#melodramatic teenage girl is loving btw

[notfernintheslighest]

i think will is the type of guy to go fishing every day he possibly can, and not understand why his partner is upset at him being gone for 40 days in row and reeking of seafood for an extra 10. hannibal on the other hand is a melodramatic teenage girl, and would almost immediately (2-3 days of will fishing in a row) attempt to be on the boat with will, without actually fishing cause some bs about hunters, fishermen, teacups, etc. then no matter what hannibal chose to occupy himself with, probs either ipad or book, will would make it goal to make it seem as though he’s “accidentally” getting the thing hannibal brought wet. he would do this to see how long it takes hannibal to notice with the added bonus of likely being able to fish alone if successful. then hannibal adopts a daughter for will and he guts her again because he was on level 803949 or something of candy crush.

[frankingsteinery]

i don’t think alphonse is necessarily passing down some sort of generational trauma onto his children (to me, the pattern of perpetuating their own abuse onto their children is much more present with caroline, through elizabeth and victor)—but rather he’s imparting the values of a upper-class swiss-christian georgian society that his gender, race, religion, career, social class, etc. dictate. 

what’s interesting, from this angle, is the significance of victor failing to conform and uphold these traditional masculine values: victor was very emotionally demonstrative, and frankenstein was written during a turning point in history where upper-class men who had “nervous” senses/feelings were beginning to be seen as effete instead of stylish (during the romantic era they used to be thought fashionable because they were seen as more in-touch with their senses and with nature then the lower-class). during the creation process, victor describes being “oppressed every night by a slow fever” and becoming “nervous to a most painful degree” (1831), among other hysteric symptoms, which was only attributed to females during the time period. victor himself acknowledges this, when in the same passage he describes himself as being “timid as a love-sick girl” (1823).

because of how the gender switch is able to function within science fiction, victor’s narrative is a traditionally female one synthesized through a male narrator, and shelley is able to disguise themes that would have otherwise been met with affront had they been more blatant. when considering this in the context of the creature's birth, victor is essentially a teenager pregnant out of wedlock alienated from his family in a foreign country–much like mary shelley herself–yet in the end, shelley demonstrates that even being male does not help him, because when it boils down to it he is still a single parent without support. victor also fails to uphold his family’s paternal legacy as syndics and judges, pursuing his passion of natural philosophy/alchemy instead to the disapproval of his father, which he is punished for, as it ultimately leads to the creation of the creature and victor’s subsequent downfall.

i’ve established the link between being outwardly emotional and equating this with femininity (which, if i haven’t made clear, i inherently disagree with btw), but i wanted to acknowledge its consequences for victor. when victor fails to suppress the emotion and grief that alphonse tries to encourage victor to suck up, after the death of clerval, this is mistaken for guilt and he faces months of imprisonment. he is also confined in a mental institution when he appears mad. generally, when being emotional he is disbelieved and not taken seriously, for example during his ramblings to henry when ill at ingolstadt, which were never acknowledged, or when telling the magistrate about the situation and trying to get them to pursue the creature. it very much feels like the way women’s emotions weren't (and aren’t) taken seriously and are undermined, were seen as melodramatic, exaggerated, inferior, etc. this forces victor to take matters into his own hands several times–agreeing to make the female creature after justine’s trial (which ultimately leads to what is essentially abortion), deciding to pursue the creature himself after the magistrate disbelieved him, etc. which always resulted in victor putting himself in situations that were dangerous and risked his life.

we’ve spoken pretty extensively in DMs on how love is conditional amongst the frankensteins, so i won’t reiterate all of that here, but generally, much of alphonse’s characterization feels like a reflection of godwin’s beliefs, particularly his ideas on how grief should be thought about and handled. godwin says this in a letter to mary after her son william (shelley)’s death:

this letter pretty directly parallels a conversation alphonse has with victor after william (frankenstein)’s death:

to me, this recontextualizes a lot of victor and alphonse’s interactions, particularly when viewing victor’s narrative as a feminine/maternal one and, in part, as influenced by shelley's own experiences as a woman, daughter and mother. it also feels significant, then, to point out that shelley chose to dedicate frankenstein to godwin.

It's interesting how the second sentence victor starts the story with is "My ancestors had been for many years counsellors and syndics" and while i always focused on the effect it has on, for example, victor; trying to see the life of alphonse is also interesting in the way we can observe his trauma leaking out into his parenting methods and attitude towards his kids and wife.

Like,

-It is said they have a long history with being important and engaged in country's business. And as we see Alphonsa followed it, (and i highly suspect even when he sent victor to college he still expected him to take over this position later on), probably not having much of a choice either. It was all passed down, and even the character of this job is being passed down too. For example, traits fitting this job - responsibilities/brain over feelings. A sense of duty that follows them everywhere. Love isn't unconditional, it's a duty, as well as everything else they do.

It seems like he's just passing down the generational trauma.

Another instances where his bad experiences are being reflected in his behavior towards victor and others is also seen here:

-His dearest friend suddenly disappeared. Turns out he hid because of hurt pride of losing his fortune, simultaneously almost destroying his daughter's life bc of that as well as his own. and Alphonse felt betrayed that this false pride was more important than their friendship = notice how Alphonse assumes the reason for victor's misery is a false pride. And desperatively wants to keep his family in close-circle, so they won't leave each other. And him.

-He looked for the friend for a long time without stopping, but in the end was disappointed. "But when he entered, misery and despair alone welcomed him. Beaufort had saved but a very small sum of money from the wreck of his fortunes; but it was sufficient to provide him with sustenance for some months, and in the mean time he hoped to procure some respectable imployment in a merchant’s house. The interval was consequently spent in inaction; his grief only became more deep and rankling, when he had leisure for reflection; and at length it took so fast hold of his mind, that at the end of three months he lay on a bed of sickness, incapable of any exertion." = notice how he always thinks despair is useless and leads to even worse consequences, so, feeling things is BAD.

-After making a big deal out of loving and finding the friend, the moment he actually sees him dead, instead of thinking about that or even mentioning alphonse was sad or smth, theres not a single sentence about alphonse's reaction or even of that friend anymore, instead all attention drifts to beautiful poor Caroline and suddenly it's a story about saving her. Everything got romantized. = Obviously, the romantization of grief and suffering was very ingrained in Victor's whole family. It probably came from Alphonse and his ancestors too.

- It's also said in 1818 ver that alphonse really loved his sister (the mother of elizabeth) and she abandoned him (cut him off).

"for some years my father had very little communication with her."

= Now remember alphonse's later words and lessons about how cutting your family off means you are neglecting yourself and your other duties etc.

So yeak, Idk I just love how Frankenstein is also about generational trauma and people who didn't process their feelings ruining their kids' lifes. (and don't get me started on Caroline.)

[djiange]

(no one asks but here's my merlin headcanon. i mean, love triangle is an indispensable necessity in arthurian romance, so) 

top 3 fav characters: merlin, morgana, gwaine. (irish gang yay)

top 3 fav ships: merthur, mergana, merwaine.

my only hard no on the ships involving merlin is gwen/merlin... i just, don't get it. (imo they're like schuyler sisters with gwen being not so clueless a girl as eliza. gwen is a brilliant and sensitive person who would definitely notice merlin's poorly hidden feelings if she cared. so that leaves gwen either not caring merlin that much like we'd like to think of her, or knowing merlin's heart but still choosing to marry her supposed bff's love of his life.)

don't really ship ships without merlin, ESPECIALLY arthur/others and gwaine/others. (sorry i’m such a petty person.) except for pre-canon morgana/arthur. i love that pendragon siblings thought it was more than enough that at least they had each other and all the time ahead, but then, boom, here comes the peasant boy.

and every time seeing arthur/others or gwaine/others i feel like a teenager trying to play it cool when they see the new family of the parent they don't live with after the divorce because they know it's not their life choice to make and splitting up might be in fact a better choice and wanna act like an adult but deep down they just cry like it's the fckn end of the world (sorry i’m not only petty but also really melodramatic)

btw merlin is a sub vers bttm in dis house and i'm too vulnerable to see him otherwise🥺

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 253: That Good Angst

Previously on BnHA: The villain Ending, whose name in retrospect is hella melodramatic for a guy whose power is MAKING ROAD MARKINGS COME TO LIFE, kidnapped Natsuo and then deservedly got his ass kicked by three teenagers. Endeavor won the manga’s coveted Best Hug award, made up by me just now, and then gave one of the best monologues in the whole series, basically owning up to all his crimes and saying he doesn’t want or deserve his son’s forgiveness. And he didn’t get it either, which was excellent. Instead, he announced to his kids that he was building them a new home for them to go live in with their mother and without him. Meanwhile Katsuki was all, “btw I’ve decided on my new hero name,” and the ENTIRE FANDOM was all “!!!!” until he went on to say, “but I ain’t revealing SHIT until I’ve told it to Best Jeanist,” which caused everyone to collectively wince and awkwardly glance at each other wondering who’s going to break it to him. Uh.

Today on BnHA: hAHAHAHAHHA.

Sorry, I forgot to turn my capslock back off. Anyways, so we return to U.A. and everything is all “HAPPY NEW YEAR IIDA!” and “STILL ON ABOUT THAT UNREQUITED LOVE THING, HUH OCHAKO?” and “LOOKS LIKE THAT SCAMPISH IMP BAKUGOU IS AT IT AGAIN!” and all the usual stuff. We then have a complete switch of gears, and I seriously mean like the GEAR SWITCH TO END ALL GEAR SWITCHES, as we cut to Aizawa and Mic driving to Tartarus! Why are they driving to Tartarus you ask? Well it’s because they got a call from Naomasa and he was all “hey, so you know your deceased childhood friend from chapters 59 through 65 of Vigilantes? Well IT TURNS OUT I HAVE A FUNNY STORY ABOUT THAT.” Anyway so the rest of this chapter can basically be summed up as (1) LOL SO KUROGIRI WAS REALLY SHIRAKUMO ALL ALONG, and (2) AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

btw the whole reason I spoiled myself in the first place was because my dumbass id was all “WE SHOULD CHECK IF THEY MENTION THE HERO NAME” and I was like “YES” and just immediately lost all self-control. like it wasn’t an accidental click or anything; I was fully aware of what I was doing. lord knows what I would have done if I actually had been spoiled about the hero name lol. that would have been so much worse than the spoiler I actually got, so yeah. just stupid decisions all around. anyways how are you

no BnHA thumbnails on the Mangastream homepage today. must mean Kacchan didn’t make any good faces. ah well

lmao the chapter is literally titled “Shirakumo.” well I guess I wasn’t spoiled much after all. I did catch a half-glimpse (I was trying not to look; like, I had my fingers covering my eyes and was peeking through them. again, I’m not really sure what I was trying to accomplish in the first place honestly) of what seemed to be Aizawa with a shocked expression on his face though, so that’s why I was so convinced Kumo was somehow coming back from the dead or something. WE SHALL SEE

MY FORMULA 1 SON!!

lol I’m having one of those Berenstein moments. like. he didn’t always have those huge exhaust pipes running out from his sides and from either leg, right? those are just for this cover. or else something new and fancy he just added to his suit. right??

anyway so yes, Iida is the color page this week, just as we all expected from a chapter titled “Shirakumo”

“WINTER BREAK WAS OVER IN A FLASH” oh man. ain’t that always the way

wow I’ve really missed U.A. like, we’re cutting to these panels of USJ and the stadium, and it’s so fucking nostalgic geez. we weren’t even gone that long

Deku’s voiceover is talking about how they only have three months left in their “tumultuous” first year. ha. tumultuous. if Deku hadn’t met up with All Might, he could have easily fallen back on a career in PR; he’s got a gift for phrasing things diplomatically

Iida is wishing everyone a happy new year! happy new year Iida!!

he’s announcing that their class will be an action report meeting, which apparently means everyone’s gonna share what they learned over the winter break

but now he’s telling everyone to come down to Field Alpha, which Mangastream annoyingly spelled out with the Greek symbol α, forcing me to look it up because I’m sorry but I don’t speak math. ?? like what is this

now Aizawa’s sliding the door open all CRANKY because he’s MISSING HIS NAP

but Mina is all smooth like,

Mina could also have had a promising future in PR. well it’ll still serve them well in their hero careers too

oh my lord

WHAT is that FACE, Iida. just what. is that an eyebrow waggle. what the fuck. he looks like the next words out of his mouth were going to be “sliding into people’s dms”

jokes’s on you Horikoshi!! you think a panel like this will stop my “stupid sexy Iida” jokes? IT ONLY MAKES ME LOVE HIM MORE

oh? someone on the loudspeaker is calling Aizawa and summoning him to the faculty room. I wonder what this could be about. probably nothing!

now we’re cutting to the changing room and the girls are admiring Ochako’s new costume!

I’ll add an ETA later where I actually analyze the changes in her costume. right now let’s just pretend like I’m aware of what actually changed. I swear I pay attention to things. by the way, why would the suitcase get heavy? her quirk can be applied to anything can’t it?

(ETA: so the costume changes are (1) an upgrade to her gauntlets, and (2) an upgrade to her headset. so anyway that’s pretty cool, even if it was really only brought up in this chapter so that we could get that SWEET YA ROMANCE DRAMA. which I know annoys some people, but at this point I feel like Horikoshi only throws it in because he’s expected to, and the way he does it is so adorably reluctant that I can’t help but enjoy it at this point lol.)

OH MY GOD

OCHAKO YOU KEPT DEKU’S CHRISTMAS PRESENT TO YOU IN YOUR HERO COSTUME FOR GOOD LUCK, OH MY GOD. (1) YOU ARE THE LITERAL CUTEST, (2) IT’S TIMES LIKE THIS I’M GLAD I SHIP BASICALLY EVERYTHING BECAUSE THIS IS A DELIGHT, and (3) MINA’S REACTION TO THIS IS ABOUT TO BE MY FAVORITE THING OF ALL TIME, SO LET’S COUNT DOWN TO IT IN 3... 2...

okay but before we click to the next page, I just need to draw everyone’s attention to the background of that Jirou panel, where I’m pretty sure that is Ochako acquiring Hagakure’s quirk in a moment of transcendent desperation, much like how parents are able to summon incredible strength in times of crisis to lift cars off of their trapped children and shit. we are witnessing the next stage of human evolution over here

-- oh fuck me

hello, Horikoshi? yes, this was supposed to be a cute moment of teens being teens and giggling over high school crushes. did you not get the memo. what are you doing here with this sucker punch of feels right to my fucking kidneys. why would you do that. why does this panel of Ochako make me want to fucking cry, I did not ask for this

(ETA: but like also, you see how he just instantly drops the subject less than a panel later lol. like “THERE’S YOUR ROMANCE PLOT, OKAY?? NOW BACK TO THE REANIMATED BRAINWASHED CHILDHOOD FRIENDS ARC.”)

meanwhile in the boy’s locker room! so apparently word has spread about Deku mastering Bloopwhip!

so Ojiro is evidently fucking ripped under that karate gi. Ojiro, this one corner of a panel with you facing away from the screen is possibly the most interesting thing you’ve ever done. have you considered what a costume change might do for your image. I’m just saying

lmao Deku

I have never in my life found the idea of Villain Deku even remotely convincing until this exact moment. jesus christ. Deku are you sure there isn’t a little piece of AFO horcrux soul in you right at this moment. just wondering. if it was Kaminari doing this, the headline for this chapter would be “KAMINARI 100% CONFIRMED THE TRAITOR” and even I would find myself hard-pressed to argue at this point

anyway, the hero we deserve is stepping in to bring him back to reality sob

(ETA: I’m not even going to check the bnha tag to see if there is discourse about this, because I already know!! because clearly this is a very serious panel which should be taken 100% seriously!! anyway I’m not even going to go here lol.)

it’s okay kids I’m already dialing 911. Kacchan, honey, come here. listen, we need to put you in a time out. I love you but you can’t just go around throwing your spiky headgear at people like a fucking tomahawk, and also what the fuck is that thing even made of jesus christ

sob is Deku actually fucking dead

and so, while the girls were having cute shoujo drama about a romantic All Might plush, over in the boy’s locker room an actual murder was going down

FSDKDJL

I can’t. stop laughing. I

and the way they’re all just staring at him and clearly have no idea what to fucking do at this point. “so should we just... leave it in, then?” lmao Horikoshi what the fuck kind of substance did you ingest before you went and drew this. I need me some of that

(ETA: and now that I’ve mostly stopped laughing, I would also just like to point out that he is essentially saying “I just had to stop thinking so hard about it and just do it”, which I’ve only been saying SINCE FOREVER, DEKU, but sure go ahead and don’t listen to me then!)

ALL MIGHT IS...

WHY, YOU ASK? WHO CARES!!

lol apparently it’s a pun. someone go over there and check to make sure this All Might isn’t actually a bunch of Mirios hidden underneath a trench coat

anyway so they’re completely unimpressed, because they’re all jaded fucking teenagers with no souls, and they’re asking where Aizawa is

is this the part where we slide right back into the angst after our brief humorous interlude with the kiddos. because I am ready. bring it

OOOOH HERE WE GO, LOOK AT THIS TENSION

SO HERE WE HAVE MIC ACTUALLY TELLING AIZAWA TO SHUT THE FUCK UP, AND IT’S CONFIRMED, THE WORLD IS ENDING

and look at Aizawa’s body language. arms crossed, fingers tapping anxiously, gritting his teeth. fucking Mic has to tell him to calm down. jesus christ. anyway so Aizawa angst is apparently MY DRUG you guys, and Horikoshi you can go right ahead and INJECT THAT SHIT STRAIGHT INTO MY VEINS

AHHHHHHH

OHHHHHH THAT’S GOOD. I might need someone to come and slap me in the face in another minute just to make sure I can continue here

-- HOLD UP, WHAT

THAT SOUND YOU HEAR IS THE SOUND OF MY MENTAL BRAKES SCREECHING TO A FUCKING HALT, EVERYONE HOLD THE FUCK UP WHILE I DO A QUICK MENTAL ROLL CALL OF THE VILLAIN CAST AT USJ. FUCK ME, PLEASE TELL ME HE WASN’T THE NOUMU. BUT ASIDE FROM HIM AND TOMURA, AND THE FACELESS NO-NAME VILLAINS, THAT ONLY LEAVES... OKAY MY BRAIN JUST SERIOUSLY FROZE UP WHILE PROCESSING THIS, BECAUSE NO FUCKING WAY

fuck me fuck me FUCK ME

there is no fucking way it can really be Kurogiri, can it?? Kumo didn’t have a portal quirk. but All For One, though?? but no wait because we know he didn’t have that quirk because he had to use the other teleportation one instead. John’s or whoever’s

so then the only other option is the Noumu. could this be the start of the Noumu arc at long last?! oh my godddddd I’m about to get up out of my seat and just jump around for a second to get all my nerves out. ahhhhhhh

Horikoshi knew full well what he was doing titling the chapter “Shirakumo” and then teasing us with this incredibly tense buildup, too. I have actual fucking chills

oh my god IT REALLY IS THE NOUMU ISN’T IT

I HATE AND LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS SIMULTANEOUSLY, IT IS THE WEIRDEST FEELING. IT’S BOTH INVIGORATING AND TERRIFYING HOLY SHIT

I WANTED THIS. I KNEW IT WAS GONNA BE DARK. I WANTED IT SO BAD AND I COULDN’T WAIT FOR IT AND NOW IT’S FINALLY HAPPENING AND WHAT A FUCKING WAY TO KICK IT OFF I JUST!!!

AHHHHH

DON’T MIND ME PLEASE CONTINUE AND IGNORE ALL OF MY SILENT SCREAMING!!!!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

AIZAWA IS ABOUT TO LOSE HIS FUCKING MIND. HIS CLOSEST FRIEND WAS DESECRATED AND VIOLATED IN AN UNIMAGINABLE WAY AND TRANSFORMED INTO SOMETHING UNRECOGNIZABLE WITH ALL TRACES OF HUMANITY LOST, AND THIS WHOLE TIME HE THOUGHT HE WAS FUCKING DEAD. THEY DON’T EVEN HAVE A THERAPY FOR THAT, PEOPLE. THAT IS THE KIND OF ANGST THERE’S NO COMING BACK FROM

ANYWAY, SO THERE’S THAT SHOCKED AIZAWA FACE I CAUGHT A GLIMPSE OF YESTERDAY, NOW WITH HORRIFIC CONTEXT, AND IF ANYONE NEEDS ME I’LL JUST BE HERE IN THE CORNER SETTING MY KEYBOARD TO PERMANENT CAPSLOCK, AND UPDATING MY SEXUAL ORIENTATION TO “THE FUCKED-UP AIZAWA ANGST IN THIS CHAPTER” BECAUSE THAT’S APPARENTLY WHAT IT IS AND ALL THIS TIME I NEVER KNEW

OH GODDDDD

BRB UPDATING MY ORIENTATION AGAIN TO “MIC’S COMFORTING HAND ON AIZAWA’S SHOULDER AS AIZAWA STRUGGLES TO HOLD ON TO THE LAST OF HIS COMPOSURE WHILE TRYING AND FAILING TO PROCESS THIS UNFATHOMABLY HEINOUS THING THAT’S ABOUT TO BE REVEALED”

(ETA: and also!! the fact that either Mic’s hand is shaking, or Aizawa is shaking so badly that it’s affecting Mic’s hand on his shoulder too! either way how the hell am I not literally dead after reading this chapter, I don’t even know.)

WAIT WHAT!!!!

THE CORE?! SO WAIT, IS IT KUROGIRI THEN??? OR WHAT?!

(ETA: I know I’m just inserting random commentary all over the place at this point, but like, can we also talk about how Naomasa looks like he hasn’t slept in eleven years?? this is taking such a toll on his soul here and it’s heartbreaking.)

OH MY GOD!!!!!

I WISH I COULD BETTER DESCRIBE THIS FEELING BECAUSE IT’S REALLY SOMETHING!! I’M SO EXCITED AND AT THE SAME TIME FULLY AWARE OF HOW I’M DELIGHTING IN THE PAIN OF THESE FICTIONAL CHARACTERS, SO IT’S LIKE THIS GUILTY SADISTIC GLEE AND AT THE SAME TIME SHOCK AND EXCITEMENT AND DAMN NEAR A KIND OF ELATION AT BEING FULLY TAKEN FOR A RIDE BY THIS EPIC FUCKING TWIST. IT’S GOOD SHIT

SDLKFJASLKDFJ;LKS

(ETA: so if they can trace quirk factors like this, they should be able to do it with the other Noumu they have in captivity, and also with any dead Noumus they’ve collected as well, yes? including the one that Stain killed a few months back? like, don’t mind me, I’m just sitting here trying to calculate the Six Degrees of Bakuangst for this plotline seeing as my brain, as ever, is focused on one thing and one thing only.

and so if they have managed to ID some of the Noumus, would that info maybe be on the Hero Network? meaning Endeavor would have access? would the interns then have access too? or if not, is his password something easily guessable, like Shouto’s birthday or something? will I ever stop running out of hypothetical scenarios along these lines? doesn’t seem likely as of now.)

“SEVERAL DIFFERENT QUIRK FACTORS” HOLY SHIT, AFO. THAT MANIAC. THIS WHOLE TIME MY RESPECTED DOCTOR OF MEDICINE WAS REALLY A HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUT WHO GOT CONKED ON THE HEAD BY SOME FALLING ROCKS ONE DAY. THE GRANDDADDY OF ALL TWISTS!! THIS TWIST WAS CONCEIVED IN THE BOOK OF GENESIS!!

AND BY THE WAY, THANK YOU AGAIN TO THAT ANON, BECAUSE HOLY SHIT THE EMOTIONAL IMPACT IS FUCKING RAW. ONCE I FINALLY COME DOWN FROM THIS BIZARRE HIGH I’M GOING TO CRY FOR AIZAWA BECAUSE HE IS HURTING SO BAD RIGHT NOW AND I CAN’T EVEN, SOMEONE SAVE HIMMMM

WELL FOLKS. THERE IT IS. HORIKOSHI FINALLY HOOKING US UP WITH THAT GOOD ANGST. THE PLOT THAT WAS PROMISED. THE ANGST THAT WAS AVOWED. YOU GUYS I CAN’T BELIEVE AIZAWA SHOUTA WAS SHIGARAKI TOMURA’S FUCKING UNCLE THIS WHOLE FUCKING TIME. HOLY SHIT

AND YOOOO I JUST HAD A BUNCH OF THOUGHTS THAT I CAN BARELY EVEN PROCESS RIGHT NOW BECAUSE THIS REVELATION OPENS UP SO MANY NEW DOORS NOW ALL OF A SUDDEN THOUGH. BUT LIKE, IF AFO AND UJIKO WERE IN THE BUSINESS OF TAKING CHILDREN’S CORPSES AND REVIVING THEM AND INFUSING THEM WITH UPGRADED QUIRKS AND NO MEMORIES OF THEIR PRIOR LIVES, THEN HOLY FUCKING SHIT, WHAT IF A CERTAIN TODOROKI SIBLING REALLY DID FUCKING DIE AND HAS ACTUALLY BEEN A PUPPET OF AFO’S THIS ENTIRE TIME OH MY GOD. THIS CHAPTER IS JUST!!!

(ETA: yeah I actually have a lot of thinking to do about this one, because holy shit. I mean there must be a reason we’re getting this reveal directly on the heels of the Todoangst Arc with all of its talk about Touya and how dead he is, right? god I’m still trying to wrap my head around it all. this stupid manga!!)

AND AIZAWA’S FACE. THE WAY HE’S COVERING HIS MOUTH AS THOUGH TRYING TO KEEP HIMSELF FROM BEING SICK. THE MAN WHO PRIDES HIMSELF ON HIS RATIONALITY IS SO COMPLETELY OVERWHELMED BY EMOTION THAT HE’S STRUGGLING TO KEEP IT TOGETHER. THIS IS THE DEFINING WOUND OF HIS CHILDHOOD, RETURNING ALL OF A SUDDEN TO STAB HIM RIGHT IN THE HEART ALL OVER AGAIN WITH A FRESH NEW KIND OF HORROR. MIC, YOU’D BETTER BE THERE FOR HIM AFTER THIS, BECAUSE HE’S GOING TO FUCKING BREAK DOWN IN THE CAR ON THE RIDE HOME OR SOMETHING PROBABLY, AND HE NEEDS YOU, AND YOU PROBABLY NEED HIM TOO, AND FUCK

I DON’T HAVE SPACE FOR ALL THIS ANGST IN MY HOUSE!!! BUT LIKE HELL AM I GIVING ANY OF IT BACK, IT’S MINE NOW AND I’M KEEPING IT!! I WILL FUCKING RENT OUT A STORAGE LOCKER FOR THE EXCESS!! I WILL HOARD IT ALL LIKE A GREEDY DRAGON IN MY CAVE. THIS ANGST IS MY CHILD NOW. FUCKING SUBSCRIBED, GOOD NIGHT EVERYONE

[alrightsnaps]

Your dislike for Clarke is inspiring. I haven't watched the show since season 3 I think, but I stopped liking her in season 1, so yah. Raven deserved lead.

Raven had the potential to become the sci-fi female lead.

An impoverished girl that grew up with an alcoholic, neglectful mother and managed to grow into a strong yet kindhearted woman? A downright genius latina mechanic that inspires admiration and respect and saves the day time after time? A disabled woman with chronic pain that simply does not know the meaning of the word give up, because she's a survivor that will always fight for her life no matter what?

She'd be fucking iconic!

Raven is simply too good to be true, and these idiotic writers reduce her to a side character they only remember when someone has to save everyone's asses, torture porn (which is absolutely disgusting) or shoving her with the next insignificant dude that joins the show as a love interest.

But it's not just that Clarke doesn't hold a candle next to Raven of course– though she sure as hell does not. I could handle a character I dislike, we all have one or two of those in every show. It's her sidelining every other character, constantly putting everyone (including Raven and Bellamy that are my favourites) in danger and betraying her people, constantly whining about how she never asked for power yet repeatedly stepping forward as a self-proclaimed leader (and fucking everything up once again) and never ever facing any consequences for her actions.

If you can believe it, I started watching the show more than biased in favour of Clarke. In favour of Bellarke. In favour of Clexa. (you know how hyped up all these are on social media!). As far as I knew when I decided to give the show a shot, it was a surprisingly good teen drama (that many compared to got.... I'm still laughing about that bit) with a badass bisexual lead character. What's not to like?

Needless to say that's....not how I found Clarke. Or the show. By season 3, her arrogance, insufferable entitlement and hypocrisy is so in-your-face I could hardly stand her. (Season 6 is downright comical in that sense, with the writers coming up with a melodramatic martyresque Clarke centred plot to make her come out as the victim, when in last season's finale she sent Raven to get tortured and Bellamy to die in a fighting pit. The lengths to which they'll go to avoid her actually facing the consequences of her actions never cease to amaze me.)

I guess it has to do in big part with how cw shows are in general– no in depth characters that merely serve as puppets to move an action filled plot forward, and zero logical consequence. The 100 feels like watching a Walmart version of the mess that were seasons 7+8 of GoT on a loop. A constant tell-not-show narattive– we'll tell you who's the good guy and who’s the villain, even though our labels don't make much sense as far as the characters’ actions and motivations are concerned.

For example, D&D decide that Dany is the bad guy and start hinting it since season 7, even though her actual actions up to 8x04 directly contradict it. So she's made out to look like an arrogant bitch for not giving some random guy free pass to her resources or agreeing to help him fight some fairytale ice zombies the moment she sees him, her killing enemies in battle after they brutally wipe out her allies is interpreted as some Mad Queen foreshadowing, her not giving North an independence they have no armies to fight for or the skills to negotiate for, is proof that she'll become a tyrant and so on.

And of course the double standards– Dany is mad and too eager to use violence for not mourning her lifelong abuser, killing rapists and crucifying slave masters after they did the same to literal kids, but Sansa and Arya are kweens for smiling after feeding her rapist to his dogs and massacring a room full of people and baking actual human beings into pies respectively. Daenerys shows the signs of a tyrant for executing the men that betrayed their liege lord and butchered their entire House after actually giving them a choice, but Robb barely an imperfect leader for doing the same to Rickard Karstark, without giving him much of a say in the matter either. (The list could go on forever.)

In the same way in the 100 (or in reverse I guess?) Clarke is supposed to be some heroic leader, even though she lets one of her own get executed for a war crime without even demanding (or at least trying to negotiate) that the same price is paid by the opposing side when it comes to their war criminals (especially since this was a war started by the grounders against a group of defenceless teenage refugees in the first place) all to achieve a fragile alliance (btw I'll never forgive the 100 for making me care for Finn McPlainface, whose scenes I could barely watch without falling asleep, but good god, was his death poorly handled. Are these writers ignorant in politics or plain stupid?). After they are betrayed by their ‘allies’ she abandons her people at a crucial time and then.....jumps into bed with the woman that forced her to kill her boyfriend, left them all to die and had her kidnapped (thanks for the quality sapphic rep cw– I hate it). She falls madly in love with her in the span of five days, immediately reclaiming her role as a leader without even asking the actual people she's supposed to lead (and that's just the first three seasons!).

But a hero and a leader she is.

Then there's, once again, the horrifically obvious double standards. How is it possible to blatantly judge your characters based on different standards even within the same season? Clarke can blow up 250+ of her own people to save her ass and nobody even learns about it, much less have her pay the price for her choice. She can literally get into bed with the enemy while insisting on playing leader without asking anyone, and there are no reprecussions whatsoever. But Bellamy’s s03 massacre of an army of people that had repeatedly chased, tortured, killed, threatened and attempted to massacre them repeatedly (and were once again doing that at the time of Bellamy’s actions), will be brought up again and again and again in future seasons because it makes him a Dark Character Beyond Redemption, which the audience isn't allowed to forget.

Or Pike– a refugee that witnessed countless of his own people persecuted and violently murdered by the locals from the moment he stepped foot on the ground is straight up portrayed as shady for distrusting them (never mind Sky people were once again threatened with a massacre at the time). He was literally paralleled to Trump by this hellish fandom (while mass murderer Lexa is supposed to be some Flower Power Badass Queen I guess) and shoved a shitty trope of the xenophobic entitled colonizer, straight up ignoring the show's context (how anyone could make the Skaikru/colonizers and grounders/Native Americans parallels with no shame is beyond me, but apparently some people have difficulty differentiating between colonizers and refugees, as if the two are even remotely close). I'm not excusing anything he did afterwards of course–he clearly went off the rails. My problem is the show portraying him straight up as the Bad Guy for holding actual democratic elections, while the privileged non elected elite that led them to the Mount Weather mess were supposed to be the Good ones. Much like Dany was the Tyranical Dragon Queen from the moment she set foot in Winterfell, because Sansa had prophetic abilities and could predict the clusterfuck of 8x05 I guess!

At the end of the day, I was a fool to trust any recommendations and take a cw show seriously.. if it weren't for Bellamy and Raven I'd be out of this mess loooooooong ago! I'll hardly last this season really, not when every episode is dedicated to praising Princess Clarke Griffin, Bellamy having turned into her hypnotised lapdog with no personality of his own, and her stans constantly attacking Raven for not kissing her ass and *daring* to hold her responsible for her actions.

[lassieposting]

Random head canon. Skul and Val telling her parents they are together!! Can we just.. *literallysquealing* ah thanks btws your valdug fan fic links were so good ❤

Oh god. This. Goes. So badly.

okay so i guess just how angry desmond and melissa are depends on how long val waits before deciding she actually wants to pursue a romantic relationship with skulduggery? because they’d react very differently if she announced in book ten that they’re together, versus if she waited until she was thirty or fourty or so, where they’re less likely to see her as a child or as a young person who’s being taken advantage of

but for max fun points, let’s say valdug happens when she comes home from america. she’s twenty-three, and the long separation has made her realise that she doesn’t want to be apart from skulduggery ever, basically. so that’s now a thing.

he is like. 100% against the idea of telling her parents. it was bad enough when he had to meet them in tdotl. he does not, he tells her, make a good impression on parents. the last time he had to meet a significant other’s parents, he had a body and made every effort to be polite, and kenspeckle grouse still came at him with a shotgun. now, val wants to announce that she’s screwing the undead, who her family already happen to strongly dislike and disapprove of immensely. he’s pretty sure she’s never had a worse idea, and that’s counting the time she decided she could totally eat three whole pizzas and was sick for two days.

val, on the other hand, is tentatively certain that her folks will be happy for her. skulduggery makes her happy, takes care of her, and has a bottomless bank account. what’s not to like? 

she’s painfully aware that it will probably not go as well as she hopes it will, but skul is important to her, and she wants him involved with her family. she wants to be able to bring him with her to family functions. she wants him to be a part of a family again, not to always be left on the outside while she turns up to events and always talks about the partner nobody ever sees who “can’t make it, unfortunately” to every. single. thing.

it goes about as well as skulduggery expected. he’s not a coward, so he goes with her when she tells them, and he watches her parents just get stiffer and more icy-eyed and icy-voiced. he knows how skeevy it looks. it doesn’t matter that he loves val, that he’d die for val or kill for val, what matters to them right now is that he’s a very well-off, very charismatic older guy who’s been spending a lot of time - unbeknownst to them - with their daughter since she was twelve, and has apparently just made his final move 

they think he’s a predator

needless to say, this is very upsetting for him, but it’s exactly what he was expecting

des, usually so mild-mannered and pleasant, decides it’s time to be a father, and he asks for a moment alone with skulduggery to talk, man to man. skul is the better fighter, and has reflexes honed by 400 years of battle, so when des swings a punch he blocks it, while des works out his anger at this guy who stole his little girl. all val and melissa hear from outside is a whole lot of shouting and skulduggery trying to calm him down, but melissa stops val going in there to break it up

when they emerge, skulduggery goes to sit in the bentley, partly because he’s actually upset by how this is going and partly because he’s old enough and smart enough to know that him being there isn’t helping things. to them it probably looks like he’s hovering over val to make sure she says the right things, rather than that he’s there as emotional backup for her doing something that makes her nervous

val is upset by this point too, and probably has a Melodramatic Teenage Moment, even though she’s not a teenager anymore, with the but why dont you care if i’m happyyyyyyyyy, verging on either tears or shouting and not sure which is the better option here

anyway, it ends badly. val flees the house before she says something she’ll regret and skulduggery is stiff-backed and silent on the drive back to cemetery road, and she feels like if she breaks the silence it’ll be like poking a bear with a stick

they don’t bring it up again. he gets over his sulk, hides how hurt he is, and val gets over the argument with her family. they’ve got each other. nothing else matters. all that.

and then, a week or so later, skulduggery says, “i spoke to fergus today.”

that’s not as weird as it was once. she knows skulduggery and her uncle have an…acquaintanceship…of sorts, built up over the five years she’d been away. she knows that it’s kind of down to her, that skulduggery wouldn’t have sought out fergus’ company if he hadn’t been so lonely, hadn’t needed someone he could talk to about her and all she was suffering alone and in relative silence halfway across the world

but when skulduggery tells her fergus has agreed to intercede on their behalf with valkyrie’s parents, well, that’s surprising. fergus must approve of skulduggery more than she’d ever thought

it’s a couple of weeks - with absolutely no word from fergus - before melissa edgley texts val out of the blue, asking to meet for a cup of tea at gordon’s old house. neutral ground. bring skulduggery.

“what are you doing?” val asks her mother, getting out to go ahead while skulduggery parks the bentley outside the mansion

“giving him a chance,” her mother says, obviously very deliberately keeping her tone and expression neutral. “fergus came round, would you believe it. he thinks your father and i are being too hard on you.”

it’s not what val would call a resounding success, but skulduggery is polite and well-mannered and almost too understanding of how her mother feels, and her mother is polite and well-mannered and makes an effort to have a civil conversation

it’s a start