#like possibly codependent levels of devotion

[other-side-of-oblivion]

What is the mythology behind selkies wearing another selkie's coat? Like, two selkies exchanging their coats

[ominous-horse-noises]

im ab to be annoying ab dimension20 fhjy but im genuinely loving the character arcs for the bad kids this season?

kristen going from self-annihilatingly stupid to trying to build a genuine bridge with the man who not only wielded the religion that traumatised her (bobby dawn), but also was trying to ruin her life, just bc she thought a grieving father ought to be comforted in some way? her genuine distress at being unable to revivify buddy even though the two had only had negative interactions, or her biting her tongue in front of her parents so she could better look after her little siblings? grappling with the fact that she still, on some level, expected practising religion to be easy and convenient for her as a holdover from an entire childhood spent being a Chosen One, and finally putting her nose to the grindstone and committing to working her ass off for a deity that couldn't even benefit her for a hot minute? making an effort to be cordial with tracker's new gf and letting go of that codependency? the kristen applebees from ep20 would NOT do all the same stupid shit as ep1 and i love that.

fabian being humbled by the narrative again and again has been an absolute treat for his character. the whole ivy/mazey situation was great: freshman/sophomore year fabian would've gone for ivy no sweat, i mean her character seemed pretty similar to pre-redemption aelwyn and he had a huge crush on her then. but this time, when he realised he'd hurt a genuinely great person, and intentionally swallowed his pride to make it up to mazey, even though it required him being 'uncool' with the whole twister thing. his general arc of learning that earnestness and humility doesn't make him less of a man felt like a natural extension of fabian defining his own version of masculinity- sure, a 'maximum legend', but also someone deeply involved in the arts, and someone who is less afraid of saying sorry and being vulnerable in front of someone he likes

fig. fig fig fig. what a woman. its been absolutely fascinating watching build her sense of identity over these three seasons. at her core, fig is a character that loves so deeply. in freshman, she was terrified of the depth of her own devotion, so she tried to distance herself emotionally from everyone. in sophomore, she built herself around that love for other people. in junior year, fig's arc has been learning she can do both: that she's defined by her love for others, but not solely by it. ik emily wanted to retire the character before this season but i think fig's paladin arc was the best capstone to her journey possible.

gorgug's arc has been about establishing clear boundaries for himself and i love it. im aware there's been some Discourse ab the mango soda scene but to me that was pretty easily chalked up to teenage insecurity. a big part of gorgug's arc was trying to believe in himself when everyone around him told him he was too dumb to follow his passion- imagine struggling in an area that you have no natural aptitude for, and someone comes along and also trounces you in the one area you thought you were the best in. i'd be petty and reactive too (gorgug follows up calling her a freak with the fact that she beat the shit out of him, so its clearly him just still smarting from a bruised ego and not actual malice). in general, i've really like gorgug learning to put his foot down and say enough is enough without completely losing his gentleness.

adaine hasnt had an obvious arc, but considering she addressed most of her baggage in the first two seasons, i'm not surprised. i would've liked to see the other bad kids address her 'teenage adult' behaviour, but her self-awareness about it and relying on fabian to pull in clutch for the oracool stuff still felt like she'd learned to rely on her friends at least + her reaching out to aelwyn and the two of them healing from their parents together has been rewarding it its own right.

riz is perfect and has learned nothing. his neuroticism is part of his natural swag

[blakeswritingimagines]

Dating Yandere Erryk Cargyll Would Include:

Erryk's yandere tendencies only appear when it comes to the object of his affection. He's fiercely loyal and protective, often borderline obsessive. He'll go to great lengths to ensure the safety and well-being of his love interest, even resorting to drastic measures to keep you close.

He can become clingy and jealous, easily feeling threatened by anyone who shows even a hint of interest in his love. His intense affection can border on possessiveness, and he may struggle with boundaries and personal space.

When Erryk's yandere tendencies appear, he can become quite manipulative, using emotional manipulation to keep you under his control. He may try to isolate you from friends and family to keep you all to himself, sometimes even resorting to gaslighting and guilt-tripping.

His obsession can also manifest in physical ways, like constantly wanting to be near you and touching you as often as possible. He may even try to make you dependent on him for support and affection.

Erryk can also be extremely controlling. He may attempt to dictate your decisions and activities, believing it's for your own good. He might want to know your every move and become suspicious if you spend time away from him.

His attachment to his love interest can be all-consuming, almost to the point of codependency. He may display clinginess, possessiveness, and a need for constant reassurance. Erryk's yandere tendencies may manifest as excessive hovering, monitoring their activities, and attempting to isolate them from others. He has a strong need to control, often trying to dictate their decisions and lifestyle choices.

Due to his intense emotions, Erryk could struggle with jealousy and possessiveness, making him prone to outbursts of anger or emotional volatility when his love interest interacts with others.

In front of others, Erryk appears composed and level-headed, masking his intense attachment to his love interest. He maintains a veneer of normalcy, hiding his possessive tendencies and jealousy. He may come across as protective and devoted, masking any controlling behaviors. He can be polite, respectful, and even chivalrous in public, displaying a well-mannered facade. However, this mask only covers his intense, obsessive feelings towards the object of his affection.

When it comes to rewards, Erryk's yandere tendencies often manifest as an overwhelming desire to shower his love interest with gifts, attention, and devotion. He goes to extreme lengths to make you feel special and loved, often going above and beyond to pamper you. His need for control may lead him to use rewards as a means of reinforcing his desired behaviors. He gives you gifts, praise, or special privileges whenever you comply with his wishes.

The punishments Erryk doles out are a product of his possessive and controlling tendencies. He may become punitive when you do not act according to his expectations. Punishments can range from silent treatment to emotional manipulation, threats, or even physical restraint. He may use guilt-tripping tactics, to shape desired behaviors and enforce his authority in the relationship. Erryk may also use threats of leaving or abandonment as a punishment to coerce compliance.

Erryk tends to approach conflicts in a way that reflects his possessive and controlling nature. He can be very possessive and jealous, even during disagreements. He might get defensive and confrontational if he perceives a threat to the relationship or his authority. Erryk tends to prioritize winning the argument at any cost, resorting to various tactics like emotional manipulation, guilt-tripping, or even aggressive behavior if it means asserting his dominance.

Erryk's affection takes on a deeply intense and almost obsessive quality. He tends to shower you with an overwhelming amount of affection, constantly seeking validation and reassurance. He becomes clingy, often needing to be in close proximity to you to feel secure. Erryk's affection can border on possessiveness, as he desires to mark his territory and make you solely his.

Erryk's dating style typically reflects his possessive and protective tendencies. He tends to plan dates that allow him to have full control over the situation, often choosing locations and activities that he feels are safe and secure. He may be overly attentive and doting, constantly checking in and monitoring your every move. Erryk may display jealousy or possessiveness if he perceives a threat from others, especially if they show interest in you.

Erryk indeed has a secretive shrine dedicated to you. This shrine may contain items like photographs, small mementos, or even clothes of yours. He may even have a collection of items he deems connected to the object of his affection, meticulously organized in a hidden display of his obsession. The shrine serves as a physical manifestation of his deep devotion and possessiveness, a private shrine where he can worship the love of his life in secrecy.

If Erryk perceives a threat to you and feels that it threatens the relationship, he can become severely possessive and potentially violent, resorting to extreme measures, even violence, to keep you safe and under his control. Erryk could be driven to great lengths to protect you and maintain his desired relationship, sometimes resorting to drastic or extreme actions, including violence, to eliminate any perceived threats.

Erryk's idea of marriage, fueled by his possessive and obsessive tendencies, revolves around absolute control and claiming ownership of you. He envisions a marriage where he has complete authority and control over the relationship, perhaps even to the point of isolation from the outside world. Erryk may see marriage as a way to further bind you to him, making it harder for you to leave and reinforcing his feelings of possession. He would be highly protective and possessive within the marriage, potentially resorting to manipulative tactics to keep you under his command.

In Erryk's mind, having children could be an extension of his possessive desires, serving as a way to create a lasting bond and further tie you to him. He may relish the idea of being a father, viewing his children as an important part of his life and a symbol of his possession. Erryk might become fiercely protective and possessive of both yoand the children, believing they belong solely to him and must be kept safe under his care. His parenting style could be overly protective and controlling, reflecting his possessive tendencies.

Erryk's reaction to your desire or inability to have children would depend on his level of obsession and possessiveness at the time. If his yandere tendencies are at their peak, he might become extremely frustrated, angry, or resentful, feeling like his control over the situation has been threatened. He could potentially use this as a point of contention, trying to persuade or manipulate you into changing your mind. Erryk might resort to emotional manipulation or guilt-tripping to convince you to have children or to cope with the disappointment.

Erryk's yandere tendencies might lead him to exhibit a range of other behaviors, such as possessiveness over your time, attention, and activities, as well as a habit of monitoring and dictating communication. Erryk may have a tendency to prioritize your happiness and security over your autonomy and freedom, potentially crossing into controlling and abusive behavior.

"You're mine. I want you all to myself. I need you by my side 24/7. I get furious when other people even look at you. I won't let anyone else have you. You belong to me. I will do anything to keep you safe and make sure you're always mine. Don't even think of leaving me. I can't live without you. You are my world, and I will never let you go."

Dominance - Being the one in control, calling the shots, and making decisions during sex is extremely satisfying for him.

Bondage - Restricting movement through restraints, cuffs, or ropes heightens the senses and creates a sense of helplessness that he finds deeply arousing.

Teasing - Playing with you, leaving you wanting more, and then denying you satisfaction until you beg for release...there's nothing quite like it.

Paddling - The sound of a paddle smacking against flesh, followed by soft moans and gasps of pleasure...it's a combination that never fails to get him hard as stone.

Sensory deprivation - Blindfolding you so you can't see anything but hear his voice... adds an element of vulnerability and trust that can make the experience even more intense.

[scalproie]

What I mean: "You only have eyes for him!" is my favorite line in malevolent (on par with "I will not let you drown." even) because as clever-written lines usually are, it works on a metaphorical level, yes, but also on a very literal one; Arthur said himself that he had nothing and nobody else but John, all his loved ones are dead, his life is ruined, if he loses him too then what reason is there left for him to keep on living? Arthur also needs John both on a physical and almost spiritual level to stay alive, John sees for Arthur to keep them both from dying, but Arthur have mortal eyes for John to see through for the first time, to grow and change... that is, technically, Arthur's only purpose in this story. He cannot have his sight back because then he would truly have nothing else, those eyes are only for John now. But Arthur living for John (and ironically dying for him too) isnt completely selfless devotion because Arthur is DETERMINED to survive no matter what, no matter what happens to him, and he needs John for that, both as his sight and his purpose, so of COURSE he wants him back, but just how much of that desire is out of genuine love for John as a person, or out of Arthur's own self-interest to stay alive because deep down he KNOWS he is nothing without him, is unclear, possibly (or even most likely) to even Arthur himself. And much of all of that thought process must be the same on John's end. This is the delicious definition of codependency. And the second meaning of that phrase is that "only having eyes for someone" is often used in a romantic way, and Kayne obviously says it in a mocking taunting manner, but Arthur's and John's relationship is physically impossible in nature, the act of sharing a singular body cannot realistically exist and thus I find it hard to categorize their dynamic as purely platonic or purely romantic, it is something else entirely that is pretty hard to pin down personally, if its even possible at all, and if I even WANT TO at all, but I take huge comfort in knowing that there is love there. There IS, undefinable and undeniable, love there. And that makes it fascinating to witness, analyze, and follow it along. What an incredibly well-written story and I'm so glad I decided to give it a listen.

What I say: hhnghnhhgNghhhnggHGNggn ghnggnhhHggnhG hgnHGNHHNGgnh gngHGNgn 🏳️‍🌈gay people🏳️‍🌈?????????

[weyounthevorta]

EDIT: Check out the newer version here, which has juicy new spicy content and two new characters (Harriman Gray and the Captain)

I saw something similar posted by @undeadgayboynes and was inspired to create my own. Which Combs character would you date?

Thy’lek Shran (Star Trek Enterprise)

‪Pros: Strong sense of justice, good at what he does, sexy, energetic. He’ll fight for what’s right and he’ll protect you with his life. He has a soft side and he’s not afraid to show it.‬

Cons: Hotheaded, a bit rash.

Anton Mordrid (Doctor Mordrid)

Pros: Fights evil, lives a quiet life. Financially stable. Has a romantic streak. Is an all around sweet guy who will bring you breakfast in bed and read to you. He teaches you wizardry.

Cons: Absolutely tragic sense of style.

Chaz (Dead Man Walking)

Pros: Is objectively very cute. He’d risk his life for yours without question. He works past his fear to achieve his goals. No doubt a snuggler big on showing affection.

Cons: Is a bit whiney, possibly has the plague. Tragic taste in nicknames.

Crawford Tillinghast (From Beyond)

Pros: Brilliant scientist and inventor. Submissive and sweet. Romance with him would be chaste and old fashioned. He’d do his best to keep you safe. Cute little guy in a big sweater.

Cons: Sexually repressed. A bad luck magnet. Despite his best efforts, trouble finds him.

Andrew Paris (Phantom Empire)

Pros: Strong sex appeal. Wears the tightest pants in existence. He wouldn’t object to spontaneous adventures. A relationship with him would be impulsive and quirky.

Cons: Any girl who flirts with him is a legit threat. He’s a slutty, wanton little strumpet.

Bill Knight (Felony)

Pros: Handsome, charismatic crime fighter. Eager to hop in bed with you if you show a smidgeon of kindness toward him. He whimpers very prettily. He’s quick and agile.

Cons: He is a total hazard. You’re in the line of fire if you hang with him. He may break into your house. He’s flown through an absurd number of windows.

D-Day (Fortress)

Pros: Adorable, good with machines. There’s kindness in him. He will risk his life for his friends. A relationship with him would consist of tentative, shy, and guarded advances.

Cons: He is easily led into dangerous situations. He needs a dentist. Hes in jail.

Weyoun (Star Trek Deep Space 9)

Pros: Ethereal. Obscenely sexy. Knows what he wants and how to get it. If he chooses to be devoted to you, he’ll be loyal unto death. Loves to have fun, and loves to tease. Kinky.

Cons: Religious nut. Can’t appreciate art, food, and many simple pleasures. Manipulative.

John Reilly (Castle Freak)

Pros: Handsome DILF. He wants to improve his life. Repentant of his sins, affectionate.

Cons: Touch starved, desperate, directionless, alcoholic, and when he falls off the wagon he falls all the way off. He also comes from a family of lunatics so there’s that.

James Wilkins (Hunter S07E13)

Pros: Sensual as fuck. Life with him would be a roller coaster ride of sex and danger. Tattoos, leather, fast cars, and he can’t keep his hands off you.

Cons: He’s a thief and a murderer. He’s attracted to women more dangerous than he is.

Milton Dammers (The Frighteners)

Pros: Once upon a time he was probably a sweet guy. He wants to rid the world of evil so desperately that he’s sacrificed his own sanity to do it.

Cons: He’s a broken man. He’s completely lost his grip on reality. He’s scarred, scared, troubled, and no you can’t fix him.

Herbert West (Reanimator)

Pros: Definitely handsome. On some level he wants to do something great for humankind. He’s capable of affection in his own bizzare way. Life with him would certainly never be dull. Despite his abrasiveness he’s got an undeniable magnetism.

Cons: Morals? Never heard of ‘em. Healthy boundaries are a non starter. His definition of intimacy likely won’t be aligned with yours. He will latch onto you like the codependent, murderous, evil little gremlin he is until one or both of you is dead or in jail.

[andorerso]

sissi hello!! in regards to the post about ocs, i would LOVE to hear more about dani and elijah 💜 (partly bc i love both of those names so so much, always have, and that intrigues me instantly).

hope you're having a wonderful day!

rolling up almost two months later like hiiiiii <3 sorry it took me so long to answer ahfgdchg

but first of all, thank you for asking because I love talking about them, second of all, I'm so happy you like the names because I do too 🥰 well obviously, I wouldn't have chosen them otherwise, but I'm very particular about names and they have to feel right, and this was one of those instances when I almost instantly knew their names, like it was just fate. meant to be. and I think they sound nice together!! anyway, I'll stop ranting about names now

so, the story is urban fantasy, and their tropes are slowburn, mutual pining, idiots to lovers, battle couple, codependency, angstttttt, two sides of the same coin, flirty & awkward, snarky & serious, impulsive & rational, short-tempered & calm

Dani (full name Danielle Preston but she hates being called Danielle) is our leading lady, she's in her mid-20s, and she's the flirty, snarky, impulsive, short-tempered side of the two. she's always cracking a joke, which is mostly a self-defense mechanism, and tends to cover up real feelings with humor, sex and booze. I have such a soft spot for characters who'd rather cut open a vein than show weakness or vulnerability in front of someone, but still deeply care about people and are intensely loyal if you earn it, so she's kinda that archetype. she'd literally burn down a whole city for someone she loves but will never actually say the words. also she's bisexual like almost all my MCs

here's kind of how I imagine her (made with this picrew)

and Elijah is the more level-headed, serious, all business no fun counterpart to Dani's generally chaotic behavior. he's a couple hundred years old, and not human, but he looks to be in his early 30s. he's very matter-of-fact, goal-oriented, and pragmatic, but he's also very kind to those who deserve it, and can be surprisingly intense and passionate when he actually lets himself feel it (which is not very often, at least not at first). he has a very strong sense of justice, but he kind of follows his own moral code, so he definitely falls into the morally grey category (Dani kind of does too, but Elijah even more so)

here's a picrew for him too

as for their relationship, it starts as kind of an unwilling partnership and they clash a lot at the beginning because of their different approaches and worldviews, but they eventually form a friendship. Elijah's kind of drawn to her/fascinated by her from the start, because she's so different from him but has a lot of the qualities he admires/wishes he had too. Dani takes a bit longer mostly because she's better at lying to herself lmao. but there's an attraction of sort from the beginning. it's a difficult ride, mostly because they're both stubborn idiots who tend to repress their emotions, just in different ways. she's lost people and is afraid to lose more, and he's just not sure he knows how to allow himself to want things and be a functioning human person, so neither wants a relationship and they're both violently trying to deny any feelings. but the feelings are definitely there. like they're not together but they're deeply devoted but they will never admit it but there's no one else who could possibly compare. those kinda vibes, you know?

some other tidbits/details that I love about them: she loves to antagonize him (mostly in a teasing way) and he's so offended/annoyed at first until he realizes it's her love language. then the annoyance turns into fond exasperation. she's pretty much the only one who can make him genuinely smile and laugh, in fact sometimes he's the only one who actually finds her funny at all lmao (she definitely overdoes it sometimes but he finds it charming). she's a bit of a romantic deep down, and he's very intensely devoted once he commits, so it's the kind of relationship she always secretly wanted but never thought could have. and he's the only person she will tolerate calling her Danielle (it's kind of a turn-on from him).

anyway, I could go on but it's gonna get long very quickly, so this is just the basics. but I love talking about them and I'm always open to more specific questions from anyone <3

also here's a moodboard too because why not

[idliketobeatree]

okay. i've tried thinking about it, and there's no version of love which encompasses all it could be in their afterlives.

Charles will forever ache to experience love in the proper, human, living way. he's just sixteen when he's stuck in that attic, waiting for his last moments, dying of hypothermia and possible other internal injuries, shaking and curled up, and he thinks of kissing. more than anything else in life he will miss the closeness of pressing his lips to someone else's, feeling their breath, their warmth, the softness of their skin.

Edwin loves him in a way that transcends the word and rewrites it back from the times of cuneiform, and he cannot love him back like this, not yet, but even when he gets there. when he realises they share something similar, it will not bring back the warmth to his lips.

they will never share a hammock on a lazy summer afternoon and feed each other raspberries from the garden, or go skinny dipping in a lake, or get to hear the thrumming steady heartbeat in the chest of their loved one.

if they were granted to live a long life on Earth, they would have never met each other.

if Edwin lived a long life, he would be pretending for at least half of it.

if either of them went to Heaven without the other following it would be just as good as Hell.

their stakes are raised to a cosmic level, because of mutual codependency and frankly extreme amounts of devotion, and the worst thing is they love each other like they're invincible. oh god, they're so careless, you can harm them in a variety of ways; iron, deadly fungi, creatures from Hell, magic spells, you name it, we haven't even uncovered 10 percent of their weaknesses. they are not untouchable as beings of energy, just fragile in a different way. and they love like, yeah, they have forever.

Edwin, above all, wants to be safe, yet he gives up on the feeling of safety when he befriends Niko, drops down his guard and explores the possibility of friendship outside of Charles. it ends horribly. even when they are mindful, balancing the delicate arc of including the "messy" living into detective work and keeping her at bay, it still ends with death. Edwin risks his most basic safety, his whole existence in fact, when he confesses on that staircase. he feels so deeply unsafe, the thoughts of love and being torn apart intricately connect. love and fear. love and uncertainty. love and losing each other.

Edwin loves from a distance, because he cannot afford to get closer, even though it catches up to his guarded heart. (besides, he never had the opportunity to learn different.)

they love each other and it will never be enough.

do you ever think about how for both Charles and Edwin, love will never be enough?

[emmabirb8]

Could Nandor have fallen first?

*This has nothing to do with the most recent ep and almost nothing to do with season 4 as a whole, just a quick fyi* 

Oh man, Idk why this just now occurred to me, but it's entirely possible that Nandor fell for Guillermo first.

I know that most Nandermo fans are probably inclined to believe that Guillermo fell in love first, but what if it was the other way around? Hear me out.

See, I'm under the impression that Guillermo did not fall in love with Nandor at first sight. Rather, he became infatuated with him because, well, Nandor is tall, attractive, and the first real life vampire Guillermo had ever met. Of course he quit Panera on the spot and jumped at the chance to become his familiar. And I think that infatuation probably lasted a few months. Maybe a year, but that's a bit of a stretch. 

It definitely would not have taken long for that infatuation to fade though, and for pure annoyance and frustration to take its place. I mean, c'mon. We all know how much of a whiny, ungrateful pain in the ass Nandor can be. The prospect of one day being turned was probably the only thing keeping Guillermo from quitting during those first few years.

But then, something changed. Idk when exactly (my best guess would be year 4 or 5 maybe??), but somewhere along the line, Guillermo began to actually like Nandor. He started to find his quirks and idiosyncrasies endearing and developed an honest crush that snowballed and snowballed until he had fallen in love without even really realizing it. And we all know how that love morphed into an unbreakable devotion and codependency that Guillermo has actually (somewhat guiltily) acknowledged on camera.

So, Guillermo's journey to falling in love was anything but instantaneous. It was a gradual development that took quite a long time to really blossom.

Nandor, on the other hand, was different, I think.

Despite how emotionally constipated and confused he often is, Nandor has been known to fall fast and hard for people. Take Gail, Meg, and Jan as examples. In all three of those cases, Nandor believed he was in love and wanted to spend eternity with whoever was in his sights at the time. Now of course, all those times, he was jumping into things way too soon and mistaking his surface-level affection for true love, but my point stands. No, he may not always be able to interpret them correctly, but Nandor feels his emotions very intensely. It's an important aspect of his character.

What does this mean in relation to Guillermo, you ask? Well, I'm not saying Nandor fell in love with Guillermo immediately. However, I do think Nandor's journey to falling in love, while similar to Guillermo's (minus the infatuation stage), happened at a much faster rate.

While Guillermo was still in the infatuation stage, Nandor was entering the annoyance stage. As helpful and efficient as Guillermo has always been at his job, I'm sure Nandor became irritated at his constant hovering and worrying, especially during the time Guillermo was most likely putting all his energy towards making a good impression in those first few months. But, Guillermo's constant and consistent presence and dutiful hard work stirred something in Nandor. For the first time in a long time, he felt safer and calmer. As Guillermo moved on to being mostly annoyed with his master, Nandor began to  (secretly) truly appreciate his service and enjoy his company every now and then.

By the time Guillermo was starting to fall in love, Nandor had already been there for a while without having even a tiny notion about his own feelings (because, as we all know, the poor guy has the emotional intelligence and maturity of a rock). Nandor's dark, lonely, bitter world had shifted into a much happier, protected, and comfortable place, but his brain didn't make the crucial connection to see that Guillermo was the reason for that change. 

Subconsciously, Nandor went from light fondness to completely head over heels faster than Guillermo could come to terms with having a serious crush. And the dumbass (affectionate) didn't recognize the shift in his own feelings as it was happening because I don't think he has ever felt such deep, genuine love for anyone before. Every other time he thought he had "found love," even during his human life, it was only ever surface-level. So really, can you blame the guy for being unable to pinpoint his feelings about Guillermo when it's such a new (and scary) emotional experience for him? 

Nandor's heart runs a million miles a minute, but his brain runs a couple years behind the present, so it takes him a while to process things. Luckily, season 4 has shown him to be more emotionally open than he's ever been, and even tho his brain has only caught up to thinking of Guillermo as his (best) friend and closest companion, it is definitely progress!

He will get there, friends. It's gonna take a little more introspection, but he will realize the extreme feelings he's been having SO MANY OF lately are, in fact, passionate, romantic love for Guillermo.  

But anyway, that's how I think Nandor could have potentially fallen in love with Guillermo before Guillermo fully fell in love with Nandor. (Tho Guillermo was obv the first to consciously acknowledge and accept his own feelings.)

Join me in part 2 of this wild tangent where I discuss Nandor's odd behavior towards Guillermo and the intricate rituals they both constructed to achieve appropriate levels of physical intimacy between a vampire and familiar to sate their mutual hunger for touch! 😁

[gascon-en-exil]

I’ve seen people say Dedue is just as bad a person as Hubert because he says he’d kill anyone for Dimitri including innocents. What do you think of that?

I'd say several things, one of which is that actions count for more than words. We never see Dedue perform any act of violence outside the standard gameplay violence that every playable character in this series is "guilty" of. Hubert, on the other hand, murders his own father in cold blood because he stands in the way of Edelgard's ascension - possibly not even at Edelgard's instruction, because she's fine with having her other political opponents (including the alleged ringleader of the Insurrection) jailed or placed under house arrest. Hubert's evil is so abundant and his lack of remorse so evident that he can brag to Edelgard about all murder and bribery he's committed...and that's only the stuff she didn't already know about. (By contrast on that front, Dedue goes behind Dimitri's back exactly once, with the Crest stone plan in CF, and it's a desperate measure in a life-or-death situation that Dimitri still takes issue with for understandable reasons.)

I'd also say that the Dedue/Felix C support is infamous for how often its lines are taken out of context in an attempt to prove that one or the other (and/or Dimitri) are bad people. Assuming that support occurs during Part 1, Felix is an angry teenager coping badly with the death of his brother and his inability to understand his former closest friend's trauma, and he lashes out at Dedue for remaining devoted to Dimitri even knowing about Dimitri's potential for violence. Of course he baits Dedue with an exaggerated hypothetical, and with how antagonistic Felix is throughout the conversation I'm not surprised that Dedue matches that exaggeration. We know that it's exaggeration too, because come Part 2 when Dimitri is at his worst he's still being hailed as a folk hero by the people of Faerghus - which I very much doubt would be the case if he were indiscriminately killing civilians and not committing targeted violence against Imperial soldiers*. Also, we know that Dimitri loves children; even before his character development he's seen patting the head of an orphan, and his ending tapestry shows him playing with children. It's very clear signposting in a similar vein as Edelgard (and Jeritza) liking sweets, except in this case it's actually a substantive indication of compassion for others. Dedue is undoubtedly aware of this, and that Dimitri would therefore never order him to kill children or other innocents even at his lowest. Felix isn't going to change his mind in that support and has to go through a bunch of character development before he can reconcile with Dimitri, so Dedue tells him what he expects to hear. Alternate crack theory: this is the Manly Martial Romance equivalent of a catfight over a guy.

Dimitri and Dedue's relationship is a codependent one, but they don't crave or enjoy violence for its own sake and their shared goals don't include violence once Dimitri has undergone his development and turned away from vengeance as a motivation. Hubert actually seems to enjoy violence, hamming it up for the sake of melodrama, and a good amount of the evil he does isn't even Edelgard's direct orders. He's a much more entertaining villain for it - a hell of a lot better than Jeritza's unevenly written mental illness, and less compromised than Edelgard by the need to be marketable - but no one comes close to touching his level of evil in FE16.

*Some of whom may have been young enough to qualify as children to Dimitri's guilty conscience, hence that notorious line. FE sticks teenagers and sometimes even preteens on the front lines all the time, so I consider that par for the course for the setting.

[fipindustries]

now is time for a new type of wildbow protagonist ranking.

the ranking of how close where the main cast to each other! how intense the friendships, how powerful the found families. lets see!

worm

if this was only about taylor and lisa, or even taylor lisa and rachel, this would be easily a top competitor. these three girls love each other so much to the point of loyalty beyond law, beyond reason, beyond death and beyond sanity. they would and have canonically killed for each other, and surrendered to each other’s control in body and mind. the devotion these girls had for one another went into full toxic codependence at times but all the more delicious for it.

but we are going to judge the undersiders as a whole and, well.

they certainly feel like a real life friend group in a lot of ways, there is obviously a core to it, others seem to be hanging on more because they are a friend of a friend, or because they are dating someone’s sibiling. some like parian and foil are off to the side doing their own thing. others try for a while to be an item and then it doesnt really work out. people come and go, in this case because of dying but same difference.

ultimatly they started as a bussiness relationships and while some meaningful conections where forged in the heat of the battlefield it all also felt a bit ephemeral by the end of it all and once we reach ward it seems like the warmth and drive of the group as a group got lost as each member got distanced by having their own stuff going on. 3/5 stars

pact

oh god, this is sad.

i mean ovbiously there was care and love(?) going on here but... well, blake was too mired into a lot of bullshit to give anything back and by the end of it it all came to ruin and dust for all involved. blake’s friends honestly barely feel like people in the story, and blake is literally not a person by the end of it, all conections to humanity severed. now, we might say “but green eyes and evan, muh best character in all of wildbow!!!!” and is like.

WE care a whole lot about green eyes and evan, WE the readers love them with passion. does blake? he cares about them, i guess, in as far as he can care about anything that isnt his relentless mission to get in as many doomed fights as possible and drag everyone down with him. it seems they are happy enough with each other by the end of it all but i wouldnt call this a friendship to sing for the ages 2.5/5

twig

now we are motherfucking talking

the creepiest, weirdest, most violent policule you will find in fiction and really, isnt that what friendship is all about? these fucking kids treat each other as a drug not only they cannot quit but are purposefully aiming to become as addicted to as possible. love, romance, hatred, disgust, with the other and with the self, obsession, violence, devotion, loyalty, insanity, mad science. what else can you ask of a found family?

best fucking group. they would mutilate anyone, even each other, even themselves, in the name of love 5/5

ward

i feel if you took victoria out of this this would work a lot better, but then again, the same you could say about all of ward.

i wont pretend to reach the level of analisys that kenzie’s sitting charts reached but the friendships specifically between kenzie and ashley and rain and capricorn do tug at my heartstrings something beautiful and yet, um. 

ashley seems to be there mainly for kenzie and not really anyone else. rain seems to be kind of awkward around sveta. sveta really seems to only have eyes for vicky, kenzie seems to like the idea of being part of a group in the abstract and loves everyone equally which doesnt mean much. byron didnt even want to be a part of this to begin with and chris hates everyone.

they like each other, much in the same way you like your circle of mutuals, you will care very much about one or two of them and the rest are kind of background noise. 3/5

pale

damn decent friendship. at times you feel the awkwardness of this being a young friendship going through the awkward stages of puberty where you start to define yourself more distinctly as a person and it might turn out that the people you all end up becoming are not quite as compatible as they used to be when they were just kids. on top of that avery being the new comer that never quite stops feeling like the third wheel of the group.

but still the love they feel for each other is clearly genuine, and the singularity of purpose which drives them, they way they are philosophically in the same page if not fully on the matters of everyday living, the singlemindednedd in which they advance, fully in lockstep, to kick some ass and pull some sick fucking magic tricks, is admirable.

4/5

[candyskiez]

Terumob and Shigeteru respectively. I'll give you two guesses as to which ones my favorite and the second one doesn't count. But like. Hhfjhjfhhfbgod. Insane levels of devotion for Terumob and the building whole World View onto him and on Mobs end the guilt and repression and very much Not Acknowledging Any Of It. I think he is scared to be interested in him because how could he possibly get it right. Y'know. Do you get it.

Shigeteru. How do I explain it. The aus me and my friend have of them. The complicated You are just like me and I don't think that's a good thing. The MILLION ways you can see their dynamic going. Building a friendship off of the shattered idolization and the immense hatred. Weird codependency. Rival-friends-weird fighting friends. What is up. We could go so many directions. My personal favorite is Really Romantic Friendship with Very Weird Devotion. They're everything to me. I don't even know where to begin. I need to write them. Like get the Thoughts out. I'm writing smth rn but I don't know when it'll be done. They're SO

if it’s not too much trouble would you like to compare/contrast terumob and shigeteru with the shipping bingo

YES Absolutely >:D

[teaandinanity]

Unrelatable aro-ace rant and slight spoilers for something in the first half of the third Scholomance book ahoy:

So, here’s the thing. The entire reason I, very deeply aro-ace to the point that I was deeply repulsed by the idea of sleeping with someone I wasn’t absolutely twitterpated about even when I was absolutely being COOKED in a stew of adolescent hormones, enjoy romance in fiction? Is because it’s usually written to be in a slightly altered register. In reality, a relationship in which two people love each other as intensely as I like to read about would be codependent and unhealthy. But that intensity makes it possible for me to believe in it, to feel something along with the characters, in a way I usually don’t. (Your aro-ace friends are not good people to talk to about relationship troubles because I have actually said ‘why do most women settle so hard they leave impact craters’ about allo relationships. I have probably said something in that vein more than once. I can, will, and do appreciate when a friend’s SO is being cute and I’m delighted when the people I love get the affection they deserve, but when things are rough I’m far more likely to be like ‘do you want me to beat him up’ than I am to say anything remotely constructive.)

Anyway. Codependency! Not healthy IRL. It’s still what I want to read about, because I find the idea of One Person As An Exception far more plausible than being allo. Yes, I know most of the population is allo. No, I do not care. I have no idea what that’s like; it is an alien planet that I have never visited and do not want to even do a flyby of, and I find the idea of any of that nonsense happening to me KEENLY upsetting.

Which is why when a book introduces me to a pair (or a trio! My usual reaction did not happen in Iron Widow because it was made clear to me before the book was out that it wasn’t a triangle and would resolve with poly and because the level of devotion was at that heightened register where in reality it would probably be terrifying.), I begin looking to be convinced.

I want to be convinced, but I do require convincing. Basically, I find primary sexual attraction less plausible than actual magic.

Which is why I’m probably never going to reread The Golden Enclaves, if I manage to finish. I stopped and I’m having to mentally beat myself to try to keep going.

I have the audiobook because I couldn’t pick up my preorder this week, and I’m not in a hurry, now. I paused it and I haven’t turned it back on, even though I usually like to have a podfic or audiobook going in the morning just for background noise.

I saw the idea that El might sleep with Liesel floated somewhere before release and I was angry about it at the time - that couldn’t be possible! Liesel was introduced in BOOK TWO! How would that even make any sense as part of a romance arc! - but I’m now very grateful to whoever posted it. Because if I’d tripped over that chapter unexpectedly, I would not be writing a vent post, I would probably still be crying. I can already tell based on this reaction, post-thought-innoculation, would have been like the time I hit a squick in an in-progress fic because I failed to read the tags, and THAT apparently managed to trigger me because I spent the rest of the day weepy and sick and the rest of the week upset.

Instead… well, I’m still upset and I WANT to cry but have managed to refrain.

I know this is not a relatable problem. I just needed to complain, because now that it’s morning and I’m not exhausted, I was too upset to just go back to sleep until my alarm. I have to go to work today and I cannot pull off ‘wide-eyed and tearful.’ I am not a Disney Princess.

But god, I hate that I’m now so upset at a protagonist I loved and I feel so uncomfortable in her head that I don’t want to go back in.

[mittensmorgul]

it’s a bummer to see you can’t enjoy the ending. I hope someday you can come around it it. It wasn’t perfect but it didn’t nuke its integrity. i think the heart of the show really shines through and it’s a shame that it’s not being appreciated bc there’s so much shipping drama 😣

Hi there!

I... first of, I really need people to understand this... the travesty of the finale for me has almost nothing to do with “shipping drama.”

Yes, I see the wild conspiracy theories flying around, and I’m honestly concerned for some of those folks and hope they can find a way to make peace with this in whatever way they can, because we aren’t likely to ever get a better answer than that this is legitimately the ending that Dabb thought was best, despite years of us seeing the best of his writing choices and guiding Sam, Dean, and Cas to grow past the roles that Chuck would’ve forced them to fulfill, and that at the end it fell flat because he couldn’t actually come up with a better ending than “this was always their destiny, free will is a lie, and these characters had nothing outside of the revenge quest they’d been raised for since birth and manipulated into over and over for the entertainment of a vengeful god.”

I can see how “surface level” viewers would feel that this one basic narrative point was satisfying, that Sam and Dean had grown beyond their own hopeless cycle of self-sacrifice that had driven the narrative for so many years. The fact that they both acknowledged that they should allow their stories to end in that way was satisfying... but only in the shallowest and most detached read of the narrative. Like, is this really the ONLY thing these two characters learned in the last 15 years? If so, that is BEYOND depressing af.

And even THAT message lost all narrative weight when the two of them were once again reunited in death, as if nothing else had ever mattered in their lives. As if neither of them had ever outgrown the codependency that had driven so many of those previous self-sacrifices and refusals to let go of each other even in death.

So yeah, in the absolute most basic sense, I suppose I can see how casual viewers or people who aren’t actually invested in these characters could find that at least narratively coming back to a starting point.

But narratives don’t actually work that way, and that’s not the point of watching fifteen years of story develop in between.

This story wasn’t JUST about Sam and Dean needing to accept that death might be okay actually.

This story was also about free will, fighting for humanity as a whole but also their OWN humanity and self-identities. In Dean’s case, the absolutely transformative growth from feeling like nothing but a hammer, a killer, a tool to be used. And then less than an episode and a half later, after finally accepting that truth into his heart and using it to defeat the original creator and reclaim the story of his own life for himself... he gets pied in the face after flippantly talking about his destiny and having no choice, and then three scenes later he literally dies impaled on a great big nail... like a hammer...

So I would kindly ask folks who feel satisfied by that shallowest possible takeaway of this episode, and maybe invite folks to look just under that surface. Try to understand why loads of us will NEVER feel satisfied with this ending, and why it truly does feel like the most hopeless version of the story. Like even in defeating Chuck, they could never be allowed to own their own stories and what happened to them after that point was just a twisted version of the “destiny” that drove Chuck’s entire plotline for them anyway.

Please understand where we’re seeing this as horrifically painful irony rather than some beautiful circular narrative about letting go.

For a lot of us, the shipping stuff would’ve been the cherry on top of the sundae. We would’ve been happy with a scoop of plain vanilla, though. We would’ve been happy for anything that honored the journey to freedom, and the choice at any sort of a different life of their own making than literally falling back on a nail fighting off one of John’s unresolved hunts and a vampire who had literally never been named in canon before, yet who Dean instantly recognized somehow... 

but sure, for those of us who felt that “the heart of the show” was all the stuff that the finale actually erased-- that “family don’t end in blood,” and that this was actually not a show about just two brothers but the love of their found family and coming to terms with the choices they actually HAD made for themselves versus the narrative that Chuck kept centering them in DESPITE what they would choose for themselves, the finale basically told us no, everything you ever found of value in this story actually meant nothing. It told us that Chuck’s story for them was their only truth in the end, and their only freedom was to be found in death.

Please, I am begging people, stop trying to gaslight us that this was some beautiful ending. Maybe think for a second that “your read” of the narrative that allows you to find peace with the ending is not what we saw and loved about this story for the 326 episodes leading up to this finale.

And please try to understand that we were not wrong to see the entire narrative through this lens. Because we were literally validated IN CANON, and told that we understood the depth of the story and the characters just fine, actually. There’s literally ONE episode of the entire series that burns it all down in a bewildering pile of wtf. And that’s #327. That throws that entire read out the window to well actually us all back into Chuck’s literal ending... This was literally the ending Chuck wanted to force them to enact for him, and it’s what ended up happening even after they defeated him-- the ultimate Big Bad of the entire series should’ve been defeated, but instead he pulled off one final victory over the entire story.

Becky: No. You can't-- Chuck: I did. Becky: Y- This is just an ending. Chuck: Yeah. I don't know how I'm gonna get there, but I know where I'm goin'. Becky: B-But it's so... dark. Chuck: But great, right? I can see it now -- "Supernatural: The End". And the cover is just a gravestone that says "Winchester". The fans are gonna love it. Well? Becky: It's awful! Horrible. It's hopeless. You can't do this to the fans. What you did to Dean? What you did to Sam? Chuck: There, see? It's making you feel something. That's good, right?

and

Dean: Well, what now? You're not gonna dust us. Chuck: Oh, yeah? Why not? Dean: Because you're holding out. For your big finish. Yeah, we know about your galaxy-brained idea, how you think this story is gonna go. Sam got a little look into your draft folder. Chuck: Sam's visions -- they weren't drafts. They were memories. My memories. Other Sams and other Deans in other worlds. But guess what. Just like you, they didn't think they'd do it, either. But they did. And you will, too. Dean: No. Not this Sam. And not this Dean. So you go back to Earth 2 and play with your other toys. Because we will never give you the ending that you want. Chuck: We'll see.

And even in DEFEAT Chuck thought he understood these characters, thought that having rendered him powerless they would finally take their revenge and kill him, but they didn’t, because he never actually understood these characters at all. And the story he tried to force them into from day one was never about THEM, it was about HIM. 

And then Dean gets like two whole days of freedom and choice and is apparently incapable of making any of the choices that don’t throw him immediately back into Chuck’s favorite story. Like none of that resolution in the previous episode meant anything at all. He even SAYS it in the finale:

Dean: Yeah, no. I think about 'em, too. You know what? That pain's not gonna go away. Right? But if we don't keep living, then all that sacrifice is gonna be for nothing.

And then two scenes later the show gives us the Nelson Muntz HA HA and Dean is no longer living, and Sam is left to carry on as a shell of himself and wander off into Blurry Wife Land to devote any even remotely content moment of the rest of his years to raising a  Replacement Dean to fill the void, and is never able to pick up the pen to write anything better of his own life than Chuck would’ve dealt him in the first place.

So I’m glad that top-layer takeaway is sustaining and enough for you. It wasn’t, and will never be enough for the rest of us.

What was actually real in all of this? We were.

Until we weren’t.

And that’s honestly a shit message to be pushing on people in the wake of it all. So please stop.

I should actually thank you for the kind intent with which your message is phrased, but that doesn’t make it feel less hilariously awful. Though I chose this one to reply to as the least insulting of all the messages currently in my inbox on this subject. So thanks for that, at least.

[autumnalwalker]

Blah, once again I've been tagged but never got an activity notification about it.

As usual these days, for the Empty Names cast since that's the project most actively taking up brain space:

Lacuna:

She thinks the best thing that could happen to her is finally getting a body that feels right to her. And that would in fact be very, very good. But her bigger root problem that she's not entirely acknowledging is that on some level she doesn't feel like she deserves to be happy and that's something she really needs to work through. Especially since "your internalized perception of yourself can manifest as physical changes" is a core part of this setting's magic system and therefor is a big part of the reason she's having trouble with getting her body right.

Dealing with and (at least partially) achieving these things is part of her whole character arc/personal plotline, so this will be happening in some form. Eventually. Just a question of what she has to go through to get there and how many attempts will go horribly wrong along the way.

Eris:

She finds something (or someone) important enough to her to be able to walk away from her borderline addiction to throwing herself into dangerous and violent situations.

As things stand right now, that's pretty unlikely, and with Lacuna starting to get a handle on healing magic rituals, she's not even likely to get permanently injured enough to no longer be able to do that stuff (short of an injury actually killing her, or maybe thoroughly traumatizing her).

Ashan:

He works up the courage to let his parents (and younger brother whom he's never met) know he's not dead and they believe he is who he claims to be and accept him back into their lives. Oh, and also finding a way to make amends with his mentor/kidnapper/adoptive second mom (it's a complicated relationship). And maybe actually make some friends for once in his life. And possibly find a therapist qualified to deal with the trauma of being isekai'd at the age of nine and spending the next decade and change on a dangerous magic wizard adventure.

The friends and therapy are fairly reasonable (it has already started happening with the friends and finding a therapist with experience regarding his situation is not as insurmountable a challenge as one might think). Getting back with his family and mentor is unfortunately not something he believes is reasonable to hope for, due to a number of factors (not the least of which is maintaining the Masquerade/Veil/whatever you want to call it of keeping the supernatural out of sight from normal people).

Sullivan:

Road gets to a place in life where they don't need him anymore and his dearly departed wife comes back. It's not that Sullivan doesn't want Road around, it's that he recognizes that their relationship is super codependent with them both acting as enablers for one another's worst habits and he genuinely believes Road would be better off without him (but only if Road can first get mentally/emotionally stable and find other people to socially bond with first).

Alas, his dearly departed wife coming back to him is far more likely.

Road:

Regaining personhood. Or the final and complete loss of what's still left of it.

Unfortunately, the damage may be too well and truly done for the former and Sullivan has devoted most of his life to preventing the latter, so half-identified limbo it is for the foreseeable future.

Blorbo Blursday #4

What's the best possible thing that could happen to your character? Is it reasonable for it to happen to them?

Taglist (DM me to be added or removed): @interroblog @muumysworld @afusiek @the-ravens-requiem @sender-paulson @everthewip @bluberimufim @amaiguri @akiwitch @thetruearchmagos @autumnalwalker @gracehosborn @cljordan-imperium @aether-wasteland-s @saintedseraph @deanwax @berristrawberri @owlbearwrites @the-down-upside-finch @stridingwriter @dandelion-jester @johnmurphysgirl @ghostsofchernobyl @alexsidereus @innocenthedgehog @oh-for-a-dream @unmellowyellowfellow @oh-no-another-idea @druidx @ibuprofen-exe @shay-creates @aquadestinyswriting @loopyhoopywrites @n1ghtcrwler @writingonmymind @wardenred @void-botanist @dyrewrites @sm-writes-chaos @iishmael @romances-not-tragedies @inscrutable-shadow @athenswrites @uraniumwriting @pigeonwhumps @stesierra @bittersqxtch @imslowlydisintegrating @harleyacoincidence @keysandopenmind

[simonalkenmayer]

Hey Simon? Do you have any advice on how to be your own person when you've been codependent on others for so long? You're so certain in yourself and your identity and so I figured you'd be a good person to go to for this kind of question

Well…I’m not sure if I am, but I will try.

I’ve always been alone, you see, so my identity was always something existing apart from others and in reaction to them. It’s taken me a long while to realize I can indeed do as I please and ignore people.

Now first I need to understand what you mean by codependent. If you mean just relying on someone, then alright that’s actually easy. If you mean in a psychologically destructive relationship that impacts your identity then it’s a bit more complicated. However, in my opinion, the paths are parallel.

First, discover. Deviate from patterns and try new things. If this seems frightening, then make it a plan to do it once a month or once a week. Go to a new restaurant, a concert for someone you’ve never heard of, a new event, a class on something. Seek out new hobbies and try your hand at them. Or do some kind of volunteer work, just to expose yourself to a new group of people.

Second, Pursue what you enjoy. Let your bliss and feeling of importance guide you into pursuit. Devote real time to those things, apart from your relationship.

Third, gain financial independence. Whether this means opening a new bank account, or getting a new job, or whatever, you can store your money in a different way so that you have untouchable resources.

Fourth, love apart. If the goal is to leave that situation completely, you need to save up enough to get your own place. This can be difficult if you already share expenses with someone, so begin as soon as possible.

Fifth, learn who you are without the involvement of others. For me, this would be in opposition. Meaning I’d be the type to hear someone say “I don’t like ___” and then go try____ just to see what I think apart from them. But some people find it difficult to even maintain an opinion apart from what is around them. Which means you need to build yourself a cave in your mind in which you entertain these outside concepts and keep an open discourse on disagreement.

Fifth, set boundaries. Let the people on whom you are dependent know that things are changing. You will be conducting yourself differently now, in an effort to discover who you are apart from them. Indicate that these boundaries you are setting are firm and for your benefit, and that you will not allow them to be crossed. Mean it. This can be as simple as saying to your parents “Mom, Dad, I’ve decided I would like to be more independent and adult. I understand that for your comfort, you’d prefer me to be home by a certain time, but I feel that this is confining. I am an adult, and so I’d like to make an adult relationship with you. Would this compromise be better: may I pay you a certain amount of rent, in order to purchase the ability to come home when I please, of course being respectful of shared space?” Or it can be as complex as “I will no longer tolerate this sort of behavior as it breeches my personal comfort level. And so when this occurs in the future, I will do X. I understand this may be difficult for us to keep to, and for you to understand or observe, but I’m quite firm about this, and so I will remind you until you’ve gotten used to it. And if my response seems to stern to you, you should instead think that perhaps it is so stern because I am truly bothered by this, and if you care about my comfort at all, you’ll respect that.”

Six, seek progress always. If any aspect of your relationship is holding you back rather than helping you progress, it needs to be addressed in a constructive way. It can be something as small as a personal habit, like not putting things back and feeling overwhelmed by mess, to something as complex as you forgoing your goals for someone else.

[sabrina-central]

What’s your opinion on Chloe and her friendship with Sabrina?

Let me put the Tl;Dr before the hour long rant this time - my opinion has layers to it but "it's complicated" is a fitting tagline for it.

The way their relationship is right now is downright abusive and played for laughs and dragging Chloe's character through the mud. Thanks, I hate it!

The way it was during the Queen Bee arc was a little more nuanced and gave me some semblance of hope that perhaps as Chloe gets better, so does her relationship with Sabrina. There were hints of this but ultimately, they ended up going nowhere. Disappointed but not surprised.

Season 1 Chloe and Sabrina... Oh boi, this is gonna be a lot. So, let's talk about text vs subtext. Sometimes, when a show writes blatantly overt dialogues and character interactions trying to get audiences to see things a certain way, it will lead them to ignore the smaller details that paint a different picture. Now obviously, even the most toxic of relationships are complex and have their ups as much as they have downs. After all, the relationship had to start somehow. (And for the record, my definition for a relationship is a situation where the two or more people in question both agree that there is an existing relationship between them that they are willingly in. Since we have not been told otherwise so far, we can assume that at some point in the past, Chloe and Sabrina decided to become friends. that is entering a relationship freely and mutually). But still, the way the early episodes portray Chloe and Sabrina is somewhat vauge. Sabrina seems convinced that Chloe truly appreciates her despite both her actions and words in public seemingly not adding up with this idea, leading us to believe that she's just so devoted to her friend that she's practically delusional, right? But then, we get to Antibug, and we see how they act and play when no one is around for Chloe to impress or intimidate. We see a genuine, happy smile on Chloe's face for what is possibly the first time in the show. So, is she keeping up an act to convince Sabrina? Unlikely, that's hardly consistent with any of her characterization before or after this point in the show. So if we are to believe this is genuine, than Chloe must like Sabrina on some level. She probably enjoys her company and values her friendship more than she herself even realizes, and definitely more than she'll ever say out loud.

So the result is a toxicly codependent relationship where one side is overly affectionate and permissive, to the point of never asserting even the most basic boundaries of dignity and civility that are owed to them as a human, let alone a friend, and allowing the other's behaviour to go unchecked due to this, and the other side can't be honest about their emotions due to a fear of vulnerability, and in a misguided attempt to defend against said vulnerability, they bury their own friendship under the act of a master and servant relationship, until the act becomes the reality of the relationship and the genuine friendship that was once there is entirely lost to both sides.

The worst part about this whole thing, is that it had the potential to open a discussion about something really meaningful, and the show almost fully went there, but then they decided they weren't done with their Sabrina being a doormat jokes so they had to keep that dynamic in tact and as a result, it only got worse. As instead of treating it like a character arc and giving Chloe and Sabrina development, they treated it like comic relief and applied the rule of escalation instead. 😑

Now as for Chloe herself, God that's also complicated. Early Chloe was a one note stereotypical shallow rich blonde mean girl cliché... And there was nothing wrong with that! I don't have a problem with this Chloe, I think she serves her purpose well and adds fun slice of life conflict as well as directly moves the monster of the week plot along by being the cause of 80% of Akumas during the early episodes. (Note that I said 'in the early episodes' because in the show as a whole the numbers are different. Just saying before anybody comes for me).

When we started digging into Chloe's backstory my reaction wasn't "FINALLY!" But a much more reserved, casual "really? Okay, let's see where this goes..." And for a while, I really liked where it seemed we were headed. We were given a great backstory, the start of Chloe learning from her mistakes, finally, and eventually Queen Bee happened and she started caring for others, taking responsibility for her actions, showing understanding of others and self awareness, and acting truly heroic rather than using the miraculous to seek attention! ... and then she was condemned for being manipulated at her lowest point emotionally by a supervillain into joining him.

And they made her look the absolute worst for it, too. Once she gets the bee miraculous back, she immediately silences Pollen, doesn't even try to tell Hawkmoth to de evilize her parents, the reason she wanted so badly for Ladybug to let her help in the first place, before transforming and allowing herself to be akumatized, and her big plan is to reveal all the other heroes identities which, they make such a big deal of and you assume that the next season will deal with the consequences of this but, nope! Apparently even tho Hawkmoth knows all their identities, something Marinette insists is very bad and if it ever happens a different holder must be chosen, she just let's everyone but Queen Bee keep their miraculouses.

You know what else they don't explore at all? Chloe leaving Paris with her mom and moving to New York. Because remember, she literally said she was gonna do that at the end of Miracle Queen. And if what they really wanted was a damnation arc like Astruc keeps insisting, letting Chloe leave for New York would have been the best way to do that! It wouldn't have even had to be for forever, either. If I recall correctly, the NY special (which I don't wanna get into about my feelings on that so I'm saying in advance, please don't ask) happened after miracle queen and before season 4. (I'm not talking about the in universe timeline, we all know what a mess that whole thing is, I mean in our reality). So imagine the NY special where Sabrina is all on her own for the first time since she can even remember, and she's starting to find herself and finds this guy who's cute and treats her nice, and then the class run into Chloe, and she's so smug and vicious, she's truly worse than ever. And Sabrina has to contend with the fact that the Chloe she once knew and loved is gone for good. Maybe they'd have a small scene dedicated to Sabrina realizing this, maybe she confronts Chloe, maybe not.

And then after the NY special, since I know there's no convincing Astruc to not introduce Zoe, you can have her be the reason Chloe is back in Paris as well. "Your embarrassing half sister just made a fool of herself in her school, so we need to get her out of here before anybody realizes we're related. I'm trusting you to watch her in Paris, so she doesn't make us look utterly ridiculous again. Can you do that, Chloe?" "Of course! I'm exceptional, after all! I'm going to transform that loser into a true bourgeois!"

But instead, what we got was the beginnings of a lot of good ideas that either fell through, were reduced into running gags, or just entirely dropped altogether.

G R E A T .