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spectral-kitkat · 3 years ago

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Miraculous Rant.

Where the hell do I begin…

Season 1:

The show was decent in season 1. Some episodes were just mindless filler and probably weren’t needed in the grand scheme of things but they helped us get introduced to the characters, we got to know the plot and the world our characters inhabit. It was good. The love story between Adrien and Marinette was cute and off to a touching and fluffy start.

Season 2:

This season was immediately better than season 1. It had character development, it went more into detail about the lore surrounding the Miraculous and we got to learn more about our characters and their families and the villian’s motives. (HM really went from “I wanna destroy the world” to “I wanna wake my wife from the coma she’s in”).

We got to see new heroes which was fun! We got new characters like Luka and Kagami.

The season finale was epic! The Miraculous team all taking down all the previous villains in the show was awesome. At the end we even got Mari kissing Adrien on the cheek. It was great! (Even though it clearly reset itself in season 3 cause it’s never mentioned again)

I really enjoyed season 2 and it’s probably my favourite out of the 4.

Season 3:

Season 3 was kinda good and kinda bad. We had some great episodes but this is where the show took the wrong turn.

Marinette lost some of her character in season 3. This was the start of her descent into being the Queen of Mary Sues. It’s also where she was crowned the Queen of Stalkers! Her character took a fucking nose dive in this season. We had so many moments that just creeped me the fuck out.

1. The ENTIRETY of Puppeteer 2 🤢🤢🤢 I could not stand that episode. When we reached the dreaded statue scene I physically had to pause it like 10 times. That scene takes about 3 minutes to watch… it took me about 20. I cringed so fucking hard because of the secondhand embarrassment I was feeling. That was not sweet, it wasn’t romantic, it wasn’t the least bit cute… it was a train wreck! It was creepy and stalkerish and it’s a wonder Adrien even spoke to her again after that atrocity!

2. LB delivering the present in Chat Blanc. Two words: STALKER BEHAVIOUR!!! I genuinely could not believe my eyes when I saw LB run her hand across everything in his room and then actually SNIFF Adrien’s pillow. Like WTF!!! 🤮 I’m pretty sure whoever was responsible for that scene clearly thought it was the equivalent of when someone gets their S/O’s jumper or something and it still smells like them. But this turned it up to the nth degree and way passed the line of sanity.

Adrien was extremely under-utilised in this season. He didn’t really do anything. The only episodes we got about him didn’t really focus on him. ‘Felix’ whilst focusing on Adrien’s family didn’t really feature him. ‘Party Crasher’ while a beautiful mess was more about Mari trying to get into the party than the party itself. ‘Chat Blanc’ again focused more on Mari trying to fix her mistake.

We got even more heroes in season 3, not in the right order but they were there. It was fun seeing everyone’s transformations.

Season 3 was also the season of destroying redemptions. The big one obviously being Chloe. Season 2 was setting up this amazing redemption for her and before it could go anywhere it was wiped off the face of the earth during the finale (and don’t worry we’ll get to that dumpster fire later). Gabriel also had any remaining sympathy ripped away from him. How did the guy who stopped Gorizilla from letting Adrien die when he only thought he was CN go from that to using his son like fucking baseball in Chat Blanc when he knew his son was CN. Like I knew you were a shit father but you still cared about Adrien in some way shape or form but after that episode I can see I was clearly mistaken!

Before we get to the finale I want to talk about probably my 2 least favourite episodes from this season: Desperada and Reflekdoll

Desperada:

I fucking hated this episode! The only good thing was Luka getting to be Viperion, other than that this episode was awful!

Marinette was a selfish cringey bitch. Completely ignoring Luka to gush about Adrien to Jagged. Brushing Luka off as soon as Adrien turns up. Immediately cuddling up to Aspik and flirting with him when she needed to focus on the akuma (something which she has told CN not to do many times before)

Adrien, I love you kid but Jesus Christ you were a dumbass in this episode! Aspik’s design was terrible! Aspik himself was awful. I know Adrien tried his best but dude you were given the Black Cat miraculous for a reason! He shouldn’t have tried to be Aspik but even when he did he should’ve called it quits after like 5 resets not 25,913 times.

The only person with a brain this episode was Luka. So well done guitar boy, gold star!

Reflekdoll:

This episode was annoying! It was basically the start of the Marinette can do no wrong streak! When they have to swap miraculous I was happy cause it meant we got to see new outfits and see how they each handle the different powers. It would also serve as a way to get LB and CN to see what their partners role is first hand. Until we actually get to it…

LadyNoire is of course amazing and needs no introduction to using this new miraculous that she’s never used before. She’s cocky and confident and basically just LB in Chat’s costume with his powers.

Mister Bug on the other hand is just useless. He struggles with this new miraculous (like anyone would!) and is stupid and goofy. He has to rely on LadyNoire to solve the lucky charm. They swapped miraculous so shouldn’t that mean that Mister Bug should get the lucky vision and the creative powers that the earrings give him.

Overall Reflekdoll is awful. It was shitty writing and the start of Adrien getting the short end of the stick.

And now the season 3 finale… Just what the fuck. That is my only reaction: what the fuck!

Chloe you poor fucking child! What did they do to you!!! So much potential SQUANDERED!!!!

What was the point in bringing in all these different superheros with unique skill sets, costumes and transformations if you were just going to immediately reveal them to the main villian so they can’t be used again. That’s stupid! If you wanted the shock value that is “Oh no HM knows some of the heroes identities!” Then keep it as only some. Have like Max, Kim and Kagami outside trying to find somewhere to hide but unfortunately they get hit. Or Nino and Alya are hiding but the windows open and they get hit. Have some of the heroes hide so they’re fine! Taking away every ally of LB and CN’s was a stupid move! (Even if they wanted Alya to become a spy have her as part of the like 4 that get revealed or something, it’s not that difficult)

Season 3 was 50/50 for me

Season 4:

So I know season 4 isn’t even halfway through yet but so much is wrong with this season already that I need to vent!

So my biggest problem with this season of Miraculous: Tales of Ladybitch and Rena Rouge, I mean Rena Furtive… shit, Chat Noir! Is that CN is basically pointless! Adrien has been flung over a rainbow and is only remembered when he’s needed as

1. Marinette’s love interest

2. Someone for LB to shout at

3. A plot device

He has basically been sidelined. Partners my ASS!!!

Adrien is being blown off by pretty much EVERYONE! It’s coming to a point where this poor sweet summer child is going to crack! And it is not gonna be pretty… I definitely feel like the writers are leading up to a big fight between CN and LB which will probably end with Chat Blanc 2.0.

I REALLY HATE MARINETTE/LADYBUG!!!! In Season 3 I said it was the beginning of her descent, well in season 4 she’s done it. She’s descended, she has hit rock fucking bottom. She is so unlikable I don’t actually care about her as a person. She has entered full blown stalker territory it’s only a matter of time before she starts killing people for even looking at Adrien! Not to mention that Miss Mary Sue here can’t do anything wrong! She never has to suffer the consequences of her actions, she is always perfect no matter what she does… it pisses me off!)

She’s the Guardian now big whoop. I know what it feels like to be stressed and under pressure so I do understand why she needed to tell someone about it all. I just don’t see why that person had to Alya! Especially considering she has someone by her side every akuma attack going through pretty much the exact same thing. I know she’s worried about CB happening again but as I said before the more she leaves him out the more she is actually pushing that to become a possibility! Plus it makes sense for them to reveal their identities now since LB is now the guardian it’s probably a good idea to know who holds the cat miraculous, she knows everyone else’s identities!

Even if she didn’t want to tell CN her identity she could still explain the situation to him. If she didn’t want to tell him anything (which she doesn’t anyway) then instead of Alya she should’ve talked to Luka! Her boyfriend for all of half an episode (thanks writers…). He’s so sweet and caring and clearly loves her so much! If she wanted someone to confide in then why not choose the person you clearly wanted to date but couldn’t because of that very reason! (Yeah I know it’s kinda a moot point now since Luka knows both identities but still). He wanted to try and comfort her so it would’ve been the perfect moment for it. That way you could still date him and he’d know why you had to suddenly leave dates halfway through! But no break the boys heart instead!

Adrien and Marinette were both such fucking idiots in the first 2 episodes. Like why would you start a relationship with someone when you know your heart isn’t in it! That’s called leading someone on and is a really shitty thing to do to someone! No wonder Kagami and Luka ended up akumatized!

Another aspect of season 4 I don’t like is Rena Furtive. Yes ok having a spy for your side is a good strategy but when said spy basically tells an important member of a duo that the 2 person job doesn’t involve them… it just really ticks me off! Alya you are the sidekick to LB and CN! Chat isn’t!

Miraculous specials:

The Miraculous World specials suck! Shanghai is better than NY but still has its problems. Both specials add nothing to the overall plot/lore of the show apart from trying to set up some weird cinematic universe…

NY special:

One of the worst things I’ve ever had to sit through! The plane scene alone I paused a few times. I want to say well done to Mari for trying to move on from Adrien (especially considering I’m pretty sure she’s dating Luka at this point) but I can’t help but think it’s just to give her character some pointless development that goes nowhere and doesn’t actually develop anything!

LB can pretty much fuck off at this point! I hate her! She put all this shit on CN (like she doesn’t know exactly how that feels). It’s like why does she get to go off on holiday but CN can’t. LB should’ve stayed in Paris for 3 reasons:

1. She’s recently become the guardian meaning it would probably be best that she stayed with the Mircle Box

2. She’s the only one who can purity the akumas

3. If she’s so sure about being the boss then she should take responsibility of Paris and the citizens.

What really pisses me off about her is what she says to CN during the big fight. “I can’t trust you”… surely you could have this conversation afterwards since you’re supposed to be focusing on taking down the villian! Plus everyone bashes Adrien for giving his miraculous up in this episode but look at it from his point of view: His partner and best friend just said she couldn’t trust him which in turn caused him to cataclysm someone and essentially kill them. That’s gonna take a toll on anyone, especially a 14 year old! He probably thought in that moment. “Ladybug needs a partner she can trust and someone who won’t mess up and kill someone. She needs a better partner.” It makes sense he renounces his miraculous! I’m just upset that in doing so he loses Plagg who is pretty much his only friend who actually understands what Adrien goes through at home.

When Uncanny gets CN to come back, LB acts like it’s not her fault in the first place that he feels inadequate! She didn’t even apologise for saying what she did! He apologised for lying about not being in Paris but nope LB wasn’t in the wrong at all and didn’t have anything to apologise for 🙄… (yes the LadyNoir hug was amazing but I just wish it was under different circumstances!)

Also are we not gonna mention Gabriel Agreste almost starting WW3??? He wanted to launch a fucking missile!!!

Shanghai:

As I said before, this special is way better for several reasons.

We got MariChat! (Best side to the love square imo). This special actually had some semblance on a plot. Fei, whilst a bit op, was a cool character. It was nice to see Wang Cheng again.

However once again there were many problems.

A big one being Marinette yet again! (What a shock! 😒 I’ll come back to this). Another was that once again HM’s motivation has changed. How is getting the Prodigious gonna help bring back Emilie??

Back to Marinette… The fact that the words “Huh?! There must be some kind of mistake! I always know what's up with Adrien! … His 5 first names and every corresponding name date, his yearly schedule, even his shoe size! If there were anything to know about him, I would know it!” come out of her mouth whilst she is flipping through his schedule that she keeps in her pocketbook is a hugh red flag!!! That is not cute or adorable! That’s messed up and Adrien needs to fucking run and maybe possibly go into witness protection… Marinette is a full blown stalker! Not to mention the GPS she has (that could just be the find my friends app on iphone but still).

It also is extremely rude of her to use not only her great uncle’s birthday but also a lie about wanting to know her Chinese heritage in order to go to Shanghai to stalk her obsession, I mean crush. This could’ve been avoided if the Dupain-Chengs were going to Shanghai for the purpose of celebrating Wang Cheng’s bday and then Adrien just so happened to be in Shanghai.

Also this means LB left Paris without telling CN! I know CN did the same but again he can’t purify the akumas. Plus he has a reason he couldn’t stay in Paris, Mari just went cause her crush did. Great guardianship there Marinette.

This was also the last time CN actually did something. Even if it was for a short while before LB and her female partner took over (the beginning of a theme…)

Other things:

There are 2 other things that I wanna say but felt they needed a separate bit.

In Furious Fu, Su-Han has a rule book that he uses to tell Marinette which rules she has broken. At the end of the episode he tells her that is she breaks 1 more rule that he will take the Miraculous and the Miracle Box off her, which fair enough but wouldn’t it be helpful to leave the rule book with her?! How can she be wary of not breaking anymore rules when she doesn’t even know what the rules are??

Now the big one: Master Fu…

Where do I even start with him. He is so fucking manipulative!! He is Asian Dumbledore!

He decides to leave these extremely powerful jewels in the hands of 13 year olds! Surely leaving the miraculous to someone in their 20s would’ve been better!

He clearly favours LB over CN even though the Ladybug and Black Cat are supposed to be partners! Wouldn’t it make sense for them both to be in contact with the guardian from the start?? He randomly started introducing rules such as if LB and CN find out each other’s identities they would lose their miraculous… what kind of bullshit rule is that? It also came out of fucking nowhere!

Final Thoughts:

But to summarise all of that: Miraculous is on quite a steep decline but I’m invested at this point and I am genuinely curious as to where the fuck this will go.

Marinette needs professional fucking help before the writers even consider canonising Adrienette cause at the moment she is not what Adrien needs!

Adrien needs to stand up for himself! He needs to pull LB to the side and tell her what he feels and what he’s going through cause he is on the precipice of a breakdown!

(Small point that’s more to do with the fandom: when searching for fanfics it’s really annoying that Adrien Agreste/Chat Noir Bashing is a tag but Marinette Dupain-Cheng/Ladybug Bashing isn’t. Why does everyone think Marinette can do no wrong???)

#miraculous fandom #miraculous ladybug #miraculous salt #adrien agreste #marinette dupen chang #marinette salt #master fu salt #ladybug and chat noir #fandom salt #thomas astruc salt #adrien deserves better #miraculous season 4 #miraculous season 3 #miraculous rant

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broken-minded-love · 4 years ago

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@sad-sweet-cowboah Hope you don’t mind if I start a new post here, I don’t want to prolong the debate by doing this, but I still have some things to say and the other post is getting kind of ridiculous and is hard to reply to due to it’s length. I’ll quote a few things from the original thread to keep it linked in reply and physically here for posterity. [...I know it makes me seem suspicious but I have a habit of reading things without saving them, etc...] I appreciate that you wouldn’t keep track like that, who does? However, I can’t see any credit given to HOGO or her work on your blog/story before the original call out drama in 2019? Obviously you may have done that privately, but I know how fandoms work and there’s a lot of mutual backscratching in drama’s like this so it seems impossible to truly validate any of this independently, which is a shame. Perhaps it was my mistake, but when you said you’d been inspired by HOGO’s fics I assumed she’d written a full fic. I can’t find an actual chaptered fan fic following videogame Arthur in modern times from HOGO, and nothing of him in that setting by himself. It all seems to be involving the gang too, which is quite a different dynamic to what occurs in your series and Wish Upon. I can see how it would be difficult to keep track of HOGO’s posts, even if you were trying too, because I can see dozens of drabbles, but nothing as a titled fic you could keep track of. I can also see why those little scenes and dialogs may have inspired you, but as I said I can’t see any credit for the inspiration as you claimed? Besides which, it’s all kind of a moot point, because I think the bigger issue seems to be less about the initial inspiration and more about the timing and direct comparisons that can be drawn between your series and Wish Upon. [...I also included the-awkward-outlaw’s series as an example since you mentioned previously that it’s a “very niche” topic when it’s more popular than one would think. ...] Well, yes, it is now, but it wasn’t to begin with. Ever since the onset of this drama, I’ve only seen a tiny handful of attempts at covering Arthur in the modern world in a fic, which still makes it niche when you compare to the volume of repeated themes in Red Dead fics over all. It was a completely non existent plotline (at least on AO3/FFNET) in October ‘18 through Jan ‘19, and the game had been out for three months already when @miss-oscurita published Wish Upon. Yet no one had stepped up to bring us a story covering the concept of video game Arthur alive in 2018/9. The reason Wish Upon hooked me personally, was because it was completely different to the numerous “damsel in distress”, “highborn babe”, “tough outlaw chick” that were a dime a dozen. There was also several “modern reader goes back in time” stories too, but Wish Upon was the first incarnation of Arthur coming out of the game into the modern world, in an actual fic at least. No doubt the idea could have been circulating, but no one had actually taken the time to put it into an actual story to my knowledge. Does that mean Oscurita should hold a monopoly on the idea? Of course not, but it does explain why anything that followed Wish Upon’s publication, including TOA’s recent works, will be bound to draw comparisons simply because Wish Upon was first on the scene to cover the topic, and as a result is likely the most well known version of it. I think the real issue here isn’t who all’s covered Arthur living in modern times, it’s more the issue over the dynamic where the protag is familiar with him as a character, because the dynamic of the pairing and the story itself changes so much when it’s explored from that angle. The dynamic is also affected when the fic focuses only on the two main characters (as with the gang being in the modern world in HOGO’s concepts) especially when they are both aware he’s fictional that it’s really something that can only be done once, maybe twice at a push. And yes you’d have to be certifiable to believe ideas won’t overlap, I mean it’s going to be a really hollow story if you don’t cover things like Arthur using a microwave, or using a toothbrush and showering for the first time, or learning to drive, discovering movies and what not. However, from what I seen over the course of this matter, it seems the issue with it all lies in how and when these elements are explored in the story. I may be wrong, but I don’t think there’s ever been an issue raised with any other parts of your series beyond that of As We Meet, has there? And the issues raised over the original instalment and the rewritten piece seemed to be because it essentially follows the exact pattern of Wish Upon’s first few chapters, as we’ve already discussed.

[... I’m 99% positive the catalyst was a h-o-g-o oneshot of Arthur discovering lingerie...]

Funny that you should mention discovering lingerie when @miss-oscurita’s most recent update included Arthur discovering modern underwear for the first time. I don’t recall in which of your stories he did that?

Just in the interest of being informed, I searched HOGO’s blog and found a chapter mentioning lingerie (which I assume is the one that inspired you?) but that in itself is a classic example of how the same idea can be done by two different people and still be complete different.

Which I’m sorry to say really only further highlights why the similarities in your opening chapters are such a cause for concern.

Regardless of the inspiration, if we list the similarities we have from the original piece, and the rewrite the issues are pretty clear.

1) Young female gamer protag.

2) Modern day setting.

3) Both have adopted silver tabby cats.

4) Both have the backdrop of being alone on a stormy night.

5) Both involved with an event that brings Arthur out of the game.

6) Both aware of him as a fictional character before being a flesh and blood man.

4) Both immediately assume him to be an intruder.

5) Both think they are dreaming and pinch themselves.

6) Both use touch as a way to confirm he’s there in the flesh.

7) Both fics use the same name for animals.

8) Both fics almost immediately go on to explore Arthur showering, discovering cellphones, watching TV/movies, using a microwave, in almost the exact same order. 9) Both use some variation of the “my Arthur” device.

Then in the rewrite you make changes to also include:

10) Both use his horse to confirm he’s ripped straight from the game.

11) Both use extremely similar types of names for the horses.

12) Both work from home, for one reason or another. Seeing it written out like that I can more understand why people have red flagged it, as it goes a bit beyond simply exploring the same concept as the likes of HOGO/TAO may be doing. I mean it was bound to flare things up to include additional similar elements. What I don’t get is, knowing how toxic the fandom is, and that you’re under the microscope over this, why you didn’t take the rewrite as an opportunity to distance yourself from those similarities? And if I’m brutally frank with you here, it does come across as a bit of “drama farming” when you know the consequences of similarities all too well. And what I still don’t get is how you’ve not managed to move away from these controversies? I’m a lot of a loser, and have kept an eye on this drama since it began and I have to say when you interjected with the other drama around Wish Upon late last year, that came across to me as looking for drama, or at least being lead to it by someone else somewhere. I don’t know where you got the tip off for that, because the post wasn’t tagged and I only saw it due to following @miss-oscurita/you on my fandom account and the other writer in question was very new to the RDR fandom and likely didn’t have much of a following. Add that to the poor wording on the announcements of your rewrites and you know, I’m sure it’s innocent on your part, but I can see why it doesn’t look good to others. I mean I could easily believe you were trying to avoid making the stories similar and accidentally included the horse thing simply because your ideas and the ideas from Wish Upon merged, because unless you’re able to keep them firmly separate in your head it’s going to happen now you know of Wish Upon. If it was me, I’d be doing my best to not give anyone any more reason to throw shit at my house. Instead you’ve somehow managed to do the opposite. The rewrite was a missed opportunity to draw a line under all the past drama, and that’s disappointing to see as a reader and a writer too. I do hope you manage to sort this all out, and that there’s no further public bashing over it all but now the seal is broken on it all it’ll be very hard to prevent the sharks smelling the tiniest drop of blood in the water.

#writing #fan fic dramas #not going to tag this for fandom to avoid inflaming the situation further #sad-sweet-cowboah #miss-oscurita

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travllingbunny · 4 years ago

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The 100: 7x09 The Flock

And finally, the end of my and @jeanie205‘s little rewatch, and the last review I still have to post before the show’s return. And for once, I can write a shorter review than usual, because this episode isn’t all that interesting. It’s my least favorite episode at least since mid-season 5.

I have liked season 7 more than most people seem to - even though I miss Bellamy and want to see more focus on Clarke, and I’ve mostly been patient about waiting for the story to really kick into gear. I understand that BTS issues have affected the season and caused a lot of rewrites, that the first half of the season was mostly setup or it focused on developing stories for other characters (and I have enjoyed many of them, especially for Octavia, Murphy, Emori, Diyoza and Indra).

But the pacing hasn’t been the greatest, and that particularly became obvious with this episode. There was no reason to stall the action and go back and waste this entire episode on flashbacks to the 3 months that Echo, Hope, Octavia and Diyoza spent training to become Disciples. Some of this could have been included in 7x07, and this episode could have featured maybe 5-10 minutes of flashbacks and then returned to the present day action, instead of leaving Clarke, Raven, Miller, Jordan and Niylah in that same Stone Room where they have been for 3 (soon to be 4) episodes, and completely leaving them out of this episode.

I’m not even speaking from the perspective of a Clarke fan here - I enjoyed the Skyring storyline in 7x02 and 7x04. But these extended flashbacks strike me as unnecessary and far more predictable than the writers seemed to think. It’s not like we needed to see why they agreed to join the Disciples - we know it, they had no choice and that was the best solution at the moment. Clarke may be wondering whose side they are on and if they have been brainwashed, but we know better. It was never a mystery for the viewers. And this episode’s Bardo scenes are no “1984″, we aren’t wondering “oh no, are they really brainwashed?” There is little ambiguity - except maybe for Echo, the only one we could maybe wonder about “is she really going to be loyal to the Disciples now?” - but even that isn’t because she seems to have drunk the Kool-Aid, but because she may just think there isn’t anything better to do and no one else to follow. And that is probably not what’s going on, though it would probably be more interesting than the more probable and predictable plot about Echo pretending to be loyal to the Disciples while planning revenge on them.

Maybe it would be different if this episode had the Disciples deliver some important new info that would convince both the characters and the viewers that the “last war” is really something worth fighting. But the show keeps withholding information about what these concepts are - who is the Last War to be fought against? What is transcendence? And no one seems to ask about it - or they do, but off-screen.

In the meantime, the Sanctum storyline reached its climax - Sheidheda revealing himself, killing a bunch of people and staking his claim to the throne, so to speak - but it’s a climax that pretty much everyone has been expecting since Sheidheda took over Russell’s body in the season premiere. What’s worse is that this was made to happen through an incredibly OOC action by Indra. And I don’t think many will miss the Faithful - an incredibly annoying bunch of minor characters. (They are, of course, some of the titular “flock”, together with the Disciples. We get it! It’s all about blind faith and worshiping false gods! The entire season has been hammering it home!)

The episode started well, with Anders taking HEDO to the surface of Bardo to show them the crystallized forms of the extinct Bardoans. I guess the giant aliens story was true after all. This made Octavia realize “Gabriel saved us” (so I guess they won’t be too angry at him when they see him again, which they haven’t so far), It was supposed to show what kind of threat the humans are facing in the last war. Except that was all the info we got on that subject. No one asked: Who is the enemy? Where are they? When will they attack? Why do you need the Key to fight that war? Or, if they did, it was off-screen. (Surely they would have asked some questions during those 3 months?)

Instead, we get to hear more details about the Bardo society. They grow babies artificially, like Primes did with the other people in Sanctum. Not a huge surprise. They don’t want any family relationships, just like they don’t want any friendships or romantic relationships, no individual ties, except the worship of the Shepherd. We already knew that. We get it, they are ultra-collectivist. They want to get rid of emotions, etc.

We don’t know for sure how they feel about sex (if it is fully forbidden, or if it’s allowed if it’s supervised and people get approved sex partners they exchange on a regular basis, as in some dystopias) - so I’m not sure how they (would) feel about Octavia and Levitt getting it on, which was one of the few new developments in this episode (also easily predictable, especially after their tender face touching scene in 7x06). Echo mentions at one point that the Disciples are always watching them - so does that mean Anders also watched Octavia and Levitt having sex? Surely Anders must be aware of their relationship, or at least that Levitt is really into Octavia? I’ve always been open about my lack of enthusiasm for this romance, but I generally support the idea of Octavia getting a chance to enjoy herself with a nice hot guy who’s helpful.

But Anders even letting Levitt be involved in their training and testing, without controlling him, makes no sense, unless Anders is incredibly stupid. This has been my problem with this storyline all along. I’m never sure if Anders is really that stupid to trust Levitt, or if he has some kind of smart plan and has been using Levitt on purpose to get Octavia to join the Disciples. There has been speculation about whether Levitt himself is manipulating Octavia, and/or she is manipulating him - and a part of me would want some of that to be true: this relationship and this entire plot would be a lot more interesting if they were manipulating each other (while also liking each other), but I don’t think that’s the case. Levitt is probably exactly what he seems to be, and I don’t think the writing here is that smart. But I can at least hope that Anders is not a total idiot and that he’s figured out Levitt is helping Octavia, but decided to use him anyway.

Now, I did have a tiny flicker of hope that Levitt may be intended to be seen as a more ambiguous figure - when he was rating HEDO for “participation, stamina, strength and speed” (he rated Hope 1 for participation) - and Diyoza was suspicious of him and asked him: "You always have so many jobs?"

Another “are the Disciples really that stupid?” moment was when Levitt randomly told HEDO that they keep samples of the same Gem 9 that killed the native Bardoans, and that could kill everyone on Bardo. Why the heck would they be keeping it, let alone telling people about it? Does Levitt want HEDO to kill everyone on Bardo? I hope this is fake info and another test - but I fear this is just bad writing and a clumsy exposition to set up the Chekov’s Gun that our protagonists will be tempted to use.

We also learn Anders was Orlando's mentor, It’s weird that Hope mentions him as a way to try to get Anders upset (you’d think she would also be upset, since she made him think she was his friend and betrayed him). But Anders remain calm and cold, and Hope only gets upset when he mentions Dev.

If there is any ambiguity, it’s only with regard to Echo - she is probably just pretending, too, but there’s a tiny possibility that she really has decided to join them because she needs to be a soldier and have a war to fight and someone to follow. which has been established as her trait. And Echo does point out that the brainwashed Disciples children have it much better than she ever did with Azgeda. Hope throws that into her face here when she says “You just like someone to give you orders”. But that’s probably just a red herring.

The Disciples breed a limited number due to the limited resources, Why don’t they all instead just go to Sanctum, or Skyring?

The simulations were somewhat interesting, but it was pretty clear that Diyoza, Octavia and Echo were pretending to be able to kill Hope because they were threatened they would be sent to Skyring individually to die alone. Diyoza even straight up told Hope it’s what they need to do, and Echo noted “they are watching us all the time” before starting to talk about how the Disciples have convinced her to believe in their goal. Hope was acting like a child and was unable to pretend - because she is still inexperienced, she has spent most of her life on Skyring with just a few people. Now, I did gasp at first when I saw Echo killing Hope, and to be fair, I can see Echo killing Hope in real life, but Diyoza and Octavia killing Hope? Hell no.

The only thing that made me think a little bit was - is every detail in the fear simulations planned by the Disciples (probably Levitt) - or do their own minds fill in the blanks? In Echo's simulation, Hope told her "they took Bellamy from you" and called her out “I thought Bellamy meant something to you". If that was a product of Echo’s own mind, it’s a bit like Clarke calling herself out through Blodreina in her mindspace in season 6 - “I thought you cared about Bellamy” - which was the embodiment of her guilt. That would support the idea that Echo is not planning revenge, because why would she be calling herself out in her subconsciousness? But that’s a moot point if it’s all designed by Levitt.

Speaking of which, has Levitt seen Echo’s, Diyoza’s and Hope’s memories, and has he seen anything past Octavia’s season 3 memories? That has never been clear - the Disciples don’t know Clarke doesn’t still have the Flame, but they knew what Gabriel looked like (in 7x01), which they could have only learned from Octavia... and Octavia here says “You’ve seen me at my worst”, which seems to imply he saw her as Blodreina.

But while Echo may have wanted to save Hope from a worse fate when she sentenced her to 5 years on Skyring, that’s cold comfort since 5 years all alone would be terrible and drive anyone insane. (It did with Orlando.) Somehow I doubt Hope will get to be sent there - something will happen and she will probably be saved from that.

The highlight of this episode for me ended up being the mention of Etherea- because it confirms some of my theories and it’s a new planet we will be seeing soon and where Bellamy probably is.

On Sanctum, Emori is put in danger again, as Nikki’s hostage - and Murphy is worried and trying to save her. Which has been a recurring theme - it’s the only way to make people care about this plot. I doubt that many people care about the Faithful, a bunch of stupid a-holes who have so recently planned to burn their own children out of their misguided faith. I did feel a little tinge of sympathy for Jeremiah, the guy who keeps thanking Murphy for saving his son - because the guy is so clueless that he doesn’t seem to understand that he himself had the agency to decide what happens to his son. But this is probably why Madi’s friend is shown here with Madi (his name is Rex, according to the credits - he is the Sanctum boy who clearly doesn’t follow in his parents’ footsteps and invited the null boy from CoG to play soccer with him) - we need to see someone who will be hurt by what happens when Sheidheda kills these people. (The trailer shows Rex grieving one of the victims in the next episode.)(Trey, the “adjustor” who brainwashed Jordan and acted as the leader of the Faithful in earlier episodes, was not in this episode, so I’m afraid that a-hole is still around.)

But Murphy and Emori did have good moments in this episode. Both were very brave - Emori did not allow Nikki to use her to blackmail Murphy, and Murphy, this time, wasn’t just desperately worried about Emori’s life - but he offered his own life for hers. (He claimed to be the one responsible for Hatch’s death by saying it was his idea to use the prisoners - which is true; the part he left out is that it was Raven’s idea to lie to them.) This is huge - he has been willing to do a lot to save Emori, but has never offered to sacrifice himself for someone before, not even for her. The closest he had come to it before was telling her and Monty to leave him to save themselves in 5x13.

And Murphy's line to Jackson "I'm 150 pounds wet and you can’t fight to save your life” was one of the highlights of the episode.

Another development is that Indra and the others finally know that Clarke, Raven, Gaia, Miller and others are missing - but they still don’t seem to have any idea where they may be.

Sheidheda quoting Casablanca is one of the weirder moments of this season. I suppose he may have know about it from Becca or some of the other early Grounders.

Apart from being kind of boring, this episode’s biggest problem is what Indra does at the end. Of course Indra wants Sheidheda dead, but it would be a lot more in character if she killed him herself. She could have pulled a gun and shot him in the head the moment they had resolved the situation. She should be aware of what a good fighter Shady is, and that everyone in Sanctum sucks at fighting (especially when they’re not high on red toxin).

On rewatch, I realized that, while Knight (the Sangedakru who stans Shady) and another Grounder knelt immediately, Penn (who is Trikru) and another Grounder just stood there - so we’ll see how divided or not the Grounders will be about him in 7x10.

Rating: 4/10

#the 100 #the 100 7x09 #the flock #the 100 season 7

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mysterious-prophetess · 4 years ago

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I’m in a BnHA/MHA theory mood

So. Since I’ve done my more general theorizing with a previous post, I’m going to have some fun with Dad for One and other ideas about themes.

Note: I’m not saying that Dad for One is not a serious theory for a lot of folks. It is. It’s just one I have a lot of fun with. I like it because it has so much angst and story potential in it. If it turns out to not happen, oh well. I had fun.

If it does, then let even more fun begin!

Now onto why I have this attitude: While I love Dad for One and its thematic implications, it would be more thematically resonant for Izuku to have come from a regular guy and a regular woman (well in backgrounds. Inko is extraordinary because she is best mom). It’d lend to the idea of ANYONE from ANYWHERE can be a hero. That was my main reservation against this theory when I first got into it and was like “this is so fun but....”

Except....now that I really think about it, we already have that in the BnHA/MHA universe.

There was already a hero who:

Started off quirkless from an ordinary background.

Was given One for All.

And rose to great heights inspiring others to be heroes too.

Yagi Toshinori/All Might has already done that character arc before we even opened the pages of the manga.

Which means my arguments against myself about theme are moot because Izuku coming from ordinary parents would still be resonant but it would also sort of be repeating All Might’s story.

And, as has been a theme since Izuku got One for All, he has to make this his own story which means, he can’t be All Might 2.0.

Which now leads me to why Dad for One would be a nice subversion to Izuku once again treading the path of All Might’s story, because Izuku would have come from the ultimate selfish evil known to the BnHA/MHA universe proving light can absolutely come from darkness.

Dad for One would also cause a lot of neat parallels like:

All Might is not controlling his successor nor trying to mould his successor into another version of him. All Might was trying to set Izuku on a course to be the next Symbol of Peace but not be the exact copy of himself.

All for One is doing both those things to his successor in giving him his power and then making him into a literal new version of himself.

All Might did not (potentially) knowingly pick someone connected to his nemesis. He chose Izuku because he thought he was worthy of One for All.

All for One chose Shimura Tenko/Shigaraki Tomura deliberately as a FUCK YOU to both Nana’s memory and to All Might. The kid’s twisted nature was just a nice bonus.

Not to mention the already present parallels Izuku and Tomura already have.

Izuku’s family is small, just his mom and him but she is loving and supportive of his dreams.

Tomura’s family was big. He had both parents, grandparents, and a sister but he was abused by his father for his dreams.

Izuku’s dreams were destroyed as a small child by the world and partly by his mother’s apologies to him about not having a quirk.

Tomura’s family was destroyed along with his dreams by his own quirk.

Izuku was given a world who pitied him for not having a quirk--any quirk-- and beat him down and all his teachers and people in his life discouraged him about his dreams.

Tomura was given a world where his quirk is villainous and his sensei encouraged him to act out his desires of destroying everything he didn’t like about the world (which appears to be everything).

Izuku’s mentor chose him because he saw a potential for good.

Tomura’s mentor chose him because he saw a potential for evil.

Which is a point that links back to the All Might vs All for One points.

It’s much more complicated than these binaries and that’s why it’s such a fun and good theory to run with. You can use this to explore a lot of different emotional ideas, and a lot of thematic ideas

Nature vs Nurture for instance.

So, tl:dr Izuku as coming from the everyman is a good thematic idea, but we already had that in All Might. Dad for One then serves as a way to add more layers and parallels to the story.

#bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #mha #bnha #dad for one #I'm in a very good mood because I called a plot twist TWO AND A HALF YEARS in advance #Last time I did that it was with Attack on Titan and I think we can agree the writing for BnHA/MHA is a bit better #the twist I called with attack on titan was that titans were all people AND there were other people outside those walls #because I did not believe it possible for all of humanity to fall back behind the walls no matter how big they were #and look at that i stopped reading that manga years ago and my predictions were RIGHT

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ghostmeep · 5 years ago

Note

are you going to make a post on why you think sonic isn't to blame for letting metal go? i'm curious on your thoughts on it

Ah, I’m guessing you are referring to my little side note I made in my Sonic feels guilt post

Well, tbh that sentence was less of a ‘I’ve got a lot of important things to say about this matter’ and more of a ‘I’m trying to not get off topic’ - but I’m up for expanding my thoughts on it. Don’t expect ground breaking points tho haha

Disclaimer, this is way less fact driven than my other post about Sonic feeling guilty in the Zombot arc. It’s more speculation with not as much direct support from canon. But if you are cool with that, read on

Anyways, so to first clarify what I want to try and express in this post:

I do think that the current arc is a direct result of Sonic’s actions and I’m not trying to disprove that Sonic is to blame here. He is to blame when all is said and done, but it isn’t like he single-handedly caused the Zombots to spread? I just think people are shitting on Sonic just a bitttt too much

But, I do think that Sonic’s actions were in character enough to forgive. A bit of a stretch here and there, but enough to let it pass imo

———–

I’m going to first talk about Sonic letting Eggman free even though you only asked about Metal because the two kind of goes hand in hand.

And here I ask everyone to let go of their beyond the fourth wall knowledge. Forget about how you know the franchise as Eggman and Metal Sonic are antagonist and there is no way Sega would change them.

Try thinking about it from Sonic’s perspective and think of Eggman as a real person - meaning someone who can change and grow, because all people can - I’m not saying all people do, but it is possible

So we look at Eggman’s situation. At first Sonic was super suspicious and wasn’t willing to trust Eggman and thought it was an act.

But the more time he was with Mr. Tinker the more he had to accept that Eggman really did have memory loss - and guess what? He was right about that part at least.

In that moment of time, Eggman was truly different and didn’t remember any of his past doings.

In that situation, wouldn’t it have been a little harsh to imprison him? Or kill him? I dunno, if Eggman never remembered and could live the rest of his life peacefully as Mr. Tinker, wouldn’t it be okay to let him? – Forget about what we know happened later on and just think about it from that situation in time.

If Sonic just threw Eggman to prison at this point, I feel like that would have been more out of character for him. More harsh than I would have expected him to be. Because, for all his cool guy attitude, Sonic is a nice, caring guy.

And it wasn’t like Sonic was the only one who wanted to give this chance to Mr. Tinker. Shadow was the only one he had to really convince.

Everyone else was on-board more or less?

They all deferred to Sonic’s decision, but if they had a problem with it they would have spoken up. Or tried to persuade Sonic against letting Mr. Tinker free. It’s because they agreed, at least on some level, that they just went with what Sonic decided to do. Espio took some convincing, but again, not all that much. Barley any at all.

And then the town mayor put in his two cents - so everyone pretty much came to a mutual agreement, no? it’s a bit much to say it’s all on Sonic for letting Eggman stay as Mr. Tinker

( That is to say, I’m not saying that it was wrong of the characters to blame Sonic. The characters did trust Sonic to make the right decision, so when it proved to be the wrong one, and with all that is going on and everyone running on emotion, it makes sense they would turn on Sonic. Because Sonic did have the final say, and as the ‘hero’ who everyone looked to for guidance he did let everyone down in that sense. It was his responsibility to bear. Fair or not. ) Us as readers shitting on Sonic though is a bit different. We can absolutely say it was a stupid decision and I’m sure all of us called it that Eggman would return, but in universe, there is enough to support Sonic’s decision. So I wouldn’t call this Sonic grabbing the idiot ball, since it does adhere to parts of Sonic’s personality as we know it.

Anyways, back to the Mayor being up for letting Eggman stay. We can see that Sonic still has some doubts and is unsure what to do at this point.

He’s still thinking about it, and while it’s likely he would have reached the conclusion of letting Eggman stay anyways, there is something that pushes him to make that decision. That cements in his mind that Eggman is gone for good.

Because when the Badniks invade the town and Sonic rushes to confront Eggman he sees –

Eggman trying to protect the children

This is the moment that convinces Sonic the most, I think. Because when the going gets tough is when people’s true colours start to emerge. And Mr. Tinker did what he can to protect the children, despite being scared. There is no way Sonic can throw him to rot in a cell after that

I also want to point out that even Rouge, who doesn’t have the hero persona like Sonic does, even she thought it would be for the best to let Eggman free as Mr. Tinker? Why else would she even bother giving a tip to the Chaotix knowing that Sonic would likely come to this decision?

And it isn’t like Sonic just made the decision to let Eggman roam free and washed his hands of the matter. We see his doubts when Eggman Land is mentioned and he says himself how he’ll definitely be stopping by

So Sonic is aware of the dangers, and he is also planning to stop by and check up on Eggman himself. Sounds kinda fair to me.

So hopefully it’s clearer from this that letting Eggman free isn’t really the most unbelievable thing to do, it made enough sense for people other than Sonic to be on board of it at least.

And Sonic even managed to convince Shadow. Yeah, Sonic is dumb stubborn so trying to change his mind would have been difficult, but the same goes for Shadow, right? But Sonic managed because what he said made sense at the time. There is logical thought to letting Eggman free and that is why he was able to convince everyone.

Of course, now everyone regrets it because it led to this disaster, but point still stands that at the time it didn’t seem like a bad idea.

I’ve got no good counter for why Sonic and co. didn’t leave someone to look after Eggman just in case tho.

The best I can think of is because to them, Eggman was the ‘big bad’. After all, how many disasters didn’t start because of Eggman in some way? Not really any.

So since they deemed Eggman was a non-threat maybe they just assumed it would be safe to leave him here? Because without Eggman, who would they have to worry about? Any new villain that would pop up would be a threat to the world sure, but no threat in having Eggman restore his memories. It’s hard to imagine a situation where a new villain takes the time to help Eggman regain his old self in-between destroying the world…

Because, let’s be honest, I don’t think anyone would have ever thought that there was an Eggman fanboy on the loose.

So they likely deemed that there was no need for a bodyguard when they thought there was nothing to guard from.

Now for Metal Sonic.

Okay, so this is a little harder to defend because, well, oof Sonic you really dropped the ball here. But I can still say it’s kinda in-character?? It’s pushing it, but I don’t think it’s so out of nowhere to the point where I think Sonic’s characterization was ruined from this moment.

After all, we’ve seen Sonic show compassion to previous enemies, right? He’s pretty much known for making friends out of enemies, honestly.

So Sonic’s forgiveness definitely doesn’t come from nowhere, at least. We’ve seen Sonic’s willingness to give people multiple chances before

Seriously, which of Sonics friends didn’t start out as the antagonist?

We have Knuckles, Shadow, Silver, Blaze, all who I won’t talk about much since I’m assuming everyone knows their stories.

But we also have other games showing Sonic’s forgiving side.

In Sonic and the Black Knight, we saw Merlina pulling Sonic from his own world, just to trick him, and then attempt to make her world never changing (thus killing innocent souls). And at the end, all Sonic did was give her a flower and tell her to live life to the fullest in the time we have.

And yes, you can make the argument that the people who Sonic forgave weren’t inherently bad people, just people led astray, but that’s also the point? Sonic believes that everyone has good in them – that no one is inherently all bad – even Eggman and Metal Sonic.

You can make the argument that Metal is programmed to be evil by Eggman, but hey, weren’t Gamma and Emerl too? And yet they turned out good.

So we do have proof that Eggman’s sentient robots are capable of changing sides. And with Eggman out of the picture and not able to influence Metal negatively, Sonic probably saw this as the perfect chance to let Metal find the good in himself.

And yes, Metal is at a bit of a disadvantage because he is programmed to be forever loyal to Eggman, but 1) Eggman is no more as far as Sonic is concerned. So that ‘loyalty’ is a moot point. Because Metal is basically loyal to a person who doesn’t exist anymore. 2) just because you are loyal to someone doesn’t mean you can’t come to disagree with their actions.

Metal can still learn about what is good or not even if he is programmed to be loyal to Eggman. And I think that is what Sonic was going for.

Look at Metal Sonic’s situation

They let him go, but it’s clear that he wouldn’t have been any danger to anyone. It doesn’t seem like he was fixed enough to even get close to Sonic’s speed like he normally could, and he had all his weapons removed by Tails.

So the only one who could have made him dangerous again would be Tails (which wasn’t going to happen) and Eggman (who, as far as Sonic knows, is still Mr. Tinker)

Metal Sonic really wasn’t a danger to anyone.

Yeah, Sonic could have at the very least done a quick check on Eggman to make sure that everything was fine and he was still Mr. Tinker, but Sonic just left Eggman - what, a day or so ago? What are the odds that something happened in just that amount of time? And what are the odds that the village looked for Sonic for help at the moment he was at Angel Island?

And again, to Sonic, Eggman was the ‘big bad.’ With him gone, Sonic probably got lulled to a false sense of security.

So it makes sense to me that Sonic is willing to give these risky second chances because he is pretty confident that Eggman, and thus evil geniuses that could rebuild Metal, are not a problem anymore.

So, Metal is not dangerous, and as far as Sonic knows, won’t be able to become dangerous. The world is rebuilding itself and it seems like they’ve finally come at peace.

It’s the ideal situation for Metal to change. Because remember, it is possible for Eggman’s robots to be good.

So from that line of thinking, letting Metal go isn’t all thattttt bad? Hindsight is 20/20 so it’s easy to say Sonic was wrong to letting Metal go, but at the time Sonic had at least some reason to risk it.

Sure, Sonic could have taken a bit more precaution, like maybe follow Metal to keep an eye on him, but being Mr. Free-As-The-Wind, he probably thought letting Metal go to do his own searching would eventually lead to triggering a good change – and it would all end well. After all, it is unlikely that Metal would change in the presence of people he deems as ‘enemies’ – so Sonic was likely hoping Metal would run into a more neutral party who would nudge him in the right direction.

Also, with Sonic running around as much as he does, he probably figured that he would run into Metal sooner or later and be able to check on his progress.

Too bad Metal tracked down Eggman instead.

So yeah, still rather stupid – and careless, but I can see some reasoning behind it.

It’s not too hard to imagine Sonic being over-eager to have all the danger behind him, and he wanted to wrap things up in a nice neat bow asap, so he rushed things too much.

He seemed really ready to get to the whole ‘relax with no worries’ stage at least.

So Sonic jumped the gun. Not exactly hard to accept for the fastest thing alive.

I’m going to add this point in too — but let’s not forget that this takes place after Sonic Forces. Even without the English version’s unnecessary add-in of saying Sonic was tortured for six months, Sonic was still at the very least held in captivity for six months. And then immediately had to go and take up the mantle of being people’s hope ( in Tails’s words ) and win a war for everyone that has been going on for far too long. I don’t think you can really blame a guy for wanting peace so badly after all that.

And just going to insert one more point about whether Zombot arc is all Sonic’s fault or not that people are going to hate me making, but Imma do it anyways. This isn’t my main argument, at all, but I just want to include it anyways.

Because if you want to be super super technical. If you will allow me to be nit picky here…

It’s not really his fault.

Yeah, he let Eggman free, and thus he was easy to kidnap. Yes he let Metal free, and thus was able to help Eggman recover his memory. Yes and yes.

But, my girl Tangle made valid points too.

And I get it. This is kinda a dumb argument, because the point is is that Sonic should have taken measures to prevent Starline from being able to restore Eggman and Sonic should have prevented Metal from even being able to reach Eggman to get re-weaponized. Yes. But still.

Are we really going to hate the fact that our Hero character tried to make the best out of a situation? Sonic wanted the best possible outcome to come true (For Eggman and Metal to find purpose in life that was good) and when he saw an opportunity for it to happen, just within his reach, he took it.

Yes it was reckless. Yes it was stupid and idealistic. Yes, it was naive, but Sonic, with all his good heart, just wanted a happy ending for everyone.

It just sucks that there are people like Starline and Eggman who chooses to be bad, even when given the opportunity to be otherwise. But bad people existing, who choose to bring chaos and destruction, isn’t Sonic’s fault.

Because Sonic is responsible for his actions, yes. But Starline, Eggman, and Metal are responsible for their own actions too.

Well, I guess I already made my points that I wanted, but because this post is obviously not long enough, I’m going to keep going. (I just can’t stop once I’ve started, so bear with me as I go on semi-tangents from the original question)

I’ve seen some people say how if Sonic didn’t let Metal Sonic go Eggman wouldn’t have remembered his old self — but we don’t know that???????

Sure, Metal Sonic was the last straw that allowed Eggman to remember – but it’s not guaranteed that Eggman wouldn’t have remembered without Metal.

It’s obvious that Starline wouldn’t have given up on Eggman, at least. Who knows what measures Starline would have taken to get Eggman back to all his glory. And well, he was making progress in restoring Eggman. Super slow progress, but progress nevertheless.

And this point I’m about to make is a bit of a stretch, but I want to make it anyways because I think it’s interesting to think about

But look at what the badnik makes with the bush? It’s pretty much Sonic’s head. And, while sure it doesn’t necessarily mean anything, but it could also mean that Eggman’s subconscious is at least starting to get hung up on Sonic again? Because out of all the things the badnik could have made, it’s Sonic’s head.

And we saw when the town’s doctor tried to see if Eggman really lost his memory, we see him using a blob that looks awfully familiar

Again, it doesn’t really prove my point in any way, but I just found it a kinda cool connection. Because we’re shown that a hint that Eggman is returning evil again is showing signs about his obsession with Sonic, and that obsession is peaking in here, if ever so slightly.

So we could say that it was only a matter of time for Eggman to return to his old self, and the trigger could have been anything if not Metal. It probably wouldn’t have happened as quick, but it likely would have happened eventually.

One more thing I want to about Sonic’s decision to let Metal go. – I don’t think Sonic made that decision behind anyone’s back.

I’m not going to go into the whole ‘no one disagreed with Sonic’s decision so it’s not like Sonic is the only one at fault’ point I made with Eggman here, because it doesn’t hold the same truth to it for this. Because I do think in this instance letting Metal go was 100% Sonic’s decision, and 100% Sonic’s responsibility to shoulder, but saying Sonic did this behind everyone’s back is a bit much.

When he meets with Knuckles again, Knuckles says how Metal is trashed

At this point I think I’m the only one who thought this, but I took Kunckles’s words as ‘Metal is in trash condition and not a threat’ not a ‘Metal is in the trash and offline’

Because otherwise it seems a bit weird for that line to be included but have no reaction from Sonic? Not even a side eyed glance of guilt or a sweatdrop or a small ellipsis bubble from Sonic indicating his silence on the topic under Knuckles’s first speech bubble. Absolutely nothing is given.

And I guess I wouldn’t put it past Sonic to omit details from his friends if he thinks it’s for the best, but it is just strange how we didn’t get any indication of Sonic choosing to omit details here when it very easily could have been shown.

Then when Silver and Sonic faced Metal, there is no surprise from Silver. No indication that Silver wasn’t already aware that Metal was out there somewhere.

And I doubt that absolutely no one thought ‘huh where did Metal’s body end up’ If everyone wasn’t aware about Sonic’s plans. It seems like it would have been an odd thing to overlook, since Metal is known to be resilient. You would think someone would have wondered what happened to it if they were being kept in the dark.

And my very last point in all this huge mass of words – the biggest reason I am okay with Sonic letting Eggman roam free without supervision and Sonic letting Metal Sonic go, is because Sonic is showing signs of learning from his mistakes

(yes, I’m reusing the same screencap in the same post shh)

Sonic says how believing that everyone has good in them came to bite him in the end and he regrets it

It’s why I can’t really get mad at Sonic chasing that idealistic happy ending for everyone. Because in order for someone to be less naive, they need to face reality first. And oh boy, has Sonic been facing really harsh reality one after another since this arc began.

Now, it’s too early to tell if IDW will let this lesson stick, but here’s hoping. The fact that Sonic has been so hung up about his mistakes makes it seem like he’ll learn from this whole thing.

And isn’t that nice to have? A character making mistakes and then learning from it. I feel like it’s so rare to have that I’m willing to forgive idiotic decisions if it leads to character growth and the promise of this similar situation not happening again. All IDW needs to do is not brush everything that has happened and Sonic’s guilt under a rug to be forgotten and things will be fine.

I’m not saying I want Sonic to never give second chances ever again, but showing a bit of hesitance next time would be cool. And definitely never showing Eggman and Metal such leniency after all this.

And with this being my second post supporting Sonic’s actions now, I just want to clarify that it’s not like I think this arc is without flaws. I’m not trying to hype up this comic to be this amazing and perfect thing. There are a lot of issues I have with this arc, and the fact that at least half of my points I made in this post was from speculation means that there were too many holes in the storytelling.

But, while I do see plenty of flaws with the comic, I just don’t think it fun to constantly negatively criticize something I’m reading. If I’m reading something it’s because I’m enjoying doing so, so I don’t want to be bogged down by focusing on all the holes in it. I’ll just recognize the flaws for what it is, maybe come up with a theory or two to make things easier to swallow, and move on. It’s how I enjoy reading, but I know it’s not how everyone likes to go about things and that’s fine too.

#idw sonic #sonic the hedgehog #sonic #idw sonic spoilers #Anonymous #I wish I knew how to condense things this is looong #my stuff

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nellie-elizabeth · 5 years ago

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The Handmaid's Tale: Mayday (3x13)

Well, this was an undeniably intense and breathtaking finale. Let's talk about it.

Cons:

They should have just killed June. I really thought for a moment there that she was going to be killed off, and I was so excited. Not because June has been annoying me this season, although that's certainly true. I just thought - if they actually do this, if they actually kill off their protagonist, then the story opens up. There are so many other stories to tell, so many other things we could explore. June is a complex character, certainly, but the fact that she's still alive means that next season, they will probably find some way to set up a new status quo, and then June will... what? Keep trying to get kids out? Try to find Hannah? The one major obstacle this show has always had is that it might become stale, and I thought killing June off would have been a very refreshing way of avoiding just that.

At the same time, even without killing June off, there was a lot of savior imagery here. The other Handmaids and Marthas coming back to make that stand with June, so the kids could get out, was certainly an awesome moment, but there was this strange vibe to it, like they were coming back because of June. Because she inspired them. I've expressed my slight discomfort with this idea before. What makes June so special? Why is she the leader of this little rebellion? I always liked how in the books, she was just... a woman. One of many, forced to do what she had to in order to survive. The longer this show goes on, the more special and significant June needs to be come, to justify her role at the center of the story. I really don't know how I would fix this, but I am identifying it as something of a problem.

Pros:

But okay. Obviously this episode was pretty awesome, and I'm very pleased with it. The big thing is this: the plan worked. The kids escaped. This is so important. If the big rescue operation had failed, and we were back to more tragedy with no sign of hope, I would have been very frustrated. Last season ended with Nichole and Emily getting out. And now, one season later, we have more than 52 kids, along with some Marthas, making their escape from Gilead. It was an incredibly powerful moment. All of the treading water that's been going on this season became worth it, because finally the good guys won an important victory. Kids were rescued. Action was taken, and it paid off. This is the kind of catharsis that is so desperately needed in a show like this one.

Commander Lawrence is so fascinating to me. That scene of him reading to all of the kids was one of those complicated moments, equal parts heartwarming and uncomfortable. Because throughout it all, I can never once forget who this man is, and the way he helped to orchestrate the torment of so many innocent people. It's interesting that the loss of his wife has made him a softer, kinder person. It would be easy to imagine that the reverse might happen, but I like this way better. He's crushed by loss, but he isn't defeated. When it looks like the escape plan won't be possible, he does try to pull the plug. But when June stands her ground, Joseph doesn't turn her in. He could have blown the whole thing up, and instead he lets his home continue to be used as a base of operations. He reads a forbidden story to a bunch of little girls, a story about adventure. The final goodbye, when he calls June by her full, real name, was very powerful. You can't exactly forgive Commander Lawrence for all he's done, but you can still be grateful for the choices he's making now.

There was a lot of excellent tension and action in the scenes where the large group was making their way through the woods towards the plane. I really wasn't sure whether they were going to be successful or not, and my heart was in my throat the whole time. It just seemed so unlikely that they could really pull it off. When the women threw rocks to cause a distraction, and were shot down for their trouble, it meant that the kids could get free. It also meant that a lot of women were willing to give up their lives to pay for that freedom. They were true heroes. Every one of them. As I said, I kind of wish that they would have killed June, but I like that this episode kept me on my toes enough that I thought she might actually die. When she got shot, I winced. When we saw her lying on the ground, staring up at the sky as the plane took off, I wondered - is this it? Does June die, secure in her final moments that she succeeded? That's good story-telling. I really couldn't be sure where they were going with this.

Jumping to the subplot for a moment, we see that Serena continues to enjoy visitation privileges with Nichole, while Fred is questioned about the inner workings of Gilead. Serena has been given immunity in exchange for her cooperation, but Fred tells Mark Tuello about Nick, about how Serena had June sleep with him to get pregnant. Serena is arrested for facilitating this rape.

At first I was a bit unsure about this development, because Nick and June's relationship was hardly the worst thing Serena had a part in. But looking at the larger political reality, it makes sense. Serena gets immunity for stuff that Gilead forced her to do, and what happened with Nick and June was outside of that scope. The fact that Fred told Tuello about this is just huge. He was looking to hurt Serena, to punish her. But he also may have severed her last tiny sliver of hope of being any sort of mother to Nichole. Not only because she's under arrest, but because Fred has just confirmed that Nichole is not the product of the Ceremony at all. Any legal right that Serena may have tried to claim to her daughter, is moot. Even by Gilead's standards. I really want to see what happens with the Waterfords next season. It should prove to be very interesting!

I also want to talk about the little girl that June talks to, about what her life will be like outside of Gilead. For now, this girl is our proxy for all of the girls being smuggled out of Gilead. We don't know how all of them are going to react - for most of them, this life is the only one they know. I can imagine that next season, we're going to see some difficulty in assimilating. Some of these children will want to go back to their families, the only families they've ever known. But for now, we get to see the hopeful side of things. June tells this girl that outside of Gilead, she can be whoever she wants to be. She doesn't have to be a Wife or a Mother. She can wear whatever she wants. Then, as the plane lands in Canada, she asks Moira timidly - "is this the place where I can wear whatever I want?" It's such a simple thing, such a child-like example to hold on to. But it also means everything. The choice of what to wear may seem inconsequential, but it is one of the biggest ways that Gilead has to control its people. To go from a place where people are uniformed according to their function, color-coded according to their fertility and status as a woman, to a place where you can dress however you want? That's not trivial at all.

I'm so glad that we got to see the rescue through to its conclusion. Moira, Emily, and Luke are all there, along with lots of other volunteers, to see to the children as they are welcomed to Canada. There's so much going on in such a short amount of time in this final scene. Rita and Luke meet and embrace, and Rita tells Luke that this miracle is all thanks to June. We also see Luke watching the kids get off the plane, hoping against hope that he's about to be reunited with Hannah. That was heartbreaking, and makes me excited to see what happens next season. I want that reunion so bad, but I know it's not going to be easy.

This finale was pretty damn wonderful. Sure, I have the same complaints I've had all season about June's characterization. Obviously she was very brave and very much a bad-ass here, but what happened with Mrs. Lawrence is still difficult for me to accept, and the same goes for the other deaths she's helped to cause this season. All that said, I'm hopeful for what we might be getting in Season Four. I want to see more of the fall-out from this daring rescue mission. I want to spend much more time in Canada with all of our escaped characters - now including these new kids and Rita, along with Moira, Luke, and Emily! I want to see the political implications of Fred and Serena's imprisonment. I want to know what the hell is going on with Nick! There's a lot more of this story to tell, and I hope Season Four can tell it well.

9/10

#review #the handmaid's tale #the handmaid's tale review #the handmaids tale #the handmaids tale review #handmaid's tale #handmaid's tale review #handmaids tale #handmaids tale review

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worryinglyinnocent · 5 years ago

Text

Fic: La Belle et La Bête

Summary: A beauty, a beast, and a fairy’s curse. It’s an old story, everyone knows it, but perhaps not as well as they think they do. Belle goes in search of a beast, and instead finds a very intriguing man.

Written for the @a-monthly-rumbelling moodboard prompt, available here.

Rated: G

======

La Belle et La Bête

Everybody knows the old story, of course. The travelling merchant gets lost in the woods and chances upon the old haunted castle, the home of the beast.

In return for his hospitality, the beast demands the first thing that the merchant sees when he returns home.

The merchant makes the rest of his journey, and he hopes that his dog will run out of the house to greet him, or that the chickens will be pecking in the yard.

But no, alas, his beloved daughter is waiting in the lane for him, concerned by his longer than usual absence, and the merchant must tell her the price that needs to be paid. The beauty goes to the beast, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Except, it didn’t happen like that, for everyone forgets that this is a fairy tale, which means that fairies must be involved at some point, and of course, our world’s male-driven narratives would have us believe that the merchant’s daughter was a damsel who went to her fate meekly, terrified of the beast into whose lair she trod.

The truth of the matter is very different. The beauty was named Belle, and whilst she was certainly a gentle maiden who loved her books, she also knew her way around a dagger, and she had hunted other beasts in her time. She strode into the forest with her head held high, for what was one more beast after the other she had met in her lifetime?

Truth be told, she was glad to have an excuse to leave her small village. She was, after all, a beauty, and her hand was in high demand among the eligible young men of the village. All of them were hunters and fighters in their own right who would force her to give up her life of adventure and stay at home having babies for the rest of her life. Belle had no desire to become a broodmare for anyone, and she would make that clear to the beast once she arrived at the castle.

The castle was legendary among the villagers, with so many differing tales being spread about the beast that dwelled inside that no-one knew the truth. Even Belle’s father, who had met the dread creature, could not describe it. It had kept to the shadows all whilst he had been in the castle and had spoken only in whispers. Defeating this beast had long been talked of, long been mooted as the ultimate prize of any of the hunters, but not even the bravest had dared to venture into the forest and set their traps. The village elders had ruled that since the beast was not bothering them, it would be foolish indeed to bother it. Belle wondered that the uproar that would be created in the village if she were the one to tame the beast.

Belle had not counted on the fairies.

She first realised that something was amiss when she arrived at the dark castle. As she was looking up at the foreboding architecture, it seemed to shimmer in front of her. For a few moments, the castle became a homely cottage, with flowers around the door and sunlight streaming down through the trees. Then lightning flashed and thunder struck, and then castle was back. Curious, but determined not to be perturbed, Belle stepped inside the gates and made her way up the path. There were no lights burning in any of the castle’s many windows, despite the dingy surroundings, but she was not going to let that cow her. She had come across a mystery here, and she was going to get to the bottom of it if it was the last thing she did.

She knocked on the heavy wooden doors and they creaked open, leading onto a pitch-black hallway. Belle entered with an appropriate amount of caution, holding her hands out in front of her.

“Hello?” she called. “Is anyone there? My name is Belle, from the village of Avonlea. I’ve come as promised by my father, Maurice.”

“Ah.” The voice seemed to be coming from all directions at once, but Belle did not give it the satisfaction of looking around to find its source, instead just staring straight ahead of her and letting her eyes become accustomed to the dimness. As she adjusted, she could see the vague outlines of furniture. “You are the first thing that the flower merchant saw when he returned home, then?”

“Yes.” Belle paused. The voice now seemed to be coming from in front of her, and she could make out the silhouette of a man. Had he been the one to speak? Was he the beast’s servant? Surely he could not be the beast. She had always been led to believe that it was some hulking great brute, fanged and furry. This shape was small and slight.

“Why did you command such a price?” she asked. “It seems so haphazard as to the prize it will bring you.”

“Oh, it wasn’t me, dearie, it was the magic. The fairy’s curse demands this price. I am simply here to collect it.”

“A fairy?”

“I have not always been a beast. Nor has this castle always been a castle. Come, I will show you to your room.”

Belle thought about the flickering glimpse of a cottage that she had seen as she approached. Fairy magic would certainly explain it, although now she was even more confused than she had been before.

There was a finger snap and a ball of flame appeared, hovering in mid-air in front of her. It was balanced above a palm that seemed almost to glitter in the firelight, but Belle thought that it would not do to get ahead of herself. The ball of flame began to move away from her, and it was clear that she was supposed to follow.

“So, what happens now?” she asked. “What do you want me for, now that I am here?” The flame stopped suddenly, and Belle bumped into something solid. “Sorry.”

“It’s no matter. Truth be told, this has never happened before. I have no more idea as to what the curse wants any more than you do. All I know is that now you are here, here you must stay.”

“Forever?”

“Perhaps.”

Belle reached out to touch the hand holding the ball of flame. Now that she was closer, she could see that the slight sparkle to the skin was no illusion or trick of the light.

“Can I not see your face? If I’m to stay here for the rest of my life and know no-one else, can’t I at least know you?”

“You do not want to know a beast, dearie.”

“I have known many in my life already.” Belle thought of the young men of the village and their brutish ways. “I don’t think that you can be worse than any of them.”

“Very well. But remember that you cannot leave this place should my visage be displeasing to you.”

The light began to increase, and soon Belle was able to see the hallway in greater detail, including the man in front of her.

She didn’t know what she had been expecting from this beast, but it was certainly not what she saw. He was definitely a man, although his skin gave the appearance of being somewhat scaled, and his large eyes were a strange colour of yellowish grey, teeth dark and mossy.

“This is the result of a fairy’s curse?”

“Indeed.”

“What did you do to cause a fairy to curse you?”

“What cause do fairies need to do anything? They’re vicious creatures, loyal only to their own kind.” He paused, his head tilting on one side. “Is it very bad?”

Belle shook her head. “I would not call you a beast. Unusual, yes, but not a beast.”

The man nodded slowly. “I have never seen my face, you see. I can see my hands, I know how much I’m changed, but the mirror shows only the face I had before.”

He glanced over to his left, and Belle saw her own reflection in the glass. For a few moments, she was alone in the mirror, her companion’s image unseen, but then it rippled into view. He was a middle-aged man, with short greying hair and dark eyes. They were kind eyes, and as she looked back to the man in front of her, she could see the traces of that kindness in the otherwise unnatural eyes staring at her with unnerving stillness.

“I think you could still be found handsome, even now.”

He raised an eyebrow. “I doubt it, but since we are to dwell together in this cursed place, I won’t argue.”

He turned again, moving away from her, making to guide her to her room again. Everywhere she looked, Belle could see the traces of the old cottage attempting to break through into the castle and make themselves known. Odd beams of light slanted across the floor from windows that no longer existed, and the scent of fresh flowers came from no visible source.

Belle had read so many fairy stories in her time that she began to wonder.

“Since, as you said, we are to dwell together here, may I at least know your name? I’m Belle.”

“Yes, you said before.” There was a pregnant pause, the silence broken only by their footsteps. “My name is Rumpelstiltskin.”

They continued on in silence for a while longer.

“Have you ever tried to break this curse, Rumpelstiltskin?”

“How can I? I cannot leave the castle.”

Belle continued to wonder. Rumpelstiltskin could not leave the castle due to the curse, and it was the curse that had brought her here as the price it wished to extract. Perhaps that was its reasoning. Perhaps the entire reason that Belle was here was to break the curse. The fairy tales all did say that true love’s kiss could break any curse, and whilst Belle did not believe in love at first sight, it seemed that she and Rumpelstiltskin were going to have a lot of time to get to know each other.

Unseen by her companion, she smiled to herself. Perhaps this could be a classic tale after all.

#rumbelle fic #A Monthly Rumbelling #rumbelle #Belle French #Rumpelstiltskin #Fic: La Belle et La Bête

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dokidoki-tae · 5 years ago

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Hotel Fun

I was talking to some moots ( @honeyvibin and @honeyduu ) on a GC and things got spicy when they brought up an amusing article.

So here is some Prosciutto x Fem! Reader lewd content.

You rubbed your temple in an attempt to avert a probable and fitting migraine as the airline flight attendant explained that due to your first flight being delayed meant you missed your second flight to your next destination. God, how you hated connecting flights. You’ve had your fair share of nightmarish airline stories, but one too many could cause anyone to lose their mind It didn’t help that the attendant seemed insincere when she apologized for what as clearly the airline’s fault.

But your reaction was nothing compared to the man standing several feet next to you, yelling and berating the unlucky attendant who looked like he was face-to-face with death. Turning your head slightly to glance at the scene, a man with immaculate and intricate styled blond hair and a well-pressed suit was barking insults at the worker, pointing an accusatory finger at his face as he looked down at his computer screen in fear and shame.

“I don’t give a shit about your apologies! Solve this problem immediately. It’s not my fault you imbeciles overbooked! Like hell, I’m going to miss my flight just because you’re incompetent.” He spat. It seems he was having his own issues. You’d be pretty pissed if you arrived to be told you couldn’t get on your flight.

Just to the side of him, several feet away, there was a group of men laughing and snickering at the blond man’s expense. The scene was attention-grabbing, taking your mind away from the woman speaking and assisting you, finding yourself agreeing to terms you didn’t 100 percent catch.

“Thank you for your understanding,” the attendant said with a monotone, typing rapidly and providing you with a solution to your problem, giving her an “uh-huh”. Both the argument next to you and your exhaustion left your mind hazy and commonsense nonexistent. Resting your arms on the counter, you lay your head in the middle as the attendant continued to type away and make a quick phone call. From what you could catch, it seems she was arranging a hotel room to stay in until you could get on a flight tomorrow afternoon but everything after was white noise. At this point, you weren’t going to fight it.

The yelling from before had subsided as well, only the occasional comment dripping with venom from the irate blond man. If he had calmed, it seemed like they had provided him an answer to his solution. [Good], you thought. If it went on any longer, he was going to be the cause of your migraine.

“Ma’am, I managed to book a hotel room with one of our partner companies. They have a room available for the night until you can get in your new flight tomorrow afternoon,” she explained, sounding more cheerful now than before, content that she’ll be able to move on to the next customer.

[Great]

“However,” she began. You lifted your head, making eye contact with the worker.

[Shit]

“As I explained you will be sharing a room with another customer.” Your mouth opened but nothing came out, making it an awkward staredown between you and the worker.

“Wha? When did you say this?” You finally raised your voice, clearly surprised at what you thought was new information.

“I explained it to you several minutes ago, Ma’am,” she said curtly. “You were probably distracted by the gentleman yelling at my coworker.” She gave you a thin, mocking smile as she tilted her head slightly. There was a layer of amusement in her expression.

“You expect me to share a room with a stranger?” Your blood was beginning to boil. Maybe the blond man had the right idea in yelling at their negligence. Biting the inside of your cheek, you waited for her to give you another answer.

“There is nothing else I can do for you, ma’am. This is the only available room they have left,” she elaborated. “It’s a busy season, and they were sold out. This was a room they had on hold in case of an emergency such as this one.” She didn’t move, telling you that she couldn’t do much beyond this. You felt like screaming, but the feeling died in your lungs to be replaced with a sigh.

“Alright,” you accepted the last resort. This was not the ideal situation you wanted to find yourself in but there wasn’t much you could do. “Do you have information on the person I’ll be sharing the room with?” It was important to know to prepare yourself mentally, praying that the person wasn’t a weirdo or creep.

“Ah yes,” she chirped, “the man standing over there.” She pointed to the blond man, now standing alone with a collective rage clear on his face and talking (yelling?) on the phone with someone several feet away. His friends must have gotten on the plane, leaving him behind. You choked on your spit at the revelation and fear for yourself. You were supposed to share a room with this harsh and serious man? When you whipped your head back to the attendant, she flashed you a gleeful smile, clearly finding this amusing. You bit your bottom lip to prevent you from saying something regretful and composed yourself once again.

“Is this a joke?”

“We are a serious business, ma’am. I would never joke.” You furrowed your brow and buried your face in your palm, trying to fight the tears building.

[Just one night.]

“When can I get to my hotel room?” You sighed and accepting ____________________________________________________________

At least the airline was thoughtful enough to get you separate taxis to your hotel. You hadn’t spoken to the man while you waited, choosing to keep your distance. You’d have to spend an unnecessary amount of time together to begin with. To you, there was no reason to add more to it. Thinking back at his reaction to his flight issue, he must be a grating person in other ways too, and you were not looking forward to it to say the least.

When a worker announced that one of the taxis arrived early, he stood up without a word and claimed it for himself. Though you weren’t a woman who expected men to be chivalrous just because you were a woman, there were still moments men acted gentlemanly and courteously. This man was not like that and didn’t look your way once. You were taken aback because you at least expected him to say, “I’m taking this one” like a decent person would. But there was nothing. Like you were not worth his time.

Ten minutes later, the second taxi arrived, and the driver assisted you with your luggage. The ride there was peaceful, making light conversation with the driver who was sympathetic with your situation. At least someone had empathy about all of this.

Upon arriving, you walked cautiously around the property until you found the front desk and welcomed by the chipper receptionists.

“Good evening,” one greeted warmly, leading you to her to help you. “How are you? Do you have a reservation?”

You explained to her your situation and immediately understood what process came next, making the check-in process quick and efficient. While she worked on your reservation, she explained that there was no need to worry about paying for meals or incidentals as the airline was covering all expenses. The only thing she asked for is an ID to confirm your identity. So far, the time spent getting here was positive, having a good taxi driver and hotel receptionist to calm your nerves.

“Here is your room key,” she slid you a small envelope with a card inside. “Just slide it and you’ll be let in. The other guest has a key of his own.” Oh, right. You had to share. There was an obvious dissatisfied look on your face and the receptionist gave you a sympathetic look. “I should say, we do have 24-hour security,” she added in quickly probably to reassure you and your safety. “Now, here is where you will be located.” She pulled out a map and gave a clear and straightforward direction to get to your room.

There was the temptation to be polite and knock, but this was your room too! And he was rude earlier! You don’t owe him anything! With a grumble, you reasoned that it was a shared space and there was no problem just walking in.

[What is he’s changing?] The thought flashed into your head, a panic bubbled, but you already pushed the door open. When the door swung open, you had anticipated a cliché scene where you encounter a handsome man stripping off his shirt, but for you, it was a handsome man resting on the bed with hard grimace seemingly permanent on his face, remoting in hand, looking at you.

“Do you lack basic manners that you can’t knock?” He insulted.

Flabbergasted, your mouth hung open before you huffed and piece together a sentence. “This is my room too.” You said under your breath. You carried your things in and threw them on the floor as the man’s eyes continued to linger and survey you as you did your best to avoid his stare. Awkwardly, you pretended to rummage for something through your luggage, to look preoccupied and distracted so he wouldn’t talk to you, but you could still feel him staring.

There was not much you could do, so with a groan you zipped up your bag and stood and looked around the room, using that to avoid further talks. Upon inspection, you realized there was one bag, speeding across the room and looking through the other doors, expecting for there to be another room with a sofa sleeper or a twin bed or something. One single king bed?

“It seems you’ve caught on,” he spoke. “You lack observation skills,” he insulted, earning him a glare from you which he accepted with a sneer.

“There has to be some mistake,” you claimed, and he laughed.

“There is no mistake.” He leaned back and turned his attention to the tv and continued. “It was explained at the airport by those imbeciles.” His demeanor was considerably calm compared to what you saw at the airline, now replaced with an air of smugness and arrogance; it made you grumble in annoyance frustration. He furrowed his brows at you.

“Don’t tell me you agreed and came all the way here not know all of that?” You felt your face start to heat up at his rhetorical question; he hit the nail on the head. “Incredible. . .” he sighed, choosing to ignore you once again in favor of the tv. ___________________________________________________________

The rest of your evening was lackluster and uneventful. In your time, you had managed to learn the man was named Prosciutto and that he was from Italy. He gave no last name or anything about why he was traveling. Out of politeness, you gave him your first name only too, but he seemed to stop listening after that. Based on his behavior, he was not a man who enjoyed social interaction. He gave short, curt answers when you made small talk, earning yourself eye-rolls and glares from him. It worked your nerves and patience. How could a man like this actually exist?

You tried to bring up possible hobbies and movies, but he shut you down. At some point, he asked, “Do you ever shut up?” And it kept you quiet the rest of the night, clearly hurt.

As the sunset and stars appeared, he stepped out of the bathroom dressed rather handsomely you regretted to admit, you couldn’t help but stare. A nicely pressed suit, dark that it made his pale skin gleam when contrasted against the darker jacket [Maybe it was body glitter?]. Underneath he wore a royal blue, silk dress shirt both of which were opened considerably to expose his chest, his yellow pendant only drawing your attention to his chest. His hair was an immaculate as ever, similarly as your indirect airport encounter. His eyelashes were clearly coated with mascara, and it was obvious he used a subtle gloss to make his lips pop.

[I hate him]

“W-where are you going?” Curiously got the better of you, asking him with a clearly flushed face.

“Dinner. If the airline is paying for everything, I’m going to milk it for what it’s worth,” he said shamelessly. He checked himself in the mirror and fixed his cuffs before heading out, never offering an invitation. With a grumble, you decided to order room service. You were going to milk this off schedule trip too!

You watched tv alone, finally loosening up and relaxing, laughing freely at the movie you found surfing the television channels and enjoying a hearty dinner and a mouth-watering slice of chocolate mousse cake for dessert. As the night progressed, dread start to set in when it dawned on you that you’d have to share a bed with this man. What made everything worse is that your body was clearly attracted to him. He had good looks despite a shit personality. You groaned when you found yourself daydreaming about this man spooning you in our sleep while watching the movie. Despite your secret desire, you hoped he kept to himself until you parted ways.

Prosciutto has still not returned by the time you tucked yourself into bed, making it midnight. Initially, you were worried but tucked it away by concluding that he’s either 1. Enjoying his night out or 2. Found someone to spend the night with leaving you with a bed all our own aka enjoying his night out in another way. __________________________________________________________

A hiss and hushed curses brought you out of your sleep, half-dazed and eyes heavy. In your blurred vision, you watched as Prosciutto stagger as he removed his jacket and dress shirt, his posture and movements indicating he was a tad inebriated. You thought nothing of it, too tired to be aroused by his half-naked body, choosing to close your eyes upon realizing it was 3 am, shifting to make yourself comfortable again. You ignored Prosciutto when he threw himself on the bed, making our body jump from the rebound. You were about to turn and tell him off until you heard harsh snores from him. This man was insufferable, but you decided to be mature and waited until sleep was heavy enough to let you ignore it. It was successful. __________________________________________________________

A low moan next to your ear had been your morning alarm. First, you blinked, several times, waiting for your eyes to adjust and vision to sharpen. But your eyes shoot open and you awaken instantly both from the noise, hot breath on your ear and a warm body pressed against your back. Sometime in the night, Prosciutto had managed to snake his arms around your body, pulling you to him and putting you in a spooning position where you were the little spoon.

In your attempt to wiggle free, you felt it. You felt something poking your ass, and you let out a choked gasp. He was hard and pressed it against you, feeling him jerk his hips slightly for some friction. You freeze, stiff as a board, entire body burning and sweating. You pressed your lips together, tight, in an attempt to keep your whimpers from escaping. You knew you had to wake him, but you dreaded how’d he reacted. What if he got mad and took it out on you? You were in a rational state, but millions of thoughts and screams worked to distract you. In your frantic state, you felt him grind his hips against you, breathing an airy moan into your ear and sending a jolt of pleasure to your groin, making it pulsate.

[Oh My GOD!]

Foolishly, you tried to wiggle free again, hoping you could escape without him noticing, but he pulls you into a tighter embrace and near impossible to break free. For several minutes, you laid there, waiting for him to let you go, debating whether to pretend to sleep so he thinks you weren’t aware of what happened. It became increasingly difficult to ignore, finding his hand enveloping your breast giving it several gentle squeezes.

[This motherfucker is awake, isn’t he?] You felt a vein pop in your forehead and a growl rumbled in your throat, but you gasp when Prosciutto jerked his hips against you again. This time it was different. Before he did it inconsistently, but now he was grinding his morning wood against you frantically. You panicked and called his name, now jerking in his arms to get away from him.

“H-Hey! Prosciutto! W-Wake up!”

But things had ended quickly. A guttural groan left his lips followed by with a sigh, his hot breath making your core ache, his thrusts settling. You lay still, feeling violated and embarrassed, waiting for him to let you go when you hear him hiss “shit” and push you away hard, landing on the floor with a thump.

“Y-you damn bitch!” He stammered out, and you jumped to your feet and pointed to him, trembling with anger with the intention of giving him a piece of your mind. His face was beet red, sweat dripping down his face, hair disheveled. The resisted the urge to laugh when you noticed the way he shifted uncomfortably and awkwardly to his feet. He clearly came in his pants. Instead of harsh words, only fits of nervous giggled escaped, observing him as he shook with embarrassment. “You did this on purpose!” He accused.

You recoiled, giggles dying. You gapped at him and wagged your finger at him. “Don’t you dare try to pin this on me! You’re the one who was holding on to me! I’m the victim here! You obviously got off on the whole thing! You-you pervert!” You defended. Embarrassment was clearly marked on your face too but seeing him humiliated too was worth it all. Damn, jerk!

He bit his bottom lip, bringing emphasis to an overbite you hadn’t noticed before. You could tell he was at a loss for words, maybe he realized he was actually at fault? Without another word to you, he waddled to his suitcase and grabbed his suitcase and dragged it to the bathroom to clean himself off. It was only 6am, but you knew you couldn’t go back to sleep. This was too awkward. Your flight was not for another 6 hours, so all you could do is wait and absorb what had just occurred in silence. You thought of making some coffee, but you were in stupefied and inappropriately aroused state, staring at the ceiling was your only viable action.

An hour later, Prosciutto had stepped out of the bathroom, looking clean and fresh, tempting you to make a quip. From the way the tip of his ears was red, you can tell he was still embarrassed. He couldn’t look at you at all as he grabbed his suitcase tidy and organize it. Part of you felt bad, but you pushed any kind of developing guilt to the back of your mind. It wasn’t your fault after all. With nothing else to do and silence being too unsettling, you decided to shower yourself. Searching through your bag, you took out your toiletries and comfortable but fashionable clothing to wear on the plane. On your way to the bathroom, Prosciutto cough and cleared his throat grabbing your attention.

“I-I’m going to grab some breakfast and coffee, would you like anything?” His tone was apologetic and strangely pleasant. Admittingly, your heart skipped at his thoughtful question, a light blush dusting your cheeks. Shamefully, the wetness between your legs became more apparent.

“A-A cup of coffee with some cream and sugar would be nice,” you uttered meekly, finding yourself shy. He acknowledged you with a hum. He was still organizing his suitcase by the time you entered the shower.

As you let the hot water caress your body, you let your hands slip to more intimate areas, using your left hand to massage and glide over your nipples, pinching them slightly and the other rub circles on your clit. In a short time, you felt dirty and stopped, chiding yourself for being indecent. You should be showering. Reaching for you little toiletry bag, you noticed the conditioner wasn’t in there, it must have fallen into your suitcase. Being very picky about the kind of hair care products you use, you step out the shower, grab the towel and use it to lazily over your body.

Having spent a moderate amount of time in the shower, you deduced Prosciutto had gone to get breakfast. In that time, you could quickly go and grab the conditioner bottle. Carefully, you step to the door and peek out, in case Prosciutto was still there when your eyes nearly bulge out of your skull.

Your mouth dropped and went dry as you watched Prosciutto work and stoke his cock using a pair of (your?) panties in the process. He was resting his back against the headboard, his legs wide open to give himself better access. Watching him, the way he gritted his teeth and how clenched his eyes shut; how his head was thrown back, showing off his bobbing Adam’s apple and letting out a breathy but narrowly silent moan, enough that it could be concealed by the running of the shower. His entire look, his cock pulled out while still wearing his outfit? It was hot. Your core ached, demanding attention.

instinctively, you step out more to get a better look, making the door squeak and drawing his attention. You lock eyes, noticing the lust glazed over his eyes. His stare as hard and unyielding, this time no embarrassment was evident. Taking a breath and building courage, you walked to him, pulling your towel to better cover you and stood next to him.

He looked up at you, waiting on you to say or do something.

“S-scoot over,” you stammered, and he did without a word, allowing you to sit, your legs hanging off the edge. You hesitated when you reach over to wrap your hand around his length, unsure if that was what he wanted.

“G-go ahead,” he breathed, giving you his consent. You swallowed the saliva building in your mouth when your hands wrapped around his cocking, feeling him twitch. You curiously smooth your thumb over a distinct vein, causing him to thrust in your hand. You rubbed your legs together and lick your lips before continuing. As you worked up and down his cock, his precum dripped down and coated your fingers acting as a lubricating and making his easier to stimulate his cock. Lust quickly began to consume you, bringing your hand to your groin and rubbing circles over the towel for some pressure.

Noticing, Prosciutto moved further into the bed and directed you to lay on top entirely. As you sat next to him, he pulled the towel off of you, leaving yourself bare and exposed. He grabbed you by your thigh and pushed your legs open giving him full access to your sopping cunt.

Following your example and listening to his primal instinct, he used two fingers to glide over your folds, your essences already coating his fingers when he had yet to even enter you. You rewarded him with a whimper.

Before he entered a finger, he gave a considerable amount of attention to your clit and the sensitive nerves surrounding it. Every now and then, he would teasingly graze a finger over your cunt, making you whine and stop your own actions. Your breathing grew heavy as he rubbed and pressed on your sensitive bud when you embarrassingly squealed the more, he traced circles on you.

You felt like you were going to short circuit, using your mouth to cover each and every cry that wanted to escape. For the first time, Prosciutto called your name, so you turned and brought you into a sloppy, messy kiss while you simultaneously fucked each other with your fingers.

Immediately, he pushed two fingers in, feeling your walls throb around him, pulling in and out of you and using his palm to put pressure against your sensitive bud. It was over for you when he curled his two fingers while knuckles deep, sending a jolt of pleasure throughout your body, coating his hand with your juices. You clung to him and trembled, impulsively clasping your legs shut while your road out your orgasm.

When you finally regulated your breathing, pulling back to look up at him. He looked into your eyes, relaxed and soft; he was much more handsome then he is with that scowl. His lips ghosted over yours whispering words of praise and pressing foreheads together.

“You looked so good, bella,” he whispered. “I want to know what other expressions and noises you can make.” He closed the distance and kissed you again, nibbling on your lip. In the moment, you went back to work him into his own orgasm, craving and needing to see him shoot strings of his cum onto your hand and hopefully his chest. You didn’t want to be the only one.

Pulling away from his kiss, you concentrated on your own hand movement, observing how the head of his cock turned redder by the second. He laughed at your concentrated look before hissing.

“Just a bit more, bella.” He jerked his upward, adding his own friction. With guidance, he wrapped his hand over yours, enveloping it. Your efforts were rewarded, your eyes remained transfixed as long white ribbons painted your hand and his exposed stomach and unfortunately his clothing.

You questioned whether you should, but you cuddled intimately against his body, hoping he wouldn’t push you away considering what had just occurred. Your stomach was doing flipflops registered you both have just done with complete strangers. Your heart beat faster and felt your backache from panic. You knew you shouldn’t be concerned with the opinion’s others held, but you dreaded the thought of Prosciutto thinking less of you.

After composing himself, he must have noted your panic and wrapped his arms around you and pulled you closer, kissing your forehead and calming you down.

“Bella, you did well,” he smirked at you, his overconfidence surfacing once more but quickly gave you a softer smile. There was silence between you, making your body tense, but he helped you relax. “I didn’t expect things to turn out like this.” He kissed your forehead again and then pecked your lips.

“I-It was fun.” You blushed and giggled. All the stress from the previous day seemed to vanish slowly.

“Admittedly, yesterday I was pissed because of the whole flight issue,” he confessed, rubbing soothing circles on your hip. He went on to tell you that he was on a business trip here and needed to get back home soon. He went on to apologize for being rude to you upon arrival, explaining he needed time to himself to calm himself.

He didn’t go into much detail, but the butterflies in your stomach only got worse. He was a much different man now than before. So much more appealing and charming. Calmer and …. domesticated? You couldn’t help but think of that one song with the lyrics “Pussy put his ass to sleep, now he calling me NyQuil” as he talked. You hide your laughs with coughs, Prosciutto rubbing your back soothingly until you were okay.

While you talked and shared, something caught your eye and watched as Prosciutto started to get hard again. Shamelessly, you licked your lips, staring as he pumped himself once more, giving you a show. He leaned and nipped at your ear and whispered in his sultry voice, “We still have several hours until our flight, amore. Perhaps we can use this time to relax and destress before our long flights?”

Smiling cheekily, you rub your legs together, feeling yourself quiver for something more filling then Prosciutto’s fingers, and nodding eagerly. Prosciutto chuckled, moving off to pull out a box of condoms, working off his clothes, leaving you both bare. You laid on your back as he caged you with his strong arms, making you feel weak and turned on.

“Bella, I can’t wait to see how pretty your face is when I fuck the brains out of you,” he growled, kissing your lips before getting started. It’s definitely going to be a well-needed treatment after all you went through yesterday.

#prosciutto #jjba #vento aureo #my writing #reader insert #n/s/f/w

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i-am-the-entertainer · 6 years ago

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The Power of Ambiguity: When Some of RWBY’s Questions Are Better Left Unanswered

So, full disclosure: Volume 6, Chapter 9 “Lost” is one I have mixed feelings about. I think it fails to deliver on some major story threads this volume has introduced, and thus it stands out as a disappointing installment in what has otherwise been a stellar volume (I go into more depth about that in my full review).

But, paradoxically, I also think it contains the best scene in the volume, potentially in the show as a whole. And that scene is the one with Jaune and the Red-Haired Woman.

If upon her appearance you assumed that she was Pyrrha’s mother, you may have been left confused by her sudden disappearance and her credit as merely the “Red-Haired Woman.” I certainly was among that party, and there are still people who are unsure what to think: I’ve seen comments on the video from people who legitimately cannot figure out why the scene is framed so mysteriously.

It took me a little bit of time to realize the implications that there was more to the woman than you’d think at first glance. First up was that an autumn leaf just like the one Pyrrha saw in Volume 3′s “Destiny” was the thing that led Jaune to her statue; how does a leaf like that just magically turn up in the middle of the winter? Then there was her sudden appearance, right when Jaune was tempted to just walk away. Then we have her not introducing herself to Jaune despite clearly recognizing he knew Pyrrha, and then inexplicably disappearing right when Nora and Ren showed up with no apparent time to have left the flowers and walked away liked that. All in all, there were a lot of things about the woman that just didn’t make sense if we accepted her as Pyrrha’s mother or some kind of relative, unless she didn’t have a reason to introduce herself to Jaune: unless, and this seems almost unbelievable, she was Pyrrha herself, paying Jaune a visit from beyond the grave (or, well, dust).

Of course, you could also argue the opposite: if she’s Pyrrha’s mother then she absolutely already knows who Jaune is from watching the tournaments and presumably from Pyrrha’s communications, and she figures Jaune could probably put two-and-two together to figure out who she is. Additionally, we do hear her walking up to the statue, implying she didn’t necessarily just appear from thin air. Then you have the fact that she left the flowers on the statue, which is physical evidence that she had been there. But honestly it really could go either way. There’s nothing definitive going on here where you could say “She was Pyrrha’s mother” or “She was something supernatural.”

The thing is, it looks like some viewers are having trouble accepting this ambiguity. When I explained to one of the commenters that it was framed mysteriously to imply the Red-Haired Woman may have been Pyrrha’s spirit, the person flipped out. They claimed that having a ghost appear on a show where paranormal occurrences aren’t part of the established mythology opens a whole can of worms that would just complicate everything. In their view, the way the scene was framed implied Miles and Kerry couldn’t decide on who the woman was, so they decided to be lazy and not make a firm decision either way. That the ambiguity was an unintentional result of the writers’ indecision.

Although I understand why this commenter thinks this, they’re wrong. According to Jen Brown (the voice of Pyrrha and this mysterious woman) on her Twitch stream there is, in fact, a definitive answer as to who the woman is but she cannot give the answer and doesn’t know when or even if the writers plan to reveal it. Hero Hei speculates based on Brown’s phrasing that at least in the script, the woman is not intended to be Pyrrha’s spirit and is probably a separate character, and I would concur it does appear that Jen Brown does not agree with the “She was a ghost” camp. In their minds as the series’ writers, Miles and Kerry made a specific choice as to who the woman is.

But the thing is, on some level you do have to divorce the thoughts of the writer from the work, especially in something like visual media where changes may come in the actual scripting and direction of a scene. This sort of follows the “Death of the Author” concept of separating the writer and their thoughts from what they put down in the actual text: think JK Rowling stating all these “canon” facts about the Potter series despite not following through in the actual text she published (more info on this and the term “Death of the Author” in general in this excellent Lindsay Ellis video). Miles and Kerry know exactly who this woman is, yet they chose to write this scene in a way where her identity is not clear as written. Likewise, in film and television directors will make specific choices in how a scene is framed: Kerry and Connor chose to frame this scene in a way where the viewer cannot tell just from watching who the woman is. The woman having an answerable identity is a specific choice, but so is choosing not to give the viewer that answer.

So, you may ask, why did they do this? Well, to put it simply...it’s complicated.

It’s worth explaining that toying with the supernatural is actually quite common on television shows that don’t actively depict paranormal occurrences. It’s a trope called “Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane,” where an event is framed in a way that could lead the viewer to believe it is out of the ordinary or that it is a coincidence, and things are left just as that.

There was an episode of Bones called “The Hero in the Hold” where Booth escapes from a booby-trapped ship with the help of what he believes to be the ghost of an old army buddy who died on a mission years before: later in the season the incident is referenced when it turns out Booth has a brain tumor that is causing vivid hallucinations, and Booth’s belief that it was a ghost appears to become moot. Except in the case of this episode, this hallucination actually helps him out with escape methods that Booth could not have achieved by himself, like diffusing a bomb or retrieving a weapon that Booth cannot get to. Even Bones sees the deceased army buddy at the end of the episode without realizing who he is.

Bones has a couple of episodes where some happenings are implied to be paranormal, but the series remained to the end a procedural drama about forensic investigators––they didn’t become ghost hunters, they didn’t consult psychics on cases, absolutely none of that. And that’s the thing: writers don’t do this trope because they want to add a paranormal element. There are two things going on here:

1. It’s a narrative device designed to service the character more than it is a contribution to the series mythology

Basically, “It doesn’t matter whether or not it was magic or mundane.” With the Bones episode “The Hero in the Hold,” the fact that a ghost is haunting Booth is a framing device more than it is a plot device. Booth is kidnapped by a serial killer the team has been chasing for some time, and is left without their help. The episode is mostly about the team trying to outsmart the killer and Booth relying on his wits and resourcefulness to escape, while also dealing with the survivor’s guilt from watching his friend die years before. The ghost is there to give Booth the courage to continue, and to help him confront his past. Booth’s character development from this episode would have happened regardless of whether it was a ghost or a hallucination that spoke to him, because what happened felt real enough to him.

2. It gives the viewer something fun to think about

Think theory fodder. The writers are specifically leaving the decision in your hands––you have been granted power over a question they’ve left unanswered. How much fanfiction have you read or written about an unanswered question a show or movie or book or webcomic didn’t specifically tell you, like what happens after the story ends or where this character was when they weren’t the focus of the story? The ambiguity is trusting you to come up with your own answer. Your opinion is now an integral part of the story. Even The Twilight Zone, a show where paranormal occurrences were basically a regular thing, had one episode called “The Grave” with an ambiguously framed death which Rod Serling flat out asks the viewer to decide for themselves whether it was a normal death or caused by a vengeful ghost.

Let’s take a look at the scene of Jaune and the Red-Haired Woman again. What exactly did Jaune need in this moment?

Jaune never got any closure from Pyrrha’s death. She prevented him from helping her by forcing him to leave, and he ultimately did not witness it. He was told during Volume 4 that a choice was made for her that ultimately led her to confront Cinder. He was so torn about how she went down that he personally attempted to avenge her murder at Haven in Volume 5. Literally last episode he was told to his face that her death and everything that had led her to make the decision to fight Cinder had completely been for nothing. Seeing her statue in the park at a low moment, he is only reminded that she is not standing with the rest of her team, that she was killed in the line of battle for a hopeless cause. It’s an idea that viewers themselves have realized all volume, having learned Salem can’t be killed months ago from our perspective.

Yet the Red-Haired Woman suggests, without even needing to know everything about Jinn and Ozma, that this wasn’t really the case. “She understood that she had a responsibility to try. I don’t think she would regret her choice, because a huntress would understand that there really wasn’t a choice to make. And a huntress is what she always wanted to be.” Hearing this, Jaune adds to it: “Pyrrha never got the chance to graduate...but she was a huntress.” The woman, having needed to hear that, tearfully thanks Jaune for the words.

Now consider it: heedless of any debate of who the Red-Haired Woman is, through their conversation Jaune comes to accept that Pyrrha’s death doesn’t have to be thought of as in vain: she died as someone she had always wanted to be, a huntress who without question would fight to protect everyone, no matter the costs. When Ren and Nora arrive he shares with them this realization, and they all accept that Pyrrha’s choices were her sticking to her true self, and that they should continue their journey as she would by sticking to their devotion to be hunters and huntresses.

But now we’re back to square one. Was this woman really Pyrrha’s mother or Pyrrha’s spirit? Well, I’ll answer that question with a question: What interpretation makes this scene more powerful to you? That Pyrrha’s mother helped give Jaune closure and Jaune reassured her that her daughter was a hero? Or that Pyrrha’s spirit helped give Jaune closure and Jaune told her she died a hero? Which interpretation is the more interesting one to you?

Which brings us to a third variation of “Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane”

3. It’s both a narrative device and something fun to think about

Not only are you being provided a framework for a character’s development, you are also being given a choice to decide how you think the scene works. Whatever decision you make as to whether something is paranormal or not, it is your interpretation that maximizes the scene’s impact on you. The writer’s aren’t the ones who decide the answer, you are. And somehow, that kind of makes you part of the story.

This is why I consider this the best scene in all of Volume 6. Its main power is giving Jaune and the viewer some definitive closure over Pyrrha’s death, answers questions and conflicts over something that people have pondered about since the finale of Volume 3. And yet there’s an even bigger question posed over who the woman is. A question that the show has not answered and will not answer for sure. A question the writers have made the conscious decision to leave out of their hands.

The only person who can answer the question is you. Whatever answer satisfies you the most, that is your truth. And whatever your truth is, well, then let it be canon.

#crtq #rwby6 #rwby #pyrrha nikos #jaune arc #rwby6 spoilers #rwby spoilers #reviewby

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ficauthor · 6 years ago

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New vid rambly thoughts

I have to say the funniest part of the name reveal is everyone (myself included) trying desperatly to fit remus into their Aus. Equally as funny is Remy (sleep) becoming either a version of remus that turned good or people trying to rename him. Idk if I'll ever put remus in a fic but I'm gonna make remys middle name be Remy cause cool people go by their middle name till a garbage man makes them disown the name entirely.

Honestly tho I love all you creators who are doing your best and I'm sorry the scary leaf man set fire to parts of your intricate stories. You're doing great sweetie and if you wanna keep him out fricken do it.

Honestly I deal with intrusive thoughts on the reg and as nasty as remus is I low key love him. Like he's basically a cryptid doing a cartoon villian tiptoe around the mind tapping his nails on things like an asmr YouTuber as he comps ominously on deorderant. Like I get and sympathize with those who can't deal with him in fics. I know middle school me would not be able to deal. However I feel like he could work as a good cutaway gag for some fics were he's just being slightly concerning and just makin vaguely silly alibiet disturbing imagery. Pats making breakfast and he's in the upper cabinet filling the nails on the dismembered hand bottles of nail polish at the ready for him to do the hand's nails.

Also Roman!!!!!! My sweet boy!!! God some one give him a hug he was so left out of the vid that's gotta sting his ego. Like I get why he was MIA but first the callback now this.

Like I think it's fair to say that his arc that's been building for the last few episodes is really kicking into overdrive. The duke being brought to forefront implies that maybe Roman has in a way had to fight him off for awhile. Maybe he's turned some of his really grotesque ideas into better more productive concepts or images. (Also the dicotamy of prince vs duke is v good. In royal structors dukes are under the royal bloodline and have less overall power than a king in power. However dukes can often have more short-term power than a prince. In that over their smaller sections they get more say untill a crowned prince arrives to dictate other wise)

Also him comparing the duke to a fun house mirror where you see all you'd hate to be has some interesting implications.

So I don't think this is really a theory I think it's obvious but Deciet is the other side of Pattons coin. The side of morality that you don't wanna think about. And for the longest time I kinda assumed Virgil as anxiety was Romans opposite. Mainly because I link my anxiety with alot of my creativity good and bad. But since remus is Romans bro I think it's fair that maybe all of them had a sort of split at somepoint where their functions got too complicated and the mantle of negativity needed a specific side to hold it up. Patton and Deciet again are a good example of this maybe at some point Thomas needed to lie and this literally tore Patton up making the need for a distance from his very strict morality code and the idea that sometimes you need to lie.

But that really leaves logan and I think Virgil as anxiety might be his dark side. Which as a prinxiety shipper with a love for opposites attracting and rivals to friends to lovers with a forbidden lover angle eats away at my shipping fantasy. But maybe he's Logan's darkside. Unless they can have multiple which would make my anaology of coins moot (maybe they're like dice then??)

But I can't remember were I saw this but ages ago a post were some one said that anxiety is in it's own right an ignorance of logic/ and extreme perversion of logic.

And as much as I like that theory I did check over the older sandy sides to make sure I was remembering things correctly and it has caused a few bumps for this idea.

(Also seeing Thomas go from "ah the kitchen is like a friend I awkwardly ignore" to "look at how yummy hello fresh is" is the biggest growth of all)

Roman knew about remus and I'm pretty sure Patton knew about Deciet. And they were both aware of how they affected their jobs. And while logan knew of Virgil is seemed to be more of a passing knowledge and all three of them really had that sort of middle ground acquaintance. And anxiety is over heightened fear and can pervert all three of their main functions. (You can do things against your moral code to sedate the anxiety. You can be too anxious to create or be bold but anxiety can also be 'good for both)

Even in anxiety vs logic it didn't have the same feel as the other vs we've had as of late

Deciet attacks them all through Patton trying to muddy his name and function. He also attacks Patton specifically using the others. In the court episode while he used Roman and ended up hurting him that felt more like a by product. The main function of the case seemed to be dismantling the ideas patton as morality had instilled that Thomas was solely good. The purpose appeared to be even with use of the others make Patton fall first and the rest will follow. ( tho I personally still think he's not evil it is important to note that he has a point to make even if he's going about it wrong)

Virgil however doesn't seem to have an end goal. He's moment to moment, his goal is always changing and everytime he's attacked the others it's always been superficial and easy to move past Patton was a focus on how childish he is, Logan's too schedule strict and stresses him out. Roman's too out their and eager to put himself in a spotlight. His gripes with them aren't as organized as Deciets.

The duke also follows a similar pattern he took out Roman and in a way attempted to usurp his role. The reaction he got from Virgil and Patton again felt like a byproduct his goal seemed to be "take control of the creativity role and attack Roman to do so" heck he literally bashes him over the head to do so. (Intrusive thoughts can not be delicate they just bash their way in and ask questions later)

Not to mention whenever Virgil talks about the other sides it's "Deciet's friends" or "The others" always plural. So Virgil might just be an all encompassing opposition he's stumped them all were as the duke and Deciet while causing overall issues seem to mainly target one over them all.

Also like whoever had that theory that Virgil was a spy for Deciet and that's why he's always always slightly off with his impersonations because Virgil very quickly decided he didn't wanna do that.

I have more thoughts and I wish for the life of me I remember the original peeps that had the ideas I mentioned but any longer and my thumbs will give up. Also sorry if this is messy I just had to splat my ideas here and run ta ta for now I might add more later.

#ts spoilers #tw remus #sanders sides #tw deceit #i also know there is a theory were virgil is also depression #but what if. instead. he has a bro thats depression. i might elaborate on that later #i big sleepy i tried to stay up for this ep but i had work this morning so I could not #then like a whole ass hour after i shut dpwn for the night dear tommy npi dropped this #i had so many halfbaked theories in my half written fics that just gotta vamoose now

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coffeedrivenfiction · 6 years ago

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Recuperation (a Teen Titans story) Summary: After a gigantic battle, the Teen Titans are completely worn out and the only capable of picking them up again is... coffee!

It was the third time he had slipped into that beckoning darkness, the one that loomed so invitingly just behind his eyelids, and damn did it feel good. With each blink, he could feel his aching limbs growing lighter; with each blink, he felt the strain over his chest, so much like a stubborn brick, ease off just a bit; with each blink, all the purpling bruises that gleamed that badges of honor just underneath his clothes seemed to lose their sting.

Never, in all his life, had Beast Boy wanted to pass out so badly before.

Alas, every time he blinked for a second too long, the blasted order bell rang, along with an accompanying shout from the barista behind the counter, and he was jolted back into consciousness.

"C'mon, man, can I just… five minutes, that's all I need," he grumbled, holding his cheek in his hand, "just… five… measly... minutes…."

When he started to fade for the fourth time, it wasn't the order bell that woke him up, it was when his head bobbed a little too hard, slid out of his palm, and collided with the table. He jumped up like someone had zapped him with a cattle prod, hastily wiping drool from his bottom lip. After a quick glance around, he saw that nothing had changed… the cafe was still packed to the gills with customers who, just like him, were having their nostrils tickled by the scent of energy-fueling coffee. The line at the front counter was crazy long and Beast Boy sighed. Knowing the popularity of this place, he had planned to get here as early as possible, like crack of dawn early, and while it was technically still early morning, his battered body hadn't been up to the task of holding onto a transformation long enough to secure a safe, quick flight. So he took the bus, then fell asleep by accident, missed his stop—twice, stopped to help get this old woman's cat out of a tree—it was like some twisted 'everything can go wrong' montage from a cartoon, and the primary reason why he was still waiting thirty minutes later for his ticket to get called.

"This is nuts," he whined. "How long does it take to make five stupid cups of—"

DING-DING!

"Ticket twelve! Order twelve is up for a Misterrrr… Garfield?"

"Oh, finally!" Beast Boy exclaimed, and he pushed his way to the front, eagerly holding out both hands to the familiar server. "Man, I thought you guys were picking the beans back there yourselves!"

"Well, well, well, if it isn't my favorite green looney toon," the barista said with a smile that was just as sarcastic as it was friendly. "How ya' holding up, eh?"

"Like a rickety bridge.

"You look it, sugar."

"Oh, gee, thanks," he snorted. "And you?"

"Fairly meddling, fairly meddling," she replied blithely, grinning as she handed over one cup at a time. "Saw the news this morning, though. You guys had quite the battle yesterday from the looks of it. Felt the shockwaves all the way across town where I live!"

Unsurprisingly, even mentally dwelling on the what he and the others had barely managed to survive caused Beast Boy's body to give an unholy throb in protest and he grunted, nearly dropping his drinks. "Yeah, the, uh… the villain contingency decided to throw us a little party. You know how it goes…."

"Oh, I'm sure, I'm sure." She drummed a couple fingers over the marble surface before finally asking what he knew she had been inching toward: "Did you win?"

"You're still alive, right?" There was an unmistakable edge to Beast Boy's tone as he grabbed a four-pronged drink holder. When she nodded at him, he hunched a shoulder. "Then, yeah, we won. You're welcome, by the way."

"Much appreciated, green one, I do so enjoy living," she responded evenly, the snark in her tone easily heard even over the store's commotion. "So," she casually glanced side to side, "where's the rest of the squad? Robin and them?"

"Back at the tower, where I wish I was."

"Tired, eh?"

"What, me? Tired? Psssh, nope. Beast Boy never gets tired, not when the city needs him," he boasted, yet even as he said that, the exuberance he tried to puff his chest out with quickly deflated leaving him looking more exhausted than ever. "I'm not tired, I'm just… just—"

"Sporting fifty-pound bags under your eyes because of all the effort you put into leading your team through that battle," the barista supplied, her eyeteeth showing with the smirk she flashed him. "Obviously, right?"

"I'm glad you know," he said with a weary laugh, struggling to fit each cup into place. "Ain't easy being so awesome, lemme tell ya."

"Oh, I'm sure," she agreed genially, and without a word she spun the container in a full circle, effortlessly fitting a cup into every hole. "There you go, Mr. Hero," and she lifted her hand.

A very grateful smile grew over Beast Boy's worn face and he slapped her a congratulatory high-five. "Thanks, Jules."

The barista, whose badge read Julian Spears, snapped into the most casual salute Beast Boy had ever seen. "Hey, just doing my civic duty, hun." Then she made a shooing motion. "And you should be off getting intimate with a bed right about now, might be needing you later for round two with those villains."

Once the sun was up, the concept of rest didn't exist for Beast Boy, or any of the other Titans, really. Hence the coffee. Without any prior sleep, it was going to be a very long, very arduous day ahead, and God help them if the alarm went off for any reason, but she didn't need to know that. A big part of superheroism was putting on a brave front even when the urge to fall over was nigh unbearable.

Picking up the fifth drink, Beast Boy gave her a two-fingered salute then forced an enervated grin.

"You can count on me."

"I knew we couldn't count on him," Robin slurred, lying slumped over the kitchen counter. He had only gotten as far as pulling on his pants and his mask askew with one shoe on and one shoe off. Looking at him you wouldn't be able to tell if he was trying to get dressed or undressed. He pointed a feeble yet very accusatory finger at Cyborg. "I… blame… you."

"What, me?" The look of shock that flashed over Cyborg's face only lasted for a blink until it subsided into the pain that raged all throughout his circuitry and he sank back into the chair he had unknowingly risen from. "It wasn't my idea to send BB—it was Star's."

"That is the lie," Starfire replied groggily, and unlike the others, she was half-hanging off the back of the common room couch. Through sheer force of will, she managed to lift her head and fixed Cyborg with a bleary-eyed scowl between her curtain of red hair. "I did not suggest Beast Boy to go because I was taking a short coma."

Robin snorted against the countertop while Cyborg actively chuckled. "That was the quickest coma I've ever seen anyone fall into and get out of," he remarked with subdued awe. "You Tamaraneans are something else."

"What is this else you speak of? Am I not the flesh and blood?" Starfire wondered with sincere confusion, her head falling limp before she could finish.

"No, no, that's just—" Cyborg caught himself mid-sentence, deciding it wasn't worth the energy to explain the phrase and just nodded. "You sure are."

It was rare that Raven ventured anywhere without her hood and cape combo, mostly because how else was she going to bathe her face in the calming darkness that kept her emotions in check, so to see her now, seated at the kitchen table alongside Cyborg with half her face resting in her palm, sans her concealing garment, was almost picture worthy. Like the others, she hadn't slept a wink since last night and, also like the others, her body pulsed with an agony that made sleep a moot point anyway.

"Robin," she called in that droning monotone, "this coffee of yours… I hope it has the effects you so heartily claimed it does."

Somehow, after placing his palms flush against the counter, Robin found the strength to push himself up, showing them a self-assured grin even while his arms wobbled like jell-o. "Trust me, Raven. You don't even know what it feels like to wake up fully refreshed until you've had this."

"Whenever BB decides to come home, you mean," interjected Cyborg, reclining so heavily in his chair that it audibly began to strain. "Oh, don't you wimp out on me now, chair. Dig deep, push through, c'mon now."

Starfire lifted a thumbs up but otherwise said nothing, leaving her haggard wheezing to fill the silence of actual words. Not that anyone could blame the alien girl; each of them was struggling at the moment, whether with injuries, the fatigue, or just trying to fully wrap their heads around what had transpired. Because it really made no sense. No one could have predicted a full-frontal attack of such magnitude to kick off like it did, without warning or time to prepare—and that had instilled a very disturbing spark of anxiety within the Teen Titans. This time they were lucky, one of Cyborg's alarms had gone off only minutes prior, which gave them just enough time to get their gear together.

After that… it was chaos, a bitter struggle that lasted the better portion of three hours. Robin led to the best of his capabilities, and some onlookers might saw it was due to his leadership that they didn't get completely overwhelmed, but it became a team effort around the two hour mark with everyone splitting off to handle different objectives. The cohesion they exhibited during the entire fight was something that exceeded even their best test runs and practice simulations: orders were relayed with a single glance, team-attacks flowed as easy as breathing, where one fell short another was there to pick up the slack—they were, for lack of a better word, flawless. Erratic, but flawless.

When it was all over, when the last of the foot soldiers had either been beaten back or else was in the process of being thrown into a patrol car, the last thing Robin felt like doing was standing tall for the the influx of paparazzi or entertaining the several questions the police chief had. But he did it anyway, with his team behind him.

Because being a superhero meant working well into overtime.

"You ever think about just… I dunno…." Robin grunted as he shambled his way around the counter toward the table. "What it'd be like to be… normal? For like a day?"

In unison, Raven and Cyborg stared at Robin with varying degrees of disdain; even Starfire tilted her head so as to get a really good look at her teammate, because there was no way their leader had just asked such a stupid question.

"Riiiight," said Robin with a light chuckle, easing himself tenderly into an empty chair, "because what's normal about a trans-dimensional cross-breed, a bright-blue cyborg, a girl from another planet—"

The front door suddenly began to open and everyone seized up—Robin's hand shot to his unbuckled utility belt, a hostile green glow sparked to life around Starfire's eyes, Raven lifted a very flexed hand that swam with a miasmic black aura, and Cyborg's entire left arm made the shift into his sonic cannon—but the tension bled away just as quickly as it came when Beast Boy stumbled through, beaming triumphantly.

"—or a green-skinned shapeshifter," he finished lethargically, lurching his was over to the table and bypassing the fact that the rest of his teammates had been seconds away from flaying the skin off his hide. "I mean, we just have so many choices for normal up in here I'm surprised we picked superhero as a career path."

You can find the rest at: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13206109/1/Recuperation

#teen titans #beast boy #robin #starfire #raven #cyborg #coffee

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nutslovesdolts · 6 years ago

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Qrowin week submission day 1

Family feast

Winter sat alone in the cold empty Atlas base. She was tasked with keeping it secure during the Non-descript winter holiday while the rest of the troops and supplies were moved back to Atlas.

The base was a relatively small one just south of Vale and not that far from the island of the Xiao Long home, nevertheless it used to be a pretty important stronghold before the fall of beacon, now it was moot point. They had already moved most everything out, Her main objective was to prevent looters and scavengers from taking what was left.

It wasn't that she had anywhere to go anyways, there was no way she would ever go home and risk scrutiny from her father as always. Being in the military they usually held a short gathering where there were festive rations and decorations, nothing like the overly extravagant parties her father would throw.

No, she was alone.

The only sound coming from the small empty halls was the ticking of a clock that was left for some reason down the hall. This was the life she had chosen, and this is how it would be.

She had planned to spend this year with Qrow at the Xiao Long homestead but she knew deep down it was too good to be true.

She was cold

As soon as Qrow’s foot touched the porch of the Xiao Long home he was instantly tackled by Ruby seeming to materialize out of nowhere.

Qrow -Hey easy there kiddo, you hit harder than most Grimm hehe

Ruby -Uncle Qrowwwwww!... hi

Qrow -Heya kid, where’s your dad? Who else is here?

Ruby -Dad is helping Yang in the shed, Weiss, Blake and Jaune are here, Nora and Ren are upstairs getting ready, thats it so far.

Qrow -haha no Winter? It’s not like her to be late…

Ruby -You didn’t see her letter? She has to watch some old Atlas base, she can’t come.

Qrow looked over the note and frowned a little bit, at least if she had some other troops or something there he would have felt a bit better, but alone?

It's not that she couldn’t take care of herself, Boy does he know she can, but being alone… it was something that both he and Winter finally could be without.

They had only finally confessed to each other during a duel which left them both breathless and at a draw. Winter’s cold hard deminer finally broke down as she started to laugh, it wasn't a shrill cockey laugh as he had expected, it was a beautiful warm laugh that seemed to make the world brighten up a little. It put Qrow at ease and the uncontrollable urge to laugh as well washed over him.

Qrow -Hey Ice Queen

Winter still laughing a bit -hmm?

Qrow -how much longer can we keep this up?

Winter -I…

Qrow - we are evenly matched, all we do is fight, your laugh is perfect and I don't think I want to keep fighting a flock of angry mini nevermors every time I see you.

Winter -Oh I definitely had the upper han.. Wait what (a look of curious surprise came over her face and He saw a slight twinkle in her eyes), you think what?

Qrow smirking -I just don’t think that was proper form hehe, you wanna grab a drink or something? (he said reaching out his hand to help her up)

Winter (grabbing his and and pulling him down to her) -I think we’ve earned it haha

Qrow handed the letter back to Ruby

Qrow -thanks pipsqueak (he said with a melancholy smile)

Ruby noticed this and grabbed his arm -come on in its cooollldd

As the two walked inside and was created by the warm house with smells of holiday food and cheer filling the air (*1)

Later Tai and Yang came back in dressed in ugly holiday garb with lights flashing through the santa grimm laden sweaters, with overszed bells, causing Ruby to fall out of her chair laughing, making Weiss crack her first real smile of the evening.

Qrow seemed distant for the entire event which was unspokenly noticed by the Tai, Yang and Ruby., the three huddled together and hatched a scheme.

Winter had thought of calling Qrow to see how things were but the tower was already taken down by the Atlas soldiers earlier that day.

She sighed, there was just enough rations and her own personal supply of hot coco (*2) to make a nice warm meal to pass the time, she was a terrible cook as She and Qrow had learned the hard way… The thought of him made her a bit sad actually, she hadn't expected it being a hardened soldier, but there was a freedom when he was around, she could be herself and not be reprimanded for it.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a loud bang that echoed through the empty base followed by the shuffling of feet in one of the halls.

Great, she thought, more scavengers… at least this will keep my mind off things

She rose to her feet and placed the coco on the table next to her. Grabbing her weapon she headed for the door.

It made a loud creak as it was opened, surely heard by the invaders.

Before she took her first step a OOF and a thud were heard through the halls, causing winter to pause in her tracks.

After Blake had tied up the scavenger Qrow snuck up ahead to see Winter standing frozen looking in the opposite direction

Qrow,you know Ice Queen… I get you have an image to uphold but you could always turn on some heat in here jeez

Winter spin around and immediately attack without a second thought charging forward until she saw who was standing there. She tried to stop but ended up tackle hugging Qrow and pinning him against the wall, her sword clambering down next to her.

Winter- QROW HOW DID YOU, (she turned beat red as she realized she still had him pinned to the wall

Qrow Smirking *3 -you know, I would have waited till the bedroom to pin me to the wall, but this’ll do hehe

The rest of the party tried to hide their giggles but couldn’t contain themselves (except Weiss who was glaring at Qrow menacingly)

Winter quickly got off Qrow and brushed her self of trying to maintain any scrap of professionalism but dropped it with a sigh, she could be herself now, surrounded by friends

After an hour they had set up a nice cozy gathering in the mess hall, tiny lights and food and all,

Qrow looked at Winter laughing with Weiss who was still a bit red in the face from her and Ruby’s Mistletoe mishap (*4)

He had never been so at peace himself, even just in her company he felt warm and welcome, he walked over to where Ruby Yang and Tai were sitting

Qrow -hey… I just wanted to say.. Thanks, you guys really did me a favor tonight

Tai, oh Qrow, she's almost a part of the family already, just don't make ME and uncle too soon alright

This caused Qrow to turn beat red

Winter overhearing this walked over and wrapped her arms around Qrow and placed her head on his shoulder

Winter - no promises mister Xiao Long, wrapping tighter around Qrow making him turn even more red

Over by the Atas fire place (*5) in the corner

Jaune turned to Nora and Ren,

Jaune -huh, I always figured Qrow would be making Her blush

Nora - Oh please you saw her stand on his sword in that one fight, pg euphemisms are CCrRAAZZYY

Jaune -wha..?

Ren -don’t even try

In the closet the scavenger squirmed against his ropes,

Scavenger - mmmmph mph mmph hmhpmh mhh pmhmh (*6)

In the end all gathered around the table and had a great evening, when it was over the family loaded up everything back into Tai’s car (before it was destroyed in that one chibi episode) and headed off

Qrow stayed behind to help clean up a bit more and of course to stay with Winter a bit longer

Winter stopped what she was doing and looked up at Qrow with tears in her left eye

Winter -Qrow…. Thank you, you don’t know how much I needed this

Qrow -It was Tai yang and Ruby’s idea… but I’m just glad to see you Snow angel (he smirked) ((jaune internally screeching in the distance))

Winter -You don’t have to go you know… I mean I am allowed to have guests, if you want to…

Qrow stopped her with a kiss

Qrow looking deep into her eyes -I’m not going anywhere

Winter turned deep red and seemed to melt in his arms

They stayed like that for a bit until Winter snapped up and tightened her grip on him with narrow eyes and a demanding pose

Winter -If you think our last “fight” was tough, you aren't ready for this one she said walking towards what was at the time her room gesturing Qrow with one finger

Qrow now legitimately kinda frightened for his safety -ooooohhh boy hehe

With a swig of his flask and a quick hop to the door, (((I leave this part of the story because tumblr and morals and i'm writing this so I don’t have to study for my AI test)))

Back at the Xiao Long home the gang was unpacking the car

Ruby -I think we really did a good thing for Uncle Qrow

Tai - hehe I haven't seen him that happy or embarrassed over a girl since Beacon

Yang -where is he anyways, I thought he was just saying goodbye

Weiss had the realization set in that not only were her sister and Ruby’s Uncle likely tearing down the atlas base, but that she could be Ruby’s Aunt soon

She immediately dragged Ruby back under the mistletoe

Weiss -No way am I waiting till this is even more weird come here

Back in the closet of the base the bag falls off the “scavengers head”

Oscar -Guys… I just wanted to join you… hello…

Ozpin -I told you we should have brought Fruit cake

Oscar -...

----------------------------------------------------------------------

So this train wreck is my first ever fic and yeah hope you like it or not whatever its for Qrowin week so yeah this kind just went on and on sorry about that, i'll get better the more I do have a nice day and yeah

Authors notes? What even

*1, what the heck does “holiday cheer” smell like? Cookies? Eggnog? Idk BLood? Eeh its up to you,

*2 I HAVE ALWAYS SPELLED IT THIS WAY AND YOU CAN’T TELL ME DIFFERENTLY MUAHAHA

*3 because what else (insert Lenny face)

*4 would literally anyone read that cuz it could be fun

*5 just roll with it

*6 he’s is apparently the pyro from Team Fortress 2

I didn’t re read this or proof it so sorry if its trash

#qrowin #qrowinweek #qrowinweek2018 #qrow branwen #rwby qrow #winter #winter schnee #help me #this probably sucks #end me #I have finals #ugh #i'm done now #sorry #have a nice day

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hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger · 6 years ago

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Oh boy one of these again

“Even though both of these characters are awesome, fans can’t help but argue among themselves, so the question is simple: Who makes the better Spider-Man? Is it the new kid on the block who is winning new fans over left and right, or is it the classic Spidey that basically started it all?”

It’s Peter.

This isn’t even a debate.

One character is literally trying to be a replication of the other but throwing in some zigs where they zagged, whilst the other is the thing being replicated that also revolutionized comic books forever.

“As always, the answer to this question is: “it depends.” ”

Yes. It depends if you are a moronic clickbait author or not.

Do most Miles Morales fans even honestly argue that Miles is the best Spider-Man as opposed to just...great in his own way?

Like I’m pretty sure most Ben Reilly and Sam Wilson fans don’t try to honestly assert those guys are better than Peter or Steve.

“How do you even begin to measure something like this? ”

Who has had the biggest impact on the medium.

Who was most original.

Who has the most acclaimed stories.

Who has had the most comparatively unconvoluted narrative.

Who’s stories stick closest to the fundamental guiding ideas behind the core concept of Spider-Man and execute that the best.

Mystery solved.

20. MILES: BETTER ORIGIN

“The Peter Parker Spider-Man has an origin story that is downright iconic. There’s no denying that. However, if we’re being honest, then Miles Morales has a much better origin story. And it’s one that modern audiences will find a much easier time relating to.”

Hmm, a scientifically gifted teenager gets bitten by a super science spider and gains spider powers that he doesn’t commit to using altruistically for the wider community. Because of this he fails to intervene in a crime the results of which ultimately wind up killing a noble person he admired. From this he learned that his great powers should be used responsibily to help others and carried a burden of guilt around with him. o this end he dressed up in webbed spandex and became a crime fighter called Spider-Man.

Yeah...I can see how that is so much better and modern than Peter Parker’s origin...

This doesn’t even explain how or why the origin is better, it just says Peter’s origin is iconic but Miles is better and leaves it at that.

Surely if something is better than the iconic thing you’d have more to say about it.

“Miles, meanwhile, had to deal with his powers being stolen by an uncle (whom we saw briefly in Spider-Man: Homecoming) before Miles’ early exploits with Venom led to the loss of his mother.”

This isn’t part of his origin and therefore doesn’t belong in this section.

Moreover it’s asinine because it omits Peter’s early adventures to give the false impression Miles is better.

Let’s say Miles’ uncle stole his powers. Why is this somehow better than ‘My uncle is dead, I need to step up and replace him as the man of the house, also my aunt is chronically ill, I am cash strapped and I constantly get shit in both my identities’.

Call me crazy but wasn’t Spider-Man supposed to be ABOUT those normal life problems as opposed to the inherently fantastical problem of your magic science spider powers getting jacked?

Or your mother dying due to an ooze monster before she was literally resurrected like two years later negating all drama?

Even if his mother had remained dead, how does this make him better than Peter? His mother died. Wow. I’ve NEVER seen a superhero with a dead parent before. I’ve NEVER seen a female supporting character die in a superhero story before. Certainly not a Spider-man story. Certainly not a Spider-Man story that changed comic books forever before shallow repetitions like murdering the characters mother turned it into a mess of a cliché. A mess of a cliché that the same guy who did it reversed 2 years later.

“In this way, he feels a much keener guilt over the passing away of a family member than Peter Parker does”

**** please!

His mother came BACk to life two years later and it wasn’t like his ENTIRE motivation after she died was BUILT around his grief over her death.

Like Peter brings up Uncle Ben’s death so much that we needed to do a movie that SPECIFICALLY DOESN’T BRING IT UP!

And this isn’t even getting into how despite being a family member the best analogy for Rio within Peter’s story is Gwen NOT Uncle Ben.

And you cannot with a straight face tell any Spider-Man fan Gwen’s death was not AS keenly felt by Peter as Rio’s was for Miles.

Miles quit after Rio died and then an arc or two later after a time skip he was back in the saddle. Meanwhile literally 2 years worth of issues were devoted to depicting Peter’s grieiving of Gwen and then we also wouldn’t shut up about it for another 40 years!

“making him not only more motivated, but more sympathetic in the eyes of the readers.”

If Rio’s death made Miles more motivated than Peter...why did he literally quit being Spider-Man after she died?

This gets even dumber when you consider this article is drawing an analogy between Rio’s death and Uncle Ben.

RIO’s death motivated Miles to quit for A WHOLE YEAR!

Uncle Ben’s death motivated Peter to BE a superhero for *checks watch) 56 years and counting!

And what is this the tragedy Olympics? Miles deserves more sympathy because his mother died when he was fighting a villain than Peter does for when his father figure died due to someone he failed to stop?

At best BOTH things are equally tragic and worthy of sympathy.

At worst if you truly contextualize this, fuck no Miles doesn’t deserve more sympathy.

I’m not saying ‘screw him he deserved it’. I’m just saying of course Peter had it worse.

When Rio died that was the third major death in Miles’ life. His mother, his uncle and Ult Peter Parker.

Yeah, that’s 2 dead family members to Peter’s 1 circa Gwen’s death right?

Wrong. Peter lost his parents, his uncle which was his fault, George Stacy who was another father figure which he also felt guilty over and then also his girlfriend/practically his fiancé...which he also felt guilty over.

Then you’ve got the fact that Miles, whilst feeling guilty over Ult Peter’s death, didn’t actually know him personally. Peter knew all those people personally sans his parents, but they were still his parents.

And then he had to be the provider for May whilst having exactly zero emotional support from anyone other than her. Miles had Ganke through everything. Peter had jackshit and was also getting bullied and was also getting hated on by Jameson.

You can’t even say “Well Miles had it worse because he saw his mother die violently right in front of him.” Peter saw and CAUSED Gwen to die violently in front of him, he saw George Stacy die violently in front of him, he at least KNEW Uncle Ben died violenty and in his own home to boot.

And unlike Miles’ uncle or mother none of THOSE people came back to life!

19. PETER: CREATIVE USE OF POWERS

“Have you ever thought about how limited Peter Parker’s powers really are? No, seriously — he has spider-sense and super-strength, and he made himself some webs and that’s it”

-and, spider agility, and spider speed and you know wall-crawling the one thing his namesake, a spider, FAMOUSLY does!

“Seemingly every issue has him doing something new with his powers,”

Says someone who’s clearly not read much Spider-Man.

How the hell do you even begin to try and have him do something new in every issue across multiple monthly titles across 57 years my god!

18. MILES: COOLER COSTUME

“If you were trying to figure out what the most iconic comic book costume was, it may very well be Peter Parker’s Spider-Man costume. Those red and blue tights have inspired literally decades of comics fans, young and old. But we hate to break it to you: Miles Morales has the cooler costume.”

“The red and blue may be iconic, but it’s also difficult to translate into the real world, such as live action films.”

This is fucking moronic on four levels.

Level 1: It was a costume designed for a comic book which isn’t set in the real world or even in a live action medium so the point is fucking moot because the measure of a COMIC BOOK character’s costume is how well it works in a COMIC BOOK.

By this logic Batman’s costume sucks shit because it’s rarely translated well into live action and usually needed to be made all black.

By this logic ALL MANGA isn’t that great because none of it translates t the real world.

Level 2: If the thing is ICONIC then obviously is does effing work!

Level 3: Solid black with red patterning on top of it. Yes. I can see how this is very original and inherently better.

Level 4: The red and blue costume has literally been translated into film FOUR TIMES!

“Meanwhile, Miles’ black and red costume looks sleek and modern.”

Looking sleek and modern doesn’t counter ‘is difficult to translate to film’. Those are two separate things.

Moreover, it’s ‘modernity’ is afforded it by being again, mostly unoriginal.

Shit Spider-Man’s SECOND most iconic costume, which is also more iconic than Miles’, is even MORE sleek so does that make it more ‘modern’ too?

It’s the same nonsense as before, ‘it’s just better’. How and why!

“ It’s a perfect compromise between comic book sensibilities and real world aesthetics”

Which means it’s not as good in the medium it was designed for as another costume that was!

“and you can’t help but grin whenever you see it.”

That isn’t even a point, that’s barely even an individual opinion!

17. PETER: BETTER LOVE INTERESTS

“Sometimes, comparing Peter Parker and Miles Morales feels like comparing apples and oranges. ”

And reading this article comparing them feels like throwing up.

“That’s because there are some cool things that one hero has that the other doesn’t, meaning there’s no real comparison. ”

Okay like...first of all if the author actually believes that then what the fuck is the point of this list!

Second of all, the fact that they are comparing them means obviously they can be compared.

Thirdly the fact that they are literally both characters called Spider-Man, with spider powers, based in New York, who got their powers the same way, fight ostensibly the same villains and (allegedly) touch upon the same types of sub-genres and are both made by Marvel comics OBVIOUSLY MEANS THEY ARE COMPARABLE!

Like fuck dude, this isn’t like you are trying to compare Spider-Man to the Power Rangers!

“Peter Parker has had an epic romance with Mary Jane Watson, as well as dalliances with Felicia Hardy and Carlie Cooper.”

Really? You are going to list off a quick romantic history of Spider-Man and you mention MJ and Felicia and...Carlie Cooper.

A character not seen since 2014. A character who dated Spider-Man for like one year publishing time.

You will mention her but not, I dunno, Gwen effing Stacy?

16. MILES: MORE INFLUENTIAL

I’m face palming from just the title of this one.

“One reason that we think Miles Morales might be the better Spider-Man is because of how influential he is. And we’re not just talking about more and more fans discovering the character each year. A major bit of evidence is that his character highly influenced the insanely successful Spider-Man: Homecoming.”

Well I’m happy somebody is acknowledging Homecoming was basically a whitewashed Miles movie.

“An example of this is Peter’s friend in the movie, Ned Leeds. Longtime Spidey fans were surprised that he looked nothing like the Ned of the comics. That’s because his design and characterization was based on Miles’ friend, Ganke Lee. On top of that, we even see Miles’ uncle, Aaron Davis, played by Donald Glover. This gave many fans hope we’d see Miles Morales in the MCU!”

Just to be crystal clear here, this ‘article’ is asserting that Miles Morales, a character invented by Bendis and Pichelli less than 10 years ago, is more influential than the character that....literally every teenage super hero after 1962 was inspired by (including Miles himself)...who was created by one of the art Gods of all comics and the single most famous writer of comic books of all time.

And their ‘evidence’ for this was...one movie from last year...that he wasn’t even in...

15. PETER: FANTASTIC…FIVE?

There is nothing objectionable in this sans the fact that he joined the Future Foundation not the F4.

14. MILES: STEALTHY SPIDER

“We love Peter Parker’s abilities but if we’re being honest, they don’t always make a lot of sense. Detecting future danger and being super-strong is really neat, but it never exactly screamed “spider” to us.”

Spiders are very strong for their size. Hence ‘proportional strength of a spider’ as a commonly used phrase associated with the character.

The Spider Sense is more defencible as being ‘not a spider thing’, but there are still ways to explain it.

“It felt a bit like the writers were just making stuff up.”

...making stuff up is literally the definition of writing fiction...

“And if you’re going to make up some weird powers, we say “go big or go home.””

None of Peter’s powers sans his spider sense were even remotely weird if he was intended as a human spider.

“And that’s why we like Miles Morales’ cool stealth ability. His ability to blend into his surroundings creates some really fun stories, and adds a fun dose of Batman to the Spidey stories that we love.”

Not only is this dumb because being like another character is not a good thing (doesn’t it make you less unique), but worse it pretends like having stealth is something that’s even MORE insane for a spider than spider sense.

It’s not.

Spiders can camouflage into their surroundings like you know....shittons of animals people commonly know about.

13. PETER: AVENGERS MEMBER

Nothing that wrong here.

12. MILES: GALACTUS FIGHTER

“When fans argue about which characters are the best, there are plenty of different metrics. One of the biggest, though, is who the character has managed to fight. And if a hero is able to take on a villain well above their weight, it establishes just how serious they are.

So, how can you tell that Miles Morales is the best? He managed to take on Galactus. No, seriously — when Galactus threatened the universe, Miles Morales teamed up with resident big brain Reed Richards in order to get information and allies. While it was definitely a team effort, Miles should get credit for tackling a bigger foe than Peter Parker ever did.”

This is so fucked up it’s not even funny.

By this logic ANY TIME Peter contributed even a little to a team effort that ultimately led to beating someone it should count on his win record.

Okay then. In AvX he contributed to fighting the Phoenix, which is canonically MORE powerful than Galactus. He’s also contributed to fighting Galactus in Secret Wars. He contributed to fighting Onslaught who was approaching a Galactus level threat. He contributed towards defeating Scarlet Witch in House of M and restoring the 616 universe, Scarlet Witch also being even more powerful than Galactus in that story.

If you DIDN’T use this type of bullshit then Peter has taken on supremely more powerful foes than Miles.

Juggernaut, Hulk, Tri-Sentinel, Rhino. The entire X-Men.

Even the stuff that doesn’t make sense for either character put Peter ahead. Peter beat Firelord a Herald of Galactus, whilst Miles beat Blackheart, the son of Mephisto.

Let me remind you that Silver Surfer, also a Herald of Galactus, has beaten Mephisto himself.

Therefore Firelord is most likely put of Blackheart’s weight class.

11. PETER: CIA PARENTS

There is nothing incorrect in this but why is this a point in Peter’s favour? Spider-Man is supposed to be down to Earth so the more James Bond super spy craziness involved the more reductive it is.

Hell it doesn’t even make sense against Miles since Miles dad worked for SHIELD.

“We shouldn’t be surprised Peter is who he is when he had parents like this!”

Yeah or you know it could’ve been because of Uncle Ben as literally every version of Spider-Man spells out for us.

10. MILES: S.H.I.E.L.D. AGENT

“Just as you can judge a hero by who they fight, you can also judge them by who they fight alongside. When a character joins a team with a proud history and powerful members, it goes to show just how amazing that hero is. And this is why we love that Miles Morales is a member of S.H.I.E.L.D.

He was hand-picked as a hero with great potential and trained by the greatest secret agents on the planet and this is all the more impressive because he already has more training and experience at his young age than Peter had way back when.”

See what I said about about James Bond stuff in Spider-Man being a bad thing.

Also, if Miles is better because he fought alongside SHIELD, then by this logic Peter would be better because he was a member of the Avengers and FF...at the same time.

Moreover, whilst it’s true Miles has had more training than peter had, he hasn’t necessarily had as much experience.

And the point is moot if training and experience doesn’t translate into you being a better fighter, and at a comparable age, Peter definitely could’ve beaten Miles provided the writers didn’t cop out and have his Spider Sense not work so he can avoid Miles’ cheat code Venom blast.

9. PETER: CHEATING HIS DEMISE

“One time, Kraven filled Spider-Man with tranquilizer darts and left him to pass away, going so far as to bury him. Peter emerged alive, but he later “passed away” after fighting Morlun, only to be reborn with weird new spider-powers. It turns out you just can’t keep him down!”

Okay, but he also died in Secret Wars, Infinity Gauntlet and Infinity War (the comic, not the movie, or it might’ve been Infinity Crusade).

8. MILES: BETTER SUPPORTING CAST

Oooooooooooooooooooooh boy can’t wait for this!

“Sure, given enough time, you may be able to rattle off a few additional names when it comes to Peter Parker’s supporting cats.”

This is such BS because Felicia alone is a more memorable supporting cat than any of the felines in Miles’ series.

LEARN TO SPELL CHECK ON THE ARTICLE YOU’VE BEEN PAID FOR!

“But when pressed, most people will simply say “Aunt May and Mary Jane.””

No, most people would say Aunt May, Mary Jane, Harry Osborn, J. Jonah Jameson, Gwen Stacy and possibly now Ned Leeds due to Homecoming.

And that’s just for Joe Average on the street. Actual comic book fans would say all those people and also probably Black Cat, Betty Brant, Joe Robertson, Liz Allan, Flash Thompson and possibly Norman Osborn and Eddie Brock (the latter being a mistake due to adaptations but still, they’d mention him).

“And while we’re calling them a “supporting cast,” they often don’t play a major role in the story.”

Almost like they exist to...SUPPORT the main story isn’t it? Wheras being a MAJOR character would be different.

This is also a BS metric to use for Spider-Man. Spider-Man’s core concept involves him being a normal guy in his civilian life who is also a super hero, with those two sides impacting upon one another.

Since most stories are mostly about the hero stuff it means that to get the supporting cast involved in major stories would make them involved in the super hero stuff and therefore make Peter’s civilian life NOT normal.

“With Miles, he gets to have his spider-cake and eat it, too. He has a major supporting friend in the form of Ganke Lee, who provides insight into both the personal and the superhero life of Miles. And Miles has an extended supporting cast as part of all those team-ups: Avengers, Ultimates — if Miles needs help, some A-listers are just a dial away!”

First off, by this logic Mary Jane from like 1984 and Aunt May from 2001 would count as equally as Ganke.

Second of all Ganke is literally the ONLY supporting cast the folks with the most cursory knowledge of Miles could name. Even under CBR’s nonsensical logic of Aunt May and Mj being the ONLY people anyone would know from Peter’s cast, that’s still two vs. one. The author brought up a point against Peter and then failed to demonstrate how Miles is better in comparison, probably because he wasn’t.

Thirdly the Avengers and the Ultimates are NOT supporting cast members, they are team mates!

Fourthly, by that logic Peter again has the advantage since the Avengers, F4, the (Netflix) Defenders, the X-Men and literally everyone he ever teamed up with in Marvel Team up count as his supporting cast!

7. PETER: DEALING WITH THE DEVIL

Forget what I said earlier. Now THIS really should be good!

“We’re going to keep saying this over and over again, but the best way to judge a hero is to look at the villains they have gone up against. And in the case of Peter Parker, he’s actually survived the greatest villain in all of history in the devil himself or, as they call him in Marvel Comics, Mephisto.”

That is such insane broken and desperate logic I almost want to love this article for trying.

Peter is better than Miles BECAUSE of the worst Spider-man story of all time.

Wow. That’s beautifully bonkers.

But seriously, this is...just holy shit.

Peter did survive an encounter with Mephisto...but Mephisto was never trying to kill him. They never exchanged blows at all.

Saying Peter survived Mephisto is like saying Miles survived God Emperor Doom in Secret Wars, therefore he’s more awesome.

Then you have the fact that Mephisto really, really, really isn’t even the greatest villain in the marvel universe. I hate to invoke Quesada, but he isn’t even the ACTUAL devil. He’s not even the ACTUAL guy who rebelled against God and was damned to be the ruler of Hell. He’s one of the 4 rulers of Hell alongside Satan, Satannish and Lucifer, who is the ACTUAL Biblical devil. In fact one of them (Satannish) is himself the SON of the Dread Dormammu and supposed to be weaker than his old man IIRC.

DAFQ are you the greatest villain when the DAD of one of your peers is a bigger deal than you are?

And if we ignore morality for a moment and look at raw power, shittons of antagonists are much more powerful and dangerous than Mephisto or else have been capable at times of owning his red ass.

Thanos. Firelord. Hela. Galactus. Annihilus. Dark Phoenix. Arguably Apocalypse and Onslaught.

“Longtime fans don’t like to remember this because it is a highly controversial story. ”

Longtime fans? It was only 10 years ago!

And the sequel was only 8 years ago!

And it got referenced explicitely THIS YEAR!

“Spider-Man basically gets Mephisto to save Aunt May’s life, but Mephisto’s price is that he will rewrite reality so that Peter and Mary Jane never loved each other. ”

Holy shit that isn’t even an accurate summation of the most infamous story ever.

Mephisto rewrites their marriage, not their love. And Spidey gets him to do nothing, it was an offer Peter accepted.

“Is it the clumsiest reset button ever? Sure. But Peter still survived encountering the ultimate evil.”

He survived in so far as he didn’t die. He objectively lost though.

6. MILES: PLAYING WELL WITH OTHERS

“One of the weirder qualities of Peter Parker is how much he likes to keep to himself. ”

No one in the real world does that. And it isn’t like he has a rich friendship group or anything.

“Sure, he’s been on many teams (and that many more team-ups), but at the end of the day, he prefers to work alone.”

Except when he’s in Marvel Team up or with Black Cat.

“This isn’t the case for Miles Morales, which is why the young man has better allies than Peter does.”

Preferring to be a loner vs a team player doesn’t make you better or worse it’s just different. But even if it didn’t Peter has allies too. Most of Miles allies are also Peter’s and Peter has even more.

“Who are we talking about? Miles is both friends and allies with characters like Ms. Marvel, Nova, Amadeus Cho,”

And Peter is both friends and allies with characters like Captain Marvel (both female ones), the ORIGINAL more powerful Nova, and Bruce Banner, a.k.a. the original and holy fuck immeasurably stronger Hulk.

He’s also friends with Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, Wolverine and most of the X-Men and Avengers and F4.

“He seemed to figure out something early on that eluded Peter Parker for many years: that it’s good to have a support system in place, especially as a superhero!”

And yet, Peter survivied on his own for years like a bad ass.

5. PETER: THE MAN, THE MYTH

“While the comic played coy and never confirmed this, it is strongly hinted that Peter Parker is part of centuries of “spider totems” that are chosen as champions. That means the spider that bit him was not powered by radiation: it had powers it wanted to give Peter, and only later passed away due to radiation. You may or may not believe it, but Peter quite likely has centuries of lineage fueling his powers!”

Again this isn’t necessarily a good thing.

4. MILES: BETTER VILLAINS

BWAHAHAHAHAHA...oh they’re serious...

Do you want to know the secret to nostalgia? Your brain only remembers the good parts of whatever you’re thinking about. Your buddy that loves ’80s music? Trust us when we say that he managed to brain wipe some pretty awful stuff — it’s a lot like that with Peter Parker’s rogues gallery.

Sure, there are some cool villains like Venom, Green Goblin, and Doctor Octopus, but there are also some real lame ones like the Shocker.

a) The author can go suck a dick, Shocker is awesome.

b) Yeah SOME cool villains like those 3 guys...and Carnage...and Kingpin...and Hobgoblin...and Rhino...and Scorpion...and Electro...and Vulture....and basically everyone under the Ditko run

c) By this logic Miles villains suck ass too because he’s fought many lame ones too

“Compared to this, Miles Morales has fewer villains, but that means fewer duds as well. ”

Super hero rogue’s galleries are not marked negatively.

It’s one thing if you have few good villains and most of the time you fight lame ones.

It’s entirely different if you have a lot of good villains, and way more disposable rarely seen lame ones. The lame ones don’t make the whole thing suck shit.

This is particularly asinine since most of Miles villains are either Peter’s villains or else the Ultimate versions of them.

What is worse is that by this logic BATMAN has a worse rogue’s gallery than Miles Morales!

“We’ll take cool villains like the resurrected Aaron Davis over Peter Parker’s C-list baddies any day!”

So would I probably but would you take him over Venom, Doc Ock or any of the Osborns!

3. PETER: ALIEN FIGHTER

I don’t even understand how this is a point in Peter’s favour

2. MILES: SPIDER-BITE

“As we said earlier, it often felt weird that Spider-Man wasn’t more like, well, a spider.”

He is like one the author is just a jackass.

“Which is one of the reasons we appreciate Miles Morales so much. In addition to having a cooler backstory”

A near identical backstory made cooler because the author said so...

“and a more realistic costume, ”

Which is bad because in a visual medium like comics where you aren’t bound by the constraints of reality (hence spandex looks awesome) ‘realism’ in your costume designs is not a good thing.

“Miles has more realistic spider-powers as well, including his “bite.””

...his what?

“With a simple touch, Miles Morales is able to incapacitate villains. Now, Spidey being Spidey, he still has to engage in some wild fisticuffs on more than one occasion, but it’s pretty cool to see that he can take down major bad guys with a spider-bite instead of just fists powered by “radioactive blood.””

Wow.

Lets unpack this.

First of all the author is such a dumbass they don’t even realize Miles’ Venom blast (not named because the author is a hack) is not a representation of a spider bite, but of a specific ability some species of spiders possess wherein they can paralyze foes with bio-electricity.

This is one of THE most well known things about Miles.

Second of all if this was analogous to a spider bite wouldn’t it i dunno involve his fucking TEETH!

Third of all this is Miles’ worst power. It sucks the drama out of action sequences because it’s an auto-win button which means he wins too easily or looks like a moron when he doesn’t just bust it out.

1. PETER: STOPPING THE UNSTOPPABLE

Again, there is nothing wrong in this, but like...how does this prove Peter is better.

This article made me ill

#spider-man #Miles Morales #Peter Parker #CBR #comic book resources #Ganke Lee #Rio Morales #SHIELD #Ultimate Spider-Man #SPider-Man: Homecoming

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