#his betrayal plot literally just leading to his death because he didn’t care what happened to him anymore

[oddberryshortcake]

It’s a little sad that Jamil’s negative attitude towards his peers makes a lot of people think he’s just a shitty person (and don’t get me wrong, he is a jerk and an asshole)

But despite his general dislike of those around him, he still continually makes huge personal sacrifices for his family and Kalim.

There’s just a bit of selflessness in there even if it’s because it’s his job to care for others and not himself.

[onepiece-polls]

One Piece Shipping War - Bonus Poll

Not a single Luffy ship got past the second round, so we still gotta decide which one was the most popular of the 2 that made it to round 2.

LuSan art by @supernaturallyginger. Check out the original post here!

CobyLu art by @aroacejay. Please check out the original post here!

Propaganda under the cut.

Propaganda for Sanji x Luffy:

I don't think anyone is gonna bother denying the fact that WCI is literally just the plot of an otome isekai shoujo manga/manhwa. MC (main character) is treated like trash by family except for the 1 dead mom and 1 nice sympathetic supporter that can't do much of anything to help. MC escapes only to find themselves in an even worse situation somewhat of their own making, only to be swept off their feet by the ML (male lead) and saved, full damsel in distress style. Dramatic love confessions, crying in the rain, betrayal from an arranged marriage, it has it all.

Dude Luffy loves Sanji so so much like WCI is the best example and like you don't even really need to see the love as romantic if that bugs you but dudes. The first words out of the Luffys Shadow Possessed Oars was yelling for Sanji. He just loves Sanji so much and Sanji loves him too

The WCI arc in itself is mega SanLu propaganda. Luffy invaded an emperor’s territory, completely crashed a wedding, went up against Sanji’s evil science family, and got nearly beat to death by Sanji himself all in order to get Sanji back. Sanji offered his life to Kuma at thriller bark so Kuma wouldn’t kill Luffy. He pushed himself for 2 years all in order to get stronger FOR Luffy. Sanji feels sorry when he isn’t useful, the whole reason why he used the raid suit those few times was because he was thinking about getting stronger for Luffy, but realized that he didn’t want to become an emotionless monster like his family. Sanji broke down in tears at WCI when he tried to get Luffy to go away by fighting him. And then broke down in tears again when he ran back to Luffy and told him he wanted to go back home to the Sunny. No matter what Sanji cooks, Luffy always likes it and is proud to have him in his crew. Sanji is also one of Luffy’s “wings”, as stated by Robin! They’re both just so sweet and clearly care very deeply about each other.

Luffy saving Sanji on whole cake island got to me

[Insert everything that happens between them during WCI] how could I see luffy yelling about how he won't eat anything and will starve- LUFFY OF ALL PEOPLE- unless Sanji comes back and not ship them at LEAST a little. "Without you I can't become the pirate king" absolutely devastating cinema. Then Sanji laying out everything, in tears, and Luffy accepting it all and just saying, "well that's who you are" poetic. Final wci thing: luffy hearing judges bs about sanji and going "whyd he start listing all your good point" true love. This seems one sided but Sanji is also just as bad. "Which version of me do you prefer" anyone? They care SO MUCH about each other. Also Luffy loves to eat, Sanji loves to feed people, they're meant to be.

*gestures at the entirety of WCI* I mean that’s Love, they are Ride or Die, Luffy cannot become the pirate king without Sanji, whether that means physically because he needs Sanji’s support or just because being the pirate king means Luffy has everything he wants and what he wants is Sanji or both. And Sanji loves him just as much back! He’s his sun he’s his world…Luffy jump and Sanji’s too busy skywalking to bother asking how high. I just love them sm

Oda himself wrote the propaganda for this, Whole Cake Island just cemented lusan as canon. "I can't become Pirate King without you!" <- that's love baby

Propaganda for Luffy x Coby:

The first characters in the series who ever met and the first characters we as an audience met. Luffy is the whole reason why Koby is the character he is now and was the first to experience the “Luffy Effect”. Luffy is happy whenever he hears about Koby’s accomplishments and fully believes in his dreams even when Koby is a marine. Koby holds a very obvious bias towards Luffy (even if he is a pirate) and is the reason he learned to keep an open mind about pirates and the navy and what the meaning of Justice is. Koby’s admiration and flustered nature towards Luffy can definitely be interpreted as a crush. Koby is very ride or die for Luffy even in the face of people drastically more powerful than him (Akainu).

Coby is beyond gay for Luffy and he was the first person Luffy traveled with.

they are cute

Coby literally gets heart eyes and can't stop himself from piping up every time Luffy comes up in conversation that boy is SMITTEN. I don't know if Luffy understands but he knows Koby is one of his and that's good enough for me.

[highladyluck]

I don't really think this is supported by the text overall, and where it is, it's a kind of out-there interpretation. Re: the *Finn getting revenge on Mat, if the Aelfinn blame anyone for the collapse of their door they’re gonna blame Rand most of all, he got out a firey sword which is a major diplomatic faux pas. I don't really think Mat pissed off the Aelfinn, and he didn’t piss the Eelfinn off until he went on a commando raid in ToM to get Moiraine.

Mat and Tuon’s intended/foreshadowed arc is truncated because RJ shifted it to the outriggers. It’s just barely possible that within RJ's intended final post-KoD book (the one that would take a wagon to carry it around, as he joked) Mat could have military coup’ed the Westlands Seanchan and taken explicit political responsibility and gotten them to the LB as an effective force. I think the signs point to Mat's character arc ending in leading a military coup of the Seanchan empire at a critical juncture, because the one kind of responsibility he is scrupulously avoiding throughout the entire story is political responsibility, and I think he never quite gets there in the text as written, the way Tuon never quite gets to repudiating her entire raison d'etre. But I can understand how RJ didn't get there within the series proper; a) Mat would still have to earn Tuon’s trust to get close enough to do a really good betrayal-to-save-her-and-her-people and b) as a Vietnam vet I don’t think RJ had many illusions about a military coup suddenly solving all the problems and having a nice tidy wrap-up in time for the rest of the plot to happen.

I also think you're missing some important things about Tuon; she’s an unreliable narrator in the same way Mat is, you have to watch what she does in addition to what she says. She does in fact care for and respect Mat and that's pretty clear in her POVs in KoD, although she's so fucked up that her idea of 'caring for' someone is not obvious at all, especially to her. The other thing is, she can’t change without a) being shown an effective alternative to the cult she was raised in and dedicated to protecting (aka, getting kidnapped out of her milieu by non-abusive people) and b) external pressure. She’s not just a person who can be swayed by threats to herself or the judgement of trusted advisors, she’s an embodied institution and those need political/economic/environmental pressure to change. Tuon needs to be assailed on two fronts after an extended siege.

Also it’s just nonsense that Tuon isn’t part of Mat’s fate; there’s no grounds for excluding Tuon’s opening intro as a character in Winter's Heart, which is incredibly tied up in her reaction to the prophecy that ties her to Mat. Both Tuon and Mat are part of the plot for a long time before they actually get POVs, and for both the establishing POVs are super important and tell you an extraordinary amount about the character. And for Mat's part, the dice in his head are guiding him to her- they are the literal manifestation of the Pattern nudging/confirming Mat’s path.

Finally, they fit together thematically; she’s Knife Wife II, the living version of Knife Wife I, which is the Shadar Logoth dagger. Mat makes a choice to steal the dagger (the embodiment of Shadar Logoth) because it’s ‘meant for him’, without knowing what it will mean; Mat makes another choice to steal Tuon (the embodiment of the Seanchan empire) because she’s meant for him, but this time he thinks he knows what he’s getting into (peril, brainwashing, paranoia, hyper-awareness of evil, power, corruption, death). She surprises him by also being a person a lot like him (superstitious, brave, loyal, honorable, self-deceiving, stubborn, compassionate, curious, fun-loving, smart, horse-obsessed, playful, dangerous) in addition to all the dagger problems. Because of Mat's experience with the ruby dagger, he's the character best suited to dealing with Tuon. That doesn't mean he won't have to get Aes Sedai involved eventually for his own survival, but it absolutely makes him the best man for the job.

Mat & the Aelfinn prophecies

Summary: One of Mat’s prophecies is very different from the others, in both form and execution. Maybe there’s a reason for that.

While this does have spoilers through A Memory of Light, my reasoning is based pretty much entirely on the solo Jordan books, so that’s why I’m posting it now, before I start my reread of The Gathering Storm.

however, spoilers through A Memory of Light are below.

Keep reading

[itsclydebitches]

Something I find very ironic in how the characters (and thus the writers) speak about Clover after his death and what he would've done/wanted reminds me a great deal of how for years the fndm has used Monty's name to justify/dispute what happens in the show. I'd like to think the writers would know better than to do actually that.

Everything said about Clover post-death hinges on reading his attempted arrest as a 100%, black and white evil deed. It’s only through elevating the horror of attempting to arrest Qrow that you get “logic” like, “He definitely would have tried to bomb Mantle too.” There’s this idea in Volume 8 of RWBY that any loyalty is equivalent to blind loyalty, when in fact the story never let Clover live long enough to determine how far his loyalty to Ironwood went. The fandom (and the writers, apparently) react so harshly to the arrest attempt because they have the full context of the situation, including the meta perspective of who the Good Guys and Bad Guys are in this situation. Clover has none of that. He knows Ironwood recalled everyone because something bad went down back at headquarters. He knows that Ruby called to say that Salem is on her way and Ironwood is declaring martial law before communications cut out. He knows better than most the danger Salem presents —  specifically danger involving sabotage and betrayal — thanks to being in Ironwood’s own inner circle. And he knows that, for whatever reason, Ironwood had demanded the arrest of their former allies. The “for whatever reason” is the key bit there because really, Clover doesn’t know shit other than Things Are Bad And History Teaches That Being Cautious Is Justified. And when you have so little information to work from, it becomes a matter of where those loyalties lie: with the job you’re meant to uphold and the man you’ve sworn to assist, or with the guy you made friends with a few weeks/months ago? Is Clover going to risk everyone on a friendship with Qrow, or is he going to be careful based on the chance that Ironwood has a good reason for this arrest? If RWBY wanted to establish blind loyalty in Clover they should have had Ironwood order him to kill Qrow on sight. THAT is a, “Holy shit, I can’t do that!” situation. But asking him to bring Qrow in on suspicions that have yet to be established (for Clover) is not indicative of some intrinsic, evil nature. Arresting Qrow does not intrinsically harm Qrow. As far as both are aware, they should be able to just go talk to Ironwood and clear things up. Either a) this is all a huge misunderstanding in which case Qrow will no longer be under arrest, b) Qrow has legitimately done something worthy of arrest that Clover will find out about, or c) Ironwood has gone off the deep end and Clover will be given the chance to say, “Haha... not following you anymore!” But he was never given that chance. Instead what happens is that Robyn verbally agrees with Tyrian, she attacks Clover, Qrow willingly joins in, and then Qrow refuses to stop fighting Clover to get her help, leading to a team up with Tyrian and Clover’s eventual murder. You know what all that looks like from Clover’s perspective? Like a case of Option C. Gee, why would Qrow join Robyn in needless attacking me, endangering the mission of bringing Tyrian in safely, if everything is fine and this is all just a misunderstanding? Could it possibly be that the General I’ve worked under for years didn’t call for his arrest for the hell of it? Might Qrow’s strange and sudden willingness to turn on me, to the extent that he joins our enemy, have something to do with Salem’s upcoming attack? We know Qrow is innocent, but Clover absolutely does not. 

Clover doesn’t know what the audience knows. The fact that he knows something awful happened, knows Ironwood has declared martial law (something Winter was suggesting days ago), knows Salem is on her way, knows Qrow’s wanted for arrest, and knows that he has now willingly attacked him... and didn’t immediately attack Qrow post-airship crash under the assumption that he was 100% a traitor speaks to Clover’s willingness to get as many facts as possible before acting, not putting his decisions on blind trust alone. That the story would show him doing this, kill him off, and then spend the next volume having the characters make huge and arguably illogical leaps about how he would have blindly trusted Ironwood is... really disheartening. 

If you want a character who has done more to prove their willingness to blindly obey, the rest of the Ace Ops and Winter are right there. I’ve argued strongly that they weighed the situation in the Volume 7 finale, but they lost that defense in Volume 8. They apparently did see Ironwood kill the councilman and still followed him! They saw Ironwood try to take control of Penny, threaten to bomb Mantle, and try to shoot Marrow! None of that kept them from leaving until the final hour. Winter, meanwhile, supported Ironwood 100% until the plot needed her to be one of the good guys for the final fight. Clover agreed to an arrest warrant when he had no reason to question his boss. Winter, Harriet, Elm, Vine, and Marrow for a very long stretch all followed Ironwood after having informed knowledge about what he was doing. So the fact that the ignorant character who was murdered is the one presented as the Totally Evil Guy is, uh, messed up. The story kept damning Clover for his arrest attempt, but forgives Harriet for actually trying to blow up Mantle. The literal act is presented as more forgivable than the outrageously hypothetical “I think he would have done this Evil Thing too.” As always, what is said in RWBY and what is shown in RWBY is too disconnected to make any sense.  

[carinyms]

We're three days from the Loki finale and I’m back to spout more meta and theories about episodes 5 & 6! It’s a long one (again.)

I really enjoyed episode five. People have complained that they felt it didn't do much to move the show forward, but one of the things I've loved most about this show is the time it takes to sit with the characters and learn about their backstory, their feelings. (I'm always a little bugged when critics say that an episode hasn't done enough to move the plot forward, because without adequate character development, why should I care about the plot?) I thought the pacing of it was really well balanced.

….and I have never been so nervous for a finale in my entire life. There’s a lot of reasons.

The first is just the fact that I’ve been waiting for this show for a whole year, and the anticipation and excitement of it literally helped get me through the pandemic--so when those final end credits roll I’m going to be a whole mess no matter what happens. (I really hope the rumors floating around about season two are accurate) I also just feel like it’s somewhat inevitable that this is our final farewell to Tom’s Loki, and like—I’ll never be ready, but especially right now, amidst all the rampant controversy around this show, I’m just not ready to deal with that. I have a *small* modicum of hope that this won't be the case, but it feels unlikely. Anyway, guess I’ll die.

I really want this show to stick the landing, so to say. I loved the last episode, but a lot of the response has been that it felt like a lull in the plot. I want this show to end in a satisfying bang so it can get the credit it deserves.

Also I’m a whole hypocrite eating my words from last week—I’m fully on-board with Loki/Sylvie now (not that I was ever really against it)--I’m not sure why I’m surprised. They’re so adorable and wholesome, and I’m in love with seeing Loki in love. It’s so precious. (Just as a PSA, if you’re not into them that’s chill, and you’re allowed to dislike a ship without trying to justify your opinion by labeling shippers as morally problematic. Selfcest isn’t a real thing, therefore there isn’t a moral high ground to stand on here. Okay? Okay.) Wherever it ultimately leads, their relationship is still a really sweet exploration of them both growing and learning how to love themselves and trust others. Also, them cuddling under a tablecloth is the cutest shit I’ve ever seen with my two eyes.

MY THEORIES:

I love Sylvie so much, SO MUCH — and she is 100% going to stab Loki in the back by the end of the next episode. I don’t think the betrayal is going to stick, and by the end they’ll both be on the same page again, but the conversations on trust have been way too one-sided for my comfort. If nothing else she's going to seriously consider it. Here’s one way I can see that going. Spoiler alert: it hurts.

Sylvie betrays Loki at one point—and we see Loki’s growth and arc come full circle as, even after being betrayed by the person he hinged his entire development around, he still believes in doing the right thing, in saving her regardless. It ends in a heart-wrenching self-sacrifice of some kind, and his actions serve as the catalyst for her full development as well. We keep seeing different versions of Loki die for their ‘glorious purpose’, just like how Classic Loki shouts the phrase as he was consumed by Aloith (RIP King, I love you).

Loki has already called Sylvie his glorious purpose (or inferred it). There’s been backlash around him saying that, but the way I see it, it’s less “I’m obsessed with this girl she’s my purpose now” and more “I believe that she’s the best version of us and I’m going to make it my purpose to help her succeed and be what the rest of us aren’t”. That’s why seeing all the other variant Loki’s at their worst in the Loki clubhouse (? what do I call this lol) only fuels him more to find her. I think about what Mobius told him: “You exist to cause pain and suffering and death, all so others can achieve the best versions of themselves”. I don’t think Loki truly believes he can be the best version of Loki — I think he saw Sylvie and thought, "it's her". He’s decided he’s going to help her achieve the best version of herself, but he'll do it giving her love and trust and devotion, rather than through betrayal, pain and suffering. He’s re-writing his pre-determined role, in his own small way. I’m so proud of him.

So who’s behind it all and what’s truly going on here? (This isn’t really one theory, more like a string of possibilities and I don’t really know how they’d fit together.)

I still think it’s another version of Loki. And if it is, I can’t help but appreciate the connections between his position dictating the end of time in the show in relation to Loki’s role in the Norse myths, where he’s the catalyst for the destruction of all things. It feels relevant, considering the whole idea that ‘the end of time hasn’t been written yet’ has come up twice now. That would be a fascinating tie-in to the mythology. (Also—Alioth looks like a giant dog. And Fenrir’s role in Ragnarok was devouring the world—I realize this is a reach but am I the only person seeing this connection?) The thing I really can’t predict is the motivation. What would cause a Loki to want to prevent Loki’s from changing? Was there something that happened in the sacred timeline this Loki is trying to preserve? (I also like the idea of us maybe seeing another version of Sylvie behind it all, but I’m just going to leave that rabbit hole alone. )

But here’s the theory I can’t stop thinking about. There’s a theory floating around tik tok (by user twelvepercentcredit) saying the ‘castle’ we see beyond Alioth looks like a place called the House of Ideas, something that appeared in a (discontinued?) Loki comic. Here’s the wiki page on it. Just looking at the imagery of this compared to the location we’re seeing in the trailers, it’s too similar to be a coincidence. The huge bookshelves, the towering ceilings.

Here’s a description from the wiki:

“The House of Ideas is also home to a library which archives the exploits of every hero who has ever existed in the form of books, written unconsciously by the collective minds of their believers. This collection is curated by Now and Then, two of the children of Eternity. Now and Then routinely seek out heroes to bring into the House of Ideas to bargain with them and give their collections more pages, therefore more time for adventures and exploits. “

And later on the page on how Loki ties in:

“Heeding the desire in Loki's heart to do more with his life, Now and Then approached Loki and brought him to the House of Ideas,[5] where they struck up with him the deal to give more pages to his collection of exploits, rewriting the Books of Loki with a hero's stories in exchange for an eventual hero's death.”

Are they gonna play with the exact happenings of this? I don't know, but it sounds pretty cool!

It would be gutsy to go this route with the show given how meta it is, but I love the idea of it. Would they put characters that embody the abstract ideas of “Eternity” “Now & Then” into the show in the last episode? I’m not sure. Something I could see as a possibility though is an alternate version of Loki having overthrown whoever was previously guarding the timeline, and Loki and Sylvie will have to take them down in turn, thus ‘releasing’ the multiverse to its default, chaotic state.

What if our Loki’s ultimate destiny, ultimate Glorious Purpose, is to release the timelines--restoring all the variants back to their original timelines--and remain in this place for eternity, guarding the timeline and ensuring the multiverse is allowed to exist in its natural state? It seems a pretty fitting role for the God of Chaos. It would also explain why whoever’s behind the TVA would be so desperate to eliminate all variant Loki, if that was his ultimate destiny.

It would be an effective way to remove Hiddleston’s Loki from the movie-verse without killing him, AND place both Sylvie and any other Loki variants back in the the main timeline for use in future films—which we know has to happen somehow, because Young Avengers is definitely happening, and Kid Loki has got to get out of the void somehow.

And yea, this outcome would hurt like a bitch. Because even though that would truly be a lovely glorious purpose for our Loki, he’d be alone. And the whole point of this show is that he doesn’t have to be alone! It would be a very poetic sacrifice for him to take on the burden of watching over the timelines alone for all eternity so that his other variants could be the best versions of themselves, but I really just want him to be happy. I will be crying my eyes out if this happens. I’ll be proud but I won’t be okay.

And this all is probably speculative nonsense and could go off in an entirely different direction. Who knows. All in all, I just really want to see Loki fully believe in himself and his ability, to truly absorb what he said about being stronger than he realizes, and to take control of his destiny.

WHAT I WANT (NEED) FROM EPISODE 6:

Let Hunter B-15 and Mobius team up to burn the place to the ground. She was nerfed in the time-keeper fight, I want to see B-15 kick some ass.

I kind of want Ravonna to escape and be a character that carries over into the films for her tie-ins with Kang? I want to see more of her.

Give Loki a new badass costume. I’m begging. If he’s gonna go down, he deserves to go down in something other than khakis.

And then I want to see him and Sylvie fighting side by side in matching outfits.

I want a Mobius-level hug between them. Or a kiss. Or both. But I want the hug more. And you know what? I want her to initiate the hug or kiss or whatever it is because I want Loki to experience receiving love and affection from others as much as giving it. He deserves it ok??

I expect Mobius on a jet ski in the post credits and if I don’t get it I riot

@marvel these are my demands.

As always, if you've made it this far I'd love to hear your thoughts!

[yaboylevi]

Sorry if you have already answered this but why do you not like Levi anymore? I’m curious cause he hasn’t clicked with me much post time skip either but I can’t exactly articulate why

Oh boi, here we gooo! XD

Yes, I’ve been asked before, but I never replied because I got fed up with all the hate I got after speaking up about some stuff I didn’t like about him back when chapters 113-114-115 came out. Back then I entertained various anons and discussions about it, thinking we could all have a normal back and forth or agree to disagree, but I guess “Levi”, being the most popular character with such a loyal fanbase, is a touchy topic for most.

So, this is to say that if you, reader, feel offended by what I’m going to talk about in this reply, just know that I am not in search of a dialogue about it, and it’s not a personal attack to you, it’s just my opinion - that I’ve spent WAY too much time thinking about, precisely because I was one of those loyal fans and the disappointment hurt bad, and I wanted to cling to a positive opinion of him in the first place...but ultimately couldn’t. I won’t change this opinion if I’m sent aggressive asks, and I won’t change it even after friendly discussion. It just is what it is. XD Nothing personal, I swear! You’re free to enjoy this character however much you want, it just doesn’t do it for me, not anymore.

Also, let me preface this with one other thing: Levi was my favorite alongside Eren for the longest time. Due to Levi’s behavior, AND Isayama’s writing, AND some of the fandom’s most popular takes, I just started to viciously dislike him for a while. I had his name blacklisted for about a year at one point. Now I’ve calmed down, mainly because I have no expectations anymore for him, and I’ve given up on something magically turning his character enjoyable again for me personally.

That is why I can finally reply to such questions as the above (I will prob curse a bit, but I’m not mad, I swear XD). 

Anon, I hope I won’t bore you, and I hope that if you share even a little bit of my feelings, this post will clear up why you may be feeling like that about post-timeskip!Levi.

I’m gonna make a list of the major things I didn’t like about the handling of his character, but I won’t go too much in details because I feel it would become too long a post, and I would get upset all over again lol. Besides, I’ve talked about this stuff in greater depth in the past, already, in probably stronger words.

1. What broke the deal for me was his violence towards Zeke and how the fandom reacted to that, in chapter...114-15(?). I understand people hate Zeke. I don’t. I didn’t hate Levi either. I quite literally adored both. But after seeing Levi torturing mentally and physically Zeke, and the fandom cheering him on...man, I felt sick. The fandom loses its shit and calls Eren a psycho piece of shit routinely when Eren speaks in a barely threatening tone to Reiner, but Levi’s very personal angry torture is dandy.

About this point, though, it was a piling up of things. I was already royally pissed at Levi for kicking Eren on the blimp in chapter 105. It accomplished nothing, in the story, except estranging Eren even more. In the fandom, it got ereri antis pop a boner, because the hard pill to swallow is that it’s not really the shippers who like Levi being violent with Eren, it’s the antis. When chapter 105 came out, the tag was filled with people cheering on Levi kicking Eren. That’s disgusting as shit. This continues nowadays. Just to clear up I’m not making this shit up:

Anyway, moving along, about this same point, we also got Isayama putting his own spin to it. Finding it funny when at the end of Uprising, Levi kicked Jean and Eren. I mean, I didn’t think twice on it back then when I read the chapter because I filed it away as that special brand of Isayama’s humor that sometimes misses the mark, but then he explained that Levi kicked them because he was mad at Erwin. So Levi is actually a piece of shit who can’t cope and that’s...cute? Because that reminded me very clearly of [tmi] a very abusive person in my life who would get frustrated at work, keep it inside, and then throw stuff at me or hit me. That shit hurt, but death of the author and all that. I could turn a blind eye on what Isayama said at that time. Except then, after the timeskip, this side of Levi kept rearing its ugly head, and it was never addressed as bad behavior, something toxic that should change. 

Well, except that it was quite literally counterproductive in canon: it made his protegee even more distant (certainly Eren didn’t feel more inclined to talk to Levi after Levi’s poor behavior - and we know Levi cares about Eren, but Levi’s special kind of tough love is just a pretty way to call his abuse, you know). And then it literally pushed Zeke into blowing himself up, and we know where that led Levi. It would be oh so funny in its irony IF IT WAS PROPERLY ACKNOWLEDGED in the plot but...nope. (Well, we got Yelena’s comment right here, but it ultimately lead to nothing).

And it pissed me off even more, because the story is a huge commentary on this, on not perpetrating violence again and again, but it’s so lost on Levi’s character. And I think Isayama isn’t even aware. 

I’ve heard all possible excuses about this, and I just can’t change my mind. Unless Levi acknowledges it himself, which is still possible, considering the latest chapter. If he had things to say to Eren, why did he choose violence instead? He may end up reflecting on this and his regrets about Eren but I doubt, because there’s probably no time and ISYM is doing the bare minimum in regards to Levi’s relationship with Eren.

2. His extreme focus on “Killing Zeke”. Don’t get me wrong, it makes sense in light of him feeling guilt over Shiganshina. In his mind, killing Zeke would make all those soldiers’ lives worth the price they paid back then, especially Erwin’s.

And yet, I really find that it was awkwardly delivered. So much shit was going down, and all Levi ever had to say was “KILL MONKE” (which understandably became the meme it is today because it’s repetetive and cringe-worthy after so many chapters). He contributed literally nothing to the plot. A character like Levi, who had always some wise words to say, some kind of relevant commentary, who had an interesting relationship with so many other characters - Historia, Eren, Mikasa, Armin, Hange, and as the 104th’s mentor - was reduced to a background character whose turn to speak came forward only when it came to just this one topic. 

He felt one dimentional. Yes, he still doesn’t want soldiers to die and feels terrible when it happens - that’s just...normal? Every single character feels that way. Same with that Ramzi scene. But, like:

> His mentorship of the 104th in such a terrible moment for all of them would’ve been so interesting to explore, especially when it comes to Mikasa and Historia (but Historia’s character treatment in the story is a whole other can of worms).

> His relationship with Hange in regards to the void Erwin left in their trio and the SC would’ve been great to develop. I particularly wanted to see Levi open up about Erwin’s true nature to Hange, especially because Hange was suffering a great deal due to constantly comparing themselves to an idealized version of Erwin. I realize that it might have been my expectations coloring my enjoyment on this one, but from a narrative pov, I feel like their relationship was sacrificed for...nothing.

> Levi’s relationship with Eren, and the shared themes of difficult choices, regrets, guilt, hope, using extreme violence to protect others, as well as the shared goal they had, freedom. The sense of betrayal and hurt that Levi experienced in regards to Eren’s action got a bit of focus, but never received a proper chapter dedicated to it (and I will go down on my little hill that Levi, Armin and Mikasa were the most attached to Eren, whose relationship also got consistently explored and developed in canon, and which was thematically relevant). All of this was thrown into a box and locked away, only to have Levi repeat the same 2 sentences about Zeke every 5 chapters or less, and have a couple choice lines about his feelings towards Eren every 20 chapters.

And what turned me off even more, is that almost nobody in fandom even felt it was off for the longest time. Until it became quite literally embarrassing and annoying recently, since the way Levi got so one-track-minded became a meme. Even the Japanese fandom got finally fed up. Too little too late. Well, not that it would’ve changed Isayama’s writing, but it felt really lonely, months ago, when I was the (seemingly) only one feeling that way.

Anyway, I think Isayama messed up the writing in this case, though it is something I felt for other characters too, such as Armin, Jean, Connie, Falco, Magath, etc. I really just feel like Isayama should’ve taken some time off to plan this final arc a little better. But again, it is what it is.

3. Well, this is really a minor thing but it’s connected to what I said until now. When I first spoke up about how I wished Levi would change, or at least acknowledge his own flaws and better himself, some people decided to indirectly throw shade at me in a very chilling way: “Adults don’t need to change, and [Levi’s] violence is okay”. Which, yikes, what a bad take, right there. Especially for such a story, where it’s almost showcased in neon letters that ADULTS NEED TO CHANGE, and take responsibility for subjecting the young cast to violence. Um. Way to miss the point. But also, even in real life... I’ve gone through enough shit in my young age to understand that adults should always challenge themselves, to better themselves. Otherwise, they will continue to hurt others and themselves. I am an adult now and I am grateful to those people who made me realize being a grown-up didn’t mean finally reaching a destination. It’s an ongoing journey of self-discovery. We are constantly changing, we can always do better, we have been fucked over by our parents or other adults when we were kids and have internalized behaviors that are probably not the best, so we should always strive to become the better version of ourselves, every day, to know ourselves, understand our flaws and fight against them where possible, acknowledge that we may not always be right, or perfect.

That’s the whole point of Shingeki, too. Just like Zeke was fucked over by the system as a kid, by his parents, by his father figure, and he became a broken man with bad coping mechanisms and behaviors that hurt others and himself, but the point is he can change, and he should, and it would be very satisfying... the same applied to Levi. He even has quite obvious parallels with Zeke, my favorite is them being stuck back as “kids” over a paternal figure and the behaviors/ideologies such figures passed down to them. Like, just because stans are fine with Levi as he is (for different reasons that I totally understand! nobody wants their favorite character to be criticized, or worse, their favorite ship to be put into question, because nowadays you can like something only if it’s perfect and pure.../s), it doesn’t mean some of his behaviors aren’t problematic and wouldn’t benefit from self-analysis and growth. Heck, I would love to see my favorite character thrive! But ISYM seems to not agree with me, even though I could see a slice of light in chapter 136, but again...too late, man XD

--- In conclusion...

I ship ereri and I love Zeke, so I am extremely biased, I know. But, as I hope you have understood by reading this waaaay too long and rambly post, it is more than that. Many things irked me. So I thought about them as objectively, and why not, subjectively, based on my reading of the world and experiences, as possible. This is my answer.

Even when I ignore the fandom’s takes about it, it is the writing of what used to be a great and interesting character that bothers me. So, yeah, I don’t like Levi much anymore. There is not much to appreciate in the first place, when it comes to his brief appearances after chapter 90, aside from nostalgia of what is lost (all the relationships that were scrapped), and a feeling of “there should be more...right?”. The truth is, Levi’s role in the story was heavily downsized. And what was left was poorly handled, in my opinion. It’s the comparison with what Levi was before that made this so disappointing, I guess.

Just look at the fact that Levi hasn’t said a single thing about the Rumbling - I had to come up with a very liberal and creative interpretation that it was actually an avoidance coping on Levi’s part in regards to Eren, and not Isayama’s poor writing. XD

Anyway, yeah. This is mostly it. Maybe this won’t resonate with you, anon, maybe it will. Let me know.

[wendibird]

SPN 15X14 Observations

So, for whatever dumbass reason, when trying to use my actual television, the cable refuses to work properly 8 times out of 10. BUT I was able to stream tonight’s episode on my computer with my cable network’s app. So, there’s that. Because of that, and since it’s easier for me to type on my keyboard than on my phone, I actually took quick notes and observations during commercial breaks. Here are those, then some more of my thoughts following. (And I’m sorry if any of these seem a bit incoherent. They were more my observations to myself. *LOL*  

(everything else under the keep reading line since I got a bit rambly, and just in case anyone wants to avoid spoilers)

- Brothers being written a bit like characters of themselves rather than just themselves. (trying too hard?)

- Love Mrs. Butters. Actress really good. And the minor ret-con works with what we've seen.

- Sam more concerned about Jack. I think he understands him better, even though he hasn't seen much of him.

- "Ignoring your trauma doesn't make you healthy." (or something like that.) Good quote!

- Waiting for the catch.

- "Enjoy the world you're fighting for." (compare with Kevin's similar line: "I can't enjoy a world I need to save.")

- Mrs. Butters knows Jack isn't human.

- BOY did the shoe drop! But it was Sinclaire involved. Not surprised he took advantage of her natural protective nature.

- Wanted more plot for WHY exactly they still have Thor's Hammer. Have they had it this whole time? Last we saw Sam dropped it in 8X2. Or did Mrs. Butters conjure it up because they might need it? Was cool though that Sam was using it. Because we already know he can.

- Jack figured out on his own how to use the projector. (love that boy!)

- liked hearing him talk about what happened with Mary and how he feels.

- Mrs. Butters knows from experience about needing "second chances" I think.

- Why were they ALWAYS wearing the same clothes during the "We got one!" montages? Assuming it was supposed to have taken place over several days at least if not longer. (I highly doubt they went out on THAT many hunts in one day.)

- Yeeeah... So I get she's protective, but JACK IS BABY! She can clearly see his power levels but she has to have seen how he he actually IS? But she gave him the smoothies from the start, so she's been planning it from almost the start. Hrm.

- idk what anyone else says, I'm thrilled that Sam and Eileen had a date. Also, THIS is where that sweater-vest comes from. Bet we'll see him going for his gun too. (That clip was hotly debated in one of the discord servers I’m on)

- Dean is obviously still having some issues with Jack, but he also seems to know that they're his personal issues and he knows that Jack is good. (Expanding on this thought post episode, I was seeing this as Dean recognizing the difference between what he knows and what he’s feeling. So, yey! Personal growth!)

- DEAN JACK IS NOT A BATTERING RAM!!!

- Dean sees Jack as a weapon. He used him as a battering ram. He'll use him as a grenade to throw at Chuck. (More on this after the notes.)

- Sam sees him as a person. His argument was that Jack was someone he cared about. That killing him would HURT him.

- Also, did they HAVE to go for the fingernails again?!

- Poor Sam, getting tortured. And being the "favorite" of something bad.

- Also, SAM WAS RIGHT! To be cautious of her at first. Too many times he's had things/people seem good and turn out opposite.

- And because Dean had decided it was all okay, they both stopped looking up on her.

- Maybe Sam will realize that he doesn't always have to follow Dean's lead. He can pursue his own paths. (Not talking about them separating. Just, if he wants to look into something, he should do it. If he wants to follow a different lead, he should check it out.)

- I know he lost a lot of confidence last season but I hope he realizes that he doesn't by default make bad decisions.

- Okay, that was a good resolution. I'm glad she's going back to her people.

- Interdimensional geoscope: Dean saw nothing. Because ALL the other universes are gone. *sad-face*

- Love Sam and Jack. Wish we got a bit more. But it was something.

- Also love that Dean tried. That felt real to me. (the birthday cake)

More thoughts! 

So. Overall I liked this episode. It was lighthearted mostly, but touched on some serious topics and wasn’t completely disconnected with what is going on with everyone, despite the random holiday montage. *LOL* (Yes, I know she wasn’t bending time or anything, she was just choosing to celebrate some holidays with her boys regardless of when this is all taking place exactly.) It did feel a bit to me, at the start anyway, like the writing at least was trying too hard to “Sound like Sam and Dean” instead of just them being them. I mentioned that at the start but what I mean is, in this season especially (but not exclusively) I’ve noticed a lot of times where it feels to me like the writing/directing/whatever leads to the sum total of what we see is trying too hard to present this idea of who the characters are, like caricatures of them. The things associated with them get emphasized, sometimes out of proportion. Though in this episode, it only felt like that during the opening scene and maybe a few places elsewhere. Overall I thought the writing and especially the acting on the parts of the main 3 guys and the guest actor were well done and had a lot of nuance when needed. Like, as an example, when Sam and Dean sussed out that this being that they didn’t even know was a bit behind the times, they were actually pretty gentle with bringing her up to speed. And her reaction to realizing that everyone she knew before was dead felt very real. 

I liked what we saw of where each of the characters were emotionally this episode. It was the first one after Jack has been re-souled and it had definitely been weighing on my mind how everyone was doing. (Though I REALLY wish we could have actually seen Sam and Dean’s reactions to Jack tearfully begging their forgiveness last episode. But lacking any other input, I’m headcannoning that Sam gave him a very long, warm hug.)  

I also agree with Sam, I think there’s something more that Jack hasn’t told them yet, probably some details about Billy’s plan that he or her are sure the brothers won’t like. (Now, what exactly that could be is very much up in the air. I can think of quite a few options, but the details aren’t really important to me just now. Just the fact that something about it is weighing on Jack. More than just Mary’s death and the prospect of having to kill God. Which, in and of themselves would be more than enough.) 

Speaking of Sam, I liked that we saw all those little nods to how he feels about Jack, how he’s still worried about him, and seems to understand him. 

I also get where Dean’s coming from. And I thought it was well-portrayed. And let me just say, I am GLAD that he just outright told Jack where he was at. He didn’t sugarcoat it, but he also didn’t blow up at him, or reply with sarcasm or bring up other, unrelated stuff. Dean knows that Jack is trying, but he himself has some emotional stuff he needs to deal with. That he is dealing with. And it’s going to take him some time. 

I do however stand by my observation made during the episode that at least at that point in it, Dean considered Jack a weapon. An asset. He literally used him as a battering ram, and in a more meta way, he’s planning on using him as a grenade to throw at God. Even when arguing with Mrs. B about it, his response was in reference to Jack’s usefulness. Whereas Sam was arguing that Jack meant something to him, that he cared about him, and hurting Jack would hurt him. Now, I do think that Dean’s POV had shifted a bit by the very end. Dean’s love language has almost always been shown by doing things for people, and taking care of them. So him making that birthday cake for Jack really felt to me like him trying to tell him that he does actually care about him. And I think Jack got it. And true, the cake might not have been as neat and pretty as Mrs. B would have made it, but I thought it was beautiful because of all the thought that went into it. (Dean’s more of a cook than a baker too.) 

As a side note, something I thought about after the episode: when Mrs. B stepped in, she kind of took over that care-taker role. AND the research role. She made them lunches, cooked them dinners, decorated for holidays, and overall made them feel comfortable and safe. And she also pin-pointed where monsters were and made sure they were all stocked-up and ready to go. All they had to do was show up and get it done. And yeah, it must have been a nice break from the norm. But I also think about how much Dean finds his identity beyond hunting in taking care of people. And how much Sam finds his identity in researching and figuring things out. And with her doing that, they both took it easy on those ends. Dean didn’t have to make burgers for everyone since Mrs. B made a roast. Sam didn’t have to research since she could tell them where the monsters were and what kind. I almost wonder if both of them were starting to feel like those parts of themselves were all of a sudden unnecessary. (Which makes me a little sad, because it reminds me a bit of the “two cakes” concept in fandom. Who cares if someone else can “do it better”? If you do it, then there’ll be even more of the good thing!)  And as I observed above, Sam also stopped looking into HER. I mean, he didn’t even know what would kill a wood nymph. And I do think part of that also goes back to him having recently fallen back on letting Dean make the big decisions. Because last season so many of his blew up in his face. (Though I don’t think most of that was his fault. But Sam tends to blame himself for a lot.) And I do hope that maybe he’ll remember that he does have good instincts when he listens to them. And he can keep looking into something even if Dean thinks it’s fine. It’s not a betrayal to be prepared. 

ALSO! Being the absolute Saileen hoe that I am, even though we didn’t Eileen in this episode, I was thrilled that Sam went out on a date with her because she was in town! And true, we don’t know what all went down, but regardless, I see it as good that they’re at the very least still friends, and that hopefully Eileen is sorting out her own feelings vs whatever she might think could be Chuck’s manipulations. Even if Saileen isn’t Engame (and honestly, as much as I love it, I don’t think it will be) I would still like for them to be on good terms with each other. (And for her to NOT get fridged again!) 

Another thing I was pondering afterwards and a bit during: I wasn’t surprised that Sam held up to the torture fairly well. I mean, it still obviously hurt! (And again, WHY with the fingernails again?! As someone in one of my discord servers mentioned, we didn’t need THAT particular call-back to the Christmas Episode of Season 3!) But he was listening to what she was saying. And he understood the implications that she had been tortured into acting how they wanted her to act. And Sam understands torture, and how it can mess someone up. And despite what she had done to him, and was trying to still do, he validated what she had been through. He empathized with her. And that.... it’s just SO Sam! 

I will say that the resolution felt a little... abrupt. Like, her expression had changed a little during the fight/argument. Then back from the commercial break and she’s all packed-up and ready to leave and they’re all saying goodbye and wishing her well. I feel like there might have been some more scenes or parts of scenes that were originally there connecting things up more, but were cut for time.

I wouldn’t say this was a groundbreaking episode, but it WAS fun, and it did have some seriousness at it’s core, and I think it did what it needed to do. 

(And I apologize if this is just a big rambling mess. I’m not used to doing structured episode reviews. *LOL* Feedback and opinions are welcome though!) 

[asterekmess]

1-4 What the fuck is a true alpha? A recurring joke? A convenient plot armor? A desperate attempt to make an irrelevant character look ‘relevant’ despite canon showing otherwise? Scott/Posey Stans think that Scott McCall has a right to command and dictate everyone’s life because he is a tWuE aLpAhA; Scott has a right to play judge, jury & executioner with his “inferior” friends, and he has a right to determine what is wrong or right based on his own benefit and bigoted black and white mentality.

2-4 If you think that this sounds an awful lot like the Divine Right of Kings, you are absolutely right. An unearned (and undeserved) mystical superiority or blessing, a fabricated sense of purity, goes a long way in ameliorating Scott McCall’s Failures and Fuck-ups. And like kings who rule by Divine Right, he can do as he likes. Which is why Scott can patronize and lie to Allison and Kira to control them, assault Isaac and Jackson due to his own pathological jealousy and possessiveness,

3-4 use Hayden (Liam’s girlfriend) as bait against the Dread Doctors without her consent to play the hero, dehumanize Stiles and accuse Stiles of being a violent, dangerous, inhuman monster and serial killer for daring to accidentally kill his abuser in self-defense, sell Derek and his Pack to the hunters, refuse to tell his girlfriend Allison the truth about her mother’s death to look ‘good’ in her eyes,

4-4 plot/conspire with Gerard Argent and Deaton behind everyone’s back to violate Derek Hale’s boundaries, bodily autonomy and consent for his own benefit, claim that the Argents had a reason to slaughter the Hales (including HUMANS and CHILDREN) in front of Derek Hale and of his comatose uncle – and then Scott/Posey Stans will consider everyone kicking Scott’s whiny, toxic excuse of an ass to the curb and not giving an utter crap when Scott died in Season 5 as an act equivalent of treason

I put all your asks together so I didn’t get confused (which is v likely to happen) and I thank you for numbering them for me. <3

The concept of a true alpha...sigh. Look, I see the intention, okay? I see the goal, the idea that you don’t have to kill someone to become an Alpha. That there can be “Good” Alphas who haven’t killed anyone. But I also think it’s lazy writing. This is one the few instances where TW hadn’t actually shot themselves in the foot yet. They gave us so little information on werewolves that they never actually said that the only way to become an Alpha was by killing another Alpha. They could very easily have said “Also, you can become an Alpha this other way” (Be it by passing the Alpha spark down to children willingly, or being beaten in a special kind of combat, or through a ritual of some kind)

But they didn’t just want another way to be the Alpha. They wanted a way that didn’t take any effort. It would be too hard to introduce another Alpha that would give up their spark to Scott, or to have him put in the effort to do a ritual. They needed a way to make Scott an Alpha without any additional effort. Part of me honestly wonders if they did it because they knew they’d lost a lot of Scott fans by the end of Season 2, what with all of his betrayals and lies and what he did to Derek. They needed a way to reaffirm that Scott was the good guy, so they made up the True Alpha thing and said “Look! He’s so pure and goodhearted and he has so much good will, that he can’t even help but become an Alpha”

They demonized werewolves by reducing them to murderers who had to kill for power (In Derek’s case it was survival, and i’ll fight for him.) and then held Scott up as a saint because he managed it without killing.

Except that he had killed. Or at least tried to kill. How could he be this pure person they claimed if he spent weeks poisoning a cancer patient, lying to everyone around him, and he took Pleasure in it. He was Proud of himself for his lies and his tricks and for getting back at Derek by hurting him. That’s the kind of behavior we expect from Stiles, who is established as a morally gray character. You cannot have Scott do something like that and then make the claim that he is morally pure.

Once Scott finds out from Morrell that killing someone will take away his True Alpha status, he goes out of his way to avoid killing people even when it puts others at risk. This ISN’T an Avatar moment, okay? He doesn’t summon the power of his ancestors and render the villains completely incapable of harm. He just fucking lets them go! Deucalion gets his fucking eyesight back for fuck’s sake. He was MORE dangerous than before and they let him go! (I know Derek was part of that, but I’m pretty sure Derek was possessed by a pod person by that point)

He never said he’d behave. No one checked on him or watched to make sure he didn’t hurt anyone. They just let him leave. He could’ve just rebuilt a new Alpha pack. Could’ve killed dozens more people.

Jennifer would have too, had Peter not killed her.

Even better, he brings Ethan and Aiden into his pack. They walked right up to him and told him “Everyone is hunting for us because we killed a ton of people” and he just took them in? Gave them protection from the families of the people they’d slaughtered? All because they followed him around for a bit and said “We’ll only kill for you from now on.”

And this is why I get so frustrated about the blue eyes. The concept of ‘taking an innocent life’ is so fucking vague? Scott is indirectly responsible for countless deaths throughout the show. Whether by inaction or because the people doing the killing were acting on his orders, or whatever the fuck else I can’t think of at the moment. It doesn’t matter if he hasn’t intended to kill anyone. He should not still have his True Alpha status. Period. But he does, so apparently Scott can kill as many people as he wants, actually, so long as he doesn’t do it with his own claws and teeth. Or maybe he just can’t kill a human who hasn’t killed anyone else? Who the fuck knows.

I’ll say it again. If The Alpha spark can be used to heal someone, why didn’t Scott use it to save Allison? She wasn’t cursed. She was stabbed. He could’ve done the same thing Derek did. Peter even said that it can be done on accident. All it requires is that he do the pain drain and not stop when it starts to hurt.

To be quite honest, I don’t blame Scott’s True Alpha eyes for his entitlement and his belief that he can do no wrong. He held that same notion way before his eyes ever turned red. The eyes are to blame for no one else calling him out for his actions. You’re told by the only fucking person who seems to know what’s going on in the supernatural world that this kid’s eyes turned red all on their own because he is meant to be an Alpha. That it’s because he is good and pure and it’s a sign of his worthiness. He literally was just gifted extra power, apparently because he’s the only one worthy of it. How the fuck are you supposed to deal with that? Are you supposed to be the one person who tells fucking Werewolf Jesus (technically Derek is Actual werewolf jesus what with the evolution thing, but before that Scott’s as close as it gets cus’ Peter’s just a zombie.) that he doesn’t know best? That he’s doing something wrong? If the Powers that Be made Scott an Alpha, what will they do to the one who tells him he fucked up? Everyone is just supposed to trust that Scott must be in the right. That his reasons are good enough. That he knows what’s best. Because if he doesn’t, then why the sudden Alpha eyes? Peter questions Scott often and happily, mostly because he doesn’t care if he gets struck by lightning or something. It’ll always be worth it to get that last quip in. Eventually Stiles starts to argue too, because he’s reached the point where he doesn’t care if he dies so long as everyone else important to him stops getting hurt. That’s when Scott starts cutting him out. When he stops believing Scott knows best.

And honestly, it’s like the first post I made that sparked this whole ranting binge. Scott cheats. He cheats and he uses his abilities to his advantage without ever thinking of what it does to other people. Except this time he’s not cheating at lacrosse. He’s not taking credit for bowling six strikes in a row. For some reason his eyes turned red, and everyone else is taking it as a sign that he must know better and he should be in charge, and he never disagrees.

Sure, he complains. “Why me? Why does it have to be my responsibility?”

Guess what buddy? It fucking doesn’t. If you stopped fucking ordering people around and admitted you don’t know what you’re doing to someone besides your MOM and you want someone else to take the lead? THEY WOULD. But because he will not admit any kind of weakness or that he isn’t sure what to do, he puts the weight on himself. He blames everyone else for the lead weights he tied around his waist. He doesn’t want to have to do the work, but he hates the idea of someone else being in charge. Of not being important. We’re told right off the bat that Scott wants to be important. He wants to be on first line not because he loves the game, but because he wants to be popular. He wants Allison to go out with him. This is just another way he wants to be important, and he won’t ever let go of it. He gives orders and makes calls on who gets to know what and who is worthy and won’t take responsibility for the failures, but happily takes credit for the successes. When he fucks up by not talking to people or by lying to them or making a bad call, he doesn’t admit it. He doesn’t tell anyone. He lets them think that he’s blameless so that when he actually says shit like “I lost them” someone will say “They’ll come back because you’re their leader” No. He’s not. He lost them because he pushed them away. It was his fault.

Whatever. I’m salty. *pouts* Anyway. True Alpha is dumb, and I’ve read a couple theories about how Deaton made it up, and tbh, I’d follow that logic. If you’re curious, I think I tagged it ‘true alpha’ or ‘deaton’ on my blog.

[bellemorte180]

The “How Caroline would have been in Season 1 of The Originals” breakdown that a few people asked me to do.

 First go read the breakdown I wrote about how Caroline joined TO!. Caroline is not in the first half of TO because she is dealing with all the stuff in TVD that would eventually lead to her coming to TO! 

Buckle up, cuz this is LONG and it only covers Season 1. 

Most importantly.NO MAGIC BABY.

Klaus comes to NOLA because he learns his adoptive son Marcel is still alive. He sees Marcel running NOLA as a king and feels betrayed that Marcel let him believe that he has been dead for a century. Marcel is less than welcoming to Klaus, believing that Klaus left him to die back in the day. Klaus starts a war, edged on by the witches, who cannot practice magic.

Jane-Ann D. is still alive. (no baby, no need to do the spell that got her killed) Klaus makes a deal with them to take down Marcel. War breaks out. Sophie and Jane-Ann are trying to get Monique back through Davina by completing the Harvest. Plus, Klaus always had a thing for witches back in the TVD (remember Greta and Maddox?) so they develop an alliance.

The Davina storyline is pretty much the same. Hidden in the attic. Klaus daggers Elijah….

Rebekah comes to town to find Elijah just like in the show.

Hayley comes to town because she learned that her parents were part of the NOLA pack- that Tyler small storyline happens here but with Hayley instead. Klaus crushes her for the betrayal back in TVD that lead to 12 Hybrids being captive. He has Sophie and Jane-Ann curse Hayley to be a wolf every day except on the night of the full moon; like the rest of the pack.

Cami is a character, but Marcel is in love with her, so Klaus uses her as a pawn, toying with Marcel. Literally, I imagine Klaus keeping Cami as a prisoner or something; more or less with compulsion and not actually held captive in a dungeon. Not in the, forget me unless you see me way, but kill yourself if Marcel or Father Kiernan step out of line kind of compulsion. Cami does try and see the goodness in Klaus and developed a stock-holm syndrome type deal with him. This also leads Klaus to holding the human faction by the throat because Father Kiernan, Cami’s uncle, is head of it.

The whole romance drama between Rebekah and Marcel happens and that leads to them trying to overthrow Klaus and it all comes to head with Klaus taking back NOLA.

Now, this is where Caroline comes in.

Remember when Klaus goes to MF to see Katherine die? Yeah, instead it was because he learned that Caroline turned her humanity off. He goes and an emotionless Caroline comes back with him.

Caroline comes to town and really does not give two shits about anything. She kills who she wants and when she wants. She is a GIANT bitch to Rebekah (who Klaus has not forgiven for siding with Marcel). Elijah tries to get her emotions to turn back on, by telling her of his relationship with Celeste and that whole affair, Caroline does not care. Klaus actually enjoys Caroline this way and teaches her to embrace this part.

Caroline tries to seduce Klaus, but he says he won’t have sex with her again until her emotions are back on.

Cami is a prisoner of Klaus’s and Caroline likes to toy with her. Cami tries to psychoanalyze Caroline. Caroline does not give a shit and basically toys with Cami just to prove to her that Klaus can’t be fixed. Davina is helping Cami fight the compulsion that Klaus has her under.

All the while Klaus and emotionless Caroline are still having this dance of will they or wont they?-but with murder and chaos.

The Harvest takes place and Monique rises from the dead; continuing on with Sophie and Jane-Ann’s storyline.

Monique does not kill Sophie, but instead Jane-Anne; her mother. This sends Sophie into a depression. No. I don’t kill Sophie.

Then Genevieve comes to town.

Does Klaus have sex with Genevieve? Yes. But here is the kicker, Caroline doesn’t care. She actually then has sex with Genevieve herself, while Klaus watches. They use Genevieve as another layer for their twisted dance of whether or not they will give in to one another.

But Klaus wants Caroline’s emotions on first.

Now, the storyline that we learn about Rebekah and Marcel summoning Mikael and Klaus loses his shit in the graveyard? Still all happens with one change. Remember how I said Rebekah and Caroline hate each other- that comes to terms here. Elijah is the angel on Klaus’s shoulder telling him to spare his sister while Caroline is telling him to kill her. Emotionless remember.

Klaus doesn’t kill Rebekah but does set her free. Klaus then puts Marcel in The Garden; unable to forgive him for this betrayal.

Elijah asks Caroline why she would push Klaus towards killing his sister and she tells him that it’s because she doesn’t want to feel something for Klaus; thus her emotions turn back on. It would be easier if he hated her.

Ladies and gentlemen, Caroline is slowly starting to feel something….but it’s like dimmed.

The Francesca, werewolf, storyline is still going on in the background.

Elijah and Celeste are a bigger story here. I imagine that instead of him falling for Hayley, we dive more into this relationship throughout the series.

Caroline and Sophie bond over their shared pain. Sophie slowly becomes the first real friend Caroline starts making in NOLA outside of Klaus. Sophie starts practicing magic more than she had previously (remember prior to the Harvest, Sophie really didn’t use magic)

Shortly after this, Father Kieran dies much like in the show. Caroline is present for it and Cami believes that Caroline killed him. She didn’t actually do this, but Cami is convinced. They have the funeral and Caroline is with Klaus much like in the show. Elijah brings Cami to the funeral and she watches Klaus and Caroline, walk arm and arm down the street. Between believing that Caroline killed her uncle and her feelings for Klaus, Cami is enraged.

Cami goes to Davina and they both make a deal with Geneviève. Cami helps Genevieve retrieve the final white oak stake from Klaus’s possession, thinking that it will lead to only Caroline’s death.

Genevieve came back from the dead because Mama Original on The Other Side wants to kill her children. Surprise Surprise.  Because remember, no magical baby. Genevieve preforms a ritual during the full moon, one written by Esther on the Other Side, to kill an Original.

During the ritual, Caroline is forced to watch as Klaus is slowly being killed. However, it’s not Marcel who saves the day in (he is in the Garden remember), but it’s actually Hayley. It’s a full moon, so she is in her human form. She hears that something is going down and saves Klaus by killing Genevieve and Monique and the third harvest witch. This also causes Celeste’s spirit to vanish. Elijah torn apart by Celest’s betrayal.

Hayley wants to make a deal to be human again, Klaus agrees to help the werewolves, but conveniently leaves her out of the deal.

Caroline’s emotions are turned on full force and when she realizes that it’s because she didn’t want Klaus to die. She has real feelings for him, which she knew about but with her grief she couldn’t focus on it. There is a scene where Caroline breaks down in Klaus’s arms over everything.

Davin is angry that the plot with Genevieve did not work, come up with plan B. She joins forces with Francesca. Making good on the deal he made with Hayley, Klaus agrees to create moonlight rings. Since Davina is a harvest witches and Sophie is still in the middle of a depressive episode, she do it; which backfires on him. Klaus is weakened by the moonlight rings.

Caroline is furious at what happened and blames Cami (it was her fault that they had the white oak stake in the first place). Caroline says that since Cami’s uncle is dead and Marcel is in the garden, Cami has been rendered useless and kills her. No, Cami coming back as a vampire….she just dies.

Which in turn angers Davina who built a friendship with Cami and wants Marcel out of the Garden.

Klaus is weakened by the moonlight rings. Caroline, who has full range of her emotions, calls Rebekah to tell her what happened. Caroline apologizes for being a giant bitch to her. While nothing is perfect, the two come to an understanding.

The season ends with the werewolves in power, Klaus weakened, Elijah mourning Celeste (again), Caroline finally grieving her mom and everything she has done, Sophie grieving over the loss of Monique and Jane-Ann, Davina pissed off because Marcel is in the Garden and Cami is dead, Hayley is still a werewolf full time, only human during the full moon, Marcel is in the Garden and Rebekah is still not in town.

[kibybun]

Can I Get a undertale au where hawks is chara and hawks just hate when y/n (frisk) talk other people Hawks so he Manipulate into thinking everyone is against her finally boss sans (Dabi ) where she literally told that nobody against her After Murdering Dabi meet hawks “now we finally together nobody will help since murder everyone “ Or any plot be fine Hawks ( chara) Dabi ( sans ) Y/n (frisk ) Or you could change Around But please make hawks the main love Interest thanks so much

Yesss I love this idea so much! Thank you so much for requesting!

Yandere Hawks x reader

Undertale au!

Tw: Yandere, manipulation, murder

Enjoy!

❤Everything goes down in a blur as the wind whips past you. You hasn't mean to fall, you tripped even though there was nothing there to trip on. You try and reach out to catch something but everything went black.

❤You open your eyes and a circle of light so far up. You try and sit up back is stopped due to the excruciating pain coursing through your head. You look around and find yourself in a patch of golden buttercups within a large cave.

❤That's when you were greeted by a echo like voice. It was masculine and had curiosity as it questioned who you were and how you came to be down here.

❤You don't answer, simply thinking it was the ringing in your head from the fall. Instead you slowly stand and make your way to a large purple door hidden away in the shadows with strange encryptions on it.

❤The voice follows you with a annoyed tone. You still ignore it and push through the door and spot a line buttercup sitting in a patch of sun.

❤You jump when the flower starts speaking and explaining what a soul is. The voice was grumbling about something but fell silent as your red soul floated out in front of you.

❤You could swear that you felt someone touching your soul.

❤The flower continues speaking and says something about friendliness pellets. White petals floated towards you and you were tempted to touch the but the voice strongly demanded you didn't.

❤You don't know what compelled you to listen but you did. As you dodge the flower grows angry yet tries to keep its composure and sends another wave of petals. You dodge again and the flower snaps.

❤Its face contorts and it let's out a demonic laugh as you shrink back and bump into something that isnt there.

❤You cover your face in a attempt to hide from the pain about to happen but a gentle femal voice speaks. She says soothing words to calm your racing heart but you refuse to look out of her due to fear and the voice who says not to.

❤It helped you before so why wouldn't it help you now?

❤The lady asks you questions but you dont answer. She goes to touch you but you feel something push you out of the way of her touch.

❤She understands you dont want to be touched and simply asks you to follow. You wait for the voice to give you instructions before you make any decision. You feel something grab your hand and lead you behind the lady, saying they'll take care of everything if you listened.

❤You continue on with your head down until she leads you to a beaten up dummy. She asks you to make polite conversation with it but your guiding voice said otherwise.

❤You use a stick to give it a firm wacking causing the fabric to rip and for stuffing to fall out. The lady pauses and awkwardly clears her throat before walking on. Before you follow you were showered with praise by the voice that, oddly, made your heart warm.

❤The lady leaves you and the voice tells you to persist on, so you do. Along the way the voice directs you the harm the monsters along the way. You listen and make it on your way barely harmed.

❤At one point you even felt feathers brush against your skin in a protective and delicate way. It was comforting and ominous at the same time but you brush it off, continuing to hold the invisible hand that guided you.

❤You finally make it to a small house. Inside was the lady who you still refuse to look at. She leads you to a room and tells you to rest. You crawl into bed and a pair of arms wrap around you tightly.

❤When you wake up you find a piece of pie laying on the ground in front of you. You cautiously eat it and venture out the room to find the lady reading. The voice tells you to head into the kitchen and grab a knife. You do as your told.

❤You then sneak past the lady and down a set of stairs and make it to another large door before the lady comes and begs you to go back. When you refuse your soul shows its self and the battle begins.

❤The voice helps you dodge and tells you to wait before you attack.

❤ Finally the lady crumbles and starts to cry. She explains how she only wants to take care of you, how she lost her family and how she wanted to start a new and take care of you. She opens her arms for you and the voice tells you to hug her. You do and you feel your grip around the knife tighter as you're told to stab her. You do as you're told.

❤Her body turns to dust and you walk out the door to see the flower. The flower says something about her death and disappeares with a evil laugh.

❤No matter, your invisible hand leads you out the door and through the chilling winter forrest. You barely noticed the branch cracking in half with blue ash falling around it.

❤You almost didn't notice the person standing in front of you. You try and lift your head to look at them but something shoved you head down, preventing that. Either way the person introduces themselves and holds out a hand.

❤You couldn't hear their name due to something whispering static in your ears and when you went to shake their hand your hand was pulled back down. You were also given a strict warning not to interact with the person in front of you.

❤You try to walk past but the person grabs your elbow and spins you so you're facing them. They then try and lift your chin so you would look at them but once again your head was being pushed down to prevent it. You could tell that the person in front of you was male.

❤The fight over your head stops as footsteps approached through the snow. The man quickly pulls you and hides you behind a oddly shaped lamp.

❤The new person arrives and you were forbidden from looking up it seemed. You listen and determine how the new person behaves due to the way he speaks. He sounds like a brat that can't stand not having his way, spoken with a raspy voice.

❤They leave and instantly you're dragged off before the man before could say anything to you.

❤You are thrown into more fights that you win, staining the snow with grey. You're also challenged with puzzles that your invisible guide helps with. It also makes sure you leave no survivors.

❤You obey.

❤It hurt watching the dogs whimper as you cut them with the dull kitchen knife but the voice was the only thing you trusted. It was right about the flower so it must be trying to help you all around. It was protecting you so you trusted it, more than yourself.

❤You reach the end of Snowdin leaving no obstacles in your wake, except the tall bratty fellow. They demanded you take them on, saying that you could change and how he'd forgive you. You fight him without hurting him as instructed by the voice. He does his final move and opens his arms to you just as the lady did. You again jump onto his arms but this time you're instructed to go for the head. With a fatal blow of betrayal and your knife his head falls to the ground.

❤You walk into the waterfall, not caring to watch the head turn to dust as well as his body.

❤You again get led by a invisible hand that showers you in praise and helps you eliminate everything in sight. You even meet a little kid along the way.

❤They blab on and on about a certain hero who's name was blurred from your hearing. You honestly thought the voice would instantly tell you to eliminate them but it said to wait. So you did.

❤Along the way you got attacked by someone with blue spears and the voice simply advised you to run. This causes you to fall down the waterfall.

❤You wake up in garbage with a sore body but your invisible companion doesn't care. You're pulled from the garage and thrown into more and more fights.

❤You see the man from before a few more times, seeing that he has multiple dark burn marks that are hard to see in the dark. At one point you wanted to go interact with him because he had a telescope but you were pulled away.

❤You find a little cove of cat like creatures that let out the saddest of cries as your knife ended them. You couldn't do anything to help them, that's what the voice wanted.

❤You meet back up with the kid from before and started getting chased by the same person with the spears. The kid slips and holds onto the side of the cliff, calling out for help. The voice tells you to make them fall. You walk over and bend down before plucking at their fingers, making them fall.

❤The hero instantly jumps down and saves them. The hand takes the time to drag you along and run.

❤Unfortunately the hero catches up and fights you. Due to their fall they were badly hurt, making the fight end a lot faster. But then the kid before confronts you, demanding you fight them. It was a lazy swipe of your blade that ended their life.

❤Everything went by quickly after that. You had managed to kill the lizard that was spying on you and complete the puzzles with ease. You even brought that cute couple's life to an end, atleast they were together.

❤You had made it to a restaurant and the guy was there too. He didn't hesitate to grab you and teleport you to a table with him. The restaurant was near empty yet the atmosphere was still lively.

❤The man's voice was muffled to you and it was hard to even pay attention to you as you were violently being yanked out of your chair. The man noticed this and yanked you back into his arms. You stood uncomfortable, feeling the rage of your invisible friend grow.

❤Your knife starts floating and darts at the man. Before he disappears he tells you to run. Sadly, it was impossible to ran as your hand was trapped in a bone crushing grip that dragged you along the way.

❤Dust coated your clothing as you entered a dark room with a spotlight. Someone with a robotic voice then started to monologue so you decided to simply attack to get the battle over with.

❤The battle fully begins and cameras float around and broadcast your fight to the very few people still alive. Your invisible friend grows irritated and seemingly possessed you. Your movements weren't your own and the thoughts in your head were playing out in a different voice.

❤The battle ended quickly and your body runs off but you didn't object or fight back. It was only trying to help you... right?

❤Your body charges though a monochrome area very similar to the ladies house from before. Your body only stops once to pick up a much sharper knife that gleamed before exiting the place. That's when you entered a large hall with stained glass decorating the walls with a line person standing in the middle, waiting.

❤There stood the man from before, but this time you could actually see his face. His face was decorated with burn marks yet he was still very attractive.

❤You started talking but it wasnt in your voice. It held malace towards the man for being in the way. The man held a calm expression before attacking. Blue flames and bones erupted from the ground, aiming to kill you.

❤Somehow your body dodges all attacks thrown at it and so does the man. It was almost like they've fought countless times before with different stories behind each time but this time was different. Someone didnt follow the rules, someone got involved when they shouldn't have.

❤This would be their last fight together.

❤The man started sweating as your body continued at the same incredibly fast pace. You didn't want the man to die but if your guide said so it must happen.

❤The final blow was dealt and the man felt to the ground clutching his bleeding chest. You felt as if in a different timeline or universe the two of you could've been great friends, lovers even, but this wasn't one of them.

❤You continue to be a passenger in your own body and it pushes on through another set of doors. Not before hearing the man say a final and heartfelt goodbye to the world he called home.

❤That's when the final battle of your journey starts. It was the king this time. You barely had time to look at his face before he was dust.

❤A final push through some doors and you're back in a dark room with the only light falling on a lone flower. You regain control over your body as the flower starts talking but it was interrupted by something invisible cutting it at the stem.

❤That's when you see him. Your guide with the cold eyes and blood red wings.

❤He happily turns to you and grabs you. You felt an unbearable amount of unease as he whispers how he'll take care of you, how no one will hurt you, how he'll always love you, how you could never leave him now.

💔Then everything went black.

💔GAME OVER.

Kiby~💚

[magaprima]

Part 2 Episode 6 Analysis (4/4) i.e the horrendous final Lilith scene of the episode that causes me so much pain it’s took me ages to get around to writing about it

The scene literally starts with her vomiting, and we get the vibe that she has been vomiting for a while and this is coming to the end of it. There’s no score initially, meaning all we hear is her retching, and the lack of score just makes the scene feel as raw as Lilith’s emotions, and it’s only when she starts expressing her feelings aloud for us that the music properly cuts in.

But the fact is we have seen Lilith ‘feast on male flesh’ twice in the series already and we’ve also see her proclaim it proudly and use it as a threat (towards Blackwood). This is not something Lilith dislikes doing, and the fact she does it infrequently and refers to it as ‘feasting’ suggests she views a male flesh buffet as being a treat, it’s something she indulges in, it’s not her regular run-of-the-mill meal. And, though I hate to say it, before she knew the steak was made of Adam, she stated how delicious it was, enough for her to think Adam was an very talented chef for serving that meal. She liked the taste, Lilith truly enjoys this particular feast. The fact that she is now vomiting it all back up, that the thing she openly admitted tasted delicious is now so vile to her she is bringing it all back up, really tells you all you need to know not just about how intensely she felt about Adam, but also about how horrific this punishment was for her. The Dark Lord hasn’t just made her suffer, he hasn’t just upset, he hasn’t just broken her heart, he has made her physically sick. And that is something visceral, guttural and primal in it’s emotion.  

It’s just so heartbreaking to watch that moment, the way she throws up, and when she’s done, collapsing into her own hand. She looks absolutely brokenhearted and in that moment where she’s leaning on the toilet, crying while she covers her eyes with her hand, she looks so small, so hurt, so fragile and so utterly human. She looks so human in that moment. She could easily be the real Mary Wardwell right there if you’d just tuned in. She felt a positive human emotion in her relationship with Adam and now she is feeling a negative human emotion in her loss of him; she is feeling pure, unadulterated grief, and you can just see it’s that kind of grief where you keep going over in your head what you could have done differently to avoid it. This was not a natural death, obviously, and we also know Lilith haa the power to bring back the dead (as she did Mary), the fact she can’t with Adam suggests the Dark Lord’s killing of him, taking of his soul, perhaps, has put him far beyond her reach, meaning it’s a complete death for her. This is not a death that can be undone or fixed, it’s not even a death where she can see the soul herself, it is a permanent, complete death, done with, and it’s that that she’s grieving for as well, I think; the absoluteness of it.

She is genuinely crying here. It’s like a human cry. And I say that specifically, because up till now, we’ve mostly only ever seen Lilith behave outside of the normal human realm of emotion. She reacts differently to things (like how she’s bewildered by Adam’s kindness or how she showed no sympathy for Daniel Webster’s grief; it’s all typically different to how humans react to certain things) but here she is reacting just as any human would. She is crying, she is grieving, she is in physical pain from that grief at a loss of someone she loved; there is nothing more human than that. I mean, you would never see Lucifer have this emotion, or the Plague Kings, or even Caliban etc. But you could see Zelda reacting this way, Hilda, Sabrina etc, because they’re human (well witch-human, which is slightly different if the 13 month of pregnancy is any indication. But the point still stands). 

“I don’t understand...I don’t understand...” When she’s muttering this and trying to find a reason why Adam died, that desperation to find logic and reason in a tragedy is also so tremendously human. I think, honestly, this i why this scene hurts so much; it’s not just the loss and suffering and grief, it’s the fact we’re seeing Lilith be entirely without defence, we’re seeing the human part of her entirely, without cover. 

“How did the Dark Lord discover us?”

Discover us. She is referred to her and Adam as an us. There’s something so tragically romantic and affectionate in that. It’s not ‘how did he discover my mortal play thing?’ it’s not ‘how did he discover adam?’ it’s not even ‘how did he discover i didn’t kill him?’, it’s ‘how did he discover us?’. She is identifying her and Adam as unit, an official couple. It wasn’t Adam that was discovered, it was the both of them. They were happy, they were leaving for Tibet and they were discovered. Even though he’s dead, she’s still speaking about him through couple-language and that’s just heartbreaking. Added to the way she holds the ring and repeats that it should have hidden him....she calls herself a grieving widow in the next episode, and you can’t deny this is exactly how she sounds in this moment. The fact she’s wearing black like a funeral outfit only adds to the effect.

The only moment her sadness disappears from her expression is when she realises what happened and she looks at Stolas. And you can see how it doesn’t take her long to get to that conclusion and you know how certain she is that she’s right, and it’s the kind of certainty that comes from knowing betrayal. Lilith has known disloyalty and betrayal so much that she knows she’s right when she looks to her familiar as the culprit. 

And it’s while she’s confronting Stolas that we cut to a bird’s eye view shot (interesting pun of a choice, perhaps) and we see how Lilith is sat. She is just on the floor, in the corner, with her legs just out. There’s none of her usual grace, elegance, sensuality, sexuality, none of it. We’ve only ever seen Lilith sit the same way she stands and walks; with purpose, everything in place, utter sensual perfection, always on, never wavering....but here there’s none of that, all of that glamorous air she maintains is gone. She is utterly vulnerable and broken on the floor, with no care for how she looks. Again, it emphasises that look of humanity in her. 

“You’ve been reporting back to the Dark Lord ever since he brought you back to life, haven’t you?”

This is a really horrible thing for Lilith to realise. Her familiar, the one she has called her trusted companion, who has been with her since the very beginning and (according to the passion play) even before she met the Dark Lord himself, has chosen the Dark Lord over her. He decided loyalty to him was more important than Lilith’s happiness. It’s the ultimate betrayal; she knows Lucifer pulls some serious shit, but Stolas is meant to be someone she can rely on, someone who is loyal to her no matter what (familiars are bound to their witches, after all) and yet he is the one who brought about this utter heartbreak. And, by the way he stands on the ledge and replies to her, we presume he feels justified in his actions, that he wasn’t forthcoming with any apology. She has discovered that not only does the Dark Lord not care what she wants and decides things for her, but so does her familiar. Even her own familiar doesn’t honour her or her wishes. This is her oldest friend, they’ve been through highs and lows together, they’ve presumably fallen out and made up (I sometimes wonder if killing him has been as much a pattern as Zelda killing Hilda was) and yet when the cards were down, he chose her abuser over her, and prompted the killing of the person she loved....and then doesn’t even have remorse over it. 

It’s another loss and I think that shows when she screams and causes him to burn to ash (which, side not, is an extreme display of power. So much so that in the Part 2 trailer, they edited that moment to mislead us into thinking Sabrina made it happen as they say ‘she keeps getting stronger’ so even the writers and editors know that that is as bad ass as it’s gotten so far in the show. That moment does remind us just how freaking awesomely powerful Lilith is) and she cries again. No, actually, it’s more a wail. Because in that moment of destroying Stolas permanently, with no chance of resurrection, it’s confirmation that she has lost both Adam and Stolas in one foul swoop. It’s two deaths (though Stolas’ is more death by betrayal than by his literal death). She thought she was surrounded by people who cared about her, she probably felt her life was very full and supportive, and now suddenly there’s nothing; she’s lost the person she loved and she’s lost her oldest friend, all in the space of an hour basically. 

And then after that expulsion of loud, raw grief, Lilith turns to her natural instinct; plotting. She rallies herself, she takes strength in a plan, and I think it’s so interesting that her plan isn’t ‘kill the Dark Lord’ it isn’t even ‘Lead a coup’, it’s a plan to make him feel the pain she feels, because to Lilith, right now, that’s the worst thing you can have happen to you. She is feeling such grief and agony she can’t imagine anything worse to suffer, to feel what she’s feeling would be worse for the Dark Lord than death (though as I said above, I doubt Lucifer can feel this sort of raw emotion, as he was never human). 

“But the Dark Lord doesn’t know all. He’s not omniscient. He’s not omnipotent. Which means...he won’t see what’s coming next”

Our first hint/foreshadowy reminder that Lilith knows the Dark Lord’s weaknesses. Everyone else in the show refers to him as their God, they speak of him as knowing everything, that he’s everywhere, that he answers everyone, that you can’t hide from him etc. But we see hear that Lilith knows better, that Lilith knows he can’t see everything and that he can only be in one place at a time. She has been with him since his fall and she knows both his weaknesses and limitations. She’s able to plan around that. 

When she decides to wear Adam’s ring, not only is this her making a conscious decision not to forget him but to keep him in her mind (and her heart?), but you also see her consciously decide which finger to put it on. She could have put it on her right hand, or on her middle finger of her left hand, but she actively picks the ring finger of her left hand. The wedding finger. Lilith knows what this means, and as I said, she calls herself a widow in the next episode, and here Lilith is consciously, purposefully and willingly choosing that designation for herself. This ties into what I need to write about on a bigger post, about how she was created in the Garden and her core being in those early days, has an effect on her choices and reactions even today, because she was a wife in the very beginning, that’s how she started out, so there’s a sense of coming full circle on her own terms here, that in the Garden she was forced to be a wife, but here she’s choosing to be one, because this Adam earned it, he earned her love and mutual respect, while the first Adam didn’t. 

“He took away the one thing I loved. Now I’ll do the same to him”

The fact there is no denial here, no room for interpretation, this is full, out-and-out confirmation that she had fallen in love with Adam, which is not only impressive considering her general disdain and dislike towards mortal men, but it also shows Lilith has a huge capacity for emotion and affection and love, reminding us that she’s not simply a demoness, but something much more complicated and nuanced, and it also shows us that she’s not closed off. People can win her over, she isn’t closed in her heart or her mind, she does listen, she does consider, she’s not static in the way she is, and she can grow and change and experience new things. And I think this moment is one where she changed irrevocably, the Lilith we see from this moment on is not the same Lilith we’ve seen since Part 1. And you do see, in future episodes, how she reacts differently to situations to how she did in the beginning (for example, when Sabrina fails to tell her Lucifer is free and says ‘I had other things on her mind’ Lilith does not get hateful, she doesn’t even attack Sabrina for it, and then when Zelda turns her away, Lilith does nothing more than insult her, whereas she would have once actively plotted her downfall and/or murder). 

[onepiece-polls]

One Piece Shipping War - Round 2 Side C

Lusan art by @supernaturallyginger. Check out the original post here!

Propaganda under the cut.

Propaganda for Sanji x Luffy:

I don't think anyone is gonna bother denying the fact that WCI is literally just the plot of an otome isekai shoujo manga/manhwa. MC (main character) is treated like trash by family except for the 1 dead mom and 1 nice sympathetic supporter that can't do much of anything to help. MC escapes only to find themselves in an even worse situation somewhat of their own making, only to be swept off their feet by the ML (male lead) and saved, full damsel in distress style. Dramatic love confessions, crying in the rain, betrayal from an arranged marriage, it has it all.

Dude Luffy loves Sanji so so much like WCI is the best example and like you don't even really need to see the love as romantic if that bugs you but dudes. The first words out of the Luffys Shadow Possessed Oars was yelling for Sanji. He just loves Sanji so much and Sanji loves him too

The WCI arc in itself is mega SanLu propaganda. Luffy invaded an emperor’s territory, completely crashed a wedding, went up against Sanji’s evil science family, and got nearly beat to death by Sanji himself all in order to get Sanji back. Sanji offered his life to Kuma at thriller bark so Kuma wouldn’t kill Luffy. He pushed himself for 2 years all in order to get stronger FOR Luffy. Sanji feels sorry when he isn’t useful, the whole reason why he used the raid suit those few times was because he was thinking about getting stronger for Luffy, but realized that he didn’t want to become an emotionless monster like his family. Sanji broke down in tears at WCI when he tried to get Luffy to go away by fighting him. And then broke down in tears again when he ran back to Luffy and told him he wanted to go back home to the Sunny. No matter what Sanji cooks, Luffy always likes it and is proud to have him in his crew. Sanji is also one of Luffy’s “wings”, as stated by Robin! They’re both just so sweet and clearly care very deeply about each other.

Luffy saving Sanji on whole cake island got to me

[Insert everything that happens between them during WCI] how could I see luffy yelling about how he won't eat anything and will starve- LUFFY OF ALL PEOPLE- unless Sanji comes back and not ship them at LEAST a little. "Without you I can't become the pirate king" absolutely devastating cinema. Then Sanji laying out everything, in tears, and Luffy accepting it all and just saying, "well that's who you are" poetic. Final wci thing: luffy hearing judges bs about sanji and going "whyd he start listing all your good point" true love. This seems one sided but Sanji is also just as bad. "Which version of me do you prefer" anyone? They care SO MUCH about each other. Also Luffy loves to eat, Sanji loves to feed people, they're meant to be.

*gestures at the entirety of WCI* I mean that’s Love, they are Ride or Die, Luffy cannot become the pirate king without Sanji, whether that means physically because he needs Sanji’s support or just because being the pirate king means Luffy has everything he wants and what he wants is Sanji or both. And Sanji loves him just as much back! He’s his sun he’s his world…Luffy jump and Sanji’s too busy skywalking to bother asking how high. I just love them sm

Oda himself wrote the propaganda for this, Whole Cake Island just cemented lusan as canon. "I can't become Pirate King without you!" <- that's love baby

Propaganda for Sanji x Usopp:

PLEASE they are so great for the needs love/gives love dynamic because it goes both ways.

My fav somewhat rare pair. I specifically love on skypiea when Sanji sacrifices himself to save Usopp from Enel. (And of course the scene when they wake up from their injuries holding hands!!!!)

It is simply the best Sanji ship I’m afraid

Consider: they cute

[nefelibata-agibilibus]

Why Young Justice is a disappointment

I just rewatched Young Justice, and I’m thinking about the disillusion I felt, and why, for a few days I have been thinking about this, and I want to write it, this will be a long post, and is just me venting about my feelings.

Why I like Young Justice

I love to see cartoons, series and movies. I always liked superheroes, and, when I found Young Justice I loved it, the animation was great, the fights were cool, the characters, the plot, It was awesome, into the things I like are:

The big plot: It was awesome, as we learned about they machinations of the villains, we met them, the idea of the Light, this group of people, using the Justice League, in the fight between Darkseid and Vandal Savage, the two of them conquering the universe, waiting to fight each other in the last, ultimate, fight.

The way we learned about the Light was cool too, in the first season we don’t know who they are, we watch a lot of people planning things in the background, before knowing what they want we know who they are, and, by learning all the kind of villains are part of this, we understand the plans are big, mixing technology, chaos magic and metahumans powers, with influence on the ocean, the world politics and one of the greatest group of assassins, even alien conquerors.

The core of the show: We can say this show, deep down, is about found family and teenagers stepping up.

The team is about found family, in the first season Artemis, Conner and M'gann are alone, and they found family on the team and their allies, Mount Justice became the house of Zatanna after Zatara puts on Nabu’s helmet, they are kind of a surface family for Kaldur’ahm, in the second season a lot of people live there, and call the place home, this is the new home for Bart, and the kids kidnapped by the Reach found friends on each other, in the third season the team is a family for Violet, Bryon, Vic, Tara and Forager, and the youth center for metahumans is meant to be a home, they even buy a new place to be their quarters.

This is specially for Artemis, she was raised by abusive parents, Sportmasters trained her to fight, in the comics we see she knows other villains kids, Jade ran away, Artemis wanted to ran away, and her mother is manipulative, she cries so Artemis accepted entering Gotham Academy, despite not wanted to do it, her mother also uses Lian to make her quit the superhero life and enter a relation with Will.

At the beginning she doesn’t trust the team, she hides the truth about her origins, and she is really worried they would find out, at the end she trust them, and, after five years, she and Wally even consider start their own family, in the mental playground M'gann created is clear they talked about marriage and having babies, she offers a home for Violet and Tara, not only teaching them how to control their powers and work as a team, but offering kindness, and that kindness saves Garfield life and helps Tara cut the relation she had with the Light, both of them were in abusive places, and a group of friends they made are the ones helping to be better, they choose the kind and loving people over the manipulative and abusive.

The second core of the show is teenagers asking to not be treated like kids without agency, untrusty of the league secrets, they can make decisions too, they can fight crime too, the world the grown ups are crafting is theirs too, and, yeah, the grown ups are more mature, can take better decisions because they have more experience, their brain is fully developed, and, at the beginning, Red Tornado, Black Canary and Batman look after the kids, keep and eye on them, assign the missions, do the training, Black Canary is a teurapet too!. They are taken care of physically and emotionally, but they ask for trust, Garfield and Conner said it, work with me or move away, this is my world too, and, if I can take decisions about what’s happening to it, I will act.

Artemis and Kaldur’ahm act won’t have worked without the team, they were trusted enough by the league, so, Kaldur betraying would be useful to the Light, but the big public didn’t knew a lot about him, and their missions were undercover, no big shows and public fights for the normal people to know about them, so the betrayal affect just the heroes, Artemis death just affects the team and the league won’t need to said out loud that she died, and then said “Just kidding, she was in a deep undercover mission”, like, If Wonder Woman, Superman, or any league member died, the people would get angry if later they just take back that and go away with it.

And they are important in other ways, during the first season, when Klarion created two worlds, the team were essential to calm the kids, and asked for the older ones to take care of the youngers, and, during the fight, they needed them to fight against Klarion and brake the stone in their reality to join the worlds, Zatanna is the one to put on the Helmet of Fate, she is the decisive piece to win the fight; in the third season, when the outsiders stepped into the spotlight, they save people, and show that Luthor’s impediments could cost lives, in the final moment the outsiders, by defeating Granny on earth, saved all the heroes.

The fights: The animation is 10/10, smooth, easy to follow, clean, I love it, but, especially in the first season, the fights are more than heroes punching villains, the fights develop a character, give exposition about their history, an inside on their minds, or moves the plot.

This is awesome, taking on account the first two seasons were made to be broadcast on cartoon network, for a casual viewer, while zapping, would stay for seeing the fight, but, for a viewer who wants to know the characters, it is always going to have exposition, for the plot or the character.

You can take, as an example, the episode 5 season 1 “Schooled”, we watch how Superman don’t want to work with Superboy, and we’re reminded about Conner’s anger issues, he’s acting proudly and Black Canary defeats him easily, Robin is the one smoothing him, a kind of foreshadowing for Dick being the leader, Conner gets the lesson “raw force won’t help you win every battle”, and, during the fight with Amazo, he understands that, they even present Artemis.

Some people would stay, watch the episode, and enjoy it, it has its own story, there is no real need to know all the plot to enjoy it, for a fan, or someone invested in the show, the episode is good, we watch the relation between Superboy and Superman, foreshadowing about Robin leadership and a lesson for Conner. 

The consequences: The things happening to the characters aren't capsuled on one episode, they do things that will affect them in the future.

I will take, as an example, the episode 17 of season 1 “Disordered”, chronologically is after the exercise of the aliens, a traumatic experience for the characters, and it isn’t swept below a rug, we got and inside of every character, you have the cool episode fight, and an introduction to New Genesis and Apokolips tech, something really important for the next seasons.

We deal with the feelings of everybody, and they give us hints about the secrets or the future of the characters, Robin wants to be away of Batman’s darkness, putting on track Dick’s journey to become Nightwing, for Wally, he acts like nothing happened, and is still in denial about his feelings towards Artemis, we get hints about M'gann secret and how she is affected by the idea of others knowing, the writers foreshadow Kaldur’ahm leaving the leader position for Robin, the fear Artemis has about her friends finding out about her family, and, Superboy’s wish to be Superman, all of that is the road to the character grow.

But they ruined it with the time skips.

        2. Where Young Justice failed?

Time skips: I was watching Young Justice with my dad, it was my second time with the series, he ended the first season, we started the second one, and my dad asked me if Netflix didn’t add a season, no, they didn’t forget a season, they decided to age the characters, put a lot of info in the firsts episodes, and I felt robbed.

The first skip is of five years, the team grow, M'gann is less like Hello, Megan, she and Conner broke up, she is dating a L’gaan, is treated like a sister by Garfield, whom developed powers and now is Beast Boy, Superman is treating Conner like a brother, he have less anger, and helped the Genomorphs to be free of Luthor, Roy tried to enter the Light undercover, with Jade help, they failed, decided to have a normal life, married, have a baby, and now Roy is in a bad place, everyone is worried and Jade rejoined the villains, Artemis and Wally keeped their relation and leaved the superhero life, they were doing fine, Dick became Nightwing and is the leader, dated Zatanna and broke up, Barbara became Batgirl, Batman adopted Jason, Jason died, he adopted Tim, and Kaldur’ahm, lost Tula, discovered Black Manta is his real father, (in the comics we met his father and mother, so everybody lied to him about his family), quit the team to become a villain, but, plot twist, is on a deep undercover mission, and, apparently, only Dick, Wally and Artemis knows about.

And we didn’t need the skips, like, all the things happening would be useful for one or two seasons, and, if you wanted the undercover thing, you have Roy, you, literally, said he was undercover with the Light, you had things with every character, a way to develop them.

The second skip is shorter than the first, but it wasn’t necessary either, they grieved Wally, Dick ended his time out of hero life, Barbara became Oracle, Bruce adopted Stephanie and Cassandra, and they became Orphan and Spoiler, M'gann and Conner were doing a home life, M'gann was the team leader, Roy decided to be a normal man, changed his name to Will and raised Lian with Artemis, she kept Tigress alias, and lied to his mother about being a hero, Kaldur’ahm got a boyfriend and became Aquaman, leading the Justice League, all Atlantis knew he betrayed them, and now he is the great hero for all the atlanteans, Bart took Kid flash’s mantel, got adopted by the Garricks, and was able to spend a good time with his grandparents, father and aunt, Jaime got a girlfriend, and the kids kidnapped by the Reach aren’t around, except for Eduardo, who is helping in the Youth center for metahumans, and Virgil, who’s a hero and wants a girlfriend.

If you start a show with a core group of characters, and they are the main characters, you can’t insinuate grow for them, give the hints about their future, and swept them under the rug with the beginning of the next season, then, the new characters I’m starting to care about are pushed away too, it disappoints me. I wouldn’t be surprised if in season 4, the team are the babies we saw in season 3.

And there is no need to do this, are little things you could justify to need the time, but aren’t really important or could happen before is stated in the show.

In the first jump you could justify the Kroletan invasion as a reason to skip the five years, but the Kroletans aren’t the main villains, they are only used to make a database about the Justice League, and, in the comics, changing the leader of Bialya to be under the control of the Light, (and this is never brought again), furthermore, you could justify the building of a complex base under the earth in few months, days or weeks with alien technology, or just begin with the Reach, and justify the existence of the database about earth heros with info given by the Light.

And during the second time skip you could say, Tara needed time to be brainwashed by Slade, the tech to activate the metagen is new, and the mental controls to the metahumans.

But, technically, they said Vandal Savage is a meta human, and he is older than human history, if you don’t want to count him, you could start the metahuman gen active since 1950, I think, if they have on the Light mind controllers, people older than the team, and literally made clones, have access to Apokolips technology, they have Lex Luthor! The Light didn’t need the time, and the way to activate the metagen is really different between the Reach and the Light, they didn’t need the Reach to begin the investigation.

The lack of character growth: They were doing well at the beginning, and were good, and they hit a few things on other characters during the other seasons, but they miss a lot.

Dick, for example, has a lot of little brother energy, out of mission he is teasing his friends, when Black Canary defeated Conner, he laughed, he made fun of Wally the first time they were with M'gann, he is asking, with mockery, Artemis about what she is doing in Gotham, he calls M'gann Bald Megan, when they are on the first mission on Santa Prisca he is mocking Kaldur about explaining the disaster to Batman; he is going to be the leader of the team, but he is young, despite being the one with most time working as a vigilante, he is only 13, in age the next is Wally, with 15, and that Robin is interesting, in the comics he is the leader of a lot of teams, he is the older brother of the batfam, but he has to learn how to work with a team, to be trustful, to talk to others.

Creating Dick’s growth about leadership is an excellent idea, learning to guide people, how to talk to them, and, when he is a leader, he learns to be a mentor, he is teaching Violet, Bryon and Forager to control their powers and work together, an seeing a character grow to this point, would be satisfying, but they don’t do this, and yes, he is leader on season 2, but he is barely there, the missions, the action they are doing, Dick is away, he only fights one or two times, when the alien traps them on the Justice Hall he is not there, when Bluebettle betrays them, Dick’s not there, and he leaves, M'gann is the new leader, and they never gave hints about her doing that, Barbara has more foreshadowing than M'gann, Dick tells Kaldur Batgirl can step up and help, not M'gann, and we don’t see her really leading, Dick is the trainer, and Garfield is the one creating the Outsiders; Dick is a leader, you want him leading a team, but you don’t let him be one.

And if you wanted a love interest, in the comics they said Dick and Barbara liked each other before the team started, when you only watch the cartoon is, almost, out of nowhere the relation, Barbara is in Gotham Academy a few seconds on season 1, she makes a joke with Dick on season 2, they are dating on season 3, and they only interact a few times, I would rather see both of them grow into a relation than Mal and Bumblebee having a drama, Barbara, literally, said she is waiting for Dick to be ready, right now he is a dog, textual words from Wally and Barbara, and the idea of two peoples saying “I love you and I want to be with you the rest of my life, but right now I’m not ready to give you all you deserve” is astonishing, or, you could talk about healthy polygamus relationship, condemning the jealousy that could destroy a couple.

The show had good points, other character starting big, but falling flat, is Bart, he is from the future, a dystopian future, he is willing to leave behind all his friends and family to be in the past, he had a flashback when he is, literally, slaved by the Reach, he is using a collar, doing hand labor, and we don’t know if he really succeed, the only glimpse we got is the man helping Bart, not scarred and radioactive, but still on a bad world, and, on the third season he is a comic relief, saves a girl, and takes a photo with Jay and Barry saying #WeAreAllOutsiders.

Too many characters: Having six characters as the core team, none of them being more important than the others, could be hard,  but they were doing it fine, the things went down with the second season.

Now we have a big team, we don’t really know their names, how they became heroes, why they are here, in the first season we met Zatanna, and get a few chapters of her interacting with the team and Artemis, the only one that the watcher don’t really care about is Roquet, but she is important showing the sidekicks they aren’t a shadow of their mentors, they aren’t just kids on costumes, they are real heroes, they inspired her, and, we could guess, inspired others.

But in season 2, there are a bunch of characters I don’t know, and I quit the show at the beginning of season 3 because I wanted to watch the original cast, Wonder girl wanting to be more, Mal and Bumblebee having romantical issues, L’gaan jealous about M’gann and Conner, Tim wanting trust, nothing of that matters to me, you didn’t need them, needed their drama, because they go nowhere, and, in the third season, they aren’t bring up again.

You needed Jaime, he was the weapon against the Reach, and Bart was a good character, but his presence meant they failed saving the world, and he was a kind of comic relief, but not annoying or silly, and they did good when Tye was kidnapped, we watched the worry of Jaime, how he searched for him, by that we cared about Tye.

I understand why they created Violet and Victor, having a father box and a mother box with them, not as a computer, but as thinking beings, Violet is the answer for Darkseid plan, Victor was created from the father box, and now is working with the team, and they are poc, Violet is no binary, they are good characters.

Bt they started a journey with a character, gave us hints about they journey, and then, all the developing on the background, in season 3 Will tell Dick to stop being a loner, Jefferson is surprised Dick searched for him to save the kids at Markovia and asked help to enter Granny’s house, Dick, for the viewer, was never a loner, on the first episode he is making the team, in the second season he is the leader, his first appearance on third season is working with Oracle, asking help for the mission on Markovia, doing a team with the Harper boys, and training Forager, Violet and Bryon, Will said “Whom are you recruiting this time?” For us that means Dick, usually, asks for help to do the missions, they tell us Dick was working alone, but never showed it.

        3. Conclusion

The most infuriating thing is the show is good, they have a lot of great ideas, I will watch the fourth season, I want to watch the DC Fandome, I love the show, all this babbling came from my heart, and I’m sad, because they have great ideas, they put seeds for an excellent show, but barely water them, they let the ideas rotten and die.

[thunders-warcats-stuff]

I have too many stories part 4: Series 3 and 4 stuff

Since Power of Three and Omen of the Stars are all in the same-ish set time, here’s the stuff for both.

To Sleep, To Dream where Jayfeather’s adventires with the Ancients are a bit more detailed. He meets Half Moon as an elder in his dreams, of which he has three types. History Lessons, where he sees everything we know from the books. Self Reliability Lessons, which arw hunting, fighting, and basic herbs because he should learn something even if he is blind in the waking world. Those happen with eyes open and closed. And Power Using lessons, where his dreamwalking and “mindreading” is put to the test because he uses them rather passively in canon. It’s great that he was able to save Poppypaw from going to StarClan, but I was hoping to see Cat Psychiatrist Jayfeather and we didn’t get that.

Fortune, where ThunderClan takes in a rogue from what turns out to be a trafficking ring run by other cats. They have to get her used to not only their way of life, but life in general because they teach cats to do nothing but obey whatever higher-ranking cat they take orders from. It’s definitely one of my darker stories.

Shadows of StarClan, an Omen of the Stars AU where cats are reincarnated to help the Clans prepare for the Dark Forest. It changes StarClan lore here. And it was before I knew what Dawn of the Clans was even supposed to be.

The Outcast, which comes in one of two flavors.

One is Disgraced, where Hollyleaf is stopped from killing Ashfur by Breezepelt, who broke away from the Dark Forest like Lionblaze did and is friends with the Three even before he knows the truth. Ashfur causes a scene at the Gathering and when everyone gets home, the entire truth is told, including Ashfur’s collusion with Hawkfrost and Fire Temper Tantrum, and consequences are handed out. It turns out that Ashfur is now being haunted by Hawkfrost, so even though these actions would have been taken even if he weren’t, the heaping pile of foxdung that is Hawkfrost is actvely encouraging and adding to it. Ashfur’s only solace is Thornclaw, who, for some reason, is able to get through to Ashfur when he’s being haunted. None of this excuses the actions he takes, because Hawkfrost wasn’t around during the fire, but he has different reasons and motivations for doing the things he does here.

Two is Runaways, where Squirrelflight manages to tell the Three that she wasn’t quite lying about adopting them but Brambleclaw knows and they were going to tell them shortly after they got their warrior names. They’re closer here, so they take her at her word and find somewhere away from camp to rest. Brambleclaw finds them, learns what happenes during the fire, the five of them decided they can’t stay in ThunderClan so they move to the Island. When the Gathering comes, they decide to reveal themselves. Ashfur makes a scene at the Gathering and tries to say that Leafpool was their mother (she is, but she is the only living cat who knows that in this AU because she kept it secret from literaly everyone, not just “everyone except Squirrelflight”.) He is discredited, the entire truth comes out, and Firestar says that he will be put to death for his traitorous ways. After the Gathering, when all the other Clans have left and ThunderClan has gotten answers, the medicine cats of the other Clans feed him deathberries and bury him on the island.

Hidden, which looks at how Crowfeather's second family. When Breezekit goes mssing, Nightcloud and Ashfoot are the only ones really looking for him. Nightcloud finds him, and since a ThunderClan cat rescued him from the Moonstream, they escort her back to her camp because Nightcloud needs to clear her head before she can face her Clan again. Because they literally did not care and she is fuming. So when they get to the ThunderClan camp, the first cat to greet them is the rescuer’s mate, who comes on kind of strong and scares Breezekit. Turns out, Breezekit had a reason to run away. A WindClan cat named Amberleaf is being abused by her mate, Owlwhisker, and Breezekit saw. So Amberleaf leaves camp and Breezzekit follows to make sure she gets away but he falls in the river. Now they have to find Amberleaf before Owlwhisker does and Nightcloud has to decide if she and Breezepelt are safe to go back to WindClan.

Secret Life of A ThunderClan Medicine Cat, where Cinderpaw the First meets a rogue called Storm, a blind cat who’s run into BloodClan before and is reluctant to join the other Clans. He and Cinderpaw meet several times throughout her apprenticeship until her accident, where they have to stop meeting because now it’s completely against the code. Storm eventually joins ThunderClan and has a myriad of adventures up to where he dies saving Smokepaw from falling in the mountains on the Great Journey. All of that is a setup to Cinderpelt and Storm being Cinderheart and Jaypaw reincarnated. The Kin of your Kin prophecy has nothing to do with reincarnation, though Jaypaw does meet the Ancients. Plot twist: when Cinderpaw was born, a Dark Forest cat managed to get to StarClan and disrupt the ceremony, so ow Cinderpaw has Hawkfrost haunting her, sort of. Chaos ensues as canon events try to unfold around this madness.

The rest of these are one-shots

AU where Hollyleaf kills Ashfur and gets up on the tree as in canon but Squirrelflight and Brambleclaw shut that down hard and fast by acting like, I don’t know, her actual parents, who are especially concerned because there was a fire in their territory! What are you doing up there?! Get down before you run out of breath and hurt yourself!

AU where Lionblaze has a caveat to his invincibility powers: His powers are tied to his emotions. Meaning cats he cares about can inflict lasting damage on him. So, like, it’s really obvious when Ashfur starts using claws in battle training, because those heal slowly, but a mock fight with Hollyleaf using accidental claws might leave no mark. Ashfur’s Fire Tantrum is an ultimate betrayal so he’s coughing for half a moon after that. Heathertail fighting him in battles is taken personally so he gets scars. And he always gets scarred by the Dark Forest because that place absolutely terrifies him.

 Oneshot where Squirrelflight drags Ashfur for filth during the fire scene and doesn’t spill any secrets.

AU where medicine cats learn the basics of geneaology so they can discourage inbreeding as much as they can, which leads to Jayfeather knowing about his parentage early

Oneshit where Ivypaw dies as an apprentice in the Dark Forest. It shows her vigil. Tigerheart and Flametail burst in, hoping to get to her in time but they don’t, so instead Tigerheart explains what the Dark Forest and Flametail works with Leafpool to prepare her body.

The Moons Without Stars, where Leafpool doesn’t find the Moonpool until right before The Last Hope, so either they go all that time without a connection to their ancestors and have to reform themselves without the weirdness of Broken Code OR leaders and medicine cats become more important than ever because StarClan can still contact some cats in dreams.

[dalekofchaos]

Ways I would change Solo

My other Star Wars changes

Prequels

The Clone Wars and Rebels

Original Trilogy

Sequels

Rogue One

Solo wasn’t really a bad movie, I think it is a fun movie with great potential. The problem is they focused more on the future and not in the now, a movie about Han Solo does not focus on Han Solo and it’s not necessary at all and the story is very forgettable, and it really is just a cash grab. There is nothing remarkable about the movie and the only two characters who stand out as 100% only enjoyable to me are Enfys Nest and Chewie. The rest of the characters just feel like unnecessary adds or barley passable imitations. So these are ways I would change Solo to make it a great movie

Make the movie about Han. It focused too much on other characters that don’t matter.  Solo suffers from the fact that it really isn’t an origin movie about Han, but rather a movie about how he got his stuff. Which I think is in part because Lucasfilm planned to make Solo a trilogy till it completely and utterly failed at the box office and became the most financially disappointing Star Wars movie in all of the franchise’s history. It focused too much on Qi’Ra, Beckett and L3. The movie should have been about Han. from the streets, to Imperial and to Scoundrel. The movie should have been focused on Han and his relationships with Chewie and Lando. Showing Han leaving the Imperials for freeing Chewie and the two of them work together from that day. Putting a greater emphasis on Lando would have been a smart move since he’s returning in IX, and adding Jabba and Boba mention would have made sense since Lucasfilm had really wanted to do a Boba Fett movie and testing the wasters in Solo would had been better than adding that random cameo with Darth Maul, a character who literally couldn’t have anything less to do with Han or the OT. Why is Darth Maul in a movie about Han Solo? I really feel like they should not have brought Maul back in Solo. He had his return in The Clone Wars and he got his final death in Rebels. Bringing back Maul was dumb. The majority of casual audiences do not know Maul survived TPM, they just shoehorned Maul in for sequel bait and nostalgia. The problem is they focused on the future instead of focusing on their movie.When it comes to Solo, Maul shouldn’t even be there. Han does not believe in the force and believes a lightsaber is a ancient weapon from archaic times and all he needs is a good blaster. From Han himself “I’ve never seen anything to make me believe there’s one all powerful force controlling everything.” I really feel like no one on board understood Han Solo as a character and their inability to make a Han Solo movie about Han or any aspect of Han’s character is what ultimately failed the movie.

Make it a mix between Ocean’s 11 and The Good The Bad And The Ugly. The original trilogy was influenced by Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai.  Rogue One is a Dirty Dozen type war movie. Solo’s problem is it’s just a movie. An easy fix is to make it a heist film first and then make it a space western.  Solo turned into a heist film about 45 minutes into the film. Until then you just had Ehrenreich bouncing around doing stuff. It wasn’t boring but we wasted so much time with him enlisting in the empire, joining Beckett’s gang, having Beckett’s gang die, owing Beckett a favour, meeting his long lost lover and then we finally have our plot. There’s definitely a better way to get the gang together than the convoluted way we got. 20 minutes in, we should know exactly what the stakes are for the rest of the movie.

Han Solo picks his own name. Han is a rebel without a cause. He doesn’t care where he came from, so a random Imperial Officer should not be given Solo his last name. This is Han’s story, he should tell the officer that he’s Han Solo. Han not calling himself Solo was a really bad sign.

Give Han’s original Legends Backstory and how he met Chewie. Han wanting to escape his life in the gang works better in Legends and while I don’t see anything wrong with his bond with Qi’Ra, I just felt like it was really dumb for Han to want to go back to Corellia for her and just see her 20 minutes later. Show his Imperial career more. Have him be revealed as an Ace Tie Pilot, but something changed all that, Chewie. I strongly feel like Legends Han meeting Chewie was more impactful and emotional than what we got in the actual movie. Han saving Chewie from being executed by his Imperial superiors is better than Han being thrown into a pit and speaking Shyriiwook.

More Lando. Basically focus more on Han and Lando’s friendship and surprise everyone by basically pull a Jack Harkness and have Lando kiss Han and Qi'Ra simultaneously. Show us why Han and Lando have a strong friendship, show don’t tell. Have Han and Lando being smugglers in arms. And finally Lando would not leave he would patch himself up and return to help Han in the end. We really needed to see why Han sees so much reverence in his friendship to Lando in ESB. What we got from Solo makes Lando’s betrayal unsurprising. We needed to see why Lando was willing to sacrifice an old friendship to save Bespin from the Imperials, the emotional weight of Han and Lando’s friendship wasn’t there in the movie, it needed to be there so their relationship friendship should’ve been one of the core elements of the movie.

Make Han and Qi'Ra just platonic and childhood friends. I didn’t like the romance and thought Han and Qi'Ra just worked as childhood friends. It really rubbed me the wrong way that Han’s first instinct when seeing Qi'Ra again was wanting to make out with her…when Qi'Ra has been abused by Vos for years and Qi’Ra was uncomfortable about it in Lando’s cape closet. It would be more tragic imo if being betrayed by Qi'Ra that she just wants to kill to the top and stay ahead of the food chain at the cost of old attachments, which this would help turn Han into the cold smuggler we know from ANH

Take out that god-awful “I’m not saying that full name” line Cause Han calls him Chewie and not Chewbacca! Get it? It’s one syllable in the difference. Out of all the connections in the movie, that is the very worst.

Beckett is killed instead of Val. Val was rather mistrustful and skeptical of Han, imagine if only Val, Han and Chewie made it out alive. Val would have no choice BUT to stick with Han and she would grow to trust him, Beckett was a boring character and we all saw his betrayal coming. You could’ve easily changed places with Beckett. But Val would not betray the gang. Val would’ve joined Enfys Nest, while Qi’Ra would’ve been the one to betray Han and co.

L3-37 stays on the slave planet by choice. A minor one but after L3-37 liberates the droids, I think it’d work better if she stayed on the planet to live among her “people”. Her whole shtick was she didn’t like being a slave, there was no logical way she’d get back on the Falcon after freeing all the droid so they had to kill her off. A less cheap and more rewarding pay-off would be she tells Lando she’s staying. They hug, have a moment and she gets to finish her arc. Too many characters die in this film just so the plot can progress (Okay 3, but that’s 3 more than you have to kill). Sure this means you lose the connection in A New Hope where C3-PO mentions the Falcon’s odd dialect but I think we can manage without it. Also, now Han gets to do the Kessel run without any droid help. It shows he’s a great pilot and has what it takes. That’s kinda what we needed to see.

Qi'Ra and Aurra Sing would be partners and lovers. One of the most deadly bounty hunters during the Clone Wars is fridged for Beckett’s reputation. She doesn’t even get a dignified death, not even on screen. Not even a duel. She is pushed to her death. So instead of that bullshit, Aurra would be Qi'Ra’s right hand and lover and together they would kill Vos together. 

Make Dryden Vos more of a legit threatening villain. Paul Bettany used to play really fucking evil gangster characters and that’s what I was hoping Dryden was going to be playing, but he was barely there. Make him cruel, and a clear danger. Prior to the meeting, show him execute an underling for insubordination and have him say “sorry for the mess” imply his abusive relationship with Qi’Ra and show that Qi’Ra wants out, but not in the way Han might think. She wants to kill Vos and take power for herself! And make his death at the hands of Qi'Ra and Sing mean something. Show that Sing is sick and tired of seeing Qi’Ra be hurt by that scum and will say “the Crimson Dawn would be better in your hands, just say the word and he dies” Qi’Ra would say “when the time is right, my pet” 

When the betrayal happens, Aurra Sing leads the Crimson Dawn to attack The Marauders, so we get a climatic scene of Enfys Nest fighting Aurra Sing, while Han and Lando deal with Vos, however when Qi’Ra’s betrayal is revealed, show Qi’Ra killing Vos and leaving Han and Lando to fend for themselves against Crimson Dawn forces. Han and Lando fight them off and Han goes after Qi’Ra and Chewie.

Han would face Qi’Ra. Qi’Ra will boast that Han is too emotional and too good deep down inside and that he doesn’t have what it takes and this was never about him and finally before Qi’Ra can pull out her blaster, Han shoots first. This would be a way of letting the past go and Han embracing his scoundrel ways.

Han’s farewell with Enfys remains the same, but Han also bids farewell to Val to thank her for everything, but Val thanks Han for letting her see to let go of her hatred as she learned that Enfys was just a child and knew that Becket allowed his greed and hatred lead him to his death.

Val would contact L3 and together with Enfys Nest and L3, Val would be a big help to the Rebellion

Han and Lando play one last game of Sabacc and Han wins, thus winning him the Falcon and Han and Lando part off as friends.

Solo ends similar to how it ended with Han and Chewie flying off in the Falcon with a hint to his future with the Hutt Cartel and his rivalry with Boba Fett, thus giving a sign for sequels without making the movie built on sequel baiting.

[countessrivers]

katiesgardners replied to your post: It’s almost amazing how 5x08 presents to us people...

bruce in s5 was continuously shoved to the side for plots that no one really liked & his development as batman was stagnated entirely until like 5x10/5x11. also bruce & jeremiah both deserved more than the half-assed plot they got in 5x07 (and the lead up to it….bruce was literally handcuffed & stuck in jeremiah’s church? something could have happened with that? why are the writers the worst?) like it was set up to be the main showdown of the season but it fell flat :/

I have millions of ideas on what things they could have done to immediately improve this season.

Like if Bruce was sticking by Selina’s bedside, have Jeremiah try and draw him out. Have Jim eventually come to Bruce with evidence of the taunts and traps and bodies Jeremiah has been setting up for him, and have Bruce struggle between staying with Selina and finding Jeremiah (if they were going to erase his season 4 choice then give him another here).

Actually follow through with Dark Selina, instead of dropping it half way through. Let it push them apart, so that there’s more weight to their separation at the end of the season, where Selina has to reckon with the idea of Bruce really being gone after she pushed him away. Putting aside Selina’s increased brutality (in that like one episode), she taunts Bruce about not caring that his parents died, and she left him trapped and defenceless in a building used by Jeremiah and his followers (which, like you said, it’s insane they did nothing with that) so have him call her out on that. Let Bruce admit that she’s hurt him.

Actually give Jeremiah something to do, rather than just pop up for two minutes at the end of each episode. Have him messing with the GCPD, even if it’s just from the shadows. Leaving bodies and taunts. Stirring up trouble between the others, even if it is just to keep them distracted from the tunnel. Have their be payout for Jeremiah, Bruce and Selina over her “killing him”. Have Jeremiah take advantage of Bruce’s reaction to her murdering him somehow, instead of him faking his death for no clearly explained reason. Heck, shooting down the chopper still makes more sense for Jeremiah to have done, rather than brainwashed Ed.

Speaking of, the mind control chips were dumb and should not have happened. Either have Jeremiah blow up the chopper, or have it and the Haven bombing be done by a League operative. Same for the end of the season. Have the General just be working for Nyssa, rather than being mind controlled. It’s less of a lazy cop out that way (also, I can’t say I was here for the white washing of Ed. Like, no, he hasn’t only hurt those to hurt him first. He’s practically a serial killer who has hurt and murdered a lot of innocent people over the years, including two girlfriends).

I am firmly of the belief that the big bad should have been Jeremiah, but if they had to have Bane/Nyssa, stretch out Ace Chemicals. Have the thing with Thomas and Martha be one episode and the chemical plot/Ace be the second. It would have given them/Jeremiah more time to try and mentally manipulate Bruce, and spend time with the fake Waynes before they’re killed off screen. Let all of that have a real impact on Bruce, even as he powers through it. And when that doesn’t work, have Jeremiah turn to plan B - cutting off the city with the chemicals, and sacrificing those left until he and Bruce are the only ones remaining, until he is literally all Bruce has in the world. Then give them a proper fight in the plant, let them go at it, let us see their emotions - we get Jeremiah’s desperation, but let us really see Bruce’s anger, his feelings of betrayal, give us some Telltale Batman with a “you broke my heart” -  give Jeremiah falling more weight, however if happens. And then let Bruce react at all to any of it (because they certainly denied him that in the show)

And then things like, pepper in references to Bruce going out at night to take on the gangs, or investigate what “Walker” and the mainland are up to. Have him explicitly help people, rather than have it just be implied, and not even made explicit by dialogue.

Have Jim adopt or Lee get pregnant, rather than involve Barbara, which did nothing more than lead to a season of random pointless drama where Oswald tried to convince Barbara Jim was going to steal the baby and Barbara told Jim about the baby but then got mad when he wanted to be supportive but none of it mattered anyway because they were all fine. I mean, I didn’t hate everything about Barbara’s arc, it was rushed, but there was some good moments that I think they should have focused more on, like Barbara, reevaluating what crime and villainy and vengeance has cost her, and if it’s been worth it, given that it cost Tabitha; asking herself whether she’s become someone that people would believe could blow up a building full of innocents, and if she’s okay with that; tossing up what would be best for the child - a mother in prison, a mother on the run with other criminals, or turning over a new leaf and building something better for herself. A lot of that could have been done with or without the pregnancy, and it feels like they only did it because they thought Babs had to be named after her mother.

Explore Nyssa’s motivations more - she’s loyal to the League so she wants to destroy corrupt cities, and she’s starting with Gotham, and yes, Ra’s wanted to die, but that’s understandable, he was her father. But what are her feelings towards Bruce? Is she intrigued by what Ra’s saw in him? Is she jealous that he picked him as his heir? Give her depth.

Have Oz and Ed act like the Penguin and the Riddler. It starts off well for Oz, but then they kind of stumble. Instead of a random plot about them building a submarine and fleeing the city, have them dig in, have them stake their claim to Gotham - fight to build up their armies and their criminal empires. Make Jim and Bruce and the police fights wars on multiple fronts as they try to keep the peace, try to protect civilians, and then have them be forced together to take on the League threat. You know, rather than them waste time most of the season, then vow to be criminals at the last second, and then commit a crime off screen, 6 months later, and immediately get caught.

Even swapping the final show downs so it’s Jim v Bane and Bruce v Nyssa, given that that’s where the emotional motives are anyway. Heck, it might even have given us a nice little moment of Bruce holding baby Batgirl after he and Barbara chase of Nyssa.

And then, actually have Rogues like Freeze and Firefly and Scarecrow show up - ideally use them, as they, and Ivy, played big roles in the Year One and No Man’s Land storylines, but at the very least, let us see them. Ed too. And have Bruce go up against them.