#i just got a bit emotional about this Very Good Character Arc and needed to vent

[pzychojinx]

as I said, act two left me with genuinely mixed opinions. that said, I slept on it and I think I'm able to verbalize it a little bit.

let's start with what I think went right in this act. first of all, obviously, the animation and art. if possible, they're outdoing themselves. I love the experimentation, I absolutely adored the pastel tones they used for vi and jinx's childhood memories, the way isha's point of view sequence feels like it's straight out of a ghibli movie, I loved the distortion effects used on jayce and every single visual effect they used for viktor to convey this sense of absolute inhumanity, the entire messianic visuals were insane, warwick was gorgeous especially during sequences where we didn't get to see him but rather we got to see the camera following his massacre. gorgeous. no notes.

episode four, in my opinion, was near perfect plot-wise too. seeing the new state of the military situation in zaun, getting to see sevika as the rallier of the revolution, isha's drive to be a fighter for zaun leading her to impersonate jinx when needed, the whole mission to enter stillwater - I genuinely think it was incredible. most of all, it was probably my favourite jinx episode to date. and that's saying a lot. this is a character I've resonated with and held very very close to my heart for three years now. seeing her gain not only a younger sister through whom there could be a process of reclaiming her own past, but also very importantly seeing her gain new objectives and seeing her gain community, was deeply healing and heartwarming to me. that one scene where her followers touch her, not only as an idol but as an equal, is so so moving and good. isha was the kickstarter to jinx's reclaiming of powder and a sense of stability, sure, but living in a fantasy with isha alone could have very easily led her to the same old mechanism of co-dependency - thus never breaking the cycle that silco himself perpetrated onto her. but no, they made her respected. they made her see a nation of people who saw something in her. they gave her goals, even if she reasonably only started giving a fuck about said goals when her sister/child went missing. it was everything I never thought could happen to her. it was healing.

episode five is where the issues start, I think. first of all, there's been way way way too much space dedicated to the black rose. much as I love mel, much as I find her truly intriguing, her plotline is so severely disconnected from everything else and it feels un-cohesive. before s2 started, one of my main fears was that they would give noxus an excessive screentime in order to prepare the viewers for a future noxus project and I hate to see that I was right. this leads to the second issue, which is pacing. and specifically, vi. vi stans, how are you doing? because to be fair, the show kind of fucked you over and there's no sugar-coating it. the fact that vi's fighting pit era lasted three minutes was genuinely ridiculous. the entire plotline involving her, jinx and warwick in episode five was way, way too rushed in order to make space for black rose content - and again, I love mel, I love ambessa. but there's no doubt something was off here in terms of pacing and screentime. now, I don't think the episode was bad. I loved the dynamic between jinx and vi. with jinx having gained some sort of a stability (at least, for her standards) and vi having nothing else to lose, the fact that their conflict turned into a half unwilling cooperation felt very real and believable to me and I loved their interactions, especially in the micro expressions; it all screamed family bond where something went awfully wrong but here we fucking are and the love is still there at the roots. I just, you know, would have liked to see more of it. the final hug with warwick felt, to me, less earned than it could have been if we just had a little more time with these characters in this arc. was it emotional? sure, but could it have hit harder if the episode was just structured a little bit differently, a little more cohesively, especially regarding vi? yeah. and another question: would the zaunite revolution arc have needed more than just one episode before being pushed aside and sort of forgotten? probably, yeah, even though there's no comparison with how vi's arc was reduced to three mins. so again, pacing issue. still, I had no particular issues with the plot and the contents of the story itself. I would say episode five was rushed, crammed and structurally weak, but the story still hit me in all the right ways when it needed to. vi and jinx's reluctant steps to some sort of understanding hit me hard, in spite of any structural weakness.

episode six... well. episode six leaves me so conflicted. 'cause the thing is, it's dope. I think it's a fucking bomb. they managed to fit nearly (nearly - mel being, again, dissociated from the main storyline and in this case, absent) every character's plotline into a cohesive arc. it kept me on the edge of my seat near the whole time. there were so, so many things I absolutely adored - the imminent attack on the commune from ambessa, the way they managed to make warwick a center plot point and use that plot point to show us both the benefits and the limitations of viktor's hexcore messianic utopia cult, everything regarding jayce's return (whom is getting so much hate, but come on, it's clear the man has seen Some Things), the way the episode starts off with a plan but not necessarily a sense of deep urgency and then the urgency slowly creeps in and it explodes into a fucking battlefield. again, warwick. vi and jinx's slow re-building of some trust, slow reclaiming of family love. viktor. man, I adored their work on viktor. I just found it dope. the thing is, episode six has two major, major issues that I just can't seem to get past and this time it's plot issues, which makes it worse than 2.05 for me.

the first one, caitlyn. sure, I get that caitlyn wasn't fully onto ambessa's methods. but there's a very huge leap from 'I distrust this person and I question her methods' to 'my ex told me that this savage monster that just brutally mauled our men is her father so I'm just gonna help her save him'. like jesus, come on. caitlyn deserved better than this. (again, shoutout to vi stans, cait stans and caitvi stans, they did you dirty.) especially when I think they did such a good job on her descent in act one. the second one, isha. look, I'm gutted if she's dead. like fucking gutted, mourning, red-wedding level in shock, like, can't even think about it without wanting to cry. but this is not just an emotional thing. in fact, I love some good angst. no, this is a narrative issue. they spent the entire act - the entire season - building up jinx's healing and to take it all away like this, to bring her back to step one, just feels like fucking trauma porn for the sake of it. it feels unnecessary and cheap, and cheapness is the one thing I can't forgive arcane. like, what was the point? why not have her spiral from 2.01 if this was the direction? it's beyond me and it makes me feel so bitter, so sick, that at times it's hard for me to remember that there were so, so many things I adored in these three episodes. again, 2.04 is up there as my favourite jinx episode to date. 2.05 gave me some of my favourite siblings moment in the entire show. 2.06's work on viktor and hexcore and magic is otherwordly. I'm so glad I got these episodes, genuinely. and yet.

'cause the thing is, - not considering the isha thing for a minute - aside from my critique regarding caitlyn, and aside from having to make peace with how rushed/crammed the pacing is, this show is still absolutely gorgeous to me. it's still gorgeous art to me. sure, s2 has its very real issues. and for sure, it's absolutely reasonable to recognize them, critique them, and still find it an incredible story. but this. fuck, this could change everything to me. if isha's truly dead, then it means they wasted six episodes on what could have been one of the best, most genuine, most earned stories of unexpected healing I'd ever seen on my screen just to throw it away and I'm not sure how to forgive them for that. episode six itself was dope. episode six isn't really where my gut-deep fear and bitterness comes from. it's where it could lead from now on. I'm so holding out hope on ekko saving the day, even if it's a deus ex machina. it's a deus ex machina I'd accept if it means not throwing away jinx's entire road to recovering. but I don't know, guys. I don't know. making her spiral as a general s2 choice would have been one thing, and I would have been on board, but this is something else entirely. this is cheap betrayal and if true, if confirmed, if real, it's a sour taste.

[sometipsygnostalgic]

Animated Series ending tier list

Okay this is based on a discussion with @j4gm, kim and mifil the other day

These are all cartoons with the exception of Homestuck. I'll admit I don't get invested in a lot of TV shows, even animated shows, so this is limited to stuff I like. Maybe i forgot something but if i did it's probably not worth talking about.

Here's the list if you're interested in building your own.

So I'll go through each item one by one and explain. Yes, I did arrange them based on better (left) and worse (right) for each tier. I'll start from top to bottom so I have the most energy for the better show endings.

I'm rating them both in how they respect the stories of their show, and how entertaining/cohesive they are as a piece of media. To be honest, the former matters to me more than the latter, but some of the shows at the top of this list aren't even ones I particularly like, because their endings were just that well written.

Astonishing

Owl House. This show got better and better with each episode. I don't know, I was blown away by how bad it was at the start and how great it was at the end. And of every item on this list, this one's ending episode had the best pacing. There was lots of room to breathe, lots of reminders of the connections between various characters, and the villain was taken care of in a satisfying way. And we got a beautiful epilogue. The only reason Owl House is in the same tier as She-ra and Gravity Falls, instead of being its own category, is because I felt it had some shortcomings, particularly s3e2 focused on a bunch of characters nobody has ever had any reason to care for, and a lot of the cast don't reach the potential they could do because they lack focus, so I don't have as much emotional attachment to it as a lot of other shows listed here. Anyway here's my favourite moment:

2. She-Ra and the Princess of Power. This is my favourite show on this list because I think it's the most cohesive of the lot. Even though it has a rough start, and often follows cartoon logic, from the very beginning of She-ra to the end it focuses strongly on the same themes. The cycle of abuse and pain and that feeling you will need to earn love, you need to earn the right to exist. It does so with a wide cast of characters, but it's also very good at trimming down to a smaller cast when it needs more focus. There are a lot of good decisions to make sure it worked in the small runtime it had. The ending of she-ra is basically its entire final season. It's one long arc. It doesn't have any major weak spots like The Owl House's final season did, and it has more room to breathe, with 13 incredible episode of about 20 minutes each, more than twice the length. And it delivers on every single character. Every member of the cast gets a moment to shine across the season, yet it isn't so distracted as to pull attention away from Catra and Adora. What makes She-ra's ending a bit weaker than Owl House's is the pacing of the final episode. Heart part 1 and 2, while great, is absolutely rammed, and one of the weaker episodes of that season because of it. You don't get enough room to breathe, you don't get to soak in the characters' emotions quite as much as in the episode prior, Failsafe. But I would count Failsafe as part of the ending. So while season 5's finale isn't even the best finale of She-ra (s3 and s4 were harder hitting), the final season as a whole is incredibly strong. And it's a very entertaining piece of media too! Ugh. I love it.

Here's this powerful scene of Catra whispering and yet screaming to Adora to stay with her, even in the end.

3. Gravity Falls.

To be honest I'm not much of a Gravity Falls fan, so I don't have as much to say as I do about the other two shows, but this ending is highly regarded across the cartoon community. It works perfectly within the smaller scope of the show, bringing a wide, crazy calamity for the characters to work with.

My problem with Gravity falls is Mabel. Not that she's a bad character, but that they don't spend enough time making her a good one. And the ending reflects that - it shows her doing something very major, overturning the world, and that's interesting, but it keeps presenting Mabel's problems as rather shallow instead of focusing on her psychology and why she's making these mistakes. Meanwhile it spends a lot of time on Dipper and explaining and justifying his teenage boy mentality and it drived me crazy how much more of a main character Dipper is than Mabel. Because it's Mabel I relate more to. She's more like I was when I was 12. It's a teen boy's show for teen boys, so I don't like it as much as Owl House or Amphibia. Other than that the ending is a good time and I love the themes of family, I love that Dipper has such low self worth and is grappling with the idea of what manliness even is, facing misguided pressure from other relatives like Stan and Ford. And I love the relationship between Stan and Ford, the mistakes they made, and how Stan ultimately takes responsibility for being an obstructive little shit by removing his memory, taking Bill with him!

Yeah, perhaps this show's ending could've been further strengthened by Stan having his memory lost forever, or having a harder time regaining it. But it makes sense in the stakes of Gravity Falls, where the world resets after every episode even if there was a zombie invasion. I don't see them having Stan forget his great nephew/niece as the ending of the show.

And it has a nice scene with the characters driving off in the bus... Heartbreaking. I love that Stan and Ford go adventuring together afterwards. And I love the theme song.

Remaining rankings below - I think these three should be celebrated most. It's gonna be a shorter summary from here.

Genuinely Good

These are endings that blow you away, but do have a couple nooks and crannies stopping them from reaching the top tier. Another person's list might put them at the top.

Adventure Time Distant Lands: See what's crazy about Distant Lands is that anyone one of these episodes might be the best in the series if it was a different show, but Adventure Time is such a good show that the way Distant Lands is different stands out to me. Like, Together Again, you might think I'm crazy for not putting it above Owl House, but while it's a fantastic episode, really emotional, it's not even my favourite Distand Lands episode. That would be Obsidian which I felt was a more honest resolution to the characters of the show itself, showing the limitless future ahead of the cast instead of what TA did which was demonstrate that Finn really didn't go much further after the end of the show. I felt TA was very limiting in that sense, it contradicted the ending to Adventure Time, which had the strength of "the adventure never ends". Which means that growth never ends. Finn is supposed to be an ever changing character, but in Together Again, he's stagnant.

Other than that, it's absolutely top tier. But not good enough for me to call it the best of the best. Even if I think Finn's character writing was a downgrade, or harmed the main show, I think where DL and TA did better than Come Along With Me is it was actually coherent and had strong themes rather than being a mishmash of random parts of Adventure Time that they wanted to shove in before it was over. It was a better tv finale, one of the best and most emotional ever made, but it's hard to call it a better Adventure Time finale, because AT's legacy hinders on so much more. 2. OK KO: Let's be Heroes: This is a show that went under the radar. It was coming out at the same time as Steven Universe, which was far more popular. So I'll explain it to you: OK KO has two endings. KO has grappled with his alternate persona, TKO, for the entire show. In the first ending, TKO takes over, and starts fighting everyone in a giant tournament. He literally kills all the cast, while KO is struggling to regain control. KO's epiphany is that TKO is a part of himself he buried long ago. KO has always tried to be the sweetest kid possible, so all his rage and fire, all his strength, was neglected and buried. That became TKO. It's similar to the ending of Celeste. They fuse together, but KO is crying because he killed all his friends. So he makes a wish to the God of the Universe to give everyone a happy ending. Then you get a really nice ending montage of all the characters from OK KO having the time of their life. One interesting touch was Venomous, KO's bastard father, had very little to do with KO in this timeline. KO clearly wanted nothing to do with him. But Venomous is shown raising his adoptive daughter Fink and doing a fantastic job. The final episode of OK KO has KO seemingly stuck in time acceleration. Time is flying by, his friends are achieving their goals, leaving the town, way before he can begin to process what he's even doing here. Everything is going faster and faster and it's like he's jumping forward! He doesn't know what's going on!!! But when he explains his plight, he's told... This is normal. This is a normal part of growing up. What seems like time acceleration is just time passing by. Then the rest of the episode show KO going through his life in the same manner. A big gag of the show is KO is age 6-11. That's his age. It's the same as the target audience for OKKO. But you see him grow up. His twelth to fifteenth birthday... 18th to 24th birthday... 25th to 35th birthday... At the end, he's in charge of the Bodega, a full adult looking after runts just like Mr Gar did. I dunno, I felt this was a very meaningful way to end the show. Even if it's not the most emotionally heavy hitting series, even if it's way too short, it did something that stays in my mind to this day. Time goes by in such a flash that you don't notice it was there to begin with, so appreciate the good things life throws at you.

3. The Legend of Korra: The show Korra wasn't particularly great, if I was rating the media as a whole it would probably be at the very bottom of this list. Yes below Star and Homestuck and Kipo. It's not remarkable in the slightest and constantly fumbles.

However I was at the edge of my seat during the series finale in Season 4. I was excited by the conflict between Korra and Kuvira. I loved the metalbending battles. I loved Korra's actualisation, how Kuvira is a very good rival, how their whole conflict plays out with Korra demonstrating such an INSURMOUNTABLE LEVEL OF STRENGTH both in power and character to save Kuvira from her own mistake.

I love how Korra decides to take a break and leave with Asami into the spirit world through the portal she just opened. It was a nice relationship in a show that has so heavily fumbled its prior character dynamics.

And you can't forget how it felt watching this the first time. Afterwards, Bryke made a post on tumblr saying "Korrasami is Canon". You have to remember, this was long before Bubbline was anything more than subtext in two episodes. This was before Steven Universe's "Stronger than You". This was the first time two girls were confirmed to be in a relationship in a kid's cartoon in America. I was so happy. You have to understand Korrasami did a lot of good things and made a lot of the queer representation in these other items possible.

Did the job

These are endings that were OK. They were satisfying but they weren't anything special. They weren't the best episodes or seasons of the series they're from.

Avatar: The last Airbender: I will be honest this show is in a similar realm to She-ra wherein its whole final season is one big buildup to a couple of fast-pased episodes. And honestly its final episode might be better than She-ra's in a pacing sense? But... The simple part is I don't like Avatar as much. I didn't feel particularly strongly about most of these characters. It's a very competent tv finale, with strong scenes - the Agni Kai, and Katara's capture of Azula, are particular strong points. But it's quite long and there are a lot of scenes I don't feel much about, like Aang vs Ozai. Back in the day lots of people were unhappy Aang spared Ozai, and I get that it's not in character for him to just kill him, but it was the original "deus ex machina" for Aang to find a way to get out of it and get what he wanted. It isn't particularly interesting. And then Aang x Katara... I don't care. So yeah ATLA does the job. It's a great final season but I don't care for the finale itself and the characters. while great for the time - by far the EARLIEST show to release on this list - are more childish and cartoony than most. They don't have depth required to compete with more modern cartoons. You've only got maybe two outstanding characters in a tight story vs She-ra's one dozen in a looser story, and honestly I value character more than cohesion because that's what you remember. That's what makes you feel things. Anyone can make a story where things happen but what makes you care? Being a bit harsh here because a lot of people call this the greatest show of all time blah de blah and throw away everything all the other shows do better. But the ATLA finale isn't even in the top ten most interesting episodes of the series. This part went hard though (couldn't find a video of it alone):

Azula starts the scene dominating Katara, and then Katara turns the tables and restrains her using the very ice which fire is supposed to melt, which is mentally destroying for Azula. All she can do is scream and breathe fire when she is restrained, unable to let out all her rage and pain. And Katara spares a moment to witness this, looking troubled, before she runs off to Zuko, attempting to save his life.

2. Adventure Time original ending: Why is my favourite show of all time listed so far down? Why? Well it's because while that AT finale is emotional, hits a lot of themes, it's... a fucking mess. The first part is a war which has only been relevant for two episodes, the second part is a dream sequence which destroy any tension you might've had, and the rest is an unrelated battle against GOLB because we needed a real final boss.

It's a really bad tv finale. And it even does harm to my favourite character in the show, Princess Bubblegum, by making her seem irrational. She's someone who has had the entire series for us to get to know her, to see her biggest flaws and see her struggle to overcome them. So for her to fall back on them yet again, nearly fuck everyone over, with such little buildup and justification and literally throw a child tantrum when Finn interrupts it, it's an injustice to her. She deserved better than everyone thinking she's a fascist forever. The AT crew should have respected their own work on that character better instead of leaving her off like that.

But... even despite these issues, despite being so incoherent? It's a great Adventure Time ending. It makes perfect sense. Of COURSE it's anticlimactic! Of COURSE there's a ten minute dream sequence of crazy shit happening! Of course it's so sudden, things happen so quickly without much time spent to reflect on them! It's Adventure Time! This is what we're HERE for! And the emotional heart of the episode, it isn't really in the Great Gum War or the battle against Golb. It's in Shermie and Beth, and Future Ooo. The fact that the world will end again, but even then.. it's fine. Everything changes. Everything grows. Nothing can stay as it is forever, but letting it go might allow something new and beautiful to take its place.

It's in Jake trying to protect his home, freaking out, and BMO coming in... instead of being looked after, BMO decides to reassure jake, even in certain doom.

It's in Time Adventure. We may not be able to go home, turn back time, relive the past and return to how things were, but... you and I will always be back then.

3. Scavenger's Reign: I felt this show started stronger than it ended. The ending wasn't offensive but it wasn't good either. Honestly I don't have shit to say about the ending, other than that Barry is an annoying stereotype of an autistic character with no agency of his own and it breaks my heart. I liked how relentlessly bad Kris was and I liked Azi struggling to save the day. I liked how her character evolved from being straightfoward and pushing down Levi's curious, kind traits, to embracing those very things in her memory.... while maintaining the strength in adversity needed to challenge someone like Kris. The baby alien thing sure was there. I dunno, the earlier eps with those two hit harder than the ending. The worst part is the sequel bait. We are not getting a sequel. Why is there sequel bait? Seems like the crew were a bit too optimistic for a team of cartoonists working for HBO Max.

But the show as a whole is incredible and has left a strong impression. So, an inoffensive ending is completely fine. I like how everyone is still stranded because of Kris, who meanwhile is dehydrating to death in space because of the organic Levi invasion, and all the people they left behind are chilling in the alien wonderland, learning how to live comfortably.

4. Fionna and Cake: We're now moving into the endings I dislike for one reason or another. I liked Fionna and Cake's themes with Simon and Betty, how it showed a bit more from Betty's side, how obsessive she was with him and he didn't even know.

This does have a weakness though. It removes agency from Betty. It was her choice, in the finale, to sacrifice herself to become GOLB. She was chasing Simon over and over and over again, SHE was the obsessive mad scientist, and she finally achieved her goal at great cost even though could've given up at any time. It was a tragedy. But here it kinda shifts the blame on Simon, even though he was a victim of Betty's obsession. I'm not accusing it of victim blaming, more that I really liked that it was Betty making her own terrible mistakes. It added a lot of character and conviction to her. I don't think Fionna and Cake undermines this much. Kim was a lot more bothered. Besides the Simon plot, the rest is.. ok. It was very predictable Fionna would want to protect the boring, happy world she came from. It fits and it has heart. But it's not remarkable. The ending montage is... weird. Why is Jay and Little Destiny here? Why is Baby Finn here? What about their worlds? Won't they be missed? Did Farmworld Finn fucking die? And the big problem with Fionna and Cake is.. it's such a meanspirited show, even compared with Adventure Time. It relies on you finding tragic shit really funny, like BMO having a horrible gory deeath in jerry. When Fionna and Cake has desensitized me this much, it's hard to feel emotionally invested in this world anymore. It made mistakes by showing too many alternate universes and undermining the world of Adventure Time itself, and I have issues with how Marceline was completely absent from the series - AGAIN - despite allegedly being so important to Simon. It's an outright BAD Adventure Time ending!!! I do love the presentation of Casper and Nova, how it was revealed it wasn't Simon Petrikov but the little Fionna and Cake fan who was able to write the story that finally got through to him and made him realise he needed to stop holding betty back.

"You were a good experience, Simon. Goodbye."

Mistakes were Made

These are the endings that fumbled, disappointed people. They still have value in them but theyre largely disliked by the fanbases involved. I'll explain a bit of why.

1, Arcane: This one just ended last night and is the reason I'm making this post.

I explained a bit here and here, but the issue is: Arcane's a much better show than it has any right to be. It's a league of legends cartoon. But season 1 is so heavy hitting, a tight ship from start to end focusing on the dramas of Vi, Jinx, and the people around them. The main weakness of season 1 was Jayce, Viktor, and Mel. It would distract from the main story in order to focus on them, but wouldn't spend enough time making them compelling characters. Season 2 has this issue tenfold where it seems the scope of the season was so big that it had very limited time to have those amazing scenes from season 1. And there certainly some heavy hitters, like Ekko save-scumming his conversation with Jinx to find a way to stop her killing herself, or Caitlyn and Mel's battle with Ambessa, or Jayce and Viktor yetting themselves into arcane oblivion, but... the finale itself seems very disconnected from the rest of the series, having a generic big bad in Possessed Chaos God Viktor. It lacks any of the intrigue of the Piltover vs Zaun conflict that was so important from s1e1 all the way to s2e4, after which it was promptly discarded in favour of other distractions. And as a result, Jinx and Vi are left as side characters in the ending of their own series, with a lot of their internal struggles left behind. Instead of the tragedy of season 1's ending, we are left thinking of the tragedy of how much better the ending could've been if they had just one more season to give these characters justice.

The strongest episode of the season is probably episode 6. If you know, you know.

2. Ducktales: So if you were a casual viewer of Ducktales you probably had no issues with this one. It's a competent TV finale where stuff happens and all the characters get involved and there are emotional themes.

What's weird about this one, and why it's so far down, is because of Webby's role. Webby is a misfit because she's not a member of the Scrooge family. She's a wannabe. She wants to be part of them, part of the siblings, and she has more in common with Scrooge and Della's brilliance than the other three, but she will never have that blood relationship. Her own parents are dead too, so she has feelings about watching the triplets reunite with their mother.

But in season 3... Ot's like the Ducktales writers were told they only had one episode left to work with and just made something up, and what they decided to do was take the "found family" trope and say "actually it was real family the whole time because Webby was Scrooge's secret clone daughter".

It leaves a bad taste in my mouth. The show did such a good job before this point showing Webby's development as she gets loved and accepted into the family. But for her to have always secretly had that blood relationship undercuts it fully.

It also undercuts her relationship to her grandmother, who tries to move out of the picture as soon as the truth comes out. The show does have Webby embracing her gran to show theyre still family. But we already had this story told in a better way with Webby and Scrooge and the triplets.

The fact the finale has nothing to do with the rest of the season is also why it's so far down. The season 2 finale was pretty spectacular by comparison and had compelling scenes like Della freaking out over protecting her kids and "running to the moon" with them, recycling her trauma (yes a ducktales character has trauma).

If you're not bothered by it, it's an inoffensive, fun finale. But more obsessive Ducktales fans and Webby fans were quite upset, myself included.

3. Kipo and the age of Wonderbeasts

I can't remember much about how this show ended. Honestly that's part of the problem. The first season was far more intrigueing than anything that followed and the whole thing came out across 2020 and it was a forgettable experience despite Karen Fukuhara voicing the energetic Kipo.

What I do remember is being pissed off about some things. Like how a lot of the talking animals were turned into non-talking animals and that was how things ended for them, and no vaccine or anything was made. It pissed me off somehow? Please kipo fans tell me your feelings on this.

I also disliked the final villain. She's a lot like Kris from Scavenger's Reign but even more generic and disappointing.

I dunno, to me the finale represents the wasted potential of this show. How it takes place in a world that rivals Adventure Time's, but Netflix did away with it so quickly, releasing three entire seasons in one year and leaving it with a generic end.

The peak into everyone's futures is nice, but it's not intrigueing like with The Owl House or Adventure Time.

4. Steven Universe: What a hot mess of an ending that threw out so much potential for the wider Steven Universe world. The motivations of the main villains were narrowed down to "we have emotional problems". Steven Universe has a consistent issue where it has emotional scenes at the expense of characters and story.

But I rate this more highly than the SU Future ending, despite that one having perhaps more cohesive writing, because I felt that the SU end had some incredible scenes that carried the spirit of the show while SU Future constantly undermined the original series without providing enough value of its own.

In particular, the scene James Baxter animated of Steven and Steven. This was mind-blowing, it was the climax to the most important part of the story, the truth of Steven's identity and whether he was his own person.

In retrospect that scene brings more value to me than all the bad parts of SU... but SU had so many amazing characters. It's a tragedy that Steven was the only one of them that the show still loved by the end.

Hardest line:

She's GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONE!!!!

5. Amphibia: Season 3 was plagued by being worse than season 2. The opening episodes on Earth were kinda bad, just "Amphibia season 1 episodes but in a far more boring setting". I hated anything involving the secret agents.

The fact Kipo, Scavenger's Reign, and Amphibia all have corpo villains at the end, and the fact I didn't like any of those endings, shows to me that it's not a particularly great thing to add to a fantasy story.

The first sad part is "the magic is destroyed". A popular theme in Disney shows. Well, what happens here is Sasha, Anne, and Marcy lose their magic abilities, and they decide to stay on Earth and lose the ability to travel to Amphibia. It's not massively offensive but it's kind of played out and generic and it does the sad thing of separating the trio from their found family. What's controversial is the epilogue shows that Anne, Sasha, and Marcy stopped hanging out after the end. They just broke off from each other's lives, it was easy as that. It wasn't a lifelong friendship. They do reunite in the end but it's been like ten years. It undermines the emotional turmoil that was present across the whole show. What Matt Braly wanted to show is sometimes things happen. Despite how much you want to be best friends forever... you stop being close to people, you lose touch with them. But this isn't a story that makes much sense when the characters have been through so much together in a fantasy world. It's like Marcy's worst fears have come true, and while that's a point of growth for her, it's frustrating for the viewers who believed the endgame bonds between the characters were better than that.

[Edit: Other than that, a lot of characters weren't delivered in justice s3 with how they had been built up in season 2. Sasha is hardly present in season 3 and Marcy is genuinely not present at all, and when we watched it we really thought they were gonna do more with Marcy when she came back. Swim in that emotional trauma a little bit! But no she's fine even with her evil father figure gone. It could've been better, should've been because season 2 was so stellar.] And I wasn't a fan of how Anne was portrayed at the end. I don't like how these stories make their characters "grow up" in such a way that they come across as love-all hippies instead of having anything resembling their original personality. Where's her sass? Why is she so melancholic and only melancholic? But that's a personal problem I haven't seen many others talk about.

Other than that, it's a competent episode. But it's the ending to a weaker season compared to what came prior.

The cat in this drawing has been my discord icon since we watched it though.

What the Hell?

These are the endings that shat the bed. I hate them! Everyone else probably does too.

Steven Universe Future: Unlike the other endings of this section, I did feel like Rebecca Sugar was going somewhere with SU future. They had a specific goal in mind for what they wanted to do, and every episode reaches towards that goal in some way. That's why a lot of people think Steven Universe Future is better than the more disjointed, huge tv series that came prior. It had a set start middle and end and carried through those themes. Unfortunately, those themes suck. Yeah, it's great deconstructing the impact Steven Universe had on Steven as a character, showing the damage that was done to him, the ways he's been let down. In isolation, it's a great way to show how a difficult childhood can affect you in adulthood, in ways that you would have never expected. This is the value SU Future has. It also has good sections showing how some other characters have recovered, how Pearl for example is healing and far more social than she ever has been but still has a ways to go, and finally talks to someone about her feelings over Pink Diamond, the previous Pearl that served her. Volleyball is a great episode. Unfortunately it takes the wrong lessons from the mistakes of the show. Steven Universe really wanted us to fall in love with its many characters, but it spent so much time showing Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl's flaws, spent so much time showing them failing Steven, that they ultimately came across as incompetent and sidelined. This is an issue with the original show. Steven Universe Future: "You know what? You're right! That was bad!" Me: "So are you going to do those characters justice and show them having growth and being competent and caring for Steven?" Steven Universe Future: "No. We are going to show them BEING EVEN WORSE and COMPLETELY FAILING to connect with Steven!" Me: "... For the entire thing????" Steven Universe Future: "Yes. this is never fixed and Steven leaves the county because of it." Me: "What the fuck?" Even people who were really into the whole thing were taken aback that Steven's kaiju transformation, the manifestation of his deepest fears about himself, was resolved with a hug. Just like the major conflict in the original show. And instead of a meaningful denouement, the show skipped all the resolution and went to Steven running the fuck away in an episode that would've had equal emotional value if it was in season 1 episode 1, or a competely different series. It was cheap and easy to make a bittersweet ending of Steven leaving the city. And it made it feel like the tragedy of Steven's mental breakdown was more important than his healing. Like they couldn't make an interesting story of him getting better because they're incompetent writers. I did like the scene of Steven crying his eyes out after he detransformed. And a lot of scenes in Future did go hard. But the Crystal Gems deserved better. Hell, Jasper deserved better.

Hardest scene:

2. Star vs the forces of Evil: Hooo boy. In the animation community this is HERALDED as The Worst Ending. It is the flagship of disappointment.

It disappointed people who loved the magical world the show took place in. It disappointed people who wanted to see Star reach her potential. It disappointed every shipper of every ship, not that I ever cared for the romance dramas but they took a lot of screentime on the show to its detriment. It disappointed people who like to apply basic logic to the things they watch. What a disaster!

Okay so why is it so hated?

Well, Star had been on the decline for a while. It had a fantastic start to season 3, with a great big war for Mewnie where everyone had great character moments, Star died and came back to life and utterly annihilated the villain. Toffee was a great villain, by the way.

There had been a bit of romantic tension between Star and Marco and they both had crushes on each other but refused to ever admit it and Marco thought he was into some other girl, and Star let him go at the start of season 3 and started dating... her ex... this shitty guy called Tom... he's a good character but a terrible boyfriend who kind of suicide baits Star back into his life. And Star would become a terrible girlfriend. I dunno, people really thought that pairing would be endgame but it was clear to me it was just an artificial obstacle in the way of the inevitable Starco ship. Like Kelly. Who Marco dates for a whopping half an episode before they break up offscreen. Great?

Anyway the romance in this series is on the same tier as Korra, though it does try to build up its endgame pairing from the start.

But from season 3 onwards Marco felt more like a joke character. I don't know, they didn't treat him with much respect.

The thing that EVERYONE TALKS ABOUT with Star, oh god it's going to be the longest thing on this list, is Moon and Eclipsa and Mina and the atrocious decisions the characters made.

I'm going to bullet point it so it's vaguely readable:

Star's mother, Queen Moon, goes missing following the events of the start of s3 special.

Star learns that the throne was stolen from monster-fucker Eclipsa and wrongly given to her own family line so she gives the crown to Eclipsa, to great controversy. Eclipsa is a dark magic user who is 300 years old and she's pretty cool but the show takes a sharp turn from this point to being about a racial conflict - Monsters being discriminated against by Mewmans and how a lot of people want to keep it that way.

The council which was previously on the side of good really HATES this decisionn and is now portrayed as bad.

Conflict breaks out and people are against Eclipsa and her giant person-eating husband leading the kingdom.

People have their homes given back to the monsters that they were stolen from hundreds of years ago. It's a silly cartoon form of reparations but it is shown giving them hardship because they are made homeless. By the way nobody in history has been made homeless because of reparations.

These homeless or disgruntled mewmans find Moon, who has re-emerged and decided to stay away from the kingdom. They want their old queen back and side with her, and she thinks they need someone to represent them. She also hates Eclipsa for various reasons.

Moon decides the best way to deal with Eclipsa is to arm the biggest fascist monster-killing character in the world with an invincible undefeatable army of magic soldiers, and retake the kingdom and go to war against the side her own daughter is on.

Moon gets a surprised pikachu face when she realises she can't undo the spell she used to make this fascist evil super army.

Star decides the best way to resolve this is to delete all magic. Kill it. They go to the source of all magic and use a spell to kill everything there. Lots of reindeer die.

Then every magical thing in the universe gets deleted. Every single magic-born creature. The entire council is murdered. All of the creatures in Star's magic wand die. Countless portals to other worlds are closed down, meaning many of the characters can no longer go and see their friends anymore. This is directly shown, by the way - not just inferred.

Somehow, Ponyhead survives.

Then this is capped off by Marco and Star wanting to reunite... and in a scene that is supposed to be emotional, they cleave their universes together. Mewnie lands on top of Earth. Normal humans are screaming as they are chased around by giant creatures.

The story ends.

Yeah do I have to explain any more why this one was unpopular? It's the biggest fumble you can speak of.

My biggest issue is how dumb they had to make Moon in order to achieve this outcome.

But Starco is kind of cute, even if Marco wasn't half the character he used to be by the end.

3. Homestuck: Which ending do you want me to discuss? Act 6? The epilogues? Or HS^2?

Let's start with the main work, as that's what makes Homestuck qualify as an animation.

Act 6 was a vast disappointment because it sort of ended. We had so much talking for so long that we were hoping something cool would happen and then we got a flash where the characters hit each other with sticks. There were no stakes in Collide, not really.

Then we got the Frog flash. We watched a frog for 8 minutes.

Then that was it!

There were so many unanswered questions. What the hell happened to the final boss and the MAIN CAST, for example. We had learnt earlier in the story that in some point of the future, the main cast all get stuck in a little homestuck house which Vriska fires at Lord English. But we never learn when, we never learn if they're ok, we never learn if English is killed or what happens to Vriska. So for a long time there was this disturbing implication that the cast would all die not long after the series ended.

We had the Credits which were much better but further solidified this implication, and it had Terezi fly out into the void looking for Vriska forever, which made me sad and depressed but that was because of my personal involvement in the story really.

Act 6 is more of a "mistakes were made" ending, but it's the Epilogues and HS^2, and the actions of creator Andrew Hussie, which are why it's rock bottom here.

I don't want to give my breath to those items. Let's just say they were the most meanspirited, intentionally offensive, hostile, character-destroying sets of stories every done, created by people who accused every homestuck fan who didn't like them of being "not really trans" or "pedophile harborors" or "deserving to be lined up and shot" (real quote).

And then the fact Hussie fired his entire crew twice and blacklisted them if he ever had any suspicion they complained about his leadership or financial decisions anywhere.

And the fact the entire whatpumpkin team were left uncredited in the original release of Hiveswap Act 2 because Hussie didn't want to give them any credit because he wants his friends to be a hivemind.

I have so much hatred for what Homestuck became. It's tragic because this series was such a big part of my life for so long.

It's also tragic because the main work is a masterpiece. Even Act 7, despite the criticism, is Guzusuru's masterwork with how much effort went into the animation. How much heart went into each illustration the old Paradox Space team made.

So that's it. Homestuck is the one that is not just a little bit worse than Star. Leaps and bounds worse.

But that's it. I have a lot of opinions on endings because they can colour how you view the entire previous work.

[shapelytimber]

Wdym it's been 5 months ? Anyway, here is the end of my little comic serie about this niche Skyrim mod

*Insert me 100%ing the 4th arc of the hit mod 'vigilant' for the elder scrolls V Skyrim with little difficulty having a grand ol' time*

I messed up my files so Teldryn divorced me while I was away ckgkckkc And you know what good for him, he got a cottage and a kid out of it

[PART 1] - [PART 2] - [PART 3]

[COMMISSIONS]

If you're interested in my thoughts about this mod, you can read that below (it's fucking long so I'm sparing you all just here for the art to have to scroll through all that) vvv

A fantastic mod for sure ! I had so much fun, the voice acting was (for the most part) quite impressive, the music !!!!!!!!! Excuse me who gave this mod permission to have this fucking banger of an ost ???? Loved the new environnements, and there was so much of them !! Especially in act 4, I felt that all the locations had a unique and gorgeous aesthetic (frankly it was the most fun I had doing dungeons in skyrim... the bar is on the floor tho- if I ever see another nordic tomb or draugr I'll not be responsible for my actions), and fucking impressive mise en scene.

And the fights were so fun ??? In skyrim ?? Incredible.

But I still have some problems with it- first let's get the elephant out of the room : act 1 and 2... Boy oh boy were they not so great- I get that the begining is a slow burn to 1) get to know the vigilants of stendar, and 2) drive home the fact that the vigilants are quite incompetent and stendar hates them. Ok this is cool ! And they definetly were some highlights, like with the story of the three kajiits (I'm not good with remembering names (forshadowing for later-)), the ending of act 1, and uuuuuuuhhhh underground windhelm looked sick in act 2 !

But the quests in general were not very fun, at least not fun enough to distract me from the parts of the scenario I understood- which were kind of sexist and not that interesting (the sexism doesn't get better with act 3 and 4 but at least I'm having fun)- like I don't expect great women characters, this is still a tes mod, and it definitly doesn't get to "the man writting this is a fucking creep and I'm not playing this any longer" territory... But all the women we interact with are either : prostitutes, mothers/wives, or abuse(it's nearly always rape) victims- like I don't really mind that the first quest is to track down a vampire prostitute who propose to show me her sweetrolls, but it gets pretty tiresome after a while (and kinda ridiculous, like do all the big musley men I'm fighting in act 4 have to angst about their wives ? Can't a big musley woman angst about her partner too...). The worst one is Lamae Bal. From the charadesign, to the dialogues with her, to her story- hated that.

And also we don't have much dialogue choices and ways to influence the story in these 2 (3) first acts. Which I understand like this is a lot of work for fan content, but it's such a stark contrast to act 4 it's a bit jaring.

But speaking of the story... I get this is a very thoughtful and well researched story. A lot of work reading the tes wiki as been done by the author... But I, on the other hand, did not read the entire extended lore wiki- and I admit I was not understanding any of it during Act 4. Like I got a general idea, and the epic, dramatic and emotional moments were still impactful ! But I really don't think the author did a great job getting the story accross, and the more the mod progress, the more this problem becomes relevant. The recuring problem of tes games is that they have really deep interesting lore that we rarely get to see in the games ; the problem of this mod is that we get presented with this lore as if we already knew it.

And after watching an explaination of the story, it's such a shame because it's really good !! And well written ! But I don't think I should need a youtube video to understand it...

Also omfg I am not good with names mod please- everything has like 2-3 different weird fantasy names (but it's never explained it's the same thing, and what the thing is is never explained-), there is a billion men characters with weird ass long names, and the mod expects me to remember them all 5-6 hours after they got killed ??? I don't remember them 5 seconds after I'm done talking to them-

But I had fun playing it, and that's what matters <3 and I'll never get other twink molag bal <3

Also, my mage dragonborn is even more op now omg I can summon an army of 8ft musle men + molag bal + Jyggalag ??? The only fight I had a bit of trouble with was Pelinal's, the rest got obliterated easily (by Pelinal) kgkgkfjfifb

I'll probably need to nerf Elaris at some point in the future-

[lurkingshan]

Love Sea Final Thoughts

I have been trying to wrap my head around my overall feelings about Love Sea, a show that is undeniably flawed but somehow charming anyway, that drops so many threads but does such a good job with a few of its core points that it's hard to be mad. I can't really say that this is a great drama, but I can say that I enjoyed it a lot and I think it's a good watch if you go in understanding some caveats.

Let's start with a few things I really loved about this show:

Mahasamut. A great character, he will be going on my shortlist of Thai bl favorites. He's smart, honest, patient, giving and forgiving but he also knows himself, his limits, and his worth. On top of all that, he actually looks like a normal person, with a healthy body weight and beautiful imperfect skin. So rare in dramas.

Smart class dynamics. I appreciated how much this show grounded Mut and Rak's relationship in their class disparity, how wealth and lack of same was a constant issue between them that was never forgotten, and how its effect on their power dynamic shifted over time as their relationship grew.

Very well-executed sex scenes. The sex in this show is tied to character development and relationship arcs, and every sex scene mattered to the story. We watched the shifting power dynamics between Mut and Rak play out via the sex they had together and by watching their intimacy we learned more about them.

Ridiculous chemistry. The main love story was supported by truly excellent emotional and sexual chemistry. I always believed in the attraction and the feelings between these two, and that helped a lot when the story didn't quite take me where it needed to.

Rak and Vie's friendship. I really loved that we spent time with these two as besties, and that they were genuinely so supportive of each other. Vie was a real MVP in kicking Rak's ass when he needed it.

Meena, the best child ever. What a delightful character who brought a lot of fun and lightness to the story. Her scenes with Mut were a true highlight.

And here are some things that didn't quite work for me:

Uneven focus for the main characters. Once we left the island to go to Bangkok, the entire show was about Rak, his backstory, his issues, his ongoing problems, and his needs, and Mut was kind of subsumed in his story instead of having one of his own. I was glad we got back to Mut's life at the end, but they really should have kept it present throughout so everything didn't feel so one-sided.

Shallow engagement with family trauma. And despite the fact that the story was so much about Rak's issues, the story never actually went deep on them. I still don't really understand a lot about his family dynamics. The show used his dad and cousin as villains and then his mom as an easy out to solve everything at the end, but we never dug into how all these people ended up this way in the first place. It was a real missed opportunity.

Rak's emotional journey. I was on board for much of it, but other parts felt a bit haphazard and all over the place. Sometimes it felt like he was suddenly progressing out of nowhere, and others it felt like he was backsliding just because the plot demanded it. I liked where the story took him a lot but the path to get there was pretty bumpy.

The side couple. WOOF. I have no idea what happened here, but that was a fail on just about every front. Mook was a hard character to love from the start, Vie felt like a completely different person with Mook than in all her other scenes, there was so much lying and manipulation for no good reason, and in the end they were left completely unresolved. If you are on the lookout for great gl pairings, you will not find that here.

So there you have it. This show is absolutely a mixed bag on its execution, so how much you end up liking it will probably depend on how strongly you connect with what it did well and where it dropped the ball. For me, it was a good experience and one I'll remember fondly. I'll definitely be watching the special when it's released and I hope to see this cast again.

[midnight1nk]

So, this week's episode...

[spoilers below cut]

WOW, a Mario Reacts! It's been a long time, hasn't it? Hell yeah, I can work with this!

(no bc seriously, I just finished watching ep. 7 of Arcane before this and I need an emotional break, yeah I know the rest of Act 3 is gonna kill me)

(the following is my live reaction:)

oh hey, Mario! Wassup?

jigsaw, is that you?

oh nvm, hello Swag! nice to see you again since last episode

I'm about to commit a crime [*strikes a pose then walks away*]

I'm willing to work in a government office just so I can come up with an acronym like, gee idk, Y.U.R.I. or something (I should've been a worker in NASA)

NO STOP STOP WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! WHAT. ARE. YOU. DOING?!

At this point, Mario, I would just give up

[*clears throat*] mejor me muero, ni modo que sigo con estos porquerías. bueno como dice Mario, bye bye [*drinks some water*] alright I'm back

TADC? ah, just a normal Saturday

no thoughts, head empty

honestly, mood

well, in his own way, yeah

[*echoes announcer voice*] VR, the new era of entertainment

...mr puzzles? nah jk jk

oh, Four's theory may not be wrong here (omg it's jesus)

still can't believe christianity is canon in the SMG4 universe

oh, so I was right! [*jigsaw voice*] "I wanna play a game."

That's actually kinda sweet that he immediately chooses his brother

OH SHIT OOOOH that's gotta hurt

NO MARIO, THAT SHOULD'VE BEEN ME

[*other me pops in*] emo girlfriend, omg it's smg3

no, we're NOT gonna look too much into this, shut up other me

PPFFFTTT that caught me so off guard

say it with me now: YOU CAN'T CONTROL MARIO [*applause*]

I mean, we've been through simulations before, we can take this one too

unironically, I wouldn't mind a 10-hour video of just Mario (and/or the rest of the Crew) just dancing :)

it doesn't even need to have music, I can just put my playlist on and I would totally join in

ooooh, you want to scan that QR code so badly

but also, how did they get a screenshot of my computer?

Mario 🤝 Mario Buddy from the last episode → destroying PCs for the LOLs

AKLDHLKSAFB;KL just the way Mario goes for a fighting stance just so he could run away will never not be funny to me

LET ME IN LET ME INNNNNNNNN

10 hours, welp I got my wish lmao

Mario morphing his face... hmmmm..... [*flashback noises*]

[SMG4: MAR10 Day]

....

don't think about it don't think about it don't think about it

KIRBO NOOOOOOOOO

NO NO NO SWAG NO

same vibes

meme factory? youtube arc? is that you? /j

(yeah I know that the Team uses the same assets ik)

LET'S DO THISSSS oh welp time to vibe

FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT

what would that be, Swag? Try not to Laugh challenge? I might win tbh

LET'S GO GAMBLING

laughing because of early victory call? very in character for Swag

oooh that's some good animation (y'know, as always)

HOLD UP WAIT A MINUTE

am i thinking too much into this or is this the same military base from last episode?

Alright, my little headcanon: the events of this episode and the last one took place on the exact same day

that's just for me specifically

oh hey, more TADC ref

Also, nice PINGAS STUCK IN A DOOR ref

man Mario can't catch a break dude

Congrats to CMorseu for your art being featured at the end credits 🎉

.・-: ✧ :--: ✧ :-・.

Such a good episode! Not plot-heavy, just a silly episode. I'll gladly take it as my late birthday present. And it's great to have Swag back, kinda was half-expecting Chris to just pop out.

I've said this once and I'll say it again: I wouldn't mind if the rest of the year is just filled with goofy episodes. After all, we just came from WOTFI and we do need a bit of a break so the Team could work on the next arc. (From the looks of things, we might get goop!4 *cough cough*)

Loved the bits of animation and Mario's expressions as always.

Now, I know there is some talk about the SMG4 Crew/Mario Does Things being on hiatus and merging with the Saturday videos. If you can even call it that. Personally, I don't mind it. I completely understand if doing 2 episodes per week is a lot for the Team to handle, though I do wish they would give an explanation for it. I think the best solution would be for the Team making an announcement of the change, the reasons behind it, and how it may be different from the regular Saturday episodes. Also make it clear that "hey, the title says this so it doesn't impact the main storyline".

Anyway, it has been overall a pretty funny episode and I quite enjoyed it! Now, if you excuse me, I'm gonna cry my eyes out watching the rest of Arcane Act 3 and bring that angst to the next episode concept :)

OH THE MISERY EVERYBODY WANTS TO BE MY ENEMYYYYYYY

[centrally-unplanned]

Just finished The Coffin of Andy and Leyley - at least the two episodes we have so far! A very fun game, I definitely recommend it. The thoughts, spoilers everything:

-- The tone of the game is extremely on point, Andrew & Ashley have such a great trauma-criminal dynamic that never strays too far from being cute first, awful second. Look at these babies! Of course that is the blood of their parents they just murdered for a satanic ritual and/or petty cash, what else would it be?

-- The game nails a pretty niche fetish of mine - no, not the incest part, no judgement but I could do without that just fine. Instead its the weaponization of sex (and other forms of intimacy) to manipulate and break down someone's resistance to your demands:

But, while no shade thrown at the classic controlling doms out there, Ashley wins by being a complete mess and possessing minimal intentionality around her emotional blackmail. Her toxic codependency on Andrew controls her and, as inevitable as the tide, forces her to periodically hurt & degrade him, then compensate via affection bombs & demands. She thrives on his weaknesses such as trauma-nightmares & anxiety as they are places she can slot herself into his pysche as load-bearing support, and sex is set up as another part of that web. Its that lack of control that makes her so attractive - the vast emotional void she is hoping her manipulations will fill is a funhouse mirror version of the physical need intimacy can fulfill.

I will note she is a slightly different from the "Mamimi" (from FLCL) archetype - for the Mamimi, sex is deontological, it is what she needs to cope with her damage. For Ashley it's instrumental, and could be swapped out for another tactic as quick as an outfit change if doing so got her what she really wanted.

Probably also worth mentioning that this isn't an eroge; this dynamic is primarily implication and subtext, becoming text only rarely. Don't want to mislead anyone there.

-- Another standout point is that Andrew himself is *not* the typical wishy-washy boytoy target of his bae's emotional machinations, but instead exactly as toxically codependent as Ashley is, just expressed differently. He thrives on her sense of need and the comfortability of the dyad role her vision for their lives creates for him. What makes him a fun contrast is that he has a "normal" half of his brain that recognizes all of this as fucked up and wants to quit, which often pretends he is being blackmailed by duty or circumstances, but that isn't really true. Where the game excels is that it has multiple routes - neither of which have notably different plot events, but where the different factions of Andrew's brain win out or fade away. Is very tight marriage of narrative and themes.

-- Its also good to add that the incest concept is somewhat foundational. I am not an incest person but I have been on the internet, I am familiar enough with its semiotics, and the "mutual, similar-age, unhealthy codependency" subgenre of relationships when its not incest always struggles with a bit of a believability issue.

So narratives are generally about arcs, sex is about build-up, and that combination means you want to portray the moment a relationship forms, tips into romance, right? And your subjects of choice are two people who constantly cling to each other, destroy outsiders who could challenge their attention monopoly, and psychologically scar each other in order to foster emotional addiction. And they are ~20 yeas old.

Why aren't they fucking already?? They obviously should be fucking. If these were childhood friends, they would be fucking, for years now, easy. You can say they just haven't gotten there yet but that changes the characters, makes them naïve and innocent, that is a narrative constraint you might not want. But if they are siblings...well then there ya go. That is a socially-ironclad excuse for how they got so emotionally close without romantic intimacy, and a reason for them not to cross the threshold (until your plot events make them ofc). Its a fetish that makes your storytelling efficient, not just something that works on the fetish level directly.

(Btw Andrew is not a doormat; that is a lie he tells himself)

-- The Coffin of Andy and Leyley is a classic RPG Maker indie project, and it used its gameplay conventions well. Its essentially a visual novel with RPG exploration elements that offered small puzzles as you traverse from plot point to plot point. They create immersion while rarely being too difficult and dragging down the pacing - it knows they aren't here to intellectually challenge you, but to make the world feel lived. And sometimes - most often in Ashley & Andrew's dreams - the light puzzle elements are very deeply woven into the plot & themes, used for making narrative choices & reinforcing emotional beats. They rarely overstay their welcome, which is refreshing. Its not uncommon for a game to get into trying to "gamify" what should just be a visual novel, and while not perfect Coffin doesn't fall into that trap.

Additionally the creator definitely likes Undertale, and the dream sequences remind me of Flesh, Blood, & Concrete in their colors & abstraction. Good times!

-- It is extremely amusing to google this game for like ending guides or w/e and to be bombarded with the "controversy" of its incest plotline. A: The main duo murder their parents and nonchalantly make a meal of their bodies out of sheer habit, way to not have your eye on the prize. And B: my brother in Christ you clicked on the Incest Game. Why are you on Pornhub complaining about porn??

[foundtherightwords]

🤫🍕🐈 "AQPD1" thoughts 🤫🍕🐈

I just got back from the movie, and here are my rambling thoughts (below the cut to avoid spoilers as usual.)

I have to preface by saying that I'm not a huge fan of the Quiet Place franchise or anything - I quite enjoyed the first movie and thought it was a really clever concept, but I didn't think it needed a second one at all. In a way, that gave me the perfect mindset to watch this because I had very few expectations of it (other than seeing Joe on the big screen for the first time!)

First of all, this is more of an apocalyptic thriller/monster movie for me than a horror. I was tense, but I was never scared. But that's OK because I wasn't scared by the first two movies either.

Second, this is a lot more character-driven than the first two movies. All the monster stuff only serves as a backdrop to explore Sam and Eric's emotional journeys as they navigate this end-of-the-world scenario. Fans of the franchise and horror movies may want more of the monster, but I think it has a good balance between drama and horror.

In fact, I wish the movie delved even more deeply into the characters. Sam has a fairly solid arc, and I like that her goal is so simple and relatable - it's the end of the world and she's dying anyway, so let's just get pizza. Eric is such a sweet puppy, but we know next to nothing about him (the articles aren't lying when they describe him as "a man of mystery"!) and I find it kind of weakens his connection with Sam a bit. I remember that in an early screening of the movie, Eric was suicidal because his father rejected him. I wish they'd kept that, because it both paralleled and contrasted nicely with Sam's own journey, and it would make their friendship and the ending even more powerful. There is also a hint that Eric has a fear of water (either because of his encounter with the monsters or something in his past), but it's never explained, which makes the ending a bit rushed to me.

Still, I enjoyed the movie and was ecstatic to see Joe on the big screen. Eric has one hell of a character entrance, and I totally did this when he appeared:

Some more random thoughts:

Frodo is too darned adorable. Between him and Eric, I spent most of the movie going "aww" or squealing.

The pizza/card trick scene is so, so sweet and made me tear up. My headcanon is that Eric wants to become a magician but his dad forces him to study law.

They cut out the stuff about Eric's shoes!!! There is only a very brief moment where Sam gives him the Reeboks to change into, but otherwise it's not addressed at all. I guess it's for pacing/time, but it's a shame.

In fact, there are a lot of scenes/moments from the trailers that are not in the movie. They're not important, but it's kind of annoying.

It's so funny that in the red carpet interviews, everybody was saying Alex Wolff would be the first of the cast to die... and his character IS the first to die!

The buzzcut has grown on me immensely, but seeing his curls on the big screen made me miss Joe's hair (especially in the earlier scenes, where it's all floppy and looks so cute.)

Anyway, that's it for now. Oh and I wanted to get one of those flyers/posters, but my theater didn't have any! These would have to do for now (I may have to go to a different theater to watch the movie again and see if they have a poster I can take home):

[laugtherhyena]

I need to have ibis taken away from me so that i stop expanding Ayame's family tree-

Quite literally the most random thing ever, at one point earlier this week i remembered this throwaway from Asoot's puppetmaster arc at the scene where Akane goes to spend the night at Ayame's house;

This was, obviously, done because back then none of us had any ideas let alone designs and character traits for Ayame's family, hence the need for an excuse to why they're not present.

Cut to present year where i went and made characters for her parents and thought back to this line like "Hey i should make that", since i wrote Bashira as a single child that means this is an aunt from Ippei's side of the family; Mai Hatano!

And hey i was actually nice this time around so she's actually alive post-tragedy :] so here's some general info on her:

-She's 9 years younger than Ippei, the parents were going through a rocky part of their relationship and the mom thought maybe having another kid could save their marriage but it really only made everything worse and the husband left around the time Mai was turning 2 years old.

-The deal is that the father as some kind of businessman that was having an affair with a coworker and would excuse him coming up late or not even back home by saying he was piled up with work and blaming the wife or being “insensitive about his efforts”, but she knew he was bullshitting and could tell he had someone else. So again, she thought maybe if they had another kid that would fix things but it only led to somewhat constantly arguing for over an year until he left with his lover and cut contact with the rest of the family.

-This ties into why later in life Ippei choose financial stability over following his music career, the family struggled quite a bit over the years with just the mom and two kids, they had to move a few times and Ippei even got his job as a waiter during his mid to late teens to help out with money. I guess this also ties into why he and Bashira planned so much to have Ayame, i think his parents married pretty young and inexperienced so he wanted to avoid that and have a normal family.

-On Mai’s side she felt like she was at fault for “ruining her parent's marriage” for a good chunk of her childhood and early adolescence. She's over that as an adult, though it did lead to her avoiding serious relationships with anyone though most of her life. At most she's had some flings/one night stands, but never a proper boyfriend or anything official.

-On top of that Mai is generally pretty bad at dealing with emotions, both of other people and her own. She has no idea how to comfort anyone or help when they're in some emotional turmoil or need someone to vent to, so oftentimes she is kinda just changes the subject or gives a pretty standard response of like “Damn that sucks” before doing so and proceeds to ignore the issue as in sorta of a “forget about it” way. (As you can probably guess, she's not the one to show her hurt to others for a similar reason. When she received the news that her brother and his family had died she didn't express much of a reaction at all at the foundation and only cried when she was back home because she did genuinely care for them, though her odd reaction gave the impression to some coworkers that this wasn't the case.)

-She is a very stubborn person so she doesn't talk to people about this problem of hers, much less seek help when it comes to it because the fact that she can't truly help the people she cares for when they need emotional support really hurts her so she'd rather ignore and forget than deal with her lack of abilities in the area. 

-Stubbornness and ignorance are notably her most negative traits (“I was never taught and I will not learn” sorta thing). This extends to circumstances other than her loved ones emotional needs because a lot of the time she will be dismissive or ignorant about certain things solely because they don't affect her directly nor anyone she cares for.

-That being said, she is very outwardly nice and shows care to others. Very chatty and outgoing, pretty much the opposite of her brother and niece since she can talk to people very easily. She's on good terms with pretty much everyone from Tsurugi's division and talks quite frequently to other foundation workers as well. Though she is rather blunt and says whatever comes to her mind at any given moment.

-Before the tragedy she worked as a personal bodyguard in Towa city, this busy and sometimes dangerous lifestyle led to her distancing herself from her brother a lot as they grew older. It wasn't anything intentional, just life bringing them in separate ways so while she did love her brother and his family a lot they didn't see each other super often, it was mostly during holidays, funerals or events like some of Ayame’s competitions or similar situations. This became one of her biggest regrets late in life as she wishes she could have spent more time with them.

-She broke her arm pretty badly when a client was getting ambushed and was set to stay out of business until recovered. Once she was dispatched from the hospital Ippei and Bashira came to drive her home and help her settle back, alongside doing some catching-up. That was the last time they saw each other.

-When the tragedy broke out she became stranded in Towa city because of all the chaos and the Warriors of hope hunting down the adults. Her arm was still broken then, but Mai is a rather reckless person and went around fighting despairs and rescuing other citizens in spite of her injury, which led to her injured arm getting broken and slashed in many other places which then led her developing a nasty infection that she just kept fighting on her own for months until she and a group of adults managed to leave the city.

-She was brought to a hospital pretty much immediately after by the group's leader and by that point she pretty much couldn't feel or move her hand anymore and the whole area around her arm gave her immense pain. When she started getting treated the staff tried to contact any family member which led to them contacting the Kisaragi foundation and upon informing them that she was in their care Rei requested that Mai should be moved to the foundation’s hospital facility, which was where she stayed for the majority of her recovery.

-There wasn't much Hikaru or any of the medical scaff could do to save her injured arm so she had to have it amputated to avoid further spread of infection, but at this point Mai couldn't even think much about the fact and just told them to do whatever it takes to make the pain stop. On top of losing her arm, she also became prone to infections out of how bad hers was.

-It was when she was recovering from surgery that Tsurugi came to speak to her, he apologized for the foundation taking so long to rescue her, alongside informing her how the place functions and most importantly letting Mai know that her brother and his family had died. It was only after he left that the weight of this information and everything Mai had gone settled in and, for the first time ever since the tragedy started, she cried.

-The thing is that unlike her brother, an overthinker who thinks ahead and carefully plans everything in life, Mai tends to throw herself into things head on just hoping that it will all work out in the end and while she's going through things she doesn't stop to think much about the details until it's over. So it was only as she was recovering in the hospital that she thought about everything she had gone through, everything she had lost, and for once tried to think of what her next course of action should be while going through these feelings.

-That being said, she never fell into a depression or took the loss as hard as someone like Keisuke did because that's just not the kind of person Mai is. Somewhat similar to her ignorant demeanor, her way of dealing with grief is mainly by occupying her mind with other things, like going places she enjoys or focusing on training and work. The last one being the reason she joined Tsurugi's division pretty much immediately after being dispatched from the medbay.

-Mai’s an action woman! She has a lot of energy and loves getting into fights, especially if it is to protect others, so it's no surprise she joined his division and not Rei’s or Teruya's. But when it comes to Tsurugi's ideals Mai is by no means a follower, she thinks he's insane, way too radical, but so far his black and white mortality hasn't affected her or anyone she cares for directly so she turns a blind eye to it, this is the guy who pays her after all. (This does change post Sdra2, especially after Keisuke almost shoots Midori)

-She was assigned to be in charge of the new members basic physical combat and self defense training, especially for those like Ryutaro and Keisuke who had no experience in this line of work before. This is part of how she ended up becoming a close friend of theirs, though Mai tends to treat Ryutaro (and Midori by extension) more like younger siblings rather than coworkers.

-The foundation provides her a prosthetic for use only during missions (by Tsurugi's orders). Mai doesn't mind that since she doesn't actually like having the prosthetic on, it feels more like a trouble to put on and use than it's worth, she much prefers not having one at all.

-On a similar vein, Mai isn't a fan of the work uniform, she finds it way too stuffy and clunky so she only puts it on right before going on a mission, alongside the prosthetic arm. Tsurugi doesn't take that well, as he sees it as Mai not taking work as seriously as she should, but she is one of his best soldiers so he refrains from picking up on her.

-Onto some more miscellaneous information. Mai’s apartment is rather disorganized and messy, but for her it’s fine because she knows where everything is, even if it's not in the right place per say. Bashira used to jokingly pick up on her over it.

-She’s also a pretty bad cook, can only really pull off simple meals which is why she's a huge fan of takeout and fast food in general.

-Back in Ippei's late teens/early 20s she was the one to keep pushing him to take initiative and ask out Bashira, though that help absolutely came alongside teasing her brother for being so shy.

-They were really close then, Ippei would even pick her up from school everyday n all. This strong care stayed strong over the years even after they started seeing each other less and less after moving out of their childhood home, and even less after their mother passed away from old age sometime around the late 2000s.

-She never spent much time with Ayame but oftentimes when she would feel self conscious about her lack of femininity her parents would mention how she's just like her aunt on that aspect

-Mai has her brother's collection of music vinyls at her place, she's not the biggest fan of classical music, but listening to it reminds her of him.

[shadowonwater]

Mob Psycho 100 Fanfic Recs

Hyper fixating on Mob Psycho rn and have been reading a bunch of fanfic. So I thought I'd be nice to create a list of some of them.

All fics listed are completed unless I specify otherwise.

Also here's someone else's MP100 fanfic masterpost for more recs: here

Last updated: 9/20/24

Issho by ToastyToaster22

VERY long read. Main character is child Teru. An AU in which Teru met Mob and Ritsu before the incident where Ritsu got hurt. Story really gets across the evil of Claw with them kidnapping kids and harassing the few who keep getting away from them. Story also shows Teru's shitty neglectful parents and Dad!Reigen. Teru goes through the ringer in this fic. Fic takes place over the course of 2 - 3 years.

In general this writer has a lot of great Mob Psycho writing. They write a lot about Teru and TeruMob. Also I really like their take on the Kageyama parents. We may not see much of those parents in cannon but it's clear they do care about their kids. Toasty does a great job on using them as actual characters.

Immoral Support by c_c_cherry

Teru lives alone, and has been living alone for awhile. He's given money from his parents but that's it. He knows how to fake signatures but now the school is demanding to see a guardian in-person. Teru not knowing what to do, pretends that Reigen is his guardian, things go on from there.

The Ties were Black, The Lies were White by generally

There is some sex in this story, fyi. Basically Reigen is going to his sister's wedding and can bring a plus-one. Serizawa wants to go with him. They decide to go as "business partners". They do things such as sharing a bed and dancing as "business partners". Of course they realize their feelings for each other and confess. The sex scene is a bit after that.

Walking Mob Home by CryRan88

A short two chapter story about Reigen walking Mob home after work. First chapter: Mob feel asleep and Reigen gives him a piggy back ride to Mob's house. 2nd chapter: Reigen is asleep and Mob gets Dimple to posses him so he can still walk Mob home without actually waking him up.

Mother by Sunlolli

Reigen's got some mommy issues. His mom dies and starts haunting him. The espers in Reigen's life don't want to get rid of her without Reigen's permission but she's really messing him up and he just wants to get some approval from her. Story is a bit depressing but very good.

In Quicksand by SpiritusRex

Reigen gets possessed and gets sick. Unreliable narrator Reigen. Don't worry, the spirit gets caught pretty quickly, and Reigen ends up fine.

It Takes Time by CowardlyBean

A very short fic about Reigen quitting smoking for Mob's sake. Very cute.

you'll have to make due with a reasonable facsimile by SoliAvi

A short fic that takes place right after the end of the separation arc. Reigen and Mob eat ramen together again and Reigen apologizes. Very sweet.

When you need me by SpiritusRex

A 5 + 1 fic. 5 Times Mob hugged Reigen and 1 time Reigen hugged Mob. 1: Little Mob asking for advise about nightmares. 2: Mob being hurt after the Teru fight. 3: Mob holding onto Reigen to float them both back home after the first Claw arc. 4: After the Mogami arc. 5: After separation arc. +1: Reigen hugging Mob after digging him out of the broccoli after 2nd Claw arc.

Rainbow Veins and Life in Technicolor by BinaryDreams1010

As it turns out, Reigen actually IS an esper. He's an empath, and that comes with being able to read and manipulate others emotions. He did not know he was doing that. He just thought he was REALLY good at reading people and convincing them. Serizawa figures it out and tells him. The first story is about Serizawa figuring out Reigen is an empath, the 2nd story is about what Reigen does after knowing he's an empth, that is trying to figure out how to get rid of a spirit on his own.

Use Your Words by CowardlyBean

Reigen gets possessed by a spirit that hates espers. He's stuck in the backseat of his body while it pilots him around, pretending to be him. It's an ass towards Serizawa and Mob. Of course the other characters figure out something is wrong.

Area Hysteria by c_c_cherry

Reigen and Dimple visit a worn down building slated for demolition to get rid of a spirit. The building collapses with them in it. Dimple is fine, Reigen isn't. Dimple posses Reigen's body to help keep him alive and hope for rescue soon. Reigen gets rescued... eventually. But this isn't the end to the problems because Reigen ends up in sort of supernaturally-induced coma that Mob has to get into his head to get him out of. Long story. Marked as unfinished but ends at a really good stopping point. (Update: It started updating again)

Haunting My Own Skin by Kirii_Kitten

Reigen dies and then posses his own corpse to pretend that everything is normal. Dimple is concerned that Reigen's spirit is going to corrupt, his fears are well-founded. Reigen gets found out of course and things go to shit, but there is a happy ending.

symbiosis by ruthwrites

AU in which ???% is a separate entity from Mob and it's made of energy and jumps from esper to esper. When Mob gives Reigen his power during the 1st Claw arc, ???% goes with that energy. Problem is that it didn't go back to Mob, it got stuck in Reigen. I recommend the whole series, the series is kind of depressing though. Reigen really goes through it in this series. I don't want to give too much away but... Reigen isn't gonna come out of this very... human. Each entry in the series is completed, however I can't help but feel the series itself isn't completed, it seems to end on what would be the start of this AUs version of the Separation Arc. It's a bitter ending.

Yesterday by ch_am

Takes place during and after hot springs OVA. Shows Reigen's experience in the parallel dimension. On the train ride home, Reigen has a panic attack and runs off to the bathroom, Serizawa helps him and realizes that Reigen was in that dimension for awhile. Serizawa goes back home with Reigen to make sure that when he wakes up he won't be alone again. They eat breakfast together and talk about what happened.

Reflection by Silver_fox221

Turns out Reigen is a kitsune. He did not know he was a kitsune. He's in denial at first what with these traits only appearing now as a 30-ish year old. But even when he accepts the truth, he can't bring himself to tell the others besides Dimple (who he knows can keep a secret). His kitsune traits include being able to turn into a fox, having a silver orb that's a physical manifestation of his soul that he has to protect, and also a new found fear of dogs. Fic is unfinished but has a very unique idea. I only found a few other stories that had Kitsune!Reigen but in the other ones I saw he already knew he was a fox.

Categories

A lot of fics I like fall within categories, like they play with similar ideas. So I thought I would create lists of fics that cover the same topics. If you like one in a list, you would probably like the others.

Train OVA (Reigen has a bad time)

Teru's Parents Suck, Reigen to the Rescue

Various MP100 Stuff I found on Tumblr (no theme)

[bunny7567]

I got you - chapter 12

Pairing: Rex x Jedi!ofc

Word count: 7.2k Tags/Warnings: NSFW 18+; drunk sex; piv sex, face-sitting; some degradation; fingering; cumshot on the back? idk how to say this; heavy drinking; Fives and Lexie find out they have something interesting in common; she's not a bad person I swear, she just has anxiety; there's some angst in here too; also can you tell I'm an only child who always wanted to have a big brother?

A/n: so we finally get to the smut. It's the first proper sex scene I've ever written, hope it's good. It's definitely not word for word the fantasies I have about what I'd want this character to do to me... definitely not that. I am simultaneously really excited to see if people will like this chapter and also want to hide under a rock after I hit post, weird combination.

Previous chapter | Next chapter

chakaar - scumbag, bitch, bastard vod'ika - little brother, little sister mesh'la - beautiful

~~~

Coruscant was still recovering from the Zillo beast rampage as Lexie was slowly making her way to the barracks. Echo and Fives were supposed to return from their ARC training tonight, so she finally felt like she had something to look forward to. It had definitely been some eventful few days. From joining Mace Windu’s forces on Malastare, to the frustrating negotiations with the Dugs, to fighting the nearly indestructible Zillo beast, it had been one bad thing after the other.

But thankfully the 501st had a few days of much needed rest, and Lexie was all caught up with her reports and ready to go out and celebrate with the new ARCs like they had planned. She made more of an effort tonight, she was wearing the new, white crochet blouse she’d just bought the previous day, over a blue bandeau top, with high-waist, leather-like shorts. Her blue hair was pulled back in a ponytail, secured by two braids that started from her temples and her makeup was more sparkly than usually.

She felt a bit insecure, especially with the looks she got from some of the other Jedi as she was leaving the Temple, but she tried to reassure herself that it was a nice outfit, and good for a night out.

However, her insecurities were also coming from the fact that she’d have to see a certain Captain she’s been sort of avoiding, something that filled her mind with uneasiness.

They had spoken very little on the way to Malastare. Rex had been nervously waiting for her after the briefing, and had asked to talk to her privately. The two had walked in silence until they reached an empty corridor, and awkwardly stood facing each other until Rex found the words he had been rehearsing since the previous night in the break room.

“General, I need to apologise to you”, he started.

“No, it’s fine, Rex, don’t-”, she tried to interject.

“No, I… I am very ashamed of my behaviour. I had too much to drink and I… I wasn’t thinking properly. I am sorry and I promise it’ll never happen again”, he continued, trying to sound as professional as he could.

Lexie couldn’t help the way her heart sunk as she heard the words, it really hurt hearing them. The way he’d gently caressed her face, the fact that he’d almost asked to kiss her, it was all she had been able to think the entire night. But he hadn’t meant it and now she was sure of it.  That sounded about right though. Of course he didn’t share her feelings, he hadn’t actually wanted to kiss her. She felt so stupid that she had allowed herself to entertain the idea that maybe he did love her back. She swallowed hard before pushing all her emotions out of her mind.

“I understand, Captain. Thank you for your apology. Let’s just try to forget it ever happened”, she said in a forced calm voice.

Rex had only nodded, avoiding looking into her eyes. He knew he’d break if he did, he’d keep talking and end up backtracking on his apology and admitting how much he wanted to kiss her, to hold her, to make her his. Instead he just left, and he continued avoiding her. He was relieved that she wasn’t as upset with him as he worried she’d be, but the tension between them was undeniable. He had really kriffed up and he wasn’t sure how long it’ll take for their friendship to recover.

While on Malastare, things had gotten a little better. The tension was still lingering in the air between them, but they managed to fight side by side, to have each other’s backs, and even to casually chat while on the flight back to Coruscant. It still felt awkward, but both of them had decided to pretend that the night in the break room never happened, for the sake of their friendship.

Once Lexie reached the base, she made her way to the hangar and joined Jesse, Kix and Hardcase who were already there waiting. She had timed it well this time and was on time to see the shuttle arrive on the landing platform and watch as Fives and Echo disembarked and made their way towards them, helmets tucked under their arms.

A bright smile appeared on her face as she watched them proudly walk into the hangar, dressed in their new ARC trooper armor. They had even found the time to customise it and she looked them both up and down, her gaze then landing on the smug smile on Fives’ face. She hated to admit it but her friend looked good, really good. They stopped at attention in front of her and saluted, a gesture which she returned on this occasion, before dropping the formalities and hugging them tightly.

“You look amazing, mesh’la”, Fives whispered in her ear.

Lexie rolled her eyes fondly before stepping out of the way so that the others could greet their brothers. She cursed at herself when she realised that his comment had actually made her blush, something that Fives noticed, bringing him a great deal of satisfaction.

“So, what do you think?”, Fives asked as he gestured to his armor.

“Hmm, not sure, give us a twirl?”, Lexie replied in a playful tone. Fives obliged.

“You look the part, let’s see if you can play it too”, Jesse said with a laugh.

“You jealous?”, Fives quipped.

“Of you?”, Jesse scoffed.

“Echo. Fives. Good to have you back”, Rex’s voice sounded from behind, making Lexie instantly tense as she felt his presence.

She moved to the side, a little outside of the group, letting the men catch up. Her eyes kept drifting to Rex and the smile she had carefully crafted was beginning to falter as the conversation progressed and he did not once look in her direction.

Lexie moved her gaze back to the two friends she had really missed but felt her stomach turn a little as she met Echo’s eyes. He was looking between her and Rex with a questioning look. Echo was always so perceptive of her distress, of course he immediately noticed the tension. She swallowed hard and tried to look away but it was too late to pretend that everything was fine, as Echo moved closer to her.

“Are you alright, vod’ika?”, he asked quietly.

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?”, she answered automatically. Her eyebrows slightly furrowed as she fully processed his words and looked up at him, a smile slowly returning to her face. “Vod’ika? You know I’m older than you right?”.

“Eh, feels right like that”, Echo replied, gently nudging her with his elbow. “If you don’t mind, of course”.

“No! I-I don’t mind at all… it actually means so much”, she said quietly.

Lexie suddenly felt overwhelmed by her emotions and for a second she thought she was going to cry. Echo really did feel like the big brother she’d always wanted, and hearing him call her his little sister filled her heart with a warm, joyful feeling. She let out a small chuckle and Echo put an arm around her, bringing her in for a side hug.

“So… come on, what’s going on? You seem really tense”, he pressed.

She glanced back towards Rex and caught him abruptly looking away from her.

“It’s nothing. Just been some stressful few weeks”.

“Alright. I’m here if you want to talk about it”, he said, releasing her from the hug.

Their attention was caught by a sharp whistle made by Fives.

“Are we going or what?”, he asked with a grin.

“Yes! Let’s go”, Lexie said, allowing a grin as big as his to appear on her face.

The 79s was crowded, mostly with troopers in the 501st blue who could finally enjoy some downtime after months of deployment. Fives practically sprinted towards their usual booth, making sure to snatch it before a couple troopers who were heading towards it could sit down. A few curses in Mando’a were mumbled by the other men as they walked away in search of another table.

Lexie made sure to slow down, falling in step with Rex. She really wanted to sit next to him tonight. The two of them were the last to reach the booth and the Captain stopped to allow her to sit down first before taking the seat next to her. She looked at him and offered a small smile which he returned. This is good. We’ll have some drinks and laugh and by the end of the night everything will be back to normal.

The first round of drinks was ordered, Jesse insisting they all tried some new cocktail he had the last time he was there.

“It’s really good, it’s called Red supernova”, he said.

“Yeah, but a cocktail vod?”, Hardcase asked making a face.

“It’s good, trust me”, Jesse insisted.

“It really is but it’s definitely not new”, Lexie interjected.

“Wait really?”, Jesse asked.

“Yeah, it’s what I was drinking that first night we met”, she replied with a chuckle.

“When did you even start liking cocktails?”, Fives asked Jesse.

“Sivra made me try it last time I was here”, Jesse replied.

“Who’s Sivra?”, Echo asked.

“The drop-dead gorgeous Mikkian I rescued from humiliation after Rex just left her on the dancefloor”, Jesse replied smugly. “Still can’t understand what the hell was wrong with you vod, but your loss”, he continued, addressing the Captain.

“You just left a girl on the dancefloor? And since when do you even dance? I’ve only seen you do it once, when Lexie dragged you with her”, Fives asked with a laugh.

“She wasn’t really my type. And I wasn’t on the dancefloor, we were stood close to it, talking”, Rex tried to excuse himself.

“Banthashit! since when are pink-skinned women not your type, vod?”, Hardcase quipped.

Lexie’s felt a pit form in her stomach at that comment but she forced herself to keep a smile on her face. She turned her head slightly to see his reaction.

“I wouldn’t say they are, no”, Rex replied, feeling uncomfortable.

“Really? So most of the women you hooked-up with don’t have pink skin?”, Hardcase pushed. “Cause I definitely remember you leaving this place with two different pink-skinned Twi’lek girls in the past-”.

“And there was that Mirialan as well, what was her name? Astri?”, Jesse interjected.

“Could we not go through my dating history right now?”, Rex said defensively, earning more laughs from his brothers.

Lexie shifted uncomfortably in her seat, moving closer to Fives who was on her left. She felt like such an idiot for ever allowing herself to believe that Rex might like her back. I’m not even his kriffin’ type.

She was now sat so close to Fives that their legs were touching.

“Missed me that much, mesh’la?”, he leaned closer to quietly say in her ear.

His hot breath on her skin made her shiver and she turned her head to look at him. “Maybe I did”, she said matching his sweet tone.

They were interrupted by the droid waitress that arrived with their drinks and Lexie eagerly reached for hers. The group toasted the new ARC troopers and she downed most of the beverage in one go. Curious eyes flickered to her.

“Whoa, slow down. Are you okay Lex?”, Fives asked, placing a hand on her leg.

“Just really needed a drink after the whole Zillo beast disaster”, she said, choosing to mention only one part of what was bothering her. She could feel Rex’s eyes burnt into her side but she refused to turn her head and meet his gaze.

“What actually happened? We saw the damage from the shuttle, looks like the place has been bombarded”, Echo asked.

Lexie let out a scornful laugh. “Do you want to fill them in on that? Cause if I do I will end up saying some things about the Chancellor that I will definitely regret”, she scoffed, finally looking at Rex.

“Look, I know you don’t approve of what happened, but that thing had to be stopped”, Rex tried to argue.

“That thing was sentient. And the last of its kind”, Lexie said with indignation. “It should not have been brought to Coruscant in the first place. The Chancellor is-”.

She abruptly stopped herself, grip tightening on her glass. The Chancellor was fully responsible for all the death and destruction that the creature had caused and Lexie was angry and frustrated with the Jedi Council for going along with it. But she had already had this argument with Rex, an argument that had ended with him warning her that she sounded treasonous, and she didn’t want to pick it up again. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

“Let’s just change the subject. I’m sorry I brought it up in the first place”, she continued, pinching the bridge of her nose. “So, Fives, Echo, what kinds of trouble did you get into during training”.

“That’s just rude, why would you assume we got into any trouble?”, Fives faked being offended.

“Because we’ve met you”, Kix chimed in with a laugh.

The conversation shifted back to their ARC training and more drinks were ordered for the table. The twins did actually get into some trouble and the group laughed as they recalled the events.

As she was now feeling a bit more relaxed, Lexie shifted a bit closer to Rex again, her knees bumping his thigh. The three drinks she’d had in close succession were starting to affect her a little, making her feel a pleasant buzz and lowering her inhibitions. She leaned closer to him in order to have a more private conversation.

“Are you having fun, Captain?”, she asked.

“I am, General. You?”, he answered with a level tone, leaning towards her as well.

“Are we okay, Rex?”, she blurted out. “Because I am sorry for what I said after the Zillo beast was killed. I know how much you care about the Republic and hearing me criticizing it must’ve been quite disappointin-”

“Lexie”, he cut her off. “I think you misunderstood me. I wasn’t accusing you of anything, I was just trying to protect you”.

She looked at him with a confused frown.

“I understood where you were coming from, why you got angry, and I even agree with you to some degree. But we were in public, and I noticed General Windu was watching you. I was worried you’d get in trouble”, he continued, keeping his voice low.

“Oh”, was all she could reply. She hadn’t noticed Mace Windu had been watching her, she really could’ve gotten into trouble if he had heard her criticize the Chancellor so openly. A warm feeling stirred in her chest. “Thank you… for always looking out for me, Rex”, she said quietly.

“That’s what friends are for, right?”, he said with a half-smile she didn’t realise was a little forced.

A few drinks later, Lexie was on the dancefloor with Fives, Echo and Hardcase, jumping around together to the lively music of the club. Jesse was at the bar, trying to sweet talk a Chalactan woman who didn’t seem too impressed by his charms, while Kix had just returned to their table and was sat next to Rex. She didn’t have any luck tonight in getting the Captain to dance with them so far, but she also didn’t want to push too much and ruin the progress they had made in repairing their friendship.

Hardcase was now dancing with a Mirialan woman that had been trying to get his attention for the past three songs, which had prompted Lexie to just drag him over to her and introduce him. She liked playing “wingman” to her friends every now and then.

When she returned to where they had been dancing she noticed that Echo had gone to their table, leaving only Fives waiting for her with a sly smile on his face. She flashed him a smile of her own and they continued dancing together and singing along to the songs they knew, his hands coming to rest on her hips as they swayed in tandem to the music, while her arms rested around his neck. After a few songs they both decided to take a break from dancing and return to the group at the table.

“I’ll be right there”, Lexie told him before making her way to the fresher.

As she was heading back to their booth, weaving through the bodies of sentients, her eyes caught a glimpse of a familiar Tholothian woman on the other side of the dancefloor. Gemma was dancing with a trooper from the 212th, looking gorgeous in a gold dress that perfectly complemented her dark skin. Osik. Panic flooded Lexie’s senses as she hurried back to her table, keeping her head down. She wasn’t sure if she had seen her.

As she got to the booth, she jumped over Fives, landing between him and Echo, using the former as cover, as she melted into the seat and tried to hide. Rex shot her a confused look from across the table.

“You good, vod’ika?”, Echo asked her. She managed a weak hum of agreement.

This was bad, really bad. With all the missions that they’d had ever since she joined the 501st, she did not have the time to think about Gemma. She had wanted so much to apologise after seeing her that night all those months ago, and even came close to contacting her after Erosh-4, but had decided against it since she was not in a good headspace at that time. But after that came deployment after deployment, and her conflicting feelings for Rex that fully occupied her mind, and Gemma simply slipped away from her thoughts. She felt so guilty and ashamed it was making her nauseous.

“You're in trouble, Gemma's here”, Jesse announced as he returned to the table.

“How do you know about Gemma?”, Lexie exclaimed, panic clear in her voice.

Both Jesse and Fives looked at her with a confused look on their faces. “I was telling Fives-”, Jesse started saying.

“Well... so you're not dead after all”, Gemma’s voice sounded. She had approached the table and was stood next to Jesse, glaring down at Lexie.

Lexie felt all eyes turn to her as the conversation between Kix, Rex and Echo came to an abrupt stop.

“Gemma, h-hi...”, she started.

“How... how do you two know each other?”, Gemma asked, looking between Lexie and Fives. The look on her face was of horrified shock.

“Fives is part of my battalion”, she replied.

 “Oh, of course! That makes perfect, perfect sense”, Gemma said with a forced, sarcastic laugh. “Because where else would Fives learn to treat a woman in such a despicable way if not from you?”.

Lexie could feel Rex’s eyes on her and guilt and embarrassment were filling her mind. What will he think of me now?

“That's not fair Gemma”, she said quietly.

“Oh it's not fair? And you deserve fair? After everything?”, the Tholothian sneered.

“I'm sorry, I really… I-”

“You're sorry? You treat me like complete shit but you're sorry and it's ok?”, Gemma interrupted.

 “Gemma, please. You cannot put all that on me and you know it”, Lexie tried to protest.

“You are unbelievable”, Gemma said, shaking her head in disbelief.

“I'm not sure what's happening but I feel like I should-”, Fives tried to pipe in.

“You should what? Throw some empty promises around, leave and never call? Just like you taught him, right Lexie?”, Gemma continued in a contemptuous tone of voice.

“Gemma, come on...”, Lexie tried to reason with her.

“No! You know what? You two... you two are perfect together. Absolutely perfect” Gemma said with spirited gestures of her hands, raising her voice. “So why don't the two of you just fuck each other and leave the rest of us alone?”.

With that, Gemma walked away and Lexie watched as she headed to the exit of the cantina. She wanted to run after her, apologise properly, but she felt frozen in place. Everyone at the table was watching her and she was so embarrassed. Her eyes flickered to Rex who was looking at her with brows furrowed in confusion. She leaned forward and let her forehead rest on the table with a thump, squeezing her eyes shut. If only her Jedi abilities allowed for her to open the ground and let it swallow her whole.

“What just happened?”, Kix asked with a bewildered chuckle.

Lexie sat back up and let out a long breath. “What are the chances you guys could pretend that nothing happened and not ask me to explain?”.

“Zero. Now spill. How do you know Gemma?”, Fives asked her.

“Wait, how do you know her? Please tell me you didn’t…”, Lexie returned his question but could not bring herself to finish the sentence.

“I hooked-up with her a few time. Why?”, Fives said.

A horrified look was plastered across Lexie’s face and Jesse let out a snort, as he was the first one to put two and two together.

“No… don’t tell me you both…”, he tried to unsuccessfully say between laughs.

She looked at Jesse who was laughing then at Fives, seeing the wheels turn in his head.

“You didn’t…”, Fives said with an amused expression, looking at her. “You also slept with her?”, he asked loudly.

Lexie let out a groan and put her face in her hands. “It’s actually worse than that”, she said, voice muffled by her hands. She rubbed her temples for a little bit before straightening. “Maker just take me now”, she mumbled, looking up at the ceiling.

“Okay, you really need to explain”, Echo said from her right.

“I mean I don’t really need to, I could just leave”, she said as she stood up.

Fives pulled her back down by an arm. “Oh no, you’re not getting out of this that easy”, he said with a chuckle. “Spill”.

“Ugh, fine”, she groaned. “Before the war started, Gemma and I were in a sort of friends with benefits arrangement. Or, that’s what it started as anyway, but she became too attached and I didn’t know how to deal with it so I kind of just… completely ghosted her”, she explained, squeezing her eyes shut and scrunching her nose as she said that last part.

“How long was that going on for”, Jesse asked as he sat down next to Rex.

“Uhm… about 11 months”, she admitted, looking down at the table.

“11?! Lexie that’s basically a relationship”, Kix exclaimed.

“Yeah, I know, I…”, she stumbled over her words before reaching for Echo’s glass and downing the alcohol in it. “She did know I was a Jedi, alright? From the beginning. She knew I couldn’t do attachments. Yes, I should’ve put a stop to it when I sensed the feelings she was developing, but I let it keep dragging on for a few more months. I did like her, I just never felt the same as she was feeling… and then, when she eventually told me she wanted more I didn’t know how to reject her without hurting her so I panicked, told her I needed some time to think about it, but then I just went MIA on her”.

“I would not have pegged you for a fuckboy, Lex”, Fives joked, nudging her with his elbow.

“N-No! no, it was not like that”, she turned to him, lifting a finger to empathise her point. “I wanted to talk to her, I just needed some time to figure out how to let her down gently. But then I was called for the Battle of Geonosis, and I got injured and I was in a coma and then I pretty much immediately joined you guys… I… I feel really fucking awful about it…”, she trailed off.

Fives put an arm around her shoulders, bringing her closer to him. She rested her head in the crook of his neck and closed her eyes, taking in a shaky breath. “Come on, it’s not that bad. We’ve all messed up with girls”, he tried to comfort her. Jesse piped in with some agreements.

“I’d say the coma and the war is a pretty good excuse for not contacting her”, Kix added, offering her a small, supportive smile.

“Well, I still feel like a complete chakaar”, she said with an embarrassed chuckle.

“You’re not. Don’t be so hard on yourself”, Echo interjected.

Lexie’s eyes flickered towards Rex and she felt a pit form in her stomach. He was avoiding her gaze, focused on the glass in his hand. She realised he had not said anything during the entire conversation. How much had she fallen in his eyes tonight, she wondered. She doubted he liked her anymore.

“I need more alcohol”, she mumbled as she got up, shuffled past Fives and headed to the bar.

Fives shot Rex a pointed look, silently urging him to do something, but when he realised the Captain was not going to go after Lexie, he got up himself and followed after her.

“Are you okay, mesh’la?”, he asked, coming to stand next to her at the bar.

“Could’ve done without all that humiliation earlier”, Lexie replied after she ordered whiskey for the two of them.

“It really wasn’t that bad. I’ve had worse”, he offered leaning on the bar and facing her.

“Yeah, like what?”, she asked, mimicking his body language.

“I had a drink thrown in my face after hitting on a woman I had already slept with but completely forgot about”, Fives said with an embarrassed chuckle. “Now that was bad”.

“How do you even do that?”, she asked with a laugh.

“It was a drunken hook-up in the back alley, and honestly I didn’t even pay that much attention to what she looked like, I still had you on my mind”, he replied nonchalantly.

Lexie choked on the drink she’d just received from the bartender. “What?”, she managed to ask between coughs.

“It wasn’t like that. Or… okay, maybe a little. It was that night after we first met so I was mainly worried that I’ll get reprimanded for hitting on a Jedi. But, I guess I was also thinking what a shame that you were a Jedi, because, come on, you’re hot. Would have loved to go home with you that night”, he said before taking a sip from his drink. The wide-eyed expression on Lexie’s face was bringing him a lot of satisfaction.

“You really are a bold one”, she said with a nervous laugh, trying to feign some composure.

“I try”, Fives replied with a shrug and a disarming smile.

Lexie felt her cheeks burning so she looked away, trying to laugh it off. Her gaze wondered back to their table and, to her surprise, she noticed that Rex wasn’t there anymore. She looked around a little but could not see the Captain anywhere.

“Looking for Rex?”, Fives asked her, watching her intently.

“What? No”, she replied automatically.

“He’s upstairs”, he said, gesturing with his head to the platform of the first floor. “He said while you were in the fresher that he’s gonna join Commanders Ponds, Fox and Cody at one point”.

“Good for him”, she replied trying to sound unbothered, while struggling to resist the urge to look in the direction he had pointed to.

“What’s going on with the two of you?”, he asked bluntly.

“What do you mean?”, she countered.

“Lex, come on. I’ve been watching you tonight, you seem really tense around him”, Fives said.

“You’ve been watching me?”, she asked in a playful tone, taking a step closer to him.

“You’re deflecting”, he remarked, following her lead and leaning closer.

“There is nothing going on”. She finished her drink, eyes not leaving his. “Let’s go back to dancing”, she said.

Fives chuckled and shook his head slightly. He downed the remainder of his drink before grabbing her hand and guiding her to the dancefloor. Lexie wasted no time wrapping her arms around his neck, while he placed his hands on her waist. She felt his fingers slip through the holes of her crochet blouse, slowly caressing the skin underneath. The touch sent a shiver up her back and she pressed herself closer to his chest.

For the next couple of hours, Lexie danced, needing to forget about everything, only stopping every now and then in order to do more shots. She got Echo, Kix and Jesse back onto the dancefloor after dancing exclusively with Fives for four songs, and the group danced and jumped around to the music together, until Kix left with the Chalactan woman that had rejected Jesse earlier that evening. Hardcase had long gone home with the Mirialan he had been dancing with, leaving Lexie with only Fives, Echo and Jesse.

She’d steal glances towards the platform of the first floor from time to time, catching Rex looking at her on a few occasions. She couldn’t tell what he was thinking and it was really frustrating her. She watched as he and Cody left after a while, before Echo and Jesse decided to also call it a night, leaving her with just Fives. But she didn’t mind, she wanted to keep dancing with him and the feeling was reciprocated.

A song they both liked started playing and the two of them began singing along to the lyrics. I just want you to make a move/So slow down, sit down, it's new. Lexie took a step back and Fives grabbed her right hand, twirling her to the music. She let out a genuine laugh. She lifted her right hand, hooking her fingers under his chestplate at the base of his neck, and pulling him closer to her as she continued singing the lyrics of the song. You just told me, want me to fuck you/Baby, I will 'cause I really want to.

Fives’ eyes darkened and he turned her around, Lexie’s back now pressed on the hard plastoid of his chestplate. His hands came to rest on her hips, his grip strong, and she placed her right hand over his. She brought her left hand to the back of his head, gently pushing it down closer to her face.

“Wanna get out of here, mesh’la?”, Fives said in her ear, his lips grazing the skin as he spoke.

The song ended and Lexie stepped away from him, her heart thumping in her chest. All the alcohol she’d had tonight was starting to make Gemma’s suggestion sound like a really good idea. She’d not had sex in months and Fives was hot, and right there, and he wanted her, she could sense it. Without much thought she took his hand and pulled him towards the exit.

Back at the base, Fives walked Lexie back to her room. Despite all their flirting tonight, he didn’t actually believe anything would come of it. He did like her, he considered her a good friend and found it very enjoyable when they flirted or when they danced together, but she was a Jedi, he respected her and did not expect anything just because of some suggestive conversations they’d engaged in.

Once they got to her private room, Lexie opened the door and took a step in, turning to look at Fives who had stopped in the doorway. She took in his presence, his eye-catching new ARC trooper armor. Maker he looks good. He was leaning on the doorframe, his eyes, a little unfocused from the alcohol, roving down her body. Lexie felt a pressure building in her core. She shouldn’t do it, but the alcohol in her system had lowered all her inhibitions. Kriff it. She reached her hand, hooking her fingers around his belt and pulling him inside the room.

His hands were on her in an instant as he dove in to capture her lips in a hungry kiss. Lexie wrapped her arms around his neck, pressing herself close to him. Her left hand found itself in his hair, pulling gently at it, causing a low moan to escape from his lips into her mouth. The sound went straight to her core as she felt a tingle of pleasure sweeping over her body.

Fives deepened the kiss, his tongue seeking entrance in Lexie’s mouth, which she gladly welcomed. His right hand travelled down from its place on her hip and grabbed her ass, as he took a few steps, pushing Lexie into her desk.

Lexie broke free from the kiss just for a few seconds in order to swiftly take off her blouse, throwing it behind her on the desk. Fives’ left hand came up to cup her breast over her bandeau top, kneading at the soft flesh. His lips returned to hers, then moved slowly across her jaw and down the side of her neck.

One of his legs slotted itself in between hers, drawing out a moan from Lexie’s lips as the plastoid pressed against her core. She instinctively rolled her hips into it again, chasing more of that pleasurable feeling. She felt Fives grin against her skin. She needed this, she needed the release from all the tension of the past few months.

“Take the armor off”, Lexie whispered in his ear.

“Are you sure?”, he asked in between kissing her neck.

“Yes… If you want to”, she said.

“Hell yeah!”, he exclaimed.

He grabbed a hold of her hips and took a few steps back, pulling her after him, before turning and pushing her on the bed. He started to hurriedly unclasp the upper part of his armor, discarding the pieces on the floor. Lexie shifted in bed in order to take off her shorts. The sight of her in just the bandeau top and underwear was too much. Fives stopped what he was doing and lunged at her, taking off her top and exposing her breasts. He caged her in on the bed, towering over her as he started hungrily kissing and licking her stiff nipples, eliciting a few whimpers out of her at the delightful sensation of his warm tongue.

“You’re so kriffing hot, Lex”, he said, lifting his head and allowing his eyes to proudly trail over the marks he had sucked on her chest.

Fives took off his gloves so he could properly feel her soft skin. Lexie tugged at the top of his blacks, stopping his attention to her breasts for just a moment so that he could assist her in taking it off. His mouth returned to her chest, trailing kisses and leaving small bites down her abdomen, his goatee slightly scratching her skin. He planted a sloppy kiss on her clit through the fabric of her lacy underwear, before moving it to the side so that he could lick a long stripe along her folds. Lexie let out a breathless moan.

Fives raised his head from between her legs and looked at her with lust-filled eyes. “You taste so good, mesh’la. I want you to sit on my face”, he said in a low tone of voice.

Lexie liked that idea and eagerly nodded. Fives pulled her underwear down her legs before hooking an arm around her back, lifting her up, and moving to take her place laid on his back on the mattress. She straddled his chest and kissed his neck, before moving up and hovering just above his face. Fives’ hands grabbed her ass, hurriedly lowering her wet pussy to his mouth. His tongue tentatively licked up and down her folds, eliciting a gasp from Lexie as she tried to brace herself on the wall in front of her. He let out a low moan as his tongue started circling her clit, causing her thighs to slightly clench around his head.

Fives’ tongue dragged around and over her clit a few times before moving it to circle her entrance and slipping it inside her. Her hips started to slowly move as he fucked her with his tongue, a warm, tingling sensation gradually raising in her body, and she moved one of her hands to tangle it in his hair. As he felt her getting closer he replaced his tongue with one, then two of his fingers, moving his lips back to her clit. A few more movements of his fingers, accompanied by him sucking and licking at her clit and Lexie arched her back as the orgasm washed over her, prompting a sigh to escape from her lips and coating his face with her release.

She got off of his face, turning and leaning against the wall as she tried to catch her breath. Fives sat up, reached a hand to the back of her neck and pulled her lips into his, not giving her any respite. He was too worked up now, he needed more of her. Lexie moaned as she tasted herself on his lips, the fire inside her core reigniting. Her hands started exploring his chest, gliding over his toned muscles.

“You’re overdressed”, she breathed as her hands reached down and fumbled to unclasp his belt.

Fives chuckled and got up, quickly shedding his kama, the last of his armor and the lower part of his blacks. Lexie’s eyes went wide as she watched his hard cock spring free from the fabric. It was long and thick and she felt her core clench at the sight.

“Like what you see?”, he asked with a teasing grin.

“Very much”, she replied, meeting his eyes.

He got back on the bed and captured her mouth in another sloppy kiss. Lexie parted her lips, allowing his tongue to enter and twist around her own. One of his hands groped her breast, pinching her nipple between his fingers. His hands then moved to her waist and effortlessly turned her around. Lexie found herself on her hands and knees as Fives leaned over her and kissed the back of her neck.

He then shifted on the bed, moving behind her, and dragged the tip of his cock through her wet folds. Her breath hitched as she felt it catch at her entrance. Fives’ hands grabbed her hips as he slowly pressed himself inside of her. The stretch was a little painful at first, but the burning sensation was swiftly replaced by pleasure after he pulled out and slammed back into her a few time.

Lexie tightly shut her eyes, low moans escaping from her mouth. His pace grew quicker and his grip of her hips tightened. His unrelenting thrusts, paired with the haze of the alcohol were beginning to be too much, and Lexie lowered herself to her forearms. She burrowed her face into her pillow as Fives hit a spot deep inside of her that made cry out.

Fives wrapped her ponytail around his hand and pulled her head up from the pillow. “Oh no, mesh’la. I want to hear you scream”, he growled.

She followed his request and let out a loud moan that echoed through the room. Lexie started pushing back, meeting his punishing thrusts. Pressure was quickly building in her core and her walls clenched around his cock. Fives mumbled some curses under his breath and quickened the pace, his thrusts getting sloppy as he chased his release.

“Who knew you could be such a little slut?”, he said between grunts. Lexie’s walls clenched tighter around his cock at that remark. “Oh, you like that huh? You do, you like being called that. Well why don’t you act like a good little slut and cum all over my cock then, mesh’la?”, he continued in a low voice, pulling her ponytail harder.

A thought entered Lexie’s mind, one that she had been desperately trying to ignore. Rex had the same anatomy as Fives, this was exactly how he would feel inside of her. In this position, not being able to see the man who was fucking hard into her and only hearing the low grunts he would sometimes make, she could even pretend that it was the Captain behind her. That thought was the last thing she required. The pressure released and a wave of powerful bliss washed over her body. She let out a loud cry before her body melted into the mattress.

The sounds she made as she orgasmed were music to Fives’ ears. He only needed to thrust into her a couple more times before quickly pulling out and spilling his cum on her lower back. He fell to the side and rolled on his back as he tried to catch his breath. Lexie lowered her hips to the bed and turned her head to look at him. The strenuous activity they'd just engaged in had sobered them up a little, and, as they came down from their highs, realisation hit as to what they've done.

“Maker…”, Lexie groaned, hiding her face into her pillow.

Fives got up from the bed and went into the fresher, returning with a damp towel so that he could clean his release from Lexie’s back. She mumbled some thanks before Fives laid back on the bed, pulling her to his chest. They laid like that in silence for a few minutes, with him slowly stroking up and down her back, processing the turn of events that their night had taken.

“So… that was uhh…”, Fives started, sounding tired.

“A mistake?”, she continued.

“A really good one, though”, he offered with a chuckle.

Lexie let out a small laugh and brought a hand to her temples. “Ugh. I don’t even want to think about how many rules we just broke”.

“It sounded like you really enjoyed breaking them though”, he teased.

“Don’t get cocky. It was good, I’ll admit. But it can never happen again”, she said as sternly as she could, although the amusement was still clear in her voice.

“I know”, he assured her.

“And you cannot tell anyone. Please. I’m sure you’d love to brag that you managed to fuck the Jedi but-”

“Lex, come on”, he cut her off. “I wouldn’t speak about you like that”, he said, a little offended.

“I’m sorry. I…”, she said quietly.

“I actually care about you mesh’la, you’re one of my best friends. You do know that, right?”, Fives continued.

“I do now”, she replied half-jokingly.

Fives chuckled and shook his head before yawning. “And don’t worry. I wouldn’t have said anything anyway. Rex might actually kill me if he found out I slept with you”, he said, a trace of guilt present in his voice.

“Don’t exaggerate. Like, sure, he’d be disappointed you broke regulations, but I doubt he’d care that much”, Lexie said with a snort.

“It’s not because of regulations Lex, it’s because it’s you”, he replied weakly, half-asleep now.

“What do you mean?”, she asked, brows furrowing in confusion. There was no response. “Fives?”.

She tilted her head and saw that the ARC trooper had fallen asleep. She glanced at the digital clock on her desk. Maker it’s late. Lexie yawned, the alcohol catching up to her, and she settled more into his side. She could think more about it tomorrow but for now exhaustion was filling her mind and it pushed away the curious comment that Fives made.

[phantom-of-the-501st]

Citadel Arc Strikes Again

Sooooo... I got to the bit of my Clone Wars rewatch that I've been procrastinating for weeks. And obviously, because the Domino Twins are involved, I have thoughts

Of course you all get dragged along as well 😙

Including you @saturn-sends-hugs @inkstainedhandswithrings and @the-bi-space-ace

Straight off the bat, look at our boys!!! I get so proud of them when I see them in their ARC armour. And I wanna know how much of a say Cody and Rex got in who came along on the mission because I like the idea of them just being like "our sons are coming and we will accept no objections"

Also, why does Echo look like he's ready to deck someone? Chill, dude. It's literally still the briefing.

But something I wanna talk about is how nervous Fives seems about this entire thing. While Echo seemed to be on board with the whole reprogrammed battle droid plan, Fives was less than enthused. And he was clearly unsure about the carbon freezing thing as well. It makes me wonder if he's been on edge about the mission from when they first found out about it and whether Echo had been comforting him and telling him that it was all going to be fine.

Because nothing makes this episode more gut-wrenching than the idea of a stressed out Fives feeling like something is going to go wrong and Echo telling him that everything is going to be okay. 😃

I don't know what happened to these guys during ARC training but Fives has become the one that's all "are we sure this is a good idea?" and Echo's in the briefing room like

And then we have "They're not about to let one of their own be tortured in the handing over of information that will help The Separatists win the war"

Oh the irony

OH THE FUCKING IRONY

How does this show get more depressing with every rewatch? You think you're prepared but haha NOPE

Of course I have to mention Fives handling carbon sickness like an absolute champ 🤜

This pic is also an accurate representation of my mental state after watching this arc

And I'm not sure why this following pic makes my heart melt so much but it just does.

I think it's because we never got much of these three in action together and just seeing them all in a shot like this just makes me think about how far the Domino Twins have come. Rex found these two when they were shinies and now they're all working together with Echo and fives as ARC troopers. They grow up so fast (literally). 🥲

Edit: Looking back at that pic for a second... are there two Echos? That's not Fives in the back. That's Echo's helmet design. And I'm not convinced that the pouches on the chest plates are on the opposite sides like they should be. Rex is talking to two Echos???

Next episode! Oh boy...

Every other clone death aside for a moment, this show really just glossed over the whole "a clone getting cut in half by a door" thing.

The idea of these three being stuck between two sealed doors with half of their brother is horrifying. And the show just moves on like this didn't happen. THEY JUST WATCHED ONE OF THEIR OWN BROTHERS BE CUT IN HALF BY A DOOR WTF

What a happy kids show 😀

And unfortunately it doesn't get much happier.

But I do want to talk about design for a moment because I feel like we don't talk about the clone helmets enough, especially when it comes to things like this shot.

Animating emotion well is hard. Animating emotion well when you can't see your character's face is harder. But what I love is that because of the fact that the top of the visor is just a straight line, you can change the emotion being shown by simply having the character tilt their head.

The first shot clearly shows Echo realising what he needs to do and the next is this very strong look of determination. Just a split second apart, with no change but the tilt of the head, and the emotion changes. It's so cool and I feel like it doesn't get praised enough.

A three-part tragedy:

I think what makes this so heartbreaking is not just the fact that Fives has now lost his closest brother, and the last remaining member of his squad besides himself, but also the fact that it's so sudden. It so quickly went from Echo and Fives to just Fives.

And this is going to be gutting for Rex and Cody as well. They found the Domino Twins as shinies, they would have watched them settle into the 501st, they watched them grow up, were the ones to promote them ARC troopers and were just so freaking proud of these two.

And they not only lost one of them, but they watched this pair of clones, who have been stuck together like glue from the beginning, be torn apart. They didn't just see Echo go, they saw Fives lose Echo as well and that's heartbreaking.

None of them have time to process it either. They have to get out of there and leave Echo behind.

This scene where Fives warns them about the hounds approaching hurt as well because he just sounds so... hollow. He sounds like a man whose lost all hope, and I don't blame him. There's an emptiness now.

Rant Incoming

THESE POOR CLONES. THESE POOR FUCKING CLONES WHO HAVE JUST WATCHED THEIR BROTHERS DIE AND COULD DO NOTHING BUT LEAVE THEM BEHIND ARE NOW HAVING TO PARTICIPATE IN A JEDI FUNERAL DESPITE THE FACT THAT THEY HAD NO OPPORTUNITY TO HONOUR THEIR FALLEN BROTHERS!!!

I'm not saying that Piell doesn't deserve to be honoured and have his body burned (side note: it's really convenient that there was lava everywhere for the whole burning the body thing) but this feels like such a kick in the teeth for the clones.

Also I just want Five's internal monologue here because he literally just watched his closest brother die trying to protect a Jedi who is now also dead. The important info still got back to the Jedi council but Echo gave his life to protect a man who didn't even make it off the planet.

ALSO THEY WATCHED ONE OF THEIR BROTHERS BE CUT IN HALF EARLIER WHY ARE WE IGNORING THE FACT THAT THAT WAS A THING???

Ngl I think I would rather just die than crawl across a wire like this

Despite being depressing as all hell, I do really like these episodes. I love something with actual tangible stakes and having points where they feel comfortable killing off important or well-loved characters is something I appreciate and respect (even if it just leads to endless despair about the Domino Twins).

It's a shame that Echo never gets mentioned between here and the final season because I would love to have explored Fives' response to his loss more. I do like how they handle it in these episodes though. It feels like there is at least some recognition of how Fives would be struggling with all this and it doesn't just have him trotting around like nothing happened.

Fives seemed so nervous for this mission and it's devastating to know how tragic it would be for him and Echo. They didn't go into this knowing that it would be the last time they ever saw each other, but it all got ripped away in an instant and there was nothing they could do about it.

And I think I'm just going to end it on this screenshot because I feel like it just sums it all up.

[bizarre-blues]

Curious about your shoumob thoughts 👀👀

Apologies for the essay I am about to write you. Genuinely it's a self indulgent ship for me- I don't particularly see it ever happening in canon, but the potential for their dynamic is so severely underexplored that it drives me insane- not even romantically, just in general. I honestly get why at a glance it doesn't seem like there'd be much between them, but this is fanon and I'm allowed to pour my heart and thoughts into my favorite characters. Lemme break it up into two sections. Platonic Shoumob (something I could see as more canon based):

Even being platonic, I do think this dynamic would only show up post canon. Like there's a long period of time where they're vaguely in each other's circles but don't directly interact. On Mob's end, I think this is purely because he's got his own life and own concerns. Sure, his younger brother's friend hangs around sometimes, but it's not his business to meddle around in Ritsu's business. This is really well stated in August's post. But to add on a bit:

Mob is a good big brother + trusts Ritsu

I don't see Mob holding a grudge against Shou for the house being burnt down. Did Shou aim to stir Mob's emotions a bit? Yeah, it wasn't right. It was ALSO to protect Mob's family since Shou knew Claw was sending folks after them. With the bodies of the remaining Kageyama family burnt, Claw would not longer be after the Kageyamas. I think after fully understanding this, even if there are bitter feelings Mob would let em fade over time

What about the seventh claw division? Saying he's disappointed in Mob? Beating up Ritsu to lure Mob in so they can both be captured? First off Shou's insult pretty easily rolls off of Mob's back. Secondly, I think it would be very interesting to explore the dynamic of Mob discovering Shou's part in the seventh division. Again, I don't think this would really come up for a long time, long enough that Mob wouldn't really be a bitter mess about it.

If Mob can find in his heart of hearts that Toichiro is someone worth saving, I really struggle to think he dislikes Shou in anyway.

On the other hand you have Shou. I already talked about how I think Shou would feel a bit in the tags of August's post above. Also, I really like to keep this post in mind too when thinking of Shou's view of Mob.

Shou entirely wrote Mob off in their initial interaction. He saw he had power and was unwilling to use it- therefore was taking the side of a bystander. He saw that as genuinely a crime to waste such protentional. Shou was raised by Toichiro, and even without agreeing with how Toichiro used his power, Shou does agree that power is power and must be used in some way. For him, he needs to use it for justice. That's why, in my mind, Shou was so quick to like Ritsu. Ritsu wasn't afraid to use his powers for what was needed to be done to protect people, even if it was an uphill battle he couldn't win.

Cut to their second interaction. Shou's fighting his dad, Shou's losing the fight- it's barely even a fight with how bad he's losing. In waltzes Mob who's entirely different from the last time they interacted. He's prepared to fight, to protect everyone else since he's the only one capable of doing so. Hell, he even told everyone else to stay away since they'll only hinder what he has to do. Suddenly Mob is aligning with the moral code Shou WANTED to see in him to begin with.

That entire interaction is so short, but it's genuinely so important to me. Mob stands up for Shou, he gets angry on his behalf. Who knows the last time someone did that for Shou, and it's someone Shou had entirely written off.

Last time they interact is the confession arc. Shou sees the power Mob is capable of, how his dad is no match for him when he's like this without it being fatal. It even convinces Shou to lay off using his powers (though idk how closely he sticks to that post canon)

Basically you have this development of complete dismissal > admiration for his moral code? > a warning sign to how dangerous psychic powers can be. Which is insane given that Shou's SEEN how dangerous they can be his entire childhood

I feel like it leaves us in post canon with a LOT of potential for how they might see each other or interact. Here's some of the thoughts that have been plaguing my mind.

I really feel like Shou would have this torn admiration / uncertainty about Mob. Mob is powerful, more powerful than his dad, and I don't feel like Shou fully knows Mob's strict moral code yet. I think that subconsciously he might be a lil cautious around him to begin with even if he doesn't outwardly acknowledge that in anyway

They get to know each other and now there's potential to actually chat about some of this stuff. One thing in particular I like to think about is the power level they both have. Idk the exact power scaling of all the Mob Psycho espers, but I'm under the impression that Shou is pretty up there and will likely only get more powerful with age. Shou and Mob, having this kinda power, have taken such opposite views to it growing up. Mob believing it can never be used while Shou thinking it MUST be used. This is what's inspired the comic I'm currently working on that I'm SO excited to finish up

Also??? this might be ooc but the potential jealousy Shou might have of how easily Mob and Ritsu appear to get along once it's all said and done. Meanwhile his family dynamic is... complex. Shou obviously cares about his dad, but Toichiro will probably not see life outside of prison and I'm certain there's just some oddness between them. Between Toichiro calling Shou a failure and using his powers to straight up fight him, I just feel like it would be complex for Shou. It could really lead to some interesting conflict, especially given Shou and Ritsu being besties

IDK !!! OTHER STUFF TOO!!! Between em I just see a lot that could be said between the two of em.

I feel like when I first joined the fandom I didn't really see much between Shou and Mob. Of the four main esper boys, obvious it's easy to see how much dynamic there is between Mob and Ritsu (the entire show hinders on the trauma they share) and between Teru and Mob. There's also plenty of interactions between Teru and Ritsu. Same to say with Shou and Ritsu since the majority of Shou's interactions are Ritsu centered. But honestly post canon I really do feel like Shou and Mob's dynamic ought to be explored a lot more, even if I must do it myself.

Romantic Shoumob (way more fanon based but hey what can ya do, we have fun out here):

As a disclaimer, I honestly prefer platonic shoumob. HOWEVER I absolutely think romantic shoumob is adorable so I will happily ramble about it. Take most of what I've said above and apply it down here.

In my mind I think it would be Shou who ends up with a crush on Mob. Mostly cause of the amount of emotions Shou has towards Mob post canon, I feel like it could easily develop into a real curiosity towards Mob. Thinks about him a lot and oops, now it's a crush

Also hilarious to me cause I don't think Shou would know how to handle a crush no matter who it was. The classic "writes you a letter that says 'get out of my school' in attempt to flirt" dynamic

Except I really don't think that would work on Mob?? Mob isn't dumb but I really just. Don't think he'd get the hint that Shou likes him. Just knows for Some Reason Shou acts a certain way around him. He'd probably assume he did something to offend or upset Shou somehow tbh

Cue Mob attempting to do things to make it up / even directly trying to ask Shou about it which would only lead to Shou getting flustered or trying, yet again, to keep playing it off

Whenever Mob DOES realize Shou likes him back I imagine he'd get equally as flustered in the beginning. Mostly cause we know Mob is such a lover who is super easily flustered in most scenarios. Very much just! Cute to me

Outside of just the puppy love phase I really do think there's potential for such sweet or dramatic interactions. Again there's all the complex parts of the platonic parts of their relationship, but something significant would be the way that both Mob and Toichiro have this insane amount of power and yet opposite approaches to it.

I think Shou would find a lot of comfort in seeing how gentle Mob could be. I'm also a HUGE softy for the idea of like- we KNOW Shou isn't super soft. He wasn't raised that way, it's not his ideals, there's not many situations where I think he'd feel comfortable having his guard down, even post canon. But I like the idea that Shou lets himself be soft when it's just him and Mob.

No pressure to be anything he isn't, no need to be snarky or guarded, he KNOWS Mob ain't gonna judge him, hell Shou is probably the safest he ever could be by hanging out with Mob. It's all so SICKENINGLY sweet to me.

On Mob's end, I can see him enjoying having someone who understands him in some ways yet has such a different approach to life? Mob craves human connection throughout the entire series, and by the end he has plenty of it, but to have someone who he can have deeper convos about psychic powers in particular with I think would be a huge relief. Obviously there's other folks in his life, but Shou's just from a unique background.

Even more, Shou is blunt and upfront about everything. Communication would come so naturally to them. As someone with autism, nothing is a bigger relief to me than a person who just says what they're thinking straight up.

I can really see a fun balance between them as one person who's calm and kind vs someone who's energetic and chaotic. I feel like there'd be a constant push and pull between Mob's side of simple and sickeningly sweetness and Shou's side of outrageous acts and mayhem.

Hope this all makes sense. Sorry for any typos, I didn't proof read anything. Thank you sm for the ask!

[lightwise]

Hey guys. I know I’ve been relatively quiet on here since the finale, and I wanted to let you all know I haven’t just liked all your posts but not reblogged for the sake of lurking 😅. I had an insanely chaotic week in my personal life/schedule and the finale hit me hard, in some ways that I wasn’t expecting, so I’ve been processing a lot behind the scenes and trying to play catch-up.

I know there’s a lot of opinions, a lot of hurt feelings, and a lot of processing going around, no matter what your opinions about the finale itself. And even if it had satisfied every one of us, it still is hard to say goodbye to our Bad Batch in canon media. I’ve been crying every time I see shots from those last few scenes and the epilogue 😭❤️

I’ll be sharing everyone’s thoughts and my own as I have the bandwidth this week/ongoing. I have a lot of things I want to address:

- How Tech was handled

- Project Necromancer and Omega’s m count

- the death trooper batch and what worked and didn’t work for me

- how Crosshair’s hand was handled

- my reaction to the finale, as well as the pros vs cons of how it was executed

- the pros and cons of the season overall

- potentially analyses on Hunter and Crosshair throughout their arcs

- some posts that I had been compiling before the finale that will now have a very different tone 😅🫣 (you’ll know what I mean when I get there)

- final update on my Crosshair Sighs count

- additional chapters of the Be There one-shots I started at the beginning of the season. I have Hunter and Crosshair’s perspectives, and I will add in Wrecker’s, Echo’s, and Omega’s.

- I still have an upcoming Hunter short fic and my long fic Compass Pointing North (Rex and Echo leading the clone rebellion) that will fill in all the gaps of the last two seasons and potentially more (I have so many ideas!)

In short, I’m still here, not going anywhere, just need some time to process and get my thoughts together. For those of you grieving or feeling let down, I see you and feel the same way about certain things. For those of you ecstatic and fulfilled about certain things, I see you and feel the same way as well.

And lastly—I’ve been seeing and hearing both behind the scenes and publicly making fun of, tearing down, or vehemently shaming people for their various reactions to this finale. I have to say I’m a bit disappointed at some of the backlash that has been happening between fans for holding differing opinions and emotions. If someone else has a different favorite character than you, a different perspective, a level of difficulty that you are not experiencing—do not shame them for that. Do not go on anon and harass them. Don’t try to tell people who are upset that they should just be happy and get over it. And don’t tell people who are really satisfied with what we got that they shouldn’t be expressing that or that they are inconsiderate for feeling that way.

In short, don’t let the end of this show tear apart all of the good and wonderful and fun moments that we’ve built together over these last three years. This fandom has been a special place and a very meaningful place for most of us, I believe, and those who are in this fandom do not deserve to be treated poorly simply for having their own perspectives. Be kind to each other. Please. I know you all are capable of it 🙏🏻✨❤️

[moongothic]

Seen quite a few people comment how they believe it's more likely the Dragodile Divorce happened due to ideological differences rather than because Dragon was too straight to stay with Crocodile, and. Like I did suggest that (or at least tried to) in my Crocodad Giga Thesis (really I should've been more clear about it in my essay so I wouldn't be writing this now lol), but like yes, Dragon and Crocodile absolutely have drastically different beliefs on How One Overthrows The World Government. And that absolutely could have contributed to the two separating and/or Crocodile deciding to go his own way instead of becoming a proper Revolutionary

Because like, as I tried to imply in the essay (but failed to deliver); if Crocodile's goal had always been to get Pluton so he could just nuke Marijoa off the face of the earth by himself and end it all in one go, then Crocodile and his way of thinking could work as this, like... contrasting opposite to how Dragon believes things should be done. Some fans (unfairly imo) call Dragon a "fraud" because over the past 20+ years he has only attacked Marijoa and the WG directly just once, and even when he did, instead of doing something to stop their corrupt reign for good... the Revs destroyed... the Tenryuubito's... food storage..? Like. Sure, that'll bother them for a little while, get their panties in a good twist etc, but in the end they're just going to demand more tributes and more free food. The Revolutionary Army may be successfully inspiring more people and more countries to rebel against the World Government's corrupt rule, but the Tenryuubito are still in power and will continue to be in power for a long time. And that's kind of how Crocodile would greatly complement Dragon within the narrative. Dragon being arguably "too soft" with his slow, methodical way of overthrowing the WG, while Crocodile would just kill them all without mercy, even if it meant hurting innocent people in the process. The two would act as the opposite sides of the same coin, the different extremes of the same spectrum. Crocodile would become like a response to the complaints people have against Dragon.

And yeah, the two having such wildly different ideological views could VERY EASILY contribute to a divorce, for sure.

My thing is that... If (and this is an if) Crocodile is meant to go a character arc and grow as a person, if we're meant to see him as a sympathetic character at all and maybe even feel bad for him... It'll be much harder to write that if the Dragodile Divorce happened only because of the two having ideological differences. Like who's going to feel bad for Crocodile if the two got divorced because Crocodile wanted to mass murder people and Dragon wasn't okay with it? That's not a tragedy, that's not a situation where we as the readers would feel for Crocodile and want to root for him. That's not something that would give a character unprocessed emotional trauma to heal from and overcome. He'd just be a villian who'd need to have his beliefs changed.

Where as, if The Divorce was caused by Dragon and Crocodile no longer being compatible due to Dragon being straight while Crocodile transed his gender... Even in the most respectful of scenarios that is a heartbreaking situation, a painful thing to go through. That is a tragedy without bad guys, a story where you could feel bad for Crocodile and want to root for him. That is a situation that would give him trauma to heal from.

And that's kind of why I so strongly believe in Crocodile's transition being a more important, contributing factor in The Divorce. Again, this does absolutely depend on what Crocodile's actual role in the story is going to be and whether or not he's even meant to go through a character arc at all. Like if he's not going to be that important and if he isn't meant to go through an arc then sure, Crocodile's transition doesn't have to matter one fucking bit. But if he is meant to go through an arc, if we are meant to feel bad for him and find outselves rooting for him eventually... From a writing perspective, that'll be far easier to do if we can find ourselves sympathizing with him even just a little bit.

Also like. Yes, you can have queer characters who are just queer for the sake of being queer, their queerness does not have to be an important aspect in them or a huge plotpoint in their story at all. Crocodile could be queer just for the sake of being queer. Because that's what it's like being queer, you just are what you are. At the same time, from a writing perspective. What would even be the point of making him queer if it didn't matter to his character at all and have an impact on his character?

Also while Crocodile and Dragon clearly have very different beliefs on how the WG should be dealt with right now, we don't really know when Crocodile came to his beliefs. Like for all we know Crocodile could've formed his worldview years after the divorce. Hell, based on the way he spoke to Vivi about her ideals, and how we know he spent over a decade in utter emotional solitude, his current worldview could have been partially born from resentment towards Dragon (and his ideals) that's been simmering away over the years.

All of this to say; yes I think the two's beliefs could have been a contributing factor in The Divorce, but from a writing perspective (and based on the direction I personally want to see the story go), I find it far more likely if Crocodile's transition was the main cause, one way or another.

[aingeal98]

so, steph in the canon text choose to carry her pregnancy to term and give her child up for adoption. this is generally understood to be bc the writer of that issue/run was pro life, but taking the text at face value, what does it say that steph chose what she chose? is it coherent with her character? could it be read as another symptom of internalized mysoginy? or is it incoherent with her character/would it be more thematically interesting to have her have an abortion?

Really really good question I've been mulling this over in my head for weeks. To answer the last question first, I honestly think the issue with the pregnancy arc is less about the choices Steph makes and more to do with how clunkily anti abortion Chuck Dixon is. Like I do think it's very possible to be fully pro choice but also unwilling to abort your own pregnancy. I fought alongside my friends to repeal the abortion ban in Ireland but at the same time I can never picture myself ever getting one, because for me the second I become aware of it it's real to me, not just a clump of cells. But I know full well that's just my own sentimentality and there's no scientific backing, like logically it IS just a clump of cells and also there's a whole patriarchal society dedicated to stopping women from having bodily autonomy, which is why I'd never try and push that belief on others or discourage them from whatever choice they feel is best. So basically I would struggle hard to ever do it, but if you want to, hell yeah abort that thang! No judgement from me or moral reasoning needed from you.

And because of this I could see Steph being the same. I could even see certain story beats playing out the same if they were allowed just a bit more nuance instead of being a conservative after school special. Steph lashing out at her mom and counsellor for suggesting an abortion, not because it's a Bad Thing to do but because it feels to her like her mom is already trying to sweep this under the rug like it never happened, and Steph herself hasn't even come to terms with it. Steph feeling isolated from her peers, again highly plausible it just needs better dialogue than what we got in the original. We could even have scenes of Steph grappling with the idea of an abortion, and wondering how much of her aversion to it is her own choice and how much is internalized misogyny. I think her arc of deciding to have the baby and give it up works best, although a well written abortion au would be super interesting to read.

So basically for me the choices Steph makes in the original run are very coherent with her character, and what actually makes it fall flat is the clunky dialogue and heavy handed anti abortion writing. If Steph was written by someone other than Chuck Dixon during that time, I could see her being pro choice while also being unwilling to abort the baby herself. And it could have been written with a lot more nuance and acknowledgement of what teen mothers go through, instead of just what Chuck Dixon thought Good Teen Moms should do and say in this filthy world of liberal values.

From what we got in canon, I'd say Steph probably grew out of the anti abortion mindset as she got older. I don't think she'd ever regret her decision, but I do see her looking back and cringing at some of the ways she acted because wow the internalized misogyny JUMPED out. And if she ever came across another sobbing teenager with a positive pregnancy test, I'd say modern adult Steph would make sure they knew all their options with zero judgement. And helping that young girl would probably dredge up a million different emotions that she would struggle to name.

So tl:dr, taking the text at face value Steph has boatloads of internalized misogyny specifically around abortion. But I don't actually think her choices are out of character, more so that the entire narrative is written less as a story and more as a moralizing conservative rant on pro life where everyone feels like a caricature. It would actually be quite simple to tweak the dialogue and clunky scenes and end up with similar character choices just... better written. Where her mom and counsellors aren't evil for suggesting abortion but Steph still feels hurt and lashes out anyway. Where her peers say the wrong things and leave her feeling alienated. Where she weighs her options and gets more narrative space to mull over all the consequences. It would be my preferred way to rewrite the arc, but there are a lot of changes that could be made and I'm open to reading about all of them.

Thank you for the ask! Sorry it took so long to respond I was chewing over the whole concept haha.

[snowblack-charcoalwhite]

Hello, I just found your blog and after going through a lot of your posts/asks I completely agree with most of your opinions on HOTD ss2. I also wanted to ask your thoughts on the characterization of Aemond and Aegon this season. With Aemond there were a lot of disappointments for me in how the writer treated his character. I know the two nude scenes caused a lot of mixed opinions, but in my opinion, they were completely unnecessary and didn't contribute much to character building. Like Alicent's 3 sex scenes, I feel like the showrunner is just taking advantage of Olivia/Ewan's popularity. Aemond has very few lines, does not interact with anyone in his family, and we hardly know what he thinks about the events taking place. He is removed from the narrative and we hear about how others think of him rather than knowing what he really thinks. Him becoming a villain left a bad taste in my mouth because of the way the writer stuffed it and forced us to swallow it instead of finding a way to build it up properly. It makes me, an Aemond and Ewan fan, feel sad for effort that Ewan has put in just to receive little screen time and bad writing for the character he cherishes so much. With Aegon, even though I'm not a fan, I found him very interesting right from season 1. And in this part, I think the writer has put in effort to compensate for what is considered to be worsening the character's image. Overall, Aegon in ss2 was received very well and he won the sympathy of the majority of viewers in the fandom. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts, ss2 disappointed me a lot and I have very little hope for the second half of the season, but I still look for reviews in the fandom because it's still a highlight for me after every episode.

Good day/night!

The way Aemond has been treated this season is awful indeed. Of all the Green characters he suffered the most (maybe along with Alicent) from the writers attempts (regrettably, successful ones) to divide TG and deprive them of common purpose and pretty much any affection for each other. The scraps of the latter we got (for example, those between Aegon and Helaena) might have gone unnoticed altogether for the majority of the viewers if not for the actors' interviews (and I doubt that many of GA folks have watched those anyway).

It seems that the writers decided to make Aemond into a "lone wolf", so to say: a person who, due to some kind of mix between arrogance and grievances suffered in the past, feels like he doesn't need anyone in this life because 1) everyone he searched love and compassion from failed him, 2) he is utterly confident in his ability to handle every problem that may arise on his own. I personally don't like the concept of Aemond being isolated from his family - but the main issue here IMO is not even the idea itself but the execution. While I'm not a fan of the brothel part either, I believe that those scenes could have fitted into his arc better - if not for the sloppy and neglectful manner in which this arc has been built. Skipping the important bits of Aemond's story (like reaction of his family members to Luke's death), making him indifferent to the murder of Jaehaerys and depriving him of the scenes that could have connected the different points of his emotional and psychological journey (mainly of the scenes with other Greens) - all of it makes it difficult to perceive the different sides his character is supposed to have.

Ultimately, as I see it, both Aemond and Alicent are treated by the show as tools for presenting the audience with the story of Westerosi feminism: the former - to uphold the image of "cruel men", the latter - to paint the image of a victim (who is also kind of responsible for her own suffering at the hands of men because she chose the wrong side).

As for Aegon, he's been the luckiest out of the Green characters storywise - but it doesn't mean that I'm satisfied with the show version of him. Dumbing him down, using him as a way to show how callous and cruel other Greens (specifically Aemond and Alicent) are - that's not the treatment I wanted for one of my favourite characters. I would even go as far as saying that if the Aegon we have seen in the show so far was the only Aegon I knew (without me having any knowledge of either source material or Tom's interviews or participating in fandom) he wouldn't be one of my favourite characters as I simply would have very little interest in him. Once again, in comparison with other Greens he's doing really well, but I can't help but feel that Aegon - and Tom - are also being used to create a character the audience can pity and to have a good shot at the Emmy campaign. And as soon as HBO guys get what they want (or if they don't get it), Aegon might be thrown under the bus just as easily as it already happened to Aemond after he attracted lots of attention to season 1.

To sum it up, the main issue of HotD is that HBO doesn't care for the characters and for the story: it cares for the hype, viewing numbers, reviews and awards. And with this kind of attitude it's difficult to expect any significant improvements in the quality of the show.