#imo i think the best enemies to fight is childe

[snowblack-charcoalwhite]

I think that the misandry by the writers , especially Hess, is something that isn't discussed much. It's much deeper and dare I say, more sinister than just 'men bad women good' because the way she wrote the last episode shows that she wants to convey how Alicent's actions are commendable in a sense that her male children don't deserve her devotion and unconditional love anyway, while her only female child and grandchild do. It's framed as her liberation because she sells her own sons to another woman who is their enemy, but you know, it is good because Rhaenicent and reasons. As a woman, I'm appalled by this. What's worse is that I've seen takes here and on x like "Alicent regained her agency by ditching her sons for the woman she loves, her betrayal is understandable, go girl, you have my support" (and this one is tame compared to some others). Believe me, I'm not exaggerating. And I must be from mars because in my book that's not acceptable, understandable or commendable in any way, just the opposite. The problem, however, lies in the fact that the narrative and the writers' agenda support these vile and delusional takes. You don't even have to be a parent to see how evil and nonsensical this idea is, you just have to be able to understand basic human emotions and family dynamic. The writers and a big chunk of the fandom apparently don't.

Hello!

Thank you for this, really. The writers' (Hess' specifically) misandric agenda is absolutely crazy - and IMO crazy evident as well, so seeing so many people fall for it is baffling, sad and infuriating at the same time.

Don't they see that in HotD the women are the ones to blaim for something only when they side with men in one way or another? Don't they understand how forced, unsubtle and - because of that - cringe all the "you are a woman so you can't rule", "they don't respect me because I'm a woman" and "women suffer while men fight" are? House of the Dragon is one of the most force-feeding shows I've ever watched - and for some reason GA and even some people in the fandom believe it's alright. Media literacy is dead for real.

And the parent-children aspect of misandry you brought up is indeed one of the most atrocious things about the whole debacle. I am not a mother myself - but I have one, just as, I think, the majority of the viewers do. I refuse to believe that everyone who cheers for Alicent to abandon her sons has their own familial relationships so screwed that they are unable to understand the outlandishness of the opinion they are choosing to uphold.

Not to mention that in their quest for showing just how terrible Alicent's sons (minus Daeron - at least for now) are, HotD writers completely destroyed Helaena's personality, even the sparks of it she had in season 1. Now she is all about three things: bugs, clairvoyance and suffering (and I can't believe that the first point has been handled the best development-wise). Helaena is supposed to be good and kind: but what good and kind things have we seen her do? Taking care (kind of) of her crickets, offering a necklace in exchange for the life of her son (oh wow) and saying that she shouldn't really grieve for her child that much because the commoners' kids are dying all the time (how relatable for anyone who actually lost a child, right?). For most part she is just there, staring into the distance and saying something prophetic (or, again, suffering).

Just imagine a real mother saying to her son "You know, sonny, I love you, but you forgot to thank me for the pudding I made for your birthday plus you called my bestie an old cow - so I invited your school bullies to our house so that they could beat the shit out of you, you ungrateful jerk. They are in the backyard, go on, don't make your mommy wait".

Just imagine a real woman whose son has just been brutally killed say "You know what, there are so many children starving to death in the world. Why should I cry over mine?"

Honestly, I am beginning to think that people are steadily losing the ability to connect the things happening on screen to actual human emotional experience - as if the characters (in HotD in this case) are aliens to whom basic concepts that have been holding humanity together for millenia do not apply.

[ladystoneboobs]

Two Weeks of Theon: What-Ifs

i'm not a fanfic writer or fanartist, but sometimes i like to think of au turns of fate for theon after balon's first rebellion. just thinking of all the ways his life was screwed no matter what, all the different ways his childhood could have been worse or bad in a different way, just never really that much better for long. there's no hostage scenario which doesn't turn to turn to shit sooner or later, with misery and/or very real danger of death, and it's why i just can't help but feel for him.

if balon had refused to bend the knee and lost his head for it, or just died fighting instead of leaving all the hard work to his brothers and older sons. with rodrik and maron still dead, theon could be a child lord, but obviously robert would appoint his own loyal regent, not one of theon's uncles who had just fought against him. and imo the person for that unpleasant task of ruling the isles as a foreign invader would be stannis, royal master of ships who'd just helped robert defeat the iron fleet. so theon is raised by stannis, he who is notoriously without mercy, a captive in his own home. there would inevitably be an ironborn resistance, trying to free theon (and asha and alannys), but there wouldn't be a united opposition. would vic and pre-born again aeron listen to rodrik the reader? and would they be effective at all without a smart person to lead them? either way, there'd be another group gathering around euron wanting theon (and maybe asha) dead (at their hands or stan's if they could provoke him) so that euron could take the throne as the only greyjoy strong enough to win balon's war and take their revenge. so even if a non-kinslayer uncle, greyjoy or harlaw, or anyone else loyal to balon's kids managed to free theon, then euron would still be waiting as the biggest danger.

alternately, what if robert gave theon as hostage to stannis, rather than the friend he loved more than his brothers? theon grows up on dreary dragonstone, worse than dreary pyke bc it wasn't his family's home and there wouldn't even be boys his own age to befriend. stuck with selyse and axell florent while stannis was in kl (and stannis himself when he was home), the only bright spots being if stannis ever took him to court with him, or when justin massey or other more fun vassals came to dragonstone. then when stannis discovers the incest, returns to dragonstone and locks down the island, theon's stuck for good. and when stannis learned of balon's 2nd rebellion, he wouldn't hesitate to execute theon even if he just fought for him on the blackwater.

or what if robert didn't turn to his brother or his foster brother to take theon when balon bent the knee, but instead his father-in-law. theon grows up in luxury at casterly rock, maybe actually befriends tyrion, but also gets sucked into lannister dysfunction and the tywin lannister school of tyranny, which would be a different mix on top of greyjoy dysfunction/abuse and ironborn tyranny. when war breaks out, theon's drafted on the lannister side against the starks/tullys in the riverlands. if he's in jaime's army, there's a chance he becomes a stark captive under very different circumstances. actually no, wait, becoming a stark/tully prisoner might be theon's only chance of survival in this au bc if he's raised a lannister hostage instead, there's a very high chance that balon would enter the war by attacking the westerlands after all, so if theon was still with tywin when that news hits there goes his head on a spike in harrenhal or the red keep.

or if robert just took theon hostage himself back to kl, rather than delegating a proxy to guarantee balon's loyalty to him. this could be the best au scenario captor-wise, at least while robert's alive. robert was more pro-child killing than ned but also even more short-sighted and ignorant of possible danger, known for winning over/befriending past (non-targ) enemies. would a guy willing to kill tommen and myrcella after thinking they were his own flesh and blood for their whole lives even think to distance himself from a hostage on the faint possibility of another lord being willing to sacrifice his only son? or would he be more likely to let theon get attached only to then do an aboutface and execute him in a rage if balon shocked him by rebelling against the iron throne again after all? since that never happened in robert's reign, theon could have been the eldest son he'd never had (since he didn't care for joffrey and never met gendry), with robert gladly initiating him into drinking and whoring, joining a group of hangers-on like justin massey. (i could also see theon getting along with renly and loras, but considering loras left the redwyne twins--his own double cousins--behind when he and renly split town, idt they'd bother to take theon when they fled after robert's mortal injury either.) the real problem would be joffrey, a jealous and cruel foster brother, with his status as crown prince giving some power to try to bully theon despite being younger, and cersei, a queen overprotective of joffrey and hating anyone close to robert. then after cersei kills robert, she and king joff have complete control over hostage theon, abused prisoner alongside sansa. and again, good chance balon would attack the westerlands in this au as they're much closer than kl or the baratheon stormlands, so theon would need to find some way to escape lannister custody to survive.

or what if robert gave custody to his foster father, jon arryn? lord arryn can't raise a hostage the same as ned and robert, who were straight up wards, and he's no longer childless himself and only in charge of his own homeland as he was back then. in canon timeline jon arryn was too busy ruling all the realm as hand to pay too much attention to his own wife and heir. imagine theon with lysa and sweetrobin. after jon arryn's death, he'd either be stuck with them at the eyrie and later have to deal with littlefinger too or robert would take custody and it would play out like above bulletpoint. most interesting scenario is if robert/cersei manage to send both theon and sweetrobin to tywin at the rock.

or if ned just remembered to keep his hostage close by bringing theon to kl with him. (idt ned ever thought of theon in a fatherly way but he at the least saw him as a kid who was robb's close friend. that has to be why he left theon at wf, bc i can't imagine he actually expected 14yo robb to behead his boyhood friend on what must seem like a slim possibility (esp by then, after almost 10 years) of balon rebelling. whatever his capacity for cruelty to theon, idt he'd be capable of such cruelty to his own child(ren) and mr. personal responsibility wrt killing would have felt this was his personal duty after taking charge of theon, if he actually thought of the possibility at all.) there's a pretty good chance theon could get killed with all the stark guardsmen in the throne room, since cersei's coup was far from foolproof. but if someone reminded her of his (supposed) value as a hostage and arrangements were made to take him alive, then again he'd be captive alongside sansa, except this is the only au where they wouldn't be meeting for the first time.

or if everything else stayed the same except euron returned home earlier, same time as theon at the start of the war. all of balon's and theon's war plans go out the window with balon's murder and euron taking the throne. theon who came determined to be balon's heir would not stand for this, but could only survive by working with asha, who was a stranger to him by then. this scenario has the highest chance of theon's death imo. bc really what it comes down to is theon was always screwed, even if he made better choices in canon acok, even if he took his last chance to leave with asha, they'd still just have to deal with euron later. always caught between foreign captors and a kinslayer uncle with no true chance for escape both.

[atopvisenyashill]

What if Laena Velaryon survived?

I'm addicted to bullet pointing my answers so let's goooo-

There's a few spots that Laena living really impacts the plot and the Dance overall:

Laenor potentially lives - if Qarl was in fact paid to kill Laenor by one of the blacks, the reasoning for this no longer makes sense because daemon and rhaenyra can't marry if laena is still alive. if qarl was genuinely just pissed laenor may have been cheating on him, or it was someone else that paid qarl, well, he's fucked i guess. but odds seem better!

Vhagar is still on tb's side - not only does she have the biggest and oldest dragon not chomping on her kids, but by the time Viserys dies, Rhaenyra has all but one (1) of the mature dragons on her side. that's HUGE. even otto, imo, is not stupid enough to decide to up against caraxes, meleys, syrax, vhagar, AND potentially even seasmoke, not to mention arrax and vermax. against what? ONLY sunfyre and dreamfyre? are they sending helaena out into the riverlands??

Aemond is defanged - outside of otto himself, aemond is the most war mongering, bloodthirsty on that side. it's not just killing luke, it's the mini genocide in the riverlands, it's taking out caraxes & meleys, it's his fascination with some superman v batman bullshit he wants to have with daemon, on and on. If Vhagar can't be claimed by him, he is only as capable as the army he is leading, and there's no dragons to worry about roaming Westeros except Tessarion, and Daeron can't really cover the Riverlands when he's so occupied in the Reach. Even if the war gets set off at the exact same time, getting rid of Vhagar/Aemond eliminates an entire front of the war.

Butterfly Effecting Away Aegon and Vis the Youngers - Daemon can't set Laena aside (they have clearly consummated), and they risk a complete rebellion by the faith if they do some bigamy stuff, and even if Daemon is stupid enough to pull that, Corlys and Rhaenys will kick his fucking ASS if he is married to Rhaenyra and Laena at the same time. Never mind someone paying Qarl to kill Laenor, Rhaenys won't even bother lighting Daemon on fire, she's just going to throttle him with her bare hands. This means that either Rhaenyra remarries who she wants as a political match (not a bad decision to make) or she simply remains unmarried (also, imo, not a bad decision to make since she's doubling down on the Velaryon boys being legitimate). In which case - if she has Daemon's kids, they will be publicly acclaimed as bastards OR they will be Laenor's legally, the same as Jace, Luke, and Joff.

There are some things I think might still happen - I think there's a chance Aemond makes a play for Vermithor if he can't have Vhagar, maybe Silverwing, but that's so much riskier because he'd have to travel alone as a child/teenager to Dragonstone, which is the seat of a political enemy, find where Vermithor has made his nest, get there safely, and then claim him without losing a limb. There's a lot of ifs there, vs Vhagar who was already hanging out nearby because of the funeral and very recently losing Laena. Laenor living is best case scenario for Rhaenyra because she keeps that cover for her sons - it's really hard to Vaemond, Alicent, or Otto to press on the Velaryon boys being illegitimate if Laenor is standing right there swearing they are his and fighting for their rights! But even if Laenor dies, Laena is not just going away - she's Rhaenys' last living child, she's Rhaenyra's girlfriend dear friend, she's the rider of Vhagar. Daemon cannot - and would not, in my opinion - just cast her aside the way he tries with Rhea Royce (and notable that his attempt to cast Rhea aside failed). Rhaenyra being single or politically married off would help her a lot just from a propaganda standpoint but she likely has more allies/has alienated less allies by the time Viserys dies.

Now, I think it's likely there's still a small war - Otto is in the capital and Rhaenyra is on dragonstone, so Otto will still attempt to take the capital but once she retakes it? With a war that is much less bloody, with her oldest sons likely still alive, without the loss of baby Visenya, she's not only mentally in a much better place, but politically as well. Hell, if she stays unmarried until she takes the throne, then dangles being Prince Consort in front of some lord's face, promising him that their children will marry Jace and Baela's child to sit the Iron Throne? Does Rhaenys even lose at Rook's Rest if she's only going up against Sunfyre, or going up against Sunfyre and Vermithor? I think in that case, Rhaenys & Meleys' experience and maturity trumps Aegon and Aemond's anger.

Anyways, I think Rhaenyra is just objectively better off with Laena around. Laena has a bit of reputation in fandom of being kind of useless narratively but the truth is, she has to die in order for Rhaenyra to lose so soundly. Laena is integral to Rhaenyra keeping her shit together because they are so close and because of Vhagar. If Rhaenyra keeps Laena as an ally, the war looks much different. Probably there's still a war, but I think it stays "a war of words and wings" for longer, and remains more or less bloodless. More similar to the third blackfyre rebellion, where the fighting isn't particularly bad and mostly localized, than the mess it winds up being.

[xxinkyshadowxx]

games that i think more people should know about cause they are so good oh my goodness

TW For blood, gore, and disturbing imagery

GOHOME

OM NOM NOM NOM NOM IM GOING TO EAT THE ENTIRE GAME OM NOM NOM NOM NOM I DO NOT HAVE THE WORDS TO DISCRIBE THIS GAME SO THERES IT DISCRIPTION DOWN THERE BUT IM GOING TO EAT IT ALL QUICK READ IT BEFORE I EATED ALL THE DISCRIPTION TOO

"This is a third-person horror game set in a residential area in 2000s Japan. It's the complete version of the free horror game GOHOME, which was released in 2019 and caused a boom. The map has been doubled, and six more ghosts, including hidden characters, have been added to the game. There's no grotesque , so even kids can enjoy it.

You've been separated from your parents and you're going home alone. It's the usual way home, but something's wrong. You're being chased by someone so you run away and go home. It's a sad, scary and mysterious game, but I hope it will be a lovely memory for you."

House

yeah it's less of a witchtrip(do not pay attention to how i use this word the way i use it makes sense and you know it does) than GOHOME is but oh my god the music the gameplay the plot i just this game would blow up a microwave and come out scratchless

A review: "a carpet killed me👍"

Literally any arcadekitten game

my personal favs are Cemetery mary and sweet no death but i swear all of their games are bangers)

game so good i stole a character's name that should say enough

A sweet no death review: "this was such a cool mix between cute and horror- loved it ! the game was pretty fun too, lambchop was so entertaining, and the music and visuals, so pleasing. "

A cemetery mary review: "Bro, I made an account just to say how much I enjoyed this game. This game was truly a pleasant experience and I genuinely think this is one of the best indie games i've played IMO."

Blackout hospital desc: "Blackout Hospital is a game where you play as Vasilis, a nonbinary janitor at Altobuck Hospital. When the power goes out while working the night shift, the emergency lights come on and bask the halls in an eerie, ghostly glow. Bizarre happenings start to occur at the hospital, and Vasilis wants no part in it as they try to look for a way out! Along the way they will fight off mysterious enemies, meet strange characters, and make a few allies--but will any of it mean anything if they can never return home?"

It's not me it's my basement desc: "Mom and Dad are away. But you're old enough to take care of yourself now, aren't you? You'll be fine, there's no need to worry. You're more than capable of keeping everything under control...right?"

It's Not Me, It's My Basement is a short horror game following a nonbinary child and their daily life. It takes about 30 minutes-1 hour to complete. There is only one ending."

Crowscare desc: "Crowscare is a short horror game, RPG game, and a love letter to the autumn season.

The game follows a young boy named Ryo, excited for the upcoming Harvest Festival in his hometown. Wouldn't you know? This is going to be his first one! He was never able to go to one before, as it always started past his curfew...but soon he'll see why he was never allowed out at night.

The game takes about 1-1 ½ hours to complete. There are two bad endings, and one good/true ending. "

World's end club:

AEWRT%UYTYRERSFXFGTY *EATS IT ALL IN ONE BITE* If you like danganronpa then you're gonna like this game as it's made by the same people this is just danganronpa but like more interactive and pg13 and im going to eat ALL of it the designs *eats the designs* oh and im not sure how true this is but i heard that one of the designers who worked on this made Top champion geeta's design soooooo

"Brought to you by Zero Escape series creator Kotaro Uchikoshi, and Kazutaka Kodaka, mastermind behind the Danganronpa games. With twists and turns aplenty, this mysterious, captivating tale of friendship and adversity will have you hooked from the get go.

Dive into this easy to pick up fusion of puzzle platforming and choice-driven story adventure, and surround yourself with a cast of charming, quirky characters as you set off on an unforgettable trip!

In an elementary school in Tokyo, a group of oddball kids from across the country have banded together as the "Go-Getters Club." Reycho and the rest of the Go-Getters are, to say the least, a little different to the rest of their classmates.

One summer's day the group is riding the bus on a school trip when disaster strikes. They wake up to find themselves trapped in a rusted, long-abandoned underwater theme park. As they struggle to get their bearings, a sinister clown appears out of the blue and informs the Go-Getters that they'll be playing a "Game of Fate"—pitting their lives against one another in a desperate struggle for survival!

Bewildered and confused, prospects look bleak for Reycho and the gang, but when all hope seems lost, out of nowhere, strange powers start to awaken in the daring Go-Getters.

What in the world could happen next!?"

Motherhood

i just i i just i AIUYTEWGEHYUDZIOR*(E&FUDTYGHJUIDS

A review: "Really good game with nice and disturbing aesthetics. The story was quite cryptic, but you get most of it by the secret ending.

It was a nice experience, I want to play the rest from Enigma Studio if the other games are as cool as this one!"

Bad end theater

i want to dissect this game like its a damn frog and then i want to go OM NOM NOM NOM NOM

Review: "PLEASE LET ME GIVE YOU MORE MONEY OH MY ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ GOD, ALSO LIKE ADD AN ART BOOK I NEED ACCESS TO ALL OF THIS ART AT ANY GIVEN TIME EVER"

Review: "While I cannot spoil why, this is possibly one of the sweetest, most thought out and unique short games I played in years.

Go in blind, you will find everything more meaningful that way!"

Loomian legacy

*Dj Khaled voice* Life is roblox

Formerly Pokemon brick bronze so i feel life that should be enough info for those who know of it

Emily wants to play

I I HYYDUIEUUI THIS SCARED THE SHIT OUT OF LITTLE ME I LOVE THIS GAME

Desc "It’s 11pm, and you are at the last house on your route. The lights are on, and the front door is opened. But, the windows are all boarded up and the grass is overgrown. It seems like a strange place to deliver a pizza, but at least, it looks like someone is home.

You run to the front door since it’s storming pretty bad.

“Hello!? Your pizza's here!" You announce. No one answers. There's an eerie silence.

You are getting soaked from the rain, so you hesitantly step inside the door and look around. The front door suddenly closes behind you.

You just wanted to finish this last delivery and head home for the night. Now you must figure out how to get out of this stupid creepy house.

Freely roam the house and try to figure out what is going on. Three dolls and a strange girl named Emily will also start roaming the house as the hours toll by. Stay away from them, but if you do end up in a room with one, figure out how to stay alive.

This may be your last pizza delivery."

I need to stop eating all these games im going to get a stomachache not from eating them but from the joy and whimsy i feel when these games are even real

[howlsofbloodhounds]

New headcanon:

Delta and Beta have more of a big brother-little brother relationship imo. They definetly act like siblings, including teasing and bullying each other, lovingly ofc. They absolutely roughhouse whenever they get the chance (Beta usually initiates bc Delta's morals get to him if he tries to start anything since Beta is a literal child, and also because Beta has no chill), but they're also incredibly protective of each other.

If one of them needs to calm down, whether it be that one is too angry or too scared of something, the other will immediately step in and offer help. They know exactly the best ways to comfort and distract each other from whatever is bothering them, and knows when the other is too afraid/angry/overstimulated to be able to accept the help. Usually this results in them sitting in silence as one calms down and the other keeps careful watch to make sure nothing upsets or triggers them further.

They definetly bicker how siblings do though. Whether it be for legitimate reasons or petty/silly ones, there's always something to bicker about or annoy each other with. Sometimes these things can escalate and Color or Epic might need to stop in to make them quit, but usually it doesn't get to that level unless it's about something serious and legitimate. They may argue pretty hard when it's about something serious, but they both never go too far. Neither insult the other or yell, and they've never physically fought.

They may bicker and get into petty, childish arguments, but once they need to, they will team up to fight someone together. Instant teamwork. Sometimes it surprises Color and Epic how fast the two can go from petty bickering to tag-teaming to beat an enemy in a fight. (And of course, after the fight is finished, they'd probably go right back to teasing each other and bickering lmao.)

Thoughts?

Jsbsjasvskaknsd. I fucking love that u are completely and utterly correct. You always are.

I think it’d feel great for them to have that type bond actually. Beta didn’t really have good parents in our HCs, and Delta might’ve been more a father/mother to Papyrus than a brother. I doubt either are looking for a child/parent dynamic, especially not so soon after everything, so I think they’d find a more sibling dynamic more comfortable.

And it certainly beats back in the early days when they were strangers to reluctant allies. They lost a lot, but at least they managed to gain eachother from the ruins.

(Plus I like to think that Beta really considers Toriel the only mother they ever had, and ever will have. They had a good life with her, they just wish it hadn’t ended the way it did.)

(And because they gradually share memories or even stories I totally picture Beta telling Epic and Color embarrassing stories from Delta’s pre-teen to teenage years lmao. Just like a true annoying brat of a sibling (fond)).

[thaly-does]

Sooo I came [back] to the SPN fandom after many many years of being completely out and [thanks to my dearest] this time I'm going to fully dedicate myself to wincest.

Naturally, I'm a multishipper. I don't care much how many other pairings with my fav chars exist / usually I ship more than one thing per fandom or per character.

But them. Oh, them.

The Winchesters. Sam and Dean. Dean and Sam. I hear how their names merge in my head into something entwisted so much it'll never get unraveled again.

They. Have. Everything.

In my usual little doll plays with the characters I prefer to go rather dark. Rather sick. Sometimes, rather dirty. Not for the sake of general evilness, naturally and inevitably inherent to being an artist, but for the sake of feelings.

The contrast is better where it's darker. The light is brighter. The love is sweeter when there's pain, the hope is luminous when there's despair. The contrast enhances the emotional impact.

But Dean and Sam? Sam and Dean?

They already have it. They have everything and anything. The pitch black and the beam light. It's been made canon, probably, years ago.

Then I thought: what had ever made my brain go full-time crazy mod? What had ever squeezed my heart so tight I couldn't breathe?

Here are some of the best [imo] moment of my other fandom's biggest OTPs. Some ships are canon, some are not. But all of the moments DID canonically happens. [I'm using X & Y so it's more descriptive]

X & Y are constantly being forced to fight each other despite their genuine connection. the forcing power massively prevails their own. that's how their relationship starts... and how it ends, with X finally forced to kill Y. then X has to restart the whole world so they could be together again.

X & Y met when both were mentally down and then spent a horrible amount of time being tortured in the cruelest way alongside each other. later, they could let go of their twisted connection. but they don't.

X silently begs Y to kill him after committing the Literally Worst Crimes Possible for which he'll never forgive himself. Y complies. Y never stops thinking about X.

X spends his whole life protecting Y with growing understanding that Y will never accept his nature.

X sacrifices himself sexually, mentally and physically at once to the person he despises the most - simply in order for Y to get away from that monster.

X (who's kind of been a psycho murderer) went through a terrible experience where half his personality got destroyed. Y takes care of him despite the previous attempt of X to kill Y in cold blood. They end up fixing it (in a way).

X is obsessed with Y to a weird, absolutely not redeemable level. Body dismemberment included.

X is successfuly fighting the massive-level brainwashing so he doesn't hurt Y, although everyone they both knew and loved die around them.

X goes so mental after Y dies that he is committing a terrorist attack suicide so the world could feel their pain.

X goes full on self-sacrifice during a rescue attempt for Y [okay that's way more than one thing but it gets me every time!]

X says "Hey Y, we die together or no way at all". and so they do.

X never recovers after betraying Y and later goes through big torture time with the thought it was deserved for that betrayal.

X & Y [& a kid] slash through an endless amount of enemies so they could be a family together

X & Y are destined to be together but they go "fuck destiny"... and stay together for who they are.

X & Y fight together against a clearly overpowered villain. and win.

X & Y seem to desperately want to finish each other off but never act upon it when there's an opportunity. they're so different that they're the same.

X dies in a stupid accident. Y tries to save his life, and, when it's not possible anymore, dies alongside, refusing to live in a world without him.

X dies and Y can't let go of the corpse. Even when the rotting visibly starts.

X has memory issues but he's done some terrible things (child murder, massacre). There is solid proof. Y does not believe that for a second, because Y knows X to the core.

None, I mean it, none of these is wincest.

But, looking back... How many of them fit to be? How many of them could fit with the right situation? How many of literally (imo) most heart-moving tropes seem to be made for this pairing of brothers whose love trascends any normal limits?

So, yeah... I'm really gonna dedicate myself to wincest these days.

[captain-aralias]

9 books that are my favourites

tagged by @arenee1999 a few days ago, thank you <3 as i was writing this list in my head last night, i thought - this could be read as a list of my favourite fandoms and television/film adaptations, but hey ho. i did a degree in english lit or something.

harry potter and the prisoner of azkaban by JKR - no book has been so important to my life and i also just think it's a really fun mystery and i still like it, so - it's here, it's staying.

carry on by rainbow rowell - but of course. this one was quite important too.

pride and prejudice by jane austen - i don't think this has ever made a fav book list before, i think because i thought it was too basic, but damnit - this book is great, it influences the way i write enemies to lovers, i love the 1995 adaptation and all of austen's novels are bangers except mansfield park, which i keep trying to like but it sucks.

the once and future king by TH white - all my life i loved the movie 'camelot' and it's depiction of arthur. i only learned as an adult that it was TH white's gentle, earnest, thwarted arthur that they'd used <3 he's perfect. 'ill-made knight' is the best of the series, IMO

lieutenant hornblower by cs forester - i haven't read the books in ages, so maybe it's time for a re-read. the ioan grufford adaptation is great, i wish they'd do the later/earlier books too! BUT this early (in hornblower's life) book is my fav - the only one told from bush's POV as he struggles with how he loves hornblower but worries the guy wants to do a mutiny (which he totally does)

the folk of the air by holly black - a new entrant even though i've loved it for years, but i've decided i don't just think it's really good, it's so good that it's one of my favs. maybe the best of the trilogy is the middle book, 'wicked king' where jude is in power with limited support and they fall in love (or do they???). how the king of elfham learned to hate stories is also brilliant.

'the emperor mage' by tamora pierce. i've been waiting my whole life for the numair book and it was terrible, but her first three trilogies are my absolute crack, and this is the best book of those series IMO. the bit where numair tries to hit the emperor for implying he loves his student daine (which he does) while she's listening but disguised as a bird - and then he fakes his own death, and daine goes crazy... that bit has stayed with me for decades, i love it so much.

'night watch' by terry pratchett. i still feel late to properly loving pterry, but i've always liked this one and now i love it - vimes is my guy, i love the time travel, that he trains himself, that he resists both passively and when required actively. v good. my next fav is probably ... 'monstrous regiment', which i think is a bit more of a weird choice (unlike this one which is mega popular and also about all the things i like), but it just does everything right! oh, 'and 'going postal'.

'the princess bride' by s morgenstern william goldman. i haven't read this for ages either so maybe it shouldn't make the list, but i expect it's still pretty great. a mindfuck for a young child who has only seen the film and thinks all of the frame narrative must therefore be real... also, the film is like one of the best films ever and i have seen that super recently. if you haven't seen the home movie, do yourself a favour and watch it because it's a great way to enjoy the movie a-new.

no idea where this meme has been already. so just saying hello to some folks and if you'd like to do this meme and haven't done it already, please do! @giishu @orange-peony @you-remind-me-of-the-babe @carryonvisinata @alleycat0306 @fight-surrender @cows4247 @messofthejess @mysterioussheep

[ac-liveblogs]

penny for your thoughts regarding the fatui, how they're portrayed and how you'd adjust them?

thank u…. every penny counts…

I find the Fatui pretty frustrating, honestly. The Harbingers are difficult to get invested in - I find their lore overly complicated and tedious, their storylines don't use the characters effectively and lack punch, they're no fun as villains and - worst of all - their boss battles suuuuuck. I think Childe and Dottore get off the best of all of them, and when Dottore's Biggest Moment so far is when killed off all his clones off-screen when we barely got to see him utilise him that's… not… great.

(memorable boss battles are important for memorable antagonists, and action RPGs. HYV has very bad sense for when they should include bosses - or has crippled itself with its mat boss/trounce domain system - and relies on spectacle over fun and challenging boss fights.)

IMO, HYV dug it's own grave when it decided Genshin needed minimum 2 separate villain factions, the Celestia mystery AND all the regional lore… on top of also needing to seed several brand new characters that are all going to be likeable charming allies that are literally going to be products. That's a lot to cover and not a lot of time, especially when they're so averse to having characters be relevant to each other on-screen for extended periods of time. And you don't want loads of dialogue in a videogame anyway...

Anyway, not fun. I like kooky villain squads but the Harbingers just ain't it, chief.

As for my plans, assuming you meant the rewrite by 'adjust'...

I've been thinking a lot about how to manage the Fatui. My plans are loosely based around my expectations for how Genshin canon will handle the Harbingers going forward - I think there's going to be a civil war that will divide the 'sympathetic' well-intentioned extremists/playable Fatui (Tsaritsa) and the 'unsympathetic' irredeemable villains/non-playable Fatui (Jester/Pierrot), and the two sides will come to blows (the Traveler siding with the Tsaritsa in some capacity). Genshin loves its factions.

I plan to stick to the rough shape of that, though I want to cut as much bloat as possible;

Jester's Faction will be connected to/allied with the Abyss Order. Pierro wants to restore it, destroy the modern world and overthrow Celestia.

Tsaritsa's Faction also wants to rebel against Celestia to free humanity, but the ends justify the means as far as she's concerned. She will still be a villain, but she'll be the 'lesser evil' compared to the Abyss Order and Celestia. I imagine her gracefully entrusting the world to the Travelers once her plan is foiled.

I'm going to make the Harbingers from each region more relevant to the overarching plot, but I'm going to focus on some more than others. Some one-off bosses, some will be connected to the party.

I'm going to cull a lot of unnecessary lore, or reassign some elsewhere. I really only want to keep what's necessary. I might even merge some Harbingers with other characters to streamline things - e.g., I'm probably just going to upgrade Pierro's relevance by making him one of the 5 Sinners of Khaenri'ah, or merge Enjou with one of the Harbingers.

It's easier to plan for the Harbingers I've already seen than the ones I haven't, haha... I do have some specific plans in mind, though.

Childe is easiest to discuss; he's loyal to the Tsaritsa and is a sometimes-enemy-sometimes-ally to the Travelers + rival to Lumine. He's my tentative pick for the party member that joins in Snezhnaya, likely on the Tsaritsa's orders after she's defeated. I want him to get stronger alongside the party - like Lumine, who has to start caring about Teyvat/only cares about finding Aether and bouncing, Childe will also grow into a more responsible person and leader/only cares about FIGHTING. (@ the arlecchino stuff down below)

La Signora - she's vindictive, hates Mondstadt specifically and has an axe to grind with Venti. She'd be defeated in the second Mondstadt arc, not Inazuma. I think the idea of reversing time to redo the war against the surface/Celestia is very appealing to her, so she falls in with Jester. She doesn't give a shit about anyone else - she just wants to save Rostam.

Arlecchino - To cut down on redundancy, I'm going to merge Peruere with Crucabena as the cold and uncaring head of the House of the Hearth. Lyney would kill her during the events of the Fontaine AQ and take her place as Arlecchino. I'm a bit torn on Peruere's loyalties; on one hand, I'd like to use the Crimson Dynasty stuff re; the way she raises the kids in the House of the Hearth, on the other I think this is a great place to put the Tsaritsa's "ends justify the means" ideology to greatest use. Childe will probably end up stepping up quite a bit here.

Scaramouche - a piece of Kazuha's character arc; these two will be developing around each other quite a bit. The "become god" plan will stick around from canon, but I plan to end Sumeru with him going on the run from both the Fatui and Celestia with the Electro Gnosis in his possession. He'll show up (much) later as an ally, though he won't join the party.

Dottore - Team Jester. is just here because this entire venture sounds fascinating and he wants in. For science. I like the idea of being able to fight and kill him multiple times. I'll be positioning him more as an enemy to Collei and by extension Nahida than Scaramouche, bc when I said I was simplifying lore on GOD Scara is gonna be one of them. I have got to figure out what I'm doing with Irminsil...

I need a Harbinger aligned with the Abyss to swing a bat at Zhongli to kick off the "Zhongli Dies For Real" storyline later in the game that's going to seriously fuck up Xiao, and my current prospect is Pantalone. I'm seriously considering chopping up Enjou's narrative role between Childe and Pantalone. It'll either be Pantalone or Sandrone anyway, though I'm really not a fan of the "Sandrone is Guizhong!" theory.

At the very least, Kathryne will be Sandrone's eyes and ears.

Capitano - Tsaritsa Faction. I... don't have much, he's really uncompelling. I'm debating cutting him from Natlan and moving him somewhere else, I really gotta see 5.3 first. Might be cool if Dainsleif was his commanding officer back in the day?

Man, Mondstadt, Inazuma and Sumeru are the easy ones. Liyue, Fontaine and Natlan are gonna be.... ugh.

I have my own plans for Celestia if we don't get anything from HYV any time soon (or if I don't just like it), so the specifics regarding the Tsaritsa will have to wait...

[springbons]

ASGORE ISN’T A BAD GUY AND I’M TIRED OF PRETENDING HE IS! (Note: I am wrong. I change my view.)

(Everything below this is Conjecture and my failed opinion, but I refuse to delete it for archival reasons. Consider it a tagline of my failure. Do not take me seriously, cause after review of what others have told me, the whole POINT of the storyline is both of them were being stupid. But then again, this post is mostly “She’s not perfect either, and people need to not hate asgore and give him the love he deserves, and to be able to look past what he did because what she did was just as bad.” That’s the TL;DR.)

That’s it. I’ve had it. I’ve had it for too long. I’m not even mad at the people, I’m more mad at Toriel. Toriel is a selfish woman who caused a million problems, blamed her husband for it, pushed it all onto him to solve, and he’s just trying to do what he can to SLEEP AT NIGHT. Let’s get into it!

WHAT ELSE WAS THERE TO DO?

Let’s start with a line that Toriel says at the end of the run, because this is the hardest to account for IMO, and has pissed me off the most; "If you really wanted to free our kind, you could have gone through the barrier after you got ONE SOUL, taken six SOULs from the humans, then come back and freed everyone peacefully."

Now put yourself in Asgores shoes. You’re a big, fluffy, push-over who has barely enough strength to fight a single human without feeling like scum of the earth. Do you think he would be able to go out and just slaughter 6 innocent lives and live with himself? Do you think he could sleep when every time he closes his eyes he sees one of their faces? No. He made a choice, a difficult one: He found a solace in compromise, the people of the Underground would go free eventually, but he would not hunt those merely living their lives. Let them fall into the mountain, be their own foolishness that lets them get killed.

IT’S HER FAULT TOO!

But Toriel here thinks that’s not good enough. Like his choices were all wrong, as if he had a right one. Well, Ms. Know-It-All, let’s count every single choice you’ve made and see how many fuck-ups we can rack up, hm?

She let a human (Considered Enemies of War at the time) into their home, child or not.

She was so bad at supervising them at she didn’t catch on when they started stuffing Buttercups in their mouth

Ontop of that, had their plan succeeded, ALL humans could’ve ended up dead in some ungodly reign of terror, who knows what would’ve happened then.

Then when his husband declares War on humans for killing their Children despite the fact they were completely peaceful while on the surface, instead of being his only voice of reason and beacon of light remaining, she runs off and secludes herself in the ruins to make him feel bad.

She then spent years manipulating every human child that ever fell into the underground into staying with her, forcing them to stay in her home against their wishes until they finally had to fight her just to leave

And then she doesn’t help them when they DO leave, instead deciding to let them go into this “Harsh and Cruel” world completely unprepared and alone, not even answering their calls.

And she never leaves because why? Because she just couldn’t abandon the grave of her first child. This child, that she brought in, which caused so many problems. Her son is dead, Frisk is haunted by Chara, and all the blame was put onto her Husband, who’s just doing his best.

I even got some extras!

CAUSE WHY NOT?

You could technically say she causes the Genocide Route. Her negligence to watch over The Player, (or Frisk,) as they slaughter countless monsters is humiliating to say the least. She lets a child run rampant, completely on their own, in a dangerous place, and not only do they get hurt in Pacifist, they could level an entire town in Genocide before they get to her home. And then? She reads them a story, and bakes them some pie. How. Lovely. You blind-ass goat.

Another thing that pisses me off is did she ever stop to think how her husband felt after all of that? His children, dead. His wife, gone. A man with no strength and will, left with the toughest possible decision in the worst situation. Do you think that if Asgore didn’t have hundreds-of-thousands counting on him to run the Underground, (Oh yeah, she left him with that responsibility alone too btw,) that he may not have been able to take it? He had to stay strong for so many, he had no other option, but if it was just him? If all that happened while they were above-ground, while he wasn’t king? ...Do you think he would’ve killed himself from the stress alone? Cause I certainly do. Asgore is a very, very hurt soul who didn’t deserve any of what he had to face or do, and Toriel is a fool. I rest my case.

[thethiefandtheairbender]

hopping on as someone who doesn't usually love enemies to lovers but shipped catradora throughout the show's run, and then kinda meh'd on it after, my problem isn't necessarily that there was abuse or messiness in the relationship - in a lot of ways, the more mess the better

for me, there was a lot of set up and not enough time to do the pay off, in one scenario i've never seen anyone been able to adequately dismantle my argument for (although if you can please do so! i'd be interested in reading it)

simply put: I think it's weird that there's a one-off episode in which Catra brainwashes Adora into being a weapon (S2 "White Out") and is pretty gleeful about it, and then when that plot point is repeated in the final season - Catra is brainwashed and turned into a weapon by the final big bad - the way those similar plot points are treated is very different.

I don't think it's a bad thing to have an antagonist or protagonist mirror each other - and Catra is She Ra's deuteragonist easily - and that parallels between her and Horde Prime, or even her and Shadow Weaver, are interesting and the latter are particularly well acknowledged. So my issue isn't that Catra mirrors the irredeemable big bad at one point, that's chill

My issue is that when Adora sees Catra be brainwashed, she's horrified and does everything she can to help her. The story, through Adora and Catra's lingering trauma over being chipped in the subsequent episodes, acknowledges that it was an awful and accordingly traumatic experience, that she deserves support as she navigates it, and that kind of dehumanization is just well, awful

So why doesn't Adora get that understanding and focus when she undergoes it? Especially when being forced to be a weapon, as we see in S4, is triggering and her intended Destiny as SheRa / a first one.

This was the perfect opportunity for the two to bond, and for Catra to acknowledge that she put Adora though that - maybe feel regretful and ashamed that she'd treated it so callously, refused to relinquish control, and made Adora attack her friends.

But the show doesn't do that, because the show is a lot more interested in exploring Catra's trauma concerning the shared plot point than it is with Adora's, and that was my personal breaking point with the ship.

(I actually think S5 would've been structured better if Catra and Adora had switched places for a lot of the plot points, leading to their romantic reconciliation - Adora and Glimmer get to patch things up, Adora sacrifices herself for Glimmer because that's who she is, Catra works with Best Friend Squad to save Adora, she has to fight an Adora who's not holding back at all for the first time, Adora can still unlock She Ra, Catra can acknowledge what happened in S2, they can move past it in a more developed manner, etc).

Jackie/Shauna from Yellowjackets, in which one indirectly kills and then literally cannibalizes the other, or Aaravos/Viren from The Dragon Prince (also a kids show) in which they engage in a magical blood ritual so Aaravos can manipulate Viren into dying for him, and also encouraging him to murde the child they have together, are not Sanitized in the slightest, but the fuckery is leaned into and the setup/payoff/pacing is, imo, something that She Ra was lacking in. Even Pearl/Rose from Steven Universe, and a lot of Steven Universe, goes into why good intentions or apologies is not always enough, which is an honestly messier take than "this character apologized so it's all good now".

I'm really glad kids and queer kids have She Ra growing up; I would've liked a lot more queer media when I was growing up. And queer media is absolutely held to a stricter standard then non queer media, for sure. But that also doesn't mean we can't take issue with how a queer story, 'sanitized' or not (which is loaded for the aspec community as a concept as well), doesn't always work for us as individuals, and that means learning to accept that some people are gonna have different breaking points with the Mess than you do - case in point

I also think She Ra has a deeper message than just "big lady with sword" - it does have meaningful things to say about breaking cycles, and growing past old behaviours, and second chances (things that were, I believe, not as much of a thing in the 80s cartoon, but I never watched it so I wouldn't know). How well it executes those themes is subjective, but that's always gonna be the trade off when a work takes on messier ideas/concepts to begin with, I guess

"we need less sanitized queer stories" yall keep saying fucking she-ra romanticizes abuse. you couldnt possibly handle less sanitized queer stories

[jikoku-a]

✿ / jun & judai

breathes in deep ....... you underestimate how much i adore this duo

FRIENDSHIP.     childhood friends  /  work buddies or coworkers  /  family friends  /  friends with benefits  /  smoking buddies  /  adventure buddies  /  fake friends  /  recently friends  /  party buddies  /  friendship of need  /  dying friendship  /  circumstantial friendship  /  partners in crime  /  old friendship  / [ your muse] is the good influence  / [ your muse ] is the bad influence  / [ my muse ] is the good influence  / [ my muse ] is the bad influence  /  opposites attract  /  ride or die  /  frenemies  /  roommates or flatmates  /  penpals  /  exes to friends  /  enemies to friends  /  other

i love their friendship ..... truly brainrot over them ! i just adore the rivals to reluctant friends trope hehe, with judai being completely apathetic to jun's grumbling and groaning and just being happy to have a rival who constantly challenges him to get better (: they truly are the best adventure buddies and the fact that they can eventually both see ka too !!! they're sort of frenemies if only because i don't think jun would ever admit that he and judai are friends, and there's some baggage attached to their relationship on jun's side, but i think their friendship is tried and true either way. they're so goofy and ridiculous together that i just adore seeing them interact no matter what form it's in or what it's about.

ROMANCE.     childhood sweethearts  / [ your muse is mines ] childhood crush  / [ my muse is yours ] childhood crush  /  exes  /  exes to lovers  /  forbidden lovers  /  highschool sweethearts  /  secret relationship  /  opposites attract  /  long distance  /  unrequited [ from your muses side ] /  unrequited [ from my muses side ] /  unrequited [ from both sides ] /  skinny love  /  friends to lovers  /  enemies to lovers  /  spurious relationship  /  power couple  /  newly entered  /  soulmates [ metaphorical ] /  soulmates  [ literal ] /  awkward  /  turning toxic  /  toxic love  /  cheating [ on your muse ] /  cheating [ with your muse ] /  other 

i do really adore these two as a ship and i think they vibe romantically as they get to know each other ! judai's carefree nature and genuine acceptance of who jun is eventually forces him to grow as both a duelist and a person, and that sort of openness is what jun needs in a relationship imo. their dynamic is just a bunch of different applicable tropes that have me by the throat: cat and dog, red oni and blue oni, tiger vs dragon. i love them as a friendship and love them as boyfriends.

FAMILIAL.     siblings [ half ] /  siblings [ step ] / [ my muse ] is an older sibling figure to your younger sibling figure  / [ my muse ] is a younger sibling figure to your older sibling figure muse  / [ my muse ] is a parental figure to yours  / [ my muse ] is a child figure to your muse  /  guardian figure  /  legal guardian  /  adoptive child  /  foster child  / [ your muse ] is taken under mines wing  / [ my muse] is taken under yours wing  /  other

ANTAGONISTIC.     dangerous to each other  /  dangerous to others  /  unpredictable  /  rivals  /  petty  /  developing into sexual or romantic tension  /  based off family matters  /  based of off circumstance  /  based of professional matters  /  based off misunderstanding or lies  /  conflict of ideology  /  betrayal  /  hero - villain dynamic  /  enemies  /  fight club  /  friends turned enemies  /  lovers turned enemies  /  exes turned enemies  /  other 

it's a little funny to say that they're enemies because judai just doesn't even see jun in that way, even when he's at his most intense ? at most they're rivals and fucked up little petty frenemies. i love the slice of life episodes like the duel festival one because even though they're constantly bickering, they're really just two idiot dorks who love this card game, and the more lighthearted settings in the anime let them just be normal students and highlight how petty their beef actually is at times. still, their rivalry is not only important to help both of them learn and grow, but i don't really think they'd be the same people without each other hehe c:

[zhonglishrine]

who is the worst boss to fight in your opinion and why?

Imo oceanid hand is the worse. Not because it was hard but the annoying speech everytime when you fight it. So if I need to farm him for multiple times in a row, that's pure hell. Second one would be geovishap. Not a boss but still annoying since it constantly moves.

And last one and not least, fuck stone lawachurl. That big chonk boi is the least favourite boss I wanna fight. Would rather face six oceanids than that shit.

[tagthescullion]

"she had every right to tell the campers to piss off in TLO" Excuse me? What gave her ANY right to behave like a petulant child and withhold help in the middle of a war where people had already died, including her friend's boyfriend, just because she didn't get the equivalent of a cereal box prize? And she had the ego to say it's about "respect" or "people talking about me behind my back" when she was a freaking bully who nobody had any obligation to respect. She was a child throwing a tantrum.

Yep, she was a teenager throwing a tantrum. But imo the tantrum had its motives

Clarisse is a bully at first, no doubt, but from around BotL onwards, while still aggressive in nature, she isn't really harassing newbies. She's much more focused on the war, and tries to work together with other cabins

The chariot was just, as we say, the drop that spilled the glass of water. The chariot was, admittedly, much more than a cereal box prize, it was a spoil of war, which I expect matters a lot to Ares' children. In spite of that, I don't think Clarisse cared about the chariot so much as the fact that most campers had a vendetta against the Ares Cabin

Clarisse's cabin had been neglected and mistreated for ages. They're considered brutes, dumb, ugly, inherently nasty, and useless for everything but for battle. You could say Chiron and Mr D are terrible when it comes to promoting camp unity, since every cabin seems to be bullied for some reason or other and they do little to stop it, but that's a story for another day

When Clarisse asks for "honour" in exchange for fighting by their side, she doesn't only mean for people stop dissing her behind her back per se, she wants the rest of the campers destroying that horrid default idea they have of the Ares cabin. Clarisse wants her and her siblings to be given a chance before being ticked off as stupid brute bullies the moment they're claimed

Like I already said on that post you're referencing, the timing was awful. The war is, of course, the most important thing at the time, so I would have expected Chiron, supposedly the responsible figure, to pull Michael Yew and Clarisse La Rue aside, tell them both to put pride on the shelf, and find a temporary solution for the duration of the war, shared custody of the bloody chariot, or whatever middle ground he could find...

As for her best friend's boyfriend dying, I'd argue it has more to do with the fact that her best friend is an enemy spy than Clarisse's pride

[leqclerc]

I disagree of the vettel part, I think it was about time for him and ferrari to move on. I don't think he could have been a kimi to Charles but also Charles wouldn't play kimi too. They are too similar.

Carlos is a good choice, if you think of the field and the other options. Daniel is underperforming massively, gasly is mistake prone and doesn't have solid experience in a decent midfield car in order to get promoted in a top team straight away, Perez actually seems the best of the rest, but he was dropped of last minute from racing point.

My issue isn't exactly with Carlos. He is a prick and he is overestimating himself, basically like half the grid.

My issue is with ferrari. They should have already establish roles and boundaries. They aren't fighting for a p3 like last year where even if things were heating up, it would be harmless cause no championship battle was involved. They are a solid top team this year. And they have a generational talend with them.

They could also pull a bottas on him and only extend his contract year by year, to keep him in pressure. It would be mentally challenging but effective.

All in all, Ferrari is being again Ferrari's biggest enemy. The whole "we maximize points, we do not favour anyone" is actively ruining the their hopes for a good result ( mercedes is catching up in constructors) but also ruin the relationship between the drivers and the pitwall. Carlos disobeying orders in monaco and Silverstone got him a podium and a win. How long do you think it will take for Charles to start doing that? Although I am a sucker for demon Charles, if you want to win championships you need to trust your team that they will tell you what's best for your race. After Silverstone and after today's hard battle with Carlos, I feel like Charles knows that he is on his own and for the first time, he doesn't have the team's full support.

Yeah, I pretty much agree with you on that analysis of Ferrari's current predicament. They shot themselves in the foot by doing what no other team in a title fight would do and not prioritising the clearly faster, more reliable driver at the start of the year when one proved himself and the other was in the gravel. Now they’re doubling down on what is very obviously a self-destructive, nonsensical policy, and everyone seems to know it will end in utter disaster sooner rather than later. I wonder who they’ll blame then, because I don’t expect any accountability from the team management.

Although I disagree in that I think Carlos is the problem, at least partially. On paper he seemed like a great choice, and I even remember McLaren fans telling me Ferrari’s gaining a strong, solid, reliable team player. Which...lol. They thought they were getting a Valtteri (or what Checo proved to be for Max) but nope. I think he spent some time testing boundaries, much like a child would, seeing how far he can go before he’s told off. Turns out he’s been given a lot of leeway to do as he pleases and behave the way he’s behaving, putting his own interests first, without Ferrari stepping in and firmly establishing order (which people were expecting them to do), because apparently management doesn’t have a backbone, which makes them look weak and makes them easy to manipulate and exploit from the inside.

Imo the seeds for this sort of thing were there even last year (flashes of arrogance, questionable comments, dodgy team radios, etc.) they’re just blossoming and becoming more apparent now because there’s more at stake and he’s in a more secure position within the team (Santander backing, 2 year contract, probably used last year’s standings as leverage as well.) Which, honestly, if it had been a 1+1 I think that would help at least somewhat. It’s what I was expecting he’d get, as did a lot of other people, mainly because the negotiations seemed to go on forever, which implied a conflict of interest (perhaps him wanting more than Ferrari was willing to give), especially since many figured they’d be ready for Mick by 2024.

And yes, trust is important and it goes a long way. It’s not as easy as “hey just don’t listen to the pit wall!” because where does it end? If you had 20 drivers from 10 teams doing whatever the fuck they wanted there would be chaos. And if he made a risky decision and it backfired then he’d be attacked for getting it wrong and unnecessarily turning his back on the team. Hell, it’s not even like he’s making the wrong calls - he’s often right, it’s just that the pit wall either doesn’t trust him, or they somehow only listen when it’s Car*** making the call. That’s what’s frustrating about it. Sochi 2021 he can’t pit for inters when he wants to because his teammate’s already in the pits; Monaco ‘22 he knew slicks were the right choice but not right now, and Silverstone again he kept asking if they could still pit, to which he was told a stern no. When data proved they had time to reconsider, they just really, really didn’t want him to pit for some reason.

As for Seb and Charles...the simplest answer is we’ll never know. Yes, they had their moments, but overall I think they have a lot of respect and affection for each other, which allowed them to make amends and bounce back even after their lowest points. The circumstances were a bit different - it was their first year together as teammates so they had to figure each other out and establish some kind of dynamic, and also it was Charles’s first year at Ferrari, and he wanted to prove to the team and all the many detractors that they weren’t wrong to give him a chance. Also, it quickly became apparent that in 2019 they weren’t going to be championship contenders as Mercedes was just too strong and the best they could do was be runners up. In their first race together Ferrari were quick to pull team orders even when it wasn’t strictly necessary (4th and 5th) and also openly criticised them for their insubordination when it did come to that. Neither of them were afforded the leeway that Car*** has been enjoying despite his mistakes and generally subpar pace. By the end of his time at Ferrari Seb was gracious in acknowledging Charles’s talent and future position in the team - he admitted that Charles “beat him fair and square” and even that he’s the most talented driver he’s met in 15 years. That’s... huge. So, if they were in this year’s situation and Charles had a chance to win his first WDC and they potentially had a shot at bringing the WCC back to Maranello together... I would like to believe they’d make the best of it. Would they? Again we’ll never know. 😔

[bookhooc]

Xicheng Fic Recommendations

Alrighty so being as this is my favourite ship, I thought I would take this chance to compile a list of the favs!!

[UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED, ALL OF THE FICS BELOW ARE COMPLETED]

Ok I will start this list off with a imo a great introduction to the the character dynamics and relationships to each other and it's an aspect of why I really love the Xicheng ship!

The Beginner's Guide to Moving On  - messenger18 (Teen and up) 189K - post canon: https://t.co/XtJYqR93l1?amp=1 (thank you to @panmoo for sharing the link).

All Time Favourites (READDD IT PLS)

Upon Our Silver Bridges - TheWanderingHeart // Mature (443K)

THIS. SHIT. WAS. AMAZING. THE PLOT. THE CHARACTERIZATION. MY EMOTIONS. THE ARTS INSPIRED FROM THIS FIC. ALL CHEF KISSES. 

Ok, now that I’m done gushing, this is a post-canon fic and it deals with a lot of Chinese mythology and is a slow burn (but it hurts so good). That’s all I’m going to say about it because I think finding out what’s happening is part of the fun (yes, it’s plot heavy but it’s good plot :))

Lan Xichen's sorrows have caught the attention of something. Unlike the adventures and foes they have faced before, there is no obvious enemy here to defeat. If this is the same thing they thought had taken Nie Mingjue's life, then he believes it is fated for him to die as well. Nothing can stop the black fire when it wants to burn.

Jiang Cheng is sure his part in this is over. Wei Wuxian is back, his grand adventure concluded, and he'd never been at the centre of it anyway. So what does it matter what happens to him in the end?

Slowly, he will come to realise that there will always be a battle to fight, a story to tell, a choice to make, and there is no such thing as an end to anything. 

A Small Measure of Peace - Sandstone112 // Mature (122K)

Canon-divergent au. This takes place in the period after Wei Wuxian died and Lan Wangji is in seclusion from the whippings (the in between years yanno). Anyways my heart is filled with love for this fic. It's wholesome family loving that my boys deserve and ARGH I JUST LOVE HEALING FAMILY FICS OK.

With his brother in seclusion, Lan Xichen finds himself in temporary custody of his nephew with little to no expertise in the child-raising department. Uncertain and alone, Zewu-Jun is willing to do everything to be the person Yuan needs—even if it means inviting Sandu Shengshou to a playdate.

Running Our Hands Through Embers - MarvelousMar // Explicit (136K)

Reincarnation au. This is a bit different from the rest. It’s more Jiang Cheng centric (more of a character study) and it’s not as Xicheng heavy in the beginning as the rest BUT I implore you to read this! I think it gives a great character and healing arc for JC and we all need some healing ok? (plus you get JC telling JFM like it is.)

If asked, Jiang Cheng would compare falling in love with Lan Xichen to a moth inevitably drawn to a flame. It burned.

*** In which Jiang Cheng discovers that even death can't help him escape from his trauma, so he embarks on a quest to save the people he loves, fix what he can, make the love of his life fall for him, and maybe, somewhere along the way, do a little bit of healing.

Audience of One - WinterDreams // Teen and Up (16/16 - 181K) **EDITED: HAS BEEN COMPLETED

Modern au. OK I’LL ADMIT. THIS IS INCOMPLETE BUT THERE’S ONLY ONE CHAPTER LEFT. AND FINE I’LL ALSO ADMIT THAT I HAVEN’T READ CHAPTER 15 YET (bc ya girl tryna wait till it’s all out to read it). So I can only speak of this fic up till chapter 14. ButTTTTTT I LOVE IT OK? This deals with a celebrity LXC and a grumpy CEO JC and best of all: FAKE PRETEND RELATIONSHIP TROPE. Mhmmmmmm give me that fake to real shit. I love it.

“Then let an established star go first,” Lan Xichen interrupts again before Lan Wangji can give a stubborn reply. Both men twist toward Lan Xichen, and he smiles at Wei Wuxian’s tilted head. “If I publicly date a man for awhile first, your engagement shouldn’t receive as much backlash.”

Or, that AU where everyone is famous in some way or another, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji have been dating in private for years, and Lan Xichen and Jiang Cheng pretend to date publicly for their brothers' sake.

Modern Universe: Ok modern aus, expect at least a little bit of OOC and a lil bit of crack with it ok? bUT I enjoy reading them from time to time because they’re usually more lighthearted and everyone isn’t dead :)

Emergency Help Wanted - Piyo13 // Teens and Up (76K)

Lan Xichen lied about having a family to leave work early so now he needs to Craiglist his way for a fake one. This one was fun and fluff!

EMERGENCY HELP WANTED

I lied when I got my job. I told them I had a kid so I could leave early from work to pick him up from daycare, take him to doctor's appointments, and occasionally miss a day when he's sick. Long story short, I'm in too deep. I didn't think it through. Looking to rent a kid for bring your child to work day. Must be a boy ages four to six, longish dark hair, likes soccer. Must also be artistic as the macaroni noodle paintings I made seem a little advanced for his age. Also, I will pay extra for someone willing to play the role of husband when dropping him off. He's a prosecuting attorney who often brings his work home. Message me for further details. Serious inquiries only. 

Just Two Lost Souls - rivlee // Teen and up (46K)

We have here CEO au! Just some good ‘ole fun.

Even if it is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife, husband, or companion, all Jiang Cheng really wants is to run his company, take care of his pets, and maybe get some sleep. Unfortunately the new job promotion to CEO comes with a loaded social calendar and a need for some sort of companion.

So clearly the most sensible answer is to start dating the man he's had a crush on since he was a teenager.

Because nothing could go wrong there.

Never Had I Ever - Kicchin // General (56K)

Ok ‘tis might be a lil crack but honestly, it’s kinda sweet so I enjoyed reading it! But basically you see the crew trying to set them up and some misunderstandings would obviously have to occur with a lil bit of tears.

Nie Mingjue is almost certain that Jin Guangyao has an ulterior motive for dating his best friend, Lan Xichen. However despite voicing his concerns, his best friend seems unconvinced and Lan Xichen continues to date the said man. Unable to give up just yet, Nie Mingjue tries a different tactic--convincing his best friend the man is not the right person for him by setting him up. Fortunately for him, Wei Wuxian's youngest brother is very much single and seems to be just the kind of person his best friend needs. Can Jiang Cheng truly change Lan Xichen's mind, or will Nie Mingjue's plan is a disaster from the beginning? 

One Shot

you're for me (and i for you) - RennieOnIceCream (Hitsugi_Zirkus) // General (2K)

It’s cute and fluffy!

One early morning, Lan Xichen does Jiang Cheng's hair.

green color corrector - yeasting_laozu // General (1K)

It’s implied xicheng so you only see lan xichen and wei wuxian but it’s cute.

To help his brother-in-law hide some lovebites, Wei Wuxian gives Lan Xichen a quick crash course on color theory in return for some juicy gossip. He gets more than he bargained for.  

I'll Always Find You - Arashii // Mature (9K)

(I really like this author so you’re probably gonna see more of them) This is reincarnation au and its floofly? Yea? Yea. 

Jiang Cheng spent his whole life thinking he was crazy. Dreams of flying swords, an electric whip and a handsome man in white clothes plagued him every night. Visions took him every day. Until the day he met a man with the same face of the stranger in his dreams.

Or, how Jiang Cheng and Lan Huan got together in the past, and how they found each other again in another life.

Let Me Show You My Sincerity - Bgtea // Teen and Up (5K)

Modern au. This is a floofly fluff. It’s some good ‘ole Twin Pride shenanigans (Wei Wuxian instigated of course).

Three gin and tonics, half a bottle of red wine, and four pints of beer in, Jiang Cheng comes to a couple of realizations in quick successions. They part the fuzziness of his mind like a beam of golden sunlight shining through a break between churning grey storm clouds. A veritable lightbulb going off in his foggy, groggy mind.

“You,” Jiang Cheng squints at his equally drunk brother sprawling upside down on the couch beside him, “are pining!”

Two Sides of the Same Coin - JiangChengLotus // Teen and Up (4K)

Post-canon. THis is just pure crack. Yup. It’s actually part of a multiwork fic that focuses on LWJ and JC being best bros (it’s really cute actually so you should keep reading them). But out of all of them, this was the one that I got the most kick out of (laughter and tears).

“Lan Zhan, you slept in! Did I wear you out last night?” Jiang Cheng’s hand stilled. Wei Wuxian- his brother, his very shirtless brother- smiled up at him and leaned in for a kiss. 

Jiang Cheng shrieked and flung himself from the bed. 

“Lan Zhan?!” Wei Wuxian rushed over, wearing a worried expression on his face.

~

(Basically, Jiang Cheng and Lan Wangji swap bodies on the same day as an important Discussion Conference. Chaos ensues.)

Injured/Illness/Curses List: (no deaths cuz I don’t fuk with unhappy ends).

Flight - Bloodcoral // General (11K)

Post-canon. You have LXC in seclusion and yet somehow JC just worms his way into his heart (like he did mine) and bAM. Love :)

In which Lan Xichen finds himself being coaxed from seclusion by Jiang Cheng of all people.

And Rain Will Make the Flowers Grow - brokenbutstillstanding // Mature (12K)

Hanahaki disease au. Ok so yup. It’s for Jiang Cheng obviously because him and pain might as well be a thing right? I will say though, if you can read while listening to music I recommend listening to the playlist that the author put there! Also!!!! Read the sequel as well Lotus Bloom, because it makes the whole work feel complete and it’s good! 

He coughed a bit harder, a bit of phlegm seeming to be caught as he beat at his chest to try to dislodge it. It took a moment but Jiang Cheng could feel it working its way up, coughing into his hand.

It wasn’t phlegm. It wasn’t a cold either. In his hand lay a single bright yellow winter jasmine petal.

Well, yellow had always been his favorite color.

It's easier to let go (let me hold you) - Iamthedarkoverlord // Mature (24K)

ARE YOU READY FOR SOME TEARS?! Ok but I will say *Trigger warning: suicidal thoughts/attempt* But it's a happy ending alright guys. I, too, do not like unhappy ends so we good there. This is a 5 times + 1 -esque fic and takes place post-canon.

Five times someone noticed something was wrong and the one time someone did something about it.

Don't let me go - 2009190801 // Teen and Up (8K)

A little bit of some misunderstandings that gets resolved yea? (canon universe)

Jiang Cheng wasn't suicidal.

He had an explanation for this madness, though, admittedly, it was a very, very stupid one.

Yeah okay, he fucked up.

I am cursed to love you (to the grave) - Iamthedarkoverlord // Mature (39K)

Post-canon. This is definitely an interesting fic that makes you continually ask yourself -- What the hell is going? But that’s what makes it fun though, right ;) This is also not sUPER Xicheng heavy (dw it’s still there), but it’s just really different from what I’ve read before.

Jiang Cheng can’t sleep.  

Mythology

The Form of Boneless Ice - TheWanderingHeart // Teen and Up (76K)

Ok so I LOVE THE ART that’s part of the story in this! It’s I believe by @baiwuzhi on twitter, and the art style just makes this story better! But yup, alternate world where the Jiang fam are MERPEOPLES. It’s a different read and the heart makes your heart just go /uwu/

Mythical beasts have long ago been driven to extinction by the gentry — hunted for sport, but more importantly for their magical cores. Since then, there remains only one creature that has never been caught. The Jiang’s retreated a long time ago. Abandoning land altogether, they sought safety where the humans could not reach.

It all comes to a head though, purely by chance. (Or is it by fate that a spontaneous decision allows for them to meet? If fate were a rock!) Jiang Cheng suddenly finds his whole life balanced on the head of a pin — on the flimsy promise of a human boy. In his opinion, things cannot possibly get worse!

(But then they do when the Wens decide it’s finally time to search for the elusive merpeople, and suddenly nowhere is safe.)

WIP List: Ok so these are the ones that I started, greatly enjoyed so far, but they’re not completed (YET- I HOPE). **EDITED TO SHOW WHICH HAS BEEN COMPLETED

Rewrite the Stars - Arashii // Mature (7/7 chapters - 74K) *COMPLETED

Royalty au. Enemies to Lovers. What more is there to say? (But honestly though, the writing is really good so far and I love their dynamic and interactions with each other in this setting.)

Five great kingdoms have been fighting for years and when the kingdom of Yunmeng is destroyed, the Crown Prince Jiang Cheng vanishes.

In Gusu, Lan Xichen makes an offer impossible for Jiang Cheng to refuse. His life or revenge? There’s only one option and Jiang Cheng swears loyalty to the man he hated the most his whole life, the Crown Prince of Gusu, Lan Xichen himself.

The Fate of Us - Arashii // Explicit (5/5 chapters - 67K) *COMPLETED

A/B/O au. Ok I’ll admit, this fic is perhaps more on the um… self-indulgent side alright?!  (*/ω＼*). But basically the story is: Jiang Cheng is a beta… until he isn’t :)

Jiang Cheng grew up thinking he was a beta. He was fine being a beta, he even liked it despite his parents disappointment. No crazy hormones, no heats, no ruts, never smelling the air like some dog… But why, why now every smell and every alpha close to him was giving him an urge to fight or flight?

In a banquet to celebrate the end of the Sunshot Campaign, Lan Xichen scents a delicious alluring smell and it seems to be coming from the young Sect Leader – Jiang Wanyin – who everyone thought was a beta, even him.

[SIDE NOTE: You should check this author’s other works out! They actually have this other fic that I’ve been eyeing (No Paths are Bound), but I decided to wait until it’s completed before I touch it because I am a binge reader at heart]

A Kind Word and a Gun (Will Take You Far) - actually_its_lem // Mature (7/? - 56K)

Mafia au. I LOVE GOOD MAFIA AUS!! Ok so Lan family be the big bad here and JC and WWX had a secret past? ANyways I just remember the beginning chapters to be super fun to read! 

Jiang Cheng stared blearly at the unfamiliar smiling man across from him. His temples were throbbing much worse now than they had been before…before...

Before he had lost consciousness.

He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, disbelief dripping from every fiber of his being.

“You kidnapped me. You kidnapped me off the goddamn street.”

How to Escape Your Problems and Live Your Life in Denial – the Jiang Cheng Edition - Bgtea // Explicit (24/24 - 160K) *COMPLETED

Modern au. Cat. Barista. Cat Cafe. Yup, that’s the plot. (But ok for real I’m waiting for this to update so plsplspls. It’s cute and fun between JC and LXC and tbh I love modern fics where JC decides to branch off from his parents and learn to live his own life yano?).

So, this may not be the life Jiang Cheng's imagined for himself - he’s living in an apartment slightly bigger than a closet above a café filled with sassy, judgmental cats, penny-pinching and coupon-cutting his way to stave off starvation and scurvy.

And of course, just to make his life more complicated, there's the Lan Xichen Problem.

undeniably, you -  HamsterQinghua // Teen and Up (15/15 - 28K) *COMPLETED

Post-canon. Ok I’ll admit that at the time there was only 5 chapters and I had read it and then subscribed to it to wait until it’s complete. But from what I saw in those 5 chapters was that this was going to be fun! So check it out!

Jiang Cheng can tell something is wrong when he sees Jin Ling's face ---or, Jiang Cheng gets cursed on a night-hunt, and turns into a 5-year-old

[clarste]

Since it's been a few weeks, what's your opinion on Chapter 8 of Arknights? Reading about your opinion on other pieces of Arknights has been very nice so far.

I find this enemy description inordinately amusing so I will start with this before going to spoilers below the break.

1) First of all I am a sucker for flashbacks following the villain, so the basic structure of Chapter 8 was right up my alley. Even if Talulah's arc was more or less predictable—who among us did not expect Alina to die? I think some people might feel that it was a little too long, but honestly I think it said everything it needed to say and frankly there is nothing more important the chapter could have said. If anything, the parts that weren't about Talulah would be first on my chopping list if I were editing this story down. In particular, the whole bit with Kal'tsit and the sarcophagus and all that had almost nothing to do with the themes of this chapter or the Reunion arc, so they seemed especially superfluous. Even if that story might have been interesting told on its own.

2) Talulah. The main character of this chapter, obviously. I think there are two different angles to approach her from that seem almost mutually exclusive, which are that A) she is a tragic figure who started with noble ideals but was pushed to her limits until she became a ruthless shell of her former self and B) she is literally possessed by Kaschey, ie: the Deathless Black Snake, who is the immortal spirit of Imperialism manipulating the country of Ursus into a constant state of war. From what I've seen of people’s reactions, I think most people focus more on angle B, which makes sense because that is literally true in the story, but what I took from it is that it's a lot more ambiguous than that.

What I mean is that the story is constantly emphasizing that the Deathless Black Snake can only take action as long as Talulah agrees with it. It's more insidious than just an external ghost taking control of her (and thereby freeing her of responsibility for her actions), it's a philosophy that was planted in her by her mentor, a way of thinking, an idea. A living meme. So when I say that it's the immortal spirit of imperialism, I don't mean that as a joke, it is the embodiment of imperialism itself, of imperialist ideals and goals, manifested in this particular person the moment she starts seeing her enemies as obstacles to be eliminated instead of people with their own motivations. I certainly don't think that the trigger for the transformation was set arbitrarily, that's just Who She Needed To Be in order to buy into the ideas that Kaschey and the Snake had taught her from a young age. It’s also an ancient god taking physical control over her, but hey, it's fantasy.

Ultimately, we didn't defeat the Deathless Black Snake in battle, we just gave Talulah second thoughts. And she will live with what she's done for the rest of her life.

3) Amiya. In this chapter, more than anywhere else, it's clear that Amiya is the main character of Arknights. Sure, we have whatever Kal'tsit is plotting, and whatever the hell the Doctor is, but that doesn't actually matter. In fact, they spent this entire chapter walking around in the basement and never once interacting with Talulah. The Doctor shows up at the end with no idea what's going on or what happened, which is quite comical when you think about it.

By contrast, Amiya sees the big picture. Of the three people on top of the tower during the climax, only Amiya knows what both Talulah and Chen have been through, or indeed what she’s been though. What brought them all to that point. She is watching all these flashbacks right alongside us through her empathy powers. Which, as I've mentioned before, is really the best superpower in this setting: the power to see the world through someone else's eyes, and to feel the pain that drives them. And we, the players, feel what she feels. In a certain sense, she's even more of a player avatar here than even the Doctor, which I mean in the best possible way.

And of course her empathy gives her cool shounen superpowers that are suspiciously similar to Emiya Shirou, but I will allow it.

4) Chen. Chen is honestly kind of the weak link here, imo. While of course we've been following her character arc since chapter 3 and I don't mind where they've taken her, it ironically kind of felt to me like she had no personal stakes in the final battle. Which is odd since the story seemed to be hammering that it's all personal for her, what with Talulah being her long-lost sister and all that. The problem (imo) is that her close relationship with Talulah is all Told-Not-Shown, and also that Talulah is being possessed by the Deathless Black Snake, so it kind of feels like she's being left out of the loop, both in terms of knowing the facts and also emotionally.

I'm not saying she doesn't get any good lines, or that her banter with Amiya isn't cool or funny, I'm just saying that what should have been a big emotional moment at the climax of the story just sort of fell flat for me, and I was left wondering "wait, why is Chen here again?"

That said, I did enjoy her bit afterward where she's like "you need to stand fair trial for your crimes, Talulah, but in this world that discriminates against the Infected, there’s nowhere worthy of giving you one." I feel that sums up the game's stance on these things quite succinctly.

5) Rosmontis. Rosmontis had sort of an interesting arc here because it separated her from Amiya and I almost want to say that was a good thing? While I thought her relationship to Amiya was one of the most interesting things about her in the previous chapter, it almost feels like it was preventing her from forming bonds with other people and becoming a more well-rounded person? I guess what I want to say that is that Rosmontis was being coddled, sheltered, treated as a child. While some would call her a monster, Amiya was always around to say "no no no, don't listen to them, you're cute!" And while that was certainly nice of Amiya, it feels like what truly made her accept herself was almost the opposite: being accepted as a monster (or rather, a person with monstrous powers) by people used to fighting alongside monsters. Being told that she's allowed to hate the people who hurt her, and to be ruthless to her enemies. That her own emotions, both good or bad, are valid. For the first time, she felt human.

What you'll note, of course, is that these aren't exactly heroic virtues, and in fact they're kind of similar to what Amiya rejects and what got Talulah into so much trouble? Honestly I don't know if I would say Rosmontis is a good person right now, but what she is doing is thinking on her own for the first time, and deciding what's right and wrong for herself. It sounds almost malicious to put it this way, but it's like Amiya and Rhodes Island were trying to mold her into someone she's not. In some ways the opposite of what Kaschey did to Talulah.

I don't think her story is over yet, of course, but I found it an interesting direction to take. Rosmontis is on the path to find her own justice, which may or may not align with Rhodes Island's.

Also, kitty:

6) W. Back when I was doing a write-up for chapter 7, I said that maybe she would have been better off being recruitable in chapter 8 instead of 7, because it seemed a little early in her arc for that. I was wrong. She wouldn't fit in for chapter 8 either. Honestly she probably shouldn't be recruitable at all right now, not that I'm complaining as someone who uses her. Just, you know, narratively she is not at a place where she would consider joining RI, and in fact she ends the chapter pretty much going "later losers, I hope we never meet again." Which implies that the W in my squad right now is like a totally different person who is either from an alternate dimension or the future, after a lot of character development. That's not like the worst thing ever, it just seems a little weird to have her right now. W's story isn't about Reunion and never was. It's about Theresa and Babel, which as of now we are still only getting little hints of. I'd be glad to see that story when it happens, but until then W's just kind of there.

7) Themes. For some reason, this one line in this chapter really hit me. While it's not literally true, especially if you count all the former child slaves or feral children and whatnot, it does feel broadly true that most of the characters come from middle-class backgrounds. Like, your Krooses and Orchids of the world. Kal'tsit goes on to explain that this is because RI can only really recruit in cities, and that rural Infected tend to get thrown into the wilderness on their own and have no idea that RI exists.

Interestingly, this idea also sort of comes up in Talalah's side, when it's revealed that Talulah is the daughter of a duke, making her followers hesitate for a moment. While I don't recall it being explicitly spelled out, the implication was obviously that she's not "one of them" and this might be a cause for distrust. But what are "they' exactly? Clearly she is in fact Infected, she made sure of that herself. But she wasn't abandoned in the same way her followers were. She had a choice, and chose to side with the Infected. Which is honorable of her and all, but it also indicates a fundamental disconnect between them because they never had a choice. She could've used her influence to hide her oripathy and be treated like a normal person (as we saw happened with both Chen and Patriot), or used her wealth to get sent to a fancy private hospital like Rhodes Island, with the latest medical technology and treatments.

So while the story focuses on the discrimination of the Infected, it's clear here that that's not really the only thing going on. Being Infected means little to those in power, while for those without power it's just an an excuse to intrude on their lives and make sure they aren't "harboring any Infected" or whatever. Basically the story starts discussing intersectionality, which I found interesting.

8) This is a good line: