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amiechuchu · 3 years ago

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do you do requests? :D can i request for a fluffy doctor!reader and loki? i love your mmaatib series btw!

anon!! you're making me BLUSH!!! thank you so much for your support! and sorry if this came out a bit late i was feeling a bit under the weather the past few days. i also apologize for any errors btw! as you can see, i am a very very tired student who just wants her fix of loki too :'). anyways, i hope you enjoy!

Summary: because of y/n’s incessant pestering, loki turns y/n into a cat hoping that it would give him a moment’s peace.

Warnings: none

Catastrophe.

Loki had become accustomed to the smell of disinfectants that linger in the medical wing as his visits became more and more frequent. Although he hated to admit it, he loved the company you were able to provide. Maybe a bit more than the shared solace your safe haven have provided for the both of you. Usually, the low hum of the air-conditioning filled the room’s silence along with the small conversations you and Loki had shared.

However, today was not one of those usual days. Today, you decided to reverse the roles, where you would be the one getting under Loki’s skin and Loki would be... Loki. Today, you decided that it would be fun to be the most annoying person in the whole Nine Realms. How? By disrupting the peace that graced this room, of course. You started off by imitating the Avengers to which he easily ignored. Then, you began imitating him, speaking of glorious purpose and whatnot, asking him to conjure his prized golden horns for you to use. Though the image that crossed his mind of you wearing his horns was temptingly adorable, his growing annoyance was far greater. Its evidence pointed at his deepening unamused pouty face.

The last straw for Loki was when you thought of imitating a variety of earth’s animals. You chirped, mooed, croaked, barked, and meowed. At that point, despite how much Loki loved hearing your voice, having a moment’s silence sounded so much sweeter to him. So, the God decided to turn you into the last animal you imitated... a cat. With a flick of his wrist, green swirls engulfed your form, and, in just mere seconds, you were transformed into a furry feline. A very cute one nonetheless.

You stood on your hind legs to admire your paws, mesmerized. Loki, on the other hand, looked pleased to see that your awe has taken over your sudden bouts of wanting to annoy him. He could finally read his book in peace, whilst stealing glances at your feline form every now and then to make sure that you don’t get into trouble.

You took a few steps forward and a few steps back to see how comfortable it was to walk on four legs. It seemed very unnatural to you at first, but you managed. After a few minutes of walking, running, jumping, and exploring the area with your new form, you were confident that you had mastered the basics of feline movement. Without a care in the world, you began to sing Loki a song... in cat... very badly. In which, the lyrics you uttered were literally just meow, meow, meow, and meow on repeat.

“Loki,” you said in attempts to get the God’s attention. To your surprise, a meow still came out. The evident shock in your furry face shown as your irises were enlarged and your mouth slightly open.

“Cats meow, pet,” Loki snapped at you, eyes still focused on the novel he was reading. “You know, for a mortal who treats people for a living and studies human physiology all their life, you don’t seem very smart. And no, before you even ask, I will not turn you back. ”

Ignoring his remark, you jumped up to the table where he was situated. This time you kept tapping on his hands. “Hey, listen,” you meowed wanting the God’s undivided attention. “Wait, how can you even understand me?”

Before Loki could answer, the doors to the medical wing were swung open, revealing your boss, the one and only Tony Stark. Great. Immediately, Loki’s face soured upon seeing the man. His face all scrunched up and pouty again. You, on the other hand, pretended to be a good little kitty and lie down on the table, acting all cute and innocent. Tony wouldn’t notice, right? No, he would. But, he wouldn’t care, right? Hopefully.

“Reindeer games, have you seen the, uh, doctor in charge here. They are about this tall, and probably the only person who hangs out here majority of the time?” Tony asked, as he made gestures with his hands trying to picture out your height. He took a few glances at you - the cat - on the table as your tail gracefully wagged to-and-fro. Although a bit confused, he decided not to mind it, thinking that someone - maybe even Loki - adopted the cat and let them in the tower. Not that he really cared at the moment. Currently, the only thing nagging his brain was finding his precious doctor to finish their research agenda. This was the first time you were late and that worried Tony more than he’d like to admit. He wanted to find you before an overprotective uncle Bruce could notice, and, honestly, racing against that time period was too pressuring, even for him.

“I haven’t seen them,” Loki replied, making shooing motions with his hands. A signal that he wanted to be left alone already. The God went back to reading his novel until Tony left to scour the entire building for you, muttering something along the lines of calling Doctor Strange if he couldn't find you at all. He knew that Bruce wouldn’t take it lightly knowing his niece was missing under his watch, so calling out the all-knowing sorcerer became his trump card in case dear old Brucie decided to kick his ass for losing you.

With Tony out of the way, Loki turned his gaze on you.

Actually, on nothing now.

Of course, you had to disappear for real this time.

An exasperated sigh came out of his mouth as he realized you ran away from him. It wasn’t long until the same sense of worry Tony had came over the God. Realizing his current situation, an anxious laugh managed to come out of his mouth. Look at him, Loki Laufeyson, God of Mischief, a literal deity, worried about the doctor who he turned into a cat.

At this point, panicked thoughts began to rival his own logical ones.

What if someone else had picked you up? You were in a form of a feline inside a facility that clearly doesn’t deal with any animals. It wouldn't be a surprise if someone took you. Undoing the magic with this situation in mind wouldn't bring as much trouble, right?

Loki thought of undoing the magic, but another thought popped into his head before making the decision. What if you were hidden in some cramped space just waiting for him to find you? He feared that undoing it while you were in hiding might be detrimental to your own safety. As much as you annoyed him, Loki wouldn’t want to see his favorite little physician hurt in any way.

Upon weighing all the pros and cons of the situation they were in, Loki decided to look for you the old fashioned way: by himself. Magic would be useless in this situation. Knowing you, any form of telepathic communication Loki made would just be ignored. Though he loved playing all types of games with you, this one only stressed him out. Taking a deep breath, he steadied himself and thought of the different places he would hide if he were you.

The God observed his surroundings as he decided to look for you inside the medical wing first. With you in feline form, you wouldn't have the strength to push open the doors, so he deduced that you wouldn't have gotten too far. Maybe you were under the beds, hidden in the shadows. Or even at the top of the shelves, away from plain sight. He began pacing through the whitewashed rooms, looking for more clues to narrow down the possible hiding places. Upon reaching halfway through the wing, Loki noted how the afternoon sun shone brightly, through the wide glass windows especially there at the far end of the room. Coincidentally, at the same area, he also spotted a seemingly occupied hospital bed with its curtains pulled all the way. The God took a few more steps as his brain continued to wire all the information together. Finally, it dawned on him.

That was perfect place for a catnap.

Loki crept towards the bed's entrance, careful not to make any sounds to alarm you. Anxiously, he peered through the curtains, mentally cursing himself for the crinkling sound it made. Gods, how he prayed to find you there waiting for him. Taking a deep breath, he made his way inside the secluded area to find... you basking under the sun in feline form, all curled up and asleep. Thank the Norns.

Your rhythmic purring quietly resonated throughout the area. A smile tugged at the edges of his mouth, relieved to have found you. Although he was jealous of the fact that the entire time you were just fast asleep, while he had to go through such an ordeal. And so, Loki climbed on top of the bed in the most quiet way possible. Although he was slightly unsure of his actions, he did it anyway. No one else was there, no one else would know. So, there he lay beside you, comfortable with a novel in hand.

It was not long until all the adrenaline in his system died down, and Loki too needed a nap of his own. He stifled a yawn, not wanting to disturb your peaceful slumber. As time passed, the God slowly drifted to sleep, and the magic that held your form was undone. Now, there you lay beside him, adorned by the golden afternoon sun.

Still in deep sleep, you shifted your position, attracted to the warmth the God had brought with him. Realizing the change in position, Loki, as if by reflex, took his arm and put it around the small of your waist in attempts to keep you from falling off the edge, to keep you close. His head nudged yours lightly, and there he stared, captivated, at your sleeping form. There he realized how much he really cared for you despite how much of a handful you can be sometimes. It just felt right for him to have you pressed into his chest, to have his arm around you, to have you right there by his side.

It just felt right for him to have you.

“Sleep well, my mischievous little doctor,” the God said as he placed a gentle kiss on your forehead before finally dozing off.

As the two of you blissfully slept, basking under the afternoon sun, somewhere around the tower there was a very angry Tony Stark, looking for the missing doctor. That didn't matter at all to Loki. The only thing that mattered to him then and there was you by his side, safe and sound.

It was enough for him that today didn't end in a catastrophe.

Taglist: @gaycatlord-stuff

#mmaatib #magic mayhem and all things in between #loki laufeyson #loki #loki x reader #loki x you #loki x y/n #loki/reader #loki/you #loki imagine #imagine loki

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thechildofstark · 4 years ago

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Sympathetic Villains and the Rise of Overt Apologism.

I’ve seen a lot of discourse recently about how being a fan of villainous characters has become polarized, and how the way people treat villainous characters (and people who support them) needs to change. The two main issues seems to be:

a) the classic “if you support this character you support their actions” bs.

and

b) “oh no, my character isn’t a villain, they’re just a misunderstood baby who would never hurt anyone”. This, I think is much more worrying, and almost certainly came into practice as a response to point a).

As has been said many times before, appreciation of a character does not equal agreement with a character. Nobody is accusing fannibals of being actual cannibals ;). This can often follow on with issues in the source material/with the actors. A great deal of the negative attention on the WandaVision storyline (racism/anti-Semitism/anti-Romanyism/anti-blackness/gaslighting/torture/O***n using slurs/etc.) means that anyone that supports Whitewashed-Wanda (Wendy) is automatically labelled as in agreement with her actions in the text. And to be fair, this version of her is a pretty terrible character. It’s just incredibly bad writing. But this feeds into the second point. Wendy-fans, faced with such strong hatred for their fav, go too far in the other direction, insisting that she did nothing wrong. And there in lies the issue. This is by no means limited to Wendy - so I might as well use another completely divisive example: Kylo Ren.

Kylie Ron is an objectively terrible character. He is a badly written whingy asshole. (okay that’s mostly on the lack of coherency between films/creative teams - aka a post for another time.) The problem is that his fans behave like he never did anything wrong, ever - and is he is one of the ultimate good guys and was all along, actually. In doing so, they completely undermine his role within the text, and gloss over the fact that:

He killed his dad

He joined a neo-N*zi organization

He took over leadership of said organization

He completely screwed the First Order over. A story is only as good as its villain and he is a terrible leader with no core beliefs or alignment to the radicals he leads.

Yes that last point was literally me being annoyed that he is bad a being a N*zi. I want the evil bad guys to be cool and competent. He is neither.

He has awful relationship skills

He dies like a newb

He is literally a terrorist

This is a short, totally unbiased list of reasons that I think that saying Kyle is a ‘perfect lovely hero uwu’ just doesn’t work. If you want to be a fan of him, that’s fine and up to you, but if you want to be a fan of him and in the process erase all the bad things he did, you aren’t a fan of Kylo Ren. You are a fan of an aggressively altered and de-problematized oc insert played by Tall Brooding White Man #1785.

The idea of being a fan of a character that does bad things has become quite heavily judged over the last few years, and I think that this is the response: making it so that all the beloved main characters are good and perfect beyond reproach. So that it is impossible to be judged for liking this character, because they’re such a good person. But in the process, many of the negative and positive aspects of the character are wiped away, leaving a blank slate insert with no culpability and no positive discussion of any of the potentially harmful things that they did in the text.

Earlier I mentioned Hannibal. I consider Hannibal Lecter to be pretty much a textbook case of liking a character you disagree with. As someone who appreciates high art, good food, psychological discourse, angst, and fun murders, I love NBC’s Hannibal. But I don’t actually condone eating people in real life, and neither does the fandom. But I can appreciate art as separate from myself because that’s how it works.

The other classic is Darth Dad himself, Anakin Skywalker. Is he Evil™? Yes. Does he murder children? Yes. Is he also a member of a fascist dictatorship? Yes. Do I love him? YES. Because all of these things are part of his character. Without them, he wouldn’t be Darth Vader anymore.

TL;DR: Villains are really cool, but once you deny all the aspects that make them villainous it automatically devalues the character and removes the opportunity to learn from their mistakes, and to discuss genuinely problematic things within the text.

also fuck d*sney :)

#meta #discourse #my thoughts #wandavision #wanda maximoff #wendy mayomoff #star wars #star wars sequals #kylo ren #kyle ron #kylie ron #hannibal #nbc hannibal #cw racism #cw antisemitism #cw antiblackness #darth vader #anakin skywalker #disney

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ehbunnehsblog · 4 years ago

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So I am gonna be putting a compilation of parts of the PPG script here and mind you I have never seen the original so I can't comment on a lot but yes I might criticize some parts cause this is so bad. So first off as you can tell drugs are going to be involved in this because if you want an adult show ya need drugs kids fuck just fighting some bad guys let's make a show that was about kids now talk about drugs and be controversial just like if they were a Disney star.

Here is a good one right here like wtf does this even mean? Buttercup was straight I believe in the original and I get they made her to be lesbian which is fine but it feels like a slap in the face to the original like how tf was Craig supposed to know she was actually lesbian??? Lmfao! I can just see them in a dark room while she says this. Like I get how this fits the show but while it does it also is a slap in the face to the original.

Remind you that in the original these girls were kids. Imma say it now I am sex positive I am weed positive if you do that hey whatever that's great but I hate how these shows have to add sex and drugs and partying in. You know those relatable tweets people see online? That's the vibes I am getting it's trying way to hard to sound relatble and to be raunchy but like barely anyone would actually talk like this. Shows don't have to have sex, drugs or partying to be adult but CW here thinks this is what it is but hey they are just from Hollywood so of course they probably wouldn't know what people that aren't from there are actually like.

Let's tackle the first one first okay. Why are they making characters who were young before so oversexulized it's so weird and now the second part WHY TF WOULD YOU EVEN PUT THAT IN THERE???? Sorry but this is so bad who the hell wrote this who needed that? Really who needed to have that part? Sorry but it gets worse but all of these write like a 15 year old writing fanfic but these got taken down so this is most likely real and if it is that person should probably be fired. If people wanna make a remake they should know what the fans want but it feels like they didn't. We couldn't save Winx club from being destroyed so hopefully we can save this one.

Ughhh honestly that's all NEXT!

Oh god of course let's put in politics because people aren't miserable enough. Honestly as someone who likes shows, movies etc. I can watch a movie with politics but I also like watching them to get away from politics. I am sick of politics and I assume PPG was so sweet where people watch it to get away from politics.

This looks like something the Onion would write like this part would be good if it wasn't about PPG.

Whyyyy omg okay heres the thing on the internet this is fine but in a show this is gonna age terribly like don't make Harambe jokes or any memes pretty sure Harambe is an old meme anyways so it already aged badly. Look at Bubbles and her white self talking about whitewashing even though she is white and Buttercup was white in the cartoon but oh no Craig is wrong and he actually is the bad guy who whitewashed fuck off CW you aren't better you must be jealous people would prefer to watch something that's actually good than whatever this crap is. Also the black people I have talked to hate how they made Buttercup why? Because of stereotypes they made the aggressive one black. They say they wanna be diverse but than look racist. Also another stereotype is that if you are a tomboy you must like girls so they made Buttercup have two stereotypes which btw it's fine to be a tomboy and like girls but it's a big stereotype that if you are a tomboy whether you like girls, guys, both, neither etc you must be a lesbian which isn't always true.

Sorry for the amount of swearing but this writing is awful and just all of it needs to be thrown out and CW needs to stop and fire these people. I get that Y2K is very popular but this isn't what people asked for or wanted and if they wanna bring back an old and beloved show this isn't how you do it. Idk what they did but they really should have talked to fans of the series or just made a cutesy and girly remake. Idk why and I talked about this in my last PPG post but CW must really dislike feminine and girly things feminine and girly things are usually seen as less and aren't always appreciated as much as more masculine things and don't get me wrong some of those feminine things suck but seeing it from a company feels worse because it's actually making the change that feminine and girly can't be a thing and than they make it all about sex, drugs and partying and very adult and heres the thing I am 19 almost 20 and I might be too old to others to like girly things and cutesy shows maybe but it's fine to be older and like to like more feminine, girly and cutesy things. This script definitely makes me want to watch the original.

☆If you liked this post pls give it a like and follow me I post a lot of stuff about nostalgia☆

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yel-it · 4 years ago

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Alright I've finished Fate so here are my thoughts:

•They never should have attached Winx to it, keeping only 5 names and 2 powers the same while changing everyone's personality does not an adaptation make.

•However, they chose to do that so the whitewashing is inexcusable. The actors weren't so amazing and I'm sure they could have found Latine/Asian actors on par with Eliot's and Elisha's acting skills if not better.

•Even if you divorce Fate from OG Winx, it is still a badly written, poorly developed, bigoted, and barely cohesive show and here's why:

1) the dialogue is some of the weirdest nonsensical shit I have ever seen. The writer throws in random buzzwords and pop culture references to try and hide his clear misogyny and homophobia. I'm not sure why they hired a guy who professionally goes by Speed Weed to write the script but it was a mistake.

2) the pacing is bad, really bad. People's personalities change with no explanation or development, plot points are brought up and then dropped (Stella becomes nice all of a sudden and Dane likes Beatrix now when they've had barely any interaction and Bloom's mom becomes nice and caring, Aisha's struggles with her powers and Stella being "broken" by her mom's teaching methods are dropped and now they are totally fine.) and the show drags until you hit episode 4 and then everything happens.

3) the only developed relationship is Silva and Sky's and it is very clear that the writer's favorite is Sky since he's the only likeable character.

4) the girls didn't need to be friends at the beginning but the way they acted was weirdly catty and rude and not how anyone acts when first meeting people. Aisha and Bloom have some weird animosity throughout the entire series and the rest of the girls are... cliquey? Musa and Terra and Stella stick more together and have more interaction. There is no friend group dynamic at all and it's out of the blue when all of a sudden they're all buddy buddy and Bloom is laughing with them at her parent's house.

5) The climax was a let down with barely any loose ends tied up and I understand that there's going to be a second season but it was just kinda meh. I don't care what happens in the second season because the end is so confusing and not exciting at all.

6) The list of bigotry is long with this one.

- Racism- Black main characters are sidekicks at best with zero personality, overall even the background characters are overwhelmingly white.

-Homophobia- Riven is extremely homophobic and although Beatrix calls him out on it she still hangs out with him. I'm not even sure if Riven is bi because the "flirting" he does with Dane just seems like weird bullying. He actively mocks Dane for being bi and yet Dane still hangs around him. The optics for having your two bi characters be villains is not good though.

-Misogyny- writing girls as catty brats who aren’t nice to each other for no reason and fight over boys is a dumb misogynistic trope. Riven also constantly objectifies women and is never called out.

-Fatphobia- bringing in a fat person for “body diversity” who is constantly belittled, barely fights back, and has no self-love arc is not as woke as you think it is Fate.

-Ableism- the concept of changelings is well known to be how autistic children were perceived way back when. Bringing this tale back and applying it to the main character, with the narrative of her being a troubled child but not autistic is... troubling? offensive? neglectful? All of the above.

In conclusion, Fate sucks as a show and was a nostalgia baiting cash grab wrapped in bigotry. If you must watch it please pirate it, but honestly it’s not worth your time.

#fate the winx saga #netwinx #not fanfic #yelhatesfate

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thelightofthingshopedfor · 3 years ago

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so I wrote most of this...four days ago, and then somehow didn’t get around to finishing it until just now, which feels super weird because after writing this I started getting worried about future episodes again for a variety of reasons, and of course now we’re at T minus 10 minutes? (honestly if I’m somehow late for my own funeral I’m pretty sure no one will be surprised.) but I still wanted to post this to go over some of what I liked so much about episode 4, even if...I am no longer anywhere near as confident as I was a few days ago about where the show might be going. whatever.

***

I’ve done almost nothing for the past day or so except chew over episode 4 some more, partly trying to figure out why I liked it so much when it was broadly very divisive, and I realized that a lot of what I’ve been feeling from this episode is relief.

the thing is I’ve been paranoid since at least Infinity War about Marvel doing setup that looks like it’ll lead to a big payoff and then nothing (Loki’s death, but also Gamora’s and maybe Vision’s, and the general fact that the “fix” to IW was convoluted, took place much later, and caused as many problems as it solved, and just, Endgame in general), so I don’t really trust Marvel that way anymore. plus Marvel has pretty badly fumbled a lot of different things in the past, especially on various social issues, by introducing unfortunate implications that apparently didn’t occur to them even though they’re obvious to literally everyone else...stuff like Thanos’s “sacrifice” of Gamora, or how the Flag-Smashers were portrayed and Karli was a villain for no real reason, or how it would’ve been so easy to add a couple lines in WandaVision that would fix the whole thing where the Maximoffs weren’t just whitewashed but they also voluntarily worked with Nazis and they whiffed that too.

so, while I’ve been enjoying the show, a lot of that enjoyment has been based on meta I’ve seen and me sort of going “this interpretation is really cool and it makes a lot of sense, but at this point I can’t know if it’s something the showrunners are doing on purpose or if they sorta accidentally implied depth where there wasn’t any and it’s not actually leading anywhere” with things like the TVA being very clearly authoritarian but also supposedly the good guys, Loki being constantly described as an awful person, Loki sometimes being manic or incompetent, etc. etc. etc., along with the similar interpretation of “sure, we fans know all this stuff about how Loki is not an awful person actually, thanks, and the people who arrested him aren’t automatically Good Guys just because they’re in opposition to him but casual viewers--including not-casual-but-not-fannish viewers who should really know better--have not figured any of this out and so the show needs to go out of its way to demonstrate things that are obvious to us” but I wasn’t sure. the second half of episode 1 made me feel pretty good about where the show was headed as far as Loki’s characterization and emotions were concerned, but the more lighthearted aspects of 2 and 3 had me wondering again.

so then what happens in this episode?

the TVA goes fully mask off. the Time-Keepers are in fact fake, the Sacred Timeline by extension is also basically fake, the people who work there are all variants, the ones we know (C-20, B-15, Mobius) show grief and anger over the lives that were stolen from them, Sylvie is arrested as a child who did absolutely nothing wrong (and then put through the same process Loki was in episode 1, which is cool because a lot of it was kinda played for laughs then but showing the same things happening to an innocent child also serves to reframe what happened to Loki as, hmm, not that funny after all maybe!), Renslayer is willing to prune innocent people--friends and coworkers, even--just because they learned too much, all the sinister propaganda WAS SUPPOSED TO BE SINISTER

Loki gets very serious very fast in this episode. he displays a lot of genuine emotion and trauma but he mostly does it in a calculated way that shows just how fast his brain works and how he’s always, always thinking about what other people want/expect from him. (like--even the complaint about too few guards seems to fall into that category, given that he only says it after Mobius insists he must be wanting to make some kind of quip!) his self-image is garbage but through Sylvie he’s starting to maybe work on that. he goes up against multiple armed enemies while completely unarmed and holds his own until he gets a weapon. he pushes back when it matters and doesn’t just accept everything Mobius throws at him. he lies, pretty competently (the fact that Mobius doesn’t believe him is...really not his fault, considering Mobius wouldn’t believe him at first about the truth either, so I’m pretty sure he wasn’t planning to believe anything Loki outright told him), when it actually matters, primarily in what sure seems like an attempt to protect someone he cares about.

and Mobius. says that Loki WAS RIGHT. ABOUT THE TVA. FROM THE BEGINNING!!! I would still love to hear him say explicitly, look, I said a lot of shitty things to you and tossed in some actual physical torture at the end there oops but the vast majority of it was stuff I didn’t really mean and was only saying to get a reaction and/or information and of course it turns out I was wrong about all the TVA stuff, so I want to say for the record that I was wrong about you personally in many different ways and I’m sorry. (which, honestly, would probably be very awkward for both of them because I doubt Loki has much experience receiving genuine apologies.) but I’m mostly okay with it if he doesn’t, because I feel like you were right from the beginning, and by the way you can be whatever you want does a decent job of implying most of that. (...enough for casual viewers to pick up on it? well, I’m not hoping for miracles but sure, probably some of them.)

in other words? all that stuff the casual viewers were missing (not helped by misleading statements from the showrunners), about the TVA so clearly being bad guys, and Loki being a pretty decent person who presents different versions of himself in different situations and also has some shitty coping mechanisms, and the other Loki variant also not being evil just because they were trying to take down the TVA? we were right. that is, in fact, how the showrunners intended all those things to be taken. they didn’t want to come right out with that stuff at first because they wanted to tell a story and have some twists, and the fact that these things were twists for casual viewers is exactly why it was frustrating to a lot of fans, because it felt like obvious things were being misrepresented or overlooked. I still think that’s reasonable, because see above on why Marvel doesn’t necessarily deserve that trust, but at this point I’m a lot more comfortable believing that this specific show more or less knows what it’s doing.

I mean, yeah, there were some cool fan theories that went nowhere, like the whole thing with the broken TemPad, and I agree that was dumb and it’s very annoying that it really was just sloppy writing, but I guess specific things like that just...don’t bother me as much as more systemic, overarching elements like the characterization of Loki and the TVA. and yes, of course I’ll always be annoyed that we’re apparently never going to get explicit confirmation that Loki’s alliance with Thanos was coerced at best. but, you know, what we got isn’t nothing.

#loki #loki show #loki spoilers #mobius m. mobius #sylvie #marvel cinematic universe #meta #loki meta #my meta #I should add links but uh...maybe later

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jjr1971 · 4 years ago

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So, I finally sat down and watched Ep.1 of Don't Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro via Crunchyroll. And for the most part it's a faithful adaptation of the first half of the first Volume of the manga. I've read up through Volume 6 and have Volume 7 on pre-order from Barnes & Noble. It's fair to say I'm fairly obsessed with this manga and anime adaptation. But for my part, I'm grateful that the manga (see top image) avoids the kind of misogynistic, dehumanizing "incel" language that the subtitles go with in Episode 1 of the anime. I don't know if the manga translation is a "whitewash" of the original Japanese text and that the translated subtitles for the Japanese audio are closer to the original, but if so....YIKES? This show is definitely NOT for everyone. I enjoy Don't Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro precisely because it IS so fucked up and perverse. It is "Dark Mode Takagi-San", but with the roles reversed. Instead of an emotionally mature, wise-beyond-her-years girl crushing on an emotionally immature boy, in this story it's the girl (Nagatoro) who is emotionally immature and inappropriate. But it's a mistake to dismiss this show as "glorifying bullying"; it's more subtle than that. Nagatoro is actually flirting with her Senpai--badly. Her behavior is qualitatively different than the other girls who ARE more traditional bullies. Yes, it's fucked up, and yeah, she drives him to tears, TWICE....but when she wipes away his tears the second time she does so very gently, even affectionately, with a soothing voice. She feels badly about pushing him into the canal...she's an athlete who doesn't know her own strength and doesn't realize he's a 98 pound weakling. But tracing the Kanji of her name with her finger on his chest, through his wet shirt is straight up unambiguous flirting. Nagatoro is also a terrible gaslighter....she will blurt out her true genuine feelings & desires then cover it up immediately with a joke or a jab. You have to study Nagatoro's behavior for the long term to see she's serious and her offhand denials are just a defense mechanism because she's too immature to own her feelings and be honest about them, which makes the story bittersweet. Also, the entire time she's doing the "mean girl" shtick, she's blushing furiously, and the anime does a good job conveying this. She's flirting---badly---and her heart is racing. The overt aggression is the only way she knows how to keep her own embarrassment & insecurity at bay. Embarrassing to admit, but I've dated someone who in hindsight reminds me of Nagatoro. She was impulsive, aggressive, and wouldn't take no for an answer. She initially declined my first attempt to ask her out, noting she had a boyfriend already. I said fine and we parted ways....but within a month she became tired of her boyfriend and obsessed with me....our on-again, off-again fling was very passionate and frustrating. Not a one-to-one parallel with Nagatoro but let's just say I have intimate knowledge of the type, what a Nagatoro can potentially look & feel like in her 20s. She was fiery, passionate, and a little scary. I don't envy Nagatoro's Senpai at all, as it's clear Nagatoro isn't going to take "no" for an answer either. I've definitely had an interesting history with aggressive women in my life. First girlfriend was aggressive, inviting me over to her place and planting my first kiss...deep french kissing...on me out of the blue, which I confusedly accepted and returned. But she was also probably a narcissist who wouldn't accept any expression of jealousy and dropped me like a hot rock a mere 2 weeks later. Besides the occasional one night stand, most of my romantic partners have been the aggressors except my ex-wife, whom I wooed in more or less the traditional way and to my surprise it actually worked...and lasted about 2 years...which for me was a new record. Anyway, I look forward to the rest of Season 1 of Don't Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro as so far this has been a very faithful adaptation of the manga and I hope it continues to be. They are a fucked up

and dysfunctional couple, yes, but no worse than Kaguya Shinomiya and Miyuki Shirogane of Love is War, Seasons 1 & 2. More on THAT show in a future post. I'm also looking forward to receiving my pre-ordered copy of Volume 7 of the manga of Don't Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro which I always binge read in one sitting.

#nagatoro #manga couple #manga #anime #crunchyroll #Spring Season 2021

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insfiringyou · 4 years ago

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BTS - Finding Solace (Jungkook x Young-soon)

Contains: Angst. Family discussions. *Trigger warning for upsetting scenes involving an ill family member*

Set between ‘Jin’s Wedding’ and ‘A Reunion’, Young-soon’s father is taken ill, and Jungkook agnosies over how to support her during such a difficult time.

You can find out more about our headcanon universe and ongoing storyline here and more about our headcanon girlfriends here.

To read all headcanon fics chronologically, go here.

To read each member & their girlfriend’s headcanon universe fics in order, follow the links here: RM / Jin / Suga / J-Hope / Jimin / V / Jungkook & our full masterlist of fics and art can be found here

Content below the cut

PART ONE

The strip light overhead buzzed incessantly as Jungkook punched a code into the vending machine at the end of the hall, watching the spiralled dispenser twirl before dropping a candy bar in the tray below. He paused for a moment, before ordering another. He knew Young-soon would not be hungry when she left the ward, but it was a long drive home and her appetite was sure to return before they reached Seoul.

The corridor was strangely silent, with only the humming bulb and the distant squeak of a nurse’s shoes keeping him company, but he couldn’t help feeling relieved. During their first few visits, Young-soon’s relentless, pained sobs had echoed from the room where her father was kept, and he had felt powerless to stop them. That first long and silent drive from her apartment in the city to the suburban hospital at the edge of Incheon still played on his mind; the way she automatically reached for the handle on the driver’s side of her car after receiving the call, and how he had stopped her, knowing she was in no condition to attempt the journey. She was shaking the whole way, gaze fixed on the road ahead as he steered through the city, following the Satnav which promised to find the streets with the least congestion. Her eyes swam with tears, but she kept her jaw tightly clenched, only letting go when he finally pulled into the hospital parking lot and her mother met them in the foyer. Stepping back, he allowed them space to hug; their embrace tightening as they clung to each other; her mother briefly meeting his gaze over his girlfriend’s shoulder, with a thankful nod.

He hadn’t known what to do when they reached the third floor. The door to her father’s suite was open, and Jungkook caught a glimpse of the older man’s pale, chalky face in the hospital bed. His eyes were closed, and for a moment he feared the worst, until the doctor led the two women into the room and murmured that he was stable. The younger woman’s shoulders dropped in relief and she turned, for the first time that afternoon, to face her boyfriend, letting out a long sigh.

Wanting to give them their privacy and feeling a little worn from the unexpected drive, he stayed in the corridor. There was something he needed to do and looked around the ward for a phone-zone, where he could make a private call without disturbing the staff. Several signs dotted around the walls clearly forbade their use in the corridors, but he finally found one which pointed to a small room near the nurses’ station and followed the direction of the arrow, closing the door quietly behind himself.

It took longer than expected to be connected to the right person but, satisfied he had done all he could, he looked around the ward, seeking out somewhere to sit. Slowly, he walked to a line of plastic chairs which lined one whitewashed wall and leaned back, pressing the pads of his thumb and index finger against his eyes. It seemed as though he had been awake for days but a quick glance at his G-Shock told him it was not yet seven pm. His heart seemed to stop when, a moment later he heard Young-soon let out a single cry, quickly muffled by, presumably, her mother’s shoulder in another tight embrace. He considered getting back to his feet and rushing in to see her, but knew he couldn’t help. The quiet, reassuring tone of the doctor’s voice floated down the hall from the private room, followed by that of her mother, before the door closed behind them, muffling the sounds from the outside world.

Jungkook waited patiently, ignoring the nagging, itchy feeling behind his eyes, until he could no longer keep them open. Settling back, he urged himself to stay awake, wanting to be there when the door eventually opened again; to be told how the older man had been affected by the stroke which had occurred while pottering around the garden earlier in the day. Jungkook remembered observing the weather from Young-soon’s apartment window as he got out of the shower and towelled himself off; thinking that if he did not have to make a video call to his management it would have been the perfect day for a long stroll through the park. There had not been a cloud in the sky, and the layer of fog which usually filled the streets early in the day had been absent. He recalled thinking that Young-soon would be thankful; that her asthma which sometimes played up when the air was badly polluted would not bother her while the day was so bright and, suddenly, he felt a little guilty; as though his cheerful mood and optimism had somehow cursed the day, causing things to become messy and complicated. He thought of her father, who always hugged him so fondly when they met and seemed so proud of him the last time they spoke, when Jungkook revealed he was laying the groundwork for a solo album. Other than his own parents, he had never met somebody who welcomed him with such warmth and affection. It had crossed his mind more than once over the last two and a half years that he would feel honoured to call such a man his father-in-law and hoped, more than anything, that he would be okay; that the other man would get to enjoy another sun-filled day in the garden, admiring the bright variety of flowers he had so lovingly planted over the years.

It wasn’t until he heard the loudening sounds of footsteps against the vinyl flooring and his eyes snapped open that he realised he had fallen asleep. The door to the hospital suite was wide open, and Young-soon was walking towards him, dabbing gently at her eyes with the back of her fingers. He got to his feet at once, wondering vaguely how long he had been dozing.

“How is he?” Jungkook asked, reaching out for her hands as she closed the gap between them.

She sniffled quietly, voice trembling. “We won’t know until he wakes up.”

His heart sank and he looked over her shoulder, towards the open doorway. He couldn’t see from this angle, but he suspected from the almost-silent atmosphere, that her father was alone.

“Did your mom go home?”

She nodded. “She’s just picking up a few things. They’ve said it could be a while…”

“I’ve called your boss.” He reassured her, squeezing her fingers gently. “He said to take a few days off and call when you can.”

A frown lined her face, crumpling her features. “I didn’t even think of that…”

“You shouldn’t have to worry about work.” He murmured softly and she sighed, clearly drained and feeling at a loss of what to do next.

“I’m worried about my mom.” She admitted.

“Is she planning to stay at home?”

Her shoulders moved in a shrug. “I doubt she’s thought of booking anywhere. I just don’t want her to be on her own.”

He thought for a moment, realising that he had never been in a situation like this before and wondering whether he was doing the right thing; if there was more he should be doing. The thought seemed pointless, but it troubled him nonetheless and when he spoke next, he was a little cautious. “Do you want me to stay?”

Her eyes met his, but her gaze was soft and grateful. “Don’t you have a photoshoot tomorrow?”

He shook his head. “I’m sure they’ll understand.”

That had been two weeks ago...but the look of worry on her face as they left the hospital together still haunted him.

Pocketing the spare candy bar, he reached for the cup of lukewarm instant coffee he had left sitting on one of the uncomfortable plastic chairs and sipped it with a grimace as a young woman opened the door of the nurses station and joined the corridor to begin her evening rounds. She looked freshed out of training, her short black hair tied neatly in a bun, and cast a double glance in his direction as she walked past. Nervously, he moved the polystyrene cup from his mouth and pointed at it.

“Am I okay to drink it here?” He asked, thinking he had been caught out. There were no signs telling him not to but, like the cell phone policy, he suspected the nurses could be pretty strict. She hesitated for a moment before nodding with a smile.

“Yeah, sure. Just be careful not to spill any.”

It took him a moment to work out the expression on her face and realised it was a look he had seen before. For a second, she seemed to hesitate and he wondered whether she would ask for an autograph. The timing would be incredibly inappropriate, but it would not be the first time. Instead, she surprised him by straightening up, as though catching herself and realising where she was and, with an internal sigh of relief, Jungkook cut the silence.

“I will.” He promised, before nodding in the direction of the door down the hall which was undoubtedly one she would be visiting on her round. “How is he?”

Following his eyeline, she pointed. “In there?” She turned back to him. “A lot better than he was. He’s got his appetite back…and his communication’s improving.”

“Has he been out of bed yet?”

She shook her head. “Not on his own.” She must have seen the sunken expression on his face, because her gaze softened sympathetically. “...It just takes time.”

“I guess.”

She thought for a moment. “The woman in there with him now…do you know her?”

“She’s my girlfriend.” Jungkook confirmed, realising as he said it that it was the first time he had told someone other than those he knew. It didn’t feel like such a big deal anymore. “He’s her father.”

“Oh.” Her mouth opened, as though desperately wanting to ask more, but she quickly closed it, remaining professional. “If you need anything, I’ll be right down the hall.” She pointed vaguely in the direction of the station and started to walk away before turning back, just remembering... “Visiting hours are almost over.” She warned softly. “If you want to stay a few more minutes, I won’t tell…”

Jungkook nodded with a grateful smile. “Thanks.”

PART TWO

Three months later…

She took the towel as it was handed to her with a quiet thanks and began the work of wiping the cutlery which lay on the draining board, dropping them by type into the draw behind her as her mother washed up. She noticed the silver in the older woman’s hair which seemed to cover almost her head; a few strands of black still clinging to the strands in the centre while the edges were consumed. It had only been two and a half weeks since her last visit, but the stress of the last few months had finally started to take its toll. Her face was likewise adorned by a few extra grooves and lines which Young-soon did not remember being there at the time of her father’s hospitalisation, and she wondered vaguely whether she too was beginning to show physical signs of her worry. She had recently found a few greys of her own while brushing her hair in the bathroom mirror and had plucked them out with a quiet “fuck.”

Catching her gaze, her mother smiled softly; the crinkles at the corner of her mouth strangely loving as they both turned ahead to look out of the wide window in front of the sink. The view overlooked a small patch of decking and, beyond that, the stretch of lawn which was currently being mowed by Jungkook. He moved along the push-mower with some effort; its metal blades noisy as it cut through the grass in a straight line. Beside him, Young-soon could just about make out the shape of her father standing under the shade cast by the garden shed; his oversized stomach hanging over his shorts as he watched the young man carefully. This too seemed strange. She remembered her father as lean and trim when he entered the hospital, but it seemed that months of spending most of his time in bed had rounded him.

The two women subconsciously held their breath as Jungkook stopped mowing and reached for a potted plant which blocked his path at the edge of the grass, picking it up and discarding it gently by a row of sunflowers.

The older woman tutted with a smile. “He’s going to ask him to move it.” She warned softly, under her breath. “You know he likes it in the shade.”

Young-soon watched and, a moment later, her father’s short, stubby finger shot out and pointed in the direction of the shadowed decking.

Her mother chuckled lightly, handing her a freshly washed plate.. “I told you…I wonder how much longer he’ll continue if your dad keeps bossing him around.”

Young-soon shrugged. “Probably all night.” She mumbled dryly, stacking the plate onto the drying rack. She sensed her mother looking at her out of the corner of her eye.

“I hope you don’t order him around like that.” She taunted, a little too knowingly.. “He seems like he has trouble saying no.”

Her eyes rolled in reply, voice little more than a grumbling whisper. “Tell me about it…” The tone of her answer made her mother frown and, changing the subject, Young-soon nodded towards the outline of her boyfriend as he resumed mowing. “It was his idea to come and help.”

The older woman looked at her a moment longer before she too continued the task at hand; dipping her worn hands into the bowl to find the dishcloth at the bottom. “He’s a sweet boy.” She commented fondly, as though stating a fact, and Young-soon couldn’t help but sigh in agreement.

“I know.” She murmured, finding herself looking in his direction once more as he stopped what he was doing to reach for the hem of his white shirt and lift it above his head. The day was unseasonably warm and his tanned skin glistened with sweat; his tattoos becoming visible as he discarded the fabric on the stone walkway which ran alongside the neat patch of lawn. She watched him wipe his forehead with the back of his hand and could almost imagine her father’s sarcastic, and slightly chastising comment at the sight. Jungkook cast a timid grin in his direction, muttering something in reply before reaching once more for the handlebar. Despite having seen him topless almost every day for the past few months as he spent more and more time with her, it still made her heart beat rapidly in her chest. Catching herself, she shook her head and glanced down at the growing pile of plates she had missed being handed to her.

“I caught him looking at apartments the other day.” Young-soon said, ignoring the churning, fluttery feeling in her lower stomach.

“Oh?” The other woman seemed interested.

She nodded, laughing softly. “Here in Incheon...he was trying to minimise the website when I came in, but he clicked zoom instead…”

“Do you think he wants you to move in together?”

She sensed the curiosity in her mother’s voice and couldn’t help but feel guilty that she was not as entirely convinced by the idea.

“It’s a big step.” She spoke slowly. “I’m not sure if I’d want to commute.”

“It’d only be for the weekends.” Her mother reasoned, voice raising in pitch as though unable to hide her excitement. “You could stay in Seoul with your aunt.”

Young-soon pulled a face and she tutted dramatically, hiding a smile.

“She always asks how you are…”

“Then I’ll call her…”

The clattering sound outside came to a halt; the mowing evidently finished and Jungkook began the task of sorting the plant pots he had shifted back to their original place, under the watchful eye of her father.

“It’s good of him to support you going part time.” Her mother eventually murmured, cutting the silence.

“I didn’t ask him to.” She protested weakly. “But I’m glad he does.” Young-soon admitted with a small sigh. “My wages only just cover my rent.”

“You know we’d help too…”

She shook her head sadly. “Dad’s treatment...” She argued, feeling a small hand brush her shoulder.

“You’re our only daughter.” The voice beside her was soft, reassuring. “We’ve been putting money aside for years...for when you get married…”

Her lips twisted in a small, sarcastic smile. “That’s optimistic.”

The other woman shook her head in disagreement. “He’d make a good husband.” She reasoned, but found herself frowning a moment later when Young-soon did not answer. “You’re not sure?”

Sighing, she admitted defeat. “I suppose he would be…”

“Haven’t you discussed it before?” Her mother raised a questioning eyebrow. “If you want a family?”

“Once or twice...” She admitted, looking down. “But not in a while.” Glancing back through the window, she was lost in thought for a moment. “He seems fixated on this house thing...”

“It’d be nice to have you closer.” Her mother’s tone seemed hopeful. “Your dad would appreciate it too.”

Young-soon nodded. “I’m glad he’s getting better.”

“They want him back in next week to run some more tests.”

Her stomach sank. “You didn’t say…”

“It’s just precautionary. They don’t want him to exert himself too much. And he has a new diet plan. No red meat whatsoever.”

Young-soon’s lips curled in a guilty smile and she eyed her mother playfully. “He won’t like that.”

“I told him I’d try it too.” The older woman laughed quietly. “But he doesn’t know about the dried pork in the cupboard.”

“You rebel.”

Their conversation was interrupted by a small knock on the kitchen door which opened onto the garden. They both turned in unison to look towards the doorway as Jungkook’s face appeared in the frame, his forehead shimmery with perspiration.

“Hi…” He waved, a little out of breath. Young-soon suspected some of the plant pots were heavier than they looked and hadn’t been moved in years. He looked past her, directing his question at her mother. “He asks where you keep the weed killer.” He blushed, a little embarrassed to be following such an errand.

“In the same place I’ve kept it for thirty six years.” The older woman called cheerfully, voice full of sarcasm.

The young man looked from her to his girlfriend, who seemed more than amused, before nodding curtly, anticipating he would end up rewording the instructions so as to not frustrate the other man any further.“Alright, thanks...” He gave another timid wave, before disappearing back through the doorway, coming into view a moment later as he joined the stretch of lawn and walked over to the man now sitting in a deck chair. Young-soon and her mother both watched Jungkook open the garden shed and duck under the low-hanging door frame to delve into its depths. He reammerged a moment later, clutching a bright green bottle.

“He cheated on me.” Young-soon suddenly said, cutting the silence.

“What?” The low, emotionless tone of her daughter’s voice masked the meaning for a moment and her smile faded as she turned to face her.

“Jungkook.” She sighed softly, pulling her eyes from her boyfriend’s silhouette to look her mother in the eye. “He cheated...a while back.”

The woman opposite opened her mouth, lips flailing for a moment, before pressing them tightly together; eyebrows knitting in a frown. “With who?” She asked softly, confused.

Young-soon shrugged. “I don’t know.” She admitted, suddenly feeling pathetic. “He doesn’t either. It was at a party.”

The older woman was stunned into silence, eyes roaming over her daughter’s face as though trying to read more into the situation, but finding nothing more than what was already said. “I’m surprised.” She murmured after a moment, wanting to say more, but unable to find the right words.

“So was I…” Young-soon admitted, turning back to finish the drying. Jungkook was, unsurprisingly, sprinkling liquid into the cracks between the decking, targeting the long, ugly-looking flowers which had started to sprout through the slits of wood while her father had been in hospital.

Although there were a few stray items of crockery still submerged in the soapy water, her mother ignored them, instead watching her daughter carefully as Young-soon slotted the last few plates into the remaining gaps on the drying rack. “Why didn’t you tell us?” She quietly asked.

Young-soon shrugged feebly. “I didn’t know how I felt…” A frown formed on her face as she watched the young man stride back down the garden and kneel softly beside a plant pot, reaching for the small sack of soil which lay beside it. She shook her head, backtracking. “I was ashamed. Should I have been more mad?”

Her question was directed more to herself than the woman opposite and her mother was once more silent for a few moments, before speaking up. “Has he told you he’s sorry?”

She nodded, letting out a small, humourless laugh. “He begged my forgiveness for a year.” There was a moment of hesitation before the continued, a hint of residual pain in her voice, as though unearthing old wounds. “But that doesn’t mean it’s right...what he did.”

The voice which came from beside her was beyond tender; understanding. “Of course it doesn’t.” Her mother agreed. “But things aren’t always perfect.”

Young-soon turned to look at her, gathering herself together. “Does it change your opinion of him?” She asked, realising that she was a little anxious for the anwer.

“As he is right now?” Her mother looked through the window, watching him for a moment. “He’s potting begonias in your father’s old gardening hat…” She commented, telling the other woman all she needed to know.

Surprisingly relieved, her shoulders dropped and she wiped her damp hands on the towel, running it across her fingers. “I just needed to tell someone.” She confessed quietly, glancing back towards the garden, eyes fixing steadily on the figure kneeled in the distance. “Before we move in together.”

“Do you feel better?” Her mother asked.

“No…” She admitted with a small shrug. “But I can’t hold onto it forever.”

“No, you can’t…” The woman agreed, falling quiet. Young-soon watched her dip her hands back into the now lukewarm water and reach for the chopsticks which had fallen to the bottom of the bowl. “So you’ve made up your mind? About the move?”

Young-soon nodded, unable to stop herself from feeling bashful. “I think I did, just now.”

“That’s good.” Her mother whispered, relieved to hear her daughter sounding more like herself again. The confession still played on her mind, but it seemed the younger woman had worked things out for herself. “I’m glad you told me.” She confirmed gently. “I can’t believe you got so grown up…”

Young-soon rolled her eyes, but felt her stomach grow warm at the pride evident in the woman’s voice. “My twenties are far behind me mom…”

“Your dad still sees you as his little girl.” Her mother said fondly, nodding towards the garden where the older man was seen to be shuffling forward in his chair and reaching for Jungkook’s outstretched hands as he was pulled steadily to his feet. “Let’s just keep this between us.” She said gently, pressing her lips together tightly.

Young-soon nodded silently, watching the two men walk, side by side, across the garden. Her father was helped along by the cane, as well as the reassuring grasp of Jungkook’s hand as he accompanied him, matching his slow pace as they joined the shaded decking.

“Looks like they’re nearly done.” Her mother observed, gaze softening at the sight. It had been a hard few months, but she was relieved her husband was well enough to walk again. “Go and ask if they want something to drink. They both look like they need a lie down.”

***

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darkelite020 · 3 years ago

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Bad Batch thoughts & predictions Ep 14

Continuing these written reactions/predictions somewhere cause itd be fun I think to see what actually ends up happening and remembering what I thought at the time so im dumping it here, youre welcome. (Feel free to discuss if you want) if you want to keep up with it im gonna be tagging these as #jay rambles about bb

Couple days late this time but whatever: - The immediate forest scene is super pretty and im loving it - IDK WHOS RUNNING BUT RUN BOY RUN - New clone owo -- oh no he got caught :( - omega copying hunter again is still super cute - Rex? My beloved? -- wait old friend? Whomst? >> tbh I didnt get a super good look at their face so maybe its someone I shouldve recognized but still! >> - Wait isnt that gregor's number??? - I mean... why would they not get paid if they deviated from cids job? Couldn't they just do both? - So I doubt its what they mean but what if "the operation" was them taking the insubordinate clones and making their chips work(or be put in or something if removed maybe..? idk) like how crosshair did at the beginning of the season? -- I do assume thats not it but could you imagine >> - oh sis... the young clones look BADLY whitewashed... I am pretending they are clones of someone else...cause that is bad - I mean its smart of the kaminoans to run away and everything and yeah they obviously cant take their facilities with them, but they know how cloning works and stuff, that knowledge is still valuable... - THANK YOU ECHO. Its not even nearly as much as I wanted but FINALLY a little glimmer of Echo showing some sort of care for the 501st. - Ok I know hunter is... "hunting" him but bitch I literally can't take him smelling a fucking stick seriously. - BB: "Whats in that mountain?" Me: "Krayt dragon 2.0 baby lets go!!!" (lol I know its not but I amuse myself too easily) - Commandos? Show me delta squad >> (But also now I'm pretty sure it is something to do with gregor cause he's a commando too..?) - Aw Echo... I appreciate him caring about that other clone. - IT IS GREGOR!!! THE BOY IS BACK!!! -- What... is it just me or does he sound.... weird. I don't remember him sounding like that lol - Like yeah they kill or hurt some but it still hurts my heart every time they *stun* people... like them not wanting to hurt/kill fellow clones is sad - I get why the bb can't but why doesn't gregor take some of the stunned clones armor... like if they got split up or something they wouldnt know its him right away - IS THAT SCORCH OH SHIT I WAS KINDA KIDDING ABOUT DELTA SQUAD THATS SO COOL -- but also OH GOD DONT KILL HIM PLEASE --- Give me republic commando 2 please - Ok just stunned thank god - I'm starting to love and appreciate Tech's flying more and more. Last episode with the drifting and now this. - I THOUGHT HUNTER PUSHED ECHO OFF FOR A SECOND I WAS GONNA SCREAM GRFJGHKFHG - WAIT WHAT THE FUCK HUNTERS FUCKING DEAD WHAT - Oh no... hunters going to get caught... oh no...fuck... -- He's going to be turned like crosshair I bet cause they talked about that earlier :'( - The end of the season supposedly hurt the creators like the ending of clone wars so I super doubt hunter won't be turned, HOWEVER, I think if there is a glimmer of hope, its good hunter was the one taken. He was the one that looked to howzer when howzer said he didn't want to leave his squad behind, and I think that is going to inspire hunter to try to help crosshair. I doubt he can, but its rather a situation of them both being turned, or hunter being able to help crosshair and them both leaving/being saved. I doubt hunter can talk his way out of this also but another thing to consider is its super possible/even likely that crosshair isnt necessarily following his chip now (especially with the head injury!) but more so doing it out of revenge for being left behind.

#jay rambles about bb #bad batch #tcw #bad batch spoilers ep 14 #star wars #the clone wars #bad batch spoilers

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thessaliah · 4 years ago

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So someone in my post asking that "Is Seimei really a good guy? I mean he has treat Tamamo badly." And I asked them "What did he do to her?" And got answered that Seimei tortured her. What did Seimei actually do to Tamamo in Heian Kyo tho and for what reason?

He did nothing to “Takako” (I think that was her alias) who might or might not be Tamamo, they were on civil terms in Heian Kyo. He was not even in the capital (or he was, but hiding, depending on if you think Douman guessed it right) and only appears, in the end, to speak to Douman.

What they might refer is the incident that happened later in that era, which is about Tamamo no Mae’s legend. When she was a courtesan and lady in waiting in Emperor Toba’s court, and the Emperor fell ill. Abe no Seimei or a descendant (but was Seimei in the Fate version I’m sure) might have exposed her nature in Court in her original which led to her persecution and death after she slaughtered thousands of soldiers during the first hunt. She was struck down and killed in the second assault. Doesn’t seem like Seimei did anything outside exposing her as a fox youkai.

I’m sure the one who pointed out that buys Tamamo’s tearful “I did nothing wrong” version when she’s also an evil youkai who only hides her true self behind a “good wife” performance. Tamamo gets the opposite treatment of Nero: she was originally whitewashed unlike Nero, but later her wicked sides are emerging and made her more flawed (and interesting to me). While Nero started flawed and acknowledged she’s a tyrant and became gradually whitewashed into perfect and misunderstood.

#fgo asks

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winchesternova-k · 4 years ago

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Iden is right there. Want a lead with color? Play Battlefront 2. Stop lying and saying that was the most requested thing. It never was. If so, how comes Jedi Fallen Order did as well as it did with a white lead? Despite you people claiming you was going to boycott. How comes it’s getting a sequel? How comes that same white lead is getting a whole franchise? How comes it was nominated for a BATFA. I don’t even want to come across as rude but they gave you a game with a WOC and people ignored her and now she’s barely even talked about. It’s about the money. Disney are business people.

this is a lot of assumptions for someone who doesn’t seem to know what they’re talking abt. have u spoken to star wars fans of colour recently bc yes, it is the most requested thing. did u see what happened w finn? or did u ignore that?

u have literally no idea whether i’ve played battlefront or not. i haven’t, but that doesn’t change the fact that there should be more than one lead of colour. if i had that wouldn’t change the fact that i can still criticise other parts of the franchise. i adore tfa but im incredibly critical of the rest of the sequel trilogy and it’s mess of bigotry and abuse apologism bc surprise! i can like things and be critical of them at the same time!

this is the first star wars game i’ve played and there WERE a lot of requests for the lead to be a poc. i literally saw it. i don’t recall anyone saying to boycott but sure keep that victim complex up 😋

and what the fuck do u mean by “you people”? bc that feels distinctly racist. leave poc alone and let them be upset w disney (i’m white too which just shows that u assume everyone who calls out racism must be a poc which is interesting, and by interesting i mean racist)

also, i literally fucking said in my post that cameron monaghan did a good job. i love him as an actor and he did a good job. disney still should’ve hired a person of colour.

i said NOTHING abt the game’s content. the plot is sound and the chs are good. doesn’t change the fact that disney’s fucking racist. even if i agreed that them hiring another white man wasn’t problematic, there’s still the whitewashing in game and the cultural appropriation woven into the entire canon. and the second sister who is acting as cal’s foil is a woc! having a single person of colour from any race or ethnicity in a piece of media and making them evil and have to be defeated by a white person is always racist! and that’s just from where i am at chapter three.

battefront is a completely different type of game. i literally didn’t know abt it until recently. disney also did next to no ads for it so when it didn’t do as well bc of the lack of ads shitheels like u would say white leads r more popular. then they can say “ooh look! white ppl sell better!” that’s a pretty common marketing technique amongst racists. netflix has done it repeatedly. the lead for battlefront should be more popular, but do u know what i saw the last time i saw an ad for battlefront? rey. and the time before that? obi wan. this is literally the first i’ve heard abt there being a woc as the lead. the only ads i ever saw for it emphasised the fighting rather than the story, which from a quick browse was apparently badly written. the ads made it sound like it was in a similar style to injustice

also r u rlly saying that poc should have to play a shooter game as opposed to an action game to have a lead of colour bc that’s racist pal. poc should be able to play any genre of star wars game (or any franchise) and find a ch of colour and guess what! they can’t do that! bc disney!! r racist!!

ur right the battlefront lead should be more popular and well known and fandom should acknowledge her more. she should’ve gotten better from both disney and fandom. that doesn’t change the fact that cal should’ve been played by a moc.

and srsly, ONE lead of colour? as opposed to HOW MANY white leads of the years? get over urself. poc deserve better than that and u know it

also pal, if u think going “but,, but the money!!1” is going to make an ANTICAPITALIST sympathise w disney u came to the wrong fucking blog. everyone should do the right thing even if it costs u profit.

anyway disney know that poc leads r just as profitable as white ones. y’all r v quick to forget how profitable black panther was

and surprise surprise sometimes ppl who want more diversity still play games that don’t have it. what exactly is ur point?

but sure, keep telling urself that a man of colour wouldn’t have done as good a job 🤷 ur racist and lying and it shows and YES ur rude

tldr; disney didn’t advertise battlefront having a woc lead which is shitty. fandom also erased her which is equally shitty. one lead of colour in the entire franchise is not enough and cal should’ve been a moc. fuck disney and their corporate greed.

eta: tfa is also a goddamn racist mess, i meant to say that i was critical of it as well as the rest of the sequel trilogy and my adhd made me forget fvgfvg

#star wars #fallen order #cal kestis #anti disney #alex talks #fandom racism #asks #anonymous #if anyone knows anything abt battlefront feel free to add on #bc literally until right now i had no idea there was a woc lead bc all the ads featured white ppl and that it was a fighting game #like injustice #so if that’s not true disney certainly didn’t want anyone to know abt it #anon if i catch u sending similar messages to bloggers of colour i’ll steal ur kneecaps #also what kind of gotcha did anon think this was? what a mess #long post #gaming

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abigailnussbaum · 5 years ago

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She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, S5

Overall I’d say this was the best season since the first one, and the ending it gives the story is a satisfying and moving one. I really liked how the show gestures back at some canonical She-Ra concepts - the rebels hiding out in the Whispering Woods, for example - while at the same time doing things that are completely outside the original canon’s scope - She-Ra in Space! And I thought the ensemble was well-used, main characters, side characters, and antagonists all getting their own storylines and resolutions in a way that isn’t easy with such a wide cast of characters, but was handled with elegance.

But look, if you’ve read anything I’ve written or tweeted about this show over the last four seasons, you know I have fundamental issues with how it chooses to direct its storytelling and characterization energies. It doesn’t come as much of a surprise that the concluding season didn’t address most of those issues. A big part of that is that the show I wanted She-Ra to be clearly wasn’t the one Stevenson and her team were making, and that’s fine. But I find it genuinely strange that of the three series that are obvious thematic and emotional successors to Avatar: The Last Airbender - She-Ra, The Legend of Korra, and The Dragon Prince - none of them reach the same heights of plotting and characterization, and at least in She-Ra’s case I think this is rooted in an unwillingness to complicate a rather simplistic central theme.

(Also, at least part of the problem has to be that the show’s five-season, 52-episode run spanned only seventeen months. Even if you add in the production period for the first season, that’s a truly bonkers schedule that must have told in the depth and complexity of the final product.)

Take Catra, for example. If you’d asked me where I thought her storyline was going before watching the season, I would have said pretty confidently that she was going to get at least some level of redemption story. After all, her situation at the end of S4 perfectly positions her to switch sides by stripping her of all the things she thought she wanted and placing her in a precarious position that she might not be able to talk or manipulate her way out of. The season premiere establishes those facts even further by making Horde Prime a literal monomaniacal monster. And yeah, it’s pretty clever that in a series that places so much emphasis on the importance of friendship as the path towards moral growth, the villain is narcissism personified, a person who has no use for others except as they reflect himself, and subjugate themselves entirely to his will. So it’s not surprising that, finally cut off from any realistic path towards power and made to feel her own vulnerability, Catra would finally start doing some soul-searching and realize how badly she’d treated the people who cared about her.

(Though if you’ll allow me a snide moment, I can’t help but point out that in the Best Redemption Story Ever, Zuko actually gets all the power and approval he’d thought he wanted before realizing that it means nothing without his honor and self-respect. I think we all know that if Catra had gotten a position of power from Horde Prime, she would have felt no loyalty towards Adora and Etheria, and helped him to conquer them.)

Similarly, I think I would have given you better odds than even that the series would end with some romantic storyline between Catra and Adora. And I don’t want to downplay the importance of depicting a story like that - before the end of the season I found myself wondering why Bow and Glimmer’s romance was being depicted so chastely, before realizing that the writers wanted the first kiss on the show to be between two women. I respect that impulse and the representation the show ends up delivering - we’ve come a long way from Korra and Asami holding hands at the end of their show. But at the same time, I can’t help but feel that the way that the show arrives at this point requires a significant rewriting of Catra’s personality and character arc, not to mention the history of her relationship with Adora.

As the fifth season argues it, the root of Catra’s resentment of Adora is romantic disappointment. She complains that “Adora doesn’t want me. Not the way I want her”, and leaves the team when Adora decides to risk her life by destroying the Heart of Etheria because she takes it as a personal rejection. But this is, to say the least, a massive whitewashing of what we’ve seen of Catra and Adora’s past relationship. In flashbacks, particularly the ones from S4, it’s made clear that even when they were on the same wavelength, Catra and Adora’s friendship was toxic and dysfunctional. Catra may have always loved Adora, but it was a selfish love, one that saw Adora as an instrument for the validation of Catra’s confidence and self-image, and denied her any opportunity for pursuing her own interests and desires.

There’s room for a story about Catra growing past that selfishness and learning to love generously and openly, of course, but we don’t get that story in S5. When Catra complains that in sacrificing herself for Etheria, Adora is refusing to want things for herself, it’s not an honest character moment. Catra has never cared what Adora wants - in fact, her refusal to acknowledge Adora’s right to make her own choices and take a path in life that left Catra behind has been the crux of their enmity since the series premiere. Having her suddenly change tunes doesn’t feel organic, but like a parachuted-in personality transplant.

To put it back in ATLA terms, Catra was never Zuko. Adora is Zuko - someone raised with bad principles who nevertheless has enough innate compassion, and a powerful moral compass, that with a little support - emotional or magical - they can break through their indoctrination and become a hero. Catra is Azula - obsessed with power, possessed of very little compassion for others, and, most importantly, seriously emotionally unbalanced. I’m not saying someone like that can’t be helped and can’t become a better person, but it takes a great deal more than what the last season of She-Ra has given us.

Meanwhile, if you look at Adora’s storyline, on one level it gives us what I’ve wanted for a while. I’ve complained a lot about how Adora has remained static throughout the middle seasons of the show while other characters - Glimmer, Catra, Scorpia - got character arcs and changed meaningfully. One effect of that has been to create a strange disconnect between the show’s central themes and its main character. In a story that is supposedly all about the importance of friendship and personal connections, the heroine is someone who achieves her heroic destiny by rejecting those connections in favor of a more global morality, and who then had to struggle with balancing her sense of global responsibility with personal attachments - to Glimmer and Bow as much as to Catra.

The fifth season finally circles back to these ideas and places Adora at its center. I thought her conversation with Mara about having the right to be more than She-Ra, and to do more with her life than sacrifice it for others, was a really powerful moment. I just feel like, once again, the foundation wasn’t laid for it. First because Adora’s growth has been mostly ignored during the intervening three seasons, and second because this is a character arc that clashes with the show’s friendship-above-all message in ways that aren’t really acknowledged.

When you think about it, the moments when Adora has been the most herself are the ones when she rejects toxic friendship and stands up for herself - in her confrontations with Catra, especially over the course of the first season, and when she defies Glimmer’s decision to use the Heart of Etheria and the end of S4 and destroys the sword. So to the already complicated issue of where to draw the line between the things you want for yourself and the things you owe others, you add the thorny matter of when to detach yourself from toxic friends who see you only as a means to an end. Except that She-Ra never really grapples with this extra wrinkle - and again, Catra’s hasty personality transplant plays into this, because we get to pretend that the only problem she and Adora ever had was romantic miscommunication.

In a season that is all about putting aside differences and personal grievances to fight for a common cause, there is a refreshing number of instances that remind us that those grievances are still relevant - the fact that nobody will ever really trust Shadow Weaver, for example, or the other princesses calling Entrapta out on her seeming indifference to the consequences of her actions (though in this case, and yet again, Entrapta’s neuroatypicality is used as a get-out-of-jail-free card from taking personal responsibility). Even Glimmer gets to spend a bit of time in the dog house, at the same time that she and Bow work together and save each other’s lives. But once again, when it comes to the main character, we can’t let pesky matters like a lifetime of toxic friendship get in the way of a happy ending in which lesbian love conquers all.

There was a good story to be told here, one that could have easily ended up in the same place as the series actually did. But it required actually delving into the complexity of a character like Adora, and dealing honestly with the problems in her relationship with Catra. She-Ra ends - as it did throughout it run - by choosing to paper over those difficulties in favor of a friendship-conquers-all message that is a great deal less convincing.

(Also, am I wrong or are there a lot of loose ends still? I don’t think we ever find out who Adora was, what Greyskull is, and what She-Ra actually is.)

#she-ra and the princesses of power #season 5 #is a good season overall #and i had no reason to expect #that the show would suddenly prioritize #the things i wanted it to be #over the things it always was #but i can't help but regret #the better and more complex show we could have had #if there had been any willingness #to complicate the very simple message at its core

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rainhadaenerys · 5 years ago

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What was your take on Dany and Tyrion's relationship? I see people are dissapointed their relationship ended like that on the show, but i think it is foreshadowed both in ADWD and Season 7 that it was going to end badly (with Tyrion treasoning her) . My only dissapointment in that regard is that Tyrion is presented as a saint who did no wrong in his life making his treason justified because she is evil.

Well, in the show, I clearly didn’t like their relationship. I hated how Dany was dumbed down to make Tyrion look smart, I hated how they had Tyrion mansplaining how basic politics work to Dany, and I hated how they had him be one of the men that had to control her “violent impulses”. But this isn’t really a problem just with Tyrion: all of the men around Dany were whitewashed while Dany was vilified, and all of them were tasked to “control” Dany. Another reason why I think their relationship fell flat for me in the show is that it wasn’t really earned. Why exactly show!Tyrion felt so inspired by Dany? Because he had one conversation with her in which she said she would “break the wheel”, and because he saw her flying off on her dragon? Shouldn’t they have shown Dany doing something more impressive to make Tyrion believe that she will be a competent queen? Because I don’t think that “ending slavery by burning some ships with her dragons” is really that impressive, they should have shown her doing something more. Like, maybe give us a shot of the freedmen in Meereen happy and someone commenting on what a good job Dany did. I believe she did a good job, but if we aren’t shown, things fall flat, and that’s why Tyrion’s “I believe in you” sounded hollow to me. And what did Tyrion do to earn Dany’s trust and become Hand of the Queen? Let slavers keep slavery for seven years only for his plan to backfire and have Meereen be attacked? Was his suggestion of meeting with the masters and slicing their throats really that impressive that Dany thought “wow, this is the smartest guy ever, I should make him my Hand, and even if he keeps failing, I will keep following all of the plans he suggests”? And the narrative was always on Tyrion’s side, even when he made the dumbest mistakes, D&D would write someone saying that Tyrion was the smartest guy and that his plan was actually brilliant. Tyrion being dumbed down and making stupid plans wasn’t really because D&D wanted to show he was dumb (not that I think this should happen, I don’t think Tyrion should be shown as dumb), they made his plans fail because his failed plans needed to be a plot device to push Dany towards violence and madness. So their relationship in the show was a disservice to both characters: Tyrion was made dumb to serve as a plot device to make Dany unhinged, and Dany was vilified and dumbed down because they needed to show Tyrion as smarter and more heroic than her. So I didn’t like their relationship in the show at all.

I’m not super invested in their relationship in the books either, mostly because I’m indifferent to Tyrion’s character. However, I can see why people would be invested in it. First, because GRRM will actually write it well. I don’t believe GRRM will dumb Dany down to make Tyrion smart, because GRRM doesn’t need to do this. GRRM can write a character being smart without needing to dumb down the characters around them like D&D do. He can write both Dany and Tyrion as the smart and competent characters they are. I also don’t think Dany will be vilified in their relationship like she was in the show. First, because this dynamic of having to be controlled by her male advisors doesn’t exist in the books, and it’s actually the opposite. Second, because even though Dany will indeed be following a more violent path in the next books, Tyrion is also more ruthless in the books, so I don’t think he’ll be judging Dany for it, I don’t think we’ll have that horrible dynamic of “omg, Tyrion needs to control this hysterical woman”.

So their relationship will be better written in the books, and I don’t think it will insult any of the characters. But besides this, there are actually many things that can be interesting about their relationship in the books. Other people more invested in it have already speculated about their relationship, and Tyrion and Dany have many things in common. You can read metas about this HERE and HERE. But basically, both Tyrion and Dany are outcasts seen by society as monsters, both yearn for justice, so having them team up and prove society wrong would be really interesting. Dany saved Tyrion from lions, and saw his humanity while no one else did, so it makes sense for their relationship to be positive. There’s also the expectation that Dany will help Tyrion overcome his cynicism, while Tyrion will help Dany with her political problems in Meereen, and in her invasion to Westeros. And by coming to Westeros, both Dany and Tyrion help each other to return home, something they both crave.

However, I do agree that there are hints in the books that their relationship might not be all that positive. Quaithe warns Dany not to trust the “white lion” (which could be Cersei and Jaime, but given that Tyrion is described as having hair almost white, it could be Tyrion as well), and Tyrion has the following dream:

That night Tyrion Lannister dreamed of a battle that turned the hills of Westeros as red as blood. He was in the midst of it, dealing death with an axe as big as he was, fighting side by side with Barristan the Bold and Bittersteel as dragons wheeled across the sky above them. In the dream he had two heads, both noseless. His father led the enemy, so he slew him once again. Then he killed his brother, Jaime, hacking at his face until it was a red ruin, laughing every time he struck a blow. Only when the fight was finished did he realize that his second head was weeping. - Tyrion II ADWD

So it seems likely that Tyrion will be divided between his loyalty to Dany and his love for his family, and Tyrion most likely will be Dany’s treason for love. But here’s the thing: I don’t think this necessarily means that their relationship will end badly. Tyrion won’t betray Dany because he’s evil, it’s because of love for his family. And Dany is a forgiving person. She was willing to forgive Jorah (before, of course, he disrespected her and demanded forgiveness in front of her court) even though he sold her secrets, put her child in danger, and ultimately killed her son by carrying her into Mirri Maz Duur’s tent. I think once she learns the reasons for Tyrion’s betrayal, she would understand. I think it would be OOC for Dany not to forgive Tyrion, unless he does something really awful, which I hope doesn’t happen.

This post has some speculation about how Dany and Tyrion’s relationship could turn into something negative, with both feeding into each other’s dark impulses. So Tyrion and Dany’s relationship could end up being tragic for both, with Dany leading to the destruction of Tyrion’s family, and Tyrion’s desire for revenge against his family helping to lead to a tragedy like Dany burning King’s Landing by accident. But I really don’t want this to happen. As the post I just linked pointed out, do we really want Dany and Tyrion helping each other to become the “monsters” that people always thought they were, and prove society right? So on the one hand, I can see in the books hints that their relationship might be negative, but I also think it would be really bad for the overall themes of the books. I don’t think it would be good to see these outcasts proving that society was right about them, and I think having Dany and Tyrion turn on each other and make each other their worse would be really nihilistic. Given that GRRM says that he has a soft spot for “cripples, bastards and broken things”, I still have hope that Dany and Tyrion’s relationship will end up positive somehow, and I think this would be much better for the story and its themes.

#asoiaf speculation #ask

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angst-fairygodmother · 5 years ago

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The Sweet Kiss of Seafoam (a Geralt x Jaskier Little Mermaid AU)

A/N: Alright, if I stare at this any longer I’m going to do something dumb like delete the doc and start over. So here it is. Presenting: my entry to @the-winter-witcher‘s 2k follower writing challenge! Or part 1 of 2 of it anyway. Chosen prompt: “I’ve run out of words my song, just let me die, me die” Word count: 2793 Content Warning: None Now cross-posted to AO3: here

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Once upon a time, in the depths of the ocean, there lived a kingdom of merfolk. These merfolk were completely isolated from the surface, but thrived in their watery domain. There were many architects, sculptors, and other artists who were held in high esteem in the kingdom, but the most cherished and lauded of all the merfolk was the youngest prince, whose name was all but forgotten by the world who called him Jaskier, after the cheerful yellow flowers they had seen on their visits near the human lands.

Young Prince Jaskier was energetic and friendly, a lover of fine things and adornments, always eager to hear some new story from his people who roamed, desperate to go on grand adventures, to see more of the ocean and learn of the human lands. Sometimes he even wished he could explore their lands himself, or at least go to the shore and see the blossoms which his nickname made him into. But where his heart truly lay was in music. Gifted with instruments and voice, he sang so often there were jokes that he could not speak, and all who heard him were enthralled by the beauty he wove from sound.

His father, a widower, and his grandmother and his many brothers all loved the young prince very much, and wanted nothing more than to protect him and keep him safe beside them for all his days. But as he grew older, he became more curious and full of daydreams and his every song became about the world above. Knowing how important it had become to him, they agreed that for one night only, as a gift on his sixteenth year, he would be granted an escort of three of the best warriors, to take him to see the surface, but he could only glimpse if from afar, for fear that humans might see him.

On that fateful day, Jaskier could not contain his excitement as he flited from place to place, waiting impatiently for the time they would set out. Once they had, he carried on for the entire journey, speculating on what they would see and repeatedly stating what he was most excited for (which was never the same thing twice), much to his guards’ amused annoyance.

When they surfaced, Jaskier finally fell silent with a gasp, so awestruck that he found himself at a total loss for words. Above their heads, great ribbons of light danced through the starry night sky. The curtains of eerily glowing greens and purples and blues waved and warped through the pinprick lights in a haunting echo of the pattern of the water that the four merfolk floated in.

None of them had ever heard of such a thing in any tale of the world, and while Jaskier wanted nothing more than to stay there, entranced by it forever, his guards bristled defensively.

“We should retreat, Your Highness,” one of them cautioned.

“It could be some sort of devilish enchantment,” the second continued.

“Don’t be silly,” Jaskier finally breathed. “Nothing evil could be so…incredible.”

“Still, we should keep moving if you want to see land before we must escort you back.”

Reluctantly, Jaskier lowered his eyes from the strange lightshow and followed as his guards led him across the waves.

The sight of the great coastal city as the dawn broke behind it was equally as awestriking as the aurora had been. The whitewashed stone houses were dip-dyed in hues of pink and golden in the morning light, windows sparkling like an inlay of diamonds. The gentle breeze carried the expected smells of sound and sea, but also brought ones he had never encountered before but made his mouth water all the same: sweet fruits, the sour tang of baking bread, the rich smoke of cooking meats. From somewhere within, a dog barked. Overhead a gull cried. The church bells began their gentle morning peal, sonorous and striking. It was a symphony and a muse at once. People stirred all about as they watched from their distant vantage. And the young prince fell in love.

Jaskier took a deep breath and tried to quell the fear aching in his gut as he swam into the darkness of the Sea Witch’s lair, the thorns which made up the cavern around him reaching out as if to grab him, tearing at his fins and skin like teeth. No matter how much he had pleaded, his father and grandmother had refused to let him return to the surface, to help him follow his great dream. And so he had journeyed, a last resort, to the Sea Witch’s home, and he was determined not to let anything get in his way.

“Why have you come Mer-Prince?” a voice boomed, echoing around him before he had made it far from the entrance.

“I seek the Sea Witch. I…I need her help,” he called back, hating the tremor in his voice.

“Then you shall have it,” the voice around him laughed and the thorns withdrew suddenly, as if called back. “Enter.”

He stayed the course before him as best he could in the pitch-blackness. Just when he began to fear that he would be swimming in ink forever, the way opened up into a broad cavern, lit by the soft green glow of phosphorescence. At its center, lounged like a queen, on a throne made of the bow of a wrecked ship, cushioned with waterlogged purple velvet, sat the Sea Witch.

She was pale, almost the white of bone that had been stripped clean of blood and flesh and polished over time. Her lower half was less a mermaid and more an eel with tattered vertical flukes and mottled green and brown flesh. Her face was gaunt but somehow still beautiful, all sharp angles and hard lines. Her eyes were silvery, molten and hot and reflective in the algae’s glow. As he watched, he realized that what he thought was hair was actually long, dark tendrils of a jellyfish, swirling about her head like a deadly cloud. Violent red lips curled back around a needle-toothed smile.

“Please,” he asked, trying to be brave as he bowed low to her. “My name is Julian, though all who know me call me Jaskier. I am one of the Princes of the Merfolk and I have come to ask a favor of the mighty Sea Witch.”

“Oh? And what would one of the great Merfolk need of me?” she asked, sonorous voice tinged in mockery.

“I wish to be human, for a time, so that I might explore the surface world and learn of its wonders.”

She laughed, and Jaskier felt a heat creeping across his face and neck. Much to his discomfort, the laughter continued for some time before finally she stopped, leveling her unnerving gaze at him as if she could see into his heart.

“Tell me Little Fish, why should I help you do this?”

“Because it is all my heart desires. I would give you anything in return for this.” He spoke without thinking, uncaring of the consequences.

“I will do you this favor, then,” the Sea Witch purred, a predatory smirk dancing on her features. “I will give you legs Little Fish, for as long as you like, and your fins shall return when you again touch the ocean of your birth. But if during your time on shore, you give your heart to another, and they do not return your love, your voice belongs to me, forever.”

Jaskier gulped. He knew that a deal with the Sea Witch always came at cost, but he hadn’t thought she would take that which was most precious to him. Still, he reasoned, his time on the surface would not be long and if he was careful, he would not risk his heart or his voice. So he agreed to the Sea Witch’s deal, offering her a drop of his blood to seal the contract.

With a few muttered words and a wave of her hands, the deed was done.

“You have twelve hours to reach land, Little Fish, lest you find yourself below the waves with useless feet and mortal lungs.” She laughed at this and he darted from her lair.

He did not have time to go back to his home, to say goodbye or collect any things. Instead, as soon as he had passed the Maelstrom that guarded the Sea Witch’s domain, he shot for the surface, swimming desperately until he broke through the waves, feeling a strange new burning in his lungs. Stars whorled above him, more than he had seen the first time or ever dreamed there could be in the sky; he sucked in a deep breath and fought hard the urge to just float on his back and stare at them until the sun rose. But he had heard enough stories of drowned men that he knew not to, pushing in a direction he hoped was shore, hoped he could reach in time. The sun began to peak over the horizon to his right, and on he swam. It rose high in the sky, beating down on him, burning his skin, so unused to its rays, and still he kept going. Never before had swimming been a challenge, a struggle.

He felt sore and more exhausted than he ever had when he finally dragged himself out of the surf. The sand beneath burned as badly as the sun but he was beyond caring. No sooner had he dropped to rest on the shore when his body convulsed, a piercing agony splitting through him like a thousand knives. He thought he might have screamed, but it became too much and his world fell to darkness.

When next young Jaskier woke, he was laying in an unfamiliar place. Every inch of his being ached, despite the softness of the mattress he rested on, the blanket draped gently over him. Blinking in the bright yellow light, he struggled to sit when a gentle hand pressed against his shoulder, guiding him to lie back down.

“You should remain lying down,” the voice was soft, sweet, feminine. “I don’t know how you ended up on our beach, especially so…bare, but you were in quite bad shape.”

“Where am I?” he croaked, voice rough from disuse, letting himself sag beneath her touch.

“Oh! You’re in Castle Lettenhove. My maid and I found you when we were out for our evening stroll. We thought you were dead at first!”

He nodded as if her naming of a location meant anything to him, and his head spun at the small movement. “Well, as you can see, I am not.”

“No, but you were badly burnt in the sun, and likely to be sick from the heat. You are welcome to rest here until you have recovered, and we’ll find you clothing that will fit since whatever happened to you – you don’t have to tell me, I will not pry – it destroyed everything you might have been wearing before.”

“Thank you,” he said softly, “that is very kind.” She spoke to him for a while, utter nonsense to him (more likely gossip about lands and people he knew nothing of he suspected) and gradually her dulcet tones lulled him back into a healing sleep.

The next time he woke, there was an older man leaning over him, inspecting him, and he jumped, shrinking away from the shrewd gaze under bushy eyebrows.

“Do not worry,” he said evenly. “I am a mage, a healer currently in the service of the masters of this castle. I just need to see how your burns and scrapes are doing.”

Jaskier nodded reluctantly, still feeling distrust for the man, but knowing that healers were overall good, and that he desperately needed the care.

The pattern continued for a week. Jaskier would sleep, waking occasionally to eat or drink water. Most times, it was the young woman who tended him with her soft touch and sweet smile and her musical voice. Occasionally, he would wake to the inspection of the healer, and it would leave him feeling unsettled, as if the man guessed more of Jaskier’s nature than was safe.

After a time, it was deemed that he could begin to move about. The first morning, the woman, Mirina she had introduced herself as, brought him a billowy white shirt and blue pants, blushing slightly as she offered them to him.

“I had to guess at your sizing,” she explained. “But these are some of my brother’s old things and they should fit you. I hope they’re not too heavy on your wounds…”

He smiled gratefully and threw back the blanket to stand, causing her to shriek and throw up her hands.

“Have I done something wrong?” he asked, tilting his head in puzzlement at her obvious distress.

“Yes!” her voice was high and tight and he frowned at having caused such a change to come over her. “You’re not wearing anything yet! I don’t know how things are done in whatever strange place you came from, but you can’t just…expose yourself to me!”

“Oh. My apologies,” he crooned, trying to set her at ease again. “I will cover myself over again until you leave the room then?”

She nodded rapidly, the red blush still patently obvious across her ears and neck and the bits of her face that peaked out from behind her hands. “Yes. Yes that would be good.”

Despite this incident, things were not awkward between the two young people. She stayed at his side, letting him lean upon her while he got used to the feeling of taking steps on feet, which he pretended was unsteadiness caused by his injuries and time abed and she resolutely did not mention the oddness of his repeated reminding her of that.

He learned that Mirina was a countess, and while the word itself meant nothing to him, he understood it to be a title of importance. And so he marveled at her willingness to spend her precious time with him, a boy whom to her knowledge was nothing and no one. It was one of many things about her that he marveled at if he was being honest, like her kindness and her beauty and her quick wit.

Soon, their friendship turned to romance, and one night, after a picnic on the very beach where she had found him, they had entwined, and she had taught him many things about how human pleasure (or maybe female pleasure, he didn’t know or dare to ask) differed from his own.

“Dandelion,” she murmured, wrapped in his arms later that evening, after several vigorous lessons. “You know that this cannot be, don’t you?”

“What do you mean?” he asked faux-innocently. Then with a chuckle he added, “I’d say it already is and has been.”

She sat up quickly then, one hand planted on his chest so she could stare back down into his blue eyes with a near-identical pair.

“I am serious. I am to marry a lord from a neighboring land, and while I may not ever love him, I will be a good wife, and that means I cannot love you either. I’m sorry.”

“Oh.” He felt something bubbling in his chest and the air felt like it was pulled from his lungs. He sat up too now, bringing strong arms up to steady her as he did. He looked away from her, trying to crush the wide-eyed fright he felt.

“Jaskier…” her voice was something like a sigh or a groan but not quite either.

He sat in silence for a moment, swallowing several times and waiting.

“Maybe…maybe we should just head back inside…” he finally said.

Relief washed over him; he still had a voice. And yet, he sombered; he was going to lose the thing that was becoming precious to him, even if he did not love her yet.

It was not long after that when Mirina married Lord Vaughn, from some inland holding, and Jaskier attended the wedding, dressed in red and blue. Their romance had ended the night on the beach, almost as quickly as it had begun. Seeing how proud she was of her wedding, he felt happy for her, and genuinely wished her well as she boarded the carriage to her honeymoon and the start of her new life.

Shortly after that, he set out himself. He thanked the staff for all they had done for him, carefully avoiding the unnerving healer, and left Mirina a letter, explaining why he needed to go. After all, he had come to see human lands and go on grand adventures, and he had almost lost it all before he even left the seaside.

#The Witcher #The Witcher fic #Geralt x Jaskier #Geralt of Rivia #Jaskier #I've always wanted to write an adaptation of the Little Mermaid #so I'm shocked at how long it took me to come around to this given the prompt #many of you will see where this is going...#sorry not sorry #fair warning: comma abuse #I place that shit with my heart #and my heart says EVERYWHERE #is the wizard/healer Stregobor? you decide!#technically I could post part 2 right now too #but I will control myself and tease you all with it

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