#it actually made me feel so horrible for real like this may be worse than s1e5

[casyawn]

watched the new iwtv. not feeling so good

[iwritenarrativesandstuff]

I’m just going to throw down my thoughts now real quick. Someone is obviously going to get taken over by Fyodor. This takeover seems to require blood to activate. Here are the potential options, rated lowest to highest by my own personal interest.

Random character we’ve never met - the easy and boring answer. Fyodor will body snatch one of the vampire guards he was communicating with. Fair amount of likelihood since he could easily have made the transfer of blood at any point, though I’m not sure yet if it needs to be an instantaneous thing or if his blood can lie dormant. Either way I think it’s a bit of an ass-pull with no stakes on our cast so I’m hoping this isn’t the case.

A named character outside Meursault - Probably someone he’s had a lot of contact with, so Fukuchi. This depends on the blood having a latency period and is also insanely contrived. I actually hate it more than the random guard.

The Catgirl thief - I’m assuming this is extremely unlikely since the host needs to be alive. But anyways. Women lovers here’s how we lose even worse.

Having said this now, I think it’s fairly obvious it has to be one of the other Meursault four. This is appropriately thematic and tragic, given that all of them place a lot of value on free will and self-determination, which a takeover by Fyodor would rob them of.

Chuuya - He spent a lot of time around Chuuya to be sure but there’s no blood on him. If there’s a latency period though, it is possible. I’m not feeling this one though, to be honest. I don’t see what narrative purpose it serves - Chuuya hasn’t had enough of a role in the manga for this to mean much, other than royally pissing Dazai off (which to be fair is definitely in character for Fyodor). I think it far more likely that Chuuya is going to be a witness for whatever comes next.

Sigma - High likelihood. He did get stabbed and had the memory transfer. I can’t remember whether Fyodor touched him with his wounded hand. It would be brutal for this to happen to him after he’d just broken free from his manipulation. But honestly I don’t know that Sigma getting taken over is all that interesting. For one, they’re going to need his knowledge (though that may be a reason for Fyodor to off him truthfully), and for another, I just don’t think Sigma’s… done enough as a character. I feel it would kind of render his arc in Meursault pointless to end his story here.

Nikolai - The most likely possibility to me. He is holding Fyodor’s severed hand, which he touched to his face. Fyodor’s ability probably kickstarts after his death, and Nikolai was the first to get his blood on him. Sadly, I suspect that if this is the case, this will be the end for Nikolai. If he gets taken over, I can’t see a reason or method to restore him to himself. What a horribly tragic end this would be to our favourite clown, his freedom snatched away for good by the one person he couldn’t help but get attached to.

Dazai - I dismissed this off-hand at first. Of course I did, Dazai is immune to abilities. I also want to be clear that I seriously doubt Asagiri will off his favourite boy like this. But oh man. What if Fyodor’s ability isn’t an ability, much like in the first skk manga team up? What if them both being there is a call-back to Rimbaud who snatched corpses, and Lovecraft who could hurt Dazai? What if Fyodor really has become no longer human - and this is the proof? I was kind of hoping the Meursault arc would end with Dazai (temporarily!) out of the picture, and this would be a way to do it - Atsushi and Akutagawa would have to step up, Chuuya could be more relevant. We could even have more Kyouka if what I’m starting to wonder is true - that Fyodor was involved in the death of her parents. At the same time, Dazai’s special boy plot armour nullification and mysteriousness gives us a plausible reason to bring him back. And all the while maybe they could continue their mind games, with Dazai being an annoying little pest in the back of Fyodor’s mind.

[philtstone]

Touch prompts: “feeling their pulse” for Shawn and Gus

so like .... i compromised my most staunchly held principle (there is objectively way too much of this kind of fic in the psych tag and i refuse to contribute MORE) to write this. alas; it would not let me go not sure how i feel about it as a standalone - i think it belongs in a larger fic, tbh, but im trying to be responsible and post these as prompts instead of spending weeks on a real story. i'll probably expand on it (and situate it in a generally more fun story) eventually. warnings for cursory description of blood, throw up and a broken arm & set during the events of 4x09, aka shawn takes a shot in the dark

In Gus’s memory, the Tuesday before Junior Prom is marked by the dead frogs in biology class and the most disgustingly broken bone the world ever had the displeasure of witnessing. 

“Mr. Spencer!” he had shrieked, operating on pure and unadulterated survival instinct.

They were fifteen and stupid – the way being angry at your parents makes you stupid, or being scared of how much you want to see Destiny B from first period art naked makes you stupid. When Gus yelled, feeling cold all over despite the hot after-school May sun, a weird hoarse twist he wasn’t used to tightened his throat. It overrode his gag reflex, thankfully, but unfortunately also made him sound like a panicking girl. Shawn didn’t say anything. They had a system. If Gus couldn’t look at Shawn’s broken ulna without throwing up, then he also couldn’t see the tears leaking out of Shawn’s eyes as he pressed his face against the scraggly front lawn and groaned in a horrible not-normal version of his recently-cracking teenaged boy voice. 

Plausible deniability for both of them.

“Fuck,” Shawn managed between sobs. Gus’s mom would have killed them both if she ever heard that word. “Gus, Gus it really hurts –”

“Don’t,” said Gus. He couldn’t look. This was so much worse than that time Shawn got a nosebleed in gym class it got all over his grinning teeth. He wasn’t grinning this time. He was shaking, like a leaf. Like one of those leaves from the plant unit in biology class, and oh, God – the frog. “Don’t, don’t, don’t.”

“Make it stop!”

Gus couldn’t. It was horrible. He’d told Destiny two weeks prior that he wanted to be a doctor when he grew up and he couldn’t even look at his best friend’s broken arm. He wasn’t panicking, not in the way Joy used to tease him for when they were kids (not grown-up fifteen year olds) and he’d get nervous around the water slides at Six Flags, but in this memory Gus felt scared in a new way that was somehow worse than water slides. “I told you that branch w-wouldn’t – I told you it wouldn’t hold, Shawn!” He shouldn’t have been yelling; it made him feel better anyway. “Why wouldn’t you just listen to me for once –”

The front door slammed open and shut and heavy footsteps rushed toward them. The broken arm probably hurt a lot, because Shawn wasn’t even mad at Gus for summoning his dad. Gus kept on shouting at his own shoes. To this day he has pretty much no idea what he was actually saying. The act of berating on its own was therapeutic.

Therapeutic had been one of the words he’d spelled right in the spelling bee.

“Shawn!” 

In the memory, Mr. Spencer’s voice invades their bubble like a popping bb gun and a big bucket of cool water in summertime all at once. The broken arm was not actually his fault, but Shawn had climbed the tree because he was fifteen and angry and Gus had hung back on the ground because he was fifteen and thinking about Destiny’s long swinging braids. Somehow both of these things connected back to the general presence of Henry, weeks away from divorce, hanging over their heads. He’d been the one who grounded Shawn two days prior for skipping second period for the millionth time, and Gus wasn’t sure he wanted to go to Junior Prom (where Destiny would be, slow dancing with Micheal H for sure) alone. 

“Shawn – ah, Jesus. Gus. Gus, come on, calm down, kid.” Two firm hands grabbed Gus by the shoulders and hauled him to his feet, and his tirade died in his throat. He was kind of shaking, too, but there was a sharp edge of fear to Henry’s voice that came out sounding almost angry and somehow made Gus feel better. “You’re okay, alright? You’re okay. He’s okay. This isn’t your fault. Go inside and get my car keys.”

Gus can’t really remember whether he made it to the bathroom before spilling his guts. He figures it’s kind of an immaterial detail, nineteen years later.

“Gus,” Shawn mumbles. “Gus, I got blood on you.” 

“Shut up, Shawn,” Gus says.

Shawn isn’t dead, which is pretty obvious to everyone now. Gus has been convinced of it for the last twenty-four hours. If Shawn was dead, Gus would’ve felt it. This is a conclusion he came to at around eleven a.m Pacific Standard Time, still in his pajamas and halfway through one of the gross protein bars Juliet keeps in her purse to keep his brain functioning on something one tier above pure fear. He used to wonder about it in college – whether Shawn was lying in a ditch somewhere without him. The idea would float through his head on random days when he was in crisis about stupid stuff like his upcoming Chem 102 final and prone to catastrophizing, and he’d think miserably that Shawn was probably on a sunny beach surrounded by beautiful women and Dolph Lundgren, momentarily freak because dude, what if he’s in Northern Guatemala and dead, and hasn’t even said anything? That would be just like Shawn, and then, finally, he’d eat a Kit-Kat and go for a walk around campus and finish his study notes and everything would be fine. A week later he’d get a postcard, like Shawn had somehow read his mind all the way from Bardstown, Kentucky, and pretend he didn’t miss his friend someplace deep in his ever-feeling stomach.

This morning he became convinced. He’d know. That has to be how it works. Nothing else makes sense, and Gus is a person who likes to believe in the reasonable and rational when he can.

Yeah, says Shawn’s regular, not-mumbly voice in his head. Like mummies and curses and ghosts. Absolutely the most sensible person I know, buddy, bar none. 

Shawn’s real voice is slurring something unintelligible and sounding a lot less coherent than he did fifteen minutes ago when jumped onto the hood of a moving vehicle. Like an action movie star. Gus can’t even bring himself to be pumped about how cool that was, theoretically, because –

“EMTs are on their way.”

“Well can’t they get here faster?”

“I’m not a goddamn teleportation service! Guster, get his head up –”

“His head is fine, will you just –”

“Stop jostling him!”

“He’s my son, Lassiter, don’t fucking tell me what to do – Shawn – Shawn –” 

After the adrenaline wore off and Shawn’s legs turned to jello, getting him to sit up against the car was kind of hard. He is, as a result, currently lying on the ground with his head in Gus’s lap, manfully, while they wait. Juliet took care of locking the bad guy in the other car and has sort of shut down, emotionally speaking – her sweet face is the color of chalk and her eyes are like saucers and she keeps answering her radio so fast her hands blur – and Lassiter’s trying (ungainingly, now that the shooting is over) to take charge to make himself feel better.

Henry’s the only one who seems capable of being practical. Gus knows this version of him well.  

“Gus … you hate blood. 'Cept when you're tellin' me to lick it.”

Shawn again, being unhelpful. As always. Gus is too relieved to gag. Maybe later. 

“At this juncture I am neutral about blood,” Gus tells him, in his best Professional Pharmaceutical Salesman Voice. Shawn grins crookedly up at him. He’s like, half passed out already, and the only thing keeping Gus sane is the steady beat of his pulse in his neck, where it presses hot and sweaty against Gus’s hand. Hot and sweaty makes him think of their junior prom. That was gross, though Gus supposes he didn’t mind at the time. They barely made it to the thing anyway. Shawn milked his stupid cast like his life depended on it and Destiny, who was big into art, sat at their table instead of dancing with Michael H so she could doodle on it with the Sharpies she carried in her frilly clutch. She and Gus spent almost the whole night talking. She was like, his second ever kiss.

Back to the present. Through the power of Henry Spencer’s eyebrows Lassie’s been successfully banished – warded off, whatever – and Gus briefly wonders if he should be a bad friend (to Juliet) and ask that she come over and hold Shawn’s hand or something. Then Henry locks eyes with him and he realizes suddenly and inescapably that no, actually, Shawn will not want her to be here for this.

“Shawn,” Henry says.

“Hi, Dad,” Shawn manages. He’s still grinning, but his face is pale. Pasty. Shawn’s kind of tan as far as white guys go (Gus remembers Joy declaring this once, the way she always liked to declare things, when they were eight and she was twelve) so the gray tinge to his cheeks doesn’t become him. "Unhg… this’sucks. Kinda … numb tho’. I think ‘s getting better.” 

It’s not really getting better. Gus looks at the dirty, slick duct tape matted into Shawn’s tattered shirt and feels his ears ringing. This is one of top ten most unforgivable pranks Shawn has pulled on him in their lifetime, without a doubt.

“Kid, I’m so sorry. I have to stop the bleeding.”

“S’still bleedin’?”

It is. Gus’s leg is damp. Probably sticky. Every molecule in his body is trying not to think about it. 

“Gus, brace his shoulder.”

“Yes sir.”

Shawn’s mind registers what’s about to happen a second before Henry presses down; Gus can see it all click in his drooping eyes, which widen. The noise that comes out of his mouth is sudden and horrible. Worse than God’s most disgusting broken bone. Gus doesn’t move, but his stomach lurches, and his head spins. Henry’s pressure is firm and professional and unyielding and he can see the old brown jacket the older man stripped off his own shoulders start to stain where it rests against Shawn, who seems to be remembering that he got shot with a real live bullet for the first time since they found him. 

“Dad – Dad, stop, stop, fuck! Why’d you – doesn’ haft’ – jus -”

Plausible deniability, Gus thinks while Shawn complains. It would be normal except Henry's actually apologizing. He stares at the ugliest sepia-patterned fruit on his best friend's dad's shirt and counts to ten, then twelve, then thirteen. He wonders what Destiny's up to these days. He doesn't look and pretends not to hear, either.

“Gus,” Henry says after another minute, and Gus looks up. With a jolt, he realizes that he’s watching Henry Spencer cry. Nothing about his voice has changed; nothing about his posture has changed. The faint sound of an ambulance invades their consciousness while mundane, dull tears shine in the pale afternoon sun as they leak out of the older man's eyes and down his grizzled exhausted face. “You need to throw up?”

He does, kind of. Shawn’s spare hand has grabbed the dirty fabric of Gus’s jeans in one fist. He isn’t yelling anymore and from over Henry’s shoulder Gus can see Juliet, across the road, looking over at them desperately. She probably can't see the details, but there's no way she hasn't heard. Shawn gasps a shaky breath and squeezes his eyes shut and bites down into his own shirtsleeve to muffle himself. Gus and the car are blocking the worst of it from everyone else. The sirens are properly loud now. 

“He’s gonna be okay,” Henry says. “You know? It just looks like hell.”

Like he’s fifteen again, and being ordered to go get the keys. Gus shakes his head anyway, and Henry doesn’t ask again. 

[safeashousespdf]

*whispers* Tell me your EddieTaylor thoughts...

*whispers* shhhhh don't let them hear us...

(THIS IS ALL A LIGHTHEARTED JOKE NONE OF IT IS REAL TAYLOR KELLY CAN'T HURT YOU. this is just a crackship. stay safe y'all.)

It's not that Eddie isn't happy for Buck. He loves Tommy, and he loves them together. Still, he can't help but feel (selfishly) like this couldn't have come at a worse time. These days, Buck's all aglow. He's got that new relationship buzz— when he isn't with Tommy, he's texting Tommy, or wearing that dopey Tommy Smile. Eddie's glad to see him so smitten, but his absence lately has only made Eddie's house feel that much more empty. The Chris-shaped hole in his life came as a matching set, with a similar hole filling Buck's usual seat on his sofa. Eddie can hardly bear going home to his empty house after work. He's been spending more time than usual lately skulking around their usual badge-and-ladder bar, nursing his heartbreak.

He runs into Taylor one night by pure coincidence. She's always had a way of grinding at him, even before she was dating Buck. But the company is nice. They get catching up, exchanging grievances and gossiping about Buck's love life. Eddie never noticed it before, but he and Taylor have the same sense of humor: wry and cutting, sarcastic in a way that might sound mean-spirited to the wrong person. He knows he's meant to hate her, and he does. He knows she's not a good person— but really, is he any better? Lately it seems like everything Eddie touches falls apart. And he's so tired of wallowing. Maybe, just once, he can let himself be selfish.

Okay, twice. Except now he's calling her after his shift, and she's staying the night after they fuck. He gets out of the shower and there she is, in his bed, wearing an old t-shirt she pulled out of Eddie's dresser. (Does she know that one's actually Buck's?) Eddie knows that it's wrong— and only gets more wrong the longer they sneak around behind Buck's back. And maybe she's horrible, but Eddie might just be horrible too. How else can he explain how good it feels? Not just the sex, but Taylor. He's so used to nice, pious girls like Ana and Marisol. But Taylor isn't afraid of putting Eddie in his place. She's arrogant and difficult, and things with her burn hot in a way Eddie hasn't felt since Shannon. Every time Eddie thinks he's ready to give her up for good, she finds a way to draw him back in.

The team all think he's lost it for good this time, and maybe he has. Even Bobby, who's always been happy to give out second (and third) chances, worries about what this is going to do to Buck. What no one expects is for him to be so calm when he finds out. Honestly, it's a little suspicious. Sure, he's hurt at first, but he tells Eddie with a tearful smile that he deserves to be happy. And maybe Eddie takes the win too willingly, maybe he chooses to ignore the way Buck's smile doesn't reach his eyes or the way his shoulders sag. Because it's them, right? When has a girl ever come between them? And besides— Buck has Tommy.

No one is more shocked than Eddie at how well this is working. He keeps waiting for the other shoe to drop, and it just... doesn't. Taylor plays nice on double dates with Buck and Tommy, keeping her jabs lighthearted. Tommy thinks she's hilarious. Taylor comes to barbecues with the 118 and does her best to make amends— she's done trolling for stories, thanks to the success of her book. It really is an awful feeling, she says, to get everything you've ever wanted, all the success in the world, and realize just how many people you screwed over to get it. She even tries to sit down with Buck, but it's hard to get a read on him these days. Taylor thinks she may have loved him once, but she never really respected him. He's all fluff, not like Eddie. So, really, it's better this way. She admits, a little ruefully, that she still wears the bracelet he got her sometimes. At least his taste wasn't awful.

Everything comes to a head during a shift, when the 118 arrives at the scene of a collapsed building, and Buck gets a strange notification on his phone: a GPS ping from Taylor's bracelet, coming from underneath the rubble. Eddie thinks of Shannon in that intersection, and how he couldn't save her. He's spent so long just letting things happen to him, dragging himself from one day to the next. But Taylor, and the rush Eddie gets when he's with her— Eddie chose that, and he's not going to let her go without a fight. But he can't save her without Buck's help.

For so long, Buck's tied himself in knots wondering why he wasn't enough for Taylor, how she could hurt him so easily. But now, watching Eddie stroke her bloody hair in the back of the ambulance, he thinks he understands, or at least is ready to accept it. Maybe this is just how the universe meant for things to happen. And who is he to complain? Buck has Tommy, now. However Taylor hurt him is irrelevant, when he gets to go home to someone who loves him the way he needs to be loved. And if Eddie feels with Taylor even a fraction as good as Buck feels with Tommy, then it'll all be worth it.

And you know what? Eddie does. And it is.

this whole idea started as a joke but, after however many words this is, i don't know if i can call it a joke. eddie's spent so long doing what he thinks he has to do (as a father, as a man) i honestly just want to see him do something selfish. i want to see eddie follow his heart (and his dick) instead of his gut, and to really put himself at risk of being hurt in a way he hasn't with any of his recent girlfriends.

and of course, there's the buck of it all. the first thing eddie and taylor have in common is buck, and he hangs over their relationship in a way that eddie probably would not like to examine too closely. buck's always going to be the elephant in every room, as far as eddie's narrative is concerned. this is that cranked up to eleven. is he doing it to feel close to buck? is he doing it to spite him? is he trying to chase buck away or draw him in? i don't know. i don't think eddie knows.

(ending this post with another reminder that none of this is real or has any bearing on the real world. resist the urge to reply with an essay about why this would never happen and eddie would never do this to buck. i know it would never happen. this is pure crack.)

[nukacourier]

For the Oc duo ask thing for James and Pierre- 😇⚖️👁🧠 (I struggled just picking a few if it's too many SORRY, I love ur characters)

NO ITS FINE!! May be kinda conceited of me but I rlly love writing about them

James:

Their best trait? - Loyalty, specifically towards people she cares about. Although their obsession with people (namely him) can be unnerving, James always can appreciate that he's there for him, whether she's helping out passively or actively, James has never had to worry about finding his knife in his back. And occasionally can't help but feel like she's the only person he can consistently turn to for comfort when he needs it, as much as that sometimes worries him.

Are they a good person? - It's complicated. James knows the things Pierre has done, and resents that, but has seen worse from others and can also see an almost childlike wonder and hope shining through the cracks of this broken persona he's put on, and knows that horrible exterior to his personality unfortunately exists for a reason. He thinks she has the ability to be good, but needs time to feel safe and protected before he can really fully bring out that side of themself without harming herself mentally.

Do you really know them? - No. James thinks he can sometimes see it, and what he sees is glimpses of someone who is sad, lonely, and lost. Someone that's too painful to be, so Pierre hides it. He knows better than to try to pry, he figures they'll tell him eventually if he needs to. He'd love to get to know the real Pierre at some point, though.

Best memory from them and worst? - Best is probably the time during their trip to Point Lookout where Pierre decided to accompany him and provided him with companionship and a shoulder to lean on after his first romantic heartbreak. It's the first time James had really seen how gentle and caring she could be.

Worst, however, was the one time James actually saw the physical extent of what Pierre would do to others "for him". He didn't want to know. He wishes he never did. It's something that's made him keep Pierre at an arms length since they'd left the Mojave, although eventually that tarnish on Pierre's image has faded since he's unfortunately been faced with seeing worse from others since then. But it definitely left some doubt in his mind.

Pierre:

Their best trait? - His kindness. James is a good person, good enough to treat Pierre like a human being despite seeing himself as scum of the earth. Sometimes it makes her envious, wishing he could care for others the way he does without feeling fear or doubt.

Are they a good person? - Yes. Pierre thinks James is the best a person could hope to be. Even after growing to learn his flaws, and learning how to unsee him as something more than human—Pierre still holds the belief that he truly is good to his very core if he's still trying despite how tired he must be. Although she worries it might lead to him getting hurt or winding up dead.

Do you really know them? - Yes. Pierre has never read into a book the way he has James. She knows what he likes, what he hates, how he feels about others, and even is at the point he's taken to being able to guess the action James will take the majority of the time. He finds familiarity in James that they'd never found before. Home.

Best memory from them and worst? - Their first meeting. Being given care without anything in return, from someone who had no reason to trust them is something Pierre has cycled through his head for years.

Worst, being told that he really is all she ever thought of himself and seeing him scared of him for once. In their eyes, Pierre was just protecting James, but he doesn't blame him for the reaction of fear and anger. He really is horrible. Disgusting. Heartless. But it was the first time Pierre didn't want it to be true despite knowing it was indisputably true. So maybe there was some merit in his hurtful words. Pierre feels he would've been just another raider left with a bullet in his head if she never had that moment of realization.

[survivalove]

hello! hope you have a good day! I love reading your meta.

as a fan of Katara, can you please share your opinion about the TSR episode? I love Katara very much, but this episode has always caused me discomfort, as if Katara's grief was used to hastily close this hole "zuko has redeemed himself and now they are friends." it seems to me that Katara and her grief (as well as Sokka's grief!) deserved a better attitude than to become a bargaining chip "we will write a hasty episode to redeem Zuko and will not return to this topic anymore." Yes, I understand that this episode is firstly dedicated to Katara, but it always seemed to me that it was written without due respect for her.

so I wasn’t gonna answer this because you mentioned voldemort but then like a hypocrite I broke my own rule and replied to an idiot so here it is:

while I think the premise of TSR is egregious I don’t think the episode as a whole is ruined because of it. I actually think it’s the climax of Katara’s entire arc as it builds off from multiple moments not just about her mother, but her as a bender, her power and always remaining in control of said power. not to mention all this time, she’s confronted and helped persons that have been oppressed throughout the war and now seeing someone who oppressed people for most of his life, of course inflicting unparalleled pain on her, but not letting him own that power and reducing him to (figurative not literal!!) shreds. very good stuff.

so yes, i enjoy it voldemort aside, however comma: the premise is indeed quite horrible.

i agree, the writers definitely used katara and sokka’s trauma as a means for this very middling redemption arc after 3, just as bad if not worse, episodes of the same stuff IN A ROW.

katara getting yelled at for not being so forgiving like everyone else, and then sokka’s trauma being used as a means of information for a trip he wasn’t invited on???

(can we be real for a second and admit that sokka and katara should have been the two persons on that trip in the first place?)

next up, my favorite line:

forgiveness is the same as doing nothing!

coming from the person that literally begged for forgiveness from every other person in the conversation, including katara hhhhhhhh

and then the racist comments to boot like 😭😭 may i remind you once again the premise is based on him needing to earn a genocide survivor’s forgiveness so of course he (the writers) couldn’t help himself and had to make fun of the other genocide survivor! he makes it so easy for me to be a hater.

(can we also talk about how some people like to frame this as him defending katara as if 1, katara can’t defend herself?? which she did and 2, didn’t need to be racist to do it???)

and then you have the sokka discourse which pisses me off because most people that harp over that line don’t even like him like that, and trying to pick and choose which sibling is correct when talking about their mother’s death?? both of their opinions were valid and it’s a reflection of their core personalities: sokka is pragmatic, rational and logical. he didn’t agree with aang because he suddenly adopted pacifism, he agreed with aang because yon rha no longer posed a threat to him and his loved ones and to him, confronting him wouldn’t be worth the effort or ease the pain of kya’s death. meanwhile, katara as we see throughout the show, dives headfirst into doing whatever she thinks is right (imprisoned, painted lady, waterbending scroll) she wasn’t concerned about the logistics, she was concerned about the principle and of course, having to essentially replace her mother’s role made her feel more tied to her death at large. one mean comment throughout sixty one episodes does not define her relationship with sokka. pretending otherwise is just annoying.

after that, i find the episode pretty enjoyable i can’t lie to you. getting kya’s story told and witnessing the satisfying climax to katara’s arc (which is far superior to anyone else’s in my opinion) makes the rest.. almost worth it.

[drifloonz]

Hey I love your writing I was wondering if you can do headcannons on Glitchy red finding a way out of his game too be with the reader?

hey remember when i actively did things here. i don't. Anyways [ tries to do that again bc i forgor and i feel bad abt staring at all of these asks for so long w/o doing anything ]

glitchy red finding a way out of his game to be w/ reader :]

headcanon style bc i am exhausted of writing and prob Will be for a while. at least w glitchy specifically. i hope this is good cuz' it's mostly me detailing my brainthoughts abt how glitchy could hypothetically escape in more detail.

♡ i like to think the reader in this case-scenario gives glitchy a much needed hope and desire to escape his game, which he didn't previously have bc he's definitely THOUGHT about it but he's like... too scared of change to actually try it despite how horrible his game is, i'd think. he's used to being constantly tormented and wouldn't know how to adapt. at least, that's the excuse he uses. he's also afraid that if he succeeded he'd literally glitch out of existence and "die" since yk, game glitches or characters aren't supposed to take physical form in real life because they're pieces of code.

♡ but once he meets you and you talk of everything in your world and you show him genuine care, you make glitchy realize he wants to be there and experience those things, and that maybe change wouldn't be so bad. after all, it'd definitely be better than the constant hellscape he's living in. even if he "died" in the way that he fears, it'd probably be better than living endlessly in his game. ...probably.

♡ as such, he tries to find a way to escape his game. the thing about that? way easier said than done. he has a lot of ideas, but a lot of them sound stupid.

♡ he still tries the stupid ideas because he knows full well that he himself is something that is not supposed to happen or exist, so he'd assume the games fucked up enough that the stupid ideas might also work. who knows. his existence isn't logical, him getting out of the game doesn't have to be either. that's his logic, anyways - it's not like he's supposed to be a physically existing being, either.

♡ some ideas he has consist of screwing with his weird dream powers, because he can usually affect peoples real bodies with them... so he can probably find a way to manifest through that, right?

♡ or maybe screwing around with the glitches in his game... a classic missingno to try and manipulate code, messing with the safari zones various quirks, hell, maybe he could break the game so bad that it somehow gives in to his desires and gives him an out through the broken mess of code while it collapses in on itself...

♡ he's afraid to try all of these because it'll probably make things way worse if it fails, and he never likes willingly interacting with the monstrous glitches in his game, but hey, you can't get much worse than the state the games already in. and if you can, he's almost definitely seen it, or seen worse.

♡ or maybe he could use a porygon...? but that'd be stupid, it's only code in a game, it couldn't possibly be Actually Able to do anything from being a pokemon said to be made from "programming code" could it...?

♡ ... which may or may not work. like i said, he isn't supposed to exist, but he does. any way he can exit the game can be similarly unlogical, barely explainable, and stupid, i feel.

♡ the most "logical" way to make glitchy a physical form is to make a robot that has a cartridge slot and slot it in and glitchys programming just takes it over and controls its autonomy and transfers his consciousness into it or something. but that requires you to have pretty deep knowledge of programming and AI and robotics for that to be executed well so. y'know.

♡ the other less logical way... but it still makes sense is like. him using someone as a vessel. he has dream powers. dreams are connected to consciousness, specifically your unconscious, and your thinking and your brain and stuff like that. if he cared enough, he could probably easily take over someone's entire - or most of - their body this way. although i do not think and also hope you don't have a human sacrifice laying around, and glitchy would not willingly take this from you either. even if it was someone who wronged him, he'd probably still feel too cruel abt it.

♡ it'd also probably have to have a very good antivirus bc i feel like inserting glitchys cartridge into anything has a possible chance to make said piece of technology fuck up real bad

♡ anyways.

♡ every time he fails or the method doesn't work out correctly, it pisses him off, but he's always been persistent. he treks forward even though it feels hopeless, sometimes.

♡ this quickly becomes a lesson in futility and he gets more and more frustrated every time he turns up with a failed attempt, and it sometimes makes his game even more glitchy and broken. but eventually. eventually he gets there.

♡ regardless of the way he gets out of the game, when he finally escapes and manifests in your world, he's probably just in your room or wherever you left the gameboy. or whatever you're playing his game on.

♡ he either crawls out through the screen, appears after a flash of convenient blinding light, or he forms out of glitching light from the cartridge or something like the cartridge is his gem from steven universe or something.

♡ maybe he'd still have to take a few days to gain an actual physical body in the real world, and he's basically a hologram or hallucination for a while. or maybe he can physically interact, but mostly just with your body and a few select items. he's also, as you can expect, still glitchy constantly IRL. maybe less when he's happy, but that never goes away. his glitches are like scars - they might get better and "heal" but they're always sort of there.

♡ i think it's also funny if before he gains the ability to physically interact he's basically only viewable to you for a while until he gains more physicality. he's using your subconscious to make him a form! by making you will his image into existence and into the collective unconscious!! or something!!! Nobody knows how the hell it works and it also depends on which way you think he would've escaped. highly interpretable and all that.

♡ regardless. he is mostly happy and safe and with you now. glitchy can be pretty smart and think quickly when he wants to, and this was a big example of it. he just really needs the hope and passion to drive himself forward, since he lost his hope and passion... prettttyy long ago, after his world got glitchy and broken. he didn't see a point to much anything and was very existential and all.

♡ so! you gave him that drive and motivation. not an easy thing to do. be proud of yourself. i hope you like him btw he's very clingy and won't leave your side for a good while.

[stormblessed95]

Exactly storm

Taekookers being nasty af towards Jimin and Jkkrs are very wierd to Tae. I saw many jkkrs here saying they are not same as tkkrs..yes I agree. But, if we look back to 6-7 years before Taekookers were not nasty like this to JM. Slowly all those conspiracy theories piled up + lack of Tkk moments made them Rabid shippers.

Jkkrs are at starting stage. Just a few years before Jkkrs didn't had any problems with tae nor tkk, if anything they were happy when JM made Tkk rekindle their friendship. But now they have some conspiracy theory + lack of Jkk moments which made them to be wierd to Tae. Unlike last year, this year they got brave enough to publicly post it on their main acct. So Maybe after 1-2 years we will see Jkkrs turning to rabit shippers as well.

ALWAYS REMEMBER WE ARE THE OUTSIDERS HERE

None of us know Tae or JM or Jk than they knows each other. I LOVE LOVE LOVE THE HECK OUT OF JM. Even if I find some of tae's behavior wierd regarding Shipping who am I to publicly criticise him when the person I love the most is seen talking to Tae happily ? Now I just used tae's name as an example, we all may have some moments with all members we might not agree with, it natural..but I always look at jimin. If he's fine, I'm fine too.

Tkk came together + Vmin were talking to each other + Jkk had few moments + they all were standing together. So who am I to decide how they should act with their friend ? Who am I to say one is being shady there ? Who am I to say one is using another for FS ?

Also I hope Jkkrs will stop obsessing over tkkrs. None of it will make them stop hating JM, none of will make Vminkook hate each other, none of it makes a ship more real. Just report and block, more you spend energy on them, more you get done with everything. Just sit back and enjoy their music and bonds. It's so easy and make Fandom experience 10x better.

.... I mean yes. But like, where were essays like this one 2 from everyone on anon (to me or literally to anyone else) when I said literally the exact same thing basically, said I would block people for anti behavior, and was therefore attacked. Called a bad/fake "jikooker" and army? Yeah... idk. 1 to 2 years? Yeah, I think you should move that timeline WAYYY up honestly. I said a few months ago if things don't start getting called out, if things don't start changing, the jikooker community will be heading down the same direction tkkrs did. I said 2 months ago that people asked how tkkrs got as bad as they did and what happened there. That they have their answer and are witnessing it happen to jikookers in real time now. I stand by that. That's what happening here now. And if it continues down this direction.... it will just get worse until jikookers ARE exactly like tkkrs. Just like I used to try defending against by all the anti shippers who used to say that. It's a dark path jikookers are standing at the start of. If they ignore the warning signs and continue to walk it anyway, we all know where it's going. Or we should by now. I want no part of it any longer. I tried, I was attacked horribly for WEEKS for my efforts, by "jikookers" people who claimed they "used to love me". 🙄 So now I'm here for BTS and BTS only. And essays like this, after time has passed, after no one felt the need to say anything before this, idk. Idk the word I'm looking for, but it's not pleasing. Even though I AGREE with you for the most part and none of this is directed at you specifically, just everything and everyone in general. Sorry, I just can't bring myself to feel anything other than "yeah, that's what I said a while ago. And look how that turned out." Idk, I'm just down to "I told you so's" which feels petty and not quite accurate of my feelings either. So it is what it is. But I do encourage everyone else to sit on how you are actually feeling about everything more and think about it all for yourselves. Not what I or any other blogger is saying about it. And remember what it is that drew you to BTS for the first place and why you are ARMY. I'm here because I love them as people and I love their music. 💜

[light-wayland]

Understanding Luke versus Robert/Maryse

here are my thoughts regarding luke's feelings about robert and maryse and how to make sense of them beyond pure narrative bias. this is not supposed to get into meta criticism of the books, it's rather a character analysis

this is not meant to be anti luke at all, but i will point out his negative traits. it may not be framed like this in the books, but luke makes much more sense to me when i see him as what he actually is: a morally gray character

luke used to discriminate against downworlders, and only changed his views after he turned into a downwolder himself

his poor opinion of other circle members don't extend to jocelyn and valentine

he's okay with killing werewolf leaders to take their power, because they've done it before so it's fair to do the same to them

after everything luke still somehow argued that the downwolders killed by valentine were all criminals

robert liked luke, but had the feeling that luke thought that being closer to valentine made him better. that's a red flag because it matches his late behavior. even after EVERYTHING valentine has done, luke still respects him and craves to be respected back

it's extremely questionable for a character to pay valentine any respect at all at that point of the story, but i can understand luke in the sense of standing by your beloved friend even if they turned out to be a brutal murderer. many people are willing to overlook any crime commited by someone they love, and shadowhunters being used to violence sure have different standards on that. but it's a problem when the crimes of your dear friend turn against YOU, and that's what happened to luke: valentine framed him to be attacked by a werewolf (that's heavily implied and luke seems to know that) because he listened to jocelyn's concerns about valentine

luke turned against valentine because valentine turned against him first. otherwise we can't really know if he would ever take action like he did. the fact that he still respects and mourns valentine after everything valentine has done to him, to others, and to JOCELYN, speaks volumes to me

that's all valid from a morally gray character

then, how luke thinks so badly of maryse and robert for their loyalty to valentine? i think the answer is not even that complicated

luke thinks he and jocelyn are better because they went along with valentine out of love for him only, but he thinks robert and maryse would have followed anyone who said the same absurds. he thought they were by themselves their own version of valentine, one he didn't love or care about.

i'm also inclined to believe that there may be even some jealously involved, because if luke always thought of himself as better than all other followers, he probably wasn't pleased with valentine catching strays, and it certainly stung that valentine turned against him first, the one who loved him as his parabatai, but had robert and maryse following him until the uprising before they all finally betrayed each other.

luke's feelings about robert, maryse and hodge may come from a place of "you don't really know valentine, he never loved any of you like he loved me, you shouldn't have a place beside him, you only did because you're all horrible and happen to share the same awful beliefs as him"

i'm strongly against painting any circle member as innocent. what's the use of not being into murder and torture if you don't mind your best friend/husband doing so? let's be for real right now. that was something robert pointed out himself, it was horrible of him to not even care much about valentine’s beliefs and go along with everything anyway, but instead of thinking of himself as better because of that like luke did, he thought of himself as worse

i find interesting that luke assumes that maryse wished he was dead. to me that says that he probably wished she was dead, and projected that on her

this is not to say that luke couldn't be friends with other circle members: his selfish perspective actually makes him more similar to robert and stephen that he would like to think about, and i think they were both inclined to be friends with him if he wasn't so deep into believing that valentine was better than them and that he was also better as his parabatai. they all secretly relate to each other

all of this analysis make luke a better character to me, because these are all things the characters themselves could think about and reflect. as a morally gray character, luke is still a far more capable and loving partner and father than valentine, and that's how trying to tell circle members apart in good or bad doesn't work to me. they were all awful and in their own way all capable of good if they actually wanted to, like luke did at the end

[diary-of-a-recovering-party-girl]

What am I so afraid of feeling? [22.01.2024]

my screen time is crazy these days. I feel like I want to pick up my phone every minute I possibly can and whenever I'm doing anything that even remotely allows for multi-tasking, however bad it may work, I'm whipping out my computer and putting on jersey shore or YouTube or anything, anything else to fill the second of silence asap. it has gotten to the usual point of watching things I'm not even really interested in, watching long true crime videos just because they are long, watching videos about politics even though I know they will. upset me, consuming content and content KNOWING that the more I consume, the worse I feel.

why is that? what feelings are so big and scary that I need to run away from them this far?

I want to put them out here, to bleed them out on paper, to let them soak the pages and leak on the floor, to see the mess I made and be Happy I made it. to shine the bright lamp right in the middle of my emotions, to rip open the wounds and watch the organs under them helplessly bleed feelings onto my skin.

the first feeling that comes to my heart is sadness that I'll never scream something at a protest and mean it. if something serious happens, I'm too hurt and emotional to even acknowledge it. if it's something not about life or death, some more low key political matters, I feel ridiculous for protesting about them. I can't take anything serious, not myself, not politics, not horrible things happening. Gaza, lol. if i think too much about it and actually feel sad, I shut myself down to protect myself from getting too emotional. why? do I thibk I couldn't handle feelings that don't have a constant undertone of nihilistic Irony to them!? is really any feeling that isn't sarcastic ridiculous to me? I haven't been much on 4chan yet I clearly spent too much time there.

I know I have real emotions because I csn clearly feel them at times. but somehow, they scare me, enough to suppress them to a point that I can't even realize them anymore. I'm scared to be vulnerable by being emotional. to have people comment and talk about My emotions and them being right. to look hurt because I am. happiness, however naiive or fake it may be, protects me from peoples reactions to my sadness, from their concerned looks and their empathetic faces, from their hugs that are too tight and their questions that go too deep. I keep people away with a smile.

that was a good first emotion to discover.

and then when I dig deeper I discover another feeling. I'm so hurt and upset by c ghosting me for weeks again. I Love this girl so much and I want to keep her as a friend but this is Really really hurtful and idk what to do with it. she doesn't answer me for weeks, the last time we met in person was in October for like 4hours before her boyfriend got back to work and I MISS HER. I miss her when I could actually talk to Her, call her, meet her, when wed do things together and she'd be there more than once every 2 months. I had the best festival experience ever with her and all the other things we did together and now I miss her so so bad and she's not answering my old texts, neither my birthday invitation and I feel like she's not gonna come to my birthday like last year again. I don't know what happened, in 2022 we were all good but since then, since _something_ she got like this. I don't understand what happened and I just want to be her friend again and this HURTS. I don't want to go through another friendship breakup. they hurt more than any dating /romantic breakup ever did.

[jasminedragonart]

Heres a horrible thought but what if all these remakes are being done to sanitised history.

Hear me out. These days when people put on a disney film, more often than not I see the remakes being shown rather than the original animated ones. This isn't necessarily a problem except for the fact that the remakes aren't good. Worse. They're sanitised. They reflect things disney, and a lot of parents, want to show to their kids. For example, the beer and cigars in pinnochio being cut out and replaced with root beer. Or Jasmine and Belle and even Cinderella being a stronger willed 'feminist icon'.

Yes, the old films did have some problems but what people don't realise is that they reflect the time they're made in. Also, Yes they may be meeker but these ladies are still good role models. We see the extreme in pinnochio so we can understand that they're bad. I feel like they've lost a lot of their dark essence, the things that need to be shown on screen. Like Hocus Pocus was far too camp I couldn't even watch past 15 minutes whereas the first one had a good balance between camp and darkness. Like a child literally dies and the ladies are shown hanged in the first 10 mins. I don't think disney would even dare show that these days. Like pirates of the Caribbean, I'm scared what they're gonna do to this franchise next. The first 3 are amazing because they're action packed and don't hy away from blood and gore and dark mystical stuff. The fourth and fifth one, again, were more camp and jokes and not enough... I don't even know.

What I do know is that the old movies are being pushed to the side in favour of these new ones. I'm actually scared to go see the fireworks at Disneyland these days because I feel its half remakes, a quarter star wars and the other quarter marvel. I'm sorry but unlessit's the silhouettes of the chimney sweeps being projected onto the side of downtown disney it looks weird having real people projected onto the castle.

[fowl-leaf]

my 2023 summary of art!

Template:here

still not consistently posting anywhere, but I like doing these. they're fun there's a lot of things i would've liked to include but had to exclude, due to not being shareable on this account. maybe i'll have more stuff next year!

this is long, so details under the cut

JANUARY silly lizard oc i generally dont do much single line hatching, so it was nice to fiddle with it this time

FEBRUARY the wittle scrunkly lizard last time i drew this one, they were an lps shitpost, so its nice to like draw them normally lol

MARCH herman is running out of time glasses axolotl but make him neon idk

APRIL fancy calico i honestly dont know whats up with the clothes, i just kinda drew whatever tbh

MAY yippie!! toontown oc! was playing ttcc w/shard and co, this is the character i ended up making i also got covid around april-march iirc so i was feeling horrid for a while (and the remaining symptoms didnt clear up till like june)

JUNE an oc i got years ago but didnt have the confidence to draw for a while lmao anyways i like her colors and shape, she's fun

JULY mandatory artfight posting this was one of the last ones i did! ocs belong to pookapooka and they were so fun to paint

idk if ill be doing artfight again tbh. ive been doing it consistently since sun vs moon but its honestly felt less fun ever since the tiktok invasion`and how ppls behavior has changed, and especially since the whole ownership thing that happened mid fight this year. (not interested in any of the alternatives ive seen either bc they have the same issues, notably worse issues, or are not furry friendly) but tbh that might just be me being disenchanted with online art spaces due to the intensifying shittification of basically everything, fucking rip

AUGUST ring but hes going to jail (again but for real this time) the staxie monthly prompt was barbie mugshots but i . . . i did this with ring and lumos and promptly forgor to do this with cakes and ale like i was planning to lmfao im actually gonna watch the barbie movie tonight, renting it so i can watch it on the big tv (didnt watch in theaters bc expensive (movie tickets are generally 15-25 bucks in my area (compared to the 5-10 in my aunt's area (renting is cheaper per person)), and they changed the chairs to these weird uncomfy pleather recliners that make my skin crawl to "justify the price raise" + i hate sitting for more than an hour i need water, bathroom, stretch, and snack breaks))

SEPTEMBER ganache went over the hedge was very busy w/projects so i did little casual art this was inspired by me comparing the over the hedge version of supermarket by ben folds (upbeat & high energy) vs the one by the clash (melancholy + commercial-induced agony) ever since then i cant stop thinking abt how much the lemon demon guy's voice sounds like the fucking clash guy sdjkhfkjsd also over the hedge was one of my favorite movies as a kid and i watched it at least 10 times before we had to return the dvd to netflix. i also regularly played the flash games on the site until i forgot about it after finding out about miniclip + notdoppler from other kids and decided to use those for flash games instead bc more options lol

OCTOBER dta img for a new oc i got, funny long neck budgie thingy busy w/projects again so little casual art had to use old mini tablet bc previous tablet was completely unusable fucking rip

NOVEMBER ganache + cactus pony, they want to know if you have any bubblegum. do you? busy w/projects again so little casual art doodle i made in heavypaint (one of the old layerless versions, i bought a lisence for it a while ago.) i got a new tablet on black friday since the mini tablet was horrible + my broken tablet was making me work very slow

DECEMBER ring in the void (this is lore accurate) or as nic put it, "fucked up twilight sparkle" lol busy w/projects + gifts so little casual art i actually sketched this w/the mini tablet, but didnt finish it up till getting the new tablet

---

for reading this far, you get to see amogus.

i would've put amogus whisper on the chart but decided against it since im not done with that one yet lmao

[piracytheorist]

Choose violence ask game: worst blorbofication? and what's a character no one really likes but you do and why?

I'm not in the Star Wars fandom or the Harry Pοtter fandoms, so I don't have first-hand experience with fans of Kylo Ren and Severus Snape, but from what I've seen they're the first that come to mind in manner of "THIS is your blorbo? THIS DUDE??" Kylo Ren is an immature, unstable supremacist who is most inappropriate to be in any position of power, and the way fans are only presenting him as a "poow misundewstood boyyyy" is... ew. And then Rise of Skywalker came and redeemed him because why by the way and only made it worse, basically accepting all the poor takes.

Now, about Snape, there are far worse things to criticize the franchise and its t*rf of a creator about, but it certainly doesn't help that big-ass youtube channels that pride themselves over being unbiased and open-minded actually support him and think he was a hero all along. And look, I ain't saying he's not an interesting character! He was! As a prideful bigot who should never ever have been allowed to teach kids. Alan Rickman hit the performance out of the park in the movies and unfortunately, that created a problem (not Rickman's fault though) because it made people conflate "well-acted character" with "morally good character" and no. Snape was a bastard with poor priorities and horrible coping methods. His trauma doesn't mean shit when he's made it his life's mission to inflict as much trauma as possible onto his students. His emotional sacrifice in the end doesn't justify or undo the horrible way he treated innocent people around him. His pain over losing Lily doesn't hold any ground when he belittles Harry at any possible chance just because he was the living proof that Lily rejected him.

Anyway, oof, yeah. There may be worse cases out there but these are the ones I can come up with now.

About a character I like but everyone else doesn't... I'm choosing a currently relevant character and it's Nightfall/Fiona from Spy x Family, but listen. I don't "like" like her. I don't root for her goals and I don't support any of her actions she takes towards that goal. I think she is very blinded and biased. I don't want her to end up with Twilight... but I feel she's very interesting in the way of bringing such interesting material into the narrative and giving us an informed view of Twilight, and her bias and obsession actually help towards that. She's the one that confirms to the audience that Twilight's smile hides actual genuine emotion behind it.

She's obsessed enough to have studied Twilight's pretenses and acting enough to notice the real emotion. She's infatuated enough for it to make her jealous. She's self-confident enough for us to know the smile is real, and not her paranoid interpretation that she's "losing" him. Twilight's happiness with the Forger family is something she wants to prevent because she wants him to be happy because of her and only and that competitiveness is what makes her observant enough to notice and emotionally upset enough to point it out for the audience to know for real.

But, at the same time, she genuinely wants him to be happy, because of her, and because he knows the real her. She doesn't want to use tricks to gain his attention and praise, she hasn't even shown to try and change his opinion on Yor by lying about her. Her sabotaging of the relationship comes in the form of exposing Yor's weaknesses, not making up fake ones to trick Twilight into thinking she's less worthy.

Don't get me wrong, as I said, I absolutely do not support her and I don't want her within a ten-mile radius from Yor. But I think there's more in her other than her "Notice me senpai" thing, and there's traits that actually point her towards a redeeming path. She just has to become more aware of the world around her and especially how said world views her. Then maybe she can rearrange her priorities and find ways to be happy that don't depend entirely on Twilight becoming her husband, and hopefully, understand that Twilight's place is within the Forger family, not with her.

So, yeah. I "like" the dynamic she brings into the narrative, I like how she can offer to the audience a side of Twilight that Twilight himself doesn't allow. I don't like her but I like her role in the story.

🔥 choose violence ask game 🔥

[lemonhemlock]

https://at.tumblr.com/lemonhemlock/why-aemond-alicent-rhaenyra-daemon-and-others/5f1o0o4b4rrn

I think this is because to the HotD writers/showrunners, Aegon is not the actual protagonist of the Greens the way Rhaenyra is for the Blacks; Alicent is. Alicent is the real center of the Green plotline, the most sympathetic, the one given the most character development and screentime, the one with the strongest ties to the opposing side. There's a reason why Rhaenicent is so strongly developed and so central to their arcs and the story at large while Aegon and Rhaenyra don't share a single word. The story isn't about the relationship (or lack thereof) between Aegon and Rhaenyra, it's about the former bond between Alicent and Rhaenyra. I think they even described Ep9 as being Alicent's episode? That's why Alicent is so heavily prioritized compared to Aegon despite not being the actual claimant, because she's essentially the main character of the Green faction of a whole.

You may feel one way or another, but tbh for the most part I like this change personally. I appreciate the show prioritizing the women and really putting them into the spotlight, and I really love Alicent as a character, so I'm still happy with what they did. The problem unfortunately comes that because of Alicent being focused on more AND because of the pacing of S1, Aegon sort of feels like a bit of an afterthought/not nearly as developed as he could have been. Ideally, Aegon should sorta occupy the same narrative space like Daemon for the Greens - the most prominent male co-lead to the leading ladies. Maybe that's why they gave Aegon the adaptational villain treatment, since they know Daemon isn't a good person and in some ways they made him even worse (having him kill Rhea when he wasn't even speculated to have done so in the book).

The issue is 1) the pacing. Time skips were necessary for this story because it takes place over many years; however the specific pacing of this season only gives Aegon sufficient screentime for character development in 4 episodes. Compare that with Daemon getting 9 episodes.

And 2) Aegon still comes across as worse than Daemon. Daemon grooms his niece, but it still comes across as less worse than Aegon raping Dyana because Rhaenyra was also ""into it.""

That might be way writers like Hess were surprised at the Greens being less popular. They thought that Alicent and other sympathetic Greens like Aemond would have been enough to balance out the worse of them like Aegon, to get people to still root for them. But I think they didn't realize that making Aegon do things as horrible as rape, and then having him be the guy they're trying to get on the throne ends up dragging everyone on his side down. If they're serious about making both sides equal in terms of sympathy, then I hope they can actually pull it off in s2.

Sorry for dumping a whole essay in your inbox. I just saw that ask of yours and had a lot of thoughts on it.

Thank you for your message, you make some very good points. I do actually like that they focused the Dance on the women's stories via Alicent and Rhaenyra. In truth, I wouldn't change that approach; it doesn't bother me per se that Aegon is a secondary character.

The issue here is the "morality" of each cause - Rhaenyra, at least, is fighting for herself and is framed (rightfully or not) in a feminist light; whereas Alicent's character suffers a lot because she is portrayed as trying to place her drunk rapist son on the throne at the expense of an exemplary woman (see how Rhaenys praises Rhaenyra to Corlys as "holding the realm together").

Alicent's character also suffers a lot because, by making Aegon such a rotten apple, her mothering skills are questioned, all the while Rhaenyra is shown to be a loving, perfect mother with likeable children. See how people are much more willing to excuse the crimes of Rhaenyra's husband, because she doesn't have as much influence on him, whereas they are so quick to blame Aegon's faults on Alicent for being a bad mother, since she was in charge of raising him and shaping him to rule. So Daemon's faults are not a reflection on Rhaenyra in the eyes of the viewer, whereas Aegon's faults reflect directly on Alicent.

This is why I feel that it would have made more sense to make Aemond the problematic child, since he is already a foil for Daemon, who occupies the main villain role for the blacks. I do not think that the audience's reaction to the greens would have been so unbalanced if they made Aegon the funny drunk a la Tyrion. People love and root for characters like that.

[wild-at-mind]

Was talking to my partner last night about that thing my mum used to very well meaningingly do...she knew I had a lot of trouble making friends so whenever she heard about another kid about my age who was having trouble making friends she would try and arrange for us to hang out. I feel like the problem with this strategy is that kids who have trouble making friends are usually very, very awkward, and do not possess to social skills to alleviate the awkwardness of someone else. So you end up with two kids who are both being awkward at the same time and neither is able to help the other feel less awkward. I joked to my partner that you would have to introduce the kid who was not good at making friends to kid who was really amazing at making friends, which obviously in real life is not very workable (the concept of ‘pity friends’ is a not great thing for anyone). My mum is very kind and caring, and I know it must be hard for any caring parent to see your child fail socially over and over and be horribly upset about it. She did what she could. But kids in this position are more likely to stay in any friendships they do make even if those friendships are actually very unhealthy and are harming them. That’s what happened to me, she introduced me to someone when I was 12 who turned out to be very controlling and cut off my ability to make friends with anyone else. I will never know if without this person I might have formed actual friendship connections in my teens. They did a lot of harm to me and it’s really difficult to talk about that because they were my peer and also had been through some horrible things. I just clung on tighter because I saw how the world shat on my friend from a great height, like it does all kids who have experienced traumatic family breakdown. And yet in the end, my presence probably only made things worse. It doesnt do any good to harm yourself to try and save someone else, no matter how much you care about them. I really did care about him and I wanted to help and I couldn’t because the problems were vast and societal. I broke contact with him finally when we were adults, I assume this affected my mental health very much but I don’t know because I have no context for what my adolescent development would have been without him in my life. He used to say that needing people was weak, and so I believed it. (He obviously needed me at more than a few times but that’s neither here nor there.) But in reality, we all need people. We need friends and social connections that give us reciprocity and love. I do have friends now but sometimes I feel like I form connections too strong with some people who aren’t reciprocating. I may have mentioned this on here before but we talk about unrequited romantic feelings but not about onesidedness in platonic feelings, and I wish we did. When I’m in low times there are certain friendships that I mourn (absolutely not the one described above fyi!!) even if it’s been years, or I’m still in them and the other person thinks it’s fine but I feel so lonely for more closeness with them. I’m sure someone would helpfully tell me this is all normal but when you talk to people about this stuff, you can tell they don’t feel anything even slightly similar and are bemused. I don’t know what the solution is except to go on about it in writing so that’s what I do. And I don’t know how to help kids make stronger friendships or help a kid with no self esteem choose between being friendless but sticking up for themselves, or being in a damaging and harmful friendship.

[atherix]

HI ITS THE ANON THAT POINTED OUT TUBBO BEING IMMUNE TO MIMICS!! IM BACK AND IM SO INSANE!!!! IM LITERALLY SHAKING YOU IN A SNOW GLOBE RN. Everything about this new chapter is so AAAAA I LOVE IT SM!! also also ive decided to reread the whole series so i could take notes on everything- ive been having a wonderful time <3Something horrible ive realized with the fact that Mimics can read anything’s mind is that they can change into the Warden (if the wardens are actually alive still). (1/4)

HELLO ANON GOOD ON YOU FOR FIGURING THAT OUT!! <3 What kind of snow globe? Is it one of those cool ones you get from a zoo? :D

Thank yoouuuu <3<3 JFJSKJKSK that is a long read :o I wish you luck jgfddkgkfd please ignore any plot holes I may have forgotten to fill in along the way <3

:) Hehehehe now that's an idea isn't it... so this just in I quickly pulled up minecraft to make sure Wardens don't aggro on each other (since they aggro on literally everything else) so :) I'm just sayin, if there's a Warden or even something that looks like a Warden.... (of course, there's no telling if the Mimics can fool a Warden, since the Warden uses scent :) ) But gods, yeah, they would be pretty fucked if a Mimic mimicked a Warden- something intelligent and able to make choices and not run off instinct alone? Rip-

Half Fae is Fae enough but yes, if he was full Fae the backlash would probably have been much worse/outright killed him since full Fae are 100% made of Fae magic and Scar actually has a flesh and blood body alongside his magic so <3 That isn't to say his body isn't made of magic at all though... mm :)

hahahaha oh yeah, the water.... :) the Void-fog was foreshadowed by the "heavy" shadows Mumbo kept losing his own shadows in so <3 The smell of mold and water and Sculk........ That was honestly more to emphasize how long this place has been here, and was a very subtle hint (that won't be understood the first read through) that they're approaching an Ancient City. So the fun thing there isn't that Mumbo really doubts Scar loves him. Mumbo's real doubt is that he deserves to be loved by Scar, which the Mimic kind of twisted and then Mumbo started thinking about it, but he's stronger than that and has Tubbo there to reaffirm it <3 Lmao Scar would tell Tubbo little things that added up to Tubbo <3 Tis why Tubbo so easily trusted Mumbo the very first time he met him- because Scar holds Mumbo in high regard, he MUST be trustworthy!! :D lmao-

It's alright, I am no stranger to posting/messaging at 3 AM <3

I LIVE FOR MIDNIGHT!SCAR AND TUBBO'S RELATIONSHIP it is just so hjfsdjkhgfdjk I adore them <3 The funny thing is that line has actually already been revealed on my tumblr haha I won't reveal it now tho :) I don't feel like it's MAJORLY impactful tbh, it doesn't feel plot-essential to me, but. Ya know. It's fine <3

fhjsdfhjkgksd thank you so much!!! I'm so glad you're enjoying it!! <3 Hhhjjhgh <3

So the word count thing! If you're following me and you see me pop up on your dash (on desktop, idk about phone), you can actually hit my icon on your dash. It'll bring up a pop-up of my blog and if you hit ask on that pop-up blog, rather than going directly to my blog, it'll remove the character limit! It's how I have anons who send me essays <3