#i know i'm preemptively mad

[cervidsunrise]

.

[iamthepulta]

I put the clothes in the washer on a whim and now I don't want to rotate them. I'm in bed with cat :( :( I have tea and I sent my last email for the night and now I want to hide and die.

I'm supposed to host a board game night tomorrow and that is like- the last thing I want to do.

[ratcandy]

guys I am gonna be real with you I don't know if I can keep myself from pizza posting

[ddejavvu]

ok but whos gonna talk about hotchy boy being all ☹️☹️☹️☹️ when reader does not talk to him just some misunderstanding where they are not in a committed relationship but everyone just knows they have a thing for one another i just wanna hear aaron say “are you mad at me? did i do something? i am a sucker for soft aaron for ONE PERSON his person!!!

Hotch is socially awkward. He can mask it with indifference or professionality, he can manage to assimilate when he's in familiar situations, but now he sticks out like a sore thumb.

He's standing in the doorway of the precinct's kitchen, waiting. Waiting for you to acknowledge him, waiting for you to say something, waiting for you to preemptively forgive his apology, waiting for something.

In turn, you're trying very hard not to do any of those things. You're not fond of being reprimanded, especially not for something you didn't do. So when Aaron had snapped at you in front of local officers for being distracted by your phone on a case, and you were only texting back and forth with Morgan about the second crime scene, you'd been annoyed.

You know that it's his job to keep everyone in line, and if he'd been right about you slacking off, you'd have taken the fall. But all he'd done was obstruct you from your job, and embarrass you to boot. So call it petty, but you're trying to avoid even looking at the man if you don't have to.

Thankfully, the precinct's kitchen is against a wall, not in a separate room. It means there's ample space to slip around Aaron and go back to your desk without having to ask him to move.

You're only a few steps behind him when you hear his voice call out after you, "Y/N?"

You try not to stop to abruptly in your tracks, but you turn to him with a politely interested look on your face.

"Yes, sir?"

His jaw shifts at the title, "Are you mad at me?"

You're a little stunned by the question. It sounds like something a child asks their mother, standing by the edge of her bed and asking why she'd rather sleep than play. It certainly doesn't sound like Unit Chief Aaron Hotchner, the 6'1 man who commands respect in any room he enters.

"What?" Is all you can muster in response.

"Are you..." He repeats, eyes anxious as they stare into your own, "Are you upset with me? Did I do something?"

Now you feel like a child. Embarrassment burns hot at your cheeks, and you chew on the inside of one as you debate telling him that your feelings are hurt because he embarrassed you.

"Nothing," You shake your head, gripping your coffee mug tighter, "You didn't do anything. Don't worry about it. I'm just tired."

Now he's analyzing you, head tilted curiously.

"That's... the oldest excuse in the book," His tone almost sounds sympathetic, like he's pitying you for your terrible lie. "Please tell me if I need to apologize for something."

"It's not-" You rush out, running a tired hand over your face, "It's dumb. Let's just focus on the case, we can talk later."

"I want to talk now," He pushes cautiously, stepping closer to you, "I won't be able to focus on this case until we resolve this."

You try not to think too hard about that, about the fact that his personal relationship with you means more to him than his work.

"It really is dumb," You laugh, but it's a humorless sound, "But earlier, I- I wasn't just slacking off, Hotch. You snapped at me in front of all of those officers, and I was just swapping pictures with Morgan of different missing persons files. I wasn't, like, playing a game or something. I'm not an irresponsible employee."

His face has fallen into something just short of despair. He's calculating the effect of his outburst, knowing now that the local officers probably trust you less, or ridicule you in private for being too absorbed in whatever online presence they think you were updating.

"I'm sorry," He says earnestly, and his chest caves in slightly with how sincere it is, "I should have known you weren't messing around. I hadn't considered that you were talking to one of us, we usually call each other. But I understand - that's no excuse. I shouldn't have reprimanded you, especially not in front of everyone."

Slowly, the more he speaks, his words disarm that little ticking time bomb of pettiness in your chest until its spark fizzles out completely. You're relieved to have closure on the incident, but it doesn't fix everything.

Hotch will, though.

"I'll let you deliver the profile." He decides, in the absence of your response, "And a press conference, if we need one. Give you back any authority I stripped of you back there. I... I really am sorry, Y/N."

"It's okay," You finally give in, shoulders slumping from how stiff they'd been around your neck, "I know this is a particularly stressful case. And it's your job to boss us around."

He offers you a small laugh at that, a soft exhale through his nose paired with something that you could perceive as a smile.

"I just wish it had gone differently."

"Me too," He nods, guilt still trailing after his words, clinging onto him no matter how much he tries shaking it off, "If anyone says anything, or avoids letting you work on something important, let me know."

"I will." You nod, "Thank you, Hotch."

"Thank you," He looks like he wants to surge forwards, and you'll admit that you wouldn't mind a make-up hug. Nevertheless, he keeps himself in check, tugging lightly on his suit jacket to readjust it over his chest, "I'm glad you felt comfortable enough to tell me I'd made a mistake."

"Oh I'll tell you," You tease, and his eyes dance with laughter he contains behind a soft smile aimed at the floor, "Mark my words, Hotch, you'll know if you mess up."

[pawberri]

ok, so i just saw an anti-dni post talking about how having a dni list in bio is purposeless and annoying since it is like a 'holding a sign saying "do not kick me." ' now, i find that perspective objectionable (since obtaining a block list might be what is desired anyways and not all dni reasons have to be extremely polarizing, e.g., i dont think a minors dni will suddenly make a billion minors annoyed, making them interact w/ you immediatly) and i have a slight feeling that you disagree with that point of view too because uhhhhh.

so what i wanted to know was whether you share the same reasons to oppose that perspective, and, if not, then, what are they?

I have been getting really annoyed with the backlash to dnis... I think it's goofy when some person has a dni with a million things, but it feels reactionary to me to say "it makes no sense for you to put your boundaries and expect people to follow them." There's especially this vibe with people who post more extreme content getting mad at dnis. I think that's weird. Partially, people seem to take them as like... a sign of moral superiority or hatred... rather than just a little bit of clarity on boundaries. These people talk about "curating your online space" but have to make these posts ranting about people who do it in a way they dislike. I especially think it's dumb to say, "Just block me, why do I have to not interact with you?" because... I mean, you can't block someone you don't know exists. It's meant to be a preemptive expression of boundaries, so the other party has the chance to block you and / or just not interact.

I know that, in practice, some people have really silly, long dnis that are linked on some weird carrd that takes forever to read. I don't think it's fair to strawman the concept of expressing some of your boundaries online in a digestible format as being stupid because of that, though. Especially when a lot of the people with silly dnis are teenagers just trying to figure their life out. They'll grow out of it. It's fine.

I also think it's weird and victim blame-y to say people will naturally be harassed if they give any kind of indication of their boundaries. I sometimes get mean anons, but for the most part, my experience online is way better because I am upfront about things. I don't get too personal or say things I'm uncomfortable sharing, but I make my boundaries clear. Even when I was a teenager and getting harassed by redditors, I never had stuff I asked to be trigger tagged used against me like people fearmonger about. (I'm sure it can happen, but I think that for most people, it just results in their social circle tagging stuff for them.) Even if that did happen, I think it would cruel to say that it was my fault for daring to express a boundary. If you kick the guy who says "do not kick me", you're still being bully and a contrarian asshole. Even if I didn't express a boundary, people like that would likely harass me. If I don't express a boundary for the sake of avoiding harassment, I get in exchange an audience that will constantly be shocked and fight with me about my beliefs when they show. Then, that creates either an unpredictable level of harassment or the feeling of being harassed because I'm constantly in discourse with my followers. At best I feel miserable and hate interacting with my followers.

I think this partially comes from people who are afraid to express their boundaries for fear of backlash (ie they want to make extreme content but fear saying so will make their followers mad), but honestly I think being straight forward makes your audience more curated. The people I see who post extreme content and are clear about it seem to have an easier time than people who build an audience of a bunch of unsuspecting people and then slowly introduce untagged incest kink or something. Not saying it's a guaranteed anti-harassment tool, but I don't understand the impulse to warn for nothing and have no clear boundaries with your audience, then get mad you curated the audience you curated. I hope it doesn't come across as me victim-blaming in the opposite direction, I don't think anyone deserves harassment regardless of if I disagree with what they post online. I kind of just mean to illustrate a counter example to the idea of the dni-haver making themself a target or inherently Being A Harasser.

[quitealotofsodapop]

Hey Mac, we thought you were dead;

Sequel to this post on Macaque being back in the "Century Stone Egg Au".

After the pregnant Monkey King breaks his shock, he'd run to embrace Macaque, even if he'd just been super close to clawing his eye out (again) and that they're last meeting was a huge fight. He only holds back because he's honestly a little scared/worried how and why Macaque is there. Wukong is immediately trying to apolgise for his violent reaction, but Macaque just laughes out; "Nah, it's my fault. Should've asked first." It's only with the shadow monkeys' breathy, almost *fond* laughter that Wukong realises that Mac is truly there for peace. Mac's interaction with PIF further confirms this.

The reincarnation gang + the dragon couple are super sketched out though. Pigsy is the one to loudly ask "How do you know it's him and not some weird copycat?", mostly cus he's legit worried for Wukong in this moment. Somebody's dead partner don't just show up one day!

Wukong responds with his Gold Vision + its hard to fake the way Mac smells. The gang still refuse to leave the two alone together until they recieve a decent explaination.

The fact that Macaque literally looks like he crawled out of the grave quickly gives everybody a bad feeling, and they def force Mac to sit down and explain how tf he came back to life before he's even allowed smell Wukong.

Macaque: "I may have agreed to do something... kinda stupid in hindsight." Wukong, : "Mac... look at me. What did you do?" Macaque: "...ok don't be mad." Wukong: "I'm preemptively seething." Macaque: "I accepted a deal from the White Bone Spirit." Wukong: "I'M FURIOUS!!!" *starts throwing whatever's closest at Mac* Macaque, dodges a pillow: "Pfff! Calm down, it's not like I'm actually gonna do it! She brought me back to life to release her from a tomb or something and I chucked the key away the second I got back." The whole Room: "..." Wukong: "Mihou... thats the stupidiest thing you could have done!" *summons hair clones to throw stuff at Mac* Macaque, now failing to dodge fruit: "OW! Why are you upset!? We both know nothing good will come of letting that demon free!" PIF: "Mihou, if this Bone Demon was able to bring you back from the dead, then she has the power to track you down and recind her offer." Macaque: "...so you're saying that I have to fufill her deal, or I might get dragged back to Diyu?" Wukong and PIF, at the same time: "YES!!!" Macaque: "Shit." The Whole Room: *covering Red and Mei's ears* "LANGUAGE!!" Tang: "You should work on that before the baby gets here.

Oh you better believe Mac's in the doghouse until they can figure out how to resolve the LBD business deal. PIF calls up her lawyer to go over the exact terms and conditions.

Fire Star: "Ok, I've got good news and bad news." Macaque: "Bad news first." Fire Star: "The Lady Bone Demon's geas is airtight. You will have to open her tomb *slash* free her spirit in order to keep your place in this mortal realm - less you be recalled at a later date for a task of similar value or until she makes you redundant." Pigsy: "Translate for the non-lawyers please." Fire Star: "Either he does it, or she makes him do it, or she just takes his soul." Macaque: "Shit." Wukong & PIF: *glaring daggers at Mac* Macaque: "So what's the good news?" Fire Star, slyly: "Those are the only conditions to the geas. There's a reason you need lawyers for these kind of things nowadays. She didn't stipulate say... where to release her. Or whom would be present to greet her when her tomb opens." Everyone: *shares similar delighted/scheming looks* (*a few hours + a few calls to a worried Nezha later*) Macaque: *unlocks LBD's tomb* LBD: "Freedom! Freedom! Fr-" All of Wukong's allies in the Heavenly Army + Diyu officials:

LBD: "Oh bother."

As the Bone Demon gets carted away for conspiracy to destroy the world, she gets yelled at by all of the Underworld/Diyu officials that now have to deal with the fallout of her actions.

King Yama: "Do you understand how much paperwork I have to do to mark this monkey as alive!? He doesn't have a death date! It's been blotted out! I'll be correcting his files for months!!" Macaque: *high fives Fire Star for the solid lawyer-ing*

As far as Hell/Diyu is concerned, Macaque performed a service and was paid upfront. They don't want the headache of trying to take him back if his mate (someone who's trashed Hell before) wants to keep him.

Wukong is still super-mad at Mac for a variety of reasons, don't get hom wrong. But he's atleast glad in the moment to have his mate back. And glad that LBD is gone for the forseeable future.

[nethhiri]

Marooned: Chapter 2

Pairing: Kid x FemReader x Killer

Warnings: nudity, vague medicine

Red Menace

It took the better part of an hour to drag your new friend to the spring and another good chunk of time to tug him out of his clothes. Wet clothes were a pain in the ass to deal with in the first place, but this guy seemed to be wearing everything in a size too small, which made it worse. The clothes were now laid out in the sun, post-rinse in the spring. After exerting yourself, you felt your stomach cramp. Well... I can't do anything on an empty stomach. Fishing around in your pile of goodies, you felt the strap of the goggles you had found. Shrugging, you threw them over your head. They thumped against your chest, too big to stay on top of your head. Fishing around some more, you found one of the jars. Cracking it open, you gave Blondie a brief once-over to triage the situation. You gave the jar's contents a cautionary sniff. Oh! Spiced peaches. What a treat! Slurping back a few slices straight from the jar, you put your hand on your hip and contemplated the next step. You wiped your mouth on your shoulder before kneeling down.

Luckily, most of Blondie's injuries seemed shallow, but there was a gash in his thigh and he definitely had a head laceration. Idly, you hoped that he didn't have a skull fracture under that lac. The guy had barely twitched or made any indication he was alive. A quick look at his pupils and a cursory cranial groping gave you some relief that it was just a flesh wound. Pressing your knuckles against his sternum and rubbing earned you a grimace and a groan from him. "Hey... there you are, pal. That's great." You patted his chest. There was a sound of tearing fabric as you sacrificed a piece of your shirt to make a rag. Being in saltwater for however long definitely helped keep the wounds clean but the sand from the beach and the dirt that you may or may not have dragged him through were not exactly infection prevention. It didn't take long to clean away the dried blood and grime. Actually, it seemed like he was in better shape than you initially thought, just the two main injuries and a series of random scrapes and bruises. He probably did lose a good bit of blood though, hence his current state. 

You hummed to yourself, pleased with the progress. It was strange. This feeling of giddiness. Certainly, it was because of this shake-up in your miserable island life, but it was an unfamiliar feeling nonetheless. Honestly, you didn't remember the last time you felt even a sliver of hope. How sad. It was a bit preemptive to get excited about anything. What if no one was coming for him? What if they were but they didn't want to help you? What if he died? What if he lived and murdered her? He can fucking try. That made you laugh a little. But you supposed that was really what hope was about in the first place, the potential that something good could happen. At the very least, you could be stuck here together. Maybe he was friendly. He's sure not bad to look at.

With your good eye, you appraised your work. Unfortunately, you didn't have any supplies to properly stitch Blondie up and the rag tied around his wound would have to work until you could make a trip to snag your kit. "Fantastic news, Mini. My memory has been refreshed in the dicknballs department," you mumbled, draping a leaf over him to protect his dignity. "Can you watch him for a minute while I get my things?" You looked expectantly towards a mound of brush. "Come on. Stop ignoring me. I know you're there." Sighing, "Look, I will share my peaches with you. I'm sorry I ate your melon." You stood up to leave. Mini was fairly reliable, except when you made her mad. She would probably still do what you asked this time since she was most likely just as curious about the island's newest inhabitant. His clothes will probably be dry once I get him patched up too. 

It took a little too long for you to notice that the birds had gotten quiet. You were already at a disadvantage, having only one eye, and you could never use observation haki, not to mention you had been fairly pre-occupied. There was a pressure against your throat that dragged you backwards. Your hands reflexively tried to pry the...the goggles? away from your neck. What the fuck? 

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM? KILLER."

The words deafened you. At the same time, the wind was knocked out of you and your feet were no longer touching the ground. Wood scratched the back of your legs. The tightness around your neck increased. Your vision probably would have been doubled for a second if it was physically possible. A few seconds went by before you realized your situation. An ogre held you by the neck against a tree. 

"ARE YOU DEAF? I ASKED A QUESTION."

"If I was deaf, how would I hear you a second time?" You rasped. You may not be used to being happy or giddy, but fighting and being a total asshole was second nature. "I'm- not- a killer." It was the truth in this instance only. It was a mistake to only have one hand on you. He probably didn't expect it. The balls were everyone's disarming go-to. You kicked him as hard as you could straight in the throat. He held you high enough that it was an easy target. Instantly, you hit the floor and assumed a fighting position, removing the goggles around your neck so he couldn't get you however he got you in the first place. 

He was on his hands and knees coughing. Not an ogre, but a sopping wet beast. He must have washed up in a separate place and moved before I got around to it. For the first time, you took in the man before you. You'd seen hundreds of wanted posters. "Oh, what the fuck? You're Eustass 'Captain' Kid." Which means... "Killer"... Blondie is Massacre Soldier Killer. 

Next

[theamityelf]

I hope you dont mind but I need more despair disease Makoto........ please........ hes such a b!tch <3 a gremlin if you must.i love him ☹️

(Absolutely! I love him, too! And as always, a preemptive apology for my censored cursing. I know it looks juvenile when I do it as often as I do, lol.)

(Also, see my main masterlist for the rest of the Makoto in SDR2 AU.)

"Kid, if you don't get the fvck down from there, I'm strapping you to the bed next time! I don't give a sh!t what Mikan says!"

"You're the one who said to just take my food and get in bed," Makoto pointed out. He seemed to be doing his best to sound smug and irritating, but the illness and the workout he was currently giving himself made his voice weak and breathy, his skin flushed and sweaty.

"He got you there," Nagito laughed, entering the door frame behind Fuyuhiko.

"Got you there," Makoto echoed, having managed to observe that everyone hated it when he repeated things Nagito said��� including and especially Nagito. It was almost disturbing, how well Makoto's contrarian symptoms made use of his preexisting social skills.

He was still holding the tray of lunch he'd been handed, but its contents were in various stages of spilling, as he hopped up and down on his hospital cot. It was a wonder the (loudly protesting) bed frame didn't break.

"In bed, not on bed!" Fuyuhiko snapped, approaching the cot with a stance like he was seconds from wrestling Makoto down. "You're going to spill your- Ah!" He swore, as Makoto flung a spoonful of applesauce at him. (It sailed past, splattering on the wall behind his head.) "I'm gonna fvcking kill you!"

"Careful," Makoto panted, continuing to throw food as Fuyuhiko began to climb up on the bed to subdue him. "You might get the disease from me. And who knows what symptoms you'll get. Maybe Tall Disease, or Acts Like An Adult Disease."

Suddenly, he foisted his tray into a swearing Fuyuhiko's hands and slipped past him to hop off the bed, slipping past Nagito and out of the room entirely.

They went to chase him, but he hadn't gotten far; they found him collapsed on the floor, wheezing and groaning.

"It- hurrrrrts," he said pathetically, then drew in a jagged breath of air. "I can't- breathe."

"Poor thing," Nagito sighed.

"Poor thing my a5s," Fuyuhiko griped.

"I'll get him to bed," Nagito offered. "Since you're, you know, covered in food?"

Fuyuhiko looked down at himself and shortly stormed off.

"Huh. He actually left me alone with you. He must be pretty mad."

"He must be pretty mad," Makoto echoed. "Are you going to convince me to kill someone now?"

"I'm sure you wouldn't listen, if I tried." He helped him get back to his feet and started leading him back to his room.

"I wouldn't- be much- of a killer- anyway, right?" A lot of Makoto's weight fell onto Nagito, as light-headedness took effect. "Much better to just- let me tire myself- out. Hey, if you're lucky- maybe someone will come kill me. Then you can- hope- they'll let you help- cover it up."

"That's not what I hope for," Nagito said, in a noticeably less cheerful voice than when they'd started. He nudged the door to Makoto's room open with his foot and guided him toward the cot.

"Well, it might- be hard- to frame me again." (He let out an involuntary sigh of relief, as he was helped into bed.) "Not saying they won't- believe I'd kill someone- but I-"

Nagito covered Makoto's mouth. "That's enough exhausting yourself. Don't get me wrong, your observations are great! I just don't think trying to annoy me is a great use of your energy."

[softausterity]

i'm drawing right now but i need to sumigoro parallels post because ghrngfhgrbh!!!!

long ass post and full p5r spoilers. you know how it is

THING ONE: LOCALIZATION BAD

i have mixed thoughts about the choice to add more cognitive characters in p5r but it is good because it very clearly displays some things about like, how people are perceived. right? like cognitive haru sucks for other reasons but it's a good display that her father does not understand her. she's a robot mindlessly following his orders, very literally. same thing with kamoshida and madarame and everyone else. and it's very easy to look at cognitive haru next to cognitive akechi and go "these two act exactly the same" but with one major difference:

that's goro akechi! correct dominant hand and everything! yusuke, who you can also draw easy comparisons to, is Literally A Fucking Painting to madarame. and that right there is Just Akechi.

i'm going to go into the localization because they beefed it up real bad here which is a personal insult to me. everything taken straight from this pastebin i have had bookmarked for like 2 years so i have no idea where i got it from originally.

the 'puppet' bit starts with the line "I was wondering how he'd protect himself if I used my power to tear though his Palace. Turns out you're how. So he's making a puppet kill me… Sounds like something he'd do." in japanese, the second bit of this line is "お前がその係…同じ顔した人形に殺させるって訳だ。…あの男らしい" which our pastebin translates as "You're in charge of that… in other words, I'd be killed by a puppet with the same face as me. …That's just like him."

the notable thing here is that akechi identifies the cognitive double as "A puppet with the same face as (him)" at the start of the interaction. what he's getting at here, with the "that's just like (shido)" is that he's saying "Shido still thinks i'm just some puppet he can order around to do whatever he wants!"

and cognitive akechi responds to that: "Aren't you, though?"

the localisation has completely lost this thread by this point and will continue to completely ignore it despite the fact this is the resolution to akechi's entire character in vanilla P5 no i'm not mad about it - "That's right. I'll do anything. But look at yourself… you're the true puppet." which is just "uhhh no you lol" - the pastebin translation is "That's right, I'm a puppet. I'll do anything. But if I'm a puppet… then the true puppet is you, isn't it?" ("そうとも、オレは人形さ。何だってする。 けどオレが人形なら…ほんとの人形は、お前だろ。")

like. cognitive akechi IS akechi. shido thinks that he can tell akechi to do whatever and he'll do it, and he's right. the entire time, akechi's big plan has been "i'll trick him into thinking i'm co-operating with his plan by co-operating with his plan, and then once he's the prime minister of japan, i'll tell him i was his son the whole time, and he'll be sooooo owned! that'll totally get his ass and I'll Win!" (preemptively addressing a common misconception: he was not going to kill shido. he never says he is going to kill shido. the exact phrase he uses is "living hell.") akechi is the puppet.

and then after the PTs have the heart to heart with akechi and he makes the decision to disobey shido & sacrifice himself for them, his final line in english is: "So, my final opponent is a puppet version of myself…"

which is Nothing. in japanese, it's:

"My final opponent is the puppet I used to be, huh…" ("最後の相手が『人形だった俺自身』か…")

which is EVERYTHING. he changed! he throws away both his life and everything he was working towards to have one real moment of free will!!! that's His Real Actual Death without maruki, and with him it shows why akechi is so fucking horrified at everything that's happening.

anyway, this post was also about sumire.

there she is :)

maruki thinks about sumire as some waifish wilting flower who needs kasumi to do everything and is so consumed by grief that she can't do anything on her own, and it looks like he's right!

pulling out the dogmeta again:

sumire is that weak and helpless when we first meet her, because maruki isn't giving her the tools to help herself and grow. you know, like a therapist? he's making her Feel Better in a way that does not address the problem and will instantly explode and ruin her life again if he's ever removed from the situation. sumire cannot get better because the person who's supposed to be helping her get better doesn't believe she can get better.

akechi and sumire are both completely reliant on Shitty Father Figure who have correctly identified them as useless on their own, akechi changes when he realises he's being controlled, sumire changes when she realises she doesn't need to be controlled.

THING TWO: LOCALIZATION STILL BAD

so you know the part in the sumi boss fight where maruki tentacle-crucifies sumire and makes her persona freak out and then he's like "waaah how horrible you have to save her amamiya-kun!!!" because he's the good guy?

the first thing akechi says is "Tch, it's gone totally berserk..." and in japanese the word he uses here is "暴走" now, berserk is a completely accurate translation of this! but the word comes up a couple other times earlier in the game, you may have spotted it, and it's translated there as.. "(making someone go) psychotic" and by a couple other times i mean every single reference to akechi's powers except weirdly one time with this random old couple in the very beginning of the game.

so akechi and sumire both have a second phase in your boss fight with them where they 'go berserk/psychotic'! just that maruki's making sumire do it a little more noticeably than shido is with akechi.

i'm normal.

[crimeronan]

i try not to be openly mad super often about tumblr users being obnoxious because it really is a small minority of people & i know that a lot of you guys who are Literally Perfectly Fine but also Very Anxious will be like "oh no. am i one of the people who does this."

so let me give u an example of a wildly obnoxious tumblr interaction i had a few months ago. that sticks with me.

at one point i locked the rbs on a house MD post that had gotten a few thousand notes. no one had done anything wrong or bad, but the post was starting to breach containment into discourse that i find pretty upsetting/draining, so i preemptively shut it down. for the sake of my own sanity.

a few weeks after i did this, some tumblr user who does not follow me commented

"OP TURN ON THE REBLOGS"

hm.

hmmm.

to which i responded, "no 💕"

and they said, "why not?? :("

frowny face included btw. apparently it was incomprehensible to them that i might not comply with an all-caps command from a total stranger.

i replied "because i don't want to 💕" and left it at that. as is my right.

this apparently vexed the tumblr user. who left three long and increasingly nasty messages about how i have a shitty attitude and i'm a shit person who's shit at interacting with people who's "so unserious." i do not remember the exact wording of anything except "you're so fucking unserious" because i was like. Hello.

at this point i simply blocked the tumblr user and deleted their comments and my responses to them. i do this frequently on my popular posts. when i get comments that annoy me or people start debating in the notes, i just delete Aaall that shit. and block everyone involved. not in my house!!

if you are a person who can understand where this interaction went wrong, and who cannot conceive of approaching an internet stranger in this manner, then you are Probably not one of the people who drives us fucking crazy. (and chances are that if you HAVE annoyed someone, it was over something pretty minor and low-stakes.)

the wildest thing is that if this person had just said "hey, could you turn on rbs for a few minutes?? i want this on my blog," I WOULD'VE SAID YES....? WHY WOULDN'T I. YOU KNOW.

sometimes. the internet. is.

.....taxing.

[trevorendeavors]

HOLD THE FUCKING PHONE

Now pass the phone to me.

GUYS.

There is no way these parallels are a coincidence.

I am 99% sure that Dana Terrace was referencing Kirby when making the Collector. For context, I've not seen For the Future yet, so please no spoilers beyond the trailer. I haven't seen anything other than Luz's palisman, that one thirty second clip from the owl club, and an irrelevant screenshot of Hunter.

Also plz don't spoil FTF in the comments or reblogs :(

That said,

TW: Discussion of Cults

Canonically,

Kirby:

god or godlike being

heavily associated with stars. As in, Hoshii no Kaabi (Kirby of the Stars)

ambiguous gender (referred to as he in American translations, gender neutral pronouns in Japanese)

rides on a star

The Collector:

god or godlike being

heavily associated with stars. "Child of the stars"

ambiguous gender, canonically a he/they

rides on a star

Still not convinced? Well I believe there was a specific game Dana was referencing: (MAJOR KIRBY SPOILERS AHEAD)

In Kirby star Allies, Kirby gains the ability to turn enemies into friends by launching friend hearts on them.

It’s an ability unlocked by a botched resurrection/rebirth of a dead god accidentally granting Kirby that ability.

No seriously, that's how it happens.

Here's a short summary for those not familiar with the Kirby franchise.

Basically, cult leader Lord Hyness and his closest followers once managed to stop an out-of-control being named Galacta Knight (shown below)

However, the people eventually began to fear LH and his ilk, so they preemptively tried to seal them away and erase their existence from history (rude). LH and his people survived and managed to obtain a vessel containing their Dark Lord (basically, an egg that housed a god or godlike being) Cult leader Lord Hyness then attempted to resurrect the god Void Termina.

But the ceremony went horrible wrong, shattering the vessel into friend hearts and dark hearts that were scattered to the stars. One such friend heart landed on Kirby, granting him the ability to quote-un-quote, "befriend" his enemies...

...

... by which I mean brainwash smaller enemies into doing his biddies while exorcising dark-heart-possessed individuals by beating the shit out of them until they were no longer usable vessels for possession. I'm not even kidding, this is actually canon.

Eventually, Kirby, with his amassed allies, confronts Belos, Hyness, who has this to say:

We are the masters of a power driven to the far reaches of the universe, and we have but one desire! Can one such as you possibly fathom how dearly we have clung to this dream across the aeons? How could you! You couldn't! Never ever ever! We who once faced those who were in such fear of our power that they sealed us away and banished us to the edge of the galaxy! US! As if THAT loveliness wasn't enough, they tried to erase our very existence from history! RUDE! Only through our magic were we able to overcome their science and achieve great prosperity! We alone were responsible for stopping that repulsive nightmare of a galactic crisis, yet this is how you repay us! This won't stand! It won't be forgiven! It won't be forgotten! Never ever EVER! Those who called us mad, are you listening? You left us at the edge of the galaxy to be forgotten, then went along your merry way, probably living somewhere pretty and peaceful! But know this! Your future is a farce! You have none! We, masters of a matter most dark, vow to be restored, as foretold in the book of legend, which everyone thought was just a fairy tale! It WASN'T! We have already obtained the vessel that contains our Dark Lord, and he will soon awaken and shower us in compassion! Look! The vessel of our Dark Lord is filling up even as we speak! Now the time for his greatness to enter our world has come! Welcome to a new history! A new age! The age of awesome! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DARK LORD! HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Grace us, Gloriously Dark Looooooord!

And when cornered, he drains the life source of his closest followers, his priestesses, and uses them as fucking battering rams.

Oh and btw they're all conscious when this happens. If you listen closely, you can actually hear their grunts of pain when they hit the ground.

When that fails, he forces the god-resurrection to fruition by tossing in the priestesses' bodies and his own into the alter, bringing foooooRTH!!!

VOID TERMINA.

A morally neutral being who also uses the same tactics as Kirby to defeat his enemies (except somehow Void doing it makes it evil or something *shrug*). Oh, and Void's implied to be born from the same material as Kirby (or vice versa).

Upon Void's defeat, it's said he may be reborn in another form and perhaps someday... a friend.

AND THEN THERE'S THE OWL HOUSE

In which The Collector, a god or godlike being, was sealed away by a Titan (probably because of their destructive, reckless nature - idk for sure I haven't seen the episode). As an act of revenge, the Collector made a deal with the inhabitants of the titan trapper witches: he would grant them (or more specifically Bill - not GF Bill btw) power in exchange for slaughtering the Titans. The blood of the last Titan (King) would then be used to revive The Collector from his prison.

Then along comes a scrunkly dunkly old human who winds up trapped on the Boiling Isles, a realm populated by witches and demons living atop a carcus. Convinced of the inherently evil nature of the inhabitants, he deceives them into aiding him in their own execution.

In order to pull this off, he enlists the help of The Collector. In exchange for promising to release them, The Collector teaches Belos magic "stronger than anybody's." That is, the Draining Spell.

Belos then professes himself to be able to commune with the dead Titan (the Boiling Isles itself) and thus convinces them to brand themselves with the sigils that would serve as their metaphorical nooses.

The draining spell works, but Belos breaks his promise by using up the last of the Titan's Blood to (attempt to) travel home, only to thwarted by Luz, who traps him in the draining spell.

Meanwhile, King makes a deal with the now-betrayed Collector: stop the draining spell in exchange for their freedom and a game of "Owl House." The Collector agrees, and King follows through on his promise. Well, part of it anyway. He frees the Collector, they stop the spell, but he attempts to escape with Luz to the human realm. The Collector stops this; Luz, her friends, and unfortunately Belos manage to escape to the human realm.

There, Belos goes around possessing and consuming various woodland creatures until he has enough sustenance to possess Hunter, one of his former second-in-commands.

This ultimately fails, which leads to him fleeing back to the Boiling Isles, where For the Future begins.

NOW LET'S TALLY UP OUR PARALLELS

WE GOT:

Horrifically misguided religious leader? Check.

Masked at some point? Yep.

Drains their closest followers and uses their bodies for their own gain? Yep.

Particularly brutally betrays their second in command?

OH YEAH.

Winds up sucked into that very spell themselves? Sorta.

Hyness intentionally sacrifices himself to the spell in order to resurrect Void Termina, whereas Belos is tricked by Luz into getting drained by the spell.

Not to mention we got the fuckin uhhhhh GODLIKE BEING WHO MIND CONTROLS FORCIBLY BEFRIENDS PEOPLE

This could be Void or Kirby paralleling the Collector depending on how you read it. However, Void and Kirby are definitely two sides of the same coin, and if my interpretation is correct, I believe The Collector is meant to be a parallel of BOTH. Neither good nor evil: simply raw power put in the hands of a child too young to comprehend or manage it.

-

Now I'll admit, TOH doesn't follow the KSA story tit for tat. I believe that Titan-trappers take the role of the people who sealed away the eldritch power. The placement of Galacta Knight vs the Titan as who fits in what role is harder determine.

Despite this, there are definitely some pretty solid inspirations.

The aesthetic of FTF very clearly draws inspiration from KSA. Hell, KSA was originally released in 2018, around the time Dana was developing the series. It's very likely she drew inspiration from this video game, if not played it herself. There are simply too many parallels to count.

[brf-rumortrackinganon]

If I remember correctly, Blake was being trolled heavily last year for her casting by fans of the book. When the first images of her shooting for the movie came out the internet was in uproar. Fans were mad, said she was miscast, she did not look the part at all, she was trolled for her bad wig, her styling etc. She was post partum, so some of her fans said this was body shaming, but the book had a cult following and those people said she was just a horrible choice.

At some point shooting suddenly stopped. The reasons were not given. Speculation was that the production was halted due to some problems. Im curious if this was the time Blake came on board as producer or started the talks (or when Ryan got involved?). Because originally, this was Justins productions. He had bought the rights and was friends with collen hoover. Blake became a producer towards the end (or after).

I'm wondering if Blake's heavy handed flower child pr was to counter the body shaming from internet she initially got.

Also, 2 days back, Justin hired a crisis PR management, the sma eone that represented Johnny depp. This was immediately after the People article came out. Speculation was that he knew how nasty Blake's team was starting to get and was being preemptive because he feels this smearing of him, and going up against Blake and Ryan is potentially career ending.

Btw, I am firmly Team Justin for now. Because ryan is hella annoying. And Blake has very dry hair.

I know shooting stopped because of the strikes. They shot a little bit after the writers went on strike but were a bit handicapped - essentially when the writers striked, filming could continue but they couldn’t make changes to the script. The actors had to say what was specifically written for them to say, they had to stage the scenes and follow stage directions precisely as written in the script, etc.

That the production stopped some time into the writers’ strike (they were about halfway through filming when they stopped production mid-writer’s strike, according to Wikipedia) suggests that they were having script problems and since they couldn’t resolve script issues without the writer being there, they decided to pause production.

But then the actors went on strike and even if the writers came back, Blake and Justin and the entire cast couldn’t work. So production stayed down until the actors’ strike was over.

[dlartistanon]

I have to be honest, after everything I heard I went into Lone Trail anticipating Muelsyse character assassination-- nay, *annihilation*, for the sake of Doctor-sexual fanservice and I was ready to be disappointed. But having finished reading Lone Trail myself now... What? Her homescreen lines are utter horseshit, I completely agree, but her actual character writing in Lone Trail fits that really good analysis post by meeblo so accurately that I can't believe meeblo didn't read LT before writing

"The more I think about Lone Trail the less I like how they executed the story."

So, let me preface this with with preemptive TL;DR: If you are a fan of Silence as a character, you probably really enjoy Lone Trail.

If you are a fan of any other character, especially Muelsyse, and ESPECIALLY if you don't like or don't care for self-insert pandering, you're likely disappointed and/or frustrated with Lone Trail. I am the latter.

Let me just copypaste what my friend has to say (plus my own replies and commentary) since they can articulate the feeling better than I can:

I'm sorry. I just can't imagine a world where Saria, who means so much to Muelsyse, is nearly assassinated and in awful shape, and *she knows that* and is like "wassup doctor, heard Saria's in trouble but lets hang out"

Me: Exactly. This does not make sense with what we know of their relationship. Especially since she's later worried sick/almost breaks down at the thought of losing Saria for real

I'm just going through the story and so much of it doesn't make sense to me. And it's (I'm not done but getting there) just *so depressing* how much of the event is eaten up with kind of pointless/uninteresting doctor babysitting? She should be front & center in all of this. There's so much to work with and play with but so much of it does not make *any sense*. Muelsyse did not need to be hobbled by this. Hell, so far as I've read, Doctor didn't need to be there or could have done it on their own. Fucking frustrating.

Me: I'm not that familiar with Guide Ahead, but I can't help but imagine how much better/more concise Lone Trail could've been had they handled Samuelsten in a similar way to GA's central trio. Don't shove Muelsyse to the side, make her an active agent in the story, with the people who matter to her

I mean I’ve made it to CW-7 and as someone who’s in the middle of all of this (often by design) I’m puzzled that she’s one of the least interesting parts of the event? Kristen, HoHo, Nasti, Jara are great. We know why it matters to her but she’s on the fringes the entire time. This should have been done like guide ahead but guide ahead was much better and leaner by virtue of not needing to dedicate half the fucking event to talk about how great and interesting the doctor is. There’s no reason doctor couldn’t have been with Kal’tsit the entire time. That would actually make sense. But nope.

"It's Saria you want to see, It's Kristen who you're looking for" but why don't we just stick you with Doctor the entire fucking event and you can act like you're just on a little adventure. Cannot believe I have to rely on the furniture to give what the event should have.

This might be a controversial take, but I wish all this giant lore dump with Doctor, Priestess and Kal'tsit had been relegated to another vignette or main chapter with just mentions of Kirsten/Kristen and Rhine Lab. It's taking up much too much of Rhine Lab's event. Instead of *way too many flashbacks* with Doctor/Kal'tsit/ whoever, we could have had this building up Saria/ Kirsten/Muelsyse with their past instead of the one 3 second glimpse we got. I am so mad at this stupid fucking decision. Rhine Lab Event: featuring Rhine Lab as glorified cameos

Reply: Yeah its so annoying. It takes up sooo much god damn space and for what? And for what ? It doesn’t belong. I swear to god i wish we focused on, idk, the main relationship between saria and kirsten (and mumu but my faith is lost) instead of kirsten only showing up at the very end

Yeah, I'm sure glad FERDINAND got the most screen time out of all Rhine Lab. Just *what*. But the lore dump, while *fine* is just fucking egregious and does not belong here. This could have been referenced elsewhere and they could have fleshed out everyone else.

I have finished Lone Trail! Cumulatively, I love about two chapters worth of it! I definitely had high expectations but even if I'd had mediocre expectations I would have been let down. Not enough of the Rhine Lab founders, needless lore dump that could have gone elsewhere. It felt fragmented and like a hodge podge of things. Saria, Muelsyse and Kirsten felt like cameos in the entire event. And I'm sure the intention of this was to elevate just how goddamn special the doctor is, but the way it was written, it felt like no one at Rhine Lab gives a single solitary fuck about Muelsyse in any real capacity. These are the people she's had and adores. Yes, her loneliness was a sort of focus of the event, but the way it plays out does make it feel like "yeah, you're right to be lonely. Thank god for doctor!"

So much of my irritation is not only was she reduced to a love interest for Doctor, treated poorly by everyone at RL, she had zero agency in the whole event. She really was just floating passively for the most part. Muelsyse in Lone Trail: 1. Looks for Kirsten/ doesn't find Kirsten/ abandoned & not said goodbye to by Kirsten. 2. Looks for Saria (eventually) stopped by Saria. Saves Saria, doesn't talk to her again/ is not acknowledged by Saria. 3. Nasti tells her she's a crybaby & to get lost I mean, it really is no wonder she wanted to off herself. She built Rhine Lab with them from the beginning and this is how the event chooses for all these people to treat her? It's unbelievable.

Me: All that to make Doctor look better in comparison, right? It's jarring bc it's such a far cry from the brief concern Saria showed towards her in DV and doesn't even follow up with her claim to want to save Muelsyse in LT. Where's the consistency? She remembers that Mumu is fragile, but we don't even get a scene or mention of checking up on her after crashing back down to earth?

At least in Kristen's case, she remembered Muelsyse exists afterwards with the plantlife onboard, but it's not even presented as wrong or a character flaw how Saria ignores Muelsyse in the end, even though she literally saved her life. Just... nothing. This is the defender who protects others? The one that she fell for?

Yeah “when you’re emotional you forget that you’re fragile” & okay this is a devastating day for her so fuck her very much! No need to check on how she’s doing losing a long time friend and colleague, how she was in a thing that literally crashed but she saved *her*. And this isn’t even about Samuels in particular! This is how she was treated by the people with an established history that matter to her. Obviously the game is pandering, but given how literally everyone in the game, from the actions she can see, treats her like she is disposable trash. It’s no fucking wonder she’d be like “oh wow doctor!” Because at least they treat her like a human being who has feelings and who hurts? The fact that Saria doesn’t even reach out, that she has treated her like a stranger for the most part doesn’t track. Why did they make Muelsyse the “hero/ star” of the event banner? She’s forgotten and mistreated by everyone, gets almost zero game content, her file and voice lines are a mess and she doesn’t influence the story in any way at all. This event as a Rhine Lab story was trash.

Me: It felt so much more like a "Silence" story with Rhine Lab as window dressing. They clearly didn't have any editors around because how can you SAY that these people matter to Muelsyse but then not PROVE it? The lack of care, the disrespect towards her and other characters in relation to her is just astonishing

I like Silence a lot but wtf was she leading this? The whole thing is the conflict with Sarsten w/ Muelsyse in the middle. She got a new outfit, talked to Parvis, rehashed a conversation w Saria for the 10th time? This should have been all Muelsyse / Saria/ Kirsten but they barely existed in the event. And who the fuck polled whoever else to decide that Ferdinand and the creep Josh should get the rest of the time!Why so much build up with Jara / her closeness to Kirsten to not have any interaction with them? WTF were they doing.

I could probably write an essay about all the things I felt didn't work as a Rhine Lab event. This might have worked better as a vignette just to keep it tidy. But I think the other thing for me is that… hrm this event almost assumes that all you've seen of Silence is the manhua and thus wow! Growth! She loses the glasses and gets a new style to show that off. But the Silence of this event is the Silence we've had in the game since day one. The one in Mansfield and in Dorothy's Vision who is kind of certain about what is wrong and what is right and will stand up for that. So to me there wasn't any growth there. Because we'd already seen that growth/ that was the person we've known since the start of the game. A lot of this event kind of relies on… either not having read the manhua or exclusively having read the manhua. Because if not for the manhua you don't know/ understand why there's that Kirsten/Saria divide and how much it means. It's all very weird.

And kind of to add to my little rant… DV and the manhua allude to Muelsyse being extremely close to Kirsten and being her sidekick. But in neither the manhua or any of the events do we see any of that. Instead we get Nasti (who I like a lot) in that role and--- I just don't get it. You'll be less disappointed if you don't read the manhua. lol A ton of Muelsyse's character development and her relationship with Saria is highlighted there and this event just kind of decides to burn all of that to the ground. But if you want to see why the final chapter matters/ is special/ yes, read it.

Me: Nasti's in the role bc we had to have our self-insert fix with the hot new playable op :/

yeah. with the same motivations. but all of that should have rightfully been hers I really do think they just gave Muelsyse's role to Nasti And the cherry on top of all of it was at the end when Muelsyse is like "Huh did the three of us actually dance together or did I make all of that up?" I just can't with that final slap in the face to Muelsyse and all of them. Like her talk about loneliness is fine and well done and the little history but so much left a lot of questions.

Me: yeah… it's just. wow. there were nuggets and seeds planted that had potential, but they didn't bother to actually cultivate and develop those relationships and dynamics at which point why even include them at all

Yeah, I’ll include that in my rant, but my last point on that end is Saria’s “I would do it over again” doesn’t make sense if you haven’t read the manhua— and just doesn’t jive with what is presented in the events with her that is much more clinical. And I’ve said this about multiple things— but a story should be able to stand on its own without having needed to read a manhua for additional context— and especially when having read the manhua you’re left with ??????

[wanderinglimeblood]

OTP Sentence Prompts!

Please use as you see fit! No need to tag me, but I'd be curious to know if you're using it. Up to you, though, so please do what you're comfortable with :3 (Background photo by Alexander Grey on Unsplash)

Text version:

"Don't get mad, but I saw this and thought of you, so..."

"I can hear your heartbeat and it's..."

"You know what, this actually *is* the most unusual place I've cuddled"

"I'm not saying this to make fun of you, because different things scare different people, but... you're afraid of *what* now?"

"No, you're not seeing things, it *is* a bouquet of..."

"Can't believe I'm saying that a night under the ____ is romantic, but... here we are."

"I like holding you this close. It means I can..."

"I just want to preemptively say I'm sorry."

"So you were in my dream last night..."

"Can you tell I'm embarrassed?"

"It's no wonder I couldn't find you."

"Did you know I would call your bluff? You don't seem to be arguing with this..."

"I know, I know, just please help me clean it off the ceiling?"

"First, a change of clothes. Then, what happened to you??"

"I'm naming this after you."

"This is going on the list of things I can never tell you enough."

"So how do you say 'you dork' in _____?"

"Hello, 'I'm fine.' Today I'm Dr. _____ and you're not getting out of bed."

"So yeah, there's a clause in the significant other manual that says you have to..."

"But it took forever to find one in your size!"

"You know that new ___ place nearby here? We should go. Yes, now."

"Let it be known that *this* is why we remodeled."

"No, seriously, I could never get tired of that."

"The 'it followed me home' excuse isn't going to work here, is it?"

"I will forever associate this scent with you."

"There has got to be a legal limit to ___, and you're dancing dangerously close to that."

"If you're down for it, I would like to jazz up tonight with ___"

"Aww, you shouldn't have. ...No, really, sentiment appreciated, but..."

"Did you know you talk in your sleep?"

"I have the best pet name for you"

Create your own!

[biblioflyer]

Burnham is not "always right": The Vulcan Hello (Rewatch)

Just a snap reaction. I'm struck by the sense that yes, in some sense, this first episode is headed to deconstruction. Starfleet is definitely depicted as extremely decent. To the point where Burnham and Georgiou are on a mission to discreetly dig a well that is beyond the capabilities of the local species. Its very much a setup for an innocence lost, but ultimately regained - at least in part story.

More to the point, and this is going out on a limb here, without having rewatched the next episode, my gut is telling me I've been right for a long time. Namely that this is an example of a situation where Burnham was objectively wrong and narratively wrong. Which also undermines one of the most prolific critiques of the series.

Had she backed Saru and persuaded Georgiou to withdraw the Shenzou there is a good chance they lose track of the coffin ship if it decides to cloak again which is a very serious risk, but - and Burnham doesn't know this yet - it will probably undermine T'Kuvma. Had T'Kuvma lit the beacon and the Klingon armada met empty space, there's a strong possibility that the other House Leaders grouse about him screwing around with ancient artifacts, if not outright blaspheming to try and assert moral authority over the other Houses. Maybe he gets a chance to bribe them with his cloaking technology and maybe he doesn't, but the way I remember it, its the fleet battle and his subsequent martyrdom that unites the Klingons.

On the other hand, if Burnham got her way, there's two scenarios. One is that she gets the shot off before Voq departs to light the beacon. The chronology is a bit ambiguous but I don't even think T'Kuvma decloaks until Voq is away. But lets say that T'Kuvma decloaks because he needs to for Voq to depart or as a distraction to buy Voq time. So IF Shenzou's sucker punch works, the bridge neck is hit, the ship is crippled or destroyed and the beacon isn't lit, then its all sunshine and roses. Mission accomplished.

Maybe.

I still think there's a good chance that maybe someone comes along later, discovers that T'Kuvma got himself killed messing with the Federation, and it provokes a Klingon blood debt or something something honor. We're led to believe T'Kuvma is a savvy operator in politics and religion. We have no earthly idea why he's lighting the beacon now as opposed to years ago (maybe it was lost, due to the whole scattering field thing) but perhaps it has to do with internal Klingon dynamics. Maybe he's spotted a Gordian Knot in Klingon society and has decided never to let a good crisis go to waste, so he's going to start a war with the Federation because his instincts tell him that if he plays his cards right, this is a doable thing.

The second scenario is that Shenzou gets her sucker punch in only after Voq lights the beacon or Voq is able to light the beacon after T'Kuvma gets himself blown up. Maybe the other Houses arrive and decide T'Kuvma was a mad lad and he got what he had coming to him. On the other hand - and maybe something will come to me a few episodes later - I'm not aware of anything at this juncture that alters the fundamentals of T'Kuvma being martyred. I'm not at all sure why it matters if it was from giving Shenzou taking him out or from a Starfleet boarding team offing him in a rescue attempt that turns into an accidental assassination. Clearly while T'Kuvma is some sort of outsider type, his death at the hands of the Federation is hugely significant - if not to the House Leaders, then to their constituents who must have a fair number of devotees and sympathizers in their ranks.

Given that by the end of the season, Burnham will have disavowed preemptive violence and doubled down on Starfleet's original mission and ethos, I feel very confident in saying Episode One Burnham is wrong and she's not just wrong from a Watsonian standpoint, we are supposed to understand from the narrative that she's wrong. She will spend the entire season and maybe the next three seasons even trying to live down this mistake because I think its rather critical to understanding the character and her trajectory that had she taken Saru's side, Shenzou and her crewmates may have lived and a war might have been avoided.

That it might take three years and saving the Federation three times and the galaxy twice to get herself to a place where she really thinks she deserves to be in Starfleet, let alone as a Captain, really puts things into context. A context that the comment sections of the usual places are content to ignore because they are stuck on the idea that Burnham is right because of narrative fiat.

Also Sarek is a terrible, terrible father and this is one retcon that I think doesn't work. Maybe it will improve. Spock and Sarek had their differences yes, but prior to Discovery, I think it would be fair to read it that they were deeply principled individuals that clashed at the level of application of those principles. Like a PHD whose profoundly gifted child decides to join the military rather than joining a think tank to draft policy. This version of Sarek and his obsession with making a human into a Vulcan is difficult to watch and kind of less interesting, personally.

On the subject of retcons, if the idea is that an aggressive response to T’Kuvma’s ship prowling inside the extreme edge of Federation space and potentially menacing colonists is supposed to be objectively correct or at least more narratively ambiguous, this is where the TOS setting conceits actually would work way better. Namely that Starfleet is spread “age of sail” thin and comms with the nearest higher authority take hours or longer.

This is actually really reminiscent of the scenario in Master and Commander which I rewatched over the weekend with Shenzou as HMS Surprise and T’Kuvma’s ship as the French heavy frigate Acheron. What compels “Lucky Jack” to hunt a ship that’s faster, more resilient, outguns, and out ranges Surprise is that Surprise really is the only one who can conceivably run down Acheron before she takes more British merchants. Even though it’s suicidal, there’s no backup coming it’s just Surprise trying to pull off a desperate win or choosing life but condemning every civilian in Acheron’s path.

Shenzou being in real time contact with Starfleet and half a Wolf 359’s worth of ships being two hours away makes the idea of a preemptive strike against a game changing major threat noble, assuming it doesn’t start a war or war is inevitable unless this incursion is decisively defeated before it can get going, but ultimately undermines the whole idea that Shenzou must be decisive in order not to show weakness. Taking a big risk and staying to monitor this new cloaking dreadnought or regrouping with the fleet to rapidly deploy to at risk colonies are both very sensible with the information Georgiou has. For the conventional Starfleet thinker, Burnham’s historical analogy doesn’t seem to map to a Federation that has spent the last century having the luxury of trying to unravel the cultural ambiguities that can lead to conflict because apparently it can whistle up a task force pretty darn fast.

The weird bullying of Saru on the bridge also doesn't sit well with me. If he's that timid, how did he advance in Starfleet? He must be extremely competent and deserve his position, so why set everyone up to act like he's a coward? I really think they would have done him more justice by making him a stronger and more articulate advocate for deescalation. If the narrative needs to prove him wrong, then the narrative proves him wrong, but at least give him a good argument. I suppose he got stuck being the weenie because Georgiou needed to be the cooler head mediating between him and Burnham, but I think it could have been handled better.

[normal-thoughts-official]

[ID: Replies by astrabear that read, "I would love to hear your thoughts on the snark/humor that he and Nicky turn on Copley and Keane when they're taken out of the van. It seems like in that case, it's the two of them working together as a power play against their captors rather than using humor as comfort. And they're both hilarious. "I don't suppose it would be possible to get these chains off of us?"/"I guess not." And of course "it's a nice plane" "there's a TV Joe" "champagne?" Bless Luca and Marwan forever for coming up with that". End ID]

@astrabear SOMEHOW I HAD FORGOTTEN ABOUT THESE ICONIC MOMENTS yes okay. I'm making that its separate post because I think this is more Nicky than Joe, since he is the one who's initiating these and Joe is mostly playing along because husbands that bitch together stay together

(I mean, you could argue that Joe started the "it's a nice plane" one, but I don't think he meant that one as a setup for a joke. Just look at the accusatory, pointed look he gives Copley as he says it. This wasn't Joe trying to be funny, this was Joe calling him a sellout. It was a direct continuation of "I suppose you are taking us to the person who paid for your betrayal". The one who turned it into a joke was Nicky, so, I'm considering that as Nicky initiating it)

So, in this case, I think Nicky is using humor as a coping mechanism, but not in the traditional way to try to "lighten the mood". Nicky's coping mechanism, in this case, is to be a pain in their captors' ass

This becomes clearer, I think, once they are in the lab. Nicky does not open his mouth to talk to Merrick & Co, from that point onwards, to do anything but wage psychological warfare on them. "I would say immoral"; "a fine justification"; "as is yours"; you know what I'm talking about. He's King Bitch Of Cunt City the entire time, and of course this is his way of saying "fuck you" to them all, but I think it's also his way of asserting his dignity throughout the whole ordeal. They might be helpless in that situation, and he might not have a plan of escape (yet), but he will dedicate his time to making their lives as difficult as possible, even if only in the sense that he is an annoying little shit. He might be at their mercy, but he'll never let them get comfortable with it

(The moment in the lab is slightly different from the van scene in that case, because before the lab they were still physically fighting back. Still, in the van they kind of had no choice but to go along with them. Not because they couldn't do anything about it - they killed all those heavily armored guards with their hands literally tied behind their backs, taking down Copley and Keane would have been child's play - but because they needed to let themselves be taken in order to know who was paying Copley, who else knew about them, and what their plan was exactly, so they could take them down. Once they meet Merrick, they start fighting in earnest - the headbutt, Nicky's struggle to protect Joe when Merrick stabs him - and there's no snark on Nicky's part then. But they end up losing, and once they are strapped to those tables they are actually helpless for the time being. So, in the van they are choosing to go along and Nicky is a lot more relaxed than in the lab, but both in the van scene and in the lab Nicky can't physically fight back, so he chooses to fight back instead by making them as mad as he can, and that's where his sense of humor comes in)

I have no doubts that all of that is very deliberate on Nicky's part, that it is an active choice and a coping mechanism, because of the way he reacts to the knowledge that Andy is mortal. In every other moment, you could have argued that he was just being snarky because he was angry, or that it was all his sincere replies to what was being said, but not in that one. Because he had just learnt something that uprooted his entire world, something that hit him (and all of them) with terrifying preemptive grief, and fear for Andy's injuries, and the terrible knowledge that Booker betrayed them, and uncertainty for what will happen to them as a team; but instead of expressing any of that, Nicky elects to look at Merrick and be like "you're powerless you fucking donkey lol". He straight up says that if Andy dies there's nothing Merrick can do, as if this holds no emotional weight to him at all. We know that's a lie, though, because Nicky loves Andy, and counts on her, as they all do. So there is no way these are his heartfelt, instinctual reactions to what's going on; which means they are rational, conscious choices he is making while captured

So, I don't think it's possible to argue otherwise: Nicky is being annoying on purpose. His snarky responses aren't just something that is coming to him naturally, they are something he is very deliberately choosing to do, so much so that they're taking priority even over his own emotions

I think the snark, then, servers the following purposes:

To let everyone know that they might have captured him, but they won't break his spirit;

To not allow them keep their conscience intact or make excuses for what they are doing (Nicky, more than anyone, knows how easy it is to do that, and how dangerous it is);

To make them angry, because if they get mad, they might slip up and do or say something that will help them escape;

And, perhaps most importantly;

4. To let them know that he's not scared of them

If anything, they should be scared of him, because he can and will kill an entire van of guards with his hands tied behind his back, and he won't even act like it was a big deal. In fact, he makes it a point to make it seem like as little of a deal as possible, which once again I think was very deliberate

Everything about that first van joke was very clearly set up to rattle Copley & Co. The guard being put against the door, so the first thing they would see when they opened it would be his body falling; the casual way him and Joe are sitting there, not even trying to use their momentum to escape; the way Nicky makes everything in his power to seem unbothered (despite the fact that we know that they don't actually like or are unbothered by killing); the way he's not even looking at them, but really at Joe, when he delivers his line with as much snark as possible. This whole thing was thought out, and designed, to stress them out. And, once again, it worked

So it's definitely a "power play" as you said, but I also think that it's a coping mechanism in the sense that he's reminding himself that he can still keep his dignity, that he won't yield; because I think that's what matters most to Nicky. He is willing to accept bad situations; everything happens for a reason and etc etc. What he won't allow himself is to be broken by it, to not feel like he is in control of his own destiny and actions, to feel like he is being used and controlled. And in the process he's also reminding Joe of their strength, of course, and Joe responds in kind because he understands that they both need this in that moment, and he'll never not do anything in his power to support Nicky. Also, it does also serve his usual lightening the mood purposes, which works just as well for him

TLDR: In the van scene Nicky is using humor to let their captors know that they won't break his spirit no matter what they do to him, and that's a coping mechanism

(Honestly none of this is probably unique or new as an analysis, but you did ask and I am, at my core, a bitch who loves talking, so there you have it)