#so he can 'achieve more' then none of this would've happened

[doffies]

i really do appreciate vegapunk's character writing and i genuinely think he's one of the better examples of morally grey characters who do good things but are ultimately awful people.

like, i said this on my main but it makes So much sense that york ends up turning on the other vegapunks and sells them out to be a celestial dragon, because that's exactly what vegapunk did when ultimately chose to support a genocidal empire that serves to only oppress the people they supposedly serve for the flimsy reason of "they have more resources".

because like his conversation with dragon shows, in spite of his moral compass (supposedly) not aligning with the world government's, he easily chooses to be their benefactor rather than the freedom fighters, all because they can actually support him so he can "do more good."

and while we're told by other characters of the good he's done (publishing numerous medical journals, inventing things that supposedly enhance the quality of life, and other things of that nature on egghead in particular) we are shown time and time again in the story the sheer amount of violence and oppression vegapunk's work has allowed the marines to inflict upon the general populace. the biggest one being the navy warships that can cross the calm belt.

at least in the past the calm belt has kept the world government at bay for the smaller islands within (like, let's say, lulusia) but with the warships their reach has expanded to the point where they can harass small islands who have little resources to scrounge up to pay the celestial dragon's tributes. you can argue that the navy warships allow for the "good" marines to help more people, but as we can see from the countless number of cops who are useless at best and corrupt at worst, the cons heavily outweigh the benefits.

that's just talking about the warships alone, not even mentioning the entire novel i could write about the pacifistas, how regardless of vegapunk's intentions and clear grief over the matter he still did it anyway and placed a huge and painful burden on bonney due to her ultimate control over them, also placing a massive fuck off target on her back while she's still only twelve.

he's a man who is kneecapped by his ambitions, and someone who ultimately falls because he made a deal with the devil and the devil finally collected.

[emiko-matsui]

Okay, I just need to get something out of the way when it comes to the Kipperlilly conversation nobody's brought up yet, which I think is insane. Almost all of The Bad Kids would be more powerful if they didn't have their tragedy porn tragic backstories.

First of all, this doesn't apply to Fig and Gorgug because if Fig wasn't Gorthalax's child she would be a lot like Kipperlilly and not the ruler of hell. I wouldn't say Gorgug has a tragic backstory, he's got a pretty normal growing up experience with ups and downs.

Let's start with her #1 nemesis, Riz Gukgak. She's so jealous that his dad was murdered and that gives him an advantage in the adventuring life. To be crude, no, it doesn't. What would give Riz an advantage in the adventuring life would be living with someone who has a direct contact to all the government's inner workings and conspiracies. Now that would be an advantage. That gives you connections and clues that no one else can get. This is not what happened. What happened was eating cereal with water for breakfast, what happened was not getting an opportunity at college, what happened was a 9 year old who stopped sleeping, what happened was not your secret agent dad giving you an advantage in the school conspiracy because he's dead. Otherwise he fucking would've.

And now Kipperlilly's new #1 nemesis, Kristen Applebees. She was ostracised from her religion for her sexuality, she achieved sainthood, and raised a dead god back to life. None of this would've happened if she hadn't been raised in The Harvestmen. No, it wouldn't, but what would have happened if Kristen had been straight? Disgusting thought, yes, I know, but let's talk about it. A Kristen who never left Helio behind would have so many more fucking advantages than the one with Cassandra has. If she had followed her birthright she would be the only chosen one of one of the world's most powerful gods. Sol is the biggest god in Spyre and Helio is his son. Helio does not have a chosen one anymore because Kristen left. It's not a title that's just given out, it could only have been Kristen. You know what's an advantage? Being the chosen one of one of the world's most powerful gods, being a god's spoken favourite, and deified by all of that god's followers. Now that would be an unfair advantage. You know what's not an advantage? Being homeless at 14 and being at the mercy of your ex-girlfriend's uncle for housing, dying and having absolutely no one there for you so you're only option to survive is to trust your own abilities enough to raise yourself from the dead, and failing school because of biased teachers.

And what of Adaine Abernant? The Elven Oracle? Her tragedy porn tragic backstory is surviving an abusive home. Now I just have to imagine that Adaine would have it a lot easier than most students, an incredible amount of unfair advantages, if her old money parents paid for every wizard whim she wanted, kept her diplomatic immunity so she could do literally anything she wanted without consequences, and gave her a direct contact into the heart of the Fallinell government. Now that is what I would call an insane amount of unfair advantage. I would be furious at this rich kid who's never had to work for anything myself. This is not even close to the case. She's barely passing classes because she can't afford the material you're required, she goes to the guidance counsellor for panic attacks, and she's being hunted by her home government. I'd say that's about every single thing in her life working against her having it easy.

Fabian Aramais Seacaster. He's complicated since he is very privileged already. He gets 5000 gold a month just for existing. He's the captain of the Owlbears because he killed the previous one. He lives alone in a mansion. Yeah, that's pretty privileged. His parents are also so severely fucked up that if they hadn't been filthy rich they would've been absolutely horrible for him. If he had parents who unconditionally supported him and stayed with him through everything, then we could talk about perhaps the most powerful person in Elmville. In Solace possibly. The most feared pirate in history who single-handedly dismantled a monarchy and fights against armies on his own is at your beck and call, does whatever you ask him to, and loves you more than anything. The greatest swordswoman in the world, that bested the most feared pirate in the world, the daughter of one of the most influential elven families and immortal will do anything you ask her, loves you to bits, and would cheat any rules for you. To have that would just be insane. You can argue that Fabian already has unfair advantages because of his social status and inheritance. This is true, but this is also true within his own adventuring party. Now his parents aren't helping him with anything and are determined that he reach his legendary status on his own. Otherwise talk about a fucking advantage.

All this to say is that if Kipperlilly got all of The Bad Kids tragedy porn like she wanted she wouldn't have been better, but she would've made them better. There is an adventuring party out there in the multiverse that has a secret agent at their disposal, the only chosen one of a Sol religion, Bill Seacaster and Hallariel Lomenelda unprompted in their corner, and a seer with unending resources and diplomatic immunity. These would've been people you start a platform about adventuring not being fair for everyone because of. The people you went against was a homeless kid, a kid with an anxiety disorder, a trust fund kid, and someone with PTSD.

I've seen your posts about Kipperlilly being wrong for her validation, but right in the fact that The Bad Kids have been given larger plots and mysteries because of their families and circumstances and I don’t want to fucking see another one. When you make that I want you to think about the adventuring party they would've been without their backstories. The insanely powerful and privileged adventuring party that almost happened. Their life got made worse, not easier because their life could have been so fucking easy. Kipperlilly can take all the tragedy porn she wants and then maybe realise that that's not what makes the adventurer. That the reason she's mad at The Bad Kids is the only reason she can even tangentially compete with them.

[laswells-ashtray]

Okay, kind of a weird ask BUT.. Ghost 141.

And I’m not talking abt how they are now, no, I mean like ACTUAL see-through dead people from different periods of time OR from the same time period.

I could imagine that Soap is from the Viking era(Makes sense?), Price is from the Victorian Era, Ghost is from the early Reconstruction days after WW1(I think), and Gaz is from the 70’s or 80’s!

How they meet is completely unknown, but now they stick together like glue and just roam around the Earth as it is.

Sometimes I feel like they’ll see things from their past that no one else can, and the others are confused because- what’s there? Like for example, John was walking the halls of some large abandoned mansion and all of a sudden he sees his lost(and long gone) lover Nik, damn near tearing the house apart trying to look for the criminal before coming to the realization of what he was doing and disappearing for a while.

Nobody knows what the hell that was about, but they most certainly know that it must’ve been serious if the man disappeared for a week straight.

When John finally reappears, the other three men don't know what to say. He looks worse for wear, his clothes are ruffled in a way that requires effort to achieve as a phantom, and his eyes are empty.

They had spent the week debating the identity of the Nik he'd be screaming for. Simon had assumed the person to be a domestic servant but they'd debated the use John had for one. John never had a family, he had been an anomaly of his time. No wife, no children and he wasn't particularly inclined to any career path. He'd stuck to whatever earned him the means to live but much about his life had been kept private and none of the three had felt to pry.

Gaz has other assumptions, might've been taboo in the 80s but it certainly wasn't unheard of. He's unsure about what would've happened if you were perhaps "caught" in Victorian times but he assumes it can't have been good.

But Gaz had spent enough time in queer spaces amongst his people to know one when he saw it. John had been trying to tear his way through them just to get a glance of the Nik he was yelling about and Gaz had heard him muttering to himself about a Nikolai on more than one occasion.

Sure, they'd all developed over the years of being stuck as spiritual presences but some things lingered. Occasionally Soap would slip into a damn near unintelligible rant about something that would leave them all confused. Although, he is just Scottish so that might be it. Simon still struggled to wrap his mind around modern-day laws, smacking around your kids could earn you a prison sentence. He'd get a distant look in his eyes before quickly switching topics whenever it was brought up. Gaz would be the first to admit that hearing about modern-day movies centred around queer stories would always sweep him off of his feet.

Even if he was more used to the openness after they'd taken to following around a CIA agent that John had found amusing. The woman was a powerhouse and finding out she had a wife floored them all but they'd taken to lingering around the couple's home for amusement.

But John had never been willing to elaborate on the Nik he so desperately sought. No one quite knew what to say to him when he came back after disappearing for a week, trying not to ostracize the man through sheer verbal accident.

It surprised no one that Soap had been the first to talk but even Gaz would've expected a more tacful greeting.

"John, you're back. Just in time, the lesbians got a new cat."

Silence falls over the four of them for a moment. Simon facepalms with enough force that Gaz worries for his nose. John looks utterly caught off guard and the way his nose scrunches is undeniably endearing.

"What- what colour is it this time?" He asks, voice utterly wrecked. He sounds as if he'd been gargling glass shards for fun.

"Grey. Looks like mold."

They all smile at the way the man's lip quirks, a faint hint of a smile shining through.

[adorabluesposts]

Hi!

I saw your post for requests and I was wondering if you would do a fic for Jason Todd? I saw you reposted something for him but if not it’s totally okay!

If yes, could you do a fic where he brings his girlfriend to the manor and everybody questions why she is with him? They are like polar opposites with her being shy and kind compared to his blunt attitude?

This might be a stretch but perhaps Damian’s long lost sister? (I’m a sucker for platonic Damian)

But again if you just reposted that and don’t write for them you can ignore this!

-W.P💚

YES YES OMG WP I LOVE YOU WHATT THANKS FOR REQUESTIONG FOR JASON<333 he's my babygirl 💗. Sorry this took so long I'm a menace to society. Maybe I went a bit too crazy with this.

TW: MENTIONS OF suicide, murder, violence, abuse

It's hard to recall how it happened. It took what felt like years for you to get this close to Jason, but you were proud of your achievement.

Ever since you were a child, your parents taught you what kindness meant. Well, your mother did. Even if it was rough at home, and your father made living a hell, your mother managed to teach you how to treat any scar with kindness and not fight back with violence. And, after he killed her, you almost lost hope. But you just swore to continue finding kindness in anything. For her.

Its just that now you were more closed off.

And your feet were now glued to the ground. You saw the reality of Gotham when your dad killed himself after brutally murdering your mother. Leaving you all alone.

Enter Jason Todd, on a lonely night when you were just walking through the sad streets of Gotham. You had stumbled upon a mugging—a terrified woman cornered by two thugs. You couldn’t just stand idly by.

Your mother's kindness had been your legacy, and you would honor it. But before you could intervene, the Red Hood appeared. He moved with lethal precision, dismantling the criminals without hesitation. You watched, torn between awe and fear. When he turned to leave, you found your voice.

"You're bleeding." You commented, looking at his crimson red suit, which happened to be more red than usual. The guys he just fought didn't hurt him.. it must've been someone else.

"I am fine." Red Hood replied, clutching his side.

Somehow, he ended up on your couch. You weren't that much of a fan of it, considering that your landlord would kick you oit if his property smelled like a crime scene. And you were more than scared to have someone like Jason in your room. But you couldn't just... let him bleed out!

"The way you're patching me up isn't very comforting." He broke the silence. You smiled, but let out a small scoff.

“Comforting?” you laughed. “I’m not here to comfort you. I’m here to prevent my landlord from evicting me because my apartment smells like a crime scene.”

“You’re weird.” Jason tried to sit up, but you push him back down.

“Coming from a guy who wears a red helmet and shoots people,” You retorted. “That’s rich.”

Now you were in front of the Wayne Manor, holding Jason's hand like your life depended on it. Your heart was beating oit of your chest. Jason tried to rub your hand for comfort, but you were still nervous.

Bruce was the one that invited Jason to a monthly dinner. He tried to be closer to Jason, and he would've declined evey time of it wasn't for you begging him to give him a chance.

And this time, you decided to tag along. None of them knew. Except for Alfred, who Jason made sure to alert a few days before the dinner. You were contemplating your decisions, though.

As you both entered the Manor, and politely smiled at Alfred, you felt like your knees would just give out. And Jason now had a frown on his face, as if he hated the place.

You heard commotion from the dining room, with a few people sitting at the table already. We're you late?

"They usually wait a bit for us. But the food isn't ready." Jason whispered into your ear, easing your worries, before he cleated his throat. All heads snapped at him.

A few wanted to greet him, but their voices just got stuck as they saw you. "Hi, Jason." One of them still managed to say.

You recognised Bruce as he got up with a nod and walked over. "Who might you be?"

"She's my girlfriend." Jason placed his arm around your shoulder with a small, but proud, smile.

A few of the boys laughed. One of the girls just gasped with a smile.

"-Jason has a girlfriend?"

"-is it April fools yet?"

"-She's so pretty!"

You pushed a strand of hair behind your ear, smiling slightly. "Nice meeting you."

"She sounds so sweet," someone whispered.

Jason grabbed you from Bruce's glare, guiding you to the table as he introduced you to the kids. They all looked at you, watching you closely.

That night, with every word you'd speak, the family would look more concerned, shocked or amused.

Damian finally cleared his throat. "Sorry to say, Jason. But your little girlfriend here will get herself killed."

You raised an eyebrow at that.

"Does she even know?" Tim asked. You assumed he was talking about the whole family's secret lives.

"She does." Jason grumbled. "And she'll be fine."

"Damian's right- she's too.. not you." Dick spoke.

"I think she's perfect!" Stephanie comments, where Cass just shakes her head with a smile, agreeing.

"I-" Jason held your hand underneath the table.

"I think she'll be fine." Bruce spoke up, giving you a nod. "Jason could use someone like her."

"We all could." Tim mumbled

“Smooth talker, that Bruce,” Jason whispered to you.

You rolled your eyes with a soft smile. “Says the guy who once told me he’d sweep me off my feet with a crowbar.”

Jason laughed. “Hey, it worked, didn’t it?”

They didn't take long to warm up after that. They were all still so confused on how you made your way there, but they liked you.

The Manor became like a second home after that, considering how often you'd visit. You would help around, goof or just lay there late at night when some were on patrol.

Damian, on the other hand, took the longest to adjust. Jason didn't try to get you two to warm up, because he didn't really want to. He knew how Damian was.

But you made your way to his heart, too.

Well, he secretly started calling you “Sister” when no one was listening. And it made your heart melt. He always acted nice towards you when his siblings were out of earshot.

Jason knew, though. But he swore not to tease Damiam, just for the sake of him not getting mad at you. ❤️

SJJSJSJSJSJ MY BABYYYYY 💗😭

[im-not-corrupted]

welcome misunderstandings - Jayce/Viktor

Tags: Piltover Galas and Parties (Arcane: League of Legends), Set in Season 01 Between Act 01 and Act 02 (Arcane: League of Legends), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Misunderstandings, First Kiss, no beta we die like men

Summary:

Jayce accidentally gives the impression that Viktor is his partner in every sense of the word, not just Hextech.

They work things out with a kiss.

Read on ao3!

Viktor has not attended any fundraising galas in quite some time.

It is not because he does not get invited to them—Jayce always extends the invitation when he gets them. While it started as Jayce's dream, it is now theirs; he wants Viktor to share the spotlight with him, like he deserves. None of it would've been possible without him, not a single bit.

Piltover does not seem to understand this, much to Jayce's own frustration. Most sponsers and potential investors he meets are under the impression that Jayce is the sole brain behind Hextech, that it is his genius that made it happen. This is only half true, and it grates on him each and every time.

Unfortunately, there is only so many times he can put a fake smile upon his face and correct them—"My partner helped, it's his creation too"—only to be ignored before his patience grows thin.

And thin it has gotten; he leaves this gala with a particular kind of frustration festering in his veins.

Though he doesn't know the reason why, he does know that Viktor does not enjoy the galas. He prefers to keep to the lab, keep to the more practical work.

The two of them only discussed it once; after their ideas were announced to the public, as excitement began to grow for their brilliant, impossible dream of Hextech. Eh, you are…better with the public stuff, Viktor had said with a half-hearted shrug. Well-liked, too. I'm better suited down here.

Jayce understands. After the many, many galas he has attended, he fucking understands. It's frustrating, the fact that he has to paint Hextech as something that might bring in money, that has the potential to line the pockets of aristocrats whose pockets were already lined with gold. It is not what either of them wanted, when Viktor approached him in his old, blown-up lab with a proposal of working together on the work that was nearly stolen from Jayce due to his own foolishness.

They wanted—they still want—to bring Hextech to the people. To make lives better, to fix the problems the Councillors seem unable to see and fix themselves. Piltover simply wouldn't let them, and fundraising—and thus, galas—are obnoxious hurdles they have to go through to achieve what they want.

It is what it is. Jayce only wishes that Viktor's determination to remain in the lab, working late into the night, instead of meeting potential investors with him, didn't inevitably lead to Viktor being written out of the story.

He knows that's not what Viktor wants, too. So after a too-long night of faux politeness and pointed barbs from Salo about how his partner hasn't shown up, again and correcting yet more aristocrats on the nature of his partnership in relation to Hextech, he brings it up. Unfortunately, the champagne he consumed has given him a pleasant buzzing in his veins, one that makes him feel a little—reckless, perhaps. He typically wouldn't bring it up otherwise, because Viktor is so Viktor. Stubborn, immoveable.

Jayve loves that about him, even if it does get a bit frustrating. It is an important part about his partner and he would not wish for anything else, even if sometimes he hopes that—just this once—Viktor might be inclined to accept help when his leg hurt, that he might let Jayce in instead of dealing with everything by himself.

Stubborn, and immoveable, and so fucking determined.

"Viktor," he begins that night. Perhaps he should've gone home after the gala—it was late, quickly approaching midnight, and he had more work to do come morning—but something in him just…couldn't. There is too much fire in his veins and too many questions in his head and he doesn't imagine he'll get much sleep anyway, not with this particular problem floating about in his head.

Coming to the lab was the obvious choice, and Jayce is already glad he made it. Viktor, naturally, has been awake the entire time and still works now. He'd spared a curious glance at the door upon Jayce's entrance, and a greeting, before turning to his work once more.

Jayce wonders if he's had anything to eat. Wonders when he last slept. Stops himself from asking those questions out loud, because he's learned that asking after Viktor's health makes him look…not annoyed, not angry. Frustrated. Makes him clench his jaw and look away from Jayce with something like shame in his gaze.

"Yes, Jayce?" He does not look up from his work as he speaks, but that's okay. Viktor's always been good at multitasking.

"Why don't you come to the galas with me?"

The question is clearly a surprise; he sees it in the sudden stiffness of Viktor's shoulders and the momentary pause in his work, before he sets down his pen and swivels in his chair to face Jayce. "You know why."

He thinks he should. He should know why. Should've asked more questions, when Viktor began declining invites. "Tell me again, then."

His partner sighs in a way that suggests he doesn't really want to have this conversation. "I am a cripple from Zaun. They do not look at me the same way they look at you."

"They don't know you," Jayce says softly. "You're brilliant, Viktor. Anybody can tell that after just one conversation with you!"

"They don't want to see my brilliance, my part in Hextech. I am not the perfect poster boy for Hextech, not like you are, Man of Progress."

There's a sharpness to Viktor's words. Jayce frowns, because he never…never noticed any of this, honestly. But perhaps that is his failing. Perhaps he needs to do better.

"You deserve credit for Hextech, too." You deserve to be more than a footnote in our story, he doesn't say, because he knows Viktor's feelings on legacies. On his own legacy, and how he will be remembered. It is important to him. Jayce wouldn't play that card against him. "I want people to know you're my partner. I want them to know this is our creation, not mine." I want them to stop erasing you.

Silence falls over them. Viktor's expression is carefully blank. Once upon a time, Jayce used to think his partner unreadable like this, but over time he's learned. Learned to identify the look in his eye when he's truly, genuinely considering something, and to not mistake it for having accidentally pissed him off.

"This…matters to you," his partner says eventually. It's careful, prodding.

Jayce thinks, it does to you, too, but says, "Yes."

Shoulders slumping, Viktor sighs. "I will go to the next gala with you. If it will satisfy you."

A smile beams across Jayce's face. It's more than he imagined to get out of this, honestly, and he's glad for it.

+

The next gala rolls around far too quickly for Jayce's liking, though at least this time, attending is made easier by Viktor's presence beside him.

He's excited, perhaps more so than he should be. Really, he's just happy that Viktor will finally, finally be given the credit he is due. Jayce is more than willing to give him all the credit for the wonder and brilliance of his mind—but he thinks Viktor deserves it from the rest of the world, too.

Though he didn't make any such request—Viktor wouldn't dare, too determined to take on the rest of the world by himself if it meant he didn't have to ask for help—Jayce sticks by Viktor for most of the night, providing what he hopes is a solid rock of support by his side. It's glaringly obvious, at least to him, that his partner isn't exactly comfortable here, and Jayce understands—as a newer face to these things, he has been the subject of many stares.

"They're like vultures," Viktor grumbles as he grabs another flute of champagne from a passing waiter with a murmured thank you. This champagne is downed as fast as the others; Jayce wonders if his plan is to get too drunk he can't remember this come morning, and hopes that isn't the case.

The comparison is quite apt, honestly. Jayce always feels similarly. It's easier with Viktor by his side—one person who doesn't want something from him.

Sticking by Viktor inevitably gave him the joy of introducing his partner properly. It brought him some kind of satisfaction, to give Viktor this. The acknowledgement.

"Jayce Talis," an unfamiliar voice interrupts, and beside him, Viktor tenses. "The Man of Progress himself! I've been looking for you."

Jayce hasn't a single clue who this person is; he figures that doesn't really matter, either. The man clearly has money—he's very good at flaunting it, with his expensive, tailor-made clothes—and anybody who calls him the Man of Progress approaches him for Hextech.

A potential investor, then.

"It's lovely to meet you. Is there anything I can help you with?"

"Why, yes. I've been meaning to talk to you about Hextech's future with you for a while now—your creation is incredible! Certainly, it has a lot of potential here in Piltover—"

"Our creation," Jayce interrupts, and the flash of satisfaction that flares when the man's eyes shine in brief outrage at the interruption is so worth whatever they might lose.

"Pardon?"

With pride strong enough to topple mountains, Jayce gestures to Viktor, who seems to have been watching this exchange with blatant amusement. "This is Viktor. My partner, the other half of Hextech. Without him, none of this would even be possible."

"I'm sure," the man murmurs, sizing Viktor up. "It is an honour to meet you too, Viktor."

"And yourself," Viktor replies, with the air of somebody who doesn't really mean it. There is a reason Jayce is typically the one to attend these things; Viktor hasn't the patience for politics and fake niceties.

It means the world that he chose to turn up to this one. Even if Jayce had to convince him to do so. It wasn't a hardship.

Before anybody can say anything else, they're soon interrupted by Mel, who says simply, "Jayce. Might I have a word?"

"Of course, Councillor." He shoots Viktor an apologetic look, who, in turn, glares at him with enough fire that it might've killed a lesser man.

Mel, never one to miss something, assures, "I'll steal him only for a few moments. Come, Jayce."

With a look he hopes says I'm so sorry, Jayce turns to follow, falling into step besides her. "Is everything alright?"

"Oh, yes. Only, I wished to talk to you about a…misunderstanding." She inclines her head forward. "Viktor has not been present for one of these in quite some time. And many seem to be under the impression that he is your husband, not just your lab partner."

And just like that, Jayce's mind short-circuits.

Husband?

His husband?

Somehow, somewhere, Jayce has apparently gone very, very wrong. Wrong enough to have somehow foolishly implied that Viktor is his husband.

He is not sure how he managed that. And truthfully, he doesn't hate the idea. Likes the way it sounds, actually—and that, he will analyse later, when he's alone and can think about the implications.

"How?" he asks meekly, and he just knows his face burns that much more when Mel raises a brow that suggests the answer is very much obvious. "Viktor is—he's my partner only in Hextech. Not—not my husband."

As well-versed in politics as she is, Mel does not do something so undignified as laugh. But she does find the situation entertaining; he recognises the slight smile that graces her face. "I know that. Everybody else, apparentlym does not."

He only just stops himself from groaning out loud. "How do I…" Somehow, he has to stop Viktor from finding out. What if Viktor thinks it intentional? And then he hates Jayce, and he loses the best partnership he's ever had, and—

His heart drops to his stomach. Fuck. He has to fix this.

"You'll figure it out," Mel assures him, and he's grateful for her more than he could possibly state right now.

"I have to find Viktor."

+

Though he'd left Viktor alone for a handful of moments—not even a fulll five minutes, if he had to guess!—the man had somehow managed to disappear entirely, sending a bolt of panic that seres only to make him move faster through his veins. Thankfully, he manages to brush off any other interactions with a quick and easy, I'm sorry, I'm looking for my partner, and realises just how he gave so many the wrong impression.

In the end, he finds Viktor away from everybody else lurking in a shadowed corner with another flute of champagne. He looks up as Jayce approaches, face carefully unreadable.

"Hey, Vik," he says, and prays to whatever higher being may exist that somehow Viktor hasn't already discovered his very stupid mistake. "Should we get out of here? I think I need some air, do you need some air? There's a balcony over there, if you want to join me."

Admittedly, he doesn't really have a plan. And coming up with one on the fly isn't really working, if the way Viktor's eyes flash in concern is any indication. "What has gotten into you?" his partner asks, but he follows Jayce still, regardless of said concern.

Thank god for that. Maybe if he gets Viktor away from the prying eyes and misunderstandings, none of this has to be a problem. Maybe he's lucky, and nobody has mentioned it to him, and all his worrying is for nothing.

"Nothing has gotten into me!" he says, but his voice is perhaps higher than it should be for somebody who's perfectly fine. The fresh air, at least, helps calm him down. A soothing balm against his frayed nerves.

Viktor remains unconvinced, he can see that. Jayce is grateful for the fact that he doesn't push, unsure what he might say. The entire gala believes we're married. Probably because I speak of you very highly. That, or I forget to call you my business partner and often skip straight to partner.

Now that he thinks about it, he doesn't really blame anybody for the conclusion they came to. He has…not been subtle, has he? Though he's never admitted it to himself, a rather large part of him has always admired Viktor. How could he not? He's brilliant, with his sharp mind and sharper wit and dry humour, with all his well-earned confidence. Truly, he's the best lab partner Jayce could've asked for, and he's never been quiet about it. Why would he?

My husband, he thinks again, and it fits nicely. Too nicely. In another, different timeline, perhaps it was more than a hypothetical misunderstanding. Perhaps.

"Is this about most of our potential investors being under the impression that we are married?" Viktor asks suddenly, amusement dancing in his eyes and a smirk upon his face.

Jayce does not hate the idea of being married to him. He really doesn't. He thinks he is rather unlucky to be in a timeline where he isn't. "No! Well, yes." He sighs, a heavy thing, and rubs the back of his neck sheepishly. "Listen, I'm…sorry. I didn't mean to…You're my partner! And I'm proud of our work together and I hated when people brushed you aside and I should've been more aware of my wording, I guess. I just wanted your part in Hextech to be acknowledged too! I didn't mean for people to think we were married."

Curiously, Viktor tilts his head. There's something in his gaze, sharp and analytical. "You don't need to defend me like so. I am more than capable of taking care of myself."

Snorting, Jayce nods. "Obviously." He has been the unfortunate victim of Viktor's cane early on in their partnership when he made the mistake of offering help during a bad pain day. He'd learned, since then, to wrap offers of help in a desire to be useful—it's not about Viktor, it's about Jayce, about his way of showing care.

Viktor sees through it. Of course he does. But he knows it's not entirely a lie, that Jayce does like to make himself helpful, so he begrudgingly allows Jayce to do small tasks for him on occasion.

Independence is important to him. And he's more than capable of taking care of himself, that much Jayce has never doubted.

"I know. Just…you weren't there. And you matter. To…to Hextech. And to me. You're my partner." He sighs again. "I do wish I hadn't let everybody believe we were married, though. I'll have to figure out how to…fix that."

A frown, faint but there. "Is it so terrible, to be fake-married to me, Jayce?"

"What? No, no!" He shakes his head frantically, eyes wide. "Only, I thought—I thought you wouldn't want people to think you were married to me! I—"

Without another word, Viktor crosses the distance between them and cuts him off with the press of his lips against Jayce's, and for a moment, the world staggers to a halt. Because Viktor is kissing him, and it's so unexpected yet so welcome. He's warm and soft but determined, as unyielding in this as he is in everything else, and it takes nothing at all to kiss him back when the world restarts itself and he finds himself in control of his body once more.

"You," Viktor breathes when he pulls back, "are a foolish man, Jayce Talis."

"And you should kiss me again," Jayce suggests.

Viktor wastes no time doing so. Jayce doesn't know what this means for the two of them, but that's okay. That's for them to figure out later—and, Gods, he can't wait to find out.

[lvrhughes]

Always Injured | A. Xhekaj

pairing: Arber Xhekaj x gn!reader

word count: 3.2k

warnings: injury?

summary: As the teams medic you see many players, but Arber most. So you make him promise one game to not get hurt, where he breaks the promise for a good reason

not my gif!

You being the team medic meant you saw certain players a lot, one of them being Arber Xhekaj. He was beautiful, anyone with eyes could see that, so blossomed your affection towards him. 

You loved him. As blunt as that, you fell for him and every time he’d come see you bloody and bruised it broke your heart.

Every practice for the last week Arber had been coming to see you, whether he’d actually been hurt or if he wanted to ask you questions. He seemed very interested in learning how to take care of himself lately, coming into your office just to ask more questions he hadn’t asked earlier. 

You gladly taught him and let him ask as many questions as he desired, loving the time with him, and when would you get another chance to teach an nhl player basic first aid? Probably never so you took the chance with open arms. 

“Hey Y/n/n” you looked up to see Arber at the door of your office, quickly noticing the blood on his nose.

“Oh God, Arber what happened?” you were quick to walk up to him, pulling him down to see if his nose was broken. 

“I got hit in the face with a puck.”

That was the third time this week. 

“You’re really unlucky this week, huh?” you teased, seeing a small smile cover his face. You had grabbed a clean cloth to wipe the blood away and just a bandaid, he hadn’t broken anything, just a small cut. 

“Sit.” you instructed, gesturing the tall man to the other side of the room where chairs and a bed were, he chose to sit in a chair. Making life easier for you, he sat in the shortest chair, allowing you to tower over him like he usually did to you. 

You wiped away the blood, seeing the way he melted towards your touch, and disinfected the area to put the bandaid on.

“Done.” you smiled, rinsing the cloth out before throwing it towards a bin of dirty cloths you had. 

“That’s it?” He sounded a little disappointed.

“Yep, unless you want to talk about something else. All you did today was achieve a small cut.”

“Do you got anything else you can teach me?”

You nodded before looking at the time.

“Arber, you should get back to practice, there’s still an hour left. You can come back after and I'll teach you.” 

He groaned but got up to go back to practice, but not before promising he’d be back after. So you spend the hour typing out any email you needed to, waiting for his arrival. None the less he showed up in your office 40 minutes after practice had ended. 

“Sorry for taking so long, I put my gear in my car too today.”

“It’s okay Arber, if it wasn’t I would've left already.” you laugh, he laughed at the joke too, still thankful you hadn’t actually left. 

The next two hours were spent teaching Arber about whatever he asked, seeing his joy when you told him he could try certain things on one of your dummies, and learning his mannerisms. You were so focused on him, the way when he was nervous his leg would bounce up and down and he’d run his hands through his hair, and when he was happy it was almost like he was always fighting the urge to bounce up and down. 

“Y/n?” you were snapped out of your gaze when his hand swiped in front of your face.

“Sorry.” you mumbled, a little embarrassment flooding you. 

“It’s okay,” He accepted and continued with his original questions. You had shown him how to try something on one of the dummies before letting him try, returning to your desk to watch. You didn’t mean to basically fall asleep, you wanted to watch him, make sure he had everything right but when you leaned your head against your arms you passed out.

You woke up by gentle shaking and a soft voice saying your name over and over. You groaned, despite how uncomfortable sleeping on a desk was, you didn’t want to wake up.

“Come on y/n/n, let’s get you home.” You opened your eyes to be met with Arber, about two inches away from your face. 

A little stunned you blinked a few times before sitting up, he backed slightly away. 

“What?” you asked, still a bit dazed from just waking up. 

“Let’s go home.” he was still gentle with his voice, not wanting to be too loud.

“No, I've got to catch a train or bus home,” you looked at the time to check, “the next one will be here in 20 minutes.” you deemed, sitting up more and stretching your arms.

“No, come with me, I'll drive you home, okay?”

It was such a tempting offer, be with Arber for extra time and get home faster, there were no cons.

“Fine.” 

So he drove you home, getting a little ‘lost’ to spend extra time with you. 

“Can I drive you to the game tomorrow?” 

You nodded too tired to think about tomorrow yet, so when you nodded he took it as a sign to message you in the morning to check that you still remembered and that he should walk you to your door before you fall asleep on the sidewalk. 

He got out quickly, walking over to the passenger side, opening your door, and gently helping you out. 

He’s so big yet so gentle. Your tired mind could only focus on that, how he was huge but so gentle. Until playing hockey, then he wasn’t so gentle. He walked you to your door, his arm around your waist. 

“I’ll see you tomorrow.”

You nodded again, reaching forward to unlock your house door, and bidding him goodnight. As soon as you made it to your bed you passed out, luckily, your alarms were already set. When the first one went off at 7:00 you wanted nothing more than to slam it off and go back to sleep, but you knew you had work. So sadly you woke up, turning off your alarm and checking last night's notifications. 

‘I’ll pick you up at 4 for the game:)’ from Arber Xhekaj, read on your screen. You barely remembered nodding at him but it was still slightly there, him asking to drive you tomorrow, you nodding in your sleepy state. So you answered him, just a simple ‘okay:)’. 

Now you had to figure out what emails and paperwork you had left to do today. There wasn’t much left, only about 5 emails left and a page of paperwork, so you were ready and waiting early. 

Arber was there right at 4, like he said, coming to the door and knocking, not prepared for you to answer so quickly. 

“Hi.” while waiting for Arber, you decided you’d make some coffee to go along with the energy drink you had that morning. Now you were bouncing off the walls. 

“Hi, you’re very awake right now.” he laughed, seeing your smile and inability to stand still right now. 

“I just made some coffee, did you want some?”

“No, I think I'm good. I’ve got my drink for the game and my hands full now keeping you away from any more caffeine.”

You giggled, following him to his car, skipping behind him. It wasn’t a long drive to the arena, but it was nice, you and him singing song lyrics together. It was fun then you had to get into the arena. Fans already outside and the parking lot filling up, Arber pulled into the private parking area. He led the way in, showing you the path where there wouldn’t be any fans trying to crowd you two. 

You bid him a slight goodbye when you trailed off to go to your office while Arber continued to the locker rooms, you set your monitor up to show the game while sorting through some papers you found lying on your desk. There was a small knock before Arber came in, wearing all his gear, to see you before the game. 

It was a short conversation, you pleading with Arber not to get hurt this game, ending with a hug and a ‘good luck’ to Arber right before he bolted from the room, seeing he was almost late to get on the ice. 

It wasn’t too harsh of a game, no one really intending to hurt anyone. No tripping, no pushing, it was almost too peaceful, you knew something would snap at some point, there was almost never a game this calm. 

You loved Arber, but god did he frustrate you. He didn’t seem to care in the slightest what happened to him and it drove you crazy. When the other team began shoving and tripping somehow Arber was always there, as if he intended to get hurt. 

When he dropped his gloves to fight you nearly lost it, having decided to fight the biggest player on the opposing team, it looked like an even fight. Arber got many good hits, but so did the other player, landing one square to Arber’s cheek, nearly his eye. Both their helmets were knocked somewhere on the ice, too busy hitting each other to care. When the refs got them apart Arber was bloodied and bruises were already forming, you didn’t expect him to be so hurt, he was a good fighter, yet tonight he seemed to have met his match. The other player didn’t look much better though, huffing when he was pulled off Arber, who he had pinned to the ice, and skating away to his team. Arber, still being led by the ref, skated over towards you, standing behind the bench. 

He let out a breath of air when he reached you, his figure visibly relaxing around you. That didn’t last for long, as soon as you had him in your office, you had him wishing he stayed on the ice. You paced around your office, he sat in a chair, head-down.

“How could you do this! Arber, I asked you not to get injured, just one game! I’m going to tell the team to bench you if you can’t stay out of my office, God Arber.” you took a breath, "I know you don't care if you get hurt but I do! I really fucking care if you get hurt!"

That seemed to really get his attention. His head shot up at you, his saddened puppy-dog look fading fast. The way his head-down sad look on his face switched to staring directly at you in wide-eyed confusion was almost head spinning.

“What?” he sounded as confused as he looked, it was almost enough to make you laugh, but your anger at the careless boy was stronger.

“Arber, I care for you. You can’t get hurt every fucking game and not expect me to be mad. For God’s sake Arber, I love you.” the words just slipped out before you could realize what you were telling him. His eyes lit up a little at the words, while yours widened in panic. 

“Shit.” you mumbled, trying to move on you began searching for the things you need to clean Arber up. 

You walked back to him, lightly grabbing his face to angle him to clean up some blood. You could feel the way he still melted against your touch, that was a little comforting. 

“Y/n?” His voice was quiet, unusual for him.

“Hmm?” you hummed back, still cleaning his wounds.

“Can I kiss you?” you froze in shock, letting your hands drop from his face. He took the moment of shock as the perfect moment to stand, leaving him towering over you again.

He wrapped his arms around your waist, pulling you into him. You looked up at him, his eyes showed that he was still waiting for an answer, you nodded. 

He leaned down, your arms wrapped around his neck, tangling into his hair, you pushed up onto your tiptoes, helping lessen the distance. His lips were soft against yours, fitting against yours like a puzzle piece, the taste of blood lingering. You ran your hands through his hair until you had to pull away for air, leaning your forehead against his. 

“I love you.” he was the first to speak, sending butterflies through you.

“I love you too.” He smiled, he was practically glowing. 

“But let’s get you cleaned up and out of my office.” you giggled, pushing him back down into his chair. 

You took his hand, grabbing the cloth you had dropped to wipe his bloody knuckles. Walking away to grab other equipment, he tried to pull you back against him.

“Arber, come on here. Work with me, we’ve got to get you back on the ice.”

He groaned in response, letting you grab what you needed. Nothing was broken or fractured, but there was lots of blood. There was a little cut just below his eye, so as best you could for the awkward area, you covered it and the other cut on his face. 

“Okay, go back out now.” 

“Nooo” He whined, pulling you against him again, his arms tight against you.

“Arber, come on. Just another 20 minutes and you can come back.” 

His groan in reply, stated he didn’t like that answer.

“But I don't want to leave my baby.” He mumbled out, fitting his head in the crook of your neck.

“I’m your baby now?”

He just nodded, still nuzzling closer to you. You, after leaving him for a minute, pushed him off you.

“Go, go.” you shooed him out, his groans following him down the halls. You followed behind a minute later, locking your office and throwing the used items away or to be washed. When you made it back to the doors, Arber was still standing there.

“I thought I told you to go back to the ice?”

He just grinned, grabbing waist to pull you in for a kiss. 

“Needed a goodluck kiss.” he mumbled when he pulled away before pressing his lips against yours again. You pushed him back, making him whine in response.

“You're very whiny today,” you giggled, “Now back on the ice.” you pointed to the ice, making him walk onto it slowly. You followed behind, staying behind the bench while he sat down. 

You stood behind him until he was back on the ice to play, the other player back too. You had no idea what the other player said when he went up to Arber but clearly it was not good. The last fight had been fighting for the team but this one, it was personal. After those words the opposing player said, he snapped, lunging at him. Bringing him to the ground and punching hard, the other player trying to retaliate but being unable. The refs pulled Arber off the player, almost getting hit in the process and kicked him from the game. He stormed out, you looked to the coach, letting him clear you to follow him.

You walked into the change rooms, not bothering knocking knowing Arber was the only one in there. He was angrily shoving things in his bag, some of his things thrown around the room. 

“Baby,” you cooed, keeping a quiet voice, “what happened?”

He turned to look at you, his knuckles bloodied again and his eyes bloodshot. He practically fell into you, wrapping your arms around him to keep him up. 

“I love you, I’m so sorry.” he mumbled, leaving a bit of confusion to bubble. 

“What’re you sorry for, baby?” he left out a sob, it was muffled by your shoulder, that he had his head on.

“He saw us and he started chirping me for it, it was fine at first, his chirps were weak. Then he started talking about how you're so pretty, maybe he’ll take you for himself and-” his words were cut off by his own ragged breathing.

“Breathe, pretty boy, breathe with me.” you put his hand on your chest getting him to breathe in sync with you. 

“He said some fucked up things and i couldn’t take it. You’re too good for him, hell even me.”

“Hey, hey, don’t say that. I’m not ‘too good’ for you, I love you and I think you’re perfect for me so how does that make me too good for you?”

“You think I'm perfect for you?”

You giggled a little at what he took out from your words, but answered none the less.

“Yes baby, I think you’re perfect for me.”

He had a small smile on his lips now, leaning back into you to kiss you again. You kissed him until he calmed down, then you helped him put his things away. By the time you had all of his things away, the rest of the team came trickling in. On a high from the win, they were loud, partying and yelling. It made you realize why you never came in here, aside from this being where they all got changed. 

You and Arber were quick to leave when they poured in, letting them party and change without you two. You walked with Arber to your office, him following you in. 

“You can go home if you want, you know. You don’t need to follow me.”

“I want to.” was his answer, completely following you around your office as you picked up what you needed to bring home. 

“You know,” he started, a flirty tone could be heard in his words, “there’s no games or practice tomorrow.” 

You turned to him with a small smile, his eyes held a playful look when you caught them.

“What’re you implying I do with that information?”

“Stay with me tonight.”

He was so straight forward it was almost scary, but you loved it, but you knew you shouldn't. 

“Arber, I’ve got some work I should do an-”

“No, you can do your work at my place.” 

“I don’t have any clothes.”

“You can wear mine, or we’ll stop at yours and get you clothes.”

“I take transit home.”

“I’ll drive you.”

Fuck, he had every answer to every hypothetical problem you had. 

“Fine.”

He smiled so wide, you could’ve sworn he’d explode of joy soon. He picked you up with ease, spinning  the both of you. Giggles filled the room, the sound was angletic to him, praying he’d hear it everyday. 

The ride to his house was peaceful, filled with soft music and his hand laying on your thigh the entire time. He was quick to get out of his car when you arrived, running over to your side to pick you up and carry you in. He left kisses anywhere he could while carrying you in, making you giggle the whole walk in. 

It was a good night, you two had watched a movie, barely paying attention, too caught up in eachother. Later in the night he’d offer you a t-shirt and boxers to sleep in, his breath getting caught in his throat when you walked out in the pair. Realizing quickly he hadn’t yet confirmed you were yours, he asked you to be his, the obvious answer yes. 

The two of you slept peacefully in each other's arms, the best sleep of your lifes, as he said in the morning. The entire rest of the next day spent with each other, always touching, even while you finished work, he was always with you. Most of the time littering kisses on your body, wherever he could reach.

[intimacyequalsdeath]

Will you be my Valentine? Sugar day 3 Charles Lee Ray

Welcome everyone to day 3! This if you can't tell was a very last minute event decision for me to make but none the less I hope you all are enjoying it! As usual a master list for easy access will be posted when the even is over.

Notes: Minors DNI, SFW, No specific descriptions of reader or pronouns are used, Y/N isn't used either. If pronouns do have to be used then the reader will go by they/them. This fic doesn't really follow canon with the timeline of when Chucky became the doll to make it work so just keep that in mind.

"So like, Do you need to eat still?"

"What?"

"I mean you're like a doll and all now, do you still need to eat?"

"Look babe, I've only been at this whole doll thing for like a week now don't ask me stupid shit"

"Have you tried to eat?"

Chucky sighs, a long, hard, overexaggerated sigh and pressing his small doll fingers to the bridge of the rubber nose on his new found face. He's propped up on a few phone books in your living room that help him to see the tv better from the couch.

"No. I haven't. Just cause I'm a doll now doesn't mean shit. I'm still The Lakeshore Strangler"

"Well maybe you should then. Valentine's day is coming up and I swear Chuck if you don't eat the dinner I make you for the THIRD year in a row."

"Hey I've only missed it the last two years cause I had to lay low from the cops."

"And who's fault is that? Maybe you should've been more careful"

"Well if you could actually know how to fuckin' drive. I would've been able to have you as the getaway driver"

You gasped in faux shock and placed a hand on your chest as you stared at him. A sly grin overtook the doll's face and he stared right back at you, ripping his eyes away from the television.

"I can drive!"

"Yeah, drive us off the fuckin road. Look babe not everyone is meant to drive"

"Charles Lee Ray! How dare you insinuate that I can't drive. Don't make me remind you of that time you almost ran us into a tree while you were running from the cops"

"Oh please that was ONE time. Plus we didn't actually hit the damn thing did we?"

"We almost did though, and that's enough for me"

"Yeah yeah, whatever"

He turned back to old school movie that was playing on his tv, it was a murder mystery go figure and you were almost 100 percent certain it was one of his favorites from when he was alive, well as a human that is.

"Can I dress you up for Valentine's day?" you asked after a few beats of silence.

"Can you do fuckin what?"

"Dress you up, ya know like in those costumes they have the teddy bears wear"

He shot you a deadpanned look, clearly unimpressed.

"No, stay the fuck away from me with any teddy bear dress up bullshit"

"But if you can't wear an actual suit for dinner why not wear a teddy bear one?"

"Who said I'm going to dress up at all?"

"It's Valentine's day! You have to dress up!"

"No the fuck I don't"

"Sure Chuck"

You remarked, standing up from the couch and heading towards the hallway to go to bed. You heard shuffling behind you as Chucky got down off his phonebooks to follow you.

"Your not puttin me in a fucking costume" He muttered from behind you.

"Mmhmm"

You opened the bedroom door and made your way to the attached bathroom to do your usual nighttime routine. Once you were done you made your way over to the bed that Chucky had already made himself comfortable in and laid down next to him.

"What color do you want your costume to be?"

Chucky sighed and swore under his breath.

"Do. Not. Get. Me. A. Costume."

"No Chucky, of course not Chucky"

Soon the two of you were lulled into sleep, or at least whatever semblance of sleep a possessed doll could achieve. When Chucky woke up the next day there were two things he noticed.

One you were obviously not in bed next to him and two was in your place on your pillow there was a dress suit. A suit that just happened to be about the size of a teddy bear.

[soulsdontbreaktheybeeend]

What I need to get off my chest about Joker 2

When I left the movie theater I was incredibly angry and disappointed. Now, a few days later, I still am, but it feels like I shouldn't be.

Todd always wanted a different Joker. Something close to reality. He achieved that in the first movie. And now even more so in the second. As painful as it is, as bitter as it is, because we love Arthur. But it's absolutely realistic. That's what tugs at my heartstrings. I've always sympathized with Arthur because of his story and the messed up society. I still do. But that's also what feels like a huge slap in the face throughout the second part. All the scenes from the first movie where you feel sorry for him are nothing compared to the sequel. It couldn't be tougher. Close to reality.

If I could have wished for it, Lee would have been understanding and loved Arthur and not just Joker. If I could have wished for it, she would have been the classic psychologist who actually falls for him and breaks him out. All that drawn out in one long ass movie. In a psychological depth, like the story in the first movie. They break out at the end. The end. That was my dream ever since I heard that there was going to be a Harley Quinn.

If I put my own ideas to one side, then the plot of Joker 2 itself is admittedly really brilliant. It's always been bad for Arthur. All his life. And Joker 2 just goes one "better" in that respect. Really bad, so that it just hurts and leaves you depressed. Because, unlike the first movie, he doesn't get his moment, he can't show off. He can't "shine". None of that happens and it's just a horrible downward spiral for him. Which is indeed just realistic.

I found some of the movie too modern. Nothing against Lady Gaga, I thought her performance was good, but her botox lips distracted me. She generally seemed too modern for the time. I felt that way about some things in the movie. Even Sophie seemed strangely too modern this time.

In general, the whole movie was so wild, rushed, sometimes mixed up and then somehow without that certain something, something was missing. The depth. Joker 1 had so much depth. There was so much meaning in every scene. I missed that this time. Arthur wasn't very tangible for me. And every time I thought, now it's going to happen, now I'm getting the feeling that I can grasp him, I can feel him, then I was ripped out again. I don't know if that was the general intention, so that you don't sympathize with him as a murderer in a realistic way. And I don't know if it's just because I haven't seen the sequel a hundred times like I did the first.

Also this guy who then stabs him. He has what... 3 short scenes in which he's in, keeps an eye on Arthur and grins slyly? Makes no sense? But then again, that's the "irony" of the movie. He comes out of nowhere, like Arthur himself. Maybe he watched everything Joker did on TV in prison. He idolizes him and his deeds because he too feels neglected and unseen by society, obviously mentally ill. It's fucking my brain.

I still don't know how I'm supposed to feel. This realism of the movie and all the fiction I've experienced with Arthur put me in an incredibly difficult situation. It's like head versus heart. My head understands why they chose the plot and it makes sense, but my heart is angry, disappointed and broken.

I don't know yet if I will watch the movie in a cinema again or not. I kind of want to, to get more details and stuff, but on the other hand I don't know if I can take it.

I hope I will find the muse to make a few edits. I would love to write again. Like that whole thing how I wished it would've happened. Or like idk he survives and y/n and him meet at the hospital. But it just seems stupid rn and I'm still not finished with processing it all.

[sepublic]

When it comes to my own Ninjago fanon, I like to interpret the Overlord as like. This dark, deeply jaded god. He is sensitive to the darkness in the hearts of others, he can see into someone's innermost, worst thoughts and feelings and desires, and it sickens him because it's the majority of what he sees due to his nature, so to him he sees the 'truth' of people.

Because of his godly status, he's detached from mortals and as a result it's easier to make grand, sweeping decisions for them because of that distance. He's very lonely, and hurt; He finds it difficult and pointless to connect with mortals and their short-lived lives. He's made Kozu and Cryptor, but they're minions designed to serve him, so it's not the same, plus he admittedly does take their lives for granted as kind of lesser.

He envies the Golden Dragon for finding its champion in the First Spinjitzu Master, who sided with it instead of him; There's nobody who understands the Overlord's unique existence and dilemma. He resents the Golden Dragon getting to keep their hands clean, while the Overlord must commit the dirty work that must be done, and be vilified for it. He's disillusioned with free will. When the Overlord senses Garmadon's hesitation over Lloyd in S2, he feels there will be an inevitable betrayal and decides to preemptively strike first, rather than risk being the one hurt. He thought he found someone who understood, who knew what it was like to be cursed with the role of the villain, but not quite.

Pythor was more his vibe, though he seemed more inclined to just lash out and destroy, not ultimately preserve. But so was the Overlord, who refused to accept the injustices of this world and their possibility, under no conditions, until what he has achieved has basically been a violent tantrum over the unfairness of it all. He has a paradoxical disdain, concern, and pity for mortals.

He comes to Harumi because he resonates with her, sees himself in her, as someone also failed by Garmadon, who wasn't who he thought he was. Someone deeply disappointed by the failures and broken promises of 'good' to vanquish evil, someone lonely who was cast out and dejected, and whose only true ally was a mindless minion they created.

When Harumi has reservations about the carnage, the Overlord quietly speaks to her, assuming a gentler, more personal paternal role to her than Garmadon in his half-formed state did; He genuinely wants to connect and make this work, but he's also an ancient god who doesn't quite understand mortals and can only see the big picture. He points out to Harumi that the ninja defeated him twice, and how did that turn out in the end?

More violence, more destruction, more villains threatening lives and the peace. If the ninja had just let the Overlord commence with his plans to spread his influence and control everyone with, none of this would've happened; The death would've actually been worth it. How many children like her, other Harumis, have also been orphaned because of incidents such as Aspheera or Kalmaar's invasions of Ninjago City? The ninja did their best, but people died. Children were orphaned. Can Harumi bear the thought of others like her coming into being? It must've already happened, multiple times.

But the Overlord lashes out when she finally defies him; He feels betrayed. He tells Harumi that she was nothing but a scared child cowering for cover when he found her, and that's how she'll die. He spitefully reminds Harumi that as he said; There must be other children, orphaned because of the ninjas' failure. He can always find another champion in them instead. The Overlord laments that everyone always leaves him, and he is truly alone. His love is a violent, painful one that feels too much and doesn't know how to control itself, he is all emotion, dark and messy.

[justworthlessreblogs]

scattered thoughts on kirapika

this has taken me way longer than it should've tbh, i have 4 different essay drafts in my docs but none of them felt satisfactory. in the end it's probably better to make a list anyways, because there isn't really an overarching through line to any of these

putting this under a read more because it's Long. there's going to be a (much shorter, hopefully) part 2 because i hit the character limit oops

fair warning that there's going to be a lot of complaining about ciel (i don't hate her i swear i just have beef with how her character's framed in the show)

i think the most frustrating thing about their arc is the wasted potential. like they're both really great characters, there's some really great setup, and the series initially takes the angle that the conflict isn't completely black and white. and then 23 happens and rio gets kicked out of the narrative and the writers decide that actually no, ciel can't do anything wrong in her life ever because she's their precious golden child

i've said it before and i'll say it again: the coma was literally the worst decision the show could've made, because it robbed rio of basically all of his character development and it left ciel floundering around without anything to do. like genuinely when watching her episodes during the coma era i was sometimes like "...what is her arc here supposed to be again? because it really just kinda feels like she's fucking around" and it doesn't help that the writers were still on their Ciel is Morally Right in All Situations kick so any conflicts she got into were kinda boring, tbh? this usually isn't an issue for me in precure except this is a season where characters *do* fuck up (aoi, himari, yukari all had episodes where they fucked up/weren't totally in the right/did some morally gray [for precure] things in this same stretch!) so it makes ciel stick out like a sore thumb (i am still salty about 34 robbing me of an actual disagreement between ciel and yukari)

i think i mentioned it in wv 7's author's notes but episode 41 is kind of a disappointment for me. i thought the premise sounded fun (rio gets framed because of an evil clone! there's so much fun you can have with that!) but the actual execution kinda flops. we barely get any evil clone shenanigans, first of all, but my bigger issue is with the kirapika dynamic and conflict in the episode. i think it drags both of their characters down.

in 41, ciel suddenly regresses and starts being kind of an ass to her brother again, but the problem is that... she doesn't really start doing this until *after* the emotional conflict is supposedly resolved? at some point she goes "and i nearly messed it all up again" and i was like Girl. What Have You Done Up To This Point. like she's literally done *nothing*, hasn't said anything hurtful - the "worst" she's done is telling her brother that she'll go with him if he leaves, and then backtracking in private (the backtracking does feed into another issue i have, but in isolation there's nothing wrong with it! i do think it's perfectly reasonable to not want to uproot your entire life!). the actual regression comes when they're on the bridge, when ciel tells rio that they both made cure parfait

the cure parfait line is genuinely cruel. pov you are rio kuroki, you just got out of a 4 month coma 3 days ago, you got cool powers for 15 minutes but then got beat up super badly and lost them almost immediately after *and* were told you'd never be a precure (a dream that you've tried and tried to achieve but nothing ever seems to work) and then here's your sister on the bridge telling you that you both made *her* a precure and it was a super cool and awesome event when all you got out of it was that four month coma. if i was rio i would've lost my shit then and there

the line just feels so ooc for ciel to be saying at the EMOTIONAL CLIMAX??? THIS IS THE EMOTIONAL CRUX OF THE EPISODE. if it was a line that had happened early on and caused the conflict i'd be more forgiving but it *isn't* and that's why it fails! at this point she's supposed to have learned that disregarding others' feelings and thinking only about what's good for herself hurts others!

also rio once again takes the blame for everything, just like he did in 23. why is rio constantly always the bad guy in the conflict (even though the show pushed a "they both did things wrong" angle at the start) it makes their relationship feel really lopsided

their relationship just feels really lopsided overall, tbh. i think part of the problem is that we never really get any positive interactions between them in the series - we get the flashback with the waffles, and then there's that brief moment when rio comes back in 40, and ciel complimenting rio in the christmas episode but that's barely enough to go on when most of their major interactions in the present timeline are them fighting with one another. the show wants me to think that kirapika are the Best Siblings Ever but doesn't really do the work to actually *show* it, which makes it feel hollow. where are the sibling shenanigans, toei. where are the moments where they share a single brain cell. i just want kirapika sibling fluff, dammit!

part of this lopsided feeling also comes from how it feels like rio would move heaven and earth for ciel (he outright sacrifices his life. if it wasn't for luimere he'd be dead, and he had no way of knowing lumiere would intervene) but i don't get that same vibe from ciel even though the show tries acting like she would. shit happens and she's like "oh no! anyways". even a large part of her angstfest in 23 is more about her thinking that she's thrown away her chance of being a precure (it's literally one of the first things she says after julio's purified. not really a great look tbh).

lopsided 3: ciel's feelings are always seen as more valid over rio's. it's especially frustrating when rio actually does have a point (see 22-23)

honestly overall it just feels like the writers had something against rio. genuinely what the fuck did he do to them to make them toss him around like that

ciel's angstfest in 23 is really funny to me it's literally the equivalent of when you slightly mess up so you turn your discord pfp and banner all black and change your username to "gone" and claim you're never going to log on again but you're back 2 days later. i would love it if she was the one who actually broke herself out of it instead of rio and ichika having to do all the emotional labor

just... let ciel have flaws! we're shown a ciel with flaws in her introductory arc! and it's amazing! but then after 23 they all disappear and on the rare occasions where they come back they're never treated as something for her to work on, they're just there, or they're unintentional on the part of the writers. and a character without flaws obviously isn't unheard of for precure but in a season that takes great pains to remind you that its main cures are all very flawed people it feels a little jarring to have ciel never learning anything because she was in the right all along

i don't think rio becoming ciel's satellite post-coma would've annoyed me as much if we hadn't been given a taste of rio as an actual defined character during the julio arc. like once he comes back he only exists around ciel and it's a bummer because i really liked his dynamics with ichika, yukari, bibury, etc and i wanted to see more (we do get that one riobib scene in 41 but it's like 30 seconds). pretty much all of his dreams and aspirations evaporate, too, most notably The Precure One

rio's dream to become a precure never being brought up after 23 (except to be mocked by grave) is so, so jarring when it was originally a huge part of his character. 41 tries to act like he only became julio because he wasn't as good at sweets as ciel and it's like... no? wanting to become a precure was a big part of that too? sometimes i feel like 41 is an episode from some alternate universe where rio's precure dream was never part of the plot and it somehow wormed its way into ours. it'd make the cure parfait line a lot less worse if that was the case tbh

see you all in part 2 i guess

[just-here-for-the-art-shit]

Just - think about how far we've come.

A boy in a barrel, to one of the literal top baddies in the world, the mega farts of the government, boarding the Sunny. One of the five elders is on their ship. It might be a horrifying sight, but it's a sight none of them could have ever believed would happen.

Usopp, a lying boy from Syrup Village, whose tales could never have come to par with his future. Who's proved he's far stronger than he knows.

Nami, a thief fighting to buy back her village from Arlong, now a manipulator of weather, the master of one of Big Mom's Homies, with a bounty that would've paid for her village three times over, who could easily fell Arlong herself now.

Chopper, a small reindeer rejected by his kind, now, not only a doctor of the same caliber with some of the best in the world, but a fighter Wapol could never be a match for.

Sanji, "just a cook" on a ship in the East Blue called the Baratie, a "disgraced" prince, with love stretching farther than the sky, a powerhouse so selfless he saved his "family" and shoved it in their faces. Who can far surpass any of them in all fields.

Zoro, a lone bounty hunter with big dreams, who received a near fatal taste of just what it meant to achieve those dreams, now chosen as worthy by some of the greatest swords in existence, who saw the grim reaper, and lived. But most importantly, gaining a family he would ferociously protect to the death.

Robin, a woman who resigned to her fate, not only freed, but coming to see what she is truly capable of. Her friends have her back, and she has theres, eternally. Never will she run again. Unless it's towards the future.

Brook, a man who already sailed the seas, who already cheated death, who already believed it was over - only for the sun to shine again, finding that his story is not over, and that even after all that time, is still discovering new things about himself.

Franky, a boy abandoned by his parents, taken in by the greatest ship builders in the world, who watched his adopted father fall to the government - yet still standing his soul beliefs, and the pride and life he brought to his ships. Then, an adult, who found out that he's not just destined to be a ship builder, but to sail those ships across the world. To grow even more inventive with his wacky nature, creating robots some can only dream of.

And Jinbe, who's been here all along. Who watched the rise and fall of the Pirate King, who watched the rise and fall of Whitebeard, who participated in the fall of the remaining old-generation yonkou. Who saw the death of his queen, but the resolution of bringing her killer to justice, and seeing Shirahoshi begin to come into her own. Who decided to make a promise to a man in a prison. Who placed his bets on a young, crazy boy. Who risked his life to save said boy during his life's worst moment. Who is not done with the world, and not done carving a path of justice for all.

Finally, Luffy. And well -he shines just as bright as the day he declared his dream.

[coredrill]

my apologies to bravern himself but my own committment to the bit is not nearly as powerful as his bc i cannot figure out how to get the number ten into the word bravern [sadface]

ANYWAYS THOUGHTS god i loved this ep............lulu.......bang brave bang bravern is abt loving ppl so damn hard you take the narrative itself into your hands and give them a better ending. when superbia said that basically verbatim i YELLED

thank god this show is only 12 episodes cause i have a feeling they are gonna explain the time travel logic of NONE of this and i am so happy about that LMAO. just do it!!! have fun!!! this is a wow cool robot show i don't care abt the paradoxes or whatever i'm having a good time lmao. i mean i'm not opposed to them explaining it but it would def melt my brain. also i feel like if it ran past 12 eps it probably would've gone for a more monster-of-the-week situation at parts and also the ~mystery~ of bravern himself would've gotten pretty frustrating so i am just. rly loving the pacing overall tbh

isami is so fucking funny. he's trying SO hard to live in an ultraserious narrative but everyone else is chomping at the bit to get on with their unhinged looney tunes antics INCLUDING THE CAMERA ITSELF. like we don't know much abt him as a protagonist but i really do adore him on the whole. peak fiction fr fr

in the uncensored theater of masami obari's mind in which this show ends with a smith/isami wedding i think that one dude (googles) Thomas J. Plumman would be the officiant cause why else is he witnessing the boxing match AND isami fucking SNIFFING THE SHIRT??????? true allyship i suppose LMFAO

on perhaps the only serious note of this whole post i am thinkign SO hard abt how like. even in the Bad Ending Timeline, isami and smith/bravern still achieved their goal! like. the world was saved! it looked fairly peaceful! the deathdrives (minus superbia but he was just kinda chillin) were gone! they'd done their job and that wasn't enough! and i am ALSO thinkin abt bad-ending-bravern's last words being abt the curry he ate while human.........i mentioned this already but i think my prediction is leaning slightly more "human smith comes back somehow" after this ep. i still think it could work with whatever route they go tbh, but those factors plus ofc bravern saying "there are things that ONLY YOU HUMAN SMITH can do for isami" are making me think that we gotta like. Get Smith Outta There or something ("you have been saying this since like ep4" AND I HAVE NOT BEEN PROVEN WRONG YET!!!! [is immediately proven wrong when the preview drops on sunday LMFAO]) i DO wonder what would happen to bravern himself in this scenario however because he is a funny guy and i do not wanna lose him either :[ but tbh i'm just excited for the ride that the final two eps will deliver :]

[marimayscarlett]

To add to the last question - we can only speculate when and for how long Till and Richard lived together. We can assume it was in Schwerin, but we don't know when either of them moved to Berlin, pre - or post the fall of the wall.

During this years mothers day, Khira Li posted, crediting Mareike as "mostly single parent". It's none of our business why she was absent during Nele's early childhood (although Nele hinted, it could've been for mental reasons) but we all know why Richard was absent. Just like every musician ever, music was his priority. Then international travel started, New York.. Richard himself said that after Maximes birth, he wished to be a better father, and I think he achieved that with how close he is to his kids these days.

But let's not forget that Till wasn't as present for his second daughter. Both of them have pretty much blended families, and it would've happened with or without Mareike, especially when Richard lived in NY and Merlin entered the picture. Till was there to make him feel part of the family with his new found siblings.

Point is, whilst they've not actually been single fathers together, over the years, they did help each other with their kids - to this day. I wouldn't be surprised if Richard is honorary Opa to Till's grandkids because no matter the hardships, Richard and Till's bond is extremely strong.

Hello dear anon, thank you for your addition to this topic.

While Richard and Till are friends since 1987 (as mentioned in this article), I assume they lived together after the fall of the berlin wall. Richard mentioned several times how poor he and Till were around this time, how hard it was to come by, how they were almost starving and committed minor crimes together to keep them alive essentially (mentioned here and the infamous cow-stealing story is mentioned in-depth in this interview around 10.50min). Plus, if I'm not mistaken, Richard mentioned that Till would bring Nele to school and they would visit rave clubs in Berlin afterwards. Since Nele was born in 1985, she would've been of school-age around 1991, so that could've been the time they lived together.

As to how much which parent was present during the childhood of several children: You are right, this is none of our business. As with every rockstar, their children have to forgo time with their parents a lot more than children with parents in regular jobs. Richard once said that becoming a parent again in his 40s was so different than being 23 at the time with Khira, and gave him the opportunity to experience fatherhood much more mindful.

From what we can see today, everyone seems amicable with each other and the relationships between the children and the parents in question seem to be quite close - and that's the most important thing, no matter how much everyone was involved in any way. I don't know anything about how Merlin entered the family, I don't want to dig into such family matters since it's way too personal for me, but it's great that he now is part of the family.

And as you said, they helped each other with their kids, and not only that, they went through so much together and have formed a very close bond. And honestly, the possibility of being honorary Opas is such a heartwarming concept, would be amazing if they would handle it this way 🤍

[An addition to this ask.]

[cagedchoices]

RAMBLES ON FIDELITY.

I've been catching parts of w.estworld on the roku channel again here and there and today they've been marathoning season 2 so I've been particularly locked in on s2e4, s2e6, and s2e10 because ✨️fidelity✨️ (and I recently watched the m.atrix trilogy too and then my mom was watching s.tar t.rek v.oyager yesterday and we landed on an episode that was basically an alien lifeform trying to convince the captain's conscious mind to leave her body and enter his matrix so I guess in short I have a theme this month and it seems to be centered around choices. and simulated realities. 🤔)

I know that fidelity is described as the Forge wanting to create a perfect copy of original human data it has been given with the end goal of transferring the human consciousness into a host body, thus achieving immortality. Case in point — James Delos.

But by incorporating the secrets and lies that humans tell themselves and the belief that they're in control of their actions when the evidence suggests that they really aren't, those copies stray further away from where they're meant to be, the person they're meant to be isn't who they are.

Delos claims he would do anything for his son Logan and that Logan is his primary drive, but the reality is that Delos abandoned Logan when Logan needed help the most. He essentially thought that any problem anyone faced in life could be solved by them alone if they just tried hard enough, and if they failed then it was because they didn't try hard enough.

The host copies can't seem to reconcile that moment even though it's meant to be the one that shows James Delos's truest self. The 149th attempt to bring him back starts shouting for Logan as he begins degrading more rapidly after William confronts him. And later on after he has fully descended into madness, he paraphrases the last words Logan ever spoke to his father:

"I'm all the way down now. I can see all the way to the bottom. You like to see what I see?"

as well as the moment of acknowledgement Delos offers Bernard shortly after they battle each other:

"They said there were two fathers — One above, one below. They lied. There was only ever the devil. And when you looked up from the bottom, it was only his reflection laughing back down at you."

With Caleb being tested in season 4, Hale wanted to understand why he was able to resist her control, why he seemed to be able to make a conscious choice not to shoot Maeve. But she couldn't see beyond the choice enough to get anything useful out of just rewatching the same memory over and over and over again, so she devised the escape loop for Caleb instead.

Every copy of Caleb that she put through this experience is motivated by the same thing. Caleb is someone who really will give anything, including his life, for the people he loves. This never changes. He still has hope. If none for himself, then for his family and friends, and he holds onto it regardless of whatever else happens.

I've gone back and forth on this quite a bit debating whether or not Caleb has achieved fidelity or not because there's two things that I honestly still struggle with getting my mind around:

For a copy to be a fully faithful recreation of their original, they must be able to make all of the exact same choices under the exact same circumstances as their original. This failed with James Delos in the real world application. It works in a simulated world. (i.e. Dr. Ford in the Cradle, James Delos in the Forge, Dolores recreating Arnold, Hale simulating Caleb's memories)

For a copy to be considered fully conscious, they have to be able to make choices of their own free will, assuming it exists. Those choices may differ from what the human original may have done due to improvisation, but no one can know this for certain fact if the original didn't live long enough to have to make the choice themselves.

Because the original Caleb died before he could make it back to his family, we can't ever know for sure how he would've acted, what he would've done if he was reunited with them. So any copy that makes it that far can't really be Caleb, in a sense.

On some level, the 279th build Caleb recognizes this idea himself, telling Frankie "Your father died long ago... Whatever I am...I've died before, this isn't so bad." But then he also speaks *as Caleb* not long after, telling her "I got to see my child grow up." and "I love you, Cookie." 🥺

I've said before that Caleb achieved something that no other version of himself was able to when he did this, in that he reunited with Frankie and then chose not to leave with her in the end. He is also more sure of who and what he is than his original was. So even though he's aware that his feelings are programmed, he still leans into them as though they are real (because they ARE real).

[elliepassmore]

Recursion review

5/5 stars Recommended if you like: sci-fi, time travel, time loops, speculative fiction

I will say, the beginning of this book didn't impress me, but once the time stuff really got going I was hooked. It starts out with a cop who has lunch with his ex-wife and then gets called to a woman's suicide attempt. Not really my style. Even the introduction of False Memory Syndrome (FMS) didn't really get me, it's only when time and reality start getting messed with for Barry do I begin to get interested.

FMS was a phenomena that I tried to get my head wrapped around as the story was unfolding. Are the new memories false or the old ones? How would you know? This is something that immediately got Barry's attention too, and I'm glad that he decided to track down Anne's story because it gives us some more puzzle pieces (and, obviously jumpstarts the story). I thought the way FMS was handled was super interesting and I liked seeing the ripple effects of it expanding to a larger scale than just a handful of people. The time loop stuff that feeds into this is interesting as well and it's one of those catch-22s that genuinely seems like it has no solution (I will note though that if everyone had listened to the woman, none of this would've happened).

I am curious though as to why so many people killed themselves over FMS in the beginning. Later on it makes sense, but the beginning? People like Anne I understand, but the thing with the Big Bend building? Why did that have people jumping out of buildings? False memories and the Mandela effect are real things, who cares if some of your memories are a little off? My friend and I once, separately, had an identical untrue memory of where she parked her car and spent 15min looking for it, thought it was stolen and almost called the cops, before she remembered the true memory. It was distressing in the moment but we laugh about it now. Fake memories like that aren't something to die over.

I think time loops and time travel can be very difficult to express properly in a written format, but I think Crouch did a really good job with Barry's and Helena's jumps. While we relive a handful of moments, by and large we begin the next timeline at the point when their memories return, which allows us to immediately get into the action and problem solving. It also allows for a montage scene that quickly flips between the lives, which I think is a difficult to achieve in writing vs. film, and I really liked that aspect.

Barry starts the book as your everyday cop who ends up stumbling into something much bigger than himself. I really liked seeing how Barry dealt with things and liked seeing his 'second chance.' I also thought it was interesting to see how he reacted to the time travel news in each life and the different tactics he used to try and figure out what was going on and how to stop the loop. Barry very easily could've been an unlikable character, but Crouch did a good job making him not only sympathetic but likable and someone you can root for.

Helena starts the book as an expert in memory and Alzheimer's research. When she stumbles upon the time travel stuff, she very quickly recognizes the dangers of such a tool and accurately predicts that it's going to go bad. Honestly, this is definitely a case where everything could've been avoided if people had just listened to the woman. I do feel bad for Helena since all she wanted to do was help people and she inadvertently gets used to create time loops. Likewise, it all ends up on her shoulders to fix, so she's often the one left remembering while everyone else gets a 'do over.'

Overall I enjoyed this book and think it's a nice mind-bending time travel book. I think some of the stuff that happens in this novel is kind of predictable but overall there are some good twists in there. I definitely wasn't expecting the stuff in the last third of the novel.

[ultraericthered]

*Sigh.* Let's check these off one by one, shall we?

Rise was straight up depressing, nothing about it was good. Duel of the Fates was, by comparison, not depressing

For one thing that is blatantly a subjective opinion (I and plenty of other audience members came out of it the opposite of depressed and found a lot of good to enjoy and appreciate in it), but far more importantly...I'd find DotF to be far, far more depressing, bar none? This is how a friend summarized it: "it literally turns the entire saga into a story that can be summed up as “a bunch of Jedi and Sith and Rebels and Empires fuck around and do nothing right until a random girl comes out of nowhere and discovers how to do things correctly”. Nothing in the previous eight films prior would have held any deeper meaning. Every Star Wars story that was ever told in any medium prior to Rey's story in this would've become, in retrospect, huge wastes of time thanks to Trevorrow's horrendous misdefining of what it means to achieve "balance in the Force". To me, that's depressing.

No return of Palpatine

Except there still would've been a "Palpatine has a part to play in this from beyond the grave" factor even in DotF. He'd just stay beyond the grave rather than actually return from it, which means the "looks to cheat death" factor of Palpatine's character that he's had ever since the opera house scene in Episode III goes with absolutely no payoff. I'm of the belief that if you want to close out a 9 film saga rather than just close out another 3 film trilogy, you sort of need Palpatine in there since he was the saga's Big Bad from the start. But as I've said before, a lot of folks just seem to think having this one guy serve as the overarching main antagonist, direct or indirect, for two trilogies (six whole episodes of the saga) and then having some completely different guy from right out of fucking nowhere with no link or connection to the previous guy nor anything from the last six installments step up as the main antagonist for the third and final trilogy to close the saga is perfectly fine storytelling so long as the second guy comes off sufficiently Big and Bad enough or whatever.

a tone and level of stakes befitting the end of the saga

The Final Order was an entire massive fleet of star destroyers with world destroying technology at their disposal, getting set to go out and decimate all free worlds in the galaxy so that the Sith could secure dominance once and for all. Sure screams "level of stakes befitting the end of the saga" to me, but that could just be me.

an actual role for Rose that respects her character

It'd be a better role than what we got in the final cut of TRoS, but that's not a high bar given Rose's minimal screen presence in that. It still wouldn't really do anything too new with her or tell us anything about her we didn't already know, and there'd be a period of time where she'd be held captive and literally tortured by the fascistic white bad guys, which does not sound like something I'd care to see.

genuine connections to other areas of Star Wars besides the original trilogy

TRoS made allusions and connections to other areas of all eight previous films in the saga, and even worked in stuff introduced in other areas of the franchise but knew to keep it subtle for the viewers who'd not experienced those other areas and wouldn't get too lost watching the film on its own and in relation to the preceding films. Which I'd gladly take over the reappearance of fucking Mortis, which has absolutely no business popping up in a Skywalker Saga finale.

a character arc for Finn

OK, this is still the only thing I will give Trevorrow and his script over what we got. The ST just really lost the plot with Finn following TFA.

Rey is still a nobody

Yet her parents and what happened to them still mattered enough to be brought back into play for the reveal that Kylo Ren killed them, that sure made that whole backstory super significant! And the thing is, Rey ISN'T "still a nobody" by the end. She's a girl of no prior significance to the saga from out of nowhere who makes everything about the Jedi, the Sith, and the Force itself all about her in the end. She is somehow successfully able to channel and wield the Force and the Dark Side of the Force in a perfectly balanced equalibrium like what Count Dooku wanted to do but naturally failed at, and all the spirits of the major Jedi characters we know and love sing her praises to High Heaven for it, talking as though she is the true Jedi Master who they have all learned from. Rather than Rey finding and accepting her family and her place in something bigger than herself that she grows to love and to champion for her remaining days as in TRoS, DotF has something as big as the goddamn Force contorted to magnify and consolidate Rey's super special awesomeness. Every "Rey's a Mary Sue!" argument would have been rewarded with the highest possible validity here! Is that something you'd want?

themes that actually meaningfully follow up Last Jedi

To its detriment, and it didn't even do that good a job of it either.

a villain arc for Kylo that doesn’t end with him being abruptly redeemed.

But...it did, though? The guy completely disassociates himself from the group he was supposed to be Supreme Leader of now. makes bad decision after bad decision and refuses to repent every time he's reached out to be anyone, is fully committed to becoming all-powerful in the Dark Side and evil beyond salvation, wants to burn down the whole galaxy, even wins the final duel in the story (thus in the whole saga) by nearly killing Rey...and then at the very last possible second, he's convinced by his mother to "come back to the light" by doing one good thing and trading his life for Rey's, which in at least one script draft is described as though it is meant to be redemptive on his part. Even Vader's last minute self-sacrificial good deed for his son that saved his soul from darkness had more build-up and weight to it in comparison. This would just be a nonsensical and self-contradicting mess, and not even the villain arc for Kylo that I'd be naturally set on seeing after the groundwork laid by TFA and TLJ.

if Disney hadn’t decided to base Rise entirely off of reactionary responses to Last Jedi.

There it is. That misconceived notion about TRoS that kills credibility every single time. The direction taken in TRoS was not entirely based off responses to TLJ, because EpIX had been given to J.J Abrams and solidified into being TRoS three months before TLJ was released in theaters. There were no "reactionary responses" to be catered to even existing at the time the big decisions were made in regards to TRoS, including Palpatine's return and Rey being of his bloodline. The reality is that Colin Trevorrow was unable to create a finale to Lucasfilm’s and Disney’s satisfaction since early in he initially envisioned an EpIX that would heavily feature Luke and Snoke (who both got killed off in TLJ), so he pivoted to DotF as his EpIX instead only for that script to be rendered impossible to put to film by Carrie Fisher's unexpected passing in December 2016. So at that point in the midst of 2017, again before TLJ came out, Abrams was called upon to steer the leaky ship and "save shit" as John Boyega put it.

So even if you feel like DotF would’ve still been a satisfying ending to the saga, it must be understood that from the moment Carrie Fisher left this world, it was not the ending we were going to receive.

I feel like all discussions about the positive and negatives of the Duel of the Fates script got kinda hijacked by a bunch of people saying it was embarrassing and making jokes about one line that wasn’t even spoken aloud the characters. I also feel as if people who simply read the script and thought it was pretty good, were overtaken by the people who knew the writer/director’s previous work and knew it to be bad.

I understand Colin Trevorrow is not well liked for many reasons, but I didn’t know that prior to reading it, so I overall enjoyed it prior to that. I don’t understand why no one could get past that fact and just take the script at more than face value and see past a couple of flaws.

Also I just feel as if people just… ignored how much better it was compared to Rise of Skywalker, like, by a country mile. Rise was straight up depressing, nothing about it was good, Duel of the Fates was, by comparison, not depressing, which is already an achievement before you get to specific details, and those details are No return of Palpatine, a tone and level of stakes befitting the end of the saga, an actual role for Rose that respects her character, genuine connections to other areas of Star Wars besides the original trilogy, a character arc for Finn, Rey is still a nobody, themes that actually meaningfully follow up Last Jedi, and a villain arc for Kylo that doesn’t end with him being abruptly redeemed.

And it’s not perfect, the relationship between Rey and Poe is stupid and makes no sense, and the introduction of Plagueis’ master is sloppy, but other than that, I loved the broad strokes of everything described.

But I think the thing that makes everyone seemingly rejecting it on principle without really thinking about it make me kinda upset is that it probably would’ve gotten better if Disney hadn’t decided to base Rise entirely off of reactionary responses to Last Jedi.

Idk, maybe it’s not as good as I think and it’s just better compared to Rise because almost anything is better than Rise, but idk, I feel as if Duel would’ve still been a satisfying ending.