#he’s here to validate their arcs as heroes and leaders - sorry to say

[jonsnowunemploymentera]

ASOIAF discourse would be a lot more fun if we all realized that every single person who has been put in a position of leadership/rulership fails in one way or another. Jon and Dany failing is not an indictment on their abilities to lead or rule. They’re kids, they still have shit to figure out. Given “what was Aragorn’s tax policy”, I doubt GRRM will write a story that will feature the appearance of a most perfect ruler ever who will be a total success instead Jon and Dany who were tOtAl FlOpS. Especially if this person has no previous experience that has been detailed within the text itself. That’s not only antithetical to the series, but also not how you write a narrative.

[autumn-foxfire]

>1The real reason Deku never got to talk to Overhaul- it would shat on the entire final arc. And the movie script. See? On the surface Overhauls issues can be projected back to his quirk which saw him cursed in society and raised in the Yakuza. Same as the movie villain who Deku gave really ablist words to. Always the "disablity" fault for not trying hard enough. Anyway, second part of Overhaul backstory from what we have been given from Overhaul and the yakua who hated him is consistent-Boss>2

>2 Boss was a good leader. He was also unlike AFO a good father figure to Overhaul- he is never shown 'using' him, encourages but scolds him, doesn't enable him and provides him the true Yakuza emotional security. The time he threw Overhaul out was when he was an adult and crossed the line the Boss never expected him to after all he did for him. Basically, even if you give treat kids well no guarentees. And these sort of criminals with past trauma and baggage, unlike abused kids who won't repeat

>4. The kids will drop the whole expostion on how they will hear the villain probles and lend and hand and truly save their souls not forgive them. Guess what? Thats fictions as old as the bible. Every fiction pushes that ideal behaviour and societal order. The definition of every saint and martyr. In our imperfect world if trying to push a message saying embrace the imperfect, Horikoshi's inner vision itself doesn't match because he belives in moral lawfulness and inherent good.

I'm aware your 3rd part isn't here as I think tumblr ate it, I'm sorry about that nonnie. However I do get the jist of what you're saying even without it.

I'd argue that even though Overhaul did have a parent-figure that loved him, he was raised in a life of crime much like Shigaraki was (though as I said, in a less abusive scenario), and yet this isn't used to ignore or validate his crimes. He's treated as a criminal by the narrative and punished as one. No heroes try to reach out to him to know him, not even when he clearly needs someone to do so such as in the Lady Nagant arc.

It's really unfair the LoV's are treated as an exception, who get the heroes attention and acknowledgement about their circumstances. If Hori really wants to paint a society trying to be better, this should be applied across the board, not just to the special few.

[ichayalovesyou]

Why Does God Need A Starship? (Live Reaction):

I always thought Sybok was cool and interesting and NOW I’m sure! You know it’s times like these that I’m grateful I kinda came back into the Star Trek fandom on my own, because I don’t have to deal with Opinions of older/louder Trekkies. This one kinda has a lukewarm reputation but I’m getting the vibe that I’ll genuinely enjoy it.

Yet again Bones is serving up some LOOKS damn! Look at these elder gays! Spock has rocket boots, amazing. “Because it’s there” and then falling off the goddamn mountain is such a James Tiberius Kirk thing to do 😂 “HI BONES!” These guys omfg. OH MY GOD SO WE DO SEE CAITIANS OUTSIDE THE CARTOONS?? Hell yeah! Also pole dancing to no music, is... weird. Lmao. Also okay I’m sorry Sybok is cool! Sybok is cool and interesting and I really like him! (Not morally obviously dude is shady as all fuck, but a cool dude nontheless!) Always fascinated by Cult Leader type villains, especially when they point out valid criticisms about the society from which they came (important distinction is that the CAUSE is not vilified, but the person and their means, something M****l has largely forgotten)

Awww I may ship Hikura, but Uhura & Scotty are also cute as hell!! Awwwwwww!!!! Old married couples can be so freaking cute. Chekov & Sulu are LOST ohhhh my god this is hilarious, these two idiots. Also can we talk about how Koenig’s eyebrows are slowly gaining sentience and Takei aged like fine wine? Lol. THE HOLY TRINITY OF ELDER GAYS ARE CAMPINGGGG! I’m- oh my god they’re so cute. “Marshmelon” this is cute as hell oh my god. They’re indulging and messing with Spock at the same time I’m dead! They’re singing ohh my god this gonna give me cavities with how sweet it is!!!

This Klingon dude is frickin ROCKING the eyeliner! Bruhhhh was the frickin spotlight necessary! Leave the gays alone SHHHH they’re SLEEPING!! Lmao. Yo I’ll be real this movie starts incredibly slowly but I seriously do not mind, it’s relaxing to not have to worry about missing important details if you look away for a second, it’s nice. WAIT? Does Jim’s shirt say GOT MILK?!!? Oh no, it says go climb a rock, oh thank god [“fatty milkers” flashbacks]

Seriously McCoy is just radiating so much old southern lady/gay energy in this movie and I love it so freaking much “if you ask me (and you haven’t) this is a horrible idea” he sounds like my North Carolina living Meemaw. Wow you can see Spock low-key taking psychic damage from seeing Sybok 😲 V’tosh Ka’tur of the highest order huh? Still disturbing that his government literally cast him out, that’s a red flag 😬. What happened with Sybok is probably a lot of why Spock was pressured to be as Vulcan as he was, I’m sure Sybok was a massive scandal/shame for Sarek, and knowing him, he’d end up making that his kids’ problem not his 🙄

Oh neat!! Chekov is in the in the captain’s chair. Oh this is the song they replaced Nichols’s voice for 😤 but also GIRL THAT WAS BADASS AND THAT SONG WAS A BOP! Quick question, wow these “alien” horses are somehow even worse than the unicorn dog (also it’s a desert planet, wouldn’t it be better to have, like, alien camels or something?) This dude’s Klingon is freakin impeccable btw! He’s really got the vibe down! Jim did you forget how fuckin bananas strong Vulcans are??? Sybok went like 😡☹️ when Spock pointed that laser rifle at him 😂😂😂 again even tho I know Scotty and Uhura are married but it’s scenes like getting held hostage right there where they radiate such POWER COUPLE energy GAWD! 🤩

Stay out of this Bones we’re having a lover’s quarrel! Jim is taking fucking psychic damage from this entire conversation lol. Okayyyy whatever Sybok is doing is definitely some kind of mind control type thing, that shit is creepy af no thank youuuuuu (spores anyone?). Oh my god Spock & Jim are so married lmao, that “I’m sorry” Vulcan kiss in the brig man Aw. (Oh man Magic’s of mega-tsu got devani mixed by that comment lame!) SCOTTYYYYYY!! YAS!

Yay rocket boot glomp! Lmfao! Sybok needs to brush up on his earth history Columbus did NOT figure out the world is round 🙄 Ah Scotty being like “listen, you’re not okay rn so I’m not really down for whatever you think you wanna do right now it can wait until you’re right in the head again” and they could’ve not done that and it would’ve been creepy (especially by today’s standards) but they didn’t! And that was awesome!

Bones being skeptical and has every right to be! He’s faced down would be gods and would-be messiahs before! Also I’ve seen people judge Bones for being the first to cave but Sybok totally did that shit to him without consent! He didn’t go back on his beliefs, Sybok forced him to! BONES PROTECTION SQUAD IS HERE AND ITS ME! Oh Bones, man, poor babeyyyy (fuck Sybok!) 😭😭😭 OH MY GOD BONESSSSSS Sybok leave him alone! Goddamnit! Leave him alone!

I think Jim can see Spock’s Sybok induced vision cuz they’re ✨Bonded✨ (it didn’t seem like they could see Bones’s, other than what Bones was doing). JIM KNOWS SO MUCH BETTER! ITS HOW HE BEAT THE SPORES ITS HIS CORE! I UNDERSTAND AND LOVE HIM FOR IT!!! Spock 😍😍😍 he’s like, you’re bullshit happiness pill doesn’t work on me cuz I am whole for the first time in my life, and I love my husband, and I already learned my lesson decades ago 💚🖖🏻💚 (who knew how important the character development from This Side of Paradise AND Return To Tommorow would be??? Hell yeah!)

I love Scotty so much 🥰 hardcore badass Hufflepuff from beginning to end! Also I hope Sybok appears in SNW that could be really really interesting if they do it right! ITS GOD (derogatory) REVERE HIM! Oh here comes that legendary question!! “What dies God need with a starship?” Red flag don’t call Jim a creature! Oh shit god has laxer eyes oh no lmao! Bones snaps out of whatever Sybok did to him when “God” hurts his friends and we LOVE HIM FOR ITTTT! Awww Spock & Sybok and be saaaaad, oh shit! Into the lightning to fight a mirror of yourself like Lazarus in that one episode!

OH SHIT THE KLINGONS ARE HERE! Oh damn Spock just swore a cuss the right way, at a Klingon General no less! General dude just went “caotain tell Kirk you are sorry!” LMAO! NOT IN FRONT OF THE KLINGONS 😂😂😂😍 KISS DAMNIT!! God this whole after scene is so good, maybe the god is the friends we made along the way. “I lost a brother once” you also lost SAM dummy, I know you were just telling Spock you love him but still. SHUT UP SPOCK IS PLAYING ROW ROW ROW YOUR BOAT ON HIS LYRE??

Okay, seriously, I unironically love this movie, it might be my favorite out of the ones I’ve seen so far actually. TMP felt like the movies getting their sea legs, but it was slow and messy, it wasn’t as thought provoking as it wanted to be (aside from Spock’s wonderful arc in that film). WoK & TSFS are amazing for drama and angst and Spirk content, but they weren’t really asking the big questions Star Trek is wonderful for. Then The Voyage Home is just plain silly and fun and wholesome. But this, this movie had depth! The whole premise is “what is god and is there is one?” I LOVE that as someone who has a very complicated relationship with spirituality. I also already loved the TOS episodes This Side of Paradise, Return To Tomorrow, The Omega Glory and The Way To Eden, and this movie had the best of those concepts! Sybok was such a fascinating antagonist/anti-hero and I hope we get to see him explored more on screen one day, even if it’s just through Discovery/SNW flashbacks. It may have started off slow and it’s not without its flaws but this felt like the Star Trekkiest TOS Star Trek movie so far!

[staygoldaj]

Analysis on the MHA Girls

(Part I: Uraraka & Momo)

I know that the fandom tends to dislike these queens and push them aside, and I know Hori doesn't really know how to write women, but what he has given us is great and I wish the fans would appreciate these awesome ladies more. So here's an analysis for my girls, I wanna do an analysis on the three musketeers (broccoli, popcorn, & candy cane) so that'll be posted soon too :)

Uraraka

BEST. GIRL. I love Uraraka so much, she is the reason why I started watching MHA and she's such a sweetheart, I wish she wasn't so hated amongst the fandom.

We first meet her as this wholesome, bubbly girl who saves Midoriya from falling, and it's pretty clear that she's gonna be the main love interest. Honestly, I was a little disappointed during her first few scenes. Like I said, she was the reason why I started MHA, and she turns out to be the typical sweet girl the main dude has a crush on. I didn't have high hopes tbh. What first intrigued me was when she admits her reasons for becoming a hero. You would never expect the innocent girl-next-door love interest to be doing something for money. Even she herself says it's "such an unwholesome motivation" in comparison to Midoriya's and Iida's reasons, and she gets praised for "looking out for herself." This is the first misconception I see often on her character; she wants money for herself because she's poor. If you look into her reasons, she just wants to make money for her parents, not for her, so that her parents can take it easy. She is just as selfless as Midoriya and Kirishima, but I don't see her get praised for her selflessness nearly as much as for those two or other characters. I also really like the small flashback they included; her father tells her to not worry about them and to follow her dreams. Whether at the start Uraraka truly wanted to be a hero or solely did it for the money is up for interpretation. I personally think she started solely for the money, which I'll get into after I talk about the Sports Festival.

Uraraka vs. Bakugo is one of the most emotional fights in my opinion, and it's one of my favorites. EVERYONE in that stadium underestimated her. I'm not going to say that the reason was because she was a woman, but rather, Bakugo is pretty ruthless and powerful, where as she is not, and people knew that. The fact that she was a "small young girl" just added more fuel to that, if that makes sense. And this best girl did what she could to prove EVERYONE wrong. This is where Uraraka proves that she isn't a typical sweet shonen love interest and I wish people took notice in that. People think of ambitious, determined, driven, cunning, and powerful women as dark and mysterious, femme fatale so to speak. But this fight shows that Uraraka, a pretty extroverted, kind, and bubbly person, is all of those qualities, just as ambitious and determined as the strongest male characters in the show, such as Bakugo and Todoroki.

And when she loses the fight (after basically passing out btw, queen didn't stop until the very end), she doesn't just mope and quit and wait for encouraging words from her love interest, she 1. GIVES the encouraging words TO her love interest and 2. she understands that her quirk alone isn't going to be enough to get her to the top, so she carefully chooses a hero agency where she knows she will be taught combat, AND SHE LEARNS. The next time her class is attacked by villains, she single-handedly takes down one of the more dangerous members without a quirk, just with the fighting skills she took the time to learn.

Back to what I said earlier, Uraraka started her hero journey solely for money. This plays directly into her development in seasons 3 and 4, which is criminally underrated. She sees her entire class working harder than ever, and even though she's dealing with unfamiliar emotions, she decides to push those emotions aside to not fall behind, determined to be a good student and hero like her classmates. During the events at Shie Hassaikai, Uraraka finally learns the true environment a hero works in. Failing to save Nighteye, she realizes that what she truly wants for herself isn't money or Midoriya, it's being a hero who saves people. I believe Nighteye's death directly ties into the "who protects heroes when they need protection?" line. This recent chapter in the manga makes me think that she's gonna do something big and go through a character arc. I said this on Twitter and I'll say it here, I want Uraraka to become a hero who protects heroes (whatever that could mean, it has a nice ring to it lol). Honestly, her character has sm potential, I'm excited for what Horikoshi has in store for her.

Momo

God is a woman and that woman is Momo Yaoyorozu. I'm tired of people calling her annoying because of one episode, as if you've never had self-esteem problems before 🙄 so now I'm going to talk about why she's amazing 😋

My initial impression of Momo was the typical smart girl, stern, formal, and aloof, but still caring. And as I rewatch the series, I believe this is what Horikoshi was going for at first. I think her voice was deeper in the first season too. As much as I love the Erza type of characters, I love where Horikoshi ended up going with Momo. As a teenage girl, I find the arc she went through during season 2 very relatable. It's obvious that Momo was raised to have full confidence in herself. While she may not show it like Bakugo does, I think it's obvious that she's not used to losing, she was probably praised for having an amazing quirk growing up, like Bakugo, but is a way more humble about it because she was raised differently. So at the Sports Festival, she experiences losing, seemingly for the first time, in a place where she just can't afford to lose. But she does. And this takes a huge toll on her.

She's rich, pretty, the top student in class, and admired by her peers, but obviously that's not what mattered to Momo. What mattered to her most in that moment was looking good in front of agencies, what mattered most was to be a worthy hero, and she feels like she's failed. She seeks guidance from a female hero, hoping to have a female role model guide her through issues she has as a 15 year old girl, but instead finds herself being used for her looks. Again, Momo doesn't care about any of that, she just wants to be considered a worthy hero, and her defeat at the Sports Festival made her completely lose the confidence she needed to accomplish that goal.

Now we have the Yaoyorozu Rising episode. Fans who hate her often refer to this episode as "evidence for Todomomo", "her being annoying by not knowing what to do," etc. etc. etc. 🙄

I like Todomomo. It's a cute and healthy ship. There are WAY more Todomomo scenes, not in this episode. Todoroki is a side character in Momo's story in this episode. This episode is MOMO'S. Sorry but she’s not sharing the spotlight. I know that seems a little aggressive, sorry, but this episode shows a lot of development in Momo, and it just gets brushed off as Todomomo content when it's not. She did know what to do, btw, she has a plan. She didn't know how to communicate that. She didn't want to communicate that. She was scared that her plan wouldn't work. She was scared that she'd fail. All of that stems back to her defeat at the Sports Festival, she has lost a major amount of confidence, and Aizawa and Todoroki notice this. Aizawa even says that her actions are of a normal 15 year old girl's, and even though he wished to help her, he couldn't, so Todoroki does it in his place. This is something I notice about Momo that is one of the most relatable things I've ever seen in a teenage girl in not just shonen, anime but just in fiction in general: she knows she has a good plan, but she doesn't have confidence in it until someone else gives her the validation. Upon seeing that others trust her, she regains her confidence and fulfills her plans with excellency. She is a REALISTIC 15 YEAR OLD GIRL which is honestly SO refreshing to see in a work of fiction. It's what I love about her character: she represents many teenagers, girls, boys, and theys alike.

And yeah, it might've been annoying if she had stayed the "has good plans but only executes them if she gets the validation from others" type of character. But she doesn't. By season 3, she has shown a significant amount of growth. She is shown to be more of a leader now that she's more confident in herself, and she's still dealing with it (that one scene with Sero & Jiro 💀), but she's gotten a lot better after realizing her worth, after realizing the trust others have in her, after realizing that others see her as an intelligent leader. So in the forest, she quickly comes up with a plan and executes it quickly. Had she not done this, had she not thought and acted quickly, who knows how long it would've taken before the heroes found Bakugo.

Another thing I want to mention before I finish Momo's section- at the hospital, All Might calls her a worthy hero because of her actions. It was her inability to act quickly at the Sports Festival that made her doubt her worth, and it's her ability to act quickly that makes All Might see it. I think this plays a major role for her character, maybe why she ultimately decided to go on the mission to save Bakugo. She's gonna have some of the spotlight to herself during the Joint Training Battle.

I also want to mention something from the manga, if you don't want spoilers then don't read this part.

Some of Midnight's last words in the manga are "Yaoyorozu's going to make a fine leader someday," which shows how her peers and mentors alike notice her potential. Additionally, she proves this statement right by quickly coming up with a plan to stop Gigantomachia. I'm very excited to see how Momo develops into an even more inspiring leader as the manga continues.

[tessatechaitea]

Cerebus #16 (1980)

Cerebus is going up the stairs while Lord Julius is going down them. In the same direction.

Cerebus is often touted as the greatest independent comic book of all time (for various reasons) but I'd like to point out that Elfquest told an incredible story with beautiful art in just 20 issues as opposed to 300. Plus it had an elf orgy. Also, I know it continued on after the first 20 issue story arc but we can ignore the rest of the story because there was never another elf orgy and also the rest of the series concentrated too much on Skywise's fear of dying which was totally valid but was often used as a foil to make Cutter seem braver and more loyal to his wolf roots but really just showed he was stubborn and dumb and totally didn't fuck as many elf maidens as Skywise did. Cerebus does have some sex in his comic book but since the first sex he has is when he rapes Astoria, I don't think anybody was really clamoring for any more of that. I mean, sure, some people were! I didn't mean to erase the sickos and perverts out there. Sorry, jerks! I'm sure the "A Note from the Publisher" bit by Deni seemed like a good idea when starting out on a harrowing self-publishing journey like that of Cerebus. But it quickly became a space where Deni just says, "Self-publishing is fraught with hardships and also this is a really good issue! I won't spoil it! Goodbye!" I won't be sad to see the divorce happen! That's an okay thing to say because it already happened, right? It's not like my wishing for the end of their marriage in 2020 somehow brought about the end of their marriage in the early 80s. Is it? I never took a college course on cause and effect so who the fuck knows? Unless that Critical Literary Theory class was about that?! Oh my God! I think I understand it now! Dave's finale to the "Swords of Cerebus" essay that has been broken up over the last three issues describes how he was consciously drawing the Eye of the Pyramid cult leader's gigantic penis while drawing the snake. Sorry to report, though, that he's being sarcastic. Apparently Dave is above using phallic imagery to make a point about patriarchal themes. Only fucking hacks do shit like that! Take that, whoever wrote fucking Beowulf!

Even if Sim can't see the humor in everybody assuming he made a giant snake dick joke on purpose, he can still be extraordinarily funny with the least of materials.

This issue takes Cerebus to his first fancy dress party (that's a costume party for all of you people who aren't British (which is also me but only because I was born a citizen of the United States of America who didn't have a choice but knew it was a huge mistake as I was learning about Monty Python's Flying Circus and Dave Allen at Large in elementary school and The Young Ones in junior high and Red Dwarf in college)). Cerebus changes out of his vest and puts on his costume: a furry black jumper (that's sweater for all of you people who aren't British (which is also me but only because I was forced to watch mostly American popular entertainment until the advent of YouTube and now I mostly just watch Taskmaster over and over (by the way, is Taskmaster as good for people who don't know all of the "contestants" or do I enjoy it more because I recognize and like almost all of the people on the show?)). Lord Julius is dressed as an, um, a, uh, Estarcion matador? I have no context in which to guess what he is.

Certain people like Cerebus because he says what's on his mind. I purposefully used the passive voice here so you can't prove one of those people is me.

Lord Julius has a follow-up joke that leaves the reader thinking, "I guess all Pavrovians are fat?" That's Dave Sim continuing his work on Estarcion continuity! Remember how Pavrovians are the, um, you knows of Estarcion! You know the nationality I'm thinking of! The ones that are all the things people usually find insulting! Come on, you know who I'm talking about. The dumb fat arrogant stupid naive gullible ones! Yes, that's it! Americans! Try to remember Dave is Canadian. You have to think of Americans through Canadian eyes (which are the equivalent of smart, cynical Americans)! E'lass and Turg have gotten tickets to The Festival of Petunias so they can steal the Wyndmel Diamond. They're the duo composed of a giant muscular man and a little bitty shrimpy guy who last encountered (and were beaten by) Cerebus in Issue #6. E'lass is dressed like some kind of small dirt dwelling creature so I hope Cerebus gets offended by his costume and stabs him in the throat. There isn't enough random slaughter in this book about barbarians.

I haven't wanted to fuck a fish this badly since The Littler Mermaid.

I suppose I could have said "since Splash" in that last caption to seem more normal and less perverted but then you'd know I was lying. The assassins make a move on Lord Julius but Cerebus comes up with a plan to stop them that involves inducing the Palnu elite to throw herring-and-onion dip at them. Is that a parodied scene from Duck Soup or Conan the Barbarian? In the confusion, the lead assassin slips out through a secret door and E'lass, having just stolen the diamond and becoming increasingly paranoid that somebody saw him, slips through it as well. Cerebus and Lord Julius follow, having noticed the assassin but not E'lass. Most of the pursuit's tension comes from E'lass believing Cerebus remembers him and is now going to use the excuse of this new crime to murder him. It's more tense than I've even described because I really need Cerebus to murder somebody in this Swords & Sorcery book already. Reading this book waiting for a murder is like firing up a porn video on your laptop with your dick in your hands and realizing after five minutes that the video is almost over and was just a teaser for a pay porn site. Cerebus threatens to quit his job just before battling the assassin so he can negotiate a term of 8 bags of gold and a horse in exchange for killing the assassin as a pension before he goes. Julius agrees and Cerebus takes out the assassin with a rock to the head. I mean, I guess it's a murder so yay? But I was really hoping for some stabbing. Meanwhile E'lass lives through the cliché of the criminal whose paranoia gets the better of him and he tosses the diamond into a huge pit so he doesn't get caught only to discover that they never knew he took it anyway. Everything is wrapped up quickly and thoroughly with Cerebus given money and motivation to move on from Palnu. Dave complained about his heavy use of cliché in this Palnu trilogy and I have to say I agree with Dave. But I only agree with Dave on this point! Don't take that out of context and start raving on Twitter that Grunion Guy agrees with Dave's Issue #186 rant about girlfriends being illogical which is also secretly a rant about a guy who needs to get laid so badly he puts up with partners he probably wouldn't even be friends with and then finally just decides orgasms are evil and religion is super awesome but only if you smash all three People of The Book religions into one bland mash paste of ancient dogma. In the epilogue, Lord Julius receives a letter from his niece Jaka in which she expresses delight in possibly seeing Cerebus again. I guess Dave learned from Howard the Duck that comic book nerds really love for their anthropomorphic heroes to be fucking statuesque women. Perhaps every guy develops a fetish of being with a woman whose breasts are at head level due to being hugged constantly by their female relatives when they're ten years old. Deni's brother Michael's first installment of the "Aardvarkian Age" essays appears in this issue. It gives more details to the various nations of Estarcion and their inhabitants' culture, ruling styles, and brutality of their armies. I thought I'd be more interested in this than I actually wound up being. Maybe I thought it would be funnier? Instead, it's just a bunch of facts about made-up kingdoms to make them sound more believable by making them more like European countries in the Middle Ages. If this entire bit were just lifted from a history of Europe with the names of actual countries replaced by Estarcion countries, I wouldn't even notice. Mostly because I know nothing about European history. As I've always said, "Those who know about European history are doomed to repeat it, boring every single other person at the cocktail party." Dave apologizes for the quarter price increase of the comic book in the Aardvark Comments pages. Why, I hadn't even noticed! Probably because this is the Biweekly reprint issue and I purchased it as a collection off of eBay. Some people write in and discuss how Cerebus is a very fine and funny comic book. I nodded along in agreement as I read the letters. I only touched my private area twice while reading and neither time was for pleasure. The most surprising thing about "The Single Page" is that it clearly states who the comic was authored by: Kent Featherly. I don't know why so many of these single page comics aren't more clearly labeled. Isn't part of the reason for having them exposure for the artists drawing and writing them?! Not putting an effort to let a large audience know who you are and how they can read more of your work just sounds like something I would do. By the way, you should play this game I wrote, Starship Troopers: The Game. You can find it on the hard drive of my laptop. Cerebus #16 Rating: B. Look, it was funny and well drawn and all that. But even Dave said it relied too heavily on cliché plot devices. I've got to lower the grade when even the author points out some of the story's flaws! And I'd probably have come to the same conclusion without having been influenced by Dave Sim because I'm like the best Internet comic book critic who isn't a critic and isn't actually reviewing comic books. Also I almost forgot this evidence: I'm a Grandmaster Comic Book Reviewer! Nobody else can make that claim and if they do, they're plagiarizing me and I'd like you to point them out to me so I can send them a threatening email in which I pretend to be my own lawyer who is really good at suing dumb-dumbs.

[aspoonofsugar]

While I don't want Falco to be fed to Mrs. Springer, I take issue with your negatively comparing Jean and Connie against Nicolo or Shadis. Nicolo is an honorary Braus because he dated Sasha, and he has assumed a caring role for the honorary/adopted Braus children. Shadis chose to be the leader of the Trainee Corps and has also assumed care for the trainees. To Jean and Connie, Falco is an enemy cadet and potential Warrior. Both sides use child soldiers. Feeding him to Mrs. Springer (1/3?)

would be entirely just within their world's rules of war. Would you also posthumously condemn Erwin for having fed class after class of recruits to the titans while protecting his friends? Also, I think you're extremely hard on the remaining 104thers by calling them "immature." They're 19, which might be an adult in our world but is still a very young, unfinished adult. They were all child soldiers fighting titans at 15, Mikasa and Armin have additional childhood trauma, and (2/3) Connie of course lost most of his family at 15 and his mom has been a semi-mindless titan for 4 years. IMO they're doing an incredible job trying to process the unprecedented events going on and handle them as best they can. (3/3)

Hey! I felt so disappointed in the 104th this chapter (124). Armin especially. Like, there is so much happening right now but he was more worried about keeping the peace with the warriors. I love Armin but since the time skip I think he's become non complacent maybe? As for Jean and Connie, talking about who to feed Falco to frankly pissed me off tbh. Same anon I know the general consensus in the fandom is that Jean was trying to make sense of the situation, but in my opinion, he was being a hypocrite. Like in chapter 108 he told Mikasa she's wrong for having trust in Eren and wanting to believe in Eren but now jean is the one doing what Mikasa did in 108.  He's trying to justify Eren's actions. And Connie, I get his mother was turned into a mindless titan. Its traumatizing but that doesn't justify wanting to feed Falco to his mom. I'm sorry, but I'm ready to see Connie die. I felt so disappointed in the 104th. But I do think Mikasa had the best response. Which was no response at all. She no longer views Eren in an idealized light, so she doesn't justify Eren's actions because she knows eren has f***ed up. Mikasa was rather more concerned about Falco which I liked. I was ranting a little or maybe a lot? Lol. I'm sorry about that.            

Hello anons!

I think your two asks can be used to comment each other, so I am answering the two of them together!

In short, I think that it is important to distinguish between two different ways of reading and relating to characters in a work of fiction.

The first one consists into seeing the characters as proper people, so different people would react to them differently according to their moral systems, triggers and  personal tastes.

I think that both your reactions are rooted into this approach and you both show how it is possible to react to the same characters in almost opposite ways. I think that both your POVs are valid since the 104th’s actions in the latest chapter can be disappointing, but can also be understood if one considers their psychological state. In short, it is not wrong to be angry at them and it is not wrong to empathize with them.

The second approach is to simply consider them as characters aka as beings who are in a story for a specific reason. If snk were not a narrative, it would be understandable if our main casts simply chose to retire and to live happily. However, since we are in a story, it would be upsetting if Mikasa, Armin or Jean simply chose to leave the army and to work in the country-side, while the rest of the world is going to war. They would simply not be in the main plot anymore and I doubt this is what the readers would want when it comes to them. Similarly, it would have been realistic for Annie to simply stay in her crystal forever, but, since she is a character, readers were expecting her to eventually come out and if she didn’t, it would have been a let down.

My latest metas are talking about the 104th as characters and so I am comparing them to Shadis and to Nicolo not because I think these two are better people than them, but simply because the chapter suggests the comparison. The relationship between adults and children is a very important one throughout the series and the chapter explores it once again. To be more specific, the subplot of Shadis and the trainees and of Gabi, Nicolo and Kaya are clearly paralleled since the story jumps from one to the other. In both cases, there are children who risk to die and they are both saved by a person they hurt/tried to hurt (Shadis and Gabi). Finally Nicolo protects Gabi differently from what he did in the past and he repeats Mr Braus’s quote. That quote is about adults protecting children. Here, Nicolo is giving it a more general spin since he is talking about people in general. However, he is doing so to help Gabi and Kaya to understand their contradictive feelings. In short, he is trying to guide the two kids. This is different from what he did in chapter 111 and it is important because in chapter 112 he claims that he is not a man like Mr Braus is. Here, he is showing that he has grown and has matured and that he is trying to be a better person.

In short, both subplots are meant to show us a reconciliation and this reconciliation involves both adults and children growing into their respective roles.

Now, when it comes to the 104th, the story is asking them to grow up and there is no doubt about it. All in all, snk is a coming of age story where kids grow up and face the complexity of the world. This is made even clearer after the time-skip, since we are shown our main casts as young adults and a new generation has been introduced. In short, the 104th are not the kids of the series anymore and they will have soon to accept newer and more difficult roles. This is why the people from the old generation who have guided the main characters up until now are all slowly dying. We have seen it in this chapter as well with Pixis’s death.

Now, again if snk were real, there would be nothing bad with young teenagers not accepting the role of heroes or of leaders of their people, but snk is a story and so the characters must fulfill their role for it to work.

I would also say that I disagree with the first anon’s comparison between Erwin and Connie.

Erwin kept sacrificing comrades both to fulfill his dream and for the sake of his people. What is more, the series doesn’t completely justify these sacrifices and shows how tragic they were and how Erwin himself felt guilty about them. Erwin’s strategic choices might have been correct, but this didn’t make them easier to accept both by others and by Erwin himself. Finally, the tension of Erwin’s arc was between the ideal image he showed people where he was completely selfless and his true human self who was driven by personal dreams like everyone else. The pain of what he perceived as a contradiction was solved in him finally giving up his dream and choosing the common good over himself. This is what gave Erwin peace.

Connie’s situation is different. He wants to bring back his mother because of personal reasons and not because it is a good strategic choice from which everyone would benefit. If that were what Connie was going for, then it would have been better to accept Jean’s suggestion and to feed Falco to Pixis aka the commander. However, Connie’s wish to have his mother back has nothing to do with the current war and is simply a personal one. Connie acting selfishly is highlihgted also by him leaving his comrades and friends to face the titans alone while he leaves with Falco. Jean, Mikasa and Armin all try to fulfill their duty of soldiers, to save their comrades and to protect the civilians, but Connie simply leaves with a prisoner in order to save a loved one. His behaviour is understandable considering the fact that he has clearly been repressing a lot f negative feelings, but it is clearly not one I would call responsible.

That said, it is interesting to notice that his reasons are perfectly understood by Gabi:

Gabi doesn’t call Connie a monster and understands from where he is coming from because she herself is driven by similar feelings.

In short, I think the narrative is showing understanding for Connie, but his choice is clearly the wrong one and I don’t think he will go through with it.

I would also like to highlight that the current situation with Falco, Connie and Jean reminds me of the serum bowl which is even mentioned in the chapter:

Like back then, the MC have a prisoner they think to sacrifice in order to save another person and they are even fighting about whom they should save.

Jean argues that they should save the commander exactly like Levi, Hange and Floch did back then.

Connie is on the other hand arguing that they should save a loved one, like Mikasa and Eren did. Connie even lashes out at Armin who in the end was the one saved because of Levi’s personal feelings.

What is interesting is that in the serum bowl there was no-one vocing for Bertholdt being saved. At that time, sacrificing an enemy was something everyone had accepted and the problems was simply between making a pragmatic choice or a more personal one. However, right now Armin and probably Mikasa are not happy to kill a child and Gabi has come to bring Falco back. In short, I would not be surprised if the whole conflict around Falco would be solved in what is basically an inversion of the serum bowl. Neither a pragmatic nor a personal choice is made and the enemy is spared.

As far as the second anon is concerned, I have rambled about the 104th in many different asks, so I advise you to check the tag of the current chapter I will put under this ask as well in order to have more thoughts on them.

Thank you for the ask!

[iscariotsdeputy]

Analyzing Staci Pratt’s Character Arc

    Julian Bailey once said, on February 13th, 2019:  “Yeah, Staci has a real character “arc” and he’s way more complex than he lets on at the beginning…”. And I, Sam, your local Staci Pratt enthusiast, am here to explain why Staci is a deeper character than everyone’s favorite douchebag son. Now, you may look at me and say, “Sam, you dumbass, it simply ain’t that deep.”, to which I say you are completely valid, but you can and should bear with me here for a second. And yeah, you can reblog this if you wish.

    Far Cry 5 opens in the small, backwoods locale of Hope County, a completely fictional place in Montana that’s actually inspired by southern Montana. Early on, it’s set up that there’s this heavily armed religious group that has taken roots in Hope County. And guess what? The cops are doing absolutely nothing about it. That is, until one fateful 2:37 AM. The Hope County Sheriff’s Department and one U.S. Marshal have decided to finally arrest Joseph Seed on the suspicion of kidnapping with the intent to harm.

    Now, as you sit in the back of the chopper with Sheriff Earl Whitehorse and U.S. Marshal Cameron Burke, two Deputies sit up front, flying the ‘copter and pressing buttons like it’s nobody’s business. Their names are Joey Hudson and Staci Pratt, for the intents and purposes of this post, I will be focusing on Staci Pratt.

    Not much is known about Staci Pratt pre-game, except for the fact that an NPC says “Deputy Pratt always came off as a bit of a douchebag, but that doesn’t mean he deserves what Jacob’s doin’ to him”. Throughout the first cutscene, you can occasionally hear some wise cracks from Staci, and although less noticeable, Staci does mess around with Joey up front, offering her his flask and whatnot. Now, Staci’s wise cracks come in the form of hazing the Rookie Deputy (“Maybe we shoulda brought Nancy along with us instead of the Probie. These Peggies wouldn’t fuck with her”) or disrespecting Joseph Seed (“Crazy motherfucker”).

    If you think that Staci calling Joseph crazy is the only time Staci is disrespectful to his elders, you’d be incredibly wrong. Now, it’s not exactly “disrespectful”, but it shows a moment of doubt that Staci has towards the orders of Sheriff Whitehorse. When Whitehorse tells Staci to set down the helicopter, Staci does nothing at first. He just keeps the helicopter completely still and doesn’t move it. He’s completely silent too. Staci does nothing until Whitehorse says “Pratt” and Staci quickly says “Roger that”, like he was snapped out of a thought. So, this is where we set up Staci’s character arc:

    Confusion. Staci’s character arc is moral confusion and also confusion of one’s identity. As of right now, let me quickly state who Staci is: A guy who’s a bit of a douchebag and he doesn’t believe in a word that Joseph says.

    Let’s fast forward to when the Rook eventually goes to the Whitetail Mountains. When you reach these mountains, more often than not, you will hear THIS BROADCAST before you see Staci again. Now, you may say, “Sam, he could’ve just been reading this”. And yeah, definitely, he was reading. The way he stumbles through it and says it so blankly is a very obvious way to say “Yup, that’s false emotion”. So, if I were to put it on a timeline, this had to have been recorded when Staci was first taken in. Maybe within the first week or so of his capture. But, something I didn’t realize at first when I listened to it. Basically, the whole time, it sounds rehearsed. It sounds faked. It sounds like Staci had a gun to his head. But then get to the end. Around 1:10. Please listen close to when Staci says the phrase “Train, Kill, Sacrifice in the name of The Father and The Project at Eden’s Gate”. You hear him, right? Suddenly, he lights up. Suddenly his voice is more gruff, more emotional, more angry. Those cue words, that phrase, and Staci is there again. No stammer. No blank slate. Those are words that Staci believes in.

    So, no matter if he doesn’t believe in Joseph normally, as soon as he hits those cue words, his heart is into whatever’s conditioned along with it.

    While you’re running around the Whitetails, you’ll hear some NPCs talk about Staci.

My favorite thing is that a few people say “Friends might not be friends after Jacob’s done with ‘em.”, “He might never come out of it. The very least he’ll never be the same guy he was before. Not ever.”, “There’s not much of the old Deputy Pratt left. Jacob made sure of it.”

    Alright folks, now we’re at the first time you see Staci in person again. Actually, it’s entirely possible from this clip that Staci is the one who carried your sorry butt to get conditioned. Now, it’s harder to notice because Jacob Seed may believe in culling the weak, but he doesn’t believe in proper lighting: Staci has scars. Staci is roughed up. He went from THIS to THIS. That is the reverse of a glow up. That’s a blow up. In this scene, Staci gets one line: “You shouldn’t’ve come for me. You should’ve run.” Also, the minute Jacob shows up, Staci literally runs to get in his spot. He runs to the back, gets out of Jacob’s way, and just stands there. So, in the time that Jacob has gotten his hands on Staci, our douchebag Deputy has suffered some major wounds to his pride. Believes both Rook and Him were both better off by leaving Staci in the mountains.

    BUT HEY HE GETS MORE LINES IN THE CONDITIONING SEQUENCES HA HA GOD I’M IN PAIN.

    Hey, hello there, welcome to the Time Break (Part I). What’s the Time Break, you ask? This is where I shamelessly yell about Staci’s voice lines because some of them don’t really fit into a specific point in time (You hear them after you free Stace, but these are just like “hey fun fact Jacob eats a kitkat bar the wrong way i wanna die” reminiscing things) , but they really just reveal facts about Staci’s mental state. Hint: It’s not good.

“Jacob took me on one of his hunts. Only we weren’t huntin’ any animals. A couple of prisoners had escaped. They didn’t get far.” FROM THIS AUDIO

Can I point out how at the end of this line, Staci laughs a lil bit? His voice lightens like he’s amused.

Also, Jacob took Staci on a hunt. It sounds like it was just the two of them hunting people down. I feel like it was a way to “”””reward”””” Staci and get him more chill with pulling the trigger on helpless prisoners.

“I had to help round up the wolves. Y’know, to be made into Judges. They were so scared. So scared.” SAME AUDIO AS ABOVE

This is fairly self explanatory, but yeah, this poor man had to round up scared, whining wolves and lead them to their deaths, essentially.

“I had a dream once that Jacob took me on a hunt. We shot some deer and he asked me to skin ‘em. As I was cuttin’ them open, they changed. It wasn’t deer. I...I don’t think it was a dream.” THIS AUDIO

STACI PRATT HAS SKINNED A HUMAN BEING A HUMAN PERSON A REAL ASS PERSON NOT A DREAM LITERALLY SKINNED A PERSON ALIVE Okay, in all seriousness, I believe Staci was going through his conditioning, which is why they changed. Or, worse, Staci hallucinated it in order to justify his behavior. Either way, Jacob Seed stood and watched as Staci skinned somebody alive under the pretense that he was just skinning a deer.

Finally, here’s Staci singing Only You   

    Hey there, buddy. Welcome back from The Time Break. Now, let’s keep moving right along through Staci Pratt’s suffering to the next cutscene, again, this is a one line scene. It’s when Joseph comes to speak with Rook about sacrifices and Rook wakes up to hear Staci “They want you to be strong. One of you will be strong.” And once again, Staci finds himself interrupted by Jacob and as soon as Jacob gets there, Staci moves to stand right in Jacob’s line of sight. First he stands on the right of Jacob, but when Jacob turns, Staci rushes to be on Jacob’s left so Jacob can still see him.

    Now, let’s go to the next scene where Staci has no lines, but he’s there so let me analyze those body expressions and movements. Pardon my French, but Staci is doing his fucking best here. Like, poor dude has to rush to give Rook their mystery meat and then has to shave Jacob’s beard, then washes Jacob’s hands, and then hands the canteen over to Jacob. The most interesting thing here is the whole shaving nonsense because Staci has a literal knife to Jacob’s throat. Staci has a knife, right there, and he doesn’t slit Jacob’s throat open. He doesn’t kill Jacob, even though he has a very good opportunity. Why? The poor bastard was conditioned to believe that without Jacob, he had no purpose. Jacob is the leader. Jacob is strong. Staci can’t do it. Staci is subservient to Jacob in every way. So no, Staci isn’t going to kill Jacob. Staci is lost without Jacob.

    Are you guys ready to commit treason? STACI SURE IS. BUT FUN FACT, I WHOLEHEARTEDLY DON’T THINK STACI THOUGHT OF IT HIMSELF. Let me run through the whole scenario real quick. Staci sneaks out, avoids the guards, goes to Rook, frees Rook, tries to warn Rook about their conditioning, and then shoves Rook onto the truck to free them. Staci thinks he’s being a hero. Staci thinks he’s doing something on his own, but he’s not. Now, why do I think Staci didn’t think of this himself? Because Staci said it himself.

    He (Jacob) gets in your head.

    Now, please tell me, how Staci would evade capture? He yelled at another prisoner that they weren’t strong. He alerted the Judges there because they started barking when Staci freed Rook. Also, it’s funny how there are no guards out there in the cage area. Nobody watching the prisoners. And how there were no guards that caught Staci and Rook on the way up to Jacob’s office. And that Jacob wasn’t in his office. And that there is a bag of weapons there that anyone would have noticed. Jacob sees everything, we learned this early on. He has security cameras everywhere, just like Eli. Anything Staci did, Jacob or a guard would have noticed. And yet, the alarm finally sounds off just as Rook is about freed. And when you wake up, the truck is all abandoned in the middle of nowhere. Staci was set up. Jacob orchestrated that and let Staci run through the motions.

    It was a test. And Staci failed. Staci was weak and traitorous. And we all know what happens to our traitor…

    He’s strapped to a chair. He’s publicly humiliated on TV. He’s strapped to a chair in a cold, wet, dark bunker. He is left to die. He will starve and dehydrate. He will rot. When he passes, his body will get thrown to the wolves. And the video ends with Staci crying to help. And guess what?

    When you find Staci again. It turns out that he has been listening to that video for days, it has to be less than 7 because he would have dehydrated by then, most definitely. Imagine if you were in his spot. Imagine if you were left to die and all you got to listen to was a video of you being called weak and traitorous, and then you crying for help and crying for Jacob to not leave you there. It’s awful. It’s horrendous. And it leads to a major change in Staci Pratt.

    When you meet again, Staci says the line, “Rook, are you real?”. This indicates that Staci had been sitting down there, having hallucinations about Rook and other people. When you free him, he falls to the ground. When he gets up, he says that he was weak. He says that maybe he deserved to die, to starve, to be stuck down there. Then, he takes a sledgehammer, and surprisingly after starvation and dehydration, through that sheer adrenaline and strength, he takes that hammer and smashes everything in sight. Then he takes a gun, says he’s strong and that the people who made him strong are now weak. And that they must be culled.

    WOW THAT’S BAD, HUH?

    YOU KNOW WHAT THIS CALLS FOR?

    Welcome to Time Break (Part II). Now, we’re going to see some of Staci’s lines that happen after you free him and get him to the Wolf’s Den.

“We could’ve died. We could’ve died. And maybe..Maybe I deserved--NO, NO, STOP STOP! The weak! The weak must be culled!”

“Maybe we didn’t survive that crash. Maybe all this is purgatory. We have to atone for all the shit we’ve done before we can leave this place. We have to suffer before God will grant us salvation.”

“Train, hunt, kill, sacrifice.”

“I can’t take it anymore.”

“Jacob. His experiments. He takes us. Owns us. Speaks to us. He hears us.” THIS AND ALL ABOVE IT IS THIS AUDIO

“He was right! He was right! I knew it! I fucking knew it! Shit, Jesus, help us…”

“Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” 

“Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death, Amen.” (This happens when the bombs go off)

“It’s just gonna get harder. They want an offering. A Sacrifice.”

“I’m trying. I’m trying my best, you have to know that.”

“The whole time I was locked in that room I just kept thinkin’ about how I got here. Y’know why I became a cop…To get laid! That was it! It was a whim! And then after a while I tried to convince myself that I did it for the “greater good”. To help people. But I can’t. I know that now. Jacob taught me that.”

“I don’t know what I’m supposed to do anymore. I don’t even know who I am.”

“I...I don’t know what we’re supposed to do now. Protect and serve? Out here? There’s no law anymore, Rook. Look around! Someone shoulda been here by now! Nobody gives a shit about what’s happenin’ here. We’re on our own. Survival of the fittest. The weak and the strong.”   ALL OF THAT WAS THIS AUDIO

If you resuscitate Staci, he says “You’re like my Guardian Angel!” 

Alternatively, if Staci’s in pain, he’ll beg The Father to stop his pain.

“This place...do you know what it is? A protector from what’s to come. But it isn’t inevitable. He said to me that you could stop it. But only you, Rook...Only you...But if you don’t...if you don’t listen...if you don’t...We’re all gonna die. Either down here or up there. It won’t matter. We can’t stop it...The Father...He sees what’s coming...He’s right…” FROM HERE

“Nobody’s gonna take anything from me again. Ever.”

“You see that, Jacob?! Who’s weak now?!”

“I’m alive, but I’m weak...weak. Need to be strong. We are meat. We are all meat.”

Also here are four fun videos of what happens when you initiate combat with Staci Pratt: ONE    TWO   THREE   FOUR

    Now that we’re free from the final Time Break, let’s talk about the end of the game. First things first, let's talk about the common factor between the two endings, the confrontation with Joseph. This is when Rook turns and sees Joey and Staci forced down on their knees with guns to their heads. Joseph says that you can go in peace and there’s this exchange between Joey and Staci Joey: Go in peace? You’re fucking insane. Staci: Is he? We never should’ve been here in the first place.

    Then, in the Resist Ending, as he sits in the back of the car, Staci screams a Hail Mary and then he yells about how Jospeh was right. How Joseph was fucking right. Also, Staci is sitting right by Joseph as he screams that all, so you know Joseph hears him.

    Now, to the Walk Away Ending, as soon as they’re let go, Staci is shaking as he gets up and has his hands up to show he isn’t a threat. His back is hunched and he makes himself look small and he’s literally shaking like a leaf. Joey and Earl fight and he rushes to get in the truck. Staci sits in the back with his hands in his lap and staring at the floor. He stays silent until Whitehorse brings up coming back and fighting again. And all he does is say “No. No way. I’m not gonna be a part of this. You heard what he said.”

    I’ve enjoyed the time we’ve spent together, I really do, but I’ve realized that I seriously need to come to a conclusion here. So, let’s go back to where this all began. We started with Staci Pratt, the douchebag cop who had wiseass remarks to every situation. Though Far Cry 5 follows the arc of a young, Rookie cop who faces something they were never prepared for, there is an arc to Staci Pratt’s character and it’s a path of confusion and not knowing who he is or where he belongs anymore.

    One of the first things Staci does is insult Joseph, and by the end of this story, Staci Pratt believes in Joseph Seed and the Project and culling the weak. Staci’s character arc is so much breaking and breaking and breaking and then being rebuilt in the visage of the Project. In an essence, Staci develops and destroys himself at the same time. Pardon me for a pun, but Staci Pratt is a far cry of the man he once was. As Whitehorse and Joey still fight for the Resistance and loathe Joseph, the same cannot be said with Staci.

    He believes is Joseph, but all of his friends are in the Resistance. He is every single one of Jacob’s lessons, beliefs, manifestos, plans, all shoved into one person. He is a living legacy of the man who orchestrated Eli’s murder and yet he’s sitting there in the Wolf’s Den. And yet, he was treated like shit in the Mountains. He was treated as lesser. Even, throughout this all, Staci’s belonging is a topic that really has no proper place.

    When Jacob Seed said that Staci would die in the bunker, he wasn’t wrong.

    The old Staci Pratt died a long time ago, and now there’s a new man living in his place.

[taeray]

I’ve seen Star Wars The Last Jedi twice now. Here’s my thoughts. Sorry it’s long, but I just have to give the glowy character review that’s been nagging at me.

Some people don’t like seeing so much Kylo Ren, but I don’t mind it actually. He’s an accessory to Rey’s story. We get to see unequivocally why he is who he is and then see him choose the dark side even when he has the chance to leave it behind. In my opinion, the question of who he is and what he wants seems answered now. He is Kylo Ren. He doesn’t want to be Ben Solo anymore. Sure he killed Snoke, but after seeing how Snoke emotionally manipulates him, berating one moment and then praising him the next, Ren turning on Snoke made perfect sense. Snoke did not win Ren’s loyalty with any need, he beat Ben Solo into submission by playing on his fears and feelings of inadequacy. That kind of emotional abuse usually yields one of two outcomes: stockholm syndrome level loyalty or unadulterated hatred. Ren turning on Snoke was inevitable. Rey just presented someone new for Kylo Ren to latch onto and focus all his need for validation. The moment she didn’t give him that he turned on her and was ready to blast her out of the sky and kill everyone she’s ever cared about.

I believe Ben Solo is dead. Kylo Ren killed him, along with his past, just as he intended.

Onto the next polarizing character: Luke Skywalker. He might not have been exactly what people were expecting, but I actually found him to be pretty believable. He’s not a hopeful farmboy anymore. He is an old man now; an old man who fought so hard to save his father, who tried so hard to continue the ways of the Jedi, lost his nephew to the dark side which is almost worse than losing him to death, inadvertently ruined his sister and best friend’s marriage, and inadvertently brought about the death of his best friend at the hands of his nephew.

Luke. Skywalker. HATES. HIMSELF. He blames himself for every bad thing that has happened to his family since Ben Solo turned to the dark side. And so he ran away. Just like Obi Wan did, just like Yoda did, just like Han Solo did. He gave up the fight, just like all of these strong men in his life did. It’s no wonder after seeing their examples that he finally gave in himself. He went to the island to die. Rey helped save him.

As for Rey. I don’t believe she’s out of character. She’s a good person. This is a girl, who when told Finn lied to her about not being part of the resistance, didn’t even blink. She just asked him not to leave. Many a person would have locked onto the lie and been done with him after that. But not Rey. She loves deeply, forgives easily, and she gives people many chances. When she found out that maybe, just maybe, Keylo Ren could see that a mistake was made and that he could come home, she gave that hope a chance.

And she didn’t do it for herself. She did it for Ben Solo, whose pain she got to feel herself. She also knew how deeply Luke was hurting. She could heal that hurt by bringing him back. Even more she hoped he could help save the rebels, people who saved her life and were taking care of Finn. Anyone who tries to boil it down to a crush on Kylo Ren is missing so many layers to her choice to try and save him. It doesn’t matter if the fans saw him as irredeemable, Rey needed to try for the sake of so many people other than herself.

As for Poe, I loved his arc. We had no real clue as to who Poe Dameron was after The Force Awakens. He had what, maybe ten minutes of screen time and it was almost never just Poe. No one can say he was out of character. Just out of fanon character. I personally loved seeing Leia teaching Poe, and the only way to teach him is to show moments of failure. The perfect student who does nothing wrong is not a character who needs their story told. It makes for a boring tale. Poe got a ton of screen time trying, failing, and learning from the Princess herself, clearly being groomed to take her place one day. If Poe did everything he was told and simply executed Leia’s orders, we wouldn’t have needed to see so much of him. Not to mention there is a massive leap to make between being a soldier and being a leader. Leia was groomed from a young age to be a leader since she was a princess. Poe has clearly been a soldier from a young age, but now it’s time for him to get out of the headspace of soldier and into the headspace of leader. Two very very different jobs.

That leads me to address Holdo and her choice not to tell Poe her plan. She obviously confided in those she trusted because they were executing her orders. It’s not like she was fueling the transports herself or even walking around the ship giving those orders to the grunts. She was giving the orders to people on the bridge and those orders were then being passed down the chain. She just didn’t confide in Poe, because being a soldier means following orders and he did not follow Leia’s orders. He was in the hot seat, had just been demoted for refusing to listen to his commanding officer. He was being punished. He had been removed from the circle of those who needed to know. Following her lead was a chance to prove that he could follow orders. Pretty normal military protocol. He failed to just follow orders for a second time, and Leia not only sided against him for it, she stunned his butt. I found that to be a wonderful progression for Poe and in the end he learned the lesson he needed to learn.

On the other side, the story of Finn is one of my favorites. He proves time and time and time again what a good man he is. I don’t care what some say, his wasn’t a tale of learning to be unselfish. That guy doesn’t have a selfish bone in his body. His tale is one completely solidifying him as the hero, the man, the best dude in the movie. Was he going to run from the rebel ship? Yes, but not for himself. Not by a long shot. He was going to make himself look like a jerk so he could protect Rey, his best friend and the person he would literally face his deepest fear for. Only Rey could make him go back to the First Order in The Force Awakens. His story in The Last Jedi shows him going back and facing the First Order for something other than Rey, proving there is more there than a potential love interest storyline. The moment Rose mentioned the tracker, Finn was ready to go to Snoke’s ship to shut it down. He didn’t have to be asked.

He’s just an amazingly good man. He is the moral compass of the movies, and he does not have to spend time with any potential love interest to further his character development.

Plus he’s just so darn loveable that anyone that spends more than five minutes with him begins to adore him. He’s the hot girl of the movies.

As for Rose, I love her. She’s loyal, she’s emotional, she’s capable, she’s strong, but she’s not exactly a fighter. Rose is everything women should want to see in a strong female character that is not stereotypically strong. I didn’t find her writing cheesy or corny and I don’t care if her character encroaches on any ships. She is a wonderful addition to the cast and I’m excited to see what will happen with her next.

All in all, The Last Jedi was amazing in my opinion. I enjoyed The Force Awakens, but The Last Jedi has already sucked me into seeing it twice in theaters and I’m pretty sure I need to see it at least one more time. I think it really showcases who the main characters are (Poe, Rey, and Finn), and gave each of them a chance for some storyline away from each other and the shipping wars going on in the fandom. Each one of them grew a little bit in the short time they were apart, and now they are ready to be the faces of the new rebellion. People in the universe aren’t going to be looking to the Skywalkers anymore, they’re going to be looking to the military commander, the jedi, and the heart of the rebellion to save them.

Bonus moments that made me squee:

-Poe and BB-8′s multiple romcom reunions where they run into each other’s arms scenes

-Poe being immediately bambuzzled at the thought of Finn being naked

-Adorable Finn and Rey experiencing new places and things (Finn at the casino and Rey with the rain)

-”If you see Finn tell him–yeah tell him that.”

-BB-8 being the true badass of the movie, his father R2D2 would be so proud

-Luke being the true, dramatic hoe we love and not only force projecting himself halfway across the galaxy, but force projecting himself in a new outfit, with a clean haircut, and then brushing fake dirt off his fake shoulder

-Leia proving once and for all that not only is she force sensitive, but she is possibly one of the most badass force users to ever live

-Women EVERYWHERE! Women in tie fighters, women working the computer consoles, women saving the day and destroying dreadnoughts, women with blasters ready to make their final stand. Just women women women in Star Wars, kicking butts and taking names. It was absolutely beautiful.

-Star Wars cementing the fact that even if a bad guy and his fascist bs seems like a joke, he can still be insanely dangerous when he gets people to follow him

-Rey and Kylo Ren wailing on Snoke’s dudes. That lightsaber fight was absolutely amazing and beautiful and so well choreographed.

-FINN AND REY’S HUG! BEST MOMENT OF THE MOVIE!

[zykamiliah]

Don't worry about ranting, I encourage benting your feelings about this kinds stuff lol

I don't think I could give you a very general reason why they think kr//bk could become canon. I think every shipper has their own reasons to ship it. I do think that it has a lot to do with the way their relationship was portrayed in the anime and + some director's choices about the way some scenes were adapted + the way that then was carried to the english dub. It also has a lot to do with the very wrong conclusion of Kirishima being "gay coded" some fans derived from his character page, the one translated by Viz, if I may add.

There is also a lot of filler scenes + smash chapters and merchandise fanservice stuff that has fed the flame of the ship. There is a very detailed PowerPoint presentation made by a fan of the ship where they explain why they ship it and why they think Kirishima is gay here

(You'll notice that manga content is almost not used at all)

And I'll quote a post I just read which explains my feelings regarding this headcanon:

"With the moment in Ch. 71[thermal baths scene], it’s a bit of a stretch to say that Kirishima is gay because he wasn’t into the idea of peeping on the girls when it’s very obvious from the blush on his cheeks that he is somewhat titillated (...) at the idea of seeing a naked girl. Despite that Kirishima has been shown to be a very considerate, respectful, non-confrontational person who won’t go out of his way to upset someone else.

(...) I find it interesting that people are using examples of them rejecting stereotypical “masculine” attributes as evidence that these two are gay."

(This argument falls apart though when you remember that Kirishima considers Mina "manly" too; so it's not really about the "man" part, but the attitude: his concept of manliness is about being brave, strong, hardworking and cool etc.)

And here is a very good explanation of why some fans believe it could/should became canon.

(In conclusion it says it would be good LGTBQ representation)

In the manga Hori gave Kirshima (& Kaminari) a very specific role: he brings the class together. And so, to have a character that would notice some of Bakugou's good qualities, there was Kirishima (at first, bc Kaminari does that too and that becomes relevant later). On the USJ arc he realizes Bakugou is not just a hothead, but that he's quite smart. And bc he from then on considers him "manly", he starts to follow him around. I see their relationship in leader/follower terms. Kiri understands him to some extent, he respects him and admires him and decides to stuck with him. He knows what makes him tick (Deku) and acts accordingly with him. But they aren't really close, and you can tell bc they still call each other by their last names. (Bakugou's middle school friends called him Katsuki, for example.)

About it kr//bks believing it's more valid than other ships, I think it a lot to do with the fact their relationship is very simple and has no drama, so it contrasts with other ships that are (like bkdk or todobaku) + the fanservice I previously mentioned + the misinterpretation of infamous handhold scene.

Funny thing is Uraraka is Deku's follower in the same sense that Kirishima is: she admires him, understands him to some extent and imitates him. And has some understanding of Deku's relationship with Bakugou.

Tbh I don't think kr//bk could become canon if anything bc of homophobia. I also think bkdk won't be canon in a romantic way (hero partners and best friends? Hell yeah)

Sorry this was so long, I wanted to give you a good answer lol.

[sometimesrosy]

1) Bob said B would be drawn to Echo...but it doesn’t make any sense to me. Why would anyone be drawn to someone who helped kill their girlfriend, almost killed their beloved sister, and more?? Let alone B, who is so emotional and feels things so personally and deeply? I guess I'm just worried they're gonna force the forgiveness arc, like they did with CL. I didn’t find it believable at all that C could so quickly get over L’s betrayal and fall back into her arms, and it rly felt like they did t

2) did that to cater to the CL fandom. But at least they had a romantic relationship before, so I guess there were some grounds established. So I find something like this even less believable for B, who takes things more personally than C and didn’t have a prior romance with Echo. It seems very strange to me that he’d just be able to get over Echo’s actions and feel “drawn” to her. I do believe it’s important to learn to forgive and B does need to learn this.

3) But that doesn’t mean you have to forgive every single person who has ever hurt you, especially when Echo has done so many things that have hurt B, such as almost killing the person most important to him?? I think part of my uncomfortableness also stems from the writers’ penchant for turning abusive relationships involving great betrayal and pain and casting them as romantic so I’m dreading seeing Becho when she has hurt him so much. It just doesn’t make sense to me. Thoughts?

Okay. The reason why it doesn’t make sense to you is because you are looking at it as romance. And looking at romance as the idea that Love is The Answer. Which… this show does not do. Love is really important on The 100, and it does make the suffering worth while and give people motivation, but not all love here is pure. Not all love is healthy. Love is used a patch to fix things that it can’t fix. It’s not a very romantic show. 

The reason why people are drawn to the people who hurt them is– well, people are drawn to those who hurt them. Abusers. Kidnappers. Bad parents. Sisters who blame them for everything. Rivals. Especially in a world where everyone is doing things that harm people, but everyone has valid reasons for the harm they cause, they are drawn to those people in whom they can see a reflection of themselves. 

Clarke was drawn to Finn, Bellamy, Anya, Lxa, Dante, Roan, Jaha, even Emerson. Some of these relationships turned out better than others. All of them caused harm. Most of them were warlike and/or tyrannical.

Bellamy was drawn to Clarke, Finn, Gustus, Lincoln, Kane, Maya, Echo, Pike, Roan. Interestingly, the people Bellamy was drawn to were more likely to be conciliators and peace makers than the ones that Clarke was drawn to. I think that has to do with how they were looking for an aspect of themselves that they had not mastered yet. 

Why has Bellamy been drawn to Echo? Because she reminds him of himself. A tool for the powers that be. A loyal knight. A person willing to do anything for her people. A person struggling with the difference between doing what is right and doing what is best for her people.

Forgiving Echo offers him a chance to forgive HIMSELF. He feels he killed his own mother. He feels a monster. Still. He’s trying to make up for it. Just like he stopped Riley from starting a massacre, to make up for what happened with Finn, finding a way to forgive Echo and help her in her redemption, opens the door for him to forgive himself and find his OWN redemption. Forgiveness and Redemption are big themes. 

Might it open the door for romance? It might. Is it ABOUT romance? It is not.

As for CL. I don’t consider it fanservice. I consider it a story they wanted to tell because it was a good story and involved all the themes and struggles and obstacles they wanted for Clarke Griffin, and one that was dashing and gorgeous and dramatic and romantic and “edgy” or “progressive” or whatever their intention was with making a relationship that started in kidnapping and betrayal a wlw relationship. I don’t think they thought all the repercussions through.

Clarke’s easy forgiveness of L wasn’t necessarily the right thing to do. The story didn’t actually say she deserved to be forgiven. She didn’t REALLY change. L ended her story the way she started her story with The 100. With a kill order on ALL the Sky Crew. Clarke forgave her while her prisoner. She forgave her while Sky Crew was still on lock down and denied freedom and the ability to survive independently or to defend themselves. This is definitely an interpretation of canon, but so is believing that Lxa reached a legitimate redemption. WAS L redeemed? I don’t think so. Some do. 

Did Clarke’s interaction with L make her a better leader? I don’t know. She seemed a lot better leader in season 1. She was certainly less broken, although more naive. Did Clarke’s interaction with L make her a better person? That’s something to consider. 

I do think we have a tendency to use the word “abusive” too much, and people might think that’s ironic coming from me, but I did NOT use that label casually when I said it about CL. I didn’t even just base it on my own personal feelings and experience. I did a LOT of research and tried to define what an abusive relationship meant before I started putting it out there. Abusive relationships are not just saying mean things or causing physical harm. They are about a pattern of continued behavior with intent to control and over power tied with the emotions and connection of intimate relationships. CL took a political relationship ABOUT power and turned it romantic. The power issues never went away. Season 2 was not a romantic relationship, it was a political one with chemistry and attraction. And one kiss which was rebuffed. That is not a relationship. I’m sorry it’s just not. As much as people want that to be a relationship. You don’t get a girlfriend by kissing someone who then says, “sorry I’m not looking for anything right now.” That is not how relationships work.

Echo and Bellamy did not have an abusive relationship because they were not in a relationship. They were comrades and she betrayed him. Then they were enemies. Quite clearly. That is not an abusive relationship. They saved each other and became comrades again at the end of the world. I think we can give them a pass on that since the real enemy was Praimfaya. 

But YES, I can agree that they are paralleling CL with BE. However, just because they use some of the same elements, does NOT mean it’s going to turn out the same way. Compare Bellamy stopping Riley from starting another massacre to Bellamy failing to stop Finn and starting a near genocide. So for all we know, the parallel between CL and BE will serve to show a BETTER way to deal with that betrayal/forced relationship. Let’s watch and see if we get an actual redemption and positive character growth instead of what happened to Clarke. 

And also, remember, Echo is a name of a character in Greek myth. She was in love with Narcissus, who did not love her back, and she pined away for his love until all that was left was her voice, echoing him. Are you SURE they’re setting BE up for some meaningful love relationship? I’m not saying there won’t be a romantic thing, but…the larger narrative and literary themes are not pushing in that direction. 

All I’m saying here is look more closely at how the CL and BE relationships (whatever they may be) affect Clarke Griffin and Bellamy Blake. Because THIS is the story being told. Not the romances themselves, but how those romances (if that’s what they end up being) affect our heroes. 

[letsprayitwritesitself]

Could you do some angsty javid? Canon era maybe? With a kiss somewhere in there? I would love you forever

(thank you for the prompt!! this ran away with me but what’s new. hope u like!)

He slid down the wall until he was crouching and then leaned forward, resting his forehead on his knees. He was sure he was going to throw up. He was either hallucinating, having an extremely vivid nightmare, or his friends were playing a prank on him - that, or he had actually seen his Jack kissing Katherine.

The cheer that had exploded from the guys when he kissed her expanded and distorted into a roar that Davey couldn’t scrape out of his head. He tried pressing his hands over his ears, singing loudly inside his head, anything, but it was there, accompanying the image that was scalded onto his consciousness. In an attempt to convince himself that he hadn’t imagined it, that he wasn’t pulling him and Jack out of thin air, he forced himself back to that morning, when he and Jack had -

It was when the rest of the kids were going wild, spreading the banner around town. Jack and Davey had done their share, scattering the news all over, sharing a triumphant grin once Jack had handed over his last copy to some teenager wandering out of a factory. The sun was almost done rising, they had barely slept, and both were high as a kite.

‘Time to go see if word’s reached the big man?’ Davey had nodded towards uptown, knowing that all this effort had been geared towards Jack being able to laugh in Pulitzer’s face. Jack nodded, then shook his head.

‘Yeah. No. Not yet.’ He looked a little frantic, unnerved. He grabbed a handful of Davey’s shirt - why was he always doing that? Couldn’t just say follow me like a normal person - and dragged him down the nearest alley. The factory walls loomed, blocking out most of the natural light, and Jack deposited Davey in a kind of cubby formed from discarded crates. ‘Listen up. I feel like - I need to… Say sorry. For before. For taking the money.’

‘Jack, it’s fine. We knew that you -’

‘No, Dave. I was really gonna go.’ He kicked at the gravel on the ground. ‘I guess I thought I could just shrug this thing off.’

‘This thing?’

‘The strike. The guys. You.’ He looked up. ‘And Les. And Kath.’

‘Right.’ Davey pretended that he hadn’t just believed Jack was going to say something that implicated the two of them as a… never mind. ‘But you couldn’t do it?’

‘I guess I forgot how - this whole thing is bigger than me. It was, I remembered your pop. That kind of brung it back home for me.’

‘It’s bigger than all of us. Especially now.’

‘Exactly! And I just. I’m really sorry.’

‘Hey. Honestly, Jack, it was almost worth you leaving, just to see you come back, you know?’ Davey smiled at him. Jack nodded, and suddenly stopped fidgeting. Fuck it.

‘Dave, it was also - cuz… You got under my skin, there.’ There it was again. That almost-atmosphere, the one that descended whenever they accidentally made prolonged eye contact, or had a really impassioned discussion. That kind of mood that reminded them how on the same wavelength they were, how much they understood each other. Davey swallowed and stood up a little straighter, giving back Jack’s stare as good as he got. He didn’t know if he could say something, could acknowledge this, without risking a punch in the face. He was almost certain that he wasn’t making this up. But there was that little bit of doubt.

He thanked the heavens when Jack took a tiny step towards him. He was already backed up against the wall so the ball was completely in Jack’s court.

‘Dave.’ It was a near whisper. He reached out and placed his hand flat on the wall next to Davey. ‘Tell me to stop.’ Slowly, painfully slowly, he took another step so his whole body was aligned with Davey, inches away, any illusions about his intentions utterly transparent. When he placed his other hand on the wall, boxing him in, completely entering his personal space, it was Davey who leaned forward and pressed their lips together. 

This hadn’t come from nowhere but it was still a gorgeous surprise - Davey wasn’t exactly used to getting what he wanted. When he had those first stirrings of god-awful wrong thoughts about Jack, he’d tried hard to quell them, yet Jack had always supplied him with just enough physical contact and meaningful looks that the flame was never truly extinguished. This flame was up in full force now, and when their lips met, it compelled Davey to pull Jack in by his collar and grab his waist tight.

Like a dam broken they easily spent the next forty minutes in that alley, hands roaming, teeth clashing, breathless voices exchanging moans of names and expletives. Davey had never done this, any of this, before, and spent the whole time trying to ground himself, aware of how he was floating ten feet in the air, trying his best to memorise the way Jack’s lips felt on his own, on his neck, his jaw - they felt like a whole lot of too-good-to-be-true, and in the tradition of a kid who hadn’t grown up with a lot, he needed to make the most of it while he had it.

For Jack it had all fallen into place - he knew that the narrative of the strike was leading towards him and Katherine. And he liked her a lot. But how was he supposed to complete that arc when he had this damn kid standing in front of him, this wallflower who had basically managed to get an entire city on strike by accident? This raven-haired, hazel-eyed, lanky son-of-a-bitch who had noticed, just as Jack had, that sometimes when you thought you’d made a friend, or a selling partner, you’d actually stumbled upon something a lot better.

With a quiet smack they parted, resting their foreheads together, grinning like crazy, hot all over. Davey spoke first.

‘Jack, the thing - the thing is still happening. The. The strike.’

‘I know. I know.’ He pressed another kiss to Davey’s lips. ‘How long we been here?’ 

‘Days.’

Jack stepped away, and they both started trying their best to right their appearances, straightening collars, tucking shirts back in, though it wasn’t so easy to get rid of the blushes painting their cheeks. ‘We’ll come back to this later, alright?’

‘Promise?’

‘Promise.’

And then Pulitzer’s office. Then Roosevelt. And even more exhilaration piling on top as they actually won the god damn war, and - Jack planting one on Katherine in front of the entire city. And Davey knew, or he would see later on, how conspicuously devastated he must have looked, backing away slowly when it had happened, ducking round the side of a random apartment building for a quiet breakdown. He could see how, for someone less invested in the outcome of their relationship than he was (so, all of the newsies, all the adults, everyone else in the god damn world) how satisfying it must be to see the hero of the hour matched up with the beautiful heroine, but - but it wasn’t fair. It was wrong. They hadn’t seen, didn’t know - and couldn’t know, that was the kicker. They could never know how there was something way heavier, way more real, going on between Jack and Davey. He may be infatuated but he didn’t have any illusions about whether or not he and Jack were about to embark on the public love story of the century. All the same - Jack had promised, he’d said that they would - that they could…

He couldn’t cry. That was one thing he god damn couldn’t do. Collapsing in on himself like this in public was bad enough, but he could kid himself that this was an almost-rational reaction to the noise or the emotional exhaustion of the strike. If he cried, that was a whole different thing, and if he was caught crying? Oh boy.

He decided to let himself wait until the sinking sensation in his stomach had dissipated. He waited, and waited, and waited. The noise of the crowd got dimmer and dimmer. He sat on the ground, back against the wall, staring up at the block of sky he could see. He’d have to get back out there eventually.

He heard the footsteps first, then a soft voice. 

‘Dave.’

And all the anxiety he’d managed to force away came back in excess. This was dumb. They’d had, like, an hour of passion. That was it. Why was he getting so emotional about it? 

(Maybe, he argued with himself, cause that one hour had come from a validation of days full of wondering if their connection was a connection, and an affirmation that Jack noticed him, and saw him, and liked him.) 

Jack walked over and sat next to him, hip to hip. Davey forced himself to smile.

‘Hey.’

‘I’m sorry.’

‘You got nothin’ to be sorry for.’

‘C’mon, Dave. I see you.’

‘Can you blame me?’

‘No - it was a dumb, spur of the moment thing.’

‘We shouldn’t have done that, earlier -’

‘Why not?’

‘Cause you and Katherine, you make sense, we’re just…’

‘You don’t think you and I make sense?’ Jack nudged Davey’s shoulder with his own. 

‘It doesn’t matter. You just kissed her in front of everyone we know.’

‘I know. It just felt -’

‘Right?’

‘No! It felt like what I was supposed to do, alright? God damn it, I wish I hadn’t.’

‘I wish you hadn’t.’

Jack heaved a deep sigh. He could have just not kissed her. But she was there, and they’d won, and she was a girl, and he was the leader, and…

‘I still like you the best, Davey.’

‘It doesn’t matter! Look, we can’t… do anything, or be anything. You might as well just do what you have to.’ Davey started to let the anger in his stomach well up. It was better than feeling sorry for himself. 

‘You really saying we can’t be anything? Were you even there, in that alley this morning? Cuz it sure felt like we were on to something.’

‘You know what I mean, Jack! I mean that you should be with her, because that’s what’s right, and that’s what makes sense, and I’ll just be alone.’

‘You’re not alone, Dave. I’m not gonna let you be alone.’

‘Well, maybe not everything is up to you.’ Davey started to get up, but before he could stand Jack pulled him down by his hand, a sharp tug that saw Davey land on top of him. His knee scraped painfully on the ground but he took no notice, because Jack had leaned up so their lips crashed together. 

For a few seconds Davey let himself relive their earlier dalliance, stroking a thumb over the rough stubble on Jack’s cheek, noticing the way Jack’s mouth fit his, how tight Jack was gripping his hand, but once those few seconds were up he forced himself away, glaring at Jack as he stood up and brushed himself off. Jack, wide-eyed, breathing hard, looked utterly tempting, but Davey couldn’t get rid of that image of him and Katherine.

‘I gotta find Les and start selling.’ He took a step backwards and turned away, almost out of the alley by the time Jack replied.

‘This isn’t over, Dave.’

Tears sprang into his eyes again and he took in a deep breath to try to get rid of them. He knew Jack was right.

[sage-nebula]

“Keith is too hot-headed, he doesn’t care about his teammates, he’d be a terrible leader!!1!!!”

Bullshit.

No one is denying that Keith is reckless. He is. He absolutely is. But the important thing to note is that the times when he is most reckless are when it’s his own life that he’s risking. Keith will jump into the middle of a gunfight with a sword without wasting a beat, but he’ll also rush to the defense of his comrades without wasting a beat, too. Keith will volunteer for a suicide mission in order to make sure that the greater good is protected and that their entire effort ultimately succeeds, but he wouldn’t volunteer someone else for the same mission.

And more importantly? Well, two things:

One, it’s clear that Keith does care about his comrades, absolutely. Aside from covering them in battle, look at the scene above, from near the end of season two. Hunk was, understandably, panicking about being in the belly of a giant worm. Keith recognized this. And while you could argue that he was calming Keith down for his own benefit, the truth is that he was doing it for both of them. “We’re gonna need that big brain of yours if we want to make it through.” Both of their lives are at stake, and that’s what Keith points out. He also, in the process, points out that Hunk is vital, and that Hunk is vital because he is smart. In Keith’s eyes, Hunk isn’t just along for extra muscle---Hunk is along because he is intelligent, but he has to be able to master his fear and focus first. And you know what? Keith helps him do that. Keith, no doubt emulating his big brother Shiro, knows exactly what to say and how to say it in order to get Hunk to breathe and focus. He then, once Hunk says he’ll be okay, puts his hand on Hunk’s arm (a comforting gesture!) and reiterates that he’s counting on him.

A lot of people seem to think that Keith is just an angry, abrasive person, but sorry, that’s not accurate. Keith is an honest person. He says exactly what he’s thinking, and that’s why you know his compliments are genuine when he dishes them. When he offers positive reassurance to Hunk here, when he tells Hunk calmly but firmly that he needs to focus, he does so without insulting, berating, or trivializing how Hunk feels. He does so without making fun of him. In fact, he doesn’t belittle Hunk once for feeling scared, and instead even validates Hunk’s feelings by pointing out that, yeah, their situation is really disgusting, but they have to focus anyway. The closest he gets is making a joke about Hunk’s gastrointestinal problems after Hunk has calmed down, and Hunk actually appreciates that Keith is being a bit playful with him, so it’s clearly not a hurtful barb. Instead, Keith helped Hunk relax further by making a joke with him.

This is a very important quality in a leader. Keith, like Shiro before him, reached out to a teammate and said what he needed to be said so that they could continue with the mission. He supported and encouraged Hunk, and this was after Hunk had slung casually racist after casually racist remark at him for being half-Galra, including saying that travelling with him made this the worst job. (Well, that traveling with Keith was part of what made it the worst job.) Keith was able to set that aside and focus on building Hunk up so that he could calm down, focus, and stay alive instead. But yeah, tell me again why he’s nothing more than an irrational anger monster.

Oh, and speaking of leader-like things he says to Hunk in this episode:

Despite Hunk, once again, making a casually racist remark at him, Keith lets it go aside from a glare, and then reminds him that, as heroes of the universe, they have to set the example and, you know, not leave someone to die, even if they are the enemy. Keith, whether it’s because of his own experiences or not, views everyone as people and makes the objectively correct decision. He, like Shiro before him, opts to save someone rather than leave them behind merely because they’re Galra. He then, as he has done several times in this episode, gets Hunk back on task so that they can finish the mission.

So all of that is number one---that Keith knows how to motivate his comrades, knows how to set his personal feelings aside, knows how to make the correct decision regardless of personal feelings. His pragmatism is something that has been a consistent character trait since season one and it is important in a leader. (Granted, there have been a few times where he took it too far, but he has clearly grown and learned from that. Being mentored by Shiro helps.) 

Number two is the fact that he doesn’t want it.

An important quality in a leader is that they don’t want power. It doesn’t mean they’re wholly reluctant, but it means that they’re not in it for personal glory, they’re in it for others. They’re in it for the team, for the universe. That is Keith. Keith has never cared about personal glory. He didn’t care about being the best pilot in the garrison (and Lance’s imagined rivalry with him baffled him at first). He doesn’t care about personal feelings, either, in comparison to the rest of the universe. As he yells at Pidge in S1E4, the safety of the universe is more important than individual wants or desires. “Personal glory” isn’t something that really registers with Keith, meaning that he’s not going to care about showboating or showing off if he does take the role of the Black Paladin. He’s going to focus instead on leading Team Voltron. He’s going to focus on his teammates. He’s going to focus on not taking Shiro’s team and running it straight into the ground.

Keith obviously still has some growing to do. Every character on the show does. But season two did a really good job of showing his growth, of reminding us that this is the role that Shiro thinks he should take, of showing us how he is learning that “patience yields focus” and that he can and should cooperate with others to get the job done. Keith has been isolated for a long time and that has made it difficult for him to connect with others, but he has already shown in episodes like the one screencapped above that he is capable of doing it, that he has made great strides toward that. He’s young, he doesn’t necessarily want this job, certainly not now and not in these circumstances---but if he does have to step up, he will do a goddamn good job of it. Even if there are bumps in the road at first, it’s not like Shiro had an easy time of it in the beginning either.

Keith is the natural successor to the Black Lion. If Shiro doesn’t come back in the first episode, and someone else has to pilot the Black Lion, then after an entire seasonal arc showing us exactly why it should be Keith, it’s going to have to be Keith.

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

#I don’t mean to be condescending but so many people missed the point of yg #he’s not here to be the perfect solution over jon and dany #he’s here to validate their arcs as heroes and leaders - sorry to say #they’re incredibly flawed individuals and they intimately failed in adwd but like literally so did everyone else #FAILURE IS A PROCESS OF LEARNING!!! #their stories aren’t over yet #grrm isn’t going to write yg being the most perfect king ever so we can be like ew jon and dany suck glad they died or whatever #he’s also not likely to be the third head of the dragon but I don’t want to get into that today

ASOIAF discourse would be a lot more fun if we all realized that every single person who has been put in a position of leadership/rulership fails in one way or another. Jon and Dany failing is not an indictment on their abilities to lead or rule. They’re kids, they still have shit to figure out. Given “what was Aragorn’s tax policy”, I doubt GRRM will write a story that will feature the appearance of a most perfect ruler ever who will be a total success instead Jon and Dany who were tOtAl FlOpS. Especially if this person has no previous experience that has been detailed within the text itself. That’s not only antithetical to the series, but also not how you write a narrative.