#some of the characters were so hypocritical and so dumb it was making me mad

[squib-2006]

So I’ve finally got some of my thoughts on the new season in order and letting my self sit on it for a while

Dragons rising season 2 spoilers!!!!!

So first off holy shit this season has managed to completely wipe out any fears I had for season two. I’m a generally anxious person and am pretty naturally pessimistic about most things and was pretty anxious about season 2 because from the stuff shown in trailers and promotional vids it looked like a “Lloyd chosen one” plot line and I have a history of hating that kinda thing because it’s been beaten to death in ninjago at this point. While a bit of that was there I found it was done quite tastefully and didn’t overwhelm everything else story wise.

I felt that the pacing of the first 6-7ish episodes was a bit all over the place. Having the training arc and the Cole-Zane plot lines happen in the same episode with the pov switching back in forth felt a little bit off to me.

Sora and arins character arcs are shaping up to be pretty good. Soras more confident in her self than season one and she’s trying to help Arin but I feel like the whole using her elemental power to help Arin will backfire into her face. Arin’s insecurity and the whole how can I be useful if I don’t have an element I fell is being handled way better than the dumb kai arc in season 11(dw I will get to that when I get to kai) and it’s about on par with the Lloyd powerless plot from hunted. I am really excited to see what they do next and if Arin will be really mad at sora or not cuz like he’s super nice and stuff and I fell like he would be sad instead of mad.

Nya didn’t really have a lot going on personally except the stuff with Jay which I’m iffy on because so much of Nyas character in older seasons revolved around Jay and I just hope they don’t go back to that and let her character breath a bit.

In the topic of Jay I really really REALLY hope he isn’t evil. That the idea because it’s really out of character and they are already pushing my buttons with the lost memory crap because that’s something that I’ve rarely seen done well at all and it makes me very nervous and I just don’t like it. I do like that Jay just seems to be a guy who hates his job tho that’s fun.

I think the writers are just having fun with Zane and I think that’s cool. I do wanna punch the administration guy who said Zane isn’t a person because he is and he’s a bean and I will not allow this nobody to slander him.

It was nice to see more of Cole this season. I swear him and geo are so cute. The hand holding and the fact that they basically adopted two kids together is amazing and I am fully on board for this ship.

The villans were really interesting. I hope they keep up the quality with them because the mystery of ras’ master and wtf happened with jordana is really exciting. Cinder was intresting and as someone who has no interest in men what so ever I am kinda baffled at why so many people want this man but hey you do you. I do wonder what happened to ash tho. The member of the forbidden five looks interesting too and part of me is hoping that the leaked “evil jay” minifig is actually this guy just powered up cuz the color palette is similar enough and I just don’t want an evil jay.

Wyldfyre is amazing her whole leg being broken then sneaking on the ship to the exasperation of kai (like he would totally have pulled something like this a few seasons ago the hypocrite <3) and the others was so good. I am curious about her talk with egalt she mentioned one of her family members getting the wasting sickness but it can’t be heat wave cuz he seems fine so maybe she had more than one dragon guardian??? I do hope that Kai’s portal abduction does affected going into part 2 and that she bonds with nya and the others over it.

Egalt and rontu were very interesting to me and I’m glad they didn’t go the route of them being the actual creators of spinjitzu and kept the lore consistent I was slightly worried about that. Hope they come back in part 2 too.

Bonzle was a big surprise for me. I likes her personality in season 1 but I didn’t expect her to be so important. She’s really sweet and the scene with wu was great too.

And finally last but definitely not least, the best character in this entire show and my favorite comfort character to beat the shit out of

KAI

IT WAS SO FREAKING GOOD. I LITERALLY HAVE NOT BEEN THIS HAPPY WITH AN EPISODE SINCE SEASON 4 EPISODE 7 THE FORGOTTEN ELEMENT (iykyk) I was literately kicking my feet like a little girl and crying and screaming my head off to the point I woke up other family members. Him unlocking the rising dragon technique by having his sister help and being in harmony with his family is so fucking sweet and I cried like a little bitch it was so good. I am also so happy that they used his old hair and didn’t just slap a smaller version of his current hair onto him (tho I kinda wish they had used the fucked up custom hair that was in the older episodes but I doubt that model is even in their hands so whatever(side side note I love the fucked up hair so much it’s so stupid I love it and will forever miss it)) him being such a dad to wyld fire was so sweet and then using the rising dragon technique after he saw his family in danger was just perfect. I do kinda wish there was more of a dramatic reaction to him getting yeeted by ras into the portal (kinda like any of the other ninja “deaths/major injuries”) but im fine with what we got. Except I kinda hate that only nya has an outward reaction in the aftermath. No lloyd reaction no Cole reaction and nothing from Zane and it makes me mad because every other time a ninja had their moment there was a whole team reaction. But I’m feeling like that’s to nitpicky and there’s still ten more episodes to fix that so fingers crossed. But kai also encouraging bonzle to close the portal even if he’s trapped inside is such a kai thing and hit me like a truck. Also him calling bonzle kid dispite her being much much older than him is funny and sweet cuz Kai’s big brother/father figure side is coming through and it’s so sweet. And the ninja never quit line is so great I was sobbing even more after that. (Tho I don’t know why he said he got it from Lloyd when it would have made more sense to have it be from master wu cuz that’s where he learned it but eh whatever).

While im really happy about kai finally getting some well deserved angst im also very anxious about it too. This could be the perfect opportunity for the writers to just conveniently forget about him for a while and idk if i could sit through that. Kai is a huge part of why I watch ninjago and he’s always been handed the shortest stick character development wise and technically he never got his own focus season either (and no i dont count the pilots because that focused mainly on all the ninja and was only two episodes, i also don’t count season four because it was more a group season, and season 11 doesn’t count because he got a half baked b plot that sucked) I’m very worried that I will loose enjoyment in the show because I dropped the show out of disappointment after season 11 because A LOT of premonitional material made it seem like a kai season and I got my hopes up and was let down so much. I’m very cautious when getting excited about things involving kai in particular because of that and I’m just hoping the writers don’t fuck it up.

Ok that’s enough negativity for once. I’m so excited for more and am foaming at the mouth for more!

[jelzorz]

claudiez pov of your choice <3 for the ficlet prompts

165.

It's a dumb thing to be mad about. Ezran doesn't even really know why Callum cares so much: he's seventeen now, more than capable of making his own decisions, to the point now where Opeli won't act in his place anymore, even if he's got other places to be. Ez likes to think he's a pretty good judge of character these days, and Callum's been doing stupider things than this since he was fifteen, so the gall, the audacity his brother has to pull him up on this is—

"He's just worried about you," says Claudia. She's older now too, and so much quieter than the girl he and Callum used to trail after; than the girl who was led into the wilds of Xadia by an elf bent on causing chaos and destruction for the sake of it. Her hair is cropped short and dyed black to hide the most obvious traces of Dark magic left in her body, but the toll it took is still obvious in the lines of her face. She is thinner than she should be, and the wrinkles at the corners of her eyes are not there because of a youth full of laughter.

Ezran bristles. They are in the medicinal gardens in the south wing of the castle. Claudia's fingernails are dark with soil and she studies the patch of recently dug earth as she counts the plants in her head. She's only been back a couple of years. The others she'd spent wandering from town to town, finding small jobs at clinics and apothecaries to keep herself busy. She's learned a lot from those jobs, and the castle could use some better herbs. "He's a hypocrite," he grumbles, watching the way she tends to the foxgloves.

"With your best interests at heart."

Ez scowls. "Don't defend him," he snaps. "He's just being petty. It's my decision at the end of the day, and he can be mad about it all he wants, but it won't change anything."

Claudia purses her lips patiently and dusts the dirt off her hands. "He's a good big brother," she says after a moment. "You can't blame him. Not after everything I—"

"Everything you've done is irrelevant now, remember?"

Claudia falls silent and looks away at that. That's what all of this is about, after all. Her pardon. The fact that she's allowed in this garden at all without a chain around her ankle. Callum had wanted something less forgiving: imprisonment, exile, maybe even a noose. "You let me off easy, Ez."

"We gave you a trial, and we sentenced you to service here as a medic."

"Which is easy compared to what I should have got." Claudia bows her head, a picture of humility: a servant with dirt on her apron and a far cry from the high born child she used to be. "I tried to kill you," she whispers. "You and Rayla both, and the fact that you would let me off—"

"It's not letting you off," says Ez. "It's choosing forgiveness. It's choosing to end a cycle of violence. And if Callum wants to be just as bad as Aaravos, and Sol Regem, and your dad, that's his choice, but I'm not going to be that kind of king."

Claudia twitches her lips. It's hard to see from the way her head is bowed, but Ez almost thinks there's pride there, and that almost soothes his temper on its own.

"You were always too good for the rest of us," says Claudia quietly.

"The rest of you can choose to be better. You did."

There's a pause. The foxglovea sway in the breeze. Claudia turns away and goes back to tending to them. "You ever think you might have put your faith in the wrong place?"

Ezran scoffs, but he watches her, his eyes stubborn, even if she refuses to face him. "Do you?" he challenges.

Claudia says nothing. The silence feels heavy in the air.

[beloved-belittled]

I have the feeling that out of all the 'yandere' characters you've written, Cetrion is the most disturbing; sure, reader doesn't get outright abused, but there's something incredibly twisted about the way she sees 'familial' relationships, not to mention her being the goddess of virtue. You mentioned her drugging reader at some point, and it all feels gen. scary. It also feels like she may be slightly delusional? Idk, it's all very interesting to me tbh

Oh yeah, the most apt word I would describe Cetrion as is “sinister”. Like you mentioned, she's not one to physically harm Reader, but she clearly has an unhealthy view on how to treat (Y/N). She's quite willing to mask a lot of her actions under the guise of righteousness or love, and she is very much a “the ends justify the means” type of person. So if making your body weak and drugged increases your affection, then so be it.

As I've touched on before, her distorted view of family comes from Kronika. Her mother uses her as a pawn just like anyone else. Not to mention, that Kronika is literally setting her only known children to fight each other for eternity because… Reasons? Kronika definitely engaged in some brainwashing and/or manipulation to achieve this, and perhaps she only ever birthed them for this purpose. (Also Cetrion and Shinnok are closer siblings than one would expect, but this is something for me to expand on another time)

My “one true headcanon” is that the biggest flaw of the Elder Gods & Titans is their boredom. They are purposeless beings with infinite power and infinite time, but can do absolutely nothing with it. It drives them mad, and Kronika's influence only worsens the effect on Cetrion. When questioning her own purpose mixes with her desires (Ex: family, affection, recognition), you get the unhealthy cocktail that is yandere Cetrion.

“Slightly delusional” is understating it, she is highly delusional and refuses to see a lot of her actions as wrong. In fact, she is quite hypocritical. I tried to highlight her hypocrisy in my “Yandere Cetrion x Reader” fic. Specifically with the line “She needs someone to thoroughly ingrain in your mind never to go against family.” Even though she rebelled against Kronika in that story for not agreeing with her mother's actions.

But, perhaps the worst thing about yandere Cetrion is your lack of privacy. Sure, Shinnok will chain you, beat you, and force you to engage in certain actions -but he's not omnipresent. There are periods of time where he'll leave you alone and be unable to observe you.

Cetrion on the other hand -from the moment her attention falls on you- will always watch you. Her seat in Heaven allows for 24/7 surveillance of your life. Every action you perform is now one with an audience. How much would your actions change if you knew that you were never alone? That every mistake or dumb decision you made is locked tight in a celestial's memory? What would or wouldn't you do simply because you can't handle the embarrassment of being observed committing it? In that respect, she is quite terrifying compared to other characters.

[deprivedwithjoy]

The Clear Sight of a Blind Lady

R E F L E C T I O N

Do not ever mistake me for a fool, your backhanded compliments are well-received but disregarded. Oppress your resentment, and you shall receive a politely served silent treatment. There is no need to act like a clown performing in a circus, if you're that desperate for attention then go block the streets and have a bus filled with dumb children to run you over. Maybe this time, playing the victim would actually convince people. Before you react negatively to this post, allow me to clarify this once and for all. No, this is not about you. However, if I did hit a nerve, please go to the nearest hospital immediately and demand to be prescribed anaesthesia to ease the pain of an intentionally stabbed wound. Another option would be to lie to yourself, use passive aggression, and create imaginary arguments in your head while staring at the window for several hours as if you're the main character with an incredibly traumatic past.

During the years of oxygen consumption, the compilation of data from experiences formulated a conclusion. Ignoring the elephant in the room does not make YOU the bigger person. It only makes things worse. And by that, I mean, it only makes your resentment worse because you thought you were undergoing an intense villain arc when in all actuality, you're not. Those people are stuck in the loop of hell where they are so convinced that their beliefs are righteous and justified, despite multiple signs of inherent subjectivity. They labelled close ties to be selfish after a trivial disagreement, as they claim themselves to be the so-called "open-minded" individuals who follow ONLY the ethical rules of life. That mindset itself is ironic; they're basically calling the world flat but simultaneously, they frown upon those who are humiliated for being in the same dark side of stupidity.

Once again referring to that random elephant who is currently banging its head against the floral-decorated wall, allow me to elaborate. You can still see the elephant, it did not just magically disappear after stealing the bike from your garage. For this upcoming statement, I would like to NOT apologise in advance for certain people's entitlement and inability to accept the fact that they are not always right. Therefore, if an acquaintance of mine wishes to separate themselves from my life, then they are more welcome to do so. Pride is often useful if it is to protect the values of oneself. The moment a blunder of mine was revealed, I tend to adjust my actions to prevent any further harm in the future and I also try my best to acknowledge the wisdom in failure.

Unfortunately, not everyone has the same principles as mine. Too much pride and vanity will cause more damage than the shifting of perspectives. Either way, do not mistake my kindness for weakness. Although I'm willing to understand your situation and compromise, I will not ALLOW you to disrespect me. If our relationship is lasting merely for the reason that I'm agreeable and you reap the fruitful harvest, then our relationship is fragile and it was already meant to be broken from the start.

If you identify one of my mistakes as an envious action of betrayal to pull you down, then let go of me. Let's be honest, if that's how shallow your mindset is, then none of your relationships will last.

If you view yourself to be superior to others for your diligence and some positive traits from past achievements, have you tried looking into the mirror to check how inflated your ego truly is?

If you accuse me of someone who is verbally abusive and toxic for learning how to stand up for myself, isn't it "a tad bit" hypocritical since you are willing to do much worse to me just to cross my boundaries? You went so far as to get mad at me for saying "No" when it's my right to decline something I do not want. You can't even accept it, do you? No worries, I get it. We're not as self-aware and "amazing" as we thought. And sorry to burst your bubble, but you should seriously stop living in that victimhood mentality. Like no cap, that sucks. Want my reflection? Here it is. My reflection is a reflection of another person.

[malwaredykes]

funnily enough a lot of Chris Avellone Writing™️ sucks in this exact manner as well. like "i can tell this was the first thing that popped into your brain and because youre so in love with your own mind you viciously resisted the idea of going back and really thinking about it and maybe editing it and just making it coherent" vibes. both in fo2 with a lotta stuff honestly, and in fnv with cass and lonesome road in particular

like with cass for example, i wanna make it clear that i Dont Mind that shes a hypocrite and kinda stupid and overall flawed, i like those things about her actually i like a flawed woman. i like that shes messy and stubborn and judgmental (and homophobic) and says completely bizarre things. companions dont have to be Nice People to be likeable. but good god some of it is just like. chris you didnt really think about this for long enough did you. about writing a companion that actually yells at you and then leaves you if your karma falls below true neutral, because youre a Dangerous Ruthless Asshole, who like, two seconds later tries to murder you in broad daylight if you make a dumb remark about her family as she's leaving. theres the fact that she asks for your help killing two people as revenge, which in itself does fit within the sensible bounds of "oh okay, shes a hypocrite, she harshly judges you for things like stealing too much or doing drugs or doing a first degree murder but shes then eager to pull some dubious deeds when it suits her, and gets annoyed when you suggest doing things by the books instead", except that in most likely scenarios, unless you're sneaky, it'll involve the two of you mowing down all the employees of two companies. i mean i guess being sneaky about alice mclafferty isnt Mad Difficult but good luck with the van graffs. doing a bit of a mass shooting at the silver rush. like you can say that since the van graffs are corrupt their employees are no saints either for following their orders but like McScuse Me who made you the judge jury and executioner here. cass we dont do that here this aint new reno. i thought you didnt like me being an asshole. id say walking into an establishment and lighting em up because their boss slighted you is more than just an asshole move. and theres also the fact that, evil business practices notwithstanding, fucking up the crimson caravan company seriously disrupts supply lines between new cali and the mojave which does not bode well for much of new vegas in its current state. so. you know? like at the end of the day a lot of Cass Traits would be alright on their own, and would also mesh together well if they got some edits. if one were to go back and look at the entirety of her character and really think about it. tone it down a little in some aspects. think a little harder than "well shes Kinda Dubious so she would do the bad thing". please just Think.

and then the whole premise of lonesome road... i feel like ive ranted about this before. but imo giving courier six this extremely contrived backstory was like. groundbreaking levels of bad. like ok so youre telling me that instead of being this refreshing blank slate nobody who very organically gets dragged into the big game, we had, unknowingly, basically created the setup of the games main conflict, because the ncr was just about to kick the legion out, but then we accidentally fucked things up. and youre telling me we were making deliveries of Secret Enclave Doodads for the ncr and theres just no mention of that afterwards, no further implications until ulysses brings it up. and because of all that, ulysses, who has a grudge against you over things you didnt do on purpose, cancels on making the platinum chip delivery when he sees your name next on the list--he knows your name--because he gets this hunch that itll end badly for you, so he lets you do it instead, and thats how you end up getting shot. like. Like. am i going mad. this is so bad. this is rise of the skywalker tier in terms of contrived and unnecessary. this is the kinda stuff you write down on a whiteboard as a very readable tree chart and start editing because its obviously too much. Like. Okay. Alright. Listen Man. not everything has to be about the main character. ulysses life doesnt have to currently revolve around us for there to be an interesting connection. ulysses also being a fellow courier but one with the skills he had acquired as a frumentarius and knowing you from work and then seeing you do some crazy shit around the mojave is already plenty good enough reason for him to take interest in you, especially with your potential to reject both [ulysses voice] The Bull And The Bear. it is reason enough for him to become your foil and project his own trauma and grief onto you. like controversial opinion maybe but that wouldve been enough. the rest of his backstory stays as is, he's consumed by grief and disillusionment, he loses parts of himself as he tries to cling to the remains of the few good things in his life, he wants to press a big reset button because hes so sick of the same mistakes being constantly repeated--and all of that indeed makes it fully plausible that seeing a former coworker he knows by name and face get killed and resurrected and do all that crazy stuff and get so entangled in mojave politics, would make him go Oh I Really Need To Mess With This Person, There Might Be A String Of Fate Connecting Us. They Dont Know A Tenth Of What I Know About The World. you know????? like am i going crazy? the game was rigged from the start yes but that doesnt mean literally every aspect of it has to have had several bizarre layers of events and actors all orchestrating it in various ways. then theres the fact that a lot of ulysses dialogue really is just avellone jacking off. i appreciate that ulysses has a lot to say, and has a particular way of speaking, but some dialogue lines are just straight up redundant and repetitive for no good reason and just. yknow. Edit, Man. sit down, reread everything carefully, and edit things. tone that shit down.

i mean to be fair, You Didnt Even Try Man is the common denominator of pretty much every part of fo3 that i didnt like. like straight up "you couldve spent an extra 15 to 45 minutes putting some thought into this and it wouldve turned out alright" type stuff. fully "okay now sit back and read the whole thing. the whole questline/scene/plot that youve written start to finish. the whole thing. yeah youre gonna have to do a couple major edits on this one this shit straight up doesnt make sense" mode. some real "okay this doesnt work though. this seems like the first idea you had for this that you didnt really expand on or really thought about whether its actually any good. please spend more time on this and consider a bit more than whatever first thing pops into your mind" moments. absolute "this is lazy. this is really lazy and you know it. i want to trust that you could do so much better. theres no way you think this is good enough" situation

[booasaur]

Helstrom (2020) - Ana being gay af

[arlakos]

Miraculous Rant

Actually, you know what, while im still mad from the previous post I made, lets go off on a rant. No punches pulled. Lets do this.

The lovesquare is the most terrible ship in this fandom. One girl is a hyper obsessed stalker who tracks her crush with her planner for 3 whole seasons, while the boy couldn’t learn to take a hint and stop flirting for 3 whole seasons until he decided to move on with another girl. Ironically that makes them perfect for eachother, but its in a creepy kind of way, not a loving kind of way.

Adrigami and Lukanette in the S3 Finale were wasted events and never should have occured because they were immediately axed in the first few episodes of the next season. I feel sorry for those that were hoping their ships could be real for at least a short actual while, and it makes me want to curse the writers for their story-boner for the status quo of teases

Despite what I said earlier, none of the girls are good for Adrien. Marinette’s stalkery and a borderline yandere, Kagami’s somewhat controlling and too similar to Adrien help him grow as a person, Chloe is a queen bee beyotch and honestly too much like a sibling to Adrien, and Lila is garbage. Fuck it, have Luka date Adrien and they can play some sweet music together (not like that you pervs, I meant they both play instruments).

Nino needs more love. Not only that, but there needs to be more Adrien/Nino bro moments. If Marinette and Alya can have moments together, why not the bros?

Chloe’s character is a mess, and is neither redeemable, nor notably evil. Her role as a villain in season 1 is very hamfisted, such as in the episodes Mr Pigeon and Kung Food. Not only that, Chloe also lacks any of the qualities that makes a good “bully villain” or rival to Marinette, and her sympathetic moments (which are Written by Sebastien) are mostly overshadowed by the fact that Astruc wants her to be a bully, so it just makes her bipolar and confusing when her character is tugged between two writers.

Chloe should not have joined Hawkmoth in Miracle Queen, see my other post as to why I think so. TLDR, its kinda ooc  for her to go full on 2d villain like Hawkmoth especially after Miraculer, plus Lila was being build up to be the main antagonist of S3

Chloe got kicked from the Team in Miraculer because people know her identity? Fine. Kagami gets to be Ryuko again despite being known to Hawkmoth in Ikari Gozen? Not cool. Ladybug shouldn’t be a hypocrite and be willing to break her own rules just because “Kagami is my friend and Chloe’s not”. Same goes for her breaking the rule with secrect identities with Alya, only for her to go on and on about the rules to Chat when he pries.

Zoe is a bland character who’s only notable trait that she likes Marinette, which automatically makes her worthy of a miraculous after two episodes and no actual development.

Astruc is a petty frick who makes episodes that give the finger to fans of the show that have a different opinion than him. Queen Banana, Miracle Queen, and Reverser are good examples of this (Reverser did Nathaniel dirty).

Master Fu is a shit guardian. Read my post for more.

FRICK THE FEAST EPISODE. Not only did is ruin Fu as character, it ruined all the good theories as to why the order fell, and wasted the idea of a new villain being introduced or even taking over as the main antagonist! Speaking of Feast, despite the sentimonster destroying an order when he wasn’t even big, he still go beat by 2 kids even when he was supersized!

Marinette is not a good Guardian. Her ability to choose heroes does not make her capable, and just because “tradition is stupid” doesnt mean that Marinette shouldn’t be tested like others before her!

Despite the Kwami’s being ancient magical buildings, they seem to act like kids a lot, and that annoys me when in S1 they are supposed to apparently be mentors to their wielders, like how Tikki was before she was mentally de-aged.

Lila is trash and should be removed from the show. The only reasons her lies work is because the writers dumb down every other character in the show and ignore the fact the people have smartphones with google.

The “Miraculous” Ladybug spell should require both Ladybug and Chat Noir to cast, because not only does the power have nothing to do with creation, but it also “destroys” anything created by the akuma, which thematically makes no sense. Also it would place more emphasis on the two heroes being equals and “two halfs of the same coin”

On that note, Ladybug has too many powers. Not only is she the only one who can purify akumas, and can cast a spell that can fix Paris time and time again like its no one’s buisness, but she also now gets a new suit and the ability to nullify Hawkmoth’s akumas. Like COME ON! Give Chat some powers too.

Mayura’s feather’s shouldnt be able to be purified by Ladybug since they have no dark energy, and (thematically speaking) Chat should be given an ability that allows him to “vanquish” the energy in Mayura[’s feathers similar to how Ladybug can purify Hawkmoth’s akumas. At least it would develop a rivalry between Chat and Mayura, and would make Chat necassary against Shadowmoth rather than being replacable with any other hero.

The are too many temporary heroes. They should have just stuck with the 3 heroes from s2 and leave it at that. Sure, new heroes were cool, but the overuse has made the whole hero thing feel less special. It made sense for the first 3 to have them, but now it’s just like Oprah where everyone gets a miraculous. Except Gabe.

Chat Blanc was a stupid reason as to why secret identities cant be revealed, also Chat could have told LB who Hawkmoth once he returned back to normal was and the show would be over.

Hawkmoth should not be Gabriel. Frick the lore about Gabriel’s wife dying and him going evil to get her back, it makes the story feel too much like a star wars/Darth vader reference and leaves Gabriel acting bipolar, flipping from wanting to save his wife and doing this out of necessity to being a power hungry madman wanting to take over the world ( which is said in his canon music video). Having Hawkmoth be his own character means he can be an actual maniac who wants world domination and not just have villanous plot that rely on obtaining magical jewellery (perhaps doing other evil things/taking a more active role), while Gabriel being his own character means he can be a father that has become estranged from his son due to the lose of his S,O, and thus can have a plot about him reuniting with his son (I liked the end seen in Simon says, ok?)

On that same note, I think Mayura shouldn’t have been Nathalie. Considering Hawkmoth’s plans were repetitive as heck for most of the show, when I heard about the Mayura leaks back in Season 2 (when she was called “le Paon”) I was theorising that Mayura would actually being Hawkmoth’s boss, the villain the was responsible for giving him his Miraculous and the one who destroyed the Order of the Miraculous, and would take over as the main villain in season 3 due to Hawkmoth’s failures. However, that turned out not to be the case.

Not only that, but Mayuras power is a copy paste power with some modifications to make it complement Hawkmoth’s power, by basically giving his akuma’s magic pokemon.

Speaking of Hawkmoth’s power, for a miraculous that is supposed to be used for good, how can his power mind control people and make them become evil? More importantly, for a miraculous that is supposedly weaker than the main heroes of the show, having it be able to multiply and posses people to create an army is kinda strong.

Fuck the Maribat ship that the salt fandom came up with. Its trash, it was made to bash most of the Miraculous cast sans Marinette, and anyone thinks it is good are either those same salters or are the same people who think that Rey-lo and the Twilight Saga are masterpieces of romance.

Whew! I needed that vent. Hope you enjoyed it as as much as I did, and Tune in next time on the next episode of:  Arlakos loses his Mind and Rants for 2 pages of writing!

[0aurelion-sol0]

Yo~

What's your opinion on the Will Byers DID theory? If you like it, which version do you like better? Both interpretations seem cool to me, though I personally like strangertheory's version better ^.^

Hi!

That's a very interesting question. I want to start by saying that I am a singlet, so I don't have DiD or OSDD. My knowledge of this condition is primarly known through medias I consume or some more "advanced" psychiatric documents or researches.

DiD is a condition that hasn't been always best represented or accurately represented since this condition varies from people who have it and so while there are similarities, the experience of it is very much unique and personal. It is also something that in a fictional setting with different genres, themes and tones is very hard to pull off or represent unless you go for the very realistic take on it.

It is bound to be, like many other things in fiction, dramatized. And speaking from a singlet perspective, who also had particular problems represented in fiction, I think it's okay as long as it's done right, in the setting, tone and genre it is in.

For example, we have today a lot more LGBTQ+ representation and like everything, unless you go for the fully realistic route, it's going to be simplified and dramatized. There's so many gender identities and sexual orientations today, you have to simplify it. And that goes for many other things that people care about in media, it has to be done right, but the writers still have a story to tell and unless that subject is the focus of the story, they're not gonna always spend their time talking about that. There is a story to tell.

Secondly, if it is the main focus of the story, that is where people have to do their research and really represent what they are talking about. Not some half-baked representation with dull arguments and points that come from a capitalist and conservative worldview. (Looking at you Disney.)

Now what you are referencing are @strangertheory 's and @kaypeace21 's theories which are about the show being about a DiD system where we see different alters evolving in said story with the host being Will Byers.

There is a lot of evidence pointing towards it, I'm gonna let you go see their posts and read it.

But their theories are very different in the way that they see the show portraying DiD, I have actually find quite a great way to describe the two takes.

@kaypeace21 's take is that elements of the DiD system have been externalised through science-"fictional" or supernatural means. Similar to Legion from the Marvel universe.

(David is a powerful mutant with DiD where each alters, if I remember correctly, has a different power or powers. (Which to this day is still one of the most BADASS thing I have ever come across though it must be quite terrifying for David.))

@strangertheory is an internalised POV on the DiD system existing in the show. She believes that what we are seeing right now is what is exclusively happening INSIDE the DiD system and that what we are experiencing is not our standard definition of the "real world". As in the physical world we all know. This would be in very vulgar terms happening inside Will's self, head, mind or brain. In a sense, it would be a more accurate representation of what DiD is about. A Shyamalan twist if you prefer.

(Though right now I don't have any word for word examples of such take, there is a show called MR.ROBOT that fits a bit of this description since there are moments in the show that we are seeing are only happening in the DiD system itself.

I recommend this show A LOT. It still is a bit dramatized but from what I know the DiD representation is quite accurate and pleased a lot of people with DiD. Also some people on the Stranger Things crew worked on that show.)

Now do I love the DiD theory ?

Heck yeah, I fucking love it! And with a big L! (Am I right "The First I love you?").

And I Love both of the takes and I think each one works at explaining the mysteries of this story. I even think that in some ways both could work well together.

I believe that DiD can be, without the meaning of being used, like many things a powerful storytelling "device" since it is connected to so many themes and other writing tools and is linked literally to the psyche, emotions and personalities of the characters.

I can understand why some people like both or one or respectfully and logically dislike both or one of the takes. But it is close to my belief about what the show is about or were even before I came into this fandom or on the internet, not as complex and thought out as the theory itself but pretty close in the overall themes and aspects of it.

(Though it bewilders me how much people lack imagination or are scared of such twist when I have seen so many of those types before whether it's done well or not, accurate or not.)

Now both @strangertheory and @kaypeace21 are intelligent people with very nuanced takes. And they had their fair share of completely unjust controversies coming from either rabbid ignorant shippers, far too sensible people or downright ignorant stupid people, most of the time 16 year olds. I am not saying that they are perfect, no one is, but the hate they have received is completely unjust.

And I am gonna lay it down right here, they are begging for an accurate representation here, they are not doing this because it just sounds cool and is edgy, they are actually wanting that The Duffers pull this off well. They would be very mad if they use all the imagery just to make it look cooler or scarier.

They are not bringer of truths, they are just like us. They are theorists, they believe in something that they think can explain the story they love and are experiencing. And so far, they have a pretty damn good track record.

They are analysing, dissecting the show because it's what they want to do and they believe in it and they believe the Duffers wants them to do that (I mean how come no one believes it when watching a show like that set in the 80's with so many references ?).

It is also supposed to be fun. Have fun for God's Sake! You can disagree with it but calling names and being disrespectful because somehow they don't agree with very basic, lazy and cliché theories (and no it's not being hypocrite, a lot of people barely do the work.) or are not on board with your creepy projection over the characters IS not okay.

And no, they aren't supporting p*d*philia as some people have claimed. How can you read these theories and come up to that conclusion ?

Most people haven't even read the DiD theory or have gone all the way through with it because they are lazy, easily bored people who don't have the time to just relax, process and think.

Stranger Things is not a kids show, some dumb teenage romance drama show with cool monsters! It's a very mature show, with real problems that are treated, out of which is trauma and mental health. Kids are killing people and even dying on this show. There is sexism, racism, abuse both physical and psychological.

It is a very mature and dark show. And you are being disrespectful to the Duffers when you say they are not that smart or that isn't that important. They are putting a lot of thoughts into this and the fact that no one really recognises this annoys me.

Or people only think it's important when it is only about the things they enjoy in the show. (Which is more hypocrite to me.) OR people are very stupid if they truly think that or are just jealous, bitter that two women have more imagination together and individualy than all of them or that person alone.

Color and costume choices, subtext, context, camera angles, directing, VFX, music, editing, sets, props, script, acting and editing are very important. All must be carefully done or you get very bad or generic stuff if you don't. If you love and you are passionate about the work, you put all the details you can into it.

And the Duffers and all the people working with them have already referenced those sort of things AND the practice of what we do on the internet. They are aware, they know because they have been in the same place too. They grew up with stories too, they made theories too whether it's on the internet or not.

At the end of the day, it is just a theory. An explanation of what is unfolding, may unfold or may have unfolded. I believe in it, I think it is reasonable, it has logic and it makes sense. It also has a lots of elements backing it up.

And the Duffers don't even have to go with DiD or mention it. Will creating some of the characters and supernatural events from his trauma is also similar and more accessible to the masses. But a Shyamalan twist can also work if it is done well.

And I am also open to other possibilities and theories, if they make sense and have enough elements IN THE SHOW and everything connected to it backing it up.

If the Duffers write something completely different but it is as good and also explains even better than this theory than I'll be okay. I love being wrong, it makes me learn new things and enhances the way I approach stories in the future.

If the Duffers only used this as some very inaccurate and disrespectful scary/abstract subtext without commiting to it. That is where I will have a problem.

Or write something completely incoherent with the rest of the show with a bad plot twist catering to the main public masses to sell the story even more and just make money so that they are safe with a fallacy of a work of fiction. Because they are cowards who didn't know how to manage themselves and baited entire audiences or listened to some crappy executive who didn't understand shit about the story. (wink wink, looking at a certain something...)

So yeah, I do love the DiD theory and both of it's takes and if it happens and is done right, with of course my perspective on the thing and PRIMARLY the perspective of people who have DiD or know a lot about it, I'll be pleased with it and I think it could be something very important for stories, people, the world and "art" in general.

Thank you for the question it was really fun! I hope I described the theory and the condition in the right way @kaypeace21 and @strangertheory and also the people who are concerned or know about it if I didn't let me know. Also, if you disagree with what I said, the way I said it or the subject itself let me also know IF it's respectful of course.

[stagwhisker]

Actually this brings me to another gripe and warriors vs the fandom and that theres chunks of this fandom who can't understand framing vs context and think that because the book frame a character as good they can do bad things at best and be garbage at worst and vice versa.

I see this mainly with Bramblestar but it applies to others like Breezepelt, Blossomfall, Bluestar, I swear it's more than B names these are the ones I can remember off the top of my head.

The books want you to think these characters as great or having good reasons for doing the shit they did and they just don't. They try to do this by having other characters refer to them in good light or stand up for them in a good way and just no???

Bluestar was always paranoid and possesive (and WILDLY hypocritical) then when she began to fall apart she chose to let her clan rot instead of stepping down. Also naming a traumatized woman after the thing that she felt ruined her? Good job asshole maybe your warrior name should have been Deadmom. Also idk how many people remembered this but she was a dick to her kits when they were still in the nursery. Instead of trying to explain to Mosskit that food was short she said, and I QUOTE "I'm your mother. If I've said you've had enough to eat, then you have." When Mosskit responds "That's not fair!" Bluestar replies with "Life's not fair." Which is so bad fucks sake.

Blossomfall is just plain asshole and it honestly blows my mind that IvyBlossom is so popular considering she spent just about any page time with Ivypool bullying her and treating her like shit. Then later on she grows up to be an adult who comes off as genuinely Xenophobic(as applied to wc) and that ends up alienation her son who ends up dying over this shit.

Breezepelt was manipulated by the Dark Forest into beleiving what they TOLD him Crowfeather felt about him. Was Crwofeather a good dad? No. Did he hate his son? No. The neglect Breezepelt had was no excuse to do the shit he did. This leans more towards a section of the fandom thinking his action were justified because uwu sad backstory I can relate to, but no they were not. Breezepelt was an adult for all of the bad shit he did outside of aggravating Thunderclan cats, it was entirely his decision independant of what Crowfeather did and for once the books actually acknowledged this through Crowfeather himself of all people.

Bramblestar falls into "The Erins are misogynistic and will blame women for the problems caused by men" category. I'll bite and tell you BrambleSquirrel was a terrible idea from the first book of New Prophecy because Bramblestar set in his mind an image of Squirrelflight and seemingly carried that his whole life. Brambleclaw saw Squirrelpaw as an annoying apprentice and got pissy when she tried correcting him. This follows them until they are grown ass adults when The Sisters came into play. Bramblestar refused to listen to Squirrelflight and actively made things worse by not doing so which forces Squirrelflight to go behind his back to try to SAVE other cats. When all hell breaks loose the fandom wants to blame Squirrelflight when all she did was try to make sure these cats and pregnant woman didnt get fucking killed which ended up happened anyway because guess fucking who. When Fireheart did it to Bluetsar for similar reason it was "brave" and "the right thing to do" but because it's Squirrelflight now it's "backstabbing" and "betrayal".

Also

Real talk, if you are with a parent, loved one, or friend and had the thought "I want to tell them this, but I don't want them to be mad." comes to mind first, that's a sign you've been abused. When you are afraid to share information or talk about things because they'll get angry, they've blown up at you, blew things way oit of proportion, and belittled you for shit they shouldn't have. Squirrelflight's Hope is littered with this and it deeply concerns me that the fandom wants to look at this textbook example of an abuse victim and say it's her fault she feels this way.

I'm not gonna go over the reveal of the Three because I'll level with you if I was put on the spot like Holly did to her parents I probably would have panicked and said some dumb shit too. But then it's up them to talk about it and work through it.

Another thing that Bramblestar does that really irks me in regards to Squirrelflight is how he always wants her to listen and consider his feelings but doesn't always want to do the same for her. This refers to Moonlight too but mainly Hawkfrost. All Brambleclaw had to do was assure her that he hears her and considers her feelings but would make his own decision. Thats IT, it's not that hard. She may not had had solid proof Hawkfrost was evil but he doesn't hide his abuse of Mothwing very well either and if your boyfriend is willing to side with his brother who abuses his own family you'd drop his ass too because that's pretty telling of a person.

The Hakwfrost situation was wild on it's own anyway because he was so onviously bad to begin with and Brambleclaw just went with it until he couldn't anymore and then never ahd any concequences for it when other female characters do way less and get way worse.

Whatever this has turned into a mile long rant but the point is teh Erins can't write characters and then treat them as they are and it's most noticable with Bluestar and Bramblestar. Anyway I'm gonna make some coffee so I can chill.

[varcn]

   in defense to varon: a long rant about dub vs. sub.

    i want to start this post by saying that throughout my time with varon as a muse ( over five or so years ago ), i’ve seen hate towards his character & a lot of it, are issues with the dub or issues that could be explained ( not justified ) by learning about his background ( which was omitted pretty much in the dub ). so, with this post, i want to address some of those issues ( which i also share ) & explain why i lean towards the sub.

     one of the major critiques i’ve seen about his character, is his entitlement to mai & i agree, but let me just say that this was mainly a problem in the dub.

   i will go on a bit of a tangent & say that yes, doma had many issues & many ‘ooc’ moments. there’s been a lot of frustration towards mai’s character regression, & while i understand that as an audience, it might be frustrating or disappointing, i like to see it through a more ‘realistic’ perspective. mai suffered a lot because of yami malik. she was shown with trauma ( possible ptsd or depression ), so to me, the fact that she went back to her old ways when she was alone isn’t entirely unrealistic. what i had a problem with, was how yugi & co. decided to react to this, completely dismissing her feelings & blaming it entirely on the orichalcos brainwashing her, which... yes & no. the orichalcos made her want to defeat jou because she wanted to move on, as it was clear that him not being there + envy had caused resentment towards him & the group. however, the resentment was already there. mai felt abandoned, left behind, etc. she wanted to be saved even though she wasn’t reaching out or saying she needed the help. emotions aren’t always rational, so even if she knew that they wouldn’t know unless she said something, that didn’t stop her from feeling some type of way towards them.

    valon is no different in the dub.

   first meeting / flashback

     when they meet, he makes promises of power & how he could grant her that. he always portrayed himself as mai’s saviour or knight in shining armour. he was entitled to her from the beginning because she ‘owed’ it to him. to me, it felt as if the dub was trying to mirror jou by dumbing him down ( jou is also dumbed down ), & make it seems like ‘look, they’re the same, just good vs bad! ). in the sub, however, i see it more as ‘varon is what jou could’ve become, had he not found yugi & co’.

     in the sub, mai breaks down because she’s alone, hurt & ‘needs to be saved’, because nothing she does ever feels as enough. varon starts by telling her that she’s a strong woman, despite losing to him & collapsing to her knees. he called her strong because she’s still trying, & doesn’t make her promises about giving her power, like in the dub. instead, he tells her ( perhaps a bit harsh, but true ) that no one will save her ( oh, the irony ) & that she needs to save herself. this alone, is a comment he makes from experience & shows how varon sees things. it’s him vs the world. he can’t rely on anyone else, & even shows some anger towards rafael when he tries to help.

    he’s a loner, like mai, & while what he said isn’t the best advice, it’s all he knows. in the end, he disproved his own advice because he saw how blinded mai was & the risks she was taking as consequence of it. he saw that no, she couldn’t do things alone in the state she was & he wanted her to rely on him.

    * this is also the first instance of varon showing any care / concern towards someone, as later on, he even tells mai he’s willing to go against doma / dartz for her sake. take that as you will.

       valon, the ‘r/niceguy’.

     another scene that comes to mind, it’s the conversation that they have in the desert. in the dub, valon goes on about how he can make things better for her, & when she tells him ‘i don’t like you’, he responds in a condescending tone about how he knows how she feels towards him. one of his main issues towards jou, both in dub & sub ( thought the sub emphasizes more on it ) is how dismissive him & the others are of mai’s feelings. the dub just shows how much of a hypocrite he is because he does just that. he tells her how she feels, despite being vulnerable. i’ve watched this scene in spanish & english & while the dialogue is pretty much the same, the only difference is that in the spanish version, he sounds more soft-spoken & ‘casual’. i guess the bad cockey accent didn’t help.

     as for the sub, varon tells mai how she feels, but not in the way that the dub portrays. i think we could elude the fact that between episodes, & even before the entire season, there has been interaction between mai & varon. at least, enough for varon to know about her resentment to jou & see some of mai’s pain. he describes how she’s been living her life based on his own experience, because he sees a lot of himself in her.

    varon tells her that he is just like that. that he can’t live if he can’t win, just like her. it doesn’t come off as him dictating how she feels or making assumptions, but rather, it’s coming from a place of understanding.

     & this is the scene where the confession comes up. i guess, the dub wanted to have this love triangle without saying it was a love triangle ( which i always found weird that they wanted to allude to this, considering the amount of censorship. somehow, it was okay for mai to be interested in a teenager? ).  it only goes as far as ‘i know you feel the same way i do’, & left for interpretation. the sub doesn’t do that. varon is always straight-forward with what he says & doesn’t shy away from it. sure, it’s not the most healthy for him to make her his reason of living, but keep in mind that he didn’t have the healthiest of upbringings, either. there’s a lot of things that he needs to learn & overcome before getting into a relationship. especially if it’s with someone who has unresolved issues, as well.

    he tells her to ‘be his woman’ ( & whether you want to take that as a display of toxic masculinity or him awkwardly asking her out in a way that doesn’t seem to ‘vulnerable’, it’s up to you ). mai merely responds with ‘you have to defeat me first’, only for him to remind her that he has.

    nyeh? nyeh

     another thing that the dub loves to do, is dumbing down characters, & varon wasn’t the exception. it was clear that they wanted someone like jou & in the process, they took a lot of those serious / deep moments that varon displayed in the sub. their duel further proves that by having them both wear armour & i will leave it at that because that whole thing gets me so mad lmao. it turns into a duel of ‘i know what’s best for mai despite what she says or thinks’ & even the abridged called it out, because varon came from a place of ‘i’m doing this to help her’ rather than ‘i know what’s best for her’.

 thank you 4kids for your censorship!

      something you can’t just omit when considering varon’s character, is the way he grew up. the dub literally took about 90% of it & had him seeming almost proud / reminiscent about his time in jail. that’s it. we see him go to an island, win against a bunch of grown-ups & join doma. then what???

     now, if one thats the sub backstory in consideration, the way that he acts towards mai isn’t all that strange. in fact, i’d say it explains it. varon had nothing. he grew up an orphan, & a violent one, at that. the only person he appears close to / someone he cares about, is the nun that raised him. she tended to his wounds despite disappointing her & getting into fights even though she had told him to stop. this was someone who hadn’t given up despite him failing her over & over. this was someone he was willing to kill for, if it meant protecting her, & he possibly did. after the church was burnt down, he sought for the men he thought were responsible for it & attacked them with a metal pipe.

   he was just a kid. possibly a pre-teen against four grown ass men. it’s unclear whether he killed them or not, but the fact that varon is shown in prison, with adults, leads me to think that he was processed as one due to the degree of the crime. even then, he was still violent & forced into solitary confinement + a straight jacket for who knows how long. & let’s keep in mind that his only way out, was by defeating a bunch of dudes ( basically killing them with the orichalcos ). unlike amelda or rafael, doma wasn’t an escape from his life. it was his freedom.

      the guy had nothing & expected nothing. he lived each day as it was, reason why he appears to be so carefree about things. & despite his similarities with jou, let me just say that they’re still not the same. even if jounouchi went through his share of trauma, their experiences were different. the way jou sees or reacts to something, won’t be the way that varon will react to it, & i feel that’s something a lot of people don’t consider.

    i think it’s commemorable that despite everything, varon still manages to care for someone as much as he does with mai. he didn’t fight jou to ‘win her over’, he fought him so that he wasn’t setting her back. the dub has valon almost ‘handing her’ to jou after losing, which completely missed the point of that whole duel. because in the sub, varon realizes he may be doing more harm than good & experiences that ‘thrill’ that he had been searching for. he comes to understand mai better, & the fact that he can help her without having to be her saviour.

    he trusts jou will bring her to her senses, but also trusts that she will do it, because let me remind you that even in during her ‘weakest moment’, he saw her as a strong woman.

[the-lady-writes-what]

Edit: This statement was made when I had only some information. I don't want to actively investigate the situation because it's too disappointing and makes me all kinds of upset. I was not a 100% sure of her Innocence or guilt, but some new information has cropped up that has cast more than a little doubt on her part. I'm wary to call her a pedophile or groomer because I believe she's called herself an asexual in a prior video, but I could be wrong. Even if I am right, you can't be an adult and talk to minors about NSFW content whether or not that minor thinks they're mature enough. That doesn't make what she did moral or legal either. I think YY bit off more than she could chew and lost sight of responsibility as an adult content creator. I will officially stop talking about this person. I just wanted to make this edit to clarify my new current position.

The one thing I don’t get about the whole Yagami Yato debacle isn’t that she was implicated in grooming, its that she’s the only one who’s been outed or accused of grooming or pedophilia. I’ve been scouring Youtube for substitutes, and let me tell you that there’s quite of few outside of Yagami Yato. Some of these creators are kind of small potatoes to what her career looked like before this happened, but they were creating similar stuff. There are other audios that feature aged-up My Hero Academia characters like Shoto and Deku, but those creators don’t get nearly as much flack or get accused of creepy shit like YY. It’s like due to three reasons that I can guess:

Other creators imply sexual activity rather than adding ✨spicy✨ content directly.

YY was, I presume, making a lot of money for the stuff she was doing and people got mad at her for it.

These other ASMR character RPG voice over creators are male. I said it, I said it. I think there is a level of toxicity when it comes to female creators for original and fandom content, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it had come down to that.

I also see a lot of people using the “she lied about working with Funimation so she’s twice as bad.” Lying about working with a professional voice-acting industry does not correlate to either being a bad person or being a groomer. Yeah, it was wrong of her to lie, but we don’t know the full situation. It could have been somebody pretending to work for Funimation contacting, however this the least of anyone’s worries. There is something far more important to discuss than her lying about working with Funimation and it shouldn’t be correlated to the recent accusations. It was a shitty thing to do, but I personally see it as a stupid thing to get attention and her ego bit more than she could chew. That isn’t to say she should have that particular thing held over her head. With the Funimation aspect, I think it’s completely inconsequential to the other stuff and it just shows that she’s flawed. Who hasn’t come up with a fabrication just to make themselves look more important? It was stupid, but I would be an asshole and hypocrite to criticize her for that knowing full well that when I was a dumb, dumb kid I made similar mistakes too. We need to focus on the bigger issue, and that doesn’t including lying about Funimation.

I’m still unsure of innocence or guilt. The screenshots look sort of convincing, however I’m reluctant to say it proves anything. I vaguely remember her saying that she was asexual and/aromantic. I find it really hard to believe that someone can be both ace and a pedophile/groomer as one cancels out the other. You’re either attracted to someone, whether they’re adults or...minors (🤮) or you’re not. You can’t really have an attraction to minors (again 🤮) and be asexual and/or aromantic at the same time. On top of that, the supposed age of the minor was 17 but a couple months short of 18 and they were actively engaging with YY and her 18+ discord. I’m not saying it was okay, but there’s a huge difference between talking to a 17 year old about to turn 18 about NSFW content and talking to a 14 year old, which is what I assumed happened in the first place. I’m also not saying she did nothing wrong, but this is what comes when you don’t put your foot down on 18+ only and make your content available for minors to see on Youtube. Her SFW videos should have been the only thing she posted and left the NSFW on her Patreon. Doing that, she could have avoided this whole situation instead of cowering. 

[peachymess]

How ridiculous, Isayama has lost all respect from me, can he stop beating a dead horse? And he even had the audacity to mock GoT for a shit ending. Hypocrite. I’m almost disgusted by this.

Well, to be fair, let’s wait until the altered chapter is actually out before we take anything for granted. The spoilers could all be fake. Hell, “8 new pages” could even be a lie. Who knows?

So let’s not get too riled up just yet. That being said, I get that we’ve all invested years and in some cases lots of money into this series, and that such a let down as the original last chapter is understandably a slap in the face for many. We’re allowed to be upset, even before the 8 new pages. You’re allowed to be appalled by it.

But I want you to consider this: Isayama isn’t more a god than the rest of us. He isn’t necessarily smarter, more knowing or more talented. He’s just a guy with a story that caught on. A pretty young guy too. When he said he wasn’t fit to tackle the ever growing magnitude of the themes he began baking into his story, he was right. At least he knows it. He bit over more than he could chew. When he mocked GOT, I don’t think he ever intended to fail his own ending as miserably as he did (in many people’s eyes). He wasn’t the only one to mock GOT either, mind. I still consider GOT the biggest TV ending disaster of all time (go on, fight me). As a writer, I imagine that I’ll nail my own book endings in the future. But I might not. I’ve started pondering a bit about who so many endings fail lately. Isayama said that initially he believed everyone would be happy with the ending... I have this theory that the person working on a story, becomes blind to it. They don’t see what it looks like to consumers who just take in the finished product.

Have you ever written/worked on a text (homework, fanfic, university papers, etc.) that took you a while? Did you ever have to take a step back to find back to what it was you were actually trying to say? To look at where you were getting stuck and why? I think it’s quite common but if you haven’t, let me tell you: it happens. You become blind to what the story actually looks like.

I believe Isayama has worked on SNK for so long that he doesn’t see what it looks like to outsiders anymore. He doesn’t see what’s lacking because when he’s got the characters in his head constantly, he doesn’t see that there’s a gap about them actually not put to paper that needs to be filled for the reader. He doesn’t see that what this or that part of something has gone on for too long or not long enough, because he’s time-blind after having thought about it for what feels like an eternity.

I’m only theorizing, of course. But his comment about thinking everyone will be satisfied is what makes me think he has to be blind to the story. And I don’t mean that as an insult, but as an explanation. Because, I mean, think about it. Who would willingly shit on a series for its awful ending, only to embarrass themselves by doing the same? Ya look dumb. Who, whom thinks about and apparently hopes for everyone to be pleased by the end, would subvert that goal on purpose? Add to that the fact that I believe he’s lol tired and eager to be done with it, and I think that’s what’s going on here. He doesn’t mean to fail his fans so miserably, I think he’s just blind and tired.

... but that being said, OG ending and 8-spoilers are both absolutely clowning on us and no amount of explanation takes away the right for us to react accordingly. I’m just not as mad as some of his other fans. I don’t see him as someone denying me the good ending he was able to give, I see him as a creator not equips to pull off what he wanted to do and his fans being disappointed as a result. Which is awkward and unfortunate, but I can forgive lack of skill.

[calpalsworld]

Not "autistic anon," but also autistic, (being called maybe ableist made me want to put this out there before go to bed) i thought Zane was depicted that way purposefully by the writers. He has stereotypical traits like taking things literally, and has an actual humor switch. The writers have done things with Zane before like have him lose bodily autonomy (during that one Wu's teas short) and did something with his voice be it making him unable to be understood or talking too loud and the forced pirate voice by Jay. (what you're doing isn't too different from that, right?) I thought it was just a little iffy to distort his body and memory bc that could be interpreted as something not that I'm sure what exactly, it's some kind of disability. I dunno. I'm not good with putting this to words. I hope this makes sense.

Sorry I went to bed but now I’m awake 😭

Also I ended up totally spilling all my thoughts here rather than only specifically replying to you please forgive me context: my scary zane concept design, & my ninjago rewrite i refer to a lot 

Im a little confused but I think I get what you're saying? You're saying the Ninjago writers absolutely DON'T write Zane well (you listed examples of this) and you don't want me to fall into the same trap?

I had the opposite logic earlier. I thought: If Ninjago writers made Zane have stereotypical autisitic traits while also being a dehumanized robot, I may as well embrace it, say he is autistic blatantly, while also making him do funny/cool non-human robot things, so its clear as possible the two aspects of his character are literal and separate and not a metaphor for each other. But you're right! I do have a choice and I dont have to embrace things! :)

Like there were a couple ways I was gonna reject the original, for example, I never wanted Zane to have a funny switch, and I hated how other characters could fuck with Zane and he didn't even care 😬. I want to change that stuff. So youre right, if I am changing shit like that, it would be counterproductive for ME to GIVE him MORE traits along that theme. 😬😬😬 I should try to feel less obligated to portray Zane like he originally is. I still like the concept of "scary zane" (for reasons i explain below the cut) but I might tone it down a bit like with the claws and weird proportions and shit. I’d def make him look more skeletal and undead. That was my original intention, but i didnt execute it as good as I could have.... idk if anyone could tell thats what he was supposed to be like...my bad! But rn I dont wanna redesign him I wanna draw other stuff like normal alive Zane. Sorry LMAO 😳. Like I said in some earlier asks I think, I think Im gonna focus rn on how I should portray season 1 normal not dead Zane so thank you and feel free to share any other Zane thoughts ^_^ SOME OTHER THOUGHTS:

Also I Wanna Argue Some Stuff But I Understand its a Weak Argument Since All of This Context was Just In My Brain (so don't take this as an argument, just as me rambling): I don't want messed up things to happen to Zane and for it to just be ignored. I think if Zane is going to have fucked up things happen to him, as all characters must, its best for it to happen during a season where he actually addresses his feelings about being a robot (learning to accept that he will always be himself, regardless if hes "human" or the "original" or whatever. (thats how I always interpreted his emotions)). But I wouldn't have the other Ninja be very phased by Zane's looks because the whole point is they already love who he is (seasons 1-3 were about getting to know Zane) and now Zane himself just has to learn the physical, robot part of him is okay. Its about person-hood rather than humanity. Because the season focuses around Zane's soul, and because he lost his original body, I feel like I could mess around with his current, temporary body and have fun and make it scary. Because that body should be irrelevant. I understand it possibly being upsetting for an autistic character to be designed like this, but other people I talked to see it the opposite way. They find it comforting for him to look so different but still be himself and be so loved. SO IM ABSOLUTELY NOT saying its wrong to be bothered or to hate it or to feel any way. Just that I personally think it would be cool for Zane to be portrayed with a little spice lol, so thats why I like scary Zane for season 4.

Another Thing I Wannna Say But Is REALLY Hypocritical: (this isnt directed at anyone I just REALLY want to say this) I know I say "this is Zane but scary, he looks like fnaf" so he's obviously dehumanized, but I always felt like "scary" is more of an objective fact. Its an instinct. But what's "not human" is subjective. I think there is a problem with saying anything different from "average" human is dehumanized because that could extend to real people. Lol I know its bad for me to compare FNAF-ass Zane to real people, but I mean he could be real. People can have exposed teeth, and people can be shaped weird. And when someone first sees a person who looks like that they'll probably think "woah those features are scary" by instinct. And that surprise doesn't make someone ableist obviously. But bring that person’s humanity into question is NOT an instinct, and is fucked to shit. This is kinda a bad point for me to make since its about the fictional FNAF Zane I drew, and I am NOT implying ANYONE was thinking like this. [especially not the original asker anon who I am totally forgetting about at this point OOPS]. But I just thought it was an opinion of mine I couldn't go without mentioning when talking about dehumanization and disabilities.

^^^ I think you (anon) understand what I mean and might’ve said the exact same thing as me if you were writing a long ass response? I think this because you started to bring physical disabilities up and you said it was "a little iffy." ^_^ So we agree, but I don't see Zane's relation to real life disabilities as "a little iffy" I see it more like "complicated"? IF THAT DIFFERENCE EVEN MAKES ANY SENSE?????? I feel like a lot of things about Zane are really just complicated and need the right context, rather than the concepts necessarily being wrong -- NOW THAT I THINK ABOUT IT! THATS THE WHOLE REASON I DO THIS STUPID REWRITE! XD thats why a lot of my rewrite SO FAR has been the same concepts and plot beats, but different dialogue n specifics and such. I like a lot of concepts in Ninjago but I dont think they were presented correctly.....! :( So I guess all we can do is wait and see if I make Zane offensive or not....???

Also something about the memory part - yeah i agree i was surprised no one thought that was weird to make jokes out of his memory issues..... BUT I am like 100% firm on making his memory take longer to come back because I think its stupid how quick Zane was able to recover from literally dying. Like its just dumb to me. Hate it. (also bc memory & soul mechanics is ummm kinda important in my rewrite.... for reasons). Another memory thing btw, I was going to make his original amnesia come from hitting his head in an attack against the Skulkin when they stole his dads corpse, rather than his dad fucking choosing to make him forget. (its a sweet & iconic scene, but Um, WHY?!!!?!?!?!?) He has to follow data recovery instructions he finds in his dads diary. I think in that context it makes moments of memory loss somewhat different for Zane's character? Instead of loss of autonomy associated with disability, its a literal violent loss of autonomy associated with being traumatized by physical force. Idk how to phrase it exactly but I think that makes some vibes different?

Sorry, I think I got really distracted, and I don't know if I responded well to your points. Because uhhhh I think I agree with your stance actually? If I understand correctly? Fuck Ninjago writers for making the robot lose autonomy (a stereotypical robot theme) while also making him seem clearly autistic (NOT A HAPPY THEME FOR AUTISTIC PEOPLE) and not addressing it. And also auuugh Zane with a weird body is a difficult topic - kinda sussy pretty iffy.

Lol anyway idk if this made any sense and I REALLY rambled on you. but this was nice 👉👈 more Zane criticism pls love you and i love zane. i hope u dont feel mad at me because then it would be weird that im saying that lol. if you do feel mad at me tho you can send another ask (ILL TRY TO JUST LISTEN NOT RAMBLE NEXT TIME) but assuming ur chill rn, love you thnx

Take this page, don’t mind cole’s ass.

[dragynkeep]

Top 5 worst male characters and Top 5 worst female characters in RWBY, and brief reasons why?

This is the type of ask that’s gonna get me shit but I have known no hubris in my life so let’s go. These won’t be in the case of being intentionally bad, I’m doing more on personal taste and the quality of their writing. 

Worst Male Characters

1. Adam Taurus

Obviously, Adam is at the top of the list for me. His storyline was butchered from a story of racism and vigilantism to a story about domestic abuse, his brand was cheap shock value with very little substance, he stopped being threatening after the Fall of Beacon and instead became a whiny little bitch, and his voice acting is just bad.

He sounds like he’s gonna call me a slur on Xbox Live.

2. Jacques Schnee

Yeah, the abusive rich man who runs slave mines is bad, but that’s not the main reason he’s on this list. I could accept a character like that if the writers made him good, but they didn’t. Jacques wasn’t intimidating at all. He wasn’t smart at all. The man who conned his father in law and wife into giving him complete control of the most powerful company in Remnant is not the same man we get in the actual show.

He’s whiny, cowardly, and a useless villain who’s entire downfall was treated like a poorly made joke, and now only serves as comic relief in the Jailbirds scenes in V8. 

3. Hazel Rainart

Same issues with Jacques and Adam, but less egregious. Hazel was actually a pretty interesting villain in his earlier volumes, and even after his blunder at the Batlle of Haven, he went back to being kinda good in V6 with his protective behaviour towards Emerald. And then V8 came around and I grew to hate how stupid his reasons for joining Salem were, and the fact that he just beat the shit outta Oscar while whining about his dead sister.

Bro, Idgaf about someone I never met while you’re maiming a 15 year old boy because you wanna be mad at the guy in his head. 

4. Qrow Branwen

It’s the same case with Hazel. I actually liked Qrow up until V6, and even then I cared enough to try and see where his alcoholism arc went since it’s a serious issue that affects not only my family, but my people. I started to dislike him after he punched Oscar and kept being horrible to the boy, all without apologising in the end, but v7 and 8 made me really hate him. 

I don’t care for his edgy attitude, and I don’t care that he got his self-help book boyfriend murdered by a crackhead. Add onto CRWBY butchering a serious topic about alcoholism with him, and he’s just sank right down writing sense.

5. Ghira Belladonna

I never liked Ghira. I think the others are higher than him on this list just on the virtue that I liked them, or the idea of them, and the writing just pulled them down so much.

But I never had that problem with Ghira, so the disappointment doesn’t sting as bad. He’s just an unnecessary character that cheapens Blake since she’s now a princess, a useless father who somehow couldn’t get his own 12 year old daughter back even thought she didn’t even bother to change her own name, and then featured live on a tournament channel that the whole world saw. He was a useless leader, his ideology was stupid and almost got him and others killed, and he was so ungrateful towards Adam for saving his stupid furry ass that I completely sided with Sienna calling him the fuck out.

At least he’s not on my screen anymore, but I know that won’t last forever and I gotta look at his dumb face again.

Worst Female Characters

1. Cinder Fall

God, she is the worst villain and character in this show. She’s so flat, her stans are annoying as fuck, her voice leaves a lot to be desired, and the fact that there’s hardly anything to her for seven years makes it even worse now that we finally got a backstory for her, and it’s one we ALL GUESSED.

Who would’ve thought she’d be a Cinderella who killed her abusive family, I am shooketh. 

2. Blake Belladonna

Blake was my favourite girl in RWBY and I’m mad at CRWBY for what they’ve done to her.

It says a lot that a girl still affected by the abuse and trauma of fighting in a terrorist organisation has more personality and backbone than one who’s supposedly broken free of her traumatic past and moved forward. Blake now is spineless, flat, boring ass cardboard cutout of what she once was, who would rather let her human friends defend her from racists than call them out herself like she did to Weiss in Volume 1. 

She’s spoiled, priviledged, annoying, and Arryn has such a flat voice on top of being a gross ass person that I get annoyed every time she speaks. She’s no longer an oppressed minority fighting for the rights of her people, she’s a princess who would rather go to a club with people she didn’t even like than a rally against the man who caused so much suffering to her people. Even her talk with Nora about not letting yourself be taken over by who you’re with romantically is hypocritical, since that’s exactly what’s happened to her since she’s been paired up with Yang.

She couldn’t even have the spotlight of fighting her own VILLAIN, Yang was the one who broke Adam’s Aura and had the big triumphant moment of throwing his sword in the river while she was too busy fucking rock climbing. 

3. Yang Xiao Long

Yang was my second favourite girl in RWBY and I’m mad at CRWBY for what they’ve done to her.

Yang wasn’t super developed in the earlier volumes. Honestly, I didn’t think much until her talk with Blake about Raven in Burning The Candle, and her dismemberment leading her towards depression and PTSD. Come Volume 4, I was alright with the portrayal of her recovery. I don’t think they gave enough time between her trying on the arm and then being good enough to leave, but in the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t bad. 

What was bad was everything after. Yang became a hypocritical, moody bitch who would drag everyone for their bad decisions while ignoring her own. Her PTSD, something VERY personal to me, was ruined and up and vanished by V7 since she’s now killed the man who gave her the disorder so obviously it’s cured! She is always on Ozpin’s case for the birds shit, and then keeping secrets, but then goes and does the exact same thing while giving little resistance to others doing it because they’re family.

Even her argument with Ruby in V8 was tame as fuck. She blamed Ruby for things not going well while ignoring that it was her own dumbass decisions that contributed to it. Ruby didn’t tell Yang to go and spill the beans to Robyn, her stupid cat girlfriend did that, and Yang went along with it while being unrepentant later on when Ironwood was RIGHTFULLY pissed about it.

Add onto v8 then having her worry about how BLAKE thought about her, rather than RUBY, and I just hate her. This ain’t Yang, I want Yang back. 

4. Nora Valkyrie

Nora is just a flat character. Her voice is annoyingly high pitched and screechy, her jokes aren’t funny, and all the things I loved that she got in v4 was later dropped entirely. She had such good moments in V4 that actually made me appreciate her more, and then she just became another hypocrite in v7 who wanted to yell at Ironwood while refusing to look at her own flaws.

On top of her kissing Ren when he was clearly not in the mood to talk, and it made me hate her. It’s not a cute ship moment, it’s a creepy disrespect of someone’s personal space. If it was the other way around, no one would think it was cute.

5. Robyn Hill

Similar to Ghira’s reasons, I never liked Robyn, so she’s low down on the list compared to the others since at one point I loved the others (Minus Cinder but she’s just so bad that she’s #1).

Robyn isn’t a good freedom fighter. She runs in without thinking about things and then proceeds to deny any responsibility of her actions. She won’t accept that maybe her agreeing with the same serial killer that nearly killed her and Fiona, on top of succeeding in murdering some of her supporters and Forest, and starting a fight with Clover in an enclosed space wasn’t a good idea. 

Add onto the fact that she’s really just incompetent. She steals supplies from Ironwood to fix the wall and help Mantle, but after time we see that nothing has been done. 

Christina Vee is wasted on her honestly.

[morally-conflicted]

A Rant

Ok I'm going to do on a small rant, Unpopular opinion time, I'm excited to see if im going to get hate for this but

Mako doesn’t deserve all of the hate he gets and he is actually a good and well written character 

Ok let me explain myself before I continue, I love Legend of Korra and in my honest opinion like it more then Avatar the Last Airbender and it has more sentimental value to me then ATLA. And I am going to explain that im not defending what Mako has done because he made mistakes and I’m not defending that. 

Ok so I’m going to start it out here, Mako was young, he was 18, yes he was basically an adult but he wasn’t matured. Mako spent his whole life taking care of his brother, working to try and support him and raise him and he had no room to make mistakes and act like a teenager, because if he made a mistake, everything would go downhill and he could have lost his brother, the only person he had left in the world. And once Korra came into the picture and once he finally had the ability to act like the teenager he was around other people hi age, of course he would make mistakes and of course he would do something stupid. He never had experience with people around his age. 

Now onto his relationship with Asami and Korra. I won’t defend his actions because he did mess up and he could have done something different and he could have made better choices, he made a mistake. but he isn’t the only one to blame, both him and Korra are to blame, there I said it, Korra should hold blame as well, and I will not here anything saying she didn’t know better, her and Mako are very similar and different at the same time, they both had more stubborn personalities and they both never really had interactions with people around their age and they are both awkward around new people, they're similar and neither are to blame for what they did, I’m not defending them but, they were dumb teenagers that didn’t know better and while it did hurt people they fixed that and by the final season they were all close and a family again. People have to stop hating Mako for things he did when he was young, like I don’t care if you don’t like him because of his character and how he was written because that's valid, and i get you. 

And one more thing that I want to get off my chest. People praise characters like Zuko and Sokka but when it comes to Mako they hate him, even though they all made mistakes and grew out of them, like it is hypocritical in my opinion. 

But once again if you don’t like him because of how he was written it makes sense, I can admit he wasn’t written the best, but you have to agree that he is a complex character. I will forever be mad at the writers because they forgot about him in season 4, they basically ignored him and didn’t evolve him more and that made me so mad because he was a good character, he had faults like every other character on the show and they had so much potential for him.

Anyways I know I kind of rambled and I didn’t make much sense in some areas but the idea is there, and I hope you can see it from my point of view. 

[bbeomcr]

blood, soul and body | lmh

❝If you were gonna leave this word, how could it have been without me?❞

✧ in which death tears two souls apart.

    ✦pairing: lee minho x gn!reader

    ✦genre: angst, vampire!au, 

    ✦warnings: character death, mentions of blood, mention of self harm.

    ✦content: one-shot (3k words) | based on this

“It’s time to take you home,” Minho said under a bright smile.

He felt dumb after the words left his mouth. Of all the things he could have said. But the date had been good, so good he didn’t want to part ways just yet.

“It feels so early,” the witch by his side muttered over hushed, tipsy laughs.

It was still early in the morning (or maybe late at night) and the sun was still so far away that it was a shame to waste the time alone. But he promised that they would walk home together and bide goodbyes properly, that was the way Minho did things and God could take his soul if he ever broke a promise.

That’s why now, in front of an apartment building, he had a warm hand wrapped around his freezing one and a foolish smile unwilling to go. He felt intoxicated by euphoria (or maybe it was the wine).

A raspy voice made him turn his head: “We’re here,” and he wished they weren’t “I’d invite you in, but the sun’s a few hours away.”

They laughed again, maybe at the slurred words, maybe at the idea of inviting him in, but then and there it was just perfect. Then he left a giggle when he remembered.

“Have the rest,” he said, offering the bottle that was on his other hand. He hoped the chill air and the coolness of his hand had at least kept the liquid from warming.

But the soft growl after the witch accepted the drink just proved him wrong.

“It’s warm, disgusting,” they both laughed at the tone, and without realising their lips collided.

They giggled at the abruptness, lips brushing and smiles ghosting against each other. It was soft, it was calm and yet they couldn’t get enough of it. It felt like summer on a winter night, they felt warm.

“You should go inside, you’re gonna catch a cold,” Minho said once they broke the kiss.

He left after the witch crossed the building door.

Minho always felt a strong dislike for alcohol, and yet he couldn’t help but drown another shot. It was warm, the liquid having sat on the desk for hours after he took it from its usual place, and he never bothered to look for some ice, it was only a waste of time.

He had a hard time trying to forget, he had a hard time trying to survive and this was now just too much.

“You need to stop this,” there it was, the cause of his constant headache, being sober was awful; he got to listen to Jisung’s voice.

In all honesty, he thought about it a couple of times — of letting go, of starting again and come through from the horrible place he found himself in. But then his lover’s face came back to his mind on those few lucid moments and all his efforts seemed stupid, how could he ever think of letting go?

“If Chris sent you, tell him I don’t care and that he should do whatever he wants.”

This scene had been played so many times already, he could easily recall the same memories playing over and over again. It was like a broken record, and it meant that the near past was as awful as the present. The distant past wasn’t that different, but at least it had someone he loved still alive.

God, he needed to get drunk.

“I hope you like this, it’s not exactly what you wanted but—”

Before he could even finish, his lips were attacked mercilessly.

“I love it.”

He knew that even if the content was still hidden by the small drawstring bag, the words were always true. And Minho could already tell that the burning warm resting on his palm was worth all the trouble he had gone to get it.

“It’s stardust, not quite a star but almost,” he said, holding the other’s body close to his in a tight embrace, excitement bubbling inside him. “Open it.”

He missed the warmth surrounding his body when the hug broke, but a wave of relief washed over him when the hot pouch was removed from his hand.

And oh God, if the expression on his lover’s face could be like that forever he’ll die like the happiest man on Earth.

In front of them a million twinkles lights illuminated their faces like fireflies. It felt magical, it felt special and Minho hoped that the moment would never end.

But even then, the warmth and brightness of the silver dust in the room would never compare to the smile plastered on the person he loves, because for him the mere sight of them was enough to brighten his life.

“Chris never sent me, I’m here because I’m worried,” Jisung said, loud and clear like always. Neither his clothes nor attitude suited him, always so formal and uptight about everything; war changes people. “We’re all worried.”

Minho downed another shot. Then gestured to the younger man to take a seat in front of him.

The small studio was a mess by the time Minho arrived at the apartment; the blinds were shut, a few bowls full of stuff were carelessly placed around and a few jars were tossed all over the kitchen.

At first, he thought about the possibilities, the chances of violent acts and whether someone came to the place before him. But it was all forgotten when a familiar shadow passed the door frame.

“You came!” his darling chirped excitedly, running fast and jumping high enough for him to catch the body and spin a few times. “I need you to help me with something.”

Minho wondered what ‘helping’ meant; there was only so much he could do in witchcraft when he was still a vampire, but whatever it was, he would be happy to.

But then his lover disappeared only to come back a few minutes after with a tiny vial and a syringe.

“What is that for?” he asked, a tiny drop of fear made its way to him.

“I’m making a star.”

“I know,” Minho said after refilling his glass and getting one for Jisung. “And I wish you weren’t.”

He slid the alcohol-filled glass across the desk and as the other reached for the drink, Minho couldn't help but notice the silver bands wrapped around the blue-haired man’s fingers.

Hypocrite.

“We’re brothers,” he said, and Minho had to let the grin taint his expression.

Brothers.

“It’s a blood pact, for life,” Minho spat. “We’re not brothers.”

A loud raindrop made its way to the window and the sound startled both men.

The storm made it difficult for him to see ahead. The wind had broken his umbrella and now the rain felt like shattered pieces of glass against his skin, however his concern was finding the witch and forcing the both of them to come back to the apartment. Maybe watch one of those sappy movies his lover liked so much and cuddle under the blankets.

Minho, however, had expected everything. Everything but the sight he had once he reached the main road.

There, under the unforgiving rain, almost passed out and bathed in carmine, lay down a body he could recognise anywhere. It took everything inside him not to cry out loud and panic, he just had to take them home and treat the wound on the other’s body — and he prayed to all deities he knew for it to be slight.

“Hey, baby, I’m here,” he said once his knees met the floor and the other body was secured on his arms. “Stay with me, love.”

The rain had only made everything harder; his own clothes stick uncomfortably like a second skin, and Minho could easily tell the same was happening with his lover — yet the expression on their face let him know that the wound was aching even more. 

“I love you.”

Minho saw the way the drops of blood melted into the pool by his feet, it looked like the watercolors work he had around his room. It reminded him of the afternoons at the witch’s apartment learning how to paint.

“I’ll take you home, don’t worry.”

He never thought much about his status, about the whole vampire thing and the amount of ‘powers’ that came with that, but then and there, he was thankful. The way home was short.

Minho felt relief filling his body once the door opened, rushing inside and laying the injured body on his bed. The white sheets were instantly tinted with a crimson red.

The bleeding never stopped, and by now he knew that the blood loss was fatal. So Minho began striping the witch of his own hoodie, mortified by the sigh in front of him once the piece of clothing came off; a deep gash cut from the heart to the farthest right side of their abdomen, he could see the way the skin fell apart and how heavy blobs of blood gushed out of it and yet a tiny bit of hope still sparked on him.

He called for Jisung.

And both together tried to fix the disaster, he held the witch down when the younger disinfected and stitched the wound, he swallowed the screams and kissed away the tears. He did his best to comfort his lover and yet it felt like a nightmare.

“You’ve both bonded before,” Jisung said as he passed the older a silver knife. “Try healing with your blood, it’s more than anything I could do.”

Jisung didn’t say anything, he looked outside, at the falling drops hitting the windows and the bright star inside the crystal box. He was mad, of course he was; if the glistening red eyes, tense body and clenched fists were anything to by, but Minho never cared about pushing boundaries and spitting hurtful comments.

“You’re not the only one hurting.”

The blue-haired man spoke in a low voice, and if Minho were just a bit more drunk, he’ll confuse it with a growl. Jisung’s eyes were no longer focused behind him, they were locked with his own tired ones and he could clearly see the rage burning inside the other’s orbs. Minho knew that Hell was coming.

“Shut up,” he said, voice barely above a whisper and yet the warning tone made Jisung flinch. But that was hardly enough to hold him back.

“No, I won’t shut up because you have to stop this!” he yelled, not caring much about the older’s status. “Do you think you're the only one who lost someone dear? News flash, you're not! You're not the only one who had to mourn, you're not the only one who cried a loss and you're not the only one who had to suffer.”

“You don’t know sh—”

 Jisung's hand slapped hard on the wooden desk, the fast and abrupt movement made the chair impact loudly on the floor. Minho followed the second.

“But I do! I lost people too, we all lost people we loved and yet we were all trying to make you feel better because that was ‘the right thing to do’!” Jisung’s tone got higher and higher with each word as he no longer held his anger back and instead paced around the room like a caged lion. “Yes, you lost your lover, but for God’s sake — Hyunjin lost his fucking wife! Chris watched his sister die on his goddamn arms, I had to kill my soulmate with my own two hands… do you think the rest had it any better? Don’t you dare say that we don’t know how it feels.”

Minho’s heart started racing, the argument had gotten the worst of him and the flood of emotions was only making him feel worse. Jisung was right in every word, the undying war had made them all taste the sadness of loss and death, yet he had been the only one choking on his misery alone. He felt the need to apologise and run to comfort the others.

The silver knife sliced his wrist in a single motion.

“Here, baby. Drink,” he said as the cut started to let out crimson beads. The witch refused, lips tightly closed as the drops fell over them. This wasn’t right. “Angel, please.”

Once again, the slight shake of the other head made his heart sink. He was getting desperate every passing day, as the condition of his lover deteriorated by the second and the wound refused to heal, it was only a matter of time for Death to come knocking at the door.

So he just bandaged himself, and then helped Jisung with the extensive care of the wound across his darling chest. He could see it, the skin that started to rot on the sides and the brownish red discharge that came out every time they let air hit it - it was only getting worse.

Jisung gave him one last look before closing the door behind him.

“When will this end?” came from pale lips in a tiny voice. “I want to go.”

Minho let a tear fall down his cheek to his hands.

“I never… I never meant to,” he said, this wasn’t right. No, he was so selfish, so selfish. God, no. “I’m so sorry.”

Jisung’s eyes softened, the red glow slowly dissipating as the latter made himself vulnerable for the first time in decades. “Hyung, it’s okay, come here.”

Minho hesitated. He had been a burden for so long, so long, and now he was just letting himself fall apart after his best friend had told him how much he hurted in silence. Was he being selfish again? He wanted to go back to the strong, indifferent persona he made.

“I’m so sorry Sung,” he repeated, going to the man’s open arms even with his mind telling him that no, he deserved nothing but rejection, nothing but a glare and abandonment. “I was so stupid, I’m sorry.”

They stood like that, embracing the other and exchanging a fake warmth.

“I missed you, hyung,” Jisung whispered against his neck, and that was all it took for Minho to let out the first sob.

Weeks passed before Minho had another response from his lover: he had been on the side of his bed all the time, never left, never moved more than a few steps from them and yet the slight shuffle made his heart skip a beat. Maybe his prayers were answered.

He smiled, showing his best façade to the pained person in front of him. Maybe if he pretended long enough, everything would be fine again, and they’ll watch stupid shows and the would play tag in empty parking lots and laugh until their cheeks hurted.

It was all crushed when pained words reached his ears; “I’ll miss you, love.”

He didn’t know how they ended on the couch, he didn’t know why Jisung was holding him so tight, he didn’t know why his own arms were wrapped around the man as if his life depended on it and didn’t know why the only thing heard were his pained screams.

He only knew that it had been so long since he let any emotion out, so long since he cried his lover. And this was just what he dreaded.

He couldn’t help it.

So he did what his heart had been asking him since he saw the cold body lying on his bed.

He trashed around, he let himself fall apart, let his throat hurt from the screams and tears fall as they pleased. There, in the confines of his office and the presence of Jisung, no one would judge him for breaking. 

He couldn’t help it. And Jisung waited there until the tight drip and screams became blubbering, then sobs, weepings, muffled cries, tears and finally just soft whimpers while holding him gently. This was necessary.

“Are you with me?”

Minho stared at the dark gravestone, reading over and over again the contents as if this was just another nightmare.

It was a cold day. It had rained three nights before, just after he had found the lifeless body and cried out for his best friend to help; he had yelled at everyone in the house, broken cups and punched walls, but nothing could ease the pain he felt from everything. This was his fault and God was punishing him.

The silver rings made him focus on the physical pain, but the burn sensation could do only so much to distract him from the emotional turmoil he felt. Not only had his lover passed away (in the painfullest agony, he later found out) but the blood bond had broken so abruptly he barely had time to even try to hold himself together. Yet still, everything was either too much or too numb.

He took a step towards the grave. Minho held back a sob and, instead, mindlessly traced the letters once, then twice and then he had lost count of how many times his fingers followed along the written words. He always thought darling was a prettier name.

“If you were gonna leave this word, how could it have been without me?” he whispered. After a few hours he had given up all hopes of seeing the body rise and run back to his arms, but the pain on his chest never left.

Jisung’s cold hands had never stopped caressing his back in soft, delicate motions. And he was grateful for that; if anything, the repetitive motions made it easier to come back from dark places and slowly get used to reality waiting for him.

They never made an attempt to let go, and Minho assumed that maybe the younger needed that hug too. After all, even if he himself had broken down after holding everything in for decades, the pain and frustration building inside the blue-haired man must have been even stronger.

“I’m here for you, Sungie,” he had whispered with a rough voice from the screaming, and yet it made Jisung’s heart fill with a warmth he had missed so much. “Always.”

And while the other only nodded, it was enough.

“You should go back,” Jisung said once they broke the hug, “and talk with everyone.”

It was late now, well past midnight and he was sure the rest were still awake; after all, the sunrise was hours away.

“It’s time to go home,” Minho said under a tired smile.