#so there's no possible way any ships including him can be related back to me

[salty-an-disco]

I recently read the word "contradiction" out of context, and I think I have you to thank for the fact that it sounded like somebody shipping Contrarian and the Narrator.

I do not claim responsibility for any clown-related brainrot that may or may not have been inflicted after overexposure to this blog

[vadersassistant]

Irresistibly Yours One Shot (Darth Vader x Reader)

Summary: (Y/N) has been hiding across the galaxy for a year, attempting to flee her husband alongside Obi-Wan Kenobi, but now it is over. When the Sith finally tracks her down she must make a choice, continue to live a lie or leave with the man she loves. Takes place during Kenobi with altered events. Reader is previously a Jedi married to Anakin Skywalker.

Warnings: Make out session, mentions of sex, slight violence (not towards reader)

A/N: The poll I made landed in a 50/50 between suited Vader and nightfall Vader so I'm giving you the best of both worlds. In which, Vader wears the suit and mask, but he can take it off and looks like the Anakin we know and love.

“You have to go,” I demanded, turning away from the door in horror.

“(Y/N),” Kenobi pleaded.

“He wants me Obi-Wan, we don’t have a choice,” I reasoned. “You know he will continue to harm those people until I come out from hiding.”

“He’s going to try and take you.”

“And I’ll try and throw him off my trail, at least one of us needs to escape.”

“I understand,” he said, after a moment of silence.  “Goodbye, (Y/N).”

“May the force me with you Obi-Wan,” I nodded to him, saying the old phrase intentionally.

“You as well.”

I watched him enter the secret tunnels in the back of the workshop before it slid shut, and audibly sighed. I knew it was hopeless, it wasn’t possible to ever escape him. I couldn’t, not with how well he knew me. A part of me didn’t even agree with Kenobi, as he still believed in the Jedi and being heroes. I had changed, and their morals didn’t resonate with me any longer, not since the fall.

My body shook, as I ran as hard as I could once opening the door. It was loud on purpose, everyone standing in the little street seeing me and yelping in surprise. I saw the inquisitorious point in my direction, calling out my action for their lord. I could feel it, even though I couldn’t see his face beneath the mask. I could feel that he was looking at me, the two of us making eye contact for the first time in a year. He was massive, even taller than before and stronger than ever, right on my tail as I fled. I was quick, my legs carrying me into the maze of shipping crates and dirt from afar. I should have been quieter, but I knew that wouldn’t do much. He could track me in other ways, like the force.

His cold presence clung to my shoulders as I ran between the mounts that acted like walls. I needed to throw him off, but I knew it was impossible. He was too intelligent, too quick. His steps were twice as much as my own, the force connection that bound us inseverable. My heartbeat picked up, so much so I could hear it as if it were right in my ear. My hands were trembling lightly from the thrill of fleeing.

“There is no escape,” his modulated voice said, but I couldn’t tell where it came from.

“I’ll never join you,” I whispered.

The Sith was nowhere to been seen. I backed up, returning to my original pace and attempting to find him again in the pitch black, even though his suit was the same color. He hadn’t ignited his saber yet, although it didn’t make much of a difference, since I hadn’t ignited mine in months. In truth, I hadn’t touched a thing related to the Jedi in a year. All of it, including the force, I severed myself from, up until he started hunting me down.

He invaded my dreams, doing everything in his power to get to me. When he came, it wasn’t painful, it felt amazing, too good; feelings I only experienced in his presence. He tried to pleasure me, sooth me and coax me into joining him, promising to save me from Kenobi. He abused our connection from our time as Jedi’s, seeping into my conscious and speaking to my thoughts, ghosting my body with his invisible touch. Every time I thought of him, I thought of the past. I told myself I didn’t love him, but we both knew it was a lie.

“Really?”

I knocked into something hard, strong hands coming around my upper arms. They kept me in place with ease, essentially locking me in my tracks. I looked up and swallowed, knowing I was done for.

“Vader,” my breath was short. I wouldn't call him Anakin.

“My dear,” he said.

“I am not your dear,” I tried to back up, but it was no use. My chest tightened, feeling his thumb rub my skin comfortingly.

“Yet you are weakening in my hold,” he spoke sweetly, opposite of his reputation. If anyone else rejected him, they would be dead, neck snapped, I knew that.

“You’re a liar,” I said unfearingly.

“You are the only one lying here, (Y/N),” Vader replied. “Don’t deny me any further.”

His voice lit a fire across my entire body, smooth yet so deep I could have lost it right then and there. It took everything to keep my composure, a fake stubbornness still trying to hold up across my face. I wanted so badly to do a million different things. A part of me thought to leave, to escape and flee once again. But another part of me wanted to follow him, leave Kenobi behind, and go into the depths of hell.

“I will never join you, Sith,” I used his new title as an insult. “Now let go of me.”

“Your thoughts betray you, my love,” Vader said. "I feel your conflict."

“I hate you.”

“Hate is not an attribute of a Jedi, or you,” he entertained. “You are too caring to hate.”

He was right, always right, and knew me far too well. I sighed aloud, as he still held me and I could just feel the victorious expression through his mask.

“I married Anakin Skywalker, not you.”

“Anakin Skywalker still remains, but only for your pleasure,” he rebutted. “I am here, waiting for you, my dear. You and I can overthrow the emperor, become the galaxies newest destined rulers. Leave Kenobi and set yourself free, do what we both know you long to. We are mean't to be together.”  

I looked into his helm, hoping that I might see his eyes through the blacked-out visors. My lips parted just slightly, breathing hitched as my hands rested on the Sith’s chest. You could see it, Vader's muscles breaching the clothes he wore. The armor fitted his broad shoulders perfectly, hands so skilled and trusted. My head dipped, succumbing to what I truly thought.

“I’m supposed to kill you, to try and run away.”

“I know,” he leaned forward, his mask hovering over my head.

“I told myself I wasn’t going to do this,” I my hands turned into fists, pounding on his chest in frustration.

“But you don’t agree with Kenobi,” he finished.

“I don't."

“So, join me, my dear,” Vader coaxed, placing a leather glove on my jaw to tilt my head upward.

I breathed deeply, my pupils slowly dilating while taking him in.

“Take the mask off."

Surprisingly, the Sith didn’t argue. He let go of me and slipped his thumb around the rim of the helm, like he needed to turn something off. A hissing sound followed, confirming my suspicions, and he lifted it above his head carefully, dropping it onto the ground. I watched it fall, clinking on the ground as if he didn’t care for it. My eyes slowly trailed back up, seeing his true appearance in what felt like forever.

His hair was the same length, wavy and brown, yet in the face he had grown so much. His jawline was even more developed, the scar still remaining on the right brow. The most prominent feature was his eyes, gold with red rimming the irises. His gaze was more alluring than before, a look I easily got flustered from. He grinned at me checking him out and let out a sexy and low laugh.

“Still have the same effect, don’t I?” Vader asked, his actual voice being used.

“Even better,” the words formed before I could think.

His robotic arm curled around the back of my head, the two of us enclosed on the space between. I slid my arms between his neck, kissing him deeply without hesitation. It felt like a war between hell and heaven, holding my breath for as long as possible while taking the Sith in. The further we went, the worse it got, to where I wrapped my legs around his lower waist and he held onto my ass. We would take short breaths touching each other as much as possible during it, enjoying as much as we could, the both of us starved from one another.

It was no surprise Vader got the upper hand, trailing his lips over to my cheek and down to my neck. He carried me over to a tower of crates, one sitting alone in front of the stack, sitting me down on it gently. I leaned back as if it was a wall, and sounds slipped from my mouth naturally. They were rare to come by, not having heard them in months, my husband well aware. I felt Vader smile as he got onto the crate as well and trailed his hand up my thigh to my top. He was straddling me, making me feel like I was weak, and it was to die for.

More whimpers left my lips, and I knew what he wanted. The Sith fiddled with the zipper of my jacket, remaining eye contact with me while doing so. I could feel his hot breath against my skin, forcing me to shudder as he started to take my clothing off. I wanted him so badly, feeling his cod piece harden against my thigh, but we both sensed something nearby. The two of us froze, silent as his cloak shielded me from anyone’s line of sight.

“Obi-wan is near,” I whispered.

“He has come back to try to take you away from me,” Vader said, his hands now placed on both sides so that I was caged in. It was protective, the look in his eyes possessive.

“We must go, you have to have a ship nearby,” I told him.

“I do, follow me,” he nodded.

I slid off the crate, slightly upset we had been interrupted, but there wasn’t time to think about it. Obi-wan would never forgive me if he saw this, and I preferred that I remained on good terms with him. Vader called for his helmet with the force, it quickly suctioning to his hand and then being placed on his head. I kept up with him, weaving through the maze of construction until we got closer to the town. It seemed that most of the Imperial forces had been ordered to leave, Vader having called them off unsurprisingly.

The people that once lingered around were all inside, sleeping away in fear from what happened. Behind all of the buildings was a ship, the shadow of it coming into view from around the corner. It was the infamous Tie-Fighter the Sith always flew in, extremely well developed and luxurious. He lifted up the hatch with a wave of two fingers, offering a hand politely to help me up onto the top. It was only when he got in first and sat down that I realized where this was going.

The ship was small, meant to be a one seater and easy to maneuver. Vader took off his helmet once more before shooting me a suggestive look and patting the inside of his leg. It created little space for me to sit in his lap, but I didn't think much of it, all I knew was that what had stopped before was about to resume.

LMK what you all thought about this. I honestly can't decide which Vader I like more so this was very fun to write

[jessequinnfirstofhername]

I don't like how differently the fandom treats RadioApple and other Alastor ships. People hate Charlastor because Charlie is taken and way older than Alastor. But Lucifer is a married man and literally Charlie's father. (I'll accept the fact that people believe since Lilith doesn't seem to be in the scene anymore but it's still weird) As a RadioStatic shipper I hate that people shit on anyone who even try to make RadioStatic mutual people will spam "And then Vox woke up" or "In Vox's dreams". Like, bruh. They act like even implying Alastor likes Vox is erasing to his sexuality when from what I see, most RadioStatic shippers are asexual themself. (Yes, I have heard there are many ace RadioApple fans, but I just hear so many more RadioStatic fans openly say they are AroAce) People act like RadioSilence and QP RadioRose are the only acceptable Alastor ships, but when it comes to RadioApple they completely ignore it. As they should for all Alastor ships if they think they're wrong but they don't. Anyone can ship anything, but this double standard disgusts me, especially when RadioApple art tends to be way more openly suggestive.

(My confessions are always sooo long, sowwyy)

Hmm... I'm going to gently push back. I have seen RadioApple get attacked. I myself got a complaint over including it in Lepidopterophobia. However, most of the Alastor Ship Discourse I've seen has not related to RadioApple, so I do think your argument has merit.

My Best Hazbin Hotel Ship poll was the first time I ever had to swing the ban-hammer, and it was over in-fighting related to Charlastor. God, that ship is controversial. I know people get creeped out because (and I know Charlie is older) it does come off like an older man preying on a vulnerable young woman, but that's not what's happening and if that power imbalance creeps you out... well. You shouldn't be comfortable with any of Lucifer's ships then, right?

Right?

Anon, don't take this as an attack on you, but I did giggle a little at the inference of: "Lucifer Morningstar, the King Of Hell, is a married man you Radio Demon harlot!"

I'm not Asexual, so I don't want to be The Final Word on this debate. But I am going to say that I have seen plenty of AroAce people who love RadioStatic and plenty of Allosexual people speaking for the Asexual community when they bash RadioStatic.

Also, hasn't Amir Talai himself said that Alastor's Asexuality doesn't rule out the possibility of him having/having had a relationship?

But I am not the final word here. I would love to hear how Asexual fans of various Alastor ships feel about this Discourse.

Exactly. If you're going to give RadioStatic shit for erasing Alastor's sexuality, you better be giving all of Alastor's ships the same criticism or you're kinda just being a dick to RadioStatic fans.

...I mean... I have no complaints about suggestive RadioApple art...

Don't worry about it! You're lovely!

-Jesse xx

[emiplayzmc]

Hrmmmmmmmm being normal about Addison AUs againnnn.......

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What if WALL-E AU for Spamton and the Addis, where they were robots on the AXIOM provided with different tasks (Pink and Blue serving food and drinks, Orange being the bot who makes / repairs clothes for the people, Yellow doing smth like reporting anything that goes on in the ship).

And Spamton's like... idk, maybe he was a defective bot that was set to work in maintenance of the ship so he wouldn't be around people as much, or maybe maintenance of the tracks that take the floating chairs around the place.

OOO OO OO and then maybe in his own time he made some modified chair designs, like ones with higher speed or flashy tech in them, maybe he has one of the human residents takes pity on him and helps him with testing modifications (since he PROBABLY can't just use them himself), and that's why he's defective - he keeps straying from his given tasks (and probably taken to be repaired more than a few times) to work on modifying transportation units on the ship.

Obviously Big Shot Era likely wouldn't be a THING in a WALL-E AU because why would AUTO and GO-4 and the SECUR-T bots let a defective one get popular on the ship (and what would they have to BE popular with there tbh?), but I think it'd be enough of a reputation on the AXIOM that other residents become curious about him, including the other Addi bots, and he gets a decent amount of attention from those who pay him any mind.

I'd assume his fall from grace would maybe be going a little too far with his tinkering around, or maybe blatantly questioning how stuff is run on the ship and why they're even still up there. I'm not sure, but it'd be interesting if SOMETHING happened that was majorly important, important enough for AUTO / the other security bots on the ship to finally take notice. Now, my FIRST idea for this was 'AUTO breaks him like he did with WALL-E in the film, and then sends him down to Earth to get him off the ship so he doesn't have to deal with him,' but then the thought came of 'Hey wait a second. The AXIOM has its own garbage waste in the lower floors.' So now the whole idea of this premise is '[INSERT THE BIG DAMAGE EVENT] happens and AUTO gets wind of it, he takes Spamton and majorly breaks him somehow, and then casts him down to the lower garbage dump where he can be out of sight, out of mind to either completely breaka down or be scooped by the WALL-A's and sucked into space in a trash cube.' Little does he know that Spamton ends up surviving down there, seething, and ending up continuing to tinker and make things, perhaps working on some sort of contraption to get him out of the trash room and back up to the main levels of the AXIOM to get revenge on AUTO. Possibly some sort of NEO body.

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Now, ADDISON TIME BECAUSE I AM UNWELL ABOUT ADDISONS AND ID LIKE TO FLESH THEM OUT A LITTLE FOR A WALL-E AU

Pink's probably similar to EVE at the beginning of the movie - little moments of personality shown here and there, but ultimately shoving a lot of themself down to do their job, and probably expressing a lot of distaste for Spamton's refusal to stick to the program he was given, although maybe they also feel some sort of bitter regret that Spamton was (presumably) destroyed and sent to the garbage because of it...

Orange? I'm not sure which is incredibly depressing to me since Orange is my fav of the Addisons. Maybe their personality would be something akin to the PR-T bots? Very supportive and complimenting since their role would be making and repairing clothes, but maybe with a little bit of a tendency to accidentally try and repair parts of people that WEREN'T clothes or making something that literally isn't wearable (by mistake, like a suit sewn to a mannequin, or by way of making it out of literally unwearable items) that gets them repaired a lot. In relation to Spamton based on their actual DR dialogue, they probably wouldn't be as invested in him as the others, mostly hearing about what he does by word spreading around, but they would be confused by him being presumably destroyed and tossed to the trash just because of what he did.

Would LOVE for Blue and Yellow to still be pretty close to Spamton, expressing the most curiosity of the Addison bots for his mechanisms and being around him the most. Yellow doesn't have a solid personality through their dialogue as far as I can recall, but from what I've seen interpreted from it I'd have loved if Yellow actually helped test their tinkering sometimes, and was actively the most adamant about wanting to find a way to the trash to try and find Spamton.

As for Blue..... would love to see if some of Spamton's defective-ness / glitches rubbed off on them in lieu of hearing a Garbage Noise phone call, being a little off themselves after Spamton disappears and questioning the way things are run on the ship as well (although privately, to themselves) and not sticking as closely to their programming as they once did (what if Blue Addi Bot actually tried to consume some human food and drinks for themselves to see what it was like and then had to keep being repaired because they're unable to consume food but they just kept trying anyway because they want to see what it's like. Would that be neat or what).

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ANYWHOOOO.... there's my Addison + Spamton X WALL-E AU idea and I'm actually a little invested in it so like. Perhaps some WALL-E esque Addison + Spamton designs eventually, who knows :DD

[marauderseraconfessions]

Okay, I have thoughts on the debate around fanon's characterisation of Death Eaters, so hopefully I can say this right. I'm not wonderful with words, but I'll try.

Criticising them is absolutely okay, first of all. Please do that, we need more of it. When a fandom babygirls fascists to the point I've seen a ship fic set in a concentration camp between a Nazi and one of their victims, we have a problem. A rather fucking large one. So criticise all you want.

There is a part of me, however, that wants to use the potential we have in them being so young. They're in their formative years in a large majority of fics, and we can use that.

For example, Barty. Criticise him all you want, he was a terrible person. He bullied children, helped bring Voldemort back to life, and did any number of horrible things we should absolutely call attention to.

In the 70s, he got radicalised. His father showed hatred for what his son became, so we can easily assume he was not raised believing muggles were inferior (or at least not to the same degree as the Black Family, as the Crouches were still members of the Sacred 28). In my opinion, he could be used as a parallel to young men who go down the alt-right pipeline today. The narrative should criticise him— but I think a warning about radicalisation could be a fantastic theme in fics about him. And there can be a level of sympathy there, too— he was a child. He could have been good, and he didn't become that.

On the other end, we have Regulus. Being completely honest here, I may be slightly biased on his character. There are ways I will admit to relating to his life before I was able to go on the internet and find differing beliefs for myself. All the same, I'm going to try to keep this fair.

Regulus was also a bad person. He supported Voldemort. I don't care whether you like to think he directly hurt people or couldn't stomach doing so himself, he caused harm. Being a bystander (and that is the best possible descriptor you can give him with what we know) is not an action free of harm.

That being said, getting rid of beliefs your parents instilled in you is difficult when that's all you hear. Sirius was only a year older than him and figuring all this out for himself, I doubt he even knew how to conceptualise it for someone else in an effective way. (This is not me hating on Sirius btw, I love him. I'm just being realistic. My own brother followed a vaguely similar path, and he's one of the people I care about most in the world)

Regulus, at the same time he was a terrible person, was eighteen at most when he died. He did have room to become a better person had he lived. We don't know what he was thinking about when he was planning to go to the cave, we don't know if he started to question his beliefs or not. There's ways to write him, after finding the horcrux, as a more sympathetic character (albeit one in desperate need of a character arc).

I don't know. Hopefully this isn't just a bunch of rambles. I just think there's no way to write any of these people— when they're in school— as one-dimensional villains or undeserving of a chance to become a good person. This includes Snape, and Petunia, and any other kid in this era. We have the chance to explore what makes someone hate and what makes someone change for the better. Condemnation of babygirlifying characters is completely fair, at the same time that growth isn't altogether impossible.

But. Words. I'm not great, so tldr: we should absolutely criticise the way this fandom interacts with the Death Eaters, but I personally don't agree with calling children with the potential to change automatic monsters. There are ways to write about them that doesn't make light of what they've done while still retaining some sense that they're human.

ᯓ★

[irelandseyeonmythology]

I have been trying to find an answer online but I can't quite find what I'm looking for, if you don't mind can you help provide some insight?

Basically my question is did the medival people of Ireland honest to god believe in pseudo historical texts like the Book of invasions and related traditions. Like they believed in 6 waves of people coming to ireland under Christian cosmology.

Or was this more of a literary tradition for generally understood to be fictional or not quite accurate stories?

So it's been. Months. But if it's any consolation, this DID thoroughly haunt me!

I also cleared it with a colleague of mine who does work on like. Medieval Irish conceptions of history, so it's been vetted by Someone Who Is Not Me, at least the rough outline (I am NOT showing them my Tumblr, god forbid.)

And...for the most part? Yeah. They did. They sometimes argued FIERCELY over little details, like the Tuatha Dé coming in a cloud of mist or whether or not they burned their ships, or whether they were doing it to get away from Lugh. They cited texts that they thought were particularly authoritative, like the Holiest of the Holies, the now-lost Cín Domma Snechtai, they refuted other scribe's suggestions, sometimes very aggressively. I mean, you have scholars into the 20th century believing in this, at least to some extent or another, like Eoin MacNeill in his Phases of Irish History (1919) or T.F. O'Rahilly in his Early Irish History and Mythology (1946). Obviously not in terms of like. The Tuatha D�� as a supernatural race of people, but in the sense of what might best be described as extreme euhemerization, using these medieval texts as a way of trying to unveil a lost Irish pre-history. (It goes without saying this is NOT my approach and not how most of us approach the field, but it was quite common decades ago.)

Geoffrey Keating, in the 17th century, would write his History of Ireland, which used LGE as one of its key pieces of evidence in his attempt to hit back against less than savory accounts by anglophone scholars, of Irish history. "LOOK at our history, LOOK at our glorious past, LOOK at what we can do." It's imminently sympathetic, honestly. (Though Geoffrey shouldn't be taken to be credulous -- he explicitly says that Cath Fínntragha, for example, was not to be taken as a true historical account.) There's a bit, perhaps slightly amusing by modern standards, in his prologue where he says, "Cambrensis [Gerald of Wales], who undertook to give a correct account of everything, appears to have received a medley of fables from some dunce or blind man, for he has said nothing of the conquest of the Tuatha-De-Dananns, who possessed Ireland one hundred and ninety-seven years, during which time nine kings of their nation rules the island."

This is a man who does, firmly, believe in what he's saying and in the veracity of the sources that he has. We also see LGE and the pseudohistorical scheme in general being adopted by Keating's contemporaries, such as Dubhaltach mac Fhirbhisigh (Leabhar na nGenealach) and Roderic O'Flaherty (Ogygia), some of the best scholars of their day and men who...this is my bias speaking, but I trust them. Especially Dubhaltach. I don't have my copy to hand, but the way he speaks about his sources, the way that he's willing to argue with them even as he includes them in his work...I believe him. Or. Let me rephrase that. I believe that HE believed in what he was saying, and I believe in his integrity as a scholar. They're men who absolutely have an angle! But they're men who are using the sources that they have to defend their country from some truly awful slander using the best materials they have at the time, as methodically as possible.

Charles O'Conor, one of the, in my opinion, crucially overlooked scholars of the 18th century, a man who the field owes a massive debt to for his activism and his large collection of manuscripts (some of which, through a story I'll tell sometime if anyone's interested, become the Stowe Collection), was skeptical, saying that Keating's work, "Is a most injudicious Collection; the historical part is degraded by the fabulous, with which it abounds. Keating was one of those laborious Readers, who, in making Extracts, do it without Selection or Discernment; and suchWorks (as the judicious Mac-Firbis observes -- ought never to be published." Personally, while I appreciate boosting Dubhaltach and his work, I think he's too harsh on Keating. It's very easy to judge someone's scholarship when you're living a century ahead of them. He is much more skeptical than Keating, trying to compare native sources up against other contemporary histories of Europe, but he DOES still use LGE as a vital source -- he doesn't discount it or its invasion scheme entirely. He is still very much treating it as a historical document, albeit one that he doesn't fully believe in. (Especially since he's kind of fighting with James MacPherson, of Ossian fame. Because apparently getting into massive public debates with people whose work is enjoying a lot of popularity and that we think involves shoddy research is a time honored tradition in the field.)

But there is a reason why it gets picked up, even into the 20th century, because when you've had your history continually belittled and marginalized, when your language has been driven to the point of near extinction, when you are constantly told that you don't HAVE anything worth being proud of, not compared to the Grand History of England or the classical tradition, that you're a nation of barbarians and beggars...of course you want to believe in it. Of course you want to believe that you can salvage SOMETHING. Especially since these are your ancestors saying it. Your ancestors, reaching across this seemingly insurmountable chasm of time, telling you "look, this is your history." Do I think everyone in medieval Ireland agreed with it? Probably not. There was probably at least one person who was like "well...do we KNOW, though?" In the same way as there were very likely people who thought "King Arthur...did he exist?" Or those oddballs in the modern day who claim the Roman Empire didn't exist. There are always going to be people who are a little skeptical, even of what are the generally accepted truths of a certain time period, but I would say that in general? The trend we see is broad belief, because this is the best historical source that people had for centuries -- they had no reason to strongly doubt it, even if they argued over the details.

[starlitsemantics]

Downton Abbey cutting scenes that are incredibly character relevant in the versions they release outside British live TV has given me ridiculous trust issues - a rant.

In season three, the middle Crawley daughter, Edith, gets engaged to a man she was close to before World War I, Anthony Strallan. He's class appropriate and liked by her father, if considered a bit boring. He's also somewhere between twenty and twenty-five years older than her and, after the war, has lost (most of?) the use of his right arm. Prior to the war and his injury, this match was considered a good one.

In the run-up to their engagement and wedding, multiple family members of hers express doubt as to her chances of long-term happiness, including her father asking Anthony to break things off (which he then takes back at Edith's tearful request, in which she points out, correctly, that her chances of happy marriage to a young uninjured man are very slim after WWI).

We get to the wedding day and as the ceremony begins, Anthony says he can't do this, tells her that she can't waste herself on him, and leaves her standing in a white dress in front of all her acquaintances and relations. Why?

This registered to me as absolutely bizarre when I first watched it, and in the years following. I was pretty into their 'ship, thought it was cute, especially the way they bonded in season one. I also felt it would be cool to show someone who was clearly traumatized by the war actually getting an ending that didn't fall into the three established categories of: cure, death, so sad the show can't possibly be expected to deal with it. Alas. Crucially, I also thought it went very nicely with Edith's other development in season two - less self absorbed, more observant and considerate of others, interest in machinery and farming, both of which are things we know Anthony is also into, even some interesting things comparing her to Cora and Isobel in terms of her lady of the manor style.

I thought it was a huge missed opportunity (still do, by the way), but I also thought it was kind of baffling for him to do. The reasons he (and others, especially Violet) put forward against the match throughout the season read to me as ones we were supposed to see as surmountable problems to be solved - because they are. Strallan is wealthy, and compared to Robert, clearly actually on top of recent industrial developments. He can hire a nurse and also be married. We see this logic (can't do x, hire someone to do x) in his very first appearance after his injury - he has hired a chauffeur. Disability does not prevent a loving relationship. Edith would probably be widowed earlier than usual, but being a wealthy 45 year old widow, potentially with children, is hardly a terrible fate for women of her class.

So why does he jilt her, and why does he do it at the end of the aisle?

If he was so unsure about marrying her that a few snide comments make him willing to take such drastic action in front of everyone, those same comments in the weeks prior should have prompted him to do this in literally any way that was less awful to her.

If he's just not that into her, why come when Robert invites him back. If anything, not coming probably improves Robert's opinion of him there. He also wouldn't tell Edith he enjoys seeing more of her more than he should - that is a flirtatious line even I managed to clock.

Does he just not get the importance/finality of it until he's standing in the church? The man's been married before, so while it's a possibility, I don't really think so.

Does he think doing this publicly is the only way to get Edith to back off given her previous insistence?... Not if I'm meant to find either of them at all sympathetic, to be honest, and I think JF wants me to, at least a little.

So the conclusion I arrived at is effectively that he is not entirely stable and incredibly susceptible to outside influence, partly as a result of trauma and injury doing a number on his sense of self. Which is tragic, but also means it probably would indeed be very difficult to build a whole new marriage from the ground up. Not a satisfying ending, but oh well. There's always fanfiction.

The Andith fandom is mostly to be found on fanfiction.net, and I think is filled with some ridiculously talented writers. They've built gorgeous fanon for Anthony's family, staff, and background, and some of them share the same fanon. So my first instinct when I read multiple references to a conversation between Anthony and Edith where she tells him she loves him not in spite of his injury, but because of it, and that she wants him to be her life's work, I thought this was another part of that shared fanon. After all, I'd never seen it, and I've watched Downton Abbey once every couple years whenever I got a particularly bad cold. Edith is my favourite character alongside Gwen and Mrs Hughes. Surely, I would have remembered.

But, it seemed clunky. Out of place in a fanon that, by and large, is understated and subtle, preferring gradual revelation rather than such a blunt, spelled out, character motive rant. So I began to investigate. I'm not that good at investigating. Eventually, it took reference to another piece of dialogue I had no memory of but is mentioned on the Wikia page (the bit about Consuelo Vanderbilt), to get me to a reddit thread that explained. There are multiple cuts of Downton Abbey, and the one I've been watching on Netflix is different to what was aired in the UK. It also referenced the episode the scene is meant to be in, so I was able to find it on YouTube (looking for 3.03 deleted scenes should do it, if you're curious).

The scene is pretty bad. It segues extremely awkwardly from Anthony mentioning meeting Consuelo to the life's work bit. Edith's line here is actually worse than I'd seen mentioned. She loves him "[because] of [his] needing to be looked after." Yikes. I can sort of see the sentiment, but it's phrased so terribly poorly. Now, having a character fail to find the chill, witty answer to their partner being pessimistic isn't terrible. It took me a good while to consider how Edith could have responded to "soon you will be wheeling me around" (in my opinion, the one line on the show Anthony's actor does terribly), but there are ways to respond that aren't so bizarre. Saying she wouldn't mind, or that that's really a long way off, or that at least they'll be buying the Rolls Royce of wheelchairs are all in my read authentic to Edith's character outside that scene and less awful than what she actually says. They're not perfect responses. But they don't confirm so explicitly the thing Anthony himself fears ("I don't need a wife, I need a nurse" - Edith here is all but promising she sees her roles as his wife as being his nurse, which means it's much less likely he'll be able to see her blossom and set her free, and much more likely she will effectively force him to become a burden to her), and the things he's been told he is imposing on her.

It also undercuts Edith's character development from season two. Making his injury about her, and failing so categorically to see that he values independence and being useful and would hate to feel like a burden to his wife, are things I might have expected of season one Edith, not season three.

So while what I missed explains his decision making somewhat better than its absence, I don't think it's worth it. Ultimately, Edith's character development is more important to me than a spelled out explanation for why we get yet another character with a disability summarily written out. So now I've found the answer to my confusion, I will proceed to ignore it.

Still. I think their marriage could have been neat. Edith could still have made waves writing her letter to the editor. Robert could still have felt entitled to interfere given he clearly doesn't trust Anthony to take care of her. We could have seen a happy marriage that still empowered Edith's journey to modern woman (on-screen, unlike so much of Sybil's) and also addressed the trauma of the war and the economics of country estates in a way that went beyond Robert being an absolute idiot when it comes to money. Then again, I don't trust JF to have done that super well, so maybe it's all for the best we're getting to enjoy the fandom instead.

Anyhow, time to go through other "deleted scenes" to find out if I have other radically weird reads of characters before I embarrass myself by talking about them publicly.

[gingerylangylang1979]

What I would need to get fully on board with Carmy x Sydney again.

So, I have like one toe still in the Carmy x Sydney ship and that is even still tentative based on what we see in a third season and beyond. My biggest concern is just how Carmy has treated her over two seasons. After season one I thought he was redeemable and thought this season they could possibly move towards a healthy relationship, personally and professionally. We didn’t get that at all. If anything it got worse. I just don’t like him right now. Not for Sydney, and not even for Claire TBH. He’s just a bad partner for anyone on all levels. I can’t ship someone I don’t like with someone I do like. Aside from that I need a better arc for Sydney. 

What I need from Carmy

Woo boy, like everything. Like, what even was his arc? I didn’t expect him to be totally healed and ideal at this point in the story but he was super selfish, condescending, and unreliable to the point of me wanting Syd to bounce again and never return. He didn’t learn from their relationship last season and super takes her for granted. Yes, it’s his business but he’s the one that wanted her back on the team and implied it would be a partnership. He says he wouldn’t want to do it with anyone else but his actions don’t bring receipts. We got none of that. He just came across as your typical self absorbed white hipster entrepreneur with unresolved trauma. It’s not a good look. And then you have Sydney, the ambitious black women protege desperately needing him to step up and he just never does. Doubly bad look. If he can’t be a good partner to her professionally how can I ever expect him to be a good partner romantically? I’m just not convinced he is capable. 

He definitely needs individualized therapy. That group therapy stuff was blah. This makes me think of Ayo saying they could explore them together after therapy and two seasons so it does make me wonder how his issues will be addressed, or not, next season. Also, how many seasons will this show run? Just one more is definitely not enough time to have anything happen at the end. 

He also needs to not be wrapped up in Claire. I do think they were in love with each other. It imploded but she could come back. It seemed open ended to me. I don’t want Carmy endlessly pining over another woman or being conflicted between Claire and Sydney. She would need to be the clear choice in so many ways. The last thing I would want is it to be kind of a we work together and it’s convenient, why not kind of thing because that just does say second choice. 

I would need Carmy to show the attraction, longing, and romance he did with Claire. And I wouldn’t want anything he did with Claire to be repeated. Am I a bit jealous of what they showed? Yes, because a lot of those moments I would have liked for Syd. Him cooking a meal for her, them doing something fun that’s not work related, telling her she’s beautiful, having cozy intimate moments, and sex. If they were to put him with Syd in the end I doubt we would get that lightness and tenderness between them and that’s sad. I just don’t want it to be, oh we both love food and you’re cool and that’s enough despite me never showing any sexual interest in you. This is especially vital because she is a black woman. It is what it is. We got a few touches from him this season, but that’s like a crumb and could easily be written off as just moving in the same space and friendly, familiar comfort. I need to see him intentionally wanting to touch her. He needs to be shown to want to be her lover and treat her like a princess. She’s deserving of grand gestures. Marcus named a dessert after her, yo! Which leads me to...

I also do want to see him be jealous of another interest for her. I think Marcus is perfect, actually. I always go back to that scene in season one of Sydney pacing back and forth between Carmy and Marcus. It stood out. They didn’t have to include it but they did. After Marcus is rejected by Sydney and they have that blowup Carmy isn’t aware of why the blowup happened. How would he react if he knew? Sydney rejected Marcus for now but if his mom dies I could see them bonding over a lost mother. Even if that doesn’t lead to her reconsidering it could be viewed from the outside as something brewing. How would Carmy feel about her being distracted by someone else like he was?

What I need for Sydney’s arc

I genuinely do get people who don’t want her with Carmy because it potentially sidelines her as being just a girlfriend. But this season she was simply an employee who was doing way too much for an ungrateful boss. She is also struggling with her career decisions. We still don’t even know if The Bear will be successful. Trying to get that star (that he seemed to not care about) and continue a rocky working relationship may burn her out. She’s already vomiting like Carmy did. I either want to see her thrive at The Bear or move on, whatever that looks like. She does not need to be tied to Carmy. Her restaurant tour showed that other chefs value her and are interested in her development. They still never delved too deep into why she left all those other places so I want that explored more. She’s already had her own business, why stick glued to Carmy?

I also want Sydney to have a life outside of the kitchen. But if she wants that star Carmy already told her that can’t be. I just think part of her jealousy over Claire, whether it was about feelings for Carmy or not, is that she saw him having an outside life. If he can, why can’t I? We haven’t seen anyone from beyond the kitchen in her life aside from her dad. Does she have friends? I want her to get that balance, too. 

[thisworldisablackhole]

The Book of the New Sun #1-4, by Gene Wolfe (1980-83) - 5/5

This one is hard to write about. If you know, you know, but I'll be honest - y'all set me up for thinking this was going to be the most difficult to understand series of all time. I was terrified. But when I finally dived in, I was pleasantly surprised by what I found. The water was cool, and the current was easy to follow. This is your sign! If you are on the fence and put off by all the reviews making it sound like you need a PhD in astrophysics or a bunch of in-depth guides to understand the book; don't be afraid. Gene Wolfe will swaddle you like a little baby and whisper dark poetry in your ears.

The Book of the New Sun, underneath all of its complexities, has the wire frame of an adventure novel. In a way, it plays out quite like a video game. Severian commits a crime, gets exiled from his guild, and on his journey out into the world becomes entwined with interesting characters and gets his attention pulled by side quests and love interests that all end up being important and interconnected later down the road. I think any avid sci-fi fantasy reader who is comfortable with holding on to multi-threaded narratives and even vaguely familiar with the concept of parallel timelines and simultaneity shouldn't have a problem. The ability to be okay with confusion and trust in the author is also a requirement, which shouldn't be new to you if you're even considering this. I also have to shout out the Teixcalaan duology by Arkady Martine for priming me for the idea of assimilated memories from another consciousness that emerge in thought as well as harder to detect endocrine and nervous system responses.

So I don't mean to undersell the complexity of The Book of the New Sun at all, for it is indeed rich with high concepts. There are so many layers to be found that make you consistently look back and recontextualize older parts of the story to look for hints or signs of influence, and putting the pieces together is a huge part of the fun. The reader is almost forced into becoming a detective, but if you catch onto these things early and learn to question basically everything you read, Severian doesn't end up sounding as unreliable as people make him out to be.

Regardless, it is still not a breezy read. Gene Wolfe's prose is dense, chewy and archaic, including lots of forgotten historical words that honestly aren't that intimidating as long as you can loosely group them into terms that relate to position and rank and which ones are the names of weapons or beasts. Like bittersweet toffee, every paragraph gets stuck in your teeth, sometimes requiring multiple jabs of the tongue just to make sure you actually grasped the bare concept. Wolfe forces you to pay attention, and that is part of what makes this such an engaging read. I read both of these in less time than I usually read a much shorter stand-alone, because I just found myself addicted to the way that Gene Wolfe paints his world - the dark, gritty, philosophical nature of the story, and all of the biblical symbolism on top of it. This also has one of my favourite settings in sci-fi that doesn't get explored nearly enough; a future so far ahead that humanity has experienced a sort of rubber banding effect, doubling back on itself until the disparity and destruction creates a dichotomy of swords and space ships.

Overall though, TBOTNS is basically one big character development arc. It's a redemption story, albeit an ambiguous one with many interpretations. Gene Wolfe takes someone who is part of possibly the most depraved and morally bankrupt positions in society (in this case, a torturer and executioner), and follows him as he leaves the brutal and insular culture of his upbringing and is guided toward a higher purpose. It's not a quick process. Severian is self aware of his shortcomings, often recognizing his own mistakes and noting the moments when he acts in poor judgement. But like most people, he is also sometimes unaware of when he hurts people. He’s a very real character, full of all the pitfalls of the average man. Yes this includes some misogyny and oversexualization of female characters, and I don’t blame anyone for getting caught up on those points, but it’s important to remember that Severian is a product of his environment (an all-male guild of torturers ffs), and and his behaviour does improve in the third and fourth books. He also frequently expresses his struggle to understand the difference between love and lust.

Severian does terrible, terrible things repeatedly throughout his journey, but he consistently reflects on his actions and emotions and over time his morality becomes more guided by a desire to do good as he is haunted by his past (and future). There is also a noticeable tone shift in the books as this development occurs, and by the time you reach the end you will really feel as though you traversed the absolute blackest pits of humanity and climbed toward spiritual enlightenment. It's one of the most brilliant and drawn out character studies of all time. But Gene Wolfe didn't only pour his attention into Severian. Almost every character, no matter how brief, is portrayed in such a complex and ambiguous light, where their motives and history are hard to know or understand, but they are all so memorable nonetheless.

I'm just ranting at this point, but there is truly so much to discuss with these books, and I can only imagine how many more details could be illuminated by a second read. I've hardly scratched the surface as it is. I ordered Urth of the New Sun, the final book that Wolfe tacked on a few years later, and I'm very excited. This is a cult classic for a reason.

[immabebaby]

The funniest thing right now is how different brother and my sister react to me getting into something they like.

Context, when I get really into something, I get really into it, like I learn the lore of everything; learn about 5 second characters, know about every storyboard, know all the facts, even the cast isn't safe. And that's not touching on ships

My sister was at first like "cool" when I got into gravity falls cuz she watches it sometimes and hey, some to talk about it with. And then she found out that I got *really* into it, she went from 😃 -> 😕 She even started to actively ignore me whenever I went on rants, she used to humor me and we'd go back and forth a bit. I am not allowed to do any research (aka wiki dives) on anything related to object shows. Apparently she likes knowing more than others, it makes her feel bad when someone knows more about something she likes more than her

Now, onto my brother

He recently got me itched on transformers, as of right now we're working our way through prime and the movies, after I plan to watch RiD (maybe both), TFA, and G1, and he's liked transformers since forever practically. He was ecstatic when I actively started showing interest (after so many years of trying, poor guy) so he's excited. Cuz hey! Someone that's actually into what I like. And then comes me, cuz I'm me and I can't leave it at just that, also my bro is a huge enabler about this rn. He wants me to watch all this as least spoiled as possible to get the most genuine reaction (I nearly killed him when dreadwing died bc I could've used a fucking warning) So yeah, I tend to have a running commentary on the show, and to quote him "By the all spark I've created a monster 😱" Of course, this includes genuine questions born from curiousity, dumb questions to annoy him, incorrect quotes, character analysis, character nicknames etc. To the point that he shoves me to my room when he's done with me. Anyways, he's now plotting which other fandoms he can try to hook me into "now that I've discovered the formula"

Tldr - my sister doesn't like me knowing more than her about anything she watches, not allowed to even look at wiki when it comes to her shows.

Brother is thinking of what other things to get me to watch with him in hopes of 'the spark'

[marmolita]

2024 year in review

Taken from the list in this post! I decided to just come through and answer all the questions.

How many fics have you worked on since January?

Well I posted 41, but I have 2-3 more being actively worked on.

What’s something new that you tried in a fic this year?

I did a fake-reddit-post mediafic this year!

What piece of media inspired you the most? (This can be the fandom you wrote the most for, the one that spawned the most ideas, the one you thought about the most, etc.)

Final Fantasy XV my beloved, back for a second go at being my obsession

How many fandoms did you write for this year?

5 if you include "original work" as a fandom.

What ships captured your heart?

Squall/Seifer(/Rinoa) definitely leapt out at me this year. Other than that I've been kind of all over the place, but am currently in a gladnoct state of mind for some reason.

What characters captured your heart?

Okay so I didn't write any fanfic about it, but I read Naomi Novik's Scholomance this year and Orion Lake absolutely captured my heart. He is entirely blorbo bait for me, but alas, I didn't get what I wanted out of him in the third book and didn't find much fic about him either. Other than that, I spent a good while this year feeling like Squall Leonhart was extremely relatable, and then got back to FFXV and my true love Noctis.

Did you write for any new fandoms or ships this year?

Yes, actually! This year I wrote a Stardew Valley fic, and I also wrote my first (and so far only) Destiel fic for SPN.

What fic meant the most to you to write?

Hmmmmm. It's probably the Niflheim!Gladio fic that I haven't published any of yet because I'm not far along enough to be comfortable with it. Other than that possibly this little fic I wrote about Cartanica because even though I did it for a prompt, I was having a lot of feelings about Cartanica.

What fic made you feel the happiest to work on?

I giggled my way through writing Paw-paw said WHAT?, because the idea of Noct having a magical healing cock and it being used in a random side quest cracked me up.

What fic was the most satisfying to finish writing?

Probably Fated Circle, the Seifer/Squall postcanon one. It ended up being way longer than I anticipated and having a lot of action scenes, and I was pretty proud of it.

What fic was the most difficult to write?

It was weirdly this random one about Noct posing for a charity calendar? Not sure why that one gave me so much trouble but I eventually kinda threw in the towel on it. Other than that, the Niflheim!Gladio one I'm still working on is being pretty difficult because it has actual plot and needed an outline and is LONG.

What fic was the easiest to write?

Pretty sure I pounded out feast for a king on my phone during breaks from work because it flowed so quickly and easily.

What were your shortest and longest fics posted this year?

Shortest: Sacrifice, at 328 words

Longest: Fated Circle, at 10,066 words

What were your go-to writing songs?

...the FFXV soundtrack? Actually though for my FFVIII fic I spent a lot of time listening to the FFVIII playlist I put together, which includes multiple P!nk songs (What About Us, TRUSTFALL, Can We Pretend, among others) and also Kelly Clarkson's Catch My Breath which I listened to a million times thinking about Squall.

What was the hardest fic to title?

ALL OF THEM. But probably the Seifer/Squall amnesia one where I ended up with "The Body Knows" which is a dumb title.

What's your favorite title of the year?

Muscle Memory. I started writing this one about GF memory erasure years ago and finally wrapped it up to post this year, but the title was set long before posting because it Felt Right.

Share your favorite opening line

Henry Loxlian, just past his eighteenth birthday, was the most highly anticipated student at the Academy of Saint Lillian in a century.

from The Ecstasy of Saint Lillian, an original work I did for Smut4Smut!

Share your favorite ending line

None of them, I suck at endings. And, upon reviewing a bunch of them, I'm realizing that I often end fics in the same way, with something like "Maybe [thing the fic was about] isn't so bad after all." Oops? Anyway this one was okay.

Whether it'll amount to anything in the bright light of day, Seifer doesn't know, but here in the dark he'll hold this nascent dream close to his heart.

from A New Dream

Share your favorite piece of dialogue

From Absolution: "I deserve punishment." "No, you don't. But if you feel like you need it, then I'll give it to you."

Share your funniest line

People in the comments seem to really like that in my Stardew Valley fic I had Alex say, "Thanks, bro" to Sebastian after they had sex, but tbh that's a mainstay from hockey RPF so I feel like it wasn't that creative? 😂

One that I particularly enjoyed was Prompto saying "The tentacle monster wants to fuck your throat, Noct.  All the way through." in ride of your life, though that's admittedly a little niche. I also liked Squall thinking that he and Seifer were exes in The Body Knows.

There's also the setup to Paw-paw said WHAT? which I had fun with: "Well see, I been gettin' these headaches?  Real bad ones, sometimes, and Paw-paw's been worried about it.  He told me, 'Go get Reggie's boy to fuck you and it'll clear it right up.'"

What's something that surprised you while you were working on a fic? Did it change the story?

I kind of had some fits about writing Most Eligible, because Gladio wasn't being villainous enough, and then Noct liked him too much, and then none of the plot made sense with there just being the one banquet, so I ended up adding a pageant because why not!

What writing programs did you use? Did you write by hand?

All my writing is done in gdocs.

If you had to choose one, what was THE most satisfying writing moment of your year?

Actually coming up with a coherent plot for the Niflheim!Gladio fic and outlining it. I cannot wait to share this fic with you all but I also do not yet believe I will finish it, and I am not one to post unfinished WIPs.

Did you do anything special to celebrate finishing a fic?

No, I finished a lot of fics and none of them were that exciting lol

How did you recharge between fics?

I am either constantly writing in a frenzy or not writing at all for months, there's no specific recharging happening.

Did you create fanworks other than fic?

I make a lot of playlists but mostly for my own personal use.

How many events did you take part in? (bangs, exchanges, ship weeks, zines, prompt memes, they all count!)

Enemies to Lovers Exchange, FFVIII Bingo, Smut4Smut, Nonconathon, Rare Pair Exchange, and a combo kinktober/promptober that also ended up becoming a server event for the Seifer/Squall discord, so that makes a total of....6-7?

If this were an awards show, who would you thank?

@misswonderheart who alpha/beta reads all my fic for me and lets me yell at her about it always and forever, and @freosan for brainstorming ideas with me!

What's left on your to-do list for 2024?

Nothing? I'm still working on some fic but I don't expect them to wrap up this year.

What would you like to write next year?

If this Niflheim!Gladio fic isn't posted next year I will be very disappointed in myself tbh. I've got 14k words written so far and I'm only like maybe 1/3 of the way through it or less. I rarely even write fics that are over 10k words long so having 14k already on it is a LOT, but I have some confidence I can do it! I just need to recruit some more cheerleaders I think ��

[silurisanguine]

15 lines of Dialogue game

As ive been away for the weekend, not sure if anyone tagged me with this but saw it open tag so here we go. Tagging @vorchagirl @despicablediet and anyone who'd like to do it! 15 Lines of Dialogue Rules: Share 15 or fewer lines of dialogue from an OC, ideally lines that capture the character/personality/vibe of the OC. Bonus points for just using the dialogue without other details about the scene, but you're free to include those as well! Since i've written the most with Seren Jones, I shall pick her for this!

1 -"Maybe I am, but there isn’t anything left in this universe worth staying for. Whatever is in the next universe has to be better than this one Barrett, it has to. I can't bare to stay here any more, not without him, not when I could have done it so differently."

2 - "Cora… she was there, saw her dad die…She hated me, blamed me for not saving him. After the funeral, Lillian took her and that was the last I ever saw that wonderful twelve year old. I realised then I had no reason to stay in my universe as everything i loved had been taken from me. I hoped maybe another would give me a second chance. To fix things..to try again…

…That’s why I do this.”

3 - "I came here the first time with no preconception of what I’d find. I was in awe at the location, just as you are now. But what I learned here has guided my hand in relation to how I see the Artifacts, how I see Unity and the Starborn. Anyone who wants to complete the Artifact collection, needs to know the full story for themselves.”

4- "Now you see how dangerous this place is, and this is just the start. The Starborn Guardians here have lost all empathy, all compassion, their humanity in pursuit of their cause. They have nothing left in their existence except to stop anyone else reaching the Temple. …I sometimes wonder what is the point of their existence before I wipe them out of it for good.”

5 -”You washed them clean. I can say one good thing about Lillian in that she gave you the chance to do that. You’re not the same man, Sam.”

6 -”They makes me smile every time I come back here. But I’m not entirely alone, the fish there get a view unlike any other.” She pointed to the couple of little fish swimming in their tanks, sitting right at the edge of the massive view screen. “If you don’t mind taking care of them for me, they’ve been a good little crew, never complained once.”

7 - "I've never met you before. Until today I'd never met a single pirate here." That was the truth, if a little stretched Seren thought.

8 -"All this, this universe is a nightmare. I've been to so many variations and… You… everyone here is so different, so wrong. It’s like Unity decided to show me the worst outcome possible just to make me appreciate who I’d - what I’d lost.”

9 -"Neat trick, have to remember that next time I'm in a hell-hole universe."

10 -"Sorry, Sam, just picturing you over Vlad’s head brought on images of you in ballet tights and…yeah, sorry, I have too much imagination.”

11 - "Yes, justice, Delgado. See that’s behind most things I do now. In this case justice for those your fucking coloured coded Spacers have harmed- have murdered. It’s interesting really how far I got here without anyone realising who I really am... I wondered why no one noticed the SIN of my ship. Even Jess surprisingly. It was a gamble using it of course…But no one ever clocked that I was flying the Razorleaf."

12- “Until I knew for sure you felt the same way I did, I wasn’t sure how to really act around you. But now I know, expect more of this, Sam Coe.”

13 - “You know I would! I mean she called me darlin, you know that makes me melt.”

14 - "…He always said he was bad with words, yet he could say things that were like love poetry to me, that would dazzle me. He was so open with his feelings when he trusted you. Funny, absurd sometimes and he cared deeply and loved passionately. He was an amazing father and I-"

15 - "I've no idea. Being Starborn didn't exactly come with a manual."

[sapphire-weapon]

As someone who ships leon and ashley and enjoys reading/consuming taboo topics and relationships in fiction including incestuous ones, it's so funny to me that I don't see eagleone that way at ALL. theyre one of the relationships i purely enjoy for being a cute wholesome romance and who i want to see thriving and happy (albeit i enjoy the tragic love angle too--) and yet they have a sizable age difference and a "power dynamic" (??????) so it's a "proship"... honestly outside of them both having a daddy kink i really dont want to see that with them!!! Its just not what I'm here for. Im here for that in OTHER ships and this was supposed to be my one good one and this is what happens. Lol.

As such I try to just not care when people accuse eagleone shippers of being weird because Im like... well I suppose I AM...... but it is really unfair for the majority of vanilla ones. Honestly I don't think the antis are secret shippers or secret incestuous shippers (...okay maybe like one or two--) I think they just have a "NOTP" or are scared of how much they relate to ashley as you say and are just making excuses for why they hate seeing fanart of them and blocking people who ship them. I notice this in other fandoms where people will say two characters are "sibling coded" and its just their way of saying they don't ship them. It's really weird frankly and they're basically ignoring canon to write worse fanfiction but that's just how it is these days.

personally, it actually blows me away that people think of Leon and Ashley as being "age gap" at all.

in modern day 2023, Leon is 46. Ashley is 39.

that feels really fucking normal to me in terms of ages for a couple LMAO if any of these dumbasses met a couple like that irl out in the wild today, no one would bat an eye. but that would require these people actually leaving the house, so.

the whole "power imbalance" thing is completely disingenuous, too, because people only look at it in the context of the events of the actual game and then pretend like that's going to be the norm for them forever and not, you know, a very unique, atypical, and extreme situation they're in.

but if anyone were to think about it a little bit as opposed to not at all, they'd realize that their power dynamic would shift once they got home, and then shift again once Ashley's dad is out of office -- and when the power dynamic is constantly changing, that's not exactly imbalanced, is it?

Leon has all of the power during the events of RE4make, and Ashley is wholly dependent on him. yes. that's true.

but once they're out of that combat situation and they're back home in DC, Ashley has literally all of the power in the world over him. she outranks him socially, and she theoretically has the power to make his life complete hell in terms of his career if she were to whisper in her dad's ear the right way.

but the title of "president" is a very temporary one, and once those very short few years are over...? neither Ashley nor Leon are in a position to hold any power over each other at all anymore. they just become two regular-ass people trying to fit into each other's lives.

the whole idea behind "Ashley is completely dependent on Leon in RE4make, which means she will always be completely dependent on him" isn't just based on a faulty premise -- it's also really sexist and gross and reduces Ashley to something less than human, because it assumes that she's incapable of autonomous thought.

and it's really funny how it's only the people who hate the ship that actually are problematic in their thought process. they project their internalized misogyny and sexual insecurities onto us.

I am pretty much as deep in the middle of eagleone fandom as a person can possibly be, and I have never known a single one of you fuckers to ship this ship because you have an age gap kink or because you get off on the power dynamics. the only time power dynamics get brought up is when we make knight/queen comparisons -- which actually gives Ashley the greater portion of power.

I mean, yeah, there is the whole thing where a lot of the fandom also is of a mind that there are some daddy issue kinks at play in the ship, but --

I don't wanna hear shit from people about us enjoying daddy kink between Leon and Ashley when literally the entire fucking RE fandom is out here posting pics of shirtless Leon mods and writing the word "DADDY" in giant fucking text at the bottom of the post. goddamn hypocrites.

[anotheruserwithnoname]

Some good news and some bad news regarding Season 3 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. The good news is that now that the strikes are over, production of Season 3 is set to begin next month! This is good because there have been rumours swirling around possible cancellation in the wake of Star Trek Discovery being ended after its 5th season. But SNW continues (Lower Decks has also been renewed for Season 5). The only caveat to that is Paramount Plus still cancelled Star Trek Prodigy even with its Season 2 complete, so nothing is a guarantee anymore. (And even then, it's been reported that Prodigy S2 will at least get some sort of Netflix release).

(Further good news is Season 2, with its amazing musical and Lower Decks crossover episodes, is set for Blu-ray release before Christmas.)

The bad news - though this is likely educated speculation on Screen Rant's part - is the possibility that the 10-episode 3rd season my be split, with only 5 episodes airing in 2024 and having to wait till 2025 to see the rest. Aside from that wrecking viewer momentum, those 5 weeks will come and go very quickly. If this news is correct, though, they could be telegraphing some sort of 5-episode story arc, which should be good but I actually prefer SNW's episodic format as it better supports the type of experimentation we got with not only this past year's musical and part-animated episodes, but the episodic format is what made TOS what it was. No official word on any cast changes, though I will be surprised if S3 doesn't reintroduce Dr. McCoy in some fashion.

I haven't written much about SNW but it's my favourite of the live action modern Treks. I stopped watching Discovery and Picard but SNW has kept me. I've had songs from the musical earworming for the last week or so after I rewatched it. And I greatly appreciated the time-travel episode "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" for finally canonizing an explanation as to why the prequel series haven't always lined up with what we know as canon from TOS, TNG, etc. which as far as I'm concerned frees the writers to deviate and retroactively serves to rectify canon issues dating all the way back to some episodes of DS9, never mind Enterprise, Discovery and SNW itself. I will explain for those who don't know but I will put a spoiler break here for those who might be waiting for the Blu-ray or haven't had a chance to stream season 2 yet. If the break doesn't appear below, stop reading now if you don't want the spoiler.

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The episode reveals that due to the many time travel events over the years (including ones we haven't seen on screen by enemies of the Federation; the episode relates one involving Mary Queen of Scots (in-joke for the actress) what we have been seeing in SNW etc. is an alternate timeline. Maybe not as extreme as the Kelvin timeline of the films, but events such as the Eugenics Wars - indeed, the birth of Khan himself - were delayed by decades. This major change to the timeline - and then you fill in the blanks by factoring in even minor changes such as the guy who accidentally killed himself with McCoy's phaser in City on the Edge of Forever, Sisko replacing Gabriel Bell in the Bell Riots, the Voyager crew going back to 1996, Archer and T'Pol heading off agents of the temporal cold war in the early 2000s, etc. - and you can see how it's possible that things progressed differently resulting in SNW and Discovery being more technologically advanced than TOS-era ships should be as established in TNG, DS9 and Enterprise that used the original tech and designs. Also character differences, like Pike's crew being aware of T'Pring and Khan when Kirk's crew in TOS did now despite Spock having worked with La'an Noonien-Singh and Kirk being aware of La'an's feelings for him. Or the lack of reference to Kirk's brother, who dies in a famous TOS episode, having been former Enterprise crew. And it literally stems from two lines of dialogue. It's exhibit A of how quickly and simply a show like Doctor Who can fix things.

[amaranthhiding]

Sam and Lily Sunder in 12x10

I honestly never paid all that much attention to this scene in my previous rewatches of this episode, because the episode itself has such a strong focus on Cas, so that's where my attention was the other times.

But since this time my focus for this episode is on Sam (for... so far undisclosed reasons *coughs*), this scene is driving me completely up-the-wall insane. I'm not even sure I can adequately put into words all the layers of why.

Sam is really there, having a bonding moment with the red-haired, centuries-old woman who knows levels of advanced magic that lie beyond anything Sam has been able to do alone so far, while he's relating to her in a very personal way over past trauma.

The mind-blowing thing about this is that all of this sounds 100% like I'm talking about Rowena, but I'm not.

And you can see, you can actually see, how fascinated and tempted he is by the prospect of this magic.

That the only thing holding him back is the memory of himself going dark with the demon blood powers years ago.

(Sorry, I couldn't resist.)

And how he drops that restraint the moment he finds out that Lily is not talking about any dark powers, but about angelic, divine ones.

I mean, look at how interested he suddenly is.

This is just an assumption on my part, but I think his posture and facial expression mean he is so willing to pay the price?

He even puts the angel blade away he'd been fiddling with up to this point.

He's willing to pay the price until he finds out that this price also includes going back to one of his other deepest regrets—the time he was soulless and completely unhinged and without any remorse.

Which gives them yet another thing to bond over? Something nobody else would truly understand.

Listen, I'm not actually shipping Sam/Lily. I'm honestly not even completely sure what my point for this post is. But I'm just intrigued, you know?

They somehow put Sam's dark past with the demon blood powers and the soulless era and the desperate hunt for revenge for the deaths of Mary and Jess all into one conversation?

That and magic!

Then Lily's "You don't trust me, I understand" is like a throwback to one of the first things Sam said to Rowena: "I don't trust you, and I never will."

And then Lily, as if she already knew Sam in and out from the short time they've spent with each other, brings up the one thing that actually has the potential to make him go down that soulless road again.

Dean's death.

We know it's possible.

Just like Dean's fate was what made Sam drop all his restraints to team up with Rowena, it could do the same thing again, couldn't it?

If Ishim had managed to kill Dean and Cas that night, Sam would have wanted Ishim dead with very little regard for whatever personal sacrifices Sam would have had to make for that. Even if, for some reason, that would have been an eye?

We know that.

Lily knows that.

And Sam knows it, too.

(Also, she promises to wait for him because she really wants him as her student for Enochian magic, apparently? Just, what is happening here?)

[indigo-scarf]

Hii 💖🫶🏻 I have a question. Who’s worse, Draco Malfoy, James Potter or Sirius Black?

Hi :)

I love this question, because those 3 characters are very significant to me.

Back when I couldn't accept the gospel of Drarry, I settled for Wolfstar and took Sirius as my blorbo. He is just like me fr in that he has an aggressively abusive racist family; he did destructive, impulsive things; and he has the conflict of wanting to reject his family but having to wonder if he is just like them. So Sirius's violent streak is very much relatable.

Draco was always my #1 blorbo since I first read the books (it just sucked that I didn't like any of the popular ships with him). He is also just like me fr in that he's an attention whore and a spiteful little bitch when he doesn't get attention and praise, especially if someone else steals the spotlight. Plus, now that I do like Drarry, and even see one-sided Drarry as one possible version of canon, there is also the relatability of being toxic as hell to your crush because you want to interact with them but they don't like you back and you don't know how/hate to be vulnerable. Plus, I find his whole dramatic and self-centered privileged boi personality both hilarious and endearing.

(why do I only bond with characters through negative things idk haha ask my therapist)

And then there's James, who is possibly my least favourite character in the entire series. It's surprising, because I usually like bullies and bad people in general in fiction — see how I like Draco — so why does James squick me? Well, now I feel like maybe writing a whole post about it someday when I can articulate it better, but for now:

I think it's the mix of his offences involving creepy male heterosexuality and him being portrayed and accepted by much of the fandom as a good person overall — there's much there to repel me and nothing for me to relate to or enjoy.

Misogynistic fictional fuckboy behaviour to me is like, I could actually be into him if he were portrayed and seen as a predator who harasses women because he's such a sick and twisted tortured soul (fic recs welcome); but he's potrayed and seen as a righteous wholesome hero who just made a few mistakes as a teen, and I really do not vibe with that, when the mistakes include being a sex creep to a woman.

I'm not shaming anyone for being James fans, people can be impacted differently or give different subjective weight to different traits of a fictional character (I literally just said my fave is the racist). It's just that to me personally James's flaws outweigh everything else about him, so I could only like him if he were a villain, but then I don't usually see him be framed that way.