#she has completely stopped utilizing because she doesn’t have to

[himblebo]

I just want to be allowed to scream at my sister the way she screams at me. I want to be allowed to slam doors and throw things and break things. I want to be allowed to react to the way she treats us and not be called selfish.

[cinnamonest]

No no, because yandere Adachi has so much potential. Like imagine him getting attached to just some convenience store worker he sees daily on his way home. He’d be friendly, kind, and even warn her of being safe on her way home because of the killer loose. Oh? You’re near the end of your shift? Why not just let him take you home? He’s a cop, after all. He’s trustworthy. darling would never see it coming whenever he knocks her out and drags her into his apartment. He’d be so very cruel, too. Never taking her gag off, threatening her for one wrong move. He’d expect her to play right into his fantasies (be too frightened of him to fight back and then act just like a perfect wife/girlfriend, no misbehaving needed) while acting completely insufferable.

I have like an endless amount of ideas/scenarios for this.

(Crazy that I did not even remember what day it is/notice the perfect timing until just now as I was copying this to post, but HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOHRU ADACHI)

YOU get it anon. Also PLEASE share those ideas, same goes to all 2 of my fellow Adachi appreciators here, because I have so much to say about this awful man. I'm just gonna ramble a bit here

//nasty stuff here, the usual but extra dark/intense because this is Adachi we’re talking about so how could it not be

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Tohru absolutely utilizes his status as a cop to his advantage. He knows it adds an element of social trust, that you won't be as on-guard with him as you would any other guy. He’s there to protect the general public, to apprehend bad guys — of course he’s a good guy!

He loves that you appreciate it — that adorable little voice, before you got to know him well enough to go by a name-basis, where you'd say ‘thank you officer! Have a great day!’ whenever he stops by the store.

So cute, so pure, so innocent, he thinks.

He wants to ruin you.

The man has some violent, violent thoughts. He doesn't even try to keep things pure and wholesome when he thinks about you, nor even limited to normal perversions. The very day he meets you, he goes home and spends the rest of the day jerking off to imagining your squeals and cries and tears with his hands around your throat. Oh, how he wants to feel you struggle, afraid and confused and the way you'd feel so betrayed when the policeman you trusted to keep you safe is balls deep in every hole you have, holding you down with ease. You look like you'd be weak. God, it would be so easy—

No, it will. It will be so easy, because he will do it.

You're probably not aware of it either. Most girls aren't, he thinks, they have no idea how weak and easily overpowered they are. He of all people would know — even when they're fighting for their lives, they’re so weak.

But you should be weak. It’s cute. Just like how you should be scared, innocent, sweet, obedient… the man definitely is the type to construct an unrealistic idea of darling in his head as perfect, someone who has no flaws in his mind, and he would absolutely have a “purity” fixation… so if that illusion is shattered in any way, he becomes very spiteful.

Canonically, he develops a crush over a woman he doesn’t even know and feels entitled to women on sheer principle of liking them, going to the extent of a woman having her own life as a “betrayal”… you’re not exempt from the exact same thing.

So God forbid he find out you’ve ever had a boyfriend or lover of any kind in the past… or worse… he’s going home one day, expecting to see his adorable beloved and wave to her from the street, only to spot her hugging and holding hands with some other guy? To realize that she's had a boyfriend this whole time?

Oh, he loses it. No outwardly — not yet — but he goes home, punches a wall, seethes and paces around for a while before moping in bed for some time.

It’s like a switch flipped in his head. Ugh. It’s like a betrayal. How could you… and as he mopes, it becomes so very obvious that this was intentional. You led him on on purpose. What were you thinking, being nice to him? You obviously wanted him to like you. It feels malicious, it’s painful.

You’re so stupid, so naive. Dumb little whore. Don’t you realize you’re playing with fire? Didn’t you think about the consequences your actions would have?

Because oh, will they have consequences. No way is he letting you get away with doing this to him. You’ll pay for what you’ve done.

He entertains that idea at the peak of his bitter wallowing — it would be just as easy as before. You probably have a TV set in your home. He could break in and just…

No. Dammit, he’s already too attached to you. He’s known you personally for a while now. He can’t do that. He wants to keep you.

It’s okay… well, no, it’s not okay, but he’s a very generous guy, you know. If you apologize and beg good enough, he’ll even consider forgiving you.

And you do. You squirm and cry and claw at his hands when he holds you up by your throat. It’s not good enough the first time, but when he squeezes down hard and tells you to try harder, asks you if that’s the best you can do, you finally get it right, finally say how sorry you are and properly beg for him to not kill you.

It’s enough to adequately make amends and begin the atonement process, at least. You’ll have the rest of your lives together to complete that process.

He makes good use of you, after bringing you home. Darling is the perfect little squeeze toy to him. He deals with a lot of stress, you know? He spends all day getting yelled at and pushed around by Dojima, and underneath the bumbling airhead act, it makes him seethe. He used to go home and break things, punch walls, throw things… but now he doesn't have to do that. He can just take all that stress out on you and your poor holes.

Holding your head down with a painful grip in your hair with one hand, holding your hips up and jerking your body back against his, nails digging into your flesh with the other, ramming into you over and over until your insides are sore and raw. Or holding your head firmly in place as you gag and cough and try to pull your head away, fucking your throat with not even an ounce of mercy, jerking your head down all the way and holding it there when he cums down your throat.

The stress relief is verbal, too. Oh, he's so, so mean, calls you every degrading term you can think of when he's rutting into you.. but it also comes out outside of those times too. He vents to you, whether you care to really listen or not. Just goes on and on about everything that upsets him, how much he hates this and that, how he wishes this or that person would just die so he wouldn't have to deal with them anymore… you never really know how to respond, but thankfully he doesn't actually seem to be looking for much of a response, more just someone to listen to him. In truth, it almost makes you feel a little bad for him... but you try to stave off such thoughts.

But that's just his default. That's when he's having a decent day, just the natural amount of stress he has. When he's had a bad day, it's much worse.

You learn to tell when he's had a bad day the moment he walks through the door — you hear how harsh each motion is, how he opens and closes the door, his footsteps, even his breathing as he makes his way over to you. The gruff ‘come here’ as he storms over to you, the harshness with which you're dragged over to bed and thrown down.

Those days are more violent — you end up with scratches and bites and bruises all over your body, strands of hair coming out where he pulled so hard, holes twitching and spasming and cum pouring out of you as you lay there exhausted and sore (as for him, though, he's out like a light as soon as it's over, and the grip he keeps on you means you're not getting up again either).

Being a cop also gives him a lot of tools most people wouldn't have access to. He has easy access to handcuffs and weapons. The handcuffs keep you however he wants you positioned, and he'll use some on your ankles too if need be.

He’s used the stun gun on his belt as a threat plenty of times — you used to think he was bluffing, but one day you go too far and it turns out it's not a bluff at all. It's a horrible, horrible sensation… but even worse is the way he laughs while he shocks you, exhilarated by — and probably, honestly, getting off to — the way you squeal and spasm.

Unfortunately, it awakens something — maybe he could use it on you more often, put it right up to your most sensitive places and see how you react… although not without building up dread and anticipation first, pressing it to your skin so that you beg and cry and he taunts you so mercilessly, with that awful awful smile on his face, before pushing the button and hearing you cry.

...But he's not always so awful. He still includes you in his normal life, at least. You almost wish he didn't. It's this oddly domestic vibe, once all the brutality of the day is out and he's tired and bored.

You talk — at first you kept being annoying and pesting him about letting you go, to which — much to your dread, a pit in your stomach every time he says it — he tells you you're never leaving, so shut up about it. But eventually, with no one else to interact with, you talk about all sorts of things, sometimes almost feeling like a normal conversation with a friend. He brings home food for you, and admittedly, you're almost surprised by the fact that he actually does ask what you want and gets you something different from what he gets based on your tastes. You didn't expect that sort of consideration.

You watch TV (he keeps you chained out of actual reach of the TV itself, just in case you get any ideas), the news (only for him to awkwardly change the channel when your disappearance was being discussed on local news), he even takes your request once or twice to pick up a movie to watch (although he's very critical, particularly if it's too ‘girly’ for his tastes).

But he's still so, so mean, such a bully. You have a lot of time to reflect on it all, and one day you confront him with it — tell him that you know that the reason he does all of this to you, the reason he can't just be normal is because he's bitter and spiteful and afraid of rejection. At first, you sound angry — and as you speak, the way his face contorts with disgust and fury makes you think you may just push him over the edge to actually kill you, and frankly, at this point, it's something you're willing to accept.

But then, tears in your eyes, voice growing quieter, you add—

I really liked you… I thought you were a good guy…

That makes him pause. He gets quiet. You see his face fall to an expression you can't quite name, eyes half-lidded and mouth pulled into a taut line.

Finally, he shrugs, giving you a cruel, snide grin.

Not my fault you were so stupid.

That's all the response you get, and remarkably, that last comment seems to make him let go of being infuriated over everything else you said. For a moment, though, you swear you catch him looking down at the ground with a miserable expression, as if those words actually had a profound effect on him… but it lasts only a second — as soon as he catches you looking at him, his eyes fixate on you again, that smile you hate so much comes creeping back, and your heart sinks as he takes agonizingly slow footsteps over to your helpless, shivering little form….

[pavel-chekov-appreciator]

I want better for Sybok.

I want a world where he got a fighting chance to do anything but become a cult leader. I’ve seen aus where he becomes a counselor and I can’t stop thinking about it.

No gods, no Sha-Ka-Ree, no cult. Just a kid who knows his history. Who researches Surak, and the world before him, and finds himself dissatisfied with present day Vulcan’s interpretations of his teachings. Unable to see the logic in following one ancient man’s words with no additional input or thought. Is this truly the best way for them to live? His mother didn't think so. He doesn't think so either.

He’s young, and he has big ideas and a lot of charisma, and a lot of inner pain from losing his mother and being suddenly told the way she was raising him was wrong. He quickly earns a reputation as a troublemaker. Indulging in blatant displays of emotionalism, just to prove his point, that he smiled and nothing bad happened, he cried and he felt better after.

He’s dissatisfied and ostracized and convinced there’s a better way to be living.

He fucks off at 18-not quite banished, but so strongly encouraged to leave that he might as well have been-and goes to a college on Earth, because the federation is a post-scarcity society so he has his basic needs met and he just wants to figure himself out, and where better to do that than a college campus, as far away from Vulcan society as possible. On his step-mother's home planet, where he knows at least a little of the culture, the language, what to expect.

He sees the school counselor a lot, and gets a lot out of their sessions. Takes some psychology courses and ends up getting really passionate about it.

Teaches himself to embrace his emotions while acknowledging that it’s very easy to be ruled by them. Utilizes aspects of traditional Vulcan control combined with the human practice of mindfulness to understand his emotions and control his strong impulse to act on them, without completely rejecting them. Knows he is choosing not to control his emotions, but he can and should control the actions he takes in response to them to avoid hurting himself or others. Knows that understanding why he feels a certain way can help him understand himself better.

Lives his best life and studies psychology to help other people find the same joy and peace he has, in whatever form that takes for them.

Then he finds out his baby bro basically told the VSA to fuck off and that dad more or less disowned him for joining Starfleet. Feels so damn proud of him for standing up the their parents like that.

Reunites with his brother after years of separation.

It’s rocky at first, but after both being disowned they’re all the family the other has left now, and they both do really care about each other.

Spock doesn’t understand Sybok’s choices, but he doesn’t need to understand them to respect them; Sybok is clearly still exercising some degree of control over himself, he even still meditates, he’s just controlling himself less, and differently, and his mind is more at peace than it’s ever been before. Sybok doesn’t really understand Spock’s continued dedication to logic either, but he respects it too, because clearly it still means something to Spock in a big way.

They make peace with each other, and their differences, and with the fact that their parents and society have rejected them. That Sybok did everything “wrong” and Spock did everything “right” and yet they both ended up in the same place; on Earth, with mom ignoring their calls, because she loved them both but she loves her husband more.

And ultimately he enrolls in Starfleet medical to become a ships counselor, because he still takes great joy in doing things he knows dad would hate, and because he wants to specialize in trauma and grief counseling and Starships need a lot of that, and because getting a new perspective on life from being around humans helped him a lot and he’s rejected a lot of philosophy that he found unhelpful but IDIC is something he still believes in; he wants to be around as many different ideas and perspectives as he can to improve himself and his practice, and Starfleet is a great way to do that.

Getting to follow his only remaining family into space is just a bonus.

[ilikekidsshows]

Do you think Kagami’s introduction foreshadowed her character’s role in the story well? Also, what’s the best use of characters of her archetype in a show like miraculous ladybug?

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Okay, so, Kagami’s introduction, outside of a couple of comments from Marinette, reads a lot like a regular “Victim of the Day” episode. I was actually really surprised that this was how they chose to introduce one of the major love rivals. It was actually good writing from the crew, since it allowed us to learn about Kagami as an individual first and foremost, before getting her entangled in the romance.

I still believe that a lot of the show got retooled between seasons 3 and 4. One of the reasons I think this is specifically the 180 Kagami’s character made in season 5. Kagami’s first ever friend was Marinette, and she befriended Marinette after Marinette showed her kindness. Her first love is Adrien, the kindest character in the cast. And then season 5 comes along trying to tell me the jackass Félix is suddenly her type when he literally kidnaps her? Yeah, I don’t buy it. Never mind her taking her breakup with Adrien so badly she didn’t want to see him, only to be totally okay with constantly seeing and macking on his identical cousin.

Said breakup was also written in a way that completely disregarded the original dynamic between Adrien and Kagami, downright reversing their roles. Adrien was the one who taught Kagami how to go against her controlling parent’s wishes and pursue what she wanted to do (I was so delighted how he was paying along what Plagg taught him so I was so pissed when the show ignored that). But, in season 4, Kagami is suddenly the perfect rebel pulling Adrien along. Never mind how Kagami used to be so oblivious about social cues that her idea of a friendly smile was more like a grimace, but, as of season 4, she’s suddenly more emotionally astute than Adrien, who used to be a master of empathy and sympathy (when people weren’t lying to him). And yet, despite this supposed new emotional intelligence, she dares to victim blame Adrien for the abuse he suffers, when she of all people should understand how difficult parents like theirs can be.

Frankly, Kagami’s utility as a character in the series got crippled every single time she got close to having some. Like, she was the first rival for Adrien’s affections we’d seen with an actual shot, Adrien was actually really into her, but, as soon as they got together, Adrien was suddenly completely uninterested. The writers terminated that relationship so quickly we might as well call them Agent 47. Then she stops being as much as Adrien’s friend, and instead joins Marinette’s girl posse and starts shipping Adrinette because she had the realization that they were “made for each other”. Except we also have the rest of the non-villainous kid cast only caring about Adrinette as of season 4, so she completely uses her uniqueness as a character.

Then, of course, she becomes Félix’s “reward” for turning into a good guy. Suddenly all she cares about is defending the Writers’ Pet from suffering consequences for his various crimes and telling him Ladybug’s secret identity and helping him with his asinine plans.

No, I don’t think Kagami’s first appearance foreshadows her future role as the trophy girlfriend of the writers’ new favorite side character in season 5.

Instead of using her for cheap drama that doesn’t actually amount to anything meaningful in the show, Kagami could have been utilized for so many different lessons about socio-emotional proficiency, something I thought Miraculous was going to be teaching to kids due to its focus on dealing with negative emotions specifically. Kagami is a character with a lot of baggage, she has a controlling and demanding parent, she has no friends, and she doesn’t really understand the boy she’s crushing on and later dating.

Kagami is a blunt enough character that she could have been used to teach Marinette about her very damaging tendency to butt into other people’s family relationships and project her own family dynamic onto theirs. Kagami could have been the one to tell Marinette: “no, my mother doesn’t just let me do things I really care about just because I care about them and talking to her about it will just make her mad.”

If the show had decided to focus on the hero team properly, Kagami could have been a very fun addition. She tends to get very serious in the few hero situations she’s in, and those types are always funny when the villains can have really wacky powers. The overly serious character being forced to deal with tomfoolery is a riot every single time.

Kagami’s lack of social skills and lack of friends could have also been used to showcase different ways of making friends. The reason Kagami latches so strongly onto Adrien despite her not knowing much about him is because he’s the only person she’s met who’s similar to her. He’s also one of her only two outside of family bonds, which makes her extra reliant on him. This is not a healthy dynamic, and the Adrigami breakup could have had something to do with that, with how Adrien shouldn’t be everything to her and she needs friends more than she needs a boyfriend. And then they could both make more friends together. Or, they could make more friends first and then realize they don’t need each other that much after all. (Of course then the show decided codependency is actually a good thing and obliterated all of Adrien’s friendships to make him reliant on Marinette. Oh, the irony.)

Frankly, I think the choice to make it so that Adrien wasn’t actually into Kagami after all was such a copout way of dealing with the Adrigami breakup. Yes, sometimes your feelings with someone else don’t match, but that’s not what the episode teaches the viewer. The episode instead tries to hammer it in that Adrien is Marinette’s, no one else’s. It’s just Lovesquare pandering instead of the episode trying to say anything about love or relationships.

[sendothetaurus]

Scaramouche deserved better

This is kind of a hot take on chapter III of the archon quest.

I love theorizing and picking things apart, so please don't come for me bhfwlahwlxnfl.

It might be useful to have some knowledge about what has happened so far. (This post is very long, also SPOILERS)

Remember, this is an opinion, not a fact or an offence against anybody. This has nothing to do with the cn drama. This is just me nitpicking at the story lol

The erasure of Scaramouche’s past was unnecessary.

In hindsight, it is a repetitive plot line, already established with the “death” of Greater Lord Rukkhadevata. She ceased because she eliminated the forbidden knowledge and therefore stopped the withering in Irminsul. In context, her disappearance made sense. With Scaramouche, however, it doesn’t: All the carefully thought through occurrences, all the relationships and connections between characters are annihilated in the process of changing Scaramouche’s past. Did it matter that Ei left her almost literal son alone? No, because she doesn’t remember. Did it matter that Niwa and Mikoshi Nagamasa accepted and perhaps loved the Kabukimono? No, because they are long dead and they have forgotten that he even existed. Did it matter that he found out the truth about Dottore’s murder? No, because Niwa died in the furnace instead, or so everyone believes. Why let everyone forget he killed hundreds of swordsmiths only to retell the truth? It would have made more sense if it wasn’t even erased in the first place. The only thing remaining for the Wanderer is the agony that nobody remembers except for a chosen few and himself. If anything, he only brought suffering upon himself. In the end, a very huge part of character development is lost this way.

By erasing himself, Scaramouche didn’t achieve anything.

If he hadn’t forgotten himself, there would be no rescue arc for him. He hadn’t changed his mind about the Traveler at that point in the story. In Act III, Inversion of Genesis, The Night-Bird Falls at the Curtain's Call, Scaramouche specifically states:

“...Or maybe killing me is all you can think about? But if that's the case, why haven't you done it already? [...] Sometimes it's you using them, other times it's them using you. Most human relationships are this way... certainly all the stable ones are. That's how it was between me and the Fatui, and also between each of the Harbingers. So as long as you have some value to offer, nobody will ever abandon you. But after recent events, even I have to admit that I'm not worth quite what I used to be…”

What I take from this are three things: Scaramouche acknowledges the Traveler as a threat. He uses Nahida’s deal as a backup for his own safety because providing utility to others is what he defines as a stable relationship. He also accepts his position as inferior - for the time being. This is the start of the turning point.

The Wanderer later says in Act III, Inversion of Genesis, As Though Morning Dew:

“Even if I'm completely worthless, there's nothing in the world worth regretting. [...] Utility to others is what gives me worth. So if embracing my sins is what it takes to make me useful again, so be it. [...] Sorry if I have a slightly different perspective on things. [...] Well, whatever your reasons, you did me a favor, and I'll do everything I can to pay it back. [...] Borrowing and returning are the only real relationships between individuals. I'll balance the books one day, don't you worry.”

He didn’t change his view of relationships, as much is clear. This logically drives him to “repay the favor” the Traveler did for him. Fueled by his unchanging way of understanding a true and kind-hearted relationship, it sounds like the Wanderer just atones for his sins because someone (in this case Nahida; she concludes: “In all honesty, your past experiences have made you a useful asset to Sumeru and to me. Winning you over was indeed a part of my plan.”) wants him to. This again makes him a puppet to his circumstance, instead of empowering him to make the right choice on his own. His whole life, it was the circumstance that created the scornful being he became in the end (this is a reference to the three betrayals and his relationship with the Fatui). His will to be “of use” actually hindered him in finding a path that is not influenced by others. Him realizing this would be a satisfying and meaningful way to change the tides of the storyline and would carry an important message.

The existence of the Wanderer doesn’t make sense.

It is unclear how much control Scaramouche had over the creation of the Wanderer and if he was involved in the changes that were made around Teyvat. Irminsul has its limits on what it can and cannot change. Then again, I feel like the fact that he forgot himself was merely a catalyst for the current events, speeding up the pace for him to switch sides. Did the Wanderer just wake up the morning Paimon forgot about Scaramouche? How did he exit Irminsul if he forgot everything? Where do his clothes come from? Why was he in the wilderness when he woke up? We don’t know what life the Wanderer believed to have lived before regaining his memories, which is a major plot hole that could be filled in the future. But arguably the most jarring thing about the Wanderer is his personality.

What purpose does the character serve story-wise? For sure, it’s displaying a contrast between the two entities, the yin to the yang one could say. Maybe it’s meant as a “what could have been” or as an example for gratitude and affability, traits which Scaramouche never possessed. How can it be that someone so cruel and relentless carries something so pure at heart inside of him? If it hadn’t been for all the betrayals maybe this is what we would have gotten instead. It shows how the world changed Scaramouche when he felt powerless in the face of hardship. Which is why he defined his worth as the acknowledgement and utility to others - because he couldn’t find it within himself. Because he felt inferior to everything and everyone from his birth to his procession of achieving Godhood. And in the end, he lost everything but his body.

This consequently motivates the Wanderer to seek the truth about his past. Through him we get insight on both Scaramouche’s and Wanderer’s thoughts:

“I don't think I can judge everything I've heard purely in terms of right and wrong. Each choice a person makes belongs to a specific place and time, a chain of cause and effect... a cycle of karma and consequence. [...] I'm just a puppet, with no heart and no name. There is nothing in this world for me to cling to, to fill the void within me... except maybe these sins that can never be undone. [...] I've always believed that human lives follow a set of rules, with each person being a collection of past experiences. As a puppet living in the human world, my life is subject to the same rules. [...]  I've lived with a void in my chest my whole life. My creator didn't need me, and ever since I awoke, I've just drifted from one place to the next. [...] I've always felt I have an innate tendency to yearn for something more, in a way that goes deeper than for most people... But for all my soul-searching as a shugenja, I've never fully understood it. Looking at it now, it seems that I brought this curse upon myself.”

This is the first and only time the Wanderer admits this to himself; that he was searching for something that ultimately led him to his demise. After regaining his memories, he reverts to his old self, as explained above. Even if it is a very clever way to make the character consistent throughout the story, I wished we would have seen some character development, especially of Scaramouche since he’s the one filling The Wanderers consciousness.

I thought about how it would be to remember two lifetimes in one body: Even if someone told you what you did in another life, would that change who you are now? Then what if you had memories of that other life inside you, would that erase the you that is currently existing? This is why I don’t agree with Nahida’s statement:

“If you accept that he is you, just as you are you, then yes - you are evil.”

It feeds into the fact that The Wanderer’s personality later resembles the one of Scaramouche. The Wanderer accepts that he is “evil” and has to “face the music”. Again, he takes responsibility for Scaramouche’s past because his will to be of utility to others presses him to do it. Clearly, in this moment he had the chance to turn his back on his past and instead live on as the more kind and benevolent version of himself. I would have liked to spend more time with the soft Wanderer, the one that was born with a pure “heart”, the one who learned to love instead of hate. It would have left a bitter-sweet feeling because he would be content like this, never truly understanding why he inflicted these cruel things on others.

Let's look at this from yet another perspective: What if Scaramouche wanted to forget about the deaths, the betrayals at the cost of losing the memory of his friends too? Wouldn’t that have been a far greater punishment? To know that you willingly wipe out every single last teardrop and every single spark of joy? On the other hand, I understand why other people would despise this ending because Scaramouche would never really have to feel any lasting consequence for what he did. He would just be “neutralized”.

The alternation of Irminsul’s records has differing effects.

The Doctor still did the experiments, so the results must be in his possession. Despite not knowing who he experimented with, The Doctor would still have knowledge of how to create a God. This can be concluded because Paimon accidentally broke a vase when she was worried about Scaramouche. After “changing” the past, the vase is still broken. This indicates that the general memory of everyone changed, however the world remained the same. All objects are still the way they were before the change occurred. This is an interesting concept of changing the past, but it doesn’t add up with what happens in the plot. After Scaramouche’s meddling with Irminsul’s records, the Traveler meets Aqaba and Sawada, whose research was altered in favor of erasing Scaramouche. However, this shouldn’t be possible according to what we learn at the end of the story when the mysterious voice talks to the Traveler.

“History does not change easily, but human hearts can. Believe your own eyes. Only that which you see is true. What is unseen is but an illusion.”

Irminsul can change what people believe, meaning knowledge and wisdom, not real objects, occurrences and consequences  - is what I suspect. Regardless, the voice also says:

“Unfortunately, the fate of Teyvat cannot easily be changed. Perhaps a god may have a slim chance, but for anyone else... who can say. When a small animal runs into a tree trunk, though the tree may sway, it is not displaced. The same is true of fate. Like a vase that falls to the ground. Whether it is broken by a cat or by a bird, the result is still a broken vase, is it not?”

The statement is true to what happened when Scaramouche tried to rescue his friends so that they would survive Il Dottore’s attack. They died either way, despite the Kabukimono “not being there”.

The Doctor’s power remains unclear.

He himself admits while negotiating with Nahida:

“A long time ago, I made a major decision in hopes of preserving all my perspectives of how I observed the world. Observation is the first step of any experiment, but observing the current world doesn't satisfy me. It lacks an important dimension — that of time. So I saved "segments" of all my ages, and made them into independent individuals… [...] What you request of me is like plucking out the eyes I have placed in the dimension of time. [...] Besides, with my abilities, it's only a matter of time until I find better "perspectives." Perhaps it's best to say... you're just temporarily ahead.”

The Travel Log specifies:

“As Nahida closes her eyes, many voices enter her consciousness: Some are young, some are old, some are angry, and some are helpless... All of them are the voices of The Doctor's segments, each derived from him at a different age.”

From what I understand, the Doctor has created segments, that each are positioned in a specific point in time to keep an eye on certain events, and with whom he can communicate. Since the Doctor is able to see through time, it would be possible for him to relive the past without the interference of Irminsul, as it merely changes the memories of the people. For the Doctor it would be possible to recount the truth because he would see it with his own eyes. This is what makes his segments all the more dangerous to the fate of Teyvat. However, the Doctor clarifies that he can find other ways to watch time, and the annihilation of his segments just set him back temporarily. With that said, he’s one of a few people who are unaffected by alternation of Irminsul, just like the Descenders. The question is if he can control these segments to even change how some occurrences took place - which would give him the power to literally change the past. With this in mind, there is a possibility that Scaramouche could be able to save his friends. It would give him a reason to pursue the Doctor and to work together with the Traveler. It would be an interesting concept for them to acquire the Doctor’s power to go back in time and to see the real consequence. But for the Doctor to be able to “alter” fate, he must become a God himself. At least, this is what the mysterious voice tells the Traveler. Another possibility is for the Wanderer and the Traveler to encounter the God of Time or an equally powerful entity. However, this is just speculation.

***

If you've read all this, thank you so much for your time ♥

[hb-writes]

Update re: Requests/ WIPS

Hi y'all! I'm changing the way I do requests. Unless otherwise specified, they'll be open anytime with the caveat that I'm a human being with real thoughts, feelings, opinions, and responsibilities, meaning that I may not have the interest/ ability/ motivation/ time to write everything received, and requests may take an exorbitant amount of time (think, literal years) to be written because that's just how it is. 🥲

Please just indicate in some way that the ask is a request. Sometimes people send a string of dialogue or a random quote with no other info attached and I’m not quite sure what it’s supposed to be for.

Fandoms I currently write for/ would write for: A Discovery of Witches, Bridgerton, Daredevil, The Family Stone, Fifty Shades, The Haunting of Hill House/ Bly Manor, Marvel, One Tree Hill, Peaky Blinders, The Punisher, Sherlock, Suits, Supernatural, True Blood, Twilight, The Vampire Diaries, White Collar, ACOTAR, Throne of Glass Series

Upcoming:

Comfy-vember 2024

I'm including a list below the cut of everything I have on my request radar and will try to update as new requests are received (I usually only respond to the ask once I complete/ post the request)—updated as of Dec 12, 2024.

Masterlist

Pending Requests:

Peaky Blinders:

Part 2 to Gestures of fairness? Where perhaps Tommy is doing something which warrants Clara to utilize her ‘discovery’. For some reason I’m imagining tipsy, fun Tommy for this, with the other brothers there too, just a sweet family moment in the garrison or the house or something, before everything goes to shit

46 and 32 from the parental writing prompts with Tommy saying them! I just want some soft Tommy with a very scared Clara (note: this one is already written, but is actually going to be included in an upcoming chapter of LLB).

Part 2 for pretty in pink

For an angst one shot could you please do one where clara and grace has a huge fight and it ends up with clara wanting to leave the arrow house but tommy doesn't allow her and it will be a situation where he has to choose between clara and grace

could you write something about tommy and clara having an argument?

clara having huge fight with her family or getting into trouble and getting hurt something along the way

one shot with tommy and clara like a huge fight and fallout.

One-shot where Clara is a teenager and gets called into Tommy’s office to be scolded and she gets punished and it evolves into an angsty fight between Tommy and Clara but with comfort in the end? Like maybe she really pushed his buttons, he’s decided to punish her, she gets upset, they fight, she runs up to his room, he comes up and they talk it out and hugs in the end?

Suits:

Reader is married to Harvey and is also a lawyer and maybe during a big important case the reader gets shot in the middle of court and Harvey has to try to keep her alive and begs her to not leave him and their new little Boy at home. But thankfully the reader survives! 💗

"That's why I didn't tell you in the first place. I knew you'd react like this.", for Charlie and Harvey

Darvey? but like with charlie? maybe they're having a date at home or something & charlie promised to hide away in her room all evening but she goes out of her way to purposefully ruin it (why? for the giggles ofc, & because she loves messing with her big brother)

teenage charlie and Harvey notices she hasn’t really been eating breakfast or dinner with him as often and it turns out that she was upset about what someone said to her

Maybe if Charlie is so stressed Harvey has to intervene bc she stopped eating and sleeping? & High school ? “ Charlotte just because you’re 16 doesn’t mean I won’t goddamn spoon feed you if I have to. Don’t test me on this. This is not a battle you will win little one (or little sister).”

Charlie: "Marcus said I was his favourite."

Can I request a Charlie specter where she gets caught at home with a boy like she skipped school or something and Harvey catches them together!?

teenage charlie (14-15) and mike and harvey are going to meet a client and they catch her skipping school on the street! not really like in a angsty way yk like in a funny way if that makes sense?

I would love one where she has a boyfriend and protective Harvey

something where Charlie has a really bad day and just bypasses Donna and runs into Harvey’s office? Maybe when she’s still adjusting to her new school or high school or something?

Twilight:

"I'm very lucky to know you." For twilight

“I didn’t know they were drugs!” and “Oh my god, it’s so pretty!” With Twilight?

“I prefer not to be disturbed.” & “I don’t feel like it today.” For Twilight

mia cullen in eclipse when she and jacob finally meet again

some sort of part two for drifting (but it can also be a new ff) where Mia maybe has depression or a depressed phase (maybe because the family is drifting apart like in your last Carlisle fan fiction) And Carlisle and/or Esme help her through (maybe she dosen’t even has the energy to brush her hair or get out of bed)

Mia drank Alcohol and used marijuana in new moon

Mia Cullen just doing stupid stuff and (accidentally) pushing Carlisle to his limits, like he’s not angry but more like because it’s stupid?

A moment when one of the Cullens got Really Mad at Mia and screamed at her.

The story behind Mia getting her nose pierced.

Mia talking in her sleep.

Fifty Shades:

Elliot & Emma : "You can't lie to me. I can tell when you're lying."

One Tree Hill:

“All I wanted was your honesty.”

The Punisher:

“Something is wrong.” & “Get down on the floor!” For The Punisher

Sherlock:

"Can you shut up for once in your life?" Watson sister with Sherlock? Perhaps during the season 3 premiere where John is kidnapped and they try to think of a way to save him.

Bridgerton:

None

The Family Stone:

None

Marvel:

None

Supernatural:

None

True Blood:

None

White Collar:

None

A Discovery of Witches:

None

[bunniekittiee]

TCM headcanons pt.2:

TW: mentions of self harm

Johnny grew out his hair at one point as a teen, not as long as Chop Top’s but still long.

He cut it after a victim got the upper hand and practically scalped him.

So now he wears it shorter and slicks it back so it doesn’t get into his face

And also because he is fearful he will be nearly scalped again.

When they were younger, Nubbins somehow got lice and infected the household. So, Drayton shaved all of their heads.

It was horrifying for them.

But since Sissy knows her way of utilizing plants to create medicine, they don’t have to worry about shaving their heads if another lice outbreak were to happen.

Bubba enjoys it when Chop Top lets him comb his hair. It’s like a bonding experience.

When Nubbins feels under the weather, he likes to look at the pictures he took of his family when they are busy, having fun, or killing.

It makes him feel better knowing he has his family.

Johnny is a sick bastard and has taken Nubbins’ camera to take pictures of women he has fucked and killed. He keeps them in his room.

Mf pulls a Bo Sinclair.

Bubba has been the sorry soul that stumbled upon them and he freaked out.

Poor guy got scared and avoided Johnny for weeks.

When Bubba is sad, they do everything they can to cheer him up.

Either Chop Top or Johnny will take him to 7-11 to get him snacks, Nubbins will make him more bone jewelry, or Sissy will play dress up with Bubba.

It all makes him very happy.

He kind of is what brings the family together.

Johnny used to kill small animals when he was younger, but when he moved onto humans, he completely stopped cold turkey.

Never gets any urges to hurt animals, he would rather hurt people.

Wants a dog badly but Nancy insists that it is another mouth to feed and a nuisance.

So he has Daisy instead whose like an overgrown dog but in cow form.

Still really wants a dog though.

Drayton considered killing Daisy until Sissy told him how much Johnny enjoys her company.

So she was spared.

Chop Top jokes and says that they will turn her into ground beef when he’s gone out.

Johnny strangles him once more and Bubba has to separate them.

Sissy loves to put makeup on Johnny’s face when he’s asleep.

Wakes up looking like Tim Curry from The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Tries to fight Sissy but she gets away with it.

She has painted his toes before, pink and white to be exact.

It took a lot of bribing.

Johnny would hate to admit it but he felt like a pretty girl.

He understood why Bubba was adamant about makeup, nail polish, and self care, it makes you feel good!

Johnny does keep a guitar and will play when he has the time.

Will shred to Pantera.

Drayton smacks him with the broom when he’s playing too loud.

Nancy thinks it’s the “devil’s music” but Johnny does not give one shit.

As much as he loves her, he does not care for her opinion when it comes to what he likes.

Chop Top likes to pull pranks on the family.

One time he messed with Bubba’s dye and Bubba ended up dying one of his masks’ hair pink.

Bubba rocked that shit, he did not care.

When the kids were growing up, Bubba and Sissy played with Barbies together.

Johnny liked to make the dolls have sex which caused Sissy to beat his ass.

Nubbins snitched and Johnny was in deep shit.

Nancy was pissed at her boy, but Drayton thought it was kind of funny.

Chop Top wanted a tattoo as a teen but could not get one, so he had Nubbins brand him with the livestock branding iron.

Definitely not a fun experience, he still has a scar.

In order to punish him more so he would not make the same mistake again, Drayton threw salt on his wound.

Chop Top thought he was going to die.

Nubbins has a lot of scars from cutting himself, not out of sadness though, just because he likes the blood and the pain.

He’s a bit sadistic.

Johnny used to carve x’s into his arms with his blade when he was first gifted it, but it was out of boredom.

The scars are light and not noticeable unless you squint.

When Sissy was staying with the Manson Family, she missed the Sawyers to death.

Cried here and there whenever she was alone because she knew she could never find another family like them.

But the experience was freeing. It gave her freedom.

Nancy and Chop Top have gotten into arguments about him giving Johnny records or tapes when he was a teenager.

Nancy argued that he was a bad influence on Johnny but Chop Top argued back that Johnny was going to grow up to be “the epitome of manly men” and was going to have a liking for metal/rock anyways.

Part 3 will be coming out soon! This is what I have so far 😼

[barely-medi0cre]

George Michael Bluth

A Quick Look at one of my favorite characters

Arrested development is basically like a series of unfortunate events if it were made into an adult comedy.

So the sadder parts are all left as jokes or punchlines.

When really, if it were a drama, the characters would appear completely different.

George Michael is a key example of this, he’s held to almost perfection standards by his dad, who he also would spend all his time with until he gets a girlfriend. Like his dad makes him go on atkins for literally no reason and he clearly hates it but is too scared to say anything.

Or when he gets an A- on a test (still an A though) and when he comes home and shows his dad and says “I got an A!” And his dad keeps cutting him off and saying “minus” before telling him to get back to his room and study. Later his dad walks in on him studying and literally beating himself up over not getting a problem, calling himself stupid over and over again.

Of course, this is the episode where Michael (his dad) and Lindsey (Michael’s twin) are arguing over parenting. She says he’s too strict and is going to give George Michael a nervous breakdown. Naturally, after walking in on George Michael beating himself up, he tells him to stop and go do something fun. George Michael is very reluctant because he never really does that. He ends up going right to work, because he doesn’t have anything else to do.

Naturally, during this short period of parental freedom, George Michaels uncle Buster (the one who still lives with his mother and is basically a toddler) comes to see him at work to ask him for drugs. Michael has always taught George Michael that “family first” is the most important rule, so of course he keeps it a secret at busters request and tries to get drugs for him. This leads to him going to his uncle Gob, leaving a note asking for drugs, leading to a whole mix up where Michael thinks that he gave George Michael too much freedom and has now caused his son to develop a drug habit.

Rising action, rising action, climax where everything comes to a head with fake cops and real cops and fake drugs and real drugs and weird misunderstandings until everything is laid out, all is forgiven, and things go back to normal

However, since this show is a comedy show, we don’t focus on the fact that George Michael never actually was able to utilize the freedom his dad had given him, instead opting to use his newly free time to take on a really big favor from his family member instead of doing something for himself

His gimmick is that he’s awkward, and comparatively uptight to Maeby��s street smarts and irresponsibility. It creates a fun dynamic for comedy stories, but when you watch it as many times as I have you start to see some of the more serious character traits that are glossed over

This back and forth can only continue if there is no real character development in each of the ensemble members, hence the end of an episode essentially hitting reset on shenanigans for everyone. George Michael is a great character for that because even during the one chance he had to be free or do something for himself, he yet again took on a task that someone in his family asked him to do and assumed he could do it. So when those opportunities of development present themselves, realistically he wouldn’t take them. And if he did, his character development would have to be so minute that it’s barely noticeable.

If this show were a drama, I think there would be considerable emphasis placed on the parallels of George Sr’s relationship with Michael and Michael’s relationship with George Michael. Animosity about the relationship between Michael and George Michael is only brought to Michael’s attention in season four when he is told that is the father-son relationship Ron Howard wanted to make a movie about.

[biocrafthero]

Sorry if this is really messy, I just came out of the theater and I’m writing this really off the cuff hehe, I just wanna get some of my thoughts out!

While the ending to the film may seem confusing or dissatisfactory to some, it makes perfect sense when you take the whole film into account. This entire time, Longlegs has been teaching Lee the many intricacies of his craft, from the cipher to the dolls to the way in which he targets people. While Lee’s mother has been largely perpetuating a lot of the crimes being committed by bringing Satan into homes through the dolls, its clear that Lee was meant to be a new accomplice.

The triangle started with Lee and it ends with her, but that doesn’t mean the cycle is complete, it just means it is being born anew. The destruction of the dolls keeps the Devil’s eyes off of you and away from his direct influence, but Lee is unable to destroy Ruby’s doll at the end of the film. Additionally, she is also able to kill her own mother, which puts a stop to the delivery of the dolls, but we know that the Devil will still call for more blood to be shed. While this does not mean the Devil has won and Lee has lost, it does end up leaving things ambiguous. This is done purposefully in order to show the audience the pervasive nature of the unholy.

So what does the Devil represent here, since we all know the usage of him has a more symbolic meaning? Currently, my view is that the Devil is meant to be an embodiment of the departure from and destruction of the traditional family structure. It enters into your life innocuously—a gift from the local church, and early/late birthday gift—and through that moment of weakness it does its work. The narrative utilizes a setting that builds itself off of the paranoia caused by the Satanic Panic, and the cinematography reflects this in the horrible paranoia the film inflicts upon the viewer. At the end, we can see that the Devil’s work is never quite finished and it is never done with you.

I briefly also want to mention that pacts are made for what the person thinks is best, not always for selfish reasons, which is why I think its important to remind that Lee’s mother only made the agreement in order to save Lee’s life when they were initially attacked by Longlegs. It’s through these moments of wanting to cling to family that the Devil takes hold.

One of the questions to ask is “why would the Devil suppress the memories of the victim’s attacks?” While I’m not entirely sure about it myself at the moment, it may have to do with the way the victims become compelled to harm themselves and each other while under the Devil’s influence. However, I don’t think that the way it compels them has to do with controlling them directly, instead it brings the darker feelings they all harbor for each other to the surface, or suppresses the good, which raises the interesting question of how exactly the Devil is going about destroying the traditional family structure.

Dissatisfaction with life, with marriage, with mothers and fathers—it doesn’t matter to the Devil, he just exploits those points of pain in order to spill the blood he desires to see. These hidden resentments bubble to the surface, but there is the notable exception of how Lee’s mother made the pact to save her daughter’s life, and how Carrie survived because she wasn’t at home at the time of the doll’s delivery. Both were still taken under the Devil’s influence regardless, but retained free will, meaning victims can either destroy their family structure or keep up the facade of it in order to perpetuate his will.

What’s interesting if we see things from this angle is that the Devil is more of a catalyst for these familial destructions rather than the direct cause of it. His way is violent and brutal, yes, but as we see with who he targets, none of these families quite fit the mold of happy and perfect, always just that little bit off of what is expected by polite society. So the question becomes similar to the Devil’s ultimatum: to let it kill you or to let it fester and spread.

In the (rough, from my own memory) words of We Know The Devil, “It is certain the Devil is coming. The Devil is already here.”

[fleshing-out-fodlan]

Crimson Flower vs. Azure Moon Marianne

I think an underrated part of the game is the differences between how the characters change on different routes (tbh I only really see it discussed to trash on CF characterizations when I don’t even think it’s objectively true that all characters are worse off on that route). Since I’m on a Marianne kick I decided to compare some explore quotes from her.

Thesis: While Marianne works to become happier in both routes, in CF she learns moreso to derive this happiness from herself while in AM she learns moreso to derive this happiness from her connections to other people.

Chapter 12

CF

AM

Marianne’s CF dialogue is obviously more focused on herself than her AM dialogue. In CF she says “what if I have the power to change the world” while in AM she says “surely we can win.” I believe this pronoun change, in CF she is feeling empowered to break free and become her own person while in AM she is feeling like she is a part of a strong group.

Chapter 13

CF

AM

Both routes here involve Marianne’s father telling her where to go, however I do believe Marianne seems more content with her decision in CF and like it’s something she would want independently of her father, even going so far as to say she would disobey his orders showing her dedication to the cause. On the other hand, in AM she doesn’t say anything about how she feels about the cause and the thing that gives her hope is hearing that someone else who she has developed a strong bond with wants her around. This contrast again shows how AM Marianne places a stronger emphasis on her bonds with other people.

Chapter 13

CF

AM

Honestly I don’t have much to say here, I don’t feel like the change in this says much about her characterization. You could say CF Marianne is freely volunteering her thoughts without needing prompting like AM Marianne and maybe there’s something too that but it does feel like a bit of a stretch to me so I’ll just leave it at that.

Chapter 14

CF

AM

As the story progresses, the explore dialogues stop being direct counterparts so the analysis may feel a bit more disjointed but let’s see what we can get from these. This is a scene of CF Marianne deriving happiness/comfort from a support network as opposed to herself (being consoled by Byleth and turning to her faith). In order to be truly happy you do need to be able to derive happiness both from yourself and others so I think it’s good to see CF Marianne relying on other people despite her increased sense of independence on this route. In AM we see a lack of confidence we haven’t seen yet in CF with her directly saying she’s “not very good” at something. She also says she is following her father’s orders which I think helps prove my earlier point that Marianne is more concerned about her father’s opinion on this route than CF. However, we do see her move on quickly from her self deprecation, pointing out an accomplishment she had and using that as a source of comfort which is a healthy approach. No one is ever going to have 0 negative thoughts about themself so it’s good seeing Marianne able to cope with these negative feeling and not just letting them destroy her.

Chapter 15

CF

AM

Here we do see the self deprecation we just saw in AM Marianne in CF Marianne with her saying she’s weak without the goddess. We don’t see her utilizing any sort of coping mechanism here which, while not inherently indicative of the fact that she has none, is still interesting. I wonder if CF Marianne feels her emotions in more extremes while AM Marianne has more consistent, middle of the road emotions?? Something I definitely want to look out for in the future but not sure if this theory will bear any fruit. Anyways, another interesting thing about CF Marianne is the ways he hangs on to her religion like we saw with her mourning Claude. Her holding onto her faith in CF is remarkable to me because of the environment she’s in. While I know Edelgard doesn’t want to completely abolish the religion, when you’re fighting against members of the church in order to dismantle it, there’s definitely going to be some sort of pressure to abandon your religion and I’m sure you would hear some not so nice comments about religion and religious people form fellow soldiers. So Marianne holding onto her faith shows her strong resolve and how she is willing to stick by her personal beliefs even if it doesn’t fit in with those around her. AM Marianne brings up her dad again, making this the third time compared to CF Marianne only bringing him up once. Marianne does say that she wants him to forget about her showing a desire for independence, but the fact that she continues to worry about her father’s views shows how she has not completely broken free from him.

Chapter 16

CF

AM

Here we see CF Marianne discussing her religion here and her using it to provide herself with a sense of comfort. Not much to comment on here except that she seems more confident in her relationship with religion here than she did last chapter. I find AM Marianne’s dialogue to be really interesting and I like hearing her reflect on her past perspectives in order to show how much she’s grown. I do think a lot can be said about this dialogue but I don’t think much of it would be related to what this post is about so I’m moving on.

AM Chapters

So as I’m sure most of you know, CF is shorter than the rest of the routes. I’ve gone through all the CF explore dialogues already and still have some AM ones left so I’m just going to go over those ones in their own section now.

Pretty basic sentiment and I think CF Marianne would feel similarly (replacing DImitri with Edelgard) if in that situation so not much to say here.

Another mention of her father, AM Marianne obviously is more dependent on her father than CF Marianne. This is likely a result of her spending more time with him in AM than CF. In both routes she goes back to assist him after the initial Garreg Mach battle, but in CF she joins the imperial army in the same year while in AM she doesn’t join the kingdom’s army for another four years. Interesting how she comments on his wellness before her own which again shows how AM Marianne spends more energy thinking about other’s than about herself. 

Her final AM dialogue is literally exactly the same as her final CF dialogue so I feel no need to report it. 

My Verdict: Honestly, I think both Marianne’s are capable of leading a happy and fulfilling life and I can see why someone would prefer either one. That being said, I do prefer CF Marianne. I think AM Marianne’s dependence on her father is a bit much and I think CF Marianne’s lack of concern for that is going to allow her to figure out what truly makes her happy without trying to please him. Also the things I’ve read about Margrave Edmund lead me to view him as a not particularly good father so I think getting some space from him will really benefit Marianne. I also think she seems more at peace with herself. While I would say AM Marianne seems to have a slightly stronger bond with Byleth than CF Marianne due to how she often seeks comfort from them, I do prefer CF Marianne’s stronger sense of independence over that. I honestly love her first CF explore dialogue where she wonders if she also has the power to change the world and if she holds onto that sense of empowerment I really think she can accomplish a lot.

Anyways, that’s my thoughts on CF vs. AM Marianne. I’m interested to hear which version of Marianne others prefer (if you even have a preference) and why so please either leave a comment or reblog with your opinions.

[just-an-assbutt]

On ur previous opinion , I cannot agree more

It kinda frustrates me that most of the fics are that way

Thanks Anon! And it’s not only fics. I’m more of an edits kind of person more than fics and many are like that, with Charles being this cute infantilised person and Max all macho man.

I think that’s pretty far from the truth, but it also shows how good Charles is at PR, he sells this sweet persona because he knows that being liked and seen as pure is the best way to cover yourself on the media. He’s so smart, it’s amazing how well he can manage himself on the F1 world. I admire him a lot. Max is more raw when it comes to his public persona and even if he is an incredible driver, he has a lot of trouble with the media.

I think that their personal experiences also show how much more vulnerable Max is than Charles. Charles has experienced the death of close family at a young age, twice. His dad died a few days before he won the F2 Championship and two years prior, his godfather Jules Bianchi also passed away. In a situation where most people would have broken down he pushed through victorious. I think this also shows that Charles is a pretty composed man, who prefers to be the maker of his own path, no matter what. He made it in a sport sponsored from a young age because his parents couldn’t afford it, he decided that he wanted to drive for Ferrari and did it, he wanted to win the team’s home GP and he won Monza. Once he focuses on something, he doesn’t stop util he makes it. He rarely lashes out and mostly keeps his emotions in check. He also mostly blames himself for everything, which is something common on controlling people.

Max is the complete opposite. He’s the son of an abusive father that used to drive in F1 before and was pretty mediocre. His father made him drive but would constantly tell him that he would never make it. He succeeded mostly because the price of losing was too high. Jos Verstappen literally abandoned him on a gas station once because he lost a race. He was arrested for attacking Max’s mom and was reported by an ex-girlfriend. Max even admitted that Jos stabbed a mechanic with a fork in front of him and let’s face it, he was probably physically violent towards Max. He made “Mad Max”, he created the winning-addict that’s Max. Every time Max has won something, he said it was thanks to his father. And don’t even get me started on Kelly Piquet, the almost 30 years-old woman that had a “magical night” with Max when he was barely legal (her words, not mine). The same woman that’s dating him now, when he’s a world champion. He was literally groomed by Kelly since he was a kid. He dedicates everything to her, he even went to the lengths of saying that the reason he’s winning so much is because of the happy life she provides at home (again, not my words). He barely acknowledges that he’s the one doing the hard work and gives her credit for everything he does himself. Max lives to please the people he puts on pedestals.

Like I said, I don’t think that Charles and Max are dating, but they seem to be really good friends now. And Max has shown time after time that he likes to make Charles laugh, that he wants Charles to listen to what he has to say and that the admiration he feel for Charles as a driver makes him want to please Charles all the time. Dom/Sub relationships aren’t only sexual, they can be applied to many aspects of a relationship and even different types of relationships. I think they are a platonic relationship, one where Charles is more dominant and sets the boundaries and Max is more submissive and takes what he’s given to please Charles.

On another note, I think Max’s dynamic with Charles is way more healthy than the one he has with Jos or Kelly, specifically because Charles doesn’t seem to be taking advantage of Max and even looks after him a lot, always taking his time to acknowledge Max’s talent and good performances and congratulating him personally at every chance he gets, a reassurance that Max seems to need a lot. Jos takes the money and to live his frustrated dreams through Max, Kelly gets the younger, vulnerable man she can manipulate and fix to her liking, but Charles, he just gets a friend. He doesn’t take anything from Max and even gives a lot to him so I think that their friendship is a lot more healthier than those other two relationships.

Sorry for the rant, I love analysing people’s behaviour and psychological traits.

[unlicensedmortician]

bad movies with j&j: divergent part two electric boogaloo.

- they have multiple personality traits. which means they are the worst people ever.

- i can’t even go “this is such obvious propaganda how is anyone falling for it” bc ive been on twitter recently

- oh girl that haircut is really bad

- that haircut is “this is the first time i’m asking for a masc haircut and the hairdresser my mom took me to just goes with fuckass pixie cut” bad

- “only a divergent can open this box” be so fucking for real. what are you talking about. it’s a magic box? that only a divergent can open? because they’re so special? because they’re acoustic? what are you saying

- hey . what? “i need to kill jeanine” didn’t a large chunk of the plot of the last movie revolve around how tris doesn’t want to kill people. what’s happening

- “tris you can’t just go around killing people”

- caleb. shut up

- “hey how do these people know you? why are they looking for you?” “:)” hey king that’s not? an answer?

- this man’s mother looks like. 28. he looks older than her. what the fuck

- she and tris look the same age?

- four looks like he’s 36. he looks like he has a mortgage. he looks like he doesn’t pay child support. his mother looks 29 at MOST

- THE ACTRESS WAS IN HER FORTIES IN THIS MOVIE?? GIRL WHAT IS UR SKINCARE ROUTINE!!

- tris rocking up in a forever 21 ass outfit

- hey caleb are you wearing a white tshirt a denim flannel and a suit jacket made by carhartt?

- ah yes the ya dystopian female lead uniform: extremely fitted utility vest with 25% of ur back exposed and nothing underneath

- christina girl what was she supposed to do

- “i’ve been assuming all divergents are the same” and you’re supposed to be the smartest bitch alive?

- oh i wonder who could be the most specialist special one of them all

- “sometimes i think i see lights out beyond the wall” wow that’s crazy girl

- jester said she runs like a sim and they’re right oh my god

- i can’t tell if i keep zoning out or if this movie just makes no sense

- this fucking guy again?

- summary execution. average good guy behavior

- wow she’s 100% divergent? she’s who they’ve been looking for? that’s fucking crazy. who could have seen this coming.

- oh shit girl you fucking kilt him

- is this nonbinary representation

- girl how did you get a full beat and a blowout in this economy

- can’t get over how much jeanine looks like a pastors wife

- yeah ok that was a pretty effective way to send a message. also, what the fuck

- i feel like. this whole divergent problem could be solved if you just didn’t mention that they exist and let them pick a faction and stick to it. like they would probably just do that.

- please don’t make me watch them bone on screen i can’t do it

- oh yep she’s turning herself in. thought so

- i feel like most people would be pretty willing to try to stop innocent people from being forced to kill themselves no matter what their dominant personality trait is but ok

- peter is kinda serving cunt tho

- “it’s ok u can kill him if you want we have plenty of guards” “… WHAT” ok. that was funny

- damn they acupunctured her

- i love watching actors do a muscle up that engages absolutely none of their muscles

- unfortunately i just think these trial sims are kinda dumb as hell and i don’t really care that much

- standing in the shower really normally tris

- this movie is almost completely relying on tris being a pretty skinny blonde white girl in order for you to care about what’s happening

- this is giving me a migraine

- tris you look really stupid unfortunately

- hello?? is she fucking dead??? there’s a whole other movie with her in it ??

- also like. what the fuck is in the box

- imagine if it’s just like. a piece of paper that says “i fucked ur mom”

- ok slay go off peter. i guess. sure.

- he’s the realest bitch here

- tris vs tris with an even worse haircut somehow

- honestly couldn’t tell you what happened in that last simulation

- plot twist! the entire base concept of this worldbuilding is fake and made up and contrived!

- so she’s the savior of humanity? with that haircut?

- yeah that’s p average dictator behavior

- do you guys think the milf is gonna end up being the new dictator

- and there’s a whole other movie after this ¿? this sort of feels like. the conclusion.

- she’s soooooo special. oh my god. what ever

- oh fours mom shot jeanine. ok

final thoughts: hm? huh? what? this has to be one of the stupidest things i’ve ever seen. sorry to everyone who was really into this in 2014 i will not be changing my opinion. how do i get @ghostcasket back for showing this to me i genuinely can’t think of anything

[sun-to-sorrow]

So like, reading Maximum Ride again after like 4-6 years and like, there are so many things I’m questioning. For starter Manga reader only because I have this issue of not being able to read other forms of something I’ve already read. Brain kinda shuts down. So like

1) The whole Max, Martina (Martinez?), and Ella thing is just so strange. For starters Max is just awful. Prioritizing a random girl being cornered and has an easy escape route (Max took it after all) over your 6 year old sister who is in the hands of actual mad scientist who you know has actively done shitty unethical things is just, why?! Angel could’ve been saved just a bit earlier if you listened to Fang! But also the whole Martinez has something to do with the school but then it’s completely forgotten.

2) Max leaving the Blind guy and the 8 Year Old alone because “Angel (who is to young to know how to escape the school) might escape and come back here”. Gazzy has little combat experience because he is either told to run/hide or uses bombs and Iggy is BLIND!

3) Iggy really goes between I have the best hearing in the flock to I have normal human hearing. Like sometimes he can hear Erasers (like only twice?) or the homeless people in the subway and most of the time either he’s surprised by them (angel’s kidnapping or the ambush when Max and Fang leave) or Angel finds then before him (the two children). Like, JP make it’s consistent! Let Iggy be the Flock’s alarm so when they don’t have him in the group they suffer more casualties! Especially during when Erasers become robots so Angel becomes useless (like de buff the girl honesty)

4) speaking of Iggy. He has been shown enough times that he’s really REALLY smart. Building bombs, being able to remember recipes to cook, learning and mapping places out (E house and Anne’s place), yet JP literally doesn’t expand or utilize it to its fullest. Iggy could probably be the Flocks brain but no~, he’s to blind to be the flocks brain, let’s have Fang (the right hand man, second command of the flock, has invisibility powers and (I just learned) immortality) and Angel (child with telepathy, mind control, shapeshifting, and probably other things) be the brains and Max (leader and golden child) have moments here and there. The most I’ve seen of Iggy utilizing his brains was lock picking or making bombs/planning out traps. I could be missing some but JP makes it so hard to know.

5) the severe infantilism of Iggy

6) Gazzy still has no new power unlike everyone else (but Iggy’s are pretty shitty because they all are powers to “help him see without him actually seeing”). Like let him have telepathy or maybe a way that only him and Angel can communicate each other.

7) Nudge. Like she isn’t as bad as Iggy and definitely not the worst like Gazzy, but god she’s still really poorly written. She has this whole thing of not wanting to be a freak and wanting to find her family and wanting to be normal and not having to run all the time but every single one of these just stops on a dead note! It like stops existing after like 2-3 chapters and never brought up. Like she’s the most interesting girl in the flock but just so butchered.

8) their looks. Ok I’m not gonna harp so badly on the Manga artist because she is Korean and Korean beauty standards and all that is just bad in general but that’s just cultural differences. But one thing I never understand was that makeup transformation. Angel who has short hair suddenly has hair that goes below her neck. Nudge’s bleached streak somehow stays even though her natural hair should’ve shown by the 9 manga vol. Fang who always was shown with straight hair now has really curly hair. That’s not how hair works and let’s not talk about Iggy and those weird dark tips.

9) Fax and Ella/Iggy (which I learned was canon. I was wondering where all those Ella/Iggy stories came from) I don’t hate straight ships. I just hate these straight ships.

10) oh poorly written trauma handled even worse my beloved. Your telling me Iggy, the one who was awake the entire operation on his eyes doesn’t have trauma. Your telling me Fang, who almost died to an Eraser doesn’t have trauma. Your telling me Max, the one who continuously has a voice in her head, a chip in her shoulder, seeing an Eraser in the mirror doesn’t have trauma?! Angel?!

But like I could continue because there is so much but, there where definitely things I liked. I like how Iggy was drawn. Out of all the characters he looked always bony and skinny and long. Like even next to Fang who is supposed to be the same height he looks so twiggy and tall. Gazzy was so interesting because he was that grey “I suffered through the school but I was also way to young to remember” and I wish it was expanded more. I liked the Ari arc if you ignore every other Ari part in the story. Total was nice if we found nice as before he talked.

Like not to be the paranoid one but if I was in the flocked I would be questioning everything. A Gazzy photo from an abandoned apartment? They could’ve stuck it there after knowing their research was stolen just to trap the flock. Anna watching a new about Iggy’s parents? She purposely put it on so Iggy will be removed. Erasers still finding the flock? Did anyone thing that the others might have chips in them, especially when Fang, Gazzy, and Iggy where attacked. Also how does Fang still have his laptop when he was captured by the institute?

[biblioflyer]

A Marvelsous Film: Review & Analysis

I wound up being enormously pleased with The Marvels. Much of what I had on my wishlist for a Captain Marvel sequel was satisfied.

Three core things I had in mind for the character were transitioning away organically from the “cold” and traumatized Kree super soldier, to be presented with a challenge that couldn’t be dealt with simply by punching her way through it, and to be more firmly embedded into the MCU as a leader and team player.

A Problem That Can’t be Punched Until it Goes Away

As I’ve discussed previously, Carol has the Superman problem. Which is how do you tell a story about someone who is functionally invulnerable in a convincing way? 

The Marvels solves that problem by making Carol’s power something of a liability and giving her a couple of teammates, including one very enthusiastic but in over her head teenage sidekick. It also presents Carol with the classic Marvel superhero growing pains: superpowers don’t come with superwisdom.

I think it was a nice balancing act to acknowledge that time had passed so naturally Captain Marvel should not be precisely the same person she was when she first broke free of her Kree conditioning. However, a complete personality reversal would be confusing and jarring for audiences even if it would make sense.

The film also had to address where Carol had been all this time, including multiple instances of the world being in grave danger. So it solved the personality issue and the timeline concerns with one answer: overwork through guilt.

Carol used her newfound powers impulsively and it all went horribly wrong. There’s something of a parallel there to explore as well. When freed of their subordination to the Supreme Intelligence, the Kree also found themselves not really knowing what to do with their freedom and using violence to resolve social tensions because that’s what they’d been conditioned to do.

Now the temptation might arise to ask the question, “Well what did Carol think was going to happen?”

Keep in mind that Carol was abducted by space aliens in the 90s. A time of innocence and naive optimism about geopolitics. A time when it was a lot easier to blame sociopathic tyrants for the problems of their societies and Carol was presumably busy in space trying to find a new home for the Skrulls, getting into political marriages, and rescuing space kittens from space trees while the United States was accumulating the many, many years of painful experience with what comes next after a tyrant is deposed with no realistic plan for rebuilding.

Turns out the experience of being under a tyrant leaves a mark on a society that doesn’t resolve itself in a day. It can also be somewhat problematic to be processing that trauma and learning how to exercise personal autonomy without automatically feeling existentially threatened by someone who is exercising their autonomy while there’s a bunch of unaccounted for weapons floating around in your previously highly militarized society.

There’s a little bit of Francis Fukuyama in Carol Danvers. But only a little. Unlike Fukuyama, Carol realizes her mistake and is desperate to find a way to fix it, rather than refusing to admit her instincts might have been a bit off.

I’d like to think there’s a not so subtle bit of symbolism in the resolution to the Kree arc too. Using overwhelming force without wisdom perpetuates suffering and violence. However, with vast power also comes the ability to create and heal rather than merely destroy. Utilizing power in this way does require compassion and imagination. 

Compassion is key because the Kree had long ago stopped being a credible threat to Carol, at least until one of them got magic bangles. Recognizing this isn’t straightforward though! 

When people react poorly to you wherever you happen to be, it definitely seems threatening! So one might imagine it was a challenge for Carol to stop acting reflexively, and start thinking about longer-term solutions than simply punching her way through yet another Kree platoon and another and another.

Coming Out of My Cage and Doing Just Fine

That was probably the stuff most worth spending a lot of words on. The rest is just scattered stuff I appreciated.

Since I was just on the subject of breaking cycles of violence, let's talk about the Asgardians welcoming the Skrulls for a moment.

Talk about a heel-to-hero turn. Under Odin in prehistory, Asgard was a brutal conqueror with Hela as its weapon of mass destruction. In the modern era, it seemed to have adopted a posture of guarantor of security for at least the Nine Realms, a responsibility Loki 1.0 was not overly attentive to.

Post Ragnarok, what we’ve learned between Love and Thunder and now The Marvels is that the remnant of Asgard appears to be a refuge for interstellar and interdimensional diasporas. No doubt in a Post-Secret Invasion world with its apparent Skrull pogrom, this may wind up being a bit contentious.

I do hope we get a scene of King Valkyrie delivering some Leonidas-style dialogue along the lines of “come and take them” except, y’know, this time in service to protecting refugees instead of not even slightly veiled Western chauvinism. At least in 300. Although even the history of the Persian War is complicated by some Greek city-states fighting alongside the Persians, I digress.

No doubt ships aplenty were launched by Valkyrie's tenderness towards Carol. Perhaps a small bit of consolation for the fans after Jane Foster x Valkyrie didn’t happen and then further complicated by Foster being a little dead.

Shipping ain’t really my scene, but this is one I could definitely nod along with on account of how well the characters and their histories mesh. It does make one wonder if Valkyrie was one of those unnamed people who were part of Carol’s crew prior to The Marvels. It's fun to think about at least. We know Valkyrie wasn’t blipped so she could have spent some time running around as Asgard’s representative helping Carol put out fires. It's a bit harder to imagine Scrapper 142 era Valkyrie and Captain Marvel getting along quite so well and it's implied (explicitly stated even?) that Sakaar is extremely difficult to leave, although that too is not beyond consideration.

Never Meet Your Heroes, Unless You’re a Relentless Cinnamon Bun

Cards on the table, I’ve never been a big fan of the YA genre as literature, TV, or movies. Even when I was a teen / young adult, I found stuff that was explicitly oriented towards that audience and heavily featured characters in that demographic to be almost unwatchable by virtue of just how much the genre relies on “relatable” themes like love triangles, profound awkwardness, and other teen story “cliches.” I’m not saying I was too cool for these things to reflect my own reality, if anything it was my own awkwardness that made it challenging to watch or read about these themes and still does up to a point.

Kamala Khan did win me over in the Ms. Marvel series in spite of a bit of curmudgeonly skepticism going in. Yes, it did cringe family drama and super cringe romantic triangle cliches, but with enough warmth and charisma that it disarmed me.

So I was definitely anticipating what it would be like when Kamala Khan actually got to meet her idol. And it did not disappoint!

It didn’t disappoint in the sense that Iman Vellani continued to embody the hysterical starstruck superfan magnificently (and kudos to her and her snark about Filoni calling the MCU Earth 616.) 

Yet when called for, the character was able to set aside fandom and embrace (literally) her idol not as a specimen of perfection, but as a flawed, insecure human being who kind of needed someone to see her for a whole person rather than The Annihilator or a glowing weapon to use against Earth’s enemies. Which feels like an allegory for the real-life fandom’s relationship with the characters and creative processes involved in the MCU.

This, when taken along with working through the uncomfortable reunion with Monica, serves to complete the next phase of Carol’s arc begun in Captain Marvel. I had a suspicion that this would be the case: that Carol being forced to rely on others would break through the trust issues and reserve. It’s absolutely a trope but it's not a bad trope when well executed.

My only real complaint with this aspect of the story is that it felt like Rambeau didn’t have all that many scenes to herself. Vellani is a natural scene-stealer and that is in a sense what Ms. Marvel is there for: to be the comic relief that wouldn’t be a natural fit for Monica or Carol and to keep the story from becoming too much of a downer.

A curmudgeonly opinion might say that Ms. Marvel’s relentless bubbliness steps all over the emotional labor that is owed to repair the relationship between Monica and Carol, but just the same I can see an alternate cut where the film just becomes too angsty. 

So I’m glad in the end that Carol and Monica are reasonable people able to take responsibility, in Carol’s case, and recognize that there’s a person who is carrying literally astronomical burdens with all too human shoulders, in Monica’s case but also mirroring to some degree Kamala. In the end, it seems like Kamala and Monica wind up with a better relationship with Carol for having recognized that Captain Marvel, symbol, has limitations that are invisible when one is only seeing the raw power at her command.

The Child Soldier Elephant in the Room

Remember when I said the YA genre makes me uncomfortable most of the time? Young Avengers, conceptually, is one of those times.

I’m cautiously optimistic though. There has been some self-awareness demonstrated throughout the MCU that teen superheroes are a bit of an ethical conundrum. On a meta level - the Doylist perspective if you will, teen superheroes are all about wish fulfillment. The desire of everyone at every age but especially as a teen / young adult is fierce to feel empowered to Make a Difference. 

Disempowerment wounds every soul but no soul feels it as acutely as the young who haven’t built up scar tissue and cynicism accumulated through the frustration and disappointment of trying to grab hold of complex systems with a lot of inertia and bend them to your will.

So far be it from me to poo poo the idea that young adults should be denied their inspiration and wish fulfillment stories. Star Trek after all is, when it's at its best, wish fulfillment for intellectually curious humanist adults and I reserve the right to raise hell every time cynicism and pessimism intrude on my dopamine supply!

Narratively though, I do think it would be irresponsible to not acknowledge the moral complexities of child superheroes.

So far, there has been a relatively decent attempt to walk the tightrope. To try to meet the needs of the narrative while not putting too thick of a whitewash on the realities.

Intriguingly enough, in Spider-Man Far From Home, it's the villain who points out the obvious: it's not fair for Peter to be carrying the weight of the responsibility “Fury” (Talos) is placing on him.

Clint also repeatedly tries to keep Kate Bishop from getting roped any further into his problems using similar arguments, but also out of an understandable desire to keep his failures and problems from being someone else’s to clean up.

So what does this have to do with The Marvels?

Spoiler alert! The mid-credits scene is an amusing callback to Nick Fury’s visit to Tony Stark at the end of Iron Man to talk about the Avengers Initiative. To be frank, knowing what I know about Iman Vellani, if you told me she wrote this scene herself, I’d believe you.

Anyway, she ambushes Kate Bishop to pitch her, with barely restrained enthusiasm, about forming a team of “child” superheroes. Kate wryly observes that she’s 23 but she gets the point and seems receptive.

So my idea to try to keep this from going too off the rails would be for the Young Avengers to be more of a training cadre to help young “enhanced” to master their abilities rather than an active superhero team. They would naturally find themselves in a situation where the “adult” superheroes are unavailable to solve a problem in a timely manner.

Kind of like the conceit that Charles Xavier’s School for the Gifted is in fact a school and not a training ground for child soldiers, Young Avengers rightfully should not feature the likes of Nick Fury intentionally sending the Young Avengers into harm’s way except as a last resort.

Having said that, I am now looking forward to it in a way I really wasn’t before because I now feel that Iman Vellani absolutely can carry a film, especially with strong personalities like Hailee Steinfeld to play off of. I’m still crossing my fingers for Kid Loki to make an appearance too.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Adam B. Coleman

Published: Feb 24, 2023

Leftists hurl rocks at America, claiming it is an irredeemably racist nation. But what happens when they discover they live in a glass house, and are as much a part of that messy, flawed history? 

Activist, communist and former fugitive Angela Davis was shocked to learn she is a Mayflower descendent on Tuesday’s “Finding Your Roots” episode. 

Now 79, Davis was the latest to appear on the PBS show where celebrities and public figures learn about their ancestry. 

Near the episode’s end, after discussing multiple members of her family, the former Black Panther learned she’s descended from William Brewster, one of the 101 people who came to the colonies in 1620 aboard the Mayflower. 

“No, I can’t believe this,” Davis replied, laughing. “No, my ancestors did not come here on the Mayflower.” 

She continued to protest while Gates confirmed the findings, then responded, “Oof. That’s a little bit too much to deal with right now.” 

“Would you ever in your wildest dreams think that you may have been descended from the people who laid the foundation of this country?” he asked. 

“Never, never, never, never, never,” she said. 

Our villainous selves 

Activists like Angela Davis have spent their entire careers excoriating America’s ancestors for their supposed participation in or benefiting from a system of white supremacy since the first Europeans landed here — and now Davis has realized she descends, at least partly, from those very villains. 

As horrified as Davis may be at finding out this information about her lineage, she shouldn’t be. Even if she were right about her interpretation of “old America,” she has nothing to do with it and she has nothing to be ashamed of. The sins of the father shouldn’t be paid by the son; likewise, we shouldn’t judge Davis’ grandchildren for having a commie as a grandmother. 

Leftists have a hard time understanding that we shouldn’t encourage people to behave like the communist regime in North Korea, which punishes all descendants with imprisonment for up to three generations for a single action of someone who happens to be in their bloodline whom they may never have met. 

America’s glass house 

History is complex because people are complex. We should stop being overly critical and simplistic about the behavior of our ancestors, who were people of their time, by comparing it to our present-day norms and social expectations. 

As clean as we think our hands are, in a couple of generations, our descendants could easily look back and shake their heads at some of the barbarism we think is completely normal and remains legal. 

Just because we know how to utilize far more advanced gadgets than our predecessors doesn’t mean that we are any less humanly flawed than them. 

Rather than constantly litigating and debating the past, why don’t we continue to build a better country together? 

You’re not supposed to throw rocks while living in a glass house because you’re not the only one who has access to rocks, and the motivation for vengeance gives people herculean strength as well. 

But in this case, you shouldn’t throw rocks because you may accidentally damage your own window. 

==

Angela Davis has plenty to apologize for. But it's all her own doing; none of it has anything to do with her ancestors.

Inherited guilt is immoral, whether it's religionists or activists attempting to impose it.

[kitschykitchen]

🍽️Hot and Fresh Review🍽️

Ideal Snacks While Reading:

Fried eggs over white rice, a bottle of soju, and chocolate-covered bananas.

Main Ingredients:

A reckless, free-spirited younger sister with deep insecurities

A narcissistic know-it-all older sister who always seems perfect

A sudden cancer diagnosis that forces them together

Jayne Ji-young Baek is a college student living in New York and trying to figure out life. She’s got the full entourage of New York insanity--including but not limited to a terrible, clownish not-boyfriend-boyfriend, a repulsive apartment that she pays way too much money for, and a blinding desire to be noticed in a city where everyone has the same ambition. Things get even more complicated for Jayne when her older sister, June, enters the picture. June is eldest daughter syndrome personified--a parentified, overachiever who can barely take care of herself and sucks even worse at taking care of others. The two immediately bump heads but things spiral even further when June explains that she’s been diagnosed with cancer. Naturally, this comes as a slap to the face for Jayne, as she’s now forced to juggle all of the other nonsense in her life while also forcibly recognizing her sister as undeniably human.

Now, I’m sure we’ve all gotten used to the wealth of movies in this vein. You’re probably anticipating that June will learn how to let loose and stop being so hard on Jayne and Jayne will become more responsible after realizing that June’s rigid personality isn’t such a bad thing. The two will completely overlook their parental trauma and end with a message on family, love, and happy-happy joy-joy. Allow me to be the first to tell you to manage your expectations.

Yolk may have a familiar purpose, but its handling of the subject matter is so realistic and raw that it leads to discomfort. Jayne is not just a party girl who has poor taste in men. She’s the youngest child whose mother constantly picks at her insecurities and leaves her with a very intense eating disorder. She’s actively in therapy but struggles to utilize it well because she doesn’t want to admit her own weaknesses. Similarly, June doesn’t have it all together. She’s constantly picking on Jayne but finds it difficult to watch her sister crash and burn. She’s apathetic to her cancer diagnosis and struggles to remain herself after the loss of her job. Mary H.K. Choi juggles so many different topics all at once--from unspoken familial trauma to sexual assault and of course, the immigrant child experience--while still making sure the depiction is respectful while simultaneously realistic.

When hearing the intense subject matter, some might question why Yolk is considered a YA Novel (I know I was confused when I first read it). In today’s society, it’s not a secret that we are hyper-conscious of the kinds of media younger audiences are consuming. This is especially true of YA, where we see repeated accounts of toxic romances and poor boundary management among characters. The difference between Yolk and most other YA novels is that Choi isn’t just showcasing heavy subjects for the sake of throwing them in the audience’s face. Her depictions of struggling with mental illness and relationship problems are grounded in realism first and foremost. Intense topics still have a place in YA, so long as they’re handled with care and respect.

If you want a book that will rip you to shreds, call you out on a lot of your paranoid thinking, and hit way too close to home--Yolk is the perfect book for you.

Michelin Stars: 5/5 (⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐)