#not true for example monster*%(@&$₩ sorry

[lesbicastagna]

crossdressing is always the answer for anything. if a fictional character is missing smth they should crossdress and all of a sudden your story will be good

[ratwithhands]

I'm curious. I've seen your art and something that's come to my mind is what actually got you attached with the Subway brothers. Your narrative on their different AU forms is so unique which is what brought me to that question

Alright, rat history time.

So basically back in 2021-2022, I was working on an old OC storyline (about 3 years old by then) and I was in grade 9 so I was like “A new Pokémon game? Pfft, like I care” and just didn’t watch any of the stuff related to PLA when it dropped. I still got recommended Twitter posts about it on Instagram and I ended up seeing this one.

I tried looking up Ingo cause I was like "oh, funky design, looks like a captain or something" but I didn't end up finding anything so I didn't press further. Anyways in March break of 2022, I got bored and decided to put some game streams on in the background while I drew. I saw Alpharad's PLA video and decided to watch it for a bit when I saw Ingo.

I was like "Hey you're the guy from Twitter!" and since I knew his name now, I looked him up and found his Bulbapedia article. I found him much more interesting than the rest of the PLA cast since he had history outside PLA, and I ended up reading up whatever I could find on him. I also by extension discovered Emmet this way, which only served to suck me deeper down the rabbit hole. By the end of March break I had a fan OC and 2 AUs made with more on the way, as well as a YouTube recommended page with nothing but theory videos on Ingo and decade old Submas content.

Around May I decided to decommission my OC storyline for personal reasons, and by this point Submas was starting to occupy more of my creative work anyways. Since I didn't have my storyline to put my energy into, I started funnelling literally any story ideas into Submas. This led to nonstop content for a shockingly long time, and ofc I'm still coming up with stuff now.

Long story short, I got attached to them by accident! It was a "right place, right time" sort of thing since they came in as I was starting to get sluggish with my original content and I ended up being more interested in writing for them.

As for narratives, I am effectively playing dolls with these guys. Usually the kind of stuff that I write for them is meant for OCs, but I dumped the 60+ person cast so I put that energy into them instead.

Most AUs will either have a core theme, an out of pocket idea, or both to make things interesting. Usually I just come up with a dumbass idea like "what if we brought ReBURST back for a rerun" or "what if Emmet signed a contract with an eldritch space spider" or "what if Submas could see into the future" and stuff like that, then it picks up themes as I keep writing. For some silly examples:

Burst is based on Pokémon ReBURST and the idea of human-Pokémon fusion, but there's focus on skill, how characters misperceive it, and resentment as a result. There's also a spotlight on inferiority complexes, bottled up guilt, and blind confidence depending on which main character you look at

Journal is about a diary that helps Ingo to regain his memories, and it focuses on remembrance and regret as a result of him reading it. Spotlight on lacking awareness vs hyper awareness and the monotony of living as people around you leave

Oracle is exactly what it sounds like, with the twins being able to see into the future. It focuses on cooperation and the importance of working together, but also learning how to work alone. The spotlight's on jealousy and gratitude for this one, though the latter greatly outweighs the former in this case

I also just have AUs I made to try deranged shit for funsies, like Sapioflora, Cybernetic/Z-Λ, Team Supernova, and Idol. Those are mostly for exploring goofy ideas that may or may not go anywhere.

Right anyways basically I just saw Submas after watching PLA gameplay and found the twins more interesting to write about than the project I'd exhausted by then. The narratives are like that because the AU ideas I make are actually OC concepts that I modify to fit Pokémon specifically for these two or ideas about the two that I'd like to explore. Hope that answers the question ^^*

[thydungeongal]

What are some good RPGs that would say are good examples of being queer?

Sorry it took me a while to reply to this!

Anyway, my favorite capital Q Queer RPGs are Monsterhearts and Dungeon Bitches. Monsterhearts is the subtler of the two, being basically a game about playing a CW style teen drama with monsters that is basically a genre mashup of Vampire Diaries, Ginger Snaps, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Jennifer's Body. The queerness is very much textual but it's more so thematic and symbolic. The game's themes are queerness and adolescence and growing up, the vehicle it uses to explore those themes is monsters, because queer teens often get made to feel monstrous for having feelings and desires that fall outside of the norm.

Dungeon Bitches by @cavegirlpoems on the other hand is much more explicit about its queerness, in the sense that the queerness is also explicitly and unambiguously written into the fiction of the game. It is a game that is very much grounded in the dungeon-crawling genre of fantasy but that asks the question of "what kind of people would actually get into the dungeon-crawling life" and answers that with "people who are otherwise marginalized in so-called civilized society, especially queer women." It's very much a game that uses the dungeon crawling lifestyle to present a dialectic between the "safety" offered by the closet and normative society, and the precariousness and danger and the undeniable thrill of living as your true self. It's a game that is resonant to me not only as a fan of dungeon crawl type games but also as a trans woman making her first small steps towards transition. It's a fucked up game for fucked up dolls.

There are plenty of other queer games too, including Thirsty Sword Lesbians, Queerz, Girl by Moonlight, Dream Askew, and many many more. I think Thirsty Sword Lesbians is the most well-known and I do own it and at the end of the day it kind of leaves me cold. It feels like it's trying to play things a bit too safe and at the same time I feel its politics of identity are just messy.

Anyway, this is something I've been thinking of for a while, but since I've been thinking a lot about queer games not only in terms of "does it have the Gay" but also in terms of "does it thematically intersect with questions of queerness," I have to mention Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy by @anim-ttrpgs.

So okay having been involved in the community surrounding Eureka for a while there is something about that game that appeals to LGBTQ folks, especially trans women. Now, Eureka has of course been written primarily from the point of view of disability: the main writer is disabled and the game makes it explicit that many of the supernatural elements, including the monster investigator types, are symbolic of the experiences of the disabled. But because the experiences of marginalized groups tend to intersect a lot, many queer folks also end up seeing themselves there. Vampires in Eureka are written very much from a Christian folkloric point of view so that many Christians may see them as inherently anathema even while they may still maintain their faith; something that many queer Christians may resonate with. Similarly, one of the monster types, the Thing from Beyond, is all about being an alien shape shifter trying to navigate a society that is ultimately scary and alien to them. There's also Living Dolls up in that thang!!!

There is more to Eureka that makes it appeal to many queer readers, but the main thing is this: it is written from a point of view that is ultimately empathetic of the "freaks" and outcasts. And while it does approach these topics from the point of view of disability, it is also very open to queer readings.

And this is sort of a source of gentle ribbing within the Eureka community: that the lead writer ends up writing stuff that resonates deeply with his friends and fans of the game, a significant number of whom happen to be trans women, and that this has to be pointed out to him constantly. It's really sweet and funny. (Fun anecdote: when I first came out as a trans woman he approached me in my DMs asking "So you're a chick now?" followed by a 👍 emoji.)

And I think that's a fun contrast. Many games that ultimately do not touch upon queerness in any meaningful way in their themes or gameplay will still get lauded as queer because they will use identity as a coat of paint or a part of their marketing. And at the same time someone writing candidly about their experiences of living with disability via metaphor may end up accidentally writing something that actually resonates with the lived experiences of queer people.

[olympiansowl]

One thing I find so interesting about the PJO fandom is how they actually accepted how Rick fucked up 90% of the goddesses. Even when he uses a version of a myth that specifically talks about men being idiots, he villainizes women. Like, no one complained about how fucked up is that he used the story of Hephaestus trying to rape Athena and turning it into a “poor guy cried bc he was rejected by a girl” thing?

The true story is literally Hephaestus trying to rape Athena, she fights him off but his semen falls into her skirt and cleans it with a piece of cloth and tosses it into the ground (earth, which is Gaia) and from there, Erictonio is born. And Athena raised the child as her own even tho he was the product of the assault she suffered. The guy ruled Athens.

Rick turned it into Hephaestus falling in love with Athena and crying on her lap, making her reject and KICK him plus being disgusted by the tears and the dirt.

He also used all of Ovid versions he could possibly find to fuck Athena up. Arachne doesn’t happen with Greek writers and Medusa was never cursed (or assaulted) when we talk about the OG Myth. She was already born a monster and Athena only helps Perseus kill her bc yeah, Medusa killed people.

Also, Medusa’s version by Ovid is a lot alike Cassandra of Troy story, and let me tell ya, Cassandra was cursed but it wasn’t by a woman. And when she was raped by Ajax, Athena made sure that he didn’t made it back to Greece.

Now I’m gonna talk about Demeter. Demeter, who had her daughter kidnapped, raped and imprisoned, and was turned into the typical “mother in law who hated son in law bc she thinks her daughter could do better” when yeah…she has all the right to feel angry bc her daughter was KIDNAPPED.

Artemis doesn’t hate men and her followers also don’t hate men. Feminism isn’t about hating men.

Aphrodite. I cannot even describe how dirty they made Aphrodite’s children. Like be fr one of her children helped build what it would’ve been Rome. He was a fighter. And her cabin there is just so different of what she is truly like. They should have a lot of other powers.

Also, a lot of women from the books follows the same stereotype of “omg I hate makeup it’s so girlish and I’d rather fight” like you can be feminine, wear makeup and STILL FIGHT. One doesn’t erase the other.

Another thing, but this one is about MOTHERS! I truly cannot understand the way Rick creates his women. I’m serious tho. Like, I’m sorry but sometimes it seems that his thing some goddesses (Athena, for example) are personal. The “abandoning Athens” thing, the “should’ve chosen Poseidon”, the way he wrote her as being cold towards her kids…in one of the versions, Athena was the one who saved Dionysus from Hera. She raised a child and made him a king even though he was the product of her almost rapist. She was there helping heroes all along. She fought for Odysseus for ten years.

Also, this fandom is incapable of seeing the difference between Minerva and Athena. Minerva gave Annabeth the mark, Athena had nothing to do with this. Annabeth is her favorite daughter, she made her architect of Olympus, protected her through her journey to find Luke and Thalia, disobeyed her fathers orders trying to help to find Annabeth, made battle plans with her and all…and she always claimed all of her children.

I think people just don’t like her bc she doesn’t trust Percy. And she shouldn’t. I love him, but Athena IS the goddess of wisdom after all and as such, it would be pretty dumb to trust a demigod that won a battle against the god of war when he was only twelve. Not to mention that everyone kinda thought the “preserve or destroy Olympus” was on his hands. And he tortured a goddess…I’m sorry but she was pretty much right. Wouldn’t trust someone that had the power to fuck me and my family up either. She dint made the choice based on “omg I hate my rival and his children” even more so bc she was trained by one of his children and bunch of grandchildren. She made the choice based on what she thought was less risky.

If she was so against Percabeth, I can assure you she would’ve killed Percy and probably wouldn’t even suffer much consequences. She admires some things about Percy but she was right about his flaw. And she also helped him during one of his quest to go to college. Does she loves the idea of the relationship? No. But that’s bc she is precisely the opposite of love. She doesn’t make decisions based on what her heart says, but on what her brain says. If she succumbs to the heart, then she would seize to be goddess of wisdom, reason and all of what she values. That’s why she vowed to never marry.

And, as Helenist, I do not take the myths that seriously bc when we talk about religion, I have a clear mind that those myth were made by humans who used the gods as a tool to justify some of their actions, and I hate almost all of the retellings that those authors do, but is so wild to see how much power they have on society bc now I cannot see anything about the gods without someone saying shit about them. But I do know all about the myths and I gotta say, doesn’t make much sense to use a Roman author to talk about Greek Gods. He made them dirty. Also doesn’t make much sense to use this versions of Ovid but still change it to make it more sweet for the men. Poseidon and Athena didn’t spend that much time beefing, they even have a city together (Troezen) and she definitely doesn’t hate his children. Her best friend was literally his grandchild.

Safe to say that y’all should probably question Rick on how he treats women bc I was seeing the PJO series (the cast is amazing btw, safe to say that Leah/Annabeth is my fav) and by the looks of it, saying on how he changed Athena’s personality one more time, I legit think that Annie won’t jump to save her friends on season 3, she will probably be pushed by her mother or whatever.

Another thing: apparently only the women that like and have a friendship with Percy are treated as cool. But that’s on the fandom, not the author.

I forgot to add one thing and I’m gonna fix the grammar later but the “this is for children” excuse isn’t really valid considering that we saw Gabe being aggressive with Sally, we also saw Ares being a jerk to Clarisse (which also doesn’t make sense) and the story clearly states cheating, fights, death and a lot of other terrors. If you’re gonna use a rape version of a myth bc you chose to fuck a Goddess up, then you should state that the man is to blame. In the books we see Medusa saying she was Poseidon’s girlfriend/lover…she was his lover on the og myth, not in the version Rick chose. In the version that he chose, she was clearly raped. But he erased that and replaced rapist with boyfriend. He could’ve chosen to do another path if he didn’t want to talk about sexual abuse, I can tell y’all a hundred of ways this could go, but he chose this path and changed it, favoring the man. Again.

He could’ve gone with the theogony and said what was there that basically is: she was a monster, BORN a monster, daughter of other two monsters, no one wanted to get close to her, but he did. They slept together in a camp of flowers.

Athena only enters the story wayyy after this. And, as y’all can see, no curse. Yet, he chose to go with the rape version were Medusa is a maiden, loyal to Athena, gets raped on Athena’s temple by Poseidon and Athena curses her. And what did the author do? He made this: Medusa, loyal to Athena, fell in love with Poseidon and they did things on her temple. Athena cursed her. Again erasing the men’s fault.

The hate on Athena doesn’t make any sense at all. Y’all love some other male characters that don’t have a single sense of responsibility and possibly did everything wrong in the book. I saw people condemn Athena for her treatment of Deadalus when the guy literally killed his nephew bc he was more praised than him. And Athena gave him a mark that burned and did some shit to teach him a lesson. Poseidon wanted a trial to avenge his rapist son that was killed by Ares bc he tried to rape one of Ares daughters. A RAPIST. And Poseidon is treated like and angel bc what??? He likes Percy? Is his father and got him a gift? And Athena is being hated bc she isn’t his number one fan and her Roman part decided to give Annabeth a Mark? And mind you she’s just like that with him bc she knows more than everyone else and knows that he is dangerous. A good guy? Yes, Percy is the most amazing guy. Still dangerous. Still had the power to torture a goddess and win against the god of war. And she doesn’t dislike him, she dislikes his relationship with her daughter. And even so, she didn’t stop the relationship. So yeah I won’t ever get why the women always get more hate than the men considering this.

Again, as a Helenist, I don’t take the myths seriously when I talk about the religion in general bc the Gods are superiors. They don’t have human flaws. But, as someone who knows about the myths, is safe to say I hate those stories that uses myths like that and turns it against the Goddesses and make them out to be the worst ever. All the gods deserved way better than what they got with those retellings.

[morbidlcve]

bunny love ⋆.ೃ࿔* (❀)

˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ pairings: natasha romanoff x reader

˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ word count: 0.91k

˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ requests: OPEN

˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ warnings: mentions of the red room, Natasha’s past, insomnia (if there’s anymore please let me know!)

˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ AN: hi so… i’m sorry for the inactivity, i had a lot going on and college was kicking my ass, i wrote something short yet cute and i hope you like it!!

Natasha Romanoff is not one to love openly. For most of her life, she has been reclusive and private. She is not one to gossip about what she just did, who she just saw, or what she saw someone doing. She’s a mere bystander in her own life if you will. Her life now (in stark contrast) still hangs within her. Her need to be closed off, untrusting, and unworthy still hangs within her.

Until she met you (clique, I know), it’s true. You brought her out of her shell and taught her that needing and wanting love is okay. It was rocky, the start of your relationship; many times when you wouldn’t talk for a few days, hence the reclusiveness, but she’d come back to you. You wouldn’t hold it against her, heavens no. After all she went through and the significance of the relationship you were building with her held, no, you were patient and accepting. Even if it did make you a little overwhelmed with the mood changes now and then, it was all worth it.

Every sleepless night you would endure, either waiting for her to come home or staying up with her when her thoughts got the better of her, working out (spectating) until she got tired and you took her back to bed. Every little argument you guys found yourselves in. They were minor things really: Natasha returning from a mission injured and not going to medbay, leaving you to insist that you take care of her. Natasha becoming adorably annoyed at you when you don’t send her a good morning or goodnight text (she was based in Europe, and it was still 3 AM for you), so you would have to make it up to her with lots of cuddles when she got back. Little things really.

Over time, especially with your unwavering patience and understanding) Natasha would slowly grow to become ever so slightly bolder out of the comfort of her or your room. For example, she would make your lunch and leave you a little note in the container (and crucify anybody if they were to eat it), rest her head on your shoulder when you guys were in the living area or sit on the opposite end of the couch with her feet in your lap. Baby steps.

Behind closed doors, Natasha was the most delicate person you would ever encounter, truly.

She would be so unbelievably tentative and nurturing and not at all who people think she is.

Her soul lost to the monsters who tainted it and ruined her girlhood, not giving her a chance to fight for herself. She told you she wouldn’t change what happened to her; it has made her so much stronger, and she wouldn’t be where she is today if it hadn’t been for her history. She embraces it. She’s stronger now, and it won’t happen again.

Through all the terrors of her childhood, you’d think she’d be afraid of any form of intimacy or contact. She was at first, she wasn’t clear of your intentions, she was weary. But when you came into her life, full of love, admiration and patience, she backtracked. Of course it scared her, she’d never known love like the one you were more than willing to bestow upon her. But over time, it became a sanctuary for her, a haven, a place where she could shed her masks and her troubles and show her vulnerability, and it was such a beautiful sight.

It was amazing to watch the woman who used to ghost you every time you dropped a compliment become the woman who would come home to you and just lose herself in you. Whether it was gentle loving she needed or reassurance, you were her rock.

She learned that not all people were out to get her, not everyone holds her past against her.

Her favourite way to show you how much she loves you and how much you mean to her is definitely acts of service. She will be the one to make your coffee in the morning, just how you like it, ensure that your towel is warm after your shower, and put your bookmark in your book if you fall asleep reading.

She knows you better than you know yourself. After years of watching people’s behaviour, she picks up on subtle changes in your demeanour or mood. You must believe that she will do anything in her power to help you if she can.

When you truly got Natasha to feel comfortable with you, she would always be on you, your shadow, unless she got called away. Her hand was always in yours, her hand on the small of your back, her hand on your thigh, her hand combing through your hair. You were her life source. You fell first, but you cannot deny that this woman fell harder.

She cannot express how much it means to her, you waiting for her, not giving up on her, she owes you her life, she would say, you saved her for the better.

You also have your downs like every single other person in the world, and it’s Natasha who pulls you back to her. You could be crying, and she would wipe your tears away, her forehead pressed against yours, hands cupping your face, telling you that you’ll face it together.

You were made for each other, so opposite yet so the same.

[drdemonprince]

People who are concerned about problematic or triggering kinks often couch these concerns in highly reasonable-sounding reactions and make what seems like highly reasonable requests.

They point out that lots of the most upsetting kinks may remind a person of their worst traumas, for example, and that these kinks, when played out, can resemble actual abuse so closely that the kink communities may attract bad actors who genuinely do wish to do harm.

They may allow that some kink practitioners are themselves survivors, and tolerate taboo kink's existence insofar as the correct people find it therapeutic, but they'll qualify that it should always be made clear what is fantasy and what is reality.

But ultimately, people making these arguments will assert, there are certain things that a simply beyond the pale -- across the line and wrong.

A lot of people say these things earnestly, and mean them, and I don't think they intend any harm in saying them. And in comporting their own personal lives, these guardrails may more or less apply well for them. But where it becomes a problem is in issuing dictates about how other people should act, and how kink friendly spaces should run, and how people who hold taboo kinks ought to be regarded.

Does it protect victims to view their kinks as inherently morally suspect?

Does treating a person who is forthright about their taboo desires and who has found a consensual venue to express those desires as more potentially predatory than your random vanilla cishet man help us make kink spaces that are safe?

Is it *true* having a fetish or kink makes a person more dangerous than someone that doesn't?

What's an acceptable reason to have a taboo fetish and what's an unacceptable reason? Who decides?

How might linking sexual practices that are already highly stigmatized and associated with queernees to abuse lead to increasing those group members' vulnerability?

Are communities where vetting of sexual play partners and frank discussions of consent are routine somehow more dangerous to be in than the vanilla world, where such things rarely happen?

What is a suitable way of flagging that fantasy is fantasy and real life is real life? Who decides?

Are certain real life enactments of a fantasy always wrong even when they are consensual, simply because they look bad/intense?

Which practices are okay to partake in in real life?

Who decides? Who decides? What happens to the people who violate those other people's rules?

You don't have to be interested in every kink and you don't have to visit all kink spaces. It's fine if you find certain fetishes disturbing, gross, triggering, a deal breaker, or reminiscent of your own abuse (and I'm really sorry that those things happened to you). But those entirely legitimate feelings in NO way translate to a need for anyone to place restrictions on how others play or fantasize or comport themselves in their own spaces.

Not all spaces will be for you, but please understand that for those of us who are kinky and queer, 99.9999999999% of all social spaces in the world are already viscerally violently NOT for us. Let us have our spaces to pretend to be puppy dogs and kitty cats and siblings and vampires and home invaders and monsters and rape victims and rapists and murderers and dead bodies and babies and robots and dolls and video game characters and everything else.

You don't have to like it but you don't have the authority to say we don't get to do it, and nobody should.

[rin-sith]

*That* scene in Six Hundred Strike is not about vengeance, it's about vulnerability ... because the Vengeance saga isn't about vengeance

To think all of this started because I was trying to determine why it feels so natural to read intimacy into the torture scene in Six Hundred Strike ... See, I'm personally not someone who reads an angle like this into things easily, but this time I found myself doing it too. And I just needed to know why.

It just made no sense for a while, because if you look at it superficially, it shouldn't make sense; it's a freaking torture scene. But I don't know, somehow, I must have felt that there was something there ... and I think I figured it out.

See, the reason why it feels so natural to read intimacy into this scene is because ... it actually is incredibly intimate. Not in an actually sexual way, but more so in a, "Imagine you were suddenly able to read someone's mind, and they yours" kind of intimacy.

It's really easy to just assume Six Hundred Strike is literally about vengeance, but it isn't. Now, please stick with me for a bit because we are going on a bit of a tangent here, but I promise we'll get back to this eventually.

The tangent I want to explore first is (as you've probably seen in the title) that the whole Vengeance saga is, ironically, about the unnecessity of vengeance and how destructive grudges and resentment can be. Think about it:

In Not Sorry For Loving You, Odysseus lets Calypso rant and then walks away without confronting her or accusing her, even telling her what she wants to hear one last time. I already discussed why Odysseus is an incredibly non-judgmental, non-resentful person in my Monster essay, and here is another excellent example of that.

Charybdis (I'm skipping Dangerous because he doesn't encounter any enemies there) is the first "monster" enemy he leaves alive since Polyphemus (Scylla doesn't count because he still "kills" for the sake of getting past her, even if it's in the form of sacrificing his men.) While one might argue that he had no choice since Charybdis is virtually impossible to kill, I think placing this encounter here might be an intentional choice especially since it differs greatly from the way that Charybdis is in the Odyssey. There has to be reason behind this change.

In Get In The Water (my beloved 🫶) we are explicitly shown that Odysseus offers Poseidon (the god who killed his whole fleet and is responsible for most of his suffering) forgiveness. The reason Odysseus has to torture him in the first place is Poseidon's own refusal of this mercy—he's literally torturing Poseidon in order to make him finally release the grudge because he has proven that this is the only way to actually get through to him. It actually shows perfectly that Poseidon's own inability to release his resentment became his downfall in the end, disproving his own "ruthlessness is mercy upon ourselves" motto as his own ruthlessness bit him in the a** this time, as I talked about in this post.

... And there is no resentment or vengeance in Six Hundred Strike either.

On one hand, it's easy to assume phrases like "For every comrade, every one of my friends, almost all of whom were slaughtered by your hand" or "How does it feel to be helpless? How does it feel to know pain?" indicate resentment, but ... not really.

We already know that Odysseus doesn't want vengeance, or he wouldn't have tried to lead from the heart one song earlier.

And then make yourself aware of something else: Not once during any of their encounters is Odysseus actually accusing or resenting Poseidon for anything.

"Almost all of whom were slaughtered by your hand" is an objective fact. It's just true. Someone vengeful may have said "I'll make you pay for all of those you slaughtered" or "All of their deaths are your fault" ... Odysseus just says, "for every comrade". He doesn't specify what he's doing for his comrades ... and it sure as hell isn't that he's (trying to) cause Poseidon pain or harm for them (which would be vengeance.)

For every comrade, he is fighting Poseidon, in order to finally reach his goal. For every comrade, he's doing everything that he has to do in order to get home, and in order to end this feud.

And then we get to the torture scene and it's ... actually so incredibly freaking intimate. Because it's not actually about vengeance, it's not about accusing Poseidon, or making him pay, or suffer more than necessary. If Odysseus were speaking from a genuine vengeance angle, he'd probably sound more like, "You killed my friends, now you pay for it. You did this to me and now it is your time to suffer." But he doesn't.

The torture scene in Six Hundred Strike is actually ... just another, much more extreme, repeat of Odysseus' lines from Get In The Water (my beloved 🫶): "Aren't you tired, Poseidon? It's been ten years, how long will this go? We're both hurting from losses, so why not leave this here and just go home?"

Odysseus tried saying it nicely ... now he's stabbing him with his own trident, hoping, practically begging, that he finally listens and accepts. Just lets them both go home.

And the thing is, this time, he isn't just saying "we're both hurting from losses" ... All you have to do is repeat to yourself Odysseus' entire monologue that he unleashes while he's stabbing him in a calmer, gentler tone and you'll see that what he is actually yelling out at Poseidon are all of the reasons why he is hurting. Sharing with him all of the pain that he probably hasn't shared with anyone ... ever.

"How does it feel to be helpless? How does it feel to know pain?" -> How does it feel to be vulnerable? I've felt vulnerable for so long without anyone to talk to or because no one truly understood me or what I'm going through.

"I watched my friends die in horror, crying as they were all slain. I heard their final moments, calling their captain in vain." -> This is why I am hurting. These are my losses.

"Look what you turned me into. Look what we've become." -> Look what I could be if I actually followed your lessons. Is this what you really want? Why can't you understand the harm that this is causing both of us?

"All of the pain that I've been through ... haven't I suffered enough?" -> Aren't you tired, Poseidon? It's been ten years, how long will this go? We're both hurting from losses, so why not leave this here and just go home?"

"You didn't stop when I begged you." -> I asked you to "Stop this, please" mere minutes ago. You didn't stop. That's why I'm doing this.

"(You) told me to close my heart. You said the world is dark. Didn't you say that ruthlessness is mercy?" -> I'm doing what you said you wanted me to do. Do you really want this? Do you really believe this? Can something like this really be mercy?

The first time I heard this, I firmly believed that Odysseus was actually crying during this part, and honestly, I believe that to this day. The canon visuals don't show us his face and I want to almost say that's intentional.

This whole scene is about vulnerability. Forced vulnerability, in a lot of ways, but raw, real vulnerability nonetheless.

This isn't just a torture scene; it's actually one of the most intimate scenes we've ever seen Odysseus share with anyone on screen. Seldom do we see him this honest in front of others (the vulnerable scene with Circe at the end of There Are Other Ways is the only other example I can think of.) Otherwise, all of his honest, raw songs are his solo songs (Monster, Just A Man, ...)

But here, Odysseus is essentially using the symbol of Poseidon's invulnerability—his trident—to force him into the most vulnerable position that he's probably been in centuries, if not ever ... and at the same time, he is being incredibly vulnerable himself. He's opening up to Poseidon in a kind of absolute way that we have actually never seen him open up to anyone.

... If that is not intimacy in its rawest, most painful, uncomfortable, and yet cathartic forms, I don't know what is.

As if that weren't sad enough... The saddest part about all of this is actually Poseidon's "Monster!" ... Because it tells us without a doubt that he is actually incapable of receiving or understanding those words from Get In The Water (my beloved 🫶). He is incapable of understanding vulnerability. All he can see is the "monstrous" act that accompanies it because that is something he knows and recognizes.

Although I believe, in the end, Odysseus did get through to him, and did get him to drop the grudge, I believe it happened on a kind of subconscious level rather than genuine acknowledgment or agreement. It's further proof of how Odysseus is capable of growth while Poseidon isn't (yet.)

Poseidon remains stuck in his ways, in his "ruthlessness" philosophy, because he isn't ready to acknowledge its flawed nature, essentially making it his own cage that prevents him from growing or moving forward. Meanwhile, Odysseus is walking away, walking ahead.

... Part of me almost wants to claim that he started begging Odysseus to stop so quickly not because of the physical pain, but because of his words. Because the vulnerability forced on him was hurting in a way that physical injuries, even from his own trident, never could. Because deep down, very deep down, he must've ... "felt" what Odysseus wanted him to understand and feel anyway.

Remember how I compared this type of intimacy to the sudden ability to read someone's mind before? I chose this analogy for a reason. What is intimacy if not using the very source of a god's invulnerability, essentially putting yourself into his divine shoes, doing what you know he would do to you ... in order to force him to connect to your mortal feelings and pains, even if he can still not truly understand them?

Here is where we see, for the first time, maybe ever, what even Odysseus and Athena couldn't do (yet), and the core reason why their partnership broke apart: a mortal and a divine genuinely understood each other's perspectives ... saw themselves in the other, even if only for a moment.

Given all that ... there is absolutely nothing I can say against kicking my feet and giggling excitedly over this scene.

[differentnerddiplomatopera]

Odydio? Maybe 🤔

*Preparing for Palamedes Stoning

*Odysseus is rambling about something or the other*

-“Odysseus”.

-“Diomedes”.

*Diomedes looks towards Palamedes

-He was dead the moment he arrived on your shores. No. Oh no. Poor man, he was dead the moment he was considered to bring you to the war effort.

-Hm.

-Odysseus. When will you kill me?

-I’m sorry?

-Early apologizes, I see. When will I meet my end, disgraced, bleeding at your feet?��

-Are you mad?

-Mad enough to understand you. 

-Hm. 

Pause.

-I will tell you.

-Tell me what?

-When you have become so insignificant, such a pathetic person. No more than a man, less than a dog. A shell of a once powerful man. I will tell you.  And then, then I will ruin you. Because you became but an empty shell of maggots and death; nothing behind those eyes, nothing meaningful coming out of your mouth. You would have become so foolish. If you try to screw me, I might add. Crossing me, as you and I have seen, is the worst mistake man has made since men were made. I will tell you Diomedes. You would have become so dull that when I ruin you, you wouldn’t know. There. Happy?

-Very.

-Are you not going to respond in kind? Diomedes, don’t tell me that head of yours is-

-You love talking, do you ever shut up? 

-If asked nicely. And given something special to earn my silence.

-I do. Have something, an idea of what I'd do.

-Please share.

-Hm. Fine. Odysseus, in the time I’ve known you, I have observed your love for games, tricks, schemes, machinations and the like.

-Oh wow-

-Hush. I will ruin your games. Tear your silks, shatter your masks, crash your festivities. I will slow down my pace, always two steps behind you, and I will drag you down. I will ruin your games, Odysseus. I will rip back the layers, peel the curtains, pray to Apollo to shine his light to expose for who you truly are. Who you are, what you are, I have no clue. But you must be dreadfully disgusting to hide behind those masks of yours. Ones that I am starting to differentiate and mark down into memory and notice. 

Be proud of me Odysseus.

-I am.

-Quiet, an interesting look on you.

*Palamedes screams fill the background.

-Promise it. Diomedes, swear it to me.

-There it is. 

-What?

-Your face, unabashed, naked. 

-You’re the monster and the most beautiful creature, Diomedes.

-The poison and the remedy, all the same, Odysseus.

-All the security I lack, and all the danger I crave.

-Somehow constant, even though you are ever changing.

-Delectable, tasting of the most beautiful wine with the sharpest after bite.

-Uncomely, vile you are, Odysseus. And the most beautiful, perfect example of magnificent I’ve ever laid my eyes upon.

-Hm.

-I never stood a chance against you.

-And it would still be true, even with your poison down my throat.

-Poison you would let me feed you, because  for some reason, you choose the option of suffering.

-Projecting your traits on me isn’t a good look.

Long Pause

-I would. Let you. He didn’t stand a chance.

Pause

Neither did I. 

Found a post, can’t find the original poster. If you find it, please let me know. Here it is.

[very-straight-blog]

idk if anyone has said this, cause I'm new to your blog, but I hate how they all say Aegon is the worst monster to ever grace the face of the earth because of 1 damn scene with Dyana. He didn't even r@pe anyone in the books! Now people are escalating and making stupid sh*t up, saying he r$pes Helaena, abuses her, like wtf???

Also how about Khal Drogo in GOT? He is a mass r*pist. He literally said he orders his men to r%pe every women from the tribe they conquer and kill every men. And they worship the damn man. They romanticizes his relationship with Dany (who he r$pes initially) and mourn his death. Like wtf man? This guy is a literal monster and people are ok with it, while Aegon allegedly assaulted 1 maid and he is the worst monster to ever live and deserve the worst of the worst. They even rejoice at Jahaerys' death! People are sick!

Sorry for the vent.

Aegon's sins are constantly being exaggerated. Any rumors become true, but only in his case. Even if you look at the other characters from the show or the book, seriously, I've seen people say that, for example, Daemon didn't want to hurt his wife, she fell by accident and it was mercy that he killed her. Like ffs. It's time to get used to it in the fandom.

[monk-of-figaro]

Sabin's Last Thoughts

I'm sorry, I have to share my heartbreak. This is heartbreaking. Don't read further if your heart is at risk of breaking. Consult your doctor before attempting to suffer through heartbreak.

To preamble an unnecessarily excessive amount, a few years ago kwhazit did an AMAZING, step-by-step, detail-filled, context-providing, wonderfully thorough translation of FF6. Like, the entire game: dialog, attack/item/spell names, monster data… more information than you'd find even in an official strategy guide. Should they ever read this, I hope they know how much I appreciate all of the work they put into it, and it's quickly become one of my primary reference sources when looking up something about the game.

Since they included translations of everything, they also included translations of events that may not usually be seen in the game, such as when you fail at a critical event.

FOR A HEARTBREAKING EXAMPLE, it's possible for Sabin to die in the World of Ruin if Celes does not rescue the child from the collapsing house in Tzen quickly enough.

The incredible @wsancho wrote an excellent post on this particular event and how the "failure" option was softened from the original concept (again, consult your doctor before reading their post about twin death).

In the final version of the game, failing to rescue the child in time results in a "fade to black" Game Over screen. Nothing is shown, only implied (thank god).

What I didn't know until recently, [no] thanks to kwhazit, was that Sabin has last lines before the house collapses on him.

The two translations definitely have different emotional weight to them. To me, Woolsey's translation's conveys Sabin meeting his demise with confidence (dare I even say optimism?) that Edgar will continue fighting to rebuild the broken world.

Meanwhile, the original Japanese text (through kwhazit's translation) feels more layered to me, like he is pushing himself to the very last moment, is angry at himself for not being stronger, and is feeling regret that he won't be able to help Edgar anymore.

So, not only does Sabin die, but his final thoughts are always about Edgar. 😭💔

Outside of the game, I think this would be true for Sabin in any scenario, even if he lives to be 94 years old and dies peacefully in his sleep.

And although I love the idea that Edgar's final thoughts would be about Sabin, I'm actually not sure they would be. Again, as wsancho points out in one of her amazing braindump posts, Edgar tends to focus on the welfare of his kingdom above all else. Because of this, I think that his final thoughts could be about Figaro and its future. Perhaps it depends on how well he thinks the kingdom would do without him.

None of this matters, of course, because as far as I'm concerned, both brothers live forever and ever and never die or suffer and are always happy and thriving END OF STORY.

[nalyra-dreaming]

Hi and thanks so much for answering my last ask, don't mean to spam! but i have some follow up questions based on your answer, so is the audience generally meant to operate like the majority of season 1 and 2 was false?

What i mean is if none of the most "incriminating" for a lack of a better word scenes never get revisited, drop scene, train scene, murder scene tower scene, trial, even antoinette with the finger thing, which I think unlikely surely we will receive some additional information for maybe a couple of these, but if we don't, the audience should still not take the events of season 1 and 2 at full face value? Doesn't that sort of invalidate the story itself? If it can all be questioned and disputed the impact for the watcher who was invested time and feelings for two seasons sort of becomes less? If that makes sense ?

And it would sort of be a cop out, for me personally I think either the series has taken a huge gamble taking 6 years to show the audience the complete story and it must land to pay off or it may remain with answers left unanswered and plot holes up to questioning in perpetuity and up to everyone's interpretation for better (or if you go on Twitter 😬) for worse?

Sorry for talking your ear off about this, promise I won't bother you anymore with this, thanks for reading 😊 😀!

Oh, bother away :)

The thing is... this is how the books are as well.

And so I do NOT see this as a "cop out", I do NOT see it as something out of the... let's say ordinary.

The Vampire Chronicles are a series of books written by vampires. Most of them by Lestat, some by Louis, Armand, Marius, and others.

They are their stories.

These stories are written for an effect, for a reason. Louis' told his to Daniel after Claudia's death, still angry and yet still numb, mourning. Lestat wrote his in an answer to Louis'. Queen of the Damned is a collection of stories of various characters but written down by Lestat. And so on.

This format includes in and by itself and per default a point of view. And an intention.

Of course these characters hide some of the truth within the narrative. Of course Armand tries to soften the blow of what he did with Claudia in his own recount of the tale. For example. Of course of course of course :)

The show does the same, in its own way.

They have Louis tell the story to Daniel, and he does it again, for a reason. Daniel has been called Louis' lifeline for the second interview, meaning Louis tried to break himself free with it. Because Louis knew deep down that some things were not true. But Louis also presents Lestat as a monster because he's angry.

I said it before, I expect the end of 1x05 to be revisited, quite often, actually, and expanded with more context. Not "just" the drop, but the dragging and spoken parts as well - and the aftermath. None of that fits with what we saw in the revisit after all, and Sam's words and the "possessed" comment in 1x06 rang all the bells in my head wrt Amel.

The train scene cannot have happened as shown, they don't need to revisit that, they gave us all the clues already.

The hotel scene and Antoinette's finger cannot have happened as shown either, there, too, the clues are all there.

Murder night... well, we have the not-fitting diary already as a clue - the only other person who can give account of that - and, more importantly maybe, DOES so in his own book - will have his say in season 3. There I do expect a revisit, yes. Maybe only a short one. But I BET Lestat has a thing to say about that.

The trial will be revisited in some kind of way as well - Sam already mentioned that he has the "original" of that scene/script, and there was an extra back then, who mentioned they filmed more than made it into the season. There, too, I expect Lestat, the only other participant still living after all, to have a word to say about it. Again, which he also does in his book.

IWTV seasons one and two... are a tale. An influenced tale.

The discrepancies are riddled through it everywhere - all the dates are off(!), the stab wounds in Lestat's back in 1x01 disappear, Lestat cannot have talked to Louis' mind directly in 1x02, and I seriously doubt that he would have let his brand new fledgling run out into the sun. Seriously doubt it.

And so on.

They put clues in - like the hair styles, imho.

So no, you can not, in fact, take the story at face value.

But... forgive me, but that is the nature of a tale, isn't it?! Louis urges Daniel in 1x01: "Let the tale seduce you." He spins a tale, with what he knows and wants to tell. Louis does not lie per intention, not really, though he, too, lies ((Jacob literally says “not everything Louis says is a lie“ in this video)) ... but more to himself - and to shield Claudia... and to downplay his part in it. He literally says that in episode 2x07, that he "played down his role in it" (Claudia's turning)... he shields himself from the ugly truth and regret and pain, and that is... all too understandable I think.

This is not a "normal show", where you can take what you see as the absolute truth. For one - what exactly did we see? Louis' imagined scenes? Or Daniel's?? Probably Louis', but you get what I mean, right? Because it was a mix of memories and edited tale, not a neutral retelling! We do NOT have a neutral camera! We have a tale within a tale, and "supposedly" only the reunion scene had a neutral camera, according to Rolin!

For ME that is part of the attraction - and frustration :) - of the show.

Because I get what you mean, but it is a HUGE puzzle also, and we will never get a "this was the truth" mock-up.

All we will get are point of views and more tales, documentaries, and, if we're lucky, neutral cameras in the "present time". And hints.

Lots and lots of hints.

And, tbh, this is very much in line with the books, to come back to the beginning.

Lestat, in his book, literally says it to the "reader": "Read between the lines."

You have to.

You have to look at what's unsaid, and what does not fit. You have to note what is out of place, or what has reasons that character does not want to talk about. This holds for all of the chronicles.

And this plays into this vexing, ingenious and frustrating show :)

I ... feel quite confident though promising that the eventual rewatch value will probably be immense. :)))

Because if they continue like this????

Show of the fucking decade.

[baldurs-gape]

True Freedom

Tadpole or not, 200 years of habit was hard to break. The fact Cazador had offered to ally himself with the party in exchage for Astarion had been sickening. Even worse was that the answer wasn't an immediate "no" or "fuck off" which Astarion had really been needing to hear. Instead they had reached a stalemate of sorts that was to be resolved over a glass or two of wine and blood. If only Astarion hadn't been pulled aside into a lavish room and told to make himself presentable; which meant finery, demurely revealing clothes and a complete wrapping up of the personality Astarion had managed to tease out during his freedom.

While Astarion was sorting himself out, Cazador glided back to the rest of the party with a small, almost apologetic smile.

"You'll have to excuse the boy, he's been acting under my orders."

"Your orders mean nothing, not when a tadpole has ousted you," Gale replied, finger raised and wagging to drive his point home. "Astarion's been free for the first time in so long."

Something akin to pity made Cazador's face twist into a mockery of emotion. "My dear, you are too young to understand such things. I didn't want to hurt you, but allow me to prove my point. Astarion, as always, has been loyal to me and only me."

Even Halsin looked a little put off by that, face scrunching up in concerned disagreement.

"Are you saying he feigned being in love?"

Laughing lightly, Cazador shook his head. "I am so sorry if he has hurt your feelings. Astarion has always been a bit on the greedy side when it came to feeding his ego. But the only thing that boy loves is himself."

"I refuse to believe that!" Gale stood up, helpless to do anything in the face of such words. No spell could refute the words, make them fall on deaf ears.

"Very well. Allow me to prove my point. If you'd be kind enough to make yourselves invisible, I'll permit you to be present while I talk to the boy."

Exchanging glances, the group nodded to each other. Vials of potions of invisibility were distributed and murmurs for scrolls and spells filled the air. Eventually, they were all invisible and headed to the room where Astarion was veritably lounging, a goblet of something deep red in his hand. He looked comfortable and cocky in a way he hadn't been at camp. In fact, he looked right at home.

"Tell me, my boy, how have you ingratiated yourself with the be-wormed group?" After a beat, Cazador added, "Tell me like you'd tell Petras, be concise and clear so he could easily understand."

"Master-" Astarion swirled the liquid in the goblet before setting it aside, "-even Petras could do it with ease. As long as he can remember who is who."

"And who, exactly, is who?"

"The group is made up of six core members, they each have their weaknesses. Take Wyll for example, a desperate boy at heart in need of feeling like he could be a hero and his daddy would approve of him at long last. Simper about monsters to him, present one bigger than yourself and he'll be eager to become the shining night to your damsel in distress."

"Good. Who else?"

"Lae'zel, all that's needed to win her over is to give her a decent fight. I've calculated that a 60-40 ration of losses to wins is enough to keep her at peak attention. Let her win 60% of the time so she's not disheartened but grind her to dust the other 40% of the time. Give her a hard fight plus a hard fuck and she'll do all the fighting for you."

"That's two, what about the other four?" Through it all, Cazador stayed impassive, watching Astarion who seemed hesitant for a moment until Cazador pressed, "Tell me, little one."

"Shadowheart is a mean bitch. A bottle of wine and some barbed comments and she's your new best friend. Meanwhile, Karlach is the opposite in a way. She wants a friend, she craves touch since her engine has been contained. A friendly shove, a pat on the back with some praise and she's putty."

"That leaves Halsin and Gale, am I right?"

"As you always are." Astarion smiled though it didn't quite reach his eyes. "Pitiful really. A tree hugger who likes sex almost more than nature. Bend over in a field of flowers for him, let him be as animalistic as he wants and he'll be like a pathetic puppy, ready to roll over and do as told." Swallowing, Astarion looked away from Cazador who stood, waiting and immobile. "Then there's Gale. Discarded and demoted. Marvel at his silly little cantrips, praise him for any spell and give him a bit of good old mortal romance. All he needs is some admiration to wrap him around your little finger."

Cazador nodded. "I see. That will be all for now. Be good and stay quiet until Godey comes to fetch you."

Like that, Cazador marched out and the invisible group followed like disillusioned ducklings. Back in the room Cazador had set aside, they all slowly turned visible again.

"As you can see, he has always been working for me. He needed your protection and needed to bring you to me. Initially you were to be a meal but I see now your value in fighting against The Absolute." Looking them all in the eye in turn, Cazador spoke, "Drop the foolish endeavour of keeping him 'safe' and being his 'friend'. Allow him to return to my side and I'll offer assistance in the fight to come with some of the bravest and best spawn. They'll make you forget Astarion and the heartbreak he's wrought."

Anger and disappointment made for a bitter mix. Without having to really even discuss it, the group trailed out, Halsin's arm around Gale. The soft "but I loved him" was met with "I know, me too", voices drenched in heartbreak.

With the group out of the way, Cazador sent for Godey to fetch Astarion. His wayward spawn was harshly shoved to his knees even as he glanecd around desperately for the others.

"What have you done to them? Where are they?" Panic clawed at Astaion's throat.

"Left. They weighed up your worth against mine and made the obvious choice. Did you really think you could win against me in any race, little one?"

Face falling, Astarion snarled. "You monster! I hate you!"

Staring impassively down at him, Cazador watched. "When you're quite done." He waited a beat but Astarion remained silent. "If you're so miserable here then I release you. No more compulsions. Go if that's what you desire. I have no need of you."

For a moment Astarion didn't move. Then he was scrambling to his feet and staggering towards the door, eyes wild at the prospect of escape.

"That's it," Cazador sneered. "Run if you want to. I've already replaced you, no doubt so has your little party of so-called friends. You'll be crawling back here in no time, you'll see."

"Never." The word was near enough spat as Astarion turned and scurried towards freedom. He had to find the rest of the group, give them a piece of his mind about being left behind. But he could maybe forgive them because, deep down, Astarion knew his help was worth less than Cazador's. Maybe, if he hadn't given his cold dead heart to two people in the group, he'd have chosen the same.

It was only back at the Elfsong that Astarion caught up with his friends. Near enough tumbling through the door in desperation to get home and share the news of his freedom, he clattered through the door. Icy silence greeted him and cold eyes stared.

"Well," he huffed, trying to break the strange mood, "an apology would be a nice start."

"I don't think my father would approve of me apologising to a monster," Wyll called, eyes narrowed to a glare.

"If you want an apology, I'll need to start winning our sparring sessions under my own merit." Walking closer, Lae'zel had her sword in hand in a rather unfriendly merit. "Even if by some miracle our ratios swap."

Gulping, Astarion tried to place the words and the hostility. He eyed as Halsin approached, looking more heartbroken than angry. "I would have helped protect you without you needing to trample my heart. Gale's heart. You could have always said no to my advances, especially if my wildshape caused you more harm than pleasure."

Helpless, Astarion glanced towards Karlach who snorted. "Don't look at me. Even your gaze repulses me now, let alone your touch."

"I had to say all that!" Astarion's voice buckled. "What did he tell you?"

"Nothing." Gale stepped next to Halsin, eyes red rimmed and puffy. "You did all the talking. Were we ever worth anything to you?"

"Just take what's yours and leave," Shadowheart butted in. "You're not welcome here but it seems I'm the only bitch mean enough to say it. Gather your belongings, you have a minute."

The group parted and Astarion hesitantly walked past, head turning to keep an eye on Lae'zel and her sword. Once past them, he darted for his bed where he kept things stashed. Except, truth be told, none of it was his, not really. Everything was stolen, borrowed with no intention of returning. There was only one thing that was his and only his. Grabbing the flimsy, moth eaten blanket he'd taken from Cazador's palace, he had one more thing to do. Dressed in his old clothes, the only ones he could truly call his, he headed for the door.

"I didn't mean any of it. You don't understand, if I didn't say what he wanted to hear, how he wanted to hear it, he'd have killed me! Now he's set me free." His words went ignored as the group sat on the couches, turned away from him. Desperate, Astarion threw one more thing out, wanting Halsin and Gale to look at him, to maybe see the truth in his eyes. "I love you!"

Shadowheart approached and gave him a flat look. "Your silver tongue isn't going to get you anywhere. Go running back to your master, little spawn. You already took more than your fair share from us. There's nothing left for you here."

Just like that, Astarion trudged out of the Elfsong. He looked back over his shoulder and watched as Shadowheart closed the door in his face with a finality that made something ache with terror in his chest. The whole world was his oyster yet the only place he wanted to be was now forever denied to him.

In the tavern, the mood was somber. Nobody quite knew what to say and Gale intermittently sniffled as his broken heart's jagged edges caught on hiw raw emotions. It was safe to say they were all in various states of shock, the betrayal of their companion sat heavily upon them. They stayed up late into the night, half expecting Astarion to try and sneak back in. Instead there was a knock on the door.

"Do you think it's him?" Gale whispered to Halsin.

It was a blessing yet a curse to find Dalyria on their doorstep. She looked behind Wyll, as if searching for someone. Shifting to block her view, Wyll tried to be kind. "Can we help?"

"Please. I don't know how you did it. He was always the favourite. But if Cazador has let him go, maybe he'll let the rest of us free too."

Nostrils flaring in annoyance, Wyll shook his head. "We did nothing. Astarion returned to his master as he wanted, of his own volition."

A small laugh escaped Dalyria. "No. Astarion would never return by himself. He was always plotting his escape, even when he could barely move, he promised me he'd get out and he'd try and take us with him. Promised through a broken jaw and barely intact throat."

"If he set you up to this, please, just leave. We know what he thinks of us, heard it right from his mouth. You'll need to take up the matter of your freedom with Cazador, that's not something we can do for you."

Dalyria's face fell. "I don't know what you heard. But I had to help him get ready for his meeting with Cazador. He said that if anyone can help it would be you. Even if you didn't think him worthy enough not to trade away for more firepower. I've never seen him so hopeful. Or healthy."

Uncertainty took root in Wyll. As much as he didn't want to believe Darylia, wanted to stick to his own truth that Astarion had used them, it just didn't feel so true now that the harsh burn of hurt had ebbed away.

"Stupid istik!" Lae'zel's words snapped Wyll to attention and he turned to find her. The others were also migrating towards the other side of the large room where she was sifting through what Astarion had left behind. Or rather, all of Astarion's belongings. There were pouches filled with insignificant magic trinkets and the emroidery on the canvas simply read 'snacks' in a rich purple. In another bag were healing potions, scrolls, alchemical ingredients. Not to mention the armour and weaponry that Astarion had been so fond of. "The she'lak only took what was literally his."

"What does that mean?" Gale looked helpless, hands fisted in his robes so he didn't clutch the snacks bag to his chest in place of where he wanted to hold Astarion.

Eyes closed, Halsin took a deep breath. He was beaten to speaking by Karlach.

"I think it means we made a real mess of things, soldier. Astarion always said Cazador was a master manipulator."

"We need to find him," Halsin said softly. "We have connected some dots but missed the picture as a whole."

It was easier said than done. Baldur's Gate was sprawling with ample places for Astarion to hide, especially given his knack for getting into places he shouldn't.

"He used to spend time in the graveyard," Darylia offered. "He probably went there."

An odd place for a vampire to want to spend time. There were a few other places to search first, taverns and houses they'd gained access through via not quite rightful means. Astarion wasn't in any of them. Reluctant to believe Darylia, Halsin and Gale made their way to the graveyard. Shadowheart was already there, searching with Wyll.

"Over there!" Karlach called as quietly as her excitement allowed. "By my parents' graves!"

Sure enough, a lone figure was huddled by the headstone of a grave near Karlach's parents. He didn't move when the others stood around him.

"Astarion? What are you doing here?" Halsin asked. Slowly, he sank to his knees within reaching distance but he held back from reaching out.

Slowly, Astarion turned to look at him and eyed all the others.

"Come to do what I couldn't?"

"Which is?"

A stake clattered on the ground by Halsin's knee.

"No! Little star, never!"

Gale joined Halsin on the cold ground but he didn't hold back from extending a hand and squeezing Astarion's shoulder. "What were you going to do instead?"

"Go to the palace." The words were nothing more than a whisper. "He said I'd go crawling back and he's always right. It's the only place where my presence is accepted in this world."

Swallowing thickly, Gale had to hold back his tears. "But all those horrible things you said?"

"It was what he needed to hear. I didn't want-" Astarion cut himself off, eyes squeezed shut. "I didn't want you to see what he could reduce me to. And you needed him for the fight. Between him and I, we all know who has more value."

"You do," Halsin rumbled. He copied Gale and reached for Astarion. Rather than just touch, he tugged and ended up with a lapful of cold, shivering vampire.

"I have nowhere else to go. Just wanted to see one last sunrise. He'll take it from me, no doubt. Wanted to see my grave in the light just once."

Sure enough, it was Astarion's grave they were sitting by. Something made Gale's throat tighten but he pushed through it.

"Come home. Come back to us."

"I'm not welcome there anymore."

Various murmurs of disagreement went up as the others tried to reassure Astarion that he was actually very much welcome there.

"You left most of your shit at the tavern," Shadowheart grumbled. "I'm not cleaning up after you."

Something akin to a wet laugh bubbled out of Astarion. They had a long way to go yet before things were fixed again, nothing was resolved yet. But there was hope and that had to be good enough for now.

[a-dauntless-daffodil]

trying to sink into the Vaggie and Lute toxic yuri but keep getting hung up on how much Vaggie just, canonically, doesn't care

like, a good toxic ANYTHING should be obsessive! there should be passion from both sides- even if on one side it's mostly just fear / disgust- the people shouldn't be able to stand being in the same ROOM without getting overwhelmed with the need to either run out of there or go mess with the other person

and while sure Vaggie clearly doesn't like Lute, and hates it when Lute is actively messing around in her life, it's also true that she.... can walk right past Lute without even noticing

Lute noticed. Lute can't be on the same plane of EXISTANCE without wanting to ruin Vaggie's life

but Vaggie's reaction to the woman who cut out her eye and ripped off her wings and called her filth while condemning her to hell is kinda giving more uggggggghhhh than wild all consuming hate, y'know?

and that makes sense! For Vaggie the worst part about the day Lute maimed her was realizing maybe she herself had been the monster all along, what with the near child murder and then meeting a kind compassionate person down in hell, among all the people Vaggie was just slaughtering wholesale

so yeah, not really a Lute-centric trauma for Vaggie, even if Lute was the one physically scarring her as a result

from Lute's perspective here's one of the best examples of HER people, the exorcists, turning traitor and failing and implying that maybe Lute could fail somehow too. So to HER that sure is personal and very Vaggie orientated. Finding out the failed version of you is actually being happy and doing fine without the position you value or the respect of the power structure you protect, is in fact CHALLENGING your position and the validity of everything you are and the power structure that supports your sense of self, is a plenty good reason to wanna MAKE that alternate you SUFFER and REGRET leaving behind what you have. Validates you being you, right?

(although im sorry lute but not struggling when a lady is looming over you and asking her to kill you so she can fix HER mistake and then going into rage mode the moment she stops paying attention to you is kinda- it's kinda-)

compare that to Vaggie only paying attention to Lute when Lute MAKES her, it's like.... even after Lute kills Dazzle, Vaggie still just does not feel things personally enough to let Lute mess up her new life

she SPARES Lute, she's not even the one who rips off Lute's arm in a little bit of non-lethal REVENGE

no, Lute does that to herself, to get to Vaggie after Vaggie dares to look away from her and not do a murder on Lute for old time's sake, and that's a good summary of how one-sided the obsession here feels so far. Lute's yelling about torturing Vaggie to death and Vaggie's like "you're pathetic. go live your pathetic life somewhere else" while walking away

so while Lute might be feeling the toxic yuri vibes, canon Vaggie is not even sitting at the same table as her, she's off living her new life of mercy and love and hope with her gf and she doesn't even CARE whether or not Lute dies mad about it :/

....now... if Lute hurts Charlie at any point in the future, or even if she hurts another rebelling angel like say maybe Emily... THEN... well..

>:3

[honeycreammilkshake]

Reading your anons and your answers I think the problem with those fans is that they only accept a character if it's involved with satoru.

Like, apparently you are not allowed to like Sukuna anymore nor like both yuji and sukuna, but you were only allowed to like AND analyze Sukuna when he was fighting Satoru loool

I'm sorry but Sukuna is more than that, sukuna doesn't need THAT fight to be a character in his own, Sukuna also kept analyzing and having cool moments with other characters, just because your favorite character was dead doesn't mean other things stopped existing. This is one of those cases where fans keep thinking the manga is about some secondary character

hi, anon. thank you so much for this ask. i'm going to follow this up by making an unnecessarily long and ranty post nobody's going to bother to read, but i felt the overwhelming need to go in-depth for this anyways. apologies for the length of this.

to start off, i'm going to point out something that will probably get me a lot of hate or at least criticism from gojo fanatics, but i think it should be said for all those out there who keep twisting jkk to fit their own problematic concept of morals.

so we all know sukuna is the big bad of jjk. he's the main antagonist, the evil cannibal monster, a god of chaos and apathy and murder. i'm not here to argue against this, though. it's been clear from the beginning sukuna is a true villain in all of his actions and beliefs. however, we really need to look at the contexts behind how he became such a monster and consider if he's actually the most "evil" sorcerer/curse in the jujutsu world or not.

i'm going to address the underlying problem with the pro-gojo/anti-sukuna fans who twist the story to suit their own views first.

so gojo was born with a tremendous amount of power, so much that he's been branded the strongest jujutsu sorcerer of the modern age. he literally shifted the flow of cursed energy and from the start was set apart from others. it's truly terrifying how much power he has...

so it's a good thing he's a real sweet and caring guy, right?

if only.

gojo is irredeemably self-absorbed, unhealthily egotistical, obsessed with his own abilities, demeaning and insulting to others, brutal to his students and dismissive of their safety, and more than willing to commit mass murder.

when fighting with jogo, for example, he doesn't seem bothered at all by the massacre of innocent people during their battle, and is even willing to sacrifice bystanders all in the name of winning.

he's displayed this same kind of general apathy for the lives of others in his past as well.

in his past arc, it was geto who saved gojo from becoming an actual villain and instead managed to set gojo on the path of becoming the slightly less evil antihero he is today. however, after riko's death, the experience turned both of them on each other as they settled on opposite sides of "good vs evil."

without geto there to guide him, though, gojo would have easily lost his way and turned evil .... so where was a person like that for sukuna?

the jujutsu world is extremely heartless and obsessed with strength. the jujutsu higher-ups were willing to kill yuuji - an innocent teenager who just happened to become dangerously involved with the world of curses and the host of sukuna - as well as risk the health and safety of countless others, sorcerers and normal people alike. the whole jujutsu world is full of corruption and cold, cruel people.

but this is just in the modern world - during the golden age of jujutsu, in the heian era, conditions were even harsher and crueler than they are now. during this time, existence for regular people in japan was demanding, quality of life was very low, and so many died of sickness and starvation. the amount of curses that arose from all this suffering was immense and required the extreme powers of sorcerers to balance it out.

this is the context of sukuna's birth. he came into this world as a child of a starving mother and he himself would have starved if he didn't consume his twin in the womb.

during his conversation with kashimo, who asks if sukuna was born with that much power or if he gained it throughout his life, sukuna himself seems to not know. all he can say is... he was an unwanted wretch.

societal demands and religious fights back then would have led to an overwhelming stigma and dehumanization of anything that people feared or didn't understand... which probably means that sukuna, who was able to be born from the act of eating his own unborn twin, was seen as monstrous from the day of his birth on. and if he was indeed born with such strength and a body merged with that of his twin's, or at least the compacity to become that, he was also most likely villainized for his nature as well.

where gojo was more embraced and highly coveted by the jujutsu world, the world sukuna was born into most likely shunned him and led him to adapt the kind of mindset he has now.

sukuna sees strength as the only means of survival, rising above the cruelty shown to him to become the cruelest himself. this philosophy, which a lot of people at this time believed in - especially in the jujutsu world - shows us that sukuna probably saw his own really option to endure was to become a monster. those at the top are above all the weak feelings and suffering of the ones beneath, after all, or so he believes.

and it seems like so many of the strongest sorcerers still believe in that concept as well. both yorozu and gojo thought they could reach sukuna by challenging him, but in the end... only yuuji ever connected with the king of curses.

(yes i will fit sukuita in here... even if you don't ship them romantically, it's an undeniable fact that their relationship is much more complex than it seems and that yuuji does in fact care for the very monster he's supposed to destroy.)

when sukuna's dying in chapter 268, yuuji makes it clear that he's willing to serve the kind of caring, understanding role in sukuna's life that was most likely never given to him.

instead of dehumanizing sukuna, yuuji actually accepts that sukuna turned out to be the monster he is and says it was all a matter of chance how they became like this.

this a level of empathy, intimacy, and compassion that someone like gojo (and pretty much the vast majority of jjk characters) could never show. sukuna himself seems at a loss for words for this unbelievably caring treatment from yuuji - he's even surprised enough to use the brat's full name.

and i dislike that fans are starting to twist this interaction between them to make it fit their own views of sukuna and gojo.

look, i like gojo objectively. he's a fine enough character and serves an important role in jjk. i'm not against him or his fans, and i certainly don't want to hurt or make light of other people's feelings towards him. however, i do want to point something out that some fans should really know better. so many antis are against us sukuita shippers and/or sukuna fans and their main argument, over and over again, is how evil and monstrous sukuna is and that gojo is obviously better in every way. they claim that because gojo is on the side of good, it means sukuna is the worst in terms of morals (when villains like kenjaku are arguably just as terrible if not more so but dismissed so easily) we are delusional or wrong for sympathizing with sukuna.

so i would like to say to these people... please stop using these pallid, baseless arguments against us sukuna lovers because they're just so inaccurate and keep misunderstanding the whole story. it's more than okay to have your own headcanons and depictions of a fictional character, whether they're sukuna or gojo or any of the others - but do not force that depiction on others and do not force your interpretation of the source material on us just to appease your own opinions.

please be more respectful to others, please keep your own dislikes to yourself instead of lashing out at other fans you could instead just avoid, and please stop being so mean to gege. whether or not he makes gojo return should not be a reason to spread such hate about him. it's disrespectful towards both him and all writers who work so hard to make the content you treat so harshly.

thank you.

[soft-pine]

spn20rewatch: 2.12 nightshifter

i am so utterly, completely undone at dean's overwhelming fondness for ronald! for his enthusiasm and effort in tracking and trying to identify what's been doing the robberies and murders. for his relief and excitement when it's proven he's not crazy. for the fact that even without tools or training, he knows something's wrong and wants to stop it!

and... this episode is when sam loses me. the first time i watched supernatural, i had such a soft spot in my heart for both of them - especially solidified by 1.02 where dean just acts as bait and sam puts his body between the kids and the monster. beautiful, i thought, what they are willing to give to strangers. i was all in.

but this. sam's distain for ronald and his gaslighting of ronald's effort and research just because he wasn't a "real" hunter (whatever that means) or that his theory about what was behind the attack sounded stupid. it took me aback and unsettled me. i don't like the layers underneath it that carry on through the show. i don't like sam's harshness at societies' human outcasts. i don't like sam's pattern of withholding the truth about monsters from the people around him- even when it poses a direct threat to them - justified by a benevolent kind of paternalism. this is hands down the harshest reaction either of them have ever had to a "civilian's" interest in the supernatural. and i just don't understand why. (i know there's this fanon belief that they are always lying to protect people from the knowledge of the supernatural but it's really not true. and in fact i have too many examples of them straight up telling people the truth to list them all.)

it's interesting to note that dean's reaction to the cops at the open of the episode:

DEAN: Friggin' cops. SAM: They're just doing their job, Dean. DEAN: No, they're doing our job, only they don't know it, so they suck at it. 

is mirrored in sam's assessment of ronald:

DEAN: Nah, I just think it's a little creepy how good of a Fed you are. I mean, come on, we could have at least thrown the guy a bone. He did some pretty good legwork here. SAM: Mandroid? DEAN: Except for the Mandroid part. I liked him. He's not that different from you or me. People think we're crazy. SAM: Yeah, except he's not a hunter, Dean. He's just a guy who stumbled onto something real.

except that dean's right. the cops aren't helping; and ronald is!

and i'm not being dramatic when i say that sam is pretty directly responsible for ronald's death. his response to ronald's (correct) pattern identification is to tell him what all the cops have been telling him - that he's crazy and wrong. so what does ronald do, all alone with only the puzzle pieces and no allies? he tries to stop the monster in the only way he knows how. imagine what could have happened if he had allies from jump?

dean's face when ronald dies is gut wrenching...

his little speech....

DEAN: Sorry, Ron. You did a real good job tracking this thing, you really did.

he's known him for maybe like 24 hours and he's already nicknaming...

dean's care for ronald is so genuine and so sweet. it's interesting in an episode where dean has maybe the most "flirtatious" (for lack of a better word) moments with separate women out of the whole show that his most emotional connection is with ronald. though he flirts with franny who is clearly interested in him, and though he hypes up checking out a woman's butt on the security cam for sam, and though sherry is very taken with him at the beginning, none of them get dean making faces full of awed delight like this.

"he's not that different from you and me." i think dean and ronald should get to watch star trek, get high, and make out. i think dean should get to run his hand through ronald's hair!

anyway shoutout to one of the top two telling sam to shut up moments in all of spn...

and shoutout to victor henriksen, don't worry dean's gonna be looking at you like that soon enough!!

[onepiece-polls]

One Piece Shipping War - Bonus Poll

Not a single Luffy ship got past the second round, so we still gotta decide which one was the most popular of the 2 that made it to round 2.

LuSan art by @supernaturallyginger. Check out the original post here!

CobyLu art by @aroacejay. Please check out the original post here!

Propaganda under the cut.

Propaganda for Sanji x Luffy:

I don't think anyone is gonna bother denying the fact that WCI is literally just the plot of an otome isekai shoujo manga/manhwa. MC (main character) is treated like trash by family except for the 1 dead mom and 1 nice sympathetic supporter that can't do much of anything to help. MC escapes only to find themselves in an even worse situation somewhat of their own making, only to be swept off their feet by the ML (male lead) and saved, full damsel in distress style. Dramatic love confessions, crying in the rain, betrayal from an arranged marriage, it has it all.

Dude Luffy loves Sanji so so much like WCI is the best example and like you don't even really need to see the love as romantic if that bugs you but dudes. The first words out of the Luffys Shadow Possessed Oars was yelling for Sanji. He just loves Sanji so much and Sanji loves him too

The WCI arc in itself is mega SanLu propaganda. Luffy invaded an emperor’s territory, completely crashed a wedding, went up against Sanji’s evil science family, and got nearly beat to death by Sanji himself all in order to get Sanji back. Sanji offered his life to Kuma at thriller bark so Kuma wouldn’t kill Luffy. He pushed himself for 2 years all in order to get stronger FOR Luffy. Sanji feels sorry when he isn’t useful, the whole reason why he used the raid suit those few times was because he was thinking about getting stronger for Luffy, but realized that he didn’t want to become an emotionless monster like his family. Sanji broke down in tears at WCI when he tried to get Luffy to go away by fighting him. And then broke down in tears again when he ran back to Luffy and told him he wanted to go back home to the Sunny. No matter what Sanji cooks, Luffy always likes it and is proud to have him in his crew. Sanji is also one of Luffy’s “wings”, as stated by Robin! They’re both just so sweet and clearly care very deeply about each other.

Luffy saving Sanji on whole cake island got to me

[Insert everything that happens between them during WCI] how could I see luffy yelling about how he won't eat anything and will starve- LUFFY OF ALL PEOPLE- unless Sanji comes back and not ship them at LEAST a little. "Without you I can't become the pirate king" absolutely devastating cinema. Then Sanji laying out everything, in tears, and Luffy accepting it all and just saying, "well that's who you are" poetic. Final wci thing: luffy hearing judges bs about sanji and going "whyd he start listing all your good point" true love. This seems one sided but Sanji is also just as bad. "Which version of me do you prefer" anyone? They care SO MUCH about each other. Also Luffy loves to eat, Sanji loves to feed people, they're meant to be.

*gestures at the entirety of WCI* I mean that’s Love, they are Ride or Die, Luffy cannot become the pirate king without Sanji, whether that means physically because he needs Sanji’s support or just because being the pirate king means Luffy has everything he wants and what he wants is Sanji or both. And Sanji loves him just as much back! He’s his sun he’s his world…Luffy jump and Sanji’s too busy skywalking to bother asking how high. I just love them sm

Oda himself wrote the propaganda for this, Whole Cake Island just cemented lusan as canon. "I can't become Pirate King without you!" <- that's love baby

Propaganda for Luffy x Coby:

The first characters in the series who ever met and the first characters we as an audience met. Luffy is the whole reason why Koby is the character he is now and was the first to experience the “Luffy Effect”. Luffy is happy whenever he hears about Koby’s accomplishments and fully believes in his dreams even when Koby is a marine. Koby holds a very obvious bias towards Luffy (even if he is a pirate) and is the reason he learned to keep an open mind about pirates and the navy and what the meaning of Justice is. Koby’s admiration and flustered nature towards Luffy can definitely be interpreted as a crush. Koby is very ride or die for Luffy even in the face of people drastically more powerful than him (Akainu).

Coby is beyond gay for Luffy and he was the first person Luffy traveled with.

they are cute

Coby literally gets heart eyes and can't stop himself from piping up every time Luffy comes up in conversation that boy is SMITTEN. I don't know if Luffy understands but he knows Koby is one of his and that's good enough for me.