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michaels-blackhat · 3 years ago

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thoughts on evil Forrest 😈

We are going to start out by apologizing. This is very very late. I’m sure when you sent this ask, you meant it to be in the same joking tone that I approach all of my other propaganda posts. Sadly, this is actually going to be a deep dive into a few Evil Forrest related things, including the moment I feel they changed directions, the perfect wasted build-up, and the implications of the change/how it then negatively impacted the story. As I’m sure you already know, by being on my blog at all, I don’t think the story was good to begin with, so we are going to focus on the weird hoops they made themselves jump through to make that story still work. Additionally, I am only going to mention once, right now, how much of a waste it was to not have Forrest ‘fall for his mark’ and complete one of my absolute favorite tropes. Honestly, I think “because I want it” is a completely valid reason to like Evil Forrest. But, the question was “Thoughts on Evil Forrest” and these thoughts have been developing for over a year and a half. So, I apologize in advance.

The majority of this is under a cut, with highlights in the abstract. If no one wants to read this, I understand completely. Go ahead, skip it.

Note: it pains me greatly to not actually have full sources for this essay. Just know that in my heart I am using proper APA citations, I just absolutely do not feel like digging through tweets to find sources to properly cite.

Abstract:

Previous research indicates that Roswell New Mexico has a history of repeating excuses to explain mid-season changes to plots. This essay explores how those excuses are not only loads of crap, but how they hinder the show’s ability to tell a coherent story, misuse the multiple-plot structure to enhance the themes being explored, and lead to decisions that mean the show continuously goes over budget. This also means that characters are not used to their full potential and has led to what some fans consider to be “out of character” behaviors. While these behaviors are not universally agreed on, evidence can be shown that these behaviors directly contradict emotionally important character arc/plot points in the show.

The author of this paper acknowledges that the show took some strides to mend this problem. However, once again no consensus could be found on whether Forrest was a low-level member of Deep Sky and thus just allowed to fuck off on a bus, or his job was recruitment because he did a piss poor job of making Alex not join.

The concept of Evil Forrest has been with the fandom as early as New York Comic Con (NYCC) in 2019, when it was revealed that Alex had a new “blue-haired love interest”. Speculation abounded within the fandom, with some people, including the author, going “yeah, he’s evil” while others rejoiced in the concept of Alex having a loving partner. Speculation increased as fans discussed Tyler Blackburn’s seeming disinterest in his new love interest, prompting some once again to scream “EVIL” at the top of their lungs to anyone who would listen. Very little was revealed, beyond the fact that the new character would show up somewhere around episode 3 of the second season.

Episode 2.04 aired with some commenting on how he barely interacted with Alex- prompting more evil speculation- and others excited to see the characters interact more. The character appears again in 2.06, where he invites Alex to dubious spoken word poetry (which Alex attends); 2.08, where they have a paintball date and go to The Wild Pony; 2.10, where the two are seen writing together briefly at the beginning of the episode; and 2.13, where Alex performs his song at open mic night, tells Forrest his relationship with the person in the song was long over, and they kiss. Forrest was not revealed to be evil during season 2.

Amidst the season airing, Word of God via Twitter post announced that yes, Forrest had originally been planned as a villain, though not the main villain, but it was changed as filming progressed.

The Word of God Twitter post revealed that Forrest had originally been planned as a villain, but they decided that they could not make their “blue-haired gay man” a villain. This mirrors a similar situation and excuse used the previous season, where the character of Jenna Cameron was originally planned to work with Jesse Manes against the aliens, before it was changed because they just “loved Riley [the actress] too much”. Both of these examples occurred while already filming and reflect on a larger problem with the show. Though not the topic of this essay, it is important to note that both characters are white, both in the show and by virtue of being played by white actors. The fact that they couldn’t be villains for one reason or another is not a courtesy extended to the male villains who are all the most visibly brown, and thus ‘other’, members of the cast.

This also highlights the fact that, via Twitter, it has been revealed two other times that occurrences that were reported in season 1 also occurred in season 2. During the airing of episode 1.02, it was revealed that the single best build-up of tension in the show- when Alex walks to the Airstream not saying a word to Michael after a dramatic declaration- happened because one actor was sick at the time and they had to go back and film the kisses later. At the point of airing for episode 2.08, it was revealed that one of the actors were sick and unable to film a kissing scene. Allegedly, this caused the writers to retool the entire scene and deviate from the plan to make that subplot about Coming Out. The execution of this subplot will be explored later in this essay.

The last occurrence revealed via Twitter also revealed larger issues within the show: lack of planning and poor budgeting. During the airing of season 1, Tyler Blackburn was needed for an extra episode beyond his contracted 10. A full explanation was never given, but speculation about poor planning and to fill in because Heather Hemmens had to miss one of her 10 episodes due to scheduling conflicts for another project. During the airing of season 2, yet another tweet came out saying they made a mistake and Tyler would once again be in an additional episode. No explanations beyond “a mistake” were given, though once again speculation occurred. It is the opinion of the author that this was due to changing plot points over halfway through writing, while episodes were already in production. It has been speculated by some that these changes occurred during the writing of 2.08, which was being finished/pre-production was occurring roughly around the time of NYCC 2019.

Previous Literature:

A brief look at different theories of plots and subplots

Many people have written on the subject of plotting, for novels and screen alike. The author is more familiar with film writing than tv, but a lot of the concepts carry over. Largely, the B- and C- (and D- and E-… etc) plots should reinforce the theme of the A-plot. This can be through the use of a negative example, where the antithesis of the theme is explored to reinforce the theme presented by the A plot, or through other examples of the theme, generally on a small scale.

A movie example of this would be Hidden Figures (2016), where the A-plot explores how race and gender impact the main character (Katherine Johnson) in her new job. The B-plots explore the other characters navigating the same concepts in different settings and ways- learning a new skill as to not become obsolete and breaking boundaries there (Dorothy Vaugn) and being the first black woman to complete a specific degree program and the fight it took to get there (Mary Jackson). A TV example that utilizes this concept of plot and theme is the 911 shows. Each of the rescues in a given episode will directly relate to the overall theme of the episode and the overall plot for the focus character. This example is extremely blunt. It does not use any tools to hide the connection, to the point you can often guess the outcome for that A-plot fairly quickly.

This is not the only way to explore themes within visual media. Moonlight (2016) looks at three timestamps in the life of Chiron. Each timestamp has a plot even if they feel more like individual scenes or moments rather than plots as some are more used to in films. Each time stamp deals with rejection, isolation, connection, and acceptance in different ways. So while there is no clear A-, B-, or C-Plot, each time stamp works as their own A-Plot to explore the themes in a variety of ways, particularly by starting out in a place of rejection and moving to acceptance or a place of connection to isolation.

Please note that there are many ways to write multiple plots, there are just two examples.

While there are flaws within season 1 of RNM, overall the themes stayed consistent throughout the season, mainly the theme of alienation. The theme threads through the Alien’s isolation/alienation from humanity which is particularly seen through Michael’s unwillingness to participate and Isobel’s over participation. There is Rosa’s isolation from others, how her friendship with “Isobel” ended up compounding her existing alienation from her support system due to her mental illness and coping mechanisms. We see how Max and Liz couldn’t make connections. This theme presented itself over and over in season 1. While this essay is not an exploration of the breakdown of themes in season 2, it should be noted that there were some threads that followed throughout the season. The theme of mothers/motherhood was woven throughout season 2, with some elements more effective than others. Please contact the author for additional thoughts on Helena Ortecho and revenge plots.

One of the largest problems within season 2 was the sheer number of plots jammed into the season. These plot threads often ended up hindering the effectiveness of the themes and made the coherence of the season suffer. Additionally, a lot of them were convoluted and difficult to follow.

Thesis:

Essentially, season 2 was a mess. To look at it holistically is almost an exercise in futility. Either you grow angry about the dropped plots and premises, you hand wave them off, or you fill them in for yourself. Instead, this essay proposes to look at individual elements to explain why Forrest should have stayed evil.

We first meet Forrest in 2.04 when he is introduced on the Long Family Farm, which we later learn was the location where our past alien protagonists had their final standoff. He’s introduced. He’s largely just there. The audience learns he has more of a history with Michael. In 2.06, we meet him again with his dog Buffy (note: poor Buffy has not been seen again and we miss a chunky queen). There’s mild flirting, Alex is invited to an open mic night, which he attends. For the purpose of this essay, the author’s thoughts on the poetry will not be expressed. Readers can take a guess.

It is after this point that the author speculates the Decision was made. This choice to make Forrest not evil- paired with the aforementioned ‘can’t kiss, someone’s sick’- impacted the plot. We have Alex have a scene with his father- which the author believes could have been pushed to a different episode- and then have Alex go on a date and then not kiss Forrest at the end of the night. Here, the audience sees Forrest hit Alex in the leg, allegedly not knowing he had lost his leg despite ‘looking him up’, which parallels the shot to the leg that happens to Charlie. Besides wasting this ABSOLUTELY TEXTBOOK SET UP WTF, it also takes Alex away from the main plot and then forces a new plot for him. Up to this point, Alex’s plot was discovering more about the crash and his family’s involvement. Turning Alex’s date from a setup for evil Forrest to a Coming Out story adds yet another plot thread to a packed season. It is also the author’s thought that this is where the convoluted kidnapping plot comes in. With Forrest already in 2.10 for a moment, a plot where Alex is evil has Forrest attack him for Deep Sky rather than Jesse abduct him for a piece of alien glass Alex was going to give him anyway and then for Flint to abduct Alex from Jesse. It’s messy. In a bad way. Evil Forrest would have been a cleaner set up: no taking back a piece of alien glass Alex gave to Michael in a touching moment. No double abduction. Instead, there is only Forrest, who Alex trusts, breaking that trust to take him as leverage over Michael.

Implications:

Now, Alex has two plots (Tripp & Coming Out). The Coming Out plot is largely ineffective, as they are only relevant to scenes with Forrest and have the undercurrent of there only being a certain acceptable way to be out. This could have been used for Alex to discover his comfort levels, mirroring Isobel’s self discovery, but there was not enough screen time for that. Additionally, Isobel’s coming out story was about her allowing herself the freedom to explore. Alex’s story was about the freedom to… act like this dude wanted him to. Alex’s internalized homophobia played out often in the series but it was also informed by the violence he experienced at Jesse’s hands and the literal hate crime he and his high school boyfriend experienced. With that in mind, the “kissing to piss off bigots” line comes off poorly. This is a character who experienced what a pissed off bigot could do- reluctance to kiss in public is not the same as not being out. There is more to be said on this topic, but as it is not actually the focus of the essay, it will be put on hold. To surmise: Alex’s coming out is attempted to be framed as being himself, but it is actually the conformity to someone else’s ideals. It does not work as an antithetical to Isobel’s story, as the framing indicates that the conformity/right was to be out contradicts Isobel’s theme.

Further Research:

MAKE FORREST EVIL YOU COWARDS

Author Acknowledgements:

The author of this paper acknowledges that the show took some strides to mend this problem. However, once again no consensus could be found on whether Forrest was a low-level member of Deep Sky and thus just allowed to fuck off on a bus, or his job was recruitement because he did a piss poor job of making Alex not join.

#anti forrest long #i guess #evil forrest propaganda #I asked and no one said don't post it so...#here it is #I started writing this roughly 7 months ago

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popculturebuffet · 4 years ago

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The Owl House: Enchanting Grom Fright: Happy Valentine’s Gays

Happy Valentine’s Day owl ladies, gentleman and non-binary folks! It’s time to finish off this holiday in proper style with a LONG overdue review of enchanting Grom Fright and even longer overdue coverage of the Owl House. The Owl House was one of the best debuts of last year if not THE best, only in contention because Close Enough also started last year and looks to surpass regular show in terms of quality. But with stunning animation, tons of representation, and colossal worldbuilding. And given how i’m on record for thinking Star Vs went so far down the tubes they bumped into where Cthulu is sleeping, it’s nice to have another magic based show that seems to be on the right track: carefully building i’ts world, supporting cast and for today’s topic main romance. It also rather than just obliquely hint one character was bi and the other pan, actually goes out of it’s way to have a bisexual protaginst with a gay love intrest. As my good friend @jess-the-vampire has brought up quite a bit, star had plnety of options. .but no willingness to actually campaign for any queer rep, the way Gravity Falls head Alex Hirsch tried to, he still gets credit for trying, and Owl House creator Dana Terrace gets full credit for.

Terrace got her start working on Gravity Falls in line production before working her way up to directing for ducktales, being instrumental in how Webby was animated and how she moves and acts, and being the director for several classic season one episodes including “Woo-Hoo!”, “The Spear of Selene” , “Day of the Only Child!” which was one of my faviorites from season 1 and “The Beagle Birthday Massacre!”. And while I can’t 100% confirm she’s the only part responsible for starting Weblena, given she was director on an episode where a lot of the romantic subtext was in the visuals, she certainly helped so thank you Dana. Thank you a lot. Their adorable. Point is she’s a talented lady and wasn’t satisfied with directing, so she pitched her own show, combining tons of ides and stuff including of all things, Pokemon Red. I checked the article wikipedia had sourced, it was one of her happy childhood memories as it was one of the last things her dad gave her. Awwwwwww. That’s as sweet as it is painful. She’s also currently dating Alex Hirsch, something I was entirely unaware of but find also adorable. Point is i’m glad I looked into her as she’s a very nice person, and very much my kind of weirdo and i’m happy for her sucess and her singuarly weird show that sprung from that sucess.

Now that part of it’s out of the way the episode itself was an uphill battle as you’d expect. As anyone familiar with this blog is aware, but just in case your new, you tend to hear me bitching about Disney’s handling of queer represntation a LOT

For the most part Disney’s pretty bad at it: There was the string of “FIRST GAY CHARACTER IN AN X” they had going for a while.. that consisted of a character I dind’t realize was gay, a kiss I didn’t see, and a talk with a character who I honestly wouldn’t of been looking for had disney not patted themselves on the back with some giant sized hands because htey saved some pym particles for that occasion. Ducktales was unable to have Penumbra come out as gay more clearly because I don’t know Ducks can’t be day.. but they can be IMPLIED to be gay or pansexual as hard as the crew possibly can so they win anyway. Pixar was able to have a gay lead character for one of it’s sparks shorts out and even focused on him coming out of the closet and it’s very good and something I WILL give Pixar credit for... but not Disney Plus who go out of their way to not mention the lead being gay.. despite the fact the short opens with a gay space cat riding a gay space dog out of a rainbow and then it being revaled our lead is in a relationship not long into the short. My point is the idiots who won’t watch this for having gay characters are just going to turn it off, who cares what they think, why are you like this Disney. They need to do better, and be better and i’m getting tired of this shit.

That being said... this episode is a step in the right directoin as despite having to get past one obstructive asshole, not her words but damn if it isn’t the truth, as the rest of hte execs were fine with having a gay character, Terrace fought hard for it and WON, having a clearly gay character, and a clear road to a gay romace as the lead one, all because she wanted some representation in her works. So to honor this, I present this review in honor of love, effort and saying screw you to not having represntation because money. Join me under the cut and allt hat.

We open in the owl house, in the owl house, duck dodge push and shove, it’s how we show our love in the.. you get the point. Luz is learning yet another Rune, this time plant runes.. and already something I love about the series pops up: the fact Luz’s rise in skill is gradual but noticable. Each spell noticably improves in potency with time, going from simple lights to shaping them into simple constructs, and learning to control or time her spells and glpyhs so they launch she she says so, with each one getting more powerful the more she learns. And on top of that osmething I just noticed on rewatch of this episode is her tecnique in finding them evolved, something I dind’t notice the first time because I hadn’t fully caught up and checked this one out to see if Disney would actually let them go through with it.. and they did. Point is her first spell is found by accident, her second by realizing how her magic works fundemntally, both require skilled deduction and on the fly thinking and casting, so she’s already pretty skilled.. but now sh’es ACTIVELY seeking out a new spell here for the first time. She knows how she gets them, she knows each school is tied to a form, and she likely got the plant from williow since that’s her thing and she’s a saint. A demon but also a saint. They can have those too. It’s what I assume relicor is.

I miss that goblin demon bat man. Point is it shows an evolution in Luz’s thinking: while it’s a subtle thing she took a more proactive approach this time even if it took a lot of practice.. and it pay soff as by the time of her next rune, while it’s once again sorta handed to her she has less time to learn it, almost none, and finds it singed onto a ball.. and learns it effortlessly to the point where by the next episode it’s a crucial plot point. IT’s subtle but clever character progression, and stuff I really enjoy, showing our hero going from a bit inept but not helpless or incomptient.. to a force to be reckconed with and far more clever and strategic than yo’ud expect given her sometimes reckless and almost always happy go lucky attitude.

Luz worries teaching King about the internet was a bad idea because he gets excited about a literal cat fight which .. yeah... it was a bad idea but not because of that.. but because next he finds someone saying the earth is flat and she wisely yanks it away. It’s.. very sad that the absolutley maddening and easily debunked flat earth theory is still RELATIVLEY more sane than the stuff we’ve had pop up during the trump era and the cornoavirus pandemic.

But one of the main conlficts of the episode pops up as Luz’s mom messages her and Luz can’t bring herself to tell her anything and just sends a thumbs up. I do think this episode helps even things from the pilot a bit as it was a bit lopsided: While I got that Camillia was genuinely struggling with how to deal with Luz, and was offered an out and had to take it... the fact she sees NO problem with the normalcy camp, which comes off intentioanlly or not a sa parallel to conversion camps or camps to make autistic kids “Normal”. And as someone whose both bisexual and autistic, I naturally relate to luz way more as someone whose intrests sometimes just don’t quite fit with everyone else, and who dosen’t get how bad some of their actions were. THat’s why this episode feels like a necessary course correction: Luz is shown to genuinely love her mama and feel guilty.. but we see camilia genuinlely loves and supports her daughter a bit more. While it was clear from the pilot this shows it more, with her genuinely just wanting to know her daughter’s okay and checking up on her, and giving me the feeling that possible consequences or no if something bad WAS happening or she didn’t hear from her for a long time, she would’ve drove up there to get her. It feels like the writers realized the implications they accidently created and wanted to fix it, though I can’t say for certain. But if so good on you for course correcting, not every show does that.

But King encourages her, telling her she’s doing the right thing by lying and to “trust the demon on your shoulder”. Keep this in mind for later, but that joke is great on it’s own. But soon i’ts time for school and Hooty.. barfs out Luz’s books for her.

I haven’t been this disturbed since.. (Looks at the clock) About 2 maybe three hours ago when I watched a man have, if apparently shorter than the oriiginal cut as I wanted to see everyone else’s reactions dammit, sex with hiis car which was possesed by the mad ghost of his dead wife. Because that’s the kind of stuff i’m into when i’m not reviewing stuff. And before that Tinky.. just everything about tinky.

I do not have enough time to get into TInky here or why he exestially horrifies me. Or why Jeff blim is a living god. I will save that for a proper review if I have the time tomorrow. Point is I saw a lot today and that still tops it. Willow and Gus are likewise grossed out and want to leave.

Cut to school where Luz wonders what’s with all the decorations.. that remind me of this honestly

And frankly given the whole state of the boiling isles it REALLY wouldn’t surprise me if the decorations were indeed well cooked faces. But i’ts Grom time, which means elaborate gromposals (Some Dude asks Skara out with a beating heart and an elaborate medical proposal.. which.. points for effort. And for using an actual heart. Couldn’t get one for mine. ), dancing and someone being chosen for Grom Queen. WHich Willow hints isn’t as nice as that sounds. Before we can get into that though Amity bumps into them and gets into a tizzy before meekly greeting “Luz.. and Co”. which.. not going to lie.. is my faviorite gag of the season. Just htw way she adds them and just the way Willow and Guz both smile widely at it as if to say “That’s us!”. Amity drops a note and snatches it back. This will be important later, you all know why, point is Amity becomes Grom Queen.. and is heavily depressed with Luz following her to find out why. At the gym.. she does indeed ifnd out why: Turns out Grom is not some mutation of an earthname but is based around a horrifying entity lurking beneath the isles, Gromethious the Fear Bringer, who emerges from his slumber once a year and must be fought back and brings out his target’s greatest fears. Just like groundhog day only with less time loops and rodent abuse. Amity is scared of hers, and i’ll obviously get into this more later, and Luz simply suggests asking bump to opt out and Amity appricates the support. Awwww.

Luz heads home and we find out Eda is chaperoning and King is mcing. Eda is also rocking a suit. Just damn girl, damn. But Luz considers taking her place.. and gets laughed at, with Eda assuming she’ll have to save her and King just being kind of a dick. I mean he’s a loveable thoroughly cuddly dick but he’s still a dick... just more like a stuffed plushie of one. So basically exactly like Tinky. Look I mention him more than once in this review he dosen’t put me in the bastard box. It’s a great system. Naturally this makes Luz more determined than ever to prove herself and she finds Amity in the night, with Amity having been unable to get out of it.. and Bumps a resonable guy, he just wants a substitute and no one wants the job.. except Luz who galdly volunteers and insists ntohing scares her before the giant spider on the back of her head proves otherwise. Because of course it does, spiders are fucking terrifying. Kill then all.. except the pokemon ones. Galvaltula are sweethearts. As are Ariadoses. Sweethearts who can elctorcute or poison you but still.

So the next way Luz begins preparing.. and by that I mean it’s time for training. Sadly we don’t get an episode of Luz and Amity getting trapped in an 80′s fashion montage... I mean yes Rise of the TMNT also did that plot the same year, but we had two diffrent plots about someone getting trapped in an eldtrich sitcom and a THIRD this year, all entertaingly unique. Though we do get Luz pulling out an otter suit that’s adorable and she sadly still hasn’t worn yet. “This one says i’m an otter, with a dark side”. She also got thrown out of a school dance for.. wearing an otter suit. Okay the other things we saw in the pilot were understandable but htis is just.. baffling. Who cares what you wear to a dance as long as it isn’t horribly racist of nothing at all.

Damn you flanders and your glorious ass. Point is Amity shows up and threatens hooty’s life because.. he’s hooty. The fact he isn’t dead already is a testiment to how badass he is and how much money he’d cost Eda to replace. Owl Tubes don’t come out of a stygian hole in the unvierse every day you know. That’s only every three years. It’s basic styigan owl tube science.

But Amity wants her to be ready and that she’ll have to face her greatest fear.. and cue hooty popping up, poking amity in the face and asking if she wants to know her greatest fear. Really he can clearly hear everything in the house given he heard that, so he heard the death threat he just chose to ignore it. That.. was a mistake. And by mistake I mean we get a hilarious cut to the outside of the house as Luz tries to stop her love intrest from murdering her second mom’s tube monster. The result is some bandages and an eyepatch. To be fair that last one was just flaring up from a previous beating.

For this solem task of training, Amity has brought in her local disaster bisexuals.. aka her twin siblgins Eldric and Elmyra, whose greatest fears are dying alone and being stuck with Eldric. Both understandable. They conjur luz’s greatest fears which are.. some of the funniest shit I heard all year.. and also very relatable. Human souls in cat bodies, which is genuinely terrifying good job Luz, Jerks on the internet who mansplain things, relatable, and soy milk.

But Amity knows this is just the openign act. it needs to be something deeper.. so while Luz dosen’t realize it’s probably her mom issues she brings up her issues with her other mom: that Eda dosen’t think she can do this. Hence we get a giant eda putting Luz in a babychair. Before we can unpack how wrong that sentence sounded, Eda comes out, and marvels at how hot giant her is. But she’s quickly distracted from sex with a giant version of herself, which is not an easy feat, by the relization “Wait Luz is going to fight grom isn’t she.. fuck i’m going to have to save her”, though Luz holds firm on doing it to prove she’s fine and dosen’t need to be saved constantly. it’s a good conflict. Eda IS right that Luz is not ready for this alone, that she’s overcompensating and that Eda would, in normal circumstances be the one to rescue her. As we’ll see it’s not her who does it but still, were this any other foe she probably would be. But Luz’s motivations are equally understandable: She wants to help her friend not have to do this and she wants to prove she can do it. She just wants her mentor, the only person in her life up to meeting her that GNEUINELY supported her in magic to respect her. To have faith in her and actually see how far she’s come. And given how her own mother writes off her dreams, if not unrealistically, and before this she had no friends or support system to speak of outside her mom, it’s easy to see why this is so improtant to Luz: she just wants to make the one person in her life whose ever support her actually think it was worth it when in truth Eda already thinks it does and just dosen’t want her to die.

She’s just not good with talking to her or not condescending to her as her own ego is stacked sky high, probably because the whole curse thing meant Eda was an outcast by default and the system wants to either chain her to one form of magic and one only or shackle her to them as a hired goon. Her ego, while justified, is also a defense mechanism: a way to shield herself from the fact almost no one cares about her and one of the few people who DOES, dosen’t care what she wants or needs. Once the curse happened she lost just about everything and had to rebuild and thus build up walls around herself and kept everyone else at arms length till Luz changed her for the better. It’s just a tragic clash of two wills both with similar problems but both unwilling to talk about them.

But with time up, our heroes need to get to the diggity dance. So they indeed do and we get some fun sight gags, Willow makes corsages, that one girl with the cresent head somehow ended up with Mathomule and is not happy, as anyone who ends up with him should. And it’s time for Luz to face her destiny.. in a tux with a tutu because of course, and Amity likes it because also of course.

IT’s time to rumble, with King getting nervous due to eda’s prodding about mcing since his co-mc gus is really good at it, and introducing our champion.

No wait sorry he’s still trapped in Mojoworld. no it’s still Luz who shows off a seasons worth of skill by easily dispatching the first few fears and saying to grom let’s finish it.. before grom puts a tentacle on her head.

It’s to downlaod her fear.. which is Camillia. Granted we could all see it coming but still Luz obviously can’t fight her own mother or her own overwhelming guilt.. her mom did hurt her.. but she gets why and just loves her and wants her to be proud but dosen’t know what to do: tell her the trutha nd possibly loose a happy and fufilling life or wait until it all blows up. It’s a painful choice. So luz and king end up running. King runs first because he can’t handle it and Gus talks him back into the groove while Luz runs away because she can’t fight her own mom, understandable, and Gus encourages king to lead the crowd which he does. Amity and Eda follow Luz.

So Luz is backed down, facing down a monster tha’ts going to go on to everyone else next if she fails... and Eda prepares to interfere.. but it’s AMITY who faces her fear and dives in. And we find out just what her fear was as grom turns into a humanoid shape and rips the letter in half.. it was a grom invitation. Though conviently the who it’s adressed to was ripped out.

And yeah not going to save this one: It’s Luz. You know it I know it I didn’t even hide it in the intro. Even before the reveal in a bit it was obvious. But it also makes perfect sense. I’ve avoided talking about her character arc up to this point because I was waiting for now. Amity’s growth is the third major arc of the season behind Luz’s slow learning of magic and eventually induction into hexside and eda’s curse, which I lump in with Lilith chasing her since both were mildly entertwined and then entirely are once the reveal hits in the finale. When we meet her she’s an outright bully.. but we slowly see there’s more there. That she’s not really HAPPY or content, is contstantly under pressure by her family name, is outright bullied by her own siblings who don’t understand her. So Luz coming in, seemingly only being intrested in magic because i’ts neat.. understandably bothers her. She’s not a great person, bullying her old best friend because tha’ts what’s expected and being close with outright bullies because of that.. but it’s through Luz she starts to grow, realizing Luz is genuinely nice and genuinely sorry for any trouble she caused Amity, and evne then both cases were causaed by Amity’s own dickishness and outside forces, so it’s easy to see why she defrosts faster. Her siblings realize they’ve genuinely hurt her, and actually try to be good siblings from then on and help her, and slowly Amity learns to truth luz, trust in her, and accept her... and thus accept her feelings for her. There are gradual hints she’s growing attracted to her.. but her walls had to come down first, and it wouldn’t of worked from the outset. The show cleverly has the two build a genuine friendship, two opposities who work well together, so when feelings do happen it feels natural. It’s not “I’m in love with this person because I have to because you can’t be friends with someone your attracted to” bullshit or anything like that, cough star vs cough, it’s just well built catching feelings. I’ts how this kind of thing SHOULD go: niether went in intending for this to happen.. it’s just happening.

And Amity’s reluctance is painfully understandable, as Luz is the ONLY friend and support she has. Sure she and willow are patching things up, but WIllow would understandably choose luz over her and she’s terrified of loosing the one good thing in her life. Of course Luz would either say yes, and probably will some day, or let her down gently, she’s nice.. but it’s also understandable to be afraid that someone won’t take the reveal well. I’ve been there trust me, it’s easier when you let it out even if you get rejected, but I get it being hard to let out because you don’t want to loose a friend. I did not, and niether would she, but I can see why she wouldn’t want ot take the plunge. At least not yet. We’ll see this summer hopefully.

But we do get a shiptastic, gorgeously aniamted scene of the two dancing an fightin gin perfect synch, combinging luz’s new use of plant magic with amity’s mastery of abominations resulting in the two utterly decimating grom, likely in part because with two fast moving targets he can’t get a lock on and likely nees more fear and mass to attack multiple targets at once. Or just more tendrils. it’s a quick, beautful sequence that’s utterly glorious, being framed as romantic as any hetero scene of the type and rightfully so. A triumph and well deserving of this praise.

Our heros have won, get crowns, and King gets praise. All is well.. except Luz drops the crown once she gets home because she feels like she failed and feels lost about her mom.. though at least king gets it “I’m king and queen, best of both things!”. You tell em sister.

So we end with Luz genuinely responding to her mom, with some montage stuff as we see Gus and Willow poke a fear blob, willow fears bugs, understandable and Gus fears clowns...

Also understandable. Though I didn’t put up a bug picture because

And Amity looks out folornly into the night. Camilla responds to Luz.. and mentions letters.. which while Luz brushes those off.. we see someone sent them. And by someone I probably mean king since we now know only eda and him had acess to the portal, and given he was actively encouraging her to lie.. yeah i’m supscious. But we’ll see next season. For now this episode is fan fucking tastic, showing off tons of character development, being representative and sweet as all hell.. and being really funny. Tons of great gags in this one including the turtle guy from an earlier episode being forced to be adisco ball. This is easily the series best so far and if you haven’t checked it out, please do it’s fantastic as is this show. Check both out. Until the next rainbow i’ts been a pleasure. Tommorow more disney shenanigans this time with pete. And also more of this possibly we’ll see what I get done.

Goodnight everybody!

#the owl house #lumity #luz noceda #amity blight #willow park #gus #eda clawthrone #king #principal bump #grometheious #enchanting grom fright #lbgtq+#disney #disney plus

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casmybelovedass · 4 years ago

Text

The Destiel Folder: Season 8

[Season 4; Season 5; Season 6; Season 7]

Oooohhh this is where things start getting JUICY

Episode 1:

Again, Dean copes with the idea of Cas not being there by lying to himself

Parallel from S6: Dean behaves exactly like he was while looking for Lisa and Ben, looking for Cas. "Where's the angel!" (16:57)

Dean clearly states he won't leave PurGAYtory without Cas (22:45)

Episode 2:

Since Dean has come back, he has been snappy with Sam and Crowley about Cas, but every time he remembers PurGAYtory, he is either looking for Cas or with him, and that's all he thinks of

Again with the paraparallels with Lisa and Ben (12:21), also "You'll find your angel there." (13:19) ICWAW, come on, do I have to point that out?

"There are some in Heaven who still believe, despite his mistakes, that Castiel's heart was always in the right place [...] I think... too much heart was always Castiel's problem." (22:25) Samandriel says all of this while looking directly at Dean

Look at that hug. Have we ever seen Dean hug Cas before? The gring on Dean's face. [This is so fucking funny too me, the "Nice peach fuzz" reaction to Cas' beard VS the Sam's "That's the most disgusting thing I've ever seen!" reaction in season 14] (23:21)

"I prayed to you, Cas, every night!" (24:37) Cas once again chose to leave/hurt Dean in order to protect him, even tho he really doesn't want to leave him. "There've been things hunting me. [...] I've a price on my head and I've been trying to stay one step ahead of them to... to keep them away from you." (24:54) Those fucking eyes kill me

Dean is willing to risk it all to get Cas out with him. "Cas, buddy... I need you." [yeah, let's see how well that ages on episode 17], also the little "Dean... " after that... BABIES (25:33)

That smile, those eyes... LOOK AT HIM. This is such a "You and me against everything" moment that, ICWAW, would be considered HELLA ROMANTIC

"I'm not leaving here without you. Understand?" (25:51) for fucking finally, also 12 seconds of STARE + LICK of the LIPS action. Oooohhh ICWAW... just imagine

Let us remember that all of this ⬆️, Dean remembers after Samandriel told him "too much heart bla bla bla"

"... [Kevin] thinks people I don't need anymore, they end up dead." (40:36) 'you', Dean? Only you? That's so much guilt you are packing. And immediately after he thinks about trying to save Cas from PurGAYtory and failing... Alrighty then

Episode 5:

I get why some people ship Dean and Benny, but they really do struck me as a bromance. When they call each other "brother", I believe that. With Cas, Dean pulls the "brother card" whenever he's opening his heart to him, basically "no-homo"ing it at the end. Weird right? (12:03)

Benny bitches about Cas being a danger to them because of the attraction monsters have to him, and Cas himself tries convincing Dean he has to leave him behind for his own good, but Dean is having none of that shit and is ready to die trying to save him (12:56)

FUCK MY LIFE we are getting flashbacks from both Sam and Dean, Sam about the time he spent with Amelia, and Dean about looking for, finding and trying to save Cas. I MEAN??!!! ICWAW you BET this would be seen as a ROMANTIC PARALLEL

"He's a friend." "A friend? Dean, you don't have any- all your friends are dead." "That's not what I called to talk about!!" Ouch (25:27)

Episode 6:

"I was in Purgatory." "Like 'purgatory' Purgatory?" "No, the one in Miami." ... that's a gay bar, Dean, how would you know? (11:23)

Dean's lying to himself about Cas letting go (35:32)

Episode 7:

Parallel to S1 Sam seeing Jess while in the car (2:31). Kill me. Also Dean allucinates Cas just like Sam did with Jess (10:15) band tries coping with it by repeating to himself that he didn't leave Cas behind

Every scene in Purgatory where Cas tries to reassure Dean that, if he doesn't make it, it's just the way it is, and Dean insisting he won't leave without him. "I'm just saying... if it doesn't work.. Thank you. For everything." (12:50) I'm dying

Cas comes back and all Dean does for the first few moments is check him out (16:16-16:21) He says he kept trying to reach for the boys, but wasn't at full power, tho somehow Dean was the only one who could see him. And Dean's eyes looking back at Cas (17:58) End me now

FUCKING👏BONER👏SHIFT👏 (20:38)

LOOK AT HIM!! He's checking him out, making THAT face and SHIFTING IN HIS SEAT WHILE PRESSING A HAND TO HIS CROTCH. THAT'S A BONER SHIFT. Look at Sam and then at Dean (20:44) One is a friendly fond reaction, one ISN'T.

ICWAW, we wouldn't even be QUESTIONING it!

The amount of checking out in this episode is crazy. Look at Dean checking out Cas. Look at his face! THE EYES (24:08) ICWA- OH COME ON DO I HAVE TO POINT THAT OUT?!

"Did you not trust me?" "Dean..." "I did everything I could to get you out. Everything! ... I did not leave you." "... So you think this was your fault?" OH MY GOD SO FUCKING #MARRIED LOOK AT CAS' EYES (28:06) ICWA- I'm not even trying anymore

So many soft shoulder touches (34:42) also HOT SCENE I don't know why "I'm going in." "Cas, no. You're not strong enough." (35:15) precious babies

"You could've gotten yourself killed. Why didn't you wait for me?" "Well, I didn't get killed, and it worked." "And if it didn't?!" "It would have been my problem." "Well, it's not the way I see it!" (37:36) #MARRIED they're SO MARRIED

Dean keeps blaming himself for Cas not getting out "I don't need to feel like hell for failing you like I've failed every other godforsaken thing I care about." SEE??! (38:16) Dean preferred believing he had let Cas down, something he is used to, than he had sacrified himself for him (38:48). Dean can't believe Cas thought he deserved to stay in Purgatory. Also THE WAY THEY'RE LOOKING AT EACH OTHER (39:38) And Dean's deeply hurt by the fact that Cas would leave him to safety and remain in Purgatory as self punishment for what Dean had painted as all Cas' fault. And he is full of regret (41:30)

Episode 8:

[How fucking cute is it that Cas wants to become a hunter. I'M SQUEELING]

They are so #MARRIED my heart ACHES (5:02) and the way Dean looks at Cas is so fucking SOFT. And 6 seconds of just staring and... well, Cas in general (5:13)

"What? I was being bad cop." "No, you were being bad everything!" (9:12) #MARRIED (12:04) I'm dying, they're so cute

"I don't sleep." "Okay, well, I need my 4 hours, so-" "I'll watch over you *puppy eyes*" (12:52)

"Hey, can you lift this?" sure, Dean, every excuse is valid to have Cas be hot by effortlessly moving an anvil. And see how Cas looks at Dean, like "Really? You even had to ask? I'll fucking show you I can lift this shit". Look at how he looks back side-eyes at Dean here (14:16), like he's making sure Dean is watching him being hot. I'm dead

This is such a fucking sweet moment [I mean, kinda looked like the begging of a porn at first] (16:01). Dean can sense Cas is not okay, and gets him to open up about his feelings. And when Cas admits being suicidal, Dean is speechless, not even being able to imagine such an outcome. Anyway, it is so fucking sweet that they're always able to show themselves vulnerable to each other

Shut up. Look at this scene (18:51-18:53). Mute the video and just look. This is Sam marrying Cas and Dean. PERIODT.

"You're so pretty, Charles. [...] You were quite the bounder." DEAN'S FACE (20:27) He's so in love, and immediately after he LICKS HIS LIPS

While Sam talks about running away from your problems (referring to Amelia), and having to wake up in order not to destroy everything, the pan focuses on Cas (35:33) Subtext, gentlethem, subtext. CAS, FACE YOUR FEELINGS. SOON

Dean's face when Cas says he's not coming back with them (38:16-39:21)

Episode 10:

I now this scene is supposed to be funny, but the way Cas looks at Dean AAAWWW (6:53-7:01) Also do you really have to walk so close to Cas, Dean? Do you? While CHECKING HIM OUT nonetheless?! (7:54)

Remember when in 7x01 Dean was totally comfortable watching porn in front of his brother? Well, Dean goes on and on about Cas being a "brother", but his fucking reaction to Cas being in the same room as him with porn on his computer, is BY FAR the same he has with Sam, hell he even keeps watching with Sam! (8:05) Is it because the last time he, porn and Cas were in the same room, Cas popped a BONER?

Random guy @ Dean: "Are you serious?" Cas: "*leans in to look at Dean* That's his serious face, yes." And Dean's reaction (12:59) SO FUCKING #MARRIED

Dean, that's not the way you look at a friend, or a BROTHER (13:38)

LOOK!! I swear to GOD ICWAW that would be seen as nothing other than CHECKING OUT YOUR CRUSH

"Hey, how about we say, if this doesn't pan out, we had back to that beer and bacon happy hour a mile back, huh?" Translation: "Since I'm starting to realize I might feel something more for you, let me take you on what is totally not a date unless you want it to be" (16:58)

(24:02) #MARRIED

Dean, will you stop checking out Cas during missions? (25:06) Same goes for you, Cas, don't check if your husband's got a boner for you being the hero here (25:08)

Since the start of this season, we've been getting parallels between Sam & Amelia and Dean & Cas. The flashbacks, the guilt for leaving the other half behind, and now Dean tells Sam he's jealous he got a chance at being happy with Amelia (37:32)!!! I MEAN- and fuck my life when I tell you there are parallels with the whole Sam-Amelia-Don & Cas-Dean-Benny thing. I'M TELLING YOU

Episode 11:

"Trust me, this life... you can't afford attachments. You just gotta... let go." "... Are we still talking about Sam, or did you break up with someone too?" (21:17) CHARLIE KNOWS. TELL HIM CHARLIE

Episode 13:

Bitch... Dean's reaction to getting publicly hit on by a dude, so not the one a straight guy, confident in his sexuality and masculinity, "no-homo bro" would have (15:36). Just saying, we have seen Dean turn down what he thought were avances, and other implications regarding his sexuality, with either sarcasm/humor or anger... this is new. Progress?! [Wait till we get to 15x7]

Episode 16:

[Keep in mind how Dean's bedroom looks. Trust me]

Episode 17: OOOOHHH BOI

Cas has been tortured, mind-fucked, obligated to kill fake Deans over 1K times, in order to be ready to kill the real one. Let that sink in

Dean prayed to Cas, I'm sure almost every night, and can already sense something is not right with him ever since he came back from Purgatory (11:31), but when Sam questions his prayers to Cas, Dean doesn't know how to respond. Like, what, do I need a reason to try and contact my crush?

"There has to be another way. [...] This isn't right! [...] I won't hurt Dean!" (29:51-31:00) "Cas, fight this! This is not you! FIGHT IT!" and he does. Cas fights it. [and as soon as Cas starts fighting back, Heaven tints with BI COLOURS! LOOK AT THEM WINDOW THINGY (31:16) OF ALL COLOURS]

Dean is on the verge of tears, kneeling in front of Cas, telling him "This isn't you!", and to fight. He is pleading. And by the end, bloody, hopeless, "Cas... it's me! We're family. We need you... I need you." and Cas stops. (33:13)

Cas breaks the connection Naomi had installed in him. Once again, when presented with the choice, he chooses Dean over Heaven. All of this because Dean needed him. And let's not forget Dean was originally ment to say "I love you.", and that would've been the reason Cas snapped out of the control. I MEAN ICWAW THIS WOULD FUCKING BE CANON

Dean, thinking Cas is going to kill him, clutches onto the coat's sleeve for dear life, to the memory of his Cas (34:21) KILL ME

"What broke the connection?" The look in Cas' eyes... "I don't know." OH YES YOU DO (36:15) and Dean's face when Cas says he needs to protect the angel tablet. Dean knows he's gonna leave again (36:23). ICWAW, this whole scene would be the UMPTEENTH CONFESSION

Episode 18:

"I'm fine. Are you okay?" "Me?" "Yeah. Cass dinged you up pretty good." "... and?" "And I just wanted to make sure you're okay." "...What, like, my feelings?!" "If that's what you wanna talk about, sure." Dean gets pissy pretty easily when talking about Cas, who left once again, and his feelings. Also, Sam knows, and he ships it. He's president of the Destiel Company (4:02)

Episode 19:

The thing with the Deanny relationship is: Dean is naturally affectionate towards Sam, and he expresses the same towards Benny. His relationship with the both of them is very very similar, while see Dean showing affection towards Cas [same as he does with Sam] only during extreme emotional moments. Dean is known for repressing his feelings, and having a tendency to maintaining a "macho" exterior. He shows himself vulnerable in front of Cas, but not enough for him to think less of Dean. So, think about it

Episode 20:

Charlie, a lesbian, who has only ever heard of Castiel through Dean, describes him as seeming "dreamy" while talking to Dean... GAYDAR ANYONE??!!! (9:16)

Episode 21:

"In the words of a good friend... 'bite me'." Cas is quoting Dean, and if I remember correctly, Dean will quote Cas' "ass-butt" later on (16:"10)

Episode 22:

I hate when Dean treats Cas poorly, badly, because he can't deal with his feelings. In the heat of the moment, Dean is always forgiving, helpful and caring, but as soon As things cool down, he goes back to being cold, bitchy and snappy, like nothing ever happened. Repressed mother fucker

The small flash of hurt on Cas' face when Dean ignores his "Good morning" (3:33) fighting coupleTM. "Dean, I can go with you. *is ignored* Dean... I'm sorry. [LOOK AT THAT FACE]" "For what?" "For everything." "Everything? Like ignoring us?" #MARRIED

Cas is buying porn, beer and pie to make amends to Dean. "Where's the pie?" "I think we're out." "*grabs store clerk* You don't understand. I need pie!" (14:50) they are so fucking #MARRIED

Episode 23:

This is such a sweet moment. Cas is about to close the doors to his old home behind himself forever, while risking getting killed by his own kind, and Dean is worried about him. They are sharing drinks while longingly staring into each other's eyes. This is so sweet. Also, Dean warned Sam he might not be coming back. Why? Cuz he would probably die while trying to protect Cas from other angels. To them, they are probably spending their last moments together, while looking at each other like THAT (22:38) And 5 seconds of STARES (23:10)

In love. Fucking fools in love, that's what they are.

This is so stupid but they have just witnessed a cupid matching up two dudes, after all of the above⬆️ (23:53) AND IT'S JUST FUNNY!! Dean is stunned and all, while Cas is complitely fine and professional (24:04-24:17-24:21) DEAN'S FACE

"Talk first, stab later." (26:21) Cas is like "Bitch, you talking? That was our first date!" #MARRIED

[I'll just leave this here (37:00)]

Now shit's getting real

[Season 9>>]

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bobbimorses · 5 years ago

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Just out of curiosity if you haven't answered this already: what is the whole deal with Bobbi and Clint's divorce/relationship

ok this saga spans multiple decades and series so i’m not even gonna try to cite to specific issues here; instead i bring you this giant block of text as an attempt to summarize their entire relationship with 0 of the flourishes

meeting: bobbi meets clint while casing out his place of employment. clint is depressed. bobbi saves clint. clint saves bobbi, gets deafened in process. bobbi and clint marry, 9 days after they met, and chill in a heart-shaped hot tub in the poconos, because that’s just who they are.

marriage: clint carries bobbi over the threshold of avengers mansion to show everyone he got married (”but clint, you were here as a single man stealing potato chips 2 weeks ago!” “tell that to MY WIFE”). the vision tasks them with starting the west coast avengers. they move to california and found the team. clint and bobbi call each other saccharine nicknames and make out and battle villains together. it’s all very romantic. the other avengers are tired of walking in on them.

trouble: the entire team is sent back in time. bobbi is separated from clint and is trapped in the old west while he is perpetually going backwards and also dying because wonder man accidentally semi-exploded him. the phantom rider is also in the old west, and drugs bobbi to convince her that she loves him. through this deceit, the phantom rider rapes bobbi. bobbi is freed from the effects of the “potion” by hawkeye’s old west buddies (he’d time traveled before,) and is obviously outraged. they fight, and phantom rider ends up dangling over a cliff. bobbi lets him fall. his shtick is a reincarnating familial lineage ghost anyways.

conflict: bobbi and clint are reunited, and bobbi doesn’t tell him what happened. eventually, clint finds out, and feels betrayed because bobbi didn’t tell him and so was “lying to him by omission,” decaying their trust, and because he considers not helping the phantom rider the same as killing him, and his motto is “avengers don’t kill!” bobbi says that that’s not the same as killing and he shouldn’t be mad at her anyways because that was her rapist. they scream and storm off. now this is a notoriously stupid storyline for clint because everyone knows that his stance is whack.

you could tell that other writers didn’t really like this direction for clint and bobbi because they would be at each other’s throats in west coast avengers, but then you could read them concurrently in solo avengers where they’d be quite amicable and tender towards each other, and constantly attempting to reconcile. eventually, west coast avengers writers also decided they should officially reconcile, and had them declare they “both acted like jerks” (um.) and plan to start a family. but importantly, right before their reconciliation, bobbi was kidnapped by ultron, then being rescued by clint + the west coast avengers. bobbi is seemingly killed by mephisto a short time after the reconciliation. clint spends a while grieving, and thinks of himself as a widow for the next ~15 years (which would be like…3 years comics time?)

psych: when clint is being a goth ninja because he also has now really and seemingly died, it’s revealed that bobbi was kidnapped by skrulls (the skrull invasion was a whole thing) when she emerges from a skrull spaceship. clint is ecstatic! but she reveals the kidnapping was right before the reconciliation, during that whole ultron fiasco, which means the bobbi that died was skrull!bobbi….and they never actually reconciled. they reconcile for real this time, in a much better way (aka clint admits what he did was wrong and he should’ve supported her), in new avengers: the reunion.

trouble in paradise: clint and bobbi are back to being a battle couple that makes out constantly. but bobbi wants a return to her roots, so she’s back in the semi-spy life with her own agency. clint follows along to help out, even though he is kind of bad at being spy. but when bobbi is mortally threatened by a previous enemy of theirs, clint, “avengers don’t kill!” touting hero that he is, starts to show a slightly more sinister, morally gray side in taking the villain down. bobbi realizes that if it comes down to it, clint will probably kill for her because he loves her that much. she doesn’t want to change who clint is as a person, and clint is scared of crossing certain lines, so they break up. (anyways marvel ended up writing clint killing hulk anyways so like. guys. what was the point- you know what. never mind.)

and then bobbi has clint sign divorce papers in fraction’s hawkeye long after he had been dating jess drew because they forgot about the whole dead-not-dead california paperwork intricacies. whoops!

also confusingly, the end of mockingbird’s solo tries to retcon bobbi’s rape by the phantom rider as a consenting affair, saying there weren’t actually love potions involved. this was likely an attempt to restore bobbi’s agency by making her story not “overshadowed by her assault” but that’s a yikes take because bobbi was never just that and something being part of her character history doesn’t make it her character and there’s so many other implications so let’s just move past that.

i’m sure you find this whole explanation more confusing than enlightening

#Anonymous #long post #my exponential graph is 'time spent on tumblr' corresponding to pass/fail grading announcement #i refuse to look this over for mistake you do it #mistakes* god the irony #meta #clintbobbi #bobbi morse

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pomegranate-belle · 5 years ago

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V-day ask meme 5 with mattfoggy?

5. Character spends all day trying to give a valentine to their crush, only to be foiled in increasingly ridiculous ways

So this became... 3k words. I feel like this trope is very high-school oriented, but somehow the fic ended up being comicsverse so idk. It’s set... Somewhere in a post-whatever-run-we’re-on-now future where Kirsten is back and Matt’s not stupidly sleeping with mob boss wives. Also, massive apologies to any X-Men fans; I do not know shit or fuck about characterizing Magneto and Professor X, I just wanted Sir Ian and Patrick Stewart to cameo in this fic—

—

Despite all the commercialism and the overwhelming scent of flowers and processed candy, there’s just something about the aura of Valentine’s Day that Matt likes. People young and old get excited for it — whether for romantic purposes or just because chocolate will soon be on sale — and their feelings infuse the air in a way Matt can’t quite pin down to one or another of his senses. The Valentine Vibe, Kirsten had called it when he tried to explain the sensation to her.

He’s... Ecstatic, to have her back in his life, there’s really no other word for it. They’re not quite what they once were — in fact, Matt has no idea what they are except she’s there and they love each other but they’re not the kind of people who kiss each other anymore. Still, after climbing out of his latest spiral to find her waiting at the top? He can’t think of a better dynamic to have with an ex. She’s still Kirsten, after all. She’s still intelligent and funny and brave and doesn’t take his shit.

She’s also begun to take a particularly pointed interest in his relationship with Foggy that he thinks he should maybe be a little frightened about. Her intention is that Matt, so she says, ‘stop pining and seduce him already’ — which is easy enough for her to say, but just because he and Kirsten followed an absolutely fantastic trail of sexual tension to an even more fantastic relationship does not mean the same thing will work with Foggy.

You don’t seduce Foggy Nelson, and Matt would know. He’s been trying unsuccessfully for fifteen years and he is not subtle. Matt knows he looks good even if he can’t see it himself; the empirical evidence is pretty, uh, evident. But whenever Foggy sees him shirtless his only reaction is to toss a shirt at him and tell him to cover his shame with a warm fondness that’s simultaneously disappointing and heartwarming. Matt’s not even on the menu to Foggy, he’s concluded. But, well. Matt’s always been a champion of lost causes, and all that.

Besides, best friends give each other stuff on Valentine’s Day all the time. Foggy loves chocolate, and he’ll probably brush off what the ‘oh my god Matt you big softie this is totally the sappiest one in the store’ card Kirsten helped Matt pick out says as being a joke, so it’s not like there’ll be any negative repercussions. Matt’s resolved. He’s gonna do it.

Unfortunately, Foggy’s in a meeting with a client when Matt shows up to probably-unsuccessfully sweep him off his feet. The secretary says it’s set to go on another two hours. Matt doesn’t have that kind of time to bandy around now that he’s trying to be responsible with his work-life balance, so he makes a tactical retreat.

Fine. He’ll just take Foggy out to lunch and give him his valentine then. No problem.

—

They actually do make it to lunch, which gives Matt a false sense of security. He decides to save the valentine for the end — like dessert. It’ll be sweet, he’s certain, and he’ll be able to savor Foggy’s happiness the entire time he walks him back to his office.

Matt is just about to pull out his gift and offer it to Foggy when his phone starts announcing Jessica Jones’s name. He spends about three seconds too long debating whether to answer or not.

“If you ghost her she’ll beat the crap out of you,” Foggy points out, standing with a metallic rasp of chair legs against the floor. “I’ll head out and let you take that.”

Foggy sounds content, smells like deli ham and honey mustard and potato chips — a not-super-healthy sandwich lunch masquerading as something more so by way of a thin layer of lettuce — and gives off the same soothing body heat he always has, excepting his bout with cancer that Matt tries not to think about. To make a long story short, he feels like home to every one of Matt’s senses, and it’s a struggle not to ask him to stay. Still, the insistence of Matt’s phone prevails, because he knows what Jess is calling about. He’d asked her to help keep an eye on Mike and let him know if he was up to anything — if she has something to report, it’s bound to be important. So, Matt offers Foggy a nod and then pulls out his cell to answer her.

—

Of course, both he and Foggy are busy all afternoon, but Matt knows that Foggy usually knocks off early on Fridays, so he wraps up his own business — meeting with Jess to discuss strategy, any work that can’t be pushed to later — as efficiently as possible and follows suit. His plan is to meet Foggy right as he’s stepping onto the sidewalk — waylay him and present him with the valentine before anything else can interfere. Except that as he’s strolling along down the street, Matt happens to hear a mugging going on down an alley that he’s passing. Breaking that up takes more time than he’s willing to admit — god, he’s getting old — and even vaulting over a few rooftops doesn’t make up the delay. Foggy’s gone when Matt reaches his destination. He lets his head fall back against the brick wall behind him, breathing heavily, and then reaches for his phone.

“Matt?” Foggy’s voice is tinny and confused and perfect over the phone line. “What’s up?”

“Dinner?” Matt asks. “I was thinking Italian tonight, want to meet me at Maria’s at five-thirty?”

There’s a long, long pause.

“Yeah, sure thing, Matty. I figured you’d already have plans...?”

“Nah, nothing. See you then.”

—

Fourth time’s the charm, that’s what they say, right? Maria’s is quaint and quiet and always smells like good bread and cheese. He and Foggy aren’t the only ones there — a few couples seem to be scattered around the room, including a pair of teenage girls that are probably on a first date based on the way they fumble their words and their silverware. There’s also two elderly men, one in a wheelchair, who sound like they might be playing chess on a travel board while they wait for their food. They all add to the atmosphere instead of disturbing it, though, which is nice. Across the table, Foggy clears his throat, scraping the tines of his fork through his food.

“So. Lunch and dinner? I feel like you’re buttering me up for something,” he says. “We don’t have to move back to California, do we? Because I will, but I only just unpacked my last box a few weeks ago and it’s going to be a pain to pack it all up again.”

“No! No, nothing like that, Foggy,” insists Matt. “Seriously. I just want to spend time with you. Is that really so out of character?”

“On Valentine’s Day?” Foggy points out, and his silverware clinks against his plate. “I mean, kind of.”

The implication isn’t lost on Matt — don’t you usually have a date? — but he doesn’t address it. Foggy is his date, but couching it like that out loud is a little too presumptive, even for him.

“Well, not this year.”

Matt smiles his most charming smile, and it nets him a fond sigh, the kind that’s normally paired with Foggy ruffling his hair.

—

Again, Matt waits until the end of the meal. This time, they get to dessert, and the moment is perfect. They’re comfortably full, happy, and relaxed. It doesn’t matter if Foggy sees the gesture as romantic or not, because at least Matt can be satisfied that it was done as romantically as possible. His sense of aesthetics, such as it is, will be appeased.

Which is, of course, the moment the door of the restaurant bursts open.

“Magneto!” shouts a man, storming into the restaurant with heavy, clomping bootsteps and shattering the moment to pieces. “I’ll kill you!!”

Matt is going to kick this guy’s ass.

What is he even yelling about? Magneto? Magneto’s not—

And then one of the old men stands. Every spoon in the restaurant rattles towards him when he pushes back his chair, prompting a sigh from his dinner companion. And so it turns out that maybe the guy bursting through the door isn’t as off-base as Matt assumed. That old guy really is Magneto. It actually takes Matt a minute to realize that the man in the wheelchair across the table must be Charles Xavier. Xavier just isn’t someone Matt hangs around a lot, he tends to steer clear of both him and his academy when possible. It’s not mutants Matt has a problem with, though — it’s telepaths. The idea of someone poking around in his brain pan without so much as a by-your-leave gives him goosebumps. And not the fun kind.

As Matt considers all this, the scene continues — he notices distantly that the teenagers are being ushered towards the kitchen and away from the action. There’s a few whiffs of air as punches are thrown by the unknown assailant, and an unpleasant burning smell. Matt’s torn between shuffling Foggy away from danger and joining the fray himself, but when Foggy reaches out and grabs his hand for comfort he finds he can do neither.

“Let me very firmly impress upon you the enormity of your rudeness,” says Magneto, his voice crisp and cold.

Matt can’t even tell what he’s doing — something about Magneto’s powers is messing with his radar sense in the most disorienting way — but it sounds painful. Matt debates with himself the pros and cons of shaking off Foggy’s grip and intervening.

“Erik,” Xavier says warningly, though there’s still something quietly warm suffusing his tone.

“Oh, very well.”

The would-be assassin hits the floor with a thud that rattles the dishes on Matt and Foggy’s table. He’s breathing, a little bit labored, but still alive. And unconscious. Also possibly bleeding a little bit, but it’s hard to tell with the scent of all the metal in the air.

And that, he supposes, is why you don’t mess up Magneto’s dinner plans.

Magneto and Professor X make their leisurely escape, leaving Matt’s romantic moment with Foggy thoroughly in ruins. He lets it go, sighing into the last bite of his tiramisu and gives the plan up as a bad job. Maybe next year, he thinks wryly as he and Foggy get up together to examine the man left on the floor.

“He’s wrapped up in a chain of spoons,” Foggy narrates quietly, nudging the guy with his toe. “Wasn’t sure if you could tell that, you looked confused. He must have some sort of acid powers though because he managed to melt a few on their way in. I think maybe he just fainted when the chain tightened. Are you able to sense any really bad injuries?”

Matt tilts his head and concentrates.

“No,” he determines at last. “No, nothing.”

That settled, they split the check and book it before they can get caught up in a police investigation or a mutant hunt.

Their apartments are in opposite directions, so there’s not even an excuse to give Foggy the valentine on the way home. And anyway, Matt’s feeling so discouraged that he’s not sure he even wants to go through with it anymore. He turns for home, planning to crumple up the card and maybe eat the chocolates himself.

“Matt.”

There’s a tug as Foggy grabs his sleeve. He turns towards the warmth of Foggy’s body, the sounds of his heart and his breath, and tries to offer a smile.

“What?”

Foggy gives him a quiet huff in return.

“Come on, Matt, give me a little credit. You’ve kept coming up with excuses to meet me all day. There’s something you wanted to say, and you still haven’t said it,” he explains. “I can tell. So let’s head back to mine and you can finally get it off your chest.”

Matt feels, suddenly, seen. It’s an unsettling and vulnerable feeling, but he knows beyond all doubt that he’s safe with Foggy. That it’s silly of him to be surprised at somebody knowing him so well when that somebody is Foggy. There’s not much the two of them can hide from each other after being best friends for so long. Mood improved a little, Matt manages a more genuine smile, and they walk on together.

—

“So, what exactly is your problem, Matt?” Foggy asks once they’re safely inside.

And it’s not as if he says it in a rude way, he actually sounds very earnest and concerned, but that just impresses on Matt all the more how stupid this entire situation is. He’s twisted himself in knots all day over one dumb little gift for one dumb little holiday. Annoyed with himself, Matt divests himself of his glasses, cane, and suit jacket, opens up his briefcase, plops the valentine and accompanying small box of chocolates inside down on Foggy’s coffee table, then flops onto the couch on his back.

“That,” he says, gesturing towards it. “That’s my problem, ok?”

Foggy laughs.

“That’s what all this was about? A valentine? You had me worried you were getting ready to pull some crazy stunt or another.” He pauses, likely studying the items set on the coffee table. “Chocolate and a card, huh? For Kirsten, I’m guessing? I had a feeling the two of you would be getting back t—”

Matt is extremely tired of Foggy’s assumptions.

“No, it’s for you! I’ve been trying to give it to you all day!” he complains, throwing an arm over his face — he might be a grown man but after the day he’s had he’s allowed to be a little dramatic, ok?

“Me?”

Foggy sounds surprised and pleased, but not like he’s having any sort of revelation about Matt’s feelings for him. Which is fine. That’s what Matt had expected, after all.

“Yup.”

“Well, if it is for me, then I guess I don’t have to feel guilty about wanting to eat these,” Foggy says, and there’s some rustling of cardboard and plastic as he opens the box of sweets and chooses one.

Raspberry-filled, Matt’s nose tells him as soon as it’s bitten into. With a pleased hum at the taste, Foggy picks up the card and opens the envelope. There’s further quiet, inarticulate sounds after that — noises Matt remembers from studying near Foggy, the sound of him not-quite-reading-aloud.

There’s a pause.

Foggy’s heart does a funny kind of stutter in his chest, then speeds up considerably. He swallows the chocolate in his mouth with a gulp that sounds distinctly nervous.

“Um. Matty...”

And now Matt’s nervous too. He sits up, clenches his fingers in the fabric of his slacks to keep from reaching for his glasses.

“What? What is it?” he demands.

“Did you, uh... Did you know Kirsten wrote in this?”

Oh no.

“What did she write?”

“Well, there’s a pretty long spiel about what she’ll do to us if we hurt each other,” Foggy says, with a jovial tone that rings very hollow. “But she also says I need to get over myself and kiss you because you’re an emotionally stunted duckling and won’t make the first move.”

“... Ah.”

Matt’s still trying to calculate the relative distance to the ground if he flings himself out the window when Foggy’s hand lands on his shoulder.

“Is she right?” he asks Matt.

“About what?”

Though he tries for a devil-may-care grin, Matt thinks it probably comes out a little anemic.

“About you wanting to kiss me, Matthew,” Foggy says drily. “we both already know you’re emotionally stunted.”

Matt shrugs.

“I do. But you don’t, and that’s fine, I’m... I don’t need...”

“I don’t?” asks Foggy, sounding incredulous. “Matty, come on. There’s pretty much nobody on Earth who’d turn you down and you really think I would?”

“But...? You never said...”

Foggy sighs and steps back. Matt gets the feeling he’s probably shaking his head in despair at Matt’s apparent idiocy.

“And why would I, Matt? I mean. You know what I mean! I’m just not the kind of person you would... They have leagues for a reason, buddy.”

That self-depreciation, light but tinged with a very deep melancholy that Matt knows is drilled right through to Foggy’s core, drives him to his feet in agitation.

“Objection!” he snaps, and doesn’t care how ridiculous it sounds. “I’ve flirted with you before! How could you think...”

“You flirt with everything that moves, Matt, I knew you didn’t mean it. That’s just who you are,” Foggy explains patiently.

“Well...” He can’t exactly deny it. “Yeah, but I did want to kiss you. Do want to kiss you. All the time. Except after you eat something gross and unfit for human consumption.”

Foggy offers up a quiet laugh, then, and it smooths some of Matt’s ruffled feathers when he can’t detect any bitterness in the sound.

“Real smooth, Casanova,” Foggy says. “That was sarcasm by the way. I’m rolling my eyes at you.”

“But you still want to kiss me too,” Matt replies, because he’s beginning to think it’s true and he knows Foggy finds it both irritating and endearing, but more the latter, when he’s smug about things.

“You really are unbearable. What do I see in you, I ask myself,” laments Foggy, even as he steps forward and cups Matt’s cheek in his hand.

Matt can hardly stop grinning long enough to swoop in and kiss him first.

#thanks for the ask!#mattfoggy #writing #daredevil #Anonymous

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sunnyrollins · 5 years ago

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Hello there lovely! Firstly, I LOVE your writing. You're just so GOOD. It literally lights up my day when I see you've posted a Rollisi prompt. Much love! Secondly, I was wondering if there was any chance of you doing a song prompt. I adore "Say You Won't Let Go" by James Arthur for Rollisis and would love to see some sort of fic based on it. No pressure if it's not your style. Take it or leave it. Love your work! You're the hero us Rollisi fans need!

[anon, this literally made me cry ilysm ! i’m so sorry this took me so long to get to ! i hope you saw the post i made shortly after you sent this saying i was doing it so you don’t think i just totally ignored you especially after all your kindness !]

The precinct felt particularly quiet that night. It usually did after a particularly difficult case. And, even after years of working at SVU, nothing was more difficult for Amanda than working cases involving children.

She sat at her desk, looking intently at the pictures of her daughters that were proudly displayed, unable to stop the familiar, intrusive thoughts from encroaching into her consciousness. She’d seen the worst of what the world had to offer working in the field that she chose. If anything were to ever happen to either of her girls…

She had enough restraint to flip the switch before the thought could fully manifest. Jesse and Billie were okay. They were fine…probably warm and comfortable in their pajamas, unwinding before bed. The thought was comforting, but also brought on a wave of almost guilt. Her kids were happy and safe and loved. The kids who’d been victimized by that animal…

“Rollins,” Amanda blinked back the tears that had threatened to spill at the corners of her eyes and turned to face Olivia at the sound of her voice. “Go home. Be with the girls.”

Amanda shook her head, as if to jostle the dark thoughts from her mind, and she took a deep breath to steady herself. “Yeah,” she agreed. Her eyes flickered to the framed photographs of her daughters one last time before she finally stood up from her desk. “These cases make you wanna go home and hug the people you love a little tighter.”

“I know Noah and I will be watching an extra hour of TV together tonight,” Olivia agreed with a small, sad smile.

Amanda returned the sentiment, but thought twice before offering a response on how her own night would transpire. Keeping things in her personal life under wraps had been getting inexplicably more difficult as time went on, and she’d found that she had almost slipped up on quite a few occasions within the past month.

Keeping secrets from Olivia and Fin was discernibly not her favorite thing to do, but it was necessary…for the sake of the job as well as for the sake of preserving what was hers and only hers for as long as possible. She loved them like they were family, but they — if nothing else — were opinionated. And it had admittedly been nice not having an outside opinion on her life outside of work since she’d been pregnant with Billie.

When it was clear that a nod was all the response that her detective was going to give, Olivia pulled her bag up a little higher onto her shoulder, fastening the final button on her coat. “Give the girls an extra kiss for me,” she said.

Amanda nodded again, her smile a little less melancholic this time. “See you in the morning, Captain.”

When she arrived back home, Amanda stopped outside of her apartment to fish her keys out of her coat pocket. From the other side of the door, she could hear a familiar voice, and a small smile touched her lips, as she paused to listen to the sound of the thick, Staten Island accent reading the words to one of Jesse’s favorite books that she had all but memorized by that point.

“The witch had a cat and a hat that was black, and long ginger hair in a braid down her-”

“Back!” Jesse finished excitedly.

Amanda smiled to herself before finally unlocking and opening the door, and the sight in front of her — with Billie sleeping soundly against Carisi’s shoulder and Jesse curled up against his side to look at the pictures in the book — was enough to send every fearful and negative thought about the recently closed case back into the furthest corners of her consciousness.

“Mommy!” Jesse exclaimed with a wave in her direction once she closed the door behind her.

The small smile that Amanda previously wore grew as she exchanged glances between all of the familiar faces. “You three havin’ fun without me?”

Jesse climbed into Carisi’s lap to take the book out of his hands and turn it to show the pictures to her mother. “We’re reading Room on the Broom!”

“Again?” Amanda asked with mock surprise. As if by second nature, she unclasped her necklace to remove the diamond ring that had been tucked into her shirt all day before slipping it back into its rightful place on her left hand. “One more reading and Uncle Sonny might start asking for a lobotomy.”

Carisi chuckled, but Jesse simply looked up at him with furrowed eyebrows. “What’s a bononomy?”

“Don’t worry about it,” he assured her. “How about before we finish me and Mom get Billie settled for the night and you can show her the picture you drew before, alright?”

“Okay!” Jesse agreed easily and with a jovial smile. She clambered out of his lap and set the book down on the coffee table, taking off down the hallway nearly as soon as her slippers hit the floor.

Amanda took the sleeping toddler from Carisi’s arms, kissing her head and holding her just a little bit closer than usual, and he followed behind her as they made their way into Billie’s dimly lit bedroom to put her to bed. After tucking her in and whispering a gentle goodnight, she turned to the man behind her, winding her arms tightly around his waist, and resting her head against the crook of his neck.

It seemed contrived, but she couldn’t help but notice that all of the darkness that had tainted her world throughout the years had become a little bit lighter since she’d finally allowed herself to fully let him in. From childhood, life had been anything but easy.. It all lingered in the back of her consciousness in a seemingly endless cycle. Maybe it always would. But sometimes in the simplest moments…when she’d watch him tuck the girls into bed, or she’d wake up to a gentle kiss before he’d get up to put on a pot of coffee…it all seemed to fade away for a little while.

She breathed out nearly all of the tension of the day in a soft sigh, her eyes squeezing closed as if to help her to memorize everything about him in that moment — the warmth of his skin, the smell of the cologne on the collar of his shirt, the soft whisper of his voice when he finally spoke.

“You alright?”

Her hand smoothed absentmindedly down his back, and she pulled away from the hug just enough to tilt her head up to look at him. “Better now,” she responded.

Now that I’m with my family.

She’d completed the thought exclusively in her mind, but the way he quirked a curious eyebrow and the corners of his lips turned up in amusement let her know that he’d recognized the implication. “Gettin’ domestic on me, Rollins?” He teased.

She rolled her eyes playfully, and when he leaned down to kiss her, she aptly dodged it with a laugh. “If I ever get domestic you’ll know it,” she assured him.

The truth was, she had gotten more domestically sentimental throughout the year and a half they’d been together romantically. She had, admittedly, rolled her eyes at the “marry your best friend” sentiment in the past. It seemed too cliche…childish even. Maybe that was because — before now — the vast majority of men she’d dated in the past hadn’t actually been her friends at all, she wondered.

“I thought you might be headin’ in that direction when you actually agreed to marry me,” he finally said with a chuckle.

“Well if it’s any consolation I’ve still got time to change my mind.” Her smile indicated that she was only joking without her having to say it, and this time when he leaned down to peck her lips, she graciously accepted. “Hopefully we’re both still employed by the time we actually get to the part where we tie the knot.”

For as much as she wanted to blame the detective skills of Manhattan SVU for the fact that it had been getting more and more difficult to hide the nature of their relationship from the squad — and for as much as that was partially to blame — she knew she hadn’t been doing herself any favors either. Half the time she’d go out of her way to avoid him when he’d come into the precinct, and the other half she’d be so tense that she could feel it in her shoulders.

It hadn’t exactly dawned on her until Olivia had pulled her aside one day to ask if they were okay…if they’d had some kind of falling out because — according to the Captain — they’d been standoffish around one another. She could only hope her own shock in response to the observation wasn’t evident enough to seem suspicious.

“You’re borrowin’ trouble again,” he pointed out in response to the offhanded comment.

“So I take it you’re ready to convince Hadid that marrying one of the detectives you work with somehow doesn’t present a conflict of interest?”

“I’m a lawyer, Rollins. Convincing is kinda what I do.” He paused, cupping her face gently between his hands to look her in the eyes. “Don’t worry about it, alright? We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. And either way…it’s all gonna work out.”

She knew he had absolutely no way of knowing that for sure, but something about the gentleness of his tone and the sincerity in his eyes made her want to believe it.

“You’re right. Gettin’ fired doesn’t sound too bad,” she finally said with a teasing smile, and when he chuckled with a roll of his eyes she nudged him playfully with her elbow. “I could use a vacation.”

When the floor outside of Billie’s bedroom creaked just slightly, Amanda instinctively unwrapped her arms from around him and turned to find Jesse standing in the doorway with a piece of paper in her hands. With a proud smile, the little girl thrust the drawing out to show her mother, and Amanda regarded the crayon-drawn figure with a bright smile.

“It’s Frannie!” The little girl declared, but she seemed to easily lose her focus on the task at hand as she turned her attention to Carisi. “Can we finish the story now?”

“Yeah, of course. C’mon.”

He grunted dramatically when he picked her up, offering a playful comment about how fast she’d been growing, and Amanda couldn’t help but smile at the way her daughter glowed excitedly in response.

The three of them quickly settled back onto the couch. Jesse sat attentively in Carisi’s lap, her eyes glued to the pages of the picture book as he picked up where he had left off, and Amanda leaned against him, nestled affectionately against his side. As he read, she slowly but surely fazed out the words and allowed herself to simply drift into the comfortable familiarity of his voice.

After all of the men who had burned her in the past — those who had left her high and dry or slept around behind her back — she had almost started to believe that there was no point in trying to build a romantic relationship as it would only end in heartbreak. But as she rested her head against the shoulder of the man she was going to marry…her former partner…her best friend…she let herself embrace the fact that she hadn’t let it get that far.

She thought back to the night that he’d asked her to marry him. When Al had proposed, it was out of perceived necessity. He’d wanted to make an “honest woman” out of her. With Carisi, it was different. He didn’t have to marry her. He wanted to.

“I want us to spend the rest of our lives like this, Amanda.”

A small, subconscious smile touched her lips in response to the memory, and when her eyes shifted up to him, watching his eyes skim over the children’s book as Jesse listened and leaned against his shoulder with sleepy eyes, she knew she wanted the same.

She wanted him to be there through everything that life would come to throw at her. She wanted to grow old with him by her side.

She wanted forever with him. And the ring around her finger assured her that he was never going to let her go.

#rollisi #rollisi prompts #svu #i'm genuinely soft over this ask again i don't deserve this kinda kindness <3 #also sorry for the delay this week there's genuinely no excuse #for me i was just being lazy

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teatitty · 5 years ago

Text

Rogues Lore

First of all I want to thank @schweeeppess for letting me spam her with Rogues lore 2 months ago cuz it made this post so much easier to type out when I can just copy-paste everything and then edit it to be more cohesive lmao

Second this is under a read more because it is A Lot

Leonard Snart AKA Captain Cold

He grew up with a super abusive father and his only refuge was when he would hang out with his grandfather in his grandfather's ice truck. When the grandfather died, he grew tired of his dad's abuse and set out to start a criminal career and moved to central.

(He's the one who started the rogues!)

He found blueprints for a "cold gun" which he ended up making from scratch (it’s also canon that he knows the gun so well he can remake it out of scraps in about 30 seconds to a minute) and had three main rules in his group: No Killing, No Harm To Women Or Children and No Drug Use. His cold gun is capable of interfering with the speedforce cuz it can reach “absolute zero” which is even colder then Mr Freeze's tech.

He's also the only cold-based villain capable of mastering this temp. In New Earth he was described as an "adversary" but in Prime Earth (same backstory as before mind you) he's described as being a straight villain whose only rule in the group is "no killing" (which seems to be a pretty flexible rule these days cuz DC has made him more, well, down with killing). He's also much younger here then he was in NE.

In Flash 2016 #17 we see another upgraded version of his gun that's capable of separating the Flash from the speedforce directly and, in doing so, causing Barry excrutiating pain. Generally, he and Barry had more respect for eachother in NE, to the point that Len even considered him family. In PE, though they have teamed up now and again, Len is far more hostile towards Barry, sometimes even being written in a way that suggests he wouldn’t mind if Barry died.

Sam scudder AKA Mirror Master (the first one!)

He was a simple convict who just really wanted to learn how to get inside a mirror's reflection. He practiced in a hall of mirrors and, once he succeeded, became Mirror Master. He was a frequent foe for Barry and, during Crisis on Infinite Earths, died around the same time Barry did.

He was the one who discovered the "mirror world". At one point he got himself trapped there and hated that the mirror world could just get him whatever he wanted instead of him stealing it so he got Barry to bust him out. He could also use mirror's to mind control ppl (dont ask) and this intrigued Barry.

On PE he's dating Lisa Snart (Len's younger sister) and is the only Mirror Master to exist. In N52 he, Len, Lisa, Mick and Marco all got fused with their weapons for a while and given meta-human abilities which I. hate because it took away what made them all so cool (I'm fine with Marco tho and you'll find out why in a minute) he's also a really big attention seeker lol

Hartley Rathaway AKA Pied Piper

Alright most of Hartley's info is from NE so: he was born deaf to wealthy parents who got him very high-tech hearing implants. He became obssessed with sounds and started experimenting with sonic technology. Bored of his rich life (and sometimes it's implied he had ableist and/or homophobic parents too) he took to a life of crime after learning how to hypnotize people through music (Pied Piper ayyy).

He was the first person to ever successfully break out of Iron Heights and did so because he befriended the rats there and used them to help himself escape, adding more to his whole Pied Piper thing. After Barry died he gave up crime and started working to help the poor and underprivelaged (I'm not saying he quit specifically bc of Barry's death buuuuuut most of the Rogues did so).

He struck up a close friendship with Wally and came out as openly gay! On PE all that we know for certain is that he's a "reformed vigilante" who's the conductor for the Central City orchestra. He used to share an apartment with Barry (yes for real) before he moved in with his bf, David Singh (also Barry's director in the CCPD). Lisa was the one who convinced him to come out to the Rogues, and they were all chill with being gay, their problem came when he started dating David who is, you know, a cop.

He has a pet rat called Moon (cute, right?). Also in pre-N52 canon (cant remember if it was NE specifically or older) Hartley once had a nervous breakdown after Barry arrested him so Barry took him to get help at a mental health hospital :')

(Some artists draw him blonde, some brunette and others go more for reddish-brown it’s kinda confusing)

Marco/Mark Mardon AKA Weather Wizard

On NE he's a two bit criminal called Mark Mardon (he's also white and yes thats important to note) but one day, after escaping from a cop van, he ran to find his brother, Clyde, who was a scientist only to discover his bro had died of a heart attack (however, there's implications that he actually murdered his brother and simply blocked out the memory).

He then found Clyde's notes on how to create a wand to control the weather and made it for himself. The worst he ever did on NE was imprison a town in winter and after Barry's death he went into semi-retirement (told you the Rogues all did this)

On PE however! He and Clyde are Latino and are the heirs to a huge cartel! Clyde takes over the cartel and Marco wants nothing to do with that life. After their father dies, Marco runs away and eventually becomes Weather Wizard.

He comes back when he hears his brother has been murdered and gets accused of the crime. He finds out it was Clyde's wife, Elsa, who orchestrated the whole thing and, in a fit of grief and anger, kills her with lightning. He also tries to kill himself at the same time but it doesn’t work. After her death, he curls up into a ball and starts crying because he feels like he hasnt got any family left but then Lisa shows up and is like "yo the rogues are still here for you bitch"

His emotions affect the weather in this continuity and I’m a weak bitch for that but that’s 100% my bias for Ororo Munroe showing itself lol

James Jesse AKA Trickster (the first one!)

James Jesse was born to the Flying Jesses, famous circus performers. He, however, was afraid of heights, and preferred reading stories of Western criminal Jesse James.

He invented air-walking shoes to get rid of his acrophobia, and this led to his fame as an aerialist at the circus. Buuut he wanted more excitement in life and became a conman instead! He had a lot of wacky gadgets like exploding teddy bears and, after Barry's death, moved from Central to Hollywood and started working in special effects.

Like Hartley, he even attended Barry's funeral. He once beat the devil, Neron, at his own game and eventually started using his skills for good, collecting weapons of incarcerated villains so they couldnt fall into the wrong hands. He eventually died protecting Hartley during Final Crisis. Deadshot was the one who got him.

On Prime Earth his parents were straight up neglectful and, instead of creating his own boots, he stole them from STAR labs instead. This version of him is also WAY more fucked up and murdery then NE to the point us long-term Rogues fans got really upset at how much DC had changed him

On NE his real name is “Giovanni Giuseppe” (swear this is, like, the only italian name DC knows) and on PE the Flying Jesse's were a deliberate rip off of the Flying Graysons

George “Digger” Harkness AKA Captain Boomerang

The illegitimate son of an American toy-maker, W.W. Wiggins, and an Australian woman, Betty Harkness, George Harkness was raised in poverty in the small town of Kurrumburra, Australia. His stepfather, Ian Harkness, hated the boy and made his life miserable. (Like canonically Ian was an abusive alcoholic and even abused Betty who was too ill to defend herself or George. The reason George goes by "Digger" is cuz that's what his mom used to call him before she died; it's aussie slang for "soldier")

In school, Harkness crafted a boomerang. He discovered he had great skill with the aboriginal weapon and often used it for mischief with his best friend, Mick Wentworth. He further honed his skills while spending some time hiding from the law in the Australian bush.

When Digger was eighteen, he and Wentworth robbed a general store and were able to make their escape with the aid of Digger’s boomerang. However, this incident caused Digger’s stepfather to kick him out of the house.

His mother gave him a plane ticket to Central City and told him to get in touch with Wiggins. Wiggins had been searching for a spokesman for W.W. Wiggins Game Company's latest product, a toy boomerang. Under the alias "George Green", Digger auditioned for and got the job. Wiggins outfitted him with a costume and gave him the name "Captain Boomerang."

Ridiculed by the audience, he took to a life of crime instead.

His story is pretty much the same on PE. The only diff being there was no childhood friend and Digger made boomerangs in an attempt to impress his absentee father. Also he has a habit of making up fake stories about himself lmao

The only one's he really doesnt stab in the back are the Rogues and Harley Quinn but everyone else? fair game. In Flash: Rebirth he and Barry even exchange favours for info and it’s implied this is a regular thing for them

Roscoe Dillon AKA The Top

He technically appears on PE but he's one of Thawne's acolytes so lets just. Skip that and focus on NE instead

Literally his whole thing is that he was obssessed with spinning tops as a kid and taught himself how to spin fast enough to deflect bullets. He became a criminal, tried to blackmail the entire world once, and was Lisa's first boyfriend!

He was also her ice-skating coach and taught her how to spin super well like himself! He has a very confusing characterization tho cuz sometimes he was written to be all about revenge and killing but other times he was just like the other rogues; a blue-collar criminal who stole things because he liked to.

He died eventually which I'm not going to try to explain cuz it's...yeah. There's also this whole thing where he could possess people after his death but this was in the silver age and that shit just happened sometimes so whatever

In short: Roscoe has a really cool concept to him but nobody really knew how to write him so he ended up all over the place

He also has a Spinning Top shaped satellite in space where he stores all his loot (dont ask)

Mick Rory AKA Heatwave

Mick Rory has pyromania! Very severely! He was born on a farm outside of Central and, as a child, was very fascinated with fire. This turned into an obssession and he ended up burning his house down. So fascinated by the flames, however, he never ran to get help, watching his whole house burn down (and killing his parents inside) and he ended up living with his uncle after this.

On a schooltrip, his schoolmate stuck him in a meat locker as a prank where he gained Cryophobia (fear of the cold) so in retaliation Mick locked the boy in his house and set the thing on fire (again, pyromania). He ran away again and ended up becoming a fire-eater for a circus. That didn't last long either because, surprise!, he burned the place down.

Desperate to find a way to help his obssession, he happened to see the Rogues operating in Central and decided to take up villainy. At first he and Len got into a few altercations with eachother due to Mick's fear of the cold but eventually they settled their differences and Len officially brought him into the Rogues.

Mick kinda relies on them to keep his pyromania in check basically. There was a time where he was, briefly, reformed and gained a close friendship with Barry (even being roommates with him. By then he'd already known Barry's real identity for a few years) and used his pyro knowledge to become a fire-fighter consultant. At one point he even worked for the FBI

His backstory is practically the same on PE the only difference being that he never expressed regret for burning down his house, and actually says he wishes he’d burned down the whole neighbourhood instead

Lisa Snart AKA Golden Glider

When I say her NE version is leagues above PE I mean it.

Like Len, she suffered abuse under their father and escaped it by becoming a figure skater under the name Lisa Star for the Futura Ice Show! Her fame came from her very fast spins, a trick she was taught by Roscoe. When Roscoe died while fighting Barry (brain complications though there’s more to it, but again I’m not going to get into that) Lisa turned to villainy, blaming Barry for her lover's death.

Her attempts on Barry and Iris' lives were always foiled. She used a pair of ice skates that created their own ice flow, and had many gadgets that caused hypnotism. She also stole Len's gun once but retooled it into a twirling Baton.

When Barry died she renounced her feud with him and attempted to go straight again with her brother. They created a company that recovered lost or stolen items. Eventually she returned back to a life of crime, went through three boyfriends, all using the name Chillblaine (she named them that iirc), until the fourth Blaine killed her. Len got revenge on that one

On PE, however, Lisa had a brain tumor (it got cured later) and was a tag-a-long villain for her brother and her boyfriend, Sam Scudder. This version of her never became a skater and is instead murderous just for...the sake of it. She also has this thing about wanting to be the leader of the Rogues instead of Len, and when she's in charge of them for a while the Rogues’ morals change and killing is suddenly fine so. Whatever. NE Lisa is the best (also her whole outfit? Stunning)

Roy G. Bivolo AKA Rainbow Raider (not technically a Rogue anymore but he was a member for a while)

He appeard on PE as Chroma but gets murdered by Grodd so we only have NE canon to use (they did my mans dirty)

He was a wonderful painter from an early age but was born colourblind. His father, an optometrist, was determined to create a device that would let him see in full colour. Toy didnt get the device until after his father's death but unfortunately the device didnt let him see colour.

Instead, the goggles could project beams of light that could become solid objects, make him invisible, blind his opponents, or affect the emotions of his targets. Angry that he couldnt pursue an artistic career. he decided to become a thief and primarily stole famous artwork. He was eventually killed by Amunet Black

Evan McCulloch AKA Mirror Master (second one)

Evan was born to rich parents Louis and Carol Erikson who gave him up for adoption because they were too young to be responsible parents. He ended up at the McCulloch orphanage.

At age 8 he was molested by one of the older boys there and, in self-defence, ended up drowning the him. At 16 he left the orphanage, taking on the name of the woman who raised him and moves to Glasgow (he’s scottish btw)

He found that it was super difficult to hold down a job but, needing to make ends meet and constantly breaking the law anyway, he turned to a life of crime and became a hitman and then a professional assassin.

One day he got hired to kill his birth father but was unaware of who his target was until after he took the shot. Grief-stricken, he attended the funeral and tried to work up the nerve to approach his birth mother. By the time he had, she'd committed suicide and he turned himself in for his crimes.

Either the Scottish or US government gave him Sam's old Mirror Master gear and hired him to be a mercenary.

His first job was scaring Animal Man into stopping his activism, but he failed because of Animal Man’s wife. Refusing to actually kill the wife and children (thanks to his own morals) he gets fired and helps Animal Man seek revenge.

He continues to work as a criminal and supervillain-for-hire, even working out of costume as a mercernary in Britain.

Eventually he found his way to Central City and joined the Rogues, taking over as Sam Scudders official successor. There was a time where he had a Cocaine Addiction which caused friction between him and Capt Cold because of Len’s rule against drug use.

Throughout all of this, Evan made sure to donate a portion of all the money he ever got to the McCulloch Orphanage

Axel Walker AKA Trickster (second one)

On PE, Axel was recruited by the Rogues early on in his career. He messed up during a heist and they kicked him out (they'd never do that but w/e)

He worked for Mob Rule as a henchman for a bit then went freelance when MB was arrested. He saved Cold's life cuz he felt he still owed Cold a debt. When Grodd took over Central, Axel tried to join his side but Grodd tore his arm off from the bicep (ouch) and left him to die on the street. Axel got himself a cool sleek robot arm and returned to crime anyway. He got accused of murder, Barry cleared his name, but he still got sent to Iron Heights for other charges.

The Rogues, hearing about this, went to bust him out and were like "okay fine u can hang with us" and he stayed with them from then on

In NE canon, while Jesse was working with the FBI, Axel stole all his gear and ended up working for Penguin in Gotham. Penguin gets attacked by Tarantula, Axel fails to stop her and a few days later he gets caught by Robin (Tim) for causing trouble in Gotham.

He moves on to work with Amunet Black, but after her defeat is offered to join the “new Rogues” by Capt Cold and accepts the offer. Some stuff happens, he fights the OG Trickster who leaves him in a dumpster and tells him never to pick up the gear again, then Axel answers an ad from some college students asking for a trained hero to teach them some things, he has dinner with them and then kills them all. Neat.

When Jesse died, Axel redonned the Trickster gear and started operating his own crew out of an old Rogues hideout. When the Rogues returned to Central, Axel found out they were gonna retire and go underground. He rejoined them to help them get revenge on Inertia for manipulating them into killing Bart Allen, and he stayed with the group henceforth.

Evan explained to him that joining the Rogues wasn’t a matter of him wanting to be one, but why he needed to be one

In short: Axel is a punk kid who wants to fit in with the big boys and the Rogues are the only ones who really gave him a chance, acting like his older siblings. It’s worth noting that canon never mentions any relatives for him so, as far as we know, crime is all he’s ever known

And that’s all of them!

#random facts #the rogues #this took. so long to do #good luck reading it all lmao!#god i'm tired #i love them a whole lot can you tell?#tw: abuse mention #tw: drug addiction mention #tw: assault mention

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slashertalks · 6 years ago

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some vampire meta shit, and the theoretical societal balances which must be, and often are, struck within narratives depicting a carnivorous pseudo-human species (or, some thoughts about Daybreakers)

So it may not be well known here, but it’s a pretty obvious fact on my blog dailyhudson that I love the movies Near Dark and The Lost Boys. I’ve always been interested in the mythology of vampires, especially the scientific facts behind their origins, and I think the varying structures of vampiric societies within film narratives can be very interesting. So, that’s what I’m going to discuss here. I’m not sure how long this piece is going to be, but we’ll see as we go along.

I’m going to start with a little dissection of varying vampiric traits. Picture a vampire; I’m guessing the image your mind conjured up had fangs and drinks blood. Yeah, just fangs and blood— that’s all I can give you, because vampiric traits are so wildly different that at this point, there’s really no comprehensive list of universal features. Not even fangs are universal; in Near Dark, none of the vampires are shown to have them. However, there are recurring traits. Fangs are the most wide one, but there are also: altered eyes (commonly red or gold); pointed ears; bat-like feet or noses; the ability to shift their appearance between something human and more monstrous; flight; shapeshifting; a member of the undead. Why is “a member of the undead” not universal? Ignore the fact that I’m about to call upon Twilight, but it is a vampire narrative; within the plot, Bella gives birth to Edward’s baby and is turned in the process— the child is born a vampire, and therefore I don’t technically qualify it as “undead.” Alongside that, within the majority of narratives it is not a corpse which is reanimated, but a human that is turned. Vampirism is simply another state of being alive, though it can be used to prevent imminent death. Vampirism being conflated with death, in this meta discussion of morality and societal structures, would likely originate from a fear of what’s more powerful, more animalistic than ourselves (humans); how often do we think of ourselves as predators, when stronger creatures exist? To become a vampire is to lose your humanity but to gain the characteristics of what I will refer to as a “true predator,” not unlike a lion. Whether or not our actual humanity, our empathy, is lost varies on the narrative in question, and even then is questionable at best, considering the point of view of the narrative is nearly always a human one.

Now, what spurred this on was my viewing of the movie Daybreakers: an apocalyptic, near-starvation look at an imbalanced vampiric society— essentially, a worst-case scenario. Turning to both the Lost Boys and Near Dark, in these narratives we are shown two small groups of vampires coexisting in a world where they are unrecognized by humans (except in very rare cases, like that of Grandpa and the Frog Brothers). This is the ideal vampiric society, and one seemingly acknowledged by elder vampires; Max keeps a tight reign on the boys, only permitting David to turn a human when the human is approved. Jesse is angry with Mae for having turned a human without consulting them first. There is an understood need to keep the vampire population small, and to train them: Caleb is supposed to learn how to be a vampire, how to avoid attracting attention, how to recognize where and who to target. Even when they kill the bar patrons, the bar itself is mostly empty; a stark contrast to scenes like Daybreakers’ human farms or the blood rave in Blade. Even in the Forsaken, where the vampires are especially predatory and violent, they target very few people: our specific main characters and a small party of frat boys.

Within these narratives, there is an understood balance between vampires and humans. Not unlike any predator and prey; if prey cannot subsist, neither can predators. Vampires are an especially delicate predator, in that even if they can live off of animal blood, it is often not nutritionally fulfilling, leaving them weak and acting only as a bandaid until human blood can be obtained. Particularly within Near Dark, there is also a clan mentality: a desire to protect and safeguard your sired family; while Homer sired Mae, it’s easy to assume Diamondback and Severen were both sired by Jesse (who sired Homer is unclear). They are loyal to each other, a metaphorical pack of wolves; even Mae, who is turned back human (though that scenario raises questions of consent, since she never expresses a desire to be human and is, in fact, fearful when she awakens), is torn between staying with her family and defending the man she loves and had sired. The basis of a sustainable vampiric society would, as evidenced by Near Dark and The Lost Boys, require vampires to live as small, nomadic clans, keeping a tight control on the size of their groups and even killing off those who cannot successfully make the transition (whether because of fear, like Caleb, or because they cannot control themselves and feed without abandon, risking exposure). It’s also notable that there’s at least one older “alpha” within each clan; Jesse and Diamondback in Near Dark (though Severen is stated by both Bill Paxton and Jenette Goldstein to be older than Diamondback, his personality is naturally more immature and so he defers to Diamondback without issue), and Max in The Lost Boys. An older vampire within these clans would also be key to continued clan subsistence; until the younger vampires understand the need to maintain small, manageable groups and can go off on their own, the “alpha” vampire is there to guide them through vampiric adolescence.

What about Daybreakers, then? Even in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the high vampiric population is an explicitly-stated anomaly; Sunnydale is the location of the entrance to hell, naturally attracting supernatural beings— as such, we can assume within the rest of the world vampires exists either solitarily or within small familial groups (like Spike, Angel, and Drusilla did). Daybreakers is interesting to consider, since the transmission of vampirism is... unclear. It did start as a disease, considering the search for a cure, but based on the societal structures implemented in previous examples, one can assume that the disease struck out of the blue and spread quickly. Yet, at the same time, it can be transmitted via a bite. So, how did it start? Who was patient zero? The global nature of the disease and disregard for traditional vampiric societal structures put forth by previous narratives would suggest to me that there were millions of youthful vampires at once with no mentors to learn from. Even in the terrible Lost Boys sequel, the oldest vampire is (likely; that film is nonsense and I’m not going to dig too deep into it) thousands of years older than any other vampire. Even mad with power, the alpha is explicitly against the idea of turning all the humans at DJ X’s (another vampire’s) raves; he understands that too many vampires will lead to starvation and extinction. Following this logic, there can be no alpha vampire within the narrative world of Daybreakers; there’s nobody to pass along life lessons to the young vampires, nobody to teach them to keep their familial packs small and their destruction to a minimum.

What, then, is the morality of vampires hunting humans in Daybreakers? Clearly there’s a dichotomy between non-sapient predators and vampires: lions and wolves do not have the ability to reason, they act on instinct and drive alone. Vampires have the ability to reason, have some sense of morality, as do humans; therefore, it��s unfair to strike a “true predator”/“true prey” dichotomy. What about the fact that the vampiric society is facing starvation, then? What about humankind’s status as an endangered species? There’s no fair settlement between humankind and vampires within Daybreakers’ universe; human societal structures built around individualism and capitalism cannot make the transition to vampirism. Extinction is a guarantee without an alpha to lead the pack, so in a world where the vampiric agent was spontaneous and widespread, as is implied by Daybreakers, there was no other option for vampiric society.

I found Daybreakers interesting but unsatisfying. I’ve briefly touched on the attraction of vampirism from a specifically queer point of view, but I think that’s an important consideration. Growing up without knowing yourself, losing your childhood, losing members of your family because they can’t accept you, and having to rebuild your life in a society where you don’t know who you can trust... it’s a deeply disheartening way to come into yourself as a young adult. The vampiric societies depicted within films like Near Dark and the Lost Boys, where the vampires are fiercely loyal to one another, and in the case of the Lost Boys near-flirtatious with each other, are very attractive. The thought of a family you can’t lose, drawn to each other by attraction and bound by immortality; no fear of losing the most important people in your life to suicide or violence— I’ve often joked that only straight people turn down vampirism within films, but is that joke really that far off? Michael in the Lost Boys struggles with accepting the attraction the boys have for him, fleeing to the comforting heterosexuality of a relationship with Star rather than confront any potential queerness. Mae is completely comfortable in her skin, but Caleb can’t accept her identity as a vampire, and fears the implications that has for him (what does it say if he’s dating a bi woman?). Louis in Interview With The Vampire slowly learns to accept himself, but not without struggles and denial (a true statement of many “coming out” narratives). These parallels come easy to vampiric stories, and combined with the attractiveness of vampirism to a group who struggle with acceptance and often rely on found family rather than blood relatives (and what if your found family could become your blood family through vampirism?), it would be a disservice to leave this out of the discussion.

My dissatisfaction with Daybreakers originates, I think, from its overt heterosexuality. There’s a lack of nuance to the narrative, an almost propaganda-like ignorance towards the point of view of an equally sapient species. Take this with the smallest grain of salt, considering the queer parallels with vampirism are generally unintentional, but how often has the “h*mosexuals are destroying good christian families” argument been used? How often have people said that if society accepts gayness there won’t be any straight people left? Not that I’m particularly sympathetic towards this corrupt vampiric society, nor the majority of the vampiric characters, but in light of the connections I’ve drawn between queerness and vampiric stories the saving grace being “they gave up vampirism and turned back human” is... tiring (you can pray the gay away, after all). The statement above, and the statement that Daybreakers’ vampiric society is corrupt and unsustainable, can mutually coexist. After all, Blade is a vampire who essentially serves as population control against a corrupt vampiric society— good vampires and corrupt vampires are also not mutually exclusive, as Daybreakers would indicate (the character Frankie can’t stop himself from feeding on a human as soon as there’s not a crossbow in his face).

Perhaps I’m digging into this a little too deep— perhaps there’s nothing beneath the surface of these narratives, but I’m loathe to believe that. After all, I’m here running this blog because there’s very often a deeper layer to horror narratives, a breaking-down of norms unattainable with other genres. For example, while it wasn’t a fantastic film, Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker did depict a gay man who was a sympathetic character and a caring basketball coach who worried about his students, was realistic about the challenges of homophobia, but still did what he could to look out for the main character when things began to go off the wall. It’s not so unreasonable, then, to say that many vampire narratives (intentional or otherwise) are steeped in queerness and the antithesis to upper-middle class, white, heterosexual familial values— a found family of misfits, loyal and protective of each other, which Good Heteros can do nothing against? How terrifying! This is why I feel so apathetic towards Daybreakers: where it could have explored and played against structures the way many horror films do, it slotted itself right into the mold of “normal” (read: white, able-bodied, cishet, middle+ class) people = good, Others = bad, and the hottest take the movie had was “maybe unchecked capitalism is Not Great.” Which, duh, of course unchecked capitalism is bad, but that’s a subject for another day and a different blog. The difference between the other vampire narratives I talked about and Daybreakers is the difference between good barbecue and the McRib; between real blood and a substitute: it’s edible, but something important is lacking.

#daybreakers #near dark #the lost boys #vampire meta #I’m back at it!!!! back at it again at Krispy Kreme!!!!!!!

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caffy91 · 5 years ago

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A review of Gilmore Girls: A Cultural History

Rating: 2.5 stars.

I know there are two authors, but because there is no distinction between them in the writing, I will refer to them as one entity. Here are my thoughts on the book: if you are Team Jess or Team Luke, this is a series of essays you will, for the most part, like. That being said, there are a lot of things about this book that I found lacking. My main criticism of this book is that the author cherry picks the examples she wants to use to prove her point and fails to mention other ones that don't add to it. Specifically, she very rarely addresses anything in season 7 (which, okay, different writer, I get it), and does not address Luke's daughter at all (okay, once, in a parenthesis), despite that fact that much of the essays talk about Lorelai as a mother, but nothing about her as a potential step mother to either April or Gigi. Further, in the entire section on Luke as a father figure to Rory, she does not address the fact that Luke does have a daughter and his handling of that, but only uses examples of his guardianship of Jess. I can freely admit that I was always Team Logan and, though I was horrified at the revivals characterization of his relationship with Rory, felt this books writers did him a injustice. The authors own feelings about Logan, which she outright admits to (“Full disclosure: we don't get Team Logan fans, but we'll do our best to represent what you could possibly be thinking as we work through what he says about Rory...and you”) make it so I can't take her criticisms seriously because what she condemns in him, she forgives in others. She constantly points out his less than perfect moments, but makes no mention of some of Jess' or Deans less than admirable interactions. The author is so blatantly Anti-Logan, that I spent most of the book resenting her defense of other characters and her own bias. At one point she makes a character judgment about him saying that Rory would be “exposed to a walking petri dish of unwanted STD's and venereal disease,” I suppose on account of the fact that he had casual sex with other consenting adults-- but this judgment is never made on other such characters that are sexually open, like Louise and Madison, who are also only mentioned once, or Paris who cheats on her boyfriend for half a season. While I realize that this next portion is the part of the show that has the most wildly varying opinions and debate, here is my rebuttal to what the author has written. I would also like to preface this by saying I don't hate Jess-- I actually quite like his as a character and wish his spin off had worked out. However, in the case of this book... The author diminishes the growth that Logan makes over the course of the show at every turn. The Logan that the show ends with is not the Logan you meet in season 5 and I resented the authors focusing on the early relationship that Rory had with Logan and his class-ist behaviour, when I would argue that Jess' behaviour was more deplorable when we first meet him, as he actively pursued someone in a relationship, and felt “above” the small town he was forced to move to (a form of social class-ism in itself). However, the author glosses over Jess' treatment of Rory, except when referencing how other characters reacted to Rory and Jess dating. One fresh take the author has is that she compares Dean to Luke, and not Luke to Jess, which is the more common interpretation. That being said, I disagree that Logan and Christopher are the parallel, though they do have shared characteristics (rich boy who is pressured into things he has no say about because of his family, financial recklessness, lashing out when they don't get their way). I would argue that it is actually Jess and Christopher that are the parallel (though I did find the authors implication that it is Lorelai that Jess can be compared to compelling). Both are inconstant in their presence, leave when things get hard and they don't want to deal with it, and have an insensitivity towards others feelings. Likewise, they both insert themselves into the Gilmore Girls lives when they feel like it, with no regard to the current circumstances of Rory and Lorelai's life. Teenage Jess also makes no attempt to fit into Rory's life or social circle, only to attempt to uproot her, like Christopher (in suggesting he and Lorelai have more kids). Further, if Christopher is Lorelai's teenage love (or the one that got away), then Jess is Rory's, both encapsulating the longing for the simplicity of their younger years, before their lives got so complicated. The main comparison I would make between Christopher and Jess is this: they only put effort into their relationship with Rory and Lorelai when they are not with them. At one point in the show, Rory wants to go to one of the festivals that the town is throwing and wants Jess to come with her pointing out he has gone to festivals in the past, and then Jess says something along the lines of “that is when I wanted you, and now I have you,” implying no more effort needs to be put into endearing himself to Rory. It is not until Dean makes himself available to Rory at the festival that Jess feels threatened and likewise decides to go. (So in an instance of the author cherry picking, this scene goes unmentioned, but Logan being jealous at having caught Rory talking to an ex-boyfriend at night is criticized.) Further, Christopher does the same, only making himself available to the Gilmore's when he himself is inclined to want to be with Lorelai, but never on someone else's terms. Logan, on the other hand, constantly puts effort into his relationship with Rory, visiting her when she is overseas, calling her to see how her day is going, surprising her with gifts and dates and adventure, something the author never addresses. And while the authors argument seems to be that Logan also has “daddy issues” similar to Christopher's, this does not account for Jess' own issues with fatherhood and authority. I personally feel that that is a part of Christopher's issues that is not overly addressed: in the early show he cannot hold down a steady job, I would presume to being irresponsible and not taking the authoritative body of work seriously. Jess, likewise, does not take well to authority figures and his own father was never present in his life. On the whole, this book makes some compelling arguments and I wouldn't write it off just because I disagreed with something that the entire internet has been debating about for over a decade. I was just not able to get over this one aspect of the authors argument because it happens to run throughout the entire book. That being said, the essays do focus on other parts of the show (class, money, culture, feminism, etc), and those are worth looking into. It shouldn't surprise anyone that the most contentious topic in this series of essays is the most contentious topic in all debate about the show.

#gilmore girls

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pass-the-bechdel · 5 years ago

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Continuum Season Three Full Review

How many episodes pass the Bechdel test?

92.3% (twelve out of thirteen)

What is the average percentage per episode of female characters with names and lines?

35.1%

How many episodes have a cast that is at least 40% female?

Six, episodes 3.02 “Minute Man”, 3.03 “Minute to Win It”, 3.04 “A Minute Changes Everything, 3.05 “30 Minutes to Air”, 3.08 “So Do Our Minutes Hasten,” 3.10 “Revolutions per Minute.”

How many episodes have a cast that is less than 20% female?

One, episode 3.09, “Minute of Silence.”

How many female characters (with names and lines) are there?

Twenty-four. Eleven who appear in more than one episode, five who appear in at least half the episodes, and one who appears in every episode.

How many male characters (with names and lines) are there?

Forty-six. Eighteen who appear in more than one episode, nine who appear in at least half the episodes, and none who appear in every episode.

Positive Content Status:

Aside from a higher average percentage of female characters per episode—and, not coincidentally, a much higher Bechdel score, there isn’t much to note. (Average score of 3.0)

General Season Quality:

Easily the best season so far, in terms of juggling storylines and characters.

MORE INFO (and potential spoilers) under the cut:

As solid as season two of Continuum was, it often quite felt as if it was ultimately stretched thin, with too many balls aloft. Looking at season three, it seems like the showrunners agreed, as many of the plotlines set across that season are quietly pushed aside—more on this later—and the result is a season that, while still juggling a lot, feels a lot more cohesive.

The show’s decision to reboot itself by shunting Kiera and Alec to a different timeline is one of those things that would normally give me pause: why should I care about Travis or Garza’s deaths, if they’re going to be undone? Why should I care about the previous two seasons, if, as this season suggests, it’s events were a tangential, transient part of Kiera’s life? And what of Carlos and Betty forming an alliance with Julian, one of the season two finale’s most interesting tidbits? As was noted in a conversation I had about the series, there is the risk of the show turning into something like The Good Place, where the continuous reboots and mindwipes can’t help but exhaust.

And yet…it works. Part of it is because time travel is part of Continuum’s core premise, even when it means only going back a week, and part of it is because the series actually understands the implications of what it’s doing. Yes, it’s weird to hear Carlos treat Red Kiera and Green Kiera as completely different people when the only things separating them is a week. And yet, he’s perfectly right: to paraphrase an episode title, a week changes everything, and the characters we meet throughout this season are not the ones in the Red timeline.

Furthermore, while the season abandons the Red timeline, it does not forget it, and the writers are able to use our knowledge and expectations to good effect. The story of Betty’s role as a Liber8 mole gains more poignancy because we know how it played out in another universe, where Carlos was more disillusioned with police work and more willing to choose her over the CPD. Alec’s anger over things like Escher and Emily feels more deliciously ironic, given what he doesn’t know about them. And of course, we get yet another set of complications, as Red Kiera and Alec’s presence in the new timeline throws it completely out of whack, completely derailing the future as we’d come to know it.

One of my favorite moments about Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, a series with a similar prevent-the-future premise to Continuum’s, occurs when Derek Reese and Jesse Flores, lovers and time-traveling freedom fighters from a future in which humanity battles terminators for survival, realize they don’t actually come from the same timeline. While their timelines of origin share generalities—enough that they don’t realize this until they’ve been interacting for weeks, if not months—they are not identical—Jesse has memories of experiences that did not occur to this version of Derek, and vice-versa. It remains one of television’s more interesting attempts to deal with the mechanics of time travel and timeline-altering, and similar elements form the backbone of this season of Continuum. And it works really well.

While the previous seasons played coy when it came to answering whether Kiera and Liber8’s shenanigans were helping prevent their version of 2077 or ensure it played out, by this season, it is clear that it is the former. While this means that Liber8 technically succeeds, it also means that the future it’s created also has time travelers, including some that may prefer the future where the world is owned by corporations to the one where Liber8’s presence brings them down (along with everyone else). It’s a smart expansion of the show’s premise and universe, and the timing couldn’t have been better: while the Kiera / Liber8 conflict is more interesting this season than it had been in the past (not that it was ever un-interesting) it also wasn’t a thing that could continue indefinitely. Something needed to change, and this season does that, and quite well.

Still, the biggest change isn’t the timeline shenanigans, but the one that occurs within Kiera herself. As mentioned, one of the more interesting things about Continuum during the first two seasons is that Kiera was, when one looked at the big picture, the bad guy. Liber8 may have had the body count to justify all the energy that’s expended to stop them (although it’s worth noting that this season has the group taking pains to make their campaign less reliant on indiscriminate bloodshed) but Kiera is the one supporting the continued oppression of the 99%.

While the first two seasons of the show got a lot of mileage from the dissonance between Kiera’s politics and her role as hero, this one finally begins the journey to her epiphany, and the road to her realizing that her 2077 cannot be allowed to exist—even when doing so guarantees that her son will not exist either—is one of the season’s best stories, and it not only again cements her as one of the top-tier sci-fi protagonists on television, but also leads to the series’ biggest “hell yeah” moment to date, as she teams up with Liber8 in order to prevent both the future she knows and a far worse one.

On that note, if there’s an element that consistently doesn’t work this season, it’s the addition of Brad Tonkin as a love interest. As mentioned before, he makes sense from a storytelling perspective: he’s reverse Kiera, the spouse and parent from the future who willingly gets himself stranded in the past in order to change the future. Furthermore, there’s plenty of other reasons for him to be there: he not only provides proof that the battle being waged in the present has concrete (and terrible) consequences, but he’s also vital to the season’s “who killed Green Kiera?” subplot. I’m not sure if him and Kiera bonding the way they have is an example of a romance that’s been shoehorned in, one that simply hasn’t had time to develop, or one that makes sense for the kind of characters Kiera and Brad are, and frankly, the answer doesn’t matter: it still strikes a very odd chord, and while it’s not an entirely unpleasant one—there’s something weirdly appealing about all their interactions—I can’t help but feel that it didn’t need to be here.

Season three is Continuum’s best season so far when it comes to the Bechdel test, with all but one episode passing. At the same time, this is an excellent showcase of the incompleteness of the Bechdel test as a measure of feminism—that improvement doesn’t translate into a better positive content score. Furthermore, it’s hard not to notice that this season ends with the loss of three key female characters, who are also all three women of color. While the show still has considerable racial diversity, all of it is male, and that is a problem. It feels odd that a show that is so fundamentally political can also be negligent when it comes to things like this, but that’s also not surprising, or new.

Still, it’s hard not to accept these circumstances, given how solid the season is as a whole, and just how different Continuum continues to be. For its faults, its singular and very defined point of view—a rare thing, in TV, especially when it comes to entities as deified as the police—combined with its skill at under-appreciated storytelling elements like world-building and cast juggling, continue to make it pleasure to watch.

#Continuum #Continuum Season Three #Female Representation #Bechdel Test #MimeParadox

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rosalind-of-arden · 5 years ago

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Paper and Fire Reread Chapter 8

Looking for Morgan, Wolfe, and Santi. Easily distracted by stuff like conspiracies and incomprehensible guns.

At this point, it has been over a month since Chapter 2, where we had that ephemera about Morgan being due for breeding soon. Later in the book, Morgan says that she ran away at this point because she was scheduled to be matched. Now, the ephemera aren’t dated, so it could be out of sequence, but usually notes that directly relate to what the characters are doing aren’t presented that far ahead of the events in question. So, disturbing implications here. It is entirely possible that she’s been showing signs of potential fertility for that long without actually ovulating. Stress can delay ovulation, and on a chart, that would look like it’s about to happen, then it doesn’t. Being underweight can also inhibit ovulation. Jess observes that Morgan looks thinner, so it’s possible she’s deliberately starving herself for that purpose.

Morgan says here that she’s stayed out for the whole day. She tells Jess that she stayed out that long because she couldn’t find him, which we later learn is a lie. More evidence that Morgan has some skill at being sneaky. Also, a Wolfe-Morgan parallel: both hide their trauma.

But she’s not all that good at hiding things: “something clouded her face for a moment” when Jess asks why she left the tower, and he thinks it might be fear. Is she hiding it well enough that he really can’t tell, or is this willful ignorance on his part? She’s also in a hurry to change the subject.

Morgan is pale, thin, tired and tense. Her smile is guarded. Her hair is down, even though she usually had it up in Ink and Bone. Not allowed to have hairpins?

Nice, luxurious things that might be triggering to Morgan later? Gold, soap that smells like roses and spices.

Here’s Morgan, clearly stressed and in the middle of an escape attempt, and all Jess can think about is kissing her. Take a cold shower, Jess. At least Jess realizes that she’s distracting.

We know Morgan wanted out of the tower that day anyway. Why is she mad at Jess for already finding out about Rome? Because looking for him is riskier than just hiding, and the sooner she gets caught, the more likely it is they’ll still consider her fertile enough to breed.

Jess being willfully ignorant again: There must be sun somewhere in the Iron Tower! No, Jess, there really does not have to be sun.

Morgan had information on Thomas and Wolfe as well as the prison, but doesn’t seem to have proof that the prison they were taken to is the one she learned about in Rome. Still an impressive amount of stuff to dig up.

The Obscurist has to be letting her find this stuff, maybe even arranging for her to find it, but she must not be ready for the Wolfe Pack to go rescue Thomas yet, or she’d let Morgan find proof of Thomas’s location. So the Artifex making his move disrupts her schemes, too.

Morgan has some details on what happened to Wolfe, and she finds it very upsetting. “Her voice faltered” when she starts talking about what she found. Depending on when, exactly, she found this, it’s possible that this information is why she’s so worried about Wolfe earlier. This could also be why she isn’t still upset with him for having her arrested, even though she is still mad at Jess (not that Jess isn’t being enough of an oblivious moron all by himself to justify her irritation with him).

Morgan lived in Oxford. A city that was destroyed by the Welsh army after a long siege, killing thousands of people. Her father became a Burner and tried to kill her. She has spent the past six months in a place that practices systematic rape for breeding purposes. She is still shocked and disturbed by what she learned about Wolfe’s experience in Rome. (Who has more gory details at this point? Her or Jess? Guessing her.) This probably says something about just how bad the torture was. It also says a lot about what a caring person Morgan is.

Morgan is possibly wrong about the sequence of events in Wolfe’s backstory. She says he was in the prison in Rome and they were going to kill him before his mother "finally intervened”. We know from Ink and Bone that the Artifex wanted to have Wolfe killed before Rome, but the Obscurist overruled him and had Wolfe sent to Rome instead. From Smoke and Iron, we know that Wolfe got out because Qualls let him out. We also know Qualls is the one who told the Obscurist about how bad the prison was (seriously, though? She didn’t know?) and it doesn’t sound like there was any plan to kill Wolfe at that point. So either the Artifex was trying to arrange an execution again, Qualls told the Obscurist that Wolfe was going to die when he contacted her, or Morgan is seeing undated notes out of order and getting the sequence wrong. Possible that the Obscurist made sure Morgan would get this inaccurate perception of events in order to make the Obscurist look better.

Jess, for fuck’s sake, Morgan is afraid she’s going to be caught soon, this is just not the time to pester her about your relationship.

It’s possibly just a writing/editing slip, but I find it cute here that Jess is already calling Santi “Nic”. Santi is totally going to be on first name basis with the kids at some point.

Morgan can feel when they activate the tracking in her collar, or at least when someone tracking her gets close.

Morgan is good at keeping her composure here. She walks right to the carriage and lets the High Garda arrest her.

So, a century is presumably 100 soldiers, and there are at least two per company. Probably more. How many squads to a century? Who knows. Given that it says Santi took a half century to Oxford, I kind of want to say squads of 25 to make it divide evenly.

Santi took a half century to Oxford. They lost 12 soldiers in there, and Jess seemed to think there weren’t many left after that. So 38 remaining. 5 are left in the end. So 45 total deaths, 12 in Oxford, the rest either during the attack on the train or somewhere between Oxford and the train? Or is Jess wrong about those 5 being the only ones left? Regardless, that’s a lot of losses at one time, all because of the Artifex trying to kill Wolfe, that Santi had to cope with.

Jess does not understand Santi at all. He’s confused by how Santi can keep fighting for the Library, knowing what he knows. But Santi sees his position as a respected and high-ranking soldier as protection for Wolfe. Long term, he probably sees getting to the top of the chain of command as a way of changing things. Yes, he’s in the process of giving up that long-term goal, but protecting Wolfe is always his first priority, and protecting Wolfe is more important, knowing what he knows.

Santi has multiple top lieutenants. How many? Who knows. But there’s our introduction to Zara: “a round-faced woman with startling greenish eyes in a very dark face.”

Zara is running interference for Santi. Zara is not in on Santi’s more rebellious plans, so how does this conversation go between Santi and Zara? “See that kid? He’s a disrespectful little shit from Chris’s class who’s likely to come whining to me about stupid shit. Go put the fear of God in him for me, will you?” Smart choice to send Zara, though. Jess would argue with Santi, but he won’t argue with Zara.

It occurs to me that we did not see Zara in Ink and Bone. So, during Oxford, guessing she was left in charge back in Alexandria? She probably also covered for him while Santi played teaching assistant for Wolfe. Either she’s expecting this to lead to a promotion, she really loves Santi, or she’s really irritated with Santi. Or some combination thereof.

There is a Translation Chamber in Alexandria. So what’s with the drive to Darnah first? Better capacity since it’s a nicer facility? Aritfex fucking with everyone with annoying orders? Keeping everyone busy with an all day drive while he sets up some Burner attacks?

Santi probably had some choice in who to take ahead to Rome. Odds are, he knew the mission before assigning Jess and Glain to a squad. And how does he arrange things? Jess and Glain go to Troll’s squad. Three kids he’s sort of adopted, all in one place. And he picks that squad, and a squad of seasoned veterans to go ahead to Rome with him. The people he most wants to protect and the people most capable of protecting them.

These guns. Ugh. This time, and as far as I can tell, only this time, Jess has to press a switch to turn his gun on, and it takes a second to warm up. Definitely seems like an energy weapon: “he felt the shiver of power run through it.” Jess can see the Burner’s face, so rifle with a scope? The other guns they’ve used seem to be handguns, so maybe there’s the difference?

Jess can hear the Burner at this distance? Really?

Burners knew the Artifex was coming. Public knowledge? Or the Artifex arranged this?

Who told Troll that “Wolfe’s puppies” would be trouble? Santi?

Jess-Wolfe parallel here. Wolfe: don’t give me a gun, I want it to look suspicious when they kill me. Jess: go ahead lion, kill me while I’m standing still and make it look suspicious.

Troll seems to be warning Jess here, telling him that someone might want to test why the lions were interested in him. Maybe suggesting that Jess should avoid having anything suspicious on him? And then he says he can’t just get rid of Jess? Why not? Santi? Just how much has Santi told Troll?

#the great library #paper and fire reread

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edmunderson · 6 years ago

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just some stuff that i wasn’t able to include in the time loop fic or stuff that happens after it ends. basically just fun facts/random bits of info

-Garrett does let John give him a tattoo in place of where ‘Wrath’ used to be, though it’s something else (it matches what John gets to replace ‘Sloth’)

-they like singing to each other a lot. John of course sings a lot of pop songs and Garrett still has a preference for Elton John songs. they do a lot of duets in the shower.

-nightmares and sleepless nights are still pretty common for them.

-Garrett and Jacob still don’t really like each other in the new timeline, but it’s a lot more... civil this time around.

-the time loops left Garrett with some pretty bad PTSD. on 4th of july and new years (and whenever sharky and hurk bring fireworks to the Rye BBQ’s, which they don’t do too often) Garrett always stays home. loud noises freak him out now.

-Rachel and Tracey start dating when the Seeds move to Hope County. they run Jessop Conservatory together. (they also burned the last of the things that belonged to Rachel’s parents; old clothes, photos, etc.)

-Billy and Joseph surprisingly become pretty decent friends despite the whole “i had you killed/you had me murdered” from the previous timeline

-the line “it’s not God he’s talking to” is referring to the implication that Joseph is the antichrist (or talking to the antichrist depending on how you look at it) due to one interpretation of the bible being that the antichrist will come from Rome (and the Seeds come from Rome, Georgia)

-Garrett changes his name for John in his phone a lot, but the default he usually has him saved as is “my cinnamon apple” from that one vine (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhcq1FnBghI)

-there’s always at least three blankets on their bed because Garrett gets cold easily. during the winter there can be as many as six blankets.

-John and Garrett get married eventually. like, as Caunwen described it “John’s determination to put what’s essentially a ring on Rook,” it was bound to happen

-Jess and John still have that weird friendship that doesn’t really make sense but still somehow works. he takes her on as an apprentice at the tattoo shop he opens.

-when Garrett finds out that Jacob’s been hanging out with Staci, John actually has to hold him back and remind him that things are different now. Garrett still keeps a close eye on things for a while until it finally sinks in that Jacob isn’t about to start the whole brainwashing thing. (he still calls Jacob a furry)

-despite John’s flair for the dramatic, it’s actually a pretty laid back affair when they get engaged. it was honestly just Garrett going “Wanna get married?” one day over breakfast and John nearly choking on his coffee. (he says yes, of course)

-after Mary May finishes her Master’s degree, she goes back to Falls End and runs the bar with Billy. she gets together with Hudson after Hudson’s girlfriend breaks up with her.

-there’s a running gag about which is the sappiest couple: nick and kim rye, or garrett rook and john seed?

-originally, the story was supposed to be a /lot/ shorter, mostly because i wasn’t sure how long i could devote attention to it. it was originally supposed to end with Garrett and John heading to Faith(Rachel)’s territory.

-John still doesn’t get the appeal of the Testicle Festival, but he likes seeing Garrett having fun trying to drunkenly pop the balloons because he’s just so /determined/ to win a Testy Festy shirt (“you can just buy one. they literally sell them at that stand over there.” “no, i /have/ to win it or lose all testy festy honor, john.”)

-i kind of made Garrett to be “the opposite, yet the same” as the Seeds; their backstories share similar elements (mostly the rough childhood, their moms leaving one way or another (Garrett’s mom died when he was fairly young), etc.). basically “two sides of the same coin” except Garrett didn’t start/join a religious cult.

-Garrett hasn’t gone back to O’hara’s Haunted House ever since the last time he and John went there in the previous timeline.

-Miller is still alive and lives with Jacob and Joseph in the house John bought for his family.

-Mary May and John still don’t like each other in this timeline, but they still talk shit about their dumb older brothers together. (youngest sibling solidarity, lmao)

-John does a little digging to find the “previous Faiths,” mostly just to find out if they’re still alive. he never manages to find anything about Felicity though. it’s almost as if she never existed.

#far cry 5 #the time loop fic #john seed #the deputy #fc5 #john and garrett tbh

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overdrivels · 6 years ago

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Uh...I’ll just put down what I already have of the prompts. I wrote a bunch of them during the stream and now I’m real sleepy. (we also gave our mother the card for the bank account. she says she’ll save it for us. NO, MOTHER. THAT’S NOT THE POINT. SPEND IT ON YOURSELF GODDAMNIT.)

“Pull over. Let me drive for awhile.”

“I’m fine,” Fareeha says stubbornly, despite having driven a marathon eleven hours through the United States to pick up Jesse. Even with all the advances in technology, speed limits still have to be obeyed and no matter how much Fareeha wants to, she is still a woman of the law.

“‘reeha.”

“I’m fine.”

You pull out your communicator. Fine, two people can be stubborn. “I’m calling your mother.”

“Don’t involve her in this!”

You glare at her, waving the communicator threateningly. She returns the look from the corner of her eye, frowning. “Don’t you dare.”

“Make me.” Your thumb hovers menacingly over the ‘call’ button. The communicator nearly flies out of your hands when Fareeha groans out loud and makes a sharp swerve onto the shoulder of the road.

“Fine!” she shouts as she unbuckles herself and steps out and around the car, grumbling. “Fine, fine. Have it your way. Dirty cheater.”

You buckle yourself in and start to drive as Fareeha continues her mini-grumbling session. Not even ten minutes later, that gives way to silence, and then snoring. You scoff. You told her she was tired.

“I’ll walk you home.”

You laugh. “My ‘home’ is like...three doors down.”

“Don’t mean that something can’t happen,” McCree reasons earnestly. “Come on, lemme finish the night right.”

A disbelieving snort escapes you and you bump your shoulder against him. “You make it sound like our supply run was a date.”

“Wasn’t it?” he asks you slyly, a twinkle in his eye as he raises his hat to regard you with a look that could be interpreted as inviting.

“Hahah--wait, what.”

He winks at you, smile growing as the implications plant themselves your mind, and leaves you to think on what he just said, walking ahead of you.

“Wait! Was this a date? Jesse? JESSE MCCREE!”

“I dreamt about you last night.”

“Oh?” Genji waggles his eyebrows. “Was it a good dream?”

You roll your eyes and shove him lightly. “Not like that.”

“Oh, that hurts,” he moans dramatically. You shove him again, this time with a little more force. “What was the dream about?” It must be something significant if you are bringing it up.

You cross your arms and sink back into the couch, lips purse thoughtfully. “I don’t remember a lot of it. Just that you were there. Flying. Maybe speaking Japanese. And maybe my dream had subtitles.”

Genji almost chokes on his next breath. “Sub--subtitles?”

“Bright yellow ones.”

You smile to yourself, and Genji feels like it was a smile meant to be private. “But you...were cool. You, ah, you saved me. From falling into something that...haha, I’ve been running away from for a long time…”

He falls silent, regarding you carefully before pressing his shoulder against you.

Quietly, he says, “I’m glad I could save you then.”

“Can I have this dance?”

“We’re undercover, Jesse.”

“All the more reason t’ dance.” He raises his offering hand just a little higher. “Can I?”

Your eyes sweep across the room, noting that other people seem to be doing the same. Reluctantly, you place your hand in his in silent agreement, barely putting any weight into it, but still, Jesse takes it as an invitation all the same, grasping it tight and dragging you into him and onto the dance floor.

Hushed, you whisper, “I don’t really know how to dance.”

“S’okay, just follow my lead.”

You try to contain the way your body jumps as his hands assume their positions. He chuckles in your ear and you can’t hide the way your whole body seems to burn. This was going to be a long night, you think as Jesse begins to sway you both to the rhythm of the music.

(Though, you’re very, very sure to give a grinning Hana the finger behind Jesse’s back when she raises her phone to take a picture.)

“Watch your step.”

“I’m old, not blin—” Soldier: 76 nearly trips on the same step that you had purposefully warned him of, a small hidden little thing that honestly should have never been there in the first place. He rights himself quickly, stepping carefully as you had instructed.

He catches sight of the shaking in your shoulders.

“Not a word,” he growls, the beginnings of embarrassment burning a hole through his chest.

You shrug, biting the inside of your lip to keep from laughing. “Secret’s safe with me, Solly.”

“Better be.”

Though, he really should’ve known better than to take you at your word when some miscreant gifts him a walking stick. Though, everyone was running for their lives when they realized that he had training with polearms before (courtesy of Reinhardt).

>>“Can I hold your hand?”

Zenyatta tilts his head. “Certainly.”

He holds out his hand and you grasp at it blindly, far too tight to just be casual. The pressure you exert is great, and if his sensors were correct, it is likely fear. He runs through his memory--what could make you so fearful? You were fine before the base lost power, enjoying a conversation with him about Nepal. Ah, perhaps it's the darkness then. That is a common fear.

“Experience tranquility.”

The darkness scatters as Zenyatta lights up the area, glowing in that ethereal way that makes all enemies pause and consider their mortality for a split second. You blink rapidly as your eyes adjust before you slowly lift your face toward him--if he had a word to describe it, it was almost reverent.

“You’re wasting your ability for me…?” you ask breathlessly.

“It is not a waste, not for you.”

“Can I kiss you?”

Jesse won’t, not even under the threat of death, ever admit the way his heart jumped when you jolt to give him a double-take, or the way it begins to hammer as he watched you slowly replay the painfully short question in your mind. He keeps his (hopefully) languid grin on his face, waiting with a patience that he didn’t have.

Would you take it as a joke? Would you understand his sincerity? Would you forgive him if he says it was just him teasing?

Slowly, so painfully slowly, he watched your face shift from contemplative to acknowledgement and then to the bright, sly smile that split with the words, “Do you even have to ask?”, to utter delight when he sweeps you up into his arms for that kiss he agonized over since the first damn time he met you.

“There is enough room for both of us.”

“Are, are you, uh--are you su-sure? I’m not, uhm, not…” You gesture up and down at yourself, looking meaningfully at the seat beside Genji.

He pats the area beside him and, oh, how his hand seems to take up that area so easily, so carelessly. He’s pleading, you can tell, even with the green light and the mask, you’re sure you can feel those puppy eyes on you. (Either that or you’re just weak against Genji’s whims, your own self-image and crippling anxiety be damned.)

Like a spell’s been cast, your legs move, just at the knee at first--it bends toward him, but that’s the beginning of the first step that brings your legs to him, that make you twirl around, and tentatively, hesitantly sit.

It’s a bit of a tight fit, but Genji does not seem to be crushed or even make himself more scarce. If anything, he only adjusts his seating so he sits a little more comfortably.

“See? More than enough room.”

You only laugh breathily, face aflame.

“Wow.”

The dragons are even more impressive up close; the screens could never truly capture the overwhelming pressure of two roaring dragons pressing down on your being, demanding that you bow to their might, nor could any audio recording ever capture the piercing roar that not only shakes your eardrums, but grabs you by the core and rattles it like a toy.

Hanzo’s back remains to you, the fierce lines in his back muscles bunched up so prominently as he stands tall, overseeing the destructions his dragons unleash upon your opponents below, tearing them asunder.

It’s only when everything quiets and the blue light of the dragons disappear that Hanzo finally turns around, and you capture his expression--one of fear, surprise, and relief all at once--and in a flash, he’s kneeling by your side, hand gripping the sides of your face tightly, his expression pinched so hard, you think it’ll stay that way.

“Fool,” he chokes out after several failed attempts to say anything else. “Fool!”

Your eyes crinkle, face held too tight to smile. “S’okay, Hanzo. ‘m okay.”

“Cross my heart and hope to die.”

A clawed hand comes up and grabs you by the wrist, a growl accompanying the motion.

“Don’t,” is all Reaper says as he slowly rises over you, the word so heavy, it sinks right through any lighthearted remarks you may have had at the ready. You struggle to keep your gaze steady on Reaper’s impassive face--even with the mask on, there is an intensity in the air that steals your breath away and presses down, down on you.

The two of you remain like that--his hand holding your wrist like it would tether you to his word, his presence and gaze smothering you--for a while before he slowly backs off, the tips of his claws scratching your skin lightly. It felt like a warning.

“Got it?”

“...got it.”

“It’s two sugars, right?”

Soldier: 76 starts. How did…?

You look at him expectantly, his mug of coffee in your hand and your own in the other. He stares at that cup--his cup, a joke mug gotten for him by Tracer, the rascal, that read “World’s Okayest Dad”--that looks so foreign yet comfortable there in your grip.

Embarrassingly enough, it conjures forth a longing for a domesticity that he’s long thought he abandoned, stripped himself of, and stomped dead and left with the man who once called himself ‘Strike Commander Morrison’ or even the man who called himself ‘Jack Morrison’.

“76?” you called again, “two sugars?”

“Yeah. Two sugars.”

He watch as you turn away to fix his drink as he liked it, and sighs slow and heavy, hoping that with this escaping breath goes the last of his foolish dream.

“You can tell me anything.”

Genji’s mind froze and his breath stilled, not that you could know.

How could he ever tell you how much he wants to show you his face and not have you flinch away? How could he tell you how much he wants to lay his hand upon your cheek and make you turn his way and look at him? How could he tell you that he wants to lay his head against yours, to feel you against him when he sleeps and when he wakes, to feel like he is once again a man and not the monster that some people make him out to be? How could he tell you that he fears for your safety more than his own? That your well-being is held in much higher esteem than his own? That he dreams of you and him.

You and him.

Genji only replied, “Sure. Know that you can do the same.”

You only smile brilliantly at his less than brilliant attempt to deflect, and he so desperately wants to take those words back, to spill out his heart and guts and everything else just so you can smile at him and only for him.

But he only chuckles in response.

#my writing #one hundred ways to say 'I love you' meme

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lanx-reads · 6 years ago

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Nostalgic Review: Jessica’s Guide to Dating on the Dark Side

Final Rating: ****/***** or 8/10

The undead can really screw up your senior year ...

Marrying a vampire definitely doesn’t fit into Jessica Packwood’s senior year “get-a-life” plan. But then a bizarre (and incredibly hot) new exchange student named Lucius Vladescu shows up, claiming that Jessica is a Romanian vampire princess by birth—and he’s her long-lost fiancé. Armed with newfound confidence and a copy of Growing Up Undead: A Teen Vampire’s Guide to Dating, Health, and Emotions, Jessica makes a dramatic transition from average American teenager to glam European vampire princess. But when a devious cheerleader sets her sights on Lucius, Jess finds herself fighting to win back her wayward prince, stop a global vampire war—and save Lucius’s soul from eternal destruction.

So I read Jessica’s Guide to Dating on the Dark Side by Beth Fantaskey a long time ago and remembered really liking it. I decided to reread it and see if it was as good as I remember it being.

Believe it or not, it actually was! For what this book is, it’s pretty good. In fact, I would say that this book is basically what YA paranormal romances should be quality-wise rather than the stereotypical standard we get! I feel if I had read more paranormal YA books that were of this standard rather than the poor standard I read, this book would be more of a three star read, but I digress.

The book is fluffy for the most part, though dives down and deals with some interesting issues. Jessica learns that sometimes, life isn’t always so black and white, true and untrue, while Lucius deals with what having freedom means. It’s actually quite interesting, especially the latter, as it’s an issue I don’t usually see tackled in books like this.

This book is a romance and it treats itself as such. The plot is about the romance, the characters, their interactions, and how they grow as people and for the most part, the character development is really good, especially Jessica’s. Lucius’ development isn’t quite as smooth as her’s, but it’s not bad per se.

Though this book has a sequel, it works 100% fine as a stand-alone novel. Both Jessica and Lucius are decently fleshed out characters and both kinda stand out from other YA main characters as well. Jessica’s parents are also amazing characters and I enjoyed reading a YA book of all things where the parents are important characters and know what’s going on as well.

The romance is also well done. It’s cute, fluffy but doesn’t rot your teeth out, and is also slow burn. Very slow burn. There’s actually quite a bit of angst in this book after all the fluff. As someone who adores slow burn romances with balanced angst and fluff, I really enjoyed these aspects.

The vampire lore isn’t the most developed, but it’s interesting enough and enough thought was put in it to carry the non-romance plot of the book.

The writing is serviceable. The book is in first person POV, but that’s a standard here. The writing isn’t utterly amazing by any means, but it’s not bad either. It’s quite average all things considered.

The side characters aren’t quite as good as they could’ve been. Mindy, the best friend, was pretty typical and not that interesting to me. Faith, the slutty cheerleader archetype, was a bit of a disappointment and a bit of a lackluster villain. However, when I was reading this book, I read it less of Faith being a direct villain and more of a symbol of Lucius losing his grasp on himself as he greedily gave into his newfound freedom. Faith was still not a good villain though as she was just a stereotypical slutty cheerleader.

Another portion of the book I liked was the fact that Jessica wasn’t super skinny. She was described as a dress size of 10, which isn’t fat per se, but the book made it clear she wasn’t super thin or conventionally attractive, which was nice. However, in doing so, it did put down size 0 girls and super thin girls. Considering it was from Jessica’s POV, it wasn’t a surprise, but it’s still body shaming that wasn’t addressed much.

Likewise, there was some implied homophobia and transphobia. Mainly from Lucius, who grew up in a conservative household, who made the implication that women and men had to marry and that all women and men were cis. It’s nothing super noticeable and I don’t think anyone who reads it would notice unless they are sensitive to those sorts of things or are practiced in pointing it out. Honestly, even calling what was said (through dialogue, not narration, tho the narration did not challenge the ideas) homophobic and transphobic a little too far. It’s more assumptions of straightness and cisness rather than anything actually malicious. Personally, it didn’t bother me too much besides the initial catching of it.

Besides all that, I really did enjoy this book. It was a nice and light read that made me feel kinda warm and fluffy (for the most part!) and was just an entertaining read. If you wanna read something cute, entertaining, with some vampires, then I recommend picking up Jessica’s Guide to Dating on the Dark Side.

****/***** or 8/10

#book review #bookblr #jessica's guide to dating on the dark side #4 star review #paranormal romance #My Book Reviews #long post

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