#this is all an excuse to make him an even more tragic character in modern au!

[cleewii]

So w your version of modern gyu his splotches are scars, not genetic?

I personally like having gyutaro with all the symptoms associated with congenital syphilis, so w my version of him his splotches are skin discoloration ❤ (specifically hyperpigmentation)

i like to think the splotches on his skin are a mix of both! + birthmarks

the ones on his face are hyperpigmentation and birthmarks, but the ones on his body are a bit different.

when it comes to gyutaro i like to imagine that his backstory can be seen all over him, practically etched into his appearance. like, he just LOOKS like he’s been through a lot, ya know? so his skin all over is almost a collection of burn’s, scars and bruises that just won’t seem to fade + all things he was born with or just developed naturally

but also! my modern gyu is a mix of his canon human self and demon self’s physical appearance’s, and when u compare the two in the anime/manga he has some splotches on his body in his demon form that don’t appear in his human form, so that’s why i like to think of them as scars or tats! so the transition between those two phases can be translated into an au where he’s just some guy livin’ his life in the 21st century, and he’s not going through a physical transformation after something horrible happens to him. the horrible stuff still happens, but he’s still the same gyu, just….with a lot more on his skin to show for it.

(i read back my last upchuck of words on modern!gyu and i realize the whole section about the splotches on his body is so vague and i did NOT portray what i was trynna say well 😭 i’m so so sorry)

[myrtlebranch1019]

My Thoughts on Solas in *Dragon Age: The Veilguard* (DATV)

It’s been about a month since I played Dragon Age: The Veilguard and I finally feel ready to talk about Solas. Yes, *that* Solas—the one who’s sparked endless debates in the Dragon Age fandom for over a decade, inspiring some of the most fascinating character analyses I’ve ever read. Unfortunately, the Solas we get in DATV feels like a shadow of his former self. Instead of the nuanced and controversial figure we know, he’s been reduced to a one-dimensional scapegoat with inconsistent writing that just didn’t do him justice.

Solas has always been such a compelling character—complex, flawed, and full of contradictions. But in DATV, the trickster archetype, he represented, was so poorly handled that I sometimes wondered if the characters in the game and I were even getting the same information. Take the moments when we uncover Solas’ memories: the reactions from other characters came across as weirdly more venomous toward Solas than even Elgar’nan, who was a literal tyrant. It felt like (some of?) the writers were trying to strip away any sympathy for Solas, but if anything, it had the opposite effect, if we judge from the percentage of people who chose to redeem him. (Pro tip for game writers: players don’t like being told how to feel about a character!)

Now, don’t get me wrong—I’m not here to excuse Solas’ actions. He’s done some truly awful things. But reducing his complexity to make him easier to blame? That’s not it. What made Solas fascinating wasn’t just his lies, treachery or rebellion but his wisdom and the fact that he cared too much. Even when he convinced himself the people of modern Thedas weren’t “real,” he still supported acts of kindness and mourned unnecessary loss. That sentimentality made him sympathetic, even while he was pursuing some pretty despicable goals. It’s that balance—the caring, sentimental dreamer weighed down by his own ruthlessness —that made Solas the perfect trickster figure and harbinger of change.

That’s why some of the decisions in DATV just didn’t sit right with me. Solas has always been willing to sacrifice others for his ideals, but that includes himself—*especially* himself. Din’an Shiral, anyone? The reveal about Varric should have been this devastating, mind-blowing moment, but instead, it felt cheap. Solas manipulating Rook by hiding Varric’s death? Totally in character. But actively using blood magic to control their mind? That felt like a shortcut, and a boring one at that. Especially, after those heated debates he had with the Iron Bull in Inquisition about how important freedom of thought is for him.

This was such a missed opportunity to dive into heavier themes like the manifestation of regret and grief—both of which would’ve made Rook more tragic and relatable. What I wanted to see from Solas, was a tragic hero who’d fought for so long he ended up becoming the villain. Not unlike his mortal enemy Elgar’Nan. What I got instead was a caricature of the trickster archetype, stripped of all the depth we saw in Trespasser.

Another thing that bugged me was how DATV framed Solas’ rebellion. The in-game conversations by the Veilguard team seem to suggest that he started it out of spite toward Mythal and/or Elgar’nan, which just isn’t true. Solas rebelled because he believed—to be more precise convinced himself—that the Evanuris were waging war on the Titans in the name of freedom. And realising that this wasn’t the actual motive was his first attempt to “fix” his mistakes. In other words the part he played in the war, and at the same time protect his people from tyrany the worst of fates in his eyes. That’s such a crucial part of his story, and seeing it misinterpreted by the cast, felt like such a disservice to the complexity of the character.

That’s not to say everything about Solas in DATV was bad. The dialogue was exquisite and stood out as classic Solas, especially when it came to the contrast between his wisdom and cunning or the need to offer guidance vs the manipulation (props to Trick for really nailing those moments). The animations were incredible, too, and perfectly captured his aura. And, of course, Gareth David-Lloyd absolutely killed it as Solas. His performance brought so much life to the character, even when during the moments when the writing fell short.

Still, I can’t help but feel disappointed. Solas has always been my favorite DA character, and seeing him reduced like this was frustrating. He’s a character built on contradictions—sentimental but ruthless, idealistic but pragmatic, sympathetic yet maddening. DATV had the chance to explore all of that and take him to new depths, but instead, it just… didn’t. And as a fan who’s loved his journey for years, that’s hard to swallow. Needless to say I would still devour any novel or media about him, because I’m definitely left wanting more from his story.

[victoriadallonfan]

Not to claim Godzilla x Kong was a deep film, but credit where it’s due, it has by far the most respectful portrayal of indigenous people in all of the Kong films.

This is not a high bar and I’m NOT saying it’s the pinnacle of progressive film work, but it’s interesting nonetheless.

Spoilers below, of course.

For those of you who haven’t seen any of the older Kong films outside of the Monsterverse, the general plot beat is that a wealthy businessman/philanthropist/greedy asshole goes to Skull Island to find something new to make a lot of money (film for the OG/Peter Jackson and Oil for the 70’s film), and comes across a tribe of “barbarian” natives who kidnap the beautiful white woman whom they sacrifice to Kong, whom they worship.

It’s such a cliche that even Peter Jackson does it in his 2005 film (and it’s possibly even more racist than the older ones):

As you can see, there is a very familiar pattern

The Iwi tribe of the Monsterverse is handled very differently

In Kong: Skull Island, it actually does try to play into previous viewers perceptions; we meet the Iwi as the protags stumble upon their village ruins and are surrounded by. Tension is tight, and it looks like it’ll be a repeat of the previous films… until the character of Hank Marlow arrives and diffuses the tension entirely, revealing that the Iwi have been generous and caring hosts to him.

And yes, while they do worship Kong, it’s not out of fear, but rather that Kong protects them from the hazards of Skull Island. The Iwi are the ones who help the crew get a working ship and aid them in escaping the island.

This is followed up in Godzilla vs Kong, where we tragically learn that a massive tropical storm (I think implied to be due to King Ghidorah hurricanes) sank the entire island and left Jia as the sole survivor of her tribe, saved due to Kong protecting her from the rising floods.

Kong and Jia are then seen as a near inseparable duo, further twisting the “beauty and beast” dynamic of the previous films, making it more about how they are both alone except for each other. Kong even learns sign language from Jia in one of the best movie reveals of the series:

It’s even Jia who is able to give Kong the morale boost to save Godzilla from Mechagodzilla.

And then we get into Godzilla x Kong. Kong and Jia, while having a new home, still feel isolated because of their cultures (or lack thereof) and make excuses to see each other as much as possible. Which is turned on its head as Kong finds other Apes and the Iwi tribe have returned (or at least) an offshoot of them, as the protectors of humanity who calls Godzilla to their aid.

I was a bit wary of making them telepathic, but I liked that they used it more like a separate language than a superpower, with Jia serving as that bridge as she finds her culture, her adoptive mother accepts that Jia may want this life more than one back home (where she felt out of place), and Jia becoming ANOTHER bridge as she helps resurrect Mothra who goes onto make Godzilla and Kong form an alliance!

Ultimately, Jia parts ways with the Iwi on good terms to live with her adoptive mother, happy to know there are people of her culture she can visit and Kong lives on with his people.

But I especially appreciate a moment in the film that pretty much lampshades the older Kong movies.

One of the characters is filming himself and others as they venture into Hollow Earth, desperate to get his fame and fortune in making people realize he was a hero and not a conspiracy theorist (he was a spy for Apex Labs, the ones who built mechagodzilla in the first place). Another character is an animal doctor and naturalist, who points out that, historically, native populations don’t tend to do well when exposed to the modern world.

Add on to the fact that the Iwi are telepathic and know how to use crystals to alter gravity in Hollow Earth, they would absolutely be the target of government operations and experimentation. Aka, a far more grand version of what happens in the older Kong films.

The film ends with the footage not being used and the Iwi living in peace, having Mothra once more to protect them.

Like I said, it’s not groundbreaking stuff, but I appreciate how different it is.

[heartrender6]

most of the kuwei hate in this fandom is absolutely racially motivated and most of it is probably subconscious but i NEED to talk about this.

and not because i think people r thinking "i hate kuwei!! he's asian and i hate asians!!" tbh most anti asian racism on the internet goes way deeper than that.

basically, what i believe to be the most prominent type of racism against asians, especially on the internet, is stereotyping. specifically "uwu-ification." the east asian entertainment industry likes to paint asian people as cute, submissive and sweet because it markets disturbingly well to american audiences, and whether people mean to or not, they internalize it and it affects the way they think of asian people as a whole. This mostly happens to east and southeast asian women, but definitely a lot with men too, especially in more recent years with the whole yaoi culture thing (i fucking hated typing that) becoming more popular. simply put, it's fetishization.

so how does this relate to kuwei? well, when kuwei is introduced to us, and im not gonna dance around it— he is pretty stereotypically asian. he's shy, innocent, small, good at math/science and— you guessed it— no speaka engrish. leigh bardugo lays the perfect trap for fandom white girl weeaboos to gush over this guy. once i came across a modern au where kuwei's whole northern chinese-mongolian ass is a "shy japanese transfer student." i really wish i was making this up.

but then we find out that kuwei is actually a conniving little shit who is really quite terrible at science and spends all day making shitty drawings of his crush instead of doing math or wtv. The turning point where we are told this is the jesper kiss. This is the point where we find out kuwei is not the yaoi uwu baby we thought he was. and how does fuckin 2/3 of the fandom react?? hate. instant hate. If you search "i hate kuwei" on twitter there are tweets both defending and attacking him, but there is significantly more of the latter.

most of them claim to hate him for kissing jesper but like... jesper kissed him. He doesn't say anything because, in his own words, "we're all probably going to die anyway." does no one see how tragic that is?? he let his first (probably) kiss be taken by someone who he knew didn't even like him because he thought it would be the only one he'd ever get.

and yet the only thing people see is that he "got in the way" of wesper and he's evil. throughout the series kuwei is given no agency, and that's the point of his character. everyone on the planet treats him as a weapon or a bargaining chip. he gets tossed around like a rag doll and to white (or otherwise not asian) audiences, that makes him the perfect picture of a little asian cutie i almost vomited typing that holy shit. but the moments where he takes something for himself— insisting on going to ravka, kissing jesper back— that's what makes people hate him. and don't even get me started on the way people project their hatred onto the other crows, especially wylan. yall will act like wylan loathes kuwei with all his being. he doesn't!! wylan is not a hateful person and he always defends kuwei!! but nooo, kuwei sucks and he deserves it for daring to be a person instead of an idea.

and hey?? guess what?? kuwei was NEVER in the way of wesper. there was no love triangle. narratively speaking, there was never any threat that kuwei would end up with jesper instead of wylan. never ever. the kiss was literally only put there to create drama for wylan and jesper. we never even hear how kuwei feels about it. stop using that as an excuse to hate on kuwei when we can all see it's because you're subconsciously mad at an asian person not being nice.

also disliking kuwei does not automatically make you racist, im just saying a lot of hatred towards kuwei is rooted in racism.

tagging my fellow aapi moots (that i know of) because i wanna hear yalls thoughts on this! @hauntedacousticversiontv @dramaqueentruther

[fantasy-nerdddd]

Is Epic A Tragedy?

I've seen a couple people here question whether epic is a tragedy or a celebration of ruthlessness. I'll try to answer that by checking the criteria of definitions of ancient greek tragedies and tragic characters and the modern interpretation of tragedy.

Tragedy in ancient Greece was not defined as something bad or what we call tragic. It's actually, according to Aristotle:

"Εστίν ούν τραγωδίαν μίμησης πράξεως σπουδαίας καί τελείας, μέγεθος έχουσιν, ηδυσμένω λόγω, χωρίς εκάστω τών ειδών έν τοίς μιριοις, δρώντων καί ού δι' απαγγελίας, δι' ελέου καί φόβου περαίνουσα τήν τών τιούτων παθημάτων κάθαρσιν." (Yes, I did copy the ancient Greek definition. No, I don't know why)

We'll go over Aristotle's points one by one:

Imitation of actions (μίμησης πράξεως): The tragedy must imitate and show actual actions. Of course it is. Even if we don't count the animatics, Epic will become a play, or a circus play, or whatever it will become at some point. Still in progress Epic does have both animatics and imitations purely by the music.

Has a certain length (μέγεθος έχουσιν): The tragedy needs to have a length not too short in order to relay every message and meaning, but not too long in order to keep the audience focused and entertained. Epic fulfills both, at least to me. I don't think you could say Epic is boring.

Cleansing (κάθαρσιν): The tragedy should satisfy the audience. The hero can't be way too bad, because the audience won't sympathise with them and will think of their punishment as inevitable and deserved. However, they can't be too good, because the audience won't understand the Gods and their punishment will be met with anger. The main character should be ambiguous. Odysseus manages that well; look at all the people defending him and all the people defending Poseidon, Circe and Polyphemus. He's not the best morally, but he is not hated by everyone and a devil upon earth.

Serious and important (σπουδαίας): Ofc, the tragedy must be serious and important. I think Epic is both. I mean, the Odyssey is a very serious matter, and taking 10 years to return to your homeland is pretty important. It wouldn't have been the second most well known epic if it wasn't important.

Finished (τέλειας): The tragedy must have everything that happened, the reasoning, the consequences and the excuses presented in some way. I'm not an objective judge because I knew the Odyssey before Epic, but there are no plot holes like that from what I know.

Seasonings (ηδυσμένω λόγω): The tragedy must have something to make it more interesting and entertaining. Yes, Aristotle used a parallel to cooking, but he mainly meant rhythm and music. I think the title shows that, yes, there's both. Epic The Musical is a musical after all.

Correct me if I'm wrong or missing anything, but for now the answer is yes, according to Aristotle, Epic is a tragedy.

That's going to be short, but tragedy is generally interpreted as a misfortunate event in general. Yes. I'm pretty sure Epic is a tragedy in this kind.

Now, let's see whether or not Odysseus is a tragic character. According to my Helen by Euripides professor, a tragic character has to:

• Fight with Fates and Gods generally but also other humans, sometimes even themselves.

• Go from ignorance to knowledge through facing tragic dilemmas, contradicting situations and dead ends. It also has to include the consequences of these actions (guilt, loneliness, woe, defeat or redemption)

• Result in moral freedom, which shows the personality of the tragic character

Okay, so, point 1. Odysseus fights with all 4 in some ways. In No Longer You, he hears that he won't make it back, misinterprets it and decides to change his personality in order to fight fate, making No Longer You a self-fulfilling prophecy. Gods are numerous. Poseidon in Ruthlessness, Get In The Water and Six Hundred Strike. Zeus' will in The Horse And The Infant. Athena, if we stretch it, in Warrior Of The Mind, Remember Them and My Goodbye. Calypso in Love In Paradise. Humans is Luck Runs Out and especially Mutiny, as well as the upcoming song Odysseus. Himself and his morals is one of the additions from Jorge, and a constant theme of Epic. Just A Man and Monster are centered around that however there are hints everywhere.

Point number 2 might be controversial, but I'll take as knowledge the "Ruthlessness is mercy" mentality and Odysseus' belief that it works as the story goes on. Odysseus starts with the Open Arms mentality, and in later songs starts to accept, even welcome and hunt ruthlessness. He starts to believe that ruthlessness will make him achieve his goal, showcased in Different Beast, Scylla, Thunder Bringer and, most of all, Six Hundred Strike and Odysseus. Does it work? For him and his family, his main priorities, yes. I'll take that as growing knowledge it will. He even says so in Monster:

"Ruthlessness is mercy upon ourselves

And deep down I know this well"

Are his words to be trusted? No, not really. But it's just one more point. As for the tragic dilemmas, contradicting situations and dead ends, I think I've got at least one example for each. Dillema is obviously the infant, Astyanax. Do you kill an innocent soul because you were told it will kill your family? Or do you spare it and hope for the best? Contradicting situations could be the lyrics from Just A Man and Puppeteer:

"Deep down I would trade the world to see my son and wife"

"There's no length I wouldn't go if it was you I had to save"

Up until Thunder Bringer, that's possible. But not both can happen when Zeus makes Odysseus choose. He'll either see his son and wife, or he'll save his brother-in-law, Eurylochus. I know he didn't really want to save Eurylochus at this point (though I don't believe he wanted him dead), but those promises are contradicting. Love In Paradise is a dead end for Odysseus. If Athena didn't care for him, he would have been left in Ogygia for eternity as Calypso's plaything. Odysseus thought it was a dead end. He saw death as his only way out. Hell, he almost acted on his suicidal thoughts (that was a very, very stressful part of the musical for me). And is anyone going to argue Odysseus doesn't feel guilt, woe, loneliness, defeat or redeemed at some point in the story? I thought so.

EDIT: I forgot point 3 for Tragic Odysseus, let me add it. The story hasn't ended yet, so we can't tell for sure. But I believe he'll have the choice, after killing the suitors, to soften down and live in peace or continue the ruthless, cold path. From the snippets we've heard, it's going to be the former. Which also reveals a thing or two about his character: he didn't want to be ruthless or cause pain. He has always wanted peace with his family, and he'll get it.

Odysseus is a tragic character, at least in Epic.

So why isn't the Odyssey classified as a tragedy? Or Odysseus by Homer a tragic character? There are two reasons.

a) It has no music or rhythm. Which means it doesn't fulfill all the criteria for a tragedy (look to the seasonings section)

b) In Homer's time, the word tragedy didn't exist. The word was created centuries later to fit plays like Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus, Antigone by Sophocles and Medea by Euripides. I'm not going to analyse those, but they involve acting and music, not just a guy reciting a poem.

Anyways, I didn't expect this to get this long. Tell me if I've missed anything or made a mistake :)

[songofthesibyl]

The last interview excerpt I want to post is where I finally found the domestic abuse victim resource info posted. It’s in a special edition of ACOFAS, at the end of the interview—so, it is not in other versions of the novella. I don’t necessarily want my views or interpretations fed to me. But I wanted to get more insight on where the author was coming from apart from pithy sound bites, and got this relatively nuanced take on Tamlin. To keep in mind, however, the books are not about him, nor is she making excuses for him (considering the info at the end and all):

“But with Tamlin, I knew I needed to make their romance believable in the first book. She had to fall in love with him, and fall in love with him while not quite seeing the red flags. After all, it was the first time in her life that she’s ever been in love and felt like someone was taking care of her. Feyre had always needed to take care of everyone—her sisters, her father—and to suddenly be in a place of luxury, where now she isn’t the caretaker but is instead being cared for…that’s a situation, at least for me, where I think it’s easy to imagine how someone would fall in love with Tamlin. After all, he was the first person to ever prioritize her.

But I also knew that whatever happened Under the Mountain to Feyre and to Tamlin would really break her—and break them. Prythian’s not our modern world. They don’t have therapy. They have magic, but they don’t possess some of the resources that we do in our modern world, or even the vocabulary to be able to talk about trauma and PTSD the way we can.”

On the importance of tackling mental illness, depression, and PTSD in her characters:

“I never wanted Feyre and Rhys, or even Tamlin, to have all their suffering swept under the carpet. To be magically happy again, because that’s not how it works. Maybe some people can just keep going, but for a lot of people, myself included, sometimes those traumas linger and need to be faced and healed.

In Mist and Fury, Tamlin doesn’t do that and it destroys him.”

She goes on to say it almost destroyed Feyre too, and went on to describe Feyre and Rhys’ healing journeys.

I think Tamlin is meant to be a foil in many ways—not all of which succeed for me—but if that healing is the central theme of ACOMAF, and the original trilogy in general as she says, then Tamlin is also a foil in this very important way. He doesn’t have a healing journey because he does not face these things—she said he is destroyed. It shows what can happen when one doesn’t face things, and that to me is the central conflict of his character—that avoidance, that depressive, fatalistic aspect of his thinking. He disassociates after killing the Bogge, in a scene very similar to one in Jean Cocteau’s La Belle et La Bête; he is ashamed after killing the Naga, and I think having to perform the Great Rite as well. Instead of dealing with it he avoids and runs away and bottles it up. His first real love might have been Feyre, just as the author says Tamlin was Feyre’s, and he was desperate to hold onto it—but he ultimately wasn’t in a place to have that be a healthy relationship.

The scene mentioned above from Jean Cocteau’s La Belle et La Bête in which Belle observes Beast walking down the hallway in a kind of trance.

These kinds of characters have always fascinated me—not necessarily at the expense of the protagonists, but in addition to them. I don’t think they are necessarily misunderstood good people—often they aren’t really good people at all—but that spark of good, the high ideals that they fail at, becoming “the very thing they swore to destroy”—all of these things are very interesting to me. Most often these characters are dismissed as whiny and boring and bad. But even as failures, as antagonists and sometimes even villains, I like to know what motivates them, how they fail, the consequences and regret—and yes, the hope they might get better. But these are often tragic characters, as Tamlin most likely will be. That doesn’t make him any less interesting or compelling to me.

[thethiefandtheairbender]

just a disclaimer: i’m queer and nonbinary (afab) as can be, so all of this is from a personally queer perspective? i also know that i don’t tend to really jive with ND stevenson’s work (she-ra didn’t quite work for me) either and if you loved the movie, great. i just gotta drop thoughts somewhere because well

they’re less than positive

like “nimona” wants to be a Queer movie so badly, but the entire humourous basis of the character herself is that she is 1) young looking (despite being immortal) and 2) appears to be AFAB and isn’t it funnily jarring when little girls want to be violent instead of cute and sweet? 

She doesn’t want to be a monster, but clearly genuinely enjoys destroying things (again: basis of the bulk of her character humour, and one of most defining character traits) with no regards to anyone who gets hurt or could get hurt in the process. 

also this is Entirely Personal preference but while the animation was stunning, the contrast in the medieval aesthetic and modern day technology just continually brought me out of the movie. which is too bad, because treasure planet and it’s 70/30 rule and aesthetic blend of old timey and big technology is one of my favourite things ever, but i think Nimona being 50/50 just... didn’t work for me. was also slightly disappointed that i figured out who the actual bad guy was before the queen’s death (and yet another movie with a black queen who Dies Instantly / a movie with literally queer men of colour being technical side characters to a white, allegorically queer main ‘female’ character). 

Ballister is a great protagonist, but due to his opposition of everything Nimona is personality and scheme wise, it feels like they’re almost running around in two separate stories. As well as like - he wanted to enjoy the Elite, Privileged, fighting force? An elite, privileged, entirely based on birthright system ruled by a Black queen before it was called into question, when it’s also a pretty clear allegory for the Police? The fact that this isn’t resolved - what’s going to happen to the Institute, is it going to be reformed or even better yet, disbanded (‘defunded���), is entirely left hanging as a plot thread, which doesn’t happen matters.

Halfway through the movie (specifically Nimona’s “or that sometimes I want to let them [kill me]”) is when I finally started to feel emotionally invested, but like two scenes later when Ambrosius’ stabbing was over dramatic rather than just letting the tone hold, I looked into the camera just... so incredibly unimpressed. The monopoly and shark dancing didn’t help.  

“She’s my friend.” “Aren’t I more than that?” so there were no aspec people in making this film. Got it. And Ballister’s heel face turn into calling Nimona a monster is also very quick, especially when his whole arc this movie is being unfairly demonized himself by the very same thing/people that are demonizing Nimona as well. The sheer harshness and length of the scene is also much longer and given time than him saving her, leaving that feeling kinda lopsided as well.

And Nimona’s issues I think are very evident in the fact the movie lets us see all the damage she’s causing at the end when she loses control, which is sad and tragic for her... but does not excuse or remove the real harm she’s bringing hundreds of other people. This is mitigated when she sacrifices herself to save the city, but given that her problem wasn’t necessarily selfishness so much as recklessness, and given that Ballister had literally just talked her down from suicide, it’s... Muddled to say the least.

And all of this ties back into the murky gender allegory of the movie. At its best, it’s very effective and very emotionally resonant (Nimona’s actual flashbacks and a couple of her conversations with Ballister. I can definitely see why people like it - hell, even I like it. “This monster is a threat to our entire way of life!” “What if we’re wrong?” kinda perfectly encapsulates were it falls flat to me, because queerness Is a threat to our current systems - capitalism, racism, cisheteropatriarchy founded on white gender essentialism. Queerness, particularly of gender, disrupts and should disrupt all those things; it’s a political identity just as much as personal one, both by choice and by societal circumstance.

TLDR; found the second half of the movie, overall, much stronger than the first, but with some bigger structural pitfalls. Animation was gorgeous, sense of humour didn’t overall work for me but that’s a personal thing, queer allegory was good but I would’ve liked some of the implications to be taken farther. I appreciate the movie for what it says about freedom of expression vs demonization by the upper class(es), and I think it’ll really resonant and be important to queer youth in their teens (a stage I am long past) figuring themselves and their place in an increasingly anti-trans political climate out, so I’m very glad it exists. It just wasn’t particularly groundbreaking, and wasn’t particularly up my alley. Which is kind of what I expected, but I am disappointed that I didn’t enjoy it more as a nonbinary person who loves story deconstructions, fantasy, and animation

[snarky-magpie]

You are one of the few people who ship prongsfoot and Jegulus. How do you keep that up in the fandom and what is so appealing for you about both Jegulus and Prongsfoot? Elaborate

Hi nonnie, thanks for such an interesting ask (and also thanks for confirming my vague impression that most people choose one or the other ship but rarely both), and I apologize for the incoming wall of text.

How do I keep that up in the fandom—well, tbh, mostly by staying in my corner and not interacting with the fandom all that much. Connecting with people doesn't come naturally to me in general (hello undiagnosed autism), so this is my usual mode of operation anyway. However, Jegulus shippers have been mostly lovely, even though they don't seem to engage much, which I'm guessing is partly because they have so much material to choose from, so it can get kinda overwhelming and impossible to interact with everything and everyone. I did meet a few great people through Jegulus, though, and I treasure those friendships highly. When I tried to interact with the prongsfoot people, I was quickly taught that Jegulus shippers are not welcome. (I mean come on, this is ridiculous, it's just making imaginary people fall in love, it shouldn't be this divisive). It almost soured me on the ship altogether, but I love James and Sirius too much, so I just decided to stick to my lane, quietly write about them, and not get involved in this part of the community. It makes me a little sad, but that's the way things are.

Anyway. Now onto the more fun part, what I find appealing about both of these ships. To me, they're two different sides of the same coin, sort of. I believe I already mentioned this once, but Jegulus has a lot of inherently popular tropes going for it:

Enemies to lovers

Dating/pining in secret

Best friend's brother

Grumpy x sunshine

Sport rivals (quidditch or any other sport in modern AUs)

Second chances (in case Regulus joins the DE and then changes his mind)

Starcrossed lovers (pun intended)

Redemption arc

Tragic endings (if that's your thing)

So despite the characters never interacting in canon, there's a lot to build on and that's what makes the ship so attractive to a lot of readers and writers, myself included. Also, precisely because these two characters never really interacted in canon, we have so much room for interpretation, and almost nothing of it can be called wrong (I mean, it's fic, so it inherently can't be wrong, but still.). If you squint, you can even imagine Jegulus IS canon. Do we know who James dated before Lily? Nope. Him so obnoxiously crushing on a popular girl could very well be overcompensating. So yes, there's a lot to play with.

Prongsfoot, on the other hand, has a lot of basis in canon (I know this doesn't have to matter, but my OCD brain kinda likes it when things align with canon. That doesn't mean I agree or support JKR. She can rot for all I care.) James and Sirius are canonically besties. And not only besties, they're completely unhinged about each other. We only see them interact rather briefly, but it's clear they're devoted to each other. (I particularly love the moment when a girl eyes Sirius hopefully and he completely misses it because he's too busy ogling James.) Sirius is the only one who can make James behave. James is the one Sirius runs to when he needs sanctuary. They created freaking two-way mirrors to communicate when the other was in detention because they're so co-dependent an hour or two without speaking to the other is just too long. I know people argue with "yes, because they're brothers" - excuse me, do you actually have siblings? This is not sibling behavior :D (Also, they're not. Sirius lived with the Potters for about a year when he was 16 before moving out, and that's that.) Tbh, I don't understand why this ship isn't top-tier popular because, in any other fandom, it would be, but here, Wolfstar stole their spotlight, and the rest is history. Probably partly because we don't actually see James and Sirius both alive at the same time. (That's just my guess, though.) Speaking in story tropes, they're the epitome of friends-to-lovers, (possibly bi/gay awakening), soulmates, oblivious idiots. I'm generally a big fan of the friends-to-lovers dynamic, so that's probably what attracts me most to this ship.

So for me, as a writer, it's fun to explore these different facets of the characters—because the James from prongsfoot is not the same James who loves Regulus (although sometimes it's confusing to keep all these headcanons separated in my brain, and they start to influence each other, lol). It's also fun to write the different dynamics, so I don't get bored.

TL;DR: Both ships are great for different reasons, I wish people were more tolerant of other ships (and characters), and I've got a long prongsfoot and jegulus story coming in case you're interested. Cheers, and once again, thanks for the ask.

(PS. this is what happens when someone tells me to elaborate.)

[alarajrogers]

Kylo Ren is in fact easily the worst Star Wars character ever, because his existence means:

the entire original trilogy might as well not have happened

with all luke, leia and han went through, leia and han's only child still fell to the Dark Side, for literally no good reason

luke didn't learn a goddamn thing from the way the Jedi fell and was trying to replicate its problems

anakin is a shit excuse for a force ghost or he'd have told his grandson off

anakin's sacrifice and redemption meant nothing because palpatine fucking came back

leia and han were shit parents who didn't notice their kid being groomed to the Dark Side

luke, who saw good in Darth Fucking Vader, turned into the kind of old man who would kill his nephew because he saw visions of bad shit going down

did I mention the entire original trilogy might as well not have happened?

I mean, I never saw the damn thing because by the time I would have gotten around to watching The Force Awakens, the existence of Kylo Ren had started to sour me on it even though Rey sounded really really cool.

Conceptually, "privileged white boy gets suckered into fascism by manipulative older people who convince him his life is hellish" was a good villain for the 10's. Like, yeah, as a villain concept, a character like Kylo Ren would have been a good idea. But he should have been more a figure of... I don't want to say mockery, but seriously this guy is based on 4chan turning into Stormfront. Someone who got convinced that everything that was wrong with his life was because of people with less power than him because those people were telling him that he was privileged and he didn't believe them because objectively bad things still happened in his life, and he had no sense of perspective to know how worse others had it. He is not Anakin Skywalker, who started out as a slave.

And secondly, he should not have been a Skywalker. They're trying to take modern day 4chan kids and make them as pitiable a character and as tragic a figure as Darth Vader. If you want fucking Darth Vader Mark II, do not make him the son of sympathetic characters we love! Vader became the way he was because of a lot of factors that shouldn't have come into play if his uncle was Luke Skywalker and his father was Han Solo. Yeah, Leia probably neglected him because she was trying to run a government. So what? He had a dad. He should also have had Chewie. (Did they have Chewbacca being dead?) He should have had C-3PO doting on him and annoying the shit out of him. This boy should have been surrounded by love and care, based on the characters as we knew them, and I really don't have a lot of love for the plot "what if, after our heroic and lovable characters won, so much awful shit happened that by middle age they were ground down shadows of their former selves and none of the good they did mattered?"

I get it. You want to replicate the story of the original trilogy and if the characters were doing their jobs, something like the original trilogy couldn't have happened. Well, ok, it is entirely possible to say that noble heroes overthrew the corrupt Empire but then some of the problems that led to the Republic's fall were still there and went unaddressed, like nobody solved the problem of the Rim. Yeah, I can see that. So have the whole fucking thing, including Kylo Ren, come from the Rim and be flying under the radar of the New Republic completely. That's a failure to be sure, but not the kind of catastrophic overwhelming fail you get from "Leia and Han's son turns to the Dark Side".

You want him and Rey to be the most baddest ass Force users since Luke? You want them on Anakin's level? How about... no? How about, they are much more normal Force users, but bureaucracy has gotten in Luke's way when he tries to recruit from the Rim, so he literally can't find all the potential Jedi? How about, they do not need to be Anakin level to be that badass? Or, alternately, yeah ok, Palpatine had set up experiments for artificially creating more midichlorians and the place where the experiments were done was shielded so outside Force users wouldn't detect it? Kylo could have been a test tube baby, created to be a weapon. Rey could have thought herself an ordinary girl, but she was part of the project, smuggled out by a scientist who was then killed. She and Kylo could have a sibling relationship rather than falling in love even though Kylo does not have a single redeeming feature. Or if you really love the "privileged dude is suckered into becoming an evil fascist who loves murder" because that was such a reflection of the villains of the 00's, then fucking lose him being a Chosen One. That, like, is the opposite of these guys in real life. They want to be the Chosen One so bad and they are not, no one listens to their actual problems, except the fascists who propose very wrong but seductive excuses for why they have problems, and suggest why don't you solve those problems with murdering people? They're not special, that's the point. Kylo could be talented and have actually gotten training from dark side users who are involved in this shitshow of "make the galaxy safe for fascism again", and Rey could just have more ability because just because. Not every really strong Force user has to be descended from Anakin "the will of the Force incarnate" Skywalker.

I sadly feel the story was doomed from the moment they decided their villain was Leia and Han's son. They spit on the original trilogy in order to do a kind of remake. At this point the only way to fix it is a time travel story done in animation with a Carrie Fisher sound-alike voice actress where Leia gets to go back in time and wipe out the entire timeline where her son turned evil. Maybe with the help of Force Ghost Anakin, who she hates and has not forgiven, but obv he has an interest in seeing his grandson not make the mistakes he made. Maybe they could hire @chancecraz to write it. :-) Wipe out the whole fucking timeline, let Ben Solo grow up to never become Kylo Ren, and then do an entirely new third trilogy where maybe we try to tell the story of holy shit how is this fascism bullshit coming back, we thought we beat this thing, and focus on Finn and Rey, and if there's a whiny privileged kid who's turned darksider, how about the story not be all about him and he not be a Skywalker at all? Shit, make Ben Solo Rey's mentor, he's enough older than her, without replicating the whole Obi-Wan thing -- they'd be more like Obi-Wan and Anakin actually except without the doomed destiny looming.

man. the star wars sequel trilogy could have been so good if they hadn't fucked it up

[otnesse]

Found this post by AGW (who I suspect is DocColress/TruthGuard) detailing why the likes of Maleficent aren't going to be on the Complete Monster trope despite clearly fitting. And quite frankly, most of his arguments for why she doesn't qualify are excessively stupid.

"EDIT: Here it is: For starters, Maleficent is an early modern take on The Fair Folk, and while in the thirties and early forties she might have seemed monstrous, by current standards she's pretty much run-of-the-mill Classic Villain material. Sure, you cheer her death, but at the end, virtually all of her evil deeds are undone, nobody's left traumatized (or even dead, if I remember), and her idea of Mind Rape isn't particularly scary for anyone over 12. I haven't heard anyone ever mention how loathsome she was; most consider her pretty awesome. As for Gaston, I'll admit he's a walking talking Kick The Dog moment, but it makes him look more like a cartoonish Jerk Jock than this trope. He's even Evilly Affable enough to have undergone a minor Memetic Mutation once upon a time; most people think of him as an amusing (if villainous) buffoon for his acts. Complete Monsters aren't that entertaining (except The Joker, but he's a special case)."

First of all, her actions weren't "classic run-of-the-mill villain material" in the slightest. She literally inflicted a death curse on a then-newborn Aurora and issued a manhunt against her for sixteen years with the very clear implication that had her minions been more intelligent, she would have successfully tracked her down and pricked her finger on a spinning wheel WELL before her 16th birthday, and if you've read "Talia, the Sun and the Moon," you'd realize what Maleficent tried to pull on Phillip with her ultimate plan was effectively engineered rape at BEST, meaning if anything, her main plan is actually a whole lot MORE SCARIER when you're over 12 than under it when you realize precisely WHAT was going to happen. "Run-of-the-mill classic villain material" if anything was closer to the likes of Team Rocket from Pokemon (specifically the Dork Ages such as AG and DP where they were so incompetent they actually were more pitiful than a true threat) or even Elmer Fudd from the old Bugs Bunny cartoons (ie, so pathetically easy to beat that you really have more reason to feel sorry for them than actually root for their defeat). Oh, and Eggman from Sonic X. I'll grant him Gaston, though that's only because he was EXTREMELY poorly written as a character (heck, ALL the characters save for maybe Beast were terribly written in that movie, and even he narrowly dodged a few bullets there). Then again, to be fair, we've had plenty of poorly-written villains who qualified as Complete Monsters despite that (like Infinite for example, or that mummy lady from the 2017 remake since they specifically intended for her to be a tragic villain yet was so poorly written for that role that she qualified as a complete monster instead). In fact, the main reason for me for why he cannot qualify is because the Gaston Reprise would have required adding the entire village into that trope. Personally, I think the fact that he had far less shame trying to rape Belle made him a bit more of a qualifier than Claude Frollo if we were to be objective (at least Frollo going by Hellfire actually DID have reservations for doing that, while Gaston literally sang with pride in the worst written reprise ever his intention to blackmail Belle into marrying him by throwing her dad into a lunatic asylum, which if you stopped and thought about what asylums were like back then is ESPECIALLY harsh). Might as well also add, not even the bit about her being Fair Folk was an excuse to exempt her, especially when the film if anything indicated that even by Fair Folk standards, what she did was ESPECIALLY heinous (especially when you remember that even in old Fair Folk depictions where they didn't live to human conception of morality, one of the few lines they wouldn't DARE cross, one of the few things they actually HAD in common morality-wise to humans, is to maim or slay a child, viewing them as sacred. The worst they're allowed to do is abduct them, nothing more than that, while Maleficent clearly violated even Fair Folk standards based on what Flora, Fauna, and Merriwether reacted to her acts.).

Second of all, I can name plenty of Complete Monsters who actually ARE entertaining and are likeable enough for them to have actual fanbases. Case in point: Albert Wesker. Also Kefka Palazzo (heck, one guy outright said that his being an irredeemable nihilistic scumbag who made destruction a goal in and of itself is PRECISELY why he's widely considered one of Final Fantasy's best villains, so there is such a thing as people liking Complete Monsters precisely BECAUSE they're irredeemable scumbags. For the record, I have a similar argument for Volgin as well for why he IMO is probably one of Metal Gear's BEST villains, which is that he's one of the few villains who is OPENLY an evil scumbag, makes no pretensions to being that, and isn't intentionally depicted as being effectively the same as the protagonist/the good guys.). Or even Dr. Weil or Palpatine, who have HUGE fandoms in and of themselves, even praise them as being among the best villains in the franchise. Same goes for Claude Frollo as well, he's got plenty of fans as well, some even going as far as to root for the Empire. Heck, one character in particular, Harry Lyme, literally ended up qualifying for the trope despite the actual trope creator outright OBJECTING to his inclusion precisely BECAUSE of his being likeable enough that people looked forward to what was his next evil act. There have been PLENTY of Complete Monsters who people were actually ENTERTAINED by and actually LIKED. So "likeability" and "entertainability" are hardly qualifiers for disqualification. It's their actual ACTIONS and what they represent. Heck, plenty of those same CMs are also meme material, like Wesker or Palpatine.

Third of all, using the whole "current standards" garbage qualification, literally ALL villains can't qualify as "complete monsters" no matter how heinous because current standards say they don't. Using his argument, thanks to how Zeno basically wiped out even MORE universes and by extension slaughtered infinitely more innocents than Zamasu and Frieza combined EVER did under even WORSE rationales in the manga [basically believing there were too much and deciding to just wipe them out and it not even being the first time he used that rationale, doing that with those prior six universes that got erased before the start of the entire Dragon Ball series] and is STILL treated as a firm good guy, that basically single-handedly rejected Frieza and Zamasu from the trope precisely BECAUSE Zeno's actions and still qualifying as a firm good guy meant that "current standards" reject even explicit mass murder for petty reasons as a qualification (and more than just Frieza and Zamasu either, it even exempts Grand Moff Tarkin for essentially the same reason). We should use "timeless standards", not "current" standards, which usually don't make any sense even in context (I mean, if we were to be consistent with the standards, The Boss from Snake Eater equally qualifies as a Complete Monster after her stunt with the Davy Crockett precisely BECAUSE that acted as Volgin's MEH that landed HIM into Complete Monsterdom, and with similar motivations driving her as well).

Finally, I can name a few Complete Monsters, and by that I mean those who actually DID qualify for the trope, who actually DID have their actions undone, like most Dragon Ball Z villains (Frieza and Cell, even Buu and Babidi as well. Let's not forget the Dragon Balls generally eliminated and undid practically EVERY evil thing those villains committed. And Zamasu was a rather blatant case especially after Whis and Beerus [sort-of] created an alternate timeline.). Also Queen Grimhilde, her actions were literally undone by the end of the movie (Snow White was restored to life by the prince via PRECISELY the antidote her spellbook stated). Also Mephiles/Iblis/Solaris, and even Erazor Djinn. If anything, Maleficent's actions being undone were more like what happened with Erazor or Mephiles, or even Frieza, so if anything she's even MORE of a qualification.

Sorry, but Maleficent if anything firmly deserves to be in the position, and it's pretty clear ACW is engaging in Draco in Leather Pants actions with her, simping for her. If he insists on keeping Claude Frollo, fine, but she definitely needs to be included, period.

[buckyshusband0]

ꜰᴏʀʙɪᴅᴅᴇɴ ʟᴏᴠᴇ

Requested: Yes or No

Summary: Chris comes home to his wife every day. His relationship is falling apart, and he knows this too. But on the bright side, Chris has his stepson who clearly has the perfect role to give Chris the pleasure he desires.

Pairing: Stepdad!Chris Evans x Stepson!Male Reader 

Word count: 2.8k+ // all mistakes I own

Warnings: +18, Smut, Fluff, unprotected sex, age gap (reader is 18 & Chris is 40), forbidden relationship (stepdad x stepson), manhandling, breeding, affair with stepson, Dom Chris, size kink, cheating, failing relationship (between Chris & your mom), praising, blowjob, creampie, mature themes. 

A/N: Okay, first stepdad fic for any character/person I have written. I hope I fulfilled your desires with this fic. Other than that, I have nothing else to say. Enjoy my loves !! Reblogs and comments are appreciated💙!!

₊˚ˑ༄ؘ MASTERLIST | TAGLIST

YOU made your way to the wooden material front door that belonged to your nice modern family shared home. Well, can you really call it a family when your stepdad, Chris Evans, and your mom are fighting? 

See, on one drunken terrible night — your father had gotten himself caught in a — rather extreme — police chase. The car had collided into the front-rear of his car and the last living thing he saw was the drunk man. Tragic right? 

When you and your mom heard a knock on the door that night, there was a police officer who had to break the devasting news. All your mother could feel was hard, stone-cold pain. That pain that ran through her veins was unutterable. 

All you were able to do was let out a muffled sound and run into your bedroom. You haven’t gone to school in about a week, dealing with your fathers’ death. The word had eventually gone around, and let’s just say people were spreading false information of that night. 

It hurt, hurt like fucking hell. But what were you supposed to do? Land a hard jab to someone’s throat? Yeah no. You had to deal with all of the rumors of your dad’s death. It sent anger you never thought you had through your trembling body.

Seconds turned into minutes. Minutes turned into hours. Hours turned into days. Days turned into months. Months turned into years. It’s been years since your dad’s death and years since your mom met someone new. 

Someone she claimed she had loved. Of course, your stepfather had to be the all-knowing Chris fucking Evans. You had hated him at first. The feeling of seeing him kissing the lips your father used to kiss. Obviously, your mother had moved on. 

But you? You haven’t even thought about moving on. That was until Chris had protected you on social media. ‘Maybe he isn’t all that bad’ You had thought when he had caused the trusting action. Now, you had — somewhat — gotten more comfortable with the Bostonian man. 

Chris had gained your trust but, you were nervous around him. You didn’t really talk to him unless spoken to. In some way, he would try to make conversation with you. But it always was just a “How was your day?” 

You let out a — loud and heaving — sigh as you opened the front door. You had just come back from school, and you couldn’t thank God enough you were graduating this year and finally leaving that hell. 

You were greeted by the strong scent of your mom’s cooking. You threw the key in the rather — old-fashioned — fruit bowl. “Mom I’m home!” You yelled making sure she knew. “Hey, (y/n)! Can you come in here for a sec?!” 

Making your way to the kitchen, your (e/c) eyed gaze fell onto the wooden floor. Noticing broken glass. Your eyebrows furrowed from confusion as you entered the kitchen, seeing your mom stir the soup. She smiled at you until her gaze fell onto the broken shard of glass. But went immediately back up, 

“Why is there broken glass on the floor?” You asked in a hushed tone. Your mother immediately came up with an excuse, and you believed it. You nodded. “Where’s Chris at?” “He’s at work.” You nodded once again. 

“Oh okay, can you tell me dinner is ready, please?” She let out a small chuckle and nodded her head. You made your way to your most private place ever. Your sweet, sweet, personal bedroom. 

You undressed quickly and felt a sudden urge of needing to clean yourself. You turned the bath on and waited for it to fill with water. You stepped in and suddenly felt your muscles relax and release the unwanted tension. 

-- -- --- --- -- -- 

The door slowly creaked open.

The clock had gone from — time to time — and then it hit 11:30. Chris normally returned to his shared home with his wife and... stepson. He would be on set all day and finally come home to ease his muscles and relax. 

He took his coat off his already warm well-built body. He heard the sound of light music playing from the kitchen. Which he assumed was his wife cooking dinner. He took a quick deep breath before making his way into the kitchen. 

The real reason why Chris is so upset even being near his wife was that he caught her doing something he would have never thought he would see. She was fucking sexting someone. Your mom and Chris always tried to hide the little fights they had from you, not wanting to put any more stress on you. 

��Hi, Chris.” Your mom mumbled. He looked at her with an emotionless expression before reaching into the fridge to grab a beer. “Hello, (Y/M/N).” He stated in an almost blank tone. She sighed and stared at him. “Chris you can’t be mad forever.” She said exhaled. 

Chris looked real fucking annoyed now. His ears and neck turned red from anger. What gives her the fucking right to tell HIM he can’t be mad still. He’s not the one who started sexting another guy.  

“Fucking unbelievable. You know that?” Chris raised his voice a little at the woman standing in front of him. “Chris!” She calmed her nerves down before she let out a shout. Not wanting you to hear them argue. 

“You know, I’m really tired of your shit.” Chris pointed his index finger hard at his... wife. Can he even call her that anymore? She let out a — ragged and uneven — breath before looking at the blue-eyed man in front of her. 

She shook her head slowly before parting her lips, ready to say something. “Can you please just tell (y/n) dinner is ready?” She walked back to the food, making everyone’s plate. Chris nodded slowly before walking upstairs. 

-- -- --- --- -- -- 

You heard a knock. 

“Come in!” You announced the light small knock you heard from the other side of your door. You set your gaze on the now opening door, revealing your stepdad. Chris Evans. 

Chris hugged the door frame with his muscular arms before opening his pink plump lips to say something. “Hey bud, dinner is ready.” He gave you a small smile before leaving your (e/c) eyed gaze. 

You got rid of the — unnoticeable smile — on your face before footing yourself from your bed. You grabbed your phone in your slightly sweaty palms before leaving the bedroom. Closing the door. 

The scent of your mom’s amazing home-cooked meal made its way to your nostrils. You bit your bottom lip, trying to hide the slight smirk that tried making its way to your lips. Your tracks were stopped when you felt an overwhelming type of tension that filled the room. 

Chris looked up from his beer and sat down at the wooden table. Three plates were laid out neatly, filled with the amazing food your mom cooked. You tuned out your thoughts of the tension and took a seat across from both of them. 

The tension was — heavy. 

The scraping of forks hitting the glass plates filled the immense silence in the room. Your mom sighed as she parted her lips to break the silence and tension. “I have an announcement.” Chris and your gaze fell from your food to her stance. 

“As you boys know, I had a meeting about my business. I got news back — good news really. I’ll be going to Paris for about a week for a business trip.” Your smile grew, being proud of your moms’ growing success. 

“That’s amazing mom! I’m happy for you. You deserve it!” You congratulated the woman sitting in front of you. “That’s good to hear sweetheart.” Chris could just throw up, calling the woman ‘sweetheart’ He had too though. He had to make sure you stayed out of this current argument they were going at. 

Even though he wasn’t your biological father, he still cared for you, protected you, hell he even brought you your own car. All he wanted was for you to not stress more about the unhinged drama that was going on. 

Your smile slightly faded, forming into more of an — anxious smile — Since your dear mother would be away, you were going to have to be with the Bostonian man for the whole week. Alone. 

You swallowed a thick lump of spit from the thought. “Well, at least that gives me and (y/n) over here time to get more comfortable with each other.” The blue-eyed man said which took you out of your nervous thoughts. Something you didn’t expect was a wink from him. 

A wink towards you. 

Your body tensed up from the uninviting feeling you were receiving in your stomach. ‘What the hell is he doing to me?’ You puzzled to yourself. Whatever Chris was doing, was working — working really well.

When you finished your plate that was once filled with food, you excused yourself from the dinner table and marched your way back into your bedroom. Sighing and closing your already tired eyes. 

-- -- --- --- -- --

Chris was fucking horny. 

His hormones were all over the place, he couldn’t even think about the last time he actually had the amazing touch of pleasure in his body. Being in the state he is in with his wife; he hasn’t gone to her for pleasure either. 

He just had to control his throbbing cock whenever he had gotten horny or needy. He doubted for a second but — fuck it. He listened for any slight noise that might’ve come out of your room. No noise. Good. 

Chris had concluded you were sound asleep, and his wife was on her business trip, so he didn’t have to worry about her. He pulled his 12-inch-thick veiny cock from his shorts and grabbed the lube from the dresser.

He lubed up his hand and cock before beginning to stroke it slowly. He let out little moans and grunts from the feeling of his hand massaging his egg-sized balls. Something he never thought would happen — fucking happened. 

Instead of imagining his wife’s mouth swallowing his cock whole — he imagined his fucking stepson causing these actions. He knew it was wrong. He knew. He just couldn’t help but imagine hearing your cry as you choked on his dick. 

Chris’s head hit the headboard from feeling his release rushing in soon. He didn’t mean to, but he let out a loud moan from feeling his cock twitch in his sweaty palms. He squinted his blue eyes as his lips parted even more. 

You felt a sudden urge to pee. You stepped out of your room and made your way to the bathroom that was near your mother’s and stepdad’s shared bedroom. As you opened the door slightly, something caught your attention — A noise you would have never thought you would hear ring through your ears. 

Hesitating, you tip-toed your way to Chris’s bedroom. The door was slightly opened ajar which gave you the show of Chris stroking his — what to be assumed 12-inch cock. You felt your hole twitch from excitement. 

Your breathing became heavy, feeling aroused. You palmed yourself through your shorts and let out a mewl. Fuck. Chris had to hear that. He stopped stroking his cock and looked towards the door, seeing his stepson palm his cock. 

He smirked and invited you into the bedroom. “Chris I-I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to in-invade your —“ Chris had cut you off with words you didn’t expect to leave his parted lips. “Stop talking and come and help me.” It was a demand. 

You walked over to the bed, crawling near his meaty cock that was in your face now. “W-What about my mom? Your wife?” Chris sighed. “Trust me, your mom has done things you don’t know about so think of it as — getting back at her.” 

As soon as you were about to question what she did, Chris ran his — rather big thumb — across your plump wet lips. He nodded to let you know it was okay. You parted your lips and licked his red throbbing tip. 

He moaned at the touch. You then licked his growing vein on his cock before making your way back to his tip. Inch by inch — you took him in your mouth. Your throat opened more, inviting his cock to fuck your dry throat. 

Chris closed his now dark eyes before thrusting his hips into your wet lips. His rough fingers made their way through your (h/c) locks. His egg-sized balls begin to hit your chin that was covered in pre-cum and drool. Just how he imagined it, you were choking and gagging on his huge cock. 

Every moan that escaped from your throat sent thousands of vibrations to the Bostonian man’s cock. His chest starts to grow heavy from his release coming in soon. “F-Fuck just like that baby boy. I-I’m close, keep going!~” He moans out. 

Your muffled loud moan was enough for Chris’s cock to shoot his huge load down your now moistened throat. You take his cock from your lips, which made a ‘pop’ sound. His cock hitting his abdomen. Chris smiled at the state you were in.

Cum and drool painted all over your lips and chin. Chris would be lying if he said that wasn’t the best blowjob he had received. He knows he going to have to make it up for you somehow — and he knows exactly how. 

“You did so good baby boy.” Chris cooed as he grabbed your smaller framed body and laid you down roughly on the bed. “Have you ever been fucked in the ass?” He asked cautiously — not wanting to hurt this precious angel. 

“Mhmm.” You hummed basically saying yes to the man who was hovering over you. Boy oh boy, was Chris happy but mad at the same time. Happy because he can be rough, but mad because someone already took your virginity. 

He was going to be better than them anyway. 

Chris’s cock was begging for your touch, which he had declined as of now. He brought his fingers in front of your lips. “Can you suck on my fingers for me baby?” You nodded and took his fingers in your mouth, lubing them. 

He ripped his fingers from your lips and began to enter your entrance. “Nghh-- C-Chris~” You moaned louder feeling his fingers move in a scissor motion in your already wet hole. 

“You want my cock baby boy?” Chris groaned from feeling your walls clench around his fingers. You nodded fast needing — no. Wanting his cock to fuck your tight ass.

He pulled his wet fingers from your hole and grabbed his cock in his palms. He entered your hole slowly — inch by inch. His meaty cock was now all the way up to your ass. He guided his dick around, and — boom. 

He heard you moan loudly which told him he found your prostate. His thrust starts to get faster from the feeling of your hole swallowing his cock whole. “T-That’s it, baby boy, you’re doing so good~” 

“Chris-- ah p-please fuck me harder~” You gripped the bedsheets between your fingers from his cock slamming its way in your prostate. “Can y-you-- ah- tell me you’re mine (y/n)?~” His thrust starts to falter from feeling his climax rising. 

“I-I’m yours C-Chris-- all yours~” You feel your cock twitch from the feeling of your release coming in. “Ah-- Chris. I- Nghh-- I’m cumming soon!~ You managed to get out of your shaky breath. 

Chris’s nails dug deeper into your hips as he tightened his hold onto you. He turned you around and slammed his cock up your walls again. “I wanna see y-you cum baby boy~” 

Your chest heaving from the orgasming coming in. “I-I’M CUMMING!~” Your cock shot ropes of cum all over your bare chest. Little moans and mewls escaped your lips from the over-stimulation. 

“Nghh-- baby boy~ I’m gonna breed this ass so good — Fuck. I’m cumming~” Chris’s eyes rolled to the back of his head from the feeling of 15 hot white sticky ropes of cum painting your swollen walls. 

He stayed balls deep inside you for a minute before slowly taking his cock out from your — not so tight anymore — ass. His leftover cum leaking from your hole. He pulled you into his chest and played with your (h/c) locks. 

“I-I love you (y/n).” This took you by surprise as you furrowed your eyebrows and connected your (e/c) gaze onto his blue-eyed gaze. “You do? What about — “ Chris cut you off with a kiss to your lips. 

“I was going to divorce her anyway. She has done some unforgivable things to me and it’s time I cut the line short.” A smile grew on your lips as the Bostonian man’s arms clung to your body more. 

“If you’re sure about this — then I love you too Chris.” 

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

-‘๑’- Main Tag List: @wolf-knights @blurredx18 @jordan005 @marilynmonroefanfics @gayhopefullove @sebshusbando @geminiflanagan69 @sortzz @nostxlgia18 @dangerousstrawberryshark​ @gimmedatrn​

-‘๑’- Chris Evans Tag List: @pietroshusband @jamesbarxes @chrisevansxmalereader

[lesser-mook]

Miles isn’t bad, just overrated

”wild to me”, as in how could you not like him?

  Mind you they’re leaving out continuity, origin differences, the fact some aren't mantles but actual RANKS (GL), Fate/Nabu is more an Entity than a mantle. (debatable, yes)

Barry to Jay is Jim Hammond Human Torch to Johnny Storm’s Torch- existed in different times

 Hammond was an Allies soldier

Johnny is a modern Superhero whose power is cosmic in isolation

Leaving out context to make a moot point. 

I was there day one Miles’ story began, and i loyally bought his stuff. 

He ain’t all that, the main selling point is the cultural modernization that he represents, he’s an urban, black Spider-man and that’s mainly why people latch onto him.

Not that he’s in anyway compelling or interesting in a unique sense, cause he is an individual person, but the urban aesthetic mainly is what people fell in love with. And that’s 100% fine-

But it’s when you start deflecting that fact and start acting like people have an issue when they don’t like him and you just can’t for the life of you understand “why why why, don’t you like him” vs other knockoffs:

Mind you, i’m probably one of the lesser yet avid Supergirl criticizers on the net, and i’m not even talking about the show, that’s too easy, comics 100%. That requires research.

So there’s no double standard, Kara Zor El is a blue eyed blond haired girl next door archetype cosplaying as Superman, her entire appeal is to get women into the lore but she ended up being taken in by straight men as a fanbase, majorly. 

Why? 

Because she’s got a dynamic character arc? (She’s had some decent runs, nothing phenomenal)

An arc that at one point changed the landscape of DC? 

Her tragic downward spiral of self-destruction and wrapped up in a beautiful act of redemption & sacrifice?

NOPE that would be someone else, who i often WISH was Supergirl in the first fucking place.

But despite Clark Kent-PRIME being a better character (in concept, not the best characterization compared to Supertoken, but his arc was solid), somehow hasn’t gotten a single chance in the animated media.

Young JUSTICE didn’t choose him. They chose Kara to end off S4, because we haven’t had enough of her the past 15 years, she’s so deep like that.

And yes: The most you can say is she more trauma due to her actually knowing Krypton, having friends, her family or seeing it explode- 

But the premise of her entire origin is why she doesn’t work. Jor-El just happened to have a brother who just HAPPENED to be a scientist who just HAPPENED to have the same exact idea (not trivializing Kal’s survival at all) to save his daughter & not himself or at least get his wife and daughter away safely. 

No just copy & paste. So Superman miraculously has a cousin, the COUSIN trope. 

Kara Bore-El is a Fanfic OC made canon.

Her being an angry/edge-lord sometimes doesn’t mean she’s interesting- solely because they don’t DO anything with that anger or trauma and or they don’t commit to it. (Red Lantern Kara)

You know who’s trauma DC used to make an interesting story (excuse me) SAGA, an interesting SAGA? Superboy-PRIME. 

I DIGRESS.

As you can tell, i cannot stand her despite her innate general appeal. Why? Writing, purpose, originality, DC forcing her desperately, purpose and lack thereof. 

The takes of Kara that land, FOR ME, are the ones that say or do something different from the version mainline canon, and allow her to be her own thing off of Clarks coattails in some way, minor or major. 

*DC Nuclear Winter Kara Zor El, i like her.

And the fact that she’s a cutesie R63, usually. Is the only reason why she remained relevant for this long, same with Powergirl, up until people literally forgetting she existed because her contribution to the picture was big tits and a little bit of ego.

Injusitce 2 brought her back, attitude and all.....aaaand then she went back into obscurity, nobody gave a shit after 2 weeks. WHO saw that coming? 

Same with Miles, token.

Miles not bad, not a bad kid, not the worst take on Spider-man. Just overrated.

Some people need to just admit what they like about him is the aesthetic surrounding him, and stop pretending we just don’t get what it is that’s wrong with other people regarding him.

Cause i guarantee you majority of people stanning this kid has NEVER read that issue where he fought that nobody villain: Kangaroo- which is technically where his first fight as a masked hero began.

Doesn’t mean you have to read every single issue to speak on the matter (Because i need to catch up on some of his stories myself), but the point is with all this support for this character, how invested are you really in this boy beyond what’s fed to you by Hollywood.

It means: Do you actually give a shit? Are you invested, or are you just talking?

It means don’t act stupid for the sake of feigning confusion when you know exactly what’s up. 

Like he should be or has to be liked and anything less is a problem or something.

Most people big him up because he’s a POC Spider-Man, period. 

If they (Marvel/Bendis) had any balls they would’ve made Miles more like Kaine, give him some anger issues & do something with it, make him a Spider-Man Foil. 

Or SOME kind of major flaw that made him having powers a serious problem- and how he uses his powers, is different enough from Peter in sheer application to where he’s not your average Spider-Man by just how he moves.

Because Prowler Miles is what I’ve been needing, that’s an interesting story right there. 

No Quirk, but running shit anyway.

Like Deku & Allmight having roughly the same power, initially, but Deku uses his strengths so differently by S2-S3, he literally moves & fights nothing like All Might anymore. He’s his own aesthetic.

Even Full Cowling isn’t something Allmight’s really known for or any of the Veestige, it’s a visual distinction between Deku and the rest.

And that’s one of few things i can actually praise of the franchise without a complaint.

That should’ve been Miles.

And no, some sparky fingers ain’t unique cause Jessica was doing that shit decades before Miles was a concept, but nobody talks about that tho.

The Invisible Woman shit? Sure i’ll give him that i guess. It’s pretty cool. But again, SUSAN been on it too!

Moreso this alternate Miles’ arc is moreso learning the values of a hero in his own way, at his own pace, while maintaining enough moral differences from Parker to be a different situation. 

Say he’s 18 when he gets his power, slightly older than when Peter got his,14-15. 

Have the first 9-12 months be him using his powers for himself, a “fuck the world” attitude, until he does something deathly serious in a fit of rage or self defense, that he can’t undo and regrets for the rest of his career. 

Anything like that would’ve been more compelling.

You can’t tell me that doesn’t sound like a more interesting story, i didn’t say “better”, i said “interesting.”

Not just Peter Parker but recolored.

Again, I was there since the beginning, 2012, day one i was buying Morales comics “Because he looked liked me”, and guess what, I was NOT impressed.

The staying power wasn’t there, the justification of his looking like me (and yes he looked just like me) WAS NOT enough to warrant long term investment because while he did look like me, Miles was NOT me. Period.

I liked that both his parents were alive, ofc they weren’t an entirely black family unit, of course. 

But i liked his pops, Jefferson being a cop. His mom was good peoples, and what happened to her was...something.

But the kid overall was boring, he didn’t speak to me, he just mirrored my melanin, big deal.

Lo and behold, just looking like a person isn’t enough to justify staying power, who knew? Just being black doesn’t mean i relate to you, who knew?

That was the day i realized, true “Representation” is NOT skin deep. It’s about character, who you are as a person. Period.

Between Kaine and Morales, it’s not even a Contest. 

One has enough distinctions moral & mental to be a completely separate franchise and SHOULD'VE been in movies by now, R Rated ofc.

And the other is just a glorified What If DLC.

But ofc guess who gets a honorable mention, twice in the MCU. The Black Spider-Man ofc: 

Because he’s compelling, interesting, a long standing character in the Spider-man lore? 

No that’s KAINE, hell i’m still looking for Madam Web’s respect, on god..

I’m STILL waiting for MAYDAY (rightful heir to the mask) to get her big break! The fact that Miles was able to skip the line in front of her, is insane to me.

Miles is likely going get to the MCU first before BEN, Web, Mayday and KAINE combined, because he’s the black Spidey.

Again, you can like him if you want, but don’t pretend for a second why people don’t like him is some mystery.

Miles looks exactly like me, i repeat and i cannot stand him as a concept- i gravitate to Venom, Kaine, Miguel, Spider-Man NOIR, Mayday, etc.

And Miguel is technically the POC Spider-man BEFORE Morales, half Mexican, but Miles is black+latino in current day, so let’s just forget all about O’Hara until some corny Spiderverse movie makes him relevant again in the post credit scene, now everyone’s going to love Miguel because he’s going to be in the next movie.

Mapping out the main reason i can’t stand normies sometimes, bandwagon mentality.

And it sucks cause we got him in Ultimate Spiderman XD, Edge of Time, Shattered Dimensions, so the man had some momentum getting off the pages. So what was the hold up with getting this cat in a movie? Or a Mini series like TNAS Spider-man most people forgot?

Miguel is a legit cool dude, careerman, sly, very different aesthetic, different time, different Spider-man. He is NOT Parker, trust me. 

Miguel O’Hara should’ve been gotten his own show or movie. And on that note, that obscure underwritten Spider-man Unlimited, was a Spider-man 2099 cartoon that didn’t know or it 100% knew it was trying to be 2099

But our boy Miles gets to skip the goddamn line in front of established more interesting characters that have done their time since before the Century turned, get mentions in the MCU and 2 animated movies, if that’s not AA energy i don’t know what is. 

NOW THAT’S wild to me.

[idolomantises]

I’ve seen people make excuses for the writing by mentioning it’s all just set up for spin offs and sequels but… I don’t want that? Why on earth would I want to wait 3 years for a show to say “oh by the way these characters will get proper conclusions in the spin offs”.

Just tl:dr I’m over this series and don’t plan on watching any of the sequels or spin offs. Maybe if they introduce a hot robot character I’ll check it out.

There’s not even a promise that every single character that has an inconclusive ending (which is all of them btw) will have spin offs and sequel shows. I’m pretty sure they’re likely going to just use a completely different cast since League has a lot of characters.

I’ve seen arguments that the season is bad because it has very few episodes and wasn’t spaced out, and while I do agree the pacing is terrible I also… don’t even think this show could have been salvaged if they gave it a full 4 seasons. Because either way, it was going to end with a lot of characters being badly written, sideline and having arcs unfinished so it can be explored in sequels and spin offs (if that even happen).

One thing I liked about arcane is that it avoided a lot of really bad tropes that I’ve seen modern queer media weirdly struggle with. Arcane avoided the pitfalls written female characters, female characters used to push male relationships and very clearly abusive couples that are dismissed just because they’re gay.

Then season 2 happens and Mel becomes a disposable black woman trope, Sky only existed for male angst, Maddie is literally there for shock value and adds nothing to the narrative, Vi just… turned into that and Caitvi is toxic yuri in a way that’s very unfun and frustrating. These two are seriously so incompatible for each other, but they make out and have sex a lot so I’m sure this destructive relationship with warring idealogies will be fine. Please queer shows for the love of god stop assuming gay characters kissing and fucking makes up for their lack of communication and horrible behavior to each other.

Honestly I’m really disappointed that all these things happened to Sky, Mel and Maddie because watching fans tear apart female characters for 4 years just for existing and getting in the way of ships only for them to be exactly that and for fans to cheer about their suffering pisses me off so bad like girl… what the hell happened did the writers have amnesia. How do you write this show right after season one and fuck up this bad.

Maybe we should stop making videos about how tv shows write female/queer characters well until they’re actually done because this is getting ridiculous.

And yes I want to come back to the issue with how black characters were treated because I do find it pretty gross for Mel and Ekko to be absent for most of the show but then come back to basically save the day so fans don’t complain about how they were obviously sidelined for the sake of other characters. I dont really care for Ekko/Jinx but I did enjoy their time together in the AU.

And another annoyance is that this show did such an incredible job at introducing moral greyness to the show but then got scared to really commit to giving these characters any consequences. And I don’t mean like death or going to jail, but I mean holding grudges. I think Jinx is a very interesting and tragic character but she’s also… a terrorist? She caused the death of their friends and father? Like she’s a grown woman making these decisions. Having characters run around and risk their lives to save her felt a bit frustrating because yeah circumstances lead to this but half of these circumstances are also her fault. I really wish the entire season was about Vi choosing whether or not she was ready to forgive Jinx instead of basically accepting her back because Vander is back.

And VANDER…. Actually I won’t say anything because the more I mention him the more it pisses me off.

I have more thoughts but I gotta draw some comics so I’ll just leave at that. Disappointing season that I think is a lot worse than fans insist it is. It’s not one or two issues, it’s just compounding problems that won’t improve.

Thoughts on Arcane season 2

I didn’t like this season

It’s not bad, but I found it incredibly rushed, cramped and deeply unsatisfying

While season 1 had several protagonists it was also pretty obvious that Vi and Jinx were the emotional core of the entire show so why on earth was their dynamic barely explored here

Vi went from being my favorite character to a character I found deeply frustrating and annoying. What the hell is her personality of getting her sister back and fucking the hot lesbian. She has no consistency whatsoever and it’s something I don’t think the show realizes how batshit the constant flip flopping in. What do you mean you sister tells you she’s going to kill herself and then you start fucking your messy situationship

I don’t really care for Jayvik but I found Jayce’s confession very sweet.

Mel my beautiful queen they’re gonna call you a Mary Sue

What the fuck was with all that Witch shit and Ambessa’s death was incredibly unsatisfying

Victor fans who kept begging the team to not make him a hot buff robot so he can still be a skinny twink pisses me off so bad because now we have an inferior twink robot design. I know fans probably didn’t influence this but I also need to complain about their lack of taste like what do you mean you didn’t want to see a hot buff robot man.

Ekko feels like an incredibly unimportant character and I’m pretty sure fans only like him because of what he can do for Jinx. A part of me wished he actually did hold a grudge just to see how fans reacted.

Season 1 was all about setting up emotional complexities and how nobody was truly evil and the show made it seem like there was no way for anyone to fully recovery from this but everyone is holding hands and singing kumbaya’s so alright nevermind then

This show was honestly a little too in love with Jinx. I did not enjoy her writing in acts 1 and 2.

The jokes were really bad this season

The songs oh my god the SONGS. I didn’t mind them in season 1 but in season 2 it started to remind me of love is blind and anyone who has watched that show would know what a massive insult that is.

Caitvi lesbian sex scene and I couldn’t even enjoy it because the writing was pissing me off

Caitlyn should’ve continued her little fascist arc.

Mel’s arc this season felt like weird fanfiction.

A bunch of random side characters die off unceremoniously after the show gave them so much unnecessary screen time

I hated Isha sorry. I’ve never seen a character more clearly made to die.

Jinx death means nothing to me because I know she isn’t dead so why even do all that lol

I will never call this show sexist but it has done a massive disservice to its female characters.

[lemonhemlock]

Thoughts on otto?

i really enjoy komsomolka's take that otto is a failed girldad

i think both otto and tywin are deconstructions of machiavelli's prince. but otto is very much tywin-lite. he is not as ruthless as tywin, not as cold, not as sly. his schemes are childlike compared to tywin's. never in a million years would have tywin suffered such a fool like daemon for so long. otto is a conniver himself, but he does genuinely care for his duty to the realm on a conceptual level as well and he does care for viserys, both as his friend and both as an embodiment of the crown. that doesn't preclude him from doing all he can to advance himself and his own - he is a noble lord, after all.

otto gets a lot of flack in the fandom & we should totally acknowledge the imprint traditional masculinity has on the less-privileged around him. but i have this pervasive, terrifying feeling that otto is actually... he is our father!! you take any reasonably-gentle, reasonably-decent man, who loves his daughter, and put him into the shoes of the second son of a noble lord, in a fantasy middle-ages setting, and he becomes otto. and that's what i find so bloody tragic about otto - this is the story of a man who is separated by societal mores and structures from the one person he loves the most in this entire world - the apple of his eye!! his bbygurl! nobody wins under feudalism! nobody wins under patriarchy! not alicent, but not even otto either! would mine own father do that to me were he in otto's place? would yours? what a completely alarming idea!

otto doesn't completely understand alicent because he doesn't understand women, not fully, not ever & he never will because he lacks the psychoanalysis tools & the critical paradigm through which to objectively assess society & re-arrange his world view. every character in the show has this problem and faces this wall eventually. this is not otto-apologia or trying to find excuses for him, but, equally, not accounting for this in our commentaries does a disservice to all of us, because it utterly fails to account for how our behaviours and beliefs are constitutionally conditioned by socio-economical structures. a person living under patriarchal feudalism, where war is a common occurrence, medical science is rudimentary and mental health non-existent, making life itself a very perilous affair, is conspicuously NOT going to have the same beliefs as a person who has (hopefully) gained critical-thinking skills as a result of their university education in modern-day capitalism. no matter how kindhearted or empathetic they might be.

that is to say that otto genuinely believes he is doing the very best for alicent and for his house and for the realm. he is providing the realm with an exemplary queen, he is connecting the hightowers to the crown via blood and he is giving alicent away to (in his eyes) a kind, good, gentle husband. he is making her the most important woman in westeros with the most amount of power, should she learn how to yield it. he doesn't understand alicent's terror because he doesn't understand abuse the same way she does - viserys never yells at her, is never violent to her, always treats her politely, is a jolly enough man and seems like he'd be fun to drink a beer with. alicent now has all the wealth, all the jewels, the finery, the security and the obeisance of those around her. that's how otto conceptualises happiness and he is giving exactly that to his daughter. would otto agree that it would have been ideal for alicent to be a few years older before getting married? probably, yeah. but an opportunity like this comes only once in a lifetime and, as fucked up as this may seem, this is an act of love in his eyes.

alicent knows her father doesn't truly understand her, doesn't speak "the language of girls", but goes along with it because she is in an uneven power dynamic with him, she is young & inexperienced and is primed to trust that her father's decisions are for her own benefit. there is anxiety-inducing conflict here bc the reality doesn't live up to otto's idealized and superficial understanding of what marriage to viserys entails. what this means for her relationship with rhaenyra, her soul mate. but, even so, alicent knows that her father is the only person in the whole wide world who will love her no matter what & never abandon her, no matter their disagreements. people don't understand why alicent loses her shit when she loses otto. this is why! he is not viserys, he is not rhaenyra. the only reason he leaves is because he is banished. and she (unknowingly & without her sanction) pays a terrible price to get him back

alicent is otto's pawn but she is not just a broodmare to him. he wants to actively work with her. he includes her in his schemes. he allows her on the small council. they have their own power struggles & disagreements, but he mostly rules with her. he wants her on his team so bad. together, you and i will prevail. whatever our differences, our hearts remain as one. he honours their stupid bet and delivers alicent's v generous peace terms to rhaenyra himself. he has been bested by his daughter, he respects that & doesn't undermine her. she really is his queen!!

just bc daemon & rhaenyra oppose otto doesn't mean he is a "snake". daemon is a true nepo baby & incompetent in every job he gets handed. rhaenyra is pissed otto "spied" on her, but that's literally his job as Hand, to be on top on things, act like the CIA and inform the King of any potential trouble. he has his own faults, but i wouldn't call him the evil mastermind the fandom has decided he is

[greatwyrmgold]

The Age of Magneto

Here's a question for X-Men fans: How long until Magneto's expiration date? And what happens then?

You probably know what I mean, but this post is as much an excuse for me to spell out my thoughts on the matter as it is asking for other people's input. (I would still like to hear other opinions, mind you.)

Most metahumans' origin stories are free-floating in history. Batman's parents could have been shot in any decade, Krypton could explode in any decade, Dr. Doom's lab accident could happen in any decade. We just quietly accept a character barely aging between the 70's and the new 10's, if not longer, because that's how comics work. But if a historical event is central to your character's backstory, you could have problems.

The Holocaust was stopped roughly 77 years ago. Any mutant with strong enough memories of Nazi Germany for them to be a significant part of his motivation would need to be in his mid-80's, at minimum. That's longer than most people who don't regularly engage in superpower fights live; it's not old enough that still being an active villain breaks your suspension of disbelief, but my dad was talking about this when Magneto could plausibly be sixty-something.

Each passing decade makes it exponentially less plausible for Magneto to be an active supervillain, but he's a critical part of the X-Men. He's their most iconic villain, his dynamic with Professor Xavier is the centerpiece of everything X-Men says about civil rights, and while I don't follow the comics that closely, I know that Magneto is the father of several significant mutants. He can't just fade into the background when he stops being plausible, like Captain America: Commie-Smasher did.

So at some point, whether in the COVID 20's or the Cyber 30's or the Giant Alien Spider 40's, Magneto will have to change in some way. I only see three ways to do this, and none remotely preserve the X-Men's status quo.

The Natural Solution

The simplest way to make Magneto not unrealistically old to survive both Colossus and leukemia would be to have him just not survive. Possibly a big sacrifice or dramatic battle, possibly just old age or mundane disease, possibly dramatic disease or a mundane battle. Regardless, it seems likely that they'd want to kill Professor X around the same time, if only to put a clean coda on their iconic rivalry.

Now, they would still be important figures in the comics, but more the way that Uncle Ben or the Waynes are, or that MLK and the Black Panthers are to modern African-Americans. The older mutants fight to continue the legacy of their fallen leaders, the younger ones idolize them, but they are gone.

Despite being the only option that doesn't require a reboot or retcon, it's the most disruptive to the status quo, so I doubt they'd pick this one.

Same Genocide, Different Decade

Unfortunately, the Holocaust was not the last event of its kind. Sure, no genocide has been of the same industrial scale as the Holocaust (except the Holomodor, depending on what estimates you use and where you draw the line between "part of the Holocaust" and "just another Nazi war crime," let's leave it at that). But is the Rwandan genocide less tragic, criminal, or traumatic than the Holocaust just because "only" several hundred thousand people died?

Magneto's character wouldn't need to change an inch if he was a Cambodian in the 70's, a Hutu in the 90's, or even a Darfur (or is it Fur?) in the 2010's. But that doesn't mean there wouldn't be issues from this change, and I don't mean continuity ones.

First off, in all likelihood, executive mandate would cut away at this reboot of Magneto until it was, like, Magneto's parents died in a Latverian mutant genocide. Something comfortingly fictionalized. But let's pretend they'd keep a real genocide in there.

Losing a Jewish Magneto would suck. Even if we got different representation out of it, it would suck. And there's no way around it; antisemitism still exists, some organized antisemitism in the past 60 years probably qualifies as genocide, but none approaches the level of generational trauma caused by the Holocaust.

And then there's the race issue. You know how a certain type of reactionary flips out when a codename traditionally belonging to a straight white dude gets assumed by a "political" character? It would be so much worse if we couldn't point out "That's Kal's son" or "That's Tony's student" or "That's the Falcon with a shield". And any Magneto from a major post-WW2 genocide would either need to be a POC (and hence attract those chuds) or a Holomodor survivor (which would just change what chuds you pissed off).

This idea has a lot of good to it. It preserves the time-proven structure of X-Men storytelling, it's probably net positive for representation, and above all, it would remind the audience that the horrors which scarred Magneto did not end with the Nazis. But it also has a lot of bad to balance that out.

Iceman (not that one)

If Magneto is going to continue to be from the Silent Generation, and continue to be an active presence in the story, there will eventually need to be some reason for him not to be a centenarian. You could just make it a side effect of his magnetism somehow, but that feels like it's drawing attention to the problem more than it solves it. Luckily, the Marvel universe has an established mechanism for WW2-era characters to get from D-Day to the modern day.

(Come to think of it...Cap and Magneto were both around during the same pivotal historic period. Heck, Wolverine was, too. Are there any storylines that do something with that quirk of the timeline?)

Or you could use some functionally similar plot device, like being imprisoned in a stasis chamber for some reason. Also, Magneto doesn't need to be frozen for 60-70 years solid for this to work; if he gets put on ice during the 60's or so and defrosted a decade or two before the nebulous modern day, he could be kept at a comfortable middle age until the X-Men franchise stops making money.

But while this option makes it more plausible that his arthritis wouldn't cripple his powers and that one punch from Logan wouldn't break half the bones in his torso, it complicates his relationship to modern mutants.

The biggest problem is his rivalry with Xavier. It could be interesting if Xavier had several decades to get over the reasons he fought with Magneto and Magneto didn't, but that dynamic can only last so long before Xavier has the exact same problem as Magneto: If Xavier was Magneto's rival before he was frozen, X needs to have been an adult in the 60's, which makes him at youngest an early baby boomer.

And it would be supremely awkward to freeze Xavier alongside Magneto. Magneto doesn't not have bonds with his fellow mutants that would be distorted by the Captain America treatment, but Xavier is almost literally a goddamned institution of the mutant community. The school that bears his name would be radically different if Xavier wasn't there.

Which basically leaves us with Magneto being frozen in the 60's after minimal to no interaction with Xavier, then developing a rivalry with him in the relatively short period between Magneto's defrosting and the nebulous presence. It doesn't not work, but it's just not the same as a rivalry developed as the two of them grew up.

I've run out of stuff to say

So, yeah. Magneto needs to change some decade or another, but the least disruptive solution I see is to slap an anti-aging power on him (and probably Xavier) and hope nobody cares.

Maybe there's a solution someone else sees. Or maybe someone else has an interesting thought about or twist on one of the broad possibilities I've described. If you've read this far, I assume you have some kind of Magneto opinion. Would you like to share it?

[randoimago]

Can I get some blue lions relationship fluff with a s/o who isn’t Byleth? Perhaps modern au? Could really use some fluff today. Thanks!

Relationship Fluff

FANDOM: Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Character(s): Ashe Ubert, Dimtri Alexandre Blaiddyd, Dedue, Sylvain Gautier

Type of Request: Headcanons, Modern AU

Word Count: 789

Note(s): You got it!! I already did some relationship headcanons for the gals so this’ll be the guys!!

Ashe

The type to try and make you breakfast in bed everyday.

He’s so good at cooking, it’s a skill he is proud of and so he wants to share that skill with you. Even if your own cooking skills are tragic then he’ll do his best to show you simple recipes. He just thinks cooking together is romantic.

Loves to go to the library or someplace to buy books because he believes you can never have too many books.

He also wants to introduce you to all the books that have brought him joy. And would love to read them with you or, if you prefer, to you.

Ashe would go on walks with you to the park. Or just walks around the block. Honestly just loves to walk with you, holding hands, and being in your presence.

Dedue

Has the best garden and brings in flowers everyday so there's a new vase of them in the house.

Also would love if you gardened with him. If you’re allergic to certain things or even unable to go outside due to allergies, then Dedue completely understands and will try planting hypoallergenic flowers just for you.

The type to place kisses on the back of your hand. You could be holding hands and he'd raise them to kiss the back of yours.

Constantly making lists for grocery shopping. But he always asks you if you want him to add anything. So basic groceries are added but then there might be stuffed animals or candies on the list too.

With the top one, loves to go shopping as a couple. Shopping has always been one of those, "This is something that needs to be done." But with you, he has fun and enjoys the trip.

Dimitri

Everyday you get a kiss from him when you wake up, before one of you go to work, when you get back from work, and before you go to sleep. There's other kisses thrown in too, but those are the main, routine ones.

He probably has a home gym where he works out. He'd love if you join him, but understands if it's not your thing. 

Does get more determined if he sees you watching him work out, though. Also a tad embarrassed but knows you’re admiring, not judging.

Chivalry isn't dead with him. He'll gladly hold doors open for you, or carry your things if it's too much.

Dimitri is pretty strong and super whipped for you so he'd love to give you piggyback rides or just carry you around if you don't want to walk.

Felix

Goes to the gym frequently and would try and get you to go to the gym with him. If you won’t then he’ll ask if you could make/get him something for when he gets back. If you do go with him then he’ll be happy, but tries to hide it a bit.

Probably tries to have a personal gym at the house so he can still be relatively close to you when he wants to work out. But his excuse is that it’s just cheaper than a membership somewhere. He’s still a tsundere.

Felix is still pretty blunt so he asks a lot of, “Why are you doing that?” questions but he mostly wants to make sure you’re not overworking yourself with things.

Cares about you a lot, but doesn’t know how to express it well. So he might call up Ingrid or (heaven forbid) Sylvain to see what presents to get you. 

Felix would like to leave little gifts around the house for you just as his way of showing that he’s thankful for you. Not that he’d ever admit that he’s the one doing this.

Sylvain

Pick up lines all the time. Sure you two are already together, but that doesn’t mean he won’t stop flirting with you. Now his flirting is much more sincere.

Wants to have lazy days all the time. Like he knows you both have busy schedules from time-to-time, but you can stay in bed for ten more minutes, right? 

Loves to just hug you and not let go. It’s his way of procrastinating or convincing you to give in to just vibing with him.

Absolutely the type that would lay out flower petals and roses when it’s an anniversary. He’d draw up a bubble bath for the two of you (granted you have a big enough tub). Just do something so extra but also rather romantic.

Kind of with the above headcanon, Valentine’s Day is atrocious with Sylvain. Just goes above and beyond with cheesy romance stuff and pick up lines. He mostly does it as a joke, but he does have a nice bouquet and some candies for you.