#not built to coddle weaklings

[theepoetspoem]

Big Body Babe 💗

[themattress]

OUAT AND ME: SEASON 3

Story - Season 3 was the first season to (intentionally) divide itself between two story arcs, with the first half being the Neverland Saga and the second half being the Wicked Saga. While the Neverland Saga focused on the journey of the show's main characters through Neverland as they conquer their own inner demons in order to save Henry from the clutches of Peter Pan, the Wicked Saga focused on a new Dark Curse being cast on Storybrooke and the main characters' fight against Zelena, the Wicked Witch of the West, who is working toward a secret objective that will allow her to exact revenge on Regina, the Evil Queen.

The Neverland Saga, in the present day sequences, is the best the show has been since the Enchanted Forest quest early into Season 2. In its best moments, it's even on par with the Dark Curse Saga of Season 1. Seeing all of the characters work together toward a shared goal after all the clashing agendas from the previous season is so refreshing and exactly what the show needed, and everyone undergoes some kind of character development and gets their moment to shine. Greg and Tamara are killed off within the first few minutes of the premiere episode after finding out that "the Home Office" was the Lost Boys all along, and Peter Pan is quite possibly the greatest Big Bad in the show's entire run, and certainly among its most popular for just how wonderfully menacing, manipulative and despicable he is.

Unfortunately, I can't extend the same praise to its flashback sequences. The ones that involve Rumpelstiltskin and Hook in the 4th, 5th and 8th episodes are great and connect to the current narrative, but I take issue with all of the others in some way, big or small. The flashbacks in the 2nd, 9th and 10th episodes have fuck-all to do with what's currently happening in Neverland, and while the ones in the 3rd and 6th episodes do, there are too many issues in them to consider them good. For the 2nd, 6th and 10th, the problem is that the show is starting to contrive new "Snow White and friends vs. the Evil Queen" stories where they don't belong and aren't needed, and it especially has a negative impact on the Evil Queen since this is the point where she shifted from slightly campy to overtly campy, her menace quota reduced to virtually nil. For the 3rd, giving Regina and Tinker Bell a past connection is fine and works for the story, but the way they do it is stupid and with dire consequences later down the line, plus the show doesn't get much into her connections with actual Peter Pan characters like Hook, Wendy, and, well, Peter Pan. And as for the 9th, I actually have quite a lot to say on that so I'll save it for when I'm discussing Episode Quality.

My thoughts on the Wicked Saga have not changed all these years later: it's a textbook example of They Wasted A Perfectly Good Plot. With the set-up it starts with: a new Dark Curse, a new Big Bad, and new dynamics between many of the characters, they had the chance to take the show in a bold new direction following the ending of the Neverland Saga wrapping up the plot that's been going on since "Pilot". But instead, Adam and Eddy fall back into their bad Season 2 habits, and the result is that the show settles into this kind of bland status quo that it won't ever be able to shake off. The arc isn't actually a bad one, as it's solidly structured just like the Dark Curse and Neverland Sagas and there's a lot of great moments and developments made. It just falls short of the greatness that it could have had.  

Characters - Everyone's more likable now! At least until they aren't.

* Emma takes center stage in the Neverland Saga. After finally learning to believe based solely on faith instead of always waiting for evidence to do so, she takes charge as the leader of the group affectionally dubbed "the Nevengers" by fans. In learning how to be a leader, she is able to learn more about herself and become an even more confident and decisive hero. Tragically, her character arc isn't fully resolved before it gets cut off by the events of the midseason finale, leaving her in a state of anxiety and uncertainty in the Wicked Saga before finally making her way back to the resolution of her character arc in the season finale. And on paper, this sounds fine, but in execution Emma's character through the majority of the Wicked Saga is a one-note bore who mainly exists to prop up the development of other characters. She isn't as sidelined as badly as she was in the latter half of Season 2, but still not ideally handled, especially when much of the story arc is specifically building toward only her being able to defeat Zelena only for Regina to do it instead. However, the resolution her character receives in the finale is handled exceptionally well, so I guess it all balances out in the end.

* Snow is actually back on top form in the Neverland Saga and it's wonderful to see, but it doesn't last into the Wicked Saga where she's back to the insipid, Regina-coddling weakling that Season 2 turned her into, whose biggest contribution to the plot is simply having a baby. Charming is a lot more interesting, as in the Neverland Saga we get to see his David Nolan weaknesses return but this time as a result of his Charming strengths, which is a fascinating dynamic to see at work and leads to some great interactions between him and Hook, a relationship that got started in Season 2 and will only continue to grow (and occasionally regress) as the show continues. And in the Wicked Saga, he has an entire episode dedicated to his feelings of failure as a father and how he fears that he might fail his second child too.

* Henry....still sucks, damn it! For a story arc with the mission statement of Save Henry, the Neverland Saga makes it difficult to care about saving him when he's portrayed as so stupid and gullible and easily led by his captor, Peter Pan, to the point where he literally sacrifices his heart (the Heart of the Truest Believer) to him against the pleas of his father and mothers. And while he has the potential to become more interesting in the Wicked Saga due to having lost his memories, the show totally ruins it by giving him his memories back by the end, because Heaven forbid that Regina pay a lasting consequence for her decades of villainy.

* Oh, and speaking of Regina, like Snow she's also really good in the Neverland Saga only for the Wicked Saga to ruin her again. In the Neverland Saga, she establishes herself as the Token Evil Teammate of the Nevengers, who knows she's a sociopathic villain and owns it as she utilizes her skill set for the greater good. Her line after ripping out a Lost Boy's heart at Emma's behest sums up why she works so well in this arc: "She didn't. I did. That's what I'm here for. One happy family." This should have been Regina's seasonal character arc and her status within the show going forward: a part of the family who may be evil and grouchy and not get along with everyone and even antagonize other members of the family, but who can still be counted on when push comes to shove and whom the other members of the family stand on equal grounds with and can push back against. It's the ideal recipe for a slow-burn redemption where by the end of the show she's truly become a semi-decent person. Just the act of destroying and fully reversing the Dark Curse in the midseason finale alone, at the cost of Henry losing all his memories of her while she gives him and Emma good memories of having always been together was a powerful start to such a redemption. It was all right there.

But of course, Adam and Eddy could never let their precious Regina go so long without having all of the things both she and they believe she is entitled to. So in the present-day story of the Wicked Saga (she's still fairly decent in the flashbacks), Regina gets a handsome soulmate in Robin Hood, and validation over her more powerful half-sister, and engagement in family dinners, and reconciliation with Snow without her expressing any remorse or apology toward her (Snow puts the blame on herself instead - "I was such a brat!"), and Henry with all of his memories back, and to out of nowhere and without her heart in her body become a powerful practitioner of light magic to the point where she's basically the Savior now! Yes, she seems to lose Robin at the end when Maid Marian is brought back, but that just ends up making her victim complex and blame deflection even stronger ("You're just like your mother!" she says to Emma, "Never thinking about consequences!" Because how dare she bring back one of Regina's past victims and allow her to be reunited with her family!)

In short, the Wicked Saga put a sudden fast-forward on Regina's redemption, giving her all sorts of goodies that would make sense as individual karmic rewards on a slow-burn redemption but make no sense when they happen in quick succession. And then at the end, they took one of those things away just to make her seem like more of a martyr, something they've been doing ever since the end of "Queen of Hearts" back in Season 2 and at this point I was sick of it. Little did I know it was about to be taken to a whole new level...

* Rumple wasn't bad in the Neverland Saga, per se, in fact he's amazing in the last four episodes. But early in, he backtracks on the goodwill he built up in the Season 2 finale by arrogantly abandoning the rest of the Nevengers to go rescue Henry all by himself, and all this accomplishes is getting him lost in the jungle, crying over old childhood dolls, being plagued by a hallucination of Belle, taunted by Peter Pan, and having an underwhelming reunion with the son he thought had died only to quickly come to blows with said son as he begins showing signs of temptation from his selfish self-preservation instincts at the expense of Henry's well-being once again. It just gets tiring after a while and you're glad when Regina verbally bitch-slaps him back into some semblance of his old self, which leads to the aforementioned amazing moments where he reconciles with the other Nevengers, confronts his father, and ultimately masterminds the heroes’ action plan in the midseason finale which culminates in his final redemption as he sacrifices his life to take down Pan once and for all.

But therein lies the problem: Rumple's entire series-long character arc just came to its natural conclusion. He chose love over power and courage over fear, standing up to the father who ruined his whole psyche and giving his life for his loved ones. However, since it's the middle of the season and Robert Carlyle is still contracted for more, they had to resurrect him. This decision cheapening his sacrifice is bad enough, but the writers also have no real idea what to do with him for the rest of the arc other than act crazy in a cage and then serve as Zelena's meat-slave, which is even less fun to watch than him moping around in the jungle was! While him deceiving Belle and killing Zelena at the end promises better things for him in the future, it's still a slog to have to sit through what preceded it, and you never quite shake off the feeling that the show might have been better off if it only had the balls to leave him dead.

* Hook was already one of the best additions to the cast in Season 2, but Season 3 is where he truly shines. He is in his element in the Neverland Saga, bonding with Emma and Charming while he rediscovers the more heroic and honorable side of himself. The insight into his past especially helps with this, as we better understand where he came from and how he got to where he was when we first met him. And in the Wicked Saga, he is the impetus behind Emma regaining her memories and returning to Storybrooke to be the Savior once more, as we learn that he had attempted to return to his old pirate ways back in the Enchanted Forest but ultimately couldn't do it, as his experiences with Emma and his love for her had changed him for the better. And so when he learned her family was in trouble and needed her help, he sacrificed the Jolly Roger and his pirate captain status in order to get back to her. After learning this on top of all the time they spend together, particularly in that very season finale, Emma finally lets down her walls and enters a romantic relationship with him...and I can't blame her in the slightest, because out of all her love interests, it's clear that she and Hook have the most in common and have the best chemistry. It’s True Love.

* This also might just be the best season for Belle as a character. Her focus episode in the middle of the Neverland Saga is actually about her and her desire to be a hero and contribute to the cause rather than just about her romance with Rumple, and she gets to be a badass who saves the day and makes a great new friend in Ariel. She's also good in the Wicked Saga, where she bonds with Neal, takes Hook and Regina to task for their past misdeeds against her until they apologize and make it up to her, and continues to be a valuable asset as the town librarian and scholar. Pity we can't feel happy for her on her wedding day, though, as even in his goddamn proposal to her Rumple manages to be the worst lover ever.

* Neal is promoted to a regular character this season, which naturally means he's its designated screwed-over regular who won't make it to the next season! It's a shame since despite how miscast Michael Raymond-James continues to be, Neal is better written in this season than he was in the previous one. Through both the Neverland and Wicked Sagas, he shows a passionate desire to be a better father to Henry than Rumple was to him, to not repeat the same mistakes that Rumple made. And so when he is separated from Emma and Henry, he becomes obsessed with getting back to them no matter what the cost, veering dangerously into Rumple territory as he starts dabbling in dark magic. But when the ritual to resurrect his father so that he can find a way back to Earth costs him his life, he ends up accepting his fate rather than cling to life like a coward and risk becoming just like Rumple. While I don't particularly miss him nor do I find his heroic death enough to warrant Snow and Charming naming their new son after him, I'm glad in the end he was able to break the cycle.

* Peter Pan, as I said before, is a top contender for the show's greatest Big Bad. Much of it has to do with Robbie Kay, who absolutely nails the cocky and charismatic yet malicious and frightening qualities that you expect to see from an evil version of Peter Pan. He is so utterly, thoroughly, skin-crawlingly evil that you are invested in the heroes' quest less out of concern for Henry and more because you want to see this demon child be defeated. And of course, there's his backstory and true identity - he's actually Malcolm, Rumple's father, who cruelly abandoned him in order to bond with the Eldritch Abomination personifying Neverland's dark side and obtain eternal youth. But eternal youth doesn't mean eternal life, and Pan will die unless he obtains the Heart of the Truest Believer belonging to his great-grandson, Henry.

While this backstory is divisive among fans, I'm in the camp that loves it. Not only does it add a greater layer of depth to Rumple and his story and make Pan both more pitiful and more reprehensible, but OUAT is at its best when it uses fairy tales to explore real issues, and this is a quite literal exploration of "Peter Pan Syndrome", where adult men selfishly remain in arrested development even when they become fathers. It also really boosts Pan's Ultimate Villain cred, as none of what transpired in the show would have happened if he hadn't abandoned his son and scarred him for life. He is Patient Zero for all the characters' suffering.

* Zelena, the Wicked Witch of the West, naturally feels like a step down when compared to Peter Pan, but this isn't for a lack of effort on the part of the actress, as Rebecca Mader is delightful as she chews the scenery in a blaze of bug-eyed, bared-teeth, shrieking, cackling, psychotic glory. The issues with Zelena are in the writing. First off, making her Regina's half-sister is questionable given that we just had a villain with a secret familial connection with one of our mainstay baddies, which was following from an evil woman with a familial connection to Regina specifically! And them being sisters doesn't have much bearing on the conflict beyond explaining why the Wicked Witch has green skin (it magically turned green out of jealousy for Regina), and she only has green skin in the flashbacks anyway. It also doesn't track with how they first present Zelena in her backstory: she's a girl who wants love and a place to belong, but the moment she discovers she has a sister in another realm her reaction isn't to seek her out and bond with her but "why does she have all of that power and privilege, I oughta have all of that, it's not faaaaaaaaair!" She also lusts after Rumple who, having previously insisted that no-one could ever love him, casually admits that "he has that effect on women" and stops training Zelena because he accepts as fact that she loves him more than anything else and so she can't cast the Dark Curse for him. It makes no sense.

On top of that, her big secret plan ends up being anticlimactic - she wants to create a time travel spell so that she can go back in time and make herself the one who casts the Dark Curse for Rumple - and she is defeated ridiculously easy by Regina's out-of-her-ass light magic powers and then unceremoniously shivved by Rumple in her jail cell. All while Adam and Eddy drop boulder-sized hints that she isn't really dead and we haven't seen the last of her. Then why "kill her" to begin with? Why not just keep her imprisoned? Like I said, Zelena is a good idea for a character and with a great actress, but the writing really let her down.

* Beyond the usual side characters around Storybrooke who are fine as usual, we get several new ones that all make an impact. There's Felix, Pan's creepy and fanatical right-hand boy; Tinker Bell the cynical exiled fairy turned reluctant ally of the Nevengers; the adult versions of John and Michael Darling who run the anti-magic group Greg and Tamara belonged to on Pan's behest since he's holding Wendy hostage; Liam Jones, the deceased older brother of Killian Jones; Ariel of The Little Mermaid fame played to adorable perfection by Joanna Garcia-Swisher, Blackbeard the pirate who serves as Hook's arch-rival in their mutual field of interest; and Glinda the Good Witch who protected Oz until Zelena ousted her from power.

And then there are the new ones that make much less of an impact such as a charisma-free Prince Eric; Walsh the Wizard of Oz (and Emma's short-lived boyfriend, and a flying monkey - yes, he's really all three of those); a bland version of Rapunzel; a dumbfounding semi-villainous adaptation of Lumiere the talking candle, and Dorothy Gale who is so devoid of anything special or interesting that she's a slap in the face to her literary and cinematic counterpart. I'm not sure what went wrong with these characters, but it went very wrong.

However, one side character needs to be addressed above all others: Robin Hood. He's back and involved in the present day story, now played by Sean Maguire instead of Tom Ellis, and the revelation via Tinker Bell's pixie dust that he's Regina's "soul mate" is the start of his character being butchered beyond repair. The sad thing is that it could have worked: the argumentative, mutual dislike yet still caring about each other type of relationship they have in the flashbacks was perfect and should have continued, progressing naturally into Belligerent Sexual Tension and finally romance as Regina becomes a better person. Instead, when they lose their memories and meet again in Storybrooke, it's now love at first sight and instant romance, with Robin being disgustingly courteous and compliant toward Regina (claiming she's "bold and audacious, but not evil"). Robin Hood is supposed to stand against corrupt, oppressive tyrants, not fall in love with them, and Regina is nowhere near out of her corrupt, oppressive tyrant mindset yet. But she's Regina, Adam and Eddy's favorite character, and so if Emma's getting a sexy British love interest than so must she, regardless of how it clashes with his code of honor! Ugh, such a waste of a great hero, and of a good actor.

Atmosphere - Remember when I said that Season 2 got dark in the bad way? Well, the Neverland Saga is dark in the good way, where the darkness isn't coming from a constant steam of personal misery, heinous actions, and the heroes failing against the villains, but from things that are suggested and things that lurk in the shadows, from trials the heroes must face in order to come out stronger that come off almost like an intense form of therapy, and from a particularly evil villain who will do anything to get what he wants.  The fight against said villain also restores the tit-for-tat style of combat that Season 1 did so well at, with both the heroes and the villain getting the best of each other on multiple occasions so that it feels like a legitimate struggle rather than a never-ending one-sided blowout like it was with Cora.

Unfortunately, the show also takes this dark atmosphere to way too literal an extreme. The choice to keep Neverland in the present day always at night seems cool early on, but the novelty wears off quickly when you feel like you've been looking at the same backdrop for scenes and even episodes on end. I think allowing some scenes to be at day or afternoon would have done wonders at keeping up a sense of variety - many gifsets online brighten up the pictures and they looks so much better as a result. This was a big wasted opportunity.  

The tone of the Wicked Saga is generally lighter and campier, with the only particularly dark things coming from Rumple and Neal's storylines, and that was definitely the right call since anything heavier after the Neverland Saga would start to feel oppressive. And again, the fight against Zelena is an even-handed one, with both heroes and villain getting to score points.

One of the biggest surprises upon revisiting this season is just how well Storybrooke was handled as a setting. It doesn't show up too often in the Neverland Saga but is well utilized when it is, and in the Wicked Saga we get a lot of new locations like Zelena's farmhouse beyond the woods and explorations of ones that were previously underexplored such as the docks and shipyard area. More importantly, magic shenanigans are kept to a minimum and for the most part there are actually sensible rules applied to them! Pan enacting the Dark Curse, the heroes counteracting him, Zelena's usage of magic, Emma learning to channel her inner magic, the séance to summon Cora's spirit, the time travel spell...they are things that don't just happen, there's stuff that has to be done and established beforehand. 

It's not all done well, of course - we get the worst excuse why no-one can leave the town line yet (flying monkeys will get you if you try!) and Regina's light magic is pulled out of her ass following a breaking of the Dark Curse from her that makes no sense (Henry wasn't under any curse, so a True Love's Kiss on him shouldn't break squat!), but it's a step up from Season 2, enough to fool you into thinking that Adam and Eddy have learned their lesson. 

Episode Quality - There's no bad episode in the Neverland Saga, although there are a few that stand out as weaker than the rest. "Nasty Habits", for instance, is kind of drag whenever Peter Pan isn't onscreen, since the Nevengers are stuck moping around at Baelfire's former tree house while Baelfire himself ("It's NEAL!") continues to be unable to sell the drama between him and his father in the way it deserves to be sold. And "The New Neverland", beyond having an awful title that gives everything away too soon, has a ridiculously fast-paced and repetitive plot in order to set up the midseason finale...a problem that could have been easily rectified had it not also hosted the most pointless flashback in the entire season.

And now I need to talk about the flashback in the episode before that one: "Save Henry", the climax of the Nevengers' time in Neverland. It's about how Regina first adopted Henry, and I actually really like it. It shows how she almost might have reformed after obtaining her new son but then discovered he was the child of the Savior, and unable to choose between him and her power over the cursed town, she copped out by drinking a memory loss potion. Not only is this tragic but it actually explains a lot about why Regina was so unstable and abusive in Season 1, since a flashback in that season had Snow drinking just such a potion to forget Charming and we got to see exactly what it did to her psyche as a result. However...this flashback didn't belong in this particular episode. Sure, Regina's love for Henry was a part of the present day story, but so was Emma's. And Neal's. And Pan's desire to fully assimilate his heart so that he could live forever. I really think that a flashback to Neverland in its prime, shared between Pan, Hook, Baelfire and Tinker Bell, would have been far more appropriate. After all, we hear a lot about those relationships, but I really want to see more of them.

I have few complaints about the present day narratives of "Heart of the Truest Believer", "Lost Girl", "Quite a Common Fairy", "Good Form", "Ariel", "Dark Hollow", "Think Lovely Thoughts" and "Save Henry", though, nor about the flashback of "Nasty Habits" that brilliantly composites Peter Pan with the Pied Piper of Hamelin, luring children away with a pan flute.

And then there's the midseason finale, "Going Home". Holy shit. This is the finale that gives "A Land Without Magic" a run for its money. It's not just the finale to the Neverland Saga, but the finale to the entire story that was begun in "Pilot", with every character making what appears to be their last stand. The stakes and the emotions run very high in this one, peaking with the double punch of Rumple's beautiful sacrifice to save his loved ones from Pan and the scene at the town line where Emma and Henry have to say goodbye to all of their friends and family from Storybrooke, with the town and the characters disappearing in a cloud of purple smoke as Emma and Henry drive across the town line, all their memories of the show's events forgotten but replaced with new memories implanted by Regina, memories of Emma never giving Henry up for adoption and them living happily together for years. It all started when Henry came to Emma's apartment to bring her to Storybrooke, and now it ends with them both leaving Storybrooke and heading toward their happy ending. It's perfect. 

The Wicked Saga had its work cut out for it in topping what came before it, and "New York City Serenade" following up the last minute, literal Sequel Hook of "Going Home" does end up feeling anti-climactic in how quickly Stoybrooke, its residents, and all of Emma's memories are restored (also, Emma's new boyfriend being a flying monkey was so dumb), but it's still a solid and enjoyable enough episode to watch, with its direct follow-up, "Witch Hunt", being even better. "The Tower" has great atmosphere and character development, and while "Quiet Minds" definitely could have been better, it could have been worse too. "The Jolly Roger", meanwhile, is the perfect midpoint episode, mostly a breather and a deeper exploration of Hook's character and how much he's changed in spite of him doing his damndest in the flashback to resist that change, as well as the welcome return of our fave fish-girl, Ariel. 

It's really just the four heavily Zelena-focused episodes "It's Not Easy Being Green", "Bleeding Through", "A Curious Thing" and "Kansas" that I have trouble with; I feel like the writers really dropped the ball on Regina and Zelena's conflict and individual character development in these episodes, which is ironic given that Evil vs. Wicked was the biggest thing promoted about this half-season arc and it ended up being its weakest element. 

The two-part season finale, "Snow Drifts" and "There's No Place Like Home", is both a weird and wacky homage to Back to the Future and a return to the series' magical roots. Emma and Hook's adventure to the time of the "Snow Falls" flashback is so much fun and is the perfect antidote to the last few lousy episodes. It also could have very well made an ideal series finale if five changes had been made to both it and the whole Wicked Saga's story: Neal would have to still be alive (that way we don't get the baby being named after him, which is stupid), Rumple would have to still be dead (so no lying to Belle via wedding proposal and killing Zelena), Zelena would have to still be alive and in jail (totally doable with Rumple not alive), Marian would have to not be included in the plot at all (past or present), and of course the stinger with Elsa showing up would have to be removed. Do that and it's a happy ending. But they didn't do that, so following a quick diversion, I'm stuck having to watch Season 4.

Overall - Just as there is no doubt in my mind that Season 1 is the show’s strongest season, there is no doubt in my mind that Season 3 is the runner-up. This is an all-around solid, largely well-crafted, entertaining season of television, especially the first half of it. During this season, I was proud to call myself a OUAT fan. It’s such a shame that the Wicked Saga didn’t end up innovating more and instead settled the show down into a status quo, because if it hadn’t done that then this season’s template would have been the one to follow for the rest of the show, with truly new and exciting story arcs in each half of a season that shake up the show and its characters for the better rather than always returning them to the same tired status quo that only lessens their appeal every time it happens. Oh, what might have been...

[captain-azoren]

The other thing is that Azula likely saw it as a punishment Zuko had coming for a long time, and this time he couldn't hide behind Ursa or even Iroh.

She saw Zuko as someone who kept getting away with being a spoiled, entitled brat, who refused to work hard for what he wanted, choosing to grovel for forgiveness instead of fighting with conviction. In Azula and Ozai's eyes, Zuko was an embarrassing weakling who wasn't living up to his status. While Ozai disciplined Azula into a warrior, Ursa coddled Zuko.

Not that the show ever really frames it this way though, because even in Book 1 you have Zuko himself trying to create this narrative that he's always being this hardworking underdog who has just always been having trouble keeping up with Ozai's unreasonable standards. Even in flashbacks you have Ursa reinforcing the idea that Zuko's strength comes from never giving up.

This is the sort of thing that tricks the audience into seeing Zuko as the hardworking whose character is built by struggling for his goals while making Azula look like the spoiled brat who coasts by on her innate talent. This doesn't hold up though because we actually see how each sibling works and trains and it couldn't be more different; Zuko is frequently impatient and doesn't think things through, while Azula doesn't cut corners and works herself to the bone to do things properly.

So in conclusion, yes, Azula was glad to see Zuko get burned because then maybe he would finally get his act together. It's horrifically abusive, yes, but Azula just doesn't understand that.

What’s an Azula moment that makes people misunderstand her?

Hello anon!

I’d say an Azula moment that makes people misunderstand her a lot is when she smirked when Zuko was burnt in the face during his Agni Kai with Ozai. Yes, it wasn’t nice of her to smirk at her brother literally being burnt by their father. But people forget that she was a product of her environment. What happened to Zuko was extremely messed up and cruel. But the Fire Nation upper class, including Azula, the princess, would have been conditioned to view what happened to Zuko as fair.

Zuko spoke out of turn in a war meeting he was not even supposed to be in. (Zuko was obviously in the right, but it wasn’t seen that way). The Fire Nation very much has the mentality of, “Respect your elders and superiors above all else and do what they say without question.” Zuko didn’t do that, and it was seen as not just great disrespect towards the general, but towards the Fire Lord himself. Respect is a huge value in the Fire Nation.

Agni Kai’s are sacred in Fire Nation culture and to refuse to fight back in one is considered to be extremely dishonorable and cowardly.

So it doesn’t matter to Azula that Zuko is her brother. She may have inwardly felt bad for him, but she still would have been conditioned to view what happened to him as fair which is what made her smirk. It doesn’t mean that she doesn’t have feelings or that she is sadistic, she is a product of her very messed up environment.

Thanks for the ask!

[the-ash0]

Chapter 19 partner

I am a fool. When did I get so caught up, so confused, that I lost track of what is important? I know I have a tendency to obsess and lose my overview of the situation. But this... this was beyond stupid. This is my first conscious thought on waking, and it pushes me to my feet. Arduously. Painfully. Yes, and maybe that last bit of strength I need to get up comes from panic.

I think... maybe I did not escape the Gravity Room at all. I have to be inside still, with how hard it is to stand. Yet it doesn't matter whether it’s one gee, twenty gees, or a thousand. I’ll manage. I have to, though I suspect this is not my first try. You see, I have a vague recollection of a previous attempt being thwarted by that blue-haired vixen. But she’s not here now; I am out of the medical ward and hobbling into a hallway. Nothing stands in my way now; nothing but exhaustion, a broken body, and what should have been a laughable amount of gravity - Earth’s pull. In essence, nothing new.

Now, where am I again? I can’t seem to find my way in these corridors. Oppressive. Small. I turn and turn again, but at least I remember. This is not space, but Earth. Capsule Corp. Where was I going again? Oh yes; Gravity Room. Super Saiyan. I have dedicated myself to that goal. I have vowed to make it happen. Obtain it, force it, now that I know it’s possible. Not just believe, but know —  I’ve seen it with my own eyes, twice. So it’s not like there can only be one. And... it should be easy. I’ll be the legend, defeat Kakarot, be all I was meant to be. It was prophesied, it’s going to happen.

It should be easy, but so far it has proven to be anything but. In chasing after my goal I have lost sight of the track I’m on, my surroundings, and my own safety. What is wrong with me? Have I become so coddled and so sure that nothing can challenge me on this plush little planet that I would throw caution in the wind?

Disgusted with myself, I finally find a door to the outside world. Fresh air hits my face, clears my ringing head. It does little to lift my spirits; now I can truly take stock of the pathetic shape I am in.

“Oh, my!” I hear from one side, and it’s the mother.

I think that just this once I have to agree with her sentiment: my legs are shaking. Every step I take hurts. The walk from the house to the new GR feels so long. The woman built a new one while I was out, but how is that possible? Every broken memory I have of waking up had her at my side. It makes me anxious to find out how many days.. weeks... I have lost.

That’s right, human. I am on the mend. I was really bad off, this much I know. And of course there’s the other, more worrisome fact: I put myself in that position. Me, by my own hand. I am my own worst enemy.

So, yet another failure that leaves me with nothing to show for it and no way to continue. I left myself pathetically open for any attack, and how do you think those Z-fighters react? That’s right. More maddening, disgracing kindness. With my strength still a disappointment and my reliability at a new-time low, I’d have thought even these confusing creatures would tire of me. But no, they keep up their painfully obvious kindness like I haven't told them to fuck off.. how many times?

Did I tell you the scar-faced warrior was too weak to touch me? Well, he touched me. He carried me to medical, and he could have killed me twenty times over. Hell, he could have just left me and they would have been rid of me. Did I say the woman could not hurt me if she tried? Hn. I guess she can hurt me plenty without trying, or maybe that was me. Maybe she just provided me with that piece of rope and I hung myself…

No; I need not fear these people. They are not out to get me, as the woman shows me again when her face pops up on the console. It is odd to realise that the vixen’s screams come from some naive sense of ‘protecting me from myself’. Of course, during the process she also notifies anyone who might pick up on her messages about my sorry state. I wonder how many of Frieza’s forces are out there, listening to her broadcasts? They must be salivating at the thought.

“Oh, you missed a step, Vegeta. Feeling off balance?” She delights in pointing out my errors. Then, her mood takes a 180 degree turn as she angrily laments about the stupidity of Saiyans, and men in general.

Yet I am back on my feet and throwing punches again, lest any fool think they still have a chance at taking me down. You humans might be too addled in the brain to mount a decent assassination attempt, but I know for a fact that the stars are filled with less foolish  creatures. They missed their free shot though. I’m up. I’m fighting... Damn. I think I tore some stitches.  

“There you go! Now you’re bleeding again, in three places. Very macho.” The woman quips in a too-airy staccato, like it hurts her to look at me.

She's right, but that is not the  reason I’m floundering. No; it has little to do with the damage my body has taken. Let’s face it, if there’s one thing Saiyans are good at it’s pushing through the pain. The panic that first caused my little mishaps in the previous GR has ebbed down to a dull throb of despair, and not even the knowledge that I’ve gotten another Zenkai boost helps my spirits.  

Oh did I forget to mention, human, that   I was training at the same gravity Kakarot used when he ascended:  one hundred gees. One hundred and twenty, at one point. It should be as easy as snapping my fingers now to become a Super Saiyan. So far nothing has happened, no matter how much I power up. I’ll be honest; when I felt the GR tearing apart, I was nearly certain that my little adrenaline ride would be the final push. The final snap I’d need to transform… alas, it was not.

Why not? This Is ridiculous; I should be there! I have done everything. I have tried everything. Yet it’s obviously, maddeningly, not been enough. This is ludicrous, impossible, but perhaps it is time to admit that I have absolutely no idea how to attain Super Saiyan. I’ve tried everything I could think of, and it did not work. Pathetic.

No, I refuse to admit defeat. There is one other thing I can do. One thing that might — that has — to work. I need a second opinion, preferably from someone with a clear mind and skills in information gathering. Since I am apparently the guest of the ‘greatest mind on Earth’, I hardly need to look far to find such a genius brain to fix my dilemma. She’s screaming at me right now, in fact, something about alarms.

“Do you know what that sound is? That’s the life-sign alert , letting you know you’re dying..” As ever, she is such a drama queen.

“Woman, I have a job for you,” I say, then decide it would serve me better to keep our discussion private. “Bring your ass to the Gravity Room, and I’ll tell you what I want.”

That shuts her up, but only a moment. Then her confusionis replaced by anger that lashed out in full force. “If you think I’ll help you with your little suicide run, go fuck yourself.”

The monitor goes dark, and she’s gone. She’s finally stopped nagging me, and this is the one time I actually require her presence.  Why am I even surprised that she’d dare to talk back to me like that? The woman was barely intimidated by me before. Why should she suddenly fear me, now that her precious Goku has returned? He can squash me like a bug whenever he wants, because I am unable to ascend. And now, I’ve gone and upset his mistress.

Yes, let’s face facts: the  leader of their group was never Kakarot. That became obvious mere  moments after the fool’s return: Kakarot is not and never will be in charge of anything.

Which is, all things considered, a good thing. As much as he has proven to be an amazing fighter, he is... surprisingly clueless about everything else. Such ajarring fact; one would expect someone with such power to wield it like a king. But he seems as uninterested in doing so as his ‘friends’ seem uninterested in giving him proper homage that such strength should grant him.

My second guess had been that harpy married to Kakarot. She obviously scares the third-class; she definitely spends enough time ordering him around, and I understand she used to be a fighter before she retired. Yet it hardly adds up. It is possible that she is managing to hide her true power, yet she seems terribly weak. Also, the way that both Kakarot and his half-breed run off on her without any punishment in return convinces me there is little bite behind her bark.

No, it has to be that blue-haired woman who pulls the strings. She’s the one in control. Of course she is. It's Obvious, now I think about it. She and Kakarot go back a long time, and she can get every one of those weakling fighters to do her bidding. Follow the money. That’s what you humans say, right?

She may be in charge of everyone else, but I won't let her order me around. Just to prove it  I keep training for a another half-hour more. Although to call it ‘training’ is somewhat generous. I flounder about, tilting left and right under gravities I had long-since conquered, while the machine flashes red warning lights at my antics. At one point, the force returns to one gee, and it is a testament to my exhaustion that it takes me a few minutes to realise it. Now I’m not sure why I bothered. Trying to show how you can’t be bossed around is a lousy way to start negotiations.

And so we get to the crux of the matter: I have precious little few bargaining chips left, and the little lady is used to getting her way. Nonetheless, I will show her that I am in a higher caliber. I refuse to be bullied or buttered like her Z-floozies, and what she’ll get from me is a negotiation on equal terms. Yes, that would be a little less pathetic, I decide, as I turn off the GR and leave to seek her out. We’ll negotiate, and it’ll be a trade.

[illuminating-dragons]

Kin (23/72): Sticking To It

Draco Malfoy finds himself nearly friendless after the war. The living Death Eaters despise him as a weakling ‘Legacy’; the light side hate him for everything he did.

Harry Potter and his friends stepped up, and frankly them and Astoria are the reasons he’s alive.

But the only friendship that survived the war was with Gregory Goyle.

Goyle went to prison; he’d committed too many tortures, too much pain to stay out. But Draco visits him and tries to ignore the calls and taunts down the hallway. They talk at a level they never did before, equals in grief if nothing else, and many of the elements Draco brings into his prison system come from Goyle—the elements Draco thinks will save his friend.

And when the prison is built and Goyle transfers, it’s the sight of his friend walking with lively eyes that soothes Draco the most.

Draco finds it hard to be physically affectionate with Scorpius at first. He never received that from his father, and when his mother tried Lucius would snap at her for coddling him. But Astoria doesn’t let that go on more than a few months into Scorpius’ life. She insists that Draco do an equal amount of feedings, and after his first terror—what if he held his son wrong, what if he choked, what if Scorpius wouldn’t eat when it was his Da—Draco treasured those moments above all else.

Food becomes something that ties the two of them together. Draco takes everything he learned about cooking and baking from Harry and teaches it to Scorpius. Hermione recommends a few libraries, and they make a monthly expedition from the time that Scorpius is three. They pick out cookbooks of all kinds (Scorpius tends to choose by colour, which makes for interesting meals), and they go home and make food together. When Draco knows he’s going to have a hard day at work—parole hearing, new prisoner, journalists visiting—he makes sure to bring plenty of whatever sweet thing he and his son made together that week.

By the time Scorpius is five, Draco starts looking for extra help at the prison, because he doesn’t want to be there all day. His first choice is Goyle, who’s greatly improved, and he also recruits Penelope Clearwater, who manages to face the people who tortured and killed people like her with a grace and wisdom far beyond her years. They share Draco’s vision, and they challenge him, pushing ideas further until they’re sure they’ve got the best they can do.

This gives Draco the time to pick his son up from nursery school and take him to the park, or to play dates with Albus Potter and Rose Granger-Weasley. Scorpius likes most of the Weasley clan, but Al and Rosie are his favourites, and Draco is more than willing to sit with his former enemies (and now friends?) and watch their children play together.

It also gives Draco more time to spend with his wife, particularly when Albus grows up and goes to school. Astoria works late some evenings, but whenever she’s free and their son is asleep…well.

They play.

Draco had never heard of BDSM before Astoria, and when she told him that she was a Domme, he thought she was calling herself stupid. But he was intrigued, and they tried it out. It took a while for Draco to get the point through his head that this wasn’t about punishment for his crimes, nor did it mean that Astoria didn’t adore him. They fell into a pattern eventually, and they don’t scene every time they have sex, but Draco really, really enjoys his wife being in charge, taking care of him, making him feel like he is worthy of being happy.

Outside their bedroom, it takes a long time for Draco to truly believe that he could stay changed. His heart was in the effort, but he had been a terrible creature for most of his life. Could he ever unlearn all those habits, and make new ones stick?

But he learns day by day that he can make them stick, because he has more strength than he ever imagined, he’s more capable of love than he ever thought, and he has people willing to help him hold things together as strong as that strange silver tape Arthur Weasley gave him for his 40th birthday.

“I thought you might have something you needed to hold together,” he said. “It actually works better than magic sometimes.”

The moment Astoria and Scorpius were asleep, Draco carefully took out the picture from that night (taken by Lou Delacour), of everyone at the party, laughing and joking together.

Draco cut thin strips of the tape, and attached the picture to a larger piece. Then he tucked it into his pouch that he took to work with him every day. It held his wedding ring, the keys to the prison, and a small picture of Vincent Crabbe.

And now it held his family, people who were really his family, and it wouldn’t get ruined.