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island-in-the-shadows · 5 months ago

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The Finale, the Devil, His Minion & His Turning

Before I begin, let me state with clarity that I am not an expert in book lore. I’m, at best, semi-pro. I, however, do my due diligence when it comes to my passions and my hyperfixations and this has been one that has stuck around for most of my life. So, I wanted to weigh into the whole Devil’s Minion situation as pertains to how S2 ended as well as implications for the future of it combined with the bits and pieces of things we’ve heard RJ etc say regarding it. I know this is all a big kerfuffle one way or the other. I’m writing this mostly for myself, but I wanted to share with anyone who wants to read because fandom metas are fun even if we disagree with parts of them or even the whole of them. So, disclaimer aside, strap in for this very long post…

Let's talk about Devil's Minion and the implications of the Season 2 finale.

First things first, let’s discuss Daniel Molloy. He’s a difficult guy and I get why there’s a bunch of people who dislike him even though I can’t relate. I love him. I love that he’s a sassy loudmouth who has even louder opinions and can be horribly inappropriate. I love that, when he’s doing his thing, he’s like a dog with a bone and he won’t let go. I love that he has suffered for it because the consequence of being a dog with a bone, of having an addictive personality, of having sarcasm and sass as a defence mechanism, and of having a truly atrocious sense of self-preservation is that he got fucked up by vampires, blew up his life, “destroyed two marriages,” and “fucked up two daughters.” He’s not the character that people who want to black/white moralise this show can point to as a bastion of “goodness,” even if he was, until recently, the only human main character. In fact, it’s precisely because he was human that it made sense that he was a fucked up person. After all, all humans have their good and bad aspects.

And then, he was turned (offscreen so that people like me can shout manically into the void). I LOVE that he was turned. I’ll get into the larger implications of it later but, for now, I want to explain why I enjoy Vampire Daniel.

For a bit of background, here’s what we know about his book counterpart in broad strokes: he smokes, he interviews Louis in San Francisco, he published Interview with the Vampire anonymously, he went to NOLA searching for Lestat but found Armand instead, cue here everything that has to do with the 12 years in which he and Armand were what they were together, he’s an ash blonde with violet eyes, he’s an addict, he’s a sarcastic loudmouth, he’s morbid, he went mad, he liked building miniature cityscapes, he spent most of the years of his madness (and some after he regained his sanity) with Marius, he and Armand reunite after +- 25-30 years of separation. That’s it. There’s a lot about him that you can certainly infer in the limited page amount where you can read about him, but that’s about it. We especially don’t get to know much about him after he is turned aside from when he got the vampire zoomies at Lestat’s concert and Maharet’s compound, his madness, Marius, his cityscapes, and his reunion with Armand.

Seeing Daniel Molloy be a vampirically amplified version of himself BY himself is, to me, extraordinary. Here, he’s, technically, unconnected to any of the other vampires and is standing on his own two feet. He chose to publish the book with his name on it (which is fucking insane when you think about it), he’s the one choosing to “call” Louis every week to check in on his bestie, he’s the one choosing to comment on some guys headphones before he eats him. In scant minutes we were presented with the vampire Daniel as an individual. This, in many ways, outdoes how he exists as a vampire in the books where he is never truly disconnected from one of two well-known vampires: Armand, and Marius.

Secondly, we seldom, if ever, get a vampire in live-action film or TV who looks 60+ in mortal years who, by design, is a sexy swaggering sarcastic menace who wears a leather jacket, an AC/DC tee, and cunty sunglasses. I racked my brain trying to find other vampires who look “older” in human years and even asked friends to help me and, ultimately, came to the following list of best examples (but feel free to tell me more): Gary Oldman in Dracula who is made to look creepy before he gets de-aged in order to be “sexy,” Bill Nighy as Viktor in Underworld, who looks great and powerful, but he’s the villain and he’s not technically designed to inspire anything more than loathing, and Viago’s long-lost lover in What We Do in the Shadows, Katherine ( from which we get the fun Viago being a cradle snatcher meme). This is all my opinion, but it’s fantastic to have a man in his 70s with wrinkles and grey hair be turned into a vampire and be framed as desirable and powerful. Personally, I want to see more vampires who are adults and older adults vs consistently seeing teens and people in their early twenties.

That being said, as much as I love Daniel being a man/vampire in his seventies, this fact alone upends one of the major beats of the relationship between him and Armand as written in Queen of the Damned. The part that is irreparably changed has nothing to do with Daniel’s age because that is irrelevant to Armand who, in book canon, wanted Daniel to live a mortal life, much to Daniel’s chagrin. He even tells Daniel, “Don’t you realise that any one of us would give it up for one human lifetime?”

Daniel doesn't believe him but their arguments regarding mortality only have a level of resolution in 1985 when Armand turns a dying Daniel. What changes here is twofold: the first is that Akasha did not wake from her sleep (which tracks with the timeline of the show thus far, as she wakes up because of Lestat’s music and she ruins the world tour). The second is that, presuming that Daniel and Armand had a past in the 70s and 80s, which is very likely, Armand let Daniel go. Armand letting Daniel go is a HUGE change. Yes, part of him likely let Daniel go because he was still involved with Louis whereas in the book he didn’t have a partner at the time. However, presuming that Armand and Daniel’s relationship in the 70s and 80s was as codependent and obsessive as it was in the source material, letting this one mortal boy go was arguably one of the most emotionally difficult things Armand has ever had to do. It changes a whole host of things in their dynamic moving forward.

This is why the fact that so many are turning on it now after 2x8 is a little baffling to me. I am a pessimist at heart, especially when it comes to things like this because I have been burned time and time again. It’s been a shock to me that so many who were rock solid on this after 2x5 are now panicking. And yet, I understand the concerns.

For example, according to Louis and later repeated in interviews by Rolin and sort of by Assad, Daniel was turned out of “spite.” Assuming that this is true, it is devastating. In the source lore, Daniel was turned out of love. Armand tells Daniel he’ll turn him “[…]because I am a coward. And I love you too much to let you go.” Except, in the show’s universe, Armand has already let Daniel go once even if it wasn't because Daniel was dying. Then again do we know if the younger Daniel was dying? If he overdosed once or multiple times? No. But at some point, Armand let him go. At some point, Daniel’s memory of whatever time he spent with Armand was erased. Presuming that something like this happened, that act alone was not out of spite.

Further, it is Louis who said Daniel was “burdened out of spite.” Except Monsieur du Lac has a very particular perspective and is currently quite cross with his ex. Those words, if I may borrow from book Armand, “That’s Louis’ language.” Note that while Daniel retorts, “Make it up to me. We’ll do a follow-up book,” this comes after Louis says “I shouldn’t have left you alone with him.” Daniel neither confirms or denies that he was made out of spite. He’s, to some extent, assuaging Louis’ guilt while segueing to try to get something he wants from Louis. We didn’t see Daniel being turned so we can’t be certain where it happened or when it happened or why it happened.

I know you’re probably reading this and going: but Rolin said they wouldn’t build the Dubai set again! Rolin said we won’t see the turning! Rolin said it was out of spite! Yes, fellow tumblrina, I know. But, like Claudia’s journals, like Louis’ or Armand’s narration of events across both seasons, anyone working on the show would have cause to obfuscate, omit, or lie. After all, was it not Rolin who also said we weren’t getting Rockstar Lestat when we are, in fact, getting Rockstar Lestat? Ah! That, my friends, is an unreliable witness.

Any creator can lie about their work for whatever reason they see fit including marketing or trying to keep spoilers away. To use a recent example, Andrew Garfield consistently and frequently lied that he was not in Spiderman: No Way Home. Oh, there was a set leak picture? No, that wasn’t him it was a double. He kept that party line until the movie came out, regardless if people knew or not. Same thing applies here and it creates doubt. The tricky part of this all is that, because Season 3 is The Vampire Lestat, it’s likely that anything we do see regarding Daniel and Armand will be quite limited.

Another thing that truly frustrates longtime Devil’s Minion girlies, especially those who have religiously read the Devils Minion chapter (really, it’s the only thing we have to go off of because Anne Rice put Daniel on a shelf and never really took him off it except in vague mentions in other vampires’ stories and, I guess, she wanted us to go fuck ourselves because Daniel is basically a negative footnote in The Vampire Armand) is the implication that Daniel wants to know where the fuck his maker is because he has been abandoned. We keep thinking: Armand would never abandon a newly turned Daniel. I’ve seen plenty of posts and some fics fully assuming that Armand turned Daniel in the penthouse and then left him right then and there. Which tracks only if he were being made out of spite. Except, at this time, we simply do not know that that is the case. Likewise, we do not know that Armand immediately abandoned Daniel.

Why are we assuming this? Because Louis says he left them alone? He did but, he also told Daniel to get his things because he’d “arrange a car and a plane to take you home”. With Louis’ money and power, he could’ve had Daniel on a plane to JFK in, tops, an hour. If we want to suppose that it was out of spite, then Louis just left Daniel alone with Armand right away? Louis didn’t change his clothes or pack a bag or grab a wallet to go to NOLA? He had his Amex with him at the hotel and he was wearing different clothes, so there is time unaccounted for in Dubai. Then we have to suppose that a newly turned and abandoned Daniel was alone or eating staff in the penthouse despite being expected on a flight that was probably private, because Louis wouldn’t have done it by half measure if he wanted Daniel out of there ASAP. Then we have to consider the amount of time that Louis was supposedly in NOLA. How long would it have taken him to go to NOLA, have his reunion with Lestat, wait out a hurricane, come back and find a fucked up Daniel in that penthouse? We’re still missing time.

I could present you a different scenario. I could say that Armand stalked Daniel back to NY (which would be on brand, but I digress) and turned him there out of spite or not out of spite. That Daniel remembers or doesn’t remember their past together. That Armand possibly stayed with Daniel some time until Daniel, rightfully pissed off for San Francisco or the gaslighting Armand did to Louis or directing the trial or erasing Daniel’s memories or any of the fucked up shit that Armand did in their shared past (there’s a LOT that this gremlin has done that would make Daniel angry), asked Armand to go away. I could even tell you that in Queen of the Damned Daniel and Armand fought, a lot. I could tell you that Daniel left Armand for months at a time when he was pissed off because Armand wouldn’t turn him. I could tell you that after Daniel was turned, things soured between him and Armand dramatically and, per Armand, Daniel left him.

I can quote Queen of the Damned to state my case:

“Conversations, sparring matches, and downright fights became the rule.”

“Ugly fights, terrible fights, finally, Armand broken down, glassy-eyed with silent rage, then crying softly but uncontrollable as if some lost emotion had been rediscovered which threatened to tear him apart.”

“And the wandering started, the escaping, and Armand did not follow him. Armand would wait each time until Daniel begged to come back. Or until Daniel was beyond calling, until Daniel was on the verge of death itself. And then and only then, Armand would bring him back.”

I can quote The Vampire Armand for you in the parts relevant to Daniel to show you the contentious separation that also reeks of Armand’s self-loathing and his desire to complete his self-fulfilling prophecy even though it’s painful for me:

“…the boy, who had been my faithful mortal companion, and only sometimes an intolerable nuisance…”

“Daniel, though alive and wandering, though civil and gentle, can no more stand my company than I can stand his. Equipped with my powerful blood, he can contend with any who should be foolish enough to interrupt his plans for an evening, a month or a year, but he cannot contend with my continuous company and I cannot contend with his.”

“I pushed his face into the flesh of the first young innocent he had to slaughter for his inevitable thirst, and thereby fell off the pedestal on which he’d placed me in his demented, over imaginative, feverishly poetical and ever exuberant mortal mind.”

“[…]when gaining Daniel as a fledgling, I lost him as a mortal lover and gradually began to let him go.”

“[…] I rejoined the world in a way which I had not done since my fledgling, my one and only fledgling, Daniel Molloy, had left me. My love for Daniel had never been entirely honest, and always viciously possessive, and quite entangled with my own hatred of the world at large, and my confusion in the face of the baffling modern times which had begun to open up to me […] Daniel himself had no use for the world […] Heaping every luxury upon him, I only sickened him with mortal sweets so that finally he turned away from the riches I offered, becoming a vagabond. Mad, roaming the streets in rags, he shut out the world almost to the point of death, and I, weak, muddled, tormented by his beauty, and lusting for the living man and not the vampire he might become, only brought him over to us through the working of the Dark Trick because he would have died otherwise.”

“[…]he loathed me in his heart for having initiated him into Living Death, for having made him in one night an immortal and a regular Killer. As a mortal man, he had no real idea of the price we pay for what we are, and he did not want to learn the truth; he fled from it, in reckless dreams and spiteful wandering.”

The last sentence in the quote above fucking bullshit, by the way, because Daniel actively asked to see Armand kill and Armand told him no but, whatever.

“and so it was as I feared. Making him to be my mate, I made a minion who saw me all the more clearly as a monster. […] There was never any chance, no matter how beautiful the twilight gardens in which we wandered. Our souls were out of tune, our desires crossed and our resentments too common and well watered for the final flowering.”

But for all those quotes, for all the extrapolating, and for all the suppositions, we simply do not know. We weren’t given concrete answers to anything. Which, yes, is frustrating as all fuck. Because, if we read into it at face value, if we follow that this trend would destroy two characters and a core relationship and what it means to them both in the long run, then we have to accept defeat. We have to admit that the writers of this show don’t actually care about this pairing or these characters as individuals. We have to admit that something that we have wanted (and some of have wanted this since Queen of the Damned came out in 1988) is never going to happen. That we, like Louis, have been gaslit and taken advantage of.

We’d have to reframe all the charged looks, the oddly sexual “yeah,” Armand knowing how to make drinks to Daniel’s exact tastes, Armand de-escalating Louis’ humiliation of Daniel (I know some of you think he was making it worse but, neither the tone of Armand’s voice or his facial expressions read that intention to me, sorry), the overly elaborate courses of food served to Daniel (which, to book readers, is a nod to when Armand ordered everything in a restaurant for Daniel), the brief announcement of a Night Island spinoff, Armand feeling the need to justify himself directly to Daniel in 2x6, putting Assad and Eric/Luke together for press stuff, etc. are all some sick trick. That they either want to make it into enemies to lovers (which it never really was) and forfeit its true meaning or, worse, that it’s all been shipbaiting to keep us on the hook when Devil’s Minion girlies already know that this is the Lestat and Louis show.

I get it. This is not what many of us wanted. We wanted to see the turning. We wanted to see it be about love. We wanted to see Daniel get even a hint of who he and Armand had been to each other in the past, because they definitely had one. We wanted confirmation that, once upon a time, Armand found some of his humanity through a mortal he loved and that, after 30+ years apart, he broke the rule he withheld for nearly 5 centuries because of his love for this boy. We got none of it. All we know is that Armand turned Daniel, that Daniel doesn’t know where his maker is, and that Daniel’s pissed at him. That’s it.

It leaves us, essentially, with nothing. Frankly, it’s more of a nothing than I thought we were going to get. Again, this is the Lestat and Louis show. They are the protagonists and it is their stories (apart and together) that are the A plot. So all that we can do, if we want to see a good version of Devil’s Minion, is wait and hope. Hope that the good writing that has been done in sections of the show holds true to this also. Hope that, given that the plot hole we ALL noticed in 1x2 was explained in 2x8, all of the subtle hints we have been given are actually going to pay off. Hope that this team, that has put a lot of love and care into this show, doesn’t massively fuck over two characters. Hope that someone gets Eric violet contacts in S3 (unless it’s like the theory @cbrownjc has regarding body swapping which would be very interesting---also if you haven't already, follow her, her blog is incredible and has fantastic insights) because if they can give Jacob green ones, there’s no fucking excuse.

(Yes, this is a nitpick. As an aside, the established vamps do change shades of eye colour, because Louis and Lestat have had at least 2 shades of green and blue respectively in S2, and Armand had 3 shades of amber/brown/reddish orange in 2x8 ALONE. The weird bit with Daniel’s eyes specifically is how dramatic of a colour shade change it is, how quickly the change happens, and that, say it with me kids, NONE OF THE SHADES ARE VIOLET.)

Listen, this hasn’t really had a thesis statement but I’ve ranted enough that it could be an actual term paper. But I want to end this by saying that what gives me hope is that, thus far, the quality of this show, in every aspect, is fantastic. Heck, I get hope in the fact that the Loustat girlies have been DEEP in the trenches for two seasons and it’s getting a little better for them. Louis is where he needs to be at this point of the story and we know that Lestat, the real Lestat, is coming. Goodness knows, Sam’s gonna keep fighting to make sure it is the real Lestat, warts and all, even with the changes that most people didn’t like. So, let’s hope. Let’s hope that the showrunner/head writer is, yet again, being a massive troll. Let’s hope that the writing team actually understood what the point of Devil’s Minion was and where its beauty lay and that they don’t diminish it to be something entirely foreign. Let’s hope that the massive holes, the missing time, missing scenes, all equate to a net positive. Let’s not give up yet.

TL;DR Don’t be fatalistic about how S2 ended and what it means for Devil’s Minion, because there’s way too much that is missing to conclusively write it off at this time.

#interview with the vampire #iwtv meta #Daniel Molloy #the vampire armand #devil's minion #the devil's minion #louis de pointe du lac #lestat de lioncourt #eric bogosian #assad zaman #jacob anderson #sam reid #rolin jones #there's a lot more to discuss and speculate and go into #this is not the end all be all of this discussion but it would take me many more pages to go through it all #also please be kind if I missed anything I did re-read the chapter for this and rw 2x8 but im probably missing stuff

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shoutosbaeby · 2 months ago

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This is my first post ever and I’m pretty new on this so bear with me here 😭😭

I’m not exactly the biggest bnha fan but I’ve always really liked Shoto, Monoma and Hawks. Especially Shoto. But whenever I see fanfics or smau’s or one shots, (you name it), in my opinion he’s 99% of the time VERY mischaracterized.

Call me crazy (I am) but I kinda sorta psychoanalyzed his character and here are A FEW of my head canons :))

Feel free to disagree ofc and I mean absolutely no hate to anyone these are just my opinions !!

★ - He’s not morally good, per se, but morally complex. He’s a good person for sure but doesn’t exactly always do what is “heroic.” For example, if there was a battle going on and Shoto had to choose between saving 10 civilians or a loved one, (e.g Rei) he would definitely choose to save Rei.

★- He’s not as dense as people think he is. Shoto is usually portrayed as dense when it comes to girls flirting with him or sarcasm. But I don’t think he’s always like that. Especially because he’s quite sarcastic himself. I think over time he’d start understanding things like that a lot more. I also think he’s secretly really funny lmao. He’d have peak dark humor.

★- Sleep deprived but not exactly an insomniac. It’s canon that Shoto can sleep at anytime in any environment, but we all know he has PTSD. I feel like he’d have nightmares really often and would avoid sleeping because of that. It’s not that he can’t sleep, he just doesn’t want to.

★- The way he got over his trauma so quickly in anime was kind of unrealistic in my opinion. I feel like he’d only JUST processed some of it and hadn’t exactly gotten over it. It would definitely take more time than just a few months.

Okay so here are some cute/funny ones !!

★- DEFINITELY plays piano and guitar. I feel like he was forced to learn piano as a kid and learnt guitar and got better at it to be petty.

★- A lot of people headcanon that he’d be a Mitski fan but I think that’s more of a Deku thing. Shoto would be a Nirvana, Deftones and Radiohead kind of guy. Maybe he’d even listen to the neighborhood or Lana Del Rey. (Off topic but I DEEPLY believe that Bakugo listens to Ayesha Erotica religiously.)

★- LOVES to rile Bakugo up. Shoto just enjoys the way Bakugo gets mad lol. He definitely provokes the guy a lot when they’re hanging out. (They’re best friends, Bakugo is just in denial)

★- He’d either be straight or bi. (imo)

★- Has watched mean girls (Karen is his fav)

★- Shoto would read books by Osamu Dazai, Oscar Wilde, Charlotte Brönte, Kazuo Ishiguro, Haruki Murakami and is a deathnote fan.

★- He’s pretty cold, quiet and reserved but has a kind heart. But he’s also quite rude lol. Shoto is the type of person to say it how it is and be as blunt as anyone could be.

★- He loves cats and cats love him.

★- Unlike a lot of people say, I don’t think his texts would have good grammar and he wouldn’t send long texts. I feel like he’d try to keep his texts as short as possible because he just can’t be bothered. And I also think the only emojis he uses are “💀🖕😒”

★- Definitely doesn’t speak formally or properly. It’s canon that he’s really blunt and rude. Basically a quieter and more sarcastic version of Bakugo. Shoto is probably very rude but not always on purpose lol. (On purpose a lot of the time, though)

Anyway these are just some of my headcanons for Shoto ^3^

Please keep in mind this is just my opinion !!

#bnha #shoto todoroki #shoto todoroki headcanons #izuku midoriya #bnha shoto todoroki #todoroki shoto headcanons #bnha headcanons #bnha bakugou #todoroki shoto angst #mha #my hero academia #anime

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septembersung · 10 months ago

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Tagged by @incomingalbatross, thanks!

Are you named after anyone? Relatives.

When was the last time you cried? Sometime recently, idk. Hormones be like that.

Do you have kids? Yes, 6 so far. I've got my fingers crossed for 8.

What sports do you play/have you played? As a tiny thing, soccer and basketball. Survived one year of high school marching band, which ought to count. And a single season of high school tennis, which I loved but was extremely bad at.

Do you use sarcasm? Yes.

What is the first thing you notice about people? Good vibes or bad vibes. Depending on how intense the social anxiety is at that moment, I may not get any further.

What's your eye color? Bluish-grayish.

Scary movies or happy endings? Both, obviously.

Any talents? I can "do" some things but I'm not particularly talented at them, such as, creative writing and playing various string instruments.

Where were you born? USA.

What are your hobbies? I only do hobbies off and on (mostly off). I think about writing novels and poetry and blog posts (but do not ever follow through anymore. It's like a mental block.) Theoretically I do fiber arts (knit, spin, weave. Someday I will master crochet and make those little stuffies.) I used to hike and go camping. I am supposed to be taking up soapmaking and candlemaking this year but I keep putting it off because reasons. A few times a year I remember I used to be a musician and play something. Tumblr probably shouldn't count as a hobby but, here we are. Every once in a while I'll read a dozen or so books in a row (but mostly I read along with my children for homeschool and that's all the bandwidth there is.)

Do you have any pets? We have barn cats and chickens, but my favorite cats are no longer present (I'm not bitter, she said, bitterly) and I do not consider the chickens pets (my children disagree.) Well, okay, there is one exception: the friendliest rooster ever to exist, who thinks he belongs in the house, sitting on your lap or perched on your wrist like a falcon. Alas that he is not house trained.

How tall are you? Average to short.

Favorite subject in school? English, history, theology.

Dream job? World-renowned author. Olympic gymnast.

I won't be tagging people, but if you're interested, you've been tagged. I love these things and reading everyone's answers!

#my life

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astarab1aze · 8 months ago

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"You know, Asuka - I heard from Cedric. He's sold nearly all your paintings. It sounds to me like you may have to paint something new for him; You can't always and only ever take up mural work. I know it pays well, but your success is important to me, sweetheart, and I don't want you to fall behind in your best work."

"Oh, did he? Good fer him - and 'm gonna have to agree to disagree, mom. My murals pay the bills an' get posted on instagram. My boyfriend is a photographer--"

"Mm, don't remind me. Unless you want a lecture."

"You're already lecturin' me. Go crazy, have fun with it. Throw some confetti. I'll call your boyfriend an' we can throw a whole shindig about it since he'll jus' lecture me too."

"Boyfriend? Is that what you think he is? Your sarcasm is adorable, my love, but one little dance does hardly a romance make, delightfully charming as he was-- Oh, very clever, chickadee. I see what you're doing."

"Woop- Ya caught me! But it's only because you're so damn obvious. Ya put on the dress when ya invited him to that work thing - the really nice, lacy one that made ya look so elegant and soft but also terrifyin' 'cause ya kinda are... Hehe, everyone was impressed. Hani and I thought we mighta had to scrape his jaw off the floor when he saw you. Even sent that picture I took to Ed and Viri and those two were just as hopeless."

"Oh, stop it, sweetheart - You're just trying to get out of having a serious conversation with me by buttering me up with obvious statements. I see right through you and I cannot be fooled twice."

"Ya say that, but no one knows ya like I do - you already have the next work party marked on your calendar, and I know you're gonna ask him next time ya see him. Jokes on you, momma, guess who can't be fooled either? You raised me, after all."

"What a cheeky little shit you've turned out to be."

"Pfft, please. As if ya weren't fifty-times worse when ya were my age. Tsubasa told me allllllll your stories, dad too. You were diabolical. Worse than Hanma. Worse than Tsubasa. How many times didja sucker what's-his-face into doin' your dirty work, huh?"

"Asuka--"

"--WAIT A MINUTE. Ya cursed just now. Ya never curse."

"My darling baby bird--"

"Now I know, beyond a shadow o' a doubt - you're really into him. I can't believe how easy ya are to figure out! Does he know? Oh, I bet he does, if you're this transparent. Man, if I'da known ya liked 'em grumpy and stinkin' of horse, I'da set ya up with my history professor--"

"...I came to talk to you about your work, check in with you, adoringly lecture you, and here you are, making assumptions about the nature of my professional relationship with the Witcher who protects you from mortal harm when your boyfriend cannot--"

"Whatever, mom, don't bring Hani into this jus' 'cause you're-- Jus' go on your dates with him. He's ever so slightly less grumpy after spendin' time with ya, and now ya've got a lil extra pep in your step! An' that's sayin' somethin', since you're all doom an' gloom, but nice an' delicate like a moonflower--"

"You're lucky you're my favorite, chickadee, but if it's as you say...then our Geralt might stand to dethrone you."

"Read. My. Lips. Mom: Good."

"...You are most definitely mine."

"Ya can't help but love me!"

"More than anything in this world and the next - and that's precisely why you ought to whip up some fresh paintings and sketches for Cedric to look over and sell for you! Your future is vitally important, my love, and I won't always be around to pick up the slack when work is slow--"

"Godsdammit, mother! Ya got me..."

"This is my house...and the house always wins, sweetheart."

"Jus' you wait till me an' the stooges start droppin' hints for Geralt..."

"What was that, dear? I couldn't hear you over you having to be responsible for your own finances and maintaining the potency of your talents."

#☿ || Shitpost.#✘ // The Serpent Coiled Around the Crow; Hanma.#✘ // Oh Be Still My Heart - I'm His Forever; Geralt.#gyofukuki #/ it's all just one big shitpost but listen this is exactly what i was telling you and now it's immortalized #/ this is exactly how it goes every time they talk ever at all

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thatstheproblemwithnapkinman · 8 months ago

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15 questions

the amazing and incredible @bisexualseraphim tagged me and now i have my laptop i can comply

Were you named after anyone?

not my first name but my middle name was from a character from buffy the vampire slayer and i have grown to love it because of that fact given which character it is

Do you have kids?

nope, no plans to either. maybe if the world gets better but i do not want to raise kids in this world

When was the last time you cried?

last night watching grey's anatomy. in my defence im very invested and it's my mums fault

What sports have you played/do you play?

growing up i played rugby and hockey for the school teams, i also casually played netball and football. at my high school we had to pick sports in year 10 and i chose the most active ones bc i was sick and tired of being thrown into the less active sports bc i wasn't as fast or as coordinated and it was awesome

currently, i've always been big into cycling which is hilarious for someone with dyspraxia

Do you use sarcasm?

i'm british, what do you think? (that's a big yes)

First thing you notice about people?

hair. idk why but i just do. i think it's because i can't do faces so i stick to hair, i like seeing the styles and colours. it tells me nothing about them but i'm always interested

Scary movies or happy endings?

happy endings all the way. i'm a sucker for soppy stories that let me cry bc they give me a reason to get my emotions out y'know. and i'm an even bigger fan if it's in my fandoms (which they never are unless it's fanfics)

What are your hobbies?

writing, reading (mostly fanfics), playing a small selection of video games (minecraft, sims 4, assassins creed odyssey), comics, listening to music which is totally a hobby, i'm learning the ukulele again maybe...

What is your eye colour?

bc of how my eyelashes cast shadows, my eyes look like chocolate curls, y'know these things

my eyes are the like one thing i like about myself, i have good eyes

Any talents?

nope. i can't draw, can't sing or play any instrument, i can barely speak my first language, i'm not sporty, i'm good but not exceptional at school, i don't even have good general knowledge, genuinely i have no talents.

which is sad given i used to have most of them. growing up i did everything and was decent. i got school solos, played the guitar and piano, acted in school plays, was on sports teams, top of my class, literally learning multiple languages at once, guess the former gifted kid that turned out to be disabled burnout hit me hard lmao

but fine, i write but i'm mid tier at it AT MOST

Where were you born?

england *rolls eyes*

Do you have any pets?

i grew up with 4 cats, 3 died, got 2 more, the last of the 4 died, now have those 2 cats and a dog

How tall are you?

somewhere between 5'7" and 6 foot. wish i knew where in that (i think i'm like 5'8"-5'9" but people disagree) but it's safe to say i am taller than average

Favourite subject in school?

maths and science. all science. love it all. i did love english too until i had a bad teacher. oh and art was always fun, especially the construction module where we made physical things (it wasn't a sculpture). and geography. actually i loved most subjects in school

Dream job?

it's so stupid but i'd love to write AND do science research. acting would also be cool but that's so much commitment with little return and i'm not conventionally attractive so there's literally no point and i'd rather have a stable career

anyway, i have to tag people but i'll only tag my moots and the ones i've spoken to outside of tumblr bc i hate tagging people lmao... @somniphobicfox @avogadrostoast6022 @she-posts-nerdy-stuff and literally anyone else that wants to do this :p

#idek how to tag this #shit about me you didn't care about knowing lmao

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di-42 · 8 months ago

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So, I think we are talking about two things at the same time. One we agree on, that the final final fifteen don't mean Aziraphale doesn't love Crowley or is cruel and heartless. This for me is the most important take and I will fight whoever thinks otherwise. That's what my original post was about with sarcasm and intentionally exaggerated examples. Once we agree on that I'm happy to confront, exchange ideas, consider and/or politely disagree on other takes.

Which leads us to the take we disagree on (which I didn't mean to talk about in my original post but since I believe in it firmly it probably crept through!). Like I said I have fun talking about it (I can't stop, really), so I'm going to talk about it again here but that obviously doesn't mean I want other people to change their minds, it's just an exchange of opinions.

So, yes, I think Aziraphale is lying to push Crowley away and these are my reasons:

I don't think Aziraphale still thinks there's any good in heaven. I think this was in character for season 1 Aziraphale but I think by the end of season 1 the character had already grown to realise there wasn't and there would never be any good in heaven, especially when you think that season 1 was supposed to be a stand alone season. I think he has come a long way since the bandstand breakup. I think that's what Aziraphale means when he says "I've made my position quite clear" to the metatron.

I don't think Aziraphale is offended by Crowley's reaction. I think he's hurt and very emotional because he's having to break Crowley's heart and his own in the process and I think he falters in his resolves and he's absolutely aching but I don't see him being offended or angry with Crowley.

We don't see the whole conversation with the metatron and what we do see is mostly what Aziraphale tells Crowley. This is simply a fact, as audience we don't really know how the entire conversation went.

I think when Aziraphale starts talking to Crowley after his conversation with the metatron he's doing all the things he does when he's lying like he trips on his own words, repeat himself, stutters and wrings his hands, like when he's lying to God or to the angels.

I think the plotline where Aziraphale leaves Crowley behind to trust heaven only to then realise heaven can't be changed and no one is listening and go back to fight by Crowley's side already happened in season 1 and don't think it would be used twice.

We all think the metatron knows Crowley won't go back to heaven as an angel and we all know Crowley won't go back to heaven as an angel and yet I'm supposed to believe Aziraphale, who knows Crowley better than anyone, thinks that Crowley will go back to heaven as an angel?

This is at a more personal level but I'll throw it in with the others. I don't want to believe Aziraphale would want Crowley to become an angel again, no matter if he thinks they would be safer or if he remembers how happy the angel that Crowley was was. I don't want to believe he would disrespect Crowley's clear opinion on heaven like that or that he would kind of want to take away his free will. (Like I said, this is probably more personal/projection, so feel free to ignore).

Finally, I think Aziraphale is lying or there's something else that we're not seeing because Neil Gaiman does that (and that's one of the reasons I love his books). In many of his books things turn out to be different to the way they were presented at the beginning in many ways. In at least a couple of his books that I can think of (Neverwhere and Stardust) the reader is led to believe that one of the characters they have come to love is going to betray another character, in Stardust's case after the character's growth has already completed its arc. So I expect things to be surprising in his work and not exactly as they can appear at face value on a first watch/read. (Even the body swap at the end of season 1 is something of this sort... if the show had been planned to be spread over more seasons from the beginning maybe we would have been left on.a cliffhanger at the end of season 1 and would have learnt of the body swap only in season 2, who knows?). This last reason, however the story turns out to be, is the reason why I dislike people saying that if it turned out that there's something we don't see about what's going on and about Aziraphale's decision, that would be lazy writing. Like, no. That wouldn't be lazy writing unless you think that Neil Gainam lazy-writes most of his stories. That doesn't mean I don't accept it might turn out that everything is at face value but saying that if it's not at face value then it's lazy writing, aarrgghhh.

Anyway, sorry about the very long reply, I get excited talking about our favourite husbands. And like I said, my main point is that Aziraphale, whatever his motives, is not a cruel monster who doesn't love Crowley and I'm happy to exchange ideas and opinions with anyone who doesn't think that.

Ok. *rolls her sleeves* You want face value? *rubs her hands* I'll give you face value.

Crowley hates his plants.

He shouts at them, belittles them and k*lls them. He says horrible things to them and the fact that he k*lls the plants off screen is no reason for us to doubt that he does. Because we trust his words in that particular scene. His behaviour throughout both seasons, especially season 2 where the only thing he takes with him from his former flat are the plants, is absolutely irrelevant of course.

Crowley thinks Aziraphale is stupid or that he is an idiot. If he says so in situations of stress, in situations where the context suggests he's desperate for the angel to see things his way the context is just irrelevant, because he says that Aziraphale is an idiot. If the rest of the series shows us that he trusts Aziraphale and his intelligence greatly, that's irrelevant because in a couple of scenes he said that Aziraphale is an idiot.

If Crowley had gone to Alpha Centauri he WOULDN'T EVEN HAVE THOUGHT about Aziraphale. That's what he said, so it must be true.

Crowley actually wanted Muriel to arrest him because he's a demon. That's what he said, so it's exactly what he meant. That the unfolding of the story suggests that was a trick to get to heaven is irrelevant.

In Rome Crowley was an aardvark. Obviously.

Aziraphale is just an angel Crowley knows. Exactly like Sandalphon.

Crowley clearly wanted to k*ll Job's children. The whole goats-turned-into-crows thingy? Irrelevant.

I'm sure that if you take Aziraohale's words towards Crowley during the final fifteen at face value you'll agree with me that everything else in the show is to be taken at face value.

I invite everyone to come up with more examples.

#justice for aziraphale #good omens #aziraphale #crowley #ineffable husbands #good omens 2 #the final fifteen #good omens final fifteen

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wishmemel · 2 years ago

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BLESS YOUR ABSOLUTE SOUL ABOUT YOUR HOT TAKE ON WHAT KIND OF PARTNER SATORU NEEDS IM-

im so tired of those x reader fics where the reader is mean/annoyed/snappy/straight up ignores him,,,, like,,,, yall forget who his soulmate was and if that doesn't tell you this guy doesn't need love, support, a shoulder to lean on emotionally and still be very physically needed and relevant then idk if we're reading the same jujutsu kaisen... (obviously everybody can write and enjoy whatever content they want and enjoy but i just have a personal dislike for it at this point because it's prevalent in the tags)

i love reading fics (and there is WAY too little of them) where the reader/oc/partner is just. soft with satoru and accepting and just gentle. straight up. treats him like a baby kitten like a tiny kirby made out of marshmallow even through he's. strong big imposing yada yada; obviously relationship banter and sarcasm are cool and cute to a degree and very loved and appreciated when written well but idk, i just feel like ur post hit my very soul so, thank you!! your thoughts and writing are very lovely and i can't wait to see more!

ugh. people like you turn me into a blushing mess. i adore you.

i love reading people’s opinions on my posts ‘cause otherwise i just feel like i’m talking to myself (which i also do a lot.) but it’s really fun to interact with people on the site which is the whole reason i joined in the first place.

I completely understand where you’re coming from with the snappy/ignoring reader. maybe satoru would find someone like that fun to tease and fun to talk to, but i think it would take a lot for him to be able to trust/open up/rely on someone like that. like a literal miracle. when you present yourself in a relationship like that, you’re not presenting yourself as someone trustworthy, really. There’s going to be a lingering fear of judgement and criticism, always (totally not speaking from experience :D) so i think it would be interesting to see that kind of relationship being built on, like a slow burn, i guess.

but satoru needs someone who really cares about him at their core. someone who falls for him first, basically, and proves how much they care. but at the same time they need to be firm. i love to see attitude and teasing from reader as long as it remains surface level and isn’t serious, you know. ‘cause i know satoru would love that too. he thrives on that banter. too much emotion and the poor thing might break. so if reader is being subtle but like not-so-subtle, that’s a good balance.

(and that makes no sense. great, safi, you’ve lost everyone.)

i mean subtle as in they’re definitely going out of their way to do things for him, but they aren’t flaunting that. it doesn’t have to be grand gestures. that’s more his thing. it’s small things with a lot of meaning. and being the traumatized guy that he is, satoru will definitely fixate on those small things.

i have a part two for the hot take in my drafts honestly cause i don’t think i was clear enough with my opinion so you might disagree with part two, but i’d love to hear your thoughts regardless. it’s just an elaboration on my previous thoughts and what i’ve said in this post as well, and i’ll finish it soon so i can post it (just gotta add a little more cause i’ve been kinda busy lately). it’s coming soon!

as always, lots of love, anon. hope you’re taking care of yourself <3

#love letters #secret admirers

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scripted-downfall · 2 years ago

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Dichotomy: Important, But Not Inherent

I saw a post somewhere that was talking about how Once Upon a Time inherently sets up a rivalry between fans of Rumplestiltskin and fans of Hook, and I very much disagree, so I wanted to explain my thoughts on it. (I don’t recall where I saw the post, so I can’t cite it; my apologies.)

I mean, I kinda get the argument: that, since the two characters are rivals on screen, the fan of one will have the same or similar hatred of the other character, which also transfers onto anyone who might support them… but I also don’t think it’s that simple. I mean, what show in the world doesn’t have characters who don’t get along, or who are working against each other? Yeah, maybe that rivalry is particularly intense — read: lasting for centuries in extremely vituperative ways — in this particular case, but I don’t think it causes bitterness between the fans, per se.

When I first watched the first season, Rumple was probably my favorite character, with Regina as a close second; I’m definitely the kind of person who preferred the villains to the heroes. Rumple was sarcastically funny, and while, yes, he was amoral, it didn’t really matter in terms of my enjoyment of the character. After all, what makes someone a good character does not have to make them a good person; I like the villains better, not because I especially like their actions or think them right, but because they’re the more interesting characters (in my opinion).

Then, I watched season 2 and season 3, and I absolutely fell in love with Hook. Tragic backstory, check. Sarcasm, check. Working to do better, check. And so on and so forth. I didn’t like all of his actions, but I still liked his character a lot. And yes, I’m not ashamed to admit that, from that point forward, he swiftly became my favorite character… but. That doesn’t mean that I suddenly stopped liking Rumple. It’s not like either one was especially blameless in the flashback episode about Milah; yeah, I think Hook was more right, but he didn’t handle it perfectly and no one should claim as much. And, even though Hook was vastly my favorite character by the time of the mid-season 3 episode where Rumple defeats Pan, I still cried an insane amount over Rumple dying. (To be fair, I did start to like Rumple less and less as the show went on after that, but it wasn’t because of how much I liked Hook; it was because of what Rumple started doing once he came back.)

Anyway, I don’t know if this is just wildly off-base, but I think that blaming the fact that there are hardcore Rumplestiltskin fans and hardcore Hook fans that are very vicious with each other on the show is pretty unfair; there are going to be fan extremes in any show and that’s just the way things work. I would argue that it’s not really that the show sets up a fan rivalry by setting up a character rivalry; it’s that there are certain people who take things a little farther than they need to be taken. (To be clear, I’m not speaking on whether or not them taking it farther than it needs to be taken is a good or bad thing; it’s just not necessary from the writing of the actual show). People can have a strong preference for one of the characters over the other and still like both.

I don’t know if that made any sense, but here’s hoping it did. (This will probably be followed up by a post about the Rumplestiltskin-Hook backstory as shown in season 2 episode 4 “The Crocodile” and season 5 episode 14 “Devil’s Due,” so be on the lookout for that if you’re at all interested… sometime within the next few days, probably.)

#once upon a time #ouat #captain hook #killian jones #rumplestiltskin #villains

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friendrat · 1 year ago

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Thanks for the tag!

1. Where you named after anyone?

No. My older brother was named after someone in the Bible, but my older sister and I were just names that my mom liked. My twin sister died before we were born, and my mom let me name her when I got older, so she is named after a character from the Oracles of Fire books by Bryan Davis.

2. When was the last time you cried?

I'm not really sure. I tear up sometimes during cheesy movies or shows, or when I'm reading, so probably then. The last time I remember full-blown crying, though, was when my sister got together with a bunch of aunts and cousins (like intentionally planned event, not spur of the moment thing) and I wasn't invited, I found out after the fact on Facebook in a post where they shared pictures and went on about how nice it is to spend time with family, and how they need to do it more often, etc etc. (I'm not salty. Ok, that's a lie, I'm totally still salty about it. They're trying to make it a regular thing, and I still haven't been invited.)

3. Do you have kids?

Only four. 😆

4. Do you use sarcasm a lot?

No, never.~ (Obviously, I do. 😆 We really need to bring the sarcasm punctuation into popular use because sometimes it's hard to tell in text format.)

5. What is the first thing you notice about people when you meet them?

I don't know... I think I just see them as a whole person? There isn't really any particular thing that jumps out at me in particular.

6. What is your eye color?

Blue, sometimes they're like a blue gray and sometimes they're brighter.

7. Scary movies or happy endings?

Happy endings. Hands down. I'm not really a scary movie person. I can count the number of scary movies I've actually watched on one hand. But who doesn't love a happy ending?

8. Any special talents?

I can make an elephant trumpet sound. It makes babies laugh and never fails to impress toddlers. 😆

9. Where were you born?

I am a mystery wrapped in an enigma. (OK I will give a "real" answer... I was born *dramatic pause* in a hospital. 😂)

10. Have any hobbies?

Reading, writing, board games, dnd, video games when I have the time.

11. Have any pets?

2 cats, a dog, and a fish. They all have nerdy names except one of the cats. The dog is Oberon, the fish is Fezzik (we used to have a second fish named Inigo, but he died), and the girl cat is a calico named Piper (she's the pied piper... get it? Lol), and the not nerdy cat is a tuxedo cat named Everest. Everest is also nicknamed the wizard kitty because he likes to perch on people's shoulders like a familiar.

12. What sports do you play/have you played?

Bible quizzing. It counts, ok! 😆

13. How tall are you?

5'6"

14. What was your favorite subject in school?

Science. I disagreed with a lot of origin stuff because it's very based on worldview interpretation of the evidence, but I loved natural science and how stuff works. I could test reliably over 90% in science without really trying.

15. Dream job?

Writing. Although anymore that involves a lot of self-promotion on social media, and that intimidates me. The networking with other authors isn't so bad, but making graphics and reels and stuff just seems overwhelming. But yeah... I've wanted to be a writer ever since I was a kid. I also had a lot of fun working on a couple of amateur short films, so something in filmmaking would be really cool too! I would love to see more Christian fantasy stories be make into movies and shows, so working on something like that would be great!

Tags: @a-republican-mind @birdwithinternet @crestofnobility @dimsilver @faeriefully @faithfire @fairytale-lights @greater-than-the-sword @heckin-music-dork @katco-cereal @o-lei-o-lai-o-lord @queenies-corner @rose-red-ink @wynterwind @xxxcertifiednerdxxx (no pressure! I just think these are fun!)

15 Questions 15 Mutuals

Thanks for the tags @peony-pearl and @sleepyghoststories 💖💖💖

1. Were you named after anyone?

A fictional character from a movie my parents watched while dating.

2. When was the last time you cried?

I don't remember. Which means I'm due for a breakdown soon.

3. Do you have kids?

Nope

4. Do you use sarcasm a lot?

It's how I cope

5. What is the first thing you notice about people?

Usually their appearance/outfit

6. What is your eye color?

Dark brown

7. Scary movies or happy endings?

Happy endings ❤️

8. Any special talents?

I can roll my eyes to the back of my head. Makes for excellent zombie impressions.

9. Where were you born?

illinois

10. Have any Hobbies?

Drawing, writing, cosplaying

11. Have any pets?

No but I always wanted a cat

12. What spots do you play/ have you played?

I used to do track and volleyball

13. How tall are you?

5'7"

14. What is your favorite subject at school?

Art class

15. Dream job?

In a perfect world, writer and voice actor.

Tags: @avatardoggo @exhaustedhope @wingchunwaterbender @friendrat @trashfactorysstuff @emmelinekahuyan @love-airy @love-n-purple @longing-for-rain @moonlitxeuphoria @its-booklovr @monochromeswirl @fireliliesstuff @evsalonyx @ekwolfwriter-blog

#tags #tag game #tag games #ask game

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bloodstained-ballgowns · 3 years ago

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Things I... didn’t like as much, about Black Widow (2021):

Disclaimer: I loved this movie. I would give it 4/5 stars overall. This is a lot of nit-picking. Most of the choices I’m talking about here I still really enjoyed, but this is how I would change them to improve it *for me*. If you disagree, that’s fine! Obviously, spoilers.

I said in my ‘Things I Loved About Black Widow’ post that I consider the first 53 minutes to be perfect, and the rest to be not-so-perfect. This is where I complain about the not-so-perfect stuff. They didn’t drop the ball on the third act, they just...fumbled it a bit. It stayed dark, but to me, it lost a bit of its grit. Cate Shortland’s influence really shone through in the first act, but it got lost around the second and third acts for me because of how Marvel-y it got.

Firstly, I’m considering the hand-to-hand combat here to be second only to CATWS. So why did that element basically dissolve towards the end of the film? She barely fought anyone in the prison breakout. Yes, Natasha fought the Widows, but that was all slowmo-y and widows-bites-y and did not have the same level of choreography. I wish they’d carried it through.

Talking of action, there was not enough of it between Natasha and Taskmaster (who is getting a whole other post, because that is a bag of mixed feelings I don’t want to delve into here), particularly in the third act. Action isn’t something I’m particularly interested in but I was excited for this dynamic. Antonia wasn’t the villain, but like, the bridge fight did not effectively demonstrate her whole mirroring deal. Yelena and Nat’s fight had more mirroring than her and Tasky’s. Antonia’s skill set really shines in hand-to-hand onscreen, but as I said, I felt that kind of dissolved in the third act. They completely cheated us out of an impressive showdown when Natasha let Antonia out of the cell and moved backwards and I totally thought they were going to duel...which would lead into the sky fight...and then...the room cracks and they’re blown apart?? Hmmm.

Why was the Red Room in the sky??? I get that they were moving around a lot and this movie needed to have some kind of Marvel explosive finale and it looked cool and everything but I prefer the comics’ more grounded version. I just think it would have been more effective for Natasha and Yelena to walk through the old halls of the building they grew up/were trained in, find the new facility underground or something and then blow the whole place to smithereens. It would have actually cemented the whole ‘going back to where it all started’ thing.

Now I know the reason for Dreykov’s off-screen demise was to show how a man as purely evil as him didn’t deserve a major, glorified death. He deserved the death of an afterthought. But I would have liked to see Nat plunge a knife into his heart. Or to see him try to go after Yelena somehow and Nat just shoot him in the back of the head. It didn’t feel like they gave us any closure on that front, particularly as they made a whole deal about Nat not seeing the body in Budapest...and then we didn’t see the body here either. I almost feel like his death was made so insignificant that it was forgettable.

The whole flashing back and showing that actually they did have everything figured out did not work for me, it felt like lazy writing. It gave me “BET YOU DIDN’T SEE THAT COMING, BET YOU UNDERESTIMATED HER, LOOK HOW CLEVER NATASHA IS! DIDN’T YOU UNDERESTIMATE HER? SHE HAD IT ALL FIGURED OUT YOU FOOLS HARHARHAR” vibes and I was just like...I know. Literally, I know how clever and calculated she is. I knew she wouldn’t have been outplayed like that at Melina’s. Maybe other people didn’t, but come on guys, think up with something a little less ‘gotcha’.

What the hell happened with Nat and Ross before they cut to ‘two weeks later’? *confusion intensifies*

Again, this is getting long. See the read-more.

This movie had a lot of bases to cover and a lot of information to convey and I think the script managed that pretty well overall, but it did lapse into a bit of ‘show-don’t-tell’ syndrome at times. Show me Nat’s mother being ‘relentless’ in her search, don’t just tell me about it. I did not want Renner’s Clint Barton in this movie, but they could have made the Budapest flashback a smidge longer, for my liking.

Disney would never do this, but I would have loved an R-rated Black Widow movie. Yelena is absolutely a character that would yell ‘Fuck!’ really loudly (think Florence Pugh in that cactus video). My suggestions above for Dreykov’s death were me being reserved: Nat stabbing him repeatedly would have been so cathartic (for me, idk about her).

Y’all know I’m a slut for Nat’s everything in this movie, particularly the hair, but goddammit the hair. Riddle me this, if Nat had in a perfectly good braid when she got into the helicopter, why did she emerge with flowing locks and one tiny useless plait on the left side of her head?? And then she redid that into the ponytail with all the little braids while preparing for battle at Melina’s (never mind the fact that Nat’s hair would not have been long enough for them to reach much past her shoulders as well as being tied up) and fit it all under a Melina-wig! HELLO, LOGISTICAL NIGHTMARE SPEAKING.

I’m pretty sure the whole Nat-not-understanding-science-speak thing was only there for the “In English”-*replies in Russian* gag but it still seemed a little ooc since she’s never had a problem with it before. Idk if I would class this is as Nat ‘playing dumb’ to get more information like she does later with Dreykov since Yelena is readily giving her that info, and Yelena is also good enough to realise when she’s being manipulated like that.

Ummmm whole separate post for reasoning and such but the magic dust antidote? Not a vibe. No thank you. Lazy. Unrealistic.

So...Alexei and Melina. It’s not that I don’t like them as characters - I really enjoyed them, I think they’re great characters. Fascinating to analyse. Did I love the Ohio mission sequence? Yes. Did I really appreciate the family dynamic and all the fanfic possibilities it gave us? Yes. But do I wish they weren’t in this movie at all? Yeah, kinda. The family dynamic was funny, and it was heartwarming, and it was heartbreaking, because it was executed so well, but the fact is that it was added by Kevin Feige to make this movie more palatable for the wider audience. Alexei’s dad jokes breaking the tension were probably an imperative for most audiences to enjoy the film. (Yelena’s dry sarcasm could have filled that role easily for me). But I didn’t want the tension broken. I didn’t want people to relax. I wanted them to come out and have to decompress because it was so intense. It’s easier to market a film about ‘family and going back to the past’ than ‘female subjugation and exploitation’. I don’t appreciate it, but I get it. Making this into a quasi-ensemble piece in the second and third acts just irritated me though. I wanted all the screentime possible to be on Natasha and Yelena. They could totally have pulled it off without their parents.

This really is nitpicky, but would a Liho mention have been too much to ask for? It would have been so easy, when Yelena asked “did you ever wish for kids?”, Nat could have replied with “i have a cat”, which is a good deflection but also informative, or her lockscreen could have lit up to show a tiny black kitten. Idk, this movie used a couple of good comics references and I guess I was hoping for one more.

*whispers and runs away* Bucky should have been here. Goddammit.

In conclusion, a lot of my critiques could be fixed if we didn’t live in a time where this film still had to be palatable for wider audiences who do not care about characters nearly as much as they care about action or humour or plot or spectacle. A lot of the strong choices paid off (they’ve riled up dudebros enough to prove that). The Marvel-y ending and Alexei’s humour did not. The rest is just logistical errors and missed opportunities.

This is a lot of complaining but I promise, these annoyances are much more minor than I’m making them out to be. The movie is magnificent even with them.

#please don't come for me #polite discourse pls and thank you #black widow #black widow spoilers #black widow comics #natasha romanoff #yelena belova #melina vostokoff #alexei shostakov #antonia dreykov #the red room #general dreykov #liho the cat #my post #black widow analysis

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still-a-morosexual-help · 3 years ago

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OBEY ME! LESSON 55 DETAILED SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION/THEORIES

*I wrote this days after the lesson was first posted and never bothered to go back and edit it so meaning there will be me theorizing about the next lesson as well

*I write a small para for each chapter and I write it immediately after finishing that chapter so there’ll be theorizing about the next chapter too

*I swear more than usual here

*Some of the dialogue is heavily plagiarized and a few is lifted directly from the story, the game is to figure which is which.

*Summaries and Discussions/theories for all the other lessons can be found on this blog under #obey me spoilers or #my theories or #my headcanons

OKAY! So first off the background for this is absolutely gorgeous and shows a real demon. You know the kind you’d imagine an actual demon to look like and everything’s dark (black, grey, brown) there’s a castle on a mountain like area with a narrow suspended pathway leading to it, there are crows flying around and a person in a robe pointing what looks like a lit wand at a snarling attacking demon, there are skulls and what looks like weapons on the ground and my favourite part: a person in a long robe, kneeling on the ground, covering the top of their face with their hands and wailing to the sky. It’s all tailor made to my taste and I love it! There’s one locked lesson.

It’s breakfast time and Asmo & Beel are heading to an all you can eat global sweet sampler, MC questions it and Asmo says you can get desserts from all over the world there and Asmo’s hoping to live stream it. Asmo invites MC but Mammon interjects asking them to come see “cute horsies” with him. “’Horsies.’ He’s so pretentious. Shut up, it’s the fucking horse race. ‘Horsies.’” Says Levi. Levi invites MC to a real life TSL themed escape room (that sounds really fun tbh), Satan invites them to come watch the sci-fi movie they were talking about, in their home theatre. (he’s actually watched it 3 times already but he read online theories about it and now he wants to see if he can catch the basis for those theories in the movie). They all start arguing about it (except Beel who’s just eating) when MC gets a text from Diavolo congratulating them on their 5th star and wishing them luck for the other 2 and inviting them to an amusement park date. Everyone – MC included – is kind of baffled by the one on one date with Diavolo. They ask any of the others if they want to tag along but they all refuse but Beel asks if MC can take Belphie along since he hasn’t really left the house in a while and Beel’s worried. MC texts asking if they can bring Belphie along too and Diavolo says the more the merrier and I just know this is gonna end in disaster like did Belphie ever even resolve all the problems he had with Diavolo back in S1?

Beel drags Asmo along to wake Belphie up because a.) he doesn’t want Asmo to leave to the sweets thing without him b.) they need all the help they can get to wake him up. MC suggests using force and Asmo happily volunteers to grab Belphie, turn him over and drop him on the ground, Beel says they can’t do this to poor Belphie cause Beel’s a sweetheart, and says the most force he’ll allow them to use is by tickling Belphie, which Asmo then does. It doesn’t work so Asmo says if they’re gonna use force they should do something like this right before he screams “ASMO DIIIIIIVE!!!” and jumps on top of Belphie as Beel protests and I love that despite what you’d assume from his aesthetic and despite what Asmo would like you to believe he’s a lot more rough and tumble and violent (I just really love the sweet with hidden edges trope as much as I love the jerk with a gooey centre trope). Belphie says ow and Asmo brightly and sweetly cheers that he woke up as if just seconds ago he hadn’t used a wrestling move on his sleeping baby brother. Beel says that though Belphie’s body is awake his mind isn’t (relatable), Beel fixes Belphie’s bedhead and Asmo complains that Belphie’s a stereotypical spoilt brat youngest child and says that Diavolo obviously would’ve wanted a one on one day with MC. Beel says he knows and it’s another reason he wanted Belphie to go. Asmo agrees saying that after everything if MC chooses their boss over any one of the seven guys MC actually lives with it’d feel wrong. Asmo tells Belphie to keep an eye on them and not let it turn into a “whirlwind romance”, Belphie just asks for his pillow and Asmo’s upset cause he doesn’t feel confident about the plan now. Poor Diavolo being constantly cockblocked

On the way Belphie complains about being forced to do this when his schedule is just as busy but MC says all he does is sleep and he says because naps are important to him and he takes them seriously. He wishes he could go back home and asks why of all the demons he had to be stuck with Diavolo (so guess those issues are still around good to know). MC asks if he still dislikes Diavolo cause of his fondness for humans and Belphie says he’s fully gotten over that whole human genocide phase which is great to have confirmed. They ask why he dislikes Diavolo – lots of reasons. He always thinks he’s right and expects to get his way about anything and everything and never listens to anyone’s opinions. He hadn’t bothered to listen to Belphie back when the exchange program had been proposed and Belphie was against it (and I mean to be fair back then Belphie was 100% okay with killing the entire human race for no reason other than the fact that he blamed them for Lilith’s death when really they had nothing to do with it and it was definitely the angels’ fault. I mean I don’t think I would have listened to him either and he really does have the spoilt youngest kid personality. I think out of all the brother’s Belphie’s the one who has the fondest memories of the Celestial Realm – probably helped by the fact that Lilith was still alive then – which is why he never blamed them for what happened and instead directed all his anger at the humans) Lucifer hadn’t let Belphie plead his case (what case Belphie!? That all humans should die!?) and that Diavolo’s surrounded by demons like Barbatos and Lucifer who shield him from criticism (and yeah I agree that this is true and that it’s a bad thing but Lucifer wasn’t shielding Diavolo from criticism when he refused to let Belphie plead his case, he was protecting Belphie cause if Diavolo found out Belphie wanted to kill humans he would have thrown him in jail like he did back at the end of S1 and MC you dumb fuck can you pls tell all this to Belphie) and that Diavolo doesn’t understand that he’s been saved from criticism and Belphie hates that about him and he shudders at the thought of spending the day with Diavolo. On the way they run into Simeon and tell him where they’re going, he says Luke’s been wanting to go there since he saw a ad for it and MC says they could take Luke along with them but he says Luke’s at a cooking class today but that he’d probably love to hear about it when he gets back. Simeon then takes off saying he has a meeting. Belphie goes to call after Simeon to tell him something and catches a glimpse of the person Simeon was supposed to meet. He’s surprised and says “Is that…” and when MC asks what’s wrong he said he must have just imagined it and that the person Simeon was meeting just looked really familiar and HOLY SHITTTTTTT GUYSSS rfhiefjoSJKWDLDADJSJ was I right are we really gonna get to see angels???? That’s the only explanation, right? It would have had to be Michael or even Raphael and there’s only a few lessons left and this and the next lesson are probably gonna focus on Diavolo and Belphie’s relationship and following the patter MC should get their 6th star next lesson, then the two lessons after that will be their final exam for the 7th star and then the last two lessons will focus on saying goodbye as the brothers go back to the Devildom and all that’s gonna have a lot going on but if they’re teasing the angels being here now could they manage to slip them in or will that be too much? I mean they’ll be introducing a whole new (or two whole new) character(s) and ahhh I’m rambling but pls I need the tension and angst between them and the brothers ok I’m done.

When they get there Belphie complains about how crowded it is and MC tries to look for Diavolo to which Belphie points to a group of fangirls surrounding Diavolo. Diavolo answers them sweetly and one of them says he’s even better looking irl and another shyly asks if he wants to walk around with them. Belphie cuts that short by barging in and asking Diavolo what’s going on, Diavolo happily greets Diavolo and one of the girls realises that Belphie called Diavolo ‘lord’. Diavolo apologises to them and said he’s already made plans with friends (and ugh he’s so sweet I love him just wanna give him a big hug I bet he gives great hugs), the girls are very understanding and sweet about it and they leave. Belphie’s a lil shit and says “Aww, too bad, Lord Diavolo. I’d hate to interrupt just as they were hitting on you…” and Diavolo laughs it off saying it wasn’t like that (and can Diavolo not understand sarcasm or does he just ignore it? Both seem highly likely) Belphie disagrees and says they were clearly hitting on him and Diavolo changes the subject and says he can’t believe Belphie actually came, MC explains why and Diavolo says it’s understandable that Beel was worried after Belphie hadn’t left the house in a week (Me, who hasn’t left the house in almost a year: :’) ) Belphie says he knows Diavolo wanted a date with MC but too bad cause now Belphie’s gonna third wheel them. Diavolo tells Belphie not to be ridiculous and that he’s happy that Belphie came (and the thing is other than a small twinge of disappointment this is probably the truth). Belphie says that it probably won’t be a good idea to go around calling him “Lord” Diavolo given the way the girls reacted, Diavolo says he can just call him by his name since he wouldn’t mind but Belphie says he himself would mind and anyway if Lucifer or Barbatos found out Belphie wasn’t using his proper title they’d kill him. So Belphie suggests a nickname which Diavolo’s really happy about and MC suggests DD (they can also suggest John or Cap’n), Diavolo adores it and asks them to call him it all the time hereafter (I want to give him a hug so badly). Diavolo then happily and with lots of exclamation points goes on to say that it’s time to let their hair down and that Barbatos had made minute to minute schedule for them to follow so that they could enjoy the park to the fullest and Belphie says he wants to go home

Diavolo keeps unsuccessfully trying to get Belphie to wear a themed headband and take a group photo, saying he also wants to wear the headband on a boat ride and the ferris wheel. Diavolo gives MC sad puppy dog eyes (which I’m sure he uses successfully on Lucifer regularly, but that don’t affect Barbatos at all) and MC can’t refuse, asking Belphie if there’s anything that’ll get him to change his mind. He says no but he’s not stopping the others from doing it, Diavolo says since they’re here as a group they all should do it, Belphie snaps saying he doesn’t like how Diavolo’s using MC as a tool to bend Belphie to his will and he says he’s going home. Diavolo tries to stop him but he marches off and Diavolo drags MC off to chase after Belphie. Diavolo grabs Belphie by the arm outside the park and begs for a chance to apologize, Belphie denies it and tries to free his arm. Diavolo refuses to let him go saying he should have listened to and considered Belphie’s opinions now as well as in the past, Belphie’s shocked and MC asks Belphie to just hear Diavolo out. He agrees but tells them not to have any expectations of what this’ll accomplish.

Belphie says he doesn’t want to wear the headband or take pics and that he’s only gonna ride what he wants to, Diavolo agrees with all that. He asks if Belphie will stay with them and Belphie agrees and Diavolo is just so brightly stupidly happy and I can completely understand how he was able to make Lucifer question his entire world view. Diavolo’s so happy he starts waving Belphie’s arm around unconsciously and then asks Belphie what rides he wants to go on as they make their way back inside, Belphie doesn’t answer instead he’s blushing and annoyed and asks Diavolo to let go of his hand. Belphie wants to ride ‘The Twisting Freefall of Death II’, MC & Diavolo would like to not freefall to their death thank you very much. Belphie quotes the ride as being, “the single most terrifying experience in the world where you’ll scream for mercy and receive none” Diavolo says, “Did you say scream for mercy…” Belphie happily agrees. Diavolo turns to his last hope, MC, and asks how they feel about this. I like to imagine that even MC has a line where their lacking self-preservation will kick in. Belphie just smiles saying it won’t actually kill them (this would have been more reassuring coming from someone who didn’t once murder MC but whatever.) They can also ask Diavolo how feels about it. After the ride Belphie’s cackling loudly and gushing about how great it was. He’s especially happy about the look on Diavolo’s face during the ride, saying he’s never seen it before (probably the look of a demon praying to God for mercy). MC can say that Belphie seemed to be having a lot of fun, cheer how the ride was the best or say they thought they were going to die. For the 3rd option Belphie very cheerfully says MC’s alive and ok. Belphie asks Diavolo how it was only to realise Diavolo’s missing. He fell off the ride at its highest peak. He’s dead.

They’ve tried texting Diavolo but he doesn’t read them. Belphie wonders what kind of person actually gets lost in an amusement park unless they’re 5. Then he says “…is that what it is? Is he actually 5 yrs old?” He remembers that mammon got lost in a park once too and says the only thing the two of them have in common is that they’re both basically children, They then run into my favourite character in the entire game – the butcher (is2g this man needs to become a recurring side character) who is here with his wife and daughter. He asks them if the rest of the harem is here too and Belphie lets him know that unfortunately they’re here with a new inductee who got lost. The butcher offers to help and asks for a description. MC says he’s the owner of the corvo hotel chain and the butcher wonders who the fuck are these people in the first place to know someone like that and then because the butcher’s the sweetest person alive he too starts worrying about diavolo, scared that he might have gotten kidnapped. Belphie says “there’s no one in the human world oh shit I mean THE WORLD. THE NORMAL WORLD ALL US HUMANS - BECAUSE WE ALL ARE HUMANS - LIVE IN” the butcher now probably used to how weird this cult is (because they definitely are a satanic cult with their extremely obvious demon names, how weird and unused to normal life they are, 7 of them being obviously infatuated by the eighth one but the butcher’s not gonna bring this up cause with the amount of meat they buy from him he could keep his family afloat for years AND pay for his daughters college tuition) ignores this and says he hasn’t seen Diavolo but advices them to check the information desk and ask them to page Diavolo over the loudspeakers. They thank him and Belphie promises to stop by with Beel later, the butcher says he’ll see him then and tells them to take care (I love this man). Barbatos text MC asking how they’re doing and which itinerary of his they’re following cause yes apparently he made more than one and telling them he trusts them to take care of diavolo (and I can’t believe it took me this long to realise Barbatos is a helicopter parent). MC leaves him on read. Lucifer then texts them saying Satan told him where they’d gone and telling them that since the two of them are with Diavolo he assumes he’s okay but just to clarify make sure nothing happens to Diavolo. MC leaves him on read. Belphie says that Barbatos and Lucifer are way too overprotective. Barbatos and MC then realise how fucked they are if either of them find out that they’ve lost diavolo and so decide to skip the whole loudspeaker thing.

They can decide if they want to check by the lake, the ferris wheel or the last ride they went in. He’s not at the lake and they choose to take a boat across the lake to get to the ferris wheel cause it’s faster than going around it. Belphie actually enjoys the boat ride and asks if the two of them can just enjoy themselves together for a bit instead of looking for Diavolo, MC says “I’m worried about Diavolo also can you not remember how fucked we are if we don’t find him”. Belphie gets jealous that MC seems to care more about Diavolo than him (they’re just been practical! If the roles were reversed they’d have shut Diavolo down to look for you!) and says that even they have a real soft spot for Diavolo (He’s like a giant golden retriever!!). There’s an announcement over the loudspeaker for MC and ‘Snoozy’ saying that DD’s waiting for them at the info desk. Belphie’s not happy about ‘snoozy’ (understandable)

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ferret-not-microwave · 4 years ago

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Les Amis Modern AU: What They Wish Others Believed About Them (Part 5)

[I kind of wrote this in response to some general trends in characterising the Amis. There are some stereotypes which I'm not quite comfortable with.]

[Hey, y'all! I'm so sorry for not posting this series for a long time, I was flattened for the past 12 days by COVID-19. We have Cosette and Marius today, and I'm so glad that I am feeling better enough to write about them. Cheerio!]

Cosette:

• Is fed up of being considered dainty, fragile, weak and excessively nice, a bit of a pushover. She is anything but. Living with crappy foster parents don't really let you do that. She can stand up against bullshit with biting sarcasm if necessary. It's just that Cosette doesn't rise to the bait very easily, because she has trained herself to ignore battles which don't need her attention. But that doesn't mean that she needs to be protected all the time.

• Is sick of having to relate her childhood traumas in order to not be judged as being a privileged airhead. Cosette likes buying nice things. She likes fashion, and she has some habits from Catholic school, still. She spends a lot of money on her friends and loved ones. She is sunshiney and injects bougie humour and fun into meetings. That doesn't mean that she knows nothing about the shitty world, and that she doesn't actively try to make ethical choices in her consumer behaviour and social commitments. She really dislikes the "Ohhhhh" moment coming from someone judging her for her privilege when someone tells her story to them. Why presume that people are shitty for no reason, damnit?

• Is sick of being mistaken as straight. On one memorable Pride, she was called "straight passing". She dislikes the term immensely. She thinks that people do not have the liberty to immediately assume that she is heterosexual because Marius is her partner. Similarly, people do not get to assume her sexuality because she presents stereotypically femme.

• She feels insecure and uncomfortable when people fix too much attention on her in relation to someone else, as if to scrutinize her. It happened twice amongst the Amis, once when Marius introduced her as his crush for the first time, and once when they came to know that she and Eponine knew each other since childhood, and that Eponine's parents were her abusive foster parents. She likes it better if she were befriended for being herself.

• She feels a little frustrated that people didn't get her conflicting feelings towards Eponine. People immediately assumed that she forgave and forgot everything Eponine had done or said when they were children, in her "characteristically sweet way". Actually, the first time she saw Eponine, her fear reared its ugly head again and she almost ran out of the Musain. There was much dancing around Eponine (who seemed worn out and super uncomfortable as well) and it is only with Marius and Courfeyrac's help that Cosette could start a conversion with Eponine. She did it not be particularly forgiving (though she eventually forgave her anyway), but because she needed to leave her emotional baggage behind and move on.

• A large part of Cosette's forgiveness towards Eponine was fuelled by the knowledge of Eponine's own abuse at her parents' hands. As someone who had faced quite a bit of the same abuse, she needed to put her foot down. Cosette was extremely angry about it, and her anger made sure that Eponine could separate from her parents faster, and eventually get custody of her siblings.

• She hates, hates, hates it when people remind her that she's lucky to get an adoptive father like Valjean particularly after she has a row with him. Just because her foster parents were shitty doesn't mean that she cannot speak against some of Valjeans imperfections! And children often disagree with their parents. She doesn't need to be dampened with the idea that she should basically think Valjean to be perfect because of her past. She is fiercely loyal to Valjean, and doesn't need anyone to test that.

• Cosette is protective of Marius. No one gets to mow Marius over with judgements and snide comments. In fact, Marius found himself being not so much the butt of jokes anymore after Cosette teaches him to stand up for himself. At the same time, Cosette does not helicopter parent Marius. She does tease him within limits, and does not usually interfere when he has disagreements with the Amis. It is a fine balance which does exhaust her sometimes.

• Cosette can be mischievous, even impish. She can land punches (whether they hurt or not doesn't matter), ace paintball/mudslinging matches, play the best pranks on April Fool's Day and curse like a sailor if needed. She is especially proud of the wide-eyed look she still gets from some of the Amis at her antics. She can also get people out of trouble faster than you can say "bail".

Marius:

• Marius feels scared of being judged. It is really, really difficult to understand your own privilege when you come from a super rich, super bigoted family (read grandfather). He has taken lots of embarrassing knocks and call-outs every day till now, but he is learning, and learning fast. The Amis know, and for them he isn't some peripheral person anymore, but an integral part. But sometimes he wakes up with nightmares of being kicked out as a wokeboi and a fraud by the whole group. He often stumbles over his words because he panics that maybe what he is trying to say is problematic. It takes him months to take any initiative in the Amis because he suffers from imposter syndrome all the time.

• Marius hid all information about his favourites (he loves strawberry rosé macarons and silver needle tea, for instance) because he thought that he would be judged as a rich brat. Funnily, it was Ferre who had figured these out and was the first Amis to give him a small tea chest and a box of macarons as a birthday gift (followed closely by Courf and Jehan with a huge birthday party). It took time for Marius to understand that just because he got a bit panned for his political opinions the first time, it doesn't mean that the Amis hate him.

• Quite unlike popular belief, Marius and Ferre do get along very well. They share a lot of niche interests (poring over etymology dictionaries and having a love of museums and trivia nights). They did discuss that first "to be free" moment, and Marius had placed his request to be given more chances to undo his problematic stances. (There was also another "to be free" moment that had left Ferre stunned, but it's a them thing). It hurts Marius when people immediately think that he's probably annoying Ferre when they hang out.

• Marius is not stupid. Please. The whole idea people have that he is stupid because of his awkwardness and shyness is plain mean at times. No, he doesn't need to be talked to slowly, like talking to a child. Whenever he has the courage, he brings up a lot of valid points in Musain meetings. He is extremely resourceful in handling money and talks with boring rich people, and fundraisers have never been better without him. He is juggling a double Masters degree with internships and volunteer services, and picks up languages at the drop of a hat (including Elvish).

• Marius has also had that dangerous phase when, in a bid to be as radical as possible, he fell into trouble way too many times. Even the most even-tempered of them all (read Jehan) has outright cried in exasperation on finding Marius glaring at a policeman in a protest, promising to burn the place down with a flare if they didn't back off from hitting protestors. Marius has similarly taken punches and hits, and there was a time when Joly would hover around him to administer first aid as quickly as possible. It took Enj and R a whole day to explain to him the merits of self-preservation and that revolution today does not necessarily involve a militant loss of life.

• Marius has also that phase when he drove a college sophomore to tears with his radical speech. Aka attacking the heck out of the kid's problematic Facebook post. Cosette had to give him a talk. Marius is learning about how to be a zealous but kind activist every day.

#marius pontmercy #cosette #les miz #les amis #les mis #les miserables #marius and cosette are such sweethearts #marius is an underrated noodle boi #modern au #les mis as #ferret's freshly microwaved post

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sterekyrround · 2 years ago

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Hi @princeescaluswords

A naturally grown brown person here. *waves*

I have long awaited my white and shining armor. Alas, you grace us with your presence. It fills me with such joy to finally meet you. I have been reading fanfiction for years and it’s so refreshing to meet a fellow Teen-Wolfer who states their thoughts that are so unique and so valuable to the community….

I truly hope you heard my sarcasm.

I am beyond tired of you white people coming along and trying to “Save the day” by attacking fandom creators who write the stories they like or make the art they love that just don’t fit within the narrative that YOU believe it should be.

I see you are a white cis male. I don’t know if you’re trying to be an ally (because I can tell you, you are not) but this is not the way. The story question is ( I agree ) a “Bad Friend Scott” trope. It’s a trope. I’ve seen many, yes. I have also seen many “Blame Derek for Everything” trope stories and “Stiles is a sidekick” trope stories. I can list so many tropes that shine (my favorite) characters in a bad light. (I have a long list of fav characters by the way) and I never decided to sit down and bash that person, leave rude comments, or try to make it seem that my word is the only one that counts.

I personally do not like Scott as a character. With the movie I don’t want to read about him and I love “Bad Friend Scott” trope and “Evil Deaton” trope. But I also (and i will come back to loving it again) loved reading “Himbo Scott” “Good Friend Scott” tropes as well. But I still respect people (friends) that love Scott. I have someone who legit only writes good friend Scott and she knows I don’t like him but you know what happens? We respect each other and we understand it’s our own personal preference.

I mentioned your race and gender for a reason. Because it is the white man’s prerogative to make everything he says LAW. Whatever he says is correct and should be taken as fact. Not liking characters is not a race issue. It’s a personal preference. And I am so tired of seeing these posts about people being racist because they don’t like Scott McCall. Brown and Black people have enough to deal with ACTUAL racism for you to use the term to try to seem like “you did something big”. You haven’t.

If you want to make a post and cry about someone not liking your character fine. If you disagree with people, fine. I get being petty, I too am Petty. (With a capital 'P', you saw *wink*)

But say what you want to say and leave race (my race) out of it.

That will be all.

Uninteresting

So, yesterday, I encountered a story (at that point it was untagged, and to give the author their due, they tagged it afterwards), and the thing that jumped off the page to me is that they have Scott purposefully luring the Argents to the police station in Fury (2x10). This was a new one on me, so I wondered if the author had just missed the part where Matt had taken Scott's (and the sheriff's and Stiles's) phone and that Allison had correctly identified that Scott wouldn't have done that. I pointed this out.

The author replied that they were tweaking canon because they thought it would be interesting to see Stiles and Scott have a 'discussion' about it.

What they also thought would be interesting would be repeating every big idea that the Anti-Scott parts of fandom have ever had. Scott told Derek his family deserved to be burned alive! (He didn't say that). Scott didn't ask Stiles about his injuries in Master Plan! Scott was obsessed with Allison! Scott neglected Stiles for Isaac!

Such a variation on Teen Wolf might actually be interesting to me as an alternative, too, if I hadn't read it 15,000 times before (not an exaggeration). One of fanfiction's purposes is to give us alternatives to canon, but the trouble is when it comes to Teen Wolf, it's always the same alternatives. I pointed out that as a Scott fan who reads Sterek, it bothers me that they always try to justify the relationship by making Scott the bad guy.

They replied that they tweak canon in a lot of ways, not just to make Scott a bad guy. And they're right. Beyond that ...

They tweaked canon to make Deaton an Evil Sinister Black Man! So unique! He is plotting against Derek with Scott because he thinks Derek should die and Scott should be alpha. Unspoken is why he didn't straight up murder Derek after Peter's resurrection or still supply him with ketamine for the plan to stop Jackson, but if Evil Deaton had been competent, there wouldn't be much of a story would there?

They tweaked canon to make Stiles -- you guessed it -- a Spark! Ground-breaking, like florals in spring! And Deaton was lying to Stiles about the strength of it because Stiles is going to become Derek's Emissary! Because of course he would!

They tweaked canon so Derek is super angry about Scott's remark about the Argents having a reason to attack his family in Magic Bullet (1x04), but doesn't even remember that Stiles directly accused him of murdering his sister out of jealousy of the full wolf form in Second Chance at First Line (1x02).

They tweaked canon so Derek can't trust Deaton because the veterinarian is plotting against him for some unknown reason, and it's definitely not because Derek kidnapped and almost killed him in Heart Monitor (1x06).

They tweaked canon so that Stiles obviously did care after Scott was poisoned with wolf's bane by Victoria, even though we didn't see any of that on the screen but assumed that it happened, just like we should have assumed Scott asked Stiles about what happened in the Argent basement.

They tweaked canon so that Stiles never wanted Derek dead and that he can't believe Scott would be so, so cruel to widdle-baby Derek, who didn't lie to Scott about the cure or break into his house and threaten to kill him or did nothing at all ever to earn Scott's distrust.

I could go on. In other words, to them it's interesting to rehash every single Sterek Trope that has been written in meta and stories so often that it's become accepted reality. They "tweak" canon in only certain pre-set ways and always to the same ends. Because I do believe in alternative stories, I would accept this if, for every Sterek story where Scott is a Bad Lying Friend and Unworthy of Stiles's regard, so he turns to Derek, there's a Sterek story with different "tweaks," such as where Isaac tries to kill Stiles to get Scott to join the pack or Scott rejects Stiles because he's too mean to Derek which makes Stiles see the error of his ways. But there isn't. And that, of course, is my point.

It's the Big Lie. Everyone complains about discourse and why people would waste time arguing over trivial matters such as these, but ten years have passed and now I encounter multiple people entering the fandom who literally believe that Scott was OBSESSED over Allison, that he didn't put her to the side to save Derek and/or his pack on multiple occasions and that she was his necessary anchor. Who believe that Stiles was neglected and treated badly, not by the guy who bounced his head off a steering wheel or tried to kill the girl he loved or sent one of his betas to kidnap him, but by his best friend who literally ripped a locker door of his hinges in an attempt to find him. Sterek has become synonymous with Scott is a Bad Friend, and I dare people to argue that it hasn't.

And thus, a non-white heroic protagonist has been transformed, probably forever, into an unworthy inadequate simpleton who treated his mega-genius best friend and a (phenomenally rich, good-looking, and well-loved) orphan werewolf so badly. It's happened. Right in front of the fandom's eyes. And lots of people are happy about it for some reason.

BUT IT'S NOT RACISM.

#stop bringing race into fandom #stay in your own damn lane #let people like what they like #everyone can like whatever characters they want

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