#i just think the parallels are interesting

[pearlofthewoods]

I feel like I should have something intelligent to say about the linguistic similarity between these scenes and what that implies, but either way I think the parallel is pretty interesting…

Perhaps it says something about how, in the btvs universe, love for someone, whether conscious (as in Tara’s case) or unconscious (as in Spike’s), leaves a sort of aura, imperceptible except by supernatural means (e.g Oz’s superhuman sense of smell or Drusilla’s prophetic powers).

Or I dunno, 🤷‍♀️ perhaps it’s just a neat metaphor the writers liked to reuse, but either way, I enjoy the idea that love can be so strong and so clear that it’s literally perceptible to those around you, no matter how hard you try to hide or deny it… even to yourself.

[sylvieserene]

I noticed some interesting parallels and similarities between Eternal Sugar cookie and Pure Vanilla Cookie

Firstly, even design wise, Eternal Sugar Cookie and Pure Vanilla Cookie are the only bare-foot characters in their respective ancient/beast groups. (Look at the way they present themselves too, one hand raised and the other holding their significant object as their hover/fly)

Both are capable of flying, albeit one without wings and one with wings (cuz features of the beasts got swapped with the ancients and GC got the wings)

Both come off as the "Friendly/Easy to approach" ones of their respective groups

Both their kingdoms are floating

Both wear almost fully white robes/dresses (often associated with purity)

Both have been shown dealing with babies

We all know Pure Vanilla Cookie is based off on Jesus + Moses, Eternal Sugar Cookie has heavy influence from Biblical Angels

Even in their title screens, they hold things very similarly

Perhaps better seen here:

Both their kingdoms were regarded as "Paradise" in their own way

Now this is a bit speculative BUT even Eternal Sugar Cookie has heavy incorporation of snakes in her design just as Pure Vanilla Cookie is big in white lilies.

Snakes in Eternal Sugar Cookie's association:

Perhaps a reference to a certain Jester hmm? (It even has blue colours incorporated!)

White lilies in Pure Vanilla Cookie's association:

And we already know Pure Vanilla Cookie loves White Lily Cookie, could it be that Eternal Sugar Cookie loves Shadow Milk Cookie?

Basically if PV x WL is Robstar from Teen Titans then SM x ES is basically RobRae. Or a verse where evil PV and evil HB fell in love... And RobRae is canon in the evil verse of TT03 (Teen Tyrants verse) so could it be a similar situation? Just like them PV and HB see eachother platonically but maybe when evil they date?

Highly speculative ik but very interesting I believe as idt this is a coincidence

They even have angels in eachother's design

What do y'all think?

[lesbianjackies]

I am genuinely curious, why do you headcanon Travis as transfem? I’ve seen that opinion going around and I was hoping someone could explain why they think that exactly.

so travis starts out the show wearing what i would call a poorly crafted mask of toxic masculinity. he’s mean to his brother, he makes misogynistic comments to the girls, he asserts himself as a provider and tries to handle dangerous weaponry without proper training. he does this out of self-preservation — he was bullied as a kid and had an incredibly strained relationship with his father, both of which are implied to be the result of not being perceived as masculine enough. but even when travis tries, he’s not good at being masculine: he’s not the best hunter, he can’t perform sexually unless intoxicated, he fits horribly into the messed up paternal role he tries to take on for javi. then, he’s assaulted. his brother runs away. and he realizes that this role he’s crafted for himself, this mask he’s been putting on to protect himself doesn’t have any significance out there. so he switches it up. he becomes docile, meek, submissive. travis’s presentation of femininity is, similar to his presentation of masculinity, a tool used for self-preservation. but unlike his presentation of masculinity, travis slips into the role with ease. it’s a trauma response, but it’s a trauma response he’s comfortable in, it’s a part he’s good at playing — which is what makes him so fascinating, and what, more specifically, makes the transfem read such an interesting one. travis is basically being forcefemmed by the wilderness through having traumatic experiences that are primarily associated with women, particularly sexual ones. so, yeah, that’s why i headcanon travis as transfem. i think whether you think he would’ve been more comfortable in femininity and girlhood outside of the wilderness is another question (i, personally, think he would have), but the important thing about his arc is that, while it inarguably happens through him experiencing sexual trauma, by the third season, travis doesn’t see himself as a man anymore, and the girls don’t see him as one either. he’s just travis, he’s just one of them. so i don’t think from a viewer’s perspective it makes sense to view him as one either.

(another big part of this is the way he’s paralleled with shauna and the way he interacts with the concept of menstruation, but i wasn’t able to neatly fit that into this explanation and i also have another post specifically about it, which you can read here! there is also “my favorite thoughts are jackie’s”, which… i just don’t know how else to interpret, quite frankly.)

[quibbs126]

There’s probably something to be said about how in g1, the Decepticons at first have a smart, generally competent leader (at least by the standards of this show), but he has a second in command who’s incredibly disloyal and has a habit of thwarting his plans in doing so. Then after the movie, they have a very loyal and competent second in command in Cyclonus, but their leader now is completely crazy and prone to very irrational decisions that end up harming their side in the process

Like, if Megatron and Cyclonus were together, they’d be unstoppable and probably have a great time together (or at least better than the alternatives), meanwhile Galvatron and Starscream would just instantly try to kill each other, Galvatron probably winning

[mortish-writes]

The four and a half months since I started the Bride of Shadows interactive novel have flown by. As of this weekend, we'll have well over 200,000 words, a lot of it unique content, and story lines that diverge in interesting ways. Although it can be challenging at times, I'm really glad that I opted to write this story as an interactive novel. Not only is it fun to explore the different possibilities, but I also love the community.

May will bring a lot of much-anticipated content, including a variety of new NSFW scenes for every story route, new clothes for your MC, a possible matrimony, a plot twist or two, and of course, the conception of your god-baby.

Week One of May (we are here!) already has updates to both the Unaligned Zealot (Valdricht Route) and the Aligned Zealot on Patreon. The first half of each night is around the length of a typical night, but there's still a lot more to come. This weekend, likely on Sunday, I'll be releasing the first half of the Heretic NSFW Night VI for patrons and you'll get a first look at the (hopefully) clever way the pregnancy tailoring is established.

Week Two of May will bring the Unaligned Zealot (Serax Route) and the first half of the standard Heretic Night VI. It'll have a lot of parallels with the Aligned Zealot route, but also some key differences that I think Heretic players will really appreciate. As a bonus for players of both routes, I'll be extending the Heretic route for an additional 5-10 passages of being out on the town (or dragged into the nearest bedroom) with Valdricht.

Week Three will give you the option to crank up the heat with a lengthy MMF scene or give your lovers the cold shoulder in the second half of the NSFW Heretic route. It'll also be when I launch the first half of all Night VI routes for free on Itch.

Weeks Four & Five will put a bow on the remaining routes and, ideally, see all versions of the MC consummating her union with Valdricht & Serax. After that, I'm going to get started on the Week One update, which will include a streamlined prologue, bonus scenes, new tendency options for both patrons and free players, and Night VII. I anticipate it'll take 2-3 weeks, but there will be a lot of sneak peeks & alternate POV scenes to tide you over.

There will be three new alternate POV scenes in May, one for everyone, one for all Patreon members, and one for Darksinger & Duskweaver members.

As I've mentioned on Patreon, I'll be officially writing Bride of Shadows full-time come mid-May. Thank you for your support and I look forward to raining new content upon you. I suspect this schedule will be greatly accelerated come mid-May, but I don't want to over-promise so I'll keep the time estimates conservative for now.

I also have a contemporary MF vampire erotic romance I wrote a couple years ago. As I have time, I'm going to tweak it into a linear-ish interactive novel, probably in ChoiceScript. If you see me publishing anything else, rest assured, I'm not taking time from Bride of Shadows to start a new project, just retrofitting a completed story into a new format once my daily writing is done. Plus, it's a good story with hot vampire/demon explicit content. You'll like it.

[Play Bride of Shadows for Free]

[Patreon Edition]

[Ko-Fi]

[vixen-flame]

now that I think of it, it kinda parallels the tradwife aesthetic in a way. I don't actually have any analysis from that comparison, just an interesting thought I guess. I never really connected with solarpunk either. I always preferred ecobrutalism, out of all the modern/future nature oriented aesthetics that I know of

I have an instinctual & perhaps unfair dislike of "solarpunk" art. part of it is just a taste thing, that I can't really imagine becoming invested in a world where nothing bad happens. part of it is that it is based in stated progressive values while so often regressing back into head empty pastoralism, what if everything was a cozy farm, what if everything was automated except for the stay at home mom, etc. my knee-jerk reaction has probably led to me having a kind of narrow view of the aesthetic, though.

[5bi5]

Ted is interesting as a parallel to Faith's season three arc because it does have some close similarities (Buffy/Faith are shown enjoying slaying and using violence to cope with a traumatic situation, then end up accidentally killing a human who is a villain but still a person (or so Buffy believes about Ted)) with the key difference being that Buffy takes responsibility for her actions while Faith denies what happens and tries to run away. But the other big difference is that Buffy wants to hurt Ted, specifically, even though she believes he's human (to be clear, I think she's more than justified in doing so). She's angry at him the whole episode and wants a reason to fight him; when she returns from an unsuccessful search for a vampire to fight in order to sublimate this anger, Ted hits her, and Buffy says, "I was so hoping you'd do that." She delights in the opportunity to hit him back, to finally regain some power in a situation where she's been made to feel powerless, and in fact she's so excited about doing so that she goes too far and kicks him down the stairs, killing him. When Buffy takes responsibility for killing Ted, it's for an action she's taken with agency – no, she didn't intend to kill him, but she intended to hurt him. When Faith stakes Allan, she thinks she's hurting a vampire and doesn't realize her mistake until it's too late. Buffy kills what she thinks is a human but isn't, and Faith kills what she thinks isn't a human but is. Faith clearly does feel guilty about what happens – and of course, she does bear responsibility even for an accidental killing – but she genuinely believed she was just doing her job.

[chillinglikeashilling]

Lord forgive me for paying attention to the YT comments section but I really want people who claim Annie was treated as a less 'desired love interest' than Mary to remind me which of them was told she didn't have any business being near them by both Micheal A and Michael B Jordan.

"Oh but Mary is shown to be the focus of desire and Annie isn't"

Are we forgetting that the first thing Stack tells Mary to do is kick rocks? That one of the first things we learned about their past relationship is that he left her in the middle of the night without any communication at all?

Yes Smoke also left Annie but that to me is representative of the fact that both twins always chose each other over either of their respective lovers, or anyone else in their lives. At the very least we know from the fact that he married her that Smoke considered Annie someone in his life, who was not Stack, that he could build a life with. She made him a mojo bag so it's not like Smoke left in the middle of the night.

And it's not like either twin is best friends with the other's lover but Annie clearly gets so much more consideration and respect from Stack than Mary does from Smoke. Smoke would clearly rather Stack and Mary never even have been together in the first place but even from (what was supposed to be) the opening night of the Juke we see Stack and Annie working together to manage Smoke and the business. Annie is being paid to cook there sure, but to me it's clear that she was always supposed to have a huge role in the business.

I'm not saying the movie is perfect or that people can't have their own opinions but even if we're appealing to the respectability argument- Annie is the only person in the main cast apart from Sammie with very little 'sin' on her record. For one thing she's the only woman of the three love interests who isn't cheating on her husband for whatever that's worth to folks in a movie called Sinners.

And even the comparison of the love scenes feels disingenuous to me. I've seen some people say Mary is the one shown to be desired between her and Stack while Smoke is shown to be desired by Annie and I want to remind everyone that again Mary is the person chasing Stack. He saw her that morning and said go back to your white husband. Annie and Smoke are reuniting as a couple that went through a horrible loss that can rip modern couples apart, without the additional stresses of being sharecroppers on top of that.

Additionally I don't think it's a coincidence that the love scene between Smoke and Annie happens before the sun goes down and the one between Stack and Mary - which I remind everyone leads to Stack dying!!- happens after nightfall and after Mary has already been turned by Rennick. Sammie and Stack both talk about that day before the sun went down being one of the best days of their life. Given the connection and parallels between the twins I would assume that the same would probably be true for Smoke.

So one of the best days of his life involved getting to reconnect with his wife. Getting to fold her into a business he and his brother were building not just for their own financial freedom and independence but also as a safe space for their community. A community Annie was a central part of.

One of those love scenes happened between a couple that had a real chance of reconciling if Rennick hadn't shown up and it's not the one featuring Mary.

[glitter-stained]

Prompt: Christmas Con

Idea: Jason & arrowfam fic in a no cape AU (no no, not the horse movie one. A different fic.)

It's a Christmas fic.

Jason is a realistic "troubled kid" (not a mass murderer -may I insist, this is a civilian AU and no action story. In-world superhero logic does not apply here.) who was adopted as a preteen by Bruce as a preteen. As a teen, he struggled with his mental health, endangering himself with passive suicidality and even running away to find his biological mother -struggles which led Bruce to enroll him in what he thought was a therapy centre, making Jason yet another victim of the troubled teen industry. As an adult, Jason's relationship with the batfam is fraught, as the family doesn't understand Jason's resentment and has been fed over and over the narrative that he's simply a bad kid who refuses to do what's necessary to get better until they -and Jason- eventually started to believe him. On a meta level we have a Jason relatively close to Rebirth here in that he's rather depressed with a very negative opinion of himself, has lost his fire in a way that makes it feel like he's almost unrecognisable to when he first came back (from "therapy") and was so angry on behalf of himself, and that most importantly, he's internalized all the classist bullshit dc has been feeding up about Jason. The main theme of the story is the intersection between classism and psychophobia. Oh and Jason has BPD, because I'm predictable.

Meanwhile Roy is struggling to rebuild his life in the aftermath of his divorce with Jade. Their relationship is complicated; he loved her, and will still always love her in a way, and so will she, and they both love each other so much, but their relationship is so difficult, so much stuff happened due to problems in their work life colliding and many other issues, including issues with Jade's mental health, Jade wishes she could take care of Lian but she's self-aware enough to know she needs to work on stuff and wouldn't be able to give her what she needs, but she still visits a lot and tries her best, but they're also arguing all the time, and Roy is struggling to find balance between work and single-fatherhood, and the stress is giving him cravings and making sobriety more difficult. But from his family's perspective, Jade is just a cold-hearted woman who abandoned Lian and broke Roy's heart, and Roy has had enough of Ollie shit-talking his loved one at every family dinner.

(To clarify, the idea isn't to portray Bruce and Ollie as terrible, but rather misguided parents who thought they were acting in their kid's interest and had maybe an ego problem of assuming they're the ones who know best and Roy and Jason just don't know what's good for them; but the difference highlighted by the parallel, across the story, has to be Ollie's ability to learn and accept that he was wrong, vs Bruce's tendency to double-down on a more comfortable, yet ultimately harmful, point of view.)

So Roy has had enough! And as the next family dinner, he has an idea, one meant to show Ollie just how "spoiled" he's acting when complaining about Jade...

Rose Wilson, survivor of the troubled teen industry and proud self-appointed most annoying roommate, is about to spend Christmas with her newfound brother... But Eddie is invited to a giant christmas party this year, and neither of them is very comfortable leaving their other roommate alone for Christmas. So when Rose's friend approaches her about an issue her brother's having, Rose knows just the way to help her former foster family while helping Jason put his theatre skills to use and get him a friend and a good distraction in this difficult time.

The plan is simple: hire Jason to act as Roy's terrible, deadbeat boyfriend for Christmas to teach Ollie a lesson about talking shit about Roy's ex-wife in front of him and Lian at family dinner.

Jason thinks he's got this one, easy peasy! A frankly comical job that pays great on Christmas day, and all he has to do is behave as an annoying parent's worst nightmare of a boyfriend? He doesn't even have to dust off his acting skills- an unstable, impulsive, asshole street rat like Jason already fits the bill perfectly. A day of food and money, and all he's gotta do is have fun and be himself.

A hiccough, though: the plan is simply not working. Of course, there's Oliver's suspicion and distrust about Roy's taste in partners, Roy's kid who seems convinced he's trying to replace her mom and steal her dad, and this damned chilli that tastes like a non-verbal shovel talk... But be it his defensive demeanor, the cigarette smell, the fact that he dropped out of highschool, or his thick, "vulgar and ill-mannered" Crime Alley drawl, nothing seems to phase this odd, complicated family- and the more Jason learns to know them, the less he wants them to dislike him...

Aka the one where Roy's con to get his family to leave Jade alone accidentally backfires into Jason getting a support system. Can be platonic or romantic! And remember, fuck the troubled teen industry.

[miserablehockeyfan22]

SPOILERS s8 ep 16

So I actually liked the episode! I LOVE angst and this is what the show needed imo. I personally am happy that they didn’t just stuff all the grieving into one episode. I liked that Athena wanted to honor Bobby’s memory by helping solve a case she knew would mean a lot to him, while also using it as a distraction. I liked the parallel between the mom and Athena being in denial but in the end they both have to just face the facts and continue going for the people they have left. Anyone saying “no one showed emotion!” “I didn’t feel anything when watching this episode!” I’m guessing they are still just mad about the storyline or are mad about ships/characters with not enough screen time (which is fair). However, my girl May showed so much emotion, Hen was great (the boys 🥹) Athena was amazing!

I also think Buck was completely in character in this episode, I didn’t expect him to break down and I’m happy he didn’t. It would have felt rushed and buck is a fixer, and he’s going to try to help everyone else before himself especially because Bobby asked him to. Everyone saying that Buck wasn’t emotional or ooc aren’t noticing the look in his eyes and his body language. He’s gonna break down at some point he can only bottle it up for so long.

I think the death was actually handled really I think Bobby made the most sense to die (even though I love him). His death is gonna create some really interesting storylines that no one else’s death would. I think it even has some potential to bring back some of eddies personality and maybe fix up his storyline too.

Anyways, Tommy saved Bobby’s life it’s canon that we wouldn’t have our current 118 fam without Tommy 😏 can we get a Tommy Begins PLEASEEE

[cloudbends]

It's been rotating in my brain for a while, so I decided to compile my thoughts about the parallels between anaxa and sunday in terms of the way their writing, personality and themes align with one another. At this point, I don't believe this is coincidental.

Anaxa sees reason and emotion as coexisting concepts instead of opposing ends. he rejects himself but he doesn't reject his humanity. he rejects his life but doesn't reject his personhood. he debatably has more faith in his students than he does in himself, because he puts so much trust in them to continue his work. to question everything. to forsake everything. to prove everything he can because he has nothing to lose. he guards his theories with his life because its literally all he has left. and i just like how antideterministic it is. they're doomed but he proves its not humanity being doomed by the gods, its humanity's ability to both doom and save itself.

the parallels between sunday and anaxa are best summed up by these two quotes from their respective trailers:

sunday: knowing there were no gods who could save people unconditionally. to change anything, you can only rely on yourself.

anaxa: gods, decry it as blasphemy - if that is all you can do [...] we alone are the true gods of this world.

How can they believe there's such a thing as a god after all they've lost? A line that particularly stuck out to me in anaxa's stories was cerces's goading of anaxa, asking him if he prayed to the titans upon seeing his hometown ruined and his sister dead. It disclosed a deeper, more personal sentiment anaxa has towards the titans than a mere desire to erase their existence. For anaxa, forsaking the gods means to wrestle control back to humanity's hands, to his hands, in the face of an uncontrollably tragic fate.

In this sense, both anaxa and sunday must deal with a desire for control, doing so by getting their respective gods out of the equation. I think Sunday's words at the grand theatre are incredibly important to this point, and indicate just how similar (if, of course, different circumstantially) their characters and arcs are:

Sunday: My desire is not to resurrect a fallen Aeon, or become one myself... my sole objective is to create a paradise free from Aeons, where the Order ensures the dignity and happiness of all humanity. A paradise exclusive to us human beings".

Sunday, for all his religious theming and imagery, wishes to forsake the gods in favour of an order of safety, to be the sole person remaining awake to guard the dreaming. I think it's very interesting that thematically, anaxa is framed as chaotic, wishing to disrupt the status quo, a perceived opposite to sunday, who in fact shares many more similarities with his mindset than you'd imagine. They both want to liberate mankind from the gods, so their fates won't be inextricably tied to the gods' whims, having grown disillusioned with them. Here however, the stark difference in their methods comes into play: while sunday's desire for humanity's happiness is regrettably robbing it of agency, anaxa's desire for humanity to gain its agency back is knowingly robbing them of their faiths.

Sunday doesn't have faith in humanity's ability to overcome hardships, and in order to be their protector, he decided to usurp the role of a god - he saw horrors so severe, that he felt he had to shoulder their protection for himself. Sunday operates by his sense of anxiety which inadvertently disclosed his lack of faith, taking things into his own hands to ensure they will go as well as possible - he can ensure the success and happiness of humanity only if he takes the burden upon himself and sees it through with his own hands. He feels only he can, or really must, be the responsible person who can shoulder the burden of protecting humanity, which inadvertently strips them of agency. Meanwhile, anaxa's entire thesis is based on his own disillusionment with the gods and faith in humanity, that his plan and eventual usurping of the titan position was in service of proving humanity's agency over the titans by their being identical beings. Anaxa has so much faith in humanity, to the point of disregarding his life and physical existence and completely trusting his students to continue what he can't finish. The blasphemer is driven by faith in humanity, while the believer is driven by distrusting the gods.

To their respective ends, they both decide to pose themselves as antagonists in the eyes of the public in order to ascend to a higher position at the expense of their own lives and well being. They're both themed and viewed as performers of sorts (depicted in stage settings, the performer and the conductor), which on the surface level, epitomise sunday as an organizer, a puppeteering figure, a follower of Order, and anaxa as the wild stage performer, a soliloquy giver, disrupting the audience's understandings of the world into chaos. I contend, however, that the complete opposite is true, making these parallels all the more compelling. Sunday's performance is entirely puppeteered and driven by his sense of anxiety, desperation, and an urge to escape reality, not being able to withstand its horrors - the order hides personal chaos. On the other side of the coin, anaxa's performance is the epitome of calculated, an argument and theory decades in the making, meant to be his final proof so he can leave the world that pained him behind to his students to nourish and give a final sacrifice for his equivalent exchange - the chaos hides personal order.

These two opposing ideas disclose the paralleling approaches anaxa and sunday take in regards to their ideals, and their differences in mental fortitude and personality. Anaxa is very self assured that his method will lead to his desired outcomes, marches entirely to the beat of his own drum, passing his thoughts to his cherished students and trusting them to continue what he doesn't believe he can survive to accomplish. Sunday, on the other hand, is defined by his insecurity, being surrounded by the hostile environment of the family, the younger figure thrust into a position of power through manipulation, and being forced to conform to it. Anaxa's figure is that of a teacher, an authority, while Sunday was inherently stuck in the position of a novice political figure, forced to sway according to the authorities around him.

Probably one of the most dominant aspects paralleling anaxa to sunday is both of their incredibly meaningful and impactful bonds they share with their sisters. While in sunday's case his bond takes central stage and in anaxa's stage we can only infer based on the little that is mentioned about it, I think it is no less significant to a thorough understanding of his character and motivations.

In both cases, two young siblings are left to fend off for themselves as their parents either die at the hands of war (sunday and robin) or decide to abandon their children (anaxa and his sister). And as such, they're each other's most meaningful connections in the world. Sunday owes robin his dream of a utopia, her ever supporter because her happiness is his, cementing his dedicating his life for the sake of others. In a similar vein, anaxa owes his sister his education, his access to knowledge, to experiments, to what is going to shape his life ambitions. However, I think what ties these characters further together is this sense of debt towards their sisters, in a way that feeds their selflessness and becomes their central means to achieve their goals.

Anaxa, in what I can infer from his character stories, genuinely views his life as disposable after his sister's death. His philosophical emphasis on equivalent exchange is, in large part, a reflection of his guilt towards his sister and her sacrifice - allowing him to study at the grove, at the expense of her own life the moment he left. In order for him to be worthy of her sacrifice - or the exchange to be equivalent - he must give away everything in order to achieve his goal. He must continuously chip away at his body, and his spirit, while insisting on retaining his heart and person, in order to make her death have meaning, for the rules of the world to make sense.

They're both so riddled with guilt, to the point it becomes their driving force. Both of their most significant human connections were to their sisters, feeling such an intense amount of debt towards both of them, that this sense of owing encourages them to keep chipping away at themselves in a subconscious effort to live up to both of their sister's "sacrifices" (robin's is more metaphorical). The kindness they received makes them eager to sacrifice more and more of themselves, creating a core of guilt that serves as their motivation to keep losing themselves for their grander goal.

The following portion of anaxa's 'chrysos' volume drew more parallels between the two in a way I can only interpret as being intentional, at the foremost through the use of the songbird motif. While sunday's charmony dove allegory bears no need to repeat, and I could write about it for hours, the following quote by anaxa is meaningful:

anaxa: I once carved a songbird that miraculously flapped its wings and took to the sky, though it circled five times at low altitude before falling...

As it is explicitly told, sunday's turning point in his life and ideology was finding charmony dove and having to confront the moral dilemma, a choice he viewed to be between freedom and security. His anxiety began to take root, as he had to watch the bird he nursed back to health attempt to fly again, and watch it plummet to its death, cementing in his minds that the weak, those he cherishes, are better kept secure than free. Ironically, he doesn't realise that he himself is stuck in such a cage, terrified of flying, and how his thought process ends up straining his relationship with the same person he so wishes to protect.

I don't think it's coincidental that anaxa chooses to emphasize the fact that the bird he manifested into life, also met its death a short amount of time after it was created by his hands. They're both left unsatisfied - they both must strive to do better, to either preserve life (sunday) or to create life (anaxa), so long as they can make sense of death. Both of these incidents end up solidifying and crystallizing their worldviews: they must sacrifice more of themselves in order to achieve their dreams. Be it a boundless utopia in sunday's case - posing himself as the sole guarding figure who shelters humanity from the terrors of existence regardless of the gods; or achieving transcendence and reaching an absolute truth in anaxa's case - by, similarly, posing himself as the one who must chip away at himself in order to prove, and give meaning, to humanity's existence regardless of the gods.

And perhaps most tragically, eventually, both sunday and anaxa were forced to sacrifice a part of themslves and lose the things they were most scared of losing. Anaxa, who was willing to sacrifice his physical well being, is forced to sacrifice his imprints on history and theory, sacrificing others memories of him, his legacy, his achievements. Sunday, whose drive for the betterment of others arose first and foremost from how much he cherished his only family, had to sacrifice his connection to her, the person closest to him, so he could protect her - they are torn apart, while ever present in each others' minds.

Something about these two, and their relationship to faith, the gods, their families, and worldviews, is deeply compelling in its similarity. They should meet up.

[theotherbuckley]

the one good idea to come out of my med study haze that i know they will never do but i need to put out there: you know how maddie is technically a geriatric pregnancy, and the risk of downs syndrome is way higher? I think it would be such a good plot point if baby boy han had downs syndrome. like we could get some eddie/madney bonding over having disabled kids (eddie and maddie interactions!), we could get some cute jee yun stuff, more rep for different disabilities. like eddie could have a whole thing where he helps to babysit and he thinks about the time he missed with chris, buck would go on a killer research spiral, the possibilities are endless. I would just like an interesting, long term plot point that isn't an nde or actual death. just nice family vibes.

I LOVE THIS IDEA SO SO SO SO MUCH

You’re actually a genius. The chances of Down’s syndrome in a pregnancy over 40yrs is >1 in 100 births. Like it would be so realistic and and stories with it could actually be so good and wholesome without anyone dying or nearly dying 😭 genuinely could be so good and Buck research binge so he can still be the best uncle!! Finally Eddie and Maddie scenes over this!! Like parallel to Shannon where Maddie feels guilty but Eddie helps her realise that disability isn't bad and that its not her "fault" and all that because i feel like its good to show problematic characters but also learning from it. Also just imagine Jee being the bestest big sister 🥹🥹 Baby Boy Han the cutest lil boy 🥹🥰

[ariemfox]

hc that chase had a self-destructive spiral post-s8. inspired by this foreman quote:

i'm talking sex as self-harm. over-indulging in alcohol. more medical malpractice & impulsive decisions than usual. disobeying foreman.

his wake-up call would either be crashing his car whilst drunk-driving & getting injured, or exacerbating his old injury from the stabbing through his reckless behaviour & causing permanent damage. or both.

since we never got to see him really, honestly confronting his trauma from the stabbing; is in complete denial about his issues about it throughout the episode of 'chase'... well.

the thing is, the narrative forced him into inheriting house's position as head of the diagnostics department. bro got dommed by the narrative.

like cameron, whilst he's on paper got a good thing going for him post-s8... chase is alone in that final shot. he's got a good job, his own team - but is he really, truly, honestly happy? he never really got what he wanted - a life with cameron, a found family. plus he's not really the type to enjoy ordering people about as a boss - that's more foreman's role.

which is why i don't think only work + sex + physio will solve all his issues. they're just superficial treatments in comparison to what he needs - people who he lets care about him. like foreman says here, work will provide him with just enough interest to keep him surviving - from going batshit insane - but he'll never be truly living. one bad event could throw him under the bus.

speaking of buses, i also like this hc for the parallels to house's mental breakdown arc in s5 too:

house's began narratively with amber's unexpected death from an accidental bus crash but was triggered by kutner's suicide 6 months later (with depression as his illness). & chase's would begin narratively with house's unexpected 'death' from a fire explosion, but be triggered around 5 months later by wilson's death from cancer (also an illness).

the mental breakdowns would both be initiated by substances - house with taking too much vicodin, chase with too much alcohol.

both have their medical decisions impacted, become impulsive/take risky decisions & eventually stop trusting their gut instinct.

both rely on another doctor to check whether their decisions are medically sound - wilson for house, maybe taub for chase.

both involve an event with alcohol + a car/bus crash.

but... i think the difference with chase is that the drunken car crash would be a turning point. he'd be like, 'shit. i'm worse than house' because he not only chose to drive whilst drunk, making reckless decisions, but he could also see that he was going down the same path as house with his self-destructive tendencies.

so he's kick-started into working on himself. he breezes through physio, takes up jogging as a hobby, goes to the gym.

he starts opening up to people: having bi-weekly game nights & church on sunday with popo, movie nights with park, watching football with taub & the taubettes/sophias, drinks with thirteen & amy every friday whenever she's back at princeton plainsboro in her travel breaks...

(which park sometimes tags along to. bc i'm self-indulgent they also sometimes go to lesbian bars & this encourages park's very slow gay awakening. park & thirteen drunk together are also absolute riots. especially on drag night <3).

chase starts actually trying to maintain his relationship with his sister.

and his life isn't everything it could've been pre-shooting, pre-dibala - he'll probably always stay a bachelor & i feel like cameron was his one & only love, he may not be happy & wholly content - but at least he has his purpose, his people & isn't just drifting.

[sparrows4bats]

Wait wait... I've always kinda see that Jon's taste in partner is someone who's like his Mom. So Damian and Lois being kinda similar (persistent, hard headed, stubborn, fearless, loyal, intelligent, use nicknames for loved ones) is not new to me.

But I haven't really thought about Damian having Talia's taste in partner. That's really interesting. Can you elaborate more? I love your Jondami/Damijon headcanons btw!

Oh my God, this is my first ask, so thank you!! That's also a great question .

I have a lot to say about the parallels between Damijon and Brutalia so this might be a bit long

First of all, we need to consider how early Talia met Bruce in his life. In some comics, it's before he is even Batman. In others, it's when Dick was Robin.

Bruce is so unsure of himself at first that he has his mission but doesn't know how to go about it. Jon has a very similar struggle when he becomes Superman.

They are both plagued by questions of when they should interfere and how they can best help people. Jon and Bruce both draw lines for themselves to ensure they don't go too far. Bruce, with his no kill rule, Jon in the injustice universe. They fear the power they hold but still endeavour to use it for good.

Talia and a young Damian view them in similar ways, I think. For Talia, Bruce is a fascinating beacon of strength that chooses to be naive and gentle in a way Talia lost long ago.

Jon holds a similar position for Damian, a boy who also has a destiny as a hero but is also so innocent at the same time.

Mother and Son look at their loves and see hope. The difference is that Damian can be with him and grows softer while Talia can't.

Bruce and Jon share a lot of traits: their stubbornness, their tempers, their strong sense of justice, and their reckless bravery. They are both so kind with so much responsibility thrown on their shoulders that Talia and Damian can never look away forever.

But most importantly, Bruce and Jon will always come for Damian and Talia. No matter what they have done, Bruce will save Talia, and Jon will save Damian. They are loyal even if they don't want to be.

Both Bruce and Jon also put up with the Al ghul Attitude and argue back like it's a spar. But after arguing, they can still fight side by side for the bigger picture. The amount of trust that takes is immense.

These are just a few of my thoughts tbh. Hope that helps!

[lowkey-loki245]

Okay, I'm ranting about the strained father-som relationship between Leo, Donnie, and Splinter. So like, it always felt like Leo's and Splinter relationship was strained because while Splinter loves Leo because he's his son, he also hates him for being so much like Lou Jitsu, for being so much like the person he used to be, the version of himself that he lost. It explains a lot of stuff about their dynamic. But I think the reason why Splinter has such a strained relationship with Donnie is because he's so similar to the person Splinter became. Leo is who he lost, but Donnie is who he wishes he wasn't. The show has actually made the parallel between Donnie and Splinter and the parallel of Leo and Lou Jitsu. I just find it so interesting how their dynamics are so complicated because the twins ended up being so much like Splinter in completely different ways. And Leo and Donnie are each other's favorites, which is kinda poetic. The past and present version of Splinter are so close and that must make things so complicated for Splinter. I'm just a little feral about the father-son relationship Splinter has with the twins, I wanna explore in a fic, but idk how.

[nostalgic-shamefest]

Deadass though, let's play script doctor cause the patient is coding. How to fix the mess in our hands:

1. Probably best route. Bobby's coma dream.

Pretty self explanatory. Everyone is acting wildly out of character cause they're not themselves. They are Bobby's perceptions of them. Bobby who knows his wife will be impacted, but who -having only recently dealt with his intense suicidal tendencies- doesn't yet comprehend the level of impact his loss would have on the people in his life. He expects Chim to be angry at him for not consulting him on the choice, making the monologue about there being no other choice his own subconscious regrets and pondering. He expects Buck to be strong, just like he asked and not need him there, cause that's what he genuinely hopes for, for him. He knows Hen will cry but thinks she should embrace her role as captain in his place. He expects Eddie to be preoccupied with his own family drama and not really show up besides to mourn him, cause again he doesn't think he's all that important to the people that love him. And he obviously knows he'll devestate his wife. He expects her to throw herself into her work. He wishes and convinces himself his step kids move on immediately and just cry at his funeral momentarily, cause the thought of them suffering is unimaginable.

It's all tied up by the beautiful bow of the subplot being a memory of his. Bobby was there. Bobby remember losing that baby to the fire. Bobby is telling his wife this story to convince her to let go, in his own subconscious

In reality after he collapses he's immediately put on life support and Chim's blood gets drawn so they can remake the cure from his antibodies. Bobby wakes up to find the havoc his impending loss has caused to his loved ones. He entirely reconsiders how he views the importance of his life for the people around him

Positives: last episode makes the tiniest bit of sense/ Actual exploration of long term suicidality recovery process/ juicy chance to explore what actually happened to the characters during Bobby's coma, dare I say even next season.

Negatives: they're for sure not doing that at all. I'm convinced they don't have a fuck to spare for these characters anymore. Doubt they could pull something like that off.

2. Classic 911 fuckery, the resurrection

Fuck realism we're going beenado evil doppelganger up in this bitch. The disease actually only makes someone appear dead. Idk how the fuck he survived the freezer. Don't ask me. Plot hole alert. He wakes up buried next to his dead family. Memory loss could be very interesting here. He wakes up with very little recollection of his life at the place where he experienced his most severe trauma. He gets to rediscover who he is and what he did. Will he choose to go to LA again? Will he lead himself down another path completely. News of his empty grave send his poor window on a downward spiral since last episodes subplot makes her doubt her own gut and sanity.

Maybe she finds him next season. Maybe that's the cliffhanger. Or maybe she finds him and he doesn't recognise her. How will she convince him to come back to her after he's found out what he's done, without any memory of all his progress

Positives: juicy Bobby drama/ heavy angst/ maddie boston parallel type shit/

Negatives: heavy bobby nash character regression/ doesn't fix the bad out of character writing in the last episode/ they're not doing it at all they don't care they hate their audience I-

3. Classic 911 fuckery, electric boogaloo.

Lab rat Bobby

We're going full tin foil hat on this one. The disease makes you momentarily appear dead. He is being kept in a chemical coma by the lab scientists and is being experimented upon. Because he's the last living organism to have carried the virus. Something something big conspiracy. Heavily supported by the lack of corpse!Bobby (I'm so sorry for that) showing up. He eventually manages to wake up, breaks out and shows up on national television or something, forcing them to let him go. He signs an NDA and that that on that. It's another action lacked little nothing of a plot but then Bobby is back and we proceed with the show.

Positives: bobby's alive/ shaw trap ass plot

Negatives: shaw trap ass plot/ sucks ass kinda/ doesn't explain yesterday's horrible horrible writing choices/ basically this would have worked if last episode got retconed/ they're not doing it they don't care.