#that last part got long and I could probably turn it into it's own meta post

[indigovigilance]

S3 Epilogue

tags: Comfort, Fluff, South Downs

rated: PG, 1654 words

Crowley & Aziraphale finally get their resolution.

Edit: now published to Ao3: S3 Epilogue - Sunset in the Garden at South Downs (1654 words) by indigovigilance

This is my first adventure in publishing fanfic. I'll go back to meta soon. Good Omentober, y'all.

Aziraphale sat on the bench that overlooked the garden. The sun was beginning to dip low in the west, shining on the clouds that gathered over the channel, tinging them orange and pink. Sitting propped up in his lap a well-worn book; none could guess, not even Aziraphale himself, how many times he had turned the beloved pages, the edges worn soft by his touch. His heart fluttered as he turned to chapter 58: his favorite part. He glanced up at Crowley, who was still mucking about in the flowerbeds, as he usually did at this time of day. Aziraphale returned his attention to his book.

Now was the moment for her resolution to be executed, and, while her courage was high, she immediately said: “Mr. Darcy, I am a very selfish creature; and, for the sake of giving relief to my own feelings, care not how much I may be wounding yours.”

“Oh, my dear girl,” chuckled Aziraphale, “you do care. You care a great deal. But I wouldn’t worry about hurting his feelings: quite the opposite, in fact. Oh Jane, you really did have such a gift with words. And robberies, apparently.”

The angel heard Crowley throw down his gardening tools. In the years since they’d moved into the cottage together, autumn had become Aziraphale’s favorite season; as the days got shorter, their sunset ritual came earlier and earlier each day, and the nip in the air was just enough to draw them closer together, but not enough to send them into the warm shelter of the indoors before the stars came out.

He did not look up as he felt the temptress of Eden lower himself down to the bench to the left of him—always on the left—and began to wind serpentine limbs around his soft, strong body. Long legs curled over his wide lap, snakeskin-shod feet dangled off the end of the bench. One arm slithered over his shoulders, the other across his chest, ensnaring him with practiced precision. He felt Crowley nestle his head into the cradle of his shoulder, exactly where he always was. Wordlessly and without looking up, Aziraphale wrapped an arm around Crowley’s back and pulled him close. They fit together like lock and key.

Aziraphale tilted his head to nudge the serpent, who nudged him back, signaling that he was ready.

“You’ve come at the best part.”

“Have I?”

“Mm-hmm.”

“Well, then. Don’t keep me in suspense.”

Aziraphale began to read aloud:

“You are too generous to trifle with me. If your feelings are still what they were last April, tell me so at once. My affections and wishes are unchanged, but one word from you will silence me on this subject forever.”

“Oof. Jane really didn’t pull any punches, did she?”

“Indeed she did not. Now, hush.

“Elizabeth, feeling all the more than common awkwardness and anxiety of his situation, now forced herself to speak; and immediately, though not very fluently, gave him to understand that her sentiments had undergone so material a change since the period to which he alluded, as to make her receive with gratitude and pleasure his present assurances. The happiness which this reply produced was such as he had probably never felt before; and he expressed himself on the occasion as sensibly and as warmly as a man violently in love can be supposed to do. Had Elizabeth been able to encounter his eyes, she might have seen how well the expression of heartfelt delight diffused over his face became him: but though she could not look she could listen; and he told her of feelings which, in proving of what importance she was to him, made his affection every moment more valuable.”

Aziraphale closed his eyes, taking a deep breath as he felt a swell of emotion surge through his body. He felt Crowley stir as one sinuous limb unwound from around his chest and plucked the book from his hands, setting it down on the bench beside them. Aziraphale’s eyes flicked to the shock of red hair that was pressed against his cheek.

“What, you don’t like it?”

“I didn’t say that.”

The ginger head lifted up. Aziraphale turned, and in the fading shades of sunset, Crowley’s yellow eyes seemed to shine with starlight. He was very close, so very close. Sky-blue eyes flicked down hungrily to apple-red lips, then back up. He swallowed: he couldn’t help himself. But he didn’t speak. Didn’t dare to move. He knew how badly he’d hurt Crowley, the day that Gabriel and Beelzebub had gone off together, after only a few short years of courtship, merely the blink of an eye in the existence of an immortal, and when Crowley had asked him to do the same, after millennia of surreptitious companionship, he’d hadn’t. Worse, he’d betrayed him, and gone back to Heaven. It had all worked out in the end, but he was still gnawed by guilt for what he’d put his demon through. He could never ask for forgiveness, because in his own heart, he didn’t believe he deserved it. He hadn’t forgiven himself.

But he could still want it.

He could still long to taste his lips again.

Yellow eyes watched him, unblinking.

Aziraphale wanted to say something, but none of the words in any of the languages that had ever been spoken on Earth tasted right in his mouth. Any sentiment of regret, longing, or affection seemed to turn to sand on his tongue. Jane Austen had made it seem so easy. But it was different when it was someone you knew. When it was the someone. Your only someone.

“I’m not mad at you.”

Aziraphale blinked. The yellow eyes still held him, entrancing and impossibly close. The setting sun caught in Crowley’s red hair, setting it ablaze. The demon continued:

“I think you think I’m mad at you, for how things went. But I’m not. I know why you did what you did. If you’d done anything different, you wouldn’t be the angel I fell in love with.”

Aziraphale’s breath caught in his throat. He’d imagined those words, coming from his demon, for so long, but he’d never dared to hope he’d hear them again, after that day.

“We’ve been together a long time,” continued Crowley. “Longer than either of us can remember, and I’ve loved you for as long as I can remember. I’ve loved you since before I can remember…”

The demon trailed off and his yellow eyes grew dim as he retreated into his mind, looking at the places where the furniture used to be. Tears welled up in Aziraphale’s azure eyes, his chest tightening with sorrow and grief for the time that they had lost together: not just the time that they’d been forced into hiding, but the time they’d been forced to forget. The time that had been ripped from their bodies. Aziraphale had found that difficult to forgive, if indeed he’d ever forgiven Heaven at all.

The demon returned to the present.

“…and I have loved you every moment since then. Nothing you did has ever, could ever change that. Do you understand?”

Aziraphale swallowed the lump in his throat but, still unable to speak, nodded.

“We spent our existence letting Heaven and Hell keep us apart, keeping ourselves apart, and I… I want to be with you from now on. Completely with you. Do you understand?”

Aziraphale didn’t dare speak, but felt his lips twitch as Crowley’s eyes flicked down to his mouth, and he felt the light caress of fingertips on his cheek, drawing him in. Crowley was leaning closer, lips parted, lids falling over slit amber eyes…

“Can I just say—”

“Are you serious?” The demon snapped, letting go of the angel’s chin. “Are you being serious right now?”

“Crowley, I just need to—”

The demon threw his head back with a groan, spindly limbs flying in every direction as he splayed across the bench in a dramatic show of exasperation.

“It’s just that, I—”

“I am trying to have a moment here!”

“I need to tell you—”

“What? What do you need to tell me?” The demon sat up, staring down the angel.

“That I’m sorry, and that I wish I’d done so many things differently.”

“Angel, I just told you, I’m not mad at you.”

“But I can still be sorry. I can still wish I hadn’t hurt you. I do wish it, and…” the angel took a deep breath, grabbing one of Crowley’s hands and holding it in both of his.

“I’m sorry for every time I offered you forgiveness. You never needed it, not from me, or Heaven, or anyone. There was nothing to forgive. There was never anything to forgive. I should have known that, and I regret that I didn’t realize it sooner.”

“They made me a demon, they took your memory. It’s not your fault.”

“Still. I wish I’d been better, for you.” The angel squeezed the demon’s hand.

“I’m just going to have to let you be sorry, aren’t I?” said the demon flippantly. The angel nodded, staring down at their enjoined hands.

“I forgive you.”

The angel looked up; the demon was smirking.

“See how it feels?”

“That’s not funny.”

“It’s kind of funny.”

“It isn’t!”

“Come here, angel.”

“No.”

“What? What do I have to say so I can kiss you?”

“It’s not like that, it’s just…” Aziraphale sighed. “I didn’t want to have our first kiss, our first proper kiss, without you knowing that…” Aziraphale searched for words.

“Aziraphale, I know,” said Crowley quietly, lifting his hand to the angel’s cheek. Aziraphale met his eyes in the final dying light of sunset and understood that, yes, he knew. They both knew, and had always known. The Angel of the Eastern Gate wrapped his arms around the Serpent of Eden, drew him in, and once more tasted the sweetness of forbidden fruit on his lips.

[inevitably-johnlocked]

Hi! I saw that you were theorizing before about Sherlock so I really want two things let out of my chest since I saw the series and I am curious what you think.

First of all, I have always had this theory that Moffat and Gatiss wanted Johnlock as their end-goal. I studied Film and screenwriting which taught me a lot and there is NO WAY they made all those things suggesting that their relationship is keep building from colleague to friends to something else in the first two season just by share accident. There are so many ways they could have done it and I don't believe it that they wanted queer baiting just for the sake of it THIS much without a resolution. I especially not believe it since Gatiss is gay and he should know more. Not to mention that the interviews around the first two seasons were quite telling sometimes that they were not opposed to the idea. Then something happened. My theory is that either the BBC or whoever was charged of Doyle estate and Sherlcok Holmes right (which became free from this year), or maybe even both of them could see where this is going and let Mofftiss know that they can't do that. They are bringing the money and they can call the shots even though they are the creators so they needed to compromise. And you can see they clearly made a turn from Season 3. And I think you can tell about the interviews as well from that period. I believe that's (one of the) reason Martin had enough by the end probably and they just did the job they had to do. That's what I felt. Like they were acting but it didn't really have the....spice if you know what I mean. What do you think? I have always had this theory but since studying film and how film production work and the writing progress I am convinced that they thought it through and they had a clear intension, a long game but they need to stop. 2. This second one is not a theory but it always really bugged me. In the last episode, the Final problem when Sherlock had to call Molly to make her say I love you (let's not talk about the part how rubbish it was), why Molly looked so...pardon my language...shit? She looked so done, like she was crying for hours before and it was just super weird. What was the intention behind it? It was never really explained. Or did they want to suggest that she had a shitty day and she has no patience today for Sherlock or what? She was so completely different than normally. (And I try not to rage about the fact how they underminded her character but that's another story). What do you think about that one? Honestly it really bothered me when I saw that.

Sorry for the long post. This is something I have in me for years and I didn't really have anyone to share with. If anyone else wants to comment on it, go ahead. (And english is not my first language so sorry if there are grammar issues)

Hey Lovely!

Sorry for the delay in a reply, I always need to switch my brain into Meta Mode™ to answer these types of questions, and since I don't do that much anymore, I have to go back and see what I used to theorize, LOL. So, let's go:

ONE:

Your theory aligns mostly with my own: either the (at the time) Doyle estate got involved since they saw where the plot lines were leading to post-S3, OR – and this is the one I lean more heavier towards – BBC interference. I believe there was a turnover of higher-ups at BBC at the time, if I recall correctly, and perhaps their vision for the show differed from what the story was being told. I agree with you – there is NO WAY that they DIDN'T see what they were doing...

Which then leads me to the third (and, I fear, the actual answer) option – queerbaiting to bring in the numbers. Moffat has done projects in the past where he never follows through with the queer romance or they die / happens offscreen, and Gatiss has openly admitted to using homoeroticism to bring in an audience after the downfall of S4. So It's also likely that they got too full of themselves, and without a third writer to reign them in and make a cohesive narrative (at the VERY least make S4 make sense to the other previous episodes with or without Johnlock endgame), they wrote something no one liked at ALL (even though they LEGIT thought TFP was great enough to nominate for an Emmy, if I recall correctly, and backed down on that claim after it was critically panned), including the critics AND general audience, basically told everyone they were stupid, and picked up their ball and went home. And they refuse to say if Sherlock is done at this point because the Brand™ gets them money still.

None of the actors seemed very happy after S4, even though they worked SO hard to make the best with what they had been given. Martin was DONE in interviews, Ben is SO bad at faking it, but he tried, bless his heart, and I think at this point, with both Martin and Ben busy with their own careers and side projects, I don't think we're getting anything within the next 5 years. But I've been surprised before.

TWO:

Ah, yes, the Molly Thing in TFP™, one of the things that just... ruined her entire character, devolving her back to ASiP Molly. The running theory – or at least my theory – is that she is a placeholder character for John in John's coma nightmare. She is John's inner feelings, the ones John himself feels like he can't express to Sherlock because he fears the rejection from Sherlock. I PERSONALLY think that's how we're supposed to read that scene, because otherwise any other context is weird and demeaning to her character arc.

But then again, the entirety of S4 is one big FU the series without an S5 to clean it up.

-------

I hope I helped a bit with this response! Sorry if I missed anything, I'm exhausted and need some sleep LOL.

Feel free, friends, to add your own thoughts.

[officialgleamstar]

:3 Any class (and subclass) headcanons/ideas/theories for Lark? Vaguely related, I can't stop thinking about the fact the he just whistled up a fucking portal last episode?????

i have always assumed lark was a ranger, which is one reason why i was so flabbergasted by grant being the kiddads' ranger. i still think he should be a ranger, a horizon walker ranger specifically, even if it would be dumb and unbalanced for them to have two rangers. literally it makes the most sense. lark is the most ranger guy ever. however, i already made a full post about ranger subclasses for grant, including the reasoning for horizon walker that also applies to lark (namely what you said - WHISTLING TO SUMMON A PORTAL? HORIZON WALKER TYPE SHIT.) SO i will delve into some different ideas instead

if he's not a ranger, then i would guess that he is a fighter, battle master subclass, or a rogue, assassin subclass, with likelihood (in my opinion!) being in that order. thats the tldr. heres the long version LOL:

fighter - fighters are known for being able to wield a wide array of weapons, which makes sense for lark, since he is such a doomsday prepper. he would want to be able to use any weapon he got his hands on. also, indomitable fits lark really well in my opinion. if we wanna talk gear, i'd probably give him chainmail (flavored as bullet-proof vest), two martial weapons (two daggers), a light crossbow and 20 bolts (flavored as a pistol and ammo), and the pack i'm not sure on. i dont think im gonna do gear on every single class but its just part of being a fighter to me to consider that-- subclass wise, we have a few options, listed in order of most to least likely (subjective.)

battle master - the most likely one to me, though now that sparrow seems to be set up as more of the leader than lark, that might change (though i do think that maybe sparrow just takes the head in talking since he's more. uh. sociable than everyone else rn LOL). given how much enemies monologue in dndads, 'know your enemy' would be a super useful skill, and i think if he was spec'd out similar to gerard from neverafter (mostly in the ability to grant other players extra attacks), this would make a lot of sense for him.

champion - listing this because on a meta-level, its extremely easy to play, which makes it an easy pick for anthony. however, i dont think it fits him character-wise because lark would never heal himself LMAO though, to be fair, i dont think the kiddads will ever level up that high

arcane archer - not the best subclass, but very cool to me, and fitting for how all of the kiddads are gun-heavy. banishing arrow would be super useful and fit the general theme of planes and dimensions.

eldritch knight - not as likely, but i think it would be sooo so cool for lark, especially if the eldritch part came from his connection to the doodler. ohhh the drama of gaining power from the eldritch being you swore to eradicate… plus, we get LARK CASTING MAGIC, even if its not as powerful as anything his family can do! so cool!!! this subclass isnt as good for range, but i could see anthony allowing war magic to apply to ranged weapons rather than just blades for the cool factor.

samurai - in general, this subclass is not lark. however, i wanted to mention it because i think their 18th level ability 'strength before death' specifically is very lark. basically, if you get knocked down to zero HP, you can use a reaction to get an entire turn and then you go into death saves. theoretically, you could use this to heal, but its lark - he absolutely would use it to go down swinging.

rogue - other people have made this point for me, but rogues are good for guns if you flavor hand crossbows as such. i actually dont really like rogue for lark, but i dont have a reason why LOL it just doesnt really? do it for me. however, i agree that its likely to fit due to what we know about lark, so i will play my own personal devil's advocate here. i think it makes sense for lark to be the sneaky attacker while the others draw most of the attention, especially since it seems like there would be three magic users (terry jr, nicky, and sparrow) in the group. magic can be used sneakily, but im sure nicky and sparrow at least would lean towards showiness, lol. plus, i think it would be really interesting to flavor 'slippery mind' as like, lark growing a resistance to the doodler after so many years under its influence! once again, subclasses are listed most likely to least likely.

assassin - this works from both an in-character and a meta standpoint, and from what i've seen, this is what people mean when they say lark should be a rogue. its an easy subclass to play, so its good for an NPC. character-wise, with lark's extreme paranoia, it makes sense that lark would spend time studying how to most efficiently kill people. he doesn't want to risk anyone in a drawn-out fight, he's not grant. he just wants things dead as fast as possible.

scout - am i just saying this one is likely being its the ranger-flavored rogue subclass? maybe. but like liSTEN LARK SHOULD BE A RANGER HE IS LITERALLY A RANGER HE IS-

phantom - not very likely, but SEVERELY COOL from a character standpoint. walk with me here. phantom is a rogue subclass where you talk to the dead, but imagine that reflavored as lark being able to talk to like, eldritch beings, even beyond the doodler? or like, maybe the spirits of those killed and used by the doodler? holy SHIT!! it would be COOL.

unfortunately none of this has an explanation on lark whistling a portal Which Is Why He Is A Horiz- [shot] im guessing he has a magical item tho!!!

[unskilledpoint]

does prevskilled have symbolism? he's a cool character, but i'm wondering if he was just there or actually meant something.

ummm yreah a liddol it was probably my like worst attempt at subtle symbolism ever thuogh so fuck it lets just do complete analysis of prevskilled. hes pretty fun to talk about actually. also somewhat personal to me? tangentially speaking.

anyways. prevskilled! quick lore recap he was an asshole capitalist who achieved immortality, before shedding the "universal veil," seeing that the world hasn't started yet and killing himself. fun!

so symbolism. prevskilled is a very meta character. his introduction was meta, he concept was meta, and thus his analysis is meta.

prevskilled's entire arc is told from something that unskilled is looking back on. their character arc has happened. they are no longer capable of changing because their character arc is in past tense. they are doomed to remain stagnant. hence the complete lowercase and almost utter lack of any punctuation, and emphasis being in bold rather than italics or caps or even with the 8x quirk. his inability to change went through to his speech.

okay, so let's look at the contents of said arc. prevskilled basically, got too meta. he learned too much, lovecraft style. the "universal veil" he mentioned in one of the journal entries was literal. he saw, somehow, that the EPPRBCU didn't actually start yet. this was pretty much worldending for him. especially when you read through some of it and realize how much of it involves being known and recognized. but since the EPPRBCU wasn't a thing yet, prevskilled was pretty much doomed to irrelevancy. and he was well aware of this.

here's the part more relevant to unskilled. before prevskilled killed himself out of sheer hatred of irrelevancy, he cloned himself in the form of a second file, in the form of unskilled. he edited his own file for certain traits, killed himself, and released the second file in a last ditch attempt for relevancy. so now, we have unskilled. and there are some pretty major differences/similarities between the two!

prevskilled had a god complex, unskilled has. all of that. prevskilled was also really ambitious, unskilled genuinely wants to be left to their own devices. but also they're very similar! a fondness for the number 878, a tendency to dryly and judgmentally comment on others, etc.

this leads to the question. we know prevskilled did change unskilled's code. but how much? did all of that actually affect unskilled's current personality? or was it all just luck? would prevskilled also have turned out like unskilled had they been coded earlier? would unskilled have turned up like prevskilled? i don't have any particular reason or desire to answer any of these, but if you do some analysis of him yourself i'm sure you could come up with something.

you could also draw some parallels of unskilled/prevskilled's computer code to real life genetic code. should my parents have made me, with their history of mental illness? again, i've no interest in answering this. just a little tidbit, i guess.

last topic! i just want to call to attention prevskilled's relationship with unskilled. he's pretty much always critiquing unskilled, usually telling them to kill themselves or calling them weak for trying to kill themselves. unskilled, obviously, points out how prevskilled is a hypocrite, as he attempted suicide a long time ago. prevskilled usually responds with "it was just a moment of weakness" and leaves it.

this in turn raises a couple interesting questions. could prevskilled be projecting his own insecurity about suicide onto unskilled? does unskilled remind him of themselves? it's pretty likely, in all honesty. again, you could draw some parallels of unskilled and prevskilled and irl parents and their insecurities, especially combined with the pun of genetic/computer code.

anyway! that's pretty much it. i dunno. this isn't super long so hope you aren't like disappointed or anything. i'm sure i could've forgotten something but i'm pretty sure i've hit all the major points. so. yeah! stay sillay and stay safe its a wild world out there :3c

[talentforlying]

@thicketville: meta: how does john feel about his punk-rock days? did he ever delude himself into thinking the band would go anywhere? does he regret spending so much time on it? how'd he start it up, anyway? — META TOPICS

it's mostly head-shaking fondness and warm nostalgia! he loves the concept of those days, the memories of everyone in the band packed into the back of chas's van or whatever couch they were crashing on / one-room flat they were only half-paying rent for at the time, the fights and the fun and the stupid shit you can only get away with in your early 20s. it was one of the few times in his life where he was precisely where he wanted to be, doing what he wanted to do, suspended from ultimate consequence.

but there's always going to be a twinge of bitter anger at himself in there, too, because fuck did he take it all for granted. the friends, the freedom, the normalcy of it all; running to feel alive instead of running to stay alive. he burnt all of that with his own hands when he kept fucking around in the occult, when they opened that basement door in newcastle and he made a plan instead of running away screaming like they all should have. he didn't know it then, but the punk rock days were the last time he was truly secure in the world — not just temporarily stable, but secure.

as for going anywhere, i think, abstractly, he hoped they might, but he wasn't ever thinking that far ahead. a lot of john's outlook on life all the way up until newcastle was about living one day at a time and making the most of that day; i can't emphasize enough that he didn't expect to make it to adulthood, and nobody else expected him to either, so just making it to tomorrow was already the best possible outcome for him. everything before astra, including the band, was about living as hard and fast as possible and having the maximum amount of fun along the way. didn't matter if they made the big time or not as long as he was out playing music with his mates and earning the love — or hate, they were the same thing to him back then — of the crowds, and that was it. that was all he ever needed.

he doesn't regret it in the slightest. he regrets how it ended, he regrets what came after, but like i said, that was the first time in his life where he was exactly where he wanted to be, doing what he wanted to do, and he wouldn't have changed that part for the world. if anything, he'd say it was better that he spent all that energy nobbing around with his dickhead friends instead of actually trying to contribute to the world, because the way he was back then, irresponsible and futureless, he probably would have ended up causing more harm than good in the long run.

it started pretty simply: it was 1977, he and gary lester had just gone to see the sex pistols play live at the roxy, they were walking home piss-drunk and hopped up on the music, and one turned to the other and said "bet we could do that bollocks." when they got back to their friend beano's flat, the three of them stayed up well into the next morning coming up with names, with art-school-dropout gary scribbling up logos and posters and symbols until they all fell asleep. when they woke up later with hangovers and bleary eyes, it didn't seem any worse an idea than it had six hours ago, so they said fuck it and started a band. constantine doesn't even remember why they called it mucous membrane, but he remembers someone calling someone else a slimy git that night, so that's the reason he usually gives whenever anyone asks.

and while i'm talking about the punk days, there's a spiderlegs cover of their single, venus of the hardsell! it's not particularly good, but that's the point!

[just-an-enby-lemon]

hello! i only just saw your reply and wanted to say that i agree with you about not entirely trusting King with topics like suicide especially not in a comic like his One Bad Day oneshot that is so edgy and focused on writing dark and violent scenes for pure shock value with no depth.

as for the last part of the rewrite ideas, i wanted to try and keep it brief, but it still ended up too long so i have to send the last two scenes separately again, sorry :

after Batman had talked with the mother (+ subsequent past flashback) , after he talked to the distressed widow of the civilian that died and after the flashback following that scene, we get the scene of Batman seeking out the father. that one i think can stay mostly the same, except that the father doesn't get framed as just a sad old man that tried his best but got punished with an evil demon as a son. maybe that is what he seems to be at first in the scene, since it is what he sees himself as and what he wants to be perceived as, but then reveals his vindictive side so it is shown that when he presented himself as a 'loving' father that just wanted the best for his child, that is something he convinced himself and everyone else of, but not the truth. that switch might happen because, after initially just talking about how well meaning of a father he was, wanting only the best for his son, the best education, pushing for academic success to feed his son's 'potential' and ensure a good future for him etc., he starts saying how that 'was all for nothing', how instead of a lauded academic his son became a 'carnival performer', dressing up in a ridiculous costume with a ridiculous persona, wasting his time and intellect with games, childish wordplays and excentric criminal plots that he doesn't even succeed at most of the time, 'completely embarassing himself' and, more importantly in his opinion, embarassing his father by association. at that point it becomes clear that he does not care about the victims at all, he doesn't even really care about the crimes, it is all about how he it makes him look if that is what his son is like and it too becomes clear that he would have hated Edward the same way even if he wasn't a criminal but just a harmless playful eccentric (he would probably be ableist about it too) because he never wanted a son, he only wanted a genius that he could show off. Of course he would never entertain the possibility that his own actions could have been a negative influence in any way so instead, showing how vindictive and bigoted he is, he blames it on Edward's mother, saying that he should have 'expected' the child to turn out 'wrong' when his mother was poor and had the job she had etc. Batman, a well written one at least, would not stand for that and cut him off in his angry insults and shifting of blame, making it clear that the things the father said are bigoted and wrong. the father might even say something about 'getting stuck with a child that was born evil' etc., which Bruce would shut down too, since it is dangerous bioessentialist drivel (as opposed to the original that implies that the father was right and Edward really was just a born evil sadist), that he was 'too soft' of a father and should have been even harsher in the punishment of his son. he might even put blame on Batman himself for 'not just killing Edward when he had the chance' etc., which in a meta sense would open the option to comment on Bruce's no-kill rule. Batman should be a protector of victims anyways, of any victims. He would not let someone say these things about someone that had no choice in a bad or complicated situation, like Ed's mother did, or let an abuser talk that way about his victim, even if that victim grew up to be a bad person, and he especially would not let anyone say that he should just kill the criminals and that death would be the best option for them. otherwise he is just some grimdark edgelord Punisher copy. either way, Batman has had enough of wasting time with him as it is ticking and he can't be sure that Edward won't kill someone else, since clearly something is wrong as random violence without any clues is not how his crimes usually go. So he asks one last question, if his father knows where Ed might be, to which the father, timid now, replies that he doesn't know and doesn't care since he hasn't spoken a word to his son in over 30 years, since back at the boarding school.

Now there is another flashback, the one with the scene in the empty office, showing just what effects his father's abuse had on Ed as a kid and that the whole 'born evil' thing can not be true, just in case anyone still had doubts about that. after that, back in the present, it is the morning of the next day. Bruce had been spending his night researching the boarding school and decided that the next person he should talk to for more clues on Edward's whereabouts is his old teacher (who in this version did not get brutally murdered by a 14 year old Ed because that was weird and edgy). but before he goes to talk to the teacher, Bruce attends the funeral of the civilian, where he again meets the widow, like in the original comic. i don't really remember what they talked about during the cemetary scene in the original so it is probably fine to keep most of it? it would have to be something about how the GCPD and media (and in this widow's opinion also Batman) treats the victims as pawns in a game that the rogues are playing and not like real people that had families, now with added commentary about how Batman does or should care about the victims first and foremost. maybe some discussion about the no-kill rule again, too, this time the argument for it coming from a place of grief instead of prejudice, so Bruce would defend his choice not to kill from a more nuanced standpoint, to drive the point about it being the right choice home even more from a metanarrative point of view. the scene could end with the widow, after giving Bruce's explanation some consideration, admitting that he is right that killing the criminals is just vengeance and not a solution either, but as she walks away from him she says something like "I just hope he [Batman] knows this is not a game.." ? after that another past flashback, this time kid Ed having gone back to obeying his father, who treats him even worse now that his grades had slipped and barely even acknowledges his son's existence anymore. he is trying to be his father's perfect academic emotionless genius again but finds that he can't fully go back to that, even if he forces himself to, as some part of him does miss the games and riddles and fun, desperately so, and it might even include a nod to his ocd by showing him develop those self soothing rituals and compulsions?

this is long again , unfortunately longer than i thought it would, so the last scenes will be separate again but i am curious about your thoughts on this part and how to deal with Bruce's talk with the father; this is fun and thanks for your patience

Sorry. I read your post yesterday but I wasn't in right headspace to answer it (or do much of anything rly) but I took my meds, slepped a lot, baby talked with my aunts fish and am a-okay now.

About the re-write itself. I really loved it and specially how the whole idea that super-heros are supposed to inspire the best in people shinne through. Bruce can be a person with flaws without this being that he isn't Punisher like enough and doesn't believe in bioessexialism bs. I also preffer this version where the encounter with the dad lead to nothing. How he alienated himself so much with his prejudice that even though it appeared he would be the key for Edward's actions he just can't truly offer anything to Bruce.

Edward not killing his teacher as 14 it's such a improvement. I do find a little funny that the little nerd with noodle arms killed a whole adult by punching him really hard. It's not the wort part of that scene whatsoever but it still breaks the ilusion of realism that they used to justify the grimdark (a thing that had happened a lot on the present already but not in the past), they could made so he used a blunt object (that wasn't a basketball), maybe change to a basebol field and make he use the bat. It would still be a ridiculous scene that come sort of nowhere for extra edgyness but at least it wouldn't completly break the only defend the OCCness had sorta going for them. That's to say I'm glad the teacher is alive.

Also don't thank me for my patience. I looove this asks. It's not a hardship at all. I that should be thanking you for sharing your wonderfull ideas.

Answering your question I think I would start the talk the same way: with the dad waiting with a gun (that in the comic was used for us to pity him?) paranoic that Edward will come and kill him and ready to kill Riddler first. When he sees is only Batman he calms a bit and goes "I was asking when you would come" so he starts telling about himself about how he was a loving father that saw how much potential his son had and did all he could, sacrificed it all for his son to suceed but unfortunally his son wasted it by dressing like a "carnival attraction" and going around playing games, that he is an embarassement to himself and to his father, I think I would use this scene as a contrast with the widow scene and how HE sees the senseless violence and murder in Gotham as a game maybe have him coment than even worst Edward was losing. He couldn't even be a winner in his new occupation. It's all about his image. Than when Batman goes "you know that what his son is doing isn't a game right" he goes dismissive and says something like "sure for us normal people but from someone born like him being a good criminal it's the best I could expect, at least than I would be the father of Boonie and Clyde or of Jack the Rippler or the antichrist or the Joker but no even in his evil he chooses to be pathetic" wich breaks any ilusion he might ever bejnf a good guy so Batman - rembering Edward's question to his mom on this rewrite verse - while visibly angry tries to calm down and asks what does he means with "Born like him" and the father goes "Evil. I should have expected surely with a mother of that stirpe. Maybe than I wouldn't have been so soft. Maybe I could've truly beat the evil out of him?" Maybe even add that he should just killed the baby and Bruce says that people aren't born evil that this is buoessebcialism pseudoscience and if this is what he believes it surely explains why he is alone and scared in an empty room waiting to confront a son that will never come back even for vegeance and the dad reacts to the world by saying that of course Batman would think like this since Batman is weak and just as crazy as the rest and that if he was trully a hero he would have killed Edward when he had the chance "and the rest of those masked weirdos to bolt" Batman just looks at him and says something about how the man just doesn't truly knows anything helpfull and is just too full of hate to realize that this is driving him to misery (maybe a hint that this could have been Batman if he decided that the death of his parents meant that rehabilitation wasn't possible and didn't had Alfred guiding him and later the robins). The man says "you are wrong" and Batman goes "do you have anything to say about where Riddler is or what he is planning?" and the guy admitis he doesn't and Bruce says "then I was right."

[bmblboop]

What are your thoughts on the scene of Weiss tossing that guy in the trash can?

Personally I say more power to her, I wish she’d kept that prepensity for on’y ducal violence when she saw Jacques

But doesn’t it kind of gone again the idea that “bad guys suffering isn’t a good thing”? Because it was clear weiss hurting this guy for no other reason then because he was being a dick,

You are giving me V7C1 Discourse Flashbacks.

The Purpose of the "Weiss dumps a Racist guy in a Trashcan" scene was threefold:

1. Reveal how blatant and common Anti-Faunus racism is in Mantle/Atlas

2. Showcase Weiss' character development by having a former racist stand up to racism

3. Slapstick comedy

She could, and probably would, throw Jacques into a trashcan under similar 'slapstick comedy' circumstances, but not in the more serious tone that most of their scenes hold in Volume 7. She doesn't have authority over Jacques, she couldn't 'get away with' something like that. The guy she dumpster'd was a stranger - someone she could risk upsetting because he didn't know who she was.

Jacques, on the other hand, is her father. Everyone on this site says you gotta punch Nazis, but what if the Nazi in your life is your Mom? You aren't going to slap your own mother unless you are incredibly comfortable cutting them out of your life indefinitely.

The events of Volume 5 happen over 1-2 months, and the events of V6 happen over 1 week. It's unclear how long the Atlas upgrades took, but it's safe to assume the time difference between Weiss Sneaking out of the Mansion and seeing her father again in V7C4 was 3 months or less. Even though she is in a better place with her team now, she is still intimidated by him. She freezes up when they lock eyes. She heaves a sigh of relief when he leaves. She might know deep down that he isn't a fighter on par with her skill, but he has 'beaten' her in other fights that don't use swords or semblances. She isn't going to risk getting 'beaten' again when she knows how big his influence is, and what he can do at the drop of a hat.

--

This Part got Long.

TL;DR - Dumpster Guy didn't Suffer and Suffering isn't Justice.

--

What I mean by "bad guys suffering" doesn't mean humiliation or slapstick or fight scenes. Getting tossed in the trash did not injure him or cause him significant physical pain, and we see this character in the background of several later shots. The only thing that scene gave him was a bump on the head and some really stinky clothes.

Tyrian getting punched in the jaw isn't 'suffering', it's slapstick. It's funny because he wasn't expecting Qrow to go fisticuffs. Any villain taking a hard hit isn't 'suffering' in the context of a fight, when both sides are taking and dishing damage.

In a similar vein, I thoroughly enjoy watching that scene in As Above So Below when Jacques' plan is revealed, and tries to weasel his way out of irrefutable evidence, but that's not "suffering", that's humiliation; that's the classic Ace Attorney pulling-of-receipts as they realize they have nowhere left to run.

What I mean by "suffering" is fans calling for Ruby or Jaune to tear Cinder limb from limb while screaming vengeance for Pyrrha/Penny. What I mean by "suffering" is theorizing the only way for Salem to be defeated is to lock her somewhere she can't escape - like space or an abyss or cut up into tiny pieces and buried in every corner of the planet. She'd still be alive because she immortal, thus in constant agony, but hey! At least she'll be out of the way and the heroes get to win, right? /s

This show doesn't do gratuitous suffering. Adam's death was victorious sure, but Blake, who you think would be happiest about this outcome, breaks down crying because she had to take a life. The life of someone she once believed in, a life that caused her so much pain.

So no. I don't believe Jacques getting what's coming to him, in the form of a horde of vengeful Faunus, would be fitting end to his story.

(Unless you meant "thousands of Faunus" figuratively, in the form of a legal sentence that punishes him on behalf of all his victims. That would have been nice, but we already know that never came to be; truly unfortunate.)

[sparring-spirals]

What are your thoughts about Laudna coming back, I’m curious because this seems different from the Molly situation, the group seems incredibly determined

Oh boy, what a question.

Okay to set up for the first bit, I'm gonna address the second part of the q first:

Yeah, I think this is different. I think this is very different. I think its different in all the ways that the Bells and the M9 are so drastically different and the ways that they are two very distinct camapigns. But also in the more obvious ways- when the M9 lost Molly, they were lower leveled. They didn't have a cleric with revivify, they didn't have half their party. They didn't have anyone to turn to.

I'm trying to avoid this turning into a meta about the M9 but I think that last detail is just- so important. The Bell's have Eshteross, they have random shop owners to ask, they have distant but powerful figures who might help. The M9- did not. It was part of how they operated. More than once in early campaign they went from being mistrusted to marginally trusted and they would just- leave. Authorities were so rarely friendly. They were accusing people more than they weren't.

When Molly went down, on a snowy hill at the sword of someone who wanted to send a message- there was so, so little they could do.

And so we look at the Bells and- they've got more options. They had half their party killed but they got two of them back up and, in theory, left the battle on their own terms.

They're also, like you said. Incredibly determined.

readmore bc this got long im so sorry

Its both incredible and a little sad, honestly. I said this somewhere already, but by the end of the episode- they aren't quite grieving yet. They're hurt, they're aching from the loss, they're sad, but they haven't started grieving yet and part of that is because they are still acting. There are still things to do, avenues to exhaust. They aren't grieving Laudna yet. They can still get her back. They will, they have to. They're taking the time to sit and check in with each other and ask questions and comfort, where they can, but. Very little of that comfort has even entertained the notion of this loss being permanent. About Laudna being gone, not just lost.

(Except maybe for Orym, who is looking at Imogen and thinking of losing a loved one, having that absence be a fixture instead of an aberration. Thinking of a warm embrace, and "Not yet.")

And Imogen-

Imogen, more than the others, is probably painfully aware of Laudna's absence. A silence in her mind, an empty space at her side.

i'm not sure she can even consider the possibility of that absence becoming permanent, right now.

Im not sure any of them really can.

So... uh. on Laudna coming back: I don't know, right now. I don't think it will be too easy, but I think the Bells are going to be fighting for it, hard, for the foreseeable future. And whether it fails or succeeds in the longer term, i think (I'd hope?) itll have pretty long lasting effects.

I've deleted like an additional five paragraphs of my ~thoughts~ on it for the purposes of length and keeping it as 1 meta instead of two tacked together but:

- Some of my thoughts on Laudna's death can be found here.

- Story wise, narratively, campaign-as-a-whole/ externally, is a whole separate conversation, and one that plays a lot into personal preferences and wants and likes and... probably shouldn't go into this post.

- I think there's a lot of the ways this can go and still be done "well", by a subjective metric.

- I'd like for Laudna to come back. I also can see a world where she doesn't, and narratively thats juicy as hell, and also devastating. (edit: like full honesty, devastating and also chock full of potential, yknow?)

- No matter the specifics- Laudna mattered, and will continue to matter, and I think that's the main thoroughline I'm looking for.

- edit: and- alongside that- id want her death to matter too- whatever that might look like.

[goodboylupin]

It's that time of year again! Welcome, returning participants and newcomers alike to

The 2nd Candy Hearts Challenge

A fun, stress-free Wolfstar mini-fest!

(If you remember how last year went, feel free to skip my introductory spiel!)

They’re sold by many companies and known by many names: Candy Hearts, Conversation Hearts, Sweethearts, and Love Hearts. Whatever the brand and whatever you call them, they’re the signature sweet of the season. Sure, you could buy your beloved a box of chocolates, but that’s an option any time of year! Good luck finding these bad boys in November!

Not that candy hearts are bad! Sure, they’re kinda chalky… and they taste stale no matter how fresh you bought them… but it’s not about the taste with candy hearts, it’s about the pastel, the experience, and above all else: the sayings! Who doesn’t remember going through a pack with friends, trying to find the kookiest message? Digging through a box to find one that was just the right level of romantic to give a certain special someone? (And maybe the heartbreak when you received one in turn where the message was just a big, pink smudge?)

Now, candy hearts have been around for a long time. And with a constant rotation of messages so we always got fun variety in a box, they’ve had a lot of sayings.

Through a great deal of internet sleuthing (and a little creativity on my part), I’ve collected almost five hundred of them.

Some are a little raunchy (TEASE ME), and some are outright rude (EW NO). They range from classic (BE MINE) to contemporary (SWIPE RIGHT) to were-at-one-point-contemporary (FAX ME). Some of them are, quite frankly so hyper specific it’s a wonder they made it into circulation at all (ME JULIE BEST MUM).

And they are all, even the weird ones, ripe with potential as fic prompts!

The way this mini-fest works is simple:

From now until 11:59pm EST February 14, drop me an ask containing these emojis: 🍬💕

If you don't want to send an ask from your main tumblr account (or don't have a tumblr account), you can do so anonymously. However, you must include the ao3 handle or tumblr sideblog from which you plan to complete the challenge.

I will shake my Great Big Box of Candy Hearts and pull out a unique candy heart for you and only you!

With your message in hand, create whatever that candy heart inspires and your own heart desires! Fanfic, art, graphics, playlists, head canons, shit posts, interpretive dances, cosplay, meta essays, it’s all great as long as its central focus is on Wolfstar, the relationship between Remus Lupin and Sirius Black!

You can either directly quote your candy heart message in your work or use it as a broader inspiration.

You are allowed to use the same candy heart as inspiration for multiple unrelated works and submit all of them to the fest.

You do not need a beta before submitting your work, but I do encourage you to get one. I want this to be as stress-free an event as it can possibly be, and in my personal experience, it reduces stress to have someone else look over your completed work for at least spelling and grammar so you don’t have to reread your own stuff and psych yourself out before posting. If you don’t have any fandom friends with whom you feel comfortable sharing your fanfiction, there are also online resources to find a friendly stranger (including, hopefully, our discord server — see rule 17). But if ultimately, you’d rather be your own editor, I certainly won’t reject your work!

Include the following caption at the beginning of the tumblr post or AO3 beginning notes: For @goodboylupin's Candy Hearts Challenge. My candy heart prompt was ____.

If posting on tumblr, please make sure the @-tag of your caption is working so I get a notification! Also tag the work with #RSCandyHearts, preferably within the first five tags.

If posting on AO3, post your work to the collection and tag it with #RSCandyHearts (it will probably not be common enough to be a drop-down option, just type the whole thing out and hit enter).

I will reblog every work on Tumblr, and comment/kudos on every work on AO3. (If I haven't done so on your work and you see I've been active on this blog, then both the @-notification and #RSCandyHearts tag failed. DM me a link!)

If, after completing your first work, you want another helping of candy hearts, that’s more than welcome! Since I don’t want anyone to get a sugar crash, there is a two-day wait period between submitting a work and getting a second (or third or fourth or wherever you are) candy heart. You can send the ask earlier, but I will wait two days before answering it.

If you find you cannot come up with anything for your prompt, you can drop out and send a new ask to get a different candy heart. However, you need to give it an honest effort for at least one week before I give you a new one.

Works are expected by March 1, but this is a low-stakes, self-posting challenge! If you need more time, just message me or drop an ask. And if you want to drop out, that’s totally fine! I’ll even delete your first ask where you requested a candy heart if you prefer. I only need to know for the sake of my own record-keeping. Let’s all just be honest, considerate, and try to have a good time!

If you need a really long extension: Your candy heart is yours until January of next year, at which point, if I haven't heard back from you with an update or request for extension in the past few months, your prompt is going back in the Great Big Box of Candy Hearts so somebody else can have a go at it. The AO3 collection closes at the same time.

I will keep a masterlist of works pinned on my blog until at least March 7.

Trying something new this year, now there's a discord! Feel free to join to discuss your prompts, your progress, your love of Wolfstar, or just to have another little circle in your sidebar.

My ask box is open now to receive your candy heart requests 🍬💕

[dathen]

Okay I have some complicated thoughts following Melanie’s arc that all build on top of each other and hinge HEAVILY on unreliable narrator interpretations so bear with me

In my relisten I’m at the beginning of s3, and it always shocks me a bit at how quickly she interprets Martin’s interaction with her as hostile.  I’m going to skip over the “it’s understandable, Melanie’s had a hard time in her career” disclaimers since there’s plenty of meta on that already, and instead follow the effects of this tendency: not on others, this time, but on her

(This got absurdly long and covers so many episodes so I’m going to split it into separate pre- and post-bullet surgery posts)

Rewinding a bit, the last time she was at the Institute, she was starting to get along with Jon before he seemed confused about her comment on “the other Sasha.”  It takes her a split second to interpret that confusion as him suddenly deciding to gaslight and mock her, gets angry and tells him there is something seriously wrong with him, and leaves before he can ask what she means.  Given how tenuous their truce was and the fact she and Jon had mocked each other in the past, it’s an outburst that at least has some personal history behind it.

But only a couple episodes later, we learn that it’s not just Jon she responds to in this way.  In TMA 84, she meets our Martin Blackwood!  Customer service voice opposite-of-Jon politeness extraordinaire!  And as soon as he gets confused about the two Sasha comment, she.......immediately assumes that HE is also trying to gaslight her.  She insists that “I’m not doing this again” without giving him a chance to ask or explain, so they miss the opportunity to piece together the deal with the Not!Sasha.  Her doing this with someone she just met shows a much broader pattern than her interactions with Jon.

That very episode, Elias offers Melanie a job, and she accepts despite Martin’s protests.  Later, she accuses them all of them being an “old boy’s club” because she interpreted Martin’s warnings as sexism rather than trying to protect her.  As the audience, we see the unreliable narrator of her perspective at work: we know that Jon and Martin were genuinely confused, and we know that Martin was trying to save her, and that all of these instances were her seeing it as people being out to get her.

Hop forward to the notorious gossip scene in TMA 106.  Here, Melanie complains about Martin being hostile to her.  My first assumption was that this was all offscreen, but after this parade of misinterpretation and comparing to her and Martin’s actual interactions, I have to wonder:

TMA 84, after Martin tells Melanie about the murder, and right before Elias interrupts:

Martin:  Are you sure you’re alright?

Melanie:  Yes!  I just got… God, I’m kind of at the end, you know?

Martin:  The end of what?

Melanie:   Everything.  Friends, clues, savings. Everything.  Options.  There’s nowhere left for me to go . I don’t know why, but…  I just, I just felt that perhaps coming here might help.  And talking things out with Jon.  I mean, I mean he’s awful, but at least he listens, you know?

Martin:   (soft) Yeah.  ...I’m sorry.  Um, is there anything that I could, like, maybe...do for you?

They get interrupted immediately after this, so this was the first impression Melanie was given.  Then, when Elias offers the job, she...assumes Martin’s “I don’t think that’s a good idea” is from sexism, when he’d just been talking about murders and disappearances that caused that very job opening.

TMA 88 

Melanie:   Are you alright?

Martin:  Yeah… Sorry, just a lot of change recently, y’know.  You and John and Sasha and… everything’s gone a bit wrong.  It’s the not knowing, you know?  I mean, Jon’s still alive.  Not sure why, but I’m sure of that.  But Sasha, I…

Melanie:   Yes, it’s… it’s probably, um…

Martin:   Sorry, sorry, I’m...  What do you need?

Next interaction!  Oh this one HURTS.  Martin takes her question literally, and starts telling her why she’s not alright, a reverse of their earlier exchange.  But Melanie came by for a question and wasn’t prepared for an honest answer, so Martin quickly reels it in and asks what he can do for her once again.

Skipping forward a bit in that same scene:

Martin:   Oh, you weren’t here when we took the place over from Gertrude!  It’s been over a year just to get it like this.  I mean, I think the database was on Jon’s list, but--

Melanie:  So how do you track someone down?

Martin:   Oh, oh well, y’know, we’ve a few contacts in various record offices around the place.  Aside from that it’s just… just a bit of detective work, really.  Tim used to do a great line in impersonating people to utility companies!  Heh, the number of times he got them to give him ‘his own’ address--

Melanie:  Right, right… Um, this one, the name is 'Jude Perry.’ Doesn’t mean anything to you, does it?

I LOVE THIS EXCHANGE.  I TREASURE IT.  Having bottled up his emotions, Martin is going in full Friendly Helpful Coworker mode.  There are so many little details here signaling that he’s embracing her as part of the team, sharing anecdotes about Tim’s shenanigans and Jon’s old plans, looping her in as One of Them as he helps her get what she needs.  This is the kind of approach you go to management trainings to get, to help new hires feel welcome and part of things.  But alas, Melanie is in a hurry and wants to cut to the chase, so all this is lost on her.

TMA 98 - I won’t copy it all in here because it’s long, but this is an overwhelmingly positive interaction.  She asks if he’s okay, but he bottles it up and says he’s fine.  This time, she presses, and he admits it’s because of the statements.  Martin ends up asking for help!! and Melanie agrees!  She’s on the way to murder Elias, but she still gets credit for “I’ll ask him to cut you some slack.”  Then she invites him to drinks!

And then.... TMA 106

Melanie:   Anyway, Martin’s always been lovely to you.

Basira:  Hmm. I don’t know, I mean, you should have seen him when I turned up last year. I think he thought I was trying to steal his precious Archivist.

Melanie:   Ahhh. I got the exact same when Jon was hiding out, and came to me with his “source on the inside” stuff.  Martin was not impressed.

WAIT WHAT

We just looked over all their interactions!  They were all soft and lovely and welcoming!!  But then we hear Melanie with “well unlike how he is to me, Martin is nice to you.”  This was taken at face value for years, but when you line up all of the above, I feel there is a strong basis to say this is another case of Melanie’s first impressions + over-defensiveness gone wrong.  Just like we saw her initial bickerings with Jon solidify into series-long hostility, her interpreting Martin’s confusion as gaslighting and warnings about the job as sexism seems to have doomed her opinion of him long-term.  We hear Martin being kind and concerned and welcoming, then hear Melanie contrast it as bad treatment.

Recently, a mutual considered this even further to how she talked about losing all of her friends with the Ghost Hunt UK circles:

Melanie:  Even back then, I could feel all my old friends starting to distance themselves from me. ...  I stopped asking the others for help, and I kept my research to myself. I talked to them less and less. By the time I was arrested, I think a lot of them had already given up on me.

I have to wonder...did this sort of dynamic play out here, too?  Did she assume that her friends’ concern was judgment or hostility?  Were they giving up on her, or did she lash out and push them away?  Either way, it’s easy to see parallels to s2 Jon in her description, here, with her withdrawing and diving alone into increasingly risky research without asking for help.  And s2 Jon definitely shared Melanie’s tendency to see offers for help and support as hostile.  (Aside:  I interpret her and Georgie as not very close at this point, like a networking contact rather than a friend; Melanie comes to Jon for someone to talk to about her struggles above her, and Georgie seems to be unaware of all of Melanie’s encounters pre-s3)

And on that downer note I am ending part 1...but PART 2 IS GOING TO BE WAY HAPPIER THAN THIS.  Here, we see Melanie with a lot of people who would have supported her if she let them:  Martin, Jon, possibly the friends she said abandoned her.  But in her effort to protect herself and not let history repeat for how she’d been hurt in the past, she ends up alone and spiraling.

[narutakijune]

About ATLA Relationship Arcs

So, this is me, finally trying to write some meta after lurking in my little tumblr corner for months! Hi!

Although I’ve tried to tag properly, if you are a Kat*anger and just want to enjoy your favourite couple in peace, this might not be the post for you. I am not trying to bash characters but I do have a lot of critical stuff to say about the writing.

Anyway, you have been warned and here is my story about my personal first Atla experience: I watched the show this year for the first time, and after the end of Book 1 I decided to look up spoilers, because after what happened to Yue, I wanted to make sure that Zuko and Iroh would be ok. So I knew what was going to happen: Kat*ang endgame and absolutely no Zutara at all. Still, by the end of Book 3, I was convinced that I had read wrong - that there would be an epilogue with a different ending or at least that Aang would only get together with Katara post-show- in that Korra series or something - because anything else wouldn’t make sense- right?

….

After I got over my shock and surprise, I went online and found out about that decade-long aggressive passionate ship war and how even the showrunners got involved.

And then I really worried that I might have missed a few points. Apparently ”Aang and Katara were the DNA of the show”, according to the creators themselves, and “Zutara could never have happened”.

Another popular anti-ZK argument I found was: Why do you always go on about Katara and Zuko? Just look at Zuko and Aang! They are the hero/ anti-hero and each other’s foils, their relationship is much more meaningful!”

So I tried to find out what it was that I apparently couldn’t see.

(Another disclaimer: I love analysing stories (like many Zutarians apparently) and this will get long and rambly. If you get bored to tears when people start talking about “narrative structure” you will probably not like this.)

Talking about narrative structure, I do believe that, in order to let your story, your characters and their relationships really shine, a good basic structure is important. There should be a recognizable development and individual parts of the story that build upon each other and lead to consequences and change, until there is a completed arc - because it is all about the journey that takes you to a satisfying ending, right? So that’s what I tried to do, with my personal Kat*ang vs. Zutara take, I tried to look at the structure and development of their relationship arcs.

The argument that threw me off track for a while is that compared to Aang and Zuko, Zuko and Katara’s relationship is not supposed to be that relevant for the plot. After all, Zuko is the foil, the anti-hero, the deuteragonist to Aang, who is the hero protagonist.

This is all true of course. But then why is it that in every finale, Zuko’s main opponent (and later ally) is not Aang but Katara? Why is it that their sun/moon, red/blue, fire/water dichotomy is so obviously highlighted?

I think one reason why Zuko and Katara are paired off so frequently in the story - as opposite elements, as opponents and as allies - is that they BOTH are Aang’s deuteragonists. While Zuko also acts as antagonist and Aang’s foil/mirror, Katara takes over the more traditional deuteragonist role of confidant / best friend/ narrator.

Protagonist Aang is what connects them, although they are on opposite sides: Both need Aang because he represents their hope to save their world. Very simply put, Katara protects him, so he can make the world a safer place again, and Zuko wants to capture him, so he can go home and be safe again. That rivalry between them is already established in the first episode, even before they meet each other: Katara, who hopes that the Avatar will return (as she tells everyone in the intro), and Zuko, who seems to be obsessed with finding him for more sinister reasons.

And just to make sure, I am not talking here about the characters’ feelings and emotions! This is just about the abstract roles they have been assigned within the narrative.

When regarding Zutara’s special connection to Aang and their rivalry with each other, it makes absolute sense to stress their “same but different”ness as well, visually and metaphorically: Red and blue, fire and water, sun and moon, arguably Painted Lady/Blue Spirit, and, when you put into account their story arc, also Oma and Shu.

With this basis, which puts them together and sets them apart simultaneously, their relationship already becomes very dynamic and interesting, even before you consider any romantic potential.

And here’s another thing, Zuko and Katara also have their own story arc within the main plot. Although they don’t have many scenes together before Zuko joins the Gaang, when they do meet there is always a new shift in their relationship and in quite a few cases their interactions are important for the main plot as well. If you just look at their “end fights” at each book’s finale, there is an obvious and consequential build-up, like any decent story arc should have:

Book 1 starts with Zuko as the powered-up enemy and Katara as the weak newbie waterbender. Both are battling over Aang. At the end of Book 1, they are finally established as equally powerful fighters but still fundamentally different (You rise with the moon, I rise with the sun!)

In CoD at the end of Book 2 happens the next step: they realize that they are not different at all! But Aang still doesn’t represent the same for them and they end up on opposing sides of the war again.

In the Book 3 finale, when Zuko has completed his own (anti-) hero's journey and Aang represents the same “hope” for both of them, they do not only join forces: Their “same but different”- traits make them such a uniquely suited match that they are even able to save each other’s lives during their fight with Azula (who in turn happens to be Katara and Zuko’s antagonist/mirror/foil).

And in addition to their own story arc they even get an individual recurring theme, which also appears in every book whenever their relationship status changes: The lost mothers, especially Katara’s mother.

In Book 1, Katara’s necklace (the symbol of Kiya) plays not only a major part in two of Zuko’s capture attempts, it is the reason for their very first one-one one encounter in the story.

Their first friendly connection in COD in Book 2 happens because they start talking about their mothers. And in Book 3, their final reconciliation (sealed with a very cathartic hug) happens after their life-changing trip which is, of course, all about Katara’s mother.

Again, I am not even trying to analyse their characters and motivations within the story - there are many metas that have already done that much better, more detailed and with screenshots. This is just dry structure and tropes and themes. But I think people recognize and connect with a well-structured arc, even subconsciously, which is one of the reasons that makes Zutara such a compelling couple. They complete and contrast each other, their relationship dynamic constantly changes, builds up, falls apart, reconnects. Such a setup is the perfect playground for a lot of creative takes on what-ifs and alternative scenarios and of course, shipping them romantically is extremely tempting - think of all the possibilities! It’s no wonder that the Zutara fandom is still so active decades after the end of the show. And it’s also no wonder that the Zutarians are known for “over-analysing everything”. You can only over-analyse if there is anything that gives you enough food to analyse to begin with. Which brings me to

KAT*ANG

I just go right to the top and take the quote from Br*yke themselves:

Kata*ng was in the DNA of the thing from the start…. [Zutara] was just dark and intriguing.

If you read this quote and then start watching the show, I would (grudgingly) agree that:

Aang and Katara understand and complement each other really well. Aang gives her the chance to have fun and go on adventures and in turn, Katara is his fiercest supporter from the very beginning, something that he really needs after he lost all his people AND has to find out that the world thinks the war is sort of his fault. In turn, the journey to the North Pole is as important to Katara as it is to Aang, because it is her dream to learn waterbending properly. That’s what she literally says when Sokka & Co try to banish Aang: (Sokka: Where do you think you’re going? Katara: To find a waterbender. Aang is taking me to the North Pole.) In that way, they are friends who give and take equally and are equally taken care of. They even have the last Airbender/ last Southern Waterbender status that connects them. The few times they have a fight, Aang does something in the end to redeem himself (perform some heroic feat) and Katara sees that she is right to believe in him.

Aang has this very sweet crush on her and it will be very sweet and wholesome when Katara will return his feelings at the end of their adventure after he has hit puberty. On the other side, there is also some heavy shipbaiting with Zuko: I save you from the pirates. The betrothal necklace. June and her excellent shipping taste. But in the end they are enemies, they barely know each other and, come on, it would be too dark and intriguing! There is no real threat against friends to lovers Kat*ang, the soft heart of the story. It’s very straightforward and there are a lot of simple “the hero saves the day” scenes for Aang but that’s fine! It’s not really my kind of ship but that’s not the point, it works for the story they want to tell.

End of Book 1.

In my - probably harsh- opinion, everything you really need to know about the Kat*ang relationship has been told by this point. If you want to be really mean, already by Book 1, episode 3.

That explains maybe why many (not all! but many) pro-KA arguments sound as if their shippers have not watched Book 2 and 3 at all. The Book 1 synopsis also perfectly sums up Bry*ke’s quote above. But then Book 2 and 3 are still there and I don’t know what happened but it seems as if they somehow decided that the Kat*ang story does not need any new and lasting input. Maybe because they were afraid that too much new development and change would stray too far away from their original Kat*ang vision. But there are still 2 more books and more adventures and Kat*ang somehow has to be kept apart until the finale.

So the tension in their potential romance is based largely on the question whether or not Katara will return Aang’s feelings. In general I don’t have a problem with that will-she-won’t she-technique. It works well in books where the love interest is not a POV or in shows/ movies where the love interest is not one of the main characters. But Katara is not only the female lead but also arguably the narrative voice of the whole story! As a result, this kind of writing makes Katara look as if she doesn’t have any agency in their relationship, which is not surprisingly a very popular anti-KA criticism.

Additionally, since her dream - learning waterbending - has been fulfilled by the end of Book 1, the relationship work becomes a bit one-sided. Of course Aang is the hero and his journey is the heart of the story. But in order to highlight their special connection it would have helped to give Katara another personal agenda, which Aang could have supported in some way. She is still the last Southern Waterbender and he the Last Airbender but this is not really explored in the Kat*ang relationship. And her other personal agenda, her mother, is already reserved for the Zutara arc.

Instead, in Book 2 and 3 the Kat*ang story is somehow all over the place. Of course there is new conflict and a few romantic scenes as well. But obstacles are either introduced too late or just dropped when not needed anymore, conflict is not resolved and their flirty, romantic moments never lead anywhere- and if they do, they lead to more conflict that is not resolved (yes, I am looking at you, EIP Kiss!).

Take for example Katara’s very sudden argument that they cannot be together now because there is a war going on. We hear her saying that for the first time in the very last episode (EIP) before the 4-part finale. That is too late to have any impact! That she has these kinds of thoughts was never even alluded to before. Not once.

Or the pattern Aang runs away/ is flaky - Katara is upset - Aang comes back and does his hero thing - Katara is relieved. In regards to their relationship arc, nothing changes here between Book 1 and the finale, only the stakes for Aang’s heroic performances get higher.

Or Katara being the one who is able to calm Aang down when he cannot control the Avatar state (which, in my personal opinion, is neither romantic nor healthy). This is also connected to the problem with the seventh Chakra, that Aang needs to let go of his attachment for her. I will be angry forever with how they wasted this for a possible relationship development! That Aang has to decide to either do his duty or save his forever girl (because let’s be fair, he did try to let go and only ran when he had the vision of Katara in danger) - that’s a fantastic setup!

But no, it doesn’t have any real consequences for Kat*ang at all. Instead there were only half-baked attempts – Aang does lie about his failed practice with Guru Pathik but the ultimate reason why his chakra is blocked is Azula, not his decision to run. Aang does try to let go of Katara for a little bit but then Azula shoots him. Nothing in Book 3 shows any change in his feelings that could have been a result of his instant let-it-go. If anything, he gets weirdly obsessive - which could have been used as a side effect of his blocked chakra but – again, no, nothing happens.

I suspect the whole thing was just introduced to create temporary drama for poor Aang, but it is never explained why Katara holds him back, what aspect of the attachment is blocking him or what would happen if he did let her go. Maybe they tried to make a statement about how love is more important than Avatar rules – which would have been fine but it’s also never properly explored. Instead, as soon as that plot point becomes inconvenient it’s simply dropped like a random rock™.

Compare all that to the Zutara arc, where both characters’ feelings about each other are always very much in the open, and where every interaction causes lasting effects in their relationship. Yes, it is unfair to compare that to Kat*ang, because up to the end of Book 3, Zuko and Katara almost never meet, while Aang and Katara spend almost every episode together – of course they cannot do meaningful things all the time. But on the other side, with Kat*ang, there would have been a great chance to show a subtle, gradual build-up instead.

It also doesn’t help that the Zutara arc seems hellbent on sabotaging every romantic moment Aang is allowed to enjoy:

There is Kat*angs first maybe-kiss in the dark before the background of the Oma and Shu legend. But it does not lead anywhere. Instead, Zuko and Katara almost reenact the legend itself in the Book 2 finale as two real enemies to almost-friends, including a glowy rocks-backdrop and the right costume colours, just so nobody misses the message.

In Footloose The Headband, Aang and Katara have a really sweet dance together, and everybody can see how they almost intuitively know each other's moves. This could be a great hint on how well they will fight together in the finale. But is it plot-relevant? No, because the final tag team is Katara and Zuko! While Aang gets paired off with random rock™.

Then there is Aang’s riding off to battle- kiss in DotBS, which Katara is not even allowed to enjoy, because keeping her feelings vague is apparently more important than character development at this point. It is the only romantic moment that gets mentioned again, but in a way that sinks the former cute and wholesome ship into the deep ocean, and the reason is - Aang is jealous of Zuko!

If all of this was only done for the sake of shipbaiting, then it really went out of control at some point.

In the end, the showrunners still had their reasons to choose Kat*ang, maybe because that corresponded more to their own vision, and there are still enough people out there who agree with them. Which is absolutely fine! In the end, what matters most is how you personally connect to the characters and nobody needs to defend their personal taste. But the typical anti-ZK claim, that all the Zutarians with their crazy analysis and rambling meta essays are reaching and delusional and that they desperately try to construct something that isn’t there, is not only a very lazy argument but simply not true.

And I’d claim that in spite of the canon choice, Zutara is technically the better written relationship. By far.

[justalads]

c!niki and c!wilbur enjoyers. pspspspspspsps

alright guys so last night i rewatched pretty much all of the pogtopia arc. and this isn’t meant to be a big, important analysis post (it’s kind of incomprehensible), because my brain is fried from, you know. rewatching pretty much all of pogtopia. but i do have some stuff i’d like to say.

(this also just became a niki meta sorry i love her. i really just got emo about her during the second half of this and it got long. i have a lot of feelings about her and wilbur’s friendship.)

it’s a pretty general conclusion that wilbur’s real “downfall” began on october 8th, during the stream “who are you go away”. of course, his spiral and the process of him losing faith had begun much earlier, more around the end of the first war or during the election. but the big switch, so to say, was definitely here, when as wilbur walks back from schlatt’s announcement, he asks tommy if they’re the bad guys.

this entire scene was so interesting to me. wilbur here is a man who has lost hope, someone who is backed into a corner morally and has nothing left. he points out that they can never really reclaim l’manburg without forever tainting it, and that schlatt knows this. the entire half an hour or so before, schlatt has been taunting wilbur about losing that power. the emphasis of the festival on “democracy” is so clearly a barb thrown at wilbur, and it works.

wilbur’s “nothing left to lose” in this vod is a mirror to niki’s “you know what they say about a woman who has nothing left to lose”. this will not be the first time they mirror each other.

basically, wilbur’s angry. when schlatt announced the festival, wilbur realized that maybe it wasn’t a terrible thing. so once he worked around into the mindset of “we’re the bad guys”, he was able to justify saying he was going to blow up the nation with no remorse. he wants chaos! he wants no survivors!

does he do it? god no.

during the streams leading up to november 16th, wilbur is consistently scared. he goes back and forth on it, and makes multiple “conditions” that determine whether he’s going to do it or not, almost begging someone to stop him. he whispers to himself that he’s scared, that his hands are shaking, that he’s not sure if it’s the right thing to do. because despite what he says about “not caring about any of them”, the instant niki is threatened after tubbo’s death, wilbur walks up to schlatt and tells him that if he’s going to kill anyone it should be him. later, when quackity and tommy talk him down from pressing the button, he can’t press it because they’re there and he can’t bring himself to kill them as well.

but he has no problems with putting his own life at risk. he refuses to wear armor half the time, and actively places himself in harm’s way to save others. he still cares about everyone else, as much as he says he doesn’t. even when he does cause harm to others, during november 16th, he immediately begs phil to kill him. “look, they all want you to.” he can’t live with what he’s done, and how he’s hurt people, but he couldn’t allow manburg to continue.

the man is terrified and angry and he can’t win. and even as he tries to stuff himself into the mind of someone who doesn’t care, he cannot. when he finally does, he cannot live with being that person.

but the reason i rewatched this arc was to see niki’s point of view, especially after her statements during her last stream. i genuinely think that wilbur’s only betrayal of her was pressing the button, because he betrayed everyone. they might have known he was going to do it, but they had faith he wouldn’t.

wilbur cared a lot about niki. her life under schlatt was awful, wilbur hated that she was suffering, and the scene where wilbur plants himself directly in the center of the festival and tells schlatt to kill him instead hits pretty hard. he has the argument with schlatt, and then turns to niki and tells her to run. he then hits people and sprints away, trying to give her time to escape.

this is also when he asks her to join pogtopia, because now that schlatt has said he’d kill her, it’s a safer place for her.

so the man did care about her. niki is angry at the memory of him that she has. it’s been twisted by time and her own grief and paranoia.

in rewatching pogtopia, i realized that a lot of people hate the memory of wilbur. not him, and what he did. they think he didn’t care. and to quote hamilton (apologies):

“history obliteratesit paints me in all my mistakes”

does niki have a right to be mad at him? absolutely. he caused direct harm to her by blowing up l’manburg, once it was reclaimed. but she’s wrong that he never cared.

(an interesting note: wilbur only blows it up after techno starts fighting people outside. he hears it, and says “look, they’re fighting”. he didn’t re-initiate the conflict of the country. the fact that even after peace was won people were fighting just gave evidence to his belief that the entire country was corrupted.)

niki has been hurt a lot, and wilbur has things to answer for. but we as the audience know that her statements are just her perception. she is a character who acts on perceptions. the entire stream was in black and white. during doomsday, upon seeing wilbur log on (as ghostbur), niki has a panic attack and destroys her bakery, trying to rid herself of the pain of the memories. her lines during this stream are chilling, whispered repetitions that are a mirror of wilbur’s end.

(paraphrased, it was long and confusing but there are a few bits and this was the essence of it)

“wilbur is gone. this isn’t happening. he is dead. l’manburg is gone.”“it is real, i am real, he is real and he is dead.”“l’manburg is gone, i am real, i am l’manburg”.

(god. dude i could spend Months analyzing this one stream alone. there’s so much here.)

doesn’t that sound a bit like “my unfinished symphony”? wilbur and niki both attach their own self to the nation they fought for, and can see it as an extension of themself. they both destroy parts of it in acts of fear, attempting to save everyone else from what they’ve made.

what i pulled away from niki’s stream is that she’s not healing. i remember the chamber she locks herself in at night. i remember her refusal to eat. i remember how she was so angry at tommy, and she later realized that anger was misguided. niki genuinely believes that wilbur did not care about her, and that’s not surprising: when he died, she denied the fact that he was gone. she represses the things that she can’t handle, same as lots of other people. it is easier for her to pin her hurt on wilbur, because she needs somewhere to pin it. people feel more in control if they’re angry, not sad.

the song cc!niki said was for her character really emphasizes this. it’s a coping mechanism.

but even condemning wilbur won’t help, because she will still never get closure. niki cares about what others think of her, and so she can’t move on from someone hurting her. she can’t move on because she thinks he hated her. she is angry that he is back, but it is an opportunity for her to heal. she couldn’t heal when he was gone. she’s not the only one with a negative perception of wilbur, after all. he has one too. the two of them really need to talk.

i want niki to be healthy and safe. i want to see her heal so badly, and i do think it will happen. after wilbur died, his betrayal of her stayed with her, and it eventually became her memory of the betrayal that she hated, not the thing itself. it’s been months since it happened. niki wants to find an outlet for her hurt, because she wants to feel better. there’s a pattern i noticed: she only gets mad at people once she hasn’t seen the person themself for a while. and once she sees them and talks to them, and realizes that they care about her and don’t want to hurt her, she stops blaming them for it. she only hates her perception of them. example one? tommy.

man was in exile for a long time, and when he came back he “brought” fighting. that’s how niki saw it. but the fact that after she spent time with tommy (trying to kill him but. details, details) she forgave him because she saw it wasn’t his fault is a really good sign.

i genuinely think that speaking to wilbur will help niki, and it will also help wilbur. after all, they both hate wilbur. the entire perception of wilbur as some heartless, crazy manipulator needs to be shattered for both of their sakes. they both buy into it.

i want niki to know that others care about her, and that she has places she can feel safe. she hates that wilbur is invading the syndicate, because she’s scared of his memory hurting her. i don’t think wilbur will hurt her on purpose, because even though he sees himself as awful, he doesn’t hate her. he never did. usually, with people who have hurt someone else, i want them as far away from the person they hurt as possible. if wilbur does hurt niki i’ll probably cry. but again, it’s not him that hated her, or really him that hurt her in the way she thinks he did. when wilbur was dead, niki didn’t get any better. her memory of him festered and made her feel worse. that’s also why niki killing wilbur or hurting him somehow wouldn’t help her heal. i want wilbur to explain that he didn’t hate her. is wilbur even close to self aware enough to help niki? nah. this is going to take a Long time, and it’s going to hurt.

last thing i swear lol

during niki’s stream, she says that wilbur manipulated her. again, i watched pogtopia last night, and i’ve watched the rest of season one recently as well. i genuinely don’t see it. but i do think i know why she said it.

during season one, wilbur doesn’t manipulate niki. he doesn’t have a chance to later, he’s dead. so then, what is she talking about? of course it’s a perception, same as a lot of her other claims. i think she’s talking about how she cared for l’manburg.

niki joined the server as wilbur’s friend, to join his nation. she grew to care for l’manburg. she devoted herself to it, same as he did. but doomsday showed us that she hates that. in niki’s eyes, l’manburg only brought pain for people, and because she ties herself to it, she hates that she ever cared about it. she can’t allow herself to care for it, because it was used to hurt. so how does she cope with knowing that she once did? she pretends she didn’t.

if she can convince herself that it was wilbur who convinced her to care about l’manburg, she can avoid blaming herself for her own pain. and yeah, she shouldn’t blame herself for it. it’s not her fault. the entire situation is tragic and a little hopeless and once again really makes me hope that she recovers. l’manburg was ruined for her by others. schlatt, techno, dream, wilbur. again another place where she and wilbur are similar: they convince themselves they never cared about l’manburg because of the hurt it caused.

to summarize: wilbur’s going to get a shock soon. don’t know when, but probably the prison visit. something is going to shake his perception, the story is hurtling towards that. once he is able to take responsibility for what he did, and feel safe (because a lot of what he does now is out of fear of being alone or useless), then he and niki need to talk. niki needs something to get her out of her own head. she’s spiraling too. they are essential to each other’s recovery because of how much they meant (and mean) to each other.

anyways i miss early season one niki i liked it when she was happy :(

~ Lad 2

[river-bottom-nightmare]

Nightwing #80 Review

woot woot i’ve kept it up for three issues lets gooo. i liked this issue more than the last one. there’s a lot of fanon dick characterization peppered in, but not so much that it puts me off entirely. also, i’m getting increasingly concerned about bitewing. but i did like tim in this one, very nice

look at all the blue and purple and pink. honestly at this point, i’m a broken record but come on come on come onnnnnnn. the blue and pink is very pretty though. this cover’s a bit offputting at first, and a bit spiraly, which i’m sure was the intended effect.

this is a genuine concern of mine. dick’s a vigilante, and he doesn’t have the same sprawling network and resources that bruce does. (even if he is a billionaire now, he hasn’t amassed the same collection of crime-fighting equipment that bruce has.) 

i’m not sure if he’ll be able to take care of bitewing. damian’s got plenty of pets, but alfred used to take care of them, and now bruce plus the rest of the batfam is taking care of them. as far as we know, babs only drops by occasionally, and the same goes for dick’s family and friends. will dick be able to give bitewing the love and time and affection that a traumatized puppy like her needs? i really hope so.

she does look adorable in this panel tho.

dick. richard. richie. baby. why are you shirtless.

you have scars upon scars. probably chemical burns. bullet wounds. weird fucking squiggly lines from knives that only psychos with blade fetishes use. no normal person has the body that you do. and you don’t think that showing up shirtless in front of the police is going to raise suspicion? you don’t think that the people accusing you of murder are going to look at someone who looks like they’re a fucking mob enforcer and go hmm that’s a bit suspicious?

put on a SHIRT jesus CHRIST it’s like you’re not even trying to hide your identity.

look at this pompous little princess demanding only the highest quality head pets i’d burn down latvia for her. (no offense latvians it was the first country that popped into my head.)

pretty boy pretty boy pretty boy pretty boy-

no seriously kudos to the artist here. his expression is so human i wanna cry. dick, right now, is sheepishly asking a question. he knows he’s not going to get into any real trouble, he knows that he’ll be able to talk his way out of or somehow maneuver his way off this mess. but he’ll play nice for the police, so he’s asking a friend for a favour, part self-condescendingly and part oh-well-what-can-you-do.

and his expression reflects that. rather than a stoic expressionless face most male comic characters have when asking someone for something (or all the time really), rather than the weird desperate supposedly “seductive” face that most female comic characters plus dick grayson have when asking someone for something (or all the time really), he’s making a face that i pulled like yesterday. or the day before that. it’s kind of silly, kind of casual, very much human. i like it.

thank god. proper (in character) acknowledgement for officer grayson. yea, fuck cops in general, but i like that they included this line.

obviously, he’s not talking about the actual criminals, he’s talking about the police force itself. the bpd was too corrupt, and dick realized that he wasn’t helping. not only does one clean cop not make a dent in an overall dirty force, but dick was putting his allies in danger too. not only that, but it wasn’t good for dick’s mental health either. he was spreading himself too thin, and surrounding himself with some of the worst of crime 24/7 did a number on him. dick’s got a history of self-sacrificing tendencies, and i’m just glad he’s not a cop anymore.

dick has a gotham rogues mug. they make gotham rogue mugs, and dick has one.

what kinda city looks at it’s frankly horrible crime history and long list of certifiably insane serial killers who are all still alive and actively committing war crimes and goes “oooooh yea imma put that on a coffee mug!” gotham, that’s who.

this isn’t important i just like how all of bitewing’s barks are blue

back straight, hand on his hip, cheerful smile on his face as he says he’s being accused for murder. love that for him.

they couldn’t have said “yea it’s complicated” in a better way even if they put the words “yea it’s complicated” right there on the page in bold red letters. literally all the love to the artists.

dick please. you’re KILLING ME what the actual fuck IS THAT???? WHY DO YOU HAVE A MUG OF THAT???

anyway nightwing collects novelty mugs confirmed.

this paneling is so beautiful. 

tim’s the focus, but he’s not the first thing you see. he’s placed in a way that forces the reader to drag their eyes all the way up the page in order to reach him. it us know just how high up tim is carelessly crouching, especially close to the ledge of the building too. i cannot think of a single better way to introduce a character, and this character in particular: you instantly know this is a version of tim with plenty of experience and training, is comfortable in his body and knows his limits, but still hangs onto that civilian awe of being in a high place and overlooking a brightly lit city.

absolute classic robin. i love it. 

this isn’t even that important but it made me happy. this is how you train surf.

you don’t crouch or bend over when you get to a tunnel, which is oddly enough what most people think (at least from my experience). you bend backward. that not only 100% ensures that you’ll make sure you’re low enough to make it through the tunnel (because you can see the top of the tunnel, unlike when you crouch or bend), but it also makes it easier to get up: all you have to do is push up with your arms into a bent stance, and you’ll be in a ready, moving position. from a bend or a crouch, getting up is more awkward and more slow.

on a meta level, i like that this creative team knows what they’re doing when it comes to the small, almost unimportant stuff like that, because it makes the action more real. (as real as you can get with a guy running around stealing hearts.)

on a in-universe level, it once again drives home both dick and tim’s experience and professional level skill.

regardless of who you side with in the “should tim drake be robin again?” debate, you gotta admit that tim’s rebirth robin suit is r a d as fuck. if i’m not mistaken, this is the same one he was wearing in 2019 young justice for a little bit? it’s cute and hella cool i like it.

remember what i said about human expressions? doesn’t happen as often to tim bc he’s a Child, but it’s still nice to note when someone humanizes him, too. (that’s why i love the duckboy panel so much lol.)

me, at first: that’s not a “good call” dick that’s just common sense

me, now: sprinkled throughout the entire comic we can see dick bending to tim’s instructions if only briefly, joking with him to keep the mood light while still maintaining a serious mood and retaining control over this particular outing. this implies that dick’s doing it intentionally, purposefully leaving places in his sentences blank and offering affirmations, in order to encourage tim and train him in things bruce might not necessarily touch on, such as social chameleoning and misdirection techniques and love/affirmation from a family member. dick is not only a loving and supportive big brother, but he never stops training his younger brother in better vigilante tecnhiques because he wants tim to be better than him. in this essay i will-

d o g g o

also bitewing is getting so many head pats today i’m living for it

look at him, standing on a telephone wire with ease. nice flex, dick.

also look at how he’s silhouetted. the moon’s full bright, bright enough that the sky around dick is light, too. (at least. i’m like 99% sure that’s the moon.) not like most batman comics, where it’s sometimes hard to distinguish bruce from the background, which is entirely on purpose.

gotham is a dark gritty city, and so is bruce. the two of them are one. bludhaven may be a bit of a mess, but it’s being portrayed in all these different shades of blue and purple and pink, that are all light enough that dick stands out from the background. he hasn’t been swallowed up by the city, and chances are that he won’t ever be. also, the colouring helps establish bludhaven as a city too. there’s still hope for it. the light colouring means that it’s not going to sink into a pit as deep as the one bruce wove gotham into. the whole point of this nightwing arc in particular is to turn bludhaven into a better place, and it’s (most likely) letting us know early on that dick is going to accomplish that. he’ll struggle, but he’ll do it.

so dick??? dick designed his escrima sticks with a situation like this in mind? he created his signature and most iconic weapon (other than his chatty mouth), with a built in feature that turns his escrima sticks into tim’s signature and most iconic weapon???? just so that if he and tim ever got into a situation where tim didn’t have his staff, dick could make sure tim had the thing that would give him an edge over anyone he was fighting??? he’s such a big brother oh my goddd.

also tim’s smirk in this is just *chef kiss.* a staff is something he can work with, a staff is something he wields like an extension of his arm, a staff is means that someone’s about to get their ass kicked because tim’s about to beat the shit outta them.

this is my new phone background.

they really made sure we remembered that hey, those first few months when bruce was grieving too much to be any sort of a mentor to tim and was still unwilling to properly train him to be robin out of fear that he would end up like jason, dick was the one who stepped up (once he got over himself and his own fears and hangups with bruce) and trained tim to be robin, trained him how to fight and flip and fuckin fly out there, all while changing his own style a bit to be the more experienced one in the partnership while still trusting said partner to hold their own, so dick and tim have a very unique and cohesive fighting style that makes it hell for anyone who fights them together, didn’t they?

[marauderundercover]

This Side of Normal Ch. 8

AO3

Prev

Marinette was seriously considering murder. She was pretty sure Jason would be able to help her hide the body, he was a lot stronger than her. But murder was seriously on the table. Why has she decided to break that one golden rule, you might ask? Lila Rossi. The bane of her existence. The very reason they were spending two fucking weeks in the crime capital of the world instead of their original destinations. But no, Lila just had to convince Mme. Bustier to take them to Gotham. And then, as if making Marinette plan a million things last minute wasn’t bad enough, Lila decided to talk. Nonstop. Throughout the entire first half of their tour of Wayne Enterprises. The only thing keeping her from strangling the girl right now was the promise of coffee in the cafeteria. She didn’t need food, she needed coffee. And then she’d go right back to plotting murder. Would anyone look in the river for her body? 

“Whatever you’re thinking, I’m sure you shouldn’t do it.” Adrien says, pulling her out of her murder plot. She glares at him. 

“I’m planning a murder, and I don’t appreciate you interrupting me.” She deadpans. 

“Murder’s bad, Mari. We don’t murder people.” Adrien sighs, throwing an arm over her shoulders. 

“Maybe you don’t murder people. I’m thinking about branching out.” She hums, getting in the line for coffee. Adrien huffs and grabs her arm, tugging her behind him. She immediately starts whining, reaching out towards the coffee booth. 

“Mari, you need actual food. You can have coffee after you eat something. I know for a fact you didn’t eat breakfast.” He says, staring her down. She huffs, crossing her arms. 

“You’re not my dad.” She mumbles, turning away from him. 

“Why the hell are you all pouty?” Jason asks, walking up to the two. Marinette smiles briefly, then drops her face back into a scowl. 

“Someone is keeping me from my coffee.” She says. 

“Good job kid!” Jason says, high fiving Adrien. Marinette’s jaw drops at the betrayal. 

“Honestly rude. Guess I’m not gonna ask you to help me anymore.” She says, sighing dramatically. 

“Help with what?” He asks, frowning. 

“Murder. She wants to commit a murder.” Adrien says, rolling his eyes. 

“Who’re we killing?” Jason asks. This time it’s Adrien’s turn to drop his jaw, Marinette laughing loudly. 

“Ha! I told you Jay would help me!” She cheers, shooting Adrien a smug smile. 

“Marinette! Lila needs your help carrying her tray.” Mme. Bustier instructs, walking over to the trio. Marinette immediately frowns, looking over at Lila who was carrying a tray. Just fine. 

“Uh, looks like she’s got it.” She says, nodding towards the liar. 

“Well, she got it okay, but she needs someone to carry it to her table for her.” Mme. Bustier says, frowning. 

“And one of her friends can do it. I’m not getting out of line for my own lunch just to carry Lila’s tray Mme. Bustier.” Marinette argues, crossing her arms. 

“Marinette-” She starts, then stops when she realizes Jason isn’t one of the students. “Very well. But we’re going to talk about this later.” She adds before walking away. Marinette rolls her eyes. 

“Is she the one we’re murdering?” Jason asks, leaning down a little so he could whisper. 

“Nope. The one whose tray I was supposed to carry is the one on my list.” Mari says, nodding towards the girl who was now fake crying. 

“Jesus. How does anyone put up with her?” He asks, face curling in disgust. Marinette shrugs. 

“At first I thought she was Meta. Now I think my classmates are just idiots.” She says simply. Jason snorts. 

“I believe that. I’m gonna go grab you a coffee. As much as I’d love to help you commit a murder, pretty sure the boss would be pissed.” He says, ruffling her hair before walking away. Marinette turns to Adrien and gives him a smug smile. 

“Ha, bitch.” She says, snorting as he starts spluttering. 

“You can’t just say that, Bug!” He whines, before turning to order his food. Marinette snorts. 

“Sure I can.” She says in English, before quickly switching to Mandarin and lowering her voice. “I’m a seventeen year old ex-superhero, I’m allowed to say bitch.” Adrien just snorts, thanking the lady and grabbing his food so that Marinette can order. Once she has her food, she follows Adrien to an almost empty table in the corner farthest away from their classmates. She smiles at the person at the other end of the table, Dick Grayson. He was their tour guide and had dealt with their annoying ass class surprisingly well. She was tempted to make him a certificate if he lasted til the end of the day without losing his sanity. Plopping down in her seat, she starts eating her food slowly, watching Jason across the room at the coffee booth. 

“Mari, he said he would get you coffee. He’s gonna get you coffee.” Adrien says, nudging her side to try and get her to actually eat. 

“You don’t think he’d get me decaf, do you?” She asks, remembering the time he’d brought coffee to one of their late night training sessions. It was decaf then, he claimed that she needed to be able to sleep after training. She argued that she needed to stay awake and do homework and commissions and some lameass decaf coffee was not going to help her do that. She just hoped he would take pity on her and get her actual coffee this time. 

“I think I’d get you decaf,” Adrien starts, dodging her attempt to whack him. “But, I think Jay’s a little nicer than me today. Probably since he hasn’t seen us in awhile.” He muses. Marinette stops trying to attack him, nodding in agreement. He’d be more likely to give her decaf tomorrow than today. So it was still safe to trust her coffee order to him. For now. 

“I’m sorry, did you say Jay?” Mr. Grayson asks, catching her attention. She glances at Adrien who just shrugs. She knew the two had talked earlier, but she really didn’t want to accidentally get Jay in trouble. 

“Uh, yes?” She says, wincing at the awkwardness. 

“You know Jason.” He says, and she nods, frowning. 

“Yeah, we got to know him last year when he was on a business trip in Paris.” She explains, dodging around the whole ‘he trained us as heroes and then found out our identities and helped us take down a supervillain’ part of it. “We ended up getting close and we’ve kept in contact over the last year.” Mari adds, confused as to why Mr. Grayson looks so lost. 

“Really?” He finally asks. 

“Yeah. He’s basically like our big brother.” Adrien adds, obviously sensing that Marinette was getting uncomfortable. 

“Hey Dick, long time no see.” Jason snarks, putting Mari’s coffee in front of her and plopping down in the seat next to Adrien. 

“Jason. So you have two new siblings?” He asks, gesturing to Mari and Adrien. Jason nods. 

“Yup. And they’re loads better than you lot. Pixie Pop here even said I could help her with her first murder.” Jason teases. Marinette’s face instantly heats up, as she turns her glare to Jason. 

“Jason!” She hisses. He’s lucky he’s on the other side of Adrien. 

“Wait, you two are brothers?” Adrien asks, and Marinette blinks. Oh, yeah. Wait, what. 

“You didn’t know?” Dick asks. Adrien looks at Mari who shrugs. She definitely hadn’t known. She’d assumed Dick was one of Jason’s bosses. 

“Yeah, unfortunately this dipshit is my older brother. Adopted, of course.” Jason says. 

“We also have two other brothers and a sister. And some unofficial siblings.” Dick adds, making Mari raise an eyebrow. 

“All adopted?” She asks. Adoption was no joke. It was crazy expensive in the US. 

“All but one. B kinda adopts every dark haired, blue eyed kid with trauma that he meets.” Jason says, smirking at Marinette’s face. 

“I’m feeling attacked right now. Are you attacking me? If anyone has enough trauma to be adopted by a serial adopter, it’s Adrien. Not me.” She says with a pout. 

“Hey!” Adrien objects. Marinette looks pointedly at his arm. 

“Your arm was cut off by your supervillain father who was an emotional terrorist for over three years. That’s a shit ton of trauma.” She says as he pouts. 

“Yeah, but if I get adopted in the US, I’d never see you anymore.” He points out. 

“But you’d see me all the time.” Jason teases. Adrien grins. 

“That’s right! Okay, sorry M, I’m gonna get adopted here.” He says with a wide grin. 

“Traitors, the both of you. Mr. Grayson, how’d you like a new little sister? I’m officially disowning both of these losers.” Marinette says, ignoring the indignant squawks from Adrien. Dick snorts, a wide grin stretching across his face. 

“Sure kid. And call me Dick. Do you happen to know any acrobatics?” He asks with a teasing grin. Mari smirks. 

“As a matter of fact, I do.” She says. Dick freezes before a huge smile makes its way onto his face, his whole body shaking in excitement. 

“Wait, really? You’re serious?” He asks. She nods. “That’s awesome! Sorry Jay, I’m stealing this one.” He says. Jason scowls. 

“I don’t think so. I’ve known Pixie Pop longer, therefore, she’s my sister.” He says. Adrien clears his throat. “Our sister.” Jason amends, nodding to Adrien. 

“But she’s an acrobat! You know I’ve been looking for someone to teach trapeze to!” Dick whines. Mari’s eyes light up and she starts bouncing in her seat. 

“Wait, trapeze? Seriously? Where? Oh my god, that would be so much fun!” She squeals, suddenly actually excited about being in Gotham. 

“We have one at our house, you guys have to come over! I could show you the basics.” Dick suggests, still grinning. Marinette turns to Jason, waiting to see what he’d say. If Dick didn’t know Jason, she’d never consider going over and learning trapeze. But since he’s Jason’s brother…..

“Ugh, fine. But if B ends up trying to adopt both of you, you can’t blame me. I wanted to keep you away from him. You’re the one who got suckered in by the damn trapeze.” Jason gripes, leaning back in his seat. Marinette just grins at him before turning back to Dick to figure out the specifics. Maybe this trip wouldn’t be that bad.

Next

Tag list (open): @toodaloo-kangaroo @laurcad123 @kittenmywaythrulife @lost-in-the-world-of-maribat @queenz-z

[orionsangel86]

As a fan and a shipper, this is it, Saz. Misha is done with the show, Cas is dead, Dean won't probably mention anything about this and he is canonically straight at this point. Please don't get your hopes up.

You know... Untill last night I was actually more inclined towards your thinking. I’m happy to admit it. the negativity got me down. Misha’s various comments over the past year got me down. 2020 as a year, GOT ME DOWN.

I struggled with this over and over again for a long time. I was convinced that Cas was dying, and whilst I knew he would be back in 20, I was terrified that it would be some bit part right at the very end which had little relevance and that any happy ending for Dean and Cas was hopeless.

However there was always one little glimmer of hope in my poor bruised heart, and that hope was Destiel itself, because I always figured that if they actually went there with Destiel, then there was absolutely no way that they could end the season badly. Like, NO WAY.

But even after all these years of being a positive meta writer, and writing essay after essay on the validity of the Destiel interpretation of the text and believing with every cell in my body that Destiel was a real and true love story... I was still terrified. I was terrified that it wouldn’t happen, because there were plenty of reasons why it wouldn’t happen. Reasons I have been over several times before.

And yet I could never ignore my own eyes, my own logical observations and my understanding of story narrative and storytelling tropes, of production set up, of art departments and direction, cinematography and music, and everything that makes up a TV show. EVERYTHING ALWAYS POINTED TO DESTIEL.

So even though I was terrified, I still had faith in Destiel. Right up until the end. I had faith in Destiel and it was the only thing still giving me hope in a happy ending, because the way my logical brain works, I figured if they gave us canon Destiel, then a happy ending was very much on the cards. Even if Cas died after confessing, the very nature of storytelling would mean that it wouldn’t end that way, that Cas would have to come back, and that Dean and Cas would get the happy ever after they so desperately deserve.

When I went to bed last night, I was overcome with a sense of awe and fear. That the next morning I would wake up and I would know. I would know if I was right all this time, if over 6 years of obsession, passion, and dedication towards this love story was all worth it, or if we were destined for doom. Some of my friends tried to reassure me that even if it didn’t happen in this episode, it could still happen in the finale, but I’ll be honest, at that point I was adamant it was this episode, or not at all. I was TERRIFIED.

the thought occurred to me right before I closed my eyes to go to sleep, knowing the episode had already started in the states: “If it happens Sarah, then the ending will be happy. Cas will live.”

When I first saw the news this morning (I had asked my US friend Jen to send me a green and a blue heart in a text if Destiel happened so I would be prepared. No green and blue heart text would mean a social media blackout for me for another few weeks) my heart jumped into my throat. It happened. It’s canon.

Throughout the day today my emotions have been all over the place. From utter elation through to confusion and anger at some reactions, but also apprehension, because there are still so many people so negative and so certain that this was it for Cas.

But I realise now, that I do have far more hope that I thought I had, that those flutterings in my soul that awoke when I saw those wonderful green and blue heart emojis first thing this morning have now blossomed into butterflies of absolute joy. It wasn’t the scene from the actual episode that did this either, nope. It was Misha.

I thought I was so mad at him. Constantly going on about Cas’s death, and how sacrifice was the way he wanted to go out. I realised something as I scrolled through his likes on Twitter. It was all a fucking act.

Misha Collins. Troll extraordinaire. He well and truly pulled the wool over our eyes. He played up the doom and gloom to cover for the true surprise. The true secret ending that no one was allowed to even hint at. I completely and utterly fell for it, as did most die hard Cas fans. That utter bastard. :P

Nonny, please read my next words very carefully again and again if you have to, because I really hope that they sink in.

Misha is a good person. So is Bobo Berens. The two of them have been on Twitter liking Destiel tweets and effectively confirming it is canon - not that Cas is in love with Dean, no, that Destiel is canon. The difference, is that Destiel is requited love.

If it had ended in 15x18, if Cas’s confession, which left Dean stunned and unable to reciprocate, was truly the end, do you honestly think the gay man and the actor whose fanbase is massively LQBTQ, would allow one of the most beloved characters of all time, to FINALLY come out of the closet, confess his love, and then subsequently die and spend ETERNITY in SuperHell?!?

The fact that they were SO HAPPY WITH THEMSELVES. Because lets be honest here, Misha wouldn’t be liking all our dumb Destiel shitposting tweets if he didn’t know for sure that that happy feeling was gonna stick. Neither would Bobo.

This is just the start of the epic Destiel endgame. Castiel has said his part, now it’s Dean’s turn. I should have listened to my brain all this time. There is no way this ends badly. It just can’t. I refuse to believe it anymore. I’m finally stepping out of the dark and into the rainbow.

@tinkdw you were right all along.

[oskarwing]

I really wanna talk about the parent child relationships in Midnight Mass

I’m not sure if I’m good at writing this sorta Meta but here goes nothing. Very many spoilers follow.

Let’s start with the adults: 

First we have Erin who suffered so much at the hands of her mother and later because of her mother’s abuse. We don’t get much detailed info on Peggy Greene but from what we can gather she was a lot like Beverly Keane, who seemed to idolize her (though that probably got easier for her after Peggy was gone), in her self-righteous over-pious manner. She just happened to be Beverly with an alcohol problem and a daughter who she could take all her anger at life for not working out her way for God loving her just the same as everybody else out. The dove scene is really such a good scene. But Erin was stronger than her mother, stronger than the abuse that was about to repeat itself and when she found out that she would have a child of her own she left and tried her best to give her kid a better life than the one she had. And she found the strength I think with the help of the same God her mother most likely used as legitimation for her abuse (don’t get me wrong I believe it was Erin’s own strength but she also clearly found something in religion that helped her gather it) and it helped her to carve out a path for herself and her unborn child.  

Sarah’s relationship to her parents is such an interesting one because we get to see the end of it. The man who she believed to be her father has been dead for a long while and her mother is suffering through the late stages of dementia. And Sarah showed up for it. As a doctor she most likely knew what would be happening as soon as Mildred started to show the first symptombs but she wasn’t going to leave her mother. That kind of care for an elderly parent shows something that is proven in Mildred’s character time and time again: She is a very devoted parent and the love between mother and daughter flows both ways in every scene they are in together, after the birth of her daughter her world turned around Sarah and she loved her with all she had. There are a few scenes that show that Mildred’s understanding of the duty she felt towards her family came from the old values of her time. She wouldn’t have taken off with John and their child not for a lack of love but because in those times, in catholism still at least where I’m from, you can’t just marry a priest. You can’t just have a child with a priest eventhough you’re married and then fuck off with him. As a woman, as a wife and mother you have to stand with your husband, stand with your child and you have to stop running after fantasies I’m sure Mildred had. I’m saying this all from her perspective btw, I don’t necessarily think running away with John, in the way he wished to, would have been good for Sarah but honesty might have been and her old fashioned values were also what kept her from being truly honest with her daughter.  To John on the other hand Sarah is a fantasy, a dream he couldn’t reach. His daughter, his baby, so close and yet so far away getting to watch her grow into an adult but never being able to really be her father as in her Dad instead of her priest. And it’s painful to him, he clearly loved Mildred, loved Sarah but he was also kinda selfish in his love that in the end took Sarah away. At first he isolated his child by starring at her giving her the creeps and the feeling that she had done something wrong that he knew she was gay and dissaproved and then he took it upon himself to ‘cure’ Mildred in the same way he was. Sarah wanted to take care of her mother wanted to be there for her in those final months and John decided it was up to him to give Mildred a youth potion to make it so she’d never die. And with that he took away from Sarah what is without doubt a hard but for many people a very important last part of the relationship between child and parent. John was a complicated man and would maybe have been a great Dad he certainly showed a lot of fatherly love for his altar boys but he couldn’t have the family in the way he fantasized about and in the end it was that fantasy that made him act the way he did.   

Riley Flynn causes his parents a lot of pain. Him killing that girl in the beginning, his alcoholism, him simply not liking the place, the home they build for themselves through hard work causes the Annie and Ed so much pain and financial loss and you can see how tired they are, how much guilt they feel for failing their son. Ed calls out his own guilt and says that he doesn’t belive it could be Annie’s fault because ‘your mother’s a saint’ but what I truly love about Annie and Ed Flynn is that they both aren’t saints. As a mother Annie is very much overprotective and suffocating, wanting to keep her children on crocket island and hating the notion that they might leave her, even though she is kind and sweet and loving. And while Ed seems rather checked out as a father but he is the more honest parent, never talking down to Riley and telling him as it is, telling him about the pain he caused him while also admitting to the guilt he feels. The Flynns are flawed people even in their religious practice (I think the way Annie speaks about Ali showing up at church when Hassan seemed to be nothing but nice to her spoke very loudly to the fact that Annie is rather misguided sometimes) but they are good people at the core of it and their parenting might have been part of Riley’s way into alcoholism but it wasn’t only them. There were things they couldn’t change and things they had no influence over like his heart being broken by Erin running away, the sort of people he went out on parties with and so many other things...  Yes, they may have shaped their son in a way that made him vulnerable to addiction and the party scene of the stock and tech market and brought him to the point where he killed a child but it doesn’t happen through parenting alone and they also shaped him in the good ways. Him not losing himself when Pruitt changes him, him being brave enough to warn Erin, him standing up for what he believes in those things were also shaped by Ed and Annie. They are one of the best example of flawed but good hearted Christians I have seen in recent media and their portrayal was one of the most heartbreaking ones. 

Now the kids: 

Let’s start with Leeza. Little Leeza Scarborough who before it comes to her wonder gets treated with pity and overprotectiveness from her parents and the island community at large. Leeza was injured by Joe Collie transforming him into the island’s villain and her into the ever present victim.  What happened to her is without a doubt horrible and I understand why Wade and Dolly started to become these overprotective parents, why they were so easily sucked in to John’s and Bev’s scheme. Their little girl was almost taken from them eventhough Wade is the mayor, one of the most powerful people on the island he had no influence over what happened to Leeza even was the one who took her out that day and what followed the accident was as we can gather from their conversation with Sarah a lot of pain and financial burden though they say they would have done it all over for Leeza. In fact a lot of places in crockett island are wheelchair accesible and I am sure that Wade as mayor made it so (I can’t really imagine that a small place like the island was very inclusive though I may be wrong).  After Leeza is healed they don’t want to question in don’t want to think about what might have been the cause for it. In fact they stop questioning anything after that point, after Leeza walks again they are completely vulnerable to Bev’s manipulation and them letting that happen, them just going along with everything, Wade protecting John after he kills Joe long after Leeza forgave him and with her forgiveness send Joe on a better path is what in the end makes them lose her. Because Leeza isn’t that little victim who needs pity and help, she is a strong minded, strong willed young woman with a lot of wit who similar to Erin finds strength in her faith but in a way that isn’t devotion without question and when the Easter vigil is held she doesn’t follow her parents eventhough she loves them deeply. She forgives them I think, because that’s what Leeza’s character is about in it’s core but her parents were two of the instigators behind what happened on the island, without Wade’s protection John and Bev couldn’t have come as far as they did and they put their trust in them because they loved their daughter so much they didn’t stop to question if maybe what made Leeza walk again was also a bad thing. 

Ali and Hassan don’t have it easy and I as a white person really can’t speak much on the racism and religious discrimination they face.  I can say this I think: The first line spoken about Ali before we even really get to look at him is “You didn’t invite Aladin” and already sets us up for what both of them know: They are the outsiders. Not only because they just moved to the island but also because in their faith they are different from their peers and religion can often be a community building event for people before it is anything else. Ali starts balming his father a little for that, for not trying to fit in more with the community, for moving after his mother’s death and then not trying to be closer to the people around them and for the pain all the pain the two of them went through before Crockett island. It isn’t oly peer pressure though of course that brings Ali to St Patrick’s. Sure, Ali wanted to be part of the community but also desperately wanted to believe that there was a devine power who could if he just did it (it meaning faith) the right way he might find a way to avoid the pain of his parents. Hassan knew that and he warned him that that wasn’t how it worked. Hassan was a protective Dad and maybe he overdid it from time to time but his worries were never without reason, his need to keep his son safe from a world that hated him for a crime that happened when he wasn’t even born yet never unfounded and him wanting to make sure his kid kept the memory of his mother alive never anything but the wish of a griefing man and loving father. In the end when they pray together there is peace in them. They face their ends with the dignity Ali’s mother would have wished for and they face it as father and son. While Beverly the true religious terrorist of the story burns away without it. 

Warren is the youngest Flynn and it is never directly stated yet omnipresent that his coming of age happens in the shadow of his older brother’s mistake.  Annie warns him away from drinking when he goes out he in fact doesn’t drink. He never drinks because of what his brother did.  Warren would have been 12 when Riley killed that girl and so he would have seen and felt what his brother’s actions did to his parents fully without being yet old enough to maybe see the nuance.  Annie and Ed probably try to right the wrong they believe to have done in parenting Riley with Warren and that’s a lot for a kid. I do think it’s pretty usual that parents of multiple children especially when there’s a larger age gap try to do better with the younger children, but that isn’t fair is it?  Warren is his own person not a second chance to do it over.  And yet seemingly he does what is asked of him. He’s alter boy, he’s charming and helpful and sweet, he doesn’t drink (even when he does smoke pot) and he helps his father where he can with his work.  But in the end he feels guilty because he thinks he wasn’t enough and says at that last dinner he would have been different if he had known he wouldn’t see his family again. But Leeza is right they know and they love him and Warren deserved to not be perfect all the time. 

Littlefoot saved Erin and Erin payed her back with all the love she had. She was never born but she gave her mother the strength and willpower to leave.  In her speech to Joe Leeza said he reached through time and took things from her she didn’t even know she had yet.When Erin left her husband she reached through time and saved Littlefoot from a childhood like hers and when John gave Erin the angel’s vampire’s blood he reached through time and took away her child, a child who would have been loved and cared for. A child with an amazing mother and probably a great step-dad.  Littlefoot’s story is tragic because she never got one.