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wellofdean · 4 months ago

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Sorry ,for me personally, it has to be out loud acknowledge to even remotely make up for how badly they treated fans over the years, the out loud queerbaiting in one breath and mocking in the next. The in text gay jokes, sexism and homophobia. The digs at their own fans.

They want the credit without having to do it. Again. They want the pat on the back they need to earn it this time.

Years of baiting for views and profit needs a payoff imo. Sorry people downplaying how important the canonization of this ship in particular is just hurts to see over and over. Stop letting them off the hook please. You deserve more. We all do.

It’s important. It does matter.

The cas/destiel hope baiting continued with the Winchesters and that’s why I’m at a put up or shut up moment with Jensen and the writers. He and Danneel kept the hype up every week that the show was airing all the while knowing cas doesn’t even get a name drop. He’s not even hinted at. Mary/john paralleled destiel so many times yet refused to call it want it was.

They could have shut it down week one, they interacted on tweeter a lot during airing and knew what fans thought there was going to be an acknowledgment or hint that never happened. They are smart people, they saw the speculation and hype but didn’t step in with a gentle ‘sorry guys this is about the new crew’ they fanned the hope instead with ‘something big happens’ that was just dean meeting the new team.

Loved the Winchesters as a show, sad it got dropped cause I loved the new cast so much. That said the baiting hurt and wasn’t necessary, the show was good.

Everyone is looking back with rose colored glasses and rewriting history. But things were ugly with the spn team/cast/writers at times. The homophobia was pretty out loud in a way it was allowed to be in the early 00s. They’ve grown and that’s wonderful but it still happened.

They need to earn the praise they want imo. No hate! Glad you are happy! just feels a little unfair to say we should all let them off the hook again and be happy with nothing while praising the benevolent straights. Just my two cents 😅💚💙

I want to answer this sympathetically, because I know it's disappointing that no one has been willing to just say "Dean and Cas are gay for each other" out loud, and I don't think there are many people in this fandom who picked up what the narrative was putting down, and were not disappointed in the finale for LOADS of reasons, only one of them being that Dean never had the chance to acknowledge what Cas said to him. I understand your feelings, my anonymous friend, I really do. I too found the end of Supernatural deeply frustrating, because they managed to erase the meaningful journeys of every single character, not just Dean, though what they did with Dean was the worst. I completely understand wanting them to JUST FUCKING SAY IT. I do. I get you. I simply do not agree.

My argument, which I have made many, many times, is that what you want is THERE in the narrative. They made Cas Dean's ride or die, they made it obvious that Dean can't carry on without Cas -- that the loss of Cas means Dean loses his will to live. That was explicit. They made it clear that more than anyone else, EVEN Sam, Cas is essential to him. They structured the narrative around Dean and Cas's emotional beats. They let Cas say the obvious thing out loud, and then showed us Dean behaving exactly as Dean would in a situation like that -- in the midst of his existential crisis about who he is and whether he has ever had free will, and with the world falling around them -- they showed us Dean unable to speak, unable to respond but overwhelmed with emotion. Like, remember that when Mary died when Dean was four, he was unable to speak? Is it really so hard to imagine that he loves Cas with all his heart? To read love in Dean's watery eyes, and the way he chokes down his heart and begs Cas not to do this? Not to being saying goodbye? I mean... I CAN DO THAT MATH. Literally everything about the story supports it. IT IS THERE.

Fandom always argues: if Cas were a woman, we wouldn't have any questions, so what I am just wondering is, why do we have questions again? Is it because we (homophobically) can't just see it for what it is because it's gay? Because, when it's gay we lose our ability to interpret narrative, and we need to be told, like we are 5 years old, what's happening in a perfectly obvious story? Or, is it a skill issue? Is it because we need the creators of the story to affirm our interpretation? We need the actors to just TELL US what they meant when they did that thing with their faces? Do we need their permission to understand it for what it is?

I've said many times that calling what happened on Supernatural 'queerbaiting' because no one ever made out or fucked on the maps table is really offensive to me actually. Don't you know that there are queer people in this world who never get to live their truths? Who just ache and yearn and want, and never get to have? Like, that there are in fact queer people who are afraid to say what they feel, or who don't understand or embrace who they really are and what they really need until it's too late? Are those not QUEER EXPERIENCES? I love Dean and I love that story because it's queer as hell and it makes ME feel seen, because I am like him! I am a queer person of his age who didn't ask myself those questions seriously enough in time! My own queerness is very fucking real, and it is UNLIVED. That HAPPENS to actual queer humans, and like, it's not queerbaiting when it's just queer, but didn't tell you the queer story YOU wanted it to tell. You saw years of tease? I saw years of choices, and love, and accretion of deep wells of emotion. I saw a clear romance, and a character becoming. It was a story I needed, AS A QUEER PERSON.

And the Winchesters was just joyful if you went in with that understanding of the previous story. It was like getting an A+ in Supernatural week after week from Dean himself. I can accept that the stars didn't align for Cas/Misha to come back in the first season, accept that if he were coming back, it needed to be more than a cameo to make it right, and that it didn't work out. I am so sad it was cancelled, but I can accept that it was leading someplace it didn't get to go. That's not queerbaiting, either! It's telling a story that was aborted, and I think if you don't see that, then that is DEFINITELY a skill issue.

I'm not looking back with rose coloured glasses; Supernatural is fresh in my mind. I watched it again without the internal pressure of expectations that aren't going to be met, and let it tell me what it was really doing all along. I am happy. It's a really compelling, deeply romantic, deeply queer story. I don't need permission from anyone involved to think that, and I don't need it explained to me. I understand wanting it to just be fully explicit, but I would not trade the story it did tell for a simpler, less engaging one, that asked less of me. I love it very much AS IT IS.

And, please: point me to this fabled abuse of fans. I have never really seen an example of it that is not easily debunked with a little bit of context.

#anti-trashnatural agenda #spn #supernatural was good actually #it's not queerbaiting when it's just queer #destiel

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adventuringblind · 1 year ago

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Daddy Issues Finale

Max Verstappen x reader

Genre: Angst and hurt/comfort

Request: no but they are open for Max, Charles, Lando, Oscar, and possibly Danny Ric if y’all have any ideas

Summary: Finally needing both fathers to leave you and Max alone, you start making steps towards going no contact to protect yourselves. Suddenly, the reader finds herself in an unlikely situation and once again finds herself dealing with their fathers.

Warnings: Read the title… it literally says daddy issues. Most forms of abuse are mentioned in this fic, so please proceed with caution. Sort of kidnapping. Reader is drugged. Also, this isn’t proofread because proofreading is hard, and I am lazy.

Notes: we’re back in third person! Also, the reader gets so fed up and becomes a slight menace. I totally was not expecting it to get this dark but here ya go!

Masterlist // Part one // Part two

Max was well aware he needed to do something about this situation. He just didn't know what yet.

It had been a few days since he found her on the floor. Eye's puffy and cheeks tear stained. He felt every bit of restraint he had snapped in him. He knew that logical thing to do was try to go no contact woth both fathers. But that didn't stop him from wanting to punch both for what they did to her.

He'd convinced her to get away for a while. So you headed out with Kika for some 'girl time' as she called it.

Max, on the other hand, was sat on the couch with Pierre, Lando, and Charles. Trying his best to give an explanation of what happened without getting to detailed.

They were nosey, though. So Max was bound to spill eventually.

"He hit her- twice."

The three other men stared at him in shock. Their mouths agape at what he'd just confessed.

"That explains her behavior when I picked her up from the airport." Lando sighed.

"What are you going to do about it, Mate?" Piqued Charles. His hand rubbing against his head to try and process what he'd just heard.

"I don't know yet if I'm being honest."

They all were aware of the bags under Max’s eyes. How his voice sounded so broken. He’d seemed so happy just last week. Thinking his father was finally going to let him breathe. Jos technically did, but he turned that frustration to you instead.

Yesterday Max was given her phone. She had set it in his lap and said everything he’d need to know was in your texts. One rule neither had ever broken was going through each others phones without permission. Both sides had parents that loved to invade privacy. So the two had come to the conclusion that they would communicate what they felt needed to be at that moment.

Y/N had struggled to talk about what happened the last few months. So she just gave Max her phone and let him read what had been texted to her. It was a little easier this way. He could get find what he’d needed to know and maybe get some questions answered and she didn’t have to struggle to get the words out.

“The things they’ve said to both of us are awful, but this a new extent of that.” His voice wavered. His friends doing their best to comfort him. They all knew it was bad. It was obvious after he started joking about it like it was normal. “We both have their numbers blocked. So hopefully that will keep them away for now.”

“Well your dad showed up at your door. Do you think he might do it again?” Pierre’s voice, albeit gentle, had an urgency about it.

Max groaned and flopped backwards further into the couch. The thought hitting him like a train. His dad could show up unannounced, again. “We’ll have to move.”

“There’s an open apartment in my building.” Lando quickly suggested. “We could have sleepovers!”

It didn’t take long for the two to get the apartment. Even less time for getting everything moved in. It wasn’t too far away from where they had been living, and everyone wanted to help get them out of there as quick as possible.

Everyone had agreed not give any ideas that they had moved. Privacy becoming important for the two lovers. Both stopped their online presence aside from Max’s professional one. He doesn’t even run that account, his PR manager does. He’d had a conversation with her talking about how he’d been having some safety issues.

The two were relieved when they made it to the next race with no parents in sight. Y/N however, was still on edge about sitting in the Redbull garage. Max was understanding about it and said he could see if Christian would let her sit by him to watch or maybe in the Alpine garage with Kika.

She went for the second option. Waiting until the very last second to give Max a kiss before the race. Then she made her way through the paddock to locate Kika.

She was so close to the safety of the Alpine garage. Close to being able to enjoy the race and watch Max do what he loves. Until a familiar face had her doubling back to the safety of Redbull. Or maybe nowhere was safe.

People were closing in on her. Her breath becoming increasingly restricted in her lungs. She needed to get back within eye shot of Christian. He knew some of what happened. Enough to know that if he saw Jos around the Redbull garage, to have him escorted away. He’d probably be busy though, and she didn’t want to distract anyone.

She did feel a little better after seeing Max in first on the screen. Her eyes leaving the path in front of her for a measly ten seconds. Only to find herself falling to the ground.

She gathered her bearings and made a move to get back on her feet. Until she felt a hand in her shoulder.

“It’s been awhile,” Came the voice of Jos Verstappen.

Max had an amazing race. He was excited to win, but he was also excited to find his lover. He didn’t see her during the podium celebration. Most likely due to the crowds. He’d try to locate her in the Alpine garage when he was don’t.

As he was walking around doing his media duties, he locked eyes with Pierre. Pierre who was holding hands with Kika. Kika who was supposed to be with you.

Max excused himself from the reporter and jogged up to his friend. “Kika, do you know where Y/N is?”

“No, sorry, I haven’t seen her all day. I thought she was with you since she hasn’t answered my texts.” She explained.

All three passed looks of confusion before they all became determined to find you.

Max was texting and calling you repeatedly. Praying that neither of your fathers had actually shown up. He finally ran into Christian who was trying to congratulate him on another win. Max, however, only hear the sound of you crying from his memories. Concern flooded through Christian as he watched Max delve further into the panic.

“Max? Are you alright? Can you tell me what’s going on?” He voice calm but urgent enough to get Max to come back to his senses. Now clinging to the sound. Using it to ground himself.

“She’s missing.” He breathed

“Who? Y/N.”

Max frantically began nodding his head. The desperation to find her clearly evident.

“I’ll ask around the garage if anyone has seen her. Why don’t you check your driver room and take a minute to breath.”

He didn’t want to take time to himself. He should be looking for his love. Christian made a point though, he wouldn’t be able to think rationally if he didn’t calm down.

Now he sits alone. Letting the tears escape. Still attempting to call her only to be greeted by the cheery voicemail recording.

When he’d calmed himself down and it didn’t feel like his head was spinning, he began his search one more. Retracing the possible path you might have taken to the Alpine garage.

It seemed everyone was searching high and low for her now.

There were only so many places you could be.

Max was startled by the sudden sound of his phone ringing in his pocket. Disregarding the caller ID, he simply answered “hello” without any hesitation.

“Is this Mr. Verstappen?” Asked an unfamiliar feminine voice.

“Yes, who am I speaking with?”

“This is a nurse from the general hospital.”

Everything after that was a blur. He hardly focused on the details. Only running back to his drivers room to find his rental car keys and his wallet.

He ran into Lando on the way. Making his best attempt at explaining while rushing around to grab his things. He hadn’t even bothered changing back into regular clothes yet.

“How about I drive and you change in the backseat.” Lando shot Max a wink and despite everything going on, Max managed a smile. At least he knows where she is now.

Everything happened in a whirlwind. One minute she was on her way to see Kika and the next she was gripped by the arm and told not to make a scene.

Her survival instincts kicked in. Knowing she should listen to the man who is determined to make her and Max’s lives miserable. He really needs a new hobby.

She wanted to scream as they passed by Redbull again, but something in her stopped her lungs from doing so. ‘Why is defending someone you love easier than defending yourself?’ She thinks to herself as the two exit the paddock entirely.

It doesn't take long until Jos is shoving her into the back seat. She complies, knowing he's unpredictable.

When she finally is in the car, she notices the figure on the drivers side starting the car.

Her father had come along too.

"Isn't this considered kidnapping?" She asks sarcastically. The car pulling put and starting the journey to an unknow destination.

Neither of them speak. It's unsettling and eerie.

She wanted Max. She needed Max. She knew if she wasn't back before race end that he would be frantic.

They'd tried so hard to be safe and private at the same time. Maybe they should have just made a public statement. Now, everyone was going to find out in the most dramatic way possible.

"Are you going to murder me?"

"No, now shut up, or I will." Spits Jos.

"I would if just told me where we're going." She shrugs. Knowing she's making them aggravated.

If Jos hadn't taken her phone, this would be a very different situation. She curses whoever made women's pockets so small.

"Fine, if you need to know so bad, im taking you home. Far away from Max. Back where you belong." Her Father shouts. Knuckles are turning white from gripping the steering while so hard. "You two are bad influences on each other. You tell each other lies about your families! I've done some research, and I think maybe you're hallucinating. I'm taking you home where you can get help." He explains.

This time, she didn't say anything. The tears weren't stopping. You knew your father had said things like this before about your mom. Going as far as to try and get her diagnosed with any kind of mental disorder that fit.

It never worked because she never had symptoms of anything he was suggesting. How was he expecting to make it work this time?

The answer came sooner than expected. A moment she slipped into the back of her head to escape left her open and vulnerable.

A needle was jammed into her leg by Jos. A cold feeling spreading through her body. She had no idea what it was. Only that it wasn't good and she needed to get out of this car.

The adrenaline from her flight instincts kicked in, and her breathing picked up. They were on a slower street. One lined with small shops and pedestrians. If she was going to jump, now was her chance.

Without thinking, she opens the door and launches herself towards the sidewalk. The people around either running away or running to help her.

She vaguely remembers someone asking what happened and if they should call somone.

"Max" was the only thing she could get out before tumbling into the darkness.

Max rushs inside the emergency room. Lando dropped him right outside the door before trying to hunt down a parking spot.

"How can I help you?" Asks the nurse. A little startled by his sudden appearance.

'I'm looking for someone."

It didn't take long before he was being led back to where they had been keeping her.

Relief flooding through his veins when he layed eyes on her. Trying and struggling to sip water through a straw.

Her eyes went wide when she saw him. Flinging the blanket off and swinging her legs over the side like she would just walk to him.

He rushed over to her and gently laid her back down. Her pupils are blown, and her body is swaying side to side. Confusion takes hold of Max. "What happened to her?" He asks the nurse.

"She has a minor fracture in her wrist and a gash on her knee from the impact of the sidewalk. We're still running tests to see the specific drugs in her system, but we do know for sure she was drugged." The nurse explains.

Max feels his stomach lurch. "I don't understand. What happened to her?"

"My apologies, I thought the authorities had spoken to you already. I'll send them in to explain."

Max's head is reeling. The love of his life was drugged, and who knows what else. It doesn't matter what any reporter says. He's getting extra security.

Tears slip from his eyes as he holds you. "I'm sorry, love."

"Why are you sorry, Maxy? You're here." She slurs. A smile graced her lips despite the situation.

The sound of heavy boots makes Max look up. The girl on the bed is now entertaining himself with his fingers.

"Are you family?" The officer asks.

"Yeah."

"We should step outside."

Max got up from his place beside her on the bed. She looked at him, tears welling in her eyes. Struggling to comprehend what was happening.

"I'll be right back." He soothed her. Placing a kiss on the top of her head.

Max followed the officer outside and closed the door behind him.

"We have reason to believe she was kidnapped. Witnesses told us she jumped out of a moving car and then almost immediately passed out."

Max's mind went in so many directions at once. How could this have happened? How did nobody notice?

The officer opened a manilla envelope and slid out two pictures. "These are the suspects who we caught trying to get her back in the cat. Do you recognize them?"

Max's hand flew to his face. He couldn't get words out. He was about to sink to his knees before Lando came around the corner. Seeing him about to buckle and reflexivley running up to him. Lando pratically catchs the Dutchman and helps him get steady on his feet again.

Lando tries to get his bearings. He was about to ask Max what happened when he notices the officer and, more importantly, the pictures.

"Isn't that your dad, Max?" Max just shakes his head yes. Releived Lando is there to say what he's trying to.

Lando leans in closer, the officer surprised at the action and almost pulling away. He stops, however, at Lando's next words. "And isn't that Y/N's father?"

It didn't take them long to have the young woman discharged from the hospital. Lando driving the two home and helping check the apartment for any potential threats.

The two males could tell she was feeling awful. The doctors flushed her system with water and put a cast on the fracture. The two were exhausted.

Lando said his goodbyes and told Max to call if they needed anything. including someone to stand guard.

Max had texted everyone on the ride home that she was back safe.

A new question on his mind: What happens now? Both your fathers had been taken into custody. Mainly on the charge of kidnapping. But the officer said they could testify and get them put away for longer.

Could the two of you manage that? The side of him that wanted to make his father happy said he should go bail him out. On the other hand, the two would finally he safe. No more anxieties about awful parental figures doing unwarranted things.

Both could start to finally get the healing they deserve.

It took some time, but both came to the conclusion to prosecute. The day of the trail came far to quickly for you to prepare.

There was supposed to be a race this weekend, but it had been postponed until later in the evening due to many of the racers wanting to testify.

When both were found guilty, the couple started crying. The thought of being free from the awful cloud looming over them finally set in.

Nether of them could believe is was this good.

When Max won the race later, it was the most emotional either had ever been. Max let himself be proud of his achievements.

Months later, the two had begun to heal. A slow process. Both are patient and understanding with each other. Trying to communicate as much as possible. Finding outside help to help guide them.

Security at the paddock had gotten better. She never felt vulnerable. Mainly because someone was always with her, and Christian let her sit next to him during races. He'd joked, saying that you already look like you belong there, so he might as well just give you a job.

And as the two lovers lie in bed together, they reminisce. How their daddy issues brought them together.

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dark-elf-writes · 6 months ago

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Master of death Harry at UA who accidentally summons Oboro’s ghost and doesn’t get why Shota and Hizashi are crying but doesn’t say anything as they cry

I read this as MoD Harry as a student doing this which makes this funnier and also more heartbreaking.

Like Harry leaving after the battle and needing to do something different, something that doesn’t involve a castle of ghosts and the memory of blood on his hands and screams in his ears, he ends up, through a letter sent to him at exactly the right moment courtesy of Nezu (and how he managed to get a letter delivered to an unplayable address Harry isn’t sure he wants to know), as the oldest member of 1-A.

He doesn’t really know what to claim as a quirk because his magic is fucked and telling people is illegal but then he summons a ghost (the previous tenant of his apartment who had a heart attack and Merlin he is going to have words with his realtor) literally the night before and decides “Necromancer” is close enough. Besides the dead flock to him now (had they always?) whether he wants them to or not, it’s only fair that he gets something out of it other than a terrible sleep schedule and the world’s first anti-ghost ward outside his bathroom.

And UA has no shortage of ghosts. Students, alumni, and former teachers alike follow Harry’s every step from the moment he enters the gates a day before everyone else (for a meeting with his new teachers to “see where he places due to his unique circumstances” which sounded like kind way to say “we know you have a year four education in non magical subjects”) but one in particular shoos the others away with a smile and whisper of… something herding them off. He doesn’t fully manifest, invisible to everyone but Harry, as he follows his steps.

“Hey, kid, you’re the transfer right?”

If Harry was less used to ghosts he would be a little offended about being called “kid” by someone who looked the same age as him, but Ghosts were frozen as how they were when they died. For better or worse.

At least when around Harry they didn’t show their death wounds. Instead appearing whole and unblemished.

The meeting room was full when Harry entered, the ghost at his shoulder, and he fought the urge to check for exits. He didn’t need a window to get away with his magic, didn’t think any of the people here were strong enough to stop him if he wanted to leave, quirks or no, not since he had collected the hallows and everything changed.

“Er, hello.”

Well, maybe not everything changed.

Several of the teachers smile, one with the most ridiculous hairstyle he has ever seen beaming particularly brightly, but it was Nezu that drew his eye.

Nezu who smiled at him and gestured to where a steaming cup of tea waited at the empty space on the table. “Potter-kun. How lovely it is to meet you in person.”

Harry had barely made it to table when he felt the familiar yank of his power slipping the leash — less common now but always at the worst moments — and a moment later the ghost still following him gasped as color flooded him.

Huh. His hair was blue. Teddy would like that.

The blond teacher stood so quickly their chair flipped behind them followed by two others wide eyed and disbelieving as they stared at the ghost. The ghost who watched them with eyes just as wide, wiggling his fingers and gasping when their eyes followed the movement.

“You can see me?!”

Harry froze, not daring to breathe. Fuck this was bad, but the question was how bad.

Then one of the teachers, the woman who Harry was very careful to not look below her shoulders, sobbed.

Right… this was… not a great way to start a new school. “Traumatize your professors” was usually a term four activity for him not before school had officially started. Still it couldn’t hurt to let them talk for a while. He could always send the ghost away if things went south… probably… maybe… eventually.

Harry sank into his seat and drained his tea in one long swallow. This was going to be along day.

#the elf talks #mha #bnha #harry potter #feral about this tbh

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zvtara-was-never-canon · 7 months ago

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What you say to this

Let's debunk all the lies:

1 - "Kataang is one-sided" We literally hear Katara talk about how he gives her hope in the begining of EVERY SINGLE EPISODE, she canonically starts thinking of him as potential boyfriend instead of just a friend right in the middle of the first season (and after it we never see her having a crush on another boy like say Jet), the kiss on the cave at the start of season two is HER idea and she clearly enjoyed it, she is visibly upset when he's pulling away from her after Appa's kidnaping, her rage at his death is a clear parallel both to Tui and La as well as Oma and Shu, she is jealous when he's paying attention to other girls and flirting with him, she clearly liked the kiss during the Invasion even if she didn't see it coming, she threated to murder Zuko if he ever hurt Aang again, and even in the Ember Island fiasco she full on says to Aang that what her actress said about her only seeing him as a little brother is not true.

2 - "The age/maturity gap makes it weird" It's literally the same age gap as Zutara. It's TWO years, not twenty. Katara likes having fun and goofing around just as much as Aang does. Aang steps up and embraces his responsibilities just as much as she does when he discovers what the Fire Nation did to the world, and his people. Honestly, despite being older, Zuko is the least mature of all three - hell, 16-year-old Zuko is less mature than 13-year-old Zuko, which makes perfect sense because his abuse and banishment made him double down on all of his flaws, mainly his stubborness and tendency to lash out in rage.

3 - "They spent the second half of book 3 always fighting and disagreeing" They literally were only in conflict during The Southern Raiders, Ember Island Players, and then on the first episode of a four-part saga. Three episodes out TEN. Katara and Zuko meanwhile spent 5/6 of the entire series being enemies, AND she only forgave him when there was only ONE more episode left until the finale.

4 - "Zutara doesn't have any real red flags" Ya know, besides the fact that Zuko's nation and family commited genocide against Katara's people, and that he believed that was 100% okay, and that he chased her and her friends all over the world being openly hostile and violent, and he once hit her so hard it knocked her out cold, and he constantly calls her a peasant because he's very classist AND racist to the point of not recognizing her father's authority/status, and he attacked her when she offered to heal his uncle and then again in Ba Sing Se after she thought they had bonded, him helping Azula in battle was why she got to murder Katara's best friend and then he also sent an assasin after the Gaang to finish/repeat the job, and after all that he still felt entitled to her forgiveness after he was accepted into the group. Once again: this is why no one takes zutarians seriously. They love bragging about their ship being "complex and intriguing" then try to completely negate canon because for all their talk about "calling out abuse in Kataang/Maiko", they are, at their core, enablers.

5 - "Zutara was part of Ehasz's vision for book 4" No, it wasn't, and the man said so himself. He liked Mai and Maiko, and wrote lots of Kataang episodes. He has repeatedly let everyone know that the supposed interview in which he talks about how Bryke forced Kataang to happen at the last minute is FAKE.

6 - "We didn't get book 4 because Bryke wanted a movie" Bryke didn't really WANT the Shyamalan movie, but Nickelodeon, their bosses, wanted money. They literally walked out on the production because they were unhappy with it. They were OFFERED to make season four, but didn't feel it was necessary and stuck to three - and while I don't think that was the best choice, it still worked and it was a decision fully divorced from any movie deal or ship war.

7 - "People get angry at mention of zutara despite there being nothing wrong with the ship itself (besides not being canon)" Literally no one is obligated to like a ship just because YOU think it's perfect, and that kind of entitlement, the "I'm better/smarter than everyone else" complex, combined with all the lies, is exactly why people tend to hate the SHIPPERS and by extension the ship itself.

Admiting that zutara has always been pure fanon and that it isn't for everyone doesn't mean you have to stop liking it. Quit acting like a spoiled child, go enjoy your ship in peace, and respect other people's right to be indifferent to it or actively disliking it. Their personal preference is not a personal attack against you, stop treating it as such.

#anti zutara #pro kataang

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captainsophiestark · 1 year ago

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The Ugliest Tie I've Ever Seen

Daniel Sousa x Reader

Masterlist - Join My Taglist!

Written for Fictober 2023!

Fandom: Marvel

Day 27 Prompt: "I don't know if they will accept this."

Summary: Y/N has finally been transferred to LA, joining their boyfriend Daniel Sousa to help with a case. Unfortunately, he's picked up some new fashion in LA.

Word Count: 1,311

Category: Fluff, Humor

A/N: This is basically a request @everyhazyday sent me for Daniel Sousa Appreciation Week before I dropped out of the event and disappeared for a couple months lol. Hope you enjoy!!

Putting work into an AI program without permission is illegal. You do not have my permission. Do not do it.

I stepped out of the car to be greeted by the warm, sunny weather of Southern California, a smile on my face. This beat the New York winter any day of the week.

After months of waiting to move out to LA, the SSR here had finally caught a case big enough to warrant it. I'd left New York behind with hugs for Jack and Peggy to join my boyfriend, Daniel Sousa, on the other side of the country. We'd been making long distance work since he'd been appointed the new Chief, but I couldn't wait to see him again in person.

I walked through the doors of the Auerbach Theatrical Agency to find Rose at a large desk, fake smiling as two identical-looking girls tap danced in the middle of the room. As soon as she saw me, Rose stood and walked around the desk, hands clasped and a borderline grimace replacing her smile.

"I'm sorry, but I don't think your act is quite what we're looking for. Thank you, have a nice day."

The girls both scowled and huffed, but Rose was immovable. The minute they were both out the front door she sighed, shoulders relaxing, and came over to give me a hug.

"Hey, Rose. That looked more fun than the telephone company bit," I teased. She huffed, but when she pulled back from the hug, she had a smile on her face.

"I have actually gotten to see some good acts, once in a while," she said. "And the weather here is certainly nicer than anything in New York."

"No kidding."

"Come on, I'll show you the way up. I'm sure you're dying to see the Chief."

She shot me a look over her shoulder, and I just smiled. She was right, I was dying to see Daniel. It would take just about everything in me not to tackle him in a hug and kiss him on sight, but I'd have to find a way to manage it since we were in the middle of the office.

Rose took me down a back hallway filled with filing cabinets, pushing one back to reveal a secret entrance. I gave her a wave and promised to check in later, then headed upstairs.

The bullpen was surprisingly empty, with just a few agents working at their desks. Directly across from the stairs, I could see Daniel's office with the door open, a crowd of people inside. Even from here, with his back to me, I caught sight of Daniel in the middle of the huddle by his desk.

I walked over, a smile on my face. I couldn't wait to see the look on Daniel's face when he realized I was finally here.

As I got closer, I got within hearing range of the conversation. I could see Daniel's shoulders tensed underneath his gray suit jacket, and it became a little harder to forget that I was here mostly because he'd caught a massive case.

One of the agents standing directly in front of Daniel was speaking when I walked through the door of the office, coming to a stop just behind my boyfriend.

"...been a pain in our side every step of the way. I don't know if they will accept this."

"They're gonna have to," said Daniel. "They have no argument for keeping us out of this case, not since their evidence started literally hovering around the office. It's our jurisdiction."

"Don't you worry, we'll get 'em in line," I said, hands on my hips. "The cavalry's officially here."

Daniel whipped around, eyes wide at the sound of my voice. A smile broke out on his face as soon as he saw me, but my attention snapped to his outfit instead.

I loved Daniel, more than anything or anyone in the world. That would never change, even if he walked around wearing a literal burlap sack. But this was going to take some getting used to.

The gray suit jacket had fooled me into thinking he'd levelled up his wardrobe since leaving New York and the sweater vests behind. But underneath that suit jacket was a dayglow flamingo button up shirt, and the ugliest tie I'd ever seen in my life.

I froze like a deer in headlights, unable to do anything other than stare at that outfit. Daniel looked at me curiously, then turned to the other agents in the room.

"Can we get a minute?" he asked, addressing the other agents. "Everybody take five, we'll get back together in a few minutes."

The agents nodded, mumbling amongst each other as they headed out of the office. I heard one of them shut the door behind us, and then Daniel shuffled a little closer to me, looking concerned.

"Hey. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, sorry, I just need a second. My eyes are burning."

He furrowed his brow, glanced down to follow my gaze to his outfit. He looked back at me with outrage.

"What? Come on! It's not that bad, is it?"

"Together, as one outfit? YES."

Daniel scoffed, throwing his head back and looping an arm around my waist. He pulled me in, leaning in so we were basically nose to nose, a smile spread across his face.

"I missed you," he said. I smiled.

"I missed you too. No way in hell Thompson's ever getting me back to New York."

Daniel laughed, then leaned in and kissed me. We lingered for a few long moments, but since we were still in the office, we didn't let ourselves get too carried away.

"I cannot tell you how happy I am to have you here," Daniel muttered, leaning his forehead to rest against mine. "Seriously, I think I just lost a few deeply entrenched stress lines."

"Even with the fashion critiquing?"

"Yeah, even with that."

He gave me one last peck, then pulled all the way away. He picked up a massive case file and moved to hand it to me, but he hesitated at the last second.

"You really don't think this look is working for me?"

"Oh, babe. You could wear a clown costume and still be handsome to me. But that shirt and especially that tie, together? It's a serious downgrade from the sweater vests."

"From the sweater vests?"

"Yeah. You looked like a cute nerd in the sweater vests. You look like you got dressed in the dark with this."

Daniel snorted. "Okay, great. Thanks for the honesty at least."

"Always. But hey, don't get so down on yourself. The shirt's kind of fun, once you get past the... color of it."

"Really. Great."

"The tie has to go though."

I reached out to take the tie, and Daniel moved back out of my reach. I grinned, moving towards him again, and he managed to move behind his desk, a laugh bubbling out as he went.

"Gimme the tie, Daniel."

"You stay away, this tie's going on the wall. Hall of fame for making the love of my life look at me like I'd grown a second head after not seeing me in person for months."

"That's fine, the wall works. As long as it's not on you."

Daniel laughed, and it was infectious as I finally managed to catch him behind his desk. He gave in, and I wasted no time loosening the tie and pulling it over his head. He raised his eyebrows and fixed me with a look once I had it in my hands, and he smiled at me.

"You satisfied now."

"Yeah, actually, thanks."

I beamed at him and he rolled his eyes, but he was smiling too. I could see the other agents hovering outside the door, so I knew we had to get back to actual work, but I didn't really mind too much. Now that I was with Daniel again, working side by side, we could take on any case together. Ugly ties and all.

****************

Everything Taglist: @rosecentury

Marvel Taglist: @valkyriepirate @luv-ghostie @songbirdcannabe @infinetlyforgotten

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switch · 22 days ago

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look i'm definitely one of the people who's been saying that new TNT has been missing the forest for the trees with feeling the need to fuck with pre-existing old pet art before selling it when people very much just want the exact old pet art they remember, speaking as a mouthless shoyru enjoyer here who's mad they probably fucked that up forever, but the new halloween art is a big step up.

like this is just actually really good art and makes me feel significantly less skeptical about their recent "we hired more artists, we swear" statement. specific ones like the nimmo, xweetok, and maybe grarrl i really could actually see existing pre-conversion if they had gotten unique poses originally. the cybunny's cape only being visible on one side isn't ideal but is otherwise fine, and the ixi is unfortunately a little blobbish looking and probably needed another pass to get a better shape/silhouette, but it’s decently cute and i'm fully in favor of them addressing the "literally every ixi except like four or five of them are miserably ugly because those are the only ones that didn't follow their extremely unfortunate base model" problem. everything else is fantastic, i think.

except the aisha! again! they literally just cannot stop fucking up the aisha. they love fucking up the aisha. fucking up the aisha is new TNT's favorite hobby in the world. seriously, what is the fucking deal, aisha is one of their main mascot pets and they're the pet with the most devotedly insane fanbase by far. who is this for?! this is not for aisha diehards! are they capable of producing one singular good looking aisha?! blobbish, the miserable dinosaur tail is here again, directionless pose, not smiling for some reason, and why is the mouth open again, what is this art even trying to convey with this pose and expression? all the other new halloween art is conveying plenty of readable personality with its poses and expressions! the proportions are severely wrong regardless of if they were referencing the pre or post conversion art, the legs are too big, the antennae ears should get thicker at the top instead of being that bad looking twig thickness the whole way through, the ears are pointing the wrong way, why is that one ear snapped at such an awkward angle, bad silhouette, neck too short, head way too wide, eyes too big.... the literal singular only good thing they did here was toning down the eye masks to look more like the old art.

look, seriously, i genuinely think that the aisha and the shoyru being their primary mascots right now is subjecting them to way more specific and strict art directions than any of the other pets which is why they keep getting fucked up the worst by far. i think this is just what they want the aisha to look like now. something something marketing, branding consistency, something.

anyway, it's been noted that these are branded as "spooky hallowen [pet]" and not "nostalgic halloween [pet]," so there's speculation they may best-of-both-worlds the 'use old art no matter what even if it's stock and hideous' VS 'make new retro-looking art in unique poses' problem. the idea sounds nice on paper, but they've already gone, what, six waves mixing the two? would they only start doing it with future lines, meaning already released pets are permanently fucked either way? or are they gonna go back and retroactively add back in untouched art and change the designation on altered art? also, just the sheer amount of shit they'd be selling in the style department would be getting kind of ridiculous at that point. do we really want both 'mouthless blue shoyru' and 'blue shoyru b/w mouth' diluting the gacha odds even worse? man, i don't know.

#switch speaks #neopets

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dykedragonrider · 8 months ago

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So I finished Library of Ruina. And I think that's just one of the best games ever. I don't know if I like it more than Lobotomy, but they're good for very different reasons. Either way though, it's incredibly salient commentary on cyclical violence, late stage capitalism, and the impact that humans have on each other.

I think the most logical place to start with is Angela, given that the Library is her EGO. However, it's impossible to talk about Angela's arc and development without discussing Roland's, given how deeply the two are tied and mirror each other. Even their music mirrors the other! To establish more similarity, both have had their lives ripped away from them by someone they perceived as uncaring. Angela was forced to suffer, so she externalized that grief at all the people she could target it at, hoping for compensation in some form. Roland had his future ripped away from him at every turn by a world that didn't care about him, and the death of Angelica caused him to externalize all his grief at the people he thinks could be responsible. Neither of them, however, were able to direct those outbursts at their original target, instead hurting the other people in their lives. Both of them are shaped by pain, Angela takes hers out on the world, Roland conceals his to take it out on Angela when the time is right, when her world is at its brightest. They both have to learn, in different ways, though, that their externalization of it will only cause the same thing to happen again and again. Getting hurt doesn't have any purpose; it just makes you hurt. There's no compensation you will receive for your pain, there's no vengeance that will fill the hole in your heart. Unfortunately, you'll live. What changes them, however, is realizing that you work past that pain, and hole in your heart, by letting others in, those who are good and trustworthy. Friends of the soul. To be human is to be loved, and understood. One of the facets of this game I find beautiful is that it's not a linear path to this for either of them, and if they haven't developed enough as people they cannot forgive and trust the other. Both must be in a place where they can heal, or at the very least, stop themselves from doing anything to hurt another in that moment. Recovery isn't simple, it's hard to be a better person especially when everything you've known is about conducting the pain you've experienced, because the world thrives off doing that. But the cycle's been broken before. The fact it's been broken is proof enough that you can do it again, no matter how hard it is. Roland and Angela are doomed, though. The world cannot abide them, but for different reasons. Angela's, however, is much more central, and Roland gets shunted either way with her, as they're now effectively two halves of the same whole, unified in their understanding of one another and sharing each other's dreams. And it's platonic! I think it could have been fine romantic, but I think given both of their pasts it's much stronger platonically. They are literally removed from the world that hurt them, as it casts them out, but in being removed from it, they're also able to dream outside of it. Angela seeks to create a more just world, following in the footsteps of Ayin. Being able to look past something and see the corrupt roots it took nourishment from, and wanting to excise that, rather than the person that is a symptom of it. Roland wants to write his book about the city, sharing his knowledge of someone who has lived in such a place, and in my eyes, passing the baton to the future with this knowledge; that the little things humans have done to care for one another and the connections we make. Redemption is a complex thing, based on actions, rather than intentions, but they've taken the first steps. And that's a really good note for the game to end on, because well, the seed of light is planted in the both of them now.

On the note of redemption, I want to take a moment to mention Ayin's apology to Angela in the light. Ayin is... Complex, morally, to say the least. Swaddled in good intentions, and with a good grasp on a positive outcome, just with means incomprehensible and immeasurable in the suffering caused. He brought his friends down with him to his prison, and made them complicit in his atrocity. He wanted to be better than every other Wing in the world. but he's done all the same shit. The difference though, is that he was willing to end it, show remorse, and break that cycle. The sin cannot be forgiven, but it can break the cycle, so he took it upon himself to do it, those hundreds of good deeds. And the cycle was broken. Great atrocity was done, but it was broken. Forgiveness is the wrong thing, redemption is as well, I think, he wanted it, maybe he got it, but what he wanted has been twisted by Carmen, truthfully, so I think it's kind of a moot point. But what is the right thing, I think, is understanding, that which he gives Angela. "I'm sorry. And good job." In this, he acknowledges her feelings. Her pain. He can't compensate her for the pain he put her through, but what he can do is acknowledge it, like she does for what she's done to Roland, though inadvertently. He sees her, for the first time, not as a machine, but of what she has been denied of at this point, what she wanted; human. This is also a good time to bring up Carmen, too, as she too is in the Light, hell, she's *the* light. She's who makes people Distort or manifest their EGO, she once again is the source of this, and Angela and her at this point could not be more different. In some ways, Roland's selfishness in wanting Angela back stops her from making the change to prevent Distortions, and the risk for selfishness they pose, as Distorting is easier than manifesting the EGO. Angela cannot be the constructive voice to balance out Carmen to help people be able to fight back, but again, to go back to the ending, Angela's targeting the City now, as an institution. If she can't work against Carmen in the light to stop her, then changing material conditions to create a world less based on pain will help. It further reinforces Angela's humanity to show how far she's drifted from Carmen, and I think it's especially poignant given that Angela was born of Carmen's pain, her still living body stripped and exploited. They're both victims, both of them want the world to change, both of them can understand the other, but they disagree on a fundamental level. So they both must be true to their ideals.

That tangent aside, I think it's important to note how important Angela's humanity is at the end, because she asserts it. Her humanity is presumed, and I think as players, it's been long established, even when she *was* purely machine, as being human is a sense of who claims you. And Angela, by the institutions that rule this city, is dehumanized. All the things we've seen as atrocities they can accept, but are tragic. If Angela didn't give it up, and became a human, they could tolerate her. But because she was not born as one, she is not allowed those privileges. Despite what she's demonstrated, how she's grown, matured, and changed, how she has done things that even the Head says only a human can do, she is denied it. If anything, the Head hates her *more* because of how human she is, and I think that only adds to the importance of Ayin acknowledging her humanity, it shows that even the most awful person we've seen, even moreso than Argalia in some ways, still acknowledges her. Everything else is acceptable. The distortions, while tragic, are OK. It would have happened. Capital can subsume that. But Angela's something they have deemed unacceptable, and she only survives by the strength of those who trust in her and support her. I think it's a really good metaphor, even if it is painfully real, especially in the current age.

And I guess I need to talk about that next, this game's interactions with capital and the City, and in some ways the socioeconomic context of South Korea. The Wings of the City are analogous to chaebols, institutions that centralize the entire economy, and they're deeply corrupt. Each Wing has a Singularity that grants them power, all of them we're aware of rely on human suffering to function, and the City runs on these. Prescripts only add to this, the City having a will of its own, which often propagates pain in one way or another and keeps itself in motion. The entire system is rotten, based on pain, and exploitation. The class divide is palpable in many ways, those in the Backstreets, or slums, aren't even allowed into the Nests, where the richer people in Wings reside, and are often systemically denied ways to lift themselves up. Violence against them is viewed as less important than violence against those in the Nest. The game is deeply critical of these in its portrayals. Angela's new to this world, and while she can make sense of it she also acknowledges the ways it's twisted and broken. Power is everything, you either get a good job or die alone, I think the only thing missing is a strong commentary about gender norms, but gender is a thing never really confronted in game. There's of course, now some legitimate hypocrisy that came from PM (based on my understanding of the facts) in how their criticism of Korean socioeconomic reality, and generally, capital, is less impactful given some of their behavior, but I don't think that detracts from the messages. In some ways, even, part of me is cynical enough to say that this proves a point; that corporations, no matter how much their art challenges the establishment, they are also subservient to it and the interests of the powerful. Of course they'd be corrupted by it, they've demonstrated that fighting against capital directly only gets you eliminated or subsumed. However, I think there's something also worth acknowledging here. That being the idea that challenging capital and its interests, and to some degree, revolutionary behavior, can be done through the improvement of the self, those material circumstances, and your relationships with other humans. There's a place for self improvement and the construction of your community, and its reinforcement, theory, and ideals, and also the hard world of praxis, and fighting against that which you cannot accept. I think in a world where a common sentiment among leftists in the anglosphere is that a revolution is not happening, and we're just going to have to do what we can on a different scale to change the world, this is a thoughtful ideal to communicate, that our relationships with our community, the changes we make to improve it, our capacity for kindness for others and breaking the cycle of violence within ourselves is a good place to start to make those changes on the world. Obviously, there's still a need for other change, but the sentiment that the community and the individual are important for that change is a very useful one.

Which I guess is a good time to talk about the community, in this case, the Sephirot. I think they're really good for depicting the idea that the community is strong when the individual cannot be, as well as philosophical (and of course, theological, given their Kabbalistic origins) stepping stones in the development of Roland and Angela. To use shorthand, they've finished their character arcs. That's not to say they're static, but the Sephirot have had their development back in Lobotomy to become much more developed people. I do wish they had more time in this game, as I enjoyed a lot of them in Lobotomy, but we do at least get more interactions between them and they're not as much main characters so I get it, I just *do* like them. Malkuth manages history, and she's dealing with the fact that people in the City, and her life, are capable of great atrocity. She's trying to document that, but the problem exists in the reality that no one wants to remember anything outside themselves. People are trapped, and cannot learn from history, because the City propagates itself and erases/incorporates those who try to change it, so what's even the point of remembering it. But it's the past that builds the future, pretending otherwise or ignoring it means you only rebuild the past. And you must not despair, you must carve this idea on your heart, and face it. Maintain the will to stand up straight in a world that wants to break you down. Yesod manages technological sciences, and is aware of the dangers it poses, especially in the City. The entire ethos is that the ends justify the means, and that is uniquely terrifying when the means always involve pain. He acknowledges this about the library, and is rightfully scared by it, and wants Angela to understand that what they're doing here is comparable to other things in the city, and it can't be justified away. We have to be thoughtful about things in an ever changing world, and we can't ever just follow what's been set out. Maintain discretion, be rational, and think about "musts" and if they're actually as such. Hod manages literature, the stories of the people. For the Sephirot who involved herself in the lives of others to their detriment, placing her in a space that uses her newfound capability to understand other humans as well as she does is a really nice thing for her to slot into. The fact is, the city sucks to live in for everyone. You join groups, and the groups hurt people. Where you live is always boiled in violence, and you either give up your autonomy and ignore it, or give up your safety and acknowledge it. Everyone wants something better for themselves, to not have to deal with this world that's breaking them. You can't be broken against the wheel, you still have to have the hope to be a better person at the end of it all. Netzach manages art, and he muses on the nature of humans to make it, at the cost of humans. It's, especially in this world, a monument to pain. That's not something that really feels like it should be exalted, but it's what people are experiencing so it's made anyway. Killing yourself in the pursuit of a dream, beauty, doesn't actually create or leave behind that beauty, or dream. It just propagates misery. You've gotta fight to stay alive, you've got to want it, even if you're scared, even if it hurts, even if you've accepted self destruction. You've got to hold onto the idea that there's always something more to do, some new story to tell, a reason to keep making things as humans do. It's scary, being alive, but facing that without fear and living is what gives beauty to our condition.

Tiphereth manages natural science, and she in some ways iterates on Netzach's philosophy. Sure, you're alive, but so what. The world is unfair, it beats you down, nothing could be more cruel than it, and understanding that's a hard endeavor, usually tinted by loss. So, we try and understand it. We look at the world, and what's unjust about it, and we make sense of it so we can change it, to keep dreaming. One day, we will overcome this. One day, you'll wake up, and will be able to face yourself and the world. There's always a light at the end of the tunnel, there's *got* to be something waiting for us because that's how humans work. We're driven by desire, and the chase of knowledge, justice, hope, gives life meaning. You just have to know what lights shine for you, and make the choice to chase them, every day of your life. It'll hurt like hell to be well, it's hard to do it again after losing your way. But as long as you're alive, things can change. Life has a meaning, and you must expect to find it. Gebura manages language, and notably, is one of the two Librarians with much stronger ties to the outside world than others. Her floor doesn't touch on language overmuch, but I think she demonstrates that differences with her behavior instead. As she mentions, the Backstreets dwellers speak simply, and that's reflected in her. Gebura is the most brash, honest, and straightforward librarian. She rarely speaks symbolically, and that also lets her uniquely connect with people, because of how she speaks and carries herself. She's the first one to get a fragment of the truth out of Roland, for example. Another element is that her actions speak for her rather often, given her past as the Red Mist. She was famous for her selflessness, and always tried to look out for people weaker than her. It's not the strong who survive, it's the survivors who are strong, so making sure people survive is how you create people who can live in this broken world. Kali was a legend who died in the service of protecting others, she's a very emotional person, to both her strength and detriment, and she's always going to carry that with her. Even if she's failed before, even if it's gotten harder, she still understands incredibly well that violence is a tool. And she wields that tool with courage, in the service of others. Chesed manages social sciences, and has a huge heart. He's as playful as he is determined to hope for a better life for others, and he loathes violence. More accurately, needless death, but the sentiment is identical. Chesed doesn't want people to be hurt or killed. People are all important little pieces, and we all blend together to make our symphonies. He values knowing *why*, for the hope to change things through understanding to make a better world. There's always something we can do with the people in our lives to make a difference, after all. Even if it's small, we owe it to them to do it. That's what being friends is about, after all. If the world wants to pit you against each other, then band together to be strong together. You'll have each other, and can fight the current of the oppressive reality together. Sitting on your hands only makes things worse, you've gotta be able to look and process your reality to change it. And people can help with that. Build a crowd of your friends, and become stronger together. Those who are faithful and trustworthy are what give us the strength to put our bodies on the wheel.

Binah manages philosophy, and is the other librarian with strong ties to the outside world. She's always talking in parallel with other people, but is doing as such to prove a point. The world is cruel, but you can't turn away from that. You must acknowledge the world and observe it to understand it. And you've gotta free yourself from your biases to actually understand it. If you just look for what you want to see, then you can miss the forest for the trees, or see things where they aren't because you want them to be real. Binah was once Garion, an Arbiter, effectively a supercop. I think the analogy speaks for itself there, but she's also interesting because that part of her is long behind her. In her discussions about the world, she also speaks of herself and her wants, as someone who's dealing with the sins of her past, especially given she is in no small part responsible for how things turned out. To put your past behind is to bear the sins of it, and decide to move on. You won't do it the first time, it may take a hundred, or a thousand, but you'll break it eventually. And when you do it, you'll have to do it over and over again. But you did it once. You can do it again. This works on another level again, because Lobotomy Binah is a deeply damaged person. She feels little, save for when she's hurting other people. But in Ruina, it feels like she's moved on from those remnants of being Garion. Like all the librarians, she wasn't who she was at the start of this, but she also has carried the most with her; she's just also had a lot of time to sort herself out, and while she's still imperfect, she's trying with other people now. She's tried to reconcile her past. She's looked at all the horrors of herself and the world, and has started to move beyond them. Hokma manages religion, and is one of the two people responsible for the birth of Angela. Angela is conflicted on him most of all, given that past. To call their relationship filial in any way I think is a misattribution, it's more like he's her least favorite teacher. He's wise, knowledgeable, and thoughtful but they've got a lot of friction between them. He tried to do well by her, but it wasn't enough, and he has at this point accepted that given their past. Unsurprisingly, the thing that defines Hokma is belief in something, or rather, someone. Ayin was the man that gave his life meaning, and he believed in him and his cause, even to his own end. He was shackled to him, but he was freed from that weight when he realized his answer, that building the future and keeping the past alive are one and the same. You aren't stuck to it, but you must acknowledge it to move on, and its influences on you, good and bad, are what you choose to pass on. I think the most important element to him comes in his end discussion with Angela, on the idea of pity, sympathy, and love. They're similar forces that foster human connection, but I think another element is that a lot of faith exalts those who we pity; we give them love to raise them up because we find them pitiable. Through that sympathy, and a repulsive emotion known as pity, we come to understand and love one another.

And finally, we tie back to Roland, who manages general works. The thing I most want to center in this discussion about him is the simple phrase of "that's that, and this is this" because it's such an infuriating philosophy for him to follow. We see it bite him in the ass so much, because it's a cope. Angelica makes it clear to him that it's a cope, and he's just relying on it to the point it's become something deeply maladaptive. And once again, it's Angela that breaks him out of this, because through their journeys together, she realizes and proposes to him the counter: That's this, and this is that. It's her gesture to break him out of things wholly, the same way Ayin's words did to her. In terms of broader strokes, human connection is the most important thing on the road to being better people, and I think something that is demonstrated very well through Ruina is the way that it's more important to make a wrong choice and learn from it through people around you than it is to make no choice at all. While this game builds much more on the elements introduced in Lobotomy about the City, I think Lobotomy is a much stronger criticism of capital? This does it, but I think it doesn't do as good in marrying its gameplay and themes to sell the violence of capital, it mostly just depicts the horrors and leaves it there. This works, it's just not as impactful, and I think is a product of this being much less horror oriented. All in all, I chalk this one up to another game I wish I was much more capable of speaking about. There's so much good here, and it's one of the best games about revenge I've played, the next closest being the original Xenoblade. It's incredibly rich, and there's a lot more I have to say, I've just been typing for four hours and didn't want to make an even bigger wall of text.

#tsunny reviews #library of ruina

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ktyekmrf30 · 1 year ago

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I know there are still 3 episodes left, including the cursed 11 episode where is always The Drama (TM), but for now I can say that I'm really happy with the fact that the main hidden agenda (again, at this exact moment) for JokeZo turned out to be just Pat helping Joke with info about his friend behind friend's back.

Because sometimes it's just that simple. Sometimes it's not something so big and dramatic or stunt-planned that it can ruin your whole life or your relationship with someone and etc. Sometimes it's just one phrase or one action. Or the lack of it.

Zo already had traumatic experience with Puen and other friend where he was hurt because one friend laughed at him and the other one refused him. Loss of trust. So if a similar situation happened with Joke and Pat but without processing the trauma with help from the outside, Zo could definitely break down.

At one of the sessions with my therapist I remembered a situation from many years ago where I was really uncomfortable but my friend was okay with how things are going so I didn't attach any importance to this and decided to forget about it in the name of our friendship (spoiler: it didn’t work and breakup was awful). When in similar situation that happened last year another friend of mine expressed a similar position towards some things - and for him it was just bad word choosing - I was not prepared for it. It broke me to the point that I needed help. For 3 months in a row I cried non-stop at every session, because I couldn't work through this trauma in time. My friend didn't mean it like that but I just couldn't see the difference anymore. And it was just few words that literally broke me into pieces.

And Zo is in a similiar situation actually and it's his friends actions. But, unlike me, he has worked through his trauma with similiar behavior pattern. And it became possible only thanks to Joke. Joke is the help from outside. Because dialogue is always about two people who take steps towards each other. If one person stands still while another one walks towards him, the first one will get tired. Is this disappointment necessary in a relationship?

Zo learned to trust Joke, his words and actions, allowed him to violate his boundaries but do it with respect and only on the terms that Zo allowed. The ones he was ready to accept at that moment. And Joke respected it, Zo knows it too, he saw it multiple times.

And Joke, unlike Puen, didn't hide his feelings. Joke literally wanted to scream about his feelings and at some point he did it because it seems that everybody in the uni already knows that he loves Zo. And although he himself faced the problem of not being able to correctly express his feelings in words, he still did it. I believe it also helped Zo see the difference and helped to stop comparing situations or people. And this also helped to calm down later, after the thing with Pat was revealed.

The whole culmination of their trust-building journey through food and time together was in ep 8, when instead of a declaration of love, during the bed scene - the words you'd expect to hear in a romantic bed setting is I love you, right? - Joke asked if Zo trusted him and Zo replied that he did. Because that was what really important they wanted to show us.

And that's why Zo was so patient with Joke, waiting for him to admit his lie. He faced his trauma of friends betrayal and he lived through it, also thanks to Joke. He saw how situations are quit similiar but he worked on it, he learned that things can happen and he should remember the experience for growth and learning but Joke is a different person, not his friends from the past. The past is the past and Zo won't run away or make a rush desicions. This is possible only if Zo acknowledged the situation and accepted it for himself. And we see that all that Zo wanted is honesty. And Joke, after some time of being goofy, did it again, didn't hide his feelings, made a confession and admitted things where he was wrong. And Zo was happy and teary because he was right this time. The trust he had for Joke was worth it.

And if suddenly a similar situation happens to him again, it won't break neither disappoint him as a reminder of a past expirience.

That's why I'm really happy right now with the direction Hidden Agenda are going. Because there's no mastermind plans or conspiracy theories behind them although I really love conspiracy theories. It's real life and it's that small things that can happen with everybody, that can hurt everybody.

#hidden agenda #hidden agenda the series #jokezo #some thoughts #the whole issue of HA is just really personal to me #to the person I was last year #never in my life of being in the fandoms i felt so represented as I do now while watching hidden agenda #tee bundit i see what you did here #it may sound messy but i just can't structure my thoughts better than this. maybe later

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mdhwrites · 2 years ago

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Luz’s Character Finish Is Bad

“All I’ve ever wanted... was to be understood!” only works from a meta perspective. From the perspective that she is a nuerodivergent (though never stated in the show), LGBTQIA+ character. Groups that, yes, right now are struggling to be understood, accepted and shown love. Here’s the counterpoint: Who the fuck hasn’t shown Luz understanding in the past season and a half before then? And obviously, villains don’t count because they’re kind of, you know, evil. Unless Luz wants to say everyone in existence needs to show her understanding which is commonly a villain’s motivation as it doesn’t allow for other people to exist. Amity here is the second biggest (we’ll get to Camila when we talk about the actual scene itself) because their relationship is literally built on shared understanding and interests. This actually gets worse when you look at Amity’s character. She acts entirely ready to just live in the human realm with how excited she is about it. Obviously stops studying magic to focus more on studying human world stuff to prepare for it. She even goes as far, just like King does, to LEARN SPANISH FOR LUZ. Now... Can a brain refuse all of this? As someone with Avoidant Personality Disorder: Absolutely. Does that excuse work in the context of a piece of media? No it fucking doesn’t without some real exploration and deep dive into why/how the character dismisses ALL of it. Because otherwise, it’s the same as using magic to wave something away. They’re emotions, we don’t have to explain it. But if those emotions don’t make sense from ANY perspective within the show... It’s an audience’s right to call the show out for it. If a character who is very business like, to the point, and quiet suddenly goes on an hour long rant in front of the hero instead of just killing the obstacle in front of them like they have literally any other problem of theirs, you can ‘explain’ that as an author. Come up with excuses. It’s not the audiences’ fault for not believing those excuses though when the text actively goes against what is being shown. Which... Well, let’s talk about the potential excuse that Luz has never been shown understanding before the Isles? That until Gus and Willow, she had no friends and that King and Eda still did take half a season to start showing care for her and her interests. Okay. That’s all fair and technically works within the text of the show.

But Camila exists. And the first special detailed, pretty clearly, how much Camila has backed Luz up every step of the way in her creative journey. That Camila has never rejected her daughter and shown her as much understanding as is quite possible for a mom to show her daughter. She only held back on this ONCE. And I want to mention that the only time Willow and Gus ever ‘turn’ on Luz, is ONCE. Hell, rule of threes: Put the Bat Queen/Owlbert in there. And all three have the same complaint for Luz: You need to stop caring about your interests and goals at the point where they start hurting people. Now, actually, I do want to point out that if this were properly interrogated and a proper part of Luz’s arc, it would be an AMAZING parallel to how the Collector behaves. Make the two both characters who are so in love with their view of the world and excitement for their ideas and games that the rest of the world stopped mattering at one point. Only Luz has learned and the Collector has not. But then Camila, in the moment before Luz’s grand statement, apologizes for that bit of criticism. Apologizes for making Luz have to consider other human beings. Apologizes for the one moment that she has ever held Luz back on... And that’s dog shit. It frames this moment not so much as Luz wanting understanding as much as her wanting to be told there will never be consequences for her actions. That no one around her believes she even CAN make a mistake. The rest of Camila’s speech, and more problematically Luz’s response, or lack there of, only reinforces this concept. After all, Camila makes a very rousing, very real point about the mistakes people make. She admits to a lot of her own and ostensibly, THAT is the part of the speech that the majority of the first two specials have been building up to. Luz has been torturing herself over a mistake she believes herself to have made (which how stupid that whole plot point is is literally another blog I’ve made) so tackling that, tackling the idea that sometimes you just don’t realize the full picture of your actions and you need to know the difference, makes sense. And Luz ignores all of this. Blatantly and bluntly. She doesn’t react to ANYTHING her mom says until her mom reveals she’s a secret nerd. That she is actually one Luz’s kind which is... A problem and a half in and of itself and I’ve talked about Camila’s character too in the past. And Luz ignoring all of that begs the question of why none of that matters to her? She’s made such a big deal out of it after all. Acted supposedly near suicidal because of it. Unless... The problem wasn’t the mistake. Unless the problem was consequences she couldn’t guaranty she could fix or were too hard to fix. Too inconvenient and painful. One example of this is perhaps the cruelest thing Luz does: Amity quotes back to her about wanting to spend their future together before stepping through the portal. At that time, Luz knows that her plan is to not go through that door. To let it close with Amity on the other side. Supposedly, Luz loves this girl. There are pictures of them going on dates in the human realm despite Luz having had this question on her mind for a while now, If not the answer she came up with.

But she says nothing. She fully intended to not give Amity any sort of closure and let Amity, up to the very second they were separated, believe Luz still intended to spend their future together. The level of callousness and selfishness required to break up with someone like that, let alone abandoning ALL of her friends who would have to deal with that emotional turmoil while dealing with the new form of the Isles, is just beyond me. It’s not something you can excuse with being a teenager. It’s not something you should excuse with nuerodivergence and FUCK YOU if you do. It is simply a god awful moment for Luz’s character. Period. And outside of meta explanations, like the writers knowing Camila would go through and so knew Luz wasn’t going to abandon Amity and thus didn’t think about Luz’s actions, there’s no getting around what it says about Luz’s character. Let alone mixed with this. Mixed with her blatantly not caring about any lessons about mistakes or having a conversation about mistakes. She just wants to be told she’s special, act like she’s special and continue to believe she lives in a fantasy. That she is the hero and once she stopped believing that fantasy could come true, she was willing to let the entire Isles burn without even trying to help it.

Because understanding to Luz isn’t recognition of your ideas, beliefs, interests, struggles, etc. It is all of that plus not being critical of anything she does. That any amount, literally any amount, of push back, of suppression, means you hate her and just don’t ‘understand’ her. It’s gross, it’s bad and as someone who was born autistic and suffers from depression now... This isn’t how I want to be understood. And I would hope it’s not how most want to be understood. ======== I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join! I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead, If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat. And finally a Twitter you can follow too!

#Luz #Luz Noceda #The Owl House #The Owl House Criticism

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dapurinthos · 4 months ago

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some later acolyte thoughts:

+ darth plagueis aka hego damask ii my favourite fucked-up occult scientist, literally bred to be a sith, you utter bitch, welcome to the screen. i am becoming increasingly glad that all we got was the cameo because i'm holding the darth plagueis novel with a circle of salt around me so disney can't get at it.

- though that cameo makes this whole story kinda useless. it's a shaggy sith story. even moreso than i thought it would be. i'm taking mae's memory wipe as a half-win for my 'mae's going to die' prediction because who she was from 8-years-old onward did die.

+ cortosis is on television baby! not just the fuck-off big ascendant sword from the aphra comics, but part of top-level canon (don't try to tell me that's something left behind in legends no there are still obvious tiers of canon).

- can we stop with the whole 'omg the jedi are flawed that must mean that they're actually evil!!!111one' movement? 'what if one of you snaps?' says senator wearing-a-crimson-dawn-looking-pendant well sir it looks like you don't know the history of your own fucking government, which instituted sweeping changes at the last sith war (the result of one of them snapping. heeyyyy phanius/darth ruin) so that the jedi did not have access to armies, large-scale weaponry, etc. and that's at least the second time a schism like that's happened.

it's the senate. it's always the senate's fucking fault because this is star wars and it's always the government's fault. the senate is all 'oooh we should meddle with the jedi' the jedi go 'can u not?' the senate really, really wants to, so they dip a toe in the meddling pool and splash it around a bit, which send the jedi into a tailspin because they're unfortunately under the thumb of the senate and you get vernestra covering things up sorry i've may have been dooku-ing a bit too much.

+/- cortosis's new feature of literally blocking the force is new. the way it works in legends is that it messes up the feedback of the lightsaber and shuts it down that way (a lightsaber blade is more of a loop than an actual blade). sidious wouldn't have had it in his walls if it blocked the force, but here qimir just pops on the helmet and vanishes from vernestra's perception. aw, did someone not learn the quey'tak meditation correctly?

+/- the whole 'you are the same person' thing with mae & osha. is this actually true, given that it was sol saying it (authorial intent reads to me that we're not supposed to trust him because he lied about brendok), but the implications. the fuckery this could bring. a dyad is one person in the force (are the twins one? if they practised?), but what does that mean? you share powers, you can communicate across distances, extra powers, but two people being one is something incredibly fucked up—do they pick up each other's traits? are their minds slowly merging until they, literally, are one person in two bodies? 'always one, but born as two.' i mean really. (is part of the sith notion of it more in this flavour, in that the dominant one of the pairing would eventually take over like essence bleeding instead of transfer?)

+ lololol we're 2/3 for crystal bleeding being done like it's no big thing as opposed to vader's whole vision sequence when he's doing it.

- look. we get it. we know order 66 happens. we know what happens to the jedi. we don't need to be reminded of it constantly. you don't need to have characters in-text be ominously foreboding about it like they know it's going to happen.

- what was the point of having vernestra rwoh in here? like, three lines mentioning specific high republic things? they should've left it as it originally was planned, which wasn't to be part of the high republic storyline. because now it's hard not to read her ‘he justified every selfish step he took with his love for your sister’ moment as a HEY VERNESTRA TELL US HOW YOU REALLY FEEL ABOUT ELZAR MANN moment. she's not on the high council, there's mention of a 'small council' but nothing more is given on that. is she supposed to be aligned with the shadows? no? yes?

+/- so qimir's basically a mix of kibh jeen and darth venamis, then, in the 'was a [jedi] before he turned to evil' (really. REALLY. the important thing about star wars is that it rhymes, not that it literally repeats) and 'poison-flavoured sith apprentice', respectively. darth dentabis or darth pharmakis it is, then.

#keeping up with the skywalkers #the acolyte kills the dream

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lumine-no-hikari · 2 months ago

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Dear Sephiroth: (a letter to a fictional character, because why not) #275

Today's letter is kinda early. Not as early as yesterday's for sure, but still. I'm feeling kinda empty today, for reasons I don't understand. Objectively, I had a pretty kickass day so far.

I went to my job at the bakery today. I went today instead of on Saturday because on Saturday, I gotta go to a bridal shower! I'm kinda excited about it, but also kinda nervous. I wonder how it'll play out.

Today at the bakery, I mostly just made cookies. Lots and lots of them. I put fancy paper on the baking trays, and then put all the cookies onto them in neat rows. And then I put them neatly into little boxes, and then put labels on those boxes. I'll show you some pictures of the steps, except for the labels; they obscure the view of the yumminess.

These ones are arranged in 4 rows of 6 cookies. There's candy-coated chocolate, sugar, oatmeal raisin, and chocolate chip. These racks represent 432 cookies:

I like best when I'm able to arrange them neatly enough that none of them touch each other by the time they're done baking; I did a pretty good, if somewhat imperfect job of that this time:

From there, I put them into boxes. They're supposed to be in two vertical stacks. Not knowing at the time when I packed up the candy-coated chocolate ones, I followed the pattern of the 30-count cookie packages, and put them in a single horizontal row; I'll try to do better next time:

I also arranged and baked a number of the 30-count cookies; these are arranged in 5 rows of 6 cookies, and are considerably smaller than the ones above. I made 8 total trays of these - candy-coated chocolate, oatmeal raisin, and chocolate chip, for a total of 240:

Then I put them in neat little boxes, too!

I decided to buy a package of the big chocolate chip cookies and a package of little chocolate chip cookies; J has been asking me to bring home something I made, and I wanted to see which of the kinds of chocolate chip cookies is better, so... yeah! I didn't notice much of a difference between them, but M and J seem to like the bigger ones a bit more than the little ones.

Today, I also put toppings on unbaked bagels and kaiser rolls for the first time:

Hey, Sephiroth? Do you like bagels? In my world, they come with all kinds of toppings, like poppy seeds, sesame seeds, onions roasted until crispy, garlic roasted until crispy, and "everything", which is basically poppy seeds, sesame seeds, crispy roasted garlic, and salt.

...I still want a seeded pumpernickel everything bagel one of these days. I have no idea why I've never seen any such bagel anywhere before. Its absence seems like it should be a crime.

...I embarrassed myself taking that last picture, though. You see, the person whose shoes are in the above picture was the really tall guy who got me my work shirts (I dunno if you remember me mentioning this). Well... apparently, he is the assistant manager of my whole store. And he came in asking which "service theme" of the day is. Today's is apparently "Thankful Thursday"; you're supposed to find reasons to thank the customer, I guess.

...But like... I already do that. Because the regular practice of gratitude is, at this point, part of my nature. When someone comes up to the counter to ask for something, I like to say what I am thinking, and what I'm thinking, in pretty much every interaction, is "Thank you for your patience!" and "Thank you for stopping by!"

...I feel like it's important to be grateful for little things, regardless of the day of the week it is. So I didn't memorize today's label. And so...

...First, I was focused on taking the picture of the bagels to show to you; we had done all the work for today, so there was literally nothing else to do, and I'm proud enough of what I do that I want to show it to you. And also, I know that I am not anybody important, and so I didn't expect to be spoken to. And also... the radio was on pretty loud, and the fans were buzzing in the background; between all these factors, I literally did not register the gentleman's words, or Ma's words because they were having a conversation that I didn't think I was supposed to be part of. Unless my name is spoken, I tend to assume other people's words are, in my mother's words, "none of [my] FUCKING business, nosy-ass!"

...In days past, accidentally overhearing adults speaking when I wasn't the one being spoken to was a punishable offense - yes, even when they're speaking loudly enough to be heard through the whole trailer or apartment or small car. But also, failure to intuitively know when I am the one being spoken to and failure to respond accordingly is also a punishable offense. Figure that one out. Oh wait - you CAN'T, because the only objective, really, was just to have an excuse to use me as a physical, verbal, or emotional punching bag no matter which fucking way I turn.

...I digress...

...In any case, not only did he have to repeat his question (Auditory Processing Delay is quite literally one of the more socially awkward brain glitches one can get born with, and I hate it...), but also... I didn't know the answer to his question, because... again, I don't restrict my gratitude practice to just one day out of the week. I'm gonna find reasons to thank the folks who come up to see us regardless of if it's Thursday or Saturday, or whatever other day of the week it might be.

...All the same... I'm sure I lost social face for this. I was probably perceived as an inattentive, uncaring, disrespectful, and irresponsible employee, despite the fact that nothing could be further from the truth; I might be clumsy, awkward, inexperienced, and a bit spacey, but I'm also diligent, conscientious, precise, and committed to improving.

...But of course, if I go up to him and try to explain, the only thing that'll happen is I'll be perceived as either needlessly anxious or as someone who makes excuses to dodge accountability; I've lived long enough to know how shit fucking works in my world. And I've lived long enough to understand that as an autistic person... there's really no way to win in any social scenario, ever.

...Sometimes I really resent neurotypicals and their bullshit social standards. I despise disingenuousness and insincere social courtesies. I can't fucking stand it. I don't like living my life wrapped up in a cocoon of "polite" white lies and contrived social rites. I don't like how quick neurotypicals are to pass their sanctimonious fucking judgment and to make weird fucking assumptions even when they don't have all the goddamn context or facts. And I don't like how their assumptions don't change, even when you DO give them the context and the facts; instead, they'll usually just assume you're trying to bullshit them, and they'll dig their goddamn heels into their initial assumption even further, and it's just... it's unfair and insufferable, is what it is. There's really no fucking candycoating it.

So today, my reputation as a "good" employee was probably irreparably tarnished in the eyes of someone higher up in the corporate hierarchy, just because I was caught off guard precisely ONE time, and because instead of practicing contrived gratitude specifically on Thursdays, I practice genuine gratitude every day. And it just... it seems kinda fucked up.

...But it is what it is. I'm gonna have to just deal with it.

...Or maybe I'll try writing a letter. Maybe that'll be better. Despite the words you see here, I can't really speak for shit, especially when I'm nervous; that's also part of the autism, I'm afraid.

Maybe I'll do that. Maybe I'll do that, and then I'll do some Dead Cells about it. It'll be here, when I'm all done:

twitch_live

...As always, thanks for listening. Or... reading, as it were.

I love you. And I'll write again to you tomorrow. So please stay safe out there, okay?

Your friend, Lumine

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belindarimbi13 · 2 years ago

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Short Meta-Reading on Twin Dragons

Ever since I read this post, I just can't stop thinking about how Draken and Mitsuya are destined to be together.

I'm not claiming I am an expert in pictograph and such, but I just search for the Kanji for 隆 (Takashi) and 龍 (Ryuu, as in Ryuuguuji).

They are listed as cognates.

This little fun fact, changed everything for me.

Because at first, I couldn't figure out the reason why Mitsuya draw the dragon mural at the first place. I used to think that it was because of his Shio (Chinese Zodiac), but Mitsuya was born in 1990 and the animal for that year was Horse, not Dragon. I also considered that he was partially inspired by Black Dragons, but thinking about his personality and the timeline-wise, it couldn't be possible.

Until I found out that Takashi Mitsuya himself is essentially a dragon.

He was not inspired by anything.

He was born creative, possibly in the age where he was burst with ideas and he wanted to express it out. But life was not kind to him. He didn't have the freedom he deserved.

Instead of being out there and having the opportunities to do things he wanted to do, he was burdened with two little sisters to take care of. He was burdened with the role of parents that he never wanted.

(This is my word choice, I'm pretty sure Mitsuya himself would never call it a burden)

He drew that mural to free himself, longing for freedom that he never got.

He was that dragon, wanting to soar up to the sky.

Meeting Ken Ryuuguuji was one of the most pivotal point in Takashi Mitsuya's life.

Ryuuguuji had seen past through him. He saw how Mitsuya cared about his little sisters, worrying about them. He saw past every pretense and just straight-up telling Mitsuya, about how lucky he was (which later, we'll know Mitsuya said the similar thing to Hakkai, "I told you to not to hate the situation you were born into, like a show-off. But in reality, I really hated mine.").

I will need to compose another post to determine whether Mitsuya met Ryuuguuji first or Hakkai first, but the end result would still be the same: Ryuuguuji taught him about how lucky Mitsuya was.

The impact of Mitsuya and Ryuuguuji meeting was so powerful, we essentially got, not only one, but two very important character in Tokyo Revengers.

A determined, strong-willed Mitsuya to stand with Ryuuguji as equal one day, a promise about being a delinquent who cared about his family.

And to engrave that promise, he tattooed the dragon that always gonna be his namesake.

Unbeknownst to him, that Ryuuguuji had also felt represented by the same mural.

I have a feeling that Mitsuya had never anticipated them getting twinning tattoo, because he never knew how Ryuuguuji name was written. He never thought the possibility of other people claiming his dragon, because for Mitsuya, the dragon was always a representation of his own name.

In the end, Mitsuya gave the tattoo up because Ryuuguuji was right, he did trade the Karubidon with the mural. And the first step to gain Ryuuguuji's trust and friendship was to do what he had said.

Draken was Draken we knew now, because of that tattoo. He was reborn, rebranding himself to be the legendary Draken from the Fourth Middle School, because he met Mitsuya.

Later, we all know, Draken was one of the most notorious delinquent, the vice-president of Toman.

I used to think that chapter 122 was a filler chapter, a bridge between two arcs, it was nothing more than Wakui's way to connect the characters.

But the knowledge of their name meaning, the literal twinning dragon in their names, makes me thinking that Wakui had always planned to build their relationship that way.

And it warmed my heart, that even with the whole Takemichi and Mikey resetting the timelines, Draken and Mitsuya are always meant to meet first, because that was what Wakui had always intended.

Twin Dragons backstory is one of the most beautiful relationship Ken Wakui had ever created. And whether you shipped them romantically or platonically, you can not deny that they were always destined to be together.

#meta reading #chapter 122 #twin dragons #draken #ken ryuguji #ken ryuuguji #mitsuya takashi #takashi mitsuya #doramitsu #draken x mitsuya #tokyo revengers

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thequietmanno1 · 10 months ago

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TheLreads, Vigilantes ch 97, Replies Part 1

1) “Now it is time to return to our headache, it’s a vigilantes chapter! We’re about to the see the humiliation of tensei (I fucking love tensei) by the hands of Koichi. Let us see how many seconds this high-speed chase will take, on Chapter 97: Pursuers”- About 10, if we’re not counting the failed talk-down attempt Tensei made which took longer than the actual pursuit.

2) “And look at that, it’s the emissary of hell himself. Alright Koichi, you don’t even know what’s coming your way, but trust me, you’re not gonna like it”- Not even just dealing with the usually-competent Tensei, it seems Koichi’s also gotta deal with most of the top pros out hunting him, hamstrung as they may be by Furuhashi’s writing.

3) “Ok… This is not the neighborhood, because everyone in there knows Koichi vigilante name, but this imply that he’s well-known enough outside of Naruhata? Right. I hope I’m merely misinterpretating this.”- Koichi’s fame appears to have been spreading by his more visible acts of do-gooding, but that’s also the same reason he’s being chased right now, having gained a rep for both good and bad reasons. I guess we could have seen more of this in prior chapters if the series had lasted longer.

4) “Dammit Koichi, pay attention, we don’t want to add vehicular manslaughter to your criminal record.”- ….does Koichi himself now count as a high-speed vehicle when he’s in motion? Like, he could always compete with them, but would a collision still be filed under “bodily harm” if he ran over somebody?

5) “THERE IS OUR MAN, THE LEGEND, THE ENGINE

TENSEI

AND HE’S ALREADY BEING A NARC TELLING KOICHI TO SLOW DOWN, BASTARD WANTS TO GIVE HIM A TICKET”- Koichi’s casually broken more speeding laws than hero laws, and now it’s all catching up to him….literally.

6) “Now Tensei, although I fucking love you, I have a feeling that Koichi does not feel the same to trust you. You know, it’s not like there was almost three years of story to show you two being friends and bonding while jogging to justify this

but then again, nothing important happened on that timeskip”- I’m starting to feel like the words “three-year timeskip” will become your version of the “Bat credit Card” skit whenever somebody brings it up….so I hope your sister continues to mention it at every opportunity

youtube

7) “And Koichi of course doesn’t trust him, because being honest, why should him? From what we know they met like, twice, this has all the emotional impact of two acquaintances by name meeting after three years.”- I appreciate Koichi having the brains to not immediately turn himself in to the official heroes, but still not casting off his goodwill with them by continuing to flee, instead taking on a third choice of using the truck to maintain his escape velocity whilst also letting him have a conversation with Tensei and letting him argue his case. Even if it was a doomed attempt, Koichi isn’t as Pro-vigilante as Soga, Knuckles and the others (ironically) and does want to believe in and trust the official heroes. It’s just that this time, the stakes are too high and personal for him to take that chance, so however reluctantly, he’s gotta break the law to keep their illegal operation running until Pop’s safety is secured. 8) “Don’t even waste saliva Tensei, he won’t stop, the fact you allowed him to roam free for those last three years don’t necessarily mean much much considering that every single hero in town also never batted an eye to him, even though he technically is famous.”- Everybody being willing to let Koichi “play hero” does make them mighty hypocritical now the situation’s turned dire enough they need to step in and preform actual hero work in his stead. In that respect, Fires Georg actually kept the correct attitude up towards Koichi the entire time. 9) “Can you, Tensei? Can you really? Because I wonder for how long you would be able to.

Here’s the thing, why don’t you prove you’re capable of by catching Koichi first? If you can’t catch a single measly Vigilante, what shot you have of protecting Pop from a villain?”- Koichi’s rise in competency against (furuhashi-nerfed) heroes does unfortunately highlight Soga’s point about how their group is needed on this operation, because if the heroes aren’t capable of stopping Koichi, then Nomura will easily penetrate their defences – and the fact that there’s multiple heroes in play hero only increases his chances, because we’ve seen how expertly he infiltrated that big hero operation against Bee Pop.

10) “Yeah see, this was a good reason for not trusting the cops and the heroes but it pains me to have to swallow the fact it’s once again Soga being the voice of reason.”- At this point, what’s one more pain to the list? Might as well grin and bear it, cause we sure aren’t getting a sudden switch over to Bakugo being Koichi’s helper, funny as that would have been. 11) “Also, he probably could’ve already done that if he wanted, I think he’s planning something. That’s the only explanation for him not going up a building and then legging it the opposite way since you can’t do sharp turns easily.”- Since a lot of heroes, especially pros, tend to use Ariel support or parkouring around the city rooftops to get around whilst on patrol, Koichi going up high only makes him a visible target and puts him in their preferred hunting grounds, as shown by both Edgeshot and best Jeanist, whose ability let them semi-spiderman their way around. Sticking to the dark streets lets Koichi move quickly and mostly undetected, but with Tensei covering the ground he’s forced to go high or order to avoid the net.

12) “Huh, guys, a net? He can jump over it

and even if that fucking creppy-ass girl tries I doubt she’s fast enough to catch him

what is going on”- Tensei and his sidekicks are cutting off Koichi’s avenues on escape on the gorund whilst letting other, more mid-air capable heroes monitor the area from above in case Koichi tries to go vertical as an escape. Demonstrating teamwork and trust even between different groups of heroes, just like a proper Pro should.

13) “And there he goes… Yeah, I knew that would be the case, they didn’t even stood a chance

Really, no air support to intercept him even though everyone by now knows he can jumps around and is just a minute away from actually being able to fly. I retract my statement Tensei, turns out you are an idiot.”- Tensei’s group is highly-skilled at cooperating in large-scale operations on a level ground floor, but we’ve not really seen many of them that can fly well, if at all. In which case, Tensei’s ok with allowing other pros who have skills that cover that gap to step in to subdue Koichi if words or force won’t convince him to submit. It’s honestly not that different from the kinda tactics Izuku’s pulled off with 1A and their varied abilities before, showing how success requires more than one superhero who’s capable of covering all possible types of situation. 14) “TENSEI PLEASE DID YOU SERIOUSLY CAME ALL THIS WAY TO CATCH HIM AND YOU DIDN’T EVEN BOTHERED TO GET SOME INTEL ON WHAT HE CAN DO NOW?

HE WAS INVOLVED IN THE SKY EGG AND FIRES GEORG RAMPAGE, THE HEROES SHOULD HAVE KNOW WHAT HE CAN DO ALSO, WHO ELSE DID YOU RECRUIT FOR THIS”- The heroes did know what Koichi can do. That’s why Tensei outsourced some extra help this time around….

@thelreads

#my hero academia #bnha #chapter replies #thelreads #bnha vigilantes #vigilantes 97 #Youtube

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