#it’s a weird one because I can see audiences reacting terribly to it

[vesemirsexual]

I have such complicated feelings about him, because I feel like Witcher 3 really had to retcon a lot of the bad stuff, because otherwise there was no way that the empress ending wasn’t an actual horror story that would’ve had people questioning what the hell was going on. As such, more people tend to know Emhyr The Shit Father as opposed to Emhyr The Predator, which is a whole other can of worms.

I think my main gripe is that a lot of people miss from book canon:

• Pavetta is 15 when they’re married, and he’s been sleeping with her for a year, which is incredibly creepy to say the least. A lot of people argue that “oh but they’re in a fantasy/olden time setting” still weird, not necessarily factually correct but regardless, still in the realm of “should make you as a reader go woah this guy will happily go low”

• Obviously the wanting to impregnate Ciri plotline, who is 13-17 the entire series, and also his daughter who’s on the run due to the destruction of everything she’s ever known (fucked that one up bad buddy). Like even with framing as a “for the greater good/better of many/fulfilling a prophecy” angle, I still feel like it should make readers pause and wonder about who Emhyr is as a person as well as a ruler.

• I can’t remember the details properly so I would have to check, but the date seen with False Ciri was incredibly uncomfortable. Again I’d need to pull details, but the vibes were terrible.

So I can see why CDPR pulled all that, because there was no way they could pull that off with any endings where Ciri reconciled, and have the majority of people feel good about it.

TWN…I’m uncertain how they’re going to handle it. Unfortunately, the reality is: they’ve cast an attractive older guy, so plenty of fans are going to jump on the shipping, the Ciri reconciliation, the justification because we see in fandom that people really like that Character Type.

This infamous tweet makes me incredibly cautious. To be fair, Hissrich has absolutely stuck her foot in her mouth before and had to walk it back, but “he just wants his family back” is an interesting choice. If it goes that route I think it’ll unfortunately put more of a wedge between canons and fandoms of each canon, because I don’t think you can really reconcile “weird pedo emhyr” and “did a few war crime fuck ups family man emhyr” which is so unfortunate because there’s already quite a gap between them.

Pavetta aged up in TWN obviously removes some of the absolute creepiness of that relationship, although I do think that she’s been sneaking out to see him and have a relationship with him is a little eyebrow raising when you consider the entire situation, let alone the fact he’s not honest about who he is. I think that it’s not as clear immediately to fans though that there’s already alarm bells there, because so much else is also going on with Calanthe, Geralt, and the Ciri child surprise.

I don’t think they’ll broach to far into creepy Emhyr territory realistically. I think it’s probably a little too far from the safe line for the production, and that’s possibly a good thing because Netflix has a very broad reach and it really is the kind of topic you’d want to be handled well. It’ll be interesting to see though whether they keep the creepy implications and to what level - I personally think referring to Ciri as “my queen” alone is creepy as fuck, especially when you already know she’s his daughter.

will never forgive cdpr and netflix for trying to make emhyr more likeable and a sexy dilf, because how you could erase most of his most important traits (the dude is a repeat offender pedo)

[gwenllian-in-the-abbey]

i think Helaena can be autistic but also a happy and joyful girl , autism ≠ depression. the way the portrayed the only neurodivergent character on screen as unstable, shunned depressed, and with no importance to the plot feel very ableist and weird , but then they're the ones who made the guy with a foot disability a feet fetishist 🫠

Hi OP, finally answering this because the trailer dropped and still the only Helaena shots we have are from her Jaehaerys' funeral. There is also one still photo of her. If you haven't seen it, here she is, apparently sewing the funeral shroud for her little boy:

So it seems like season 2 is going to continue on this trajectory for Helaena as a character who exists in order to suffer beautifully.

Don't get me wrong. I am glad that the show is going to wring the full emotional effect from Blood and Cheese, not just shock value. The audience will feel the real horror of a six year old child brutally murdered in his own home and the psychological torment of Helaena. It should be terrible, it should be devastating, and I hope they do not pull any punches.

What's disappointing about how the show has handled Helaena is that they didn't really put any effort into building up her character before her tragedy. It's all well and good that she likes bugs and she's touch averse, but what are her opinions? Who is she closest to? How did she react to becoming a mother so young? To what extent does she understand her visions? What does she value? She can be happy and cheerful, or she can be frustrated and angry, and hell, she can be depressed too, but I need to know why. It's telling that I can describe the basic internal motivations for each of the male children, including Luke who was a glorified plot device, but I cannot for Helaena. Aegon wants to feel loved, Jace wants to prove he's as worthy as any trueborn heir, Aemond wants what his brother has, Luke wants to be free from his family's expectations. Helaena? Fuck if I know. I guess she wants not to die horribly.

The ableism is an issue. F&B is full of women who were deemed "simple" -- Gael, Daella, Jaehaera-- without being given much else to define them, and HotD adds another (there's something, I think, to the way the "simple" Targaryens are always women and how disability kind of used as a way to remove them from the narrative and shunt them aside, often tragically). And while it's great to see an autistic person represented on screen, the show consistently has an issue with treating representation as characterization. "Autistic girl who likes bugs" is not a personality. Autistic people, (even those with horrifying prophesies I assume), do have hopes and dreams and feelings about things. The one peek we get into Helaena's life is at the in episode 8 when she roasts Aegon and even that scene is open to interpretation (and gets taken wildly out of context). Now, I can read a lot into the actor performances, but ultimately, lines that could have given a glimpse Helaena personality were cut. It's as if they're afraid that if they give her an opinion on anything she would lose that (frankly kind of infantilizing) "pure cinnamon roll too good for this world" "i would die for her" sympathy from people who are not inclined to be sympathetic for her family as a whole.

(And anon, you're right about Larys. And let me say, turning Larys' clubfoot into the punchline of an OnlyFeet joke also does not inspire confidence that they'll handle Aegon II's eventual disability with any sensitivity either, especially when Mushroom's accounts of his last few months are incredibly mean spirited. We need to start that discourse now so they get the memo).

Sadly, I don't think the show really has any intention of course correcting with Helaena in season 2. I imagine at most we'll have her try to warn Aegon and/or Aemond about Blood & Cheese but they won't understand her warning, and then this will be a vehicle to further their guilt and grief. And while we do need to see Aegon's guilt and his grief, I also want to know if Helaena blames herself, if she wishes they'd run away when they had the chance, if she thinks Aegon could have done something, if she is angry at Aemond for killing Luke, if she wants revenge. I do think, with the public funeral for Jaehaerys, they are going to show that the smallfolk are fond of Helaena, and hopefully that will be expanded upon this season and in season 3 because her death is the catalyst for the revolt that sees Rhaenyra driven from the city, and we should understand why her death has such an impact before she actually dies.

[space-blue]

Prometheus as a TV series

Firstly, I want to specify that I only saw Alien, Alien Romulus, and the prequels. I'm due to watch Aliens this weekend. I've not read ANY comic or novel.

From my POV, Prometheus and Covenant are extremely weird because they are clearly excellent premises for TV series.

This was originally written in reply to someone who thought the Prequels undermined the cosmic horror by leaning too much into sci-fi and genomics around the Engineers. I argued that none of the prequels' content goes against horror and that the films are simply in the wrong format!

They're both currently terrible because people are forced into dumb exposition to cram information on the screen and dumb actions in order to make a monster movie happen inside what is otherwise an ambitious and philosophical sci-fi premise.

There's large casts of very skilled people. Fuck, in Prometheus there's one of the richest and most influential people in the human galaxy secretly aboard the ship. You'd think this would be absolutely great stuff to explore. Perfect opportunity to see how warped someone like Peter Weyland is, and also the sort of bonkers power he wields.

His relationship to his children (his daughter and his android "son") was very intriguing to me in the film, and considering how vital David 8 is to the prequels as a whole, this would have been great drama to explore further.

Focusing on Prometheus here:

A TV series would have given us a smart, not hectic Holloway. His turn to despondency could be more gradual. His difference in reaction to Shaw could, given time, explore different ways people of faith react to having that faith shaken. I think he's the main source of idiotic scenes throughout, and making him less of a wanker and more of a driven and soft spoken nerd would go a very long way.

Our extra time could also give us time to flesh out Shaw. She could reveal her infertility in a more reasonable environment, like while testing prior to the original cryo-sleep.

Starting on Earth and staying there longer would also help build the Engineers and the act of going after them as something spookier.

In general, the prequels massively sanitize space. It's also the case in Romulus. Space is treated as this negative area that is a source of hard vacuum and zero G. It's not treated as something inherently scary, but we all know that's perfectly doable.

Going to look after the "Engineers" sounds silly in the film because the team is honest to goodness just following cave paintings. They would benefit from following a lead, like perhaps finding the star system and studying it, only to detect strange emissions from it.

(Just in case you forgot, looking at a star is looking at how it was in the past. You look at a star 30,000 light years away and see how it was 30,000 years ago, when those photons left it. Which means we could reasonably pick up sus stuff that motivates a visit, but also means Holloway would understand the concept of being late to the fucking party lmao).

This entire idea, going on a very distant trip to an unknown system, could use time to have anxiety built around it. People could push with serious argument, highlight in universe disasters that happened during similar blind trips, etc. The emptiness and harshness of space are very easy to capitalise on, and going to an unknown system without sending probes first could help frame this as a risky venture, having us on edge and also showing the depth of faith of Shaw and Holloway. BUT ALSO the depth of wicked corporate slavery Weyland can go to, with the rest of the crew hired without any information that would let them make an informed choice on this job.

The arrival around the planet could be spent scanning and being professional. If we spend actual time scanning the surface and following reasonable protocols, the audience won't be poking fun at your show/film for showcasing scientists doing unsafe/idiotic stuff, and also have time to get attached to the red shirts! So it'll hurt when they begin dying!

I think the fans of alien would also appreciate a show that takes its time with the alien world discovery aspect? I feel like these films have neither the time nor the inclination to lean into the science and discovery aspect. Like it happens, but it's not indulged in or treated seriously. Yet aren't we also fans of Arrival? Of Annihilation? Or JC's Avatar?

There are scifi films out there that expect us to be invested in the discovery process, and we are! But Alien isn't one of those franchises. Every film I've seen so far has the science kept secret (Ash), already ruined (Romulus), aborted or discarded in the face of action, but also entirely handwaved or ignored (Prometheus and Covenant)

Like honest to god, you have an Android who is the only one paying attention to ALIEN WRITING and immediately knows HOW TO USE IT and nobody gives a shit, asks about it, is curious about annotating it or even learning it. It's never even mentioned? Like What the Actual Fuck? And in a film where the main goal is to find the aliens in question to have a chat to them, nobody is interested in decrypting the language??

Going back to our timeline, since we have time for the exploration process, we can begin ramping up the anxiety. We can make up some fun new stuff, like this:

What if we were blocked from communications? We could have the characters make incredible discoveries (that the buildings are made by real aliens would be exciting enough, but writing on the walls??) and promptly our crew realises that all communications are being jammed. Not between them, but between the main ship and anywhere else in the galaxy. Maybe the entire system is shrouded somehow and they have literally no idea how. Can't figure the tech behind it or its source. You can start having the one security/military guy announce they should retreat. After all, the planet is there, the buildings have been there for a very long time, they should go and come back later. It'd be more secure to figure out the range of this jamming and maybe call in reinforcement.

We can start dividing the crew! With all the scientists basically too over the moon to mind, and Weyland a silent driving force who doesn't give a shit!!

I think that Holloway sticking to protocol and not removing his helmet at all would help making the confusion and angst greater if he started showing symptoms like his wormy eyes. When did it happen? Was bringing the head aboard a mistake? Was that all it took? ((David grinning in the background))

We could then enjoy an entire episode of mounting paranoia and terror as the show splits between the geologist and biologist stranded in the building and the Prometheus crew growing paranoid and further divided: what if the team was split between the science crew and the ship crew? The scientists are containing Holloway and getting absolutely horrified by what they see happening to him, while the workers are being kept in the dark and told nothing.

A downtrodden and disrespected Wey-yu worker POV wouldn't hurt!

I personally think that Holloway basically morphing/dissolving/losing himself in front of the scientists while they all fail to understand what's happening to him and are completely incapable of stabilising him would be far more horrifying than his suicide by immolation at the hands of a neurotic billionaire. It would also make David's jab about Shaw's dad dying of Ebola more impactful. Rewatched the movie recently and was like "what, her dad died burnt alive before her too??? Oh..."

By the time David finds an Engineer alive, tensions could be high enough that the ship would be on the cusp of mutiny. A good writer could make us really feel 50-50 on "value of answers from a live engineer" vs. "getting the fuck away from this planet".

Also "the engineers are us, we have the same DNA" bit is flat out stupid and leaves a million more questions than it answers, and zero mystery besides. This concept could be much better explored for angst. There are so many directions we could go!

Their DNA could contain every human genome and then more. It could change while it's observed. It could be related to us without being a perfect match. Better yet: it could refuse observation, making every machine bug out and return invalid results. Just stuff to keep us on our toes while David does his parallel observations on the black goo.

Even if we go in depth in the genomics, explaining the thing doesn't have to destroy the appeal of the thing.

I think in particular that we could explain the engineers themselves as our creators and users of the goo, only to thicken the plot as we realise they have no fucking clue what they're doing with it and we're a stray experiment left to run wild in a forgotten petri dish. The idea that the engineers used but did not understand the goo, that it was a tool they inherited themselves from fucking around darker, deeper corners of the galaxy, would be cool.

WORSE yet, it would be interesting to discover they themselves were made by some other culture/force/entity/creation process, and we are like... a by-product. What if we are the David 8 of the engineers, who are the David 8's of something else yet? Or that the Engineers aren't even "made in the image of" their creators? Maybe the whole likeness (between them, us, and our androids) is just a recent tendency we're showing, but not something the Engineers have to share with their own creators.

We could come seeking answers, and realise the Engineers didn't even have any themselves. We could be left to realise we are just the mold on the rind of a cheese, far from understanding the intricacies of 5-star dining. That's how far removed we are from understanding the forces at play.

This would be plenty cosmic horror.

God is a well polished concept, but we have a very narrow and human centric understanding of it, and it may be meaningless. Imagine if you saw Shaw lose faith only to regain it with a streak of madness? Imagine if we had the time to explore what a cosmic horror on the scale of "At the mountains of madness" would do to a religious modern person who has come searching answers and found more than she could take?

If Shaw were a Lovecraft protag, she'd say stuff like the black goo being the blood of the gods that made the Engineers, all bled dry now. Weird poetic shit should come back xD

Also. Close your eyes for a second and imagine the scene of David speaking to the Engineer. And for the lolz, let's say that the Engineer speaks back, and David adjusts, and they end up having what looks like a meaningful exchange of a few words.

Then the Engineer pats his head and wrenches him apart, and the ending comes around, only for David to staunchly refuse to ever elaborate on what the Engineer told him. Certainly another great reason to keep him around...

I hope I've made my point. If more than 50 people lose their shit on this post, I'll make a Covenant TV show post too, though it's more of a fixer-upper.

Bonus for reaching the end, a happy David:

The ultimate argument, of course, is that given 16-18 episodes of great Prometheus TV, we would have had so much more David...

[authoralexharvey]

INTERVIEW WITH A WRITEBLR — @arigalefantasynovels

Who You Are:

Denise || she/her

Denise O. Eaton grew up in a small town in southern Missouri, and from a young age, she chose fantasy literature as a means to broaden her horizons within her rural community. The Arigale series is her first foray into publishing, and she has been working on it since 2019. When she isn’t writing, she enjoys meeting with her Dungeons and Dragons group, watching fantasy and anime shows, practicing tarot, or planning her next cosplay costume.

What You Write:

What genres do you write in? What age ranges do you write for?

Action, adventure, fantasy, and romance. Young adult, new adult, and adult.

What genre would you write in for the rest of your life, if you could? What about that genre appeals to you?

I already only write different flavors of fantasy. I love stepping back and seeing the world as it could be and using that to look at how it is in a new light whether that be with politics or any part of the human condition.

What genre/s will you not write unless you HAVE to? What about that genre turns you off?

I don't think I could do strictly comedy or horror. They both lean too far to extremes for me. I incorporate both into my work at times, but to have it as a basis feels stressful.

Who is your target audience? Do you think anyone outside of that would get anything out of your works?

My target audience is new adult or adult, but I think young adult readers may like some of my works. Everyone should be careful to read my trigger warnings though, as my writing can get dark.

What kind of themes do you tend to focus on? What kinds of tropes? What about them appeals to you?

I focus on themes of life and death along with the strength of the human spirit. Some of my preferred tropes are hurt/comfort, friends to lovers, tragic backstories, found family, and grey morality. I have severe existential dread, so exploring those themes of life and death and going through dark tropes but always finding the light helps me to cope. I hope my books can help others who struggle too.

What themes or tropes can you not stand? What about them turn you off?

Two tropes I hate are the plain protagonist who is also good at everything and wanted by all somehow and the ugly person turned beautiful. The first annoys me because it's used to insert yourself in the story easier and just feels cheap and weird to me personally. The second is just a terrible trope I bought into when I was younger and abhor now because of how it treats characters as only judged by their appearance and makes good things happen to them once they are more attractive by society's standards, even as many of these stories also say to 'be yourself' in the same breath.

What are you currently working on? How long have you been working on it?

I'm working on a few projects in different stages. First, is the Arigale series, which I have been working on since 2019 officially. I'm also releasing the first book in my Made to Taste urban fantasy romance series late this year and have been working on it for about a year now.

Why do you write? What keeps you writing?

I write to express everything bottled inside, but also for a paycheck since I am disabled and this is one of few things I can handle and love even on my worse days with my health.

How long have you been writing? What do you think first drew you to it?

I've been writing since I was eight years old, so that's twenty-four years now. I was given a project in second grade to write a short story, which I was later picked to read at an assembly to the school. That day cemented my love for writing as I watched people react to my story and feel what I wanted to get across.

Where do you get your inspiration from? Is that how you got your inspiration for your current project? If not, where did the inspiration come from?

It depends. A few of my projects come from dreams I hastily get the details of down in the middle of the night on a dimly lit phone screen. Some other projects are the result of inspiration drawn from DnD campaigns I've been in, as with some parts of Arigale. Other projects I just get an idea and it won't let me go until I write.

What work of yours are you most proud of? Why?

Currently, I am most proud of Arigale. I can see it has some kinks to work out, but Arigale: Spite in the Spirit was my first published work and I'll never get over the feeling of seeing my book in my hands.

Have you published anything? Do you want to?

Considering my other answers, this seems overkill, but yes. I have published the first book of my Arigale series. I will be publishing the second book in that series and the first of another this year if all keeps going well.

What part of the publishing process most appeals to you? What part least appeals to you? Why?

I love working on cover art with my artist. It's wonderful to get to see things com together. When I see the cover finished is when it all begins to feel real. As for the least appealing part of publishing, I feel many will share my response. Marketing is the worst.

What part of the writing process most appeals to you? What part is least appealing?

I love writing. I detest editing.

Do you have a writing process? Do you have an ideal setup? Do you write in pure chaos? Talk about your process a bit.

I cannot keep to a schedule for the life of me. I write when I feel like it and push myself with treats sometimes. If I really don't want to, then I don't force myself to write. I have written some garbage and uneditable material that way and wasted months trying to fit a productive niche I just can't. My process is different than most this way, but it's what works for me. I write as inspiration and desire align.

Your Thoughts on Writeblr:

How long have you been a writeblr? What inspired you to join the community?

I've been on writeblr two years, I think. I started my writeblr after having abandoned Tumblr back in 2015 after all my friends left, so when a friend approached me thinking I could do well there now I was in. I still knew the site was a good fit for me and how to use it. It didn't take too much convincing to get me back in a new community.

Shout out some of your favorite writeblrs. How did you find them and what made you want to follow them?

Shoutout to @jezifster, @ashen-crest, @pens-swords-stuff, @vacantgodling, @thebibliosphere, @tlbodine, and more I can't think of because I need to grab breakfast.

What is your favorite part about writeblr?

I love ask games! No other site does questions and interaction quite as well. It feels more genuine on writeblr.

What do you think writeblr could improve on? How do you think we can go about doing so?

I think we could improve on reblogging other's content, even if we don't have the time to read it in the moment ourselves. Reblogging is how we get other eyes on our work, so if you have a writeblr you love, even if you never find the time to read their work, they would love a reblog! Someone else may find our writeblr that way and become a fan or friend.

How do you contribute to the writeblr community? Do you think you could be doing more?

I know I could do more. It hurts that my health keeps making me choose to spend my energy leftover at the end of the day on writing, my partner, or writeblr. I'm trying to manage with my fatigue, but often I can't.

What kinds of posts do you most like to interact with?

I like word search tags. They are fun to read and quick and getting tagged is also enjoyable. I can easily search a finished document and post some highlights this way.

What kind of posts do you most like to make?

I like to make posts that show both writing excerpts and the art my lovely artist friend works on with me. This could be video trailers or something more like an ad.

Finally, anywhere else online we may be able to find you?

On Twitter (not there often and hate it there). At Tiktok you can find me at deniseo.eaton. Most of all, please visit my website!

Questions For Fun:

What tarot card represents your main character? Why?

I have two main characters for the Arigale series at large. First, Judith would be The Fool. She is spontaneous and innocent with perhaps more faith in the universe and others than she should have at times. This lends to her naivety and general lack of direction that has made her a bit of a chaotic persona to the townspeople. She has lived as a beggar and a thief and wanders at will with no solid plan beyond what gets her through the present. Second, Chit would be The Star. He often finds himself torn between two extremes in his life and feels he has to make a choice. Whether this comes from his growing up between the Light and Dark sects of the Order of Yani in Arigale, or from how he later feels a pull between choosing a new deity in earnest or remaining far from part of what traumatized his youth. He's been blessed with good health and a keen mind when he puts his heart in to things, but the despair and loneliness of his past is a constant shadow. Judith's innocence and brightness often fuels the hope inside him and sets him on new paths.

Do you have a favorite tarot deck you like to use? What about it makes it your favorite?

I only use one tarot deck currently. This was gifted to me over a decade ago, and I'm a little superstitious so I believe unless I am gifted another I can' use it. There is a superstition that if a tarot deck is not gifted to you the readings will not be accurate, and I'm inclined to believe since I've never had a bad read with this deck. It's pretty too. There is gold lining the edge of every card and they have a nice weight in my hands.

What beverage would your writing be? Why?

I'm inclined to say matcha without thinking just because it is my favorite drink, but I don't think that is correct. I think I would compare my work to my second drink of choice instead, chai. Chai is made from black tea and many different kinds of spices that vary by region and preference. This makes it a good choice for my writing, as each of my many characters I would consider a spice added to the simple tea of my story. They all contribute, whether it's the spice of peppercorns, the sweetness of added sugar and fluff, or the somewhat bitter base itself. I have stories that vary a lot from page to page depending on who is in the scene, so a chai works perfectly!

[korrasamibottles]

You write so good! What are your secrets? Give us some writing advice Ms. bottles

First of all oh my god???? Ummmmmm thank you, this is such a sweet message and I feel like I have zero clue what I'm doing 99.9% of the time, so yeah. Seeing this made me a little insane (in a good way). And maybe I cried! Who's to say.

Second, I want to emphasize that I am in no way an expert and I don't think there's a "correct" way to write--to me, any kind of creative work is primarily about the creator, not the audience, and people should do whatever they want forever. Who Give A Shit what everyone else thinks (she says while giving a massive shit about what everyone else thinks. Shut up. I'm working on it.)

But!! Here are a few things I've found to be helpful:

1. Building a really solid POV for whatever character I'm writing. For me, this means obsessing over not only "would they fucking say that?" but also "under what conditions would they fucking say that?" AND "what would they fucking say if [x] happened?"

The great thing about fanfiction is that you can drop a character into any situation you want and then adjust their behavior accordingly, but this gets tricky when you're dealing with a character who's very self-contained and has a lot going on under the surface (........Asami😑). The great thing about original fiction is that you're the only one who will know if something is "out of character" but then on the other hand, you're starting from scratch.

Whichever one you're doing, I think trying to get a firm grasp on the way a character thinks and feels (what motivates them, what's important to them, how they react when under stress, etc.) is super helpful.

2. Describing the way a particular emotion or sensation feels, rather than naming it outright. I think this helps the story feel more immersive, and can elicit a more visceral reaction from the reader, if that's what you're going for.

I've found this to be especially helpful when writing characters who are terrible at expressing their feelings. Somebody who's emotionally repressed won't come out and say "I feel anxious," but they might keep breaking out into cold sweats. They won't say "I'm attracted to this person," but their face might heat up when they're around that person.

And--this is where it gets really fun--if you want to show that they're extremely repressed and don't even allow themselves to think "I like this person," let alone say it out loud, you can give them a convenient excuse to ignore their physical reaction, or attribute it to something else. Like, maybe they're eating with the person they're attracted to, and the food happens to be spicy. It would be easy for them to keep lying to themselves about why their face is hot.

3. Varying my sentence structure/length and spending a lot of time on thesaurus.com lol. This just keeps things interesting, and also personally I think it's a lot of fun to build all kinds of wild and wacky sentences. A few long ones and well-placed paragraph break can make a short sentence hit like a gut punch.

4. Allowing myself to make it weird. This goes back to what I said at the beginning--I write for myself, because if I don't get the story out, it will eat me alive. So honestly, who cares what other people think. This is really really fucking hard, and it's something I'll probably always struggle with, but it remains true whether we want to accept it or not. As long as you like what you've made, it doesn't matter if anyone else likes it.

I hope this was helpful??? Good luck with whatever you're doing, it's going to turn out great💖 And thank you again for the nice message WAHHHHH

[katyspersonal]

Thank you nice anons, it means a lot to me. ...or, an anon (singular) if you happen to be one person (since timing is very even), I appreciate it either way, I just can't tell with anon feature.

Well... At first, I blamed ER for attracting too many "bad" type of fans into Soulsb0rne by appealing to a much wider audience than average From's games. But I think my theory didn't quite line up, and in the end, it is just a plague that strikes ANY fandom's western space sooner or later.

I am not really sure what's about "you do not deserve it" because ONE thing is true; people deserve to know that I am not a very emotionally stable person, THAT I can say as much. There IS a merit to knowing that if people are too nice to me, they are at risk of ending with emotional leech (as in, clingy/expectant person, I've recovered from being abusive friend). I just always felt too embarrassed about even considering the prospect of listing all my mental problems and illnesses in bio/pinned/whatever. It is a private information! But at the same time, maybe slightly stepping at my privacy is better than if it is spread by people who have malicious intentions to begin with. :')

---------------------------------

As for sharing DMs; I agree on this, though. The core problem with such posts is that it doesn't "spread awareness" but rather deliberately makes people not want to give a person any chance to begin with.

You MIGHT be referring to a person, let's call her A, though, who is a special kind of treacherous. I've had a bad paranoid breakdown on May 19th, which I admitted was terrible, and I apologised to her about it in details that same day, I felt awful for scaring and insulting her so. She never reacted to the the apology, however, for the last month proceeded to act neutral, even interacting and starting a convo. I had a slight hunch that she, in fact, never forgave me but only tried to stay "civil", but I decided to trust her out of the fact that she claimed to be blunt and open and honest. So sure, she'd tell me if I've done it, if my words hurt her too much?

Skip a month, and I can't take the paranoid feeling anymore and apologise to her again, additionally asking forgiveness for ruining our chances for friendship, and saying I was willing to give her space. She'd respond all like, 'oh don't worry, I don't think your outburst was ANYONE'S fault, I do not even care about the drama, I am chill and you are always welcomed in my blog, I don't have hard feelings, take care etc'. Then, at the mark of ~40 days since the conflict I've caused and apologised for, she sees someone maliciously attacking me and decides to join in as another "victim of a terrible mistreatment" and share the conversation. And of course she instantly blocked me before I could react.

I think it was a treachery. Pretending to have forgiven me and being "chill" for 40 days, and then suddenly block and provide a "victim's testimony" against me to my enemy, who is malicious? I am well familiar with being too fast to 'forgive' someone and only later realising my wound never healed; but what I'd do is to admit the gravity of the situation in private. And then block! I would not suddenly turn tail when the person is already down, just to add fuel to the fire. I would not add to what obviously is a harassment campaign, especially after 40 days of faking peace. What happened, A.? You saw a witch being burnt, and your Christian instincts kicked in? /hj

---------------------------------

All in all, let's hope that for the final time, truth is settled, and everyone picked the side of the fandom they belong to. Let's hope that we the 'weird' guys are here, and the SJWs are over there, and that we do not cross paths all that much.

[reigenaratakaschildbearinghips]

a defense of reigen

yk what i have just a little bit more to say.

I know it's obvious I have a bias towards Reigen (and his ass - okay, serious talk), but I genuinely think his behavior towards Mob in That One Episode (S2,E6. ow) is pretty out of character. Or at least part of it is.

The impression I got from S1 is that Reigen will generally do the right things for the wrong reasons, in a way; this applies to his job (helping people feel better even if it was just soothing their sore muscles or a bad photo), and to his interactions with Mob (making Mob feel more normal instead of an outcast, whether that would be for being powerful or weird).

To be clear, he's not exactly a good person in season 1 for sure, but he's not cruel and manipulative. I went back to try to see how he reacted to Mob joining the Body Improvement Club and he just... wasn't that mean about it. Another thing I picked up from S1 Reigen is that he will be bluntly mean and doesn't hesitate to lie all the time, but he is also not cruel and manipulative. So he tells Mob that he's better off not joining the club and working for him.

Is that right? No, obviously. Because kids are still highly malleable, and that's immoral. But it's also not outright bullying Mob like he does in the fated episode S2E6. He just says, hey, you should work for me, because he likes using Mob for his job; he doesn't say, hey, they're all gonna hate you and you'll never "improve" yourself anyway in the club.

I mean, Reigen seriously stood up to ACTUAL PSYCHICS who he KNEW were more powerful than him (obviously) because he didn't like that they were picking on an awkward middle school kid. (Season 1 finale.) He genuinely put his life on the line for that. He thought he could talk his way out of it, sure, but he still knew for a fact he was outclassed and Mob probably was not. (Remember, Reigen is not that afraid to put Mob into danger - because he knows Mob is ALSO POWERFUL. And yet in this case, when Mob was dealing with adults who were on a power trip, Reigen didn't just step in but stepped entirely in front of Mob.)

Am I opposed to the interpretation that Reigen is using Mob? No, that's pretty true. Am I opposed to the show just choosing to make Reigen a bit worse in ways we haven't seen before, because you can always expand on characters in ways we as an audience haven't seen before? Again, no. But I AM opposed when the new terrible thing we see him do is contrary to what he did like... literally a month ago?? (How far apart are the seasons? It's not that much.)

In S2,E6 Reigen is just plainly cruel and manipulative and basically bullies Mob, trying to bring down his self-esteem. Trying to convince an awkward kid that he's actually unloved goes way beyond using him. I'm really not sure if that's forgivable..! Like that is INSANELY cruel. And all this from a man who took on several psychics to protect the kid less than a few months ago?? Even in this season he bailed on an expensive job when Mob clearly had moral qualms about it. This is Reigen we're talking about, the greedy-about-every-penny guy.

I don't know. This show is awesome, and I really liked Reigen's realizations at the press conference & after about how he's been using Mob - I am NOT opposed to Reigen being a bad person at all, because he HAS been using Mob. And it HASN'T always been forgivable just because it sometimes helps Mob too. So in conclusion to this far too long post, I'm not trying to defend Reigen from being bad at all. But I hope at least someone out there might agree about the specific cruelty in S2E6 being out of character from him.

yall im in the middle of s2 and i'm actually so upset 😭 and the secondhand embarrassment is SO STRONG!!!

reigen better have one HELL of a character development arc because whatttttt

[chainofclovers]

Ted Lasso 2x10 thoughts

GOOD GOD.

“No Weddings and a Funeral” is like being hungover but also coming out of a hangover. Having a terrible cold but also feeling better and appreciating every breath that comes through your nose. Embarking on an organizational project and accidentally falling into a photo album and crying about the pictures and organizing almost nothing tangible but making a few things more clear in your brain.

So much of this episode is about the AWFUL POINTLESSNESS OF DECORUM. How loud is too loud when you’re drinking stolen wine and shrieking about sex in a church right before your father’s funeral? How should you feel--thirty years later, as an accommodating, anger-averse person--about having been too angry to attend the funeral for your father who killed himself? What expression should you make when you show up really late to a different funeral? Why must you wear uncomfortable shoes just because someone died? What happens in your mind between standing up to give a eulogy for a man you’re still angry with and choosing to Rick Roll your mom and everyone else as an act of complicated love, humiliatingly incomplete until someone else starts to sing? Should you worry about your therapist seeing your normally tidy flat in a full-on state of depression mess? Is it okay to be offended that your boyfriend is so uncomfortable about death that he can’t stop making morbid jokes? Should you care about other people caring that you’re crunching an apple in church or squealing with joy to be reunited with a friend you’ve not seen in awhile? Are you obligated to explain your behavior if your kid doesn’t understand how you could stay with someone unfaithful? How far behind the counter should you sink when your [undefined relationship person]’s mother has just let you know she can see your dick through your underwear? Is a funeral reception an okay place to find a hookup? Is a funeral reception a decent spot for a break-up? Is a funeral reception a good time for a love confession when you know the person you’re confessing to is happy with someone else? And who do you make eye contact with when you can’t look directly at the person asking you if you’re okay when there’s so, so much about you she doesn’t know yet? Even if--for this tiny little moment within a vast swath of many okay and not-okay moments--you’re honest when you tell her that you are?

I fucking adored this episode because it answers all these questions very simply: Show up. Show up for yourself. Show up for your friends. Try not to harm yourself. Try not to harm your friends.

I love that this episode is about the messiness of adulthood and the things we bring with us from childhood and that it takes place partially in Rebecca’s childhood bedroom, and in Ted’s childhood memories. Dwelling in those places (whether physically or mentally) isn’t an automatic recipe for regression, but it does get everyone closer to the things that made them who they are, to the unresolved and half-buried parts of them that still make them tick today.

Forever obsessed with every single detail about Rebecca’s childhood bedroom.

Forever obsessed with Deborah’s decision to Rick Roll herself every single morning of her life.

Forever obsessed with Rebecca’s decision to Rick Roll her father’s funeral as a way to not have to make up a single word about her father and to do something very vulnerable and kind for herself and her mother and everyone.

Forever obsessed with Ted’s decision to Rick Roll Rebecca Rick Rolling her father’s funeral.

Forever obsessed with an entire found family backing it up.

I love that it is Isaac’s leadership that ensures every single member of the team attends the service for Paul.

I am very, very interested in Jamie’s love confession to Keeley because I do think it will spark some reflection in Keeley but I do not think it’ll go the cliched love triangle route.

Each scene with Rebecca and Sam struck (for me, a human being sharing a subjective perspective on the internet) the tender-awkward-beautiful-stressful chord I was hoping it would. I think it’s wonderful that Sam is honest with Rebecca about how difficult it is to keep their relationship a secret, and I love that Rebecca has a million mostly-unarticulated reasons for why she’d much prefer the secret to continue. I like that Sassy, Keeley, and Nora respond to the revelation as friends; they might be tempering their judgments in part because they’ve all gathered to bury Rebecca’s dad, but I don’t think their reactions would’ve been that different even on a happier occasion.

While there are a million and one different reasons why a continued relationship between Rebecca and Sam could cause serious ethical problems, I really love that when people share big news on this show, the people who care about them generally react by trying to see why the person is doing what they’re doing. Doesn’t mean they shouldn’t also hold each other accountable, but in my book it’s OK that Keeley’s first reaction was to feel happy that her friend is having some fun.

Also everyone has been making weird judgment calls this season, and this episode felt like a moment of real breakthroughs in terms of people telling the truth about things that happened to them and leaving themselves open to honest responses from others.

September 13, 1991. It’s so tenderly, beautifully, overwhelmingly meaningful that there’s still so much Ted and Rebecca don’t know about the things they have in common in these parallel lives they’re leading. The scene between Sarah Niles and Jason Sudeikis is so beautifully acted, and so is the scene between Hannah Waddingham and Harriet Walter. The way they intertwine to communicate that Ted and Rebecca basically lost the ability to trust their fathers simultaneously, from an ocean away? In the hands of lesser storytellers, it would feel too perfect a mirroring, but here it feels heartbreakingly imperfect. All the things they still don’t know. All the questions they try to ask each other. All the things they don’t dare ask yet. And then the storytellers are holding a candle up to all of it and letting the audience bask in the glow of this connection even if Ted and Rebecca can’t fully understand it yet.

I am so proud that Rebecca and Deborah were able to embark on the beginnings of a conversation about the ways Deborah and Paul’s relationship might have resembled or not resembled Rebecca and Rupert’s. It feels possible that they could get to a point where Rebecca truly internalizes her mother’s pride that she broke a cycle by leaving Rupert, and could maybe even understand why her mother made the choices she made. I love that in the final scene, they’re still relying on their old mother-daughter conversational patterns—the frustrations, the snippy shorthand, the passive-aggression. Mothers and daughters!

I am also proud that Ted—albeit via a joke about Sharon charging him for the house call—indicates that he understands the value of Sharon’s work. He’s changed a lot, all in realistic ways for someone who loves learning and really does want to meet people where they are and appreciate them. I’m very moved that instead of putting himself in a real harmful situation by showing up to the funeral on time at any cost, he did what he needed to do to take care of himself and accept care from someone else. And then Sharon’s suggestion that he think about things he loved about his father? And the way he’s able to share a positive memory of Rebecca’s own father at a time when she really needed it? Gosh.

Awkward, undecorous transition from 1991 to present-day incoming...but SASSY! She’s just, like, a whirling dervish of loyal friendship and not giving a fuck and penis size discussions and being casually, delightfully cruel to Rupert, who so deserves it. Rebecca was going on a real face journey when Sassy goes off with Ted at the end, and I’m sort of *eyes emoji* about all of that, but I continue to feel like Sassy is the most imperfectly wonderful friend-from-the-past kind of person and I love everything she and Nora get to do in this episode.

Keeley saying “That baby is whack” might be my favorite line in the episode? Maybe the whole show? Not really but really.

FUCK YOU, RUPERT. Bex and Diane, y’all are fine. And I truly feel for Nate...whatever scheme he’s getting suckered into. Whatever insecurity Rupert is preying on. I want Nate to go to therapy, too.

I feel like it was an unpopular opinion at the time, but I loved Rebecca’s 2x1 revelation about vulnerability and fear of getting hurt and needing to let someone love her. Sassy doesn’t always word things in the most nuanced way, but I think there’s a real possibility that she did ask Rebecca to really consider what it means to feel either safe or unsafe with a person but to know that in either circumstance, that person could end up causing her pain. Standing in that closet with Sam, managing to make it clear that she’s not asking for a break because she knows he will hurt her but because she has to figure out how to be with a wonderful person who could cause her pain...the growth, man. Makes me emotional.

I emerged from this episode feeling, of course, stunned by all the amazing parallels and revelations and beautiful acting and Rick Rolls and just, everything. I also emerged feeling sad/raw/tender because messiness and decorum and growth and coping mechanisms and death and dramatic irony and not knowing things about people and not knowing what you don’t know...it’s a sad, raw, tender place to be.

To quote a guy who got a whole sitcom (lol) named after him, life is real hard.

[forestlingincorporated]

“A Good Soldier”

I wanna think about Jason’s memorial.

First of all, Jason’s memorial first appears in Frank Miller’s 1986 Dark Knight #2 - The Dark Knight Triumphant. So, it’s actually one of those instances where apocrypha retroactively enters canon - Jason’s memorial predates Jason’s death in 1988. 

This memorial, interestingly, is shown not to have an epitaph at all, and we’ll off and on see versions of the memorial that continue not to have a plaque. 

However, the phrase “a good soldier” still comes from The Dark Knight Returns series. 

I think this is important to consider, because this Bruce Wayne and New Earth’s Bruce Wayne were not the same people. Miller’s 1986 series doesn’t just predate Jason’s death, it predates Jason’s life - Jason Todd as we know him today was not revamped until 1987. Miller’s Dark Knight’s Jason Todd is an alternate universe version of pre-crisis Jason Todd. 

So I went looking for the first instance of Jason’s memorial in New Earth. 

(Side bar, this panel from Batman 432 of Bruce looking at Jason’s photo in his pocket, I’m gonna cry) 

There’s no sign of Jason’s memorial in Batman 436 when Dick goes to visit the cave. What we do see is that Bruce has removed every memento of the last two years with Jason. 

I find it interesting that Dick goes to Bruce’s room, but not Jason’s. We don’t get to see what Bruce has done with Jason’s bedroom during this stage in his grief. If I were to assume, I would guess it was locked, but I find it a weird choice not to demonstrate that.  Now, there is a case in A Lonely Place of Dying...

But this is pretty clearly Dick’s uniform, so there’s still no indication that there’s a memorial in the Batcave. 

Then we suddenly see this case in the background during the Penguin Affair, Batman 449. 

Now, we don’t know for sure this is Jason’s memorial. It seems really odd that we wouldn’t get a scene of Bruce putting the suit up, or even the other characters reacting to it. This could very well be Dick’s suit in the regular suit lineup, there is no plaque and we can’t tell for sure if it’s a stand-alone case or one of many without seeing its left side, but it could also be the first depiction of the memorial. 

The monument is for sure installed by Batman 451 in May of 1990. It is a stand alone case and it’s obvious from the dialog that it’s Jason’s. This is, to my knowledge, the OFFICIAL first depiction of Jason’s memorial in New Earth. 

But there’s still no plaque. 

So where’s the first appearance of the plaque? 

Rite of Passage immediately opens on it, a nice big close up of In Memory of Jason Todd - Robin - A Good Soldier. 

The memorial plays a big part in Tim’s arc. It’s a heavy reminder why he’s there, what he has to live up to, and what he has to surpass. Jason wasn’t Tim’s brother at this point, he’s a stranger, an idol, a hero... a good soldier in Batman’s crusade, fallen in battle. 

I - oh? 

It’s gone. Oh - ?

It’s back. 

It’s weird? Because the epitaph is almost entirely for Tim’s benefit. It’s a symbol for Tim, almost what Tim would have imagined it would say, rather than what Bruce would write. 

And the comics Do Not show us Bruce putting up the monument - which you would think they would have at some point, given the number of times the thing’s been smashed. 

We, the audience, are left wondering when exactly Bruce set up the memorial, why he set up the memorial, why he wrote the plaque the way he did, because none of this is shown to us. It’s this weird set piece that just got stuck in there one day and created this strange void in the narrative - how we got from Bruce unable to bear the sight of Jason’s trophies to erecting an extremely morbid monument to him.

I can think of three potential triggers: 

Lady Clayface taking Jason’s form

Bruce accidentally injuring Lonnie Machin

And Bruce failing to save this random civilian child. 

But that’s just me trying to retroactively make sense of it. I don’t even know what to do with “a good soldier.” Because this IS NOT Miller’s Bruce, and NOT Miller’s Jason. 

Jason isn’t a good soldier. He’s a terrible soldier. He was a good son. Bruce’s youngest child. His baby.

I can maybe twist it into Bruce trying to distance himself emotionally from the whole thing, but... it just doesn’t... work. What headspace was Bruce in when he chose that? Was he punishing himself? Was he trying to honor Jason? Was he trying to make peace with it? How does “a good soldier” fit into his mental narrative of events almost a year after Jason died? Jason died in APRIL. We see the memorial for the first time not long before Tim’s mother dies, and her funeral is on CHRISTMAS EVE. 

I am out of thoughts on the matter. But I felt like sharing. 

[raineydays411]

Kind of want this adventure to be over.

Bruce Banner x Daughter!reader

Summary: You have finally found your father...just not the way you expected. You sort out your feelings and have some realizations about people in your life.

You felt sick. 

You couldn’t believe it. There he was. Your father, the man who has been missing for four years. 

He was here, being forced to slaughter people as a gladiator on a whole different planet. 

So many questions were running through your mind. How did he get here? Why hasn’t he escaped? How long has he been the Hulk?

You watch as Thor attempts to talk to him, but... it was almost like Hulk...like the attention. You watch in horror as Hulk charged at Thor. Throwing him into the wall. Both you and Loki looked at each other in concern, then glance at the Grandmaster who watched in glee.

You felt dizzy as you watched you father pummel his teammate. It was like he didn’t recognize him. He fought viscously. You cringed when you saw him slam Thor on the floor.

“YES!” Loki shouts, startling you and the Grandmaster, “THATS HOW IT FEELS!” 

You both stare at him, alarmed at the sudden outburst.

“I’m just a big fan of the sport...” He chuckles awkwardly.

He sits back down and looks at you. Concerned as you looked grey, like you were going to be sick. 

He strokes your back comfortly, “ Y/n, if you need to step out...”

“I can’t...I have to stay...” You whisper, watching Thor get beat by the Hulk. You prayed that he would get up. Then it happened.

A bolt of lighting shot the Hulk off of Thor. Then he rises, lighting engulfing his hands. The two charge at each other, and Thor starts to gain the upper hand. You breath a sigh of relief. The audience eats it up. Chanting “Thunder”, but the Grandmaster does not seem happy. Just as Thor was about to finish the fight, he was stunned by something, leaving him motionless on the ground. 

You freeze, watching as your father leaped into the air and came down, smashing Thor into the ground and knocking him out. Finishing the match. You turn to see the Grandmaster lean back in pleasure. 

“So, how do you like it?” He asks casually.

You can barely speak. Too shook up to even form a thought. Seeing your unease Loki spoke for you.

“It was very intense. A very entertaining fight indeed.” He says with a smile.

“What’s wrong with the kid?” the Grandmaster asks taking in your pale face. “ She does not look good.” 

“Yes! Well, um, it seems as though she has eaten something that made her sick. Perhaps it was the jar jar fruit”

“Oh no,” The Grandmaster states, “This is terrible.”

“Yes well--”

“I had a whole bowl!”

“Yes...I’d better take her to her room. Rest shall do her some good.”

Then Loki rises and helps you to your feet. He leads you through the crowds of people. 

You can barely walk. You don’t know why you’re reacting like this. You knew your father was here. 

Maybe it was because of how gruesome this fight could have been. Or maybe because you knew that for four years, your dad has been trapped as the Hulk, murdering aliens as a gladiator for some old lunatic. And it seemed like he liked it. 

Your legs grow weak and you nearly topple to the ground. 

“Woah, easy.” Loki says, “ Darling, take it slow.” 

“I- I think I’m going to throw up” And then you lean over, throwing up into a plant. 

“Ew.” Loki says, watching you defile that poor plant. 

You wipe your mouth and try to stand, you sway a but, almost falling to the ground. Loki then sighs and scoops you up. 

Your face burns, “ I’m sorry...”

“Shut up. I shouldn’t have made you go anyways.”

You stay silent. Resting your head on his chest as he walks you to your room. 

“You know...my dad never did this...” You whisper. Loki looks down at you in confusion.

“Did what?”

“ Carry me to my room. Especially if I was sick.”

“Oh..” Loki says, not really knowing how to respond.

“My mom was the one who did all that. But then...she got sick and...” You trail off. It was rare when you thought about your mom. It hurt to remember all the good times the three of you had, so like your father, you pushed it all down. 

“My mother did that too..” Loki muttered. He walked into your room and set you on the bed. 

“Get changed and lay down. I shall be back in a moment.” Then he walks out, leaving you alone with your thoughts. 

You change clothes and ay down. Trying to wrap your head around what just happened. 

Your father was here. You found him.

But he was the Hulk and basically a gladiator. 

He’s been here for four years. Killing people for sport. 

“God, I may have seen some weird shit living with the Avengers but this really takes the cake”, You think to yourself, shifting under the covers. You sigh, laying on your back and staring up at the ceiling. After a few moments you heard the door open. It was Loki holding a tray of food.

“Here, this should make you feel better.” He says placing the tray in your lap. It consisted of a plate of some kind of soup, some cracker like snack, and a glass of water. 

“I know it looks heavy, but it made me feel better when I was a child and ill. Although, the one made by the cooks back home may have tasted better.” Loki rambles, “I do think I did pretty well, considering the circumstances.” 

Seeing this side of Loki was shocking. Sure, you both had your moments and you knew he cared about you, but you thought it was more like a forced partnership. But, he could have left you here alone and he didn’t. He went out of way to make you something so you’d feel better. You can feel your eyes water. 

And for the first time since you’ve been on Sakaar, you cried. You cried because you haven’t seen your father for four years. You cried because you were on a completely different planet, millions of light years away from your home. You cried because Loki was being so kind.  

You cried cause you were scared.  You felt like you were in over your head, like you can’t do anything but wait. You have no idea what you’re going to do from here on out and it terrifies you. 

Then you feel a cold hand on your shoulder. You look up to see sad green eyes. Then you’re pulled into a hug. 

“I know.” Loki says softly, “It is overwhelming, and you’re still a child.”

You take a deep breath, taking in the scent of leather and something sweet. You then closed your eyes sinking into the embrace.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In another part of the castle, Thor had just woken up. Scaring the crap out of the women who were tending to his wounds.

He painfully stands up, looking around the room he was in. It wasn’t like the first cell he was in. No, this one was actually clean. It didn’t smell like body fluids or...death. It was red and white, with weapons and armor laying around. He can see a large bed and a hot tub in the room. 

Thor looks out the window, taking in the scenery and trying to figure out a way to escape. He’s startled out of his thoughts by a splash. He turns to see the Hulk in the tub, sitting in the shadows.

“...Are we cool?” He asks, holding his hands up in surrender. 

He doesn’t get a response, just a low growl. But he isn’t attacked so Thor takes it as a a sign. He goes to the window again and mutters to himself, “Huh, a Hulk in a hot tub.” 

Then he turns to Hulk, “ How long have you been like that?

“Like what?” Hulk grunts

“Like this. Big, green, and...stupid”

Hulk sits up slightly, half of his face in the shadows, “Hulk always Hulk.”

Thor doesn’t respond, opting to look out the window again, then he realizes,

“How’d you get here?”

“Winning” Hulk says proudly.

Thor rolls his eyes, “ Do you mean cheating? Did they have one of these shocky things on their necks? I meant, how did you arrive here.”

Hulk imitates a whooshing and crashing noise, “Quinjet.”

Thor gets excited, “ Yes! Okay and where is the quinjet now?” 

Hulk doesn’t respond, instead he gets out of the tub. The only problem is that he didn’t have a towel...or anything to cover himself. Giving Thor a good look at his goods.

“That’s naked...very naked” Thor says cringing. “ That’s in my brain now.”

“Quinjet.” Hulk says, pointing to where the plane is. Uncaring about the state of undress he was in.

Thor gets excited again, “Yes! I can get us home, off of this awful planet. You’ll love Asgard! It’s like earth but gold”

“Hulk stays.” Hulk grunts, taking a bit out of some fruit.

“What? No no no, I need your help to prevent Ragnarok.” Thor says desperately.

“Ragnarok?” Hulk questions uncaringly. 

“Yes, its the destruction of my home planet, the end of times.”

“Thor go. Hulk stay.” Hulk says stubbornly. 

Thor is desperate. He needs to get home before Hela completely destroys everything he holds dear.

‘Look, I’ll tell you what, you help be get to Asgard, and I’ll help you get back to earth.’

“ Earth hate Hulk.”

“What?” Thor exclaims, “ Everyone loves Hulk! You’re part of the team, you’re our friend!”

“Banner’s friend.” Hulk grunts, not believing a word Thor is saying.

“WHat? I don’t even prefer Banner” Thor says awkwardly, “ He’s all ‘ NUmbErs aND SCienCe’ and stuff.”

“Banners friend!” Hulk exclaims. 

By now Thor is frustrated, “Fine. You stay here on this awful planet. Besides this room his hideous. The red and white, like just pick a color.”

“Smash you.” Hulk grunts

“You didn’t smash me, I won that fight.”

“Smash you!” Hulk throws the fruit at Thor.

Thor dodges it calling Hulk a baby. He heads toward the entrance that is left open.

“Thor go!” Hulk shouts.

“I am going!” Thor shouts back, but before he can step out of the room he’s shocked. The obedience puck stunning him

 As he falls to the ground, he can hear Hulk laugh. 

“Thor no go. Thor home.”

He sighs, looking out the window. He briefly hears Hulk say something about training. Then he sees her. The woman who got him into this mess in the first place. 

She pays no mind to him, instead greeting Hulk like they were long time friends. 

They go train, leaving Thor alone with his thoughts. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You wake up in the dark room. It seems that Loki has left as you were alone. Your eyes sore from crying, you look around for your bag. You find it, pulling out your phone, earbuds, and journal. 

You write your feelings as you listen to music. 

You don’t know what to do. Part of you wants to go find your father and Thor, but another part trusts Loki and wants to stay. It doesn’t help that he has been the most fatherly figure you’ve had in a  while. 

Sure you had the Avengers. You could even argue that Tony has filled that role of father figure since your dad went missing. But, you and Loki formed a tight bond in a few days that took months for you and Tony to form. You both got along well, bonding over distant fathers, dead mothers, and theater. Not to mention you both had a sarcastic attitude. If anything, he’s taken over a big brother role, but nevertheless; betraying his trust was one thing that you couldn’t do.

You sigh, knowing what you were going to do. 

You were going to find your father.

So you get out of bed and change into your suit. You put your phone in your stuff in your bag and grab your weapons. 

You walk down the hallways, not knowing where to begin to find your father. Then an idea hits you. If you can find out where Thor is, you’d most likely find out where your dad is. So with that in mind you decided to ask a guard. 

“Excuse me.” You say to a red guard, “ Do you know where the …”Lord of Thunder” is staying? The Grandmaster allowed me to go and meet him. I am a big fan” 

The guard hesitated, not knowing who you were. But since you dropped the Grandmasters name, he pointed you to the hallway Thor was supposedly in. 

“Thank you!” You beamed, making sure to skip away as if you were a fan. You skip till you were out of sight and sigh, slowing down to a walk. You strolled down the hallways, throwing fake smiles at the guards you passed. 

Finally, you reached a room at the end of the hallway. You notice a woman pass you and walk staright into the room. You hide behind a wall and listen to the conversation. 

“Hey big guy!” She says, you notice that she has an accent similar to Thor’s.

“Angry girl!” another voice says...Your fathers voice. You can hear footsteps coming your way. You quickly pull out your phone and sit down, hoping they’ll walk right past you. You don’t need Hulk seeing you right now. If anything, he’d change back to Bruce and that’ll cause a whole bunch of problems. 

Thankfully, they pay no mind to you. You watch as they joke around and nudge each other. It’s strange, seeing the Hulk to at ease with another person. 

It kind of hurts, in the same way it hurt to see your dad with Natasha. It was like you couldn’t get close to either side of him. Or he chose not to get close to you. 

Pushing away your feelings, you get back to the mission, finding Thor. 

You head  to the room at the end of the hallway. Surprisingly, there were no guards or even a door blocking your way. You can see Thor, standing by the window. His back was turned to you but he was completely still. 

You walk through the door way, and look around the room. It was messy and kinda ugly. The red and white really didn’t clash well.

Then you were startled by Thor loudly gasping. You run up to where he was.

“Thor? Thor are you alright?”

He focuses on you, eyes widening at your presence. 

“Y/n?” He says slowly, “ Y/n?! What are you doing here?”

“The Dr. Wizard said my dad was here. So I came looking for him...” You say slowly. “ Are you okay?”

“I’ve been better.” Thor laughs, “ Have...have you been here this whole time?”

“Yeah, I got here the same day Loki did, so about two weeks ago. Since then I--”

“Wait, have you been with Loki this whole time?” Thor asks.

“Yeah, he’s the reason I’m still alive to be honest.” You say, “ He helped me get in favor of the Grandmaster and he’s been looking out for me ever since.”

“Loki?” Thor says in disbelief, “ My brother, Loki? He has been taking care of you?”

“Yeah, I didn’t believe it either...but he’s been so kind to me, Thor. Kinder than anyone has been in a while.” You say softly. 

Thor smiled, he was glad that there was still a part of the Loki he knew growing up. That you were alright. 

“You look awesome.” He says taking in your outfit, “Where did you get those clothes?!” 

You laugh, “ It seems like the Grandmaster likes to give make overs.” You look at Thor, “ Dude they cut your hair?!” 

“Yeah some creepy old man cut it off.” He says, suddenly he pulls you in for a hug. “ I am beyond glad to see you here.” 

You blush and hug him back, “I’m glad you are okay.’

Then you frown, “ My...my dad...he’s here.”

Thor freezes, “ Oh Y/n I completely forgot..”

“It’s okay... he looks fine” You say bitterly, remembering how chummy he was with that girl.

“ He can’t know I am here.” You say quickly, “ If he does, he’ll change back and raise suspicion.”

“I need help to get out of here.” Thor says, “ Asgard is in danger.”

“Why don’t you just walk out the door?” You ask

“Because, this neck thingy shocks me whenever I try to leave.” Thor says showing you his neck.

“Ohh so that’s why you lost the fight,” You say realizing what happened.

“I dis not lose” Thor said, “Your father cheated.”

You snicker, “What ever you say Lord of Thunder.” 

Thor sighs at the name, knowing that you weren’t going to stop calling him that. 

“Y/n, I need you to help me get out.” Thor says desperately. You furrow your brow, thinking of a way to get him out of here. 

“Okay...I have an idea.” 

You spend the next thirty minutes comin up with an idea. Revising and editing ideas that’ll get him out of here unscathed. 

That’s when you realized that you shouldn’t be here when Hulk gets back. 

“I have to go.” You say quickly, gathering all your stuff. 

“Wait, wait, how are you going to escape...” Thor says worriedly. “ Your father doesn’t even know your here.”

You sigh sadly, “ I doubt he cares. He seems pretty content here.” 

“Y/n, that’s Hulk, not Banner. Your father loves you.” 

You chuckle, “ You know, in last few weeks. Loki showed he cared about me more than my father has in all the years I’ve been alive.”

“Oh...that’s bad.” Thor says, because if you knew Loki cared about you and not your father...that was saying a lot.    

“Good luck Thor, I better go before some guards show up.” You say, patting his arm and dashing off. And again, Thor was alone. 

Running through the hallways, you bump into someone. You fall to the ground in a huff.

“Watch where you’re walking!” 

“Sorry dude, jeez don’t get your undies in a twist.” You say, getting up from the ground. You look up to see the girl who was with the Hulk. 

“Do..do I know you? You look familiar.” She says, closely looking at your face. 

“Umm, I tell stories to the Grandmaster.” You say quickly, “I better go.” 

Then you run off again, leaving a confused Valkyrie behind. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You finally make it to your room. Panting as you close the door.

“Where have you been.” 

You jump, not expecting anyone to be in your room. 

“Relax, its just me.” Loki says, rolling his eyes, “ Now, where were you? I came back into your room, expecting to find you in bed, resting.”

“Sorry, I... I went to see Thor.” You say honestly. 

“Y/n.” Loki starts, but you interrupt him.

“I know! I know I shouldn’t have gone, but I felt really bad and wanted to make sure he was okay.” 

Loki sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. He looked at your face, seeing your guilty eyes and frown. He’s demeanor softened, “ You are too kind for your own good.”

You chuckled, “Well, one of us has to have redeemable qualities.”

“Hey!” Loki shouts offended. You laugh at his face.

“I can get used to this” You think to yourself. You yawn, suddenly tired from all your activities.

“Get some rest.” Loki says, “You’ll need it’” 

Then he leaves the room after ruffling your hair.

As you get ready for bed and finally lay down, you realize you can’t sleep.

 You have a crushing feeling that something big was going to happen the next day.

[the-ferocious-kittyrose]

Rewriting Haggar/Honerva’s redemption arc

One of the many things that bothered me about VLD S8 is Honerva’s redemption arc. While I was never fully against the idea of Honerva getting a redemption arc, I just didn’t want VLD to do it because I knew that they would fuck it up if they tried. And low and behold, I was right!

But yeah, I wasn’t against the idea of her being redeemed. And I don’t mean “redeemed” as in “all is forgiven and she’s just a good guy now,” but more like a Darth Vader, “the things she did were inexcusable and she would never be able to right all her wrongs but she goes out on one good act to show that there was still good in her deep down and she at least had the potential to change.”

I know a lot of people don’t like the whole, “redemption=death” thing, which I understand, but I personally never had a problem with it.

Ok, so why didn’t Honerva’s redemption work? Well there are a few reasons but the one that baffles me the most is that, instead of trying to make her more sympathetic, season 8 seemed to go out of its way to show her being more evil and vile than ever.

And because I have nothing better to do, I’m gonna go through Honerva’s story in VLD and explain what I would change to make her redemption more believable.

(Keep in mind I am not a writer, this is just me ranting about my favorite character and how I personally would’ve written her.)

1. Realizing she’s Altean

I always thought it’s was weird that when Allura said “you’re...Altean!?” In the S2 finale, Haggar didn’t seem to react at all, she just kept attacking. It’s as if she didn’t care or already knew, which doesn’t make sense considering in the S3 finale and S8E2 it’s established that Haggar has no memory of who she was before she died. And in S4E3 she seems shocked by her Altean face (which also doesn’t make sense because her blue skin isn’t camouflage that’s just how she looks after the rift) so it seems like she didn’t know.

Wouldn’t it have made more sence if after Allura said “you’re...Altean!?” Honerva looked confused/shocked? If she became defensive and said Allura was lying/trying to insult her? There’s def anti-Altean propaganda in the empire so it would be considered an insult.

After that she starts questioning Zarkon. And when she looks into his mind, it’s out of genuine curiosity and desire to know the truth, not because, “the empire needs him” or whatever that meant.

And isn’t it a bit odd that she doesn’t seem betrayed at all when she finds out Zarkon has been keeping all this from her? She’s just like, “oh, you’re my husband? Cool.” Wtf???

2. Her past relationship with Zarkon

Okay, I love Zonerva, but if we’re being honest, Zarkon was not the best husband. He enabled the shit out of Honerva, even when it was obvious that the rift was doing serious damage to her physical and mental health. To me, it seems like Zarkon was so blinded by the power the rift gave him that he didn’t realize/ignored the negative effect it was having on Honerva. In the same way he downplayed the negative impact the rift had on the planet.

I think that should’ve been explored more. Maybe Honerva notices that she’s been acting differently and is worried somethings wrong (think S5 Kuron). And Honerva tries to tell Zarkon that she feels strange and Zarkon just brushes it off.

And later, when Alfor visits Diaibazaal years later. Things are pretty much the same except when we sees Honerva, she is very obviously pregnant and Alfor’s there when Honerva falls and goes into labor (instead of a random quintessence seizure). Alfor and many Galran doctors try their best to save her and the baby but she dies in childbirth.

Zarkon goes ballistic. He’s yelling, throwing doctors across the room, and Alfor turns to the doctor holding Lotor and tells them to get the baby to safely, fearing Zarkon will take his grief out on the baby.

Zarkon turns on Alfor, blaming him for Honerva’s death and accusing him of letting her die so that he could get his way and close the rift. He lunges Alfor and roars at him to leave.

He spends the rest of the night grieving at Honerva’s bedside, when Kova jumps on the bed and starts gnawing on her finger trying to wake her up. This is what gives him the idea to bring her back with quintessence.

3. Her current relationship with Zarkon

I think it’s pretty safe to say that they’re relationship didn’t get better after the war began. Zarkon hid her identity and her child from her for 10,000 years and essentially used her as a tool of war. It’s pretty fucked up.

I know it’s pretty well established that Zarkon treats Haggar with more respect than his other underlings, but I feel like it would be interesting to see that change overtime. We see that after Voltron comes back, Zarkon becomes very obsessed with Voltron/Black, and he and Haggar start disagreeing more and more.

Remember the moment where one of Haggar’s druids told Zarkon Haggar said he needed to rest and Zarkon hit them with his bayard and told them, “remember who your master is”? What if, instead of a random druid, it was Haggar who he hit?

I feel like that would be a good way to show Haggar and the audience just how much Zarkon’s obsession with Voltron is affecting him, and make the audience feel a tiny bit bad for her.

Then later in season 4, when Zarkon wakes up from his coma and finds out Haggar brought Lotor back to take his place he gets pissed. He puts a price on Lotor’s head and has Haggar arrested for treason. She steals a ship, escapes, and later on meets up with Lotor’s generals.

Her and Zarkon are officially broken up and her quest to reclaim her identity and get her son back begins.

4. Oriande

I never liked the concept of chosen/sacred Alteans. The idea that some Alteans are just born more powerful than others just feels iffy. My idea of Oriande is that it’s an Altean holly land, any Altean can enter it just depends on whether or not you can pass the White Lion’s trial. Passing the trial proves that your intentions are pure and and the White Lion will bless you with power.

I didn’t like how Honerva seemed to force her way into Oriande, I think it would be more effective if she had gone through normally because, at this point, her intentions were pure. She was going there to purge herself of the dark magic corrupting her and reclaim her memories so she could go get her son back.

I also like the idea that Oriande is a sorta link to the Altean after life, and you can speak with people you’ve lost. Allura gets to speak with Alfor, and Honerva speaks with her mother.

You could also have her be confronted by the spirits of the Alteans she helped destroy. Have the weight of her past actions bear down on her. An important part of any redemption arc is acknowledging the terrible shit you’ve done in the past, and that was severely lacking in Honerva’s arc.

Another interesting thing you could do is have Honerva talk to her younger self. The one that died 10,000 years ago. This kinda thing actually happened in 80s Voltron, young Haggar appearing in Haggar’s head trying to convince her to be good again.

5. Her relationship with Lotor

Now this is where the redemption arc really falls apart. I forget who, but one of the writers said after S5 that Haggar/Honerva was motivated purely by love for her son, but man did they do a bad job of showing that.

And it would’ve been so easy to fix that problem, just have her not be horrible to him. Have them have actual civil conversations, have her protect and defend him. Don’t have her reject him as a fucking baby!

Imagine if, after Zarkon destroys Lotor’s planet, instead of immediately deciding to

exile him, Zarkon says that this is the final straw and he’s going to have Lotor executed. But Haggar speaks up to defend Him. There’s actually a scene in DOTU where Zarkon tries to kill Lotor and Haggar gets on her knees and begs for him to be spared. (Though the scene was mostly played for laughs.)

she asks for mercy and justifies it by saying it would be unwise to kill his only heir. It’s a weak argument, Lotor’s a half breed and couldn’t realistically take the throne, but Zarkon does concede, he still loves her after all, and has Lotor exiled.

And Haggar isn’t spying on him because she doesn’t trust him, but because she’s concerned for him. When Lotor confronts Haggar about sending her cronies after him, she says she knows he’s hiding something. Lotor asks if she’s threatening him, thinking she’s going to rat him out, but she says no, she’s not threatening him, she’s just trying to warn him against doing anything stupid because, with Zarkon seemingly on his death bed, the empire needs Lotor’s leadership.

At this point in the story, Haggar is questioning her loyalty to Zarkon, so I feel like it would make sense for her to be silently supporting Lotor from the shadows.

Then at the Kral Zera in season 5, It was weird to me how she was helping Lotor through Kuron while also telling him he couldn’t be emperor and trying to put Sendak on the throne. I feel like it would’ve made more sense for Sendak to just show up on his own without Haggar.

Haggar wouldn’t even be at the Kral Zera, she would just watch through Kuron.

And then we get to S6 when she actually reveals to Lotor that she’s his mom. This scene was just so poorly done. She never actually apologizes to him, she’s just like “yeah I forgot you were my kid and I never loved you, but were cool now right?” I remember when I saw S8E2 and it shows her after Lotor rejects her and she looks like she’s about to cry, I was just thinking, “this would be very emotional and sad IF she had actually apologized and made it clear that she genuinely loved him.” But she didn’t and I don’t know why!

And then we get to season 8, and of course everything in S8 is bad but Honerva’s story is particularly bad. She’s supposed to be motivated by love for Lotor yet she doesn’t act like she actually cares about him at all.

She manipulates his corpse and when she sees his gross melted body, she doesn’t even react that much. When a mother sees her child’s mutilated corpse, how do you think she reacts? Screaming? Crying?? Hurling??? But no. She’s just like, “...”

And then when she goes to the alternate reality and meets baby Lotor and he rejects her, her reaction isn’t disappointment or sadness, it’s anger and entitlement. She immediately decides, “ok, fuck this kid. Let’s destroy this reality.”

It just doesn’t make sense! This is the season you’re trying to REDEEM her! Why are you going out of your way to make her so vile?

6. Her S7-S8 plan

(Keep in mind I haven’t watched S7/S8 since they came out and barely even watched S8 to begin with, so I don’t remember some things and I can’t be bothered to rewatch them.)

Okay, starting with S7, she’s not in this season at all but in “The Ruins” the druid dude says that her final order was to hunt and destroy the Blade of Marmora. I guess it makes a certain amount of sense because she saw that it was Keith who brought Lotor’s actions to light, but that whole plot was really pointless in my opinion. (Was anybody really hoping for a rematch between Keith and that one random druid?)

If you want us to forgive Honerva for her crimes, you really shouldn’t keep adding more unnecessary crimes. It’s established that there were a lot of Galra war lords vying for power and pirates looking for money, just have it be that Kolivan got kidnapped by one of them.

Then you have her season 8 plan and I’m gonna be real with y’all, I have no idea how to fix this mess.

I feel like the basics of her plan could work. She tries to get Lotor and Sincline out of the rift but when she gets him he’s a melted corpse so the plan then becomes to use sincline to go to another reality to find a living Lotor, but opening all these rifts causes problems and the paladins have to stop her.

But all the shit with manipulating the colony Alteans, killing the White Lion, desecrating Oriande, and destroying Olkarion and entire realities, it was all so unnecessary.

Personally I would cut the colony Alteans from the story all together, there are other ways for Lotor to betray the team. It was a lazy way of making Lotor 100% evil and having Honerva manipulate them is unnecessarily cruel, especially in the season you’re trying to redeem her.

Here’s a very basic outline of how I would do this plot.

If we’re going by season 8’s logic that she needs a sacrifice to bring back Sincline, I would’ve had the Galra she killed at the Kral Zera be the sacrifice, not the White Lion. She stands on the pyramid and talks about how the empire stole her life from her and she wants revenge as she absorbs their quintessence into herself and then uses that to bring back Sincline.

Then when she finds Lotor dead she takes Sincline and uses it to go to another reality where she can be with her family.

The danger comes when she opens rifts to the other realities and rift creatures start coming out and causing damage. The paladins fight them and follow her into the rift to stop whatever evil plan she may have. Because the paladins don’t know that Haggar is now Honerva and all this is just to get Lotor back. They think this is all some plan for multiverse domination or some shit.

Meanwhile Honerva has just been rejected by little Lotor and seeing Voltron show up pushes her over the edge and they fight.

But when they find out the real reason she’s doing all this they start trying to appeal to her and convince her to give up and close the rift peacefully. And similarly to how the paladins had to sacrifice the castle to close the rifts created by the fight with Lotor, Honerva has to sacrifice herself to close the rifts.

In the end, I feel like a Honerva redemption arc could’ve worked if the writers were actually competent and actually made an effort to have her be sympathetic, but In canon, her reasoning, “If I can’t indulge in the simple joys of life, why should anybody else?” just doesn’t cut it.

It’s disappointing. VLD had so much potential. I’m thinking of just rewriting the entire series from the beginning. Hopefully putting all my thoughts out into the universe will help me move on.

[gralunaisland]

pros constantly use the "it's a joke" in order to excuse juvia's actions and that it shouldn't be taken seriously but joke or not that's how she canonically behaves. We have a girl so desperate to get the attention of a guy she hand made her own sponge in the shape of him and imagines him touching her in the shower. That's not normal and the fact that edolas gray gets called creepy shows a double standard in canon as none of the guys in universe just laughs it off like they do with juvia

gr///via Being Not "Just Comedy" And The Hypocrisy of Edolas gr///via

Thank you for the ask, Anon! You are absolutely spot on!

My answer is just going to be a wee bit longer than usual, so Imma just add a "keep reading".

I've actually touched on this subject in several posts before, and you reiterate the point perfectly: even if what she does is played off for laughs, she does everything with 100% seriousness and should therefore be judged accordingly.

The point to look at is she isn't trying to be funny.

When she tried to kill Lucy by making her air bubble smaller, or when she tried to kill Gray by shooting boiling water at him because she thought Lucy was her love rival, or when she m*sturbated using a sponge she handmade herself with Gray's face on it without his knowledge, or when she org*smed in Gray's mouth without his consent, or when she stalked him all over the world etc. etc... yeah, even if the author did his darnedest to make his readers have a lil chuckle by overplaying it or making his characters react in weird ways, what she does is objectively disgusting and just plain wrong.

We can also turn the comedy argument around on them and ask them why they find this abuse and stalking to be funny? They just comeback with "oh you're no fun at parties" or whatever (a Pro's told me that I'd run out of a comedy club in distress and then tried to say it wasn't meant as an insult like what). That's really their best response, and it's a terrible one. I would rather be considered as a stick in the mud by others but sure in what's right and wrong than be blast a parties and make light of atrocities.

Also, I love that you brought up the double standard! So many things are wrong with the treatment and the reception of Edolas gr///via, where do I begin??

First off, it's plain misandry to pretend like men can't be abused by women, or abused in general. What's worse is that while the anime goes out of its way to have Edolas Gray's guildmates chide him and reprimand him for "bothering juvia", (and what he does isn't even that bad), when Earthland juvia does all he does and more, all her guildmates still consider her a friend and cute. What's even worse is that the majority of the audience finds nothing wrong with this unequal treatment of the two love-seeking persons. None of the Pros seem to care that Edolas Gray is dumped on for going after Edolas juvia so hard, which wouldn't make sense because if they viewed it in the same light, which they don't btw, then they would have the same outrage that they have when anyone calls Earthland juvia out for anything. Instead, they have the audacity to shoot their resentment at Earthland Gray for not accepting juvia immediately.

Gray can't seem to win in either dimension! When he acts like what the Pros would want him to, he's ignored when he's bullied. When he acts like an independent person who doesn't want to be with juvia, then he's a terrible guy for doing this to poor poor juvia-chan.

Also, Mashima clearly sees that the lusting, crazed chasing after a person who doesn't want you is a bad thing, something that people would rightfully call you out on, considering how he treated Edolas Gray through making his guildmates not accept his behavior. I think this only goes to prove again that Mashima wasn't considering gr///via to be anything more than a gag ship, that it had clear flaws, but then he totally dropped the ball by making all Earthland juvia's guildmates just love her and accept her despite all the terrible things she did both to the guild, to guildmates, and most of all to Gray, and by making Gray fall for her eventually as well. And even Edolas gr///via comes into fruition too! Mashima lost my respect twice over; neither of those relationships are healthy.

Moving on, I bet if you presented this case I'm about to iterate to the Pros, they would sing a different tune. Listen to this description:

Let's say there's a fictional dude named Chad who has a mega crush on a fictional girl named Amy. Chad always talks in the third person, saying "Chad just loves you" and such. He always calls Amy "goddess Amy", an honorific that really is out of place and unwarranted. Chad makes tons of merch based off Amy without her knowing, literally making hundreds of items either modeled after her body, her face, or with her name on it. He made a sponge with her face on it and whenever he showers, he scrubs his pee pee with said sponge and gets off on it. Then whenever he leaves his house, he gives this big plushie that was made to look like Amy a big kiss, telling it goodbye. Chad gets insanely jealous when other guys talk to Amy and glares at them or insults them and occasionally tries to kill them. He's even tried to kill Amy when he thought she "was cheating on him" even though they weren't dating. Chad follows Amy everywhere, to her work and even to her father's grave even though she wanted privacy. Chad got down on his hands and knees once in public in front of their whole guild and begged Amy to spank him, blushing and waving his rear end around in the air. When, freaked out, Amy refused, Chad proceeded to chase her around with his butt in the air pointed at her. Chad tried to give Amy a lewd body pillow of himself the day after the most important person in Amy's life died, even though he knew it. When their guild was disbanded, Chad followed Amy and barged into her new living quarters and refused to leave. He even tried to sleep with Amy, but she kicked him out. For some reason, Chad is proud of this fact and even tells a 12 year old what he tried to do with a smug look on his face. At one point, Chad, being shrunken somehow, jumped into Amy's mouth and basically rutted against her tongue, org*sming in the process. Something to note: Chad and Amy were NOT dating.

I could go on, but do you even want me to?

Obviously, Chad is a disgusting pig right? Absolutely!!

SO.

WHY ISN'T jUVIA CONSIDERED A DISGUSTING PIG AS WELL???? (In case anyone hasn't noticed, I literally described juvia's actions to a T).

If we're going to condemn men for being salacious to women or to anyone, then we cannot praise women for doing the exact same thing. There is legitimately no good reason why this condemnation only goes one way. This type of behavior is absolutely deplorable when it's done by anyone.

Certain Pros should endeavor to reflect on this and strive not to be both hypocritical and misandrist.

Anyway, sorry for such a long post, I hope you realize this wasn't directed as a lecture towards you, Anon, because I know you know better. Thank you again for the ask!

[dorimena]

𝕭𝖆𝖇𝖊, 𝕴'𝖒 𝖋𝖎𝖘𝖙 𝖋𝖎𝖌𝖍𝖙𝖎𝖓𝖌 𝖜𝖎𝖙𝖍 𝖋𝖎𝖗𝖊

𝔠𝔥𝔞𝔯𝔞𝔠𝔱𝔢𝔯; Todoroki Shoto

𝔴𝔬𝔯𝔡 𝔠𝔬𝔲𝔫𝔱; 1.8k

𝔴𝔞𝔯𝔫𝔦𝔫𝔤𝔰; fluff, angst, media slander, body criticism, mentioned dieting, crying

𝔬𝔱𝔥𝔢𝔯 𝔱𝔞𝔤𝔰; Endeavor is a slightly better dad, slight self-hate, implied BakuTodo

𝔰𝔦𝔡𝔢𝔫𝔬𝔱𝔢; this was kind of rushed, so it’s not proofread yet. I’ve taken some ideas from our conversation!

It happened all too suddenly.

It wasn’t supposed to happen all too suddenly.

It wasn’t supposed to happen at all.

If there’s a reason that justifies why you ignore the media and rightfully hate most talk shows, then what’s happening in front of you should be a good one.

Because Shoto looks like he’s about to… do nothing about it. He’s not really speaking or reacting much, simply staring at the screen with such a dull light on his face, resignation showing itself as he struggles to keep himself composed, keep himself scarce of any emotion but neutrality.

He’s failing terribly, but he wouldn’t know, and you wouldn’t tell him. It was meant to be a relaxing Thursday evening, where Fuyumi sent over some food and Natsuo ever-so-kindly sent a six-pack of beer with her to help you and Shoto unwind from such a hectic week full of arrests, busts, investigations, interrogations.

It feels like you’re somehow doing police work rather than your respectful ones, which is something you’d look into after figuring out why the media decided to suddenly talk about Shoto’s weight gain. It’s nothing new for you, for him, for your friends, for your family, for anyone who knows Shoto. Most people assume he’s picking up more mass to form bigger muscles, others simply enjoy the new Shoto, and the kids are beginning to no longer go up to him to bully him for the weird capsules around his waist, but rather to invite him to play with them.

Shoto was beginning to feel so much more comfortable in his skin, he was beginning to love his new body and the small changes that occur as he continues to slowly tone his muscles. He’s even accepted not to gain back his muscular form, simply keeping in mind the change in dynamic between him and the general public.

No one’s pointed a finger at him.

No one’s talked badly of him.

No one’s ever criticized him over his change.

Everyone was just glad prohero Shoto was fine and recovering well from his unexpected injuries.

So watching how these two talk show hosts are talking shit about his weight gain and ridiculing the way he looks in his clothes is making your blood boil.

On the screen, there are two pictures: the one on the left is a recent picture that made it on the newspaper as people thanked Shoto for saving a few kids from a terrible house fire; the one on the right is a picture from when Shoto was 16.

How could they be stupid enough to compare a teenager’s body with an adult’s?!

It’s like comparing a five year old’s drawing with a professional drawing, yet they’re ridiculing and nitpicking the professional and praising the child’s drawing.

It’s a weird analogy in your mind, but it’s the only thing that tries to help you understand why they think it’s necessary to suddenly bring up something so personal, so private, from someone?

When they switch to an improvised interview with Endeavor, Shoto shrinks a bit into the couch, leaning more into your side as you both listen to what his father had to say with such personal questions about his youngest son’s ‘recent’ weight gain.

Shoto knows his father’s opinion: Endeavour doesn’t care. But not in a ‘fuck you’ type of way, but in a ‘it’s your life, and if you’re happy, so be it.’

He’s changed quite a lot from when Shoto was younger, yet watching the way his father’s eyebrows furrowed in anger and snarl at the question had Shoto wonder if his father really isn’t bothered by his weight gain.

Slight weight gain, might you need to remind him.

But instead of listening to Endeavour criticize his son and agree with the commentaries, he yelled at the reporter for being so selfish and careless, how he’s keeping Endeavour from continuing his task of making sure recently rescued citizens are doing well or not.

And when pushed further for an answer, the older man sighs and explains how even though Shoto’s changed, he doesn’t see it in his weight, but rather his person and strength, a change in power, to which he’s proud of and only ever concerns him other than the general well-being of his son.

The talk show hosts don’t seem to be happy with the sappy response, probably waiting for the hero to maybe help feed the drama. So, they take matters into their own hands: try convincing the audience the number one prohero is probably only lying to save his image and pride.

Now that hurt a lot, seeing how they’re trying to change the context and make Endeavor into the asshole bastard of a father he stopped being time ago.

But it was enough to make Shoto stand up and walk silently to your bedroom.

You know what he’s doing, know what he’s probably thinking as he stares and scrutinizes his image in the mirror.

You mute the TV, rubbing a hand over your face as you head to the bedroom, frowning when you catch the way he subtly brushes away some tears. The more you watch, the more you feel like crying with him.

It’s so frustrating being a prohero, especially one admired by the media merely by his looks and status rather than talent and power.

He hasn’t done anything wrong to suddenly be bashed and hated on, to become such a joke and be ridiculed to the point his self-love and appreciation is thrown to burn in a trash can just so those pathetic celebrities can get a paycheck making people’s lives miserable.

Heck, there’s a prohero flaunting around about paying escorts to offer services at a party and they’re off the hook, apparently.

You can’t keep watching Shoto tear himself apart, not when it took so much patience, understanding, acceptance, appreciation, reassurance and love to build up his confidence again.

You don’t really speak, just go to the mirror and flip it over, stopping Shoto from glaring at himself, but it makes him finally let out a pained whimper, one full of dejection and hurt.

You got him quickly, wrapping your arms around him as his body shakes as held-back cries finally leave his system, doubt flooding his mind and insecurities coming back in full swing.

You manage to get you both to the bed with some awkward shuffling and lots of squirming, making sure his head is resting on your chest so that he hears your heartbeat while you brush his hair with your fingers, whispering and mumbling how he shouldn’t listen to them, that they’re lying, that their opinion doesn’t matter because they’re so unhappy and insecure about how confident he was.

How he’s a stronger person than they are for accepting and loving his body instead of succumbing to cheap plastic surgery to hide away his imperfections, which he has none.

How he’s a more beautiful person than they are for being so kind and generous to everyone that he sees, being polite and offering help where he sees they need.

How he’s a powerful person, not because he’s the son of Endeavor, but because he just carries his own influence over people, how they simply are drawn to him because of how he is and who he is personally, how naturally charming he is when he speaks and treats people.

You spill every confession, every praise, every single word you could think of to help sooth him from his hiccups, to ease him into tranquility while you both figure out how to carry on such harsh criticism about his body.

Shoto eventually starts laughing, shoulders shaking as he finishes wiping his tears. You’d be concerned, but knowing him, he must’ve associated this moment with something else.

And you are right.

“Remember when Bakugou came and bluntly told me how I’ve gained weight?”

“Yeah. You were ready to cry.”

“Yes, but I didn’t get to, because Bakugou directly told me, with no hesitation, how it makes me look healthier in an ‘odd’ way and how adorable I look. Later he threatened to feed me snacks if I ever think of strictly dieting.”

You nod, wondering where he’s getting at with this, not like it’s out of the blue.

“If a guy like Bakugou doesn’t see a problem with my weight gain, then, why did they?”

His voice went soft, quiet, as his question lingers in the air for some time before you shrug, holding him closer to your body.

“Maybe because they’ve never learned to love themselves, and you did because you’re a better person than they’ll ever be. You don’t ridicule anybody if you see a change, simply tell them about it and help them figure out how to fix it if they don’t want or like it.”

Shoto remains quiet, basking in the comforting silence as his head throbs a bit as a warning.

Pressing a palm into one of his eyes, he mumbles “do you think my father’s embarrassed of me?”

You hum, shaking your head immediately as you figure out your words.

“Your father seemed more embarrassed about how invasive these people are and how they were making him a fool rather than your newfound softness.”

You scratch Shoto’s head, playing with his hair as you try flipping the white strands to where the red strands lay.

“I think if your father were truly embarrassed, he would’ve forced you back into a diet a long time ago, or would’ve been around to monitor you. But he didn’t, because when he saw you after your accident, I heard him quietly thank the heavens that you’re safe and doing well rather than fuss about how your cheeks look fuller.”

Shoto tries to remember, but he was in the kitchen bothering his sister, but somewhat helped put the table when you guys went to visit for lunch a few months after his discharge.

But you’re right. His father would’ve done something sooner if his weight gain were an issue, but the old man didn’t. He even sent over some food and snacks from time to time, and still does, but a little less often. Whether it’d be because he caught wind of Shoto trying to slowly ease back with the sweets or because of the demand of his assistance in some missions.

You guys stay in bed, eventually falling asleep from the exhaustion of the random roller coaster the media decided to put you both in, more on Shoto than on you. But you went to sleep with a bit of ease, knowing Shoto’s at least trying to cheer himself up as well and realize the media’s opinion isn’t as valid to him as the opinion from those he loves and cares about.

But your sleep was interrupted when you heard your phone blaring in the living room. Shoto luckily is snuggling into his side of the bed, so you manage to walk quietly towards where your device sat and check the caller ID.

It’s Bakugou, and when you answer, he demands to know how Shoto is, how he took the bullshit those talk show hosts decided to spill and if he can pay a visit in the morning, wanting to check himself how the sleeping man is doing.

You’re sure Shoto will very much appreciate the hothead of his friend visiting.

[rkrispyt]

A couple random thoughts on 2.11 no one asked for before I get on the road (and because work today has me ready to tear my hair out…)

*so are we agreed that it looks like seeds were planted for Nini’s ‘new dream’ to potentially be drama teacher or director, something along those lines? Or am I reading too much into that? Not thoroughly convinced she’s not going to focus on music still though. Maybe a musical is in her future? I’d love a summer season of “hey Ash, Nini, Ricky - you should write a musical together and we can perform it this summer for fun, no pressure!” Just sayin.

*Oh Howie. Upon a rewatch of the “getting air” scene, he 1000% took the harness and almost got busted. The “I’m just…*long pause* getting some air”. Backstage? Bro. No. You shouldn’t be backstage, period, but if you snuck back to wish your girl luck or something I’d buy. Not “I wandered away from the exits in the lobby with the rest of the audience to slip backstage, ignore the people I know in the cast and get air” - ? I’m so disappointed! But I suppose it’s the party crasher Ricky re-evaluates (maybe he figures it out?) in the ep 12 description and a means to finish up Roman’s arc if they don’t plan to have him return (which would be unfortunate, I feel like there’s more for them to tell of the Kowie story)…

*how did I not realize the implication of what Miss Jenn said to Ricky? I just thought she meant for that moment in the show instead of flying to get airborne. Yowzah. That’s… 😬

*EJ said “finally” after Jamie asked if that made sense and I missed it the first time and my heart turned to DUST.

*here’s the thing: these writers aren’t dumb. They clearly fleshed Portwell out fully so they knew when it started where it was going. They planted little breadcrumbs along the way that would come into play later, like Risotto, “not that I know of” and the like. I’m trying to be attune to them and wondering if the GiGi nickname may come into play? If EJ were to refer to her as that in a self deprecating “cause it’s what her brother calls her and that’s how she sees me” context, it could easily and quickly lead to Gina putting two and two together and realizing since Jamie didn’t call her that in front of EJ while she was there, he must have talked to EJ at some other point and used the nickname.

It’s only one option but it’s definitely there for her to realize her brother must have talked to him, he’s been weird since mid-act two, they could even pull a “ugh, he’s always butting in trying to protect me but making things worse - what did he say to you?” IF they wanted.

The other quick way to address it is to simply have Gina refer to it as a date, in whatever context - if she’s upset, angry, hopeful - just bringing it up. The moment she uses that word he knows it’s in a romantic context to her, AND he knows that she accepted in the context of it being romantic.

I’m not convinced they’ll go either route, but the ground has been laid for those and more options to fix this without needing a ton of time, or either getting hurt terribly beyond this initial miscommunication/disappointment, or ruining what they have by reacting like a hurt jerk, further proving they can trust one another with their feelings.

One thing I realized is that I do trust these writers. I do. They’ve done so much more than I could have ever dreamed. And I actually would hate it cause I’m impatient lol but I actually do trust that IF they delay this angst into next season, it’s postponing the inevitable and giving it even more buildup for a bigger payoff of Portwell finding their way to one another.

I recently read an interview of Tim’s for last season’s finale and he talked a bit about how at the end of the day it’s the finale and we need a happy ending, so that also gives me hope. He’s made the audience root for both EJ and Gina, I’d be really shocked if he left us so unsatisfied at season’s end with both of them still longing (AND seemingly Rini).

We’ll see!

[jalebi-weds-bluetooth]

Hi Dear Jalebi, I demand your analysis :)   What are your thoughts on IPKKND might have some typical track if the audience, TRP, actors departure didn't influence it otherwise? Let me explain, IPKKND was supposed to have a longer office track (that wasn't common though, I would've loved it) but the TRP was low, so Shantivan track was introduced. Then, I read that, Sana Maqbul (Lavanya) wanted to quit IPKKND, that's why the quick breakup???

Is that why they didn't give us the COMMON AF *jealousy and hero's ex GF turns villain* track? Then again, Anjali was jealous and sad about Khushi after the first reveal of Shyam, and it looked like track about Didi Ki Saut was beginning. But again ratings dropped and the fandom didn't react well (kinda protested), Anjali quickly stopped showing jealousy and Dadi was introduced to give ArShi a common saas-bahu vibe.

Hello Dear Analysis Anon!

I am going to over answer this with a lot of detail because I have a lot of thoughts, as always! Time to get into my thinking cape/coat:

This analysis is going to cover:

(1) every example you just mentioned,

(2) my thoughts on external things affecting plot of the story,

(3) things/plots/ tracks that could've been if not for external factors

Examples

1) IPKKND was supposed to have a longer office track (that wasn't common though, I would've loved it) but the TRP was low, so Shantivan track was introduced

As far as I can remember from one of the writers' interviews, the office track was cut short because this was a show on Star Plus - which, as a channel, caters to 'family audience' therefore needs to have sanskaar and stuff at its core. Hence the rude shortening of the office track and weird 'makeover' and 'desi-dying' Lavanya. And hence we had a very weird four months of an eighteen-twenty years old Khushi teaching someone about sanskaars and suddenly knowing everything about a household when Bua-ji or even Payal would've been a more apt choice for this 'tutoring'.

If this was a Star One show, they might've not shifted out of the office for the longest time!

2) Sana Maqbul (Lavanya) wanted to quit IPKKND, that's why the quick breakup??? Is that why they didn't give us the COMMON AF *jealousy and hero's ex GF turns villain* track?

I did not know that's why the quick end happened. Honestly that happened perfectly. I think Lavanya had an inkling about their relationship heading south right when Arnav told everyone he's getting engaged to her. But she chooses to not see it until one day she couldn't. Maybe we could've gotten more from La but if you see carefully, La clearly knows that this relationship is now just for face. Bless her heart for trying though, trying with a smile!

Also, again I think the writers never thought of making Lavanya a vamp. They had enough material with Arnav-Khushi's own differences, Shyam and Buaji playing enough roles to mess up Arnav-Khushi's love story. I probably think they always had planned Lavanya as a beautiful person who was unintentionally caught in all of this. I feel they planned La and Khushi's friendship - they clearly enjoyed writing two completely different people becoming closest of friends.

The writers/creators deserve full credit for this.

3) Then again, Anjali was jealous and sad about Khushi after the first reveal of Shyam, and it looked like track about Didi Ki Saut was beginning. But again ratings dropped and the fandom didn't react well (kinda protested), Anjali quickly stopped showing jealousy and Dadi was introduced to give ArShi a common saas-bahu vibe.

This is all true.

My Thoughts on External Things Affecting Plot

It's not necessarily bad that external things affect plot. Feedback, from channel or fans, can help the show to pivot and understand what is working and what's not. The problem is when feedback is implemented regardless whether or not it matches the theme of the plot.

I loved:

1) The channel moving out of the office because the power dynamic was too great and the contract terms were very unhealthy and Arnav Singh Raizada deserved to get sued at least 10 times by the end of this contract so yes, the shorter the office track the better. Literally the saving grace is they didn't "fall in love" there.

2) The fans protesting against Didi Ki Saut track. Not because I hated the track - I think it was executed in the worst manner! From identical visual languages to show Arnav-Anjali and Arnav-Khushi scenes (which didn't work to show Arnav being equally torn between the two most important women in his life, but just made the audience get creeped by Arnav-Anjali's relationship) and writing scenes of Anjali getting offended by Arnav-Khushi's intimacy/Arnav spending time with his wife, on her birthday, in his bedroom... did she expect Khushi would just *disappear* in a her and Arnav's bedroom? Like that was the worst way to show a compelling plot line and giving people some weird thoughts about Anjali-Arnav (which I hate because I LOVE Anjali-Arnav).

3) Barun walking out when the plot was literally done. Yes, thank you!

4) Barun going to do a movie led to the kidnapping track, which I liked a lot. No, not the nonsense of Manorama Bond fishing out Delhi's security camera footages in vintage recording system - but the fact that given the chasm and angst between Arnav & Khushi, only something bigger than their misunderstanding could force Arnav to give weight to his feelings and for Khushi to be able to forgive him. And his life was at stake. It was a sharp reminder to both of them that they lost so much by not communicating that it doesn't matter what they had to say - they loved each other, they just needed to get back and fight off everything together.

And then again, there are things I HATED that happened because of external factors:

1) The channel for the whole La becomes Desi. And the overdose of sanskaar and tradition that followed for a few months *uggggh* Clearly the channel demanded this from the plot because family, traditions and all are important to Star Plus (wtf are they thinking for Ghum Hai Kisi Ke? though or YRKKH?) And even the Aarav track and Mrs. India - two tracks with terrible execution - were very Star Plus recommended content. Just now Saath Nibhana Saathiya 2 had a Mrs. Surat/Gujarat track and Yeh Hai Chaahatein had a miracle child popping up...

2) The fans demanding Arnav & Khushi's proximity. The whole hut scene was *noooooo*. Lack of consent, body doubles, GLARING logical loopholes and them just trying to do it when one of them is really not in the mood and they were both so out of character. @phati-sari explains this really well in her post (just search for the hut to get all relevant posts on her blog)

3) Barun? Not exactly - he's never in control of the plot so really it's the writers that kinda know what to do with his presence and absence. Even if they get a short time, it's upto the creators who know if they use the last 2-3 weeks for stretching a random track as much as they can and give a rushed ending or quickly wrap up a crap track and give a satisfactory ending. A good example of this is Lavanya's exit - although rushed was dealt with grace, important conversations and memorable hugs. Bad one is the end of the show - I know Barun gave his papers but I wish they went the La way with the end of the show - important convos, teary hugs and a sweet moment (they tried their best tho...)

It's an ITV trend though to not plan for the end of a show... they stretch a crappy track as much as they can and have like a 2 min epilogue. Kasautii 2.0 was the funniest cause they had all misconceptions cleared, Komolika and Mr. Bajaj die and then have a weird 2 min pillow fight to show 'happy family'... guess in that way I'm glad we had whatever we did with IPKKND!

Possible Tracks Then

So if external factors didn't influence the show, we might have had the following:

1) A longer office track. It would end the way it did in canon though. I think it was prewritten that at one point Khushi would tear up the contract and hold him accountable for everything Arnav did. Just instead of 3-4 days it would've been 10-15 days after the contract.

2) Didi Ki Saut track. Honestly that was compelling if executed right. Sometimes you can have an antagonist without becoming a villain, Anjali the perfect character for that.

3) A separation track. I'm pretty sure Arnav-Khushi could have separated at some point in their six months marriage - this is just my inkling and not something I heard in an interview unlike the above two. If given full reign to writing, we probably would've gotten an angst heavy stuff at some point post marriage/6 months.

4) A remarriage track sans Dadi. We know why Dadi was introduced (honestly I didn't mind her, it was a track done well and kinda to redeem Arnav in front of the public eyes. It's a perfect track cause Arnav is 'nice' for standing up for her and kinda heals the wounds he caused in the first few months of the marriage by retorting someone who tells Khushi everything he told her...) But anyway I do think a remarriage was in the works, not because of TRPs but the way their whole 'marriage' was framed and how Khushi was broken because of the lack of everything in it. And they deserved one w/o the devastation that night brought.

5) The 'marriage' would've been a live in. Arnav and Khushi's elopement was supposed to be darker in nature*. Their 'marriage' would've had no religious nor legal validity, therefore a stark contradiction to everything Khushi stood for... but you can't have that in ITV. *By dark I don't mean sexual violence - never.*

6) The whole IPKKND was meant to be darker. I am glad for the romantic comedy though! I think their balance of angst and comedy pre marriage was perfect! Not sure post marriage because it felt like a loop of going back to square one with no progress. But I think things were meant to be less subtle, more tragic and dramatized. So I think we could've gotten extremely angsty periods post marriage with a slow, gentle lull to the romance/comedy. While I am extremely glad for the lightheartedness, I wish I could've read what the whole original concept for Arnav/Khushi was!

7) Arnav revealing the truth to Khushi would've been different. We know the distasteful suicide track quickly came as a way to push Arnav's buttons and have him confess the truth of his elopement to Khushi. And that came from Barun going away - hence the quick kidnapping track and everything. So if Barun didn't go away, I honestly don't know how the revelation would happen. Would Arnav start piecing things together from information and things about Shyam in Laxminagar? Would Arnav end up helping and hospitalizing Shashi who would tell him the truth? Would Arnav come across any hidden wedding card Buaji could've had printed for Shyam-Khushi or even Shyam's fake kundili? Given the Gupta house wasn't the place where Shyam covered his tracks... was this where Arnav would start seeing things? Or guilt ridden, would Garima/Khushi/Madhumati tell Arnav the truth? Something was meant to happen for this revelation, whether it's Arnav believing Khushi or just getting further evidence against her - I... don't know! I wish I knew what the writers had in store.

We highly appreciate for not showing a typical Nanand against Bhaabi trope, also for not making La villain, but would it result differently if things didn't have a hand? Imma cry thinking Anjali jealous and La villain! meh!  What a feast for the eyes it was to see ONLY ONE VILLAIN and less negativity in a tellywood show. Baas bohut hua my casual verbiage. By demand I mean no pressure, please take your valuable time and reply whenever you feel like it.Take Loads of Care and Chocolates your way <3

I hope the above answered all your queries :) Thank you for all the chocolates and care!!!

Phew this was rather long! A big hug to anyone who went through it! See ya later!

- Jalebi

[antiloreolympus]

5 Anti LO Asks

1. love how the gods in LO and their environments are all the same, blindingly bright neon colors where hardly anything is decipherable   (zeus in the all purple room and hades basically just being a neon blue head in an nearly all black underworld spring to mind here) while the mortals are all the same muddly brown with muddy brown environments. i understand its to save time, but it just looks ugly and rushed over a unique palette.

2. uh ... does Rachel know dionysus was the way he was wasnt bc his mom was a "unhinged bitch" but rather the fact thats just how he was (is this being anti=partying? didnt LO literally start with a party?) as well as a dash of childhood trauma via HERA killing him as a baby? this isnt just a terribly misogynistic reading on semele, its also an offensively arrogant reading on dionysus. even the stereotypical depictions  via PJO or Disney show more respect than whatever Rachel thinks this is.

3. semele was literally a devoted but horny priestess in mythology??? are we sure rachel actually knows what she's talking about because itd be weird to claim to be a staunch feminist focusing on being against purity culture and wanting to promote female agency and being proud in their sexuality only to then frame an actually sexually liberated woman making her own choices especially in deeply regressive times as bad and evil because she just happens to like zeus and isn't hera 🤔

4. Out of curiosity how old do you think some of the mortals that the gods interact with are? Like how old is Semele supposed to be? She looks like a teenager (to me anyway).

And if thats the case, then Zeus is having an illicit affair with a teenage girl and so is Hades (the only difference is Kore has Goddess status to "make up for" the age gap).

Either way its still creepy. As far as we know the only somewhat decent brother of the triarchy is Poseidon (maybe its because hes more of a background character but he seems much more chill than Zeus + Hades).

I have a feeling if RS brought Poseidon in to the forefront more that she might ruin whatever small amount of characterization he has.

Also I'm fairly certain the brothers share 1 braincell and Poseidon has it 95% of the time. "Having an emotional affair can be just as damaging as a physical one".

Zeus definitely doesnt have it - he barely knows what's going on in Olympus and had no knowledge of Persephones crimes until someone else told him + then went into a temper tantrum to assert his dominance because he feels like no one takes him seriously (he's right, they don't. Not even Hera).

Hades has the braincell very rarely, but as soon as Persephone steps into the room it gets thrown out a window and he turns into a horndog. Also he reacts with temper tantrums as well - e.g: pulling a kids eye out for taking a photo of Persephone (granted paparazzi do kinda suck but still, Hades KNOWS hes the god of the underworld and is bound to attract attention + gossip and yet did nothing when Kore was made to feel uncomfortable and then in private ripped a kids eyeball out and Hecate helped to blind him - real good leadership there Hades, no winder the underworld denizens dont like you).

Honestly and we're supposed to be rooting for the gods? Or at least HxP?

I feel like it might be better if the narrative actually acknowledged that what the gods did was f*cked up and had lasting consequences, since RS wants them to be more "human" anyway.

Like Hades ripped a kids eye out and who gets 'punished' for it? Persephone. It damages her reputation at school and yeah she calls him out on it (saying that he did it more out of pride for himself than for her) but later its immediately forgotten as soon as she makes him fix the kid's eye.

(Not to mention that putting Hades in the room of the kid is gonna cause the kid more trauma. Was there no other healing option? Actually since when does Hades have healing powers? We've only ever see him kill plants to flirt with Persephone. And I think he should fix it, but I also doubt Persephone was thinking of the kids wellbeing in that moment - more of just fixing her reputation. Which again, does not endear the audience to her as a dread queen, if she can't make logical decisions that are going to impact the citizens shes destined to rule over). 

5. maybe the reason rachel made semele so unlikeable is because she knows itll be hard to excuse hera's action when she literally murders a pregnant woman and her baby so thats all she can manage to justify it, tho its also lowkey deranged to say someone and their baby deserves to die because hera has that easily bruised of an ego over a man, who in LO at least, she doesnt even love?? like hera would just look insane at that point, you cant "girl power" your way out of baby murder.