#this ending scene will continue to baffle me

[elleloquently]

i honestly don't even really like to talk about tlou2 but something that will absolutely baffle me until the end of time is how many people romanticize the farm sequence and view it as happy. every time someone says the game should've ended there or that ellie threw away her whole life and she could've been happy etc etc etc, it really makes me realize how many people do lack literacy and the ability to read between the lines. because how are you seeing the farm scenes and not realizing how devastating it is?? it feels so empty and lifeless.

yes ellie laughed and they listen to music and dance but those are such small snippets. anyone with severe ptsd / mental trauma can be okay for a moment. but ellie was quite literally killing herself on that farm and absolutely would've ended up dead by her own hand (which is not a crazy assumption to make it is quite literally context clues)

like she’s always been skinny and lean but she’s even more thin on the farm?? she literally says she doesn’t eat or sleep?? and the panic attacks that she has?

also when ellie says “i’m not like you dina” and dina instantly snaps back with “you think this is easy for me?” like no that’s not what is being insinuated at all, but the fact of the matter is that dina is still able to function and cope in healthy ways and ellie is not. and the fact that dina doesn’t understand that kinda kills me. also telling ellie to “prove it” when she tells dina that she loves her is so fucked considering everything.

she would’ve died! i will stand by this forever, ellie would not have lived much longer. (confirmed btw in directors commentary, ellie was severely suicidal at this point. so not sure how everyone views the farm as her happy point.)

i don’t think ellie had an obligation to suffer in silence for the sake of what dina wanted.

i don’t blame dina for leaving obviously, that was the best choice for her and i don’t blame ellie for going either!! i think their relationship is very doomed, it was quite literally built on years of miscommunication and it only continues as they’re together.

i don’t blame ellie for leaving the farm whatsoever, she did not “fumble dina,” she didn’t throw away her life, she was barely functioning in the first place. if the game ended with ellie on the farm and the last thing we saw of her was her trying to play house while knowing how much she was suffering, that would’ve been so damn depressing. her leaving may not be the “morally good” choice but it was necessary considering her own mental state.

i think it’s also so important to remember the way in which joel died. she’s not just grieving and dealing with survivors guilt, she’s also living with the brutality of what she experienced. watching the person she loved the most get brutally tortured/beaten to death while she was held down and begging for it to stop?? and you guys expect her to just move on and deal with it so she can keep living on this isolated farm and play happy family??

and it’s not like ellie was fine until tommy showed up. she was already on the edge. the evidence is in her behavior, her journal, the clues around her house (the whiskey glass at her bedside) and her literal mannerisms.

this is very messy and disorganized i just don’t understand how many people STILL oversimplify the farm stuff or act as though everything was happy and good. every time someone says that ellie owed it to dina to stay, i lose a year off of my life.

basically a ramble instead of a proper analysis/breakdown bc i’m trying to focus my energy elsewhere but hopefully it makes enough sense to be understood

[mythtakens]

I haven’t said a lot about or reblogged anything really about Bobby Dying because. well I still don’t think he’s permanently dead and so I can’t really act like he is. but in the event it turns out he is in fact permanently dead forever and ever never to return alive and a decision was made that is actually that stupid and it was done in this really weird baffling way obviously my feelings on the whole matter will be completely different and I would be forced to process in a very different way. Bobby is my favorite and I still didn’t have a ~normal reaction to an emotional devastating scene because they loudly spoiled the end point weeks ago and took out all the tension of the arc. either way that messed with the viewing experience, but I would like to believe that they at least did that with a goal in mind and that it is not somehow truly just a result of incompetence concerning the biggest spoiler in the entire show. and oh we just crossed our fingers while clearly labeling the whole thing? yeah that doesn’t make sense to me.

my thing is I can deal with being messed with. I don’t love it, I don’t appreciate it, but I can deal with it! I understand and respect the people who feel done with the show regardless because it is a really careless thing to do to a dedicated audience. but well if I know anything about showrunners who think they’re clever it’s that they’re always mainly thinking of the end goal where they imagine everyone is patting them on the back for pulling it off. I just don’t see how in this instance for real killing a beloved character in a way where nobody he loves that is a paramedic or an EMT or his wife can get to him or touch him to confirm he is actually dead. on a show where people survive the most insane things time after time. fits into that type of smug narcissism. and you do it in a way that isn’t visibly permanent and you have cast members sowing doubt about it being so? personally I can get over stupid silly convoluted circumstances if they don’t actually have fatal consequences. this show is built on wild wacky circumstances but it’s also built on surviving them despite everything.

like to me it’s really not about “can showrunners/writers be this stupid”. they can they have they will continue to be. but like call it denial or delusion or whatever you want I just can’t watch everyone everywhere say it’s a bad decision nobody wanted and buy into that there was any sort of remotely willing consensus on Bobby being dead for real and everyone being really really sad but moving on eventually and it hanging over everything forever being better crazy tv than like. everyone going through that loss and still having those feelings of devastation and anger and helplessness and regret and then having the wildly complicated experience of being able to direct them at the actual guy and say all the things you wanted to say. like okay I am in my imagination here but you’re telling me real dead Bobby is better tv than like, Peter Krause gasping awake inside his own coffin after it passes through the Hall of Crucifixion-Resurrection? better than him calling 911 and Maddie answering and him saying I’m being buried alive? better than the signal being lost but her trying to call back and the absolute shock of realizing whose number it is? better than the tension of the dirt being dumped over a coffin Bobby is alive in?? better than Maddie racing to reach people who are probably not concerned with answering their phones right now because they’re standing around a grave?? better than maybe Bobby trying to call Athena and if it manages to connect seeing a missed call and then 911 calling her right after? better than a scene of Angela Bassett eating everyone up and making everyone think Athena has lost it demanding they dig up her freshly buried husband?????? better than his family jumping into action when they realize what’s happening to pull him back out of the earth after struggling to let him go??? real forever dead Bobby that everyone is really sad about is better tv than that and something to feel more smug and clever about?????????? well I don’t think so! but it’s not my circus.

[nadjasnandor]

what I don't understand is like .... they wrote the guillermo and nandor dynamic the way they did AND made both of them queer. like. nobody asked them to do ANY of that. so turning around and mocking everyone who very reasonably looked at what the writers of this show wrote and said "they are written like a couple" is just a baffling thing to do. imho

Exactly. And if you don't mind, I'm going to use your ask as an excuse to write out why I'm upset about certain things, because what you said is the root of my problem.

My disappoint doesn't come from Nandor/Guillermo not going canon in the traditional sense (at least not fully), but from the very 2010s-esque way everyone seems to be talking about fans post-finale. Basically saying they never intended Nandor & Guillermo to be anything but platonic and blaming the weird fans for wanting their pornographic whishes (🙄) to actually happen in the show, like they were not in any way responsible for creating those wishes, is insulting but, more importantly, not true. And they can't convince me otherwise because I was there, watching the whole thing unfold in real time.

I already mentioned being remotely normal about Nandor/Guillermo pre season 3 and there is a reason for that. During the first season the fandom was small. And by that I mean both Nandor/Guillermo shippers and also the people watching wwdits in general. During season 1, sometimes all you saw when going into the tags was about 5 of my gifsets in a row, for instance. Even if people watched the show, they didn't really interact with it in a fandom-y way. During the middle of s1, I complained about there not being Nandor/Guillermo fics at all and even between s1 and s2 I posted about there not being a lot. It was also this era when the first mentions of possible canon romantic feelings were brought up and it was by Harvey himself, who said he thinks Guillermo has feelings for his boss. This was, of course, only Harvey explaining how he views his character but I feel it's important because, as it's been mentioned before, Harvey came up with a lot of Guillermo's character, starting with his surname. He basically created current Guillermo. In the original pilot script, Guillermo is a 40-something, very bitter man. Quite different from our Guillermo and it's all thanks to Harvey.

But during this period, that is during s1 and s2, anything romantic between Nandor and Guillermo was purely accidental and mostly due to Kayvan and Harvey's chemistry. We all knew this, even if by s2 we did get the first articles about Nandor & Guillermo's relationship being maybe not fully platonic. By the end of season 2, the fandom has grown for sure but it was still nowhere near its current size. We also had Nandor say he treated Guillermo like a son, which was quite annoying but we at least knew where we stood with the show. Didn't stop us from shipping those two, of course, because fandoms have survived on less (Looking back, it is funny how much I hated that line when now it's just *vaguely gestures around*). It's important to note that after season 2, Jemaine left and Paul took over. And then came season 3.

There is a reason why I was so insane about the Cloak of Duplication and then Gail. The former canonized Guillermo's feelings for Nandor on screen for the first time and the latter showed that it was not just a single episode, throw away scene. Instead they continued with Guillermo being jealous of Nandor and his sexual partner. That was huge. But the fandom still hasn't blown up fully, that happened later during season 3. And I think it's important to say that because they wrote and filmed season 3 before the show blew up. They cannot say they wrote those scenes to please (or bait) fans. They weren't 'pressured' to do anything with Nandor and Guillermo. Season 3 was also when the very heavy Nandor/Guillermo promoting started. (Like the parody of The Bodyguard poster with 'Never fall in lo-', for example). Now, I don't remember if the first articles calling them the will-they-won't-they couple of the show came out during this season or later, but it was definitely past season 3. So by the end of season 3 the fandom has grown large and people were obviously very into the ship.

Now we can say shippers are pushy or annoying but fans can be annoying in general. People can be annoying lol. When your show grows big enough, annoying people you don't like are going to watch it too. (I'm sure if those annoying people are cishet men then this burden is easier to bear but I digress. I am a little bitter, after all). But at this point, fans had no reason to be pushy, we thought every sign was pointing to canon romantic Nandor/Guillermo.

At this point, the show saw how large the fandom has grown and how invested people were in Nandor/Guillermo. If that's not what they wanted, if they felt people were seeing things differently than how they intented, they could have pulled back. They had enough time between season 3 and season 4 to do that. But they didn't. Instead, they doubled down and continued to do the same for 2 more season. Even if by season 5 the latest we already had Paul saying weird things about the dynamic.

Instead it seems they decided to pull back in season 6 but by then it was too late. People were expecting them to come through on the thing they have been teasing for 3 seasons. And then they blamed the fans for not liking what they offered up instead. For wanting 'pornographic scenes'. Because it's 'not that kind of a show'. They say this about a show with an episode called The Orgy.

And even while saying all that, they didn't stop them from teasing the fans until the very last moment. Nandor's 'you know what would be cooler than being friends' is just cruel lmao. And that's why it felt more like mocking to me. Not only because of what happened in the show, but because when I watch those scenes, I can't seperate them from how the cast and crew talk about the ship and the fans in interviews. They apparently now think it's stupid and weird but will gladly tease it in the show for whatever reason? It's funny because fans are weird and kinky, I guess. Things unheard of in relation to this show.

I also don't understand Kayvan and Harvey's complete 180 turn. During the early seasons, Kayvan was not really into the idea of the ship, saying it's a bit toxic due to the power imbalance in their dynamic but he seemed to go full throttle later, even overtaking Harvey in hyping the ship up. And then in the first post-finale interview, he says that 'Nandor is never going to have sex with Guillermo', even if the show left that door open with the last scene. And then there's Harvey, who was the first to say Guillermo has feelings for his boss, who is now championing the repserentation of platonic gay male friendships on tv. In his case, I can give him the benefit of doubt, because he must have his own experiences with that and it's not my place to dismiss or doubt them. I do find the change strange and have complained about it but it's more understandable than Kayvan's. (EDIT: I didn't read this interview after the finale but it just makes things even more confusing, if I'm honest.)

I tried to be as coherent as possible and write out all my thoughts about this topic but I most likely still missed some things. I don't really like to talk about my feelings and thoughts this elaborately because I find it difficult to fully express myself but I tried my best because I felt like I was going insane.

[lavender-butterfly-cookie]

Heya, welcome back and hope you did good in your exam. Now it's time for the request ! I don't think I have seen people made isekai x self-aware fic before so here we go: You were playing CRK while you are on your way to school but then- Truck-kun: Yo wassup bro! Now you are in the world of Cookie Run but you are in Beast-Yeast and to make it worse, you are in middle of the warzone between Shadow Milk and our heroes. You think you are screwed but you still have your phone and it can summon cookies in the phone. They know you are the Baker but the world you got isekai'ed don't even know who you are. So you got an idea how to help the heroes in this world. Here's the headstart: (gonna use my team lineup i guess) Shadow Milk: You're finished, Old Fool ! White Lily: Elder Faerie, no ! ???: Do not stand in my way! / Witness destruction! *SMilk's ATK blocked* Shadow Milk: W-what!? WHO DARE INTERRUPT ME!!? ???: It is futile to resist the inevitable, Shadow Milk Cookie... Shadow Milk: Mystic Flour Cookie? Burning Spice Cookie? What is the meaning of this!? And why are you helping that Old Fool!? Burning Spice: Well, well, well, Shadow Milk Cookie. Look like I will have to fight you by the order of our Baker. This will be entertaining!!! Dark Cacao (Dragon Lord): Hmph! Your reign of chaos will end here, you foul beast! Elder Faerie: What is going on? Why are the Beasts fighting each other? ???: We will talk about it later, Elder Faerie. Right now, our top priority is to stop Shadow Milk Cookie and seal the tree. Pure Vanilla: W-what...!? Gingerbrave/Wizard Cookie/Strawberry Cookie: Is that- White Lily: M-me!? White Lily (Moonflower Faerie): Shadow Milk Cookie, I have sealed you once and now I will do it again. Let us fight together and seal the tree once and for all, other me. You can continue here from now on. Can't find any help from Cream Ferret Cookie in this scene so uhh yea lol. Part 2 will be about the reader but that will leave it to your decision.

You also started pretty strong with what you've already provided to me but I'll see what I can do. (Still- tf you doing with those kinda cookies in your team??? at least there's no Awakened GC but still, you scare me)

The ball's in your court

Shadow Milk cookie: What in the ever-lasting witches oven is going on here?! Where did you guys even come from?!

Mystic Flour cookie: Knowing where we come from is of no use to you. It'd be of best interest to surrender and spare yourself the humiliation of defeat.

Dark Cacao cookie: I must agree with her. If you choose to fight us now, you will face an inevitable defeat.

The team of cookies prepare for any oncoming attack from the jester, earning even more baffled expressions from both him and the heroes he was fighting moments ago. Strawberry cookie and Wizard cookie are both slightly behind Gingerbrave, who in turn is clutching his weapon tightly. There were two other beasts- number one. There were two white lily cookies, number two. And WHO THE HECK IS THAT PERSON STANDING OVER THERE WITH A PHONE AND ALMOST SMUG EXPRESSION???

Strawberry cookie: Seriously- what is happening?!

White Lily cookie: If I knew I'd tell you, trust me.

Gingerbrave: Does this always happen in beast yeast?!

Elder Faerie: no! In all my years of being the guardian I've never seen anything like this happen!

Pure Vanilla cookie: Dark Cacao cookie, my friend! What are you doing here?!

Dark Cacao cookie (dragon lord) : It is a long story that can be explained after the defeat of this beast.

Moonflower faerie: Shadow Milk cookie, surrender now or face a bitter defeat.

Burning Spice cookie: It'll save everyone the time and the energy if you do so. However, I'm not opposed to the chances of a entertaining fight!

Still in a state of shock, Shadow Milk cookie's face contorted into pure rage upon seeing his so-called "Friends" siding with his enemies. All the while Y/N stood to the side, trying to control themselves from giggling like a maniac that this was happening.

Shadow Milk Cookie: Traitors! Both of you! You think I will lose to a bunch of lowlife weak imbeciles?! I don't even need Pinkie and Saltie to deal with you! When I'm through with you not even the witches will remember your existence!

With that, the battle began, leaving the heroes on the side watching the fight in complete bafflement.

Wizard Cookie: Do.... do we help them or....

Elder Faerie: Part of me tells me they won't need it.

???: And that part of you is correct!

All six cookies turned to look at the source of the voice in unison, seeing a new cookie holding a phone and grinning like a maniac.

Gingerbrave: Gah?! Who are you?!

Y/N cookie: You may call me Y/N. Or the baker if you prefer.

All the cookies jaws dropped as they stared at you wide-eyed. Even Carameleon Cookie stopped camouflaging on ginderbrave's head for a moment before disappearing immediately. The baker? The baker was HERE?! Is that the reason for the new fighters jut spawning out of nowhere?

White Lily cookie: The Baker?! As in-THE ACTUAL BAKER?! H-how?!

Y/N cookie: It's a long story that even I myself don't know, but I'll try explain it as best I can.

Just then, the commotion from the fight gets louder.

Moonflower Cookie: A LITTLE ASSISTANCE WOULD BE APPRECIATED BAKER!

Y/N cookie: Yeah.... you might wanna go help other you, White Lily cookie.

White Lily cookie: A- wha- me?!

Y/N cookie: Yeah... plus I think other you is about to crumble soon and frankly I don't want that.

Y/N cookie says this as they look at their phone screen, seeing the impact on the team was getting dangerously high. Maybe Shadow Milk cookie was just mad enough to increase his ATK strength. Well you can't have that happening.

Y/N cookie: MYSTIC FLOUR COOKIE- DO YOUR JOB!

Mystic Flour cookie: You put me as the only healer on this team, add someone else.

Y/N cookie sighs, not entirely blaming Mystic Flower cookie that she couldn't heal everyone. Just cuz she's the best doen't mean she's perfect. Despite the powerful cookies you had, seems like Shadow Milk cookie had become more aggressive, so regardless of who's on your team it was a 50/50 fight. You turn to the cookies who weren't fighting.

Y/N cookie: So- can you go help them Pure Vanilla? Please?

Pure Vanilla cookie: I-.... hm... alright then. But I hope to be getting an explanation to all of this more thoroughly when I return.

White Lily cookie: I'll help as well.

The two head into the battle field.

Y/N cookie: sooooo, do y'all wanna- like, help them orrrr

Elder Faerie: I will, as it is my duty as the guardian of the seal.

Y/N cookie: Aight, cool.

Elder Faerie cookie goes off to join the others in battle, leaving Y/N cookie standing with the three other cookies.

Y/N cookie: Y'all don't wanna join?

Gingerbrave: I... think I'm good.

Strawberry cookie: I second that.

Wizard Cookie: I third it.

Y/N cookie: 'kay. Just hope Elder Faerie don't die this time.

All three: What?-

Y/N: Nothing :3

[argetcross]

Happy 4th anniversary to wasting beats of this heart of mine, my Zagreus becomes mortal AU! Another year, some more adventures undertaken.

This year, I've unearthed more concepts and half-finished paintings all the way from 2021. I've included notes under the cut about each piece, as well as more reflections.

If you told me in October 2020 that you'll write a fic over 100k words long, spanning multiple cities, with multiple POVs, I would have said, "Are you sure?". I think I never really imagined I could keep a story running, much less one that demands so much of its author. At the same time, this work has been my deepest and most fulfilling pleasure. It lives in my dreams, haunts my waking moments, and demands I regularly carve my heart out and poke through the viscera. I suppose such is the nature of art.

We've been approaching the end of Part III, and readers up-to-date know I've mentioned planning for five parts in total. Five acts, five biomes: it only feels fitting. Many things I had looked forward to (the chariot race! Kyane and Persephone! The return of Thymoetes!) have come to life on the page, but there's still so much of the yarn left to spin. I never expected needing years to complete this story, but I also feel strongly I am beholden to it now. To Zagreus, to Demeter's children, to the mortals and gods, above and below. I will continue to try my best.

Thank you to jules, val, nan, robin, and spleen for having beta'd for me during these years. This story wouldn't be what it is without you. Thank you to mag, for having crawled through the trenches of creating an enormous fanwork and countless hours of spreadsheeting, with me. To every artist that has ever drawn me anything, it is truly humbling to be able to inspire your work. To the House Party, whose friendship I am grateful for every day.

And to anyone who has ever read part of the story, left a comment, and stepped along on this journey with me, I cannot overstate how grateful I am. I remain baffled and pleasantly surprised that this world of mine can touch your heart. It's a story that I hope, when it completes, you will pick up again from time to time, and take pleasure in its telling once more.

With all my love,

Arget

--

Notes about each image:

Thanatos and Zagreus by the sacred olive trees of Athena. This painting was based on a photo I took in Athens. The quality of the sunlight astounded me and, in turn, made me think about life and death.

Thanatos anointing the body of the god Zagreus with nectar. This is related to the scene in Chapter 23, when he and Nyx converse by Zagreus' bedside.

Eleusis concepts. For such a powerhouse of a cult, Eleusis itself has a provincial feeling to it. I was captivated by the idea of the sea, and the fact that Zagreus had never spent any time on the coast. This would have been his first experience with it.

Athens. What can I say about Athens that hasn't been said? The trip I took late 2022 provided a lot of the inspiration for the citadel aspect of the acropolis. This is not the Athens of Classical Greece, the polis of democracy, but a fictionalized city-kingdom, under the rule of its royal family. The idea that Callisto had a student living in Athens was both a nod to the extensive trade happening during the Bronze Age and a deconstruction of the Amazon myth that the Greeks told themselves.

Clymene, the Oracle of Delphi. This was originally meant to be a Hades game-like portrait, but I scrapped the idea. She is dressed in the fashion closer to the Minoans, to give her a more Bronze Age feeling. As the head priestess, I wanted to show her age.

Apheidas and Thymoetes sketches. The two brothers are supposed to look night and day from each other. I tried to give Apheidas a pleasant sort of face, in comparison to Thymoetes' haughtiness.

The tapestry sketch. This was one of the first drawings I ever made about wasting beats, in an attempt to understand the type of story I was about to write. Key elements had already been decided, such as the chariot race and the way Demeter and Hades would play the role of the absent gods, for above as well as below. I had not written Apollo at this time, so you see him here with short hair.

Zagreus, reaching for a bloodstone. The chlamys, a gift from his foster-father's wife, has been the simple denotation of mortal Zagreus. Something bright and red, simple for it was woven by a farmer's wife, and barely able to protect his weaker mortal body.

Megaera, hurt and angry, and Than, stricken and alarmed, amidst a storm of paper. This is a scene from Chapter 18, Primordial Winter, that I had always wanted to illustrate.

[chronicdelusionistsart]

No, he is not a Completely Different Character from when he was in high school - The Continuity of Bernard Dowd

SO I often see the argument that Bernard my man has changed into a completely different guy since high school. Me too, bestie. And much like Bernard, if you had met me in high school, you probably would have wanted to throw me into a lake.

People grow and change from high school to young adulthood, of course, but the nature of this criticism tends to be the idea that there's no continuity - that Bernard was completely retconned and there's very little to nothing recognizable of his personality and characterhood at the time. The common argument I see is that there's no way to reconcile the differences, even taking into account that people naturally age out of being obnoxious teens.

This just isn't the case. I got into it a little at the tail end of my previous post about Bernard and the art of Recontextualization, but it's really astounding just how much effort seems to have been put into respecting the continuity of the character. I'm gonna go through the 1993 Robin run and go character trait by character trait and see how these scenes read as foundational information for the continuity of the Bernard we have today.

Yeah you heard me. It's basically a fucking listicle. come at me

(SPOILERS for Tim Drake: Robin, Urban Legends, and the 1993 Robin run under the cut!)

1) "They just randomly made him gay" - yeah but it was really funny and based did you ever think of that

I already posted this one last time but let's take a minute to really sit with this one because it's soooooooo

It's absolutely undeniable that the original author of the Robin run almost certainly intended Bernard to be a pointedly heterosexual teenage boy. No arguments there. I actually think based on my experience living in that era and being bi that if you'd suggested the idea of an explicitly deeply closeted best friend for Tim Drake in the early 2000s at DC they would have laughed in your face and then possibly fired you and/or called you a slur or something. There are probably standout queer comics from the time, but mainstream Batman? We're making this for boys that want to ogle Steph's tits, I say, grinding up a rock into dust in my bare hand as I look over this storyline again for panels

My point here is that a lot of comics at the time come off as overly exaggerated about how cool and manly and heteronormative their guy characters are, which is of course also the ultimate refuge of the closeted gay guy. If they'd been normal about it it wouldn't have been so easy to read closeting into it, but as it is...

Yeah this is believable from a teenager but becomes a zillion times funnier as just covering a panic attack over going over to meet the cute boy's paren- wait why does he have elf ears. Why does he look 40 five panels ago

the two genders etc etc.

ANYWAY this was obviously a purposeful choice when rehauling the character. We're going to see a pattern of using things from the 2000s that were baffling or weird in retrospect and expanding on them to bring some consistency and intrigue to his character. "Now Pika," I hear you saying, having divined my nickname from some other source, "you're showing panels out of context to create a false narrative. Five panels ago when Bernard was 40 he was notably accused of staring at Tim's stepmom ALL DINNER. That sounds just, just SLIGHTLY heterosexual and there's really no other explanation f

2) He was always smarter than he looked actually

ah.

ah.

I said before that a lot of Bernard is hidden behind layers.

While he appears to be a dumbass in the 2000s, he manages to notice something is Wrong with Tim. Like, consistently. A lot of what we see on panel is Bernard questioning Tim and probing into his personal life - he notices something is unusual about Tim on literally their first meeting, and no shit, Bernard is only in a grand total of five scenes with Tim in the entire run and he spends four of them asking inconvenient personal questions at Tim.

"Tim, is your dad secretly an asshole? Blink twice for yes" "How about we stop talking for a little while"

Obviously in the context of the 2000s this is just like forced drama. But there's a sort of elegance in how seamless it is to look back at this with the context that he's been someone who downplays his own intelligence the whole time. Like "actually, he tends to hit on or adjacent to the truth a LOT, doesn't he?" Even without the new stuff, it's a pertinent observation.

3) "I like Robin a normal amount" - guy who pirates modded Robin games

This feels free. Is this free? I feel like this is free. I don't need to explain this one. Celebrity crushes on Superheroes are literally always funny

See Mario dies every time and it's like not the same guy. There's actually 3 Marios and then every time you make a certain amount of money (points) they get enough to clone a new one. Wait Tim come back I hadn't gotten to the shadow Koopa government. Bowser isn't actually in charge it's Big Goomba -

4) Alienation and the sincere desire to seek meaning in this life

The cult thing might seem to come out of nowhere if you were focused on his goofy persona and the specifics of Bernard's hilarious theories, but it's interesting to me that we get told that Bernard doesn't feel like he fits in like literally right away. One of his very first panels:

yeah okay i sure buy that dude

Bernard is textually, before adding any of the new stuff into the mix, an outsider. He has weird conspiracy theories, he's initially dressed like a douche who's trying to impress everyone and actually impressing no one, and he's obviously putting on airs here.

A lot of people who are depressed are just... you'd never know. Sincerely, the person you know who laughs the loudest and surrounds themselves with the most people might be the most depressed, the most isolated.

In the future, we see that he's similarly got a lot of people that know him, but not a lot of people that know him.

Having him get caught up in a cult after this setup is a very logical progression. He was already the type of personality to turn to conspiracies to feel some degree of fulfillment as a teen. Why the fuck wouldn't he become a Gotham cult statistic. Cults love intelligent people who are susceptible to isolation and emotionally not in a good place.

There's actually a really clever set of panels in the Urban legends run where Tim and Bernard are fighting against the chaos cult and they're mirrored. And Tim is the one "speaking", but the way the comic is framed, you can tell that they were both kind of having the same struggle from different angles and it doesn't snap into place until they fight together.

God, I love the medium of comics. I didn't actually notice this until I was writing this up and staring at panels. This is so subtle, but when you stop to look, the visual language clicks. They're both searching for something. The same thing. But it's not explicit. You gotta be paying close attention.

I think part of the reason people accuse Bernard of being bland or too different from before or whatever is that so much of this requires you to read. No, come back, hold on -

Like, the fundamental writing sleight of hand on this guy is that they earnestly set up the premise that he's so convincing that he managed to fool Tim, and by extension the distracted reader. To this end, Fitzmarten, and I can't believe I'm saying this, successfully weaponized the shittiness of early 2000s writing.

The idea that they went with is that sometimes you think you know people, but you don't have the full story until you really look and actively put the pieces together. He's someone, that very real kind of person, that flies under the radar both in and out of the fiction. And when the whammy hits -

- you end up wondering if you ever knew them at all.

This is very real. I mentioned earlier that you might not know someone is depressed until you know them very, very well or they tell you. And it's true. Be on the lookout for people like Bernard in your own life - from personal experience, they could use someone on their side.

Bonus: No he was legit always that insane. I think this is some A to B shit

"well if my friend won't hire me as a super-manager maybe I'll just prepare for the next time I see a superhero by learning martial arts!" - extremely normal thing to do thank you bernard. that's all folks

[deliciousangelfestival]

Another Ending - 6 | spy!Bucky

Character: ex!Bucky Barnes x Female!Reader

Summary: It was supposed to be a short week watching over your niece, who loves romance books. She thought you were just a normal aunt, but it turns out you have secrets.

Tags: Spies, action, threat, offense, fight scene, violence, romance, comedy.

Chapter 1 , Chapter 2 , Chapter 3 , Chapter 4 , Chapter 5 , Chapter 6 , End .

Main Masterlist || If you enjoy my work, please consider buying me a coffee on Ko-fi 🙏🏻

Thank you to everyone who has read this chapter. Leave a comment and Reblog, please. I'd love to hear your thoughts. ❤️

Lori was spinning around the room, singing with a mischievous grin on her face, "Aunt is a nasty girl, yeah, she's a nasty girl," mimicking the moves from a viral dance she must have seen online.

You rolled your eyes, wincing slightly as Bucky gently cleaned and treated the wound on your arm. He glanced at Lori with a mixture of amusement and annoyance.

Meanwhile, Henry, sitting nearby with a puzzled look, watched Lori's performance unfold. "What on earth is she doing?" he asked, clearly baffled by her antics.

"She's making fun of me," you replied, sighing as you glanced over at your niece. Lori continued her exaggerated dance, clearly enjoying herself.

Bucky, focused on wrapping the bandage around your arm, muttered, "She's not nasty." His voice was calm, but there was a flicker of tension in his eyes.

Lori suddenly stopped dancing and sprinted over to you, her eyes sparkling with excitement. "Tell me more about your ex!" she demanded, her curiosity getting the better of her.

You noticed Bucky’s hands falter for a moment as he tied the bandage a little tighter than necessary, his jaw clenched ever so slightly. "He's not my ex," you corrected, your tone firm but tinged with frustration.

Lori giggled, clearly enjoying teasing you. "Yeah... right..." she drawled, drawing out the word as she smirked knowingly.

You shook your head, exasperated. Your niece, always with her head in the clouds, had now latched onto the idea of some dramatic romance after discovering that you had encountered someone from your past.

And that someone was the very reason you were sitting here now, with fresh bandages and a sore arm. Lori’s song and dance were just her way of processing the excitement of what she imagined to be a grand love story, not realizing the pain and complexity it actually brought.

🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀

24 hours ago

"What you said is pointless because we don't have the data," you replied, frustration lacing your tone.

Henry shrugged nonchalantly. "Well, that might be true, but I know where they hide it."

A groan escaped your lips, and you brought a hand to cover your face. "I hate where this is going."

"Why?" Lori asked, her eyes lighting up with interest.

Bucky leaned forward, his expression serious. "You want us to steal it," he stated flatly, already seeing the direction Henry was headed.

Henry chuckled, waving his hand dismissively. "Steal is such a strong word. I prefer to think of it as... liberating the truth. Recovering what's rightfully ours."

You shot him a skeptical look. "Liberating the truth? That sounds like something straight out of a heist movie."

Lori’s eyes widened with excitement. "A heist? Oh, this is so cool! Can I help? Please, let me help!"

Bucky gave her a wary glance. "This isn’t a game, Lori. It’s dangerous."

Lori bounced on her toes, her enthusiasm undiminished. "I know, but I want to be part of it! I can do it, I promise! You said I was a good actress, remember? I could be the distraction or, like, the tech whiz or something! Whatever you need!"

Henry grinned, clearly amused by her enthusiasm. "See? The girl’s got the right attitude! Nobody would suspect someone like her to be involved in espionage."

You sighed but couldn’t help the smile that tugged at your lips. "Alright, alright. If Lori wants in, then we’ll find a role for her. But if this goes sideways, it’s on you, Henry."

Lori clapped her hands, practically vibrating with excitement. "Yes! This is going to be awesome! I can’t wait!"

Henry clapped his hands together, his smile broadening. "That's the spirit! Now, let's get to work. We have some planning to do."

At Charity Event

The grand lobby of the company was abuzz with activity. Children laughed and played, their faces painted with bright colors. The "Make It Together" charity event, hosted by the company’s CEO, had drawn a large crowd.

Both of you are planning to steal data from a CEO known for holding everyone’s dirty secrets. This CEO also loves to host charity events at his company to enhance his public image and boost his business.

Dressed as a happy family, you and Bucky played the part of doting parents, while Lori, full of youthful enthusiasm, easily fit the role of your daughter. Henry, blending in with the crowd, kept a vigilant eye on the situation.

Henry knew about the vault because he had been there when the CEO proudly showcased it and placed the secret data inside.

As you and Bucky moved toward the restricted areas, you leaned in close, whispering urgently, “If things go south, remember—no matter what happens, save Lori first. She’s the priority.”

Bucky’s brow furrowed in concern. “I don’t think—”

You cut him off, your voice firm but laden with emotion. “This is my only request, Bucky. Please.”

Bucky nodded, his expression serious. “I understand. But I’ll do everything I can to keep you safe too.”

As you and Lori approached the vault with Henry’s directions, Bucky positioned himself by the entrance, watching for any sign of trouble. You worked swiftly with the digital key cracker, trying to stay calm despite the tension.

Inside the Vault

The vault door opened with a soft click, revealing rows of safety deposit boxes and data drives. Lori, playing her role perfectly, had successfully distracted the guard, allowing you and Bucky to enter unnoticed.

“Got it,” you whispered, retrieving the data drive from its place on the shelf. “Let’s get out.”

Suddenly, a familiar voice cut through the tense atmosphere. “Well, well, if it isn’t my favorite double agent.”

You froze, hearing that familiar voice filled with spite. Standing in front of you was Romeo, your former colleague. He leaned casually against the doorframe, his eyes locked on you with a mixture of surprise and annoyance.

“Romeo,” you said, trying to remain composed. “What are you doing here?”

Romeo’s smirk was a blend of flirtatiousness and anger. “I didn’t expect to see you here, especially not with him."

Bucky stepped forward, his eyes narrowing. “We don’t have time for this.”

Romeo’s gaze flicked to Bucky, then back to you. His voice dripped with sarcasm. “I suppose it was only a matter of time before you chose another. I’m just curious—did you miss me at all, or was it all just part of the job?”

You kept your tone even, but the past echoed in your words. “It was always part of the job, Romeo. Nothing more.”

Romeo's eyes flashed with a mix of fury and betrayal. He leaned in closer, his voice dripping with contempt. “Of all people, you choose to work with him? The most wanted fugitive and the worst traitor?” His tone was laced with disbelief as he gestured toward Bucky with a sharp, accusing finger.

Bucky stepped in, his voice firm. “Well, she chose me.”

The words hit Romeo hard. His face contorted with anger. “Oh, so that’s it? You’re just going to flaunt it in my face? How charming. I always knew you had a talent for stealing—both hearts and secrets.”

Lori, watching from a distance, could hardly believe the scene unfolding before her. She stayed silent, her eyes wide with excitement and curiosity. This is a LOVE TRIANGLE!

You took a deep breath, trying to focus on the task at hand. “Romeo. This isn’t about us anymore.”

Romeo’s anger flared. “I guess some things never change. You always had a knack for making everything personal.”

Before you could react, Romeo lunged, reaching for the data drive. Bucky moved to intercept him, but Romeo’s partner appeared, grabbing your arm and twisting it painfully.

“Gotcha,” the partner sneered.

You struggled free, delivering a swift kick to his side. The fight erupted in full force as Bucky and Romeo grappled, exchanging blows. You managed to push back your attacker, but Romeo drew a knife, aiming it directly at Lori.

Without thinking, you threw yourself in front of her, taking the hit to your side. Bucky’s eyes widened in horror. “Y/N!”

You gritted your teeth, trying to stay upright. “Get Lori out of here!”

Bucky fought off Romeo and his partner with renewed determination, eventually knocking Romeo out cold. He helped you toward the exit, Lori’s worried face visible in the doorway.

Henry, who had been monitoring from outside, was already pulling up in the getaway car. “Get in!” he shouted.

Bucky helped you into the back seat, and Lori followed closely. The car sped away from the building, leaving the chaos behind.

As the adrenaline began to wane, Bucky pressed a hand to your wound, his face a mask of concern. “Hold on, we’re almost clear.”

Lori, her face pale but determined, asked quietly, “Aunt, are you okay?”

You managed a weak smile despite the pain. “I’m fine, Lori. Just a scratch.”

Henry glanced back through the rearview mirror. “Was it worth it?”

You held up the data drive, the evidence of the CEO’s wrongdoings. “We got what we needed.”

Henry grinned, relieved. “Then let’s get out of here before more agents show up.”

The car sped into the night, leaving the confrontation and the chaos of the charity event behind. You leaned back in your seat, clutching the drive tightly. Despite the pain and the narrow escape, you knew you had accomplished your mission.

🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀

Present Time

Lori was still buzzing with excitement, peppering you with questions about Romeo. Bucky, visibly agitated, clenched his jaw and avoided eye contact, his jealousy simmering beneath the surface.

Meanwhile, Henry was in the other room, trying to uncripted the drive. He took a drag from his cigar but suddenly erupted into a fit of uncontrollable coughing. The sound echoed through the room, making him look vulnerable.

Lori quickly sprang into action, grabbing a glass of water and handing it to Henry with a concerned expression. “Here, drink this,” she said softly.

Henry accepted the glass with a grateful nod. “Thank you.”

Lori watched him closely, her concern deepening. “How long have you been sick?”

Henry looked up, surprised by her insight. “How did you know?”

Lori pointed at the medicine in his bag, her voice carrying a tone of familiarity. “I used to help my mother take care of my father when he was sick. I remember most of the names of the medicines he used.”

Henry was impressed by her knowledge. His gaze softened, though his eyes still held a trace of sadness. “I just found out,” he admitted. “My life is now just counting days.” The doctor didn’t tell him, but he knew. That’s why he doesn’t want to die miserably in the nursing home.

Lori’s expression reflected a deep empathy, recognizing the bitterness in his words that mirrored her own father’s struggles. She glanced at the cigar and whiskey near Henry, then met his eyes with a gentle resolve.

“Do what you love while you still can,” she said quietly.

Henry chuckled, a bitter but appreciative smile playing on his lips. “I will.”

🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀

As Bucky finished treating your wound, the dim light from the room cast soft shadows across his face. He looked up, his expression serious yet tender.

“You’re in the danger zone, James. Why did you try to find me?” you asked, your voice tinged with concern.

Bucky’s gaze locked with yours, filled with a depth of emotion that made your heart ache. “I realized that knowing I can’t be with you forever is haunting me.”

You studied him, feeling the weight of his words. The room seemed to shrink around you, making the moment feel intensely intimate.

Bucky continued, his voice hushed but resolute. “I know I’m a bad person. I’ve lived my life constantly looking over my shoulder. If I die tomorrow, at least I need you to know how I feel. I don’t want to leave this world with regrets.”

You felt a lump in your throat, a mix of frustration and tenderness. “You’re a fool, Bucky.”

He let out a soft, bittersweet chuckle, a faint smile playing on his lips. “I know.”

“That’s why I liked you,” you said, your voice barely above a whisper. The words hung in the air between you, carrying an unspoken promise.

Bucky’s smile grew, and he reached out, gently cupping your face in his hands. The warmth of his touch sent a shiver down your spine. “I’ve always liked you too. Even when I didn’t want to admit it.”

His eyes searched yours, and for a moment, the world outside seemed to disappear. You could see the vulnerability and longing in his gaze, and it mirrored your own feelings.

Slowly, he leaned in, his breath mingling with yours. “If we make it out of this, let’s promise to take whatever chances we can get. Let’s not waste another moment.”

Your heart raced as you closed the distance between you, sharing a kiss that spoke of all the unspoken words and emotions that had built up over time. The kiss was both tender and passionate, a release of all the feelings that had been pent up for so long.

When you finally pulled away, your foreheads rested together, and Bucky’s eyes were filled with a mix of relief and hope. “Let’s fight for a future where we can be together,” he whispered.

You nodded, your heart full of resolve and affection. “We will.”

As the romantic moment unfolded, a sense of quiet intimacy enveloped you and Bucky. But that peace was abruptly interrupted by the sound of a soft chuckle. Both of you turned, your sighs of frustration mingling with the realization that you were being watched.

There, peeking around the edge of the door, was Lori, her eyes wide with curiosity and amusement. You and Bucky exchanged a knowing glance, recognizing that your private moment had been intruded upon.

"Lori!" you called out, your voice a mix of exasperation and embarrassment.

Lori’s face broke into a playful grin, and she quickly darted away, her laughter echoing down the hallway as she ran.

Bucky shook his head with a chuckle, the tension from the moment melting away. You couldn’t help but smile at Lori’s antics, feeling a sense of warmth despite the interruption.

Bucky turned to you, his eyes softening with affection. “Well, at least she’s in good spirits.”

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[shoutydwarf]

Veilguard ending spoilers

It's so hard for me to talk about how I feel about Solas because on one hand, there's great potential in his arc, but on the other, bioware has completely butchered that in such a profound way that I don't care to look past the hiccups to enjoy him.

First, he's race locked. This really doesn't help to contest the idea that he's a supremacist. If it was truly a time crunch issue where they added it so late they couldn't add the other races, but knew at the time what Solas was and what he meant to the plot - why, on gods green fucking earth, was it included at all? Because they spend the whole next game trying really hard to convince you he's not just an ages old racist stuck in his ways, only to not just have race locked him but to hide his most egregious act, of which he committed against a certain race he's known to be racist towards.

You'll be hard pressed to catch a certain type of solavellan, which encompasses the majority of them, even saying the word titan. The part that baffles me is you'll also be hard pressed to hear SOLAS HIMSELF saying it in game. If I'm recalling correctly, I only heard him say it one singular time outside of the mural memories. At the very end of the game.

There is zero acknowledgement on his part of what he did, at least not in any meaningful way. The orb that the evanuris made their foci out of that Solas says is an elven artifact? Titan heart. The dagger he made? Titan blood. The empire of Arlathan? Founded on the blood and genocide of titans. And I mean that in the most literal sense that I can. All of their godly powers that they used to create their empire was pulled from the well of titan souls they locked within the Golden City.

It's fucking poetic at this point. They silenced the titans so good and well that it seems not even Solas remembers what his glorious kingdom of old cost. It's even funnier if you stand in front of him as a Cadash or a dwarf!Rook.

This man they're trying SO HARD to beat into you around every corner that he's so so sad, he's so so full of regret and sorrow, he's so depressed and anguished over his deeds, not once acknowledges in a way that matters that what he and the evanuris did to the titans was wrong. And if he doesn't feel remorse over that in any way that's loud enough for him to talk about it as he does the veil, how the fuck am I supposed to believe he's sorry for all the other things?

Weekes has admitted to literally, somehow, casually forgetting dwarves don't dream when they were writing the scene of the Haven dream with Solas and the Inquisitor. Add this to how many lines dwarf!rook has of comparing things to dreams, casting necromancy spells etc and it becomes pretty clear that they never intended to afford this genocided race lore reveal the gravity it needed. They just needed it as a minor plot device in a greater elven narrative that completely, utterly, 100% unravels the message they're desperate to send with Solas. They really said to solavellans don't worry, kittens, he committed a really heinous, unforgivable act that he's not taking any strides to repair but we're not going to have him talk about it at all so you can continue ignoring it and scrolling tiktok during Harding's questline. And yall said okay ❤️ yay ❤️.

And no, you can't argue that his goal was always to tear down the Veil to restore immortality/magic to the elves AND wake up the titans. Because those are two separate things, and one of those things he never once said he was doing. He doesn't need the titans awake to take down the Veil and restore Arlathan. In fact, he very much needs them to stay tranquil, otherwise he'd finally get the ass whooping he fucking deserves when my dwarves not only attack his unguarded kneecaps with hammers but start chucking rocks at him and booing loudly.

This is why he's irredeemable for me. This is why I wanted an ending where I can kill him, not because I hate him as a concept or even as a character, but because his writing is such a fucking joke. And putting him into a sock and banging him against the counter is the only valid response to such a cosmic fumble because it's the only option that matches its freak in being so ridiculous. It's bad writing, it's weak, cheap, lazy, and directly crumbles the entire foundation.

While the ending of having him spend eternity soothing the dreams of the titans is excellent in form, because although it doesn't show him taking accountability it does show him taking steps to repair the damage he did to them, I don't ever get to establish, as a dwarf Rook or even just as a player, that THAT is why I want him to do this. Nobody says, "Make this right by earning the forgiveness of your first victim." Instead, for Solas, it's like, "well, since I have to go there anyway, I might as well. I guess. Whatever."

All this while they're in that AMA saying shit like "two groups are more affected than any other by the evanuris - the elves and (wait for it) Tevinter."

A fucking joke, I tell you.

[bougiebutchbinch]

still baffling to me how certain fans heard shen jiu say 'Even if all of this could be redone from the beginning, in the end, the conclusion would remain the same. My heart is full of malice, my insides hatred and resentment. Today, Luo Binghe wishes for me to die horribly, and I only have myself to blame' and.... believed him at face value?????

When he was literally saying that to try and get Yue Qingyuan away from him so he wouldn't be caught up in his mess???

Like - 'Get far away, as far as you can. From now on, never again involve yourself with a thing like Shen Qingqiu.'

This man is an ex-slave overflowing with jealousy and hatred for everyone and everything including himself. He is desperate to be considered an equal with others, but still sees himself (deep down) as a thing. Even when others do see him as one of them, within his own mind, he is always lesser!! He thinks he's continuously being looked down on and has to scrabble like a rat to catch up, because that was his entire childhood! He values his pride above his own life and happiness because pride is the only thing he had left and even that was taken from him! The torment nexus is of his own creation, and it's tragic and beautiful! And he is a lying liar who lies to everyone including himself?????

He thinks of himself as doomed and irreparable! He bites every hand that feeds him for having the audacity to show him pity, but also wishes (as he says to YQY in that one scene!) that other people would show him kindness first. Even if (I think) he wouldn't know what to do with it and would mistrust it terribly!

He is just the most blatant 'problematique abuse victim who pushes everyone around him until they snap and start to despise him because he cannot fathom a world in which he is not loathed and seen as less-than human'.

And he absolutely could have a well-written and believable in-character redemption arc. He's a horrible nasty person who made horrible nasty choices and I think that if just a few things beyond his control had been, um, written differently (i.e., Liu Qingge; Yue Qingyuan actually explaining during the cave scene...) his whole life would've taken a different and much happier track. Despite, yes, him still being a self-sabotaging abusive cunt. That's the FUN OF HIM, dammit.

But alas, he is but a character in a novel within a novel, where he is tragically doomed by his own rancid personality! And that is fun too!

[kyeomszone]

good graces ○ lee dokyeom

tags. jealousy. avoiding ppl as a coping mechanism. stupidity. some semblance of a plot. jealous sex. dom/sub undertones. name calling. handjob. penetrative sex (vaginal). orgasm denial.

synopsis. after sleeping with your ex (?), the last thing you wish to do is come across him. But fate has other plans, and you find yourself watching him with another woman, green tinting your vision as he smiles at her.

masterlist. series masterlist.

You are not jealous.

You do not get jealous.

And yet, you remained frozen in your spot, jaw clenched as you stared at the scene playing out in front of you with narrowed eyes  It was as if you were being compelled to watch, unable to tear your eyes away from the soft warmth in Seokmin’s eyes or the pretty flush on the woman’s cheeks.

You can feel your pulse racing the longer you look, a sick thing curling in your chest the longer you keep looking. And you hate it, hate feeling this way again, hate the tightness in your chest, hate the crawl under your skin, hate the tint of green in your mind, hate the way he’s starting to have an effect on you again. You hate it.

You swallow around the lump in your throat, taking a small sip of your champagne, hoping the bubbly will help with the turmoil inside you and despite how much you wish, you can not look away from him.

You had been doing so well since that night, after having taken your statement back at the court, you had made sure to not come across him. You had avoided any mention of him anywhere and this gala had been one of the events you were sure he would not attend. 

After all, what would Lee Seokmin be doing in the midst of Fortune 500 CEOs? A group of people he’s stood against since the very start of his career?

And yet, he’s here, flirting with one of the CEOs of a company, the same type of person he’s had a trial against just a week ago.

“That’s DA Lee, isn’t it?” You hear an amused voice pipe up next to you. With a frown on your lips, you turn your head to note who it is and he’s familiar enough for you to know his face but not enough for a name. “Always knew he wasn’t an angel.” He ends with a laugh.

“What do you mean?” You bite out at what his tone implied, nearly bristling at his words. There’s intrigue in your tone but the sharpness that slips in is lost on you, not that you notice, eyes too busy with the scene in front of you to see the curious glance the man gives you.

“You don’t know?” The man asked, confusion written in his words. At your ticked eyebrow, he elaborates, “There is a reason that DA Lee keeps being invited to these events despite his reputation. It’s an open secret, the fact that he protects certain companies.”

You stare at him, baffled. You very well remember the early days of Seokmin’s career, following along to the countless news articles written about him despite wanting to stray as far away from him as you could. You remembered every one of his interviews, what he had stated, you could recite them verbatim and everything contradicted what the man was telling you.

“The woman he’s flirting with right?” You nod and the man continues “She owns B Pharmacitucals and it’s rumoured she’s to be charged with━ ”

“Excuse me,” You grit out when you spot the way Seokmin tucks a strand of hair behind the woman’s ears and trailing down her face, his touch delicate and you can also feel it, can feel the phantom touch of his. The long fingers, soft and slightly calloused from guitar strings on tracing the contours of your face each night back then.

Your steps are deliberate, heels clicking loudly against the marble floor as you walk towards Seokmin who seems to have spotted you, looking at you with a small smirk on his face━  his attention solely on you as if the woman he had just been talking to didn’t exist.

“Did you drink?” You ask, your words forced polite and at the shake of his head, your fingers wrap around his wrist, pulling him away, completely uncaring of the indigent gasp the woman lets out or Seokmin’s own protests━  not that he says anything, just stares at you with something indecipherable in his eyes as he follows along.

You finally stop once you are out of the hotel, waiting for your car to arrive. Your fingers are still wrapped around his wrist━  and neither of you speak on it. It feels almost natural to leave it there.

“Put the partition up,” you order your driver as soon as you and Seokmin get in and you’re on Seokmin the moment the window is up━  thighs bracketing his hips, lips on his, tongue slipping in his mouth and nails digging into the nape of his neck as you hold his face. His own hands find themselves on your waist, a moan falling from his lips at the sting of your nails.

“Wh━ ” Seokmin starts when you pull away, the burn in your lungs too incessant to ignore but you interrupt him, tugging at his bottom lips with your teeth, thumb pressing against the hollow of his neck.

“Shut up,” You pant out, resting your forehead against his as you take in large gulps of air. “Shut up,” you sneer, leaning in for another kiss━ this time all teeth and tongue, nails digging in deeper, his moans getting louder when you press against the growing bulge, his hands moving from your waist to your bare thighs. 

Mentally, you send a thank you to your stylist for dressing you in a dress with a slit high enough for Seokmin’s hands to slip in and curl around the bare skin of your waist, the heat of his palm burning against yours but all you can think of when you feel the slight callouses against you is his touch on that woman.

It sends a jolt of anger through your veins, and what can only be described as possessiveness curls in your chest━  despite how misplaced it might be. You had no claim on him, no right to feel any of what you are feeling, but you can’t help yourself as an ugly mix of anger and jealousy makes itself home in you.

One of your hands moves from his neck to the tent in his pants, pressing against the bulge making him hiss in pain that turns into a groan.

“Fucking whore,” You mumble against his lips, pressing harder and making him throw his head back against the seat, mouth falling open. You let out a sharp huff of laughter tinged with mockery, “telling me I lost my morals while you were about to fuck that bitch.”

“I━ ”

“Shut up,” you snarl, kissing him again as you press your body flush against his, your heart drumming in your ears. Your hands work at his tie, tugging it loose and popping one of the buttons open to give you access to the rich tan of his skin. Your mouth leaves his to latch onto the junction of where his neck meets his shoulder, sucking at the hard muscle.

You stay there for a while, biting and sucking on his neck until the green tint of jealousy starts to lessen into just an inkling on the back of your head━  the idea that anyone that would look at him would know that he belonged to someone soothing the ugly thing rearing it’s head in you.

A knock at the window has you pulling away from him and it takes you a minute to realise the car has stopped moving, likely meaning it has arrived at your place. You pull away, taking in the sight of Seokmin━ his kiss-bitten lips, the mess of your red lipstick on his mouth and neck, the scratches and splotches that would bloom into bruises, the hazy look in his eyes and the flush on his cheeks.

You slide off his lap, fixing your dress before knocking back on the window, letting the driver know to open the door. You step out, Seokmin following behind and you can’t help but notice the way his ears burn when your driver pointedly avoids looking at the two of you.

You’re on him as soon as the door closes behind you, lips on his, stumbling back towards the staircase as your hands tug at the blazer, pulling it off of him, followed by his shirt. Your hands trail down from his shoulders, nails catching on the brown buds making him moan, fingers caressing the dips of his body, palming at the hard muscles of his chest and stomach. His hands pull at the strap of your dress, tugging them from your shoulders and down to your arms.

You only pull away when you’re at the stairs, climbing up the steps until you’re at your bedroom door. 

“Hands to yourself,” you snap when he frees you of your dress, the fabric pooling at your feet leaving you in your underwear and heels. Seokmin stares at you for a second, his eyes dazed as he takes in the sight of you and you can feel a lump form in your throat when you properly notice whats written on his face. 

He hasn’t looked at you in this way since.. since━ 

“Seokmin,” you snap, your tone coming out harsher as you glare at him, ignoring the heaviness starting to take root in you.

He blinks at your tone, takes a beat to process what you stated and before he swallows, adam’s apple bobbing at the action. “Why….?”

The two of you remember very well that the only time you took control was when you were angry, really truly angry. And it’s humiliating to admit to yourself that even though it has been years since the two of you parted ways, he still has the same hold on you. It’s even more humiliating to admit that to him, to admit that you were jealous when he was interacting with that woman.

“I don’t want your hands on me,” you start, carefully picking your words to make it seem as if you weren’t seething, that at one point in the evening, all you could see was green, that at some point you weren’t contemplating marching to him and kissing him until he was putty in your hands in front of the whole room. 

“I don’t want the hands that touched a psychopath, that launders with blood money.” You sneer, recalling what the man told you. What you don’t realise is the gravity of your words or the way he flinches.

Seokmin swallows again but nods, his hands settling at his sides.

You take a breath before pushing him back until his legs hit the frame of the bed. Your hands move to unbuckle his belt, one hand pulling the trousers down alongside his boxers while the other wraps around the thick head of his cock, stroking the slit and spreading the precum. He moans at the action, his face flushing a prettier shade of red as you run your hand along the length of him, nails scratching along the veins.

You keep stroking his length until you can see the shake in his thighs, until his cock is rod straight, flushed a violent red and leaking.

“Lay down,” you tell him, taking your underwear and heels off as you climb onto the bed after him, settling on his lap. His hands settle beside him digging onto the bedspread to stop from reaching out to you, knuckles turning white from the effort. Not that you notice, too busy with taking his cock and running the head along your folds, gathering the wetness.

“Tell me when you’re about to cum,” You order and at his nod, you line him to your hole and sink down. A soft moan leaves your lips at the stretch, the sound mixing with the groan from Seokmin whose whole body arches, head pushing into the mattress and fingers tightening on the bedspread as you continue to take him in you completely.

You pant softly when you finally bottom out, a glance at Seokmin shows his clenched eyes, bottom lip in between his teeth as he holds back his noises. You roll your hips when you finally adjust to having him in you, Seokmin immediately moaning out your name at the action, the noises getting louder as when you start to move, lifting yourself up before sinking back down.

You keep your pace slow, deliberately so despite knowing your thighs will start to burn soon, the noises he’s making are like music to your ears, helping settle the jealousy that had settled into your bones.

You keep moving, rolling your hips, positioning until he opens his mouth, breathes out that he’s close and suddenly, all movements are put to a pause. You hold back a noise at the empty feeling in you instead focusing on the way Seokmin whines when you take his cock out, denying him his orgasm.

A beat passes and then two, Seokmin’s chest rises and falls rapidly, fingers digging further into the fabric and you can feel his stomach muscles twitch. When all the signs of his impending orgasm start to lessen, you take his cock in you again, moaning at the way it hits your cervix, pushing to the deepest parts of you.

“Fuck,” you moan out, throwing your head back as you start to move again, your pants mixing with his breathy moans that slowly turn into broken little noises the longer you keep moving, pushing him closer and closer to the edge. 

This time, you stop before he says anything, noting the way his thighs twitch, the way his hips jerk up to fuck into you, the way his stomach starts to cave in, his moans more air than noise. Another whine falls from his lips at the lack of movements from you as you deny him his release, the sound more pitiful this time but unlike before, you don’t take his cock out.

You stare at the way water gathers in his lashes, his eyes wide and hazy and simmering like something out of a painting and you have to bite your lips to stop yourself from leaning down and kissing him softly.

The two of you don’t do this, not anymore, not after━

You start to move again, one of your hands moving from his stomach to your core, pressing against your cilt, rubbing at the nub until you can feel the coil in your stomach tighten and tighten and━

A moan falls from your lips as you clench down around Seokmin’s thick length, the man moaning in return due to it as your orgasm washes over you. Your eyes flutter close as you fuck yourself through your orgasm, the tightness of your walls pushing Seokmin closer and closer to the edge and━

His lips shape your name as he lets go, emptying out inside of you as his orgasm hits. His eyes clench shut, hips jerking up and stomach caving in as you keep moving until he’s telling you to stop. 

An exhausted breath falls from you as you roll off of him, almost collapsing next to him. Your thighs are burning and your cunt is leaking his cum but exhaustion had settled too deep in your bones for you to do anything more than curl into the heat of Seokmin’s body as your eyes flutter shut.

In the morning, you wake up to an empty bed. Seokmin taking the warmth of your skin with him.

A heaviness sits in your chest and you settle on a decision.

[chillinglikeashilling]

Michael and Kit: Making New Choices

This is a continuation of this post where I was talking about my thoughts about Kit and Jentry's dynamic in the show. (I finally finished the season) I need to re-watch the series again sometime soon because I'm so fascinated by the Episode 5.

The show sets up Michael and Kit as parallels from the start of the episode which is such a fun choice because they ended the episode before with this legitimately creepy scene of Kit pulling his skin back on. There was a chance for the tone of the show to really change there but the show immediately contextualizes how it wants us to view Kit by showing him in parallel with Michael.

Both of them are teenagers (or young at the very least) waking up to go to school, getting closer to Jentry but also trying to establish some sense of self identity and sufficiency. Michael is trying to balance meeting his parents expectations, against a desire to try something new and possibly divert from a path that he's been on for a long time. There's a sort of conservatism (not politically necessarily but in the way parents will often uphold traditional values and institutions) that we can see in some of the adult characters in the show like Michael's parents and Gugu, and it really pushes back on the teenage characters when they try to change.

Kit is somewhat different in that his deal with Mr. Cheng seems much more recent and his "parents" are just puppets for Mr. Cheng, but what is Mr. Cheng if not the oldest, most controlling adult on this show. A man so caught up in what he believes is good for his child that he attempted to kill a teenage girl several times just to drag his daughter kicking and screaming out of an afterlife she was at peace with.

It's so interesting to me that both Kit and Michael are struggling with asserting themselves and taking control of their decisions and basically all of the people in their lives except for Jentry are advising them to basically stick to what is easiest (i.e. the path that has been decided for them). It's a big part of Jentry's personal journey as well after all.

I mean, a lunch lady basically talks to both Kit and Michael about the importance of making their own choices and how other people will keep making choices for them if they don't. However that scene starts with the lunch lady explicitly refusing Michael's attempt to make a new choice.

There's a consistent pressure that we see pushing back on Michael when he attempts to change- his parents, Stella, the lunch lady. Everyone around him is so used to him following the script that it's genuinely baffling to them when he doesn't. Jentry, who is a person Michael has known a long time but who has been away long enough that they're still getting used to each other again, is the one relationship pushing him to change. In the episode its Jentry's text that tells us Michael was even considering trying out for band! Meanwhile for Kit there's a pressure there from Mr. Cheng but its actually easier for him to make the specific choice not to hurt Jentry. Mr. Cheng (or more specifically the Mogui) don't give up on having Kit do what they want but they only step back because they have enough knowledge about the systems in place to know that things will work out badly for Kit. Mr. Cheng knows that Kit and Jentry won't work because Kit has been lying to Jentry the entire time, and because Kit is making a decision not to hurt Jentry specifically (instead of say a choice to not hand over the powers) eventually Kit finds himself in a situation where giving the powers to Mr. Cheng feels like the easiest choice, the only choice.

[croquettish]

It really surprises me that Istvan Toth never brings up Hans during either the interrogation or the confrontation scenes at Trosky. I feel like it would've been such an interesting way to play the whole "you're just like me, Henry!" bit once Henry gets Istvan to admit to loving Erik. At the very least, I feel like bringing up Hans would've been easy bait with which to threaten, taunt, or distract Henry in either of the scenes, but Istvan never mentions Hans at all. Even Erik has dialogue about going after Hans during his duel with Henry! Maybe I'm missing something, but it feels like wasted potential on the Henry/Hans vs. Istvan/Erik parallel, and I keep finding myself baffled that there's no mention of it every time I play the post-Nebakov Trosky parts.

Okay so I've considered this a bit because I've honestly had the same thought, and I've ended up with a few reasons:

It's a matter of it being an optional romance. By having Toth invoke their bond it would further cement that that romance is the canon one (even tho we all know it is)

Istvan doesn't have the same level of exposure to Hans as he does to Henry. And Hans is by far the more obvious one about how he feels (Semine wedding aside; lbr Hans doesn't generally give Henry a lot of reasons to be jealous to begin with while Hans would be jealous of a glass of water if it lingered on Henry's lips long enough)

Depending on your speech skill and what dialogue options you choose, Henry can repeatedly invoke Istvan's relationship with Erik, but only ever in a quasi-disparaging way. I can't imagine that Istvan looked at Henry throwing down shit like that and found himself 100% convinced that this wasn't just homophobia. If he felt the same inclinations, would he mock? Maybe, but also maybe not. The thing about Istvan is that he puts a lot of shit out there, but it's all based in truth. Like the fact that they're similar—they are! If he starts muddying that with things that might not be true then that would throw all his claims into question. Erik got clocked real fast in KCD1. Istvan most likely either knows or at least suspects that they know about him and Erik, but the reverse isn't true for him and Hansry.

The times that Henry does bring up Erik to Istvan are the few times that we see him looking actually legitimately vulnerable. While he's usually great at clapping back, I don't think that that's at the forefront of his mind when their relationship is invoked. It's (at least visibly, judging by the two links I included up in the previous option) noticeable that those comments leave him shaken and uncomfortable. You'll recall that he never confirms or denies what's said. Even when Henry claims that he was like a father to Erik, he doesn't deny it. Saying anything would be giving too much away. Remember, homosexuality was a capital crime and admitting to anything would have put Erik in danger. In those moments he's not thinking of Henry at all. He's just worried about the man he loves. It's so risky that even after Istvan dies, Erik continues trying to cover up their relationship.

It's possible that it's just because it's an optional romance, but I definitely think that there's a lot at play there!!

[brella-boi]

Okay guys this is becoming a tradition of me seeing films recently so heres a

Sonic 3 review from a technical standpoint

Look im no film critic or anything, but i AM an animator and theres a lot of. Things. I see whether I want to or not. Its just how my brain is wired because of my profession lol

(This is full of spoilers btw so now's your time to fast scroll away)

Anyway lets begin!

The movie is great. Cool even. I liked it! But theres a lot of direction decision that I am just. Baffled by I guess?

First of all- the models are different. (Httyd ass moment) And the way they sculpted the characters lips absolutely destroys anything theyre trying to emote. It looks like theyre CONSTANTLY pursing their lips. Like they ate a lemon. Do you understand? Sonic also has much more pronounced brows which makes him look more pissed off constantly LOL

[Sonic 1 model vs sonic 3 models, pay attention to the lips]

Eggman and Dr Stone had possibly the best interactions in the entire movie. Their dynamic was fantastic, and I would argue they kinda carried the movie. Unfortunately! The ending left their issues unresolved. And Dr Stone looked entirely unbothered by the possible death of Eggman.

This brings me to some writing choices that I feel may be due to... Either infantalising or time cuts. The storyboarding of this film was just. God how do I even describe this. It feels like a lot of crucial scenes where cherry picked to be deleted between shots. Thats not good at all- and while character continuity WAS there, it really did feel like something crucial was missing in some scenes. This is especially evident in the Chao Garden scenes. Specifically when the general dies (WHY DOES HE DIE LIKE THAT. WE DIDNT EVEN SEE THE RUBBLE GO ANYWHERE OR PIN ANYONE DOWN OR SEE MASS PANIC FOR PEOPLE TO DIE?) The characters COMPLETELY gloss over his death- a death that feels like its out of a show for 8 year olds Im not going to lie to you. He just flops, delivers a line, and thats it.

It feels like the two halves of the movie were written by two different writers.

The first half is weak. The jokes are stale. And the storybeats almost feel off. The actions scenes- while there's nothing particularly offendish about them- don't *hit*. If you're an animator or writer you understand that important beats need to pack a punch. It was severely lacking in packing punches in the first half.

I also wanna speak to the animators. Are you okay? Was this made on tight deadlines? Where is the fun and whimsy? Did you outsource this? Did you give your workers a good environment or were they crunching and hating life? Or did you hire younger animators with no senior feedback because they're cheaper to hire?

Look, the animation is good. Just that. Its good. Its TV show standard, not movie standard. Its lacking a good push to the poses, its using slow keyframing between poses instead of it being snappy, with good silhouettes, with good visual gags. Instead were left with this.. subpar passable animation for every character instead of something energetic and snappy like Sonics personality. I think this is where I take the most issue with because guys come on. You didnt push the models to their limits at ALL. And Sonics speedy running is... Well read my previous points. Where are the fundamentals of animation about exaggeration? Not in Sonics run cycle.

The second half of the movie carried the first half on its back thanks to Eggman. I am SO GLAD to see giant spaceships and mechs and whatnot. Thats great! Loved to see the lovely mech models and once again- interactions between Eggman and Dr Stone. Id go as far as say they should be gay tbh (hello? The scene where theyre tied up?)

I didn't bring up Shadow entirely so far. And honestly Ive no notes about him. All my notes are entirely about just the animation and not hitting the beats well. His characterisation was great- it actually explains his aggression pretty well and then redemption. Genuinely the last arc of the movie was fantastic. And finally we got to hear a rock score to go with it. Maria was fun, the flashbacks were fun, the scientific exploration was fun. All in the second half of the movie of course!

My overall score is 6/10.

To untrained eyes the movie is going to be extremely fun- if a little more childish in some parts than others. I'm glad they took some risky moments, I'm glad the characterisation is well written. I just wish other aspects were tightened down, mainly animation and storyboarding.

6/10 but I never thought Id leave the cinema with the thoughts "I could storyboard some of these scenes in a lot more meaningful way, and Im not even a storyboarder."

I recommend a watch! Its not a bad movie. Its not a rock-it-out-of-the-park movie either though. I feel like maybe all the anticipation and high expectations maybe made it not as gut punching for me as it couldve been. Overall, all I can gleam from it is theres a lot of things to improve on! But nothing that really destroys it or makes it bad. Just a lot of room for improvement.

Thanks for reading!

[fieldofheathers-stuff]

The Silco Saga. A Retrospective After Season 2

Part 1.5: A brief intermission on The Flashback Issue™, (un)reliable narrators and Silco committing infanticide

Why the timeline isn’t fucked, actually

A common issue I see people have with Season 2 is that some of Vander’s backstory messes with the timeline established in Season 1. While it is true that Vander in the S1 flashback on the bridge appears to be significantly older than the Vander in Silco’s drowning flashback - implying that the two events took place years apart and not, as Vander’s letter says, one right after the other - I would like to offer an alternative reading on the S1 Day of Ashes scene, which in my opinion can be explained in a way that doesn’t necessarily mess with canon too much.*

Arcane S1 has a very interesting way of using flashback scenes, and POV shots in general: they are always firmly rooted in someone’s POV, but despite being subjective, we the audience are led to believe they are fairly reliable narrators. There’s only one person who’s shown as being consistently unreliable in their POV: Jinx (a choice which narratively makes sense, as she suffers from psychosis). Jinx is also, coincidentally, the person who’s POV we see in the Day of Ashes flashback. Now, this might veer into headcanon territory (which I’m OK with), but nonetheless, hear me out: is it really that far fetched to think that Jinx, being very young and in obvious distress, would misremember this event, and superimpose the face of the father she knows as an older child on that of his younger self? While I don’t mind people coming up with their own HCs on this event, I think that there’s a much simpler way to interpret this “incongruence”, which fits both the general canon narrative as well as a specific trait of Jinx’s POV.

*There’s obviously one reading of this incongruence between the designs of Day-of-Ashes-Vander and Drowning-Vander where this continuity mistake can be attributed to external reasons, such as the writers not having a clear idea of the backstory in S1 and later retconning in S2, which I don’t have a huge problem with either. It happens all the time. However, I find a possible in-story reason for this incongruence much more elegant and appealing.

Silco says ‘Fuck them kids’ (except Jinx)

Another complaint I have heard, which I personally find pretty funny all things considered, is that having Vander and Silco know Vi and Jinx’s mother (and, consequently, Vi and Jinx) before the betrayal “cheapens” their story in S1, and makes Silco’s intent to kill them in Arc 1 seem more unrealistic due to his previous connection with her mom. I find this logic quite baffling.

As I have already pointed out in my previous post on Silco’s relationship with Jinx, the main point of his self-asserted narrative is that he was essentially reborn as a new man after his own attempted murder by Vander, unburdened by the sentiment and affection his older self held for others. This belief Silco holds about himself is perfectly in line with his treatment of Vi and Jinx in the first arc of S1: he doesn’t care about them, and he’s perfectly willing to get rid of them if it serves his end, just as much as he’s perfectly OK with killing Vander, because those are connections that only his older self cared about, not the new, “updated and improved” Silco.

The only reason Jinx is saved from an unfortunate fate is that Silco, in a moment of weakness following an extremely stressful series of events, instinctively identifies with her; thus, he creates an unsolvable conflict between his need to uphold his own rebirth narrative (which is really nothing more than a dysfunctional coping mechanism) and this newly found but extremely powerful self-identification with this child. His adoption of Jinx is his own way of trying to have his cake and eat it too: he can still hold on to his ideology, while also offering some sort of comfort to this suffering child, which is actually himself, thus also reinforcing the idea that he is right.

There’s obviously no such ethical conundrum when it comes to his relationship with Vi in Arc 1. Silco quite clearly sees her only as a projection of Vander, an incarnation of his ideals, a continuation of his legacy best exemplified in her physical prowess as a fighter. And since his goal during Act 1 is to either convince Vander to work with him again, or get rid of him altogether, I don’t see how he shouldn’t apply the same logic to Vi. It doesn’t matter she’s an innocent bystander in his conflict with Vander, or the daughter of a former close friend. Silco, after his “rebirth”, is a man who is willing to see the world only within the black-and-white paradigm of his own narrative. Therefore, killing her is no big deal for him.

This indifference towards Vi then turns to visceral hatred in the following two arcs, as she becomes a double threat: a symbol of Vander and a wedge between him and Jinx, the only relationship he can't stand to lose. So yeah. Fuck them kids.

Flashbacks pt. 2: Kids don’t know shit

I think the general logic of “very young kids in Arcane don’t have reliable memories” can be used to explain why Jinx and Vi don’t seem to remember Silco pre-betrayal. First of all, while I keep harping on the fact that Silco’s narrative of dual identities is total bullshit, it doesn’t mean that pre-betrayal and post-betrayal Silco aren’t two very different people to an outsider’s perspective. The pre-betrayal Silco we see in Vander’s memories is humorous, gentle, soft, thoughtful. We do see some hints of an underlying grittier nature (his very serious tone before he subverts our expectations with the “Bozo 1” joke is a perfect example of him already knowing he can be very intimidating if he wants to), but he appears, to all intents and purposes, as a completely different man than his post-betrayal persona. There’s also the factor of physical disfigurement and change of look between pre- and post-drowning Silco which would seriously impact any ability of the girls to recognize him.

Another important factor to keep in mind is also that It’s made pretty clear in both S1 and S2 that the kids don’t know about Vander’s betrayal of Silco, and therefore probably have no idea why Uncle Sil didn’t show up at the Last Drop after the Day of Ashes. Even if Vi and Jinx were close to him pre-drowning (which we aren’t even sure of, since he doesn’t appear in any flashbacks with them as young children), they probably think he’s dead. It’s pretty obvious throughout S1 that both Vander and Silco have kept the whole drowning affair a secret, the first out of guilt and shame for his actions (which he spends the rest of his life trying, unsuccessfully, to repent from), the second because it would make him appear weak against his rival. Vander, when admonishing Vi about her willningess to use violence when fighting Piltover’s oppression, only vaguely hints at the reason why he thinks this approach is dangerous, mentioning how much Powder means to her and asking her what she would do if she lost her (a clear mirror to his own failure towards Silco, but Vi doesn’t know that). On a lighter note, when Ekko hilariously asks Best Timeline Silco, in S2ep7, “Didn’t you try to kill him?”, he’s clearly referring to Silco killing Vander, while both Silco and Vander interpret it as Vander killing Silco, making it for a very awkward interaction between the two.

(On a side note, I love Silco’s sappy “power to forgive” answer. Oh Best Timeline Silco, you softie. This is what having the Nation of Zaun and being gay married to your best friend does to a MF. )

It also kinda makes sense that Jinx, who eventually has a clearer picture of what happened between Silco and Vander, still doesn’t remember him as a part of her childhood. We are told several times that she has very few childhood memories of her family before the Day of Ash. It also makes sense that Silco wouldn’t mention Felicia or Connol to her. The Silco that knew them, after all, drowned in the Pilt the same day they died.

I think this also hints at the fact that Silco probably wasn’t very involved with the girls as kids, which, again, goes very well with his characterization as someone who cares more about The Revolution™ than about the individual people of Zaun. The flashback with Felicia gives us a hint that this was one of Silco’s characteristics even before the drowning: while Vander toasts about “raising an ankle-biter or two”, Silco only raises his glass “to the Nation of Zaun”. I don’t think these are just meant to be throwaway lines: they perfectly encapsulate their future priorities, with Vander dedicating himself to his mission of nurturing Zaun’s people to the point of giving up the fight, and Silco becoming such a radical that he completely looses sight of the people he’s fighting for. (They are both cringe boyfailures and I love them for that.)

[dalekofchaos]

Choices I would've added to Life Is Strange

I posted this on the LIS subreddit and thought I'd post it on here.

I wanted to keep to the same story without altering anything major, otherwise I would've stuck to the original plotline with Sean as the big bad, Nathan knowing about the storm, have Max, Chloe, Warren and Victoria team up to give Warren, Kate and Victoria more screen time and give them romance paths and add a ending where Max goes back to save Rachel, Chloe and the Bay.

I might be breaking a rule by adding more Warren, but cut content suggests we were meant to see Max, Chloe and Warren together as a team. Concept art sketch for a cut scene by Edouard Caplain, depicting Max Caulfield, Chloe Price and Warren Graham

Episode 1

Take photo of David harassing Kate. Rewind. Comfort Kate. Keep photo. To this day it baffles me that this is the only time - the only time - where the game breaks its own rules of "Max keeps things on her when she rewinds." Even small things like helping Joyce make breakfast respects this rule. If you tell Joyce you want one thing, grab all the ingredients, and then rewind to tell her you want the other thing, all the ingredients you grabbed are still in your inventory! You can have the items for both breakfasts in your inventory. Though the game does remove them all once you talk to Joyce and commit to making breakfast. You could make an argument that the photo didn't exist to the point she rewinds to, which breaks the semantics of how the time-rewind works (notably how if you pick up an object off say a table, then rewind to before you picked it up, it's still no longer on the table), but it still annoys me endlessly. Because that was my natural thought on that sequence, and the game just slaps your wrist and says "No. In this game all about rewinding and undoing your decisions and not having to commit to them, you have to commit to one." It becomes more relevant and thematic in later chapters, but it just felt oddly out of place so early in Chapter 2.

The choice between Help Warren before jumping into Chloe's truck or not. If you help Warren, Max kicks Nathan in the balls and Warren doesn't get a black eye. If you don't help, Warren gets a black eye as was in canon

Warren romance playthrough. A series of choices to help flesh out Warren as a character and a potential partner for Max. Continuing on the Help Warren choice. Helping Warren also leads to Warren hopping in the truck with Max and Chloe. Warren has a black eye from the headbutt and Chloe offers to use the first aid kit in the bathroom. Cute scene where Max helps Warren reduces the swelling of his black eye and you have the option to hold Warren’s hand or not. Warren takes off when his eye is healed up enough and wishes Max well in reconnecting with Chloe

If you choose to comfort Victoria, this leads to an actual friendship with Victoria. When she sends the thnx but we're not friends" text, you can reply insisting on it. This will prompt you to go back to the dormitories and when you go back to Vic’s dorm, Max and Victoria get to talk, become close, show Victoria the pictures Max has taken, have a laugh over the email situation and get Victoria to see the way she was treating Kate was wrong. Victoria will tell Max that she was jealous over her not caring what anyone thinks of her and thanks Max for coming and invites her to join the Vortex Club as it needs real cool people like her and not snobs and suck ups. Max asks advice on what to do with Chloe and tells her how guilty she feels for not keeping in touch and asks what she should do. Victoria tells Max to suck it up and get back in touch and make it up to Chloe and Max thanks Victoria for the advice and they leave as friends.

If you took Victoria's photo after Chloe proclaims "booyah skank, karma's a bitch" Chloe will ask to keep it because it gives her joy to seeing Victoria brought down to a peg and that Rachel would've loved it.(will add onto this for the other episodes)

Episode 1 ends with Max, Chloe and Warren together as the snow falls(evidenced by the concept art)

Episode 2

Romance Warren path. After Warren's offer to Go Ape, Max gets to explain her powers and the situation with Kate and Nathan. We get to prove it to Warren, we also get to learn more about Warren as a character. We find out Warren is basically the boy version of Matilda. Was neglected as a child, so he chose books and science as his passion and sci-fi and it made him feel whole.(idk this was the best I could come up with, but it’s more than what DONTNOD has given us) then Warren will promise that he will look around and help out with Kate.

Max will take photographic evidence of Nathan vandalizing Max's room and leaving the threatening messages. When Max accuses Nathan at the end of the episode, she presents it to Wells, Wells recognizes the message as Nathan's handwriting and Jefferson recognizes the photo as Nathan's style and this leads to Nathan spending the night in jail as well as being suspended.

Continuing on from Chloe and Victoria's paint photo. We are given the chance to tell Chloe about Kate's situation and let’s say in addition to showing off our powers to Chloe, Max tells Chloe about Kate’s ordeal and Chloe’s just as pissed as Max. Maybe in the Junkyard or on the way back to Blackwell, Chloe will offer Max to mass produce the pictures, post them everywhere at Blackwell and email the picture so she can post it online. She says “let’s call this Kate’s revenge” if you accept this will happen throughout episodes 3-4. -Victoria feels what it’s like to be humiliated and bullied and feels some humility -Everyone in the Vortex Club except Nathan turns on Victoria -Everyone in Blackwell calls her “paintgirl” and some things worse. -Victoria absolutely hates us and when she sends her texts, Max can either apologize or stand her ground and call her out like the bitch she is “karma’s a bitch ain’t it? this is what you made Kate feel. You deserved every bit of it.” -At the party, you can try to make nice and Victoria will learn a lesson that there are consequences for her actions. You can either forgive or condemn Victoria. Whichever you choose, you then choose to warn her or not about Nathan.

Continuing on the Victoria friendship. Victoria is genuinely nice to Kate and apologizes and says she deleted the video. This will prompt a hopeful Kate and a Taylor asking “wtf was that and Victoria laying down the law yelling “be nice to Kate and Caulfield, that’s an order” Continuing on after Max convinces Courtney to let her in the guest list and into Jefferson’s room, Nathan will be his mean self but Victoria will say “be nice to Max, she’s my best friend” Victoria will start calling Max Maxine, while Max doesn’t like it, Max will allow her to call her that if she gets to call Victoria “Tori” Victoria and Max will have a moment to talk before class starts. Catches up, Max shows the photos she’s taken in episode 2, asks how Kate’s doing and finally Victoria personally invites Max to the End Of The World Party and you are given the choice yes or no, obviously you choose yes. Which prompts Victoria to say “congratulations Max Caulfield, you’re officially a VIP member of the Vortex Club”

Episode 3

Warren romance path. Max, Chloe and Warren will be investigating Blackwell together. Warren will use his hacking skills to help them break into school. They each search for clues. In the Principals office of course, but also searching where the last Vortex Club was in search of anything that might help. Warren keeps a lookout while Max and Chloe skinny dips in the pool and Warren is the one to warn them to hide. You get the choice of choosing between going to Chloe’s place or going to Warren’s dorm. In Warren’s dorm, it will open with Max and Warren holding each other, Max at first blushes, but embraces the moment and the two taking a selfie together. We see Warren's dorm looking like this. Max talks to Warren, about how much she appreciates Warren for always being by her side, and Kate's. Warren tells Max that he loves her And a choice prompts to Kiss Warren or Hug. In place of Max wearing Rachel's clothes, Max wears one of Warren's nerdy shirts. They will talk and say they should go on a date to the End Of The World Party as a date and a means to spy on Nathan and make sure he doesn’t hurt anyone again. Chloe texts Max to come over and Max kisses Warren goodbye and says “see you later my white knight.”

Victoria friendship path. In the beginning of episode 3, Victoria sends a text congratulating Max and saying she’s proud she did something, while Max says she did more by the end and saying she’s proud of Tori

When we kiss Chloe, Chloe doesn’t push back, she embraces Max in a kiss

When we choose the “Side with Chloe�� option in episode 3, we print out David’s evidence and take pictures of the surveillance footage as proof for Joyce. We talk about it but we don’t show it to Joyce and Joyce automatically sides with Max. I’d also have David snap and attempt to hit Chloe and Joyce stops him and finally puts her foot down with David and shows him the door. Always bothered me that Joyce only begins to side against David by Max's word. She might as well have screamed that Max was the golden child. Joyce spent literal years watching David treating Chloe like crap right in front of her, and even now that he’s raising his hand at her she’s not reacting, but the second he talks a little too harshly to Max, she jumps to take her side and honestly. Chloe cannot not have noticed that. Obviously she wasn’t going to start a scene about this since they were already all fighting with David, but I’m pretty sure she would’ve under different circumstances because. The audacity. I would’ve gone mad.

Max will get to stand up to Chloe. Basically she puts her foot down on Chloe. After Chloe snaps after finding out about Rachel and mocking Kate's suicide attempt/suicide, Max can then lose her shit and stand up to Chloe. Basically says the way she treats her is not okay and if she wants to help her find Rachel and seek justice for Kate, then things are gonna have to change or they are finished. Then Max leaves Chloe behind with Chloe realizing that she needs to change. I just REALLY wanted Max to stand up to Chloe at the end of this episode instead of just letting Max act like a doormat and take her shit.

Not really a choice. But I'd alter one thing about Alternate's Max's look. Give her long hair, and tied up in a ponytail like she was a kid.

Episode 4

Not really a choice, but after the returning from her time jump, Max returns to her dorm and goes to Chloe. Chloe properly apologizes for how she’s been acting since they got back together and agree to put everything in the past so they can work together to find Rachel and give Kate justice. Would've been better than just seeing the apology over text.

Before we begin our investigation in episode 4. Max calls Joyce and David so everyone could let it all out. It’s basically the therapy that Joyce wanted David and Chloe to go to but didn’t. Chloe calls out David for his abuse for the last 3 years of her life and the fact that he made her feel like a prisoner in her own home and how much the cameras made it worse. Then Chloe calls him out on Rachel. “Rachel was my angel. She was the only good thing that ever happened to me since my dad died and you and the spoiled rich kid took her away from me. Worse. You stalked her like you stalked Kate. And now Rachel is missing. Congrats, David I hope it was fucking worth it.” Then Chloe unloads on Joyce. For all the times she covered for David’s abuse, choosing to either ignore or condone the abuse and for the fact that she’d rather pretend everything was fine. Maybe end it with “I didn’t need a fucking step-father, I needed my mother when I needed her most and your first instinct was to chose the worst fucking man to bring into my life. Fuck both of you.” Maybe after David and Joyce say their piece.(hopefully both of them being remorseful) Max can either choose to tell Chloe to forgive them or “fuck them” basically Max calls out David for his bullying and abusive behavior, Max can call out David. “You saw Frank, who was an adult, perving on Rachel, a high school student, you even had the evidence and you did nothing? Kate needed help and instead of being that help, you treated her like shit” David admits he fucked up with Rachel and wishes he could’ve sent his evidence to the police. then Max calls out Joyce for being a shitty mother. “I used to think you ruled Joyce, but you are a terrible mother. Chloe needed a mother and you failed her. She needed you, she didn't need you to bring some man she's never met before, she needed her mother who was traumatized and hurt by her father's death. And you let David hit your daughter and don't even see anything wrong with it? You talk about Chloe like she's a problem, like a burden. She's your daughter Joyce and she deserved better. ” David and Joyce would apologize to Chloe for the past three years and do better for Chloe. I don’t know how forgiving them would play out, maybe it would be therapeutic and would result in closure for the Price-Madsen family and they have a chance to start over after Max helps them in that direction. After choosing condemn them. I think Chloe would tell Max. “Max, thank you. I needed to finally let all that shit out.” “You deserved so much better Chloe.” “I got better Max, I got you.” And if you chose forgiveness. “I will still hate them both for how life went for the last 3 years, but I think we can start fresh. Thank you Max.”

Chloe would enter Kate’s hospital room with Max. We’d see Kate talking with Chloe and we find out that Kate was there for Chloe when Rachel went missing and made Chloe feel a little better, that’s why Chloe said “she’s cool”

Max can warn Kate about the storm and tell her to leave Arcadia Bay immediately.

Reject Warren path. After the Warren/Nathan situation. If you're pursuing Chloe and only choose platonic actions with Warren. Max gets the opportunity to turn Warren down. Max will tell him she's sorry, she just doesn't feel that way about Warren and just sees him as a cool geeky older brother and points out to Warren that Brooke likes him and that he should totally hook up with her, Warren appreciates for gently letting him down and is glad they can still be friends and says that he's glad Max has Chloe. You will see Warren and Brooke together at the party.

Max calls out Frank on his bullshit. Instead of choosing to befriend Frank, Max gets to call him out. Calls him out for turning Pompidou into a violent attack dog, the fact he sells drugs to kids and his predatory obsession with Rachel. “You didn’t love Rachel, you were obsessed with her and whatever you did drove her away and honestly? You’re not just a creepy drug dealer, you’re a pedophile, Frank.” Frank of course would get violent and you have two choices. Rewind and call the police or let Chloe shoot Frank and afterwords Max calls to animal services to protect Pompidou and give him a new home. Either you get the client book off of Frank’s dead body or you get it after the cops arrest Frank. Either way you get rid of a predator. Sorry, not sorry. I have no sympathy for people who prey on children.

Warren romance path. Instead of Warren appearing drunk, Warren waits for Max and awaits her on the dance floor. Max takes Warren to dance with and it's like a moment of peace or like the scene of Alex dancing with Duckie. It ends with Max and Warren kissing and Max taking a picture to capture the moment forever.

Continuing the Victoria friendship path. At the party, Victoria says, she's late, but she's happy Max is there. Max fills her in on what her day was like. Victoria is proud she and Chloe stood up to David and Joyce and that Kate is doing well. Max warns Victoria about Nathan. and as they part ways, Victoria hugs Max and tells her to be safe and call her if she or Chloe needs anything. But instead of going to Jefferson, Victoria goes to the hospital to visit Kate. As part of a culmination of your choices in the relationship with Victoria, you can encourage her to go and visit Kate to apologize in person. It wouldn't even have to be an extra scene, just part of the ending montage to an episode showing Victoria knocking on Kate's door and Kate opening it and inviting her inside. Maybe this could have been what happens to Victoria instead of ending up in the Dark Room. So if you do well enough to befriend her and she accepts your warning, she goes to see Kate and is spared being kidnapped by Jeffershit. if she doesn't accept your warning, she ends up in the DR. Would have been nice and felt more rewarding than what we got! Also? Kate would tell Victoria about Max's warning, meaning both Kate and Victoria would survive the storm!

We are given the opportunity to enter a photo for the Everyday Hero Contest. We enter at the last minute as Jefferson would give Max the opportunity. So Max with Kate’s permission, Kate would let Max take a photo of her in the hospital. Which wins the Everyday Hero Contest. Max gives an inspiring speech about how everyone can be a hero and that Kate has always inspired her, how much she loves Kate and that she hopes that Kate knows that she is loved by everyone in Blackwell and everyone would cheer Max on. This would also give Jefferson the means and opportunity to drug Max. It honestly works better than Jefferson magically appearing at the Junkyard with no explanation(and it never being brought up).

Episode 5

We are given the choice to save Nathan or let Jefferson kill him. Cut dialogue indicates there was something more meant for Nathan in the final episode. Jefferson says this to Max “Like you Max, I… am a camera. And like some cultures believe I’m going to use my camera. To capture… your… soul. Now take a break. I need to deal with Nathan first. Don’t worry, our session is just… getting started." I think Max could’ve helped Nathan in the dark room, to owe her the favor, Nathan would help Max.

Since I didn't have Chloe killed in Episode 4, Chloe and David would've worked together to save Max. Max and Chloe rush to diner to save Joyce, while also to use Warren's picture to go back in time. While at the diner we get a chance for Max to confess her feelings for Chloe and to tell Joyce while she approves.

While on the journey to the Lighthouse before the Nightmare world kicks in, we are given the choice to save everyone in the diner or leave everyone behind. After you save everyone at the diner, Chloe asks if they should double back to the hospital to save Kate and Victoria, but Max insists the hospital is so far from the storm and they'd be safer there anyway

Third ending. Sacrifice Max. Max screams no, Nathan freaks out and shoots Max. David subdues Nathan and Max is rushed to the hospital. Inspired by this comic and video

An addition to the endings. I wish we could have seen the last entry in Max's journal after she saved Chloe or Arcadia Bay. It would give one last glimpse into her thoughts, as well as clarify the endings a bit more. Also not really a choice, but an addition to the Bae ending. I'd make this ending twice as long, and the extra 5 minutes would be scenes following each other over the next few years. Show how Max and Chloe head to Seattle to visit Max's parents. Show how they help each other cope with trauma (like Chloe comforting Max when she wakes up from nightmares, or Max supporting Chloe at Joyce's funeral, or how they grieve every October 11). Show how Max doesn't give up on becoming a photographer, and Chloe is there to encourage her to follow her dreams. Show how they begin a romantic relationship (including the kiss this ending deserves) if you romanced Chloe. End it on a positive note as Max and Chloe buy the RV and go traveling like they always wanted to, and the last shot is Max and Chloe smiling at each other before hitting the road (as in the original Bae ending). Also among a few shots we might see Max and Chloe hanging out with Kate and Victoria - the former would be if you saved Kate, and the latter would be if you were nice to Victoria. and Nathan appearing if you saved him. What we'd see with Nathan is Nathan in a blue jacket like he has in the alternate timeline to reflect his new change in behavior and redemption. Hugging Victoria, apologizing to Kate, Max and Chloe. Hugging Victoria, Max and Kate and shaking Chloe's hand. I'm tempted to say he could've been in the Brody role in LIS 2, since he kind of fits Brody, cause Brody's line about his family having money but no soul would fit a Nathan after surviving the storm. It would have made this ending more complete, it wouldn't have required their cameos in the sequel, and already in 2015 it would have disproved the theories that death would continue to haunt Chloe/another storm would happen. Addition to the Bay Ending. I like to think it would be a collection of the montages we already got and Chloe’s funeral. But more. We’d see Max dealing with Chloe’s loss, her grief, but ultimately showing Max living her life and moving on. Show that Max still misses Chloe, but show her living her life. And just show Max living her best life with Warren, Kate, Brooke, Dana, Daniel, Stella and Alyssa. Even show montage of a friendship with Victoria. Show Max having a tea date with Kate. Show Max Goin Ape with Warren. Max doing photoshoots with Victoria and shopping dates with Victoria, Courtney and Taylor. Max doing group projects and games with Warren, Kate, Brooke, Stella, Alyssa, and Daniel. Max being Dana’s official photographer. And show Max and her friends graduating Blackwell and living their lives in Arcadia Bay. We just needed to see that despite losing Chloe, Max is okay and that while she will hold onto the memories of Chloe, she can live. The final scene is Max and Warren visiting the Lighthouse. The Blue Butterfly appears and it touches Max and as the Butterfly flies away, Max says "Goodbye Chloe as Warren holds onto Max and shares a kiss at the Lighthouse."

[roo-bastmoon]

Off My Chest

Rant about Hybe under the cut. I give you my word I will try to post a majority of positive content, because the world (and my mental health) doesn't need more negativity, but sometimes you just gotta vent.

Folks, if you've known me for a hot second, you've realized I am a Jimin-biased Jikooker... but I am OT7, and I sincerely love and support BTS.

I believe Jimin is a grown man who can advocate for himself and I believe Jungkook absolutely supports and adores him, whatever their relationship status is.

I always try to accentuate the positive and avoid online drama and negativity as much as possible, but I need to get this off my chest.

I will never be gas-lit into believing that the way Jimin was treated in solo era was fair, or equitable, or even made any kind of business-sense. I've genuinely tried to entertain other people's points of view and listen to people who claim to have industry expertise, but...

I will never forget his mail being tampered with four times, his leaked insurance information, denial of more music videos, overlapped solo release, only 9 days of promotion, split title tracks, no radio or play-listing, no bio for his Spotify for months, no restock of his single CD for months, hundreds of thousands of frozen and deleted sales, millions of culled streams, shady articles in WeVerse and Billboard, insulting dialogue in In the Seom, failure to submit to RIAA certification for months, only a paywall documentary on WeVerse, zero official acknowledgement of his Hot 100 #1, 1 billion streams on Spotify, or wins for The Fact, MAMA, and two Webbys, plus broken in-ears, anemic little balloons and a sad background tarp as decorations for his fan events… and the company telling him how doing more would just be impossible.

I compare all that to the push that other members and other groups got, and I know it just isn't true. It wasn't impossible.

Hell, Jeon Jungkook put in more effort to promote Jimin’s work and showed more respect for Jimin as an artist during his at-home lives than that whole company did, which honestly makes no sense from a profit standpoint.

I will never forget it, and I will not entertain arguments that say I’m a solo or an anti or jealous about it. I have eyes.

I am not out to shade any other members nor put forth any conspiracy theories. I simply want all our boys to get everything they justly deserve.

And yes, other members have suffered mishaps and neglect, but nothing of this scale, this consistently. It baffles me, I cannot understand it, and I'm done trying. Something strange was going on behind the scenes and we may never be privy to the details.

In trying to put this awful feeling behind me, I will say I am elated that Jikook are serving together and can support each other. I am glad there will be a Jikook travel show. I'm continually impressed with all of Jimin's success (in the military and professionally) despite all odds. I will always love and support all of BTS with my full heart.

And I sincerely hope the company has been taking notes and course-corrects for PJM2, even if it rubs some higher ups the wrong way if they had a different vision. Considering Jimin’s unique talents and his amazing star power—even his ability to bring Paris and New York to a screaming standstill just for the opportunity to see him exit a car—I would hope the company will “do their best to promote all labels and artists without discrimination” going forward.

But what happened truly sucked, and I needed to get that off my chest. I am not interested in further discussion or debate. I am now going to do my best to shift my focus and energy on to the things I want to manifest, instead of the things that enrage me.

So let me end on a positive and hopeful note: I put all my trust in Jimin, who signed a new contract with Hybe and who unfailingly adores all his members. There can be no love without trust. I will always do my best to trust BTS.

But I'm watching carefully. For Jimin and all our boys.

Love, Roo