#no his actions are not justified or justifiable

[avelera]

Analysis: Why Jayce broke up with Mel in Arcane 2.08

Since the finale episodes of Arcane dropped this morning, I've been going back and re-watching some of my favorite scenes, and I was struck by Jayce breaking up with Mel.

First of all, yeah, he clearly does break up with her, though I missed how formally he does so on my first watch-through. He does it in the Council chamber, just before Viktor attacks. But since they get interrupted, he finishes breaking up with her (after checking in with her) on the balcony later.

But what really struck me about the breakup wasn't in those scenes, but actually back in 2.07, when Jayce is alone in cavern in the darkest timeline. I definitely didn't catch on the first viewing that this is where he chose to break up with her.

In the background, you can hear Jayce in the depths of his despair and solitude starts going over in his mind all the steps that led him to where he is.

Here are some of the quotes he hears:

"I never asked for this!" - Himself to Viktor, trying to justify his actions up to that point just before Viktor leaves him.

"This research is everything, my whole life," a quote from one of his first conversations with Viktor but, more importantly, it establishes Jayce's entire raison d'etre up to that point. Hextech research was his life.

"He was my mentor, Mel, and I betrayed him," obviously is Jayce discussing the coup d'etat against Heimerdinger he orchestrated to save Viktor, but it was with Mel's assistance and urging.

"You must destroy it. It corrupts. Consumes." A quote from Heimerdinger, warning against Hextech. Which must feel especially prescient now that Jayce is stuff in the evil bombed-out future where Hextech destroyed the world.

"I was trying to create magic." Jayce to the Council to defend his Hextech research and save himself from banishment, but, he only mentioned magic at Mel's goading, which I would guess he's beginning to recognize now for what it was in retrospect.

"It's your time now, Jayce." Mel, part of her goading of Jayce into advancing Hextech research and his political career.

"Perhaps it's time for the era of magic." Mel's words on the night she saw Hextech for the first time, after helping Jayce and Viktor break into Heimerdinger's lab.

"You must destroy it." Heimerdinger about the Hexcore, again, probably feeling pretty prescient right now with Jayce literally in the pit of despair in a the evil Hextech future.

Finally, while looking out over the fire while clearly going nearly insane from the isolation, Jayce begins to hallucinate seeing Mel. But then, her image in the fire gives way to Viktor's.

The decision has been made there. It's not just Jayce reflecting on his two closest loved ones (as I thought the first time), rather, it is the moment Jayce makes his decision: he is picking Viktor over Mel. He has decided that the reason he is here in this terrible place is because of Mel, not Viktor. He is choosing his partner, going back to what they had before she became involved in their life. His new course is set.

Now, I want to preface the next part by saying I love Mel, she's a fascinating character, and though I ship Jayvik I also ship/shipped MelJayVik, so this isn't coming from a place of bias. I'm just analyzing the material when I say these flashbacks were Jayce rearranging the narrative in his head and realizing Mel's been manipulating and goading him in his pursuit of Hextech.

Given where he is when this is happening: starving, freezing, in pain, alone for weeks if not months in a stone box, slowly going insane, surrounded by the burnt corpses of people destroyed by Hextech, I'd say... yeah. His need for someone to blame is pretty understandable. He even starts whispering, "No!" in a panic at the memories in response to what she says in his mind.

So when we get to the Council chamber in the main timeline in 2.08, I'd argue that Jayce is spoiling for a fight. He's had months of agony to decide things are over with Mel and that he's angry at her. He wants to blame her for what happened to Viktor, for what happened to him, and he's in pain and he wants to lash out. The relationship is definitely over.

But then Mel is in pain too. And Viktor shows up, with his own autonomy, showing that they all had their shitty parts to play in this drama.

The attack by Viktor adds another element, Jayce was probably also mourning that he had to shoot Viktor at that point, another thing that was painful and made him want to lash out and blame others for this horrible place he's in emotionally and the horrific place he's been in physically until recently.

It's only after Viktor's attack though that Jayce realizes that this situation is complex, it's not all Mel's fault. It would be easier to just pin all the blame on Mel and make Jayce and Viktor her victims, but Viktor shows to him that he has his own agency and Jayce needs to be clear-eyed going forward about who he is saving, because it's not "Mel's victim". Viktor is his own person.

Jayce also remembers some of the care he once had for Mel when he catches her before she falls (in a tender moment I mistook for a full reconciliation between them the first time but no, it's just him remembering he cares for her wellbeing). Jayce can't trust her anymore, after realizing just how adept she was at manipulating him without his realizing, but he does still care for her as a person. And he's cooled off enough to address the pain she is clearly carrying.

(I admit, I do love this moment of him calling himself an ass, because I adore Jayce but it's a lovely beat of self awareness and really shows his growth as a person that he can say this to someone that just hours before he was squaring up to fight against and blame for all his misfortunes.)

But anyway, the moments you really see that it's over between Mel and Jayce:

When he doesn't explain to her what happened to him. That's not for her to know anymore. He's decided that they're not together or intimate anymore. And he's probably still hurting from realizing how she's used what he told her in the past to encourage/manipulate him to her own ends and therefore wary of sharing. This is also a reason for the breakup: he can't share the immense pain he's been in because he can't trust her anymore, and he knows it. It's over.

In the scene on the balcony when he turns away from her instead of towards her before offering his advice. Jayce is very touchy-feely, he always offers physical comfort to his loved ones. But there, he deliberately turns away instead of taking her in his arms and comforting her. Again: it's over between them. But he still respects her. So he reminds her of how indomitable she is, along with offering the slight backhanded compliment born of his distrust for her: she's never the passenger, she is always the one in control. He knows, because he's realized she used to control him.

I've mentioned in other meta that this season deals in a lot of comeuppance for events in S1, and this is arguably Mel's. She'll be ok, she's got magical sun powers and she's the head of a powerful house now. But she doesn't get to keep Jayce in her life as her lover anymore after what she did, because she did manipulate him, even if she had good intentions mixed with the self-interested ones.

The trust is simply gone now. But he cares for her and wishes her well, so, I'd argue they parted on as good of terms as could be done.

[sanemistar]

DANGEROUS MAN

contents ★ clan leader!gojo x fem!reader, enemies to lovers, fluff, suggestive (17+), making out, slight mention of biting/marking, reader gets called princess, 1.6k+ wc. ﾉ requested for my milestone event.

event m.list ★ jjk m.list

your parents had warned you several times about satoru gojo, the leader of the gojo clan. one of the strongest clans to exist, along with your own clan. they had forbidden you from speaking him, let alone being in the same room as him. due to the long history and the rivalry between your clan and the gojos, your clans had considered each other enemies for as long as one could remember. you had been familiar with their warnings like the back of your hand, and you had abided by them for so long. though you personally had no ill intentions towards him, nor even understood the hatred against the gojos.

that was, until you had met him in person at one of those boring higher up gatherings that you were forced to attend when you two coincidently went outside to get a breath of fresh air, away from all the tension and awkwardness inside.

the first thought that had come across your mind when you first saw satoru was that he was charming, like one of those charming princes you read about in fairy tales. you’d seen him in pictures before, but never this close. truth be told, pictures could’ve never fully captured how ethereal he looked in real life. you’d never seen anyone like him before, and you probably never would. he was simply out of this world, like a work of art—a one in a million man. enchanted by his beauty, you couldn’t help but stare at him in admiration. your eyes never dared to look away from him, as if they were glued onto him.

“well well. if it isn’t you, the princess from that clan.” satoru’s voice pierced through your ears, waking you up from your dazed state. “you’ve been staring at me for so long, like i’m a statue in a museum or something.” you were unaware of how long you’d been staring at satoru until you saw the confusion on his face as he pointed out. you felt your face redden in embarrassment and you immediately looked down in an attempt to hide your flushed face.

“s-sorry about that, gojo-san. i didn’t mean to do that, i just…” you trailed off mid sentence, unsure of what to say in order to justify your actions earlier. your head was in and your thoughts were all over the place.

you heard a pair of footsteps coming closer to you and before you was none other than satoru. the one man you shouldn’t be standing so close to. your mind was telling you to run away and leave, but your body refused to move an inch. his thumb quickly glazed over your chin, swiftly lifting it up and your eyes got caught in his alluring gaze like a mouse in a cheese trap that was unable to escape before he let go of your chin. you could swear that the spot where he touched you earlier was tingling, as if his touch was electric.

“oh c’mon, no need for these formalities. they mean nothing to me. my name is satoru, so just call me satoru.” he spoke and you were slightly taken aback, you two had just met and he already wanted you to act on a first name basis.

“but..” he cut you mid sentence.

“no buts, it’s pretty easy. just repeat after me, satoru.” he said his name again slowly, waiting for you to say it back. he was pretty insistent on it so it looked like you had no choice.

“satoru.” his name finally rolled off your tongue, and a proud smirk made its way onto his face upon hearing you say his name. the way it came off your lips got him a little excited.

just then an idea popped up in satoru’s head, a reckless one at that.

“why don’t we go somewhere else where it’s just us two? away from all this.” he grabbed your hand gently yet firmly, like he had no intention of leaving you alone.

you knew best that it was never good ignoring what your parents had told you and involving yourself with him. but at that moment, you agreed to go with him. completely forgetting about everything, the rivalry, the hatred, everything. you weren’t sure if that was a rebellion phase or what, all you knew was that it felt right leaving with him.

satoru seemed surprised for a moment by how quickly you agreed to follow him, but grinned and took your hand before dragging the two of you away as you disappeared from the main entrance and into a quieter place where it was just you and him.

you had no idea how you ended up being pinned against the wall with satoru’s tall, lean figure hovering over you. completely blocking your view and blocking you from sight.

“why did you follow me so easily, hm? what if i had a malicious intention of some sort. didn’t your parents warn you about how dangerous the gojos were? especially their leader.” your chest moved up and down as your heart began racing rapidly.

“if you had any malicious intentions like you said, you would’ve taken me somewhere outside the territory. but since we didn’t really go that far away, it’d be useless for you to be doing anything dangerous here.” you began explaining. and satoru seemed so impressed by your smart response.

“you’re indeed very amusing.” he chuckled softly. he rested his hands on the wall, forcing you to look at nothing else around but him.

tension between the two of you began rising, and you found yourself subconsciously looking at his lips.

and satoru was so quick to notice how you were eyeing his lips for a while now.

“you could’ve simply asked me for a kiss if you want it so badly instead of just staring at my lips, princess.” he leaned in as he whispered into your ear and you could feel it heat up a bit in embarrassment.

and before you could get the chance to say anything you felt satoru’s lips smacking onto yours. you gasped into the kiss in surprise, your mind screamed at you to break away and push him off of you. but this time not only your body, but also your heart, refused to. you wrapped your arms around his neck, getting in the mood as you pulled him even closer to you. your fingers ran through the back of his soft hair.

meanwhile, satoru’s hands delicately trailed all over your back, slowly exploring every part and every bit of your skin. he was taking his sweet time touching you all while having your lips against his own, tongue exploring every corner of your mouth.

as the two of you further got in the mood, your kisses had become sloppier and hungrier. teeth clashing against each other as tongues swirled around one another in sync. what started off as a soft, gentle kiss had become a series of deep, passionate kisses that held so much lust and desire in them.

you felt so good that you could almost see stars.

“mhmm..” careful not to make any loud noises in order to avoid getting caught by anyone, you hummed against his lips. and you never knew you had the ability to hum like that ever so sweetly.

you couldn’t believe that you were doing such things with the one man you were never supposed to be doing all of that with.

satoru gojo was indeed dangerous, he was too dangerous for your heart.

the two of you had been making out for almost ten minutes straight. if it wasn’t for your desperate need for air to breathe, you wouldn’t have broken away. but due to the lack of oxygen, you had to break away from the kiss and catch your breath. eyes were only half open, your head was still light and dizzy after that makeout session as you were heavily panting, your lips which were now swollen were still slightly parted as a small trail of drool trickled down your chin.

“you look so beautiful right now, i think i’m in love.” satoru glazed his thumb over the corner of your lips, wiping the drool off. he leaned in once more and began nibbling on the crook of your slender neck and you winced a little as you felt him biting a bit too hard which would have probably left a mark that you would have to hide.

“maybe we should leave all this behind and run away together. it’s a great idea, don’t you think?” he suggested as he looked up at you, his blue eyes glowed slightly in the dark.

you suddenly came back to your senses upon hearing the words he said and slightly pushed him off of you.

“satoru we..” you began speaking, trying to form a coherent sentence. “we can’t do that. we’re supposed to be enemies, remember?” it was more of a reminder to yourself than it was to him that you and satoru would never be anything more than enemies.

“but enemies don’t kiss each other like that.” he whispered as he continued kissing your neck and up to your cheeks, then your nose, then back to your lips. he gave you quick, light pecks before pulling away.

“guess i’ll have to talk to those annoying higher ups of ours and end that nonsense rivalry, cause no way i’m gonna let you be with anyone else that’s not me.”

and the next thing you knew, you were being dragged by satoru into the main hall where all the higher ups were as both of you made a dramatic entrance when he announced that he’d be marrying you before kissing you in front of all of them. leaving everyone in the room, you included, in great shock.

satoru gojo was a dangerous, very dangerous man.

𝜗𝜚 taglist: @unriding @lxnarphase @sylusdoll @itachiiwrites @itoshivy @17020 @creamflix @luv-lies

[amoebab22]

I completely agree with this. I feel like this is one of the worst parts about Veilguard. My Inky is in the South, and while I firmly believe Orlais is the devil, it's very weird that Tevinter is just super chill about my elf Rook when my elf Inky had constant micro-aggressions as well as just out and out slurs hurled at her. Also I'm going on a rant about Mythal.

SPOILERS BELOW

Bellara also seems to just...kind of ignore that I'm an elf? Davrin makes more sense. He left his clan and joined the Wardens because he just didn't really vibe with the Dalish. He'd think of himself as a Warden first, I think. Wardens don't seem to give much of a shit about your race or religion or sexuality or whatever. In The Calling, they canonically don't give a fuck about the gay couple in their little group, or that Fiona is a mage and an elf. Absolutely irrelevant. So Davrin could start to fall into that mindset because frankly, it's a nice way to live. It's just not real outside the Wardens.

So when Bellara is like oh my god our gods are evil and Davrin is like eh, fuck 'em, that's actually about the most realistic reaction we've got re: elves. Davrin is just out here like yo I'm a little busy saving the world fuck them gods. Love Davrin.

Also, in Inquisition, there's concern that knowing Corypheus's artifact is Elvhen will cause violence against elves. So knowing it's the Elvhen gods causing all of this? The consequences of that, even if an elf Rook saves the world, should be looming for a Shadow Dragon in particular. Clearly Inquisitor Ameridan's race did nothing for the elves of Orlais. It was covered up over time. His sacrifice meant nothing to the humans. This should make Solas's plans to restore the elves much, much more tempting.

The way the Crows were presented REALLY bothered me as well as someone who romanced Zev. The Crows *tortured* him, sexually assaulted him, made him feel worthless, because it was seen as necessary. Sure, Lucanis being blood family might give him a very different perspective and experience, but Jacobus is just allowed to be a Crow and start his own house when he wouldn't kill? I mean, I totally agree that prolonged, public shaming and imprisonment is worse for this individual, but like.... That's not how the Crows work. They kill stuff for money. Sure, they run Antiva and would be pretty pissed off about the Antaam taking their territory I'm sure, and they might work with Rook since Rook helped Lucanis and he's a big deal to the First Talon. But like... It should be a hard choice to work with them for Shadow Dragon Rook, because SLAVERY.

I feel like the pullback on slavery is to make Solas's actions seem more ambiguous, and to make it seem like there was some equal power between him and Mythal. But I have a very hard time believing he was never Mythal's slave. Also, a spirit of BENEVOLENCE? Get ABSOLUTELY fucked. She was fine with SLAVERY. Thought she could just slowly phase it out, maybe. Yeah, no .

Because here's the thing: slavery is evil. Whatever you have to do to stop slavery, short of participating or killing slaves, is pretty easy to justify. Maybe I'm just John Brown-pilled from living in Kansas a good chunk of my life, but killing slavers and slave owners and freeing slaves is MORALLY CORRECT. FULL STOP. A "kind" master is still a master. Sure, you can give them a chance to free their slaves and make reparations first, but waiting to vote slavery out didn't work. The US had to go to war. Haiti had to rebel (and give basically all its GDP to France for like two hundred years. Fuck Orlais AND France).

The only reason my Inky was able to befriend Dorian, at first, was their shared trauma in going to the future. That changes people (that whole quest fucked me up the first time I did it) and I think my elf Inky was looking for reasons to trust Dorian and ignore the system he participated in. She didn't have to see it so it seemed less real. He's an altus so he doesn't own the estate. He seems open to other opinions! And some part of him knows it's wrong, or he wouldn't be so awkward upon talking to Inky the first time.

But Solas's inherent and never fully overcome distrust of Dorian isn't wrong. Solas needs to see action; words aren't enough. I don't blame him.

This is the same softening we saw of the Templars in DA2 and Inquisition, but if you read The Stolen Throne and The Calling and play DAO, it's very clear that mages are oppressed by the Chantry and live in horrible conditions. The ones in Lake Calenhad are described as pale and kinda sickly looking (or something like that) because they don't get any fucking sunlight. Fiona is happy to go to the circle at first because she was a SLAVE in Orlais (Honestly Loghain's hatred of Orlais is justified even though his actions aren't). If you decide to allow the right of annulment or whatever in DAO, Zevran calls it genocide. Zevran isn't one to mince words. He doesn't pretend he isn't a killer or that he wasn't tortured.

My Inky and my Rook are both 'no gods no masters' types, which is why I think clan Lavellan sent their First on a risky mission supposedly by herself (got real sick of her shit lol). As a result, she heavily sympathizes with Solas's cause, and would have happily joined him in bringing down the Veil if he'd just agreed to spend time making sure as few people died as possible, particularly after she meets the Avvar and sees how spirits really are. She knows Solas better than anyone, and even without a full explanation, she'd know that his reasons for doing this were morally right. He freed her people. He never meant to hurt them. He can't live with his guilt. Inky (who in my game was more like 30 because I don't think she could have made decisions or led on her own at 20, nor would she have been a studied enough mage) wants freedom for everyone. She's chaotic good.

Rook is a Shadow Dragon who killed slavers a little too hard for an organization dedicated to killing slavers (based Rook). They're also chaotic good, and a bit of an idiot, bless them, who kinda sees everything as a nail because they have a hammer. They see slavery, they fight it. Fuck the consequences. Solas did the same.

So why is Rook not bringing up slavery a lot? Why is Rook only finding out that Solas freed slaves on the regular at the beginning of the game? Did Varric just decide that wasn't worth bringing up to a person whose entire life revolves around ending slavery? Why is Rook not having an existential crisis after talking to Solas and finding out the truth of his past in his memories?

Look, all I'm saying is that I don't understand why more people aren't angry with Mythal and why no one is talking about slavery and racism. The whole point of fantasy and sci-fi, and the point of Dragon Age, is to critique modern society through thinly veiled references. That's why people get so passionate about Star Trek. And yeah, yes, it's necessarily going to make a piece of media more niche, or people are going to bitch about it (especially gamer bros my dude calm down, sorry something is very briefly not about you), but it makes a game *good* and lasting

BG3 did a good job of exploring the themes of trauma and power imbalance, and while some characters I think needed more fleshing out (Wyll my beloved, I owe you a lengthy fanfic for the injustice done to you), it was particularly powerful in Astarion. The people are ready for real exploration of real issues. We always have been. Backing off was a mistake.

ANYWAY I have feelings and none of my friends share my special interest. Here you go.

Why Fenris could Never Cameo in Dragon Age: The Veilguard

In the run up to Dragon age: The Veilguard, I was almost certain that Fenris would be our main legacy character from previous games. Not only has he been central in the comics released between DAI and DATV, he is an escaped Tevinter slave who's plot revolved around magisters, magic and the structural prejudices surrounding elves in Thedas. Not only that, but he's canonically in Tevinter killing slavers currently so he's geographically in the right place for us to meet him.

About halfway through the game though, it was clear to me: Fenris could never cameo in The Veilguard. Because he'd break it.

How the Veilguard treats Thedas is...odd to me, to say the least. I will be writing another post about how much I adored the expanded big lore in this game (the titans, ancient elves were spirits, where the blight came from etc.) and yet while these large lore expansions worked for me, the actual culture of modern Thedas is entirely softened, its sharp edges filed down until it's a sanitised fantasy world devoid of what made the franchise so vibrant and compelling in the first place.

So let's start with Fenris and slavery. In all three games, the reality of slavery is pushing at the corners of the world. In DAO Loghain allows Tevinter Magisters to enslave elves in order to raise money for his war effort. In DA2 Fenris is fighting to be free from slavers who will not leave him be, let alone the reminders that the city was built by slaves which are everywhere. In DAI one of the two possible mini-bosses is Calpurnia who was a slave, and characters such as Gatt and Dorian both show us how much slavery is tied into Tevinters culture and success.

But DATV the first game actually set in Tevinter where we get to see the famed Minrathous...it's like the game purposefully wants to avoid the issue. I can feel it tilting the camera away to not allow me to see. Slavery is mentioned, but never talked about in depth or as a specifically ELVEN problem in Tevinter. This might have been done to be less problematic, it feels ignored.

We are in DOCK TOWN. We are at the DOCKS. You would think that slaves from all over Thedas who are being smuggled and bought by various groups would be everywhere. You would think that the injustice in dock town would be partly built on the back of ships we've seen in the comics crammed with elves in chains. This is the world Dragon age set up for us. And yet...nothing. zilch. A tiny easily skippable side quest where we free a couple of venatori slaves, but only one of whom is an elf.

None of our Tevinter characters seem to have been influenced by their culture even a little bit when it comes to how they view elves; there is no moment when Neve fucks up and says something prejudiced, no moment when Bellara or Davrin are distrustful of her for being a Tevinter mage.

The same goes for Zevran; a character who epitomised the issues with the crows. The crows have consistently been characterised as very morally dubious assassins who kill for the highest bidder and who buy children on the slave market and torture them as they grow in order to assure that they reach maturity able to withstand torture without giving away a client's name. Zevran is very explicit about the fact that if you fail a contract your life is forefit.

Nobody responds particularly to you if you're an elf. Nobody trusts rook less for it in Tevinter. Nobody treats Rook any differently. Even DAI had better mechanics for this; with nobles in Orlais less likely to trust you as an elf.

Considering one of the main plot points of this game and what makes Solas sympathetic is the fact that he was fighting against the slavery of ancient elves...you'd think the game might want to mirror that in modern Thedas. It might want to show us how characters fighting to end slavery in Tevinter are similar to Solas and how the society Solas fought against was similar to the one that characters we love such as Fenris have fought against in modern Thedas. Maybe we'd want to explore how in a world of slavery like this, how could the answer NOT be to tear it all down? Maybe we should have that option at the end of the game so it really can chose whether we agree with Solas and his plans or not.

Adding Fenris to this game would entirely break the game because Fenris refuses to allow you to look away from this horror. He is a sympathetic character who had to learn to trust mages again because of course he didn't trust them. Of course he didn't. Fenris wouldn't allow the camera to shift focus because he's literally covered in the lyrium scars that show how slaves are used as experiments in Tevinter. Fenris WOULD question Neve on how she feels about elves and slaves. Fenris WOULD have things to say about Lucanis and the crows (let alone the fact Lucanis is an abomonation). So he could never be in this game; he'd drop a bomb on it's carefully constructed blinders to the very society its supposed to be set in.

And yet, in DATV, the crows are presented as...a found family of misfits and orphans? The politician who opposes the crows having absolute power in Antiva is framed as a comically evil idiot who doesn't understand that the crows are ontologically good. Yet...they're NOT. Crows in this game act more like a secret rebel group than an assassin organisation. We see no crow taking contracts with the VERY RICH venatori magisters despite being hired killers. We see crows just refuse to kill people despite having a contract because 'its crueler to leave them alive'. The crows don't feel like the crows here, they feel like a softened version of a cool assassin group who are cool because they wear black and purple.

Our pirate group are also sanitised; the Lords of Fortune are good pirates who only steal treasure that's not culturally significant. Theyve clearly read the modern critiques of the British Museum and have decided to explicitly stop anyone levelling similar critiques at them. There is no faction of the Lords of Fortune who aren't like this, no internal arguments about it. Everyone just. Agrees. And is able to accurately tell what a cultural artifact is vs. what treasure that you can have yourself is. Rather than showing us why a pirate stealing cultural artifacts might be bad (like in da2 where such a situation literally causes a coup and a war) it just tells us it's bad. But also pirates are cool so we still want them in our world.

This issue seaps into Thedas and drains it of any of the interesting complexity and ability to SAY anything that this franchise had before this game. It becomes a game about telling and not showing rather than the other way around. The games have ALWAYS asked questions about oppressive structural systems and their interplay with society, religion and culture and how these things can affect even the most well meaning character. Dragon age at its best IS a game about society and how society functions both for and against it's characters and what happens to societies built on cruelty and indifference. The best bad guys dragon age has given us are those who are bad because they embody these systems or have been shaped by them. Our main characters have had to wrestle with questions surrounding how to exist in these systems, fight against them, learn and grow.

Yet every group you come across in DATV is sanitised and cleaned up to the point of being as non problematic as humanly possible. None of our cast of characters have to wrestle with where they came from or the world that shaped them. None of them have to confront their own biases. They start the game perfectly non-problematic and end it that way too.

And this just...isn't what Dragon Age has been in the past. It isn't why I love the franchise. The whole game just felt, in a way, hollow. And this was a CHOICE and it is why the legacy characters are few and far between. Too many dragon age characters are just too...angry and complex for this game. You can feel them pulling their punches on this one. I have to imagine they did this because they didn't want to be criticised or have too much controversy? But I think it honestly goes far too much in the other direction and just makes it bland.

I can't imagine what I say here will be unique, but it is the basis for a LOT of my other thoughts on this game so I wanted to get it out of the way first. The softened Thedas and characters make this game by far the weakest in the franchise.

[azaharinflames]

I still don´t get what they thought they would achieve with Brad but it seems to never have crossed their minds that people would actually NOT care for the character. It is wild how much screentime he got, in a mid-season finale no less, and this public ass kissing of cast and the official account after he left is so weird. Nobody piled hate on the character or the actor they just were not interested, so why the need for this outpouring of support all of the sudden?

When the next character making eyes at either Buck or Eddie comes around and this lot decides to stay silent again we will all have our answer without a shadow of a doubt. That they hang the LI out to dry because they are scared shitless of Buddie backlash, but will jump into action for the next bit part player who just wasn´t as popular as they thought he would be.

I really started to dislike them, not gonna lie. I like Tommy, I like bucktommy but I will cheer on who ever comes next for Buck or Eddie just out of spite now. Because whoever plays them will be treated like shit by the fandom and will get no help from the mean girls clique that is the 911 production

Hi, Nonnie! Thanks for the ask. I see what you're saying, and overall I have to agree.

Here is my take. I try to play devil's advocate and give grace as much as possible. But earlier today I went on Twitter, and I saw a hate tweet (disclaimer: I've blocked hundreds of BD accounts by now, and I have blocked many, many words to not find a new one, but a BT account I follow had quoted it, so I saw it). In it, they were essentially laughing and having a party at the goodbye comments Callum had received, because that 'confirms' for them that the cast hates Lou. That they knew before, but now it's confirmed.

And the thing is... I've said it before, Lou is not a defenseless little boy. He's a grown man that, in my opinion, has a great head on his shoulders and knows very well what he's doing. And he's a busy man. So I honestly don't think he gives two craps about some losers on Twitter claiming his co-workers hate him - he knows better (he knows what happened), and he's the one with a career in acting and loving fans, so. Does he deserve the harassment? Hell, no. But I don't think he cares if some loser claims the cast hates him.

However. This behavior is only enabling hate. Not addressing the hate the LIs go through and the harassment the actors receive isn't just 'ignoring the hate so it goes away'. Ignoring that behavior and then showing support for other guest stars tells the deranged fans that they are good to go. That their bullying and hate is allowed, justified.

Is that the truth? Well, no. But it is what has happened. Because all the people being this hateful and sending harassment or death threats fully believe the show has their backs because nothing has told them otherwise.

Is it the intention of the show? No.

Is it still what they're accomplishing by their lack of response? Yes.

I don't overall dislike the cast as people because I don't know them. But the representation of themselves they're giving right now,? Not exactly a fan of that.

Also, as for Brad... I just have to laugh. They fully thought the Facebook moms would fall deep in love with him, and didn't take into account their hearts were already taken by Tommy, and that they'd be heartbroken enough for Tommy to not care for a character that doesn't have nearly the same charisma or depth.

Anyway. Thanks for letting me rant, lmao.

My inbox is always open for venting, ranting, and to discuss any topics <3

Take care!

[maxdibert]

“Sirius killed people-“ so did Snape, supposedly loved Lily but betrayed her location to Voldemort because he was jealous of James actually winning her heart, not to mention convincing Harry the abuse was his fault, nearly giving Neville PTSD to the point where his boggart was Severus Snape himself, being a racist pos to anyone born of muggle parents, and becoming a high ranking member of the death eaters so what? He could protect Harry?

“It’s easier to cry in a Ferrari-“

it’s easier to defend a terrible character and play the racism and eat the rich card when you can’t understand context and inference clues that JK Rowling laid out.

What’s easy is inventing canon. What a load of made-up nonsense, mate.

1. Learn to read. I didn’t say Sirius killed anyone, but he did attempt murder. And he did it because he thought it was funny to torture Severus.

2. There’s no evidence that Severus killed anyone before Dumbledore asked him for euthanasia. This is made quite clear when Dumbledore talks about his concern for Draco’s soul, and Severus immediately questions him about his own soul. If Severus is so worried about it, it’s implied he hadn’t killed anyone before—or at least not in cold blood.

3. Have you even read the books? The only person who knew the Potters’ location was Peter. He’s the one who betrayed them.

4. There’s no evidence he was a racist. First off, equating racism with the concept of blood purity not only trivializes a serious social issue but also makes it clear that some of you have no idea what racism is or its history. The discriminatory dynamics and their foundations are completely different. But anyway, putting that aside, there’s no evidence whatsoever that Severus discriminated against Muggle-borns. The only time he makes a comment is during the incident with Lily—which, conveniently, happens when James and Sirius are sexually assaulting him, and Lily seems to smile at James. I don’t think you can judge someone’s ideology based on a comment made in an extremely tense moment. Canonically, Severus doesn’t treat Muggle-born students worse in class or make comments about their heritage. Nor does he badmouth Muggles. At most, he makes condescending remarks—which, let’s be real, all the characters do, even the “good ones,” because they’re ridiculously patronizing toward Muggles.

5. Severus was literally a double agent and reached the highest ranks of the Death Eaters to, yes, protect Harry. That’s literally why. He’s following Dumbledore’s orders. Like, have you read the books, or are you just pulling this stuff from fanfics? 99% of what you’ve said so far is pure fantasy, mate.

6. Yes, love, it’s actually pretty easy for me to defend people whose actions are a direct consequence of their life circumstances, and whose poor decisions were directly influenced by a lack of opportunities, security, and the violence of their environment. In fact, that’s literally my job. That’s what I do for a living.

Look, I don’t give a damn if you’re a Sirius fangirl. You can love a character while admitting he was a massive piece of crap. I love The Penguin, and there’s no way to justify him at all. Like, it’s fine, you know? You also have every right to feel sorry for him—I’m not going to judge you for that or anything. I’m not invalidating other people’s feelings if they think Sirius’s life was super tragic and feel a lot of compassion for him. Everyone has their own feelings and points of empathy. But that’s not the case for me. I don’t feel sorry for him. There’s no excuse for being an abusive bully with sociopathic tendencies toward someone who was canonically in a position of social and economic disadvantage. If Severus had come from a good family, with money and power—or if Sirius had been someone without a name, wealth, or status—then I’d view the situation differently because they would have been on equal footing. But just like the Black family chose Muggle-borns to torture because they knew they could, Sirius chose Severus because he knew he could. He’s a hypocrite and a piece of garbage. At least Bellatrix admitted her tendencies.

[k1nky-fool]

YES YES FINALLY SOMEONE WITH A BRAIN

Did the rest of you just collectively forget what SUBTEXT is?? Did you forget what MEDIA LITERACY IS?

Maybe instead of bashing a BEAUTIFULLY told story, you actually THINK for a God damn second and ask yourself "hmm... now why would it have been important to show her character this way?" or even "what does Sky's character have to do with the story as a whole?"

OR BY SOME MIRACLE, one of you actually took the critical moment to wonder "why is Sky's character left so ambiguous in season 2?"

It's because we're not supposed to know if she's real or not.

Arcane has always been a story about madness and obsession, and most of all, what the characters do to protect or pursue their madness or obsession.

A very critical question of Viktor's character is whether or not his obsession is genius or madness. So Sky's existence being left up to interpretation is a DIRECT COMMENT on how it's up to the audience to decide if Viktor was truly inspired by the soul of his lost friend, or if he was just as mentally damaged as Jinx was after her trauma. Is Sky just a voice in his head that justifies or criticizes his actions like Mylo and Claggor are for Jinx?

Not every character is supposed to have 3 episodes of context. Sometimes YOU'RE supposed to be the one that draws a greater meaning out of the character and connects the dots. Media sends us messages just as much with what they DON'T SAY as what they do.

WE HAD 7 FUCKING CHARACTER STORY LINES THIS SEASON.

Maybe Sky's first day at the academy wasn't THAT fucking important to the story.

"Sky is boring"

"They didn't give me a reason to care for her"

"She is such a self insert"

YALL ARE BORING!!!!! NONE OF YOU WOULD'VE SURVIVED FANDOM EARLY 2010S!!! NONE OF YOU THINK CRITICALLY OR CAN MAKE SHIT UP! "We know nothing about her, so fuck her." OKAY?! MAKE IT UP. READ BETWEEN THE LINES A BIT INSTEAD.

I'm sorry, but for real, you people are delusional. This is easily the most interesting dynamic right now in Arcane. Viktor NEEDS her. WHY? STOP ARROACHING THE QUESTION WITH ANNOYANCE AND INSTEAD THINK. What is SHE?! Is she the Arcane? Is she the guilt? Is she him? Is she a manifestation of the person he wishes she was? Is she herself just projected into the Arcane?

Today I had 3 conversations about Sky and what she is. All of them were fucking crazy good points of views.

OPEN YOUR MINDS A BIT. Stop expecting to be spoon fed. Some things CAN be up to interpretation and they don't have to be explicitly explained. To me, it's beyond romance. It's worship. He needs her because he needs something to believe in and she believed in him unconditionally. But that's what I think! CREATE STORIES, THINK.

Don't be fucking empty, passive watcher.

[utdrmv-confession-box]

Transcript: Honestly, I don’t like cross, it feels like everyone treats him like a child who needs to be taught what’s right or wrong. And that doesn’t even work because instead of listening he does the absolute worse things. Like killing everyone and ending his universe was bad. Stealing another person’s soul is bad. Destroying underfell’s underground was bad. Taking part in destroying the entirety of underswap was bad. And the story expects me to root for him after seeing how sad and bad off everyone (those underswap, underfell, undertale timelines) has become. We all saw him smiling while doing some of these things. He’s not a child we know he had a whole normal childhood and wasn’t just spawned in, in the timeline his universe ended on. He also had a whole time in his self created void to reflect and now it’s expected that in the antivoid he’ll reflect there and change? We don’t even know how much he changed.

I love underverse and xtale and I don’t hate cross and I love the writing! And I don’t think he’s irredeemable. He does need that guidance. But what he does, and how he gets away scot free despite it, annoys me so much that I dislike him. But I don’t feel like I could say this on main because everyone seems to love him so much. And would just say he gone through so much pain or his situation makes his actions are justified. This fandom aspect gives me a pit in my stomach about him. It makes me dislike seeing stuff about him, because he’s seen as a ‘sad boi who’s justified’ by them.

But don’t let me stop you! I don’t want to police anyone or change minds. I just wanted to air it out, to hopefully get rid of this feeling.

[lavender-phoenix-flames]

"People deal with trauma differently"

I read a quote by a psychologist the other day, it was:

"Trauma explains people's actions, it doesn't justify said actions"

I think more people need to hear this, yall sound absurd when you say "his mistreatment of jin ling stems from his sufferings etc" first of all, this isn't a defense at all and he isn't any more traumatized than the other characters on the show, his sufferings doesn't fucking justify him slapping jl to the ground. Also your refusal to admit his behavior as abusive is very telling.

And no one is here to condemn the existence of abusive and complex characters like jiang cheng, we are pointing out his bad behavior and toxic patterns and we don't need his stans going "people hate complex characters everyone needs to be an angel these days" that's not the case at all, trauma doesn't justify his actions and hating him is reasonable.

Infact, we need characters like him to appreciate kind, brave, righteous, selfless and good hearted characters like wen ning, wei wuxian, wen qing and lan wangji, who went through the horribly traumatic situations and didn't turn evil or took on toxic behaviors. You don't know how hard it is to stay kind through all adversity, jc is weak willed, spineless fool and him not taking a stand for innocent wens is his cowardice, false hatred and lack of respect for people who risked so much for him, his clan and his own pathetic existence, his hate of wwx is cuz his unreasonable jealousy and envy.

Jc deserves all the hate he gets, if jc stans can't love him for the loser, pathetic asshole he is then it is not my problem. Stop posting baseless shit to justify him in canon jc tag.

[maxwellhauskaffee]

Spamton’s Personality and Complex Morality

Incoming autistic tl;dr ramble post while drunk concerning Spamton being woobified to the point of lacking any semblance to the original character.  

For some reason, many people forget or ignore Spamton's more of an “asshole victim” or “evil victim” by the time Kris and the gang met him. It’s interesting how frequent this is too. 

Of course, Spamton is not a woobie. He's not some innocent man caught in circumstance through no action or fault of his own. Neither is he someone who does things for "teh evulz". Spamton's more layered and complex than that imo, even with the limited information.

With that in mind, my interpretation of Spamton's entire being and arc through time has been inspired by several fictional characters I love. Those characters are: Kevin Lomax, Walter White, Seymour Krelborn, and Shou Tucker.

( I swear to god all of them wearing glasses and having themes associated with green was not initially intentional in my selection lmao. )

Currently, there's little to go on concerning Spamton's prior lore and who he was as a person through his actions. All we know is he was determined. He was anxious and desperate concerning the circumstances of this life. Of the lack of success in what it is an addison's meant to do. Those traits are expressed to varying degrees with each referenced character throughout all of Spamton's eras.

Kevin Lomax is a successful small-town lawyer whose innate pride makes it easy for John Milton, Kevin's future benefactor from NY, to exploit through tempting offers. Walter White's a brilliant and prideful chemist humbled by and chained to a more moderate and financially troubled life until given the choice to rejoin his former company or go his own way making meth. Seymour Krelborn's a meek, socially neglected / abused, and impoverished florist longing for a better life whose dreams turn to greed with the influence of Audrey ii. Shou Tucker’s a timid and desperate man who succumbs to harming those he loves to feed into his desperation and pride.

My take on Spamton encompasses all these traits into one little white fluffball. He's neurotic. Forever fearful of his misfortune and how others perceive him. This even extends to his big shot era where, despite his success, Spamton's aware of his incompetence and that the admiration's surface level is thanks to his benefactor. This is a trait and aspect of his arc he shares with Seymour in the 1986 LSoH film. He's a failure at what he does before his benefactor similar to Shou. No matter his attempts, he just can't cut it on his own. Like Walter, Spamton lives in obscurity compared to his peers with financial troubles far beyond his capacity to properly cope. And like Kevin, and later Seymour to some extent, when Spamton does obtain success through his benefactor, he pushes people away and causes strife through his hyper-focus on work and maintaining success.

All four men share aspects of greed and pride alongside Spamton. Kevin is successful on his own. Yet his wife Mary Ann, ironically a car salesman, and Milton both feed into his pride unintentionally ( via Mary Ann ) and intentionally ( via Milton ). Kevin, wanting more and knowing his capacity as a lawyer, accepts. While in NY, Kevin excuses his actions to explain and justify the consequences of them to continue the upward climb. It goes so far at the expense of his wife's life, though entirely unintentional on Kevin's part. Walter's similar, so I won't get into his arc.

Seymour's interesting in that he's also woobified by fans when in reality, he's a greedy and envious person, even if it's subtle. Greed allows Seymour to reluctantly excuse his actions to gain fame. His greed, envy of Orin, and resentment of Mushnik motivate Seymour to do horrible things. And of course, Shou needs little to no explanation. Greed tied with desperation fueled his actions...

I think Spamton's aspects of greed, envy, and pride were more subtle like Seymour's in the beginning. His personality and desperation more akin to Shou's. And honestly, a pinch of pride is good concerning self-esteem, determination, and motivation. It's when it's detrimental to one's self and others that it becomes a disorder.

Once Spamton gains a benefactor and becomes a big shot, his pride and greed metastasize to that of Kevin and Walter.

The other interesting thing of note is Seymour and Kevin both had benefactors giving them free will concerning choice laced with temptation.

Both Seymour and Kevin blame their benefactors for their inevitable misfortunes. When this happens, both benefactors correctly state they, Seymour and Kevin respectfully, made their choices with either clear knowledge of what could happen or knew their prior action's consequences and ignored them anyways.

"You blamin' me for Mary Ann? Oh I hope you're kidding… Mary Ann - you could've saved her any time you liked. All she wanted was love. ... Stop deluding yourself! I told you to take care of your wife! What did I say? 'The world would understand.' Didn't I say that? What did you do? 'You know what scares me, John? I leave the case, she gets better, and then I hate her for it.' Remember?" - John Milton

I think something similar occurred with Spamton and his benefactor. Despite his complaints and awareness of restrained free will, he still had some level of it. Even if he was controlled in a manner akin to Seymour, Spamton chose things that caused him and others harm along with his success. During this time, he also began rubbing his success in the faces of colleagues and friends who doubted or mocked him. Eventually, it got to the point that it caused his closest loved one, Blue, to disengage.

I think Spamton, despite the limited lore, has the potential for rich complexity concerning his more sour traits as a person. Like both games, there are many realities and routes. What you do decides what innate traits grow.

Spamton, to me, is in all paths of the game, corrupt on some level. None of them show a reality in which he is, by all accounts, a good man. And this is to not dismiss the reality that he is a victim of society, best explained here. We don't know much about his big shot era beyond him becoming a bit pompous. But... Wouldn't the best addison be that? A braggart of their wares and a confidence man? But he's also a culprit of his own demise while being potentially exploited by other entities.

With this in mind, Spamton best mirrors Seymour in the totality of his arc.

Both Spamton and Seymour are pathetic men by societal standards. While Seymour has a talent as a self-taught botanist of sorts, he's relegated to a basement at a struggling florist shop. His meekness and apathy are mirrored by his living conditions.

Spamton's similar in a different way. Unlike Seymour, he's determined, but like Seymour, is likely too meek and neurotic to be effective in his goals. Spamton can't keep a clear head nor direct himself convincingly.

Both men are forced into societal roles with limited choice. Seymour by Mushnik is pushed around and then later so by Audrey ii. Spamton, despite his passion to be a salesman, is seemingly limited to that alone based on what he is, an addison. It is likely taboo for an addison to have any passion outside of that. In one of my fics, Spamton was a mailman before attempting to work in sales and admits to loving that job.

Seymour and Spamton have benefactors. Seymour's is Audrey ii. Spamton's the person on the phone.

Both operate under the commands, suggestions, and temptations their benefactors provide. And both find success with their benefactors.

Seymour clearly loses aspects of free will with his due to his meekness and their relationship. I imagine Spamton, on some level, endured something similar. Especially with his theme being the loss of autonomy the more he pursues it.

Both are seen as tools by society and exploited as such; living in poverty in some regard with Spamton becoming homeless.

I think what makes Spamton woobie fodder is the state we find him in. The fact that by all accounts, he did what he was expected to do as an addison. That when he needed help the most, he was neglected and worse still, everyone knew and did nothing.

His friends and colleagues knew where he was as they show up at the end of the battle. They did nothing for years.

And it's this I think that blinds people to the fact that Spamton knowingly sold harmful and useless wares at his shop. That he tried convincing Kris to commit to his delusional murder-suicide pact so they'd both be free. That, in the Snowgrave run, he takes over Cyber City like a virus to the harm of its citizens. That the thorn ring "might sting" instead of "it literally takes away your life" when selling to Kris for Noelle to use.

At the end of the day as a said before, Spamton's more akin to an "asshole victim" than a full-on woobie. But maybe we can get the best of both. He can be the "asshole woobie".

Thanks for coming to my autistic Ted Talk.

[erinsworld]

Jack’s fingernails dig into the palms as his hands clench and unclench tightly by side. Waiting. Wanting the man he loathes to make the tiniest move that will justify the actions Jack so desperately wants to take.

“Jack…”

Jack’s attention slides to Matty’s quiet call of his name. Her eyes flick from his to the glass window that stands behind him and back again and she holds his gaze.

Jack inhales deeply, a harsh breath releasing out his nose and spins back on his heel.

Back towards Oversight. Conversation over. His attention once again on the too still, too motionless boy that lies too pale beneath white sheets.

This week’s word is…

✨ WINDOW ✨

Find the word in any WIP and share the sentence containing it. Reply, reblog, stick it in the tags, tag us in a new post, or keep it private. All fandoms, all ships, all writers welcome.

[9amartt]

A piece of advice from the heart of a humble and sinful servant, perhaps it will reach the heart of a pure servant striving for righteousness:

Before you engage in any action, think: "Would the Prophet ﷺ, and his companions or the female companions have done this action?" If the answer is yes, then rely on Allah and go ahead, and if the answer is otherwise, seek refuge from Shaytan, fear your Lord, and reconsider.

Do not make excuses for yourself, for there is no benefit in disobeying Allah, as Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah رحمه الله said: "Evils, both apparent and hidden, contain no benefit."

Preserve your knowledge and dignity from perishing, for sins diminish prestige, light, and beneficial knowledge. 

Avoid disputes and conflicts, for they bring sorrow and sadness. The company of the righteous is a blessing, so preserve your friend and do not let Shaytan divide you. Do not let women come between you and your male friends, and do not let men get between you and your female friends, for gatherings where haram love and flirtation are mentioned are gatherings of Shaytan.

Do not accept for any muslim what you would not accept for yourself.

If your Salah doesn’t stop you from sin, then check it and improve it. 

If you stray from the path, hasten to repentance and seeking forgiveness, and remember that good deeds erase bad deeds. Conceal your sins if you have sinned, and do not expose yourself after Allah has concealed you

ان ابتليتم فاستتروا 

If you are afflicted [with sin] then conceal it. 

Rush towards goodness and do not be saddened by the blame of blamers. Fear only Allah and do not fear the wrongdoers, you will be in your grave alone. 

Always! Expect the best from your muslim brothers and sisters,  and communicate with them, don’t let your assumptions [which are a mere illusion] guide your actions [which are a reality].

Forgive and forget, have a heart like those mentioned in the hadith: “hearts like those of birds”.

Do not let your mercy affect your judgment in serious situations, look at everything from a shar’i perspective, if something is against the shar’, abandon it even if everyone will be hurt. And never say “my intention is pure I am just intending to please a fellow muslim”…  the result does not justify the action.

Be mindless when it comes to expecting well from Allah, be illogical, Allah Himself is not “logical”, His decree was never understood by logic or science, it’s all miracle after miracle, so expect the best and remember to entrust your affairs to Allah alone and not the means you take [obviously take your means but don’t rely on them alone]

Remember that this dunyah is either a bridge to jannah or Jahannam, not a place of joy and fun. So do that which will take you to Jannah, even if your entire dunyah life may go to waste. Trade with Allah, the greatest the sacrifice the bigger the reward. 

May Allah bless you and increase you in closeness to Him. All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of all worlds."

[fandonnavyce]

Ecto-Implosion 2024

Credit to @chaseacer-ghostedition for their amazing art.Fic below

The table broke the silence with a loud complaint. With heavy groans, the table cracked in two, and the collapsed ghostling began melting on top of the broken heap; a smashed table and its splattered breakfast. Dripping flesh, spilling like tipped soup, oozed and mixed with the food, making a runny mash and green milky mess stick and stain the mansion’s expensive carpet.  

Dan leapt back to get out of the splash zone as the ghostling struggled to get up in a puddle of their own ecto, the smushed food, and broken crockery. Feeling a little homicidal about the ruined meal, Dan fired up an ecto-blast - no need to go ghost to finish off a ghost that can barely keep itself together. Dan fully aimed to turn the intruder into a burnt smear.

“No, Stop!”

Vlad shouts as he forcibly moves in-between them to block Dan. Dan rears back in sheer surprise. His ecto-blast fizzles out and a pair of red eyes stare at Vlad in wide disbelief. Dan's utterly bewildered at Vlad's vehemence in stopping him. Dan felt his lips twist into snarl. His chest ached with defensive hurt at the implied reproval and rejection in Vlad’s actions of Dan’s actions. This hurt surged when Vlad, without further word or explanation, dismisses Dan and turns his back on him in favour of giving his attention to the ghostling instead. The ghost that had so rudely and messily intruded breakfast. 

Dan watched Vlad get on his knees and, whilst skirting the disgusting mess the ghostling had made, Vlad softly approached the intruder. But the moment Vlad opened his mouth to say something, he got punched in the face. 

“I know I deserve that. But -” Vlad gets scratched on the other cheek. The man takes a deep breath. “I” and Vlad catches the third blow in his hands - that final blow had been the weakest of the three. Dan sneers at the feral behaviour. 

“The fuck? Is it rabid?” Dan calls out derisively. 

“Language,” Vlad reprimands Dan.

“Who the fuck are you calling an it?!” The ghostling snarls, wriggling and wrenching their hand free from Vlad's grasp before unsteadily pulling itself onto its feet. Vlad easily lets the ghostling go, with no reprimand for its language Dan sulkily notes. And still Vlad, now standing, continues to give it his full attention. 

“Enough. I understand that I very much deserve your wrath, but I'd rather you not waste your energy when you're so clearly not well. Let me help you,” Vlad patiently offers. Dan crossed his arms and huffed, as he rolled his eyes. Dan could not see why, after being so violently rebuffed, Vlad even still bothered.

“Over my fully dead melted body will I accept your help Vlad,” the feral ghostling snarled, “I'm going to Danny.”

“Excuse me?!” Dan pulls a face, “are you talking to me?”

The ghostling pulls her attention away from Vlad and for the first time, it properly sees Dan face to face. At first their expression (what of their face that isn’t gooey and dripping) is one of shock. Then it morphs into outrage, flickers with disgust, as it settles into a sneer. The ghostling sends Vlad a venomous look.

“I see that you've finally got the son you've always wanted,” Daniel’s failed clone snarled up at him.  

Taking a deep breath, lashing out in anger would be the wrong thing to do, Vlad then chose to speak to the failed clone in a conciliatory tone. 

“Ok I know what it looks like but it's not what it looks like,” he tries to placate. It’s unsuccessful. The failure shoots Vlad a deadpan look. Vlad barely manages to suppress a flinch.

“So he’s not a clone of Danny?” 

Vlad grimaces at the pointed and justified accusation. From behind, Dante belligerently interjects.

“No I’m not. Now who the fuck are you?” he vulgarly asked.  Vlad deeply sighs. ‘Truly this is karma’, he thinks to himself.

“This is my daughter, Danielle.” The words lie heavy on his tongue as the meaning of what he just said slowly settles in his mind. The implications and the responsibility he had so easily forgotten and discarded smacks him full force in his face. This disaster of a clone was his daughter! And she was desperately hurt.

“I beg your fucking pardon,” Dante shouts at Vlad before turning to glare Danielle. He looks at her with extreme distaste.

Danielle meets Dante’s glare with a sharp sardonic smile, her lips ready to unleash barbed words in retaliation. 

Vlad quickly looks back and forth between his two children. He feels a rising panic at his loss of control of the situation and a sinking sense of alarm at their burgeoning hostility. 

“Oh no, did you think you were an only child?” Danielle asks with saccharine sweet venom. Her eyes glint with malice. “Nah Vlad’s made lots of us clones.” She cocks her head and faux-lightly asks, “I wonder how many failures lie between me and you?” 

Her words were initially directed at his son to hurt him, but Dani then switched targets. She aims her rage onto Vlad and stares him down. Vlad is bereft of speech, guilt and shame had seized his tongue. From behind, Vlad hears Dante sputter back an answer. 

“No, I mean yes, I mean shut up.” Rage and confusion has clearly deadened his son’s usual eloquence.

Dante moves out from behind Vlad and into his line of sight. He excludes Dani by pointedly turning his back on her, thus also entirely blocking Vlad’s view of Danielle. Dante locks in full direct eye contact with Vlad.  

“You have a daughter ?! Is that thing,” Dante blindly points, “supposed to be my sister?!” he whines with teenage entitlement. Blasely lounging on the floor behind Dante in a gooey puddle of her own ectoplasm, Danielle interrupts. 

“Don’t worry, Vlad’s not my father,” she reassures Dante in a relaxed tone between attempts to mop and squeegee her melting body back together. “I disowned him the day he left me to die because I wasn’t Danny’s perfect clone son,” she seethes.

Dante silently waits for Vlad to give his side of the story.

“Do I have a daughter? In a manner of speaking, yes.” Vlad tentatively admits. “After all, I am responsible for her creation. But as you can see our familial ties have been severed. That being said,” Vlad moves forward so that speak to his daughter over Dante’s shoulder, “Danielle please, will you let me help you? You are quite literally dissolving before my eyes.”

Danielle loudly scoffed, “You never cared before.”

“And I apologise for that. My previous behaviour, especially towards you, has been shameful.”

Danielle freezes and looks up at Vlad, truly gobsmacked. 

“Who even are you?” Danielle gasps. “Are you a clone?”

Vlad flinches. “No I’m not a clone,” he denies. He finds himself surprisingly hurt by her derisive disbelief. But it was understandable. Danielle, was the child that he had for a time raised like a daughter, and he had betrayed her. For the single act of not being a perfect copy of Daniel, he had not even wanted to save her. Why would she believe that he cared about her physical distress now when he had so callously proven that he had “never cared before”? Why wouldn’t she logically deduce that such an offer couldn’t possibly come from him? Now Danielle was staring up at him with utter revulsion. 

From the floor Dani stared up at Vlad, who had just apologised and then denied being a clone, and wished she was anywhere but here, doing anything but this. She wished at least she had Danny there with her whilst she was dissolving into a puddle of goo. Danny, even if he didn’t have any Ecto-Dejecto on him, would at least be more helpful and reassuring, than Vlad and his awful, moody, perfect clone son.

It had all gone so wrong, so quickly. One minute she was fine, the next she realised she was feeling really faint. By the time she realised it was because she was destabilising again it was already a race against time and she was losing. Badly. Being in a whole different state, flying took energy she couldn’t afford to lose but, if she was somehow going to make it to Danny, not flying would take time she couldn’t afford to waste. It had been exhausting. Both mentally and physically taxing to balance out her limited time of existence against her remaining distance and stamina. But she had almost made it. She had made it to Amity Park. All she had left to do was to find Danny. Or at least one of his friends, or even Valerie, or Danny’s sister Jazz. They hadn’t met before but she was still an option, a better option. But no. Instead when her powers guttered, and glitched, and she was free-falling to Earth, unable to restart her powers and go ghost, it was Vlad’s fucking mansion she fell through the roof of. This was a nightmare. She needed to leave. But her powers were out of reach, and her body was struggling to remain solid. 

Meanwhile that manipulative, heartless, piece of shit was pretending that he wanted to help her. As if she couldn’t see Danny’s shitty perfect clone standing angrily right there in front of her. Therefore Vlad was, evidently , still on his bullshit. So no, she wasn’t going to believe his nice words and promises, never again. She wasn’t going to be tricked, or used, or manipulated to somehow hurt Danny. Even if Vlad finally got his perfect clone son, there was no way he was done being a total bastard.         

“I only wish to redeem myself,” Vlad lies. He looks so apologetic and honest and genuine. Dani wants to scream in his face. It couldn’t be real . This was all lies. Vlad was just, once again , lying and trying to trick and manipulate her. Just like he had done to her, just like he had done to Valerie. 

Dani flings herself forward, heat seething beneath her skin, as she fires up an ecto-blast. Her fist is raised but before can she fires a shot, goo squelches between her clenched fingers.

Like a deflated balloon, Dani lets her anger go - her anger is causing her to destabilise faster. Defeated by her own body, Dani miserably watches her arm turns to liquid. She calmly pats her flesh back into shape like it’s soft clay. When she is done she’s surprised to find Vlad staring silently at her with a concerned and worried look on his face.

She asks squint-eyed, “Are you Ok? Are you like possessed? Have you been brainwashed, or like are you under magical influence or?”

“I'm sincere.”

“Sounds fake.”

“Why?!” 

Dani drags her judgemental gaze over to look side-long at the other clone in the room. She silently lets that make her argument for her. Vlad had the good grace to at least look sheepish.  

Dani looks Sad Vlad up and down. She internally groans at what she is considering doing. She looks Sad Vlad up and down again. Dani gustily sighs.

“Ok Vlad, if this isn't a trick AND you're not brainwashed AND you do want to help me then take me to Danny” demanded Dani. Vlad agrees suspiciously quickly. “I'm also going to need a bucket,” Dani orders. From her shoulder, a blob of flesh drips and stains Vlad’s expensive carpet.

Danny’s shitty perfect clone pulls a face, “Ew.”

The End

[psycho-doughart]

people defending Nny’s actions is fucking wild. Even if he didn’t torture people sexually (he does) or if it wasn’t stated by Jhonen himself that Nny sometimes uses his actions as a sexual outlet (it was) he’s… he’s still a murderer.

Nny doesn’t even murder people as like some glorified revenge streak. Sure he sees it as some kind of fucked up justice for himself because someone *checks notes* wore an ugly tie, or whatever his reason for the moment, but as shown in the section with Edgar, he literally does not have a ‘reason’ sometimes. Edgar was murdered for the crime of existing. Like that’s what you’re trying to defend over here.

The whole point of Johnny THE HOMICIDAL MANIAC, is that it’s a deranged (but funny) comic about deranged (but funny) people. There’s no defending Nny’s actions, he’s just a bastard who kills people through and through. He’s not a hero. Stop treating him as such. Stop going ‘well this character is WORSE because at least he’s not THIS character’ because no. No. These actions aren’t things you can just compare like a gradient. Nny hurts people. That’s what he does for almost every part of the comic. That’s his thing.

If you act like what Jimmy did was real, or even Dillon, or Krik, or whoever you are justifying Nny’s actions in comparison by, then PLEASE look into yourself and ask why hurting and maiming and torturing and KILLING is okay in your eyes.

[detectkikeh]

It's because the actual core of his "revolution" is to avenge Itachi's pain. Nothing more and nothing less.

Obito massacred the Uchiha, even in novel he was the one who killed the children and women (feel free to treat it as filler).

Obito harvested his clansmen's Sharingan and used it for his own Izanagi benefit while he can't even bring himself to take his own Sharingan back from Kakashi, he even felt bad for it being returned to him and gave Kakashi Susanoo trial.

Obito is the reason why Uchiha was segregated (Uchiha was treated decently before Kyuubi Attack and their people were suspected of freeing the Kyuubi) and the bastard even lied to Sasuke by saying that Kyuubi breakout was natural incident to portray Uchiha as ultimate victim, while he deliberately unleashed Kyuubi to avenge Rin.

Yet Sasuke didn't harbor any hatred for Obito because :

(1) Sasuke ultimately only cared for Itachi's pain at that time and Obito is not the one who pushed Itachi to his painful fate. Even in a way I think he saw Obito as Itachi's helper

(2) Obito essentially controlled Sasuke's narrative (brainwashing him to be honest) and made his rightful anger toward Itachi's fate bigger and more harmful for his own destructive benefit

I think fandom truly overestimate Sasuke's "Uchiha Revolution" while clearly all the boy did was being angry for Itachi's pain. That's why his hatred for Konoha vanished after understanding Itachi's feeling. People can have opinion about whether it's justified or not but Sasuke didn't care for that. He only cared for Itachi's feeling. That's why he asked the Founders, because even after hearing Itachi's side of the story, he still didn't understand Itachi's feeling. Then he understood Itachi's feeling and next move tried to emulate him (being all murderous and burden all hatred alone) but Naruto didn't allow him to.

It makes me laugh so much when people say that Sasuke being revolutionist on VoTE 2 and Naruto "beaten him into submission". All Naruto did was to prevent Sasuke from doing the thing Itachi did that greatly hurt Sasuke AND Itachi. The same action that people accuse Itachi for being "bootlicker"

Didn't Obito help in the Uchiha massacre too? Sasuke wanted to kill Obito before he knew who he was like he said when he was fighting Itachi. But when the time came Sasuke just said leave me alone. He probably just wanted to be done with it all. But Sasuke wanting vengeance on Konoha while Obito was right there was something weird. Naruto and Sasuke's behavior is strange towards Obito.

i agree that’s weird… kishimoto just couldn’t rationalise some characters’ (itachi and obito) actions tbh

[inabstentia]

One of the things that always made me angry in the Lucanis/Illario storyline is how Lucanis treats Illario, and how it is never addressed in game.

Before anyone attacks me, let me explain.

When Lucanis talks about his relationship with his cousin, he’s always saying nice things. How they are brothers, how he loves him dearly, how they have always been here for each other.

But when he talks about Illario ? I don’t think that he says ONE good thing about him as a person. It’s always “Illario is an idiot” “Illario doesn’t know what he is doing” “Illario sucks at his job”. And it’s not just to us, when Illario asks to accompany him during Bloodbath and Lucanis refuses, he says something along the lines of “You don’t think I’m capable ?” and Lucanis responds “Are you ?”

Like can you imagine how unbearable it must be at some point, to have the person who is supposed to love you more than anything always remind you how much of a failure you are ? Not trusting you, and always bringing you down with reproaches and disapproval ? He had been physically and emotionally abused by his grandmother who then proceeded to neglect him when she realized he wasn’t what she wanted. Illario is Lucanis only friend, but the same could be said for him too.

And if it was on purpose, it would not bother me at all ! I actually think that it would be great if Lucanis was presented as imperfect in his relationship because clearly, what’s going on with the Dellamorte is very complicated. More than just haha, Illario is jealous so he turned evil.

But I feel like it’s not where the narrative is going, because it’s never talked about ?? The way people talk about Illario almost feels like a running joke, or simply a bad way to show how amazing Lucanis is compared to his bad and very mean cousin. Obviously he’s not a good guy, and I’m not trying to justify his actions which were horrible. But the lack of depth in their whole storyline makes me want to scream.

Like what’s the moral Bioware ? What’s the message ?? ‘Don’t be jealous of your cousin and don’t try to steal the promotion he never even wanted ?‘ I just feel like so many more interesting things could have been said through Illario, Lucanis and Caterina about the circle of abuse but clearly, I’m asking too much…

[redblam]

sometimes i feel the need to explain that i like luka BECAUSE he’s the antagonist (to an extent, minus the actual aliens) of alnst

i don’t defend his actions or try to justify what he did, he still very much is not a good person in any way BUT i like him so much because he’s such a complex character and i like the way he is portrayed and shown to be like the villain pretty much (again minus the actual aliens) he’s actually so IT GENUINELY BOILS MY BLOOD WHEN PEOPLE HATE ON OTHER PEOPLE FOR LIKING LUKA LIKE ARRRGHHHHH CAN I NOT LIKE HIM BECAUSE I LIKE THE WAY HE IS SHOWN TO BE THE VILLAIN??!¥3¥{¥3{

he’s also really pretty and imo i feel like that adds to his character in the way that he is shown to be really angelic and divine when in reality he is the exact opposite, and he takes advantage of that with both the aliens (so they favor him) ANDD his opponents in alnst, he’s such a complex and interesting character and i cannot help but like him he’s genuinely such a cool character