#i digress

[smollkittykat]

I kind of don't like how a lot of people forget that despite all the angst and the drama around Dean and Cas they are fundamentaly best friends.

How many times did Dean say it throught the entire show? Bobby in season 6 saying "Well, you just lost the best friend you ever had."

For Bobby to say that, knowing Dean better than even Sam in some regards, how many times had Dean been sitting with Castiel on the couch in his living room?

Cas doesn't sleep, and rarely does Dean, with the Apocalypse looming right behind him.

So all they had left, in those quiet nights were each other. And they were okay with it, because they liked each other's company.

[naturecalls111]

DECEMBER 1ST

[foolsocracy]

dc is withholding feral garth lore so now i have to do my own brainstorming

[hejihra]

[artilite]

have a lion dance for these trying times ♥♥

[marimeeko]

Why do shonens gotta sell me the most intimate queer masterpieces but then say that Boy 1 ends up with Girl 1 and lives happily and very heterosexually ever after, as if these main boys didn't just spend 430 chapters being emotionally entangled and mortally codependent on each other.

[dykephan]

dan is mia because he got embarrassed by his pathetic nothing mullet and needs to grow it out. phil is mia because he's pregnant and morning sickness is hard

[battfishe]

I think people bitching and whining about chappell roan setting boundaries with not only her fans but also the press (who are known to be incredibly invasive and overbearing at times) is exactly why other celebrity women and even women in general are afraid to set boundaries or voice their discomfort the way chappell does. chappell gets labeled “rude” and “bitchy” for simply not wanting to take photos with people and wanting her personal space respected which is just fucking crazy honestly. she wouldn’t have to be “rude” about it if people just listened to her and treated her like a human being rather than an object. just goes to show how everyone still expects women to be seen and not heard, and to hide their discomfort to please the people around them.

anyway good on chappell for standing up for herself. she’s great and yeah she absolutely deserves to be praised for telling people off regardless of whether she’s nice about it or not. god bless you chappell roan feminist icon

[slythereen]

max joking about giving lewis a massage bc he was laying down?? dare i say lewis is earning his ferrari privilege early

[reineydraws]

so there's this post that talks about how people call jason's curved knife a kris but it's not a kris 'cuz why would he have a southeast asian knife? and op's tags say if you're gonna give him an 'exotic' weapon at least make him malay or something. a later reblog adds a filipino kris as an example, and then i was like, 'omg, jason in a barong tho.' SO i tried designing a bat-barong inspired by his hood logo, for a filipino jason haha. and now here we are! 😊✨️🇵🇭

[cybervom1t]

the new overwatch season sucks :(

[cosmicdreamgrl]

𝘥𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘮𝘦 𝘮𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘸 🦢🖤 𝘧𝘰𝘳 @cordiallyfuturedwight┃𝘤𝘳 : 𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘦𝘥

[astral-herald]

Viktor and Sevika: The Cause and the Effector

Or another installment in "What Could Have Been, if Only Riot had Kept Arcane Between Piltover and Zaun."

Before season 2 did Sevika so dirty, she was, with some certainty, my second favorite character in Arcane, and I'll always be upset about how they squandered her character in the end. And there was just so much more they could have done - including merge her politics with Viktor's (wasted) time back inside Zaun. Just imagine a conversation between them!

So let's rewind to season 1 and consider both Viktor and Sevika's goals, which are a lot less disparate than they seem...

Sevika's Cause

One of my very favorite lines in Arcane is from Silco in 1x03, to Vander: "You'll die for a cause, but you won't fight for one?"

This is a profound question throughout season 1. Vander, in the pursuit of somewhat naive pacifism, shies away from any and all conflict between Zaun and the Enforcers. At first, he seems reluctant on account of his kids (as that one background character points out: "You're just protecting your kids!") but Silco and Vander's confrontation in the Shimmer plant makes the point stronger.

At the start of season 1, we understand that Zaun is an ideal for Silco, a symbol of beating back classist oppression that has left the undercity's denizens in financial ruin, turned them against each other, and wrecked their physical health (!!!). When Vander abandons this idyllic dream, on account of the fact that achieving it requires violence, he is acquiescing to a less-than existence for Zaun, which Silco cannot abide.

Sevika comes into play when she abandons Vander after he fails to stick up for them against the Enforcers in 1x02:

"No. You look weak."

She, too, sees the ideal of Zaun crumbling within Vander, so she allies herself with Silco to make sure that dream happens. She doesn't mind his methods because she doesn't follow the individual. She follows the cause. THIS is Sevika's most profound trait - she cares not for the figurehead, but for what that figurehead represents.

This is especially interesting when we consider the emotional toil that other figureheads endure (and inflict) Arcane - Jayce crumbles under "The Man of Progress" moniker; Caitlyn struggles to uphold her legacy in a way even remotely similar to her mother; Jinx as revolutionary in season 2 is a bust. But Sevika will always be there, championing the cause, holding the line, while never taking the mantle of Revolutionary Figure because it's just not in her nature. She holds on to her loyalty for Silco, despite his operation falling apart (largely in part due to Jinx), as a last-ditch hope that things are still possible for Zaun's liberation.

And yet, still, when it seems that Jinx is branded as the symbol of Zaun against all odds, Sevika swallows her pride, holds down the fort, and fights alongside Jinx - the cause must always go on.

Viktor's Dream

Viktor's cause isn't superficially outwardly political, nor is he bound by the same revolutionary codes Sevika is. But, as an outsider in Piltover, despite Jayce's best efforts and intentions, his desire for an end to Zaunite suffering through official Piltover channels is inherently at odds with the Council's political goals, therefore making it political.

Viktor leaps on Jayce's "Hextech Theory," risking the success and accolades he's so painstakingly earned, because he sees his own cause alive within it: making the world a better place. He can alleviate the needless suffering through Jayce's revolutionary invention; he can make his ideal/dream a reality. Much like Sevika, he's found the individual who champions his cause and aligns himself accordingly.

(Of course, UNLIKE Sevika's relationships to Silco and Vander and the rest, Jayce becomes an inextricable part of Viktor's personal life, happiness, etc. They are markedly different in that way, but I still don't see Viktor as the kind to exalt the individual over the cause itself. It just so happens that Jayce and Viktor are star-crossed science partners in every universe <3)

Arcane makes a pretty distinct attack on the idea of Hextech being a product of an individual (seeing as though so much of Viktor's arc across both seasons is about him being ostracized, kept away from his legacy) via the infamous Progress Day mug eclipse:

All this is to say that Viktor's cause is to help Zaun, just as Sevika's is. Importantly, neither character follows an individual that represents their cause. They follow their goals to the end, even if it costs Viktor his closest friend, and even if it costs Sevika all that she holds dear in Zaun as she knows it.

3 more interesting comparisons stand:

Their polar opposite methods. Viktor would never tolerate Sevika's immediate resort to violence, and Sevika would think Viktor weak-willed.

Competing notions of sacrifice. Sevika endures sacrifice as a public figure; people rely on her outwardly for organization, support, muscle, etc. Meanwhile, Viktor's sacrifice takes place behind the scenes. This contrast can be attributed to their respective positions of power: Sevika is high up in Zaun, while Viktor struggles for recognition throughout season 1.

Being overshadowed. While Viktor's experience in this regard is more obvious, seeing Sevika be continuously sidelined to the number 2 when she's clearly THE most dedicated to Zaun's liberation was so heartbreaking.

Sevika shadowed by Vander's image...

...and Viktor stifled by Jayce.

What Could Have Been

I have so, so many ideas, down to specific scenes and lines of dialogue, for how to bring Sevika and Viktor together. Don't get me wrong - they would likely detest each other. Like I said, Viktor would be disgusted by how quickly she resorts to violence and she would think him weak-willed. But in the perfect season 2 world, wherein the story stayed between Piltover and Zaun, and Viktor could have returned to Zaun as a potential ally to Sevika's movement (since their causes are, at their base value, the same!), they could have made it work.

Sevika would see the cause in Viktor, and he in her. Viktor as the Herald (the Machine Herald, ideally) could rally the Undercity under his mythos. The mysterious healer, whether by the arcane, engineering, what have you, takes away the suffering Piltover's negligence and police brutality cause. He gives Zaunites hope. He fulfills his dream.

And, since nothing can be apolitical in the Piltover/Zaun conflict, Viktor would see Sevika's value and her passion. She is the executor of the cause, the figure who spreads it to the masses. He can affect change and she can give it a voice. She fulfills her dream. She can raise her people from their oppression.

Neither would exalt themselves as a savior, a leader, a fanatic, etc. They would stand apart from Silco, who became obsessive, and Piltover, whose leaders were so divorced from reality that they couldn't smell burgeoning armed conflict while it stewed right beneath their noses.

We obviously got something radically different for the both of them, however, so this is all just fun, whimsical conjecture.

I really think this was a squandered unlikely duo. it would have showed Viktor the reality of Piltover/Noxus' militarization and would have forced Sevika to let her walls down and allow other perspectives into the conversation. Neither would ever fully empathize with the other, but it would have been a riveting narrative challenge that I wish we could have seen play out.

[spooksicl-e]

there’s another bedroom upstairs. if you’ll be needing two bedrooms

[elegantwizardtree]

you know, for being as emotionally and mentally clocked as I am. I SHOULD NOT be staying up this late reading birdflash fanfics…. but here we are.

[softgothbabe]

3, 2, 1......

LET 👏🏻 IT 👏🏻 RIP 👏🏻

yanks the anal beads out of your ass beyblade-style