Don't blame the Pilties they're being manipulated!

Caitlyn by Ambessa

Salo by Viktor

Viktor being a villain is fine because....because why? Why is Viktor the villain now? I appreciate a good villain arc and descent into villainy- Caitlyn's S2 Arc 1 story did it perfectly. But Viktor's makes no fucking sense. One conversation with Singed is going to make him horrible? The Arcane is specifically making Viktor worse? Viktor was the only character in season 1 who focused on bettering people's lives, he continues to do so in season 2 and he's rightfully upset.

Even Jinx's redemption arc hinges on Caitlyn seeing the human in her, it ends with Vi asking Caitlyn to trust Jinx. And actually this time around Warwick killed Isha so it's fine don't be mad at the enforcers who set up camp to invade a commune.

In-story, Viktor running a cult is bad, Caitlyn defying Ambessa is in fact good. But why make these decisions. Why make Caitlyn the Enforcer, the upper class, the good guy when she gassed the undercity? Why make Viktor, the scientist from Zaun who directly suffered from The Grey, who wanted to help people and has never intentionally hurt anyone up until Arc 2 the villain? Why are the writers making these decisions? This is a bit of a Doylist perspective on things but I need to examine things this way because end of the day, this is Riot Games, this League of Legends and a show made by Netflix. At every step is a monopoly and it influences the stories being told, the stories being kept.

I will reserve complete judgement until Arc 3, but I am not particularly optimistic.

[novastaree]

random spn opinions that no one asked for

Lilith always should have possessed or appeared as a little girl. everything is the same but i just view her as someone who died young and took people to possess accordingly. Also It's pretty scary for one of the most powerful demons to just always appear as an innocent child

chuck should have just been a prophet or at least not confirmed god because personally i like when stories let you theorize about something as important as god. It also would have played into the Faith idea of the show

for the same reason as before i never really liked Amara. like shes cool. also she was in such an off putting love situation with dean him meeting her as an infant and all.

sam should have been 'the boy king' at some point and i get that could be a reference to the fact he is Lucifer's vessel. but him as a yellow eyed demon like hinted to would have been amazing (like how did we get night of hell Dean before Prince of hell Sam?)

In the later seasons sam and dean kept calling themselves hunters but they really were people who kept ending the world for each other and then trying to fix that problem by ending the world in a different way. Love them anyway

the cage shouldn't have been so easily broken into by Rowena, like it took 66 seals by Lilith to open it the first time and The four horsemen rings to open it to throw something back in. Love Rowena obviously she's really powerful but still seemed too easy

The alternate reality plot shouldn't have been introduced at all. i love au Michael buttttt there could have been so many different ways to reintroduce Michael without introducing different realities.

I loveeee love love love love Adam but They should have either never introduced him or treated him better as a character than they did. Because he deserved it, he did quite literally take the fall for Dean

SOMEONE LITERALLY ANYONE SHOULD HAVE KEPT TRACK OF WHAT WAS CANON. it pmo soooo much every time they went back on what they said last season or at the beginning of the show and never mentioned that it changed or why it changed.

The boys should have never lost their saving people part of the hunting things quote because at some point they just started killing every single possessed person either by an angel or a demon they ever came by

The Angels falling was a beautiful scene but them never gaining their wings back was odd to me, And I feel like it was only done like that because they didn't want them to be so powerful So they could just go back to having demons being problems

The angel tablet made me mad as a whole, like why was it powerful?? none of the other tablets were powerful They just were things prophets read

[randomnumbers751650]

Thanks to constant recomendations from my discord friends and the fact it’s on Netflix so I can do the dishes while watching, I finally watched Wakfu and gotta say I was really impressed with the season 1 villain: Nox.

My friends used him to hype up the series and, gotta say, it does deliver. I have never seen a villain that combined themes of “choice” and “destiny” so well as in Nox. When he’s introduced in episode 1, he’s basically sparring with Groug…Grougalora…Gurren Lagann? But you can see how jovial he sounds – he really doesn’t seem to be in a hurry and it’s obvious Groug is strong and he leaves him alone.

Then, the series continues. He appears in the first three episodes, curses Alibert, and then disappears for, like, 11 episodes. We see him as a ruthless person, sending his minions to gather wakfu from all available sources. It’s kinda funny how he left the Oak alone and then returned the moment he needed more wakfu, it was like as if he was saying “Oh, wait, I remembered I could just its wakfu instead”.

The battle against Groug also shows that, in spite of his possession of the eliacube, he still has to rely on his resourcefulness, given how close Groug came to kill him. In spite of being active for 200 years, he’s still defeatable. My friends said he doesn’t show up in the prequel games, which means he was very efficient in not letting witnesses, his attacks could be masked as Ogrest’s calamities, and it seems he avoided large populational centers (if the world’s armies and heroes united against him, I don’t think he’d have a chance); some characters expressed skepticism at his very existence. The fact that he’s defeatable makes the battle much more compelling, because he’s going against something closer to a god. He prevails but not without great cost to him.

But we see brief moments there’s more to him than destruction. He has a strange sense of honor. In the day he harvests the Oak, he appears to Alibert and heals him, curing him from his curse. When Alibert asks why, Nox just replies “I don’t know” and then tells him he’s the only one who can understand why he’s doing that to the world. Given how much he understands how Alibert loves Yugo, it does feel Nox believes if Alibert was in his place, he’d do the same (Alibert’s response would probably be "no, I wouldn’t…right?”). In the battle against Groug, he does tell him that he’s not evil, there’s a sliver of goodness and he urges him to use it to stop, but Nox can’t/won’t.

In the final battle at the Sadida kingdom, he uses everything, his elite puppets, RAZORTIME, his clock mecha, managing to even kill a couple of important characters. The final showdown with Yugo and Adamai was great, because both sides were giving their all. In the end, Nox prevailed again – it did feel like a cop out (until a friend pointed out it was freaking Ogrest), because Yugo got distracted and then Nox killed him so easily, to the point you can even make the point he didn’t kill, only disabled him…but, yeah, he killed him, regretfully. And that meant he won.

Pay attention to his monologue as he activates the eliacube. He genuinely believes that his sins will be forgiven because he’s resetting time to see his family. Success means redemption. And he did it. Groug had told him it’s impossible to go back in time and he did the impossible. Unless the gods did it and didn’t tell anyone, he was the first being to do that. And what did he get?

Miserable twenty minutes.

All the wakfu he gathered for 200 years only last for 20 minutes. Do you have any idea of all the atrocities he committed for 20 minutes? So many life harvested?

The eliacube give him power beyond his comprehension. The amount of wakfu energy to rewind time 200 years would have to be incomprehensibly enormous, maybe all the wakfu in the entire universe. And Nox was just a man, resourceful but defeatable.

All that talk about forgiveness through success, that all his sins would be erased, all that for nothing. He will never see his family again. Then, the weight of his sins crushes him down and all he can spare is a single tear. That was even enough for Yugo, who had lost Percy, to sympathize with him. There’s even a soft 4th wall break, when Nox is looking at everyone surrounding him, it’s as if he looks to the camera, to the audience, and all we can feel in this moment is pity – he really realizes his sins will never be forgiven.

Nox’s tragedy raises the question: what if we had full awareness of our sins? He convinced himself he could, he bargained with himself for 200 years of his righteousness. And reality vibes check him so hard he just leaves. I feel that was the most poetic ending to him, no justice system can ever account for the multitude of his sins.

This makes worse with the OVA detailing his backstory. He was a father, with a beautiful wife and three kids that loved him dearly. He had struggles as a clockmaker, but even them they weren’t that bad. You can tell they were low-middle class or even medium middle-class, he borrowed money out of a healthy ambition – even if his “usurer” – Nox’s words – while playing the role of nagging banker seemed actually reasonable, even apologizing for letting the dog run, which implies that the guy was just a bit unpleasant, but not unreasonable, maybe willing to renegotiate the loans if something bad happened.

Maybe that’s this ambition that attracted the eliacube to Nox. His wife mentioned the bad feeling and it seemed he’d leave it at there. But there was really a mix of “choice” and “destiny”, the cube wanted Nox and Nox wanted the cube. And the cube changes him, gives him intelligence at the cost of everything. He kept building out of necessity and couldn’t see his family leaving him – they loved him until the end, even paying all his debts, but the cube made him forget.

In the final scene, when he finally turns into the Nox we know, he’s an emaciated husk of a man, so different from his healthy introduction. When the banker informs him about the death of his family, he loses it – it was probably the first time he thought of them in months, maybe years, and vowed to rewind time to get back to them. The cube made him a worse version of himself. Rewatching the series or some scene might be an interesting exercise of how much the cube was influencing him – I believe when he cured Alibert, the cube’s influence was somehow low.

Nox will just be remembered as a lonely madman who caused so much strife in the world for reasons that proved to be futile. Only Yugo and Groug will know that there was something more to him, but they will never know what this something was. In the end, he wasn’t a malicious person at heart, but a thoroughly broken man that lost the capacity of distinguishing between good and evil, and to reflect on his own actions, thinking he had already done that and that his success would redeem him.

But that wouldn’t happen.

[xadian-daydreams]

What's been mentioned for the Dragon Prince Season 6: Book Stars so far...

Having listened and read a bunch of interviews, here's my collected notes (Updated for October 2023);

No current release date, but confirmed 9 episodes, same as previous seasons.

Seasons Four though Seven are all the Mystery of Aaravos arc.

While there's not going to be any real time skip between S5 and S6, there will be a small one within S6. Update - there's a few days time skip between S5 and S6.

Season 6 will be more mature to the point the age rating is increasing. It will also go into deeper emotional stuff - "fans should enjoy the breather before being emotionally wrecked by the next book."

(Most of) Episode 1 of season 6 was shown at NYCC 2023 panel. Notes on summaries people have posted here.

New characters to be introduced;

Astrid - voiced by Boone Williams - Female Celestial Skywing elf. She's mysterious and there's 'something cool' about her design.

Character based off Moonberry Surprise.

A new Startouch elf. Possibly the Merciful One (they/them) from the Sea of the Castout statues.

Upcoming for main characters;

Callum - every time you do dark magic, it becomes harder to come back from it. Info on Callum birth-father. (Callum and learning Moon Arcanum - Giehl's opinion is doesn't want Callum treading on Rayla's thematic territory and stealing her thunder). Rayllum note - how would Callum using dark magic affect the trust and friendship they've been building up?

Rayla - On the curse coins - too spoilery, so they won't answer questions related to that. On Rayllum note. Would Rayla do anything for Callum? And what would Callum call upon her to do if that was the case? Questions getting asked next season, just to make you suffer.

Callum, Rayla and Stella confirmed visiting the Starscraper.

Ezran - sticking to his ideals and pacifism will be tested. Rough and tough decision(s).

At some point Ezran and Callum will visit some 'weird' ruins.

Soren - has had lighter seasons so far, but is about to face darker questions. There is trauma that the writers haven't told anyone about that will come to light at some point. Soren is getting an opportunity to confront Viren about what happened at the Storm Spire (they did meet up in S4E7, which is covered in the short story Strangers, but writers felt it lacked the satisfaction needed, as neither really was in the headspace to talk), but uncertain if this is just a therapy thing or if Viren lives.

There's going to be a funny Soren and Corvus story later on.

Claudia - S5 she was under a lot of pressure, and it's not easing up. How will Claudia be impacted by Viren's decision - further into darkness or pulled back into the light? Claudia being willing to risk life and limb for her goal(s) - and then actually paying the cost of a limb - what does that mean for her and Terry?

Karim - is about to get in over his head. He doesn't realise the kind of alliances he's making.

Amaya and Janai don't get enough love in these interviews. 😢

Zym - Goes with Soren to find Zubeia. Spoiler indicates Zym has a heart to heart with her

Characters we'll be seeing more of;

Aaravos - there's a lot more of him coming in S6.

Kim'dael - 'big plans' that even go beyond the show, though specifically refused to answer if she'll met Rayla again (they met first time in Bloodmoon Huntress graphic novel).

More with the pirates and Scumport (however, Finnegrin while not confirmed dead, won't make a reappearance in S6/7). Scumport set up a bunch of stuff for going into season 6.

Kpp'Ar - confirmed there'll be more stuff about him in both S6 and S7.

Mukho - the mushroom mage, Earthblood elf who's a world expert mycologist.

More shadowpaw content.

Possibly Ellis and Ava briefly, but could be S7.

Lore -

The lore about Stars primal and Startouch elves and other mythology will be explored. How you kill a Startouch elf will be answered - including more info on Laurelion (mentioned in the Death of an Immortal poem).

(Going by how the graphic novels releases are generally introducing things that are mentioned in the next season, Puzzle House's emphasize on unicorns, and how there is a big bit of unicorn lore mentioned in the novels, is a good hint that this unicorn lore is getting explained in show too. But, just to clarify, it's not confirmed this is happening - however, it is a impactful bit of backstory and there's only 2 seasons left).

Most likely information about how Primal Stones are made - specifically how a storm was trapped from the top of Mount Kalik to create the Primal Stone Callum smashed. Ehasz mentioned that something brought up in the second episode will be expanded on in S6, and the info about the Sky Primal Stone is the only info that hasn't been addressed elsewhere from E2 that I could pick out.

More lore about golems (as in the rock guardians and Elmer)

Other notes;

Season 6 will have an explosive start.

Questions raised by Ehasz;

Was the dragang moving Aaravos's prison smart or would it have been safer to have left it? It's something they'll grapple with right away.

Is Aaravos being honest with Viren about what's going to happen? (I'm wording it as being honest rather than saying is he lying, as Aaravos's thing is manipulative truths and misdirections etc, rather than outright lies).

No context: 🔥 (Can't help looking at the use of explosive start by the NYCC notification)

There's stuff in Season 2 that will get explained in Season 6 - while they're not exactly clues, there will be referencing from S2.

Keep an eye on changes in the openers - they're continuing the hints - like when they swapped out Viren with Callum to let you know Callum and dark magic/Aaravos is going to be in the episode.

Season 7 will be Book 7: Dark.

The next graphic novel will be about "family and building trust." Update: Title Dreamer's Nightmare

Can young Ezran and Callum quell the brewing storm in the quiet town of Noct, or have bad dreams come to haunt for good?

Giehl says this story has Ezran as the lead character and the artist said they enjoyed doing the many animals.

There were hints dropped at NYCC 2023 that there may be other projects based on the Dragon Prince world, but they'll come under a different name. TDP will only be the 7 seasons. (Most hints I've seen suggest they may be working towards an Orphan Queen film/series, but it could also be a continuation).

Sources; Hot Brown Morning Potion Podcast E27 Reel James Season 5 interview with Aaron Ehasz AIPT Comics 'The Dragon Prince creators dish on season 5 post-mortem AnimationWorld: The Dragon Prince Season 5, a swashbuckling blend of design tricks and emotional turmoil Screenrant SDCC 2023: The Dragon Prince creators on taking the Mystery of Aaravos past Season 5 CBR: The Dragon Prince creators reveal the secrets of Season 5 and the road to Season 6 ComicBook: The Dragon Prince creators talk season 5 and entering the show's Empire Strikes Back era Game of Nerds: SDCC 2023 The Dragon Prince All Aboard for Season 5 Official Discord Season 4 Q&A NYCC 2023 panel Secrets in the Stars Random tweets and Discord stuff from the creators and official social media.

[theosconfessions]

flashback-

if youd like to read the stephens from the beginning you can over here :)

if youd like to read the stephens continued you can over here:)

@ohsosims

theo-okay wow. all of this just for a tiktok about a 60 year old man?

scarlett- retros in.

theo-retro? you know your dad would kill you if he heard you call anything involving him retro right? hes not old as fuck you know.

scarlett-it was more of a dig at you than him. hes young. youre not. just want to point that out for anyone watching. makes you look creepy so.

theo-nice of you.well it can make me feel creepy sometimes but we fit.

scarlett-sure do

theo- [eyes narrow]

scarlett- so do you want to introduce yourself or?

theo-sure. im theo kline. im old as hell as scarlett likes to point out. i was on two seasons of the bachelor. one in ancient times. one recent.

scarlett- right! so to anyone who hasnt watched the first one theo did was the one where he met my mom, marlee, and the woman hed have a long affair with.

theo- nice dig.

scarlett- thanks [smirks] and the one that actually worked out despite theo trying to trash it whenever he could. the second season is where he met my dad.dustin.

theo- that wasnt where i met dustin.

scarlett- what?

theo- i didnt meet dustin on the show. i met him at his bar. just like we always said. and then he came on the show.

scarlett- wait? were you guys dating before he even came on the show?

theo- no, not dating. i encouraged him to apply though.

scarlett- WAIT.

flashback

dustin-wait what. the bachelor?

theo- youve heard of it right?

dustin- of course i have. i even not so freely admittedly have seen your season. with your wife.

theo-ah, marlee. well theres a reason why im doing a second stint. didnt work out.

dustin-i have to say this is the weirdest way someones ever asked me out before. like i liked you but im not sure i want to go on one date with just you. i need to see like 30 other people at the same time.

theo- c'mon dude i didnt mean it that way. look i signed the contract before i even came into this place and seen you. if i didnt do that,dustin. trust me id do this the old fashioned way because thats what youre worthy of. its a tv show ,man.thats it. and id think youd like it. cool people. cool place. and if you decide youre not into it . or me. or any of it you can def tell me to fuck off .

dustin- i cant believe im telling you yes right now

theo- really?

---------------

theo- i encouraged him to sign up.

scarlett- but you never asked him out before that?

theo- i wasnt sure i wanted to settle down so no. dustins the kind you do settle down for.

scarlett- you were married to my mom at the same time but you werent sure you wanted to settle down?

theo- well you seen how that ended up right? the jami thing? me being gay. it wasnt meant to last. but we got you out of it . so that is one good thing.

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

Would you say that the show itself doesn't respect/understand Katara's trauma?

Let's see:

The first voice we hear in the very begining of the show (not just in the first episode, but in EVERY SINGLE ONE that followed), is Katara's. The first character to explain the show's whole deal, HOPE, is her.

Right away she explains to us through narration the whole conflict of the story, and the series itself immediately shows us how it has affected her and her family personally, with the death of her mother, the departure of her father as he goes to fight in the war, her and her brother struggling to get food, the tribe having no defense.

She is the first person to interact with Aang, the protagonist - and we find out about HER life, HER trauma, and see a bit of HER personality before we even see Aang or find out his name. The show introduces us to KATARA as a character, while Aang and his backstory are still always a bit of mystery until episode 13. For fuck's sake, the reason Aang becomes so endearing so quickly is because he brings the fun of childhood back to Katara and HER village.

The idea of traveling to the Northern Water Tribe is introduced because KATARA wants to be a fighter. And even when it goes from a promise of adventure between two friends to an official mission, Aang is happy that they will learn TOGETHER. Hell, excluding the opening, Katara is the first character we see using any kind of bending on screen, in the actual story.

The death of Kya and how it has severely traumatized Katara is brought up three more times in the first season - when she's comforting Aang, and bonding with Jet and Haru.

The first situation is one of the many times the show will make clear parallel between Aang's anger/grief at what was done to his people and Katara's anger/grief at what was done to hers. She comforts him about Gyatso's death by mentioning the death of her mother, managing to make Aang come back for the Avatar state. In the start of season two, we hear her mention just how tough it is to watch someone she loves be in so much pain. She comforts him again when the Sandbenders take Appa. And then in the Southern Raiders, when Katara wants to murder her mother's killer, Aang EXPLICITLY recalls these moments to explain that he DOES understand what she's going through (same thing she said to him the very first time) and still thinks that this is not what she needs to heal - much like Katara telling him not to weaponize the Avatar State, aka his pain.

Katara's grief over her mother is explicitly shown as a reason why she wants to protect the innocent, to help anyone who needs her. In the Haru episode, she's explicitly shown as a figure that symbolizes hope in the darkest situations, just like Aang is too her. Once again, the show lets her have some time in the spotlight, even in a plot that could have easily been filled by Aang since the dude is basically a messiah. And in the Jet one, while she's being lied to, she IS trying to do something good - and Aang is there with her. Once again, Katara's hero journey, and all the grief that comes with it, is literally being written alongside Aang's.

The show also places great emphasis on her journey to become a poweful warrior, even openly challenging (and giving some trouble) to a master that is unfairly refusing to teach her solely because she is a girl. She gets to hold her own in a fight against Zuko in the season one finale. In season two, when she expresses the desire to be given the title of Sifu like Toph, Aang immediately accepts. Katara is constantly shown to be pretty badass - including in the Southern Raiders, where she looks the man that killed her mom straight in the face and says she's not a helpless little girl anymore, exposing one of, if not THE, main reason why she wanted to be a fighter so bad. To regain power, to protect herself and those she cared about.

And while the show DID highlight these moments of strength from Katara, it also let her be vulnerable. We see her crying after thinking she saw her mother in the swamp, and when she believes her friends see her more as a motherly figure than a kid because she was forced to grow up too fast after Kya's death - and then Toph comforts her because they DO see her as their friend, not just a replacement mom. There's also the beautiful scene of her and Hakoda, in which she is allowed to admit how badly it hurt to suddenly no longer have her dad around, even if it was necessary/for a good cause.

There's also little things like her being allowed to bond with Bato and reconnect a bit with her tribe's way of life after some time away from it, or the show explictly having her tell Hama that it would be an honor to be allowed to learn more about her culture and heritage, which the Fire Nation obviously has robbed her of as the tribe is struggling to just survive. She also is clearly overjoyed when Pakku says it's about time for the North to help rebuild the South.

And, of course, when she's face to face with the man that killed her mother, she is allowed to stay her compassionate self - while still not forgiving him because, surprise surprise, the writers knew what they were doing and did not want to force her to suddenly ignore all that trauma just to half-ass a lesson about forgiveness is ALWAYS the way to go.

Katara is allowed to be strong AND vulnerable. To help AND be helped by others. The show clearly demonstrates, repeatedly, that she isn't just struggling to deal with the death of a parent, but with having to sacrifice her own childhood, not having BOTH parents around, seeing her home be destroyed both literally and figuratively, the feeling of helplessness as this century old war is taking so much from her and others (both dear friends and strangers). The writting for her wasn't perfect, but it was clearly not an after-thought like part of the fandom claims.

Just because she didn't kill a guy and wasn't okay with using bloodbending unless 110% sure there was no other alternative, it does not mean the show didn't take her character and it's struggles seriously. And if this fandom cared about her half as much as they claim they do, they'd recognize that instead of complaining non-stop about how one of the kindest characters in the story didn't suddenly do a 180 turn and go "Murder is great actually"

[cassberry]

(Looking to watch 3rd Life, Last Life or Double Life? Here you go!)

If you are looking for a guide of some Limited Life episodes to catch up on for no particular reason at all (certainly not a new season being around the corner), I've got you covered!

Now I'm not going to lie, trying to curate this list for Limited Life broke me. The mechanics of this season meant that you gained time by killing other players and in doing so it felt like 50 things were happening all at once constantly across the server. As such I haven't been able to get absolutely everything onto this list, but I did try my best to get all the important events and a wide range of perspectives!

WARNING: Incredibly long read more where I go over why I picked certain POV's and what to expect. I do so love to ramble. Spoilers ahead!

SESSION ONE

Skizz - Breaking from tradition from recommending Grian first because you need to watch Skizz's POV first out of everyone unspoiled. The way things unraveled this episode felt like a sitcom in the best and worst ways lol 

Grian - Just a good solid first episode honestly and with the start of the Bad Boys™ how can you not love it. 

Scar -  I really have no words for whatever is the dynamic of the Clockers because you really just have to see it to understand. It’s a fun episode and as Scar, Cleo and Bdubs have set up near spawn, you always get to see something interesting. 

Big B - Big B’s episodes are always a treat as he does super long ones that give you a little more insight into what's happening on the server, rather than just the big events. But if you wanted something specific to watch, his last 10 minutes of this episode were a blast. 

SESSION TWO

Joel - Bad Boys Bread Bridge was both the most amazing and ugliest build on the server and I’m so glad it was made. Also Joel gets some amazing kills this episode that are so tense to watch. 

Martyn - Look this one is here because of a little personal bias. Martyn shouts me out in the episode so I couldn’t not add it lol It’s also a very good episode in of itself in that it introduces the Mean Gills and I’ll always be a Mean Gills supporter. Also that Tilly roast? oof 

Pearl - Pearl is constantly on the move this episode and living up to her Nosy Neighbour title so watch her episode if you want some good gossip and to see the lay of the land. 

Tango - Tango always delivers a solid episode and as he was building the TIES Tower a majority of the time he receives a lot of foot traffic through the area creating some fun interactions. 

SESSION THREE

Scar - And in this episode of Limited Life, Scar rediscovers the joys of minecart TNT. 

Impulse - Impulse is such a fun boogey to watch, and the way he edited this episode around his thought process of who to kill was great. 

Grian - Kind of a different episode this session as Grian was sick so he was afk the entire time. It was very very very funny to watch, but as he wasn’t interacting with anyone you’re going to miss a lot of context if you only watch his POV. You should still give this a watch though! 

Joel - Watching poor Joel run around after Grian trying to keep him safe was incredibly entertaining lmao 

SESSION FOUR

Scott - I believe Grian said it best, but this session felt like a final session with the way the yellows were chasing after the greens. It was pure chaos the entire time and Scott beautifully evading them all until his descent into yellow was perfection. 

Tango - Tango is here for the same reason as Scott but as the last green the final hunt for him was terrifying to watch. 

Cleo - I love Cleo’s episodes and this one was just a joy. She was slightly sick this week but I feel like that only lowered her inhibitions to do some out of pocket stuff. 

Jimmy - The exciting saga of Judge Judy and Executioner continues in Jimmy’s episode this week and if you didn’t know anything about it, that's ok! Neither did anyone else on the server except for Jimmy, Pearl and Big B lmao consider this the best episode to watch if you want this plotline covered. 

SESSION FIVE 

Etho - Considering the episode starts off with Etho having to babysit Bdubs, then an awkward family dinner and an explosive game of catch, I really couldn’t have asked for a better Etho video. 

Big B - This session was a lot more calm than the previous, so there was a lot more alliance talk happening. Big B has a great perspective on all that as he and Pearl get up to a tonne of mischief that causes some problems with some alliances they already had. 

Scott - Once again this was an alliance building week and Scott’s episode really highlights some of the more fun things that happened to make and break some relationships. 

Grian - Poor Bread Bridge o7 you will be missed. Thankfully M-Rye 5 was there at the end to rain chaos from above. (<-sentences that make no sense out of context) 

SESSION SIX 

Cleo & Pearl - I couldn’t choose between either of these two this session. Both Cleo and Pearl were out sick so they handed over their accounts to two other players. I won’t spoil who they are but these episodes were amazing. 

Jimmy - The Bad Boys were going through it this week goddamn lol It never stops being funny how much of a mess everything becomes when they get together. 

Martyn - It was his birthday this session and he’s just a little guy! Surely nothing would go wrong at his birthday party? And certainly not caused by him! 

Tango - The last half of Tango’s episode is just a comical amount of deaths that only get funnier and funnier as the time between them shortens. 

SESSION SEVEN

Skizz - Oh Skizz. You are too good for this world. His ending for this episode was heartbreaking and Affirmation Station will live on in my heart forever.

Scott - I love watching Scott run around the map and hunt people down because he is so good at the game! I believe he had the highest kill count this session and I loved every minute of it. 

Joel - (Major Spoilers) Ah Joel it just wasn’t meant to be! But hearing the desperation in his voice grow higher and higher as the clock ticked down was nail biting. Scar - Just a good Scar episode honestly! Shows what the Clockers are up to during all the chaos and a great view of the server devolving into anarchy.

SESSION EIGHT 

Martyn - WOOOO YESSSS LETS GOOOOOO (<- does that count as spoilers???)

I distinctly remember being on the edge of my seat this whole episode and Martyn delivers in every way possible for a fantastic final episode of the season. 

Impulse - I haven’t mentioned it yet but Impulse’s editing this season went wild and it's none more apparent than in this episode. He and his team went crazy for the finale. 

Etho - Such a fun episode!! The twist at the end with the diamond sword coming into play was everything I could have wanted and more. 

Pearl - It was really a toss up between Pearl and Scott for this last spot, but I loved her perspective for the one last minigame on the server. 

BONUS 

Bdubs - Do you have a spare 12 hours to dedicate to Limited Life? Then oh boy does Bdubs have a video for you! Instead of weekly videos he decided to collate all his episodes into one mammoth video which was an absolute blast to watch over a weekend! It’s a really interesting POV to watch because when LimLife was airing Bdubs would just appear all over the map and we never had any idea what he was doing so it was awesome to have some concrete evidence of his shenanigans. Definitely give this one a watch if you’re in the mood for a marathon! 

IN SUMMARY…

I swear if the next season is as messy as this one, I think I’m going to have to start taking notes when it's airing because I think this took years off my life haha if you think I’ve missed anything please tag it because I would love to see it! I definitely could have added more POV’s per session like I did with the Last Life and 3rd Life guides, but I think a more curated list helps keep down the overwhelming nature of trying to watch a million Limited Life episodes. 

But really, I loved watching Limited Life live so I’m glad I give myself an excuse each new season to go back and watch the season over again. There are so many little foreshadowed moments that you don’t see on the first watch and honestly it all just makes me more excited for the new season! Thanks for reading <3

[actual-changeling]

In a pervious post you said "the implications throughout the show that Crowley was a pretty powerful and high-ranking angel, and is still one of the most powerful demons". Where/what are those, exactly? How high are we talking, because I don't think the opposing ranks are equal to one another. Like, if Crowley had been an Archangel he isn't an Archdemon now, right?

Hell has a completely different kind of command structure, yes!

It seems to be wayyy more democratic for one, and has varying kinds and levels of ruling authorities. They have proper trials and rules, contracts to sign, several demons working on earth, a multitude of positions of employment (for lack of better words), provide living spaces for their earthly representatives, and overall function, while heaven seems to have—well, none of those things.

Figuring out a demon's rank is—in my opinion—pretty easy because of that.

Crowley makes a comment about bottom of the barrel demons, we see different jobs and how respected they are (e.g. Furfur being stuck in admissions, which is more of a grunt job, while anyone in temptations is in a more desirable position pun intended), and if we make some smart guesstimations, we can probably figure out the job & relative rank of any demon we're introduced to.

So—where does Crowley fall?

His position in heaven as the Starmaker may or may not have had an influence on his position after the fall, but we do know that he had and still has strong miracle powers. Let's take a look at the tasks hell assigned him:

a) the Serpent of Eden and Original Tempter

b) a long-term and (assumedly) one of the main representatives on earth

c) he's not just in Temptations, he works on a global scale and regularly impresses his bosses back in hell

d) he was tasked with helping Satan win a bet against God by taking care of Job's property, house, and family

e) Satan personally chose him to deliver the Antichrist and start Armageddon, which is THE job in the history of heaven & hell.

Hastur and Ligur are also explicitly jealous of the kind of jobs Crowley gets to perform, and while there is a general 'he's gone native' sentiment, they leave him alone as long as he does his job and doesn't break the rules in a way that fucks with hell's plans.

In season 1, we are told that Crowley is partly as powerful as he is because he has an imagination, which allows him to navigate the burning M25 while Hastur gets discorporated. When hell is told about the 25 Lazarii miracle that was performed, Crowley is seen as a viable candidate for either having done it himself or working with whoever did it.

Beelzebub also decides—for good reason—that if ze wants to find Gabriel, ze'll need his help:

They hold a trial when they could have just killed him like Hastur melting the Usher to test the holy water, but because of his rank Crowley gets a (more or less) fair trial. If you think about it, deciding he's guilty and then giving him the same kind of punishment he used to melt Ligur is actually not too bad of a treatment; lower demons, on the other hand, are punished on the daily without as much as a blink.

Crowley solves the mess in the bookshop, Beez and Dagon listen to him when he talks and explains, they see him as someone almost equal to them. It is believable to Hastur that Crowley is involved with the Dark Council and capable of recommending him for a promotion.

If Crowley had been a 'better' and more ambitious demon, he probably could have been a Duke of Hell even before Job. He can stop time, he can stop Satan himself in his tracks, and he is respected by both heaven and hell—so whatever you want to call his rank/job/position, it is undoubtedly one of high regard and power.

[storiesaplenty]

Bridgerton: Christmas 2024

This has not been proofread. Please enjoy though.

Warnings: none. Just fluff

WC: 904

©️ storiesaplenty 2024: do not repost or translate my work. This is the only place I post my work.

"You are the most annoying man I have ever met Benedict Bridgerton." I said to him as I walked past him after I slammed the door closed behind me.

"That isn't very lady like, now is?" He leaned against the wall, smirking as he watched me take off my winter jacket.

"Because of you, we missed the final carriage to church, and now there is too much snow for us to walk in."

"Are you seriously that upset about us missing church? They do the same play every year." Benedict said, as he sat down in my favourite chair.

"Yes, because Penelope's son was playing the baby Jesus, and I told her I would be there. But because you insisted we talk just as we were to leave, the last carriage went off without us."

"How was I supposed to know that they wouldn't wait?" He asked me as I sat down across from him.

"What did you need anyways?" I asked him.

Benedict and I have never gotten along. Even as children, when I first met him after my cousins moved in across him and his family.

For some reason, he has always got on my nerves.

"And us being alone together, with no chaperone is going to deter any potential suitors." I didn't see the way how his jaw ticked at that.

"I won't tell anyone that we were left alone together. I will leave once I tell you why I came."

I looked outside as I heard the wind pick up and saw that there was even more snow.

"Even though you live across the way, I can not allow you to leave. It is much to dangerous. The snow was almost up to my waist. You can wait it out."

"Thank you. To answer your first question, I came here to put aside our differences for the holiday season."

"Did your mother put you up to this?" I knew how Violet was.

"That is besides the point. We are both adults, it is time we start acting like it." Benedict said, his voice sounding tense.

"Fine, I will agree to this truce. Maybe this will give me a chance to find myself a husband."

I grabbed a shawl and put it around my shoulders, as I am feeling a bit cold.

The wind was blowing furiously outside, and the fire was warm, but the cold seemed to be getting in.

"I have never stopped you from finding a husband." Benedict said, looking away.

"Really? I saw you at the Berring Ball. Any eligible man who signed my dance card, somehow ended up not being available. I was humiliated." I refused to cry in front of him as I stood up and walked to the window.

The room was silent as I watched the snow come down.

I could barely make out thr Bridgerton home across the way.

Maybe I should ask him to leave. See if he actually makes it home or hear about if he froze to death or not.

I heard his footsteps until he was beside me. Benedict was facing me as I continued to stare outside.

"You are right."

"Did the Benedict Bridgerton actually admit I was right?" My snapped at him as he huffed and cleared his throat.

"Before we kill one another, I must confess that I have always liked you."

"You must be joking?" I asked him as I turned to face him, and at that moment I realized how close he was standing to me.

"Why would I joke about this?" He seemed hurt, which tugged at my heart.

"From the day I met you, you have been nothing but rude to me. All I did was visit my cousins, and Penelope was so excited to introduce me to Eloise, but then you tripped me."

"That was by accident. " He defended.

"You could of helped me up, but you just stared at me."

"I didn't help you because I was enthralled by your beauty. That night, I drew you."

"Some way of showing you liked me Benedict. You picked on me each and every time I came here."

"I didn't know how to show you my feelings. I still don't, so I tell those men that you have been spoken for, because to me, you are."

"While you trope all over the ton, women and men falling over themselves. I am left alone, getting older each season until I will be considered no longer eligible." I am now poking his chest with my finger. The pokes getting harder and harder each time.

"Then marry me!" He exclaimed.

"Pardon me?" I looked him up and down.

"Marry me. I truly came over here, wanting to properly ask you to court."

"But Benedict, all we do is fight."

"We fight because we hide our true feelings for one another."

"I would like for us to properly court. No need for another fast wedding between our two families." I said.

"I agree. Now, may I please kiss you?"

I could only nod before he cupped my face and gently kissed my lips.

My first kiss with the man who has driven me insane since we were children.

The same man who I knew I loved, but always pushed my feelings aside, not wanting to be hurt by him.

As he and I kissed, the snow storm started to let up, only soft, fluffy snowflakes falling.

Lord Alfred Debling

[alicent-vi-britannia]

Why was Lelouch's manipulation effective on Rolo?

One of this year's "resolutions" I set for my Code Geass page was that I was going to give more space to Rolo. Rolo is my favorite secondary character in Code Geass, even above Shirley and Euphemia, but I haven't talked about him much and I wanted to rectify that. This Monday I published a survey to my followers in which I invited them to vote for the analysis of Rolo that they were most interested in me doing. There were three options:

⭐Why was Lelouch's manipulation effective on Rolo? ⭐Why did Rolo kill Shirley? ⭐The parallels between V.V. and Rolo

There was a close competition between the second and the winner, which is what you can read in the title of the publication. Don't worry if you didn't win the analysis you wanted because those analyzes will come gradually. Furthermore, there is an important point in common that we must take into consideration in the two most requested analyzes: Rolo's background.

So who the fuck is Rolo? He is a trained assassin who works for the O.S.I. which, in turn, is in connection with the Geass Order and both organizations answer to the Emperor and V.V. (the devilish brothers). Episode 3 of R2 gives us an overview of him and how he normally acts if Lelouch is not with him (yes, being Lelouch's shy and devoted brother is Rolo's mask, but, as a professor told me in a class a while ago, masks are not necessarily fake and this mask is actually a side of him that not even Rolo himself knew). At the same time, episode 3 drops some seeds (problems) that will bloom over the course of the season:

His extreme loneliness: Rivalz casually comments that Rolo does not talk to anyone at school and, additionally, we see that it is difficult for him to work as a team (there is a scene with Villetta in which the members of the O.S.I. complain to her because Rolo has killed some of them for stupid reasons). All of this results in his poor social skills and him distrusting everyone (and himself). I won't use the enneagram right now, but Rolo is undoubtedly a 6w5 one-to-one subtype and with that information, a connoisseur of this tool can get a general idea of the motivations behind Rolo's strange behaviors.

His budding interest and need to understand the meanings of "having a family" and "birthdays," which tie into the heart-shaped locket that Lelouch gave him (and for which he killed a member of the O.S.I. just for touching it). It isn't until we reach episode 4 of R2 that we are introduced to Rolo's past that we understand this curiosity he has.

Rolo and Mao are similar in several ways. They are both orphans, given a Geass that was too powerful for them at a very young age, and are amoral as a result of their particular lives. Specifically, Rolo wasn't raised as a human, but rather he was trained from birth to be a killing machine. Therefore, he has no social skills or moral codes, he has no notion of what is right and wrong, he has never had a family, he doesn't know how to make friends and, of course, he has no idea what love is nor does he know how to love (this last part is important because that's what his narrative arc is about, by the way).

Rolo was taught to follow orders, solve problems and repress his social, emotional and affective needs. Rolo has convinced himself that it was okay for him to live as he has been because he has focused on the present by completing the missions assigned to him. It's Lelouch who motivates him to think about the future and find meaning in life: "Rolo, what is the future? The future is hope. Without hope, your life is empty. And you have no hope beyond your mission. Rolo, if you capture C.C., what kind of future will it open up for you? Things will remain as they are and nothing will change." It's more or less the same situation that Kallen goes through in the first season since she also has to define her objectives and motivations and, in fact, the mental breakdown that Rolo suffers is similar to the one that Kallen had on Kaminejima Island because both they see how the lie that they believed to be true crumbles before their eyes. In Rolo's case, after all, Lelouch does care more than the mission (or, in other words, that his emotional ties are real).

The difference between the two is that Rolo isn't mentally healthy and here we find other parallels with Mao. Both are, first and foremost, victims of child abuse by people who should have protected them, but decided to use them for their benefit (C.C. in the case of Mao and V.V. in the case of Rolo) and both are hungry for love for their loved ones (C.C. and Lelouch respectively). I would add that they are also children who didn't grow up well. That's why Rolo's locket is shaped like a heart: it symbolizes the love (of Lelouch) that Rolo desperately wants.

Even if Rolo sees himself as a weapon because he has been dehumanized by the Geass Order, he is human and, like every person, wants to be loved (C.C. literally wants to die because she believes there is no love in her life). This need combined with Lelouch's search for meaning based on his agenda (being his little brother) leads Rolo to turn such meaning into his reason for living. "I made you a promise. I promised you a new future. Your future is with me" (or, what is the same, "your future is me").

Of course, there is a difference between Mao and Rolo (which is the same difference between V.V. and him) that I won't reveal now. I will say that, although the relationship between Rolo and Lelouch will evolve into a dependency on the boy's part that will aggravate his mental state, it constitutes a turning point in his narrative arc since, in addition to giving him a goal and motivation, this is the first time that Rolo thinks about himself and what he wants for himself, which is good for Rolo since he begins to value his life and Lelouch won't face consequences for manipulating, lying and using an amoral young murderer with strong emotional deficiencies who has been indoctrinated by a malevolent organization, right? RIGHT?!

No, forget it. Shirley dies.

But I'll reserve that for the next analysis. Honestly, I'm glad this analysis came out first because when I release Shirley's I'll be more direct in touching on Rolo's background and focus on Rolo's fears and feelings and explaining something nonsense called "anxious attachment." React and share, if you want to see it soon, as well as other analyzes of Rolo (I need to analyze his death scene because it is heartbreakingly beautiful and meaningful, even more so with the music).

Thanks for reading me.

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Hello. I've been binge reading your meta post an I loves all of it. I have one question, though I don't know if you had the same question or not. If you had I'm sorry feel free to ignore this but if you hadn't, this is my question. Many people said Adrien as sentimonster is a good plot and the other said it's also good metaphor for abuse children. But what do you think about the senti plot? Is it necessary? And what do you think the writer is trying to achieve with the plot if Adrien doesn't even allowed to know about what he is?

Thank you! I'm glad that you've been enjoying my rambles! I don't think I've touched on those aspects of the sentiplot, so here goes!

Is it Necessary/What's The Goal?

I don't think that the sentiplot is even remotely necessary. My two cents is that it reads like something that was added relatively last-minute in order to add some cheap drama to draw the plot out because they didn't have enough content to organically fill seven seasons. Part of the reason that I'm comfortable saying that is because we've seen the writers do this type of move many times before. I don't wanna get too into the weeds on this, but a good example is the love triangles with Luka and Kagami.

Luka and Kagami are never treated as real alternate love interests. They're just road blocks on the love square highway that allow for seasons three to end on a cliff hanger. The fact that season four opens on two episodes meant to reassure the audience that Lukanette and Adrigami are doomed to fail is proof of this. No one is actually supposed to ship those ships. There's no Team Luka vs Team Adrien. It's just cheap drama.

The other reason that I feel comfortable calling the sentiplot cheap shoehorned drama is because the sentiplot has no teeth. A big reason why I refused to believe that it was going to be a thing was because it's an extremely serious plot that has no place in a Y-7 show. The wielder of raw destruction can have his free will overwritten at any time! The show has made jewelry theft a common teenage past time! This is bad!

And yet, once it's introduced, it goes nowhere. Gabe gives the most lackluster commands humanly possible and Nathalie undoes every one of them before they have a chance to meaningfully impact the plot. The biggest fallout of the sentiplot was that the Adrienette kiss got delayed a bit. How terrifying.

If the sentiplot had the weight it deserved, then it would have destroyed Adrientte in a big, dramatic fashion. Gabriel would have commanded Adrien to date Kagami and Tomoe would have done the same for Kagami re Adrien. But that's too serious, so we don't even get Gabe telling Adrien to break up with Marinette. He just tells Adrien to not see her and Marinette never has any clue that something went wrong there because Nathalie undoes the command two minutes later.

The Sentiplot's and Emilie

You may have read the previous section and thought, "But wait, doesn't the sentiplot give an explanation for why Emilie used the peacock? Didn't we need that?"

No, we didn't. Felix's little play and Gabe's memory of the night they used the peacock both heavily imply that no one knew that the peacock would kill you. It's why Felix exists! His father did not willingly give his life to have a kid and neither did Emilie. It was an unknown side effect.

Imo, it would have actually been better if Emilie hadn't used the peacock for such obviously selfish reasons. I mean, is anyone really saying, "Oh no, the rich lady used forbidden magic (and possibly killed some people?) to get a designer baby, then faced unexpected consequences! How awful for her! She didn't deserve that!"

Wouldn't it have been a far more interesting and complex story if Emilie used the peacock because she wanted to help someone else? If she was an unambiguously good person who suffered for doing the right thing or even just a morally gray thing? Wouldn't that make Gabriel's quest feel more righteous and less like a temper tantrum by a rich, entitled white guy who used his wealth in a morally dubious manner and paid for it?

The Sentiplot as an Abuse Metephor

I don't think that the writers meant for the sentiplot to be an abuse metaphor. In fact, I sincerely hope they didn't because it's a terrible one! Or, at least, a depressing one.

Abuse - especially childhood abuse - is something that sticks with us. A lot of victims will be forever scared by what they went through. But just because they bare scares doesn't mean that they're trapped by their abuse and can never break free. This is true even if the abuse caused mental health issues like PTSD or CPTSD, conditions that can never be cured because you know what they can be? Controlled and mitigated to the point where the victim is no longer ruled by their condition.

There's also the fact that abuse victims - especially child abuse victims - can and often do reach a point where their abusers no longer have any power over them. I have personally seen a child abuse victim go thought the process of realizing that their parent is just another adult now. All the power that the parent once held is gone. The child doesn't depend on them for food and shelter anymore. If the abuse starts up again, then the child can just get up and walk away.

That's not true for a sentimonster. Sentimonsters don't grow up and get more agency/power. At any point, their abuser can get ahold of their amok and override their free will, taking away the sentimonster's freedom even if the sentimonster is on another continent! There is no means of true escape.

No abuse victim will ever be that powerless. Abuse victims can escape abuse and they do have true free will. Sentimonsters will always be sentimonsters.

Is the Sentiplot Good?

No. It's too serious for a kids show. In fact, now that it's canon, here's my two cents: all of the sentikids are massive liabilities to the team who need to give up their miraculouses immediately because they can never be truly trusted. Felix has shown us time and time again how easy it is to steal an amok and replace it with a fake, so we must always assume that the sentikids are compromised because to assume otherwise is to invite the miraculouses to fall into the wrong hands. It's just not worth the risk to trust a senti.

Along the same lines, the love square should never be canon unless Marinette gives up Guardianship because Adrien is a liability to the safety of the miraculouses even if he didn't wield on himself. The only way to get around this issue is to use the wish to make the sentikids human, but Gabe failed to even do that one kindness for his son, so here we are. Season six will either drive this point home by having Lila use the amoks to mess with Adrien or it will drop the sentiplot forever, proving just how cheap and poorly thought out it was.

Other issues I think I've already addressed in other posts, but that are still a problem that make the plot bad:

a sentimonster's creator defines the sentimonster's worth, thus there being no issue with Felix making sentimonsters and then killing them or the heroes destroying them, but it would somehow be wrong if we did the same thing to any of the sentikids

any command you give a sentimonster can be overwritten and sentimonsters can't resist even if they know they're being controlled, so there's truly no hope to free them

giving your leading lady anxiety issues and a boyfriend whose free will is constantly in jeopardy is cruel and unusual punishment

an insane number of lore issues like why is it impossible to destroy other sentimonsters, but Adrien can be destroyed in akuma fights? Cataclysms are pure destruction! It makes no sense that akumas can do what a cataclysm can't. And is Adrien able to die a natural death? What happens to his amok when he does? Will his children be able to be controlled by his amok too since they're part of him?

the lore around Gabe & Emilie finding the miraculous makes no sense and should not be possible. That's another rant, though.

[bibibbon]

Hey. I want to ask is it weird to create a oc just for the sake to make someone who love Izuku so much they take his responsibility from him as being all might successor. There is a whole plot reason why OC is doing it not just for love but I am a huge sucker for hero being saved metaphorically and literally by their love interest.

Nothing makes me happy to see a self sacrificing hero being saved by one person who love them so much they rather change the fate of the world themselves if it mean to let the hero be return to bliss.

Like I say, it is your rewrite, so do what you want with it!!!

I don't think it's a bad thing to create a character for another character. I mean, horikoshi did it with Toga and ochako, didn't he?

However, it very much depends on your execution.

For example, I think the execution of toga and ochako in this sense is okay. It had some problems like how the ship itself revolved around a male character or other aspects of the two characters really lacking a lot of parallels between each other.

I have talked about my opinions on this pairing, and honestly, it could have worked had it been executed differently.

Another example of a writer creating a character for another character is the dragon prince. This, in my opinion, can be seen with claudia and Terry.

This is definitely my opinion, but from what I have seen and heard, the dragon prince writers were thinking of giving claudia a romantic partner early on in the series. Some speculate that it was supposed to be the protagonist callum, but it ended up being a character introduced in season 4 called Terry.

A few minority of people hold onto the belief that callum was supposed to initially be Claudia's love interest for a huge number of reasons, one of them being Terry being quite similar to arc 1 callum especially in mannerisms.

An example is the "trees to meet you" line.

Now, the problem isn't that Terry may have been created for this reason but how his character was used.

Terry, for the most part in the series, is literally just Claudia's boyfriend. That's exactly what he is in the series. He kills for claudia. He watches claudia kill for her father, and he is the comedic relief in his group.

He is a one-note character, and while I don't think it was intentional, it is true. Due to the lack of information and arc for Terry as a character, he ends up being a plot device type of character.

From what we know of Terry, which is implied in season 4, the earth blood elves didn't accept him for being trans so it does explain why he isn't connected to them or why he doesn't mention them much as that must of been scaring for him.

I would assume that the earthblood elves abandoned Terry and some time during the two years that viren was dead and Terry was stranded alone without anyone claudia and Terry found each other. Both alone and desperate for some source of interaction and companionship, they quickly became boyfriend and girlfriend.

For Terry, claudia is everything he has. She is his only companion, and in a way, she became something he depended on during the dark (his light in the darkness, who knows 🤷‍♀️). The same thing barely applies to claudia herself as her mission was focused mainly on viren and resurrecting her father no matter what it took.

Claudia DOES love Terry, yet their relationship is toxic at that. From what we see in season 4, claudia is seen to hold the type of belief that all elves are bad and that Terry is "one of the good ones."

Now obviously mixed with Claudia's own experiences pre season 4 with an elf being the one that is responsible for her father's death or an elf being responsible for king harrows death, that combined with what she previously was told about elves and what aaravos told her about elves and dragons it is understandable that she would develop the idea that "ALL elves and dragons are evil until proven otherwise."

While I did say it and will say it again claudia does love Terry yet due to the way she was taught how to love which in season 6 she claims that it was her father viren who taught her how to love (not a good look)we can come to understand that her love can have quite the toxic nature to it.

It is after all her feelings of helplessness that caused her to abandon Terry because she didn't want anyone she loved to abandon her again, so he chose to abandon him.

Now, enough talking about claudia going back to Terry, he is someone who is seen to have quite the optimistic outlook in things. While his love for claudia and overdependence on her (to a certain extent) is toxic that it's caused him to do actions such as killing ibis and watching sir sparklespuff be killed which he is seen to actively show signs of remorse about. Terry still seems to love claudia. He accepts her for who she is, and a part of this can definitely be linked to his trauma surrounding rejection from the earthblood elves (which I wish was explored more, we need a Terry backstory!!)

Now, in season 6, we see Terry actively oppose aaravos, which is definitely going to cause a strain on both his and Claudia's relationship. I definitely see Terry leaving, which would be a huge moment for his character, but due to the lack of information and backstory for him pre season 4, I fear that it may be underwhelming.

I guess what I wanted to say from this huge ramble is if you are going to make a character to be the other half or to be there primarily for another character please give both characters equal level of nuance and don't make them one noted.

[bullseyelover]

there are a couple parallels already from dex in daredevil season three to what we’ve seen from the set of daredevil born again

in daredevil season three episode two dex is introduced at the end of the episode emerging from the smokey shadows with a gun as special agent benjamin “dex” poindexter, ready to kill the people who are in his way of doing his job and effortlessly dispatches of them displaying the level of his skill. this sets the stage for dex as a character, and while we saw him in a prior scene, this scene is the first impression dex gives to both the audience and wilson fisk, which later makes fisk want to have him on his side because of the brutal talent he just witnessed.

in from what we’ve seen in born again, dex emerges from the smokey shadows with his gun as bullseye, ready to kill the people who have, in his eyes, wronged him and anyone who is in his way. he once again easily kills them, and is only stopped from completing his one man mission because of daredevil’s intervention and karen page’s own level of resilience.

he is also wearing the same style of pants he wore in daredevil 3x02 in this scene of born again, but just in black! this is something i really like, as it makes dex feel like the same character just in a different time of his life. he knows what he likes, so when he was first starting off as bullseye, he used the same pants he knows are good. it’s also a great parallel as he was wearing the same style in his introduction as dex and he’s once again wearing them in his introduction as bullseye. this seems to be dex just starting off as bullseye, like how matt wore the black suit in season one, this is dex’s prototype bullseye suit. he used materials he knows are reliable to quickly build himself an efficient suit. he could’ve just stolen back the daredevil suit he used in season three but it was canonically damaged so it probably wouldn’t be as protective so i get it. we don’t know much about this scene but from what we have seen we can start to put the puzzle pieces together.

potential spoilers now (if i am right)

this scene seems to be a flashback to foggy nelson’s death at bullseye’s hands, and shows the reason to why karen page left new york and won’t be in the series regularly. nelson, murdock, and page seem to have started up their own office location and are no longer working out of nelson’s meats, so they would have been working together as a firm for probably a year or two. i do not think they could have set up this office location before the blip happened (which happened in may 2018, season three ended in early november 2017) as we know they all were struggling money wise in the last season and they all look to have drastically different looks in born again so they would’ve needed time to build a lawfirm and get money to do that. so this scene would take place in the year 2020(ish), which seemingly confirms that matt murdock, karen page, foggy nelson, wilson fisk, and benjamin poindexter were not blipped from thanos’ snap.

dex would’ve needed a year or two as well to fully heal physically from the damage fisk did to his spine and the surgery at the end of season three. but the mental damage has not healed, if anything his mental health is most definitely in the worst place it has been in his whole life and will just continue to get worse as he continues his decent into becoming bullseye. so he’s not fully bullseye in this scene yet, he clearly has aspects of the bullseye costume in this prototype suit but this is just dex trying to cause chaos and get revenge on the people he can since fisk is most likely still in prison.

matt defeats dex, i hope dex doesn’t get arrested again and just scurries away with a stronger hatred for matt and karen and hides away until he returns in later episodes. don’t know what they’ll do if foggy does die and karen leaves, because in all seriousness matt would probably just end himself LMAO. so however they approach this it’ll have to be done very well. anyway. i assume in the two last episodes of born again that both karen and dex will return in that dex will have a more orginal comic accurate bullseye costume, since born again takes place in 2026 after the events of echo he would’ve had time to become bullseye and get a better suit with the bullseye symbol commissioned.

anyway don’t know what this is just wanted to point out the parallel’s between dex’s first appearance and the set media we’ve seen from born again. and also theorize to what will happen in born again, i’d love to hear what anyone else thinks will happen as long as it is respectful.

[highfantasy-soul]

Moments I loved from NATLA Episode 4 - Into the Dark ❤️️❤️️

Aang and Iroh interacting more - love that they're not friendly to each other, per se, but it builds a foundation that makes their later respect make sense

The Earth Kingdom being harsh with their 'fallen foes' is nice to seed in here as in the animated version (season 1), most of the 'bad' stuff was relegated solely to the Fire Nation

The Earth Kingdom is no pushover and it's nice to see that early

Sokka defending his dad "My dad would have never done what you did" even after he commiserated with the Mechanist about his dad 'not valuing' what Sokka could bring to the table.

Though Sokka is frustrated that his dad doesn't see "him", he knows his dad is an honorable man doing his best and when Sai tries to use him as an example of 'doing the wrong thing just to survive', love that Sokka calls him on it

SECRET TUNNEEELLLL!!!

Like them introducing this now - all old buildings have secret passages - it's just a law

Teo's "its time to fight!" attitude - love it. He's so ready to stop cowering and wants to hit back

Flopsy statues!!!!!

Rolly ball throne? Nice touch

"Bumi? BUMI!!" :D

"You did 🤨" Love how Aang keeps his "I'm just gonna say the truth and I don't care if that's 'not allowed' I'm gonna do it anyways because your social rules are stupid" attitude

Katara's water pouch!!

Love the shake in Jet's voice as he tells Katara "I am nothing like the firebenders"

Katara's assessment is shallow on her part, but the core has a ring of truth - no, freedom fighters aren't the same as their oppressors, but when you start harming your own people to hurt the enemy, then you really have lost sight of what's right and wrong - why you're fighting.

FREEZE JET'S ASS!

I love Jet, especially this version of him, but yeah, no touchy

And Katara is absolutely right: Jet might have helped her through her block, but her power, that's all hers.

What are you going to do, Zuko?? What choice will you make!!??

Love that we're getting this choice of his here in Omashu

Bumi's puns 😭 kill me now - though very canon accurate

Like the vibe that everyone just has to laugh as to not anger him - there's less of a whimsical madness vibe to Bumi here and a more serious - yeah, this guy is our leader vibe that's quite unsettling

The tonal shift with Bumi did give me pause, but I like how the writers kept the jokes, the games, his eccentricities, but shifted the vibe to make them darker

In the cartoon, whimsy might work, but if you think about it realistically, that leadership style would NOT work during a war - a 100 year war, at that.

HIPPIIEESSSS!!!!

Sokka getting into that maraca - you let your little musical heart fly

"What are you doing here?" "We're doin' what we're doin'" :)

Oma and Shu lesbian supremacy!!!

Always get chills when this story is told

Lol Sokka's "There's no such thing as angry spirits." Right before the episode where they're kidnapped by an angry spirit XD

Love the switch up of the rocks not really being the path out - keeping us animated show fans on our toes as to what the lesson will be this time

Everything about the Earth Kingdom soldier's interaction with Iroh - all of it is just so good.

The cartoon glossed over Iroh's warmongering past - but he did do terrible things that hurt so many people. No, 'it was war, I was a soldier' is not an acceptable excuse (we didn’t accept it with Jet, so why the double standard for a ROYAL MILITARY GENERAL??)

The funeral scene

Leaves from the Vine

Zuko offering a soft and kind memory of Liu Ten instead of just talk about him being a soldier

Zuko sitting next to Iroh so he won't be alone!!!!!!!!!

The conversation between Katara and Sokka in the cave where she talks about how Jet helped her and Sokka how Sai helped him - then Katara reminding Sokka that when he was forced into a leadership position for the Southern Water Tribe, he didn't have anyone to help him through that

The concept of us all needing people to help us through our journeys is so important and really comes around at the end of the episode and just through the entire series

BADGERMOOOLLLEEE!!!!

Is it bad that all I could think about was how cute it was the entire time it was on screen?

Dallas Liu is so. Freaking. Good. At. His. Stunts!!!!

And the first mention of the theme Zuko struggles with of compassion being weakness!

Sokka's little 'thanks!' as Katara saves him from the badgermole XD

Seriously, all the little touches in Ian Ousley's performance are great

Idk why Sokka assumed the badgermole was a man, that's clearly a dignified lady

The power of sibling love guiding the badgermole was a great alteration from the OG - if they can be controlled through music, they can definitely respond to emotions

Bumi's whole speech here - and his willingness to get crushed - is what brought me around on this portrayal of him

He's right: it's a game where you have to make impossible choices - you have to fight even when you don't want to (a much more poignant message for Aang than 'look at things a different way')

The power of friendship saves the day!!!

"You CAN rely on your friends - and that's the only way I'm going to save the world: with my friends"

"You think like a child" (derogatory) "Is that really so bad?" (genuine)

Bumi made Appa's whistle!!! 😭😭😭😭

One last time Zuko chooses protecting his uncle over capturing the Avatar 🥲

"Everything I need is right here on this boat" 😭😭😭

[Masterlist of my NATLA thoughts]

[andreal831]

It’s been a hot minute since I’ve watched anything TVDU related, so I’ve probably forgotten all the lore, but if resurrection is so freaking easy in this universe, why didn’t Esther just resurrect Henrik?

(I know he’s basically TVD version of Uncle Ben, but still.)

Plot.

Same reason Kol came back like three times but Klaus, Hayley, and Elijah couldn't be brought back.

Resurrection is such a difficult plot devise to introduce to supernatural world because it lessens the stakes. If anyone can be brought back at anytime, there is no fear of dying.

TVDU attempted to circumvent these issues by changing the rules of resurrection as they went. It allowed them to "explain" why certain characters had to stay dead and then when they wanted to bring someone back, they would add another way.

TVDU introduced resurrections with the idea of the Other Side. Since Qetsiyah created the Other Side, it allowed witches to bring back any supernatural back from the Other Side but it takes an immense amount of power. We see this happen with Jeremy several times.

Esther's strength has always confused me because she is not a first in her generation. We know Dahlia is considerably stronger than her, but we never really got to see Esther's raw power. I would even argue that she probably shouldn't have had enough power to create vampires based on what we do see. But since she canonically did, she should have easily had enough power to bring back Henrik. She was already dealing with dark forces. Also, considering how desperately Ayana was to prevent the plague of vampires, you would think she would have been willing to help bring Henrik back to stop Esther. I think it's safe to say a Bennett witch would have that type of power.

So potentially we could say Esther just didn't know this type of magic existed, but that just feels unlikely. I've heard the argument that he couldn't be brought back since he was human, but again, Jeremy was human and brought back multiple times before he became a Hunter.

In order to create stakes once more, in Season 5, the writers "collapsed" the Other Side. But before they did, Esther was able to just bring herself back by possessing a witch, along with Kol, Finn, and Ansel. Again, we are assuming Henrik was not on the Other Side with them since he died "human." There are arguments that he would be as an untapped witch and could have been on the other side. I used to not really buy into that because an "untapped witch" is just a human, but then when Freya had Finn in the talisman, she was able to channel his magic. So maybe untapped witches really do exist in TVDU.

Freya was able to keep Finn's soul in a talisman and resurrect him that way. I don't remember and I won't even ask where she got his body from. And then again with Elijah. But of course, the talisman broke and Freya never even attempted to create a new one to save her brothers again. Davina was able to resurrect Esther even after the other side fell with a gift of power from the Ancestors and her ashes. Who knows where Esther's soul was at that time. Kol was in the Ancestral Plane when he died the second time (I guess we assume they consecrated him in New Orleans). I don't remember what she tapped into to resurrect him, but she did and brought Kol back.

In TO, New Orleans makes it fairly easy to bring back witches with the Ancestral Plane. Look at how easily Celeste brought back three witches. So they got rid of that when they wanted to kill Davina off for good. But then somehow Inadu still brought her back. But also why wouldn't they have brought back their powerful witches. Also why didn't they use that protection spell more often? You know the one the witches used when Klaus killed them in Season 1 so they all just didn't die? And since it was so easy to bring them back, why was the Harvest that scary? They were just on the Ancestral Plane.

Resurrection is just so messy and the show really needed to create bigger consequences of bringing people back from the dead. They started off so good with showing it literally cost Bonnie her life. This creates stakes to doing so. But then that was the only time that it drew so much power it killed the witch casting it.

But seriously, why was Alaric brought back multiple times, but like Enzo, Lexi, Jenna, Jackson, Henrik, etc. couldn't be? It also makes the characters seem problematic. You're telling me that Josh wouldn't have begged Davina to bring Aiden back? She wouldn't rest until Kol was brought back but never even mentioned trying to help Aiden. There are so many instances where characters fight like hell to bring back one person but just accepted the death of another.

It was just all for the plot and honestly whatever contracts the actors had. But it makes for poor writing and unrealistic stakes.

Thanks for the ask! As always, let me know if I got anything wrong <3