#i just want to know what is and isnt wrong with me.

[envy-of-the-apple]

pt 2 cuz so many ppl asked!

Part one

ok fine so maybe he isnt adverse to lavender BUT you still have a demon problem on your hands! sure he hasn't hurt you, yet, but all demons are waiting for their chance and you needed to strike back first!

you happen to see her outside. maybe you were doing yardwork or something when you see a blur of red stumbling about in the bushes. Naturally, you help the woman out, along with getting out that weird jagged contraption she insists on carrying around with her. she thanks you happily and is more than happy to tell you that her name is Grell and she was currently on her way to see 'bassy' but these days he had been hiding from her.

"Hiding?" You repeat. "wait...you’re saying he's scared of you?"

"Yes!" She strikes a pose. "He's terrified that my dashing looks might charm him."

you're not sure if thats the reason...but it is very odd that he hasn't turned up yet. the demon hates intruders, you know what he's done to the last guy who tried to get into the estate. Yet, grell is just fine waltzing around.

No way...he was avoiding of her.

She was your charm!

You take her hands in your own and passionately declare how touched you were by her commitment to winning ("...bassy" ugh it was so hard to say it without gagging) over, and you want to help her. Absolutely delighted, she agrees and you two instantly become 'best friends'.

You invite grell over all the time. she's your friend after all. you two do everything together, practically connected at the hip. You two even have sleepovers together (you're not a big fan of those, considering all what she does is go on and on about how much she loves that terrifying demon).

Your master does agree for Grell to keep visiting when you ask him. He's up for anything that might piss Sebastian off.

"Though, I'm elated this vexes sebastian...are you sure about this? that women is insane." He tells you after you tell him about your 'new bestie'.

And yeah, he's right. its clear that Grell isn't human, but she isn't a demon. and you'd prefer that over Hell.

Much to your delight, Sebastian does stay away. he is no longer lingering around when you're cleaning rooms cuz Grell is right next to you, blabbering about the hot men she saw on the way over here. You dont feel his presence right by your door at night anymore because Grell is in bed beside you...hogging all the blankets that bitch. still! it's working! you feel peace.

until....things go wrong.

eventually Grell starts to slowly put some pieces together. If she's being completely honest...she's not too sure what she ever saw in sebastian. he's hot but...he's also a bastard who has tried to kill her numerous times. and the thrill of lusting after him was starting to get a little old...but you're new.

You care about her. When she's rambling about things, you're humming and nodding along. You laugh at some of the jokes she makes. You tell her how pretty she is...you're just a thousand times better than that nasty demon who nearly got her canned.

"We should get married!" Grell declares.

"Ah," you say, not really listening. "You and Sebastian?"

"No, silly. Me and you!"

...what?

Suddenly your charm becomes yet another supernatural entity that's obsessed with you.

She chases follows you around the manor, telling you the flower decor she wants and what kinds of music she wants to be played. You try to dissuade her with multiple excuses: she's a paranormal entity ("thats alright! i love you for who you are<3"), you're too young to be getting married ("we can wait!"), but each one is just chopped down.

Eventually, you're forced to hide in a broom closet to get away from her. When you glance over, Sebastian is right next to you.

Oh...he was hiding too.

when you ask for a truce…he agrees. You two were in the same boat after all.

"Can't you just...get rid of her?" You plead.

He smiles, but it looks pained.

"Unfortunately, the young master declared that unless that woman specifically bothers him...she is not to be harmed."

You groan, burying your face in your hands.

You should've stuck with the demon butler.

[moeblob]

"Engage was good. The endings were pretty nice. Except Alfred, fuck him, I guess." -someone in a server I was in once (affectionate)

[kerink]

ona i know it drives me fucking crazy. bill knew people would know it was him because what other bill would be so arrogant that he wouldnt have to worry about not being recognized. if you see this weird neurotic little alien drag him kicking and screaming back to bill, because whatever fight he puts up isnt worth whatever you get if bill finds out you didnt even try

@thesituationship #imagine being kinda unaware that you've accidentally 'married' the most powerful infamous being in the multiverse#so much so that he literally branded you#and you find this out from some rando at a backwater intergalactic gas station

ford on some sweltering planet early into his travels, still wearing his fuckass button up because what else is he gonna wear. he pops open the first couple buttons just to get a bit of relief and everyone in the tavern fucking freezes. ford wondering if he did something wrong, if this was some kind of alien faux pas or local custom he violated. only for the ?owner?bouncer? to start bodily pushing him out the door like you can't be here, we don't want any trouble, come on man we're simple people, we can't handle something like this and ford's just like

and while he's standing there in the street with his haphazardly packed bag, holding his coat under one arm, back in the deathly sun he looks down at himself and sees his tattoo on display and fucking cipher what did you do?! and he spends the next few days trying to find someone willing to translate it for him. obviously everyone knows what it says because as soon as they see it they go reeeal still and pale and try to get him to leave or make up some excuse to run, but no one will just come out with it!

and when he finally finds someone who laughs instead of panics at it, when he's finally told, when he finally learns how thoroughly bill has claimed him, he's angry, he's devastated, he's....

well to be honest, he knows how to live with this. almost no one cares about his extra finger out here, so he just has a new thing to hide and be ashamed of. the judgement isn't...exactly the same. it's deeper, more dangerous, more promising, more life-interfering, but ford can work with this and it just fuels the flames of revenge even more

during the portal era people keep asking ford if the rumor is true, if he's bill cipher's mate, and the word cuts through him like a hot knife. he knows, reasonably, logically, that his universal translator is likely just substituting the closest word for whatever alien term was actually said, but he also doesn't put it past bill to have spread such a rumor

[cloudcountry]

Ok it says requests closed but I was gonna ask: what about Ritsu is so compelling to you? I find him rather bland and want to hear what about him makes you feel safe and loved? Why is he your favorite? INFODUMP me write all your interest I am listening with excitement :3

oh youre so good, this doesnt count as a request at all!! i actually needed a few days to gather my thoughts and make this semi-coherent. i also consulted my six pages of notes about this guy. yes im normal about him. yes.

RITSU SHINJO. there are a lot of things to love methinks. he can definitely come across as someone who is rude or stuck up, and dont get me wrong i totally did NOT fuck w his ass when i first met him. but he changed my mind really quickly.

i really appreciate how he stands up for what he believes in. like his ambitious nature is what really endeared me to him at first. he stares down barrels of guns and is like "okay, but youre going to listen to what i have to say" and honestly??? i was in awe. hes such a brave person and even if it may seem a lil stupid or outrageous sometimes it always works out in the end somehow.

hes also really smart??? like OBVI but like hold on. there are 264 ARTICLES in the japanese penal code. TWO HUNDRED SIXTY FOUR. and he STILL knows more laws on TOP of that. has them MEMORIZED no less!! hes well versed in the arts and his vocabulary is extensive as well. he can speak MULTIPLE LANGUAGES, including german, french, and italian. literally WHAT THE FUCK. hes so impressive??? this is some rich people shit T0T

his lil quirks are super cute too, like how he only drinks black coffee and has six handkerchiefs so his opponents dont see him sweat, or how he spends time watching opera to unwind after the day's events. his handwriting isnt the neatest and he gets SO butthurt about it. hes so unflappable usually but when insulted? its like we get to see the actual ritsu. its silly bc if you compliment him on his SKILLS hes like "oh its natural, ofc i did xyz" but i want to see how he reacts to being told he looks good. or someone noticing if he did something different w his hair, or wore different accessories, or got a new pen. just . someone noticing the little things about HIM, too.

HE FUCKIN SUCKS AT GAMBLING I LOVE HIMMMM also memorized card game rules after learning he'd be sorted into sinostra. he has so much book smartness but when you put him in front of people he fumbles HARD. like its so cute but also i worry about that bc he needs friends and i want him to make friends but i fear he doesnt think he needs them. what he lacks socially he makes up for in random ass trivia that no one needs to know ever.

hes so PREPARED. this is one of the main things that makes me feel so safe around him actually because hes thought of everything. and yk he doesnt even think its that big of a deal. he exchanges the currency so sinostra can have an inn to stay in for the night, he records everything for jabberwock to make sure he understands exactly what he needs to do for the animals, he covers all of his bases and takes notes about everyones behavior just in case in comes in handy.

uses his stigma for fuckass shit like busting down doors and not getting hurt by a rickety bus ride. uses his book to whack people over the head. regularly goes to the mystery diner and ignores ren's complaints about how he sits his ass down foreverrrr. romeo calls him a greenhorn and he blabs about how he obviously isn't. taiga calls him a dumbass and he starts screeching like a baby bird. hes always trying to reign in taiga while also encouraging his bullshit. has obvious favoritism for mc. protects her whenever he can and worries over her safety when she almost fuckin DIES. acknowledges that shes weaker than him, because hes a ghoul and thats just how it is, and actively takes steps to NOT ONLY PROTECT HER HIMSELF, but build up her confidence TOO.

literally i am convinced the way ritsu sees love is making the people you love the absolute best version of themselves, because thats what his parents did for him. so he tries to teach you what he knows, he RELIES on you to keep tabs on romeo or taiga (that is HUGE actually, considering he berates ren for his attitude and doesnt really seem to be close enoough with the other ghouls to rely on them for anything.)

let me say that again, ritsu views mc as an equal because hes placing the captain/vice captain in her hands and telling her to keep an eye on them, he calls HER when he's trying to meet up with everyone, he's actively treating her like a business partner where they will BOTH BENEFIT in more ways than just the curse lifting and winning the laurel crown--

ARGHHHH I LVOE RITSU SHINJO SO MUCH. you are a trooper if u read all of this can i just say .

THANK YOU FOR ASKING I LOVEEEE TALKING ABOUT HIM <3333

[heretohavenone]

Okay. I've been pondering Jack Slash for a bit. Slimy basted he is, and Number Man, the weirdo HE is. I've come to a couple conclusions after reading through Worm and most of Ward (working on it you'll all be getting my dog gruel opinions on it after) and some of Jack's Backstory via Wildbow posts. First I'll talk about Jack, since he needs more piecing together, for me at least.

Jack Slash is essentially a grifter/shitty salesman when he's speaking 99% of the time. Hes trying, almost without even putting up an act to get you to believe there is some philosophical point he's reaching towards, or some reason why what he's doing means Anything greater than just plain old being a dick. He'll put on different hats to tell you Why he's killing, but in the end, the only thing he wants is to make the world worse and to cause conflict. And that's it. 100%, honestly it. He'd probably kick a puppy if he thought that'd actually help make more people do Worse things, and get him into more conflict. For almost his entire interlude he doesn't really think of himself in terms of what he gets in goals, he simply observes others and thinks of how to best pressure them to continue making things worse while under his control. I think its pretty evident from how much he throws himself into chaotic situations and tries to make things so complicated he can't keep up that Control isnt really what hes most into.

Let's now put this into the context of his past, and more importanty, what Shards want. His past is pretty interesting: locked in a bunker by abusive parents, and told the world had gone to war. They told him a story about how bad everything had gotten, kept him in there for a Long Long time, and he triggered when he left the bunker and he realized it was a lie. Specifically, the thing that broke him wasn't the fact that his parents lied to him. It was that the world was Sane, and Safe, and Not at war. Something he'd grown used to, and absorbed into himself while in that bunker. Essentially, he torn apart by the fact everything was Okay when he was convinced utterly that it had all gone to shit, and people were in senseless conflict like he thought. His worldview got flipped, everything felt wrong, and he triggered. He only thinks the world makes sense In conflict, he had the ability to really process a healthy, constructive world severely damaged to him when he was young.

Jack's desire for conflict make a little more sense with that, but his shard Loving his ass makes a hundred times more sense. He's literally trying to cause humanity to act divided, just like the Shards want, and to create conflict testing. No wonder it likes him so much, that's about as ideal a host as any shard could net, ever. Its like a weapon tester finding a group of suicidal combat junkies. Like. Exceptionally lucky. So Jack is rewarded for his instincts by things Working for him, and gets in a loop of conflicts that are their own reward by making the world as horrible as he thought it was, and making him Comfortable. It's his natural environment. Anything actual push to be constructive and grow attached probably feels alien to him, or just gets contextualized as a tool to create conflict, because he no longer really would know how to do anything but be a grifting jackass hurting people. Even his games are shows of this, every rule meant to be broken and unfair, because you're supposed to stop thinking about them as Rules and more like tools to fuck eachother over. The game Is cheating the game. The point isnt anything he says, it's trying to Kill him.

This is what makes his relationship to Number Man maybe the top five ????? Things when I first read it. He liked the person who's entire sociopathic, utilitarian goals were: Helping The World and Making Order. Seemed contradictory, but Jack did like him as a person, not necessarily his philosophy. Still. They're people who think back on each other fondly, despite what they've become. While Jack doesn't know Where Number Man went, he's not being hunted or hurt or even being pitied for not following conflict like Jack.

They seem to be like Wildbow's fucked up little views on systems and those who take them down rather than working on them, which I disagree with, but they're still fascinating. As much as Number Man is a monster like Jack, who would do everything Jack does if given reason to by finding it the best way to improve people's lives, Number Man is mature by trying to be constructive with his views on what is and is not important, while Jack is purely deconstructive of everything. Their similarity though is how they both seek out their version of thing purely for their own satisfaction, and that's the reason they both seem to admire eachother. Theyre both entirely selfish people.

They're also, hilariously, both killed by people who are both out-doing them in their field. The only Parahuman who hurt Jack Slash was Gray Boy, someone who didn't care about anything but his own selfish ideas of fun who found Jack 'boring', and a disappointment, and that Might have actually thrown Jack off enough it let Gray Boy hit him with a time loop. Number Man got factored in as an uncared for number in Contessa's plan to defeat Teacher. I'm very curious if this one of Worm's few narrative punishments for both's wrong deeds, or just coincidence. Whichever, it's pretty interesting to look at these two freaks' dichotomy in terms of the story, and what Caulron does vs what those who fight against systems in the story do.

But, I like Jack Slash tbh. Cartoonishly evil as he is, he wasn't really didnt do anything else than what he sent himself out to do, and he CLEARLY enjoyed himself while doing it. And Number Man took some time to grow on me, but I also enjoy how he's kind of the opposite in how he shows himself to be very simply then pulls some marble slingshot bullshit to lobotomize someone a mile away.... OKAY I'm still a lil shocked by that.

[project-sekai-takes]

i feel like a lot of characters have undexplored/underutilized angst. this post is going to be extremely biased™️towards my favorites, but characters like ichika, kohane, and all of more more jump really but especially minori and shizuku are who i'm talking about. i'm not saying that proseka should be needlessly slapping angst onto their stories just for shock value and fun because that's just pointless and not enjoyable to read; i just think that the angst these characters already have is usually underexplored by the fandom and game itself.

i know that ichika and kohane had the majority of their angst material covered/resolved in the main story (kohane also had vbs wl2 so it's probably covered there too but i havent actually reaad it), but i think we as a fandom should dwell on what they were like and what they were experiencing back then more often fr 🗣️. i think this kind of angst allows exploration of certain character aspects that are usually left forgotten or undiscussed. (bro ichikas closest friends left her with no real explanation so she she thought it was her fault and was extremely lonely because of it man can we talk about that please 😭)

minori is another example. i know mmjs overall story and her themes especially revolve around hope and not giving up, but c'mon she had her auditions rejected 50 times and she still kept going strong. that takes some serious passion, determination, and willpower, and i feel like that should be acknowledged more often because if i was rejected like that for at most 10 times i would have straight up folded and given up. minoris first focus and airis first focus both have a lot of minori struggle that i just never see talked about?? (read: "sorry we're not hiring your team because of that faceless amateur. we'll hire everyone else individually if you kick her out though 😁) its just a shame because its so important to her character and the angst potential is crazy!! (ok im sorry lmao)

shizuku also has a lot of angst material in early game (main story argument with airi, masking perfection, the entire thing with her old group in general) that i was really surprised wasnt featured in like...those angsty tiktoks and fanfics LMAO. i did end up finding some for her but the roots of the angst were mostly fanmade and not completely applicable to her character. i personally don't have any issues with making up tragic backstories/angst material for characters (in fact i love to see it and actively do it myself) but like the canon material is right there, there's a lot to work with already it doesnt have to be completely fanon lol /nm /lh

i know the rest of leo/need is probably also lacking in good angst content, but honami and shiho already got a ramble from me so they're on standby for now smh /lh. (airi and haruka might also be lacking but iirc airis the most popular mmj character and the recent haruka events have some good angst coverage so idk about their current standings). saki has a weird situation where her angst content definitely isnt lacking but most of the time its only used to fuel tsukasa angst. i don't actually think theres anything wrong with that because so much of his motivations were initially based off of her (wanting to be a star and making other people smile), but once it becomes only about him and has nothing to do with her, who is actually the one suffering, i just dont feel like it's used fairly. angstkasa is wonderful and all but saki is her own character :[

anyway sorry that was kind of an incoherent rant about my favorite characters, but i really enjoy angst and would absoultely love to see more depictions of it for the blorbos. thank you for reading o7

-🕊️

.

[pretty-side-of-the-moon]

His lips tasted like cigarettes covered in something sickly sweet - somewhere between bitter and sugery, smoky and desperate.

You'd been warned not yo get too attached to Castellan. But who could really blame you? He had eveything- well, he had cigarettes and a tounge that made your head dizzy. And with times like this, what else is there?

Your smoke was half forgotten, placed still smoking into Luke's ashtray as your lips were occupied.

His hand was locked on your jaw, always trying to pull you closer, and his lips were slotted agaist yours.

One of your hands were pressed down on his thigh, the other tangling in his curles, tugging on the messy curls on the back of his neck.

He pulled away after a long moment, and you were thankful beacuse you needed air.

Put the cigarette from the tray to his lips, you didn't tell him that that one was yours.

You pulled your hand away from his lap, and messed with the ends of your hair. Eventully, your breath calmed down a bit, and you looked back over at him. He was already looking at you.

"Yeah, pretty girl?"

You didnt know how he always managed to sound like he saw right though you.

You were quiet for a long moment.

"...you know, all my sisters tell me to stay way from you."

He laughed. The stupid asshole laughed. "You dont." He said. So matter of fact- like he knew he was right. Like he thought you would stay.

"I should. This-this isnt good. You know that, right?"

He laughed. You got red.

"And why's that, huh?"

"..."

"Thats what i thought."

You scoffed, but remanined quiet.

Silence settled over the two of you as the night got darker. The smoke from yours/lukes ciggrete swirled agaist the night sky. You breathed it in like it was the last air youd ever get.

He spoke up again.

"...why is this bad, pretty?" You were almost suprised at how genuine he sounded. Like he wanted to care. Like he wanted to prove you wrong.

You blinked a few times, and you had to stop your breath from hitching.

"...You don't like me like I like you, Luke...they keep saying that im only gonna get attached and hurt again...and they're right." Your voice trailed off into a whisper, it felt too raw to say outloud, but you would say it for him. "I really need to stop this."

His breath stopped for a moment, and he frowned.

"So... that's it?" His voice was just as quiet as yours, if you were a little more navie, you probaly would have thought that he didnt want you to go.

"..." everything felt quiet. It felt like the world stopped in its track to give you this moment.

"One more ciggrete, okay?" You couldve sworn he smiled.

"Course, Pretty."

(Do we feel like a part two???)

Update: it's up here !!!

[flaming-thing]

Oooooooh no is this the 'ram realised viren is a horrible dad' chapter?? Poor soren

Why is slidey-sling go-fast rope in route marks :( do you not believe in the power of the slidey-sling go-fast rope?

Oh wow soren you're a terrible liar

Ram is not convinced. At all. Soren you really need to work on your convincing people skills

His hesitation is that he's actually a good person

NOOO RAM DONT ASK THAT DONT GO THERE

Ram take a hint I don't think soren wants to talk about this

Ooooh no he's suspicious. This could either go really well or really badly

No sorens not an idiot i agree

Nooo soren dint say that about yourself :(

Oh soren definitely helped viren kill the king. He just had no idea he was doing it

NOOO SOREN :((

Ohhh no somethings gone wrong

EXCUSE ME?? VIREN WHEN I FIND YOU.

This poor guy. Canon didn't delve into soren and virens relationship nearly as much as they could've

Oh ram feels bad for him. Is this where the 'you're now my brother' part happens? Or is that not gonna come until the storm spire?

NO SOREN HARROW ISNT DEAD BECAUSE OF YOU THIS IS ALL VIRENS FAULT AND HE DEFINITELY DOSENT KNOW WHATS BEST FOR EVERYONE. ONLY HIM

Ooooh soren dosent trust him? Or he dosent trust that viren really knows best?

Ram why is that an awful suspicion?? That's a good suspicion! Or i guess it's bad because now you dont know who did it

Oh poor soren :( they're gonna have to leave him with claudia

Ah yes the Gifted Kid 'picking fights constantly'

EVERYBODY in the show sells sorens intelligence short. Except corvus and ezran. And rayla. And maybe callum. Ok so not EVERYONE but alot of people

I dint think he's gonna listen to you Ram I'm gonna be honest. Or if he does, it's gonna take a while to have effect. Worth a try though

Soren no don't get angry :(

'You don't have it's damn ok not the answer i was expecting. That was absolutely brutal lmao

Will forever be referring to viren as 'that bitch with a spell' after this

Ezran IS right! Soren just dosent realise it yet

Different Path Taken Ch32 P2

You know, I was gonna just cut to Callum confronting Runaan about getting away without Viren's kids. But then I was like. I wanted to do some shit with Ram and Soren and never got around to it. I should do that too.

“Who put you up to this?” Ram asked coolly, watching Soren critically as the younger man cleaned up the ropes of his ‘slidey sling go fast rope’ game.

Soren straightened abruptly and laughed unconvincingly. “Put me up to what?  I’m not up to anything.”

Ram raised an eyebrow at him and opted not to confront him directly about his attempt to sabotage Prince Ezran.  It intrigued him that the young man hadn’t tried to kill Ezran directly, as that would have been much faster - what was his hesitation?  He wanted to know more.

Besides, Soren was the head of the Crownguard and their closest source of information about what might have happened to the king. 

So he shrugged nonchalantly, keeping his eyes sharp on Soren’s movements. “Coming for the princes, I suppose.”

Soren’s gray eyes searched his with more perceptiveness than he would have anticipated, and he kept his own face schooled into neutrality.  The soldier cleared his throat and refocused on his task of clearing up the game. “My father.” He said shortly. “Lord Viren.”

Ram tilted his head, staring him down. “Aren’t you the head of the Crownguard?” He asked mildly. “Why did your father have to tell you to do this?”

Soren’s shoulders were very stiff and he scowled. “He didn’t!  I would have come to get them anyway, he just - he was the king’s best friend.  He just sort of took over after the king - and he’s my dad.  I can’t just ignore him.”

Ram raised his eyebrows. “You’re a grown man,” He scoffed incredulously. “Of course you could ignore him.”

Soren shook his head tightly. “Lord Viren isn’t someone you ignore.” he said flatly. “Especially as his kid.”

Something about the way he said it had Ram’s hackles on the rise, and he frowned. “You care about his opinion that much?” He probed delicately.

“Bad things happen when I don’t listen to him.” Soren said bluntly. “He’s really powerful, and smart, and I’m kind of an idiot, so when he tells me to do things, I just . . . do them.”

Ram frowned deeper. “You . . . aren’t an idiot.” He said, though it left a sour taste in his mouth. “As much as I hate to admit it, you seem to be a decent strategist and a clever combatant.”

“Sure, I know how to fight.  But it’s everything else.” Soren waved a hand dismissively. “I do what I do best.  A lot of what I do is instinct and training, not thinking.  I’m supposed to follow orders.”

“From the king,” Ram finished for him, brows furrowing as he examined the way Soren moved, the way he talked.  For someone who had just tried to kill the prince he seemed . . . far less tense than Ram had expected.  He had suspected Soren assisted or killed the king himself, but he was less sure with every word from the younger man’s mouth.

“Or from the General, or the regents,” Soren rambled on. “Or . . . or my dad.  It doesn’t matter that I’m the head of the Crownguard now, he’s still my dad, so I have to listen to him.  I just want -” He broke off and set his jaw before just finishing his sentence. “I just want him to be proud of me.”

It was a sentiment Ram could sympathize with, but something about the way Soren was talking still set his teeth on edge. “I can understand that,” He said carefully. “My father’s opinion means the world to me.  Though, I admit we’ve had more than a few shouting matches over the years.” It was a throwaway comment, meant to lighten the mood, to guide Soren into trusting him again, but it made the younger man stiffen.

Soren’s laugh sounded hollow when he straightened up. “My dad would never let that happen,” He said. “He’d just take my voice away if I started yelling, and only gave it back when I’d learned my lesson.”

Ram’s blood felt like ice in his veins suddenly as he stared at the boy. “He’d what?”

The soldier rolled his shoulders and looked uncomfortable. “Yeah, I’m not a fan of the dark magic thing either.  But he used to use it to make sure I listened, so now I have the self-control so I just don’t argue to begin with.”

“That’s . . .” Ram blinked at him, at a loss. “Is that why you let him boss you around, still, even at your duty, which he shouldn’t have any control over?” He asked softly. “Does he still use magic on you?”

Soren shrugged noncommittally but didn’t look him in the eyes. “My dad’s smart.  I just do what he says.” He said flatly. “I couldn’t keep the king safe, so . . . obviously I’m not as good at my job as I should be.  I have to listen to him.  He knows what’s best for everyone.  He has to.” His brows were furrowed and his frown reinforced creases in his face that he was far too young to have, and Ram suddenly had an awful suspicion that the head of the Crownguard was not, in fact, in league with whoever had killed the Katolian king.

No, but his father was, and he was manipulating and abusing the boy to get the power he wanted.

Ram felt for him, but this sort of conditioning went far, far too deep to get through to him right away.  They couldn’t afford to let Soren follow them - but rage burned in his chest at the thought of a father treating his son this way.  His fights with his own father had been just that - dual sided fights, and frankly he’d picked most of them.

He couldn’t imagine doubting his father’s love.

So Lord Viren was manipulating his son.  Had probably asked him, obliquely, to ensure the princes didn’t make it home alive, but the soldier himself had doubts.  He was just too afraid of his father’s retaliation, too trusting in Viren’s judgment, to argue directly.  So he couldn’t kill the boys, due to his own dedication, but he couldn’t find it in himself to fully rebel, either, hence the construction of the elaborate attempt at an accident earlier. 

“You may be selling your own intelligence short,” Ram said, all of that flashing through his mind in a terrible, sickening moment, meeting the younger man’s eyes. “And who says your father knows what’s best for anyone?  Part of growing up, I think, is realizing that your parents can be wrong.” He pushed himself off the tree and hoped to the Moon that the young man would internalize the lesson even as Soren just looked at him in confusion. “Trust your own heart, Soren.  And . . . no one deserves to be silenced like that.  By anyone, but certainly not by the father they should be able to trust.”

“I don’t need your pity.” Soren bridled.

“You don’t have it,” Ram said flatly, looking up at him. “But you do have my sympathy.  May the moon light your path, Soren, but let it be your path.  Not the one some bitch with a spell laid out in front of you and threatened you onto.” He stalked away without waiting for an answer, praying it had been the right thing to say.

That Ezran was right about Soren’s good heart, and that he’d driven him in the right direction - away from Lord Viren’s influence.

[lucabyte]

i feel like people are sleeping on the occam's razor situation of how buckwild it is to outright accuse a guy of being a clone of your friend even if you DO have a lot of circumstantial evidence. there's other options is what im saying. they could just be like. a guy. that's a sensible deduction. you should explore that deduction. ignore my shirt that reads I <3 RED HERRINGS.

i still think odile has the correct theory on lock but she's smart enough to know it needs like... a real smoking gun to be able to bring it up without sounding insane.

anyway. (mirabelle voice) i know its rude to speculate but has anyone else noticed the grieving? they seem to be grieving. does anyone have any thoughts on the grieving? i have some thoughts on the grieving.

[bullseyelover]

i’ve been thinking about dex’s story in born again.

how, in universe, the world saw dex after the events of josies, and after his trial. how quick everyone was to believe he just snapped and went on a revenge fueled rampage at josies. and the sad thing is, that makes sense in the worst possible way. because the world is always going to be more comfortable writing someone like dex off as just another mentally ill guy who lost control. that’s the story people are used to. it’s easier, simpler, and it doesn’t require any deep thought or empathy. it doesn’t ask them to look at who failed him, who used him, who broke him down. it doesn’t ask them to understand the difference between someone being dangerous and someone being made into a weapon. and most people just don’t care enough to look closer.

and what gets me is how many people refuse to hold both truths about dex at the same time. that he’s a victim and a perpetrator. that he did horrific things and was still deeply, painfully used. i hate how often people online will reduce it to “oh you just like him because he’s hot” when you try to talk about him with nuance. like no. dex is complex. he’s the wound and the knife. he is someone who’s suffered, been manipulated, abandoned, used like a tool, but that doesn’t erase what he’s done. it doesn’t mean people weren’t hurt, or that his violence didn’t matter. you can see his pain and still hold him accountable. you can understand where it came from and still be horrified by the outcome. none of that is contradictory. it’s just real. he’s a character full of contradictions, and that’s part of what makes him so compelling. reducing him to one thing, victim, villain, psycho, it just flattens him into a version of himself that isn’t true.

and even in the show, it’s like no one really wants to see the whole truth of who dex is. it’s easier for them to believe “crazy guy goes violent” than to admit that someone vulnerable was groomed and turned into a weapon by someone with more power. for example in episode 8 where matt slams dex’s head into the table, and when the guard walks in, matt lies and says dex did it to himself. and the guard doesn’t even hesitate to believe it. he just immediately goes, “you crazy asshole.” he doesn’t even question it. because that’s already the version of dex they’ve decided is true. they don’t need proof, they don’t need context. they hear “he hurt himself” and go “of course he did.” and that’s what’s so brutal about it. even matt bought into that narrative at first. even though he knew dex had worked for fisk after the events of season three. and he listened to dex’s tapes. he believed that dex was a man who woke up one day on impulse and decided to kill foggy eight years after the events of season three. because he believed dex to be a violent and disturbed psychopath. because that’s the story society already believes. many people believe that mentally ill people are inherently dangerous. quiet violence is scarier than loud chaos. so people don’t ask questions. they just assume the worst. so dex being quiet and restrained in his rage in the trial scene just confirmed what they already thought about him. and that kind of widespread erasure makes dex’s story even more tragic. not just what happened to him, but how no one really sees it. not fully.

and that invisibility messes with him too. dex already struggles with identity. he barely knows who he is when no one’s giving him a script to follow. so when the whole world reduces him to nothing but a monster, a rampage shooter, it probably confirms the worst things he already fears about himself. even if he knows deep down it’s not the whole truth, it gets in his head. like maybe they’re right. maybe he really is just broken and dangerous and beyond saving. that he is an animal and nothing more. and that’s what hurts him. because he tried. he tried to be good. he tried to follow the rules. for so many years because he genuinely wanted to be a better version of himself. he tried to be useful, to matter, to be someone. and in the end, none of it mattered. no one remembers that he tried. they only see the end result. they only see the damage.

and that weight, the failure, the guilt, the grief of never being seen clearly, that’s something he has to carry alone. it’s what makes his story so heavy to sit with. and none of this is to say that dex isn’t still responsible for what he’s done. evidently he knew what he was doing. even if he was manipulated into it. he made choices, and those choices hurt people. he’s not innocent. he’s not good. he’s a villain. that’s who he is, that’s who he’s becoming, and he’s also someone with borderline personality disorder. someone who was manipulated, used, pushed to the edge, and weaponized. those things can all exist at once. he’s not either a tragic victim or an evil monster. he’s both. and when people act like empathizing with him or understanding where he came from is the same as excusing what he did, it’s just dishonest. like no one’s out here saying “my poor baby” and pretending he didn’t kill people. it’s just acknowledging that there’s more to him than what most are willing to see. that doesn’t absolve him. it just complicates him. and if that makes people uncomfortable, maybe they should ask why it’s so much easier to believe someone like dex is just a psycho killer than to accept that he’s human. flawed, dangerous, and human.

if people are saying that about comic bullseye, then yeah, it makes sense. that version of him is literally written to be an unstable psychopath who kills people for fun. he’s meant to be scary and empty and cruel, and that’s it. that’s what makes his character so fun to read. the needless violence, the grin on his face while he commits it. but dex isn’t only that. dex is bullseye, but he’s a version with so much more nuance and humanity. he is capable of everything that comic bullseye is capable of. but he has more contradictions, more depth. he’s not just evil for the sake of it. he’s broken and angry and used and spiraling, and all of that is still his responsibility, but it’s layered. he’s not just a killer. he’s a person. comic bullseye is the foundation, but dex was built on top of that. same character, same legacy, just finally given complexity. he has all the traits of his comic self, but there’s pain behind it now. there’s grief, there’s loneliness, there’s a desperate want to be seen and loved. he’s bullseye in every way, but now he’s also human and real.

[veththeebrave]

if your only response to this is "I don't like to imagine Veth cheating!" you can go ahead and scroll past this poll it's not for you. and if you think imagining fictional characters cheating on each other is evil and I'm evil you can do us both a favor and block me. peace and love on the planet earth talk to me about veth rarepairs

[ganondoodle]

sometimes i wish i was one of those artist that make people go "this is a PAINTING???" or "with WHAT programm/medium???" but its just not what i can do or find fun :/

[hakugreenfinch]

tbh it makes me a little sad when people depict anya as vengeful or violent towards jimmy (or curly, for that matter). im really getting the feeling that she operates on a mindset of "but would this help as much as i want it to?", like how shes considering drinking mouthwash but doesnt because... what good would it do to have another drunk person on board, not doing anything even remotely useful. she still makes decisions that do more harm than good (telling jimmy about her pregnancy without curly there to moderate him) but more than anything she wants jimmy to not be around her, not for him to like. die. it feels like a very sad ignoring of what she explicitly says she wants.

[foxx-queen]

i keep thinking about the datamined conversation between halsin and minthara and what gets me about it is that if you side with halsin and turn minthara away, thats objectively the bad choice.

like at this point, you've rescued minthara from moonrise. you know now that she was being controlled to act against her will. you've gone to the trouble of rescuing her from her tormentors, and you've experienced what it felt like as they tried to destroy her mind. you know what will happen to her if you turn her away. and if you do, you're willingly condemning her to that fate. you've essentially allowed her to experience freedom, to regain her sense of self, only to tear that away from her again.

whereas if you side with minthara, and halsin leaves, that's the only consequence he experiences. that he's not a companion anymore. at this point, we've saved the grove, we've saved him, and we've lifted the shadow curse. we've helped him achieve what hes been hoping to do for over a century. leaving your party won't see him lose his free will. he can return to the grove and live his life.

the choice is essentially either condemn someone to a fate worse than death, knowing exactly what that entails vs not letting someone travel with you anymore. its pretty clear cut to me.

its just interesting to me that they've switched the morality of it around given that minthara is considered the 'evil' companion by so many.

[aroaceleovaldez]

So, in your last post about the Percy Jackson TV show, I felt you lacked a few pieces of information/points. While it is true that the CGI in the film is pore and not constructed well, please note that while they have a large budget Disney has made a lot of restrictions to the show. In the original scrips there was a significantly larger amount of violence that would have needed more CGI. This was latter edited out of the script due to both restrictions and budget cuts for other parts in the show(sadly). Also to bring into prospective Sea of monsters the movie was made 10 years ago. Inflation has juristically affected the way money is used in films. Another thing to note is typically movie budgets are less than TV shows because they only are filming for one larger block of time. TV however they can take years meaning the acters need to be paid even for the time off set. This is not to say movies cannot take years, but it is to show that TV shows are filmed longer. I would also like to say I am genuinely not trying to be rude or unkind about your opinion and thoughts on the subject. I am just someone who has a different insight into the topic because of the things I know about the topic (I myself, am an actor and for the most part I think this is why the CGI was not the best as well as some of the script work). 

I did actually calculate inflation for Sea of Monsters versus the PJO TV show. We know the PJO TV show allegedly had a budget of $12-15 million per episode. For comparison, this is the type of budget Disney+ usually uses for stuff like The Mandalorian. I was doing a generous underestimate for the entire season which comes out to $96mil (12mil per episode x 8 episodes). Sea of Monsters' budget was 90mil. Here's that inflation:

So lil over $120mil. Going for a top estimate for s1 of the show (15x8) that's $120mil. And as far as I'd heard that may also not include stuff like budget for casting for the show. They are still roughly in similar ballparks.

Regardless of this - as an animator, i can tell you there is no excuse for that wonky CGI trident other than it being extremely quickly done. That's literally a transform error, like ctrl+t type stuff. That is a lazy and cheap trident, probably because Disney notoriously overworks and cheaps out with their CGI. The CGI problems in the show are majority because Disney's being cheap about it. This shows in nearly all the CGI in every episode.

If they had to remove violence from the script and so remove CGI scenes with it, then theoretically they should have more room in the budget for more or better CGI where it already is in the show. That money doesn't just vanish. Changing that in the script gives them less of an excuse, actually.

Also, as i mentioned in my previous post - if you don't want to CGI hydrokinesis, don't pick the franchise where the main character's defining power is hydrokinesis. If you can't have much violence, DON'T PICK THE GREEK MYTHOLOGY SERIES WHERE THE MAIN CHARACTER BEHEADS TWO PEOPLE IN THE FIRST BOOK AND IT ONLY GETS BLOODIER FROM THERE. You cannot have PJO without some level of violence. It's kind of very inherent to the series. Rick actually talks in his original Teaching Guide for The Lightning Thief about how, in argument against attempts to ban TLT (in this specific instance for "being too violent"), that monsters in the books poof into golden dust for a reason, because then they haven't "died." There is no blood. They can and will come back. Because it's fantasy. That is the excuse for all the violence. Of which there otherwise technically is a lot of.

If you are doing live action PJO you are going to have to have some amount of violence (and there is absolutely a level that is perfectly suitable for a PG13 audience. The show right now is leagues below that level. PG13 just means parental guidance for under 13 - this majority has to do with concerns about children under 13 replicating behavior on-screen. Past 13 kids know better than to do that, which is why that rating is a thing. There are plenty of film/media/etc that are way more gory and violent and are still PG13). You are going to have to CGI monsters/creatures to some degree regularly (alongside demigod powers like Percy's hydrokinesis even more regularly). And between those two things, characters are going to have to look like they're physically interacting with the CGI at times. Disney is capable of doing this. Disney does have the budget for this for the show. They're not doing it because they're being cheap. Disney has done this before and does it regularly. This is not anything new. It entirely has to do with CGI not having as many unions. They have no excuses. If they didn't expect to run into these problems then they clearly did no planning for what adapting the series would entail and didn't think at all of what the series actually featured before diving into it. And they have no excuse for that! That is step one!

[jackass-jones]

Fuckin. The reason Owen has asthma is literally because his real self is buried alive suffocating and his mom is the one who reminds him to bring his inhaler when he’s a kid and next time we see her she’s sick and then she’s dead and when Owen watches the finale he’s wheezing and projectile vomiting and his dad springs into action to drown him further and when it’s the final act his lips are severely chapped from overuse of the inhaler and he keeps trying to inhale from it but it’s not working and he just keeps wheezing loudly keeps trying to make this all work he knows why it isn’t he’s dying she’s DYING he ends the movie apologizing to everyone and still wheezing