#ramblings tbh about abuses of power

[rickoconnells]

Spoilers for bg3 ending under the cut but I'm having a lot of thinkings and also feelings on how you spare your companions from being manipulated by godlike beings while falling victim to it yourself repeatedly by the emperor's hand

Aaaanyway. I'm on my second playthrough, deeply unhappy with the choices I made in the first. Like a lamb being led to slaughter, the Emperor manipulates Tav into being little more than a pawn. And I'm annoyed. And this is word vomit.

Yes, you can refuse to give him the stones, and you can either damn yourself or save Karlach in the worst possible way, but regardless, Orpheus dies. The githyanki, who would kill the Emperor, remain Vlaakith's slaves. The Netherbrain, who would kill the Emperor, dies. He is free and you have served your purpose. You will not hear from him again. In fact, you only heard from him when he needed you.

He lies. Continually. Actively and by omission. He appears as the dream visitor, kind, exactly what you want to see - your protector, he REPEATEDLY reminds you. He opens up, he's vulnerable, only YOU can save this sad, trapped dream lord. Save him from what? He won't tell you. You're not ready. Just keep serving him and maybe one day you'll be good enough to know more. Just like Mystra holding back the Weave from Gale. Just like Cazador building an army using Astarion and his siblings' bodies. Just like Shar ripping Shadowheart's memories away again and again. Just be good and some day they will give you what you want.

He never lied. He just didn't tell you. You couldn't handle it. Didn't tell you he was illithid. He couldn't trust you. Trust him. Didn't tell you he was Balduran. Didn't tell you he killed his best friend, clearly in love with him, to save his own neck while that best friend was in the right. He could be once again controlled by the elder brain. He was trapped and controlled by Gortash. He had his fingers in the spine of Stelmane and by extension the city. He was a danger to everyone. But the Wyrm had to die - can't you see? He never lied. He just didn't tell you because it wasn't important. You weren't important enough to know. Don't be so silly. Don't overreact.

Whatever you do, don't free Orpheus. Because then you're being unreasonable. Then you're leaving him no choice. He has to join the Netherbrain, betray you, join what he has been forcing you to fight so hard against, kill you dead for not doing what he wanted, sacrifice you in a ritual of power, make you kill your parents, send your mentor to tell you to detonate the bomb in your chest, snuff out your life for a contract you've broken, take out your heart, make you a slave.

The game is telling you, over and over again, with your companions quest lines, that this is happening. And we all think because we're the hero of the story, it couldn't happen to us, when in reality everyone is the hero of their own story, and everyone has risked the same downfall.

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

[hxperion]

//thinkin about how Jack spent so much resources into building angel's chambers and making it the most difficult thing to break in to. Like even if you get past the forcefield that kills you instantly you still have to make it past a lot of loader bots and constructors. which some one them have literal small nuclear war heads, installed as a weapon. Not mention to the BNK-3R fight which was a pain in it self and as he puts it, the weapon he personality created to defend the outside of the chambers. Furthermore he has a biosignature installed plus a voice recongizer where you gotta sound and be him to even enter her chambers. and once you in the chamber he has custom loader bots label as angelic guardians . Constantly being in there to defend against plus the shields he has on the Eridiumn injectors and Angel herself. Like this man did everything to keep his daughter prisoner. //

[ziekkfreak2-0]

Serial Designation J -> Julie

This bitch literally the entire reason I made this AU HAHAHAHA. Rambling below.

🖋️ Shortened name for "Juliet", as in Romeo and Juliet. Do you sense the doomed yuri.

JULIE:

🖋️ Swears in school terminology.

🖋️ Precocious, popular, and has a supernatural understanding of doors.

🖋️ Obsessed with being a perfect student, hence why she follows the dress code exactly.

🖋️ Used to cover up her freckles. However, after Tessa remarked how she was self conscious about her own freckles, Julie decided to stop.

🖋️ Still bullies Nexus, but does care enough to not let him die. After all, they can't regenerate or come back as clones like the DDs.

🖋️ Hoards pens and school supplies like a dragon building their nest. If you lose a pen, you will never find it again.

🖋️ Serial-In-Class-Doodler, but is both surprisingly good at it and still has remarkable grades.

🖋️ Defacto choice for leader, and abuses this power.

🖋️ Still dies in episode 1. Skill issue, tbh.

🔺 Series opens with a Group Project on a word problem about buying watermelons. Julie did all the research, Virtue did the slides, and Nexus read the presentation.

RELATED LORE BITS:

🔺 There was barely any communication about the project, though, and Nexus based his presentation solely off of Virtue's slides... All of which were about the DDs.

🔺 Nexus took the opportunity to talk about how they can befriend the murderous robots beyond the steel doors. Neither Julie or Virtue were happy with this.

🔺 Their remediation assignment is to justify how the DDs can be befriended. Which the gang have to venture outside for.

AU INTRO POST:

[weltato]

The Ramble About Klavier (AA4 spoilers)

Going off this post I made a while ago, here's a ramble about everyone's favourite rockstar prosecutor :)

This is gonna be a long post, so I'mma put it under a cut, but the TL;DR is that Klavier's damage sprite hurts me physically and I absolutely think that Kristoph is the cause of it :)) Also, using Franziska as a bit of a comparison at points because I could go on about her as well honestly, but that's for a different post.

(obligatory headcanon disclaimer here)

*Warning for mentions of verbal abuse, if that's uncomfortable then please scroll on and stay safe!*

You still here? Grand.

This sprite hurts man.

(I couldn't find a gif file for young Klav, had to use the icky webp file from the wiki- I fucking hate webp it's such a stupid file type)

You see how it's the same? You see how both sprites are the same? They move exactly the same! Now, you could say that it's something related to the chord that plays every time we see the sprite crop up, but he's gonna be smart enough to know about ear protection when doing rockstar stuff. Could be a sensitive ears thing, or a cringe thing at the sound of the chord (bc it does sound bad, I'll grant that), but it's never said if Klavier has sensitive hearing or smth (afaik, bc I haven't seen SoJ yet). We know Athena does, but nothing about Klav.

So! Remember Kristoph? Remember how shitty of a person he is? Welp, in the same vein as Franziska's damage sprite making everyone go "ooh, MvK did bad things" I put forward that Kristoph also did bad things.

But not physically. Kristoph is a man who uses his words as his weapons until he just casually has to poison people and then stalk everyone for seven years bc a fangirl screwed up his plan.

The sprite when Klav's 17 is labelled as "Disbelief (Unused).

Sure, it's unused in-game, but they still made it and they made it exactly the same as present Klav!

But when he's older, it's simply listed as "Damage".

Damage is a word used for quite a few sprites tbh, since it's when they...well, take damage, from their opponent, either through scripted event or from player decision.

However! Going back to a point I made in the original post: Franziska has a different distinction. Her older sprite is listed as "Shocked" but her younger sprite is given the "Damage" title.

Look! Her sprites are different! It doesn't give any good vibes tbh, she's sort of holding herself higher up and more with both arms than with the one arm her younger self uses, but that's for a different ramble about Franzy. This is about Klavier.

Franzy goes from "Damage" to "Shocked", potentially meaning that whatever is being thrown at her doesn't hurt anymore, merely catches her off guard and this is a reflexive response.

Klav goes from "Disbelief" to "Damage", which tells me that his younger self refused to hear and his older self is now realising that things are SO much worse than he feared and that HURTS.

With Franziska, it's pretty obvious that MvK was a pretty distant parent in parenting terms. I mean, he was always there, sure, but he didn't really show much love and affection. Franzy realises this and carries on because that's how she was brought up. She can handle that. (Don't get me started on the cry sprite omg-)

Kristoph was the same.

All my homies hate MvK and those same homies should also hate Kristoph. His nickname was literally "The Coolest Defense in the West" - this man was known for being level-headed! He was known for being a cool, calm and collected person! You never know what's going on under that.

Klavier was absolutely verbally and emotionally abused. I don't think it was physical abuse in any way, and if anything happened then at most it might've been a slap in the face, but Kristoph doesn't strike me as someone who gets off on holding power over his brother by beating him. After all, Klav is in the public eye 90% of the time as a rockstar, he doesn't want to risk make-up being applied wrong and the paparazzi picking things up. Kristoph strives for perfection in everything (again, the wiki literally says this, although I'm aware that the wiki can be edited by anyone) and he sees it in his brother too: he wants Klavier to be perfect.

But then he went to be a prosecutor and a rockstar and that's...well that's not good, it might ruin the name he's made for himself if his little brother goes off gallivanting with people like that (poor Daryan). Kristoph sets impossibly high standards that Klavier just can't match because he's not the same as his brother, he's not like that, he cares about people and his decision to go study in Europe is met with more disapproval from Kristoph, but Klavier takes it all as brotherly encouragement because the boy is SEVENTEEN and there's an eight year age gap, surely Kristoph knows best...

Then we get to the final section of Turnabout Succession.

When presenting the nail polish, Klavier recognises it immediately because that's the brand his brother uses. When Apollo asks about his hesitation, he says it's nothing.

They never checked Vera's nails either and Klavier is unable to say anything because Apollo is on a roll and Klavier really hopes he's wrong, so he asks if the bottle belongs to Vera and Apollo asks back if he knows someone else with one of those...

"No." he says, "Just checking."

YES. HE. DOES! He knows immediately as soon as that nail polish is brought up, everything clicks and he's so distressed by it that he refuses to believe Kristoph could've done this. He's in prison right now, how could he poison someone??

And when the Judge isn't convinced by this, Apollo deals him the final blow.

"Prosecutor Gavin doesn't seem to think this is inconceivable."

No response. His face is unreadable, or maybe it's anguished, and when it's suggested to bring Kristoph up as a special witness, Klav says this: "I've known for some time that an impenetrable darkness lurked at the bottom of this. ...A darkness that has swallowed even myself."

He knows and it's time to face The Devil that orchestrated all of this.

Maybe he's known for a long time and only just removed the rose-tinted glasses he was seeing Kristoph through - and he's crushed by it.

When Kristoph is in the room, Klavier's words are especially defeated here. Kristoph even asks Klavier to explain what's going on.

"You're being accused again. By him. Again."

And when Kristoph asks if Klav agrees with this, he says nothing. What can he say? That yes, his brother is a dark man? That yes, he's manipulative enough to do this kind of thing? That, if given the chance, he do it again to get rid of everyone who's in his way?

Trucy even says in one of the pressed statements that Klavier "must be nervous with big brother watching!"

Kristoph even takes over from Klavier's Objection when Kristoph's pressed by Apollo about the likelihood of Vera wanting to poison herself. That bitch! He's so obsessed with control that he takes control over his own trial from his own brother who's trying to 'defend' him. When Trucy says the two together is a force to be reckoned with, Apollo notes that they could do with more teamwork.

In that pivotal last statement, Klavier acts more like his brother than he ever has in the whole game and Apollo picks up on that. Kristoph is the reason Klavier is acting different, the reason he's trying so hard to get Apollo to notice the difference - Kristoph is clearly the threat in the room.

Kristoph is cruel in public too, but only now that Apollo is cornering him. See, the abuse towards Klavier was only ever subtle in public and far more pronounced in the home, but in this trial there's nowhere for him to go and Apollo would pick up every detail. So, when Apollo brings up the stamp and Klav's taken aback by this, Kristoph takes that moment to pounce: "You've upset my poor brother to the point of uselessness. Allow me to clarify this matter[...]"

We all hate him, right? He's such a dick.

Klavier is quiet, just watching everything unfold since he has no way to confront Apollo when he himself believes that Kristoph is guilty, and when Kristoph worms his way out of things he belittles Klav: "Really, Klavier. You should be seeing through these weak-spined bluffs by now."

What can he say? It's the same kind of thing he was always told - that he should be better, always pushed further than he could go.

But then he doubles down. He's sick of this, sick of Kristoph always being the perfect brother. So he fights back and calls Kristoph the bluffer. Kristoph is shocked; never once has Klavier outright pushed back on him. So when Klavier starts to side with Apollo, Kristoph plays the game.

Now, I'm not going through the whole case beat for beat, but there's another point later on when Apollo goes "oh btw Phoenix didn't do this and lol here's evidence" and Kristoph tries to deny this by saying "oh but defense attorneys are only assigned the day before anyway" but Klavier objects and turns to Apollo, pleading with him because he needs to know the whole truth on this.

Even Kristoph is caught off guard because he thought he'd kept Klavier on his side but NO! NO HE DIDN'T! HAVE YOU SEEN HIS DAMAGE SPRITE HE'S HURTINNGGGG T^T

ahem-

Anyway, Kristoph tried to dismiss this and Klavier objects in his face and keeps his focus solely on Apollo - he even calls him by his actual name instead of Herr Forehead (which I think is kinda sweet actually but anyway-) and fuck man, this hurts me.

And as it closes in towards the end, when Phoenix's recording is mentioned and Kristoph says that his "brother is incapable of making rational judgments at the moment" (angy Wel grumbling) we soon get this:

I LOVE KLAV HAVE I SAID THIS YET!?

AND HERE'S THE KICKER:

KRISTOPH IS WORRIEDDDDD

AND KLAV DOESN'T GIVE A SHIT ANYMORE YES!

CAN YOU IMAGINE HOW GOOD THAT FEELS? HOW CATHARTIC THAT IS? THIS MAN WHO'S DONE NOTHING BUT CONTROL HIM AND USE HIM FOR HIS OWN BENEFIT AND BELITTLE HIM WHENEVER HE DOES ANYTHING EVEN OUT OF LINE IS FINALLY GETTING HIS COMEUPPANCE AT KLAVIER'S HANDS!!

OH it's great to watch, we love to see it.

Better still is the very end, after the breakdown, after Kristoph loses his cool:

The sass is strong in this line. To me, it's a final 'fuck you and everything you ever did to me' from Klavier.

We end on this line after the Judge says that nurturing is the task for all human beings: "Except for you, Kristoph. You aren't changing. You've stopped. You're not needed anymore."

And it's true. Klavier doesn't need Kristoph anymore. He's 24, he can live his own life and he doesn't need a cynical and condescending brother like Kristoph breathing down his neck every two seconds. He's broken free from Kristoph's control completely and he's relishing that.

So this is why his damage sprite hurts me to see. It's a point of pain and discontent, it's Kristoph lingering in Klav's head, it's the want to have a normal brother that loves him as he is and sees him as an equal. He got his first trial against him taken away, and we never know if there was another opportunity for the two Gavins to go up against each other again, but by the sounds of it there probably wasn't - and that's a good thing! If Kristoph had faced off against Klavier, it would have probably broken Klav's spirit to be a good prosecutor like we see in AA4 and to some extent in AA5 when he crops up in the Themis case.

On the whole, the damage sprite is a look into how Klavier hid from his brother's verbal abuse - by covering his ears and not listening to it. He didn't want it to be true, but it came at him anyway and he hated that. But it's also a parallel to how he feels about Kristoph: that is his brother and he can't bear the thought of Kristoph being not just a murderer, but also a scheming manipulator that's been skirting around the law he so desperately hides behind for seven years. Once again, he didn't want it to be true but it came at him anyway and he hated that he couldn't get away from it.

It's a good sprite, I won't lie. Great storytelling at the conflict between the two and that Klavier loves Kristoph probably more than Kristoph love him, but it still hurts me to see it because all I can think about is what kind of manipulation has Kristoph done to keep his power over Klavier. Kristoph is manipulative even to his own brother and there is nothing Klavier could have done about it. Throughout their interactions in the case there's this underlying current of "if I get out of this you're so dead" and that feels like it's been a thing forever between them.

I hope this makes sense because I should be writing my assignment rn and I just couldn't bc this has been taking up all the space in my head lol. I'm tirrrrrred, uni wears me out man >.>

[iitodoiidas]

got a bit of time tonight, so i want to ramble about my boy Iida Tenya, and my own thoughts and feelings about the manga's ending.

this is long, LONG, and rambly and perhaps filled with grammatically incorrect sentences, and i dislike capitalization, so click read more at your peril!!!!

---

as an Iida fan, the ending of the manga is a huge, HUGE let down. i'm actually expecting to be disappointed tbh, with the slow and steady pushing of Iida as a character off to the side to make way for the Midoriya-Bakugou-Todoroki power trio.

and you know, i get it! thematically, they are the inheritors of All Might and his spirit of Heroism. and they deserve the spotlight too, given how much they grew as characters vs the start of the story.

(((

i'm not a big Bakugou fan (tho i find him v funny at times, like how you'd find a rabid racoon funny) , but his character arc is very satisfying for me as a reader. love that even in the end he's still a lil shit ahha! but the way he initiated and funded the whole armor thing for Midoriya means he's still trying to atone for all the shit he did in their past. which! good on him tbh.

Todoroki, my sweet summer child, has been abused physically, and emotionally suffered enough all his life, and i'm so glad he's on the path of healing now, and also away from his dad's shadow too.

Midoriya… hmm, personally, i would have preferred for him to have remained a teacher instead of going back to heroics. it would have been a great call back to the original premise of the story that questions "can a boy with no super power become a hero too?", because the answer will be "yes!" because you know damn well he'll be looked up to by every class he handles. and given his expertise upon analyzing quirks, think of how valuable his battle advice and tactics must be, especially to kids who are just beginning to understand their quirks!

generations of student heroes, learning from his battle/fight strategies, his ideals on heroism, and most importantly his kindness and desire to help people, and then putting those values in practice in the real world. wouldn't that be a great way on how you begin to establish a truly peaceful society?

)))

but… Iida. i think... Iida's been left behind by the story by the end of it.

i almost didn't include this pic bc it offends me so much. like why is my boy banished off to the corner!? HE DESERVES A SPOT ON THAT COUCH TOO GDI!!

bias aside, you cannot tell me that Iida's contribution to story isn't IMMENSE. he is very much essential to Midoriya's growth as a hero and Todoroki's path to healing (and Bakugou's... as a classmate and a non-dear friend lmaoooo) that neither would be possible without Iida's presence and influence.

Iida (and Uraraka) being the first to offer friendship to a very insecure Midoriya, and how important Iida reaching out his hand again to Midoriya was again later on when Midoriya needed help the most; Iida reminding Todoroki of himself when Iida's going down a dark and dangerous path away from his ideals, saving him, and then being saved in turn, because of how well they relate to and understand each other. Iida being the foundation of their entire class, the way he's offered steadfast support to every one of them.

just... sighhhhh...... we didn't even hear his graduation speech as a senior? i like Mirio well enough, and i also get that the war's just happened before they graduated which is a bummer sure and that needs to be addressed, but i feel like we also deserve parting words from OUR student representative. it would have been a nice send off too to the Class A as we know them, by having their class president acknowledge their efforts and hard work.

and then... the timeskip.

---

sighhhhhhh.................

ok i'll get to timeskip Iida later.

i've mentioned before how utterly wasteful i find it that Hori didn't flesh out the Iida family, as a foil against the Todoroki's.

like you have these boys from two families, similarly deeply rooted in the hero culture but with such highly contrasting upbringing. on one hand you have the Todoroki's, led by the no. 2 hero of all of Japan, who bc of ambition, had abused and traumatized all members of his small, nuclear family. and on the other, a multi-generational family of heroes, not high enough in the rankings, but successful enough to be known and respected by most of the population (also they're def super loaded too, like they have a damn BUILDING with their signature hero name!!!)

Tensei's presence in the story was underutilized too. here you have a well-known, well-liked hero who was established to have a team of sidekicks who work well together (as per Vigilantes). how interesting it would have been to have Tensei (and the Iida fam) to appear again in the story just as the hero society is collapsing? this family who made it their identity and business to help and save people as quickly and efficiently as possible? like... how could they have dealt with the fallout of the common people no longer trusting them and being actively hostile against known heroes?

knowing what we do about Tensei though, i doubt this will stop him. he'll for sure still be trying to help out people in need, even if he's already retired and while wheelchair-bound. which i also think is super unfair btw like we have Mirko with her super cool prosthetics, why can't Tensei have robot-assisted legs too??? and that's considering the Iida family who seem to primarily have mobility/tech hybrid based quirks, for sure they must have a team of tech experts specializing on mobility on hand as well????

imagine Tensei calling Tenya up one day saying he's got a surprise for his bb bro! and Tenya comes over all curious and stuff, and then Tensei greets him standing up with prosthetics, with a design that is inspired by Tenya's own leg-Engine quirk. then Tensei goes to explain that even if Tenya keeps saying that Tensei is his hero, Tensei would also like to declare that the new Ingenium is his hero, whom he'd like to honor with the design, and that someone he'd hope to work with in the future, even as a civilian background support. and in a few moments after that sinks in, Tenya will just bawl his eyes out (and then Tensei joins in in a bit bc let's be real these brothers adore each other v much)

and also..... i keep thinking what a reunion it would have been if Stain himself could have witnessed that "altruism" is well and truly alive, not only from the younger, but also from the elder Ingenium, both of whom he'd failed to kill?

siggggghhhhhhhh......

---

anyways, back to Iida Tenya. (i'll use Tenya now to refer to him, since i'll also mention Tensei a lot.)

i mentioned Tensei and the Iida fam first, bc somehow i thought we'd see a glimpse of them again before the manga ends. like an acknowledgement that Tenya had indeed proven himself worthy of the Ingenium name. wishful thinking, considering Inko (main character's mom!!!!!!) wasn't even given the chance to comfort and acknowledge her son (the main character!!!!!) as a hero as to what he has gone through to save their whole society!

anyways, so the last we see of Tenya, he's working with others, touring elementary schools, and spreading awareness and expanding quirk counseling headed by Uraraka. it's a noble pursuit yes, and beneficial too, if it could help kids with misunderstood quirks like Toga. but i can't help but feel Tenya's talents and skills could have been better put elsewhere.

like... rebuilding the Team IdaTen for example.

now, everything from this point on is all wishful thinking on my part, as an Iida Tenya fan who loves his character and story arc, and thinks he deserves a better ending.

Team IdaTen, as per Vigilantes manga, comprises of Sidekicks working under Ingenium, and their credo is (not verbatim, sorry) "to come to people's aid as quickly as possible". And this is a credo that Tenya has taken to heart, and is the core of his heroism. As the inheritor of the Ingenium name, isn't it a logical conclusion to have him step up as the new leader of the team?

in an Iida-led manga, maybe Tenya's challenge for this is how to prove himself as a capable leader amongst his brother's veteran Sidekicks. For sure they already know Tenya as their former leader's baby brother, but how about as a leader? maybe some of them won't be able accept Tenya as a replacement, being too loyal or different from his older brother.

or... is there stil even Team IdaTen? maybe many of them quit when Tensei retired, maybe some got disillusioned and quit too during the collapse of hero society. and for sure many of them also died or got injured during the war.

Tenya's goal could be to search and recruit his own Team IdaTen, a team which specializes as first responders. like if there's any disaster or accident, you'd be sure Team IdaTen is first on the scene!! they'd be helping who they can, and relay info to other responding heroes and other pros.

hmmm..... maybe that can explain Tenya's presence in Uraraka's advocacy to improve the quirk counseling? maybe he's recruiting potential, future Team IdaTen members. he'd be on the look out for speed-based, or mobility-based quirks, but would also be welcoming of other types for sure! the only important thing is their desire to help people and that they agree to the Ingenium credo, which is saving people takes priority out of everything.

and yknow, maybe this is also his way to help curb Vigilantism, which is another problematic issue in a hero society, and help set people on a more lawful path into becoming proper heroes. like how Tensei tried to recruit Koichi after seeing his potential and desire to help without having the means. it would have been a great callback to the values Tensei had inspired on Tenya, which he would then be able to pass on to a new set of heroes/sidekicks he'd lead as a team.

siiighhhhhhh.......

okk i'm running out of steam now. i will just continue being sad over Iida's wasted storylines for the foreseeable future. ( ; ^ ; ) </3

[11queensupreme11]

First of all great chapter as always but dear … well god the gods are such hypocrites there every bit as bad as the humans they hate I cannot see how all most everyone seams to demonise the PJ gods and hold the ROR gods on a pedestal

Also side note since when can ROR poesiden teleport people I don’t think he has that in cannon nore can he turn into a giant then again if they want to fight the PJ gods their magic will need a major buff from cannon currently they have no answer to transmution

Thank you! and omg ur the second person to point that out, but i'm glad i'm not alone in seeing that 😭

i swear, i never demonized any of the pjo characters in my fic, but ppl (wattpad only tbh) were commenting stuff that i never wrote about in my fic about how this character and that is abusive/doesn't care about percy, or how ALL the pjo gods are terrible parents etc.

the whole pjo aspect in my fic is NOT black and white and was never meant to be (in fact, not even in the canon books and tv show is it black and white). there is no "oh ALL the pjo gods are bad! they suck!", i'm very well aware of the shades of grey going on and i've written about it, and yet..... 💀

in fact, the ror gods are WAAAAAAAY worse (i even wrote it in the warnings that they're gonna be worse than the pjo gods and to brace yourself) 💀

like, i even wrote chapter 14, the chapter all about the pjo perspective and how even the gods miss and care about her (ESPECIALLY her dad), but ppl were still demonizing those same gods later on and commenting stuff about how awful they even though they never were in my fic or even in canon??? i think it's just fanon belief that they're thinking is canon tbh

if it makes you feel any better, it's literally just on wattpad where it's happening. readers from the ao3 and quotev version haven't said anything like that

as for your second question, i mentioned a lot earlier that the ror gods were gonna get a MAAAAAJOR buff from me, because i HATE how they were in the manga/anime. they were not like gods at all, more like superhumans with special powers, not very different compared to the human fighters tbh

so i gave them major buffs to make them actually more godlike. one of the things i really love about rick's works was how GODLY the gods actually were, and if you compare them to the canon ror gods... the ror gods fall short.

so in my fic, the ror gods and pjo gods are pretty even-ish (power-wise). it's just that they each have a VERY BIG AND IMPORTANT WEAKNESS:

the pjo gods reliance on beliefs and the survival of the western civilization. without it, they fade.

and the ror gods ability to die via divine weapon or godly power

they're on even standing, so it all depends on which side gets to exploit their weaknesses first.

if you're interested, i rambled more about these things here and here

[demidemongrey]

Ok so this is probably going to turn into a huge rant but IDC the Internet needs to hear my crazy person rambling about petscop!!

Petscop, as an arg and Web series, has had countless theories, explanations, and potential storylines created about over the years, but no matter what, there are always plot holes and parts that don't make sense. Nobody has ever "solved" petscop, or come to a definitive answer to what *exactly* happened and how. Nobody has been able to successfully solve everything and rearrange the pieces to make it all fit.

I think this is the message, or part of the message behind the series. We know there are events that happened for certain, like care being kidnapped or Paul's mental health declining.

We know there are huge themes of abuse and mistreatment of children and complicated family issues. All of these events are terrible, negative experiences. They are horrific acts of abuse, things that traumatise the people involved, caused by actions carried out by disgusting and uncaring people.

This dark, disgusting storyline is obviously hugely important in through series, it's what the entire thing is about, *but* there's another "absolute", another event that we know for certain happened, that many people forget about or ignore. The sun rises over newmaker plane .

The ending of petscop shows the darkness finally lift off of newmaker plane. Directly telling us that the ending is a good one. The ending is positive, and there is nothing that is able to change that. There is nobody at the computer, it's switched off, and it's finally daytime again. No theory, no storyline, and no person can take away from that. It's impossible to make the daylight a bad thing, not even adding in the hidden scene at the end of the ost.

I think one of the core messages behind petscop, at least for me, is that no matter what happened, what you believe or don't believe, the ending is good. The darkness has lifted, and it's the beginning of a new day. The beginning of a good day. Paul moves on, the world finally moves on, the sun is shining, and the computer is shut off. You cannot take away the power, or the positive impact of the ending of petscop. The cycle of abuse, no matter what way it functioned before, has broken. Care is safe, Paul is safe, and they can live the rest of their lives, finally knowing it will stay that way.

Sorry if this is badly written or doesn't make sense, I'm very tired and it's pretty late. I just wanted to get my thoughts out on this subject, and I could probably write waaaay more tbh. Sorry if anything is inaccurate it's been a while since I properly rewatched petscop!!

[castor-tech-ghoul]

Ooc post!

Alright fuckers (affectionate) I'm gonna post some rambles about this little fucker's backstory, trauma, and overall context bc eventually I'm gonna write a ficlet based off @anotherbananasong world build >:]

So, the tea about Castor (my top favorite oc tbh)

Ah yes, cw for death, abuse, irresponsible use of ghouls and their abilities, ptsd, and violence

They were originally summoned by a young, reckless Nihil before he became Papa, and he was still a Cardinal. The Summoning was intense and it happened to go in the record book of strongest rituals and ghouls to be summoned (though those records were beaten by Copia later, but that's a different story.)

Castor had been the strongest air ghoul to be summoned in decades, tied by contract to this... immature little shit. Naturally, Nihil abused this power and made Castor an attack dog. Anyone who defied, displeased, or had beef with Nihil had to face off with a tall ass, feral, all-powerful Air Ghoul. More than once has Cas watched the light leave the eyes of ghouls and humans alike as they suffocated them, siphoning the oxygen from their lungs and brains with just a mere look. More than once has the ghoul done the opposite and filled someone's body with so much oxygen that they simply exploded like a meat balloon.

Nihil reveled in the power he had at his finger tips, the most powerful Papa of the time thanks to Castor, and Cas reveled in the fear and respect they evoked from anyone who dared to catch the golden eyes of the pale demon.

Decades passed of not just Nihil, but Seestor too, using the ghoul to their advantage. Attacking and maiming anyone who asked too many questions or stepped out of line too often. Eventually, Seestor attempted to "retire" the air ghoul, changing their contract once more to be a guardian of three children important to the Emeritus bloodline. Sister Imperator had since paid off the boys' real mother's and sent them to fancy places far, far from the ministry, so they would not threaten her place beside Nihil any further.

Castor, in their own way, was fond of the boys. They had protected them the way they were taught, with violence and threats. It was all they knew, blood on their claws and face was familiar and to do it in honor of keeping the bloodline alive was the greatest feeling, it even came with an alarming amount of scars to prove their worth.

It was a pleasant feeling until one day in particular. The ghoul was watching the three boys like a ghost, following and all seeing. They had requested an outing to the courtyard and Cas merely followed behind, glaring at everyone who greeted the children until they were amongst the gardens that were kept alive by earth magick from deep in the forest. Castor had gotten distracted watching Primo and Secondo play with a bunny they had found, they almost missed the sound of Terzo yelping in pain. Almost.

In an instant, the Air Ghoul was beside the youngest of the brothers, ready to kill whoever had dared to lay a hand on their responsibility. The thing about all those decades of murder, torture (both for fun and necessity), and over all cruelty, is that it eventually catches up on someone. Especially someone as old as Cas. They didn't even register that the "threat" was a Sibling of Sin's teenager, all they saw was the object and cause of Terzo's distress and they did what they knew best thanks to all those decades with Nihil and Imperator. They lunged for the teen, gold eyes blazing, a growl deep enough to vibrate the very ground under them, and claws outstretched to punish the boy...

They didn't even hear Terzo cry out, a tiny but determined voice, "Cas! No!"

The young Emeritus had dove between the teenager and the Air Ghoul's claws, which instead found their mark on Terzo's arm before they managed to pull back. The two of them stared at each other for a heartbeat, the teen running off and Terzo's brothers coming to the rescue far too late. More crying filled the air now, and it was the worst, most heart-wrenching sound Castor had heard in years.

The injury hadn't been too bad in all honesty. It was mainly just scary to the seven year old boy. Just a couple stitches was all it needed and he healed quickly thanks to the aid of quintessence from Sister Imperator's chamber ghoulette. But while Terzo's wound hadn't been severe, the threat of Castor upon the boy had been grand. Seestor no longer wanted the feral ghoul near the boys, not now that Copia had been born as well. Nihil had unfortunately agreed with her.

The air ghoul had been dragged before the council, which mainly consisted of Sister Imperator, her chamber ghoulettes, Nihil and his other ghouls, and of course Mr. Saltarian. Castor had feared the worst, that they would be hurtled head first back into the Pit. That they would feel this vessel and their very being get scorched and melted down to the bones and soul residing inside until they were nothing but air again. Oh, but fate had been much worse than that for them.

After a lot of consideration, Sister sat forward and sneered down at the ghoul. The ghoul who had never been anything but loyal and strong for them, a rock for their weak mortality and morals to lean on and abuse. She spoke calmly and sternly while Nihil almost looked... sorry. Not sorry enough apparently, as Sister Imperator ordered her quintessence ghoulette to pin Castor down, they were too strong and valuable to cast back into the Hearth and the Pit. Instead, the ghoulette forced her quintessence into their mind, ravaging and picking out every memory since being summoned by Nihil and locking it all away into a gold and ivory plated box in the back of their mind, only to be opened by a quintessence ghoul with immense power and complete control over their element. The Ministry couldn't have them being wild, feral, and bloodthirsty. But that power was too valuable to waste, so instead, they wiped the slate clean entirely.

When Castor awoke, Primo was Papa, and Secondo was Cardinal. They were standing in the summoning chamber, looking wild and confused as The Second laid claim to their soul and bound them to not only him, but all his brothers as well. As far as Castor is aware, they're just a lower level air ghoul. They don't question the scars littered across their body anymore, assuming all the memories of them are repressed from how terrible it must have been, and the brothers say nothing of it either. So what if Castor has night terrors now, waking up to the feeling of blood and flesh on their claws and fangs? So what if their scars throb after those night terrors of gnashing teeth and blazing heat or unmovable earth or unrelenting water? Who cares if they look in the mirror sometimes, not certain of who they are with this nagging feeling that something is wrong? What mattered is that they don't remember what happened before, they're just the tech ghoul now, the one who keeps the shows together and running smoothly. Cardinal Copia's favorite little air ghoul with such pretty pale blue, light grey, and white wings that have little gold flecks...

[wellwrittenevilbitch]

Okay, this one might be controversial, because 90% of the fandom thinks that he's a bland and cartoonishly evil villain with no depth, but they are Wrong, and this evil bitch is one of the most interesting characters in the story, so. All For One (AFO) from MHA.

Tbh, there's so much to tell about him, I'm kinda at a loss where to start and what to tell here. This is gonna be very rambly, so, sorry lol.

So. All For One. He's the Evil Bitch Supreme. He does awful, evil, terrible things for his own profit (and also for fun), he's completely unapologetic, he's fully self-aware, he knows that the things he's doing are evil. In fact, he's doing all that heinous shit on purpose. He's being evil quite literally on purpose. Because he's playing a character. His favourite comic book villain, to be exact, and essentially is trying to write a 'fix-it' fanfic where his blorbo wins into reality. I'm not gonna go into how exactly he operates, his parasitic nature, his extremely weird and complicated relationship and obsession with his younger brother (that's a whole other can of worms), just gonna talk a little bit about his overall personality.

Unlike other villains in the story, he avoids being humanised. He doesn't want to be humanised. His face is hidden from the readers for 3/4 of the story. His real name is unknown. He glorifies and takes power in the idea of being dehumanised, being just a villain, just a monster. But knowing MHA's themes - no one is inherently a villain. There is no 'inhuman' monsters. They are all very much human. His villain persona isn't just him playing a character, it's more than just him playing a character - it's a form of escapism. So what is he escaping away from? What would force someone to go that far into their own escapism? What would make someone feel that being seen as a monster is better than being seen as a human?

He believes that a person's destiny is defined by their quirk, and that everyone are characters with roles and paths they cannot stray away from. And in his mind, he's also the one who defines those roles and writes the narrative for them. Shigaraki Tomura (Real name: Shimura Tenko), his pupil and 'successor' (whom he kidnapped at the age of 5 and groomed into this 'Shigaraki Tomura' persona for 15 years, btw), is essentially his OC that he based on an evil and obedient version of his late younger brother and that he later tries to quite literally self-insert himself into. And he applies that to himself, too. His villain name is the name of his quirk. He even implies a few times that he is a bit of a kleptomaniac when it comes to quirks, and that he cannot help it because it's HIS (quirk's) nature. In fact, any time someone does not follow his narrative, and acts outside of the little box AFO put them into in his own mind, he goes absolutely livid, shaking, crying, shitting himself, because they're breaking his Immersion the story that he's writing. By trying to be not just the writer, but also the main character and the main villain, he inserted himself into the story, and became bound to it's rules. And if there's a rule in this story, it's that all villains are just people. The further we go, more and more glimpses of his humanity are being shown, despite him desperately trying to hide away that he's just a weak, pitiful person who chose to perpetuate the cycle of abuse done to him and other meta-humans during the Emergence of Quirks era.

In!

[madrone33]

Ok, so heavy SPOILER WARNING for Pjo episode 6! And the rest of the show since I have read the book! Just, y’know, there’s your warning.

I’d also like to preface this by saying this post will be a rambling, not at all ordered, completely unscripted, kinda-rant kinda-essay of my thoughts on the episode, which means it is inherently biassed and completely composed of my thoughts, feelings, and opinions! None of this is fact, and I’m not trying to force my opinion on you. If you think differently or disagree, that’s completely fine! I would hate to live in a world full of clones of myself lol

With that out of the way, onto whatever this will turn out to be!

Ok, so I really liked the Hermes scene. That part was well written and acted. The family drama and guilt and blame is this show is really complex and everyone just needs multiple hugs tbh. Also, seeing a bit of Hermes’ powers was interesting.

I’m intrigued to know more about Percy’s flashback, while at the same time dreading it because I know it’ll be something heart wrenching and traumatic for poor Percy.

Hermes not agreeing to help them was a kinda foregone conclusion; it would be way too easy for them if he just let them into the Underworld, and we can’t make things easy for them now, can we :D

The Kronos stuff was cool to see, with Luke desperately covering his ass lmao, and Percy confiding in Annabeth. The slight change in Iris Messaging, with them not needing water and using a crystal instead was good. Both that it saved time and that it’s more believable. If your one communication tool is rainbows, of course you’d carry around a portable crystal to make ‘em.

It does make me wonder if they’re ever going to explain that technology - as in phones - makes it easier for monsters to find you. ‘Cause currently I… don’t think that’s been made clear to non-book audiences? Maybe I missed it in an earlier episode? Idk.

The scene where they released the trafficked animals was funny, and Grover completely overlooking if humans would get hurt and only thinking of the animals was a nice touch. I get why they didn’t show the animal abuse explicitly, even if I liked how in the books it was shown more clearly.

Them actually realising that the Lotus Hotel is connected to the Lotus Eaters from the Odyssey was good. I like how they’re identifying the threats faster in the show, whereas in the book they really fell for the monsters’ traps a lot. And the fact that they were on guard and were thinking that it was the food to watch out for added a different kind of danger than the books, where it was more just the readers sensing something wrong and hoping they’d not get trapped.

I like that the Lotus was actually being pumped into the air the whole time. And the fact that Percy and Annabeth being together helped them remember what they were actually there for vs Grover being alone and succumbing quicker was logical.

I didn’t like what they did with Grover so much. Him finding a fellow Satyr and trying to talk to him the way that he can’t to Percy and Annabeth was sad, but then, uh, idk he kinda just felt a bit useless? And the Satyr (who’s name I’ve completely forgotten oops) I think was supposed to be seen as funny? But he was… not. He wasn’t funny. And Grover was just very meh.

Like, this is one of those instances where I would’ve liked for them to change it from the books. In the books they all get split up become slowly addicted to the games in the Lotus Hotel and all that, and then Percy snaps out of it and he goes to wake up Annabeth and Grover, and they find Grover playing something like ‘Destroying Humanity’ and then drag him out of there. Which is basically what happens here, but it’s just-

They’ve changed so many other things for the better, turning moments from a randomness scene to a character beat. And I think they tried to do that by adding the Satyr and the ‘Finding Pan’ game, but it just. Didn’t work for me. He was just kinda there and did basically nothing and, like.

Ok ok so my main problem with this episode is the lack of tension.

First off, they were more meandering around looking for Hermes, it didn’t seem like they were that worried they might not find him. Like, they literally just wandered around and found him, without asking for any directions from strange people that might’ve given some insight into how sus this place is, or even having a quick montage cut of them jogging around peering into shady places. They just- walk around slowly and then there he is. Incredible.

Second, I know the Lotus is supposed to be like a drug, where you forget things and just focus on feeling good all the time, but I would’ve liked if Grover figured out that it was in the air, or that too much time has passed, and tries to fight it or smth?

Like, he starts to forget, and knows he’s forgetting something important, and tries to find- someone- the people he knows he came here with- not just so they can help him remember but to warn them that they were wrong, and it’s not just if you eat the food it’s everywhere and they need to go because the time- it’s all slipping away and he can’t let them be trapped here-

But something or someone stops him, hold him back, makes it so he can’t, and slowly he starts to forget why he’s fighting or what he’s fighting for and then he succumbs, and the switch you can see in him from scared-determined-panicked to dazed-confused-happy is terrifying.

And now we viewers are on the edges of our seats, because now we know that Percy and Annabeth are in so much more danger than we thought, and now there’s a time limit, and now Grover is trapped in his own mind slowly losing himself, and now we’re wondering when it’s going to start happening to Percy and Annabeth too, and now we really need them to realise and save Grover and get the fuck out of there before it’s too late-

But uh, yeah, we… didn’t get that. Instead it was almost- portrayed as comical? Like, there wasn’t a lot of weight put on it.

Old man Satyr keeps forgetting ha ha ha. Oh Grover’s forgetting too? Wow it’s gonna be super hard to get out of that one! Oh, no it’s super easy. Barely an inconvenience! Oh really? Yeah, Percy and Annabeth have barely started to forget anything important, and then they happen to look up and see the Satyr and get reminded of Grover. And then there’s a super short chase scene and then jump cut to them finding Grover playing video games and oh funny, he doesn’t remember them! But it’s fine, it actually doesn’t matter, they get him and go and he remembers on his own a few minutes later! 😀

Speaking of; I might have missed something but did Annabeth do anything at all during that chase scene? Like, I think she went another route to try and cut him off, but then she just kinda disappears, Percy tackles him, and she never shows up…? Idk, I’ll rewatch it sometime, but as of now it’s very strange in my mind.

The car scene was kinda funny, but again, not a lot of tension at all.

(Though as someone learning how to drive that scene made me cringe because of how relatable it was lmao. Honestly, Percy drove way too well for a first timer in a crowded parking lot, and the fact that he actually made that turn decently well? Yeah, someone give him a pat on the back lol.)

… Okay so I just thought of something that is unrealistic and wildly deviating from the books to the point that it’s basically just fanfic, but hey, they deviated anyway when they introduced Hermes this early and it’s my shitty tumblr post so - imagine if there was a car chase. There. I said it. If you’re going to make Percy drive a basically stolen taxi through Los Angeles, fucking commit and make him have to outrun the cops/some monster until they manage to activate whatever makes the car teleport!

Like, do an ‘IKEA after dark’ situation where things are all happy go lucky in the club at first, and then after they talk to Hermes and the Lotus starts effecting them, shit starts to get weird, and the patrons around them start becoming strange, and there’s a creeping sense of wrong wrong wrong as they rush to find Grover and then they find him but he’s wrong, and he looks at them like they’re strangers and they don’t know how to fix it, so all they can do is grab him and run, barely remembering where they’re going or why, but they’re holding themselves together, and when one starts to slip the others are there to haul them forward and remind them what they’re doing.

They have car keys in hand, and they might not know how to drive but fuck it they need to go, so bring on the dramatic dark lighting and wild driving and many bumpy, jerky, shit-we-almost-ran-over-something-important escapades, sirens closing in behind them and then he takes a wrong turn and stares wide eyed into the headlights of an incoming truck, flinches back, eyes slaming shut and-

Silence broken only by crashing waves. Insert Santa Monica scene after slightly hysterical laughter because holy fuck they survived.

… Um, yeah soz, idk where that came from lmao.

Moving on! So, I didn’t mind them getting Hermes’ car too much. Like, hell yes she pickpockets a god. But I didn’t like the way that Annabeth got the keys. Like, he’s the God of Thieves and she’s pretty smart. No way she wouldn’t realise that he let her take them.

A way to make it better would’ve been if he’d done some subtle shit, and she’d done some subtle shit, and then it was shown with some shots that here he puts his keys in this pocket, and then a few shots later maybe she brushes past him, or she “leaves” the room but you can fuzzily see pot plant leaves moving in the background if you know to look for it, and then boom, no more keys in his pocket, and when Percy catches up with her she reveals that Hermes let her take them, and we’re like “ahh, of course, can’t help directly but isn’t stopping them if they take initiative, cool cool.”

But nope. She got they keys, thinks she somehow stole them without his knowledge, and then it’s revealed that, duh, he knew, and they’re just like, welp, guess we should’ve known! Yeah. You should’ve. Annabeth is just- not? She’s just not? Like this? This isn’t how she would- do stuff. She’s smarter than that.

But see what I mean? No tension. Need to find Hermes, oh there he is. He won’t help them, but they got his keys. Lost Grover, but found him almost right away. Don’t know how to drive, but whatever lets go. Grover lost his memory, but nah he’s got it back just fine.

Yeahhh. Idk it just felt weirdly lacking.

What also felt weirdly lacking was the reveal that the Solstice has passed and the gods are going to war.

So, most of that underwater bit wasn’t how the books went, but I’m kinda withholding judgement on how I feel depending on how the next two episodes handle it.

The deadline being up and the gods already going to war? I don’t like it, but yeah, I can see how it might work with the themes laid out.

This isn’t just a war, it’s a family fighting, and instead of Percy just doing it because it’s The Quest, this - his father releasing him from the quest, and Ares telling him it doesn’t matter and they’d go to war regardless of it the Bolt is found, and everyone saying it’s not his place - it gives Percy agency because he’s choosing to forge ahead and save his mother, and find the bolt, and save this family he’s become a part of from itself. It’s his choice now. I can see why they made that change.

Though for some reason the pacing was weird, and the reveal that war was literally upon them was… eh? Like, “oh btw you’re too late and now we’re going to war.” “Huh, interesting, but I’m still going.” Like I said; lack of tension. There’s just no real urgency. It went really fast, or maybe too slow? Idk, there was just something missing.

The four pearls thing? I was very thrown by that, and I’m still pretty uncertain on if that’ll remove all the tension in the Underworld part. Because the whole conflict is if he’ll choose going after the Bolt and saving the Olympians? Or will he choose his mother and doom them to war?

If he has four pearls, then he can do both, which means zero stakes. But I’ve read some other people’s opinions, and I agree that one of those pearls is definitely getting lost/broken/used up before he can give it to her, which means this was done to raise hopes and then bring them crashing down, so I’m withholding judgement and hoping that it won’t be too contrived.

And I don’t like that Poseidon basically says he wants Percy to save Sally too, because a huge part of Percy’s dilemma was that the gods didn’t understand or agree with Percy wanting to save his mum.

Poseidon being on Percy’s side certainly serves the themes the episode set up, with Hermes wanting to be there for his family and failing, this time with Poseidon trying to be there for Percy and Sally, and hopefully succeeding. But it just feels like Percy isn’t as alone as he should be, which is good for him as a person, but bad from a writing standpoint because it makes it feel too easy.

In the books, it’s kinda an act of rebellion, that he would even think of choosing a mortal over the gods, but here he’s… not? Because the gods - or at least Hephestus, Hermes and Poseidon - are on his side. So he’s not choosing a mortal over the gods, he’s just saving his mum, and half the gods have given him the thumbs up to do it.

Not saying they weren’t secretly supporting him in the books too, but Percy didn’t think they were. He felt alone. He felt the pressure of the consequences that would come with whatever descision he made. In the show he’s not really going against the gods, because the gods are actively endorsing him. Which means, say it with me, no tension.

Anyway, like I said: withholding judgment. I'll see how the next ones go, and then come to a proper conclusion based on a complete picture.

Also, side note: When the nereid said, “What belongs to the sea can always return” all I was thinking was the musical and Poseidon’s goofy ass voice saying “It’s a SeAShElL” 😂

Oh and btw, the graphics/makeup/cgi of the nereid was well done to my untrained eye. I have no idea about how it’s done, or if it’s actually shitty in the professional sphere, but I thought it was pretty, so- thumbs up from me.

Though the whole scene at the beach and swimming to her was so dark I literally had to turn my tv’s brightness up to see what was happening, which I also had to do with the Theme Park last episode, and I almost did with the Minatour. Man, they really have a problem with lighting during the night scenes.

But just throughout the whole episode, there's just this feeling of non-urgency. Like, in the episode where time is the most important thing, it... doesn't really feel like it matters all that much.

Um, yeah. I think that was all I wanted to say…

In conclusion, I liked Hermes, aaand not much else. It was still a fun episode, but just all round pretty iffy plot wise. Rip.

I shall leave this with saying WE FINALLY GOT WISE GIRL!! 🥳

[horrorlesbians]

Right, re: the sexism in TDS1, i think the season definitely engages with the sexism and violence of rust and marty in interesting ways. I forget the exact quote but early on rust says something like "I'm a bad man, we need bad men to keep other bad men from the door" which I've always found to be a pretty on the nose commentary on these themes. Marty & Rust justify their violence, sexism, and abuse of people's rights because they see themselves as good guys (in Marty's case), or in service of a greater good/lesser evil (in Rust's case). Which, they are the protagonists and sympathetic so I understand & in many ways agree with a reading that, like most cop shows, TD kind of ends up valorizing rust and marty. ANYWAY I've always thought it to be engaging with it the way you framed it in that other ask - the women and children in these men's lives are treated like shit, and I don't think the show justifies how they're treated like shit (tbh i don't even think the show paints women in a shitty way or blames them, it's that the protagonists do that which isn't the same), but MARTY justifies his behavior by believing that (1) its Not That Bad because it could be so much worse and (2) I'm A Hard Working Hero and I Deserve Slack. This ended up very rambling but i hope that makes sense

i think the most interesting thing about season one is that rust and marty are both not good people, as you mentioned rust views himself as a bad man but a correct bad man. he breaks laws and abuses his police power and uses violence to get what he wants but he does all of it because he knows/believes that it's the only way to get the badder man, the man abusing and killing women and children. his bad actions are correct and validated in his head because he has to catch his bad guy. obvi being undercover in narco for as long as he was changed him and how he views the law, like how he tells the woman he buys drugs from that "of course im dangerous, im police. i can do bad things with impunity". i can sympathize with rust far more than marty because you can see more/understand more why rust became who he is.

marty is a cheating controlling asshole who treats women like property and wants to impose his view of womanhood onto them. he gets mad when rust mows his lawn and talks to his wife when marty isn't home because marty is a cheater and most cheating men assume all other men are cheaters. but he feels it is warranted how he treats women, he tries every excuse in the book to write off his behavior to his wife but at his core he does what he wants and doesn't care much how it hurts others. he only cares because it affects him, he blames his mistress for ruining his family as if he didn't ruin it by sleeping with him.

rust is defined as a type of outlaw detective who does whatever he wants, regardless of using violence and police red tape, because he has convinced himself that he is right about his theory. he will put himself and marty in countless dangerous situations, attack and kill people (especially in the drug plot in the middle of the season) because he has convinced himself all of this has to happen. granted, at the end of the show rust Was right about everything so his actions seemed warranted but even he states that he was aware he might have been insane in his actions. he is so far gone into his desire for justice and to catch His killer nothing else matters, after he caught his killer the only thing he mentions about the case is how he didn't realize who it was when he first met him.

marty is interesting to me because he a womanizing cheating asshole who will hit his daughter without hesitation and cheat on his wife whenever he wants but will blow a suspect's head off because he was abusing children and finally quits because of a violent death of an infant. he claims being a family man is so important and wants rust to get a woman but breaks apart his own family because of what he wants.

anyways. i love when the main characters are bad people, far more interesting that way.

[golbrocklovely]

Your respond made me question if those “fans” will ever accept Sam’s new partner that is not Katrina (or Colby lol). The way i see it even Malia was more welcomed than Katelyn (although both of them had a cold start). I think nowadays i see more people loving Malia and actually accepting her, than hating on her. Thing that I fear Kateyn would not be ale to achieve if she stayed. And my only reason for that it’s because people felt too attached to Katrina, even people who supposedly “hated her” or claimed she is “using Sam” got used to her just being there and being Sam’s gf that i fear they will never let that go (especially that if i am not wrong Katrina is still single) and every other Sam’s new gf will be compared to Katrina and hated by the fandom, because for them “Katrina and Sam are clearly MADE for each other 😣”. I mean some people still act like she is Sam’s gf or like she is meant to come back, because “it’s her place”. So in that matter i kinda pity Sam.

i mean… that's kinda how i feel tbh lol

(another ramble session from me, sorry in advance)

the sam and kat thing is very odd to me, especially when you see fans say "he'll never do better than her". first and foremost, i get being upset that they ended, sure. but saying that sounds gross to me for some reason. like i think you can lift up kat and say she's gonna have a good life without him and will eventually find love without saying that he somehow is never gonna be happy again. that type of behavior and thought process is so childish. it's not like he was abusive, he broke up with her bc he just couldn't marry her and making her wait even longer would have been worse for their relationship.

while it's clear they aren't on the best of terms anymore, i think hating him (or her, bc god knows she gets hate too) is just weird. you don't have to hate either of them. their relationship didn't end in flames or bc they hate each other. you don't have to make it a versus all the time. there is no winner in this outcome.

as for katelyn and malia… the issue is messy. personally, i think both girls got the short end of the stick. they both got a crazy amount of hate (and malia still does) and i expected part of that to happen eventually when colby got a gf, but i think bc kat wasn't with sam anymore, it became like a shit storm instantly since it wasn't just colby getting a gf.

katelyn had so many lies spread about her in relation to kat it's not even funny. ppl were claiming they were friends before and thus she took sam from her (not true at all. they did possibly follow one another before hand, but their only connection was tess, who wasn't exactly bffls with kat). ppl claimed katelyn talked badly about kat, even tho all the clips i've seen have been not even remotely noteworthy, let alone something to throw hate at her for. i kinda think the reason why katelyn got a lot of hate is bc, as i've said countless times before on here, this fandom has an inability to critique sam. they will do everything in their power to not give him hell even tho they do it all the time to colby. so i weirdly think that bc this fandom couldn't be mad at sam for moving on too quickly from kat or for seemingly """replacing""" her, they chose katelyn to take their anger out on. but even that eventually wore itself thin and for the first time, i actually saw ppl genuinely hate on sam the same way they do colby. which was both refreshing and depressing all at the same time lol

i also think katelyn is just weird enough to be annoying to a lot of ppl, and bc of that, immediately she sucks. i obviously don't feel that way about her, but i can get why some wouldn't love her. in addition, i think she tried a bit too hard to be liked in this fandom and that drove ppl nuts. and she introduced colby to malia, which means she was public enemy #1 for a lot ppl. i mean, i literally heard someone full on dox her during a space on twitter and then call her a whore just bc she's dating sam. while the fandom wasn't in love with kat the moment they met her, they never went this far.

as for malia, i've seen some truly heinous shit said about her. like i'm talking fake dms with nudes (that obviously weren't hers), cheating allegations, fans making fun of her filler and boob job, fans calling her a whore and a slut for merely wanting to show off her body, she has no personality (even tho we've never even heard her speak so…. explain how you just know that), colby chose her over shea (which is just not true at all), the list goes on and on. i think the hate for her has calmed down a lot bc i think 1, she never tries to talk to fans except the occasional reply on a TikTok comment. i honestly think her not trying to befriend the fandom has worked out for her a lot more than katelyn's attempt at being our bestie. and 2, i think that bc colby shows her off (in a way that sam never did katelyn) we can see that colby is happy with malia. unless you're a hater; then bc they pose too much in pictures or *checks notes* never smile with one another that means they are faking it.

i do feel for sam, in a way, too. the thing is, i think out of the two of them, sam is the one that will speak up against the fandom, and he needs to do that. he needs to tell fans to chill the fuck out when it comes to his future significant others. like we cannot have a repeat next time he dates someone. it's just not gonna work out. but i also feel as if snc aren't gonna do that. i love them dearly, and idk who is in their ear telling them to do this (whether it be management or themselves) but them not sticking up for themselves or their gfs rubs me the wrong way. bc that's how you get a fandom like this that thinks hating on their gfs/themselves for a year straight is somehow okay. and god knows if i was dating one of them long term and they were just telling me to ignore the hate or not use an entire social media platform bc that's were a majority the hate was on… i would be going nuclear lol

like, it's either you tell your fans to calm down or i do. and since they ain't my fans, i don't have to be nice to them. so… pick your poison.

[calamarispiderart]

your interpretation of heart's blindness is so cool and true. giving heart that agency benefits both his character and the overall story so much. something about either mind or soul somehow having the authority to afflict heart like that just rubs me the wrong way tbh. like a big part of the story is they're all one and the same, can't survive without eachother. there's like 3 lines in the soul eclectic about soul's tridential authority being pretty surface level, the only way for him to hurt heart and mind is to hurt himself, so why should it be different when it comes to blinding heart

thank you, yes!! i have a lot of gripes with the way hearts blindness (and heart himself honestly.....) is framed and depicted in some spheres of the community.... im sure its unintentional but i feel a lot of people forget heart has just as much agency, power and control as the other two. him being blind doesnt change that whatsoever and the consistent framing of his blindness as a punishment or some kind of... karmic consequence is just.... yeah. rubs me the wrong way too

...i feel theres definitely some ableism coming into play whenever people frame heart as like... the weak beaten down one thats always abused by the other two, or maybe he just sucks at everything because 'ohh he cant see so he bumps into stuff and is always confused!!!' (which itself holds a fundamental misunderstanding of how blindness can work and manifest), or just framed as otherwise lesser than the other two in a variety of ways ....im sure you can imagine what im talking about. its very much a problem which i hope people realise they need to correct.

ableism aside, while i am biased due to this being my own subjective interpretation of things i do agree and feel heart having the choice and control over his blindness is both just a lot more fitting for his character/themes overall and just....far more interesting for the dynamics of the story? maybe it doesnt hit all the 'dramatic angst notes' in the same way as other interpretations but... yeah idk im just rambling at this point B:•P

im glad u like it!! thank u for sharing ur thoughts B:•]

[will80sbyers]

did you see that byrhop just said Will wasn’t targeted? looks like a mileven sent in the ask (naturally). why does everybody minimize his importance

Everyone is entitled to their opinion tbh I'm in the middle as always, I think he was taken by Vecna but for me it's 50/50 on if it was for a precise important reason or not exactly (?)

but even if he wasn't targeted for a mind-blowing reason that wouldn't make him a less important character, that would make him the survivor and he would still have developed superpowers from the UD vines and maybe have a way to defeat Vecna in the finale (with all the others too) thanks to him being able to see into Henry's mind... Find his weaknesses/blind spot!

he could be targeted for a precise motive like Vecna seeing the future and knowing he has superpowers to reshape the world which is something Henry wanted to do... (Kinda hope this because it would be super cool)

Or he could just being targeted because he's Joyce's son

or because Vecna spied in his mind and found him being depressed and miserable and ashamed about being gay and Vecna targets people that have those types of suicidal thoughts and he was the closest in that moment

Or a mix of all of these?

What makes me think he was targeted by Vecna specifically though is the fact that somehow this Demogorgon that takes Will has psychic powers like Vecna and opens the door (if that's not someone time travelling lol or maybe a vecna vision?) and also the fact that Will was still alive when they find him and Vecna decided to let them all go...

also Henry's connection to Joyce and the people saying they talk in the end of the play and Henry saying to her that she will understand in the future makes me think Vecna can see the future and saw Will being his victim or doing something that he needs and took him because of that

Like I think the idea that Vecna can see the future makes sense because of a few things he says like saying to El they lost or showing Nancy the vision of the future in ep. 7 and his connection to clocks etc

But I also think he only sees fragments of the future not the whole thing and that's why he doesn't win

And this also connects back to the shadow theory because what if this whole thing is a time loop and Vecna after he dies becomes the black particles as a disembodied consciousness that takes over the mind of the mindflayer (that is either himself as particles or an alien with powers that he controls with this second split consciousness of himself after his death) and then he gets sent back to the dimension X by Eleven in the finale but he gets sent back in time to BEFORE he can possess himself when he was little and "guide" himself towards that future with fragments of visions

Basically he's trying to escape the time loop but he fails if that's what's happening !!

Anyway sorry I just started rambling about theories lol but Will is going to be important because he will be the one that will defeat Vecna or like the key to his defeat and I think he will be his mirror 🪞 showing him that he has become exactly like the people he despised when he was little and has become the abuser and he will break the mirror of Henry's idea of himself that he wants to portray to others as if he's above them and his victims deserved to die because they were "weak" as he calls them... I really believe no matter what he's going to be the hero next season and his journey will be central like Max was in season 4 and that's also why they have so many parallels... And also I think they have foreshadowed this with the end of S1 in the dnd game at the end he's the one that wins!!!

[ca-suffit]

So, I'm the anon that asked the "how do you rationalize the violence?" question, btw. Thank you for your answer. I personally believe 2x07's version of the events is closer to the truth (I don't think there's a POV that 100% accurate, but I think that's as accurate as it gets about it), but that doesn't excuse Lestat's violence. Louis might have provoked him, but he had just seen Claudia being chocked and stepped in to defend her. I don't blame him for lack of a better word, 'exploding'. I think I would've done worse if I saw my niece, that isn't even my own child, in that situation. And yes, Lestat has gone through a lot of trauma in the books and the show, and people can argue how that and being turned into a vampire shaped his mind and have this aggressive side he might not be proud of, but it doesn't excuse anything. Because Lestat himself caused a lot of trauma in both Claudia's and Louis' lives. I do hope if the show is going with a loustat endgame (haven't read the books, but from what I've heard, they're canon), they're gonna have Lestat using his infinite lifetime to reflect on that, really earn Louis' forgiveness, be the kind of companion he deserves and never even consider doing it again. If it's possible to redeem him. I don't know if it is, but at least they have the "they have all the time in the world to do that" card. I do hope they try it, though, because making this behavior normalized and recurring would be terrible. I just don't know if it will be convincing and satisfying, but I'll wait I guess. I hope the same for Armand too and that they give him and Assad the grace of flashing out the character instead of demonizing him to make Lestat look better. I hope they also know he'll need and deserve more from the narrative than a half-assed apology, because there will definitely be some double standards about Lestat and Armand. There already are. But I struggle with some other stuff too. Because I love Louis, but he's not innocent either. I also don't believe in punitivism and I don't want to be reducing him and feeding into people that want to stereotype and demonize him, but... Claudia really is the only character that has always been inferior in terms of power imbalances in the dynamics of the show. At least among the main characters. If we consider killing people to feed then it's basically useless because they're vampires and not even the human is innocent because Daniel didn't worry about Malik being lunch. I do think it's a good thing for Louis' accountability that he feels regret and remorse for his worst actions, but I don't believe the fandom does the best job at discussing that. Many times it feels like babying the white character, reducing the characters of color into racial stereotypes of abusive, comparing them, ignoring what's convenient to prop their favorite etc. Like one is always traumatized, misunderstood, trustworthy, ashamed, trying to be better and the other is always wrong, unreliable, overdramatic etc. There doesn't seem to be a lot of nuance on people's interpretations and a safe space to discuss the differences of each moment and dynamic without accidentally feeding characters you love to the lions... Anyway, I'm rambling at this point, I don't even know what I was trying to ask lmao. But thanks for the attention and the previous answer.

(context) u can ramble all u want here tbh.

there *are* a lot of questions to explore and this fandom makes it v hard to do it. despite what the racist side would have u believe, ur not going to get attacked for exploring questions. ppl know whether someone's being intentionally racist or not when trying to talk about these characters.

the thing that the fandom isn't understanding (on purpose) is that having black and brown characters have these complex personalities u can explore is a rly good thing?! racists want u to believe that there's topics we can't talk about bcuz of stuff like saying ppl "need" louis to be "a victim," but all that rly says is "I don't want to have empathy for black ppl but I'm gonna say it another way and blame others for it." nobody here is saying louis, claudia, or armand is off limits to exploring, just don't be fucking racist about it! ppl would rather run off and say the fandom is full of bullies who will call u racist instead of...looking at their own biases? half the time nobody is even saying the word "racist," these ppl apply that shit to themselves in a panic. it'd be funny if it wasn't so harmful.

things to ask urself here are....what is ur definition of "redeemable"? where does that belief come from in the first place? a religion? society? both? what is ur own relationship with abuse and trauma? have u explored what codependency looks like in real relationships? do u understand all the emotions behind these things the characters are doing? why is louis feeling regret and remorse important to u?

I think a lot of confusion and anger over the DV is that ppl only know of one response to it and that's to leave forever. a lot of society is built on v black and white thinking with no emphasis on forgiveness or growth. ofc nobody has to interact with anyone they don't want to or "owes" anyone forgiveness or help to rehabilitate and all that, but it doesn't change that the person themselves is capable of growing and changing. we tend to have strict ideas of what "abuser" and "victim" look like and don't realize how quickly those identities can switch on the same people. a lot of abusive behavior is learned from trauma and traumatized ppl tend to form relationships with each other and act just like these vampires do. it's hard to place anyone in single categories bcuz it's a spectrum. this is humanity reflected at us thru vampires.

all of these vampires carry their specific trauma and triggers and are living in ages where none of this even has been put into words yet, plus they're vampires on top of it. their rules *are* different from ours to an extent and a lot of it is bcuz they're also a v small group who is immortal. imagine someone u rly hate for having harmed u badly in some way (mentally and/or physically) and then imagine u knowing ur gonna run into them or hear their thoughts for the rest of eternity. are u supposed to kill them? could u live with that for eternity too? what if they're stronger than u? what if they read ur mind first and kill u instead? it's a lot to forever think about. idk what the show is going to do, but I have faith it'll be satisfying bcuz of knowing AMC's history with writing about traumatized ppl. Television has gotten rly good at writing about abuse and trauma in v nuanced ways. ppl tend to shy away from it tho bcuz they're not ready to confront these things in their own life and so they find an excuse to say it's bad. the racist side cannot get over calling it "shock value" even tho all the violence (physical, emotional, sexual) has been treated with great respect to the audience and characters. u see the violence move thru the characters, affect them for years, and nothing shown of the violence itself is meant to feel cheap and "shocking." these ppl simply do not want to engage so they find a reason to justify why and this story will never make sense to them bcuz of it.