#i don't think i based that on any blorbos i had at the time at the very least

[pyromaniac-cyndaquil]

... So I thought the oc I made when I was like 14 who happened to be Grovyle's evil brother was called Scar, but I did a deep-dive on deviantart earlier and discovered he was actually called Shroud. Felt less on the nose, slightly more relieved with my 14 year old self?

Then I looked deeper into the description on the art I was looking at. Shroud was just a nickname or something. His actual name was Riku. WHY RIKU OF ALL THINGS 😭😭😭😭

[radiance1]

A silly idea based off of this post of mine and one made by @puppetmaster13u

Danny gets summoned, which is something he rather much hates yet as the new Prince of All Ghosts he is incapable of ignoring a summons unless he is actually stopped from doing so in a way that is unavoidable.

Like how the Ghost King was trapped in forever sleep.

Danny doesn't want to experience forever sleep just to avoid summoning, however.

It doesn't exactly help that, in the process of being transferred, the Infinite Realms dresses him up in clothes that, yes, befit his station of royalty (that he didn't ask for) and no he is not going to question how the infinite managed to get said clothes.

At least they're comfortable and he doesn't have to have the embarrassment of showing up in his pjs.

And it was at, said summons, that Danny had rather unintentionally fallen in love with someone who looked to be a age. A sacrifice for (which Danny was still new why in the infinite do they think he wants sacrifices???) the ritual to summon the Ghost Prince in exchange for a favor of some sort.

Danny, obviously, did not do that.

The Infinite Realms, of course, having tagged along knew exactly what Danny was feeling. Their little blorbo had developed a crush! A crush!

So of course, as any good higher being that favors one their special little guys, they try to make more chances for them to meet by interrupting various other summons because yea it can just do that now that it was given the incentive to do so.

Danny is both mortified, annoyed, and the teeniest tiniest bit thankful.

Also why is this kid always being captured by cults????

---

Meanwhile, with Billy.

He thinks an interdimensional Ghost or some sort of Godling-? Has fallen in love with him, so much so that he interrupts any of the times that Billy has been used for a sacrifice.

Which has been getting increasingly more often, as of late, and he's vaguely concerned on why that is.

If only the Gods in his head would stop chanting for him to be more proactive instead of a Damsel in Distress when he's caught the interest of the High Prince of the Infinite.

(I genuinely can't remember or just don't know if he can only hear it as Shazam, so if that is indeed the case then just imagine they keep bugging him when he's Shazam-ed)

No he is not going to try and kidnap him-!

[bogkeep]

Would you recommend the SSSS comic? I know little of it beside the very beautiful artstyle and premise

to answer the question of if i would recommend SSSS as a comic: yes, yes i would.

a description for those who don't know: Stand Still Stay Silent is a post-apocalyptic horror + adventure webcomic set in the nordics (norway, sweden, denmark, finland, iceland) that have been isolated from the rest of the world and gone back to their old gods. the the world outside of safe zones is full of trolls and beasts - humans and mammals that got infected by a horrible virus and turned into monsters. the story follows a ragtag crew that ventures into the old world (derelict denmark) on an expedition to collect books.

the comic updated every workday until it concluded in 2022, and consists of two Adventures. the creator had plans for many adventures with these characters in this world, but ended it after two when she wanted to take a new direction with her life.

what i love about it:

- the art is GORGEOUS. it's been a huge source of inspiration for me. open any page and it's a masterpiece, and you will ask yourself "how the FUCK did she update this FIVE DAYS A WEEK"

- the characters are wonderful and endearing. i just, i love them so much. i am so thankful lalli hotakainen exists he is one of my #1 blorbos forever

- the world is so cool. the blend of chunky sci-fi and norse mythology fantasy magic slaps. it goes so hard. i fell so hard for this comic when i got to the big ferry ship with a viking style dragon head prow added to it. it's everything

- it really really gets nordic cultures. it's difficult to explain all the dynamics and nuances but it just gets it. it brings me as a scandinavian a lot of joy to read a story that speaks to my heart this way. the attitudes, the language barriers, the cultural differences... it was so refreshing to me in a media landscape dominated by american stories. when the pandemic hit, i decided to reread the comic because i found such an odd comfort in seeing how it depicted the scandinavian countries reacting to, well, a pandemic.

- there's kittycats

what i don't like about it:

- the most glaring and obvious flaw is that everyone in the comic is white. there's not a single character of color anywhere, not even i background shots or the prologue. there's no mention of the saami people (the indigenous people of northern europe), either. i believe this was done in ignorance more than malicious intent, but the implications are Extremely Bad and it's been bothering me (AND MANY OTHERS) since day 1. that is the number one caveat i will give to anyone wanting to check this comic out. i've been in the discourse trenches and i am not going to excuse this. it's just bad!

- you can tell in the middle of adventure 2 that the creator has kind of lost interest in the work, around the time when she found jesus i guess. like, very few people can keep up work on the same creative project for years and years and years and i think it's fine that she wanted to drop it, but it's a bit sad to see the comic dragged to its end like a limp corpse, and feeling like the creator no longer really cares about the characters.

- minna sundberg has said and done some questionable things, presumably gotten somewhat radicalised over time, and has also converted to hardcore christianity which is what her new works are about. there's nothing about this in SSSS - there is a moment of christianity represented in the story in a sort of mythological sense, just like the other religions, but this was written before minna's conversion. her new works... are a Choice. i have much to say about them, and i have, and im not gonna rehash it now.

SO YEAH hopefully this will help you take an Informed Choice! i got into this comic in 2015 and was deep in the fandom and it's for better or for worse part of my soul foundation now.

i also recommend A Redtail's Dream, minna's "practice comic" before SSSS, based on finnish mythology and the kalevala.

[le-trash-prince]

Kenta

Okay. It is once again time for me to talk about my number one little man. I was interested in Kenta from the very beginning, and at some point I realized that I was not going to be normal about him, but I really did not anticipate how much he would come to mean to me. I hope y'all have enjoyed witnessing my descent into feral blorbo state. It is not over for me in the slightest.

I want to say that Garfield really acted the shit out of this role, and the writers knew what they were doing when they cast him. His arc was so important to the overall plot, with his growth being pivotal to Tony's downfall, and yet he had a relatively small amount of dialogue to work with (although certainly not the smallest amount of the cast).

A lot of his scenes involve him standing in Tony's office, taking instructions, or even just simply observing. A lot of his lines are based around business deals and errands—rather than furthering his emotional development. He doesn't give big speeches, he doesn't talk about his feelings or his dreams, it's always just "I'm doing xyz for Tony, and I will never betray him."

Some of his most dialogue heavy scenes are in one stairwell with Pete and in another with Tony, which I think are extremely pivotal moments, both of which reveal a fear of abandonment.

But it's honestly when he's quiet that he says the most.

And I love that, I'm obsessed with it. I love that the whole fandom could insantly tell that he and Pete had something going on, just from the way they looked at each other. I love that the storytelling in his arc was so highly visual.

In the beginning, Kenta appears to be nothing more than Tony's lackey: quiet, intimidating, and actively complicit with what is going on.

But as we see him more and more, it becomes exceedingly apparent that he cares, so much. I know I am biased in saying this, but I do also pay close attention to what other people are saying about Kenta, and I know almost everyone has been waiting the entire series to see him stand up to Tony. The amount of acting that Garfield did with his eyes, while remaining such a stoic character, was insane.

Despite him repeatedly declaring his loyalty to Tony, despite the fact that he does not reveal any actions against Tony until episode 12, we feel so much of his inner conflict.

I think for me, personally, the aspect of Kenta's character that I relate to the most is his inability to speak up when he wants to. I've struggled with selective mutism my entire life, and there have been countless, countless scenarios where I've had so many things to say and no ability to say them. The more dire the situation, the more my words fail me. I have to spend so much of my energy constantly planning for potential conflict scenarios just so I can have the time I need to figure out which words to use. Because it can sometimes take months for me to figure out certain phrases. And because it is so painful to stay silent when you want to tell someone to stop. To stop fighting, to stop hurting each other, to stop hurting me.

So I was beyond moved and proud to watch Kenta finally be able to protect his brothers and quietly say the one thing he has wanted to say all along.

Don't hurt anyone anymore.

Don't hurt anyone anymore.

Don't hurt anyone anymore.

I will take some of the words that P'Chod gave to Garfield before they went into production. "It’s just you want to live in a peaceful house and be happy together.” All we want is peace.

I wish that Kenta had not been forced to kill Tony because I don't think he has ever wanted to hurt anyone. But I'm sure as hell not sorry that he did it. There will always be people who are unwilling to stop.

And I recognize that Kenta tried a peaceful method first. He gave X-Hunter what they needed to put Tony in jail, and Tony refused to give up. He was never going to be the kind of person who would simply surrender. To him, these people's lives are property that he is entitled to.

Here is an auto translation of something Garfield said about Kenta at the final episode screening.

"I already knew that Kenta would be similar to me, in that I'm someone who doesn't dare to express my feelings to the people around me, saying very little. So when I got the role, I felt… that it teaches us that as long as we dare to be ourselves and do things that make us happy, that's enough."

We may never know what happened to Kenta after Tony died, but I hope he is able to find his peace. I hope he is able to engage with restorative justice, and I hope he is able to learn what family really should be.

And I hope that someone, anyone, will give him a goddamned hug.

the first shot / the last shot

Thank you, Kenta, from the bottom of my heart, for showing us yours.

[nightwonder7]

Do you have any opinion about both Norton Campbells winning the deduction star and nymph award? I'm a twitter user and I'm seeing a lot of opinions on it, but I rarely see those on tumblr..... Is the ecosystem really that different from here and twitter..?

I'm not on Twitter, so I've got no clue how things are over there. You're probably right about the ecosystem being different from site to site.

As for your initial question, I think it's really cool that Fool's Gold won Deduction Star, despite him being fairly new. Normally I'm for older characters to take the win before newer ones, but I had a lot of bias this time around, ngl gfjhsdgfs I'm excited to see what he gets as a skin though! I've seen some people theorizing something based of My Bloody Valentine, and honestly, that would be so metal!

As for Nymph Awards... would it be weird if I said it would feel bitter sweet? And that it's for an extremely petty reason? The prospect (*badum-tsh!*) of Norton getting another S-tier as well as a song/music video is amazing, don't get me wrong! I love getting more Norton content in the game! And it would be kinda amusing that he would technically bring home two popularity awards in one year, cause no one has done that before. He would also be the first male survivor to win Best Performance.

Now for the bitter part. Strap up, this is where the petty comes in. One of the highlights of the Nymph Awards event (albeit small. Also it's my opinion) is the trailers. I don't know, I just love seeing all these characters together, mingling, partying... it's just so nice seeing them all gathered and being all fancy!

But as soon as they win a Nymph Award, all that remains of them is a poster. It's like they died and ascended or something, never to be seen again fgdshjafd

So if Norton were to win, that would mean we'll never see him in these trailers anymore! I can no longer go "Where's my blorbo? THERE HE IS! That's my blorbo!" Okay, yes, we'll see him in a poster, but not in the flesh with everyone else! So yeah, extremely petty and puny reason. I'll survive though fgdshjfd At least I can go "BLORBO!" for FG and some of the other characters I like ;u;

So long story short, awesome if he wins, but I wouldn't mind if he doesn't either. The voting is still ongoing, so there's no guarantee. Things might change for all we know.

[ladyloveandjustice]

I've seen people say this is proof that Marcille's not a lesbian, but this is definitely a character (or based on a character) from the romance novel she obsesses over. There is nothing more lesbian than obsessing over a fictional man and being like "yeah i'm down" but not being attracted to any real men. Only fictional men appeal to us because they don't feel the same as real men. This is very much a fictional ideal that Marcille had created for herself. It's her blorbo from her shows. The male character the lesbians claim as their own and relate to is a well known phenom.

(I also want to note this person is incredibly feminine looking even by elf standards)

We'll also see later that succubi don't exclusively operate as romantic fantasies. For Marcille, this person also represents her fantasy of being in this romance novel, which was something she really connected to because of [spoiler] reasons. It was her first experience of seeing herself in a story and feeling accepted as a result.

I don't think Falin is her fantasy ideal type, and she's never been. Marcille's expressed several times she thinks Falin is really cute and pretty, and we've also been shown that she considered Laios's appearance kind of gross because it was more masculine that Falin's and she expected him to look like her which...i mean... gay

But Falin was not someone she expected to fall for, and I think she fell for her based on who she is rather than her it being a specific type she has. It doesn't mean she doesn't love her. Anymore than Chilchuck's actual wife not appearing (based on their daughters she was probably not blonde) means he didn't love her.

(And I will also acknowledge you could read Marcille as bi, she's just one of those characters I relate so much to as a lesbian I just see her that way)

[ladyimaginarium]

g-d as an antizionist native jew you literally cannot win.

on one hand you'll have uber hardcore zionists & also technically, kahanists (because it's important to keep in mind that not every zionist thinks the same way & there's different types of zionism & to listen to jewish voices about this topic bc i'm tired of goyim speaking over jews on a term that jewish people created, but for the unaware: kahanism is basically a type of far right zionism that straight up is like "the land of israel should be for jews Only & anyone who isn't jewish don't get the same rights as jewish people",) who will believe that you're. somehow a "traitor" or "not a real jew/self hating jew" for y'know not. wanting to have your jewishness be associated with medinat yisrael (the modern state of israel, there's a difference between am yisrael, the jewish people, eretz yisrael, the physical land & medinat israel, the modern state of israel), specifically the government's actions against not just palestinians but others too or by simply saying that "hey man regardless of how you feel about zionism, it's a nationalist ideology that, like many other nationalisms, has harmed people & zionism Has harmed palestinians & they have every right to talk about it, just like the mayans & those at sbrenica who were also affected by it" & i was blocked by a zionist for saying that or denying palestinian indigeneity alongside jewish indigeneity (because some straight up just think that only jews are indigenous there which. just isn't true, jews & palestinians are literally related & they both have a shared connection to that land), making excuses for the israeli government & the iof's actions, & misconstruing land back shit into a violent movement when it isn't & even be islamophobic & racist towards natives including native jews who naturally feel a sense of solidarity to the palestinian cause because we know what it's like to be displaced & killed by an occupying government.

& THEN on the other hand you'll have many nonpalestinian goyische/nonjewish western leftist antizionists who think they somehow have a free pass to say whatever they want & think they somehow can't be antisemitic & racist just because they support the free palestine movement, some give a platform to well known bigots & antisemites who literally spout blood libel & antisemitic conspiracy theories & many don't even notice let alone care just because they agree with said people on other types of activism, supporting groups like jvp when it's basically the autism speaks for jews, engage in atrocity denial & terrorism apologia because nothing says resistance like cheering on violent antisemitism against jews (/sarcastic) you disagree with & thinking that groups like hamas, hezbollah, the houthis etc are based people when multiple palestinians from gaza & other people like iranians, syrians & yemeni have spoke up against them when hamas killed 1200 people, mostly civilians, but apparently that doesn't matter & throwing all their morals they claim to support down the drain & be antisemitic or islamophobic to innocent individuals who had nothing to do with the warcrimes being committed & excusing the inexcusable & justifying the unjustifiable, conflating jewish people with white european people, calling random ass jews "zionists" even when they say repeatedly that they aren't even for just calling out their antisemitism, literally using slurs used by the literal fucking kkk (i.e "zio" & any variants of the word), people waking up & graduating from the instagram-tiktok school of law thinking they know everything about this topic when they don't, people treating this very serious thing like a fandom with teams when people aren't your blorbos or celebrities, these are real people who are traumatized, grieving, suffering & dying, treat them like people, some people can't understand the very basic concept that you can fight for more than one cause & one community at the same time, they don't call out the virulent antisemitism in their own movement, deny jewish people Any type of connection & historical presence to the southern levant despite there being a fuckton of historical, cultural & archaeological evidence & straight up deny jewish history in the region, stay silent when there are jews literally being harassed, beat up, sexually assaulted, & murdered in the streets & mobs have already been targeting jewish neighborhoods & synagogues & almost nobody outside of jewish people are talking about any of this & almost none of these people are deconstructing their antisemitism & when that happens that just allows the far right to further advance itself & its agenda. because a lot of these people think they're immune to propaganda & antisemitism when they're really not because some people will straight up be parroting nazi shit & most people don't even blink an eye except for jewish people & most people from what i've seen don't do anything about this huge issue & these are coming from the same people who're like "punch all nazis!!".

& regardless of either side of the discourse even when we& say "hey uh. we& believe in ceasefire de-escalation humanitarianism accountability justice reparations & the hopes of saving as many lives as possible & we reject all forms of dehumanization, racism, antisemitism, islamophobia, xenophobia, harassment of innocents, scapegoating & collective punishment, every human life is precious & no one should have to fear for their life, we hold human rights to be universal & nonnegotiable, a value we hold above every movement, ideology or cause just as we've been taught by our elders, our indigenous beliefs & jewish ethics, we want liberation, safety, dignity & self determination & a homeland for everyone & we haven't made an exception to this topic" some people would probably just assume that we're "both-sideism" or being "centrist" when like. no dude that's literally just a humane take on things, not a neutral one & it's. really fucking weird that that's somehow a hot controversial take to have.

like. you get antisemitism from literally every possible side of the spectrum regardless of their politics, its insidious & it's not fun At All.

[alex51324]

That Tweet, take 2

OK, so my first reaction to That Tweet, by Djenks, was as follows:

My money is on DJenks realizing that he shat the bed & now furiously trying to write himself out of the corner he's in. (My second guess is that he basically already knows there won't be a Season 3, but there's some network or business-related reason for not announcing it yet.)

But now that I've had a bit more time to think about it, I am kind of seeing a scenario where he could've intended it to be a fuckery all along.

Step one is that we imagine him being a bit disappointed by how Lucius's death fooled absolutely no-one. It's likely that he was planning for the reveal that he was alive to be a much bigger moment than it actually was; maybe he even has some Big Reveal ideas that he had to put on ice once it became clear that there was very little actual suspense surrounding Lucius's fate. This is, obviously, since I don't know him personally, a big hairy guess, but it seems like a very plausible reaction for someone to have, when they put a lot of effort into planning a surprise and it falls flat because everyone guessed it.

Step two is him deciding to sell Izzy's "death" a little harder, with the emotional death scene and the funeral (where we do not actually see the body, and a mourner, Wee John, is missing) and all. It's laying it on a little thick, in my opinion, but again, we did all confidently (and correctly) assume that Lucius was alive based on the evidence that "this show wouldn't do that" and "The Stede-Ed reunion won't work if he's really dead," so you can see how a showrunner could, hypothetically, get to--

Step three, is Djenks opening up his socials at the crack of dawn on Thursday morning, expecting to see reams of speculation and analysis about how Izzy could have survived, and being genuinely shocked to instead find seas of angry and devastated fans suggesting that he should perhaps give up television in favor of a career in going and fucking himself.

Step four, realizing that he drastically overshot the mark re: creating genuine suspense over character death, he tweets out a big obvious hint.

I don't love this interpretation--for one thing, there is nothing in the episode we saw that would provide a plausible in-universe reason for faking Izzy's death. It would be pretty easy to create one--have Prince Ricky No-Nose vow personal vengeance against Izzy Hands in specific for calling him a syphilitic cunt/his role in foiling the "end of piracy" scheme--but we did not see anything like that. To make the funeral scene work as a fuckery, it would be necessary to insert a flashback between the "death" and the funeral in which A) this happens, and B) the other characters find out about it. That's a cheap trick that I personally hate--the old, "Haha, I made you feel a thing by deliberately withholding context"--but again, if it's an overcorrection for the complete and abject failure of the effort to create suspense around Lucius's fate, I guess I can live with it.

If Izzy's death is a fuckery, that addresses a lot of the other problems with the finale. First, Ed and Stede's obviously-doomed, harebrained scheme to give up piracy and be innkeepers (in a dilapidated shack, on an island where we see no other people or settlements) is plausibly funny, as long as we aren't thinking that Izzy died for it.

Second, the tonal whiplash of going from the funeral to the wedding is also fine if everyone involved knows perfect well that the guest of honor at the funeral is actually recuperating just offscreen.

(Thirdly, there's Captain Frenchie--I haven't seen much discussion of that, but the only problem I had with it is that I can't think of any moments from the season where he stood out as being a leader for the crew. I might've missed something; he's not one of my particular blorbos, but it wouldn't have taken much, just something you can look back on and see how it was setting up him becoming captain.

And, crucially, we do have those few little moments of setup for Frenchie as First Mate to Captain Izzy. Frenchie was there during the dark days, during which he presumably underwent some skill development, pirate-wise, and definitely bonded with Izzy to some extent. We see him holding Izzy's hand during his breakdown, and he presumably helped hide him and definitely lied to Blackbeard about it, and then how they were sitting in the cell on Zheng's ship--it isn't a whole lot, but you can look back and see why it makes sense for Izzy to pick him.)

Making Izzy's death a fuckery doesn't do anything to fix the way the whole Zheng thing fell flat. (Why give her a massive fleet in the first place, only to take it away? Why did we get those scenes of ships being towed across land? What was she doing selling soup on the Republic of Pirates? For that matter, why did she come to the Caribbean in the first place, after becoming Pirate Queen of the Chinese seas?) It doesn't help with how Ed and Stede keep repeating the same beats of getting closer, then running away, then reuniting without ever talking about their relationship or their issues. It doesn't address why the Kraken Era had to go that dark, if the whole thing was just going to be smoothed over in the space between episodes 4 and 5, and how Ed never really takes responsibility for any of what he did.

However, middle installments of trilogies are notoriously difficult to write, and it isn't particularly fair to judge them before you get to the last part. Most of the weak points could look better in hindsight once we know how it all turns out.

(And, not for nothing, as long as Izzy is alive, we can still get something where Ed reckons with the Kraken Era, and particularly-but-not-exclusively what he did to Izzy. I don't see how that works with a dead Izzy, though--it's too easy for Ed to keep minimizing what he did and offloading blame onto him.)

There isn't a whole lot of evidence for an Izzy Lives scenario. All we have is:

This Show Wouldn't Do That (which, recall, was point 1 in why we didn't believe Lucius was dead. However, it is weakened by the absence of point 2--unlike with Lucius, the person who "killed" Izzy isn't a character we're expected to like or root for.)

No body at the funeral. I initially interpreted the funeral as being intended as proof that Izzy was really dead, a sort of "don't get your hopes up, guys," after what happened with Lucius. But again, if we're thinking about the framing of Izzy's "death" as an overcorrection to how completely non-fooled we all were by Lucius's, maaaaaybe not? I mean, if he really wanted to hammer the nail into the coffin, we would have seen Izzy lying in the grave, or his body being sewn into a shroud of sailcloth (as was the custom), or something. (Also, point 2b, the unicorn did have two legs.)

No Wee John at the funeral. There are certainly Doylist reasons he might've been left out--maybe the way the shooting schedule worked out, it saved money or some other resource to just leave him out of that scene, something like that. But for an in-universe reason, "somebody had to stay back and nurse Izzy" makes a lot of sense. (I mean, if this show operated on real-world logic, someone would have had to stay with the ship, but that's never been a concern before.) Wee John helping Izzy with his makeup for Calypso's birthday was presumably a bonding experience that involved some vulnerability on Izzy's part, so it would be weird for him to just nope out of the funeral, but plausible that Izzy would find him acceptable as a caregiver.

Stede and Ed's conversation over Izzy's grave could, just barely, make sense as a conversation about how Ed and Izzy are now on separate paths, with no particular guarantee that they'll see each other again. It takes a certain amount of massaging to make it fit, but it almost could? (Except Zheng's part really doesn't--unless the grave actually contains someone Ed cares about, or she isn't in on the secret that the funeral is a fuckery.)

I'm not in love with any of this, or even particularly convinced by it--my enthusiasm for any Season 3 is going to be pretty dampened, unless the announcement that it's been picked up includes the information that Con O'Neill has a contract to appear as a major character in all 8/10/whatever episodes--but IDK, I guess it's maybe not outside the realm of possibility? Ish?

[smytherines]

You said asks about the silly blorbo so I'm here now ig-

I love your takes on disabled Owen so *grabby hands* please? Spare some headcanons? Thank you kindly

Time to get sad

One thing I think about a lot is that Owen thinks his only value to anyone is how useful he is. His talent at certain things. His deadly accurate aim, his ability to manipulate tiny mechanisms with precise hands. His ability to plan and keep his own emotions in check until the plan is executed. That Owen sees himself as a weapon, a tool, instead of a person.

The Russians pull him out of the rubble, and they do just enough to keep him alive. They keep him in a tiny, cold, sunless room. No painkillers. His wounds starting to fester. His broken bones setting incorrectly. And they interrogate him endlessly. Day after day after day until he has no idea how long he has been there.

At the start he holds onto the hope that Curt will somehow know he's alive. That any second now Curt is going to bust through the door covered in the blood of a dozen Russian guards, and hold him (its been so long since anyone has touched him in a way that didn't inflict pain) and find a way to get him out.

Owen doesn't generally have faith in people, but he has faith in Curt. Curt may have left him in the explosion, but surely what they had meant something to him? Surely he wouldn't give up unless he was absolutely certain Owen was dead. If their roles were reversed, Owen wouldn't stop until he was certain there was no hope. Curt is brash and cocky and reckless, but he's also stubborn and foolishly brave, and he loves Owen. So Owen tells himself to just hold on. Just stay alive until Curt can get to him.

His spine was damaged in the fall, his hip was crushed by falling concrete, so he can't walk. He has extensive nerve damage in his dominant left arm and hand, making it hard to grip cups or utensils or even a pencil. He certainly won't be doing any work with tiny electronic components any time soon. He isn't even sure he has enough hand strength left to squeeze a trigger. His muscles are atrophied and he's frail and he can count his ribs through his skin.

Eventually, Chimera comes to claim him. They make a deal with the Russians and the Russians are thrilled to be rid of the British spy who won't give up his secrets, and requires expensive medical treatment, and keeps nearly dying on them.

Owen is afraid. He's alone. He has no idea how long he has been in this Russian base, no idea how long it has been since he fell. He has finally stopped imagining Curt bursting heroically into his room. He tries his best not to think about Curt at all. Clearly Curt wasn't thinking about him.

Chimera doesn't capture Owen. They don't force him, they don't torture him, they don't brainwash him. They offer him a choice: stay in this cell, disfigured and disabled and in pain until eventually the Russians give up and let him die. Or come work for Chimera.

Owen laughs. He can't even walk. He can barely hold a spoon, nevermind a gun. He has headaches and vertigo and strange emotional outbursts that terrify him. Sometimes he can barely order his thoughts in a way that makes sense. The Chimera representative tells him that Chimera has access to the best scientists in the world, the best doctors, medical technology that is far more advanced than anything the National Health would provide for him. His only real hope of recovery is to join Chimera, let their doctors work on him, and eventually repay his debts through service. He has the opportunity to be useful to someone again.

The Russians have been arguing over letting him die from the moment he arrived. Curt isn't coming for him. Nobody is coming for him.

So Owen accepts Chimera's offer. As they slowly, meticulously work to heal him, breaking and resetting his bones, reconstructing the shattered parts of his spine and hip, using skin grafts to restore function to his dominant hand, he begins to truly believe in Chimera's cause.

The US, the British, the Russians have all been responsible for obscene levels of violence in service of their cause. Owen knows this better than most, he was the one carrying out their orders. Really, what's the difference between their violence and the violence Chimera expects from him?

With MI6 he was disposable. In his relationship he was disposable. But if he works hard enough and is useful enough to Chimera, he can make himself indispensable. Powerful enough that nothing can ever touch him again.

[mzannthropy]

So it's still a while till The Count of Monte Cristo limited series will se the light of day, but in the meantime, is there a reason for optimism for a Sam Claflin fan? This Sam Claflin fan, at least.

Regardless of the choices the adaptation will make, one thing sure is that Sam will give a flawless performance as the titular character, and any disguises that this will include. I think abbe Busoni and the English lord should appear at least (the French film had them). It'll be a good microcosm of his range. He has a good arc: from a young naive idealistic sailor to a broken down prisoner at Chateau D'If to a man obsessed with revenge to a man who makes amends and finds peace, it will be a delight!

It's Sam once again playing a character completely different from any other one he has played so far. And you know what, this is the one that I will finally be able to say will be my blorbo. (I rarely use that term, in fact I don't think I used it ever, but it applies now.) I've not really had a chance to have that with Sam. I like so many of his performances, but I've not had a fave character that got as close to my heart as Edmond.

I'm really hoping, after everything that went on around Daisy Jones and the Six, that this limited series based on a book will have a more mature fandom, not so rabidly focused on romance and shipping. *Crossing my fingers so hard they hurt, please please please please please, universe, don't let Edmond x Mercedes shippers take over everything, please please please please please* (FWIW I don't think Edmond x Mercedes shippers are that crazy, but you never know what kind of stupid a new TV show might bring.) If it should happen that Tumblr discovers this show, I'm hoping that they will go for: 1. Maximilian x Valentine, the Romeo & Juliet star-crossed lovers, 2. Eugenie x Louise, the lesbians (I mean, canon HEA lesbians in period drama?) 3. the gay shipping. Albert x Franz, Albert x Edmond or even Franz x Edmond, or Edmond x any of the three antagonists. This is probably the best bet, tbh. While it may get annoying if the tag will get overtaken by shippers, I know I will not be the only one who will be annoyed by that. As long as Sam's performance is not reduced to romance only, it'll be fine. Which brings me to...

Chemistry. Oh dear. Okay, so if that word will get a mention, I hope this will be about Sam having chemistry with any/all of his co-stars, not just Ana Girardot; after all, they don't have that many scenes together. If it's with Jeremy Irons I won't mind. As there is a lot going on in the story, the show will simply not have time to dedicate long scenes to Sam looking at a co-star.

And last but not least, as Sam is the only actor in leading role, everyone else being a supporting character, all the promo and everything that will come with the series will concentrate on him and him only. Nobody, nobody will hog the limelight from him!

Bonus: awards?

[the-joker-of-musicals]

MUSICAL TUMBLRMAN BATTLE

hey there, it's me, marina @annabelle--cane. you've seen these brackets before, you know the drill, it's time to watch these bastards kill each other.

rules/guidelines:

I'm using "tumblrman"/"the jokner of musicals" because a lot of the characters iconic to this genre are minors and it wouldn't be appropriate for an adult (<- me) to call them sexymen, but it also wouldn't feel right to just leave them out. I think these terms carry most of the same energy while leaving out sexual connotations.

personally, I will be voting and selecting based on levels of iconicness and how hard a choke hold these characters had on me and my peers, not based on which characters I actually think are best or that I like the most. I know this guideline is completely unenforceable and people will just black out and vote for their blorbos, but if this gets a good turn out, maybe I'll do a "favorite/best/most musical character" tournament afterwards.

there are a few characters who are already guaranteed spots (jd, beetlejuice, the squip, etc.), but still feel free to submit any obvious choices, especially if you've got compelling propaganda.

there are a few characters I don't feel comfortable including, but I don't think people are likely to submit them and I think posting a list would invite discourse, so I'll just say that I leave it ultimately up to my discretion whether or not to dismiss certain nominations.

since I will be selecting characters based on how iconic I think they were/are, nominees will likely skew male, but submissions are also open to female and nonbinary characters. the jonkler of musicals can be any gender.

similarly, I'm going to prioritize characters from stage musicals, but you may also submit characters from movie, TV, podcast, song cycle, or other medium musicals. if you're unsure, just go ahead and submit them and I'll figure it out.

this is a CRINGE POSITIVE space. ribbing on your past self or 2017 musical fandom culture as a whole is all fine and good, but try to keep in the spirit of friendly competition and stay away from being outright mean. if what you're saying is indistinguishable from a homophobe talking about their high school gsa, I will block you and delete your comments.

@ this blog or use the tag "tjom bracket" in your commentary about this tournament and I might rb your post here

I'm aiming for 32 characters in the first round, but I'm willing to be flexible.

inspiration from: @bestmusicalworldcup @bracketsoffear @problemgirlbracket @character-of-all-time @blorbopoll2 @powerpolyculeshowdown @ultimate-tragic-couples-showdown

OKAY. SUBMIT YOUR MUSICAL JOKSTNERS. FORM OPEN UNTIL 12:00 AM MONDAY EST.

[bonefall]

Just curious, is Russetfur still Raggedstar’s half sister in this universe or are they completely unrelated now? Also do you have anything on Boulder? He was always one of my favorite background cats

If they are half-sibs, it's not relevant! They won't know or care.

Chelford cats are matriarchal. Sires don't inherently play a role in the lives of their children, and seeking that sort of company is something a parent keeps discreet. Uncles and brothers fill the role of "father" in raising the kittens, with cats tracking their lineages through mothers

So Russet has no idea who her father is and doesn't care. Ngl, I also just... don't care about Hal lmaooo

(Imagine writing a super edition about one of your most popular characters, with a story that people have been begging to hear in detail for years, and then dedicating the entire opening to her shitty husband's daddy issues. Couldn't be me.)

Instead, Russetfur is related to the leader of BloodClan at that time. Brick is her sister. I might make Hal her uncle or older brother.

The conflict that occurs between BloodClan and ShadowClan at this time will cause the leader to be killed suddenly, triggering the Frenzy, the period of time during which a new leader is chosen. Pinestar is already having issues over in ThunderClan, and starts seriously thinking about leaving to go help out.

(Though it's certainly not his last straw.)

In any case... if Russetfur and her buddy Boulder had been having second thoughts about Clan life, getting the BloodClan Leader killed and burned the hell out of THAT bridge.

Anyway.

Russetfur and Boulder are in danger during TigerClan. Serious danger. They were loyal to Brokenstar and were safe as long as they were good warriors, but Tigerstar had his eye on them.

So, I feel they may have supported Deerfoot's Rebels, but deniably. I want Blackstar picking Russetfur to be heavily based on her participation, but I also need her to stay safe.

(Might end up having her escape and take refuge with Mistyfoot...)

Boulder is a lot more passive. I like him a LOT and want to expand his role a bit, just because... I Like Him. Literally just blorbo lmao. It's funny how the fandom consensus is just, "this guy's cool!"

I go back and forth on when Boulder's kids are born, and who they are. But he WILL be having kids

I'm set on Whitethroat being one of them, and leaning towards Wetfoot being another.

If Wetfoot is one of Boulder's kids, Firestar knows Boulder as a concerned dad. Wetfoot is going to get a bigger role as a friend in ShadowClan and Deerfoot Rebel.

In my head, Boulder likes the community of Clan life more than the violence, but because he's huge and served under tyrannical leaders he gets forced into battles he doesn't enjoy.

He massively regrets following Russetfur, honestly. He doesn't want to leave and go rebuild his reputation in BloodClan... but he also wishes he never came here.

In my heart, TPB is like the WORST period in this poor guy's life. Background character going through an absolute WRINGER

He's anxious for himself, anxious for his friends, anxious for his kids. Loses Whitethroat. Might lose Wetfoot to the Plague. Serves under TigerClan, terrified that if he isn't a perfect warrior he will get killed.

(And he's right. His fear is warranted. If Russetfur does something, like if I go with her being a refugee in ThunderClan, HE is going to get punished.)

And, of course, he is eventually used by Tigerstar to open up talks with BloodClan.

Even though he has Sasha, Nightwhisper, and Jaggedtooth to serve the same purpose... Tigerstar chooses Boulder.

He doesn't trust Jaggedtooth after he "fails" to contain the prisoners that escape to ThunderClan. He "proved" his loyalty by following his order to execute Deerfoot, but Jaggedtooth is now at the bottom of the pecking order.

Sasha is being reduced to a mate Tigerstar can control, even though she served as one of his mercenaries. He doesn't give her ANY agency.

Nightwhisper is a stupid tool, in Tigerstar's eyes. He does not respect his intelligence, just his eagerness.

So Boulder is chosen. He's smart enough to translate properly, fearful enough to do what Tigerstar says, has lived long enough as a Clan cat... and if he HAS any remaining kids, there is the implicit threat that if Boulder tries something funny, his child is who will pay for it.

After TigerClan ends, I feel like Boulder is desperate to retire early, but also feels like he can't ask for it. He's only survived this long because of his usefulness. It would be hard to trust that he can just... not serve, anymore.

If I can scrounge up more kits for ShadowClan (IT'S SO SMALL), I also would like him to end up having another litter mid-Po3.

Hopefully one of the kids of his first survived, so I can play around with the harrowing dynamic of, "Our dad is so much happier while raising you... I envy my younger sibling's childhood."

And on a final note, Boulder is probably going to get a Warrior Name during TPB. It doesn't really make sense that he just keeps his old one, unfortunately, when Clan Culture is at its most xenophobic and he's in active danger. He'll get Boulder back as a request between TPB and TNP.

[controversial-blorbo-bracket]

Controversial Character Tournament Round 2: Gamzee Makara from Homestuck vs Maeglin Lómion from The Silmarillion/The Fall Of Gondolin

(remember that these characters are fictional and your fellow tumblr users are real. i will block you if you harass others in the notes, please consider sending your unhinged harassment to my inbox instead)

Propaganda under the cut, may contain spoilers:

Gamzee Makara:

LOVE: - "Okay, so Gamzee is such a divisive character that I even hesitated on choosing "love". Sad clown with an absentee father raised in a fascist dictatorship. Was mind controlled into killing his friends and then mind controlled during a toxic relationship (or two). Suffers from addiction so fandom likes to go "Oh, how scary his withdraws are. Clearly being drugged up was the only thing keeping this THIRTEEN YEAR OLD from murdering his friends (who largely ignored him, insulted him, demeaned him and acted like they wanted nothing to do with him). Having one such friend gently touch his face didn't cure him of his issues (or the mind control) so obviously he is an irredeemable monster and an abuser. This is genetic." I know you've gotten tons of Vriska, so basically insert any of Vriska's apologists' points here." - "Gamzee is a complex character who is used as a puppet both by the other villains of Homestuck and by the arthur. Once someone takes a deeper look at him they might find a tragic character who had lots of chances where he could have gotten onto a better path but those chances were not able to be given or taken. On the flip side Gamzee suffers from some poor writing that leaves aspects of the character to based off poor stereotypes, he also lacks chances to show his internal character as thr story goes on and is treated like a tool by the story. He also killed some fan favorite characters and has a version of himself (homestuck is a multi timeline story) that abused a different fan favorite character." - "I know Vriska is the obvious pick for controversial HS blorbo, but consider: He is the world's shittiest boy. No one knows why he does the things he does he might just be a murderclown but he might be mind controlled or something no one knows and people have really strong opinions on him based on what they believe. He makes me very sad because I did think he was a cool character before he snapped." - "He was written so poorly 💔" - "when i was 12 i had a crush on him i was like a gamzee apologist and i was probably right i dont remember homestuck. i used to listen to icp and think wowww this is just like my clwon boyfriend and giggle and blush and kick my legs and i still do that with my fake boyfriend but hes not gamzee and its not icp and im not 12 but he kind of sounds like gamzee but thats because hes a smoker and he wouldnt listen to icp he likes techno. anyway i used to get so sad when people said they didnt like him because of the killings and i brought him up to my old therapist a couple times thats kind of funny looking back but i would do it again (but not with gamzee. with my fake chain smoker boyfriend who likes techno). anyway anyway my mom listens icp because her old friend from highschool who died was a juggalo and whenever i hear her listen to it i think about gamzee so i havent forgot about him yet. hes wasnt my favorite character thouhg my favorite character was the gemini one (i also had a crush on him when i was 12 i tried to lucid dream to see him once) (it didnt work). ok love you bye." - "-Funny clown -Cares about his friends -Absent parental figure :( -Did some murder but it wasn't his fault really he didn't have all of his mental faculties (see next point) -Got brainwashed by a universe-destroying god that is everywhere and nowhere at the same time through the form of a rapping marionette -The author(s) fucking hates him for some reason and retconned his previous characterization to make him a one-dimensional shitty villain and used canon text to make fun of fans who like him and no I'm not exaggerating -If I don't make him my blorbo who will"

Maeglin Lómion:

LOVE: - "LISTEN okay so he DID betray the city of Gondolin to the guy who literally invented evil, and that DID result in it getting destroyed and a whole bunch of people dying or being taken prisoner (which is probably worse in this instance), and also he DID attempt to throw his cousin's seven-year-old son off the city walls to his death during the attack. BUT. I love him. Also, and more substantially, a) he didn't go out of his way to betray the city, he was taken prisoner and threatened into it, b) he had an incredibly painful history with Gondolin involving both his parents' violent deaths happening like ten minutes after he arrived there, and he was legally not allowed to leave, and c) he was SO YOUNG (only 180! that's hardly anything for an elf!) and he is SO ANGSTY and INTERESTINGLY GOTH and SELF-HATING and I LOVE him. So." - "First of all he was LITERALLY CURSED TWICE OVER so there was NO WAY he was coming to a good end okay. Sure he had a crush on his cousin but he canonically didn't say anything and she only knew because she read his mind and he wasn't able to hide it from her. He had a major éowyn moment (iconic) and was trapped in cage after cage all his life and tbh after what he saw in the Nirnaeth I'm NOT surprised he voted to stay instead of go. Or just told the king what he wanted to hear. Anyway the POINT is that breaking under mental torment to morgoth, whose force and victory he'd seen firsthand, is NOT a moral failing, and idril started conspiring against him before he'd actually done anything wrong. The attempted murder was, admittedly, not great though. But he didn't even SUCCEED like c'mon he just got homoerotically yeeted from a cliff about it. In conclusion: maeglin did nothing wrong except all the things he did wrong, and the version in which he's most openly evil is also the one where both the narrative and the other elves are racist to him so like they had it coming"

[kohakhearts]

spare blorbo thoughts? blorbo thoughts tonight my liege?

this ask is SO old i'm sorry, i had to really think about what blorbo thoughts i HAVEN'T shared yet jdgfhjdk

so anyway, tonight i will be defending my thesis that satogou are kind of awful for each other and we are not capitalizing on their toxicity enough.

the obvious divide with them is in how they approach relationships. goh has a messed up idea of what friendship actually entails, and i'm guessing in his head relationships are relatively transactional. you have to give something to get something, and because he feels so inadequate, he doesn't put him in a position where he freely accepts what he sees as charity, because he doesn't believe in his capacity to return it. it's why he can safely accept being chloe's friend as long as he doesn't actually call her his friend. it's why he accepts ash as his friend, as if he is doing ash a favour, but then rejects him when he begins to see ash's drive to help others - because that's a threat to their friendship, which up until that point had been based on mutual interests and capabilities (after all, they were both crazy enough to jump on a lugia).

the biggest reason i think he'd have this mindset is because of how we see him with horace in his childhood flashbacks. he helps horace through the forest. the next day, he brings him lunch. they make a promise. horace doesn't uphold it. so goh feels he has given something and gotten nothing, and decides then that it's safer just to not give at all. his mindset changes because ash doesn't have that belief, and he just kind of...gives people everything, asks for nothing in return, and then...fucks off, lol

ash sees friendships in a completely different way. distance and time don't take away from the value of his friendships. memories make his friendships fonder. but he wasn't always like that, either. at the end of the johto arc, he has a hard time letting go too. even at the end of dp you can see how hard it is for him to say good-bye. but the memories of his friends and all they've been through together are lessons he carries with him, and he carries them well! he just...doesn't talk about them much.

so their disconnect would come i think in that, without ash around to remind him, i don't think goh would have an easy time accepting that they're still friends. it's been too long; nothing's been given or taken. do they even know each other anymore? even if they still talk, it wouldn't be the same. but the only thing worse than going back to how he was before he met ash would be being clingy, so i don't think he'd take the initative to start journeying with ash again or something. and because ash doesn't understand his view, he would probably never offer unless they just happened to cross paths. but i think by that point, goh would be resistant, and then it would be a whole "we're through" situation all over again.

i think they're the kind of bad for each other that is actually kind of good for each other, though. if that makes sense lmao. like they're on opposites ends of the same emotional spectrum, and both extremes are kind of not super healthy or conducive to maintaining friendships in the long-term. in order to maintain their own relationship, they would have to find a healthy middle area, which i think kind of happens during the course of jn and shows in how thematically their good-bye feels very different than some of the other departures in the series.

not sure if this makes any sense but basically they're "attachment issues" in opposite directions lmao. avoidant x abandonment issues. and i'd love to see that explored more in ways that aren't just a venue for inevitable hurt/comfort fluff, and especially in a way that doesn't excuse the fact that goh can be a jerk when he feels his relationships are threatened - because he can be, and i would love to see more how that can cause conflict between him and ash, rather than how it would lead to them having to break up and make up, yknow??

[machiroads]

hit me with 7 and 11 for the fanfic ask game bestie

#11 If you had to pick a single trope to read for the next seven-and-half years, which trope would that be?

Probably like. Slice of life? As much as I love h/c and angst and [REDACTED] I really do just enjoy stories about blorbo from my shows like. going to the grocery store.

#7 Share a line or paragraph you’ve written that you don’t think will ever actually be posted in anything! (Or, if you don’t hoard cut sentences and passages like I do, share anything you want that has yet to see the light of day!)

JUST FOR YOU I also got you a tidbit from the now defunct version of When The Battle's Lost & Won where Kuroboro lives, and he is discussing Mic's uh. Complicated feelings with Aizawa.

"I think Hizashi is mad at me."

Shouta shrugs. "Probably."

"Are you mad at me?"

Shouta closes his eye and passes his hand behind his neck, rolling the base of his skull across his knuckles. "I'm too tired to be mad at you," he replies, a ghost of a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

Judging from the deep smear of purple under Shouta's one visible eye, he's probably not bluffing about that.

"I think Hizashi is mad at you on my behalf," Shouta adds, his voice not betraying any emotion.

"Because of USJ," he clarifies.

"And Jaku," Shouta adds. "And the other day. He's tired of seeing me get fucked over by you guys."

He winces at Shouta's language, but really, it's his own crude assessment of what happened, he can call it whatever he wants.

When Tomura disintegrated his elbow at USJ and had a Nomu pound his face into concrete, that was him getting fucked over. When Tomura shot him with a quirk-destroying bullet, then mangled his eye so severely it had to be removed, that was him getting fucked over. When he unleashed the Sad Man's Parade on Shouta and his student the other day, that was him getting fucked over.

"I—I don't know what he wants from me," he says stupidly.

Shouta shrugs again. "Why don't you ask him yourself?"

"I don't think he wants to talk to me."

Shouta rolls his eye, exasperated. "Man with voice quirk doesn't want to talk. Yeah sure," he says sarcastically.

He leans over to smack Shouta's arm, and it's solid, meatier than it ever was when they were kids.

Shouta swats his hand away, a grin playing at his lips.

"The kind of resolution Hizashi wants…I don't think is suitable for someone that's hospitalized."

"You think he wants to fight me?" he asks incredulously.

Shouta smiles. "As much as he loves to run his mouth, he's a tactile person too."

"Kind of childish though, isn't it?"

"We were kids when you died," Shouta rationalizes.

"Seventeen isn't that young," he argues.

There's a tightness to Shouta's eyes, the creases visible even around the eyepatch. "Maybe it didn't feel young then," he says quietly. "But it does now."

It takes him a moment to remember that he's only one third of the reason Shouta is temporarily staying in Tokyo; him, Mirko the number five hero, and Bakugou Katsuki.

"How's Bakugou," he asks. Yet another piece of Tomura's handiwork, several times in the running.

"Doing better," Shouta replies. "He's always been very conscientious of his own health. An early to bed, early to rise kind of kid. He'll be fine."

[leadandblood]

Part 2 of my Crozcest rewatch

My ep 1 rewatch and analysis are here. Ep 2 didn't have any material for me to work with, so i skipped straight to ep 3.

This entire post is dedicated solely to the breakfast scene in ep 3. Had to cut it up, bc it got really long. I'll probably make another post for the rest of the episode, but this is it for now. I have so many thoughts...

Below are my interpretations of canon scenes along with screencaps from the show. All the things below are speculation. No, these characters are not related whatsoever in the show. I made this AU up bc it's fun. Don't go into the soup store if you hate soup. Don't read this post if you hate blorbo incest.

The 'argument'

Uh-oh! A racist moment at the start there. Keep that in check, boy, or you'll get spanked.

Anyway, he looks at Francis so intensely it's like he's trying to assimilate with him.

This might be the vague start of Francis disliking Edward on screen. The ships are ice locked. Francis is sour and started to drink more. (sir John looking at his glass in ep 2). Two of the plentiful reasons why Francis is a bit stand-off-ish and mean in this scene as well as later ones.

this face is giving: ''pleEAAASE, daddy, look at me. at least once, pleeeaase, daddy, im here, look at me, please, im right here, please, daddy, look at me-''

Sidenote but it's insane that Blanky is the only person in that room actually listening to him. Hodgson is playing elevator music in his head, Irving is in disociation station and Francis is Francis.

I'm sorry Edward. It won't get any better.

This is such an eldest daughter moment oh my GOD. "...Really?" I love Blanky watching them from the background, too, sdlmskdkj.

As funny as it is, though, I think it's actually a bit deeper, because! In his question, Edward already assumed Francis had wronged the Netsilik before. And Francis is pissed off about that. His own son assuming he'd do something like that and then just basing a question off it without so much as a second thought. So he shoots right back with the "were we to put her down the fire hole as well?" making Edward seem like the bad guy instead. Eye for eye, if you will.

Though it isn't said very seriously, it's still a jab in Edward's direction. And because Francis isn't yet the grouchy motherfucker he becomes later, he softens up and actually says something more valuable afterwards. (it's still not good, but it's better) I think Francis is very eye for eye and emotions-driven in his parenting. As in emotions control him, not he his emotions. Lots of outbursts and things said in the heat of the moment.

Anyway.

Live Blanky reaction

Blanky knows about them being related - the only one on the expedition who does.

Makes sense, bc Francis had been friends with him for a long time. It would only be natural for Francis to share that he has sons. So Blanky would have probably seen the Crozier boys growing up. Finally, I can give him the fun uncle storyline he deserves!!!

He looks so amused here... I think he likes seeing how Edward grew up and learned to talk back, especially since he'd always been such a quiet kid.

Anyway. Francis definitely intended to say something really bitter or mildly threatening in here, but then *gasp*

Tommy!!!

Coming in with the: "breakfast is ready (ominous)"

I joked about them having sex before the breakfast, but I legitimately think something happened there. If not sex, then a very handsy makeout session with a lot of name-calling. (He made Edward cry)

Their face journeys are killing me - for seperate reasons, but both are just as much fun to dissect.

Ned first.

"I can do this i can look at him" ..... "oh fuck no i can't" and then he's remembering how it felt having Tom's knee between his thighs and being called a waste of uniform while Tom kisses his neck sloppy style. He looks like he's about to pass out or throw up. He definitely ugly-cried and is embarassed about it.

Now Thomas.

He looks so fucking proud of himself😭 "i made that guy kneel for me half an hour ago😌 could've made him bark if I wanted to" Then he has this sudden realisation of "oh shit dad's talking to me" so he finally focuses on Francis.

Who then tells him that he's leaving for Erebus, so all that food was made in vain. He doesn't mind ofc but like🙄 could've at least eaten breakfast... (please eet, captin! sorry i had to)

Edward's sad little face after everybody starts getting up. He looks sick fr. Tom, what have you done-

+ Bonus of him looking at Francis from below bc I'm all about that💅

At the end there's that scene with Blanky. "the girl's people are far too busy staying alive to wage a war" which is such a Blanky thing to say in a situation like that.

I also like the "you've always been a shite parent, Francis. Here's how you're actually supposed to talk to your kids" expression. (he means it, but it's also lighthearted, as are many things Blanky says)

I think Blanky would be a much better parent to them and they certainly wouldn't turn out the way they did, but we're not here for that, are we? :DD He can still be an awesome uncle figure.

Conclusion

This scene alone burned down my house, sold my soul to the devil and poured 3 tons of salt over my property. There is no going back for me, it's over. I'm in too deep.

We get a glimpse of what Tom and Ned have going on as well as the cracks in Francis's behaviour.

It's really fun how this scene inserts Blanky into the equasion, too. I have vaguely thought about him in the AU but not too much. Now I'm having more thoughts which I'll either put into the AU or make a different post for. For now, he's just the fun uncle :DDD He definitely doesn't know anything about the sex, though. He'd be strongly against it if he did.

*unlocks your handcuffs and unties you from the chair* okay, go be free now, byee (🌸^w^)/¨