#spare me from people who think nuance means that both sides have to have an equally valid point

[fromtheseventhhell]

Aegon wasn't a rapist in Fire and Blood. Stupid producer/writer Sarah Hess only made Aegon so vile on the show because her woke feminist ideal of having Rhaenerya girl boss be a "saint" and be so pristine so that viewers had to like Rhaenerya instead of having actual fleshed out characters on both sides for the show.

Aegon's predatory behavior toward serving girls is straight from the book. As for the intent in the show's portrayal, Sara Hess and Clare Kilner have both spoken about believing Aegon to still be deserving of sympathy despite being a rapist; Sara Hess even more disturbingly talks about "upstanding men" who've committed sexual assault without having knowing it and tries to paint Aegon as not knowing what he was doing. So I'm not sure where you came up with this idea that Aegon was only portrayed as a rapist to push an agenda, but it's certainly not anything from the writers themselves. It seems like you're just upset that the Greens, despite their whitewashing, are being portrayed as the antagonists that they are. The Greens usurped Rhaenrya for being a woman. The writers can add more depth to their characters and give them other motivations, but there's only so much that can do when that's the main point of the entire show. It's not very surprising that the majority of the audience is aware of that and sides with Rhaenrya because of it.

[that-ari-blogger]

Shallow Beauty (Welcome To Heaven)

I’m going to let you in on a secret. Complexity isn’t always the best fit for a story.

Don’t get me wrong, I love nuanced characters and ideas and judging by the popularity of Arcane, a show that will be getting a second season by the time this post goes live, I think most people enjoy that kind of story as well.

But there is a debate going on as to what is better in a story, complexity and nuance, or simplicity and readability. Honestly, I find this debate frustrating because the answer is neither and both. The sides act as if any attempt at the other is sacrilege when the truth is unfortunately more complicated. Sometimes a story needs twists and surprises, and sometimes a story needs to look you in the eye and say “here’s what I am talking about”.

Case and point, Welcome to Heaven.

SPOILERS AHEAD: (Hazbin Hotel)

I honestly don’t have much to say about this song. It’s not the most popular in the musical and I’m not going to argue that it should be. The song is shallow, and that’s the point.

I think the entirety of this song exists to point out how vibrant Heaven looks, but how empty it feels.

Because starting with the voice acting. St. Peter is voiced by Darren Criss, a man with a gorgeous singing voice. But notice something different between him and, for example, Lucifer. St. Peter's singing is technically perfect.

Perfect is a self-fulfilling adjective. It is the absence of imperfections, with imperfections being defined simply as “things that make something not perfect”. Perfect, especially when used in relation to people, has no meaning.

But singing can be perfect. It can hit all the right notes in just the right way. You can play things safe, and there is the kicker.

Imperfections are character beats. Lucifer’s insistence on jumping the gun with every note says something about him as a person. But St. Peter has none of that. He is a blank slate. He doesn’t have any character, and neither does heaven. But in a paradoxical way, that says a lot about him, doesn’t it?

“’Cause here, we got no worries, got no burglaries, no strife, It's the perfect afterlife.”

Really? Nobody disagrees on anything? Nobody worries? Nobody is stressed?

Two things about that.

The linework on heaven's buildings is done in white, giving it a bright feel, The Colours are pastel, sure, but if the linework was black instead, this would have a different vibe. It differentiates it from Hell and creates a distinct atmosphere.

First, how do you have the resources to upkeep a place where everyone has all their needs met? Like, if it’s magic, can you share that with the people who literally live in hell nearby you. Maybe give them food and stuff if you clearly have stuff to spare.

But second, I call bullshit. Nobody is without worry. Even people who are told they are amazing all their life internalise that unhealthily. And besides, you live next door to hell, a place you feel the need to exterminate once a year. No chance are you all unbothered by everything. Those who benefit the most from the status quo are always the ones terrified of it changing.

Or is it that you aren’t allowed to worry? Do depression, anxiety or even being bipolar get you disqualified from ever going here?

Come to think of it, what does get people into heaven?

"We've got the best and brightest, the politest of the lot And everyone is hot.”

That’s the summary of the people in Heaven. Smart, polite, attractive. Those aren’t moral characteristics.

I can use long words and count to twelve and a half. I can be polite when I need to be. My partner tells me I am attractive, and I think he has the ultimate authority on this kind of thing. But I don’t think any of that makes me morally upstanding, they are just nice things to be.

It’s also worth noting that these things are all subjective. Intelligence comes in different forms and someone who can memorise stuff and someone who can do calculus in their head are smart in different ways. If you are testing for only one of the two, you are missing out on everyone else who has their own field of expertise.

On the other hand, conventional ideas of attraction are seriously flawed and skewed in some uncomfortable directions that society is currently recovering from. Besides that, everyone has their own idea of beauty, and romantic, sexual, and aesthetic attraction are different things.

Also, everyone is hot is not a distinction the show can make. Last I checked, Heaven wasn’t the place with the succubi.

This actually translates into the music, which is standard pop. It sounds like the type of music people who don’t like pop think the genre is made entirely out of. “Life is great, la di da di da.” But it’s disingenuous.

There are emotions that inspire music beyond rage, but contentment and perfection aren’t that. Wonder, joy, love, pride, even catharsis. But contentment?

Pop is all about these emotions. It gets to the soul of its listeners on a real level. The pain of a breakup, the ambition of competing for love, the exhilaration of one incredible night.

Contentment is the emotion for the lowest common denominator, the type of song that plays it safe and doesn’t do anything interesting. Contentment is the emotion antagonistic towards change.

We have already seen that antagonism in full force through Adam. Locations are characters in their own right, and Adam is heaven fighting to conserve its stability. It is addicted to the contentment to the point where it will hold everyone down to stay at the top.

But, it’s self-sabotaging. If Heaven stopped holding people down to stay in place, it could work with everyone else to move forward together and get to an even better place than it is now.

But no, it is static, and boring, and perfect, and polite.

Final Thoughts

I harbour a deep seated contempt for people who put emphasis on politeness for its own sake. Being polite is a tool, it allows you to be clear with someone without letting emotions like anger sabotage yourself. It works when it is needed.

When being polite is not needed and people insist on enforcing rules of conversation that don’t matter, I find that immensely frustrating. Talk how you want, don’t be an asshole, but don’t feel the need to round your vowels for the sake of it.

That’s honestly my take on Welcome To Heaven, it’s pretty for the sake of it and nothing more. It’s simple and shallow. There is nothing behind the “sick décor.” Being polite is fine, but looking down on people who aren’t is just a recipe for disaster.

Next week, however, I will be talking about You Didn’t Know, a song that is anything but simple. So, stick around if that interests you.

[cienie-isengardu]

There is visual storytelling with Bi-Han's frustration with Liu Kang, but story mode does nothing to validate his frustrations at all, making said frustration seem unjustified, and that he's in the wrong for feeling this way, as he's the only Lin Kuei who actually is frustrated. Not everyone saw his frustration, so is the visual storytelling intentional, or coincidental? It's ironic, as Mortal Kombat is not known for its subtlety at all.

In advance, forgive me for starting with introduction-digression about Mortal Kombat 1’s storytelling - I promise it has a point related to Bi-Han.

Mortal Kombat 1’s main purpose is to set the ground for future storytelling so understandably, we can’t expect this game to spell out every detail to us at once right away. We, as freshly introduced guests to Liu Kang’s timeline, take a lot at face value about characters and setting because we simply don’t have enough knowledge about them yet. However I wouldn’t say MK1 lacks subtlety or it didn’t show us a pretty nuanced world already. The best example is the Edenia admired and praised by Liu Kang, as a beautiful, knowledgeable and wealthy place

and indeed the first impression fits well what Fire Lord told his champions. Yet under the gorgeous facade lurks the much darker, uglier side of Edenia - and by extension, of Royal Family. 

When the wonderful and joyful parade was disrupted,

the scene following was there to explain the conflict between Li Mei and the Royal Family, however the visual side of story foreshadows what Baraka’s chapter will reveal - the sick people are treated like unwanted trash. Here alone, they aren’t peacefully led outside the city, they are bound like criminals - both (potentially) sick and those who refused to hand them over to the authorities for "quarantine" (a word used by Li Mei, but as next chapters will shown, the quarantine means banishment and dying slowly in miserable conditions). This one chapter alone gives us two sources about Edenia - Liu Kang’s words and the background details which frankly paint two different pictures. Liu Kang noted how Sindel spared no money for the festival and Tournament (Mileena added it is to honor the memory of Sindel’s late husband and her father)

and how he does not judge the Queen, only admire 

- but apparently the Queen cared more for Festival/Tournament and to make Edenia look as a great nation than she cared for her sick subjects who for years were dying in poverty, excluded and persecuted by edenian society. She even blamed Mileena for getting sick and said that to her face. Sindel also accepts Umgadi system that literally forces edenian families to give up their first daughters for training (indoctrination), so the ruling Family have a loyal Palace Guard to uphold their safety - and power -  and Liu Kang, like most of characters, admired those warriors showing no criticism toward such practices that strips born-free citizens from their freedom, family, even from right to fall in love. All in the service of Edenia’s monarchy. 

My point is, what we are told about Sindel - the beloved good Queen - and what we are shown by details happening in background or brought by tie-in materials (character BIOs, intro dialogues) are not mutually exclusive, but those for sure highlight the contradictory and flawed image the new Mortal Kombat saga introduced in its first installment . However the main criticism toward Sindel is not focused at presented by story flaws and errors, only at her relationship with Liu Kang and Earthrealm and comes from General Shao and his allies. Considering who he is, it is easy to side with Sindel yet we can’t say the game didn’t laid some solid ground for a very serious criticism, both for Sindel, the ruling Family and Liu Kang who always spoke highly about the Queen, King and Princesses.

Now, let’s talk about Bi-Han.

On one hand, intro dialogues and story mode itself are too consistent and repetitive about Bi-Han’s firm take on freedom & enslavement to think it is coincidence, especially for a character so sidelined as Sub-Zero was. Clearly, someone made a deliberate choice to emphasize those two values in regard to motives behind Bi-Han’s action, even if the official BIO itself appointed POWER as his main theme. 

On another hand, there is no doubt that the game was not intended to focus on Sub-Zero’s frustrations nor examine its roots in any great detail, at least not at this early stage of introducing a new timeline. It doesn’t help that Bi-Han was seen in two first chapters, one his own (ch. 8) and in following Scorpion’s (ch.9) to disappear from the story for good and returning as the Champion/Titan Sub-Zero only as an alternative choice of player.

However! Even with such limited focus, the game in my opinion laid enough ground, both as what we are told and what we are shown by story mode alone, to get the feeling Bi-Han’s frustration didn’t come out of nowhere. Could it be handled better? Of course! But I must disagree with the opinion that visual storytelling didn’t do its work. It may not hit fans straight in the face with all its nuances, yet there is a clear difference in how Lin Kuei characters are treated by Fire Lord in contrast to other Liu Kang’s Champions and friends.

And this is not just about Bi-Han, but also about the treatment of Kuai Liang and Tomas. 

For one, the story always presented Lin Kuei doing Liu Kang’s bidding - be it testing the new Champions or eliminating a threat (black op mission). We do not see Fire Lord interacting with them outside of Lin Kuei servitude, while he clearly spent time with Johnny, Kenshi, Raiden and Kung Lao outside of their main (game) purpose. This is especially visible at the end of the story, when all of them dinner together at Madam Bo’s, clearly celebrating their success. Bi-Han’s lack of presence is understandable, yet Kuai Liang and Tomas? All we are told about Scorpion is that he was tasked with making a new clan to replace the rebellious Lin Kuei (thus he is doing another bidding of Fire Lord while Champions are allowed to take a break and enjoy time with friends)

while Smoke is completely omitted - even though the man fulfilled his duty to Earthrealm as any other Liu Kang’s Champion did and now helps to build Shirai Ryu clan. 

Frankly, not acknowledging Lin Kuei in itself contrasts a lot with how Liu Kang interacted with his Outworld friends and Champions. Bi-Han has never been addressed as Grandmaster of Lin Kuei (nor by his codename?), even during introductions to Kung Lao, Raiden, Kenshi and Johnny. Meanwhile, the edenian Royal Family’s titles are always respected. Jerrod is called outright a friend and so is Geras - yet not once in story mode Liu Kang expressed regret over the premature death of Bi-Han, Tomas and Kuai Liang’s father. Smoke actually was omitted all the time by Liu Kang and visually/story-wise speaking, Liu Kang alienated Tomas more than Bi-Han did in the few scenes the brothers shared together.

Even the recruitment of new Champions is questionable. Liu Kang took Bi-Han - a Grandmaster who had his own duties to a whole clan  - on a trip to test the new fighters. Since Bi-Han and his men weren’t fighting to the fullest of their strength, what was the point of dragging Sub-Zero in the first place instead of just picking fighters more closely in level to Kung Lao, Raiden, Kenshi and Johnny? Was Bi-Han’s presence there truly necessary, when already two other sons of the late Grandmaster took part in the test too? All done just to lose so the precious Champions could brag about their victory? That alone must be frustrating if we remember that members of the Lin Kuei weren’t trained to fight the “honorable kombat match”, as in one on one, but to kill the enemy as fast as possible - as chapter 8 and 9 clearly showed.

Sure, the story mode - be it the words taken at face value or visual storytelling alone - didn’t go out of its way to hit us in the face about Bi-Han’s frustration yet there is a clear contrast in how Liu Kang treats his Lin Kuei subordinates and how he interacts with people he openly admires and likes. There are plenty of nuances laid out for people who will bother to look for those hints and compare them to the rest of presented material. 

Also, a thing worth to remember: just because Kuai Liang and Tomas are content with their life and duties, it does not mean Bi-Han shouldn’t be frustrated by things the way they are. Just because he is not trying to be sympathetic, doesn’t mean his feeling of injustice is invalid or that his points have no merit whatsoever.

I may be disappointed with the creators' choices, but I can't say that MK1 is devoid of nuances and interesting contradictions. All comes down to fans and their personal perception of what the story tells us through characters and what shows to actually happening.

[petrichorium]

hiiii pluvi, nyla here! for your one piece and hq selfships: 💞, 📝, 🌦️ aaaaand 💌! thanks in advance! i'll have fun answering your asks too uwu

📝: How would your story in canon go? How would you influence the events of the original story?

Shanks — as of rn i dont influence the story tbh...... we'll have to re-address this in a decade when we get more red-haired pirates and after shanks dies KJHSDFJKHB but for now im just kinda lingering whenever theres rhp moments. my first appearance is the luffy wanted poster scene and i make a lil comment to mihawk (smthn like "always lovely to see you hawk-eyes" yk ambiguous enough), then im in the bg during the bit where rockstar calls shanks, im missing during marineford and then i show up during whitebeard/ace's funeral and im consistently w the red-haired pirates from then on. during the wano bit i finally get another line agreeing w lime juice after he mentions barto, then a passing goodbye to marco. im shown towards the side of the bar scene in elbaf reading a book and then im in the big wide-shot as theyre approaching the red force; the one "big" change is that im the one who hands the info on kidd off to shanks (bc that is Technically my official job as communications officer) and hongo and i have a tiny exchange. oda also talks abt me a bit in an sbs, he says im the only officer who hasnt met luffy and mentions im from a new world island, n says i joined the crew five yrs prior to the present

Kuroo — another one where i have minimal impact on the canon LOL but he and i r coworkers to lovers soooooo i only show up at the very end!!! i think im a recurring character in the final timeskip match chapters, i appear four or five times w the final time being w kuroo's appearance and described as his colleague. maybe later on theres an extra sketch of us grabbing a drink in our work uniforms and it sparks hella shippers

💞: Aside from with your f/o, who else would you commonly be shipped with? Why?

Shanks — i think any of the other red-haired officers is common but lime juice is the go-to for me simply bc of that one interaction in wano LMFAOOOOOOOO and then hongo later on for the elbaf interaction pfft. beckman is also a regular name in a "pair the spares" sense but icl i dont think hes ever spoken to me in canon (simply bc i do not have much screentime) & mihawk is also Somewhat up there again be of my one line. OH AND MARCO..... i think when he leaves the ship after wano he passes me and does an ambiguous hug/hand to the arm thing that has ppl like wtf was that 🫣

Kuroo — i think kenma bc im shown in the bg of a few of his shots!!! and i think theres a panel or two of me interacting w ushijima so theres a few instances of that...... theres like one super dedicated crackshipper of me and iwa LOL

🌦️: Would you be accompanied by mostly fluff or angst fanfics? Both? Explain why.

Shanks — ohhhh a mix.... i think whenever im involved its either relatively low-key fluff or a super in-depth character deep-dive. im often used as a catalyst for mishanks or shuggy or any manner of other m/m ships tho which means ig its angst for shuvi 😔

Kuroo — def fluff, but also a bit of angst. in a similar light a lot of fics im in have me being a catalyst specifically for kuroken, and there r probs just as many poly fics as there are of just me n kuroo, but by n large the Actual shipfics are cutesy work romance vibes

💌: How would your dynamic be portrayed? What might people focus on most? Any misconceptions?

Shanks — honestly the dynamic is varying bc theres just not much content of me or us interacting as of yet, just the tiniest bit of banter and then a very professional back n forth. shanks tends to be portrayed as Down Bad in ships so i think that is accurate, but i do think people generally overemphasize the captain/subordinate thing and a lot of the nuance wrt the nature of my joining the crew is not considered fully until my full backstory is discussed

Kuroo — sjhdfusbfv fuckboy kuroo my beloathed....... but i feel its not That bad. idk our dynamic is soooo Normal obvi its a v subtle ship/only vaguely hinted at so the specifics of our strangers-to-friends-to-lovers slow burn is not known,,,,,, i think generally the dynamic is far faster and not drawn out in fanon. people focus more on the working together, boss/secretary vibe (when i rlly quit my job right as we get together rip) and write us as having a very nuclear family i think.

send in some selfship questions!

[amysubmits]

It’s Not Always Effortless

Moving this time has taken us more than twice as long as it has in the past. The week prior to moving was really stressful as we were trying really hard to find a place and the market is super crazy right now so that was way harder than we expected or had ever experienced when moving before. So big relief when we did find a place...but then moving has taken a long time still. It’d take me a couple paragraphs to explain why moving has been such a long process and it doesn’t really matter so, I’ll spare you the details but it took basically a week and a half to get fully moved.

Anyway...a week or so lots of stress pre-move, followed up by 9-almost-straight days (we did take one day off) of actually moving in the sense of lifting heavy crap onto a vehicle for one reason or another. 

I was physically and emotionally drained, but we only had one day left! That night we got news that a family member had tested positive for COVID, adding more stress. We had planed to do one final day of moving crap, starting early the next morning...but my mental health spiraled and I managed to nap but didn’t really sleep a regular nights sleep. 

I was surprised when @cynicaldom said something that made it clear he was still planning for us to finish moving that morning. He knew I hadn’t slept much. I would have rathered push it off a day. He wanted to just get it all over with. I tried not to throw a fit though I still kinda pouted. I did communicate that I was struggling and felt emotionally fragile. 

------

At this point in my draft writing I pause and say to myself “Wait. What am I trying to say again...?”  🤣

Okay, side-stepping a little so I can loop back around to what I actually wanted to say. 

We got through that day. I submitted to us doing another moving day, and it was fine. Well, at the end we tried to take some stuff to our storage unit which was blocked off, so the very last part got delayed yet another day. Very frustrating when we wanted to just have it all over with. Anyway....that morning, once we got started working at it for the day, I was distracted from my crankiness. So it wasn’t even that hard to push through, and I’m glad we got finished earlier rather than delaying it more than was necessary.    

Anyway. When we got back home that night I saw something on my Tumblr feed about how if a dom leads well, then a sub will submit effortlessly.  

I frequently just take general statements too literally. Most any sentiment that doesn’t clearly leave space for nuance makes my brain focus on the exceptions to the rule...even when I realize it was intended as a general statement. I know I’m just a weirdo. But, I found myself feeling defensive of CD. Because I struggled to submit that morning, and it wasn’t because he wasn’t leading well. 

So...although I know I took it too seriously, I still thought it might be worth discussing. There’s nuance involved with D/s in so many ways, and one of those ways is how effortless vs difficult it may be for either person or both people. My opinion is this...

If a sub is frequently struggling to submit, it may well be a sign that the dom isn’t leading well or isn’t earning the subs submission. Maybe the dom is leading in ways that are selfish, impulsive, or don’t meet the subs needs, or just are not well thought out so the sub is resisting submission in a self-protective instinct. You can be a natural follower but find yourself not easily following someone who is leading you into a trap, or who just isn’t carefully deciding the path they’re taking you down, right? 100% makes sense. Submission doesn’t mean you don’t think for yourself. 

But I also think it’s natural for subs to sometimes struggle to submit, or at least not effortlessly submit, even when they have lots of trust in their dom, even when their needs are being met by the dynamic, even when the Dom is making a reasonable call. It’s not fair to assume that the Dom is doing something ‘wrong’ simply because the sub is struggling with submission. Especially if the sub is under a lot of stress or is struggling with their mental health or anything like that. Many things unrelated to the dynamic can cause D/s to feel harder for the sub, and those aren’t necessarily anything the Dom has any control over.  Even without extra stress or mental health problems, I think it’s natural for submission to just not be effortless sometimes. 

Why? Because subs are real people with lots of preferences and opinions, and doms are people with different preferences and opinions. You can think your Dom is absolutely the bee’s knees, but they’re still going to have different opinions or make different decisions than you would make, sometimes. If you’re allowing them to make decisions for you based on their own judgement (rather than expecting them to defer to your views for how they should best lead) then you are likely to occasionally find that you aren’t excited about their decisions, sometimes. You may struggle to accept them at times.  

That doesn’t necessarily mean that either of you are wrong. It’s just the reality of having two people with their own ways of thinking, their own preferences, beliefs, etc and letting one have the final say. When living real D/s, there may be times where the dom is making decisions that just don’t have a right or a wrong answer, or there isn’t a ‘right’ way to lead, exactly. Like with CD deciding that we would finish up moving that day rather than wait. There just isn’t a right or a wrong there. And it’s okay that my top preference wasn’t his top preference, and that I struggled a bit with his decision. I don’t think it means anything is ‘wrong’ with either of us. I think it’s just part of real life D/s. 

[twin-books]

Your post about that moment in Syren, plus all the salt fics I've seen caused by that episode as well as Chameleon made me realize that a big problem with the ML fandom is their Never Live It Down attitude.

On one hand i understand, there are moments and episodes in the show that do make the characters look bad and it can be irritating when the show and certain parts of the fandom glosses over them, but on the other hand, the fact they keep bringing it up these moments again and again and again, most of the time without either the context or the nuance these moments have, or sometimes making up headcanons to make these scenes worst than they actually are just makes me want to shout at them to get over it!

I'm glad you read my post. And yes, a big issue with the miraculous fandom is not letting go. On both sides, really. It's not just salt.

Multiple times I have seen salt die down for something but someone into sugar just has to go on and on about how much they hated that take which sparks it all over again. Which is why I also tried to point out sugar people as well and how I'm bothered by the discussion in general.

It's also the lack of any compassion with people that even slightly disagree with you in this fandom that very much bothers me. I joined a survey recently of someone doing results on miraculous stuff and the person gathering the results was so snide and rude when it came to takes they didn't personally agree with. I understand being bitter about the number of toxic salters but nowadays the miraculous fandom just brands anyone who happens to dislike a character they like as a toxic salter. No one wants to hear them out and people constantly make fun of them. It's awful. It's absolutely awful. It's awful to even think I used to be a part of this and didn't even realize it. Had an incident not have happened with my friend I wouldn't have truly known how bad and toxic this blatant flaw in the miraculous fandom is. If you say you hate Adrien? You're attacked. They don't want to hear you out. You're stupid. And if they find your reasons "stupid" they just consider you toxic. If you say you hate Marinette? Guess what? You're stupid. It's such a horribly toxic take but no one points it out because no one likes salters right? Some of my close friends are salters. They are not terrible people. I don't always agree with their takes and yeah, frankly I don't always see where they get their opinions from but I respect it. Because they're allowed to dislike characters and things that I like.  But then of course, there is real toxic salters out there like those who stalk your blog and look for any little disagreement with their ideals to pick at and harass you with. That or they just have a very unhealthy take which makes you more worried for them than anything. And yes, that is awful... but we just love to mistake that as the majority, huh? People always complain it's just the salters who can't let things go. But it isn't and that's the huge issue here. We're constantly bitter. We're constantly feeling the need to defend characters for issues that happened years ago against people with takes that may or may not have changed. We constantly feel the need to belittle people who disagree with us and it's frankly sickening. Yes, salters bring up scenes with no context or nuance but guess what? So do sugar people about salter's takes. Hence why I tried to make it very clear in my post, "Feel free to correct me. Maybe I'm missing something." The huge problem with the miraculous fandom is they can't let go, they can't spare an ounce of compassion to listen. And they can't just block people and move on if they would rather not hear it. They just have to keep calling each other stupid, mean, racist, sexist, awful... it goes on and on. Yes, I'm sure there are some people like this in the fandom but often times the terms are just tossed around. What I wish miraculous people could understand is... the writing in this show isn't good. It isn't. We can't kid ourselves and pretend it is. We can enjoy it, still, of course. But people have every right to complain about it. And even if it was good writing, people still have every right to complain. People have different tastes. People have different ideals. That doesn't make them terrible people. This fandom has just hurt my friends and myself quite a bit. It makes it very hard to enjoy the show anymore simply because sharing an opinion in this fandom is almost like a death sentence. I get both takes usually. I can usually see what salters are upset with as well as sugar people. I just don't get why we have to be such jerks to one another. I don't think I will ever understand. It's such a waste of energy and all it does is make this fandom more and more bitter. I have watched my friends go from small complaints to downright rage mostly because of how this fandom has treated them. Though I suppose that's the same with every fandom, isn't it? That's just the sad reality... ain't it?

Well... I'm going to keep trying to give people the benefit of the doubt, try to hear them out and help them out if they need. Hence why I made a salt server designed for people to vent freely without having to worry about such a terrible backlash. I'm not perfect and I never will be but I don't ever want anyone to feel the way I and my friends felt so if I can at least try to prevent some of that... I think that’s good enough. I think everyone in this fandom is lovely (with the exceptions of a few actual harassers), I just wish... we weren't so bitter and I wish we could just let go. Staying angry forever isn't good for any of us. I just wish I could hug everyone but I sadly only have two arms and not everyone is gonna want my hug which is fine. They are allowed to feel however they want. I may not always like it but that's okay. They don't have to always like me either. We're flawed, we're human, we're different. It would be no fun if everyone thought and felt the same. And at the end of the day... this is all just fiction but the people behind the fandom... they’re real. Let’s treat them like the real people they are. I thank you for coming here with a very healthy vent and you're very nice. It was wonderful to get such an ask and I'm sorry for the rant. I would love hear from you again. Have a lovely day. <3

[wings-of-a-storm]

Same anon with another general thought here, but I don't think enough people are talking about how crushed Benji must be to know that not only is he not allowed in Victor's home because of Isabelle, but that also Isabelle was right off the bat so accepting of and friendly towards Rahim. Not even Victor seemed to give it much thought, and I get that he was happy that his mom was "doing better", but he really should have considered Benji's feelings on the matter more and noticed how hurt he was.

Hello again! Another wonderful general thought to ponder. A very complicated one though, as it turns out, as this particular situation is full of nuance and mental health minefields…

When you’re that overwhelmed by external stress (and it intermingles with your mental health), you can’t think or behave on a level you would normally have the energy and clear-thinking to be able to do. And Victor’s situation with his mother is impacting on both boys. Both are distracted by their own stress and trying to stay above water in their own ways, which makes some of their reactions very self-focused.

Victor’s stress is pretty evident because we have his point of view and are living in that pain with him.

Benji’s is more subtle but the clues are there to piece together.

For me, it is pretty clear that Benji has had to compromise a lot of himself in their relationship so far due to the more dire nature of the stressful situation Victor is currently going through. Normally, that level of compromise could possibly be maintained in the short-term for someone who is at a healthy-enough headspace in their own life, but I don’t think Benji is there yet. Not just because he is a recovering addict, but because of the root cause of that addiction -- his own journey of coming to peace with his identity.

Events happened in Benji’s life -- like his violent car crash -- that reshaped him into someone who survives internalised hatred about himself through mule-headed determination and idealism. Like, Benji is very idealistic about living an authentic life and expecting others to be better in society. And most of the time it is well-meaning, if not misguided, idealism, such as telling Victor he shouldn’t compromise with the basketball change room because he should only ever hang around people who accept him for who he is.

And so much of that attitude has probably come from the trauma of that car crash -- it would have affected his tolerance level in life. He realised he almost died before ever getting to freely be who he is and the horror of that realisation completely shifted his priorities in life. He isn’t going to let anyone or anything get in the way of him living as his authentic self.

Derek’s influence would have only re-enforced that perspective, as Derek is also someone who is very much in the mindset of ‘I’m going to be exactly who I am and screw heteronormative bs.’

For over a year, Benji was able to live his own freedom and solidify his identity. It was really important to him to be able to do so. But then along came Victor who isn’t at that stage yet and that created a big imbalance in their relationship, through no one’s fault.

When Benji and Victor first got together, we saw Benji intuitive enough to display that concern -- that it might be tough to date Victor since he is so new to accepting his sexuality and hadn’t even said the words out loud yet, whereas Benji would have to relive being stuck in the closet. But even worse this time, because he had already had his car accident epiphany and would feel extra suffocation. But Benji decided Victor was worth all of that and he’d be there with him every step of the way through his coming out process.

For several months, Benji had to compromise who he was, relive a shame that literally took a drunken car accident to break through (more or less), and watch the person he really cares for feel rejected by his mama over and over again. Living that sort of cycle, even within a perfect summer bubble, takes its toll over time. It slowly erodes your patience and strength, exacerbates old wounds, makes you feel helpless… And for someone with such incredibly strong ideals as Benji, it is even tougher to sit on the sidelines and be unable to change anything. Benji has no control over that situation at all, when normally a sense of control helps manage anxiety (especially for a recovering alcoholic).

But Benji is dedicated to Victor and willing to (temporarily) compromise a lot of the steps he made to get to where he is today so that he can be Victor’s support. Where S2 starts, we see Benji still trying to stay strong in himself and be as patient and supportive as he can be for Victor. Cracks are there though because he has his own baggage that he’s constantly having to push aside.

Victor absolutely deserves that support and his situation takes precedence, but it would be a little unfair of us not to acknowledge the toll it does take on a partner. Both parties’ mental health matters.

And then, through all that compromise and unspoken toll on Benji’s end, Benji gets to hear how another gay teen is treated almost flawlessly by his boyfriend’s mother. It really is a lot of salt in the wound -- this other teen got to just show up at the Salazar house and be treated courteously, whereas Benji put so much effort into giving Isabel space and time and tried so darn hard to bond with her, only to be rejected at every attempt.

It would start to feel like the problem is with him; that’s he’s not good enough as a person (and feeling good enough as a person is clearly an insecurity Benji is still fighting through because we saw how much it meant to Benji in 1x05 when Victor told him he thought that who he was as a person was pretty darn good).

Rationally Benji might be able to acknowledge that it will always be easier for a mother to accept a gay friend than a gay boyfriend, but with the baggage of internalised hatred Benji already had growing up, rationality is so easily subsumed by negative thought patterns. So his control slipped and he couldn’t hide his hurt and bitterness when Victor told him about Rahim’s success. I really can’t blame Benji for having that initial reaction…

On Victor’s end, he is going through a lot himself. So so much. And when you’re in that amount of stress, it can be hard to look up out of that maelstrom and notice someone else’s stress. There’s just so little reserve left of your own to offer someone else when you’re depleted and trying to keep your own head above water. So for Victor, surviving that stress and pain meant focusing solely on his own situation. That, I also absolutely get.

It’s just really unfortunate that they’re both so exhausted that neither could spare extra energy to give the kind of support each other needed in that phone call. Victor needed to hear acknowledgement of how well his mother was doing, which Benji didn’t give at all. And Benji needed acknowledgement from Victor that it hurts that Rahim gets a free pass while Benji has to walk through fire for the same thing (except so far it has just been a lot of fire and no headway).

And to make things even worse, when Benji pushed through that hurt to apologise for his negative reaction, Victor had no intention of returning the sentiment for his own lack of support. He somehow didn’t see why Benji would be upset even after Benji pointed out the double standards with Rahim’s treatment. So we have uneven needs being met… Which is why Benji stumbled again so soon in the same encounter and couldn’t contain his bitterness once more. If Victor had recognised he also needed to apologise, Benji would have felt more seen and acknowledged and regained some positive energy to give back to Victor. But alas….bad cycles.

So yeah wow, I guess in summary to your ask, both boys played a part in each other’s hurt, both boys could have handled themselves better, and yes, I think in an ideal world Victor should have been able to take a moment to look up and really see where Benji’s own mental health is at. Because it was obvious that Benji was struggling with something -- if Victor was able to take a break from his own pain and have the reprieve of a clearer head, he would see the correlation between an increase of passive aggression from Benji and him suffering from something he isn’t voicing out loud to Victor. But both boys’ mental health isn’t that great at the moment and they are only human so monumental stuff ups are going to happen on both sides… :(

[nodameshield]

how are we doing? have the tears dried yet? I know mine haven’t :: 

let’s start light : research fellows count ! (also, lady, only ten years old? - I resent that).

Goh understands this?? he’s got a silly proud smile and it’s following Ash’s butchered storytelling??? love 

research fellows count ! 

perfectly attainable dream 

sure, go for it.  (look at both of their supportive lil smiles, we love best friends) 

we all know the scene that’s coming ahead, but I thought this was a beautiful demonstration of growth already on Goh’s side.

Listen before the sad part begins let us appreciate for a moment how Ash and Goh were smiling at EACH OTHER after the interview was over. cuties. 

behold : the last frame we have of baby Sobble. I’m going to miss you, bean. thank you for everything<3 (he was so proud of his good deed as well!! my very heart) 

just how fast the night changes, indeed.

Drizzle went through shock and pain at record speed and swiftly landed on anger - only to fall into ✨depression✨ just as quickly.

and then we just stayed there.

someone 

is 

(oh hey Cinderace ! good to see ya)

having  

a rough morning

 (I’m sorry, this scene was just fucking funny - the drama)

Cinderace’s proud big bro moment was just too sweet to leave out - let us not forget, he’s been a big bro since he was Raboot (and even as a temperamental Raboot, he was always gentle to Sobble). And now his baby bro has evolved as well. precious ! 

Goh handled this situation very maturely from the beginning. And here’s when the build up starts. He’s saying ‘hey, let me help you how I think you need to be helped” and he genuinely doesn’t mean any harm! naturally, his reaction is to help his Pokémon, in the way that has worked in the past.

but then he starts to understand maybe that’s not the best approach this time around.

and he’s ready to respect those new boundaries (of course, there’s no blame on Cinderace, either. Much like Goh, he - and everyone, really - was just trying to help in the way he thought was the best).

shoutout to the animation on this bit because Pikachu’s ears darting down was a delightful detail. Chloe’s expression and Grookey’s simmering down drove the point home as well.

ah, you coy little thing. Did you forget how your trainer almost left you behind because of how rebellious you were??? Because you made him feel as though you’d be better off without him?? (Cinderace has selective memory, you can’t change my mind, don’t be miss-leaded by the cuteness)

this build up was wonderful - we begin to hear all these reasons why, yeah? maybe he just wants to be alone.

maybe he’s still very afraid and careful of his surroundings, and his evolution made it worse? (he’d been popping up in random places in previous episodes, hiding, which was also great foreshadowing for this episode !) 

maybe he’s cocooning himself until he’s ready to evolve again? (which, considering his disappointment and how badly he wanted to be Inteleon already, is a very plausible reason)

but Prof. Cerise gets it right when he says ‘we can’t really know for sure’ (which ties greatly with Goh’s upcoming scene) - is it your Drizzle’s quirk? are they all like this? who cares? Isn’t wonderful how he’s a living creature? how he’s got nuances and a personality? shouldn’t that be enough of a reason to look after him, and try to help him right now?

my child, still thinking he’s got to do everything on his own.

and these two are just like ????? Goh ??? watchu talking about ???

can you imagine how MUCH this moment means to him?? he was ready to keep going alone (it’s what he knows) and even when Ash and Chloe prove him, time and time again, that he’s not alone, there’s still something in Goh coded to believe others won’t care as much/won’t be there when he needs them. and that’s why he insists: I’ve got this. I can do it alone.

and, sure, but you don’t have to. that’s the beauty of friendship.

you tell him, Chloe. (actually, without Chloe calling him out, he might have taken longer to figure out where Drizzle was. so...) // but also, it gives us a glimpse into the fact that, while Goh might have felt very lonely, Chloe has been observing and caring for him - in her way - for a long minute as well.

my very point above. 

HEY, LISTEN: he doesn’t know, either. he’s a child, words are hard, and you rotate along the four moods of childhood (happy, upset, scared, hungry (?)) and don’t ponder much on anything else because you are a child, there’s no emotional intelligence to speak of, no need for it, you’re being shaped by your environment and all the stimuli of the world being a new place. things like loneliness, confusion, anxiety... we can’t put those into words - hell, they’re fucking abstract and confusing even when we are adults.

and Goh’s stimuli and environment was, given what we know of his family life, a rather lonely one. Did his parents have a lot of spare time to take him to the park? I don’t think so. Was he good at going out there and asking other kids to play? ... probably not. 

Chloe doesn’t strike me as an extrovert, either, so even if she wanted to get close to Goh or invite him to hang out, perhaps she was too shy as well. Heck, perhaps Goh’s reaction would’ve been like the one above, he simply didn’t know. Maybe he didn’t want to ! and that’s perfectly fine as well.

am I forgiving the anipoke team for making Goh cry? no, never. but this was beautifully executed so I can grow to live with it.

“why are you depressed?” “you have nothing to be sad about!” “look at all the wonderful things you have!” “just be happy again!” - sound familiar? yeah, this was incredibly well done.

as adults, perhaps we see this and think ‘shit, how cool that they’re prodding on these topics, it’s important’ and it is !!! so important !! but if it’s this impactful as young-adults/grown-ups, imagine how impactful it must be as a child to see this and feel perceived. I’m honestly so proud of this moment, this whole episode. I’m grateful they took the time to look into this maturely. and even if children don’t do a full-fledged analysis on it, if they relate (like I know so many of us did) they won’t forget it. and that’s beautiful.

darling I’m blanking on your TW handle I’m so sorry - but someone in a tweet SO RIGHTFULLY pointed out that these are the words Goh would have needed to hear when he was younger. saying them to Drizzle it’s a full circle moment for him, he’s hearing them as well, and it’s helping both of them grow.

He’s not forcing himself as Drizzle’s trainer. Goh bears no entitlement here. He’s saying ‘Hey, if you’re comfortable, if you want to share , I’ll be here’ / as a kid, people did care for him, they kept wanting to know what was going on, but Goh couldn’t put that in words and people pestering him only made it worse, but if someone had said ‘hey, when you’re ready...’ then,,,,yeah,,,,maybe it would’ve been different. 

he’s offering that safety now to his Pokémon, something he didn’t have, but he grew to understand is what he (and now Drizzle) needed. If that doesn’t have you breaking down in a teary mess then you are stronger than I’ll ever be, because my glasses were cloudy by this point.

why, why, why. because you needed to hear all that as well, baby! so did a number of us. thank you.

I’ll say that, however it was that you connected with this moment, that’s yours to cherish. 

Personally, I too had a lonely childhood marked by parents who overworked, and I too spent a lot of time alone in kindergarten and through elementary school because it was hard to make friends (turns out i’m an extrovert, ha, talk about breaking out of your shell...) so, obviously there were easy common grounds for me in this episode.

but I LOVED to read the reactions and realize so many people still connected with it, one way or the other. So many of us felt seen and understood and acknowledged in emotions that are so hard to put into words !! 

so, again, if you identified with Goh or Drizzle or any of the topics in this episode, that’s very beautiful, and I hope the underlying message that you’re not alone gets through.

With Sobble, and now with Drizzle as well, Goh is very adamant to remind us that, however we are, that’s fine. there’s something that makes us special, regardless of other people’s opinions, or their ideas of how we *should be* // that’s the message I’m taking with me, at least.

 and i can’t wait to see how this story line evolves !! I have no doubts that, when the moment comes, Inteleon will be a wonderful addition to the team, but Drizzle is here now, and he’s plenty wonderful already x

Bonus: 

ha ha, yes. I watched this episode three times. And all three times I was a mess.

side note but a very important one: the animation, the voice acting, the dialog, the scenery of the starry night - the entire scene was so beautifully executed. so ��carefully crafted. ugh, amazing. just perfect. so happy.

[popculturebuffet]

Of Moons, Millionares and Mothers Part 3: Storkules in Duckburg! aka THE INCREDIBLE STORKULES TERRIBLE BUT WELL MEANING ROOMATE OUT OF MYTH

Hello all you happy people! And welcome and welcome back to Of Moons, Millionares and Mothers, my look at the season 2 arcs of Ducktales! This arc was paid for by WeirdKev27 and I truly enjoy his support. if you want to know how to commission your own reviews or to get a guarnateed review of me of your choice from me a month, stick around to the end. I realized that shoving all my plugs in up top may be driving people away and while I DO make them because I want to make a living off this, i’ts not fair to those of you who simply can’t afford to buy a lot of extra shit like myself to keep shoving it in your face. 

Previously on the Louie Inc Arc, Louie, after believing he had no skills and it was a matter of when not if he ws going to die, found his talent: seeing all the angles and thus being Sharper than the Sharpies. With newfound confidence and a chip on his shoulder from Scrooge saying he could one day be a bigger success than Scrooge himself, founding Louie Inc as a result. But what is Louie Inc? Does he actually have a plan or a bunch of buzzwords. And what does STORKULES, MANLY GAY OUT OF MYTH have to do with any of this? Join me under the cut to find out. 

We open with Louie giving Scrooge his sales pitch that is essentially...

Naturally Scrooge buys none of it. I mean he’s somewhere in his hundreds, he’s probably seen about 80 thousand pitches that amount to “I have no plan but give me money anyway”. There’s a reason there’s a Butch Hartman shaped crater on the lawn from where he threw his ass out. 

Scrooge does mentor the lad, or at least attempt to pointing out he needs an actual product or service (Louie rejects the idea of a lemonade stand as too easy), or as he puts it “Find a problem and create a solution”. 

While the basic PRINCIPAL isn’t bad, find something people want or need and provide it, phrasing it that way sounds like “find a problem people are having and exploit the shit out of that problem for fun and profit.” Granted that IS a guiding principal of business, it’s just not something an uncle should be teaching his kids. They should be teaching them about the anime and cartoons they grew up with as I do with my niece and nibling. 

He does show him a valid example of this in action in the form of Donald. Turns out Donald has found a good way to make money while he looks for a job, can relate: since Duckburg is facing a housing shortage, likely because several square blocks probably get destroyed by Scrooge’s Adventures, Glomgold’s Schemes, Superhero Battles, whatever creation went horribly wrong for Gyro, etc at least once a week. So he’s taken it upon himself to offer up the spare room to whoever can rent it.. and to steal Scrooge’s chandelier which even when caught he still takes anyway. Scrooge.. you called the guy a god-damn moocher in the season premiere, despite the fact he lives there soley because YOU offered and because he’s you know, being responsible and staying by his boys so they have their father figure around. So yeah I feel he’s doing this partly out of spite as is the McDuck way. I mean if your going to call him a freeloader just for being a responsible parent, then he’s going to take it up a damn notch.

Scrooge proceeds to laugh off Louie wanting a million dollars and gives him a dime instead because of course he was. Seriously Louie there are two other billionaires in town who are FAR dumber and far more easily swindled. Just go get star up capital from them. Hell with Glomgold all you’d have to do is tell him it’d upset scrooge and he’d literally throw money at you. Or give you a shark full of money. He needs the shark back though. He’s family. 

Meanwhile Donald prepares for his new tenant and finds.. THE INCREDIBLE STORKULES! Who to his mounting horror as he realizes it, IS the new tenant. And who throws him into the sun. Cue credits. 

So after Donald somehow survives being thrown into the sun, Storkules explains why he’s here: Zeus responded to his son playing the lute a lot like any rational reasonable 

No of course he responded to the “crime” of “playing his instrument a lot” with sending a swarm of harpies on the town then blaming Storkules for it and casting him out. What’s most shocking is not the action, this is honestly him staying the course of being a fucking disgrace, but that Zeus somehow ISN’T the biggest asshole i’ve dealt with this week. No that honor is reserved as always for this bitch:

Keep in mind she manages to be this obnoxious in only TWO scenes. Also keep in mind I had to put up with Julie for a MUCH larger chunk of the previous two volumes I covered before volume 5 yesterday for my Scott Pilgrim Retrospective and she is ALWAYS like this and you now feel my pain. 

This does create a problem though: Zeus casts Storkules out until he’s a responsible adult.. and thus paints Storkules as the bad guy... in a situation where the only other person in the story sent a swarm of HARPIES down at him for simply playing his music too loud. It just dosen’t work as a catalyst: Storkules objectively did nothing wrong. The only person he annoyed was a person who clearly dosen’t love, respect or like his son in any way shape or form anyway and essentially assaulted him and a bunch of innocent people via harpie and then cast him out. Zeus is an abusive asshole and i’ts weird the narrative sides with HIM and not our well meaning doofus. Zeus being an asshole with harpies is not a bad catalyst for the episode, and the harpies being unleashed is used well.. it’s just not a good catalyst for THIS story to try and portray an abuser as in the right. And make no mistake Zeus is a domestic abuser: he had his son mind controlled to try and MURDER innocent people, something Storkules begged him not to do, sent a swarm of creatures after him for the crime of playing his music too loud and in his next episode manipulatives Storkules sad emotional state for personal gain. Why would you try and paint THIS jackass as in the right?

Speaking of painting this jackass in the right sadly.. this episode does not do my boy donald justice. In most episodes he’s pretty nuanced and i’ts fair enough he’d be frustrated by Storkules as a roomate. Storkules has little sense of personal space, breaks his stove thinking theirs hydra in it, makes a mess of the kitchen making them a meal, and in general clearly dosen’t know how to live with a roomate much less in modern society. He has valid concerns and the episode COULD have used it that way.. but he’s also horribly impatient with Storkules. He refuses to get the guy just hasn’t had to live in a modern society and dosen’t know HOW to function in it and instead of helping him just gets mad again and again and gets really pissed when it’s clear Storkules dosen’t have a job and didn’t consider paying rent. He’s not WRONG to want him to pay Rent, despite what ironically the musical Rent would try and have you believe, but he dosen’t have any patience with the guy. And stork isn’t nearly coming on as strong as he normally does. The worst he does is cook the guy lunch and bring his donald fan art with him. Which we don’t see but I am assuming is mostly naked. What i’m saying is for once that while still bombastic, Storkules isn’t trying to force a relationship/friendship on him and simply wants to learn t be an adult from his best friend.. and Donald isn’t bothering teaching him.

Asking for rent or for him not to destroy the stove is fine, but not explaining WHY he needs either of those things or why he needs boundaries, he makes a roomate list, isn’t helping the guy. And this would be fine... but the episode dosen’t call Donald out on it for no real reason. It feels like it’s setting up for a “you should learn to wokrk with someone instead of just screaming at them aseop” that never comes and like with Zeus takes his side because shutup. I’d also LIKE to say this is the only time the writers reduced one of the cast to a caracture of themselves.. but I can’t.  Several episodes in season 3 forgot Louie’s character development and another episode in season 2, The Duck Knight Returns!, somehow reduced both Scrooge and Dewey to parodies of themselves with Scrooge SOMEHOW, despite Della as stubborn as she is being in his care and by his side for decades and Movies bein ga huge business, not having seen a movie since the 1920′s and not knowing how they work and Dewey being reduced to just hyperactive moron. It isn’t as common as other shows like say Regular Show, The Loud House or, for the exact reason I lost intrest, Rick and Morty, but I still expect better, especially since they went into this season KNOWING Donald would be gone for half of it and this would likely be one of his only spotlight episodes. 

Back at the good part of the plot, Louie is having a company meeting aka already treating Huey and Webby like his employees. Webby of course is glad to sign on, if little help in actually coming up with a product while Huey just wants to nope out. And if your wondering why Dewey isn’t involved Louie outright says he’d make a bad employee and while Dewey rises from his bed to object.. he stops halfway to opening his mouth and concludes he has a point. Best gag of the episode. Louie being louie easily cons Huey into staying by making Webby his charts officer. 

So the three have a corporate retreat at Funso’s... granted they don’t have a product but Louie figures this might help. Huey.. still wants out of this and suggest since they already spent what they had on ski ball “Company over?”. It’s clear that Huey just sees this as another one of Louie’s short sighted schemes... and while he’s not ENITRELY wrong, Louie has genuine ambition.. he just has no earthly idea what he’s doing and is shooting way too high.. but for understandable reasons. 1) He’s 11 at this point. 11 year olds aren’t great at business strategy or reinging it in. 2) he wants to live up to what Scrooge said to prove he can be successful and really be worth something like his mom was. 

But sometimes fate throws you one and the harpies bust in. And while Louie wants to do nothing and hope they go away Huey and Webby spring into action.. as does Storkules, who had to leave but warns donald there’s Orzo in the slowcooker and to not open it “LEST THE PASTA FAIL TO ABSORB THE BROTH!” Which is just.... Chris’ best line dleivery the episode. He says it like he’s saying the title of an old Stan Lee and Jack Kirby comic, i’ts wonderful.

So our heroes defeat them and Louie steps in to charge for the service and quickly comes up with a company idea and name “Harp-B-Gone” (A Subsidary of Louie Inc). Louie hires Storkules on the spot. Storkules proudly tells Donald he has a job the next day and goes off to it. What follows is our heroes hilarously shooting a commerical with Storkules playing a baby to promote themselves so they can help who needs it. They just need to find out what they want.. and thanks to the JWG and the harpies stealing it find out they go after people’s most treasured posessions   Cue Ghostbusters-Style Montage

And this isn’t just me saying thing. The Rewriting History Entry (Which as a series weirdly stops around mid-season 2 and I don’t get why frank hasn’t gone back and finished it since) states they specifically based this whole operation on ghostbusters and the entire sequence of our heroes cleanin up the town reminds me of it. The highlight of it is a glomgold cameo where he’s kidnapped.. and refuses to pay so Louie just lets him go. And were this an innocent person who couldn’t afford it, i’d call him a monster.. but it’s glomgold. he brought this on himself.. and also sues himself for it. Wonder if he won. 

So with their stars rising, our heroes get booked on the hottest show in town: Dewey Dew-Night! I had honestly forgotten there was a Dewey Dew-Night segment in there, and delighted I get to talk about this recurring bit.  It’s one of the shows funniest runners and just perfectly FITS Dewey: of course the most egotistical and energetic of the kids would not only want to be a late hnight host but make up his own show. I also love the slow evolution of it: it started as something everyone clearly knew about but he stlill tried to keep hidden, slowly escalated to him allowing the rest of his siblings (Webby very much included) and the giant man who stalks his uncle in, and by later this season he’s putting the show online in the web shorts and gladly shooting it into space, with Season 3 having him spend the first half of let’s get dangerous making a documentary that includes an episode of the show featuring Darkwing. It’s a small thing sure, but it’s the little things like this that make the show special. 

The show does reveal a problem though as it turns out they’ve GOT all the harpies and while Storkules merely wanted to help, Louie points out they need more to keep a buisness going and naturally never bothered to ask Storkules just how many there were. They need SOME plan to get going. Webby submits a legitamte and great idea, training the harpies as she’s been trying to do in the background of the episode and aside from a hole in the floor they are starting to listen. But Huey is an ass about it and not only shoots it down saying let’s keep the dangerous creatures contained, even though A) he has no idea WHERE they’ve been kept so he can’t verify it’s safe, and since i’ts Donald’s Closet no no it’s not. and B)There’s no where he knows of to keep them. He isn’t aware of the other bin till next season. and C) it’s not ehtical to keep creatures locked up forever epsecially since while the harpies are dangerous they arent’ MALEVOLENT and are clearly acting on instinct. oh and for D) at least she has a plan to keep the company going instead of just wanting to end this and cash out. 

Which Huey tries to.. but naturally Louie spent all their money on...

So their broke.. and Storkules has no rent money and feels like a failure despite having done NOTHING wrong. We do get a clever little nod to Disney’s hercules though “I”m not a hero, i’m a zero”. Webby rightfully glares at Louie who decides to fix it... by sneaking into Donald’s house that night to free the harpies. 

Though to the shows credit it’s a VERY bad idea, and Storkules coming in mid attempt and congradulating Louie when he lies about checking the door gets the kid to come clean. And it’s a nice character moment: He could still go through with it.. but it’s clear he realizes just HOW low he was about to sink to save his own skin and that as much as Storkules WANTS a paycheck and deserves one, it’s not worth hurting people to get it. Louie tries to justify after this.. but can’t. 

Unforutnately Donald took a lot of stupid pills this episode, yells about his no pets rule and frees them instead of you know, THINKING for five minutes.

So yeah NATURALLY Donald is an angry shit about it , refusing to actually TALK to Storkules about this or maybe admit this is partly HIS OWN FAULT. Yes their both at fault, Storkules shoudln’t of shoved a bunch of harpies in a closet. That’s a classic blunder. But Donald still opened it and isn’t called out on taking zero responsibility. Huey sees the fracas and just takes down their days without an accident placard, good stuff and he and webby arrive to help. Donald fights with Storkules and Storkules worries about loosing his friend.. lead to them going after the thing he values most aka donlad and hyjacking the house boat, though the kids manage to get aboard. 

As Storkules saves Donald, Louie realizes the most precious thing he has is  his merch and willingly gives it, and his buisness up to save everyone. It’s good character stuff and shows that despite his problems with greed, Louie IS a good kid and will do the right thing. It’s what seperates him from the Rouges Gallery the family faces: He has FLEXIBLE morals but he has morals when it comes down to it. So everyone tosses the stoff to help direct the hapries and make it home tying them up. Donald has a heart to heart with Storkules and agrees to help him find another place, but still considers him a friend and they hug. Awww.  One intresting thing I DID find out from rewriting history is they originally fully intended to have Storkules STAY on the houseboat. He was going to be a permenant member of the household, at least as far as Season 2 was concenred and plans were made for several episodes down the road: the whole bit with him in “The Golden Spear” was simply because he lived there, he was going to be the one Della met in the houseboat, obliviously guilting her about what she’d missed, and he was going to set off the kids subplot in “Whatever Happened to Donald Duck?”

This ended up not happneing for logistical reasons: Frank, and I swear this was the term he used, felt they already had the perfect Himbo in Launchpad and it was just too much HImbo energy for the two to coexist without one taking the others screen time or neither getting a lot. 

The next reason was having a god around simply broke the story: He cited the gilded man from “Nothing Can Stop Della Duck!” as a specific example. There were just too many hoops to jump to have him not break any story he should be around for.  Finally with Della being added to the cast soon there simply wasn’t room in the main cast. Della brought it up to 9, Storkules would make it 10, and as i’ve gone on about the show already had trouble ballancing it’s cast, something Frank admitted to. Adding him would both be too big a stiatus quo change and be one on top of the massive one of Della joining the cast. So he was dropped back to recurring and only showed up one more time. And while it was the right call I am dismayed he didn’t show up for the whatever happened to donald duck subplot and it does feel very weird he never adresses Donald being gone despite, at least for season 2, apparently living in Duckburg. Otherwise though as funny as this wouldv’e been.. yeah it was the right call. 

Scrooge returns... having been absent all episode because otherwise it wouldn’t work and easily saw Louie loosing it all coming.. but gives him a can of lemonade for his troubles and comforts the boy. The heart of htis arc and what makes it work at it’s best.. is these two. Scrooge GENUINELY wants to help Louie see his potetial successor in buisness: oh sure adventure wise he’s throughly covered.. but Webby, Dewey and Della all are more focused on the addventure part and that’s where their passion and talent lies, Huey’s better at science and given his close frinedship with fenton and how much that part of things seems to truly inspire him, i’ts what he was born for, and Donald just wants a regualar life and can’t manage his own life much less a company. 

Louie is the only one in his family whose the right fit to inhereit that part of his legacy and I feel that’s why he takes a special intrest in him and webby over the other two: While he loves all of them and will clearly again leave a piece of his fortune and empire to all of them, Webby is the most like him, as we later find out not coincidentally in the slightest, when it comes to adventuring and curosity and a love of exploration. But Louie is the most like him in other ways; He’s cynical, money driven and passionate. Scrooge simply wants him to be as good a person and buisnessperson as he can be and is trying to push him in the right direction. And does so here by pointing out that failure isn’t a huge problem..it happens, comes with the terriotiry and as we’ve seen with life and times, even with portions of it clearly not happening in this universe, he failed a LOT to get here. What matters is that he tries and tries to do it the right way. 

Scrooge also sympathizes as he was buying a lemonade company in cape suzette, giving Louie the can as a present... but laments there’s no cheap effective way to deliver the lemons. Louie notices the harpies going after the can after he throws it and Webby controlling them with it and muses that theyd idn’t think about what THEY wanted.. nad rightfully gets punched across the lawn by Webby, whose had to spend an entire episode having her surrogate brothers talk down to her and ignore her valid ideas. She dosen’t even open her eyes she just bops him one.

So we end with Scrooge having enlisted the hapries, Louie trying to take credit again and both realizing they might just steal the lemons instead of work for them. Ha ha ha their going to get so sued. 

Final Thoughts: This one was mediocre. It has some good points, Louies arc continues to fascenate me, Huey’s done with this shit attitude is hilarous, and Storkules is at his best in this episode: his crush on Donald is toned down from this..

To this

To the point I could see shipping them off this one if Storkules episode didn’t have him do eveyrthing short of .. well see above.  So it’s not WITHOUT merit: I love me a ghost busters style plot, there are great jokes and Chris Dimatopolis is a gem as always. Glad he’s getting work after this show on Invincible and hope he gets to play Darkwing again some day. But the Donald stuff and the fairly predictable plot drag this one down. I’ts fairly obvious they’ll run out of harpies, Louie will have spent the money and they’ll somehow get free. It’s not a terrible episode but it’s it’s sandwiched story wise between two straight up classics on both sides: the previous two episodes were even better than I remembered and the next two are incredibly good: Whateve Happened to Della Duck?! is one of their finest hours and The Outlaw Scrooge McDuck, while not making my best of list for the series as a whole is still one of my favorites for the season.  It’s just disapointing this one wasn’t nearly as good as I remmebered and it’s understandable why I forgot almost all of it, unlike the previous two episodes. Thankfully as I said better’s over the horizon.

NEXT TIME ON OF MOONS, MILLIONARES AND MOTHERS: I’m taking a break for a week. One of two weeklong breaks for the arc, the other being the first week of July where i’m on vacation anyway (Though i’ll be doing the episode I would’ve done for that week the week before to keep the pace up, so no worries),

 As for why, it’s my utmost honor to announce GOOF WEEK! Goof Week is a weeklong celebration of Goofy’s birthday. The idea came about because as I do for the big three, I intended to just do a shorts special. But Kev , the guy who made this very review possible, suggested doing the two part Goof Troop pilot. And since kev pays for a house of mouth episode a month anyway and thaks to you lovely people I hit my patreon stretch goal to review the goofy movie, I figured “why not make a week out of it. Hence Goof week. So next week we’ll have a review of the two part pilot for Goof Troop, the special Sports Goof, the House of Mouse episode Super Goof, your regularly schedule shorts spectacular, with The Goofy Movie for the grand finale! yaaahoooooieeee! 

When we come back i’ll be shuffling episodes around slightly so I can do the Della comics from the Ducktales Tie-In Comic before her debut and in time for Donald’s own theme week in June, i’ll be saving “Whatever Happened to Della Duck?” for the week after Donald Week. Instead next we get a fun wild west adventure as Scrooge tells a story of his outlaw days, his tension with goldie and his encounter with a certain robber baron as John D Rockerduck FINALLY makes his screen debut. Yee-Haw!

If you liked this review, subscribe and follow for more and consider joining my patroen, patreon.com/popculturebuffet. I have exclusive reviews, my most recent duck based one being an obscure carl barks story about wigs and the boys attempting to murder a guy with a blow gun, and your contribution helps me reach my goals and thus gets everyone, patreon or not, a bunch of neat new reviews. If you get me to 20 dollars a month, i’m currently at 15, EVERYONE will get a monthly darkwing duck reviews, reviews of the two remaning ducktales 87 mini series including the origin of GIZMOOOODDUUUUUCCCKKKK, and a review of the Danny Phantom movie The Ultimate Enemy. And with the month running out NOW’S the time to join. YOu’ll also get to pick one of the shorts for my Donald Duck birthday specail next month, so if you want to join in NOWS the time. But wether you can or you can’t, thank you for reading, i’ts been a pleasure. 

[sammysdewysensitiveeyes]

Marauders #22

I absolutely hated this issue, so be warned that’s a lot of salt here, and my usual whining, so skip this post if you’re not in the mood for that.  Also spoilers below.

First impression - what absolute, self-indulgent horseshit.  I hesitate to use “fanfic” in a derogatory way, but a lot of Marauders has read as being very “fanfic” in terms of self-indulgence, and greatly favoring certain characters while denigrating others.  I actually don’t think that’s a bad thing in fanfic.  It can be annoying to read if that’s not what you’re looking for (or it can be wonderful, if it IS what you’re looking for), but ultimately, fanfic is all about self-indulgence.  It’s about writing what you want to see in a story, and if Duggan’s Marauders was someone’s actual fanfic, I wouldn’t have anything bad to say about it.  I might dislike the characterization, and probably wouldn’t read it, but it ultimately wouldn’t matter because it’s fanfic.  Frankly, I’m just as bad about constantly centering everything around Pyro (and finding ways to work him into stories where he doesn’t even belong), because I’m writing just for myself, so I can be self-indulgent.  But I’d expect much better from a professional writer.  I’d expect much better from someone being paid to write a team book.  I’d expect a god-damn balanced book that actually pays attention to the whole cast and gives a thoughtful interpretation to ALL the characters, even the villains, rather than a book dedicated to shining a spotlight on two already well-established characters, and treating them like queens who step all over the rest of the cast. 

So, we ignore almost everything set up at the Gala, including the attack on Christian and the Marauder (the ship) being set ablaze.  Why aren’t the characters handling that, Duggan?  Is that really being saved for another month?  We don’t even know if Christian is dead or not, you can’t even spare a panel for Iceman reacting to this?  Instead, we tell a flashback story that eventually reveals that Lourdes Chantel is still alive, and Emma helped her fake her own death to escape from an abusive Sebastian.

What exactly is the point of this story, in terms of the overall Marauders arc?  Will Lourdes show up later to play a role?  Is this meant to further push Sebastian along some kind of path to redemption (recognizing that he drove Lourdes away with his actions).  Because so far, Duggan doesn’t seem the slightest bit interested in rehabilitating Sebastian.  This seems like yet another story establishing Emma GOOD, Sebastian BAD, the same message that’s been getting pounded into the readers’ heads for 22 issues.  Like, we KNOW, Duggan.  We know that you think the sun shines out of Emma’s ass, you’ve already well-established that you think she’s a brilliant, wonderful, compassionate, badass queen, through 22 issues of centering the entire series around her, at the expense of EVERY other fucking character in the book (even sometimes Kate, the other obvious favorite).  It’s gotten beyond tiresome at this point.  Like, I feel like even people who love Emma and hate Sebastian are getting bored by now, because it’s not even good storytelling to have a strawman villain who is no real threat just getting repeatedly knocked down.

So, Duggan has taken both Sebastian and Emma, and further removed any kind of complexity or nuance from them.  Sebastian can’t have a kind or tender side, he can’t ever be shown in a positive light.  His relationship was Lourdes was previously part of his tragic origins, pushing him to be a worse person than he’d been in a past, but no, lets retcon him to be a controlling abuser, whom Lourdes is desperate to escape.  Because it makes Sebastian look bad and Emma look good.  Honestly, it would have been more interesting and powerful to have Lourdes come back from the dead, and be disgusted by the person Sebastian has become.  That would actually have an impact.

And by the way, why did Lourdes need Emma’s help in establishing her new identity?  She was already part of the Hellfire Club, she’s the one who brought Sebastian in, she’s rich as fuck.  Lourdes should be well capable of getting away from Sebastian on her own.  She might need Emma’s help for faking her own death, but the rest of it?  Emma should just do a little hacking to access Lourdes’ personal fortune and transfer it into a new account, and then she’s good to go.  But no, Lourdes has to be treated like a little lost lamb, a helpless battered woman for Emma to rescue.  And Emma’s deal with the Kingpin further exonerates Emma for her past crimes, because obviously, she’s just working off the debt she incurred helping poor, innocent Lourdes!  It can’t be that Emma did bad things in the past because she was ambitious, cruel, vain, and power-hungry, she has to be a woke queen who was always there to help other women.

I think Duggan thinks he’s being feminist with all this, with the “women help each other,” message, and either ignoring or villifying all the male characters.  But he’s not.  It’s not feminist to take a very complex, interesting, powerful woman like Emma Frost and completely remove all responsibility and agency for her past crimes by turning her into an abuse victim and repeatedly retconning her to be better than she actually was.  (To be fair, Duggan is just continuing a trend already started by other writers).  Emma is ambitious, power-hungry, cruel, callous, self-absorbed, vain and snobby.  But she is also brave, intelligent, compassionate, kind, protective, heroic, and self-sacrificing.  All of those things are part of Emma.  She is a teacher who loved her students, and the love for those students is part of what sent Emma on her long, difficult path towards redemption.  Yes, she’s a badass queen, but she is also a flawed individual, who has worked to overcome those flaws and become a better person.  And constantly re-writing the past to make her an “always good” abuse victim who only ever committed crimes because the big bad men forced her into it cheapens that redemption.

Speaking of cheap redemption -     

The Wilhelmina subplot: Wow, Duggan really will prioritize ANY character over Bishop, Iceman and Pyro, won’t he?  I know this is me throwing a tantrum, because “Wah, Duggan is writing someone other than my favorites!” but after 22 issues I feel justified in this whining.  Iceman, Bishop and Pyro are supposed to be regular cast members, and so far Duggan has given more serious development and emotional scenes to Callisto, Forge, Dolores (the human contact at the X-Desk), Masque, Jumbo Carnation, Magneto, the Cuckoos, and now Wilhelmina.  I don’t mind the development for many of those characters, I like Callisto and Forge and Jumbo (although I’m a little annoyed at the Magneto stuff, since he’s already front and center in the Krakoa era, and about to star in a mini-series, does he really need more time in the spotlight?).  But honestly?  Fuck Wilhelmina.  I was never that interested in the Hellfire brats, and I’m not the slightest bit interested in watching the retcon redemption of a character that murders animals for fun.  Why does she get a spotlight story while the three dudes on the team STILL haven’t gotten anything more than vague background hints of character arcs.  I mean, compare the very emotional flashback and Wilhelmina’s breakdown to the half-assed, mostly taking place off- panel “redemption” that Duggan has given Pyro.  Just a single line of “maybe this crew is bringing out the best in me,” with no lead-up, no further reflection, no hints about Pyro changing his ideas before then.  Why did you even put Iceman, Bishop and Pyro on the team if you’re not going to use them, Duggan?  Because you’ve made it quite clear that you’d rather write ANY character other than them.  I can’t even look forward to Tempo and Banshee joining the cast next issue, even though I like them (and I really want to see more development of Tempo), because I know they will be yet more characters that get pushed into the foreground, while Iceman, Bishop and Pyro remain the underdeveloped background clown trio.    

Also, it seems kind of offensive to have a cruel, murderous female character, and then say that her cruelty is entirely due to sexual abuse?  What kind of message does that send to sexual abuse victims?  That it will turn you into a monster?  Why do female villains keep getting sexual abuse as part of their backstory?  Why can’t they just be bad?  Or have something else going on?  So the Cuckoos flip a switch in Wilhelmina and she’s magically “fixed,” or at least on her way to better?  Again, I think Duggan thinks he’s being feminist with this, but he’s not. 

At least Wllhelmina has been a recurring villain in this series, so I can kinda see how her potential redemption may move the plot along, but Duggan is still introducing new plot threads, while leaving so many others dangling.  What about Christian?  What about Shinobi and Fenris?  Will Bobby and Christian ever even speak to each other again?  Will the supposed main cast members of Iceman, Bishop and Pyro ever, EVER get a proper character arc?

Or will we get an entire issue of Emma, Kate and the Cuckoos giving Wilhelmina a redemptive make-over, because girl power, amiright?

[thebad---catholic]

Why I don’t think Azula should’ve gotten a healing/redemption arc

k so I made this meme a couple weeks ago

and I got a lot (a lot? Like 10 but that’s a lot for me) responses disagreeing with my post, which is fair because there’s really only a tiny subset of fans who fit into the “if you stan villains you’re a bad person” category, and Azula’s character (like most other things in atla) is fairly nuanced. I won’t dive into her personal psychology so much, just why I was satisfied with her arc as a viewer.

Note: I’m only speaking within the context of Atla. I haven’t read any of the comics or seen Lok so for the sake of this lil post those don’t exist.

Not enough time

Plain and simple, Azula didn’t have enough time for any sort of healing or redemption. She would’ve needed at least 2 seasons based on what Zuko went through. Adding more seasons for this purpose would feel kind of pointless. Maybe they should’ve explored this in other media but not within atla as the story works best as a tidy three season bit.

Along this same vein, I’m not viewing the show the same way as I would irl. If we’re being realistic, Azula was a horribly abused mentally ill 14 year old who most definitely should’ve gotten treatment. But this is a cartoon, where standards are a little different, which I’ll talk more about in a minute.

Iroh used to be a bad person/If Zuko changed so could she

This one is more complicated for me, but basically I view it like this. In the show, Iroh and Zuko display goodness before their redemption.

We see this with Zuko especially. He is banished for trying to protect the lives of fire nation soldiers from certain death. Twice he spares the life of his rival Zhao, even after that rival tried to kill him. In season two, he saves appa, risks blowing his cover to light lanterns for Jin, saves a town from mercenaries, and even when he’s robbing, he spares certain people (the pregnant woman for example) and mostly targets the wealthy. Zuko, even at his worst, had hard limits on his morality.

Iroh is more subtle. The most clear example comes from the flashback in “Zuko Alone” where Iroh gifts Zuko a dagger from the earth kingdom that he notes is of superior craftsmanship. This, to me, shows where the start of Iroh’s arc comes from: his appreciation of the other nations. It’s been noted before that Iroh has also mastered all four elements, even though he can only firebend. Redirecting lightning comes from waterbenders- likely learned before Iroh “turned good”. Even as their adversary, Iroh respects the people of Ba Sing Se for their resilience. (This again contrasts Zhao, who was so deranged he murdered the fucking moon just to win.) Finally, the dragons. Iroh is known as the dragon of the west even to people from Ba Sing Se- this means that he spared the lives of the final dragons before Lu Tens death. Like Zuko, Iroh shows mercy even when on the wrong side. Lu Ten’s death breaks Iroh because it forces him to finally come to terms with the fact that the fire nation is built on a lie. Fire nation superiority is a lie, and it’s one he’s known for a long time.

Azula doesn’t display any of these traits. The only time in the entire series where she apologizes is after she insults Ty Lee, and I’d argue it was an act of manipulation, as she quickly uses the apology to receive praise from Ty Lee. The beach episode is the only soft side we ever see to Azula, and all of her interactions can still be interpreted like my example. Was the comment about Ursa thinking she was a monster a slip of her mask or an attempt to “perform” like the others? We know Azula is a liar, so was she lying when she said ursa was right, or that it still hurt? Or both? And, mind you, I do love how this episode explores azula more closely, but I don’t believe being a nuanced villain makes you a redeemable one. Even as a child, Azula is cruel and takes pleasure in hurting Zuko, and animals, and her friends. She’s a master manipulator who makes friends through fear and intimidation. Imo, the only reason she doesn’t actually kill someone is because Avatar was technically a kids show, though that sure as fuck didn’t stop her from threatening multiple peoples lives. There is no action of Azula that signifies an ounce of good in her.

She was abused

1) a tragic backstory isn’t the be all end all of whether or not a character’s redeemable, and 2) So was Zuko. And probably Iroh and Ozai, and probably Azulan. The fire nation royal family is fucked up. Even if Azulan was a “good” father to Ozai and Iroh he was still a dictator who was grooming them to take over.

Having Azula be a puppet in her fathers game was an incredibly mature route for atla to take. Once again, it adds depth with a realistic take for Azula’s villainy. Very rarely are individuals born evil (enter nature v nuture debate here). Some of the worst people to ever exist were victims of abuse and neglect to varying degrees. Once again, though, this doesn’t suddenly render Azula open to redemption. And from a storytelling perspective, there’s parallels between Ozai and Iroh and Azula and Zuko.

Ozai continued the cycle of abuse, Iroh broke free from it, Zuko ended it, and Azula was broken by it. These are all things that happen in real life.

She’s 14

Oddly enough this is the argument that baffles me the most. I know I just said a whole lot about real life vs fiction, but I’m gonna pull the fiction card on this one. I can suspend belief with these characters and their ages. I don’t think any 12 year old could function after waking up from a coma and finding out his entire people were slaughtered and that he only had like, six months to save the world, regardless of his upbringing and power set. I also don’t think any 14 year old could lead a trio to infiltrate a city state, outsmart the shadow leader of said city state, and manipulate and entire little army for her favor.

There’s just a point where you have to suspend belief. The characters of avatar are fantastic, but are not realistic portrayals of people in their age group. Azula could be 14 as easily as she could be 25 and nothing about the narrative would change. The same is true for the rest of the main characters- even Aang, as youthful and fun loving as he is, also has more emotional maturity than anyone in the gaang, and more than most adults i know. If you want a realistic example of a child working through trauma, try Lilo from Lilo and Stich. Not anyone from Atla

Not everyone needs a happy ending.

This is ultimately what it comes down to for me. I like Azula as a villain. I like Azula as a villain who stays a villain and who is driven insane by power and paranoia. I like Macbeth. Azula is a tragedy- and that’s what I like.

So there ya have it folks. That’s my take. I’m writing this at five am with very little sleep, so please forgive typos and whatnot. I feel like maybe I haven’t explained everything the way I wanted to, but I can’t stop thinking about this, and the great thing about this show is that it’s fun to keep thinking about.

[furubabes]

Okay. Somebody Asked. @shoujobell and @cryptidaicat, y’all encouraged this. I’m gonna tag this #long post if you wanna filter.

So here. I got the urge to write and so I ranked the Fruits Basket couples from my favorite to least favorite. These aren’t my complete thoughts because I could honestly do multiple full meta posts on each pairing, but I tried to justify and explain all my choices. Standard disclaimer, this is subjective and we can agree to disagree.

Part 1: Just the reasonably popular ones

1. Kyoru: Someone’s gonna call me unoriginal for this but it’s fine. Kyoru is the main romance of Fruits Basket! They bring out the best in each other and build each other up as characters. Kyoru is basically my gold standard take on Sunshine Girl x Grouchy Dude, and I’m not even usually into that trope otherwise. Their romance is one of the few that feels so genuinely necessary to the story. They love each other and like each other. Kyo understands Tohru in a way no one else in the narrative does, and vice versa. They’re in love like soulmates and also like awkward teenagers. Kyoru invented romance. If it’s boring to like healthy romances with realistic development, I’ll be boring.

2. Tohrin: If Tohru didn’t end up with Kyo I would only want her to be with Rin. I guess they have some of the same appeal as Kyoru for me - Rin reads Tohru in a way a lot of people don’t. I also like how honest and raw they are with each other. They yell! They fight! Rin is down to just straight up knock Tohru over to keep her from rushing off. Also, they’re both absolute fashion icons. Goth x Prep rights. I firmly believe Tohru Honda is bisexual.

3. Yukeru: This is my favorite Yuki pairing. I followed @yunsoh way back when the reboot first started and her blog has got me absolutely hooked on Yukeru. I think Yuki’s arc would have just made a ridiculous amount of sense if he was gay. It screams comphet. Kakeru is an excellent complement to Yuki, and their bond feels incredibly natural. Honestly I feel like it’s the most organic romantic development outside of Kyoru. I think realistically they wouldn’t have gotten together until post-canon and frankly Yuki shines in his friendships much more than romances, so I’m not absolutely dying for them to be together, but if Yuki’s going to date anyone Kakeru is my pick.

4. Arisaki: Man... I just like them. They strike me as less of an epic love and more of a comfortable partnership. I also read them both as lesbians anyway lol. Honestly I think they both had feelings for Tohru at one point and bonded over it. The way I picture them happening is honestly just Arisa at 25 frantically googling “is it gay to hold hands with my girl roommate who I spend all my time with and also we never date men“ because Saki bought them rings that look like wedding bands but they could just be super close friendship rings and oh god she’s in too deep. They’re dating for four years before they notice.

5. AyaMine: But Jessie! You literally never post about this pairing! Yeah, you’re right. I never think about them actively. But when ranking the canon ships I realized that I like the two of them together because they’re chill and understated. They’re huge loud personalities on their own but as a couple, they just feel like two people who are happy together and like spending time with one another. No drama, no mess, very understated. No plot contrivances driving their relationship. Good for them.

6. YukiKyo: Okay, so I can be convinced to put on my YukiKyo goggles more often than not. It feels iffy because there’s debate about how closely related all the Sohmas are and these two are called “cousins” a lot in school, but since half of the Sohmas are dating each other anyway, I err on the side of them being more of a clan than a proper blood family. Anyway, YukiKyo is my designated angst fuel. I think it would realistically be pretty one-sided from Yuki’s side, since we see him wanting Kyo’s approval from a very young age, but I like exploring the what-ifs of their lives if they’d been friends instead of rivals. In canon, I like to think that after high school they’re not best friends in the traditional sense, but either one could show up with a dead body and the other would help them bury it, no questions asked.

7. Yuchi: Really? Yuki’s wife is my third favorite pairing for him? Look, I adore Machi, and I still like Yuchi. But as I’ve been watching the reboot and reading others’ metas, I think I agree that their relationship could have been very powerful as a platonic one, sort of running parallel to Yuki and Tohru. I like them together but I think there wasn’t quite time for a complete character arc for Machi and her growth sort of begins and ends with Yuki. I don’t object to them being a couple in canon and I think they’re genuinely very sweet, but once again, I think Yuki stands out in his friendships more than anything. I would have liked to see Machi strike out on her own a little more.

8. Haru x Yuki: I don’t have any particular feelings towards them but I love their dynamic already and I think as a couple they’d both be really easygoing and comfortable with each other. I think a childhood crush turned close friendship is honestly the narrative that works best for them so I have no need for the two to date canonically, but every time they interact in the anime it gets a laugh out of me. They’re cool. They’d make a very pretty pair.

9. Mayutori: I’m Mayutori-neutral. I think they suffer from Fruits Basket’s pair the spare syndrome, but out of the side pairings that don’t have too much impact, they’re one I enjoy. Mayu’s fun as a character, and painfully relatable, and I like that Hatori’s eventual romance isn’t with someone who reminds him of Kana or something like that. I also want good things for Hatori. Mayutori has serious heterosexual energy though. I’m not saying this as a pro or con, they’re just very straight.

10. Hatsuzu: Okay, Haru and Rin aren’t this far down because I hate them. I’m perfectly fine with them being together in canon. But I think their romance almost... functions better as individual motivation for their character arcs than it does as an actual relationship, if that makes sense? Rin’s backstory episode is heartbreaking and her motivation to protect Haru is compelling and sympathetic, but their actual scenes together just don’t move me that much. Their romance is the least interesting part of either character for me.

11. Hiro x Kisa: Yeah I never got into it that much. It’s cute, it’s a sweet depiction of childhood crushes, but I’m not a fan of the idea of them ending up together. Kisa’s a cutie and Hiro is entertaining but the two of them together don’t actually do much for me. The dynamic between them is almost like if someone did Kyoru with none of the nuance. Ultimately though, they’re kids. I don’t expect them to have a deep and complex romance.

12. Yukiru: I think it would be a disservice to their characters if they were a couple. People far more eloquent than me have already written plenty of meta on why Yuki and Tohru aren’t what the other needs romantically, so I won’t get into it, but basically I just think their canon friendship is so beautiful and meaningful that I wouldn’t want to change it. Yuki and Tohru support my thesis that not all soulmates are romantic.

13. Tohru x Momiji: Welcome to the subjective dislike corner! This pairing is reasonably popular among people theorizing who Tohru would be with if not Kyo, but for some reason it just sits poorly with me. I can’t rank it any lower because there’s nothing evil or morally wrong about it! I just really don’t like it. I’ve quit a few fics because this pairing came up and I just can’t enjoy it.

14. Kakeru x Komaki: Idk, I just think Kakeru latching onto the one girl who was nice to him and put up with his bullshit and then being with her forever isn’t compelling. Komaki’s also probably his beard. She’s likable as an individual though.

15. Akigure: There’s plenty to say about the age gap, Shigure being in love with Akito since she was a fetus because of The Dream, the implications of a 15-18 year old knowing he’d one day want to be with a then-10-year-old... yeah, you get it. But even if I was able to put all that aside because Soulmate Destiny Logic, I still don’t think I’d like Akigure. I think they’re interesting as bitter, codependent exes, but I don’t like the idea of Akito ending up with anyone who she abused or who abused her. I think she has so much growing to do as a character and staying in a relationship within the Sohma family to do it can’t be healthy for her. I can’t see them living happily ever after, nor do I really want to.

16. Kurisa: I think what frustrates me the most here is that I want to like Kureno and everything about this romance is written to dull his most interesting traits. First of all, the age gap. Yeah, it’s gross, I don’t like it. But even past that, the love at first sight, instant fixation with each other, and lack of actual chemistry just kills me. Arisa’s stated reason to like Kureno is that he reminds her of Tohru, basically piggybacking off the chemistry she and Tohru already have, and his total lack of agency means the plot just sort of carries him along. It frustrates me that Takaya could have done something pretty cool by making them simply friends who have a chance encounter and then build a friendship from there that parallels Kureno’s abusive dynamic with Akito. It would be neat if a stranger’s kindness was the push Kureno needed to get himself out of the Sohmas’ grasp, without all the nonsensical drama about them being in love. It would also be less of a disservice to Arisa, who basically just spends the whole series pining for Kureno after they meet and I hate it. I could write a whole post about this. Maybe I will sometime.

17. Kyoko x Katsuya: I don’t think their story is romantic. I think it’s tragic for Kyoko, and if it were framed that way within the narrative, I wouldn’t object so much to its existence. But... Takaya just really likes age gaps with a younger woman and an older man, so the narrative romanticizes this man marrying his student. Katsuya can be depicted as well-meaning as you want, but he’s still got a ridiculous amount of power over Kyoko. She was also still pretty young when she had Tohru, which doesn’t make things any better because it’s clear that the relationship turned physical when Kyoko was a teen, thus dashing the idea of Katsuya legally marrying her to save her but not actually doing anything creepy. I wish Fruits Basket framed this as a story of Kyoko escaping one dangerous situation by entering a relationship with a huge power imbalance, because that happens to girls all the time and it’s tragic and compelling. The events of the story could stay the exact same and if the framing changed I would be fine with it. But this is not that. This is just a really romanticized teacher/student age gap. I’m not into it.

Part 2: Rarepairs, weird shit, and others (oh my!)

1. Yuki x Kakeru x Kimi: OT3. I’m enamored with the idea of this hot mess polycule.

2. Momiji x Kimi: Chaos meets chaos. This couple would say uwu without any irony and also steal your car keys. They’re both perceptive and smart hidden under a layer of cute and I’d wanna watch them play 4D chess with each other.

3. Kazuma x Kunimitsu: Idk how old Kunimitsu is so if he’s like 20, strike this one from the record. But I saw one post once that was like Kyo slowly realizing Kazuma and Kunimitsu were gay and had been dating for years and it was funny as hell.

4. AyaTori: It’s cute. Opposites attract, black and white hair, and Aya only listens to Hatori anyway. It’s just fun to think about.

5. Megumi x Hiro: They don’t interact in canon I just think Goth x Punk-Ass Bitch is a great concept.

6. Motoko x Nao: They’re both loud as hell and Nao having a gf that towers over him is funny. Maybe Yuki would finally get some peace.

7. Machi x Kimi: I don’t see them actually being compatible in canon but I think they could have a really homoerotic college friendship.

8. Hajime x Mutsuki: This is just YukiKyo, the non angst version.

9. Akito x Hanajima: I’m so wary of shipping Akito with anyone but this is kind of fun. The two are friends in canon and Hana isn’t remotely afraid of Akito. Plus Akito never abused Hana. I can sort of see it.

10. Hiroshi x Yusuke: Makes no sense, wouldn’t be relevant, but if those two just never spent any time apart and continued being a pair for life it would be a really good bit.

11. Akitohru: I don’t think it’s healthy to date anyone who’s previously stabbed you.

12. Kazuma x Hanajima: Stop. Go to jail. Hana’s one-sided crush is funny though.

[saucerfulofsins]

Starting with @softgrantaire’s post yesterday, I have been seeing a lot of discussion surrounding the place of trans people in hockey fandom on Tumblr. Parts of his original post and the discussion emanating from it is undeniably necessary, and I do think that continuing the discussion on better representation benefits everybody in fandom. However, to me, some of the assumptions made are troublesome. I have spent a long time thinking on this, I have discussed this with some friends, and I do not think I can stay quiet because I really, really think that this discussion has become very black/white while nuance is 100% necessary in this case. I am also not seeking to attack anybody—feelings of discomfort are entirely valid and I will never say something else. However, if we are talking about being critical of fandom, I do think it is important to start with ourselves and look at where our discomfort comes from rather than only holding other people accountable.

To start, I need to address the persistent use of “terf.” Terf does not mean “excluding trans people from any given space,” which is how I currently see it being used. Terf means “trans-exclusionary radical feminist,” and denotates a specific kind of transphobia that seeks to claim trans men are women, and trans women are men.  Subsequently, they feel that trans women have no space in female spaces (e.g. they believe trans women should use men’s bathrooms). A terf would thus never say that a trans man does not belong in a female space, because a terf believes that trans men are women and therefore do belong there.

In fact, I have not seen anybody deny that trans men exist. In the discussion trans men are treated as men—which is only valid, given the fact that they are. A trans man has no reason to demand different rights from a female community than a cis man (I will get back to this later). A trans man (who in this context is someone who fills a male societal role/passes) has the same societal privileges a cis man does. This is inherent to being male.

This is also one of my main issues with the initial post: “trans men” are persistently differentiated from “men.” The demand is not to promote equality, it is a call for women to allow trans men into their space. And yes, I understand that transgender men are marginalized—but so are BIPOC men, and so are gay men, and so are disabled men. So if you are striving for equality on that level, wording is certainly something to consider—because currently, the argument, to me, sounds like “trans men are different from cis men” when to many FtM, a large part of being transgender is not wanting to be differentiated. In fact, the women who want a safe space for themselves on Tumblr don’t exclude trans men because they are trans, they exclude trans men because they are men.

The trans/men differentiation seems to promote misunderstanding and a black-and-white thinking: either trans/men are accepted in fandom, or they are not. A fandom is safe to all, or it is not. A fandom caters to all, or it does not. That is not how a fandom works, however—and it never has.

This leads me on to my second major point: Both the initial post and subsequent responses discuss “hockeyblr” as a single community when in fact it comprises many different people with many different interests and reasons. To give some examples: they support different teams and/or players, they do not ship or they ship player/player and/or player/self-insert, they primarily focus on the fandom side or on the hockey side, and so forth.

Thus. Can fandom-as-whole be more inclusive? Absolutely. Is it good to reflect on why you make the choices you make (e.g. someone writing skinny white cis female self-inserts as opposed to including BIPOC, different bodies and different genders; someone writing male/male; someone writing mpreg or genderswap). At the same time, however, I think it is so fucking important to primarily keep toxic hockey culture accountable for your discomfort. Both trans and female fans’ primary discomfort germinates from that, not from interaction with each other. But trans discomfort and female discomfort are not the same, particularly if we are discussing trans men.

Subsequently—I believe that it is okay if someone wants to run a blog that does seek a female audience and does revolve around that. Women do deserve a safe space; if they wish to keep to a corner of the fandom which is female-only, there is no reason for men to demand access to that side of fandom. Different groups can exist side-by-side. Not everything is for everybody.

I also think that men who wish to see more inclusivity in fic need to reflect on why women need to write more gnc/nb/transgender fic. I do not think this is transphobic; it has nothing to do with a “dislike of or prejudice against transgender people.” There is no inherent negative attitude, merely a group of women writing what they want to read. And subsequently, for me, this maps onto the general fandom rule of “if you want to read it, and it doesn’t exist, write it yourself.” This is even more true if you discuss something as complex as gender identity; while it may be possible to write a fic not entirely focused on gender, gender is often still a big part of a romantic relationship and it (unfortunately) certainly is a large part in how society treats different people. Moreover, this would have been a different argument if people were writing for money and refusing to write transgender characters for no good reason, but the vast majority (if not all) of hockeyblr’s writers do so for free, in their spare time, for their own fun.

So absolutely, yes, educate people on trans experiences. Yes, make people aware that there are more experiences beside cis female/male or cis male/male. Discuss the issues of representation that exist within fic, whether that is self-insert or mlm, whether it is gender-related or ethnicity-related or anything else. And absolutely, yes, acting like all of hockey Tumblr is female-only is shitty as all fuck because it most certainly is not, and there is absolutely ZERO need for it to be: any and all people whose interests fit with the fandom should feel welcome in the fandom-at-large regardless of gender, sexuality, or amount of societal oppression they face, and be supported in these aspects. At the same time, however, there is no true reason for anybody to demand that all of the fandom is safe to them, particularly if we are discussing gender; women who want to hockey blogs for only a female audience should be free to do so, the same way someone who wants to only discuss two players being gay for each other should be.

Anyway. Please accept and respect each other. Fandom is perceived shittily enough as it is; to talk and discuss these matters is of vital importance, but please also respect peoples’ individual wishes  and needs when Tumblr is large enough for all of us to exist, find our communities within hockeyblr, and be happy.

[ourplaceinthecosmosphff]

Chapter 19. Power

‘You are holding it in your hands -- your power. Use it.' seeker

I was alone when I woke up. It was a contrast to how I’d spent the previous two nights. The pillows in the guest room didn’t smell like Harry, and neither did the person I shared the bed with. The night before, when I had first realized this, I had brought a pillow from Harry’s bed to this one. No one questioned this – likely, no one noticed it –, but it made a difference for me. It wasn’t the same as using him as a pillow. But it was close enough.

I used the bathroom in his room slightly anguished that nobody was around. After brushing my teeth and hair, I added a bra under Harry’s shirt that I was still wearing, and went downstairs where, before I even entered the kitchen, I could already hear their voices.

“Ah, the creature!” Lourdes said, the first to see me. She grabbed a large mug with both hands and raised it up high above herself, bowing her head. “Please, take this token of our respect in your honor and do not bring destruction upon us with your unforgiving wrath!”

I fixed her with the most unemotional look I could muster before pulling up a chair and grabbing the mug. I looked at the inside to find it was the source for the incredible smell of coffee around. I took a small sip, it was just warm enough, but not burning, so they must have heard me wake up. I took a bigger sip, let it sit on my mouth, and closed my eyes, appreciatively.

“Praise!” Lourdes broke the silence in the kitchen by throwing her hands up in the air suddenly. “The kingdom is spared! We live to see another day by the mercy of our–”

I slowly leaned in and covered her mouth with my hand. “Please. It’s so early.”

“It’s 10 A.M.!” She replied, leaning backwards.

“Ugh.” Was all I could muster.

Harry chuckled, from my other side. “God. This is a new side to you.”

“Oh, she probably hopes you still think she has dignity.” Lourdes told him. “That hope dies with the intimacy of growing up together.”

I didn’t acknowledge either of them; just stared at my coffee as I drank it, slowly. Returning the mug to the table, I scratched my eyes slowly.

“She takes a while to turn on.” Lourdes mumbled to Harry. “Anyway, as I was saying. The time limit is kind of the point.”

“But what kind of message can you put out there in six seconds? Nothing worth saying is that fast.”

“It doesn’t have to be worth saying.” She returned. “And to answer your question, that is the challenge! To do as much as you can within your limit.”

“If what you say is not the point, then what is?!”

“Fun, Harry!” Lourdes yelled, animated. “Not everything in life is about a message, some things are about having fun. Ever heard of that concept?!”

I looked up to see him roll his eyes as she waved her arms around, excitedly.

“What are we talking about?” I asked.

“Vine.” She told me. “Harry doesn’t, and I quote, ‘get it’.” She did air-quote marks using her fingers.

“All videos have to be less than six seconds.” Harry told me as if I didn’t know that as a person alive in the twenty-first century. “All I said was that if media continues to follow this trend one day soon our brains will no longer be able to handle any content that requires a longer attention span.”

Lourdes was rolling her eyes now, and the effect was a lot more prominent in her teenager eyes.

“And, by the way, the implication that you can’t have a message in the app not only offends its creators as well as my generation as a whole, it implies that you think very lowly of yourself and media as a whole.”

We both looked at him. Lourdes, ready for the argument; me, entertained, now more awake.

“Any nuanced, complex, and well explained message will take longer than that.” He told her.

“Ah, there you go, now you added all those adjectives that you hadn’t before.” She pointed her finger at him. “Sometimes the message doesn’t have to be nuanced and flexed out to be well delivered.”

“I think my meaning was implied before–”

“Actually, she’s right.” I interrupted. “You said ‘no message worth saying’ could be delivered in six seconds. Adding new qualitatives now changes your whole argument.”

My sister nodded, “Thank you!”

“Good morning, your honor. Nice of you to join us.” Harry grinned at me, but I just brought the mug back to my lips as I sustained his look, defiant.

“I present, exhibit A,” my sister added, tapping away on her phone, “wait, not this one.”

From her phone, we heard a child’s voice going, ‘get your phone off my face!’.

“What message was that one transmitting, exactly?”

“That kids are hilarious?” Lourdes replied, not looking at him. “But also that new generations are being exposed to social media from an early age and it might not be beneficial to them.”

“Objection.” He rolled his eyes, laughing.

Now feeling almost entirely awake, I looked at them more carefully and noticed he was wearing a green tie with his white, button up shirt. In the back of his chair, hang a navy blue blazer. I wondered if I was underdressed, but looking at my sister I realized she was also in pajamas – white pants with colorful polka dots, and a light pink shirt with a unicorn.

“Are you going out?” I asked.

“I have work.” He reminded me. “But I should be back really quick.”

“Oh, here!” Lourdes smiled. She gave him the phone so he could see her screen, which she tapped with a finger.

A song was playing at first, followed by a police siren. A man said, angrily, ‘I’m getting a ticket!’. Next, a more formal voice added, distantly, ‘I think we got a stolen vehicle…’. The first voice, now calmer and lighter, says, ‘Oh, is there a problem officer?’, followed by a quick ‘nope’. The song started again and the whole thing repeated itself.

“Now it’s looping.” Lourdes explained, tapping her finger on the screen again to pause it. “Would you like me to point out the message?”

“It was pretty clear.” Harry nodded, smiling. Defeated, but amused. He handed me the phone so I could watch it now.

Before asking the officer if there was a problem, the black driver in his car had painted his face white. This, clearly, to imply the differentiated treatment by police depending on racial profile.

“And you have a point.” Harry went on, “I guess social commentary is, after all, a message.”

“Oh, now you’re the message police?” She returned.

He chuckled, “No! I’m agreeing with you.”

“Yeah, but in that condescending way people from your generation talk about everything my generation likes.”

“Woah, there.” I told her. “This generation talk will make me feel old.”

“You are.” She shrugged. “It’s not a bad thing, unless you dismiss things my generation thinks are cool just because you don’t think anything we do can possibly be productive or positive.”

“I think your best point is that things don’t always have to have a message.” I told her. “Sometimes, entertainment for entertainment’s sake is good enough of a reason to download an app.”

“Amen!” She pointed at me, smiling at Harry. “She gets it.”

“I guess we can all use more fun.” He told her. “Can you put it on my phone? Tell me who are the cool people to follow?”

She stared at him, squinting her eyes for only a few seconds, before standing up from her chair.

“Fine. But only because I’m very passionate about Vine.” She said. “Your phone is that one charging by the sofa, right?”

He nodded, and she moved into the living room.

I sipped my coffee, rested my elbow on the table, and my chin on my hand.

“You seem…” I started, looking at him. “Very interested on internet trends for someone who can barely use his phone for anything other than calling and texting.”

He shrugged, smiling mischievously. “I am. It seems like a powerful tool for community engagement.”

“Uhm-hm.” I mumbled, drinking another sip. “Sure.”

We were quiet for a brief pause. I was thinking about how handsome he looked with his hair freshly humid and styled backwards, his shirt sleeves rolled up to his elbows.

“If it happens to be something your sister and I bond over, all the better, right?”

I tried to contain a smile. “Why are you trying to get her to like you?”

He shrugged again. “I don’t know. I guess your mother already hates me, might as well try to get someone in your family to like me, right?”

He gulped and looked at me, cheeks reddening.

“I like you.” I told him.

He smiled, sincere, big. “Good. Now let’s try to make sure you’re not the only one.”

I pushed my mug to the side, and leaned on the table, crossing my arms in front of me to rest my head on them.

“Why?”

He bit his lip, watching me. Then he put his teacup to the side and did the same as me, crossing his arms on the table in front, leaning in to rest his head on them. Our faces were too close like this, so he whispered his answer, staring straight into my eyes.

“Because I like you, too.”

Before I could even accept I didn’t imagine what he said, Lourdes was back with his phone. Harry picked it, saw the time, and realized he had to go before he was late. 

When he was gone, Lourdes settled on the couch, arms crossed in her chest, so I finished having some toast while thinking of the way his blue eyes glistened. I then did the breakfast dishes and when I was done, I sat next to my sister while some British reality show played on the TV. It was nearly eleven, so I decided it would be nice if we made lunch for Harry today.

“Why?” Lourdes asked when I proposed this.

“He’s hosting us and he has cooked or bought most of our meals since I’ve been here.” I replied. “And he’s been really cool to invite you to stay despite you showing up out of the blue.”

“Well, I’m sorry, Maggie. I didn’t mean to third-wheel your romantic holiday.”

I rolled my eyes, and got to my feet with a sigh. “Well, I’m going to check what he has and then we can brainstorm recipes, or google something.”

I went to the kitchen and opened a few different cabinets before finding one near the sink where most of the food seemed to be. Harry had some different types of pasta, some canned goods, and not much else.

“I heard what you said, Maggie.”

I looked back, finding Lourdes had gotten up to follow me.

“Good. You wanna help?”

“I mean I heard you saying you like him.” She explained, her aggressive tone now starting to make sense. “And him saying he likes you, too.”

I got up, and opened the fridge.

“He has frozen broccoli, pasta, canned mushrooms, and chicken… that could be good, right?”

“I may not have a boyfriend, Maggie, but I don’t think you’re supposed to go around declaring yourself to other guys if you do.”

“Declaring?” I complained. “Declaring? Lover? What are you, Jane Austen?”

She didn’t crack a smile. I sighed, closing the fridge door.

“Okay.” Pulling up a chair, I sat down at the table. “What exactly do you want to know, Lourdes? Because I already told you that Harry is my friend and I have not, nor do I intend to cheat on Chris. So what else do you want?”

She looked down, pensively.

“I guess I just… don’t get it!”

“Then help me explain. What don’t you get?”

She sighed, approaching the table. “It doesn’t feel right. You and Chris were always so… joined at the hip. You have guy friends, but you don’t sleep at their house without Chris there.”

“Okay… so, is the problem that I’m friends with Harry? Guys and girls can be friends, Lou. Or else how can girls be friends with each other when some of them are gay?”

“That’s not it. Of course people can be friends, but…” She rolled her eyes, pulling up a chair to sit. “But you are closer to Harry than your other friends.”

“That doesn’t have to be bad, either.”

She nodded. “True. But… your other friends don’t look at you that way.”

“What way?”

She sighed, “Like… like he’s seeing color for the first time.”

I cracked a smile now, “He doesn’t look at me like that.”

“Are you blind?!”

“Lourdes–”

“Seriously, you can’t possibly think he doesn’t have feelings for you.”

“...Do you think it's possible that, maybe, and just consider this for me, okay? That maybe you're seeing things that aren't there?”

She was quiet for a while, before shrugging.

“I guess… But I don’t think I am.” She looked at me. “Maybe you think it’s a friendship, but he doesn’t.”

“He knows I have a boyfriend, and most importantly, he knows I’m the Crown Princess. He barely likes being a royal at all, let alone date one who is an heir. Trust me, he doesn’t like me like that.”

The argument seemed to work, so I let the silence rest for a bit.

“I guess…” She started, staring at her hands. “I guess I just feel weird that Chris doesn’t know you’re here… And don’t lie, you know if he was staying with a female friend in Canada you wouldn’t be okay just finding out later. You should tell him!”

“And I will, when I talk to him.”

“That’s another thing! Why haven’t you even talked to him yet? He must be wondering what happened, and you’re letting him be worried just because you don’t know how to explain this.”

“Chris is far from worried, Lourdes, relax.” I blurted out, annoyed.

“What do you mean?”

“…I turned my phone on last night, when you were in the shower.” I told her, before taking the time to breathe in and out slowly. “Christopher only called and texted once. The call was yesterday, the text was later that night. He just… apologized for being too busy.” I ended with a shrug.

She seemed to struggle to understand what I said. She stared down, brows furrowed, silent for a long time.

“What the–?! How is that possible?!” She started. “Okay, well, what did you say to him?!”

“…Nothing.”

“What?!”

“If he’s not worried, and is currently too busy to talk to me, then that’s fine, we’ll just talk in person later on.”

“But, Maggie, he only texted once?! Once! And you’ve been gone for three days!”

I got up from the chair and opened the last cabinet door, trying to find all the seasoning Harry had.

“Yeah.” I nodded, casually. “It’s too little, but we can talk about it later, when we’re not both distracted. Him with work, me with… well, whatever this identity crisis is. Maybe resting after months of turmoil.” I considered. “Regardless, we’ll talk back home in Savoy.”

“That’s not good enough! You’re his girlfriend! Of ten years!”

“Eight.” I corrected. “And very on and off.” “You only broke up a couple of times.” She dismissed.

“Three.” I corrected, again. “And one of them was quite permanent. So I think this time around the clock starts back again from zero.”

“That’s not how it works.” “Why not?” “Well--” She sighed. “Because! You’ve known each other almost your whole lives! You’re almost engaged!”

Hands on my hips, I fixed her with a knowing look. “So you know about that, too.” She had the decency to give the ground an apologetic look. “I overheard mom and dad talking about it.” “You could have told me.” “Aren’t proposals supposed to be a surprise?”

“Everything in my life feels like it’s being kept from me.” I complained. “I just wish people would tell me things.” “Okay, how about I tell you this,” she started, “Chris not being concerned when you ran away for three days--?”

“Didn’t run away.” “Not okay!” She shouted. “It is not okay, Maggie!”

“Lourdes!” I shouted in the same tone, trying to get her attention. “Please! Just… Just let me worry about this, okay? It’s my relationship!”

“I would, but you don’t seem to be worried at all.” She contested. “Which only makes me more upset!”

She went on like this, talking about how trust and communication are not something you can jeopardize in a relationship, and a lot of other things.

I took note of salt and pepper. Not even a little oregano. Harry also didn’t have coconut milk or double cream or lime for a nice sauce. I sighed.

“We’ll need groceries.” I said, as soon as Lourdes took a pause to breathe. “I’ll pull up grocery apps on my phone and see what they have available for delivery.”

Looking back at her, I realized she still looked concerned sitting on the kitchen table.

“Why aren’t you pissed?” She asked. “Three days. You could have dropped dead somewhere. You could have been kidnapped.”

“Lourdes.”

“Seriously, why aren’t you angry at him?!”

“I don’t know!” I confessed, sighing. “I just… I’m not. He’s busy, I get it. And I guess… I’m going through something right now that I don’t fully understand. So I think it’s better not having to explain it to him right now. I’m okay with it.”

She seemed unconvinced, so I sighed and went to get my phone. Harry had mentioned in passing the name of the app he used for groceries, so I downloaded it and found the nearest store, quickly adding a lot of spices, lime and some coconut milk to my cart. As an impulse buy, I also got ice cream and white wine, and a six pack of the beer Harry had in his fridge in case he didn’t like white wine. Back in the kitchen, I realized he didn’t have wine glasses, so I checked if the store had it and they did, so I added two wine glasses to my basket. Since Lourdes wouldn’t drink wine, I got her some coke, and made the purchase.

Then I used the house phone and called the number written on the notebook next to it to speak to security at the gates. Awkwardly introducing myself as “Prince Harry’s house guest”, I told them I had a delivery coming, and they assured me they could bring it to us.

“Oh, please don’t worry about that!” I assured them, overly worried about being polite. “I can go get it! I’ll keep an eye on the app and when I see the driver arriving I’ll go and get it from the gate.”

They tried to remind me I didn’t have to, but I insisted.

After this, I changed into my actual clothes, some jeans and a blouse, and joined Lourdes who had finally settled again on the couch to continue watching TV.

When the delivery driver was close enough to the gates on the map, I jumped up from the couch, not having realized how much time had passed.

"Groceries are here, let's go!" I shouted.

"I'll wait here."

"No, let's go!"

"I thought we weren't supposed to be out in daylight...?"

"Stop complaining, let's go!" I threw my phone on the couch and grabbed her by the hands, pulling her up and running out the door, not even turning off the television.

When we got to the back gate, the one we came in from, we were told the food wasn't there, and they quickly called the main gate and figured out the food was there. We thanked them and walked towards the main gate, sadly having to walk around the palace. Luckily, a guard was walking over to bring us the groceries, so we met him half way and started making the way back.

I pointed out William and Catherine's apartment when we passed it; it was nice being outside. It was only then that I noticed that I had been in Harry's place for three days. I kind of missed Savoy.

When we got back, Harry was there. The moment we walked through the door, though, he seemed frazzled. He was on the phone, eyes wide, and when he looked at us, such relief came over him it was hard not to let myself be concerned.

“Hey, what’s going on?”

He returned the home phone to the mount on the wall, forcibly, and ran a hand through his hair. He had his cell on the other hand.

“I got home and you were gone!” He complained. “What the hell?! Where did you go?!”

“To get groceries at the gate.” I told him. “We had them delivered.”

“We were on the wrong gate, though.” Lourdes said. “So we had to go around.”

“Groceries?” Harry asked, confused.

“We’re making you lunch today.” I explained, with a smile. 

“Oh. Okay.” He nodded, breathing heavily. “The TV was on and your cell phone was on the sofa. I didn’t—“

I approached him after leaving the bag on the table, and put a hand to his forehead. He was sweaty, but cold. “Harry, why do you seem so… scared?”

“You were gone! I didn’t know if they had come in and taken you!” He explained, now getting a little red.

“You think we would have left our stuff?” Lourdes asked, amused.

“I thought maybe they didn’t let you get anything.” He shrugged.

Smiling, I squeezed a hand on his shoulder. “Well, relax. We’re here.”

“Yeah, go chill.” Lourdes said. “Maggie is forcing me to help so she can take a break from your awful cooking.”

“Not what I said!” I looked at him. “We just want to do something for you for hosting us.”

“Sure, let’s go with that.” Lourdes mumbled.

Harry nodded, “Alright. I’m going to… shower then.”

He went upstairs and I joined my sister in the kitchen, shaking my head in amusement.

I gave her the broccoli to chop and boiled water for the pasta. After a while in silence, she said, in low enough a voice I assumed she didn’t need a response:

“...You were gone for ten minutes and he was ready to call the police.”

----

We ate talking about how his engagement went; he had fun spending time with the veterans, but the best part was driving the Jaguar. He then told us he spent the drive there and back watching Vine, so he and Lou spent the rest of time discussing their favorite videos.

Harry asked Lourdes about life in boarding school, and we exchanged stories about each of our experiences, with Harry and I telling her how things were 'in our time'. Friends, classes, rituals, clubs, adventures, and most importantly: the things we didn't miss, and Lourdes could rest assured she wouldn't, either.

We spent that afternoon watching a movie she told us her friends had jokingly made her watch one day -- Princess Protection Program, with Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez.

"It's essentially what we're doing here." She joked. "Harry is our Princess Protection Program."

Once the sun was going down, we felt it was safer to go outside, so Harry proposed a game of volleyball – after we had told him it was one of the sports we played in Savoy with our cousins every summer.

So we went outside and played volleyball, Castillon Rules, where with each hit of the ball you’re supposed to yell out a word that starts with the same letter of your name. One of most polemic debates in our family was that those of us with double names – me and my siblings – had two letters at our disposal, whereas our cousins insisted only the first name counted.

“I never cared about this debate as both my names start with M.” I told Harry, just as he hit the ball thrown at him by Lourdes and shouted out ‘Horace’.

“That’s a name, it doesn’t count.” I argued.

“A name can be a word.” He consted.

“And there we go…” Lourdes rolled her eyes. “Another topic of discourse.”

When we came in, sweaty and still laughing, we sat on the couch for a long time, drinking water and talking about a lot of nothing, brainstorming about what to do next. We decided on another movie, but first Harry had a shower in the downstairs bathroom while Lourdes used the upstairs, and I was last.

When I came out of the bathroom donning once more Harry’s clothes, I went downstairs to find that as I had been showering, they were busy destroying the living room.

“Uhm, hi?” I called, trying to find them in the mess of blankets and furniture. “What are you guys doing?!”

Lourdes popped up from behind the couch, which had been turned around to face the wall.

“We’re building a blanket fort!” She smiled, using the back of the couch to hook a corner of a blanket up.

“…Why?” I asked, already tired at how long it would take to clean all of this out.

Harry walked in from behind me with a mess of twinkly Christmas lights in hand.

“For fun.” He answered, throwing them to Lourdes. “There you go.”

She started untangling the chords and spreading them out across their ‘fort’, as Harry moved to the TV, which he unplugged before removing it from its place.

“What are you doing with that?” I asked.

“Putting it on the floor.”

“Why?”

He grinned at me, and winked. “So we can watch from inside, obviously.”

“Maggie, come on.” Lourdes called, handing me one end of the twinkly lights. “Help me. We’re gonna watch Avatar. Harry’s never seen it.”

I looked at him in disbelief. “You haven’t seen Avatar, the Legend of Aang?”

“Okay, you haven’t read Harry Potter, so I need you to remove the judgy tone from your voice.”

“Thank you!”, Lourdes shouted. “Besides, it’s a very topical watch… You know, seeing as Aang is a great metaphor for you.”

“I am not Aang!” I complained.

“You have literally ran away from your responsibilities. But whatever...” She mumbled.

They both got back to work. Amused, I sighed, and decided if I couldn't beat them, I’d join them. I started untangling the chords.

We brought in extra blankets and pillows to lay on, and Harry unscrewed a broomstick to keep the fort’s ‘roof’ up. We ordered pizzas and opened the wine and settled inside to watch Avatar.

Harry initially complained it seemed very childish, but as that was also my argument against Harry Potter, he pushed through. Seeing as the episodes were only twenty minutes long, we got through them fast, and by episode ten, when Jet turned out to be a dick, he was fully into it if his huge disappointment and loud defense of Sokka was anything to go by.

When season one was over, it was late at night, but we were wide awake. Harry laid back on the floor, staring off into the twinkly lights, wide-eyed.

“So, she just… is the moon now?”

“You can’t come back from being the moon.” I argued.

“I guess…”

“I thought you were team Suki.” Lourdes said.

“I am, I love Suki.” He replied. “But I didn’t want the princess to die.”

“She didn’t die.” I argued. “She just has a different existence now. A different purpose.”

“That’s so sad.”

I smiled.

“Wait,” he looked at Lourdes, “does this mean Suki comes back?!”

“I guess we have to watch season two to find out!” Lourdes said, excitedly.

“Isn’t it past your bedtime?”

“Bite me.”

“Let’s do season two!” Harry interrupted. “I wanna know what happens.”

“Okay, I need a bathroom break.”

I came downstairs just as Harry and my sister were breaking into loud laughter. The sound made me smile, but something also sounded from the hall. I wasn’t sure if I had imagined it, so I walked to the door and opened it to check.

To my surprise, however, there was a person there.

“Hi.” Adrien said, laid back. “I heard this is where all the cool Savoy Royals are hanging these days?”

“Adrien?!” I asked, to his annoying grin. “What on God’s green Earth are you doing here?!”

“Invite me to come in first, Mags, you were raised better than this.”

Before I could react, he walked right past me into the cottage. In the living room, Harry was crawling out of the blanket fort.

“Oh, wow.” Adrien laughed. “This is a scene to behold.”

“What the–?!” Harry asked, confused, but grinning at the sight of him. “Who the hell invited you here?!”

They exchanged a quick one arm hug, patting each other on the back.

“Well, I’m not sure how much you know, but your people have left a standing invitation for anyone from Savoy who needs to come rescue the two runaways here.”

“I didn’t run away!” I complained. Seeing Harry ready to add something, I pointed a threatening finger at him. “Shut it! And Adrien, this is none of your business. I’m fine, go home.”

“God, you’ve been in England for three days and already you’ve forgotten your manners.” He shook his head in mock disappointment. “And rejoice, Maggie, you’re no longer the biggest concern.”

“What do you mean?”

“He means me.”

Lourdes had emerged from inside the fort.

“Bingo.” Adrien added, unamused. “What the hell, dollface?!”

“Relax, this is just a trip! I’m with Maggie, what’s the big deal?!”

“If my parents have an issue they maybe shouldn’t have sent her.” I argued.

“They sent her to talk to you and bring you home, she wasn’t supposed to stay.” He relayed, fixing Lou with a look of admiration. “You literally increased the problem instead of fixing it. I, for one, am very proud.”

They exchanged a look.

“Cute.” I said, sarcastic. “So, why did you come if you’re on our side?!”

“Oh, I am not on your side.” He said.

“What?!”

“Lourdes I get. Teenagers, am I right? But you, Maggie? What the hell? You should have known better!”

“Excuse me?!”

“You couldn’t have forced her to at least answer your parents’ call?!” He asked, angrily. “You’re old enough to do whatever you want with your life, but she’s a kid!”

“Teenager, you just said teenager!” Lourdes complained.

I looked at her, suspiciously. “What call?!”

She was silent.

“Lourdes?!”

“Mom called.” She rolled her eyes. “A few times. It’s whatever, she knows I’m here, she knows I’m fine. We’re literally in a palace!”

“Lourdes, I told you last night, you’re a minor!” I told her. “I can’t be responsible for you!”

“Exactly, so why should I tell you who calls me?” She asked, grinning annoyingly.

I grunted in frustration, but before I could reply to this we heard a calling tone. Adrien was holding his cellphone up.

“Hey,” he said when someone picked up, “I’m here. They’re alive. Say hi.”

He pointed the phone at me, and, confused, I raised a hand in greeting. Then he pointed the phone at Lourdes, who smiled as she waved.

“Talk soon.”

“Wait–!” Someone from the other end of the video call tried, my mother maybe, but Adrien tapped the screen and returned the phone to his pocket.

“Alright. Is there a place to sit around here or do I have to stare at the wall for that?!” He looked at the couch facing the wall.

Harry led him to the kitchen table, and grabbed him a beer from the fridge.

“So, now that that’s out of the way,” Adrien started, “anyone care to tell me why we’re here?”

Harry looked at me, then Lourdes, and finally our cousin. I let out a long sigh, thinking about the wedding, about crying, about Harry’s hand on mine and the thoughts of Louis, about the knowledge Chris had a ring and my parents knew it, I thought of the train and my melting thoughts, and finally, I pulled up a chair and sat down.

“To be honest,” I started, “I’m more interested in why you’re here.”

“I’m here because I’m playing my own game.” He replied, taking a sip of his beer. “Your turn.”

“What does that mean?” Lourdes asked.

Adrien was silent.

“How do you come into this?” He asked Harry, who was quietly leaning against the kitchen sink.

“We’re friends.” He said, looking at me.

Adrien’s eyes found mine, knowing, before traveling down to Harry’s shirt that I was wearing. “Huh.”

“Ade.” I called. “If you’re not going to talk we’re going back to the blanket fort to continue watching Avatar.”

“Fine.” He rolled his eyes. “God. I… I am doing your father a favor so he will do me one.”

“Okay?”

He looked between me and my sister. “I want to go live in America for a little while.”

“What?!”

“How much is a little while?!”

“Less than a year.” He shrugged, non-committal.

“Why?” Lou asked.

Adrien laughed, humorless. “What do you mean why? You know why.”

She looked at me, confused.

“The engagement?” Harry asked. Adrien nodded, not looking at him.

“Oh… Ade, I’m sure that’ll go away soon enough.”

“Are you, though?” He asked. “Because it’s been months. And they still write about me every day. Faye tried to start her new job and she has a horde of paparazzi following her every move. She’s being demonized in the press, the country feels betrayed that she would give up being part of its Royal Family–”

“Adrien!” I interrupted, “Fuck Faye. She made her choices.”

“How can you say that?! You know what she’s going through, you’re a woman–”

“Yes, and I know that she dated you long enough to know what she was getting herself into when she said yes.” I replied. “And she still did. She chose to change her mind and break up, that’s on her.”

He leaned in across the table towards me. “You’re the Crown Princess now. You’re gonna be Queen one day. It might not be yet, but soon dealing with the very real life consequences to people who are connected with us will be your responsibility.” He said, cold. “I wish you’d start looking at it with a little more compassion.”

There was a tense moment of silence while I weighed his words, feeling the old guilt settle in my stomach.

“How about you maybe chill a little?” Harry asked him, casually, but not without a certain intensity in the way he crossed his arms.

Adrien watched him, only half amused.

“How do you guys know each other?” Lourdes asked them.

“Oh, Haz and I go way back.” Adrien told her.

“Friends in common, partying tastes in common.” Harry shrugged. “I’m not completely sure, to be honest. I just can’t seem to be able to get rid of him.”

“You love me.” Adrien winked at him. “You’re even trying to be part of my family now.”

I looked at my hands, pretending I didn’t hear this, hoping I didn’t have to find out Harry’s reaction to it. 

“So, what’s your game?” Lourdes asked. “What favor do you need from dad? Is it just permission to go to America?”

“And why America?” I asked.

“With… our family’s recent changes…” He started, probably trying to avoid saying Louis’ name, “I’ve been notified that I’ll be needed more, to help picking up more royal patronages and doing more engagements, maybe even foreign trips or official duties.”

“Louis lived abroad.” Lou wondered. “So, how can him being gone alter so much of the work schedule?”

“Because he was expected to start royal work full time after graduation.” I told her.

“Yes, and Faye was supposed to join the family as well.” Adrien added, taking a long sip of his beer after. “So, now our little family business lost two up and coming employees.”

Lou furrowed her brows in confusion. “And you wanna ditch, too?”

Adrien’s face fell. “I want to help, but I can’t in good conscience stay here knowing there is something I could do to try and draw attention to myself so Faye can go back to living her life as a private citizen.”

Lourdes pouted. “I don’t know, I think I’m with Maggie on this one. Faye brought this on herself.”

“I think I get what you mean, though.” Harry said, to Adrien.

“How can you think it’s his responsibility to fix Faye’s mess?!” Lourdes asked, upset.

Though he seemed unsure he wanted to disagree with her after spending the day trying to bond, he still took in a deep breath and said,

“I have my own fair list of bodies I leave behind after each relationship doesn’t work out.” He started. “It’s… disheartening. Even if a relationship ends well and in a healthy way, sometimes even when there is no relationship to begin with, just something the press thinks was a relationship, every time there’s a slow news day, everytime they need a story, they pull up pictures of the women we’ve been seen with and pull some crap out of their asses just to get the clicks they need for a paycheck.”

“Exactly.” Adrien nodded.

“It feels… it can start to feel like you’re cursed.” Harry added, “Like you can barely speak to a girl without ruining her life.”

“She’ll live the rest of her life being known as ‘Prince Adrien’s ex’. The girl who was almost a princess.” Adrien said, staring at his own hands around the beer bottle. “We were together and then we weren’t, but in the public discourse she goes down in history as a girl I loved once. She’ll be someone’s wife one day, someone’s mother. But they’ll always look at her as my ex.” He sighed. “If there is something I can do to change the narrative, I have to.”

There was another long moment of silence as his words echoed in each of our minds.

“So the favor is for the King to allow you to go to America?” Harry asked.

Adrien cleared his throat. “Yeah. At first he said a flat out no. The problem is, by saying no and explaining why, he told me why he needed me. So he gave me leverage.”

Harry chuckled. “You’re insane.”

“I’m smart.” He shrugged.

Lourdes was looking between them. “I don’t get it.”

Adrien leaned over to her. “First, I refused to do a couple engagements they needed me for. In the first one, I was sick, cough cough.” He fake coughed, very obviously. “Then when it happened twice and I got a call, I said, hey, I’m trying to keep a low profile to make things easier for Faye. If I was allowed to go to America, maybe I wouldn’t need to do this…”

“So you blackmailed the advisors?” She asked, choking.

“Blackmail is a strong word.” He replied. “Luckily for me, Amelia Earhart over here decided to pull a Houdini.”

“Amelia Earhart?” I asked, unconvinced.

“Famous missing person. Keep up, Mags.” He explained. “When Maggie went missing, there was a bit of a quiet storm in the palace. It was on everyone’s best interest to keep it under wraps, but it was hard not to pull all the stops to get you back.”

Harry and I exchanged an intense look. What it meant, it was hard even for me to decipher.

“It went from the immediate security staff and security advisors to your parents, then more and more of the staff as the days passed.” Adrien continued. “Not seeing your security or Auguste wasn’t really alarming, though it was annoying. Refusing to see Aunt Elyse, though? That was gutsy.”

I avoided Harry’s eyes now. If I started thinking about the events right after that encounter, it would be hard to school my expressions into normalcy.

“Mom was livid.” Lourdes agreed. “She called me right after, almost screaming, wanting to know if I had heard from you. That’s when she asked me to come see if I could talk to you… I said I had school, but then…”

“Then someone thought smoking was cool.” Adrien added.

“I was not smoking.” She rolled her eyes.

“Right. Well, when you went dark after arriving, they knew you weren’t coming out.” He added. “I don’t know what made them think I could bring you home. Regardless, here I am.” He raised his hands to the sky, showcasing all of himself. “Will you guys come home with me?”

“Nah.” Lourdes said; I shook my head.

“Oh, well. I tried.” He sighed.

“That’s it?” I asked, suspicious.

“Yeah.” He shrugged. “What am I supposed to do, drag you kicking and screaming? No, thanks. I know how hard you kick.”

“That was one time!”

He pulled his leg up and rested it on the table with impressive speed. “I still have the scar where my bone came out of my body, Margueritte!”

“You should have seen me coming!”

“It was night!”

“Please, you were wasted!”

“Although I am very curious about whatever story this is,” Harry interrupted, “and of course, you’re welcome to stay, I guess my question is, are you joining our little party here? Should I make you a bed on the sofa?”

Adrien smiled. “No, thanks, Harry. I have fulfilled my part of the bargain and I’ll be going home now.”

“This is enough to get dad to let you go to America?!” I asked, “How?!”

He shrugged. “Because you’re going to help me help you.”

“…what does that mean?”

“Well, Mags, I told you my strategy, didn’t I? They needed me, I played my cards right, and told them if they want my help, they need to help me, too.” He grinned. “The moment I realized the family needed me, not just to come here, but to work, as well, I knew I had the power. They need me. But I can just refuse to do anything. What are they going to do, throw me in jail? Decapitate me?”

“No, they’ll…” I thought about it, before sighing. “There’ll be consequences.”

“Oh, I’m sure.” He nodded. “Eventually. But until then they would have a lot of time to reflect how much easier it would have been to just negotiate with me.”

I smiled. “Harry was right. You’re insane.”

“Am I? Or have I just realized that they need me more than I need them?” he leaned in towards me again. “Mags, I’m here to remind you that you are the Crown Princess now. You’re upset at how things are going? You want answers, you want to choose your staff, you want a whole palace to live in by yourself? Ask.”

“That’s not how this works, Adrien.”

“Isn’t it?” He smiled. “Because I already emailed a friend from New York and asked her to give me the contact to her real estate agent.”

I sat back on the chair, crossing my arms across my chest, mauling over his words.

Lourdes seemed intrigued. “Who do you know in New York?”

“A few people, actually. But I talked to a friend who moved there recently… An artist.”

“Ooh, who?”

“She’s not very known.” He explained. “Although, have you ever watched X Factor? She was in that.”

“Did she win?!” She smiled, excitedly.

“Almost. I think she was in the final, maybe.”

As they talked, and Adrien pulled up his phone to show Lourdes a video of his friend, Harry approached and pulled up the last chair next to me.

“Truth or dare?” He asked, whispery.

I shook off my thoughts, and looked at him. “Truth?”

“What are you thinking about?”

I sighed. “I don’t even know.”

“For whatever’s worth, I think he’s right.” He said, looking at Adrien. “You’re the heir. As a former spare, you know how much weight that carries.”

“But I’m not the heir, though.” Before he could protest, I leaned in. “Not really. I am now, technically, but I wasn’t born the heir. I wasn’t raised the heir. No one sees me as the heir, that’s why they don’t tell me anything.”

He smiled a charming and leg weakening smile. “So make them.”

“Would you two care to share with the class?” Adrien asked, loudly, and we both jumped back in our seats.

“We were just–”

“I was just saying I agree.” Harry told him. “Everyone around this table knows exactly what is like to be passed around, being given something to do while an heir gets the really exciting projects and priority in everything. Right?”

“Preach!” Adrien said.

“So, Mary.” He looked at me. “You know how they should be treating you. You also know how they are treating you. Now make it right.”

“How?!” I whined.

“You have all the power you need, Maggie.” Adrien said. “Look at me, I’m here, I was sent by your parents. When I get home, they’ll ask me what happened, what did we talk about? So. What do you want me to tell them? What do you want, Maggie?”

I felt so exhausted. So… confused. I knew what I wanted to change. But I didn’t know how to ask.

“I want things to change.” I said, hands shaking. “I want to be told all that’s happening, all that’s expected of me, all the upcoming events I’ll have to do. I want to be allowed to work, the way that I want. With my patronages and more. I made a list of work I want to do and Auguste dismissed me. If I need to work then I want to actually work. And I want Cadie back.”

They all looked at me with a mixture of amazement and fondness. It was… embarrassing. And kind of intoxicating. I forced myself to keep my head high.

Adrien nodded. “Alright.”

“Alright? What do you mean?” I asked. “What happens now?!”

He got to his feet. “Now I get you someone with actual power, and you argue your case.”

He kissed Lourdes’ forehead, shook Harry’s hand while fixing him with a menacing look before breaking into a chuckle, and asked me to walk him out.

He closed the door behind me when we walked out and walked towards the car without waiting for me, so I followed.

Finally, at the end of Harry’s small entryway, he turned to me, hands in his pockets.

“What are you going to do about this?” He asked.

“What do you mean? I thought we just discussed it. You’re gonna send someone I can–”

“No, Mary.” He said, enunciating the name with the same accent Harry had. “I mean what are you going to do about this.” In the last word, he looked pointedly at the Cottage.

I gulped. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. There’s nothing to do.”

He sighed. “You’re wearing his clothes. You’re letting him call you Mary. You finally reached the point of no return, emotionally speaking, and it was to his house that you ran off.”

“Adrien, not you, too…”

“I know you better than that, Maggie. I know you’re not cheating on Christopher.” He was dismissed. “But I also know you enough to know when you’re happy and when you’re doing things because you have to. Hell, ‘because you have to’ it’s basically your default to everything in life.”

“What’s your point?” I asked, annoyed.

“My point is there is a reason you and Chris broke up last year.” He started. “And there’s a reason you got back together. And I don’t think you know what those are, I think you need to figure it out. But there’s one thing I am almost entirely sure you do know.”

I sighed, looking at him. “And what do I know?”

He smiled, sweeter and more sincere than I had seen him in a long time.

“I think you know who you’re in love with.” He said. “And who you’re not… You just need to be brave enough to accept that.”

With that, he leaned in, kissed my cheek, and walked to the dark SUV waiting for him, leaving me behind in the small Cottage entry with a whirlwind in my heart.

--- ---- ---

[A/N: Hi! How you doing? how was your week? Hope everything is well AND YES THAT IS HARRY TELLING MAGGIE HE LIKES HER EVEN THOUGH SHE WANTS TO LIVE IN DENIAL ABOUT WHATS HAPPENING HERE. Good thing everyone is not as dissociated from real life as she is. Dont worry, she’ll get there =) LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK PLEASE???? Notes, suggestions, criticism, anything! I’m open to talk! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING! Next week: Someone with decision making power has a pow wow with Mags. Who is it??!]

[mc-critical]

What’s your opinion/analysis on Mustafa (Mahidevran’s son)? I noticed his character had a bit more of an ambiguous reception from the fans of the franchise than I initially anticipated. I’ve personally always found Mustafa to be likeable, the only critique of his character I’ve been able to somewhat get behind is that we don’t really get much of his personality aside from the typical “nice guy” persona or that the show’s writing seems a little biased towards him at times but even then I’m not sure.

I pretty much covered what I think Mustafa as a character is built on and his personality traits (and additionally what I think on the personality criticism) in the latter part of this ask. While I agree he may be idealized, he isn't just some perfect prince without any flaws or mistakes whatsoever, and his character and all the factors that sealed his ultimate fate are always interesting to analyze.

I think more detractors of Mustafa's have been popping up more recently than before, at least as far as YT, Instagram and Twitter are concerned, but this currently more ambiguous reception than expected is not surprising for me in the slightest. It's precisely the writers supposedly idealizing Mustafa and their favoritism over him what they view as the problem, mostly because they think the historical Mustafa is not like that. (and some even claim with confidence that he actually, 100% betrayed his father historically) I love MC Mustafa a lot, he's my favourite prince and I consider him the one best suited for the throne, but these sentiments are possible to get behind - not so much with his idealizing, because we see that he has a shadier side of himself he simply chooses not to show that often and his strenght is also his flaw in every way, but more with the favoritism of the writers. I've always viewed this favoritism as a double-edged sword: the big amount of screentime and arcs that, while usually pretty good, actually do damage by overshadowing Mehmet as a character in S03 is a part where I get the fan irritation. I'm not big on Mehmet overall, but if someone actually got it bad thanks to the Mustafa favoritism, too, it's definetly him. I also could understand why someone would get annoyed in the narrative and characters worshipping him almost consistently. While yes, I know why that is and I don't have a problem with it, because it's thematically appropriate and we can't blame Mustafa for the writers putting his death as the climax of the show's themes, I get why someone else would have a problem with this when it's so frequent. I would especially get someone not being okay with nearly all stuff around Mustafa's death feeling almost conveniently tragic. And that gets even worse when it includes the build-up, which the writers made to be.... basically everywhere, so it becomes something recurring for Mustafa's character from the beggining. While that sense of tragedy is one of my favourite things about the show and I love how Mustafa was the culmination of it and the way this whole build-up everywhere got an even better pay-off, writing-wise... yes. Only if anyone actually used that argument. Additionally, this favoritism is a contrast to all of Mustafa's mistakes and how they impact SS's view on him. The favor of the narrative voice contrasts with the build-up to the character's end. And they both help Mustafa's development.

I also have seen other reasons Mustafa is disliked, which I honestly don't get and I want to ruminate on them for a bit. Yup, I haven't encountered such opinions in quite a while (probably because I don't lurk around those corners as much as I used to, since I disagree with so much stuff), but still, people claiming that Mustafa is manipulated by his mother. Which... what? I'm sorry, but have you guys even watched the show? Why do you drive a general conclusion only from a one and done scene? (E48, I mean) What's worse is that who they make Mustafa out to be is right there: if you want a person who ends up listening more and more to his mother's every word and makes mistakes because of it, MCK Bayezid is right. there. (this isn't shade on MCK Bayezid, don't get me wrong, I find him a very interesting character, especially in regards to where his flaws come from, and I'm sad I haven't encountered discourse about him that explores them, but that particular flaw they're accusing Mustafa of, is courtesy of MCK Bayezid most out of anyone.) As a contrast, Mustafa has a very out of the box mindset and independent spirit and if he actually listened to Mahidevran a bit more in S03-4, he would have been spared some of the trouble. I also don't get the claims that Bayezid and Cihangir's characterizations are centered way too much on their love on Mustafa and that's why Mustafa is worse off as a character. (I have encountered these, as well) I'm not saying that every brother minus Selim wanting Mustafa to be on the throne if they don't get that chance, isn't a narrative bias to an extent, because it clearly is. But it also is a narrative bias that is capable of being tied to Mustafa, but independent of him. It does put the princes on way too outlined narrative roles, but that's both tied to and independent of Mustafa. Besides, saying that Bayezid and Cihangir only have their love for Mustafa going for them is such a disservice to their characters. It's only a part of their characters, not the entirety of them and most of the scenes where they shine the most for me are those barely connected to Mustafa. {side note, because I have heard people say that Selim suffers from Mustafa, too, even in regards to his conflict with Bayezid. And unpopular opinion maybe?: I don't think Selim's character is butchered because of the Mustafa favoritism. He has a more outlined narrative role because his purpose was more to show the way the concept of loyalty works in SS's head and how much can that be twisted, to the point SS picks the one person who he perceives as obedient and loyal. Selim being the "black sheep" of the family actually does favors to the character, because not only does the audience have the chance to root for him more that way, but we see the much needed development of a person no one expected to go as far as he did, rendering his motives to do what he did in a pretty understandable light.}

Another argument I have heard is that the narrative should have made Mustafa more complex, not this "righteous hero almost everybody seems to love". While I would also love a Mustafa that would go through a more detailed character arc when it comes to his relation to SS and how far he's willing to go in the throne war, I don't know whether would there be such nuanced complexity with these writers. The closest Mustafa's character archetype got to a similar arc is, again, MCK Bayezid and I'm not sure would the archetype be able to evolve past that. I show bias, here, I admit, but that's probably because I haven't encountered an adaptation of Hürrem and SS's story which doesn't portray Mustafa in either of the two extremes (and MC Mustafa is the most nuanced Mustafa out of all of them) and we have kinda seen that kind of a different spin of Mustafa's archetype in the franchise, so maybe that's why I wouldn't have as much confidence in retrospect.

But again, I would love a more ambiguous Mustafa done right, even though I'm pretty satisfied with what MC gave us, despite of all. MC Mustafa has enough complexity which works with the message the writers are trying to deliver. There isn't really a reason to dislike MC Mustafa sympathy-wise, because he doesn't have too much negative traits. I do get the favoritism criticism to an extent, even though not fully, but there're also other criticisms of him which, while I understand where they're coming from, I truly can't get behind.

[mahizli]

Odds And Numbers (Cody and Obi-Wan, 22 BBY)

Part 13 of ‘Sparks of Hope- A Star Wars Advent Calendar’.

***

Commander Cody did not believe in chance or fate. Those were for the dreamers, those General Kenobi called enthusiasts – people who believed there was a greater purpose in everything.

Cody had been taught that safety resided in numbers. In calculating the outcomes, studying the battlefield, placing the troopers carefully, according to their abilities.

And of course, his training on Kamino had also taught him that strength was achieved in brotherhood. Adhering to values like honour, loyalty and duty. Taking care of one’s vode, making sure they stayed focused, strong and reliable.

Cody did not believe in chance or fate – but General Kenobi believed in what the Jetii called the Force, and over those first months at his side, Cody had tempered some of his views with what the General called nuances.

His Jetii General believed in the Force, was able to feel it all around them and use it when he fought, spinning so fast the eye could not follow, deflecting blaster bolts almost before they were shot and leaping like he had wings. He was able to will the pain away, to heal light injuries and to stay without eating and drinking for days. But mostly, General Kenobi, like every other Jetii, was able to sense feelings and thoughts in the Force, to absorb or reflect them, and to read what he called signatures.

The first time they had met, Cody had stood to attention, back rigid and gaze straight, studying the Jetii who was to become his General – face seemingly blank while his mind assessed him.

Jetii General Obi-Wan Kenobi was slightly shorter than him, but not small. He was lean, but not frail, grave but not intimidating, yet Cody quickly calculated that with those linen tunics and thin trousers and layers of plain fabric, the Jetii wouldn’t stand a chance on the battlefield.

That was before he saw him in action, fighting and spinning before him like nothing Cody had ever witnessed before. General Kenobi was not one to linger behind, not one to leave wounded on the field either – and after that first battle together, where the Jetii’s tunic had soiled with dust and blood that was partly his own, both had struck what the General called a compromise.

Jetii General Obi-Wan Kenobi would be wearing a chest plate, pauldrons and vambraces, as well as blacks and boots, like a vode. But he would keep a Jetii tabard, and his Jetii belt, and stay without helmet or blaster – because he had his lightsaber.

Cody did not believe in chance, or wonder, but after two months at General Kenobi’s side, he had come to the conclusion that this Force the Jetii worshipped did not work randomly. It was something like tipping the odds, changing them to fate, then to facts once more. Or rather, making the odds clearer around them, allowing some trust to sip below Cody’s carefully kept armour.

He had come to trust General Kenobi. And not because he was a Jetii. But because the Jetii he was did not only rely upon the Force. General Kenobi did not just jump into battle carelessly – he always made sure to know everything he could about the field and the people they were dealing with. He had not just one plan, he often conceived at least another, if not two – and he worked. Tirelessly. Always improve his knowledge in battle and strategics, always seeking for the peaceful solution whenever they were on a mission, training whenever he could to perfect his combat skills – and teaching, of course.

That impulsive former hibir of his who was defying odds all the times, driving the General nearly insane – yet Cody knew just how much he cared for General Skywalker, whom he had raised like a child of his, until he became a friend.  

And that nehutyc little Commander, who had not learned yet that some odds could not be defeated, but was so endearing in that childish belief.

“She will learn. She is young still”, General Kenobi had told him, after they had evacuated her and her remaining troops on Felucia in a last-minute rescue – but Cody read his eye-language now and had seen sadness and worry and care there.

Just like that day General Kenobi had learned about the way the Kaminoan made the vode age faster, so that they could be battle-ready at ten. That day, the Jetii had paled, body getting very still at Cody’s side, who had not, ever, spared a second thought about it.

Seeing his Jetii-General so upset had made something in him stir, though. And so, being assigned to a Jetii who loved words and kept weighing them with such care, Cody had begun to think about them as well.

Words completed numbers, sometimes – they defined things better, like looking through electrobinoculars.

Enthusiasts. Nuances. Signatures. Compromise.

Cody had lost count of those words opening his inner world like small crevices. Some made him think. Some made him reconsider. And some left him in a state of silent wonder, because it felt like finally putting a name, an explanation to some patterns he had studied silently.

“Serendipity”, General Kenobi told him, one night, as they were sitting together on the Negociator’s bridge, going through medical supply-lists.

“It means: found by chance, by accident or coincidence – not by reasoning.”

Cody raised an eyebrow, face carefully lowered, but General Kenobi smiled at him, because he could read him through the Force.

“Not something you like, my dear Commander. Yet that is how the precursor of Nysillin was discovered. A researcher one forgot a box containing a colony of germs into a cupboard, and it became mouldy. When she finally remembered that box, she realised the germs had not grown. Rather, the mould seemed to have prevented them from colonising the box – so she tried to isolate it and to study it better. And that’s how we are able to use Nysillin now.”

“So… if she hadn’t forgotten that box…”, Cody said, slowly, frowning down at his data-pad and at the carefully drawn lists.

“Well, yes, Commander. Perhaps we would stand very differently now…”

Cody stayed silent a while more, then he raised his face and met General Kenobi’s calm, shrewd grey eyes.

“Is it something you like, sir? That… serendipity you just spoke of.”

The Jetii’s eyes turned soft, something very intimate sweeping briefly through his features.

“It is a word that is very dear to me, yes. You see, Commander, I do not think there are such things as immutable fates. I think every little act, and word, and thought probably plays a part into shaping the world around us. But I also think we will all remind blind, either wholly or partially, until we join the Force. So, serendipity… I like to think it is the Force’s way to give us a nudge.”

He smiled at him, wrapping his hand around his mug of tea.

“Yet it is but that: a nudge. We still have to deepen the course it shows us, and steer ourselves in the right direction.”

Cody nodded, slowly, assessing and processing the General’s words. And somehow, that night, working very late along his Jetii’s General side, another crevice opened in him, allowing few, precious words to pour out as well.

That night, he told the General that every vode had, in fact, something more than a number. Something they kept secret, only known by batch-brothers, because numbers were long and dull and hard to remember when one was just a kid.

“It is not a name. It’s… something that happened that made us laugh, or a special event involving a vode. It’s… I think it’s like the nudge you spoke about before, sir.”

The General’s eyes were still bright and alert, despite the late hour. His hair was tousled, though, because he had run his fingers several times through his hair, trying to rouse himself as they completed report after report. The Kaminoans would have brought him a comb, wordlessly radiating disapproval for everything that was not neat or symmetrical. But Cody just thought it made one want to speak to him, knowing one would not be judged.

“A nickname?”, the General questioned, softly, and Cody’s heart soared, for a brief second, leaving him almost helpless in the feeling’s wake.

“A nickname”, he repeated, tasting the word like some unknown flavour.

General Kenobi nodded, face growing thoughtful, eyes gentle as so often.

“Your signatures are so different, Commander. You may look alike – but I can assure you are not, in the Force. You all have a very unique way to be. And to become, as we all do.”

“They call me Cody. And it’s not Mando’a, even though Kote… Kote is another name they call me now. Because…”

“Because you are a fine leader, Commander. One that gave much glory to his troops – along with pride and strength.”

His General had a unique way of praising, too. It never looked like flattery. It just looked like facts, spoken with something warm Cody was finally identifying as care. And respect.

“Cody didn’t come from Kote, though, sir. It came from me… well… always telling my vode that safety was in numbers. Not just odds. And so they called me Codes, first, but quickly switched to Cody. I think only Rex remembers Codes, now, sir.”

General Kenobi smiled at him, and Cody almost smiled back, keeping his face straight just in time.

“I like all of these names, Commander. And I think… it is a wonderful thing to encourage, is it not? As much as I trust numbers and plans, as you so well know, I do prefer addressing people by names or titles.”

That night, General Kenobi called him Cody for the very first time. Sometimes he would use his title, sometimes he would combine both. Cody himself did not call him Obi-Wan – that was a name kept for Jetii and non-battle-friends. Instead, he called him sir, General, or General Kenobi – it was enough.

Or perhaps, it was because, sometimes, there was no real word for the fissures and light shaping people.  

Sometimes, words and names were simply not enough – but infinite.

And deep inside, it made Cody smile.