#no I wasn’t lonely

[luriuan]

Sokka and Zuko get SO much funnier when you remember this is both of their first times talking to another teenage boy in years. Sokka had all the other boys leave the tribe when he was little and Zuko just hasn’t talked to other teenage boys. They wanna be friends but have absolutely no clue how to talk to other teenagers. I love them so much.

[doctorsiren]

Consider: I repackage another ace attorney au (split phoenix au) into mp100 for the sillies

[guardian-angle22]

911: Lone Star | Tarlos Head Kisses (S1 -> S4)

↳ for @rmd-writes

[ghostfrog81]

Sgt. Pepper’s but it’s more than vaguely inspired by With the Beatles

[sweettkstrand]

Oh THAT’S why TK said Enzo wouldn’t take Jonah to dim sum

[eclectic-sassycoweyes]

Okay. The thing is - we’ll never get everything from this show, we’ll never get to see everything play out. The conversations will always be fractioned and half. It’s a prime time network show that gives us 45 minutes of screen time each episode spread out between a whole cast of characters and plot lines and action sequences.

And my point with that is: Everything outside of what we see in canon is >us< filling in the blanks, interpreting and basically finishing the characters and the storylines.

If you dislike a character or storyline, a large amount of what you dislike will be of your own making. Which means that you created that negative take, only to be negative about it.

If a character isn’t giving all their background and reasons, or isn’t providing what you find to be a sufficient apology for what you believe is a ‘wrong doing’ then that’s you deciding that their reasons were bad instead of valid. You deciding to go ‘I hate this character bc they didn’t apologize’ instead of going ‘I trust that this character apologized but I hate that we didn’t get to see it’ or even ‘I hate that they wrote this character as not apologizing’.

And like. Just because I love these characters and this show or a certain storyline doesn’t mean I think we can’t be critical of it. And it doesn’t mean I expect everyone else to love anything or everything about it. And mostly with this negativity for negativity’s sake, it just makes me think ‘well people are weird’.

Because I literally don’t get watching a show you don’t like and then spending time posting about it using that show’s fandom tags, or painting a character in a bad light just so you can feel negative about it. I don’t get going for drama and negativity when you can go for joy. I get criticizing or even hating the writing, talking about writing that might be problematic, and not resonating with the way a storyline or a character is written, but I don’t get hating a Character that is, in fact, not real and can never be fully fleshed out in a show like this.

But the problem is also when these takes either:

1.) are meant for and created to deliberately reach into other people’s place of joy and create drama.

And, even more so, 2.) when they are racist, ableist, misogynistic in nature and thus are doing real harm to real people. Which, is in fact very much the case when TK is called a ‘twink’ and that term is meant as derogatory or his addiction is being used against him; when Carlos isn’t being emphasized with at all, and attempted to be understood for his reasons, feelings and actions, or isn’t allowed to have complicated, ‘negative’ emotions but is expected to be there to be TK’s ever perfect and present support rock; when Iris is being called words like crazy, or other derogatory terms and her illness or trauma isn’t acknowledged, or she’s being painted stereotypically and as an un-nuanced character bc of her mental illness.

And I don’t get it bc we literally see TK being strong for and supporting Carlos several times in canon. We see Carlos developing and working on his insecurities, educating himself on addiction to best be there for TK. We are told where those insecurities come from. We saw TK’s struggles with active addiction. We literally saw Carlos’ dad being shot in his own home wearing the tux he was supposed to wear as Carlos’ best man, just when their relationship and old wounds were on the mend, heard his mother, who watched it happen, scream down the line while on the phone with Carlos, who also heard it happen. We don’t see anybody but Carlos seeking justice, and we still see Carlos making an effort to spend quality time with TK and communicate openly with him. And we saw TK going to bed without his husband not for the first time, knowing that he’s in pain and that grief has previously let him to feel alone and to close up and end up in a dangerous and unhealthy place, where TK couldn’t reach him or help him. We know that there is past trauma and experience for TK that will make him recognize patterns and make him worry for both Carlos’ wellbeing, and for their marrriage.

And, we see them loving, caring for and forgiving each other through it all. We see a relationship with two people who are not always right, not always perfect, but who are doing the best they can and being by each other’s sides through that. We see nuanced and realistic conflicts with root in both of their trauma. [And loving one character and trusting their judgement but not trusting their love and evaluation of the other is just very difficult for me to understand.]

Everything apart from that, the thoughts, feelings and motivations we assign them, the moments, conversations and apologies we imagine or don’t imagine to have taken place, how two characters came from having a conflict to saying ‘I love you’/‘I forgive you’, or to being friends and dancing at a wedding, what lead characters to say “I’ll keep a light on”/“I feel like we’re starting to drift apart”/“we’re doing great”, what else they might have said, and what they might have felt in that situation, is stuff we make up and put into the story. And so it is up to us whether we try and understand and love these characters or whether we want to make them into bad people, and then hate them for it.

[purpledemonart]

Lord Sooga a la woodcut print!

[foli-vora]

hi—

so i’ll be saying farewell to foli this year. as much as i’m proud and so in love with what i’ve created here, she’s starting to give me major stress headaches and i simply can’t deal. this started out fun and sweet, but it has increasingly created bigger and bigger issues for me and it’s no longer a space i find comfort and peace in, so i think it’s time for me to move on.

i thought about deleting this blog, or slowly morphing away from what i’ve been doing here, but it didn’t feel right. i know it’s just a blog, but it still means something to me.

should you still wish to visit/follow little ol’ me, i’ll now be living over here. i’ll still be the normal unhinged foli that loves talking filth, just now under a different name with a shiny new corner of the internet/main blog.

this blog will stay up so you can still read my organised pile of trash that i know some of you enjoy, and i’ll probably still continue to write because i do love it, but it won’t be promised or often, and it’ll mostly be ao3 focused in other fandoms, and not so much surrounding the pedro fandom anymore.

i will be wrapping everything up here, so don’t worry about any unfinished series’—i wouldn’t do that to you lmao. thank you for the good times here, angels. i appreciate each and every one of you. hope to see you over on the new side. ily 💖

[kindaasrikal]

Guys I’m going to cry the ninjago writers are pure evil.

Season 1, episode 2, is named ‘Home’

And its the episode that shows the ninja finding their new home (the bounty) and Zane finding his home and family.

AND THEN THESE DAMN WRITERS PUT BABY LLOYD AT THE END STARING AT THE BOUNTY ALL SAD AS THE NINJA LAUGH IN THE BACKGROUND HAPPILY. AND THEN HE WALKS AWAY SO DEJECTEDLY.

WHAT.

THATS NOT FAIRRRRR NOY BABY LLOYD HE DESERVES BETTER GUYS OMG.

[frogaroundandfindout]

Dick: Look. I know why you’re here. You don’t want Bludhaven’s problems spreading into your precious Gotham. And you don’t trust me to contain this. But the Haven is my personal crusade. Just like Gotham is yours. And I’ve been doing all right so far.

Bruce: I never means to intrude. I’m surprised to hear you talk about Gotham that way.

Dick: it’s not my hometown. I was born in a trailer by the big top. I never really had a hometown. Until now.

Bruce: I didn’t know you felt like that. But I understand. Well. That’s it then.

Dick: Damn.

Nightwing Vol.2. #14

[arthabz]

i love jayvik and caitvi because of their conflicts. And because they still love each other despite their major differences. I love them because they all still have walls and wounds, and yet, are the hammer and bandage for each other. Obviously, because they still have major conflict and are doomed by the plot, they don’t have a happy ending. That is my hot take, that the ship should include the angst, emphasize it, even. End in the inevitable breakup because they will never not clash. It makes it all the more real and emotional that despite it all they still desperately, selfishly want each other in their life. To fill that cavity with something familiar.

[concrete-3ater]

if I had a nickel for every time I was in a fandom and a child character had a breakdown and did something that accidentally hurt another character, and then the fandom all turned on the character and vilified them because they [the fandom] can’t understand that sometimes 14 year olds make mistakes when they’re going through something traumatic, I would have 2 nickels

not a lot but it really is weird it happened twice

[ironheartwriter]

Remember y’all. Rafa was so into that scene that his foot got stuck under that damn dresser and it fell on him.

[skyloftian-nutcase]

Link sighed, listening to the crickets as he laid in the grass. Sonia was napping peacefully, a gentle, grounding weight pressed against his chest as she laid on top of him. Occasionally he tipped his head to kiss her hair, smiling at the golden curls.

They’d played all afternoon and into the evening, which technically meant she’d missed her afternoon nap. That would likely come back to bite him (or the nannies), but she was sleeping now, right? He couldn’t say no to her, honestly – they were having so much fun, and he… well, it seemed he had little impulse control when it came to his daughter. Perhaps they were both toddlers, he mused with a smile.

His mind wandered as he rested. His recent visit to Hemisi was still weighing him down, frustrating and freeing and terrifying and painful as it was. He didn’t particularly like that he couldn’t remember what had happened after they’d started drinking (surely… surely nothing too terrible—as wild as Hemisi could be, his dear friend also had principles as well… and they’d woken up in separate rooms, fully dressed…), hated that he’d let himself lose control like that, hated it even more knowing that Zelda had likely figured it would happen.

Zelda. He still couldn’t believe she’d—how could she—

Link bit his lip. He didn’t know why he was surprised, honestly. Zelda had been ordering him around since their marriage, since he’d enslaved himself and then made himself thoroughly useless.

He knew he hadn’t been doing the queen any favors. His mere acceptance of the proposal had helped her, of course—the Sheikah had been brought back into unity, the Sage of Shadow had pledged her loyalty to Zelda as a result, the people had seen it as a sign of destiny itself that everything would be fine—but since then… he’d only just recently started to step up once more. He knew that. He wasn’t perfect. It wasn’t like Zelda hadn’t been struggling and trying to rebuild a nation by herself.

But it still hurt that she would start treating him like she did the nobles. Link wasn’t an enemy, damn it. It wasn’t the fact that she’d sent him to the desert that bothered him, it was that she’d had an ulterior motive without telling him, and she’d wanted to manipulate Hemisi as well. He would not stand for that.

Sighing, the king consort rested his hand overtop his daughter’s back, trying to settle himself and only feeling bitter. He’d thought maybe their relationship was improving after he’d finally started helping, after the incident with House Ishita. He supposed he’d been wrong.

Perhaps I’m just not doing enough, an old, familiar anxiety whispered. He ignored it. That anxiety had driven him to tear himself apart his entire life, seeking the approval of others. He was sick of it. He was so sick of it.

It was foolish to assume everything would be fine. Almost four years had passed since their wedding, and neither of them had really been an admirable spouse. But as he looked down at his daughter once more, Link felt his heart soften a little. At least something good has come of it.

His mind betrayed him a moment, thoughts lingering on Hemisi for too long, wondering what it would have been like to have children with her, and he shook his head as his hand slid off his daughter. It did him no good to linger on such sentiments. He knew that by now. Why couldn’t he just accept the position he was stuck in, that he’d put himself in? Why did he have to be so angry, so hurt, so lonely? Fear gripped at his heart as he looked away from Sonia, the same fear that partly drove him to avoid her when she’d been born, because what if he took that hurt and anger out on her? He couldn’t. He wouldn’t. It wasn’t her fault she was born into these circumstances.

He should have never gone to the desert.

Footsteps approached, moving at a pace that put him on edge. It wasn’t quite running, but it certainly wasn’t a casual gait.

“Your Majesty,” a guard called as he approached.

Link sat up immediately, holding Sonia so she wouldn’t be too jostled, face hardening. This couldn’t be good.

“Sire, it’s—it’s the queen,” the guard stammered breathlessly. “She’s collapsed—”

Before the guard could get another word out, Link was on his feet. “What happened? Where is she?”

Link heard council room and then taken to her quarters and moved quickly, handing off his half-asleep daughter to the nanny at the entrance to the castle. It didn’t take him long to reach Zelda’s room, and he saw her laying in bed looking paler than ever, Lady Impa at her side with a hand on her forehead.

“What’s wrong?” Link asked as he approached the bed.

“The healer said she’s sick and worn herself out,” Lady Impa answered.

“I’m f-fine,” Zelda mumbled, looking anything but fine. Her usually perfect curls were plastered to sweaty skin, bags under her eyes, face drawn and exhausted. “You can go, Link.”

Link glared at her. “I’m not leaving. You look awful.”

Zelda’s brow furrowed a little, eyes remaining closed, mouth pulling into a frown. “I’m ordering you to leave.”

Link felt his body stiffen, irritated and hurt. He wasn’t going to leave her while she was like this! But she clearly didn’t want to deal with him, and just her having the gall to order him around—

Link bit his tongue while Lady Impa looked between the royal couple, worry and sympathy in her gaze. It wasn’t her place to speak up against the queen, and she knew that. Link, however, was reaching a point where he didn’t care anymore, where he didn’t want to keep repeating this cycle any longer, and he knew exactly how to get to her.

“You’re keeping Lady Impa from her duties,” Link said curtly.

Impa immediately stiffened. “Taking care of you two is my duty, Link.”

“As are the Sheikah,” Link reminded her firmly as he watched Zelda open her eyes. “I don’t really do much around the castle, in case you hadn’t noticed, except for take care of the royal family. Given that Zelda falls into that category, it makes more sense for me to care for her so you can continue helping others. Wouldn’t you agree, Your Majesty?”

The queen frowned further. Link smiled. He had her and he knew it, and it made him feel vindicated; it was fairly common throughout his life for people to assume he couldn’t think for himself because of his quiet and obedient nature, and he knew Zelda had probably started assuming the same, so it felt good to prove her wrong. Just because he bowed over to her all the time didn’t mean he was a fool.

When the queen couldn’t come up with an argument, Link waved Impa off. “Just tell me what she needs. I’ll handle it.”

His chief sighed, glancing at Zelda once more, and then rose. Link knew that Impa was just as fiercely protective and caring for Zelda as she was for him, if not more so, but if finding a way to essentially get her out was the only way for him to take care of the queen, then he would do it. He’d apologize to her later.

“The healer’s convinced it’s just a bad cold, but given…” Impa stopped, glancing at the queen once more. “She’s… just overworked herself.”

Link watched the Sheikah chief quietly. There was more to it than that. He didn’t push, though. Not yet. Nodding, he thanked her and then sat at Zelda’s side.

“I don’t need anything,” the queen said quietly, tiredly, as Lady Impa looked at them one last time from the doorway.

“Your Majesty,” Impa called from where she was half out of the room. “Please, just… let him help you.”

Link glanced over at his chief, giving a small nod of gratitude, and then she left, closing the door behind her. The pair was silent, and Link suddenly wasn’t entirely sure what to say next. The last time they’d spoken was when he’d snapped at her in the throne room upon his return from Gerudo Desert, and that had been a week ago.

He definitely had no right to be here. But he also knew Zelda, like him, would hardly accept help from anyone. She somehow trusted people even less than he did.

“You know, when I was younger I fell prey to the same issues,” Link noted, leaning back in the chair. “I pushed myself too much, and I… learned it didn’t do me much good to not accept help.”

His heart twisted for a moment, recalling that the help came from Hemisi and Merovar, from Ganondorf. That had been a lifetime ago.

He still wondered if that monster had ever cared at all. Probably not. It didn’t matter anymore, anyway. He was gone, and with his soul split into four pieces, the primordial evil that he’d bound himself to would never return, either.

It shouldn’t still hurt, after all these years, should it?

Link shook his head. Not now. It wasn’t like Hemisi didn’t have it infinitely worse than him. He had no right to mourn anymore.

“Spare me your anecdote,” Zelda snapped tiredly. “I know I got myself into this. I’m not a child.”

“You’re right,” Link bit back. “You’re not a child, yet you choose to act like one.”

Zelda sat up, eyes opening, glaring at him weakly. “I’m not the one who lost my temper last week.”

“I’m not the one who lied to my spouse, manipulating her to make someone else fall in line with my wishes,” Link retorted before realizing this was quickly spiraling in the wrong direction. He took a calming breath, slow and steady. “Look. I… I still don’t agree with what you did. But can we put that aside to just focus on now? It doesn’t matter our opinions on what happened, you’re sick and you need to rest.”

“I don’t see how that involves you.”

“Perhaps because you look like you can hardly get out of bed,” Link snapped. “Perhaps because you probably will not be able to attend to your duties in the morning—”

“I will attend to my duties in the morning,” Zelda insisted, laying back down, voice shaking, and though she glared defiantly at the canopy of the bed, he could see fear starting to trickle in. She looked on the verge of tears.

Link didn’t know what to do, didn’t know how to get through to her. He tried for one of her redeeming qualities. “Look. Hyrule needs you to be strong, but you can’t always do that all the time. The best way you can help your people is to rest.”

Zelda’s lip wobbled, and she closed her eyes as the tears quietly slid down the sides of her face. Link slipped a hand into hers, and thankfully she didn’t pull away.

“C-can… can I see Sonia?” She asked quietly.

Link’s thumb traced along the back of her hand. “In the morning, okay?”

For once, she didn’t argue. But the tears continued to fall.

Link frowned at it, feeling his chest hurt. As much as they didn’t get along, he hated seeing her like this. “I’m sorry.”

Zelda started to sob. Link’s eyes widened a little, alarmed, and he pulled away from her touch to grab a handkerchief for her. Helping the queen sit up, he let her lean against him as she buried her face in the cloth.

“I’m a—a t-terrible mother,” she cried.

Link wasn’t quite sure what to say all of a sudden. Zelda did try to be there for Sonia, but honestly the couple spent so much time avoiding each other that he wasn’t entirely sure how often she saw her. Sonia did talk about her mother, though, so that had to count for something. “She loves you, Zelda.”

The queen cried even harder, losing all composure, and Link finally just wrapped his arms around her, holding her tightly.

“I don’t—I don’t know if I—if I can do this again,” she gasped between sobs.

Do… again…? Link stiffened, glancing down at his wife. “Are… are you pregnant?”

Zelda tried to halt her tears and cries, tensing up, but there was no denying it now. It explained her cold, defensive demeanor, her sudden burst of emotion, Impa’s hesitancy to leave. She was not only pregnant, she hadn’t wanted him to know.

Link swallowed, blood freezing.

That had to be the case, didn’t it? They hadn’t been physically intimate since their tour of Hyrule, and that was months ago. She must have known for a while, based on what little he did know of the process.

Unless, of course, she had found someone else to take to her bed, and that was why she had sent Link to be with Hemisi. He wasn’t sure if he should feel insulted or not. But no, it made no sense – Zelda didn’t trust anyone enough to let a man into her life like that. The only reason she and Link had a daughter was out of duty.

So the child was his. And she’d hidden it from him.

Link took another steadying breath as so many different thoughts washed over him. He bypassed that initial realization, just thinking about the fact that she was pregnant again.

Could either of them handle that?

He supposed they had to. Their actions had created the baby, after all. His actions more than anything – although Zelda had never said no to his advances, he had always been the one to instigate them on their trip across the kingdom, a means of physical release from being paraded around like a doll.

This was his fault.

Well. Technically, Zelda had been the insistent one for their first child, had always been the one to push for the matter. So… he supposed this evened things out?

Her first pregnancy. Sonia. Link hadn’t even looked at Zelda since finding out she was pregnant, not until that awful baby shower. He hadn’t looked at his daughter until six months after her birth.

Link swallowed, overwhelmed, and held her more tightly. “You’re not doing it alone this time.”

Zelda glanced up at him, fear dissolving into pure, utter vulnerability. She was so exhausted. He felt all the worse seeing it. Link tried to smile, and it only made her cry once more, burying her face into his neck.

Link hushed her gently, closing his eyes, heart racing, reeling at the fact that this was how he found out, that she was actually willing to hide it from him. Just how broken was their trust if…?

He should know better. She’d manipulated him anyway, time and again, steadily growing subtler and seemingly more sinister as a result. How was this any different?

It involved their child. That was how it was different.

Link hadn’t been involved with Zelda’s pregnancy with Sonia. He’d been too lost in himself. Perhaps that was why she hadn’t bothered to tell him. It stung either way, even more so because Lady Impa clearly had known for a while; she’d been glued to the queen’s side for weeks.

He swallowed, swallowed the hurt and frustration, the regret and shame, the fear of bringing another child into this chaos, and rested his cheek against her hair. “Get some sleep, my queen. I’ve got you.”

[tennessoui]

Counseling AU Anakin hacking Obi-Wan's records (again) and learning that the chest pains are from loneliness/sadness and losing what remains of his sanity. Obi-Wan wakes up and their apartment contains half the creche, Ahoska, 3 new pets, the Council, and - in the noblest sacrifice of all - Bail and Quinlan.

Obi-Wan, blustering when anakin confronts him about being diagnosed with “lonely” and “inappropriate attachment to former padawan” by healers: you hacked into my medical records again????

Anakin, unapologetic and boundary-less: our records ❤️

Couples counselor: ok so. so much to unpack here. thanks for bringing this up five minutes before the session ends.

[macabregoria]

looking at the ib tags and coming away with the thought that wow some people really need to (re)play this game and take time to actually understand what’s happening in it