#this is so long sorry not sorry I had a lot to discuss

[lee-laurent]

T'es ben chix - Luke Hughes

Summary: Amélie decides Luke Hughes is the cutest boy she's ever seen, but she doesn't know how to tell him.

wc: 7k

content: fluff, a little bit of angst, kissing, panic attacks, anxiety, quick make out session, a couple dirty jokes, long distance relationship (let me know if missed anything!)

notes: don't let the title fool you, this fic is still in english!! i realized the other day while doing schoolwork that i don't have a fic that discusses being french-canadian. so... here we are! this fic was super fun for me to write and i incorporated experiences and challenges i have faced over the last few years. a lot of the mistakes that amélie makes are mistakes that i have made or that other french speakers make when speaking english bc sometimes we try to directly translate things and it just does not work lol i reallly hope you guys enjoy!!! and to any other francophones out there: let's be friends!!

just finished writing and it's about 5k words more than i was planning

Amélie honestly wasn't the biggest fan of going out back home, so going out in a place where she could barely speak the language was even worse. But a few of the girls she'd befriended had convinced her it was a good way to get to know more people and to let loose. She sat with the three other girls at a small table, her fingers drumming against the glass of her cocktail.

"Yeah, what did you think of that guy that presented today, Am?"

"Hm? He did... good."

"No, silly. Did you think he was cute?"

"Oh, um, he's... how do you say... not my type?"

"Not your type? Then what is your type, Am?"

"Probably that guy she's been making googly eyes at all night," one of the others teased.

"Who? The tall, curly haired guy in the corner?"

Amélie blushed, sipping at the alcohol for courage.

"Ooo, she's totally into him!"

"You should go talk to him, Am!"

"No... I tell you... no American boys," she waved them off.

"Well, that's too bad. Cause it looks like he's comin' over here. We'll be at the bar if you need us."

"Guys..."

But it was too late, the other girls were already up and headed towards the bar.

"Calisse," she mumbled, trying to ignore the tall figure approaching her table.

"Mind if I sit?" he asked. She looked up at him, her lips pursed. He had the same curly hair and boyish smile that her friends had been teasing her about. She really hadn't planned on talking to anyone tonight, let alone any boys. The girls knew her rule: no falling for any boys while she was in America.

"Uh... sure," she replied, gesturing to the empty chairs across from her.

He smiled, sitting down casually, rubbing his palms on his pants. "I'm Luke. I, uh, I thought I'd come introduce myslef since we, uh, made eye contact so many times."

Amélie bit her lip, nodding as he spoke. She barely knew enough English to follow what her friends were saying, and now she had to talk to some random guy at this bar she didn't even want to be at. "I, uh, I am Amélie."

"Amélie? That's a really pretty name. Did I, uh, did I say it right? Amélie?"

Her cheeks flushed, her eyes flickering down to her drink. "Yeah... that is right. Thank you." Her fingers tightened around the glass, trying to think of something to say next, but everything just came in French.

Luke could sense her hesitation, suddenly becoming way more nervous about coming over. Maybe it had been stupid. Maybe he was making her feel uncomfortable. "I just thought... I don't know. You seemed nice. Do you, uh, want to talk, or...?"

She met his gaze, taking a deep breath. He was trying and he seemed nice, like he really wanted to talk to her. "I... my English, it is not very good," her accent thickening as she spoke. "It is... hard for me."

Luke nodded, leaning forward slightly. He had teammates that didn't speak English as their first language, so he kind of knew what to expect. "That's fine. I'm sure it's better than my French. That is your first language, right? French? Sorry, I just assumed cause your name-"

"Yes, French," she cut him off, giggling at his rambling.

"I can barely say anything in French, so you've already got me beat."

His attempt to make her feel better worked... a little. "It is easier... to write. But speaking... more pressure, I forget the words lots."

"I get that. But we can just... talk slowly."

She sipped at her drink, waiting for him to continue.

"So, what brings you to Jersey? Not a lot of French people here."

"Exchange... at Rutgers. I am from Québec. Saguenay. But I come here... and I work on my English."

"That's super cool. It's awesome that you're pushing yourself to get better. I, uh, I went to Umich for a bit, but-"

"Umich?"

"Oh, right. University of Michigan. I lived in Michigan before I lived here."

"You move here because..."

"For hockey. I play hockey."

"Oh... that's cool. I like Les Canadiens. You play in the LNH?"

"The NHL? Yeah, I do. You like hockey?"

"Everyone in Québec likes hockey. Very popular."

"But you didn't know who I was," Luke teased.

"Only like Les Canadiens, sorry," she shrugged.

"Well, that's fair, I guess. The Habs are pretty big in Québec, huh?"

"Yes! My family... all big fan." She felt comfortable talking about her family, talking about home, the things she liked. Her dad watched every Habs game on TV and sometimes he'd even drive down to Montréal for a weekend to see them play.

"My family loves hockey too. Everyone plays. My mom, my dad, me, and both my brothers. It's like in our blood... or something."

"They play for... the same team?"

"One of them does. Jack, he plays with me. My other brother, Quinn, he plays in Vancouver," Luke tried to keep it casual, not wanting it to seem like he was bragging.

"Ah! The Canucks!"

"See, you know a bit about other teams," he teased.

"Shhh," she giggled. "Your family... they seem very... what's the word... talented."

"Guess you could say that."

She took another sip of her drink, her mind buzzing with questions to ask, but none of them coming to her in English. She wanted to ask more about his brothers, about how he started playing hockey, but her mouth just couldn't keep up with her brain. She also didn't want to come off as rude or obsessed with him because of his title, so she just nodded.

"You don't have to worry, you know. I'm not judging you," Luke comforted. "So, what do you do when you're learning English or watching the Habs? You got any other hobbies?"

"I like to... read. And bake... when I have time."

"Reading and baking," Luke mused. "What do you bake?"

"Everything," she giggled. "Tarte au sucre is my preferred. My mom... she always bakes with me."

"Tarte au sucre? What's that? Sugar pie?" Luke's eyes lit up. "You'll have to make me that one day. I've never had it."

"Maybe. You will have to see."

"Challenge accepted."

Amélie went to respond, but her phone buzzing stopped her. It was her friends calling, probably ready to head on to another bar. She didn't want her conversation with Luke to end, but she knew she couldn't stay there all night.

"I have to go. My friends... waiting," she sighed.

Luke's face fell a little but he nodded. "Yeah, I get it. But I, uh, this was fun."

"Me too."

There was silence for a little, neither of them wanting to be the first to say goodbye. "You should give me... your phone number. So you can try my tarte au sucre."

"Sounds like a plan," Luke said, handing his phone over for her. She typed in her name and phone number, adding a '<3' next to Amélie.

"Text me," she giggled, waving goodbye as she joined the other girls at the bar. Luke watched as the four of them started talking amongst themselves quickly, giggling as Amélie told them about her conversation with the hockey player.

He finally stood up, making his way back over to the table where his teammates were sat. Curtis raised an eyebrow at him, a smirk plastered on his face.

"Well, how'd it go, Romeo?" He leaned forward, failing to conceal his grin.

Luke rolled his eyes, "Good, actually. Really good."

Nico raised his pint, "Told you. You just had to go for it."

"So... what's next?" Curtis nudged him. "You ask for her number?"

Luke nodded, trying to play it cool. "Yeah, we'll probably meet up again."

"Probably?"

"Okay, fine. Yeah, we'll see each other again. I'm going to try her sugar pie she was talking about."

"Sugar pie? Is that what we're calling it nowadays?" Nico teased, causing the whole table to erupt in laughter.

Luke shook his head, letting the teasing slide. His mind was too focused on the girl with a French accent and promises of baking him pie. He had to see her again.

~~

Luke found texting Amélie way easier than he'd imagined. She wasn't lying when she said her writing was better than her speaking. Her texts barely ever had mistakes, in fact sometimes they were worded better than his.

They texted back and forth constantly, which earned Luke some teasing from his colleagues. In writing, Amélie was much more confident, returning his flirting with practiced ease. Her personality really shone through in a way it hadn't at the bar. She'd occasionally crack jokes, usually about how he didn't know any French and that she'd have to teach him. Their conversations flowed, talking about their days, sharing stories, discussing the schoolwork that Amélie had, and sometimes sharing pictures of their meals. Although Jack did most of Luke's cooking, he'd never admit that to the girl.

You have to come and try my tarte au sucre soon! Only if you're brave enough though ;)

Luke grinned at his phone, his fingers furiously typing back a reply.

Oh, I'm brave enough. Just let me know when, and I'll be there.

I will. Maybe next week? I need to make sure it's perfect first.

Deal.

~~

Amélie paced her apartment, making sure that everything was in order before Luke came over. She was even more nervous than she had been in the bar. She really wanted things to go well. They had decided to label the event as their first date, and although a bit informal, she was still shitting herself.

The pie was sitting on her kitchen island, untouched. She didn't want to eat any of it until Luke was there to eat it with her. She was worried he'd get in trouble because it wasn't part of his meal plan for work, but he had reassured it multiple times that it wasn't a big deal if he had a little pie.

Just as she was about to rearrange her throw pillows for the third time, there was a knock at her door. She froze mid-step, wiping her hands on her jeans as she made her way to the door.

It was just a pie. And it was just Luke. Nothing to be too worried about.

She hesitated for a moment before she pulled the door open, tilting her head back to look up at Luke. He was standing there in a Devils hoodie and some track pants, a baseball cap covering his curls. He looked relaxed, his hands tucked in the pocket of his hoodie. Amélie hated how nonchalant he looked in comparison to her.

"Hey," he greeted. "I brough my appetite, as promised."

"Good. I hope you are ready," she joked, stepping out of the way to let him in. He pulled off his shoes, taking in her cozy apartment. He laughed when his eyes landed on the big Québec flag hung behind her couch.

"I'm sure it'll be amazing. I'm looking forward to it, don't worry."

She nodded, though her nerves didn't disappear. She led him into the kitchen where the pie sat waiting. The smell of it filled the small space, warm and sweet.

"Wow, looks good, Am. Guess you weren't kidding about being a good baker."

"It's like you with hockey. My talent," she giggled, blushing as their eyes met.

"I don't know. Your baking skills may be miles ahead of my hockey skills."

"Don't lie. Let's see if it tastes as good as the smell," she grabbed a knife, finally cutting the pie into pieces. She placed a generous slice in front of Luke, taking in how comfortable he looked in the situation. She really admired how easygoing he was compared to her. It was their first date, but his demeanor made it seem like they'd been seeing each other for months. Meanwhile, her heart hadn't stopped racing since she opened the door minutes before.

Luke picked up his fork, flashing her a grin before taking his first bite. His eyes widened and he let out a pleased hum, "Holy shit, this is so good."

"You like it?"

"Are you kidding? This is like the best dessert I've ever had... don't tell my mom I said that. But really, Amélie, you've ruined all other pies for me. Can I take some home to show Jack?"

"Of course! I'm glad you like it. Is my mom's recipe."

"You should probably teach me how to make this, so I don't have to beg you every time I want some."

"I wouldn't mind," she giggled, taking a bite of her own slice. The taste reminded her of home and she suddenly felt a lot less nervous about messing up her English in front of Luke. They continued to eat their pie as they talked, shifting the conversation to more personal topics, wanting to know everything about each other.

Luke told stories about growing up with his brothers, sharing embarrassing moments from their childhoods and the occasional hockey-related mishap. Amélie found herself laughing more than she had since she'd arrived in America, her body filling with warmth.

"And that's how Jack ended up chipping his tooth. Our mom was furious, but Quinn and I thought it was hilarious," Luke explained, shaking his head at the memory.

She laughed, her shoulders shaking. "You and your brother... troublemakers," she teased, resting her chin on her hand as she listened to him talk. God, she could listen to Luke talk for hours. His accent was the cutest thing she'd ever heard and his smile curved up more on one side than the other, almost like a smirk. He was so perfect.

"Yeah, we were. Still are, I guess. But what about you? You got any fun stories about your family?"

"One time my dad, he take us to Montréal for a Habs game. And my older brother he had... he liked one girl he saw. But she was anglophone, no French. He goes up to her and he tries to talk English. But it was soooo bad. Even worse than me. He only knew maybe like three word. I think he said like 'Hey, you pretty, drink?' and she looked at him like he was... insane! He... he panicked and ran away. We bullied him for years after. Our dad, he will still talk about it at dinner sometime."

"That's brutal," Luke laughed. "Glad our first conversation didn't go like that."

"I am just better than him."

Luke shook his head, flashing his lopsided smile that made Amélie swoon. "Clearly. You've got the charm, no doubt about it."

"Maybe a little. But still I get nervous. When you arrive, I think maybe that I would die."

"You hid it well. I didn't even notice. I was the nervous one."

"You? Nervous?" she raised an eyebrow, placing her fork between her lips .

"Yeah, you were... well you are, like the prettiest girl I've ever met," he rubbed the back of his neck. "Didn't want to mess it up."

"Is that a joke? You did not... mess up. I like talking with you."

"I like talking with you too, Amélie"

~~

It was their fourth date and they were back at Amélie's apartment. Luke was sprawled out on the couch, his feet propped up on the coffee table as he playfully scrolled through one of Amélie's French-to-English learning apps.

"Come on, give me a word," Luke teased, turning to look at the girl sitting beside him with her legs tucked under her.

"Alright. Alright. Um... try... 'papillon.'"

Luke squinted, trying his hardest to translate it. "Papillon," he reapted slowly. "Uh... sounds like pasta, maybe? Wait, no, wait... um, balloon?"

She let a burst of laughter, learning back against the arm of the couch. "Non! It's butterfly!"

He groaned dramatically, throwing his head back in mock anguish. "Butterfly?! That doesn't even sound like butterfly! What?!"

"You are needing more practice," she giggled, comfortly placing a hand on his thigh.

Luke's eyes widened at her touch, but he couldn't help but smile. "Yeah, clearly I need a lot more practice. You might have to become my full-time tutor."

Amélie smiled, her fingers lingering on his thigh, sending a warmth through both of them. They'd been spending more and more time together, and things were less awkward, but still full of nervousness. The banter between them was easy, but there was an ever-growing tension gnawing at them both.

Luke reached for a throw pillow next to him, lightly tossing it at her. "Give me another one. I swear I'll get it this time."

She swatted the pillow away, but her focus had moved on from French. The space between them had slowly been shrinking and she had just noticed how close they were. She tilted her head, her eyes flickering up to meet Luke's. "I think... maybe you are better at other things than French."

Luke's grin faltered, his breath catching in his throat at her new tone. He glanced down at her hand still resting on his thigh, then back at her face, then back to her hand again. "Oh yeah? Like what?"

"Like... this."

Before he could question what she meant, she leaned in, her lips brushing his, testing the waters. The kiss was soft, hesitant, but the second their lips connected, everything they'd been holding back snapped into place.

Luke's hands moved to her waist, pulling her closer. The kiss deepened quickly, no longer hesitant, but instead filled with the feelings they'd been dancing around for weeks. Amélie sighed against his mouth, her hands sliding up to his chest, gripping his shirt in his fists. Luke groaned softly, the sound muffled by her lips.

Their kisses turned hungrier, more urgent, as the tension in the room built. Luke shifted, gently pushing Amélie back against the couch as he leaned over her, his body pressing against hers as their kisses grew sloppier. Her hands tangled in his hair, pulling him closer, and Luke's hands slid up to cradle her face, his thumb brushing her cheek as the kiss deepened.

Neither of them wanted to pull away, not wanting to be the first to end the kiss. Luke realized he couldn't hold his breath any longer. He gasped for air before kissing her again, harder this time, his lips moving with more urgency than before. Amélie let out a soft, breathless moan in reponse.

They pulled away again, their foreheads resting against each other as they tried to catch their breath. Luke brushed a strand of her hair, that had gotten stuck between them, out of her face. His eyes were still half-closed as he whispered, "I've wanted to kiss you for so long."

Amélie smiled, her chest rising and falling rapidly as she tried to fill her lungs with air. She looked up at him, her lips still tingling. "Me too. I... I did not expect it to feel... like that."

"Good or bad?"

"Good," she whispered, her fingers tracing the back of his neck before pulling him in again, her lips finding his once more. There was no hesitation this time, just unfiltered desire as they gave in to the kiss.

~~

"Where you goin'?" Jack asked, pausing his video game as he heard Luke head for the door. He turned around, noticing his brother wearing his Michigan backpack. "And why do you have a backpack?"

"Amélie's place. I'm spending the night."

"Damn, Lukey boy's finally getting laid."

"Shut up, Jack... there's no confirmation that that's what happening. She just asked if I wanted to sleep over."

Jack smirked, leaning back on the couch with a knowing look. "Uh-huh, sure. You don't pack a bag just to sleep over, bro."

Luke rolled his eyes, adjusting the straps of his bag. "It's not like that. We're just hanging out, maybe watching a movie or something."

Jack snorted. "Yeah, okay. Whatever you say, lover boy. But just in case, be safe."

"It's not like that," Luke groaned, grabbing his keys off the counter, trying to escape Jack's teasing.

"I'm just saying! Good luck, bud!"

Luke mumbled to himself as he stepped into the hallway, heading for the elevator to the parking garage. His heart was racing more than usual, not just because of Jack's teasing but because tonight did feel different. Spending a night together was a big step in their relationship, especially since they weren't officially official yet.

They hadn't even discussed labels yet, and although they were very close, there was an unspoken worry of figuring out where things were heading. Luke really, really liked her, but he didn't want to rush anything. If Amélie wanted to take things slow, then he would take things slow.

He sat in his car, getting ready to leave when his phone buzzed.

Just picked out a movie. Hope you like rom-coms ;)

Only if we watch it in French so I can practice

Deal.

When he pulled up to her building, he practically leaped out of the car, taking his backpack with him. He knocked on her door, his heart in his throat.

Just go with the flow. No pressure

Amélie giggled when she opened the front door, dressed in one of Luke's Devils hoodies and a pair of shorts he couldn't see from under the large sweatshirt.

"Hey. You look cute," he leaned down to kiss her.

"Hey! Missed you."

"It's only been three days," he laughed, allowing her to wrap her arms around his waist, propping her chin on his chest. "You ready for my horrible French?"

"Ready for anything," she giggled as he ran a hand through her hair.

They stood in the doorway for a few moments more, before she grasped his hand and pulled him into the living room. They settled on the couch, a blanket thrown over their entwined legs.

"Am, I've been thinking..." his thumb brushing lightly against her thigh. "I don't want to overthink it anymore than I already have, but... we've been spending lots of time together. And I really like you."

"I like you too, Luke. A lot."

"Good. Because... I want this to be official. I mean, us. I want us to be official. I don't wanna be just 'hanging out' or 'seeing where things go' anymore. I want you to be my girlfriend." His voice softened at the end, his heart out on a silver platter just for her.

"You really want that?" she gushed.

Luke nodded, "Yeah. I want you. I want... us."

"I want that too," she smiled, shuffling impossibly closer to him, pecking his lips.

Luke pulled her back in for a deeper kiss, relief flooding his body. When they pulled apart, Amélie rested her forehead against his, her fingers gripping the front of his hoodie.

"So, it is official?" she whispered.

"Officially official. You're my girlfriend now."

She kissed him again, laughing into his mouth. "Well... now that we have... figured that out. You have French to practice... boyfriend."

"Let's get started then, girlfriend."

~~

"So... when do I get to meet her?" Jack grinned, knocking Luke's shoulder.

"Oh, um, I can ask her."

Jack raised an eyebrow. "You can ask her?" he teased. "What, you haven't mentioned me?"

Luke sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. "I have, Jack. I just... didn't think you'd be so excited."

"Dude, of course I'm excited! My little brother has a girlfriend now! And you know I've gotta approve, see if she's good for you. Duh."

"She's not a test subject, Jack. I'm not bringing her so you can interrogate her."

Jack snickered, loving how flustered his brother was getting. "Relax, I'll be nice. In fact, bring her out with us and the guys this weekend. Some of the other girlfriends will be there."

"I can ask her. Just... don't be weird about it. She get's nervous."

"Me? Weird about it? Never. I'm charming."

"That's what I'm worried about."

"Come on, it'll be fun. She'll get to meet everyone, and you know the guys will love her. Plus, if she can survive a night out with us, she's a keeper."

"Look, I'll ask. But I know she's been busy with schoolwork. I'll ask her tonight. But seriously, Jack, don't freak her out. Please."

"Scout's honour, man. I'll be on my best behaviour."

"You're not a-- never mind. I'll let you know what she says."

~~

Luke laid next to Amélie in her bed, his arm draped over her waist. She was scrolling through TikTok, laughing at French words he didn't know yet. He pressed a kiss to her bare shoulder, peeking at the screen where some girl was speaking rapid French while doing her make up.

"Hey, Am."

"Hmm?"

"So... Jack and some of the guys are going out this weekend, and a few of the girlfriends will be there too," he paused, thinking over his next words. "Jack was, uh, wondering when he could meet you. He kind of suggested you come along."

She blinked, "Meet... all of your friends? This weekend?"

"No pressure! If you're too busy with school, I totally get it. I just thought it might be fun. Only if you want to, of course," Luke quickly added.

She bit her lip, thinking it over, and Luke could tell she was weighing her options. "I'm nervous. I would... like to meet Jack. To be... part of your world."

He pulled her body closer to his, pressing more kisses to her shoulder. "You're already part of my world, Am. And trust me, Jack's been bugging me about meeting you since our first date. He's... well, he's Jack. But he means well."

"Okay. I will come. But if Jack, he makes me feel awkward, you owe me a very good dinner."

Luke laughed, "Deal. And don't worry, I'll be there the whole time. Plus, survivng Jack means you can survive anything."

~~

"C'est très cute, non?" Amélie asked, showing her outfit off to Luke.

"You look like a millon bucks, baby," he replied, leaning down to kiss her.

"What?"

"It's... it's a saying."

She tilted her head slightly, repeating the words back to herself. "A million... bucks."

Luke thought her accent made it all the more adorable. "It means you look beautiful. Like super, super beautiful."

"English says, they are so strange. First you tell me it rains cats and dogs... now I look like I am money. You explain me all of these sometimes, yes?"

"Of course, baby. But I mean it, you looks amazing."

"Thanks, Lu. We should go?"

"If we have to," Luke pouted, leaning down to give her another kiss.

~~

Amélie gripped the straps of her purse so tightly that her knuckles were white. She had never felt so nervous in her life, not even on their first date. She had so many people to impress tonight and probably less than half the words they had in their vocabularies.

Luke was quick to notice her anxiety. She usually walked with so much confidence, but her posture was slumped and her lip was held between her teeth. "Hey, you okay?"

She nodded, but her choked voice betrayed her. "I... I don't know if I can do this."

"You'll be fine, Am," he whispered, brushing his thumb over her cheek. "Jack's going to love you, I can promise you that. And it's just a few of the guys--nothing big. And hey, some of them aren't even native English speakers themselves."

Her eyes were still full of uncertainty, her fingers busying themselves by picking at the skin around her nails. "But maybe I will say something wrong. Or they ask me things, and I do not understand them? Or they will all laugh at me."

"You've been doing so well with your English, love. And if you're ever feeling stuck, just squeeze my hand and I'll come to your rescue."

The bar was pretty empty for the most part, just a few tables of friends talking and sharing drinks. In the back corner, Jack was sitting with a few of the other guys and their better halves.

"There they are!" Jack cheered as soon as he saw them approaching, standing up to greet his brother as if he hadn't seen him in weeks. His tone was loud and confident, and Amélie could feel every set of eyes at the table move towards her and Luke.

Luke gave his brother a quick bro-hug before turning to his girlfriend. "Jack, this is Amélie. Am, this is my brother, Jack."

Amélie felt like all the moisture in her mouth had disappeared, her hand gripping Luke's with a vice-like strength. She opened her mouth to speak, but all her words got stuck. "I, uh, I... hi."

"Nice to meet you, Amélie," Jack said. "Luke's told me loads about you."

She gave him a tight lipped smile, her mind scrambling to find a response, but nothing came. She felt like the weight of everyone's expectations were holding her down. She wanted to wow everyone with perfect English, but all she could do was stand there, frozen.

"She, uh, she's a little nervous," Luke interjected. "Amélie's from Québec, she's here in Jersey to learn English. But her French is like the most impressive shit ever."

"No worries. We're just happy you're here," Nico spoke up.

Amélie forced a smile, but it didn't reach her eyes. She sat down beside Luke, her hand still gripping his with immense force. The conversation around the table picked back up, but she remained quiet.

The guys were easygoing, laughing and joking with each other, and the other girlfriends seemed just as relaxed. The more they spoke though, the harder it became for her to follow. She could pick up on bits and pieces of what was going on, but she couldn't seem to form a complete sentence in her head.

"So, how do you like Jersey so far?" one of the other girlfriends, Lexi, asked with a warm smile.

"It... it's very different. But I... I like it," she replied, her eyes not leaving Luke's hand in her lap.

"She thinks back home is wayyyy prettier. Right, babe?" Luke helped to direct her.

"Yes. Québec is very beautiful."

"So what brought you here?" Jack asked, desperately wanting to know more about the girl that had stolen his brother's heart. "School?"

She bit her lip, trying her best to think of how to reply in English. "Yes... I.... study at Rutgers. Exchange."

"That's awesome. What're you studying?"

Her mind went completely blank. She'd even rehearsed answering that exact question, but now, with everyone looking at her, the words were gone. Her hand tightened around Luke's again, taking a sip of water to clear her throat.

"She's studying communications and media. But the point of her exchange is to work on her English skills."

"That's sick," Jack nodded along.

The conversation around her continued, a few questions being tossed her way but her responses were usually just a few words, the gaps being filled in by Luke. The group eventually moved on to a story that Nico was telling, and Amélie used the shift of attention to shrink into herself further. She let Luke rest his hand on her bouncing knee in an attempt to calm her nerves, but his touch felt foreign in the situation.

After what felt like hours, but had most likely only been half an hour, she leaned close to Luke, whispering in his ear. "Je vais aux toilettes." She stood up before he could respond, scurrying off to the bathroom.

Jack shot Luke a curious glance, but he just shrugged, trying to mask his own worry.

Amélie slipped into the bathroom, pressing her hands against the sink as she stared at her reflection in the mirror. She felt like she was suffocating, her eyes burning with unshed tears. She hated feeling like an outsider, not being able to connect with Luke's world outside of her.

She wiped under her eyes, praying that her mascara didn't run. She didn't want anyone to know she'd been crying in the bathroom. She just wanted to be like the other girls at the table--relaxed and confident, going with the flow of the conversation.

With one last deep breath, she made her way back to the table. Luke looked up at her as she approached. He could tell something was off.

"Everything okay?"

She just nodded, falling back into her silence at the table. She laughed when everyone else laughed, smiling politely when someone made a remark towards her. Luke had never seen her so quiet in his life, not even on the first day that they met. By the time everyone had left the bar, her anxiety was so bad she thought she might puke.

Luke opened the car door for her, and she slid in, staring blankly out the window. The silence between them was heavy. Luke could feel it too, his fingers tapping nervously on the steering wheel.

"Am, what's wrong? You've been quiet all night. You barely said a thing."

The tears that she had been fighting so hard to keep at bay finally spilled out. "I... I feel so stupid. I-I couldn't even talk to them. I couldn't even... act normal."

He reached out, placing a hand on her thigh. His heart clenched at her words. "You're not stupid, Am. You're doing amazing. You're learning a whole new language, that's huge."

"But I had to have you help on everything. I could... not even answer Jack's questions. They normally think... I'm dumb. Not good for you." She wiped at her eyes, frustrated with herself for crying.

"Amélie, baby. No one thinks you're dumb. And you are more than good enough for me--don't you ever doubt that. Jack loved meeting you. Everyone did. I could tell. They don't care if you need some help speaking English. Hell, some of those guys could use the help speaking English."

"I wanted... to be better. To show I can do this. But I feel...lost."

"You don't have to show anyone that you can do anything. Not to me, not to Jack, not to anyone. I love you for--"

"You love me?"

"Of course I do, Am. I... I didn't want to admit it like this. But... I am so in love with you, Amélie."

"I love you too, Luke. Sorry if I... embarrass you tonight."

"You could never embarrass me, Am. Never ever."

"I-"

"Nope, that's enough out of you. Let's go back to yours and watch that stupid cop show you like."

"Mensonges?"

"If that's what it's called, then yes."

"I love you, Lu."

"I love you too, Am."

~~

"I don't know, Jack. She was so nervous last time..."

"But last time there were other people there too. Just tell her you've got the place to yourself for the night and then I'll walk in a couple hours later and be like 'Oh! Sorry, my plans got cancelled.' And then we can all hangout," Jack suggested.

"I'm not going to lie to her. I'll just ask if she wants to spend the night."

"Come on, Rusty! You know I'm just trying to help her relax around me. You're making it sound like a big deal. It's not! She's your girlfriend, and I want to get to know her. Plus, I'll make it fun! I'm good with people."

"I appreciate the thought, Jack. But I want her to feel comfortable, not tricked. So I'll just ask her if she wants to come over and spend the night. No tricks."

"Fine, fine. Let me know what she says."

"I will. Just... don't be an idiot."

~~

Amélie followed Luke into his apartment, her backpack thrown over his shoulder. She looked around, noticing how painfully obvious it was that two men lived there.

"I'm just gonna put your bag in my room. You wanna go make yourself comfortable on the couch?"

"Sure."

She sat down, curling her legs under herself, glancing around the living room. She picked up the remote off the coffee table, fiddling with while she waited for Luke.

"You good?"

"Yeah. Just... taking in. It is very... you."

"What, you mean messy?"

She giggled, then tension in her shoulders disappearing. "Maybe... un peu."

"Hey, it's organized chaos, baby. I know where everything is. Well... most of the time."

"I like it. Feels... comfortable. Like you."

"That's all I want, babe. For you to be comfortable."

"Where's Jack?"

"Probably in his room. Why? Wanna talk with him?"

Amélie quickly shook her head, her eyes widening. "No, no... just wonder. I don't want to... bother him."

"You're not bothering him. He's probably playing video games or doing some stupid shit. He'll come out here eventually."

The last time she'd been around Jack, she hadn't been able to shake her nerves. Tonight, she was determined to make a better impression, even if she still felt like puking.

Luke gently nudged her with his elbow. "Hey, you're good, Am. Jack's chill. You don't have to be nervous."

"I know... just... want him to like me."

"He already likes you," Luke reassured, brushing a strand of hair from her face. "He wouldn't shut up about how cool you were after the last time."

"Really?"

"Yes, really. I wouldn't lie to you, silly."

"Love you, Lu."

"Love you too," he leaned in to kiss her when footsteps pulled them apart.

"Aww, did I interrupt a moment?" Jack's teasing voice came from the doorway.

"Relax, Jack. We were just talking... about you."

"Oh yeah?" Jack pushed himself off the wall, making his way to the couch. "All good things, I hope."

"Duh," Luke squeezed Amélie's hand, allowing her to rest her head on his shoulder. "Amélie was just asking what you were up to."

"Probably nothing interesting compared to you lovebirds. Was talking to Trevor--can't let Luke get ahead of me in the whole having a life department."

She tried to think of a quick response to his joke, but came up with nothing she deemed funny enough.

"Luke tells me you like studying here cause it's different. How so?"

"Um, everything... is feeling bigger here. The city, the campus. And obviously... English. There is like... zero English in my town. We use some words... but not lots."

"Well, seems like you're doing great. Don't stress it. Plus you've got this guy," he gestured to Luke, "to help you out, right?"

She blushed, "Yes, Lu is... super."

Luke grinned, leaning in and whispering, "Told you he likes you."

~~

"I don't know how I'm gonna survive without you, Am," Luke admitted, wiping the tears from his face. His usually calm, relaxed demeanor was gone, replaced with a raw vulnerability.

Amélie had told herself she wasn't going to cry, but seeing Luke cry made that impossible. Her tears had started as soon as his had. "You will, Lu. You are so strong. And... I will not be gone forever."

He shook his head, intertwining their fingers. "I know, but... shit's gonna feel so different without you here. I'm used to having you here all the time. And now I won't see you until summer. I don't know how to do that."

"You'll have Jack, the guys, your family. I'm just... a plane away. We will FaceTime, and before you know... I am back. And I will meet Quinn... and your parents."

Luke rested his head in her lap, letting her run her fingers through his hair. She could feel his tears soaking the fabric of her jeans. "I'm gonna miss you so fucking much, Am."

"I'll miss you too, Lu. So, so much."

They stayed like that for a long time, just wrapped in each other's embraces. Neither of them wanted to let go. Neither of them wanted to admit how hard the next few months would be. They just wanted to stay together... forever.

~~

Amélie was sitting at her desk, her phone propped up against her water bottle as Luke's face filled the screen. His hair was a mess and his eyes drooping. She could tell he had just gotten home from practice.

"Hey, beautiful," he greeted.

"Hey, you," she replied, resting her chin on her hand. "How was practice?"

"Exhausting," he groaned. "But seeing your face makes it better."

Amélie blushed, biting her lip as she smiled. Before she could respond, she heard her brothers' voices coming from down the hall.

"Ah, c'est qui, Amélie?" (who is it, Amélie?)

"Son chum?" the other laughed. (her boyfriend?)

"Ahhh, mais Luke, t'es ben chix." (Ahhh, but Luke, you're so hot.)

"Ferme ta gueule!" Amélie shouted. (Shut your mouth!)

Luke burst out laughing at the look on his girlfriend's face. "What're they saying?"

She huffed, rolling her eyes. "They're being idiots. Teasing me about you."

"Teasing, huh?" He raised an eyebrow, clearly amused. "What did they say? Come on, tell me."

She sighed, getting closer to the camera with a small smirk. "They said you're... how would that translate.... that you're 'hot.'"

"Oh, did they know? You must have good pictures of me hanging up then, huh?"

"They're just being annoying. They think it's funny to tease me because I love an American."

"Well, tell them I appreciate the compliment. And tell them I say 'hi'," he teased.

Amélie shook her head but shouted, "Luke dit bonjour!"

From the hallway, her brothers responded with exaggerated greetings in their broken English, making the couple laugh.

"They're something else, huh? I can't wait to meet them one day."

"They'll probably want you to ask Cole for free Habs tickets. But... in a few weeks, I'll be back and I'll get to meet all of your family."

Luke's eye lit up at the thought. "I know! I've been counting down the days, baby. I can't wait for you to be here again!"

"Me neither. Excited to meet Quinn and your parents."

"Yeah, my mom's super excited to meet you!"

"I'm a little nervous though."

"Don't be! They are gonna love you so much, Am!"

"I love you, Lu."

"I love you more, Amélie. Only a few more weeks, then we'll be together again. I can't wait."

"You promise?"

"I promise. And I'm gonna spoil you so much. Just you, me, and the lake."

"Can't wait."

[ssahotchnerr]

Hello! How are you doing?

I don't have anything extremely specific (sorry, I'm just leaving work and haven't really thought about this).

But if you want to, how about jealous Aaron who has the, very rare, opportunity to go pick up the reader from her job and see her all smiles with another coworker? In this case I was thinking that there might be a age gap between them and the male coworker is more of her age? So a bit of jealous and insecure Hotch?

If you feel comfortable with this of course!

Have a good day 😊

in comparison

cw; fem!reader, age gap, insecure :( and jealous!aaron, some angst, small suggestiveness, fluff <3 wc; 1.2k

You were exiting the building with a few of your colleagues, partaking in what appeared to be an entertaining conversation from Aaron's line of sight. The liveliness on your face was vivid, undoubtedly enjoying whatever the whole of you were collectively discussing.

You looked comfortable, relaxed, happy. You molded into the group well. One of your male colleagues in particular was inching a bit too close, a near awestruck expression on his face as a laugh escaped you. If he took one step to his right, his shoulder would be touching yours. While you were clueless, he was enamored.

Aaron felt his eyes harden involuntarily, a jealous heat swarming through his body; he wanted to march over there and assert his role as yours. However, the feeling wasn't long lasting. A profound sadness climbed up his spine, as he gained a different perspective.

It wasn't that you didn't fit into his life. On the complete contrary: you were the perfect addition.

But something about seeing you with others, with someone closer to your age, was daunting. Intimidating. It sickened him how natural the visual appeared. Reality has smacked him in the face numerous times over the years, he wouldn't be surprised if it happened again. That somehow, someway, you would prefer the latter. The one that had nothing to do with him.

As you walked towards Aaron's car, you glanced back at your coworkers, offering a wave and a smile as they jointly headed to the parking lot. His window was opened a crack, and he heard you call back towards them, "Have fun tonight!"

Aaron exhaled a breath.

"Hey." You chirped as you slid into the passenger seat, leaning over the center console to place a kiss on Aaron's cheek. He was rather stiff as you did so, causing you to lightly scrunch your nose in confusion, pulling away slowly. Something was up.

"Hey," He echoed, greeting you with an almost forced smile. The abruptness of his thoughts had unsettled him deeply - he couldn't shake them. "You ready?"

"As I'll ever be." You responded hesitantly, searching his face as you buckled your seatbelt. You added after a moment, happy to be in his company and the emotion overtaking your heart. "I missed you today."

But your words went unnoticed, as he had already reentered the void that was his unwelcome thoughts.

In result the car ride home was silent, Aaron's pout unfaltering. His mind was plagued by the image of your coworker being in his place, driving you home, or the two of you huddled together amongst a night out with friends. It caused an uncomfortable, sad pit in his stomach.

"You missed a turn."

"What?"

Your statement jolted him back to earth. No he didn't... did he? His eyebrows furrowed in a line, reassessing the current surroundings. Nothing out of the ordinary, all familiar street signs. When he confirmed he, in fact, did not miss a turn, he turned to you, only to find a knowing smirk plastered on your face.

His eyebrows quirked softly, obstructing the line drawn above his eyes. "What was that about?"

"To get your mind off whatever you're stewing about."

A smile threatened his lips, due to your witty expression and observation, "I'm not." His tone found a slightly lighter note - amusingly guilty. Anything but convincing.

"Aaron, darling, you're gonna break some teeth if that," Your playful demeanor dropped for a moment, your eyes tracing back and forth, as if you were in a trance. "Jaw of yours tightens anymore."

Your brief distraction eased a notion of his jealousy, he still had that effect on you, thankfully. He readjusted his grip on the steering wheel, his stare forward.

"So what is it?" You asked, "Did you have a bad day?"

He shook his head.

"Bad bout of cases?"

Aaron grimaced, his knuckles letting up only to secure his fingers over the wheel again, "They're always bad."

"Something I did?"

He opened his mouth to respond, but only silence came out. His hesitation caused your face to fall, your shoulders dropping and posture succumbing to the back of your seat.

"No honey, no you didn't do anything." He was quick to reassure, feeling entirely worse. "I can assure you."

Your eyes met his, needing more.

He sighed defeatedly, surprisingly not afraid to bluntly admit, "I'm jealous."

"Jealous?" You froze, but then it clicked. You gestured behind, as if your colleagues were somehow tailing the two of you. "Of...?"

Aaron bit his lip, nodding slowly.

Your expression lightened, a soft and genuine wonder in your eyes, "Why?"

"Are you okay with this?" Confusion arose on your face once more, so he clarified. "This. Us. You signed up for a lot, quickly at that."

Truth be told, the two of you had progressed at a rate neither of you expected, due to the sheer infatuation you possessed for one another. That, too, had been natural.

"I'm divorced, widowed, a father - I come with baggage. My 'going-out' are days long gone. I don't want you missing out."

"Aaron." In a way, you could laugh. It tore your heart into pieces he was thinking this way, doubting himself but he was clueless in an adorably, idiotic way. In summary, he simply never gave himself the credit he deserved. "What could I possibly be missing out on?"

"You could be spending your weekends out, socializing, with people closer in age. And yet, you're..." He came up with an example. "Making pillow forts. These are supposed to be the best years of your life. I'm terribly boring in comparison."

"Hey, I make a mean pillow fort."

He gave you a look.

Your hand grabbed his bicep affectionately, clinging onto it as if you were knocking some sense into him. "I chose this. I chose you. Jack is the addition to my life I never knew I needed. And I don't want to be out galavanting bar to night club to bar. I jump at the opportunity to deny a night out to spend it in. With you. When have you ever seen me wanting to go out and party?"

An expression of distaste flashed across your face at the concept, and Aaron's head tilted to the side as he considered your point.Yeah, that was true.

"I'm a homebody. And if there's anything I've realized over the course of the past months, you're my home. You."

Aaron let out the breath he didn't know he was holding.

"I know what I'm in for. And I embrace it with open arms. I want it." Your face was content, even more so than when you were talking with your colleagues. "I love you. And I love the life we're creating. It's so special, beyond my wildest dreams."

"Really?" A boyish, hopeful expression graced his face.

"Really. I wouldn't want it any other way. I can promise you. This- you're everything I could ever want."

Aaron's hand found your thigh, giving it a gentle, loving squeeze. "I love you too, sweetheart."

You beamed in response - you'd never get tired of the words leaving his lips.

"That one guy though," Aaron raised his eyebrows, taking a quick glance at you. Envy began creeping back, "He seemed interested. Wasn't a fan of that."

You scoffed, unbothered. "I'm into men, not boys. Which again, you are the utmost depiction of." Your delightful smirk resurfaced, admirably looking him over. "Believe me, I couldn't be more satisfied."

He wanted to play into your suggestive remarks, but he needed further confirmation. Once more. "You sure?"

"Oh, I'm positive."

Finally satisfied himself, he surrendered, "Okay."

"In fact, I can think of a few ways to show you just how much later."

[saltywinteradult]

How is Dany is abusive to Jon?

Honest question, I’ve never given it a thought

I'm sorry this took me so long, anon, and I am really sorry for how long this post got. I had a lot of thoughts on this.

Before we begin, I'd like to point you to this compilation of Jon's reactions to Dany, which hardly paints a picture of a man who is happy and in love, as well as this post and this gifset, both pointing out the parallels between Jon's relationship with Dany and Sansa's relationship with Littlefinger, the latter being a relationship I hope most people can agree is abusive.

It's absolutely crucial to remember that in this relationship, Dany is the person with the power. She is the one with the dragons and the biggest army, and she is willing to both use and abuse that power to get her way.

Furthermore, Dany wants the North's loyalty, but the North needs her help. (The fact that it's Dany's duty as well as in her own best interest to help fight the Others is a different discussion; she doesn't seem to understand this anyway.) She has agreed to grant that help, but she could easily withdraw it if she chooses. She has more power than literally anyone else and there's simply no escaping that power imbalance - it permeates every single interaction Dany has with Jon and all the other Northerners for all of s7 and the first half of s8.

I want you to remember how Dany treats Jon on Dragonstone. His weapons and his boat are taken away immediately upon his arrival. She says Jon is "not yet" her prisoner, but 1) that line very clearly implies that she could make him her prisoner if she chooses to, and 2) how much does it really matter that Jon is "not yet" her prisoner when she's already taken away his means of defending himself or leaving the island? Remember how she later tells him "I haven't given you permission to leave." Girl, what happened to Jon not being your prisoner?

I think it's also very telling that Dany never once addresses Jon by his proper title of King in the North, even before he bends the knee. As you may recall, Dany cares a great deal about titles. She never grants Jon the same respect she demands for herself, and she likes to remind Jon that she is his Queen even during a supposedly intimate, romantic scene.

(Gif by yocalio via gameofthronesdaily)

Earlier in this scene, Dany pointed out that they could stay here in this secluded spot, away from the kingdom and its politics, and no one would find them. Yet even here, away from the rest of the world, she makes a point of referring to herself as "your Queen".

I point all of this out to illustrate that from the very beginning and throughout their relationship, Dany views Jon as a subordinate, not an equal. That is very much not a good foundation for a healthy and equal romantic relationship. Her constant expectation is that Jon will submit, obey, give things up to benefit her, and ensure that the people he has power over act the way she wants.

Case in point:

"Your sister doesn't like me. [...] She doesn't need to be my friend, but I am her Queen. If she can't respect me..."

The implication is that Sansa is doing something wrong by not liking or respecting Dany (meaning "not acting deferential enough for Dany's taste"). The fact that Dany is saying this to Jon and not to Sansa herself implies that it's Jon's responsibility to ensure that Sansa behaves acceptably. "If she can't respect me..." Then what? What exactly is she implying will be the consequences? That their romantic relationship will end? Something worse?

At this point, the North has bent the knee to Dany. As their monarch this is not an entirely unreasonable thing to ask of her subjects - but it's not a very reasonable thing for a girlfriend to ask of her boyfriend, is it? The line between Jon and Dany's political relationship as monarch and subject and their personal relationship as girlfriend and boyfriend isn't just blurred, it's practically nonexistent. To state the obvious, there is a reason we decided that absolute monarchies are bad here in the real world. There is also a reason why a boss dating a subordinate is frowned upon in the real world. Big power imbalances are a bad idea in general and in romantic relationships especially. They should at the very least be considered and navigated carefully. Dany not only fails to do so; she is only happy with her and Jon's relationship when she has power over him.

For proof, let's look at how she reacts when that power imbalance is upended by the revelation of Jon's true identity:

This revelation is a bombshell for Jon. Everything he thought he knew about his own origins turns out to be untrue. However, Dany's first and only thought is how this affects her. Her first reaction is denial and scepticism; the second is to turn cold as soon as she realises that this makes Jon a threat to her ambitions.

There's also this line:

"A secret no one in the world knew, except your brother and your best friend. Doesn't seem strange to you?"

Which implies... What, exactly? That Sam and Bran made this up? Why? Just like with Sansa in the previous scene, we see Dany questioning the actions and intentions of Jon's loved ones. Remember that.

Things escalate in episode 4:

Dany is faced with the notion that Jon might hold more political power than she thought, that they might actually be on somewhat equal footing, and this makes her unhappy.

"I want it to be the way it was between us."

Her desire is to continue their sexual relationship and to return to the previous status quo where she held more power than him and therefore didn't consider him a threat. Jon having a stronger claim to the throne than her threatens Dany's sense of her own identity and purpose, and she reacts by trying to deny and suppress this reality:

"You can say nothing, to anyone, ever! Swear your brother and Samwell Tarly to secrecy and tell no one else! Or it will take on a life of its own and you won't be able to control it or what it does to people!"

(Imagine this with the genders reversed. Yikes.)

Dany is demanding Jon keep his own identity secret from his own family. That's not a reasonable thing to ask of a person you love. Not for one second does she show any consideration for how Jon might feel or what Jon might want. It's all about her. Her expectation is that Jon suppress his own identity, his own reality, to benefit Dany's ambitions. Never once does it seem to occur to Dany that what Jon does with this secret is up to him to decide, not her. His agency is of no concern to her.

Jon: I have to tell Sansa and Arya. Dany: Sansa will want to see me gone and you on the Iron Throne. [...] She's not the girl you grew up with. Not after what she's seen, not after what they've done to her. [...] Jon: They're my family. We can live together. Dany: We can. I've just told you how.

Here we are again with Dany questioning the motives and agendas of Jon's loved ones. Now she's no longer implying but outright stating that they're working against her. What we have here is a pattern of Dany implying that Jon's loved ones are up to no good and can't be trusted. I don't need to explain why that is a dangerous and manipulative thing to do to one's partner, right?

I also want you to pay extra attention to how Emilia delivers that final line. Throughout the whole scene Dany is distraught and desperate, but at this point she turns cold and closed off with an unmistakable anger that Jon won't agree to do as she demands. It is very hard not to read a threatening undertone into that line. "Keep it secret, or else."

Before we move on to episode 5, I'd like to highlight this line, spoken by Dany to Tyrion and Varys in episode 4:

"Speaking to Cersei will not prevent a slaughter. But perhaps it's good the people see that Daenerys Stormborn made every effort to avoid bloodshed, and Cersei Lannister refused. They should know whom to blame when the sky falls down upon them."

Let's be clear on one thing here: Cersei could choose to back down and surrender to avoid bloodshed - but, and I cannot stress this enough, so could Dany. Cersei and Dany are both being selfish and power-hungry by refusing to give up the throne in order to avoid bloodshed. But to admit that would ruin Dany's deeply rooted self-image as morally superior to her enemies. So what does she do instead? She deflects blame. She's the one with the dragons, but if she makes the sky fall down on people, as she puts it, it's not her fault. Keep that in mind.

Now for the absolute low point:

"What did I say would happen if you told your sister? [...] She betrayed your trust. She killed Varys as much as I did. This was a victory for her. Now she knows what happens when people hear the truth about you."

Okay. Varys was conspiring against Dany, which he could've chosen not to do; I guess Dany was within her rights to punish him. She still could've chosen to imprison him, or at least give him a trial. Nobody made her kill him. But as we've just seen, Dany doesn't like to accept responsibility for her own decisions. She'd rather deflect the blame onto the people who displease her.

What's more, she's not just blaming Sansa for Varys's death but Jon as well, for telling Sansa the secret in the first place - which Jon was well within his rights to do! He never agreed not to tell anyone. That wasn't up to Dany to decide in the first place. Jon did what he wanted to do and not what she wanted him to do, so now everything Dany does as a result of Jon's actions is Jon's fault? Do I even need to explain how shitty this is?

"Far more people in Westeros love you than love me. I don't have love here. I only have fear."

This is entirely true. She never stops to think about why Jon is more beloved in Westeros than she is, but whatever. What's important is that after this, Dany initiates a kiss and Jon rebuffs her.

(Gifs from snowsource)

"Alright then. Let it be fear."

Again, what exactly do we think she's implying here? Remember the context. During this conversation, Jon already told her "you will always be my queen". He hasn't rejected her as his queen (which at this point he damn well should), he's just rejecting her sexual advances. And yet, Dany's reaction to his personal rejection of her is to embrace "fear", which again refers to how all of Westeros sees her, not just Jon. Dany already deflected blame for her previous actions onto people who displeased her including Jon, and now she's deflecting the blame for her future actions in the same way. And we all know what she did after this, don't we? I don't know how the line "let it be fear" can mean anything other than "you rejected me and that's why I'm going to embrace being feared, so whatever I do now in the name of being feared is really your fault. Look what you made me do." If that isn't abuse, I don't know what is.

[storiesbyjes2g]

3.170 One more thing

I probably should have waited to have the next conversation, but I figured since we were getting everything in the open, we may as well discuss finding a new house. Besides, she said she missed talking, right? Autumn in San Sequoia is beautiful. It's refreshingly cool in the mornings, and evenings, and warm during the day. I suggested we take Desi and hang out in our side yard for a bit. A little while ago, I packed up the yoga mats I had out there and set up a nice outdoor chill spot. It's clear I'm not gonna achieve my yoga dreams, if you can even call them that. We weren't using the space, so I turned it into something we will definitely use. Since Desiree will be walking soon, I'll have to get her some toys and things out here. But for now, she can take a nap under the sun in the fresh air while Sophia and I talk business.

It was a little cool, so Sophia lit a fire to keep the baby warm. I let us enjoy the weather and silence for a few moments before bringing up Alessia's conversation.

"So, ummm, after the memorial, Less told me she wants to move."

"Oh! That's great. So she's gonna live in your dad's house then?"

"No."

"Oh. So you're gonna help her find a place?"

"Yes, but not exactly what you're thinking."

She gave me that "Watcher, here we go," face, and I knew I had to sweeten this deal even before I presented it.

"Dub and Maia live in a duplex. They live on one side and rent out the other. I think a situation like that will be ideal for us. Less will be right next door if something happens. We'll share a backyard so the kids can grow up and play together. It's perfect for us. And if Less ever wants to move out, we can rent it to another family and have another stream of income. It's a win win for all of us."

"Wait," she said. "You want us to move? We just got here!"

"True, but things change. It's no big deal. We'll still be in San Sequoia. Just another neighborhood."

"But I love it here," she said. "We spent so much time and money making it our own. Luca, you proposed to me here! I gave birth here! This is my home!"

Sometimes I forget Sophia lived in one place for a long time. Plus, she's a lot more sentimental than I am. This house is the sixth home I've lived in. Moving is no big thing to me, even though this particular home is special to me too. I dreamed about living here; I longed for it. But life hasn't turned out how we thought it would, so my priorities are different now. While I could accomplish my goals perfectly from here, I'd be more at ease somewhere else.

"I understand. We've had lots of great memories here. And I know you're concerned about me being too involved in Less' life, but I think the best way to minimize my time away from home is to have her as close as possible. I promised Mama I'd look after her, Sophia."

She let out a looooong sigh and sat in silence for a bit. I wanted to know what went on in her head, but I knew I needed to let her work it out within herself first, so I waited until she was ready to continue.

"What about this house? What will happen to it?"

I honestly wasn't too keen on selling it. I worked really hard to get it, and I didn't want anyone else to enjoy the fruit of my labor.

"We'll keep it," I said, hoping we'll be able to afford to buy a new house without selling this one. "Less won't need us so close forever. This duplex situation is just temporary, so we can come back here when it's over. Maybe we'll rent it out while we're gone."

Sophia winced at that idea.

"Or it can just sit here until we come back," I said.

She nodded and sighed.

"I don't want to move," she said. "I don't think it's necessary. But everything you said makes sense. I do want Desi to be close to her cousins. The thought of her having easy access to them sounds nice. And I know how much you love your sister."

"Thank you. I'm sorry we have to leave here, but I really do think this will be good for all of us."

[spacebubblehomebase]

What app and what pencil do you use :3?

(I send u big hugs and hav a nice day :D♡)

Hehe. (Hugs back. I like hugs. XD) I believe someone else had a similar question before! I made this art then too to demonstrate how I use, Ibis Paint. The free beginner friendly drawing app! (No I'm not sponsored-) And as for the "pens", I usually go for the default brushes. As in the first basic ones you find on the app! ^v^ I've been promoting this idea for years and I'll never get tired of saying it! While fancier equipment IS nice, skills can ultimately outclass tools any day! =D In fact, sometimes limiting yourself can hone your creativity as it forces you to work with what you have and invent new ways of experimenting with materials that are often overlooked! That's how I learned. ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯ -Bubbly💙

[deepseawave]

obsessed w the tags on ur last reblog

Omgg, thank you haha, it was a quality post so I just had to appreciate it in full force 😂❤️

Can‘t believe someone would actually enjoy my yapping :,D

[heartshapedgreen]

cannot take most intersex people's discordance with trans people not mentioning intersexuality seriously considering how so much of it is hinged on arguments around transandrophobia + simultaneously denying tme/tma terminology. (the cognitive dissonance is unrealllll)

like whatever line of thought people follow when they homogenize all trans women as white, that's... most intersex blogs on here from what i've seen. like either they're white or nonblack who talk like That. so much so that one of the arguments i saw on an intersex blog was basically "forcing intersex people to adopt tme/tma language is strange because if i should add 'tme' to my bio, that means poc also have to mention they're 'nonblack'" and i was sitting there with tme + nonblack in my bio like.... Yea. maybe you should. (this is specifically important to me because i come from an ethnic group with a sizable black community who have influenced our heritage heavily & i have friends who are black and like... i hate the thing racialized people do on the internet where they go 'i'm brown' meanwhile they grew up cared for by a brown maid and they're the daughter of an oil tycoon. but also like... every ethnic group has nonblack & black members lol? so that's a normal thing to mention.)

there is a lot to be said re: tma/tme terminolgoy, like how transmisogyny functions differently in other societies and how that can influences the usage (or lack thereof) of this language. but like. this is the webbedsite where racialized trans women are purged incessantly & it's just useless to create discussions around that because it will never lead anywhere productive other than white people being voyeuristic.

something that always strikes me as odd is when trans people are posited as the enemy when it's not mentioned that intersex people are forcibly medicalized whenever the topic of hrt comes around is that...... cis people will also look at my intersex body and think i've been damaged by hrt, the same way they talk about exterminating perisex trans people, when i literally Just Woke Up Like This™ & i feel like there is a lot of projection for the hurt that causes onto trans people being happy about hrt changing their bodies. (the implication is always that trans and intersex people experiences are always mutually exclusive as if intersex people don't seek out hrt or are happy about the weird fucked up ways our hormones work on their own. idk about the rest of ya'll but i feel like a mad scientist and the experimented on all at once. it's fun!)

like i think it's important for trans folx to understand when making jokes about "cis people receiving hrt so easily" that. they actually do not. that's the entire point. that's the entire reason why we have to fight for hrt to be normalized. the ones who are receiving it "easily" are forced into it because their body is "damaged". but it's also odd to me that intersex arguments against forced medicalization hinge on fearmongering over hrt the same way perisex cis do & they don't seem to consider that... hrt is ALSO not accessible to us if we want to pursue it out of our own will. it's about autonomy & personhood but that's lost in all these weird transmisogynistic bs. so it's unsurprising to me that none of these discussions are contextualized in an intersectional lens, people turn away their eyes from the fact black transfems bear the brunt of interphobia/transmisogynoir (yes even perisex black transfems!!!!!!) and i have to see stupid shit like "if we're forced to use tme/tma terminology to mark our position in the gender hierarchy then doesn't that mean we should adopt nonblack more widely to show our racial privilege??? fucked up and weird if true!! i'm so smart."

[caramelmochacrow]

fearing death as a trans person hits different. if you died never coming out, changing your name or just doing whatever makes you feel happy with your body it will never be shown in your funeral and everyone will never know you as who you were inside. something about if you died and you DID come out, you did do everything that made you happy abt your body but the one relative in your family that didn't accept you had to fix up your funeral they misgender you and place the wrong name on your grave anyway. or if the relatives that did accept you fix up your funeral with the correct pronouns and name but those who didnt will still misgender and deadname you even when you die. idk man.

[floralovebot]

Hi, I want to ask your opinion on something. You made a post that said changing the Winx's races is bad. I agree that it's not okay but I have a question about Helia. I thought he was Native American when I was a child but you've said he's Asian. Is it wrong to think he's Native American?

I had to think about how to answer this for a while tbh! Sorry for the late reply

Anyway, I probably could answer this with a simple yes or no but I really feel like I should explain my answer.

I'm pretty sure you're referencing this post! Anyway, the biggest issue with race changing the canon characters of color is that when you do it, you're participating in erasure. Again, it's not more representation to, for example, make Flora asian - it's erasure because you're intentionally erasing her being latina. Now like I said, I don't have an issue with like,, children not noticing their canon races or ethnicities. It's perfectly fine if a little kid sees characters as something else! The problem is grown adults ignoring and erasing their canon races.

When it comes to Helia specifically, he is very much coded as asian, specifically east asian. I want to clarify that it's not explicitly canon. Rainbow has never stated what race he's supposed to represent and they've never said if he was based on a real person. We don't even know what planet he's actually from! So his race is all coding. However, that coding is still,,, fairly obvious. And I specifically want to touch on how Rainbow depicts their east asian characters versus their indigenous characters.

Most of their east asian characters have either dark blue, black, or brown hair and more narrow eyes. Like,, that's their go-to when trying to make a character Noticeably asian. They're also fond of putting their asian characters in traditional clothing (like qi pao or hanfu) rather than casual clothing. I added Helia at the very bottom so you can see how he compares to other, canonically asian characters.

While Rainbow has absolutely depicted asian characters in offensive ways (espero...), it's usually pretty respectful. Meanwhile,,, their depiction of indigenous characters is... anything but.

Like before, I put a picture of Helia so you can compare him to the canonically indigenous characters. As you can see here, their depiction of indigenous characters is,, extremely racist! It follows a lot of racist stereotypes like red skin, face paint, headdress, feathers, etc. Just,,, all around Not Good. And you'll notice that Helia doesn't really "fit in" visually. That's not to say that he has to look like that to be indigenous but remember that this is an animated show with intentional designs made by white people. If he was meant to be seen as indigenous, he would likely share more characteristics with these characters (like having darker, red-toned skin). Again, their depiction of indigenous characters is extremely racist. I don't think there's a single indigenous character in winx that doesn't look like a walking stereotype out of an old cowboy film. Unfortunately, Helia would absolutely look different and more like those racist designs if he was meant to be indigenous.

Now, to actually answer your question. Is it okay to see Helia as indigenous, and specifically indigenous to the americas? Well... as Helia's racial coding is still just coding and not explicit, it's not a crime if you don't see him as asian. Like,, while I do absolutely think he was meant to be seen as asian, it's still technically ambiguous enough that it's not a Bad thing if you don't see him as such.

That said, you need to be extremely careful with how you think of and portray Helia as indigenous. I've talked before about Rainbow including quite a few stereotypes about east asian men with Helia, and unfortunately, most if not all of them, can also apply to indigenous men. For example, Helia is calmer and wise (often shown to give advice in poetic ways), connected to nature (ie, birds, plants, Flora), frequently meditates, etc. These are all common stereotypes for indigenous men. I'd actually recommend reading this wikipedia article!

Anyway, seeing him as indigenous isn't inherently wrong, but there's absolutely a chance that you're picking up on indigenous stereotyping rather than coding or a headcanon. Like the long hair, connection to nature, the pacifist comment, the weird and kind of cryptic one-liners he occasionally has... Unfortunately, a lot of the indigenous!Helia headcanons/redesigns I've seen have been really racist. And the common reasoning for why they think he's indigenous often comes down to these common stereotypes.

So like,,, god I know this is long but honestly the answer is complicated. It's not a simple yes or no. It really, really depends on why you think he's indigenous. Like. Just ask yourself yknow? Why do you think this? Think of an actual reason that isn't just "vibes". And if you're creating any kind of content, even if it's just daydreaming tbh, how are you depicting him? Is there even the slightest hint of a stereotypical depiction? (And again, please research stereotypical depictions because there are a lot and quite a few contradict each other)

If you're confident that you're not stereotyping him, then honestly, it's not that bad to see him as indigenous. I do ask that you try to see and understand him being asian coded, as I do think that's important, regardless of whether or not it's in your face explicit. However, it's not like. a crime if you don't see him as asian. Just be very, very, Very careful with how you think of and portray indigenous!Helia.

Also,,, I didn't know quite how to fit this into the rest of the post but,, while it's not Bad for you to not see Helia as asian, you should think about why that is. For example, there are still a lot of people in the fandom who don't see Nabu as asian, despite his coding being extremely in your face and honestly canon at this point. But because he has darker skin, he's from Andros, and he was with Aisha, a lot of people assumed he was black. That's not inherently a bad thing, but some of those people get really mad when others point out that he's very much south asian which,,, is a bad thing. I understand the feeling of losing rep and wanting to protect that, but you shouldn't bulldoze other groups to do it.

I'm not sure what your opinion of asian Helia is, but if you're like,, against him being asian or refuse to see that very intentional coding just because you really like the idea of him being indigenous,, you should think about that and reassess things.

[doubleedgemode]

There's a post that explains it way better than I do but. I'm currently thimking about A.B.As frankenstein influence

Aside from the obvious "concept art refs frankenstein by name, so one could assume the head key worked as her electrodes/bolts" I don't see many people mention how her strive boots are black platforms a la creature's movie depiction's (roadworker if I'm not mistaken?? I probably am) boots. Also yknow they have lil bolts

[ghostbeam]

Oh also for the writing asks

3 4 and 6 🫶🏽🫶🏽🫶🏽

Hehehe thanks for sending some vixie<333

3. what makes you love writing?

What makes me love writing is that I hate when I’m not doing it wjajwjwjsjsjj mostly I think I like the release like all the stuff in my brain is finally out of there and put somewhere and i can make it beautiful if I really try and that’s really nice

4. what does it take for you to be proud of something you’ve written?

I thinnnnk idk I critique myself so much and compare myself to others so bad and I get stuck like that sometimes but I think just finishing it and knowing that it’s like. What I wanted to write like really really what I personally liked and cared about and wanted to explore makes me proud maybe

6. are your projects driven more by character or plot?

Omg character for sure…I feel like I don’t even know how to set up plot like nothing has plot it’s just scenes in peoples lives

Writing ask meme<3

[shoechoe]

Battle Tendency

If you’ve been following me for a while, you probably know that I’ve complained about Battle Tendency before and stated that it is one of my least favorite parts in Jojo. I’ve never really gone in-depth with it besides minor tangents and side comments; a little while ago, though, I decided to rewatch Battle Tendency to freshen my memory on it, and... well, I have a lot to say. I thought it would be interesting to talk about this part and explain exactly what my thoughts are regarding it. Consider this a sort of overview of Battle Tendency; I’ll talk about what it was trying to do with its story and where I think it went wrong. (I have not read the manga for this part, so keep in mind these criticisms will be anime-centric.)

 Content warning for mentions of sexual assault and harassment, a brief mention of incest, and a pretty thorough discussion of fictional Nazis.

Plot/General

In a lot of ways, Battle Tendency directed the course of the series even more than part one did. At the end of Phantom Blood, Jonathan Joestar, our previous protagonist, dies. If the series wanted to continue, it could not be Jonathan’s story anymore- so instead, part two begins fifty years later with an almost entirely different cast of characters and setting. This is the first time the series does this, and if I am correct, this was not something heard of much when Jojo was written. Dividing the series up into different parts not only helped make it popular, but also allowed it to avoid issues such as seasonal rot, excessive power scaling, and running out of things to do, as it can just move on to another story once the previous one is finished.

 Though, while the direction Battle Tendency takes is interesting, I find the plot itself to be lacking. Battle Tendency is very short compared to other parts, and I think this ended up being its biggest flaw. For example, take when Joseph is in a race against the clock due to rings placed in his body set to release poison in thirty-three days, with the antidote only found in rings possessed by Wamuu and Esidisi. After multiple episodes of foreshadowing that Joseph will have to get stronger, now he has to train his Hamon in just a month to get strong enough to defeat them. It’s intended to be tense, set stakes for the story, and force Joseph to train and improve under grueling conditions.

 However, this character-crucial training takes up a total of a single episode’s worth of time. The only moment given any focus is the oil-covered pillar test in the beginning. This period is supposed to focus on Joseph’s improvement in Hamon training, which most take years to learn, and his and Caesar’s bonding as they go through life-and-death situations together and learn humility from their trainers- something that would require more than a ten-second montage of the days going by and vague gestures at hardcore training practices improving their Hamon skills.

 Instead of serving as an extra layer of interest to the story, this entire plot point just feels like a lazy cop-out to develop Joseph’s Hamon skills off-screen. This denies us the ability to feel Joseph’s improvement like we’re supposed to and ruins the tension by speeding the one-month deadline way too fast.

 At multiple points in the story, not just here, it feels as though there are gaping holes in the plot where there should just be more. I expected this training to at least take another few episodes. Not only that, but this training session introduces characters that we are supposed to treat as important but then gives them no focus at all. Loggins and Messina were such laughably forgettable characters that I did not feel a scrap of emotion at Loggins’ death nor was I interested in Joseph’s tedious emotional reaction to it. (In fact, I just had to web search which one it was that died. I did not remember which one was which.)

 What is especially odd is that this extra set of stakes with the death timer does... not actually end up amounting to anything. Joseph defeats both Esidisi and Wamuu days before the rings dissolve. The deadline stops being mentioned entirely at the five-day point or so. It starts off seeming important, but the stakes just fizzle out; it ends up being so inconsequential that it makes you wonder what the point of adding the rings even was. You could say that it motivated Joseph to train and improve quickly, but that motivation was already there in the first place with the Pillar Men actively hunting them down for the Red Stone. The best answer I can think of is the symbolism of Caesar stealing Wamuu’s ring before his death, but that alone is not a very strong reason to portray it as a major, high-stakes factor in the story.

 Unfortunately, the actual major plot device of the story is lacking as well. The Red Stone of Aja is the object of desire for the Pillar Men, the antagonists, who want to use it to become all-powerful immortals, and Joseph has to protect it while defeating them one by one. Compared to the plots of other parts, I find this turned out sort of dull. Would you believe me if I said that I genuinely forgot the Red Stone of Aja existed before I started my rewatch of part two? It’s the main plot device of the part and it’s given almost nothing interesting that you can latch onto. It’s given a semi-promising ability outside of being able to transform the Pillar Men (being able to amplify the power of sunlight), but the protagonists just don’t use it until the very end. It’s pretty to look at but utterly failed to capture my interest.

 Not only that, but the writing here has some noticeable problems. Remember, the stone is only desired by the Pillar Men, who require it to transform into the ultimate beings. In the beginning, it is in the hands of the protagonists, who have no use for it whatsoever. The explanation given as to why they don’t just destroy the stone so the Pillar Men can’t transform is because of a vague “prophecy” mentioned by Lisa Lisa where the stone is involved in the Pillar Men’s defeat- however, this prophecy is never expanded upon nor shown beyond this single line. It’s painfully obvious that it’s less of a “prophecy” and more of a method of lazily dismissing an easy solution to the main conflict.

 The prophecy does technically come true later in the story, where Kars is launched into space due to his Hamon being reflected at him when it hits the stone- however, the only reason why Kars even needed to be thrown into space in the first place is because he got ahold of the stone and successfully used it to transform into a god. The protagonists still could have just smashed the stone and defeated regular Kars much more easily with Hamon, just as they did with Esidisi and Wamuu- the canonical reasoning as to why they didn’t just destroy it doesn’t even end up working in the end.

 (The especially frustrating thing about this is that the fix for this issue, to me, seems simple. Instead of making up some “prophecy” that wasn’t even given more than a brief mention, just make the stone indestructible. It’s incredibly powerful, after all. Why couldn’t it have just been made impossible or unsafe to break instead of all of this prophecy nonsense that didn’t even end up making sense?)

 In terms of plot, Battle Tendency is dry and littered with obvious plot conveniences and structure problems. The Red Stone of Aja was not given enough intrigue to be investing, a lot of the tension just fizzles out due to poor handling of plot points, and there were easy solutions to the main conflict that were explained away nonsensically. (The part’s final fight and the way that it ended were also pretty flawed, which I will get into.) Despite being such a major aspect of the series, it’s often largely forgotten by a lot of fans, and I think that this is why. The story needed more thought and was overall just too short for its own good.

Characters

 When I see people talking about Battle Tendency, the plot is rarely mentioned. Instead, the focus is all on the cast and the potential that they had. I do like a lot of Battle Tendency’s characters, but I also think that a lot of them could’ve been better.

Joseph

 I think Joseph’s introduction is the moment that piqued the interest of a lot of people reading or watching the series. To sell the idea of killing off the previous main character and replacing him, I think that extra effort was put into making Joseph stand out (especially to contrast Jonathan, who was... well, as lovable as he is, he’s undeniably a very cookie-cutter protagonist, as admitted even by Araki himself). And, with that goal, this part certainly succeeded.

 The core of Joseph’s personality is built around performance. He’s designed to be unpredictable and wild to keep you guessing what he will do next. In a lot of ways, Joseph plays as the comic relief just as much as he does the protagonist- the entertaining, charming nature of his character ends up diffusing a lot of tense moments and adding a layer of humor to the situations he gets into. Contrasted to the frankly dark and disturbing tone of everything else in Battle Tendency, his ridiculous antics lighten the mood and provide contrast to the bleak seriousness of everything around him.

 The thing I find the most interesting about Joseph is that he simultaneously manages to seem clever yet brainless. He’s excellent at predicting motives, strategizing, and observing, letting him excel at the mind games that fights in the series like to do so much. Once he’s in a fight, you know he’ll find a way to predict and outsmart his enemy. At the same time, though, he’s impulsive, hot-headed, competitive, and somewhat bad at meeting new people, which makes him a lot of enemies he could’ve gone without. He’s in that in-between state where you’re not quite sure if he’s a strategic genius or an idiot with ungodly luck and improv skills. The way that Joseph battles, predicts, and outsmarts his enemies’ moves makes the fights in part two’s battles very fun to watch, which is one of its main highlights.

 Joseph is a fun, personality-filled, and important character, which is why he’s a big fan favorite. However, in this effort to make Joseph funny and memorable, I think a lot of his actions delve into being less entertainingly stupid and more just uncomfortable. For example, take this scene where he... threatens to forcefully kiss a stranger for screaming too loudly after he seemingly just murdered a man.

 He keeps this womanizing and uncomfortable attitude toward female characters throughout. When Straizo captures a female journalist and tries to use her life to lure Joseph closer, he dismisses the importance of her life as he thinks that she’s “ugly”. He only steps in once he watches her begin to get brutalized.

 The biggest example of this is when he makes multiple sexual comments and advances toward his trainer, Lisa Lisa, spying on her when she’s in her room naked and constantly trying to flirt with her. Even without the twist revealing that Lisa Lisa was Joseph’s mother the whole time (do you guys think Sigmund Freud would be a Jojo fan?), that was gross and unnecessary and I did not find it funny. I suppose this kind of humor is no surprise considering… Well, it’s an anime, but it does still bother me how this behavior is so frequent and it’s always played off as a joke where he often faces little to no consequence for it.

 My feelings about Joseph are overall complicated due to both this and one bigger reason that I’ll get into near the end. His problems also get worse in future parts, which I may talk about in a different post. Overall, though, I do not think he is a bad character, and I understand his appeal and how important he was for the rest of the series. For people who like part two, I think Joseph is the main appeal for them.

Speedwagon, Erina, and Smokey (AKA: part two’s problem with handling its characters)

 The reason why I’m lumping these three together is that they all represent a chronic issue that this part has with establishing characters that have important or interesting relationships with Joseph, then promptly forgetting that they exist. Most of the characters are affected by this, but these three are the worst victims.

 Speedwagon and Erina are the two major characters that are brought over from part one after the fifty-year time gap. Erina is Joseph’s main caretaker, acting as the only firm counter to his destructive tendencies for the first few episodes. She’s the only one who can keep Joseph’s temper under control and reacts calmly while other characters are left in shock at his antics. (You can feel how used to him she is.) Though, after Joseph leaves New York to go chase the Pillar Men without telling her, she just... completely stops being relevant. I can’t think of a time where she’s brought up after the beginning until the ending footnotes where it’s said that she dies of old age after the story ended.

 Speedwagon is essentially Joseph’s father figure, taking the place of the late Jonathan Joestar. He gets more importance than Erina as he’s kidnapped to lure Joseph to Mexico and discover the looming threat of the Pillar Men, but after that, he also gets largely pushed out of the story until the end, where he shows up with Speedwagon Foundation agents to help Joseph fight the vampire army. He’s important largely just because of the establishment of the Speedwagon Foundation, but he doesn’t do much else.

 Smokey, a new character, is a boy that befriends Joseph at the very beginning and functions as a narrator-type character for the first couple of episodes, several moments even taking place in his point of view, until he also just... kind of leaves until the final fight with Kars. There, he just stays close to Speedwagon while commenting on what’s happening, functioning like a callback to the beginning more than anything else.

 I don’t have much to say about them beyond this because the story doesn’t do anything meaningful with them after the first few episodes. It’s especially annoying because of the interesting dynamic these three introduce. Joseph is strange with people due to his inner desire for justice being concealed by his airheaded and impulsive nature, and he will often disregard strangers’ safety entirely but be extremely protective of his friends and loved ones. Erina and Speedwagon are his surrogate parents, so he respects them in a way unlike anybody else and is enraged when they come to harm. Smokey is a person Joseph meets and befriends, and we see him start to give him a similar treatment as he beats up several people who try to abuse him in very cheesy little anti-racism PSAs. However, due to this sudden shelving of all three of them, none of this goes anywhere. It’s disappointing.

Straizo

 Straizo is another character brought over from part one, but instead of remaining an ally, he returns as an enemy. His main role in the story is to give a sense of escalated stakes compared to part one; he improves on Dio’s use of his vampire powers by utilizing his abilities more effectively, having the expertise and lower ego to do so. One of his first attacks was the blow that defeated Jonathan, the laser eye attack that Dio only used once. He is the first major struggle that Joseph faces in the story, and it’s the moment that makes you go “Oh, shit. This is real now.”

 I like the angle that Battle Tendency went with Straizo. His fear of aging led him to lose his sanity and become a vampire; Hamon can prolong youth, but it doesn’t work forever. Vampires stay eternally youthful but lose their humanity in their lust for blood. Straizo tried to slow his aging by becoming a Hamon master, but when that stopped working, his terror drove him to forgo his morals and humanity in exchange for reclaiming his youth. This is especially effective because Straizo is a character we’re already familiar with and how it echoes some of the goals of the Pillar Men and their quest for ultimate power and eternal life.

 Once he’s defeated, something interesting happens when Joseph saves him from falling off a bridge. Straizo inquires as to why Joseph would save him, then warns him of his future destiny. Sad music plays as he laments on his victory over his aging body and he bursts into pure Hamon light. While his flaws took over him in his last few days, you still kind of appreciate his strength and reflect on the time we saw him on-screen even if he turned evil in the end. This goes well with a recurring theme we’ll see pop up in Battle Tendency.

 Straizo is essentially story foreshadowing, both for the story’s themes and to make you think “If skilled vampires are no big deal for Joseph, what will be the real challenge?” I think he works better here than in part one; it took what would have been a character that nobody would have remembered and made him a bit more worthwhile.

Caesar

 I have to admit that Caesar is a character that I initially hated. It’s nothing deep; his rampant womanizing played off as a character quirk and his irritatingly condescending attitude just ticked me off. However, my feelings have softened towards him and my opinions are now mostly neutral. I think the fan perception and complaints about Caesar’s character are interesting, so I want to talk about what I think of him.

 Caesar’s main purpose is to be Joseph’s foil and main companion. He’s a significantly more trained Hamon user that also possesses the charm and social skills that Joseph lacks. Caesar is sophisticated and focused, contrasting Joseph’s much wilder nature, but they share a tendency to be short-tempered and arrogant. Caesar also has a predisposed dislike of the Joestars due to his pride in his family- he blames Jonathan for the death of Will Zeppeli, so his dislike of Joseph naturally follows. This all seeds an initial hostility that results in them fighting while Speedwagon can only watch helplessly.

 After their quarrel with Wamuu, though, Caesar begins to respect Joseph and their contempt fades after they train and go through multiple life-and-death scenarios together. Eventually, they become affectionate with each other, and they work together when they fight, using two kinds of Hamon at once to expel Esidisi from Suzi Q. Their mutual desire to defeat the Pillar Men led them to understand and respect each other in a way that almost makes you forget the rocky terms they were once on.

 We see in his backstory that Caesar had once resented his father for abandoning him as a child, leading to him severing all ties with his family and becoming a feared criminal as a teenager. In a way, his fierce pride in his family was the cause of him going down the wrong path; his hatred of his father was because he disrespected his family, after all. However, his life is ultimately saved by his father, causing him to regain his respect and embrace his family once more. This backstory is intended to make Caesar feel less of a simple foil for Joseph and more of his own character- fittingly, it’s shown to us right after he and Joseph have a falling out, resulting in Caesar leaving the group and attempting to face Wamuu on his own.

 I have seen complaints about the choice to kill off Caesar after he faces Wamuu. Some people say it was a cop-out, or that killing off Caesar was entirely a bad choice. Personally, though, I didn’t have a problem with this part of the story. While I do agree that Caesar being used more would’ve been nice, I think that’s more a symptom of Battle Tendency’s short length than the choice to kill him off here. I like how he puts up a genuine fight against Wamuu, severely damaging him and even having Wamuu say that Caesar was the toughest opponent he’s ever faced. We’re given hope that he might even win... until he takes a fatal hit.

 After Joseph and Lisa Lisa find Caesar’s body, we get one of part two’s most iconic scenes and most powerful testament to Caesar and Joseph’s relationship: when they see Caesar’s blood seep out from under the rock that crushed him, Joseph screams his name and wails in grief. He’d only known Caesar for a few weeks, but they had grown so close that his death was that impactful for him.

 Overall, I think Caesar is a decent deuteragonist. His relationship with Joseph is very satisfying to see develop and it’s arguably the most believable relationship that Battle Tendency has. He works well as a foil while also feeling like his own character, and I like the way his death played out writing-wise despite it not emotionally impacting me very much personally. He’s a victim of Battle Tendency’s stunted length, yes, but I could also say that for almost every character. Though I’m not personally enthusiastic about Caesar, I don’t think I could find many things to complain about (besides the fact that his misogyny gets annoying).

Lisa Lisa

 I find Lisa Lisa’s writing interesting just as much as I do irritating. Unlike Joseph and Caesar’s blunt expressions of their emotions, Lisa Lisa masks her true feelings under a layer of coolness and apathy to be a strong mentor. On the surface, this makes her seem harsh and even cruel at times. She seemingly leaves Joseph and Caesar to die if they could not find a way to climb the oil-covered pillar by themselves. You see her as this tough, distanced teacher that puts them through grueling training out of necessity to beat the Pillar Men; for a while, you aren’t quite sure if she cares about them as individuals or if she just sees them as things to harden into proper weaponry against the enemy.

 When Caesar dies, she attempts to appear level-headed and unfazed, even taking out a cigarette as she calmly orders Joseph to head out. Joseph is first enraged at her seeming disrespect and lack of care- only to realize that in reality, she was struggling to hold back her tears, her cigarette held backward in her hand. All this time, she had distanced herself to appear strong and composed, to the point where it appeared like she didn’t even care about her students or their lives. But in reality, she cared very much, and the loss of Caesar was just as emotionally devastating for her as it was for Joseph.

 Though the uncomfortable incest jokes somewhat taint her relationship with Joseph, there is a lot of interesting stuff going on with them, too. She’s secretly Joseph’s mother, forced to abandon him as an infant for their safety after she murdered a vampire disguised as a military officer for killing her husband. She had to erase all traces of her identity and start a new life in Venice, with Joseph retaining no memory of her. (Fittingly, she was also adopted by Straizo as a child, which makes you view him in a different retrospective light as well.) With this extra context, it’s no wonder why she masks her true self so well; she’s been doing it constantly for years. Joseph’s complete lack of knowledge of their familial ties and anger at her coldness must’ve been incredibly painful for her, not only because she does care about her students, but because she and Joseph are family, something incredibly important and precious in Jojo.

 While I think Lisa Lisa is a good character, a lot of the way that she’s handled annoys me. Her character is intended to be pro-female empowerment, with her skills being impressive and even sometimes surpassing the male characters. With the only women thus far in the series just functioning as minor love interests like Erina and Suzi Q, she breaks the standard for the first time by being not only an incredibly powerful Hamon user but a mentor figure that commands respect from the male characters. Even Caesar, the chronic womanizer, respects her and treats her like his superior. Having a woman be involved in the story instead of being relegated to a minor love interest character is a breath of fresh air for Jojo at this point in the series, so I can appreciate Lisa Lisa just on that end.

 However, this message ultimately ends up falling flat. She’s mostly relegated to the “teacher” role and never actually gets to do any fighting herself. Curiously, she only gets to demonstrate her skills through enemies that exist purely to be defeated by her.

 Remember this guy? (I didn’t.) He shows up, brags about how strong he is, and Lisa Lisa takes him out all in about three minutes. He’s a one-off goon that serves no purpose in the story other than showing off how “cool” and “badass” Lisa Lisa is.

 Later, Lisa Lisa almost gets to fight Kars, a much more important and plot-relevant character, but this doesn’t end up happening. Kars simply cheats, uses a decoy, and stabs her in the back... and immediately, she becomes a defenseless, unconscious woman that Joseph needs to save.

 We get all of this talk of Lisa Lisa having Hamon skills that make everyone else look like an amateur only for her to never be allowed to get involved in the fighting in any meaningful way. That goon that she killed, the only moment where she gets to fight, was a way of cheating us out of her skills being important to the story. She’s painted as a “strong” female character, but she is still functionally the damsel in distress.

 I suppose you could view the damsel-ing as trying to subvert your expectations by building her up as strong only to have her become helpless, but doing that while trying to convey a message of female empowerment is just kind of insulting. It also disappointed me how she had no after-conversation with Joseph after he learned about their familial connection. Lisa Lisa was interesting, but ultimately badly used. (Also, the incest jokes were weird.)

The Pillar Men

 I’ll be blunt: the Pillar Men are the best aspect of part two. They build upon the vampire and stone mask lore from part one in an extremely interesting way while still leaving room for mystery, contrast well with Joseph’s character, and suit the themes of the story very well.

 There’s this David and Goliath dynamic set up between them and Joseph. It’s established that the Pillar Men like to eat vampires, the previously daunting threat of part one; it’s a superhuman food chain where humans are even less than prey. Even with intense Hamon training, the odds of a human winning against them are slim- Kars, Esidisi, and Wamuu alone drove the Hamon users to near-extinction years ago to the point where Lisa Lisa’s small group is all that’s left. So, then, if Jonathan, a natural Hamon user, struggled (and ultimately did not succeed) to defeat Dio, a measly vampire, how is Joseph supposed to defeat the Pillar Men and curb their plans for achieving ultimate power?

 Though Kars is technically the main villain, I most often think of the Pillar Men altogether as the main antagonists of Battle Tendency. It’s partly because of this that my main gripe with the Pillar Men is that, beyond their premises, they feel kind of bare minimum. Most of their interactions with each other are just them standing menacingly and discussing their plans of getting the Red Stone. They would have benefited from expanding their backstories of traveling the world for the Stone together, having them interact and giving them clearer dynamics with each other, and exploring their personalities more. It sets up something interesting to think about but doesn’t use that setup to its fullest potential.

Santana

 Santana is meant to be our introduction to the Pillar Men. He demonstrates their base abilities and gives Joseph a sample of the kind of enemy he’ll have to face. He’s the weakest of the four we meet alongside being less “sophisticated” than the others, not seeming to share their goals or knowledge. Despite this relative weakness, though, you note that he’s still extremely powerful. He’s hyper-intelligent and possesses a scary level of strength, two traits that were enough to immediately escape his containment and brutally slaughter an entire crew of soldiers like it was nothing.

 Not only is he threatening, but he’s also very horror-esque. He reminded me a lot of John Carpenter’s The Thing with the way he contorts his body in disturbing ways, melting into his victim’s flesh and absorbing them. He gives off an almost otherworldly feeling with his alien biology combined with his stoic yet wild attitude as he digs into the human guards and kills them all in an instant. I think the tone here is executed wonderfully; for a minute, the upbeat and goofy tone due to Joseph’s antics takes a backseat to the dark, macabre reality of the part’s threat.

 I also love the way he and Joseph interact with each other, with Joseph taking the situation with zero care and goofing around with Santana only to immediately go into a state of pure rage once he realizes Speedwagon is in danger. I enjoy the fight between them very much- Joseph, possessing but being critically untrained in the one thing keeping Santana from instantly killing him, needs to scramble together all of his luck and what little Hamon skill he has just to stave off instant death. It’s tenser than any fight we’ve had before and I was into it.

 Though, while his fight is good, the way Santana’s character gets capped off is somewhat confusing. The way his body wasn’t fully destroyed and was instead preserved in UV light leads you to think that he was going to come back at some point, but this never happens. He doesn’t even get mentioned afterward besides the one off-hand comment from Kars. If there was no plan to bring Santana back, I don’t see why he couldn’t have just been killed off instead of being left in stasis like that. For the role he plays in the story, he works well, but he kind of leaves you hanging.

Esidisi

 Esidisi is the general least favorite among the three major Pillar Men, and it’s fairly easy to see why. He’s a bit of an awkward middleman between the younger subordinate Wamuu and the dominant leader Kars. I always felt like out of the three, he was treated the least like a character and more just like a first boss fight. Though, even with the limited attention that he gets, I found his time in the spotlight still entertaining.

 Esidisi shakes up your expectations on how the story structure will play out. He’s Wamuu’s higher-up, giving his poison ring second, yet he ends up confronting Joseph first. Most majorly, he shakes our confidence in Joseph for the first time. With the fights before, even when the odds get stacked against him, we’re always reassured by the idea that Joseph can predict his enemies’ moves and have a counter ready. With Esidisi, however, he’s so good at concealing his thought process that Joseph finds him utterly unreadable. Esidisi even once turns Joseph’s “next, you’ll say ____!” catchphrase on his head, predicting his thoughts first. For a while, our confidence that Joseph will win the fight alone is endangered.

 Esidisi has a lot of interesting character traits, but they get frustratingly unexplored. It’s shown that he’s not afraid to show extreme displays of emotion if it’ll clear his head; when his arm is cut off, he suddenly starts bawling in grief for his lost limb, throwing Joseph off his game when he thought he managed to get the upper hand. However, this is the only scene we get showing this character trait. It’s also revealed in Kars’ backstory that Esidisi was the only Pillar Man who sided with Kars, and not only helped him genocide his people but raised two babies alongside him. This implies a very close and interesting relationship with Kars that is... not elaborated on in their actual interactions very much at all. Beyond his fight, it seems like the story wanted nothing to do with him.

 When Esidisi is killed, something similar to what happened with Straizo occurs again, only more overtly. Joseph, feeling strangely bonded to him after their fight, honors his life and respects his drive to defend his comrades, setting aside good and evil just for a moment. Esidisi might’ve been a force for bad that needed to be stopped, but he lived for thousands of years and fought earnestly for what he believed in, and to Joseph, that’s something he can’t help but revere. This attitude of “you were evil, but I honor you after taking your life in battle” pops up once again in a surprisingly somber sendoff for a villain character.

 Esidisi is my least favorite Pillar Man, but that’s not because I dislike him. He’s just the least important of the four and his most interesting traits were not focused on as much as the others.

Wamuu

Wamuu is my favorite character in Battle Tendency. Kars is the main villain, but I think Wamuu is more important than him for most of the story. He gets the most fights out of any of the Pillar Men, having three instead of just one. He’s the most developed and explored out of all the Pillar Men and ends up being the most well-written by far. He’s the only one I feel was used to his full potential and I ended up enjoying any time he was on screen. 

 Nowhere is the recurring theme of honoring courage and power regardless of alliance stronger than with Wamuu. Unlike Esidisi, he did not join Kars freely as an adult, instead being taken as a baby and raised to be loyal to him. Despite being on Kars’ side, he does not seem very interested in the Red Stone as much as he has the desire to be an honorable warrior and wants a fair, good battle for all that wish to challenge him. He often refuses to kill his opponents, requesting they get stronger and come back later to fight him again. We get a scene where Wamuu refuses to harm a little boy, believing it wouldn’t be fair for him, which makes Kars kill the child himself. When Caesar was about to die, he stole Wamuu’s poison ring to give to Joseph, which he allowed simply out of respect. While Wamuu is still an antagonist, you get the impression that he’s not quite as evil as the others.

 The final fight with Wamuu in the arena is my favorite arc in part two. It’s tense, creative, and incredibly investing. The fight being in horse-drawn carriages reminiscent of Roman gladiator shows with a crowd judging Joseph’s every move shook up the typical fight structure and fits both Joseph and Wamuu’s characters incredibly well. Wamuu loves fighting and expressing his strength, and Joseph is such an entertaining and performance-based character, why not turn their final battle into a show? Both Wamuu and Joseph dangle on the brink of death at several points throughout and have to make serious shifts in mental states to give themselves the strength to keep going. I don’t know how to elaborate on how much I like this fight in any better way than “it’s so cool, holy shit”.

(Side note: In the fight, Joseph calls on Caesar’s spirit to help him, burning his headband as a symbol that he was with him the entire time. Usually, in Jojo, death is a very final sendoff for a character; when someone is dead, they’re rarely mentioned again. I found it surprising that such a major symbolic move in Caesar’s name would be used so far after he died. It’s an additional testament to how strong Joseph and Caesar’s bond became.)

 When Wamuu takes a fatal hit, instead of celebrating or finishing him off, Joseph eases his pain in his final moments by giving him his blood and they share a surprisingly tender final conversation about respecting each other and the honor of battle. Wamuu even flat-out says that immortality means nothing to him- all he was seeking was a true warrior to challenge, and he finally found that with Joseph.

 Even though they just tried to murder each other, there’s no animosity between them in this last scene. As Joseph salutes Wammu’s passing, the narration even states that, in a complex way, they were friends.

 I always thought this theme of honor was the most fascinating thing about Battle Tendency, and it’s done in such a believable, earnest way with Wamuu. He’s what I look back upon most positively when I think about part two. I wish the rest of the part was as good as this, but frustratingly, it just isn’t.

Kars

I have mixed feelings about Kars. Though the Pillar Men as a whole are good villains, Kars himself falls short as the main antagonist. There are a lot of things that I like about him as a character, but he’s not a great main villain.

 Most of the issue comes from the fact that he stays out of the conflict for most of the story to build suspense only to have an underwhelming final fight that doesn’t keep him in your memory very well. He doesn’t give Joseph a poison ring and largely keeps to the shadows as a calm, mysterious leader figure. He gives hints of an interesting character throughout- we know he’s the mastermind behind the Red Stone plot, meaning he’s incredibly intelligent and has a strong desire for power, but outwardly, he seems very quiet and composed aside from short bursts of maniacal laughter or bloodlust.

 Kars’ morality and respect for life are complex. He has an appreciation for nature, actively avoiding causing harm to plant life and saving animals on multiple occasions. Compare the scene of Kars slicing a car in half to save a dog to Dio burning Danny alive in part one- Araki loves dogs and uses their murder to symbolize pure evil in a character, and Kars actively contrasts this. And, while he goes against his comrades’ wishes from time to time, killing a boy that Wamuu wanted to let live, there’s no sign that he doesn’t care about his allies, with him mourning their deaths and swearing to avenge both of them after they’re gone.

 However, not only does he slaughter hordes of humans in his way, but in his past, he genocided his people for not aiding him in his quest to gain immortality. He is perfectly willing to be heartless if it means getting what he wants. While he may have some humanizing traits, his ambition turned him into a monster regardless.

 Once Wamuu and Esidisi are dead, he betrays his agreement to a fair battle and stabs Lisa Lisa in the back. His stoic exterior falls as his true deceitful nature is revealed and he disrespects everything his recently-deceased comrade valued. For the final fight against Kars, the morality and respect dynamic built up throughout the story is thrown in the garbage. Not only is he evil, but he’s also a dishonest piece of shit. Unlike Esidisi and Wamuu, no respect is afforded to him.

 I like this personality twist for Kars in theory, but in terms of a climax and conclusion, the final fight wasn’t very good. Once Kars gets the Red Stone and becomes an unkillable superbeing, the fight essentially becomes Joseph being chased by Kars as he desperately thinks of ways to hold him off. In some way, my issue with this final fight is something inherent to having an unkillable, all-powerful villain like this- virtually the only way they’re going to be physically defeated is through some serious plot contrivances that instantly break story immersion. Unfortunately, this is exactly what happens, as Joseph suddenly holds up the Red Stone as Kars attempts the killing blow, leading to a volcanic eruption, which... launches Kars into space, somehow.

 Symbolically, I like this fate for Kars. He committed atrocities all in the name of his obsession with immortality, and eventually, he got it- however, this turns into his curse as he’s doomed to float in space for eternity, causing his formerly genius mind to stop functioning as he wishes for death only to never receive it. However, as an end to the final battle, I did not find this well-written, sensical, or satisfying. This felt like a sudden jolt to the finish line using stretches of logic far further than even acceptable for Jojo. The only word I can think of to describe it is “lazy”.

_

 As you’ve probably noticed, there’s one big aspect of part two that I have neglected to mention so far. This is, of course, Stroheim and the major plot point of the Nazis. I felt this needed to be discussed in its own section, so now, I will do that.

Rudol von Stroheim (and the inclusion of Nazi Germany)

 The inclusion of Nazi Germany along with prominent Nazi characters is arguably Battle Tendency’s most infamous feature, and it’s easy to see why. The Nazis have a big impact on part two and make several recurrences throughout it. When it comes to including Nazis in a story, it is important to take care in the way you portray them; bad handling of any sensitive subject can lead to your work sending unintended messaging to the viewer that might not be ideal. Unfortunately, this is where we run into some issues when it comes to Battle Tendency.

 The first Nazi appearance in the story is when Joseph arrives in Mexico to find Santana. The Nazis, stationed there with the Pillar Man in his dormant state, want to utilize him as a weapon for their plan of world domination. Battle Tendency takes place in 1938; while the Nazis were in control of Germany at this time, this is before World War II began with Germany’s invasion of Poland in 1939, and a few years before the Holocaust in 1941, the Nazis’ worst atrocity.

 Despite this, though, the Nazis’ brutality and fascism are made very clear in the beginning. Not only do they explicitly desire world domination, but it’s also revealed that they’re holding an entire Mexican village prisoner, packing them into cages, experimenting on them, forcing the women into sexual acts, and using them as servants. In one scene, they promise to let the innocent people go free if they choose one person to sacrifice for an experiment- only to then reveal they intend to have them all executed except for the sacrifice instead in a cruel twist of extra psychological torture. This is not far off from real tactics Nazis used in their brutal treatment of minorities; inhumane experiments on prisoners were frequently done by Nazi scientists and Jewish prisoners were often tricked by being told that they were being given a shower before being gassed to death.

 Rudol von Stroheim, a Nazi officer in charge of facilitating the experiments on Santana, kidnapped Speedwagon to get information on the Pillar Men, forcibly extracting information from him with a truth serum. He sexually harasses prisoners on-screen and was the one who personally decided to execute the villagers being held captive.

 He, a high-ranking Nazi, commits an explicit act of genocide on a group of innocent people. Keep this in mind.

 Though it’s fictionalized in the typical Jojo fashion, I feel as though at this point, the Nazis are very explicitly framed as evil. They murder innocents, they kidnap, they torture, and they want to take over the world; all things you are very clearly not supposed to like. There is the question of if this was an appropriate thing to bring into such a goofy story like Battle Tendency, but that is not my focus- if the story stayed like this, I would not have felt much of a need to write about it. However, when Santana breaches containment and slaughters Stroheim’s crew, something very odd begins to happen.

 During the fight with Santana, Stroheim ends up helping Joseph. After Santana grabs onto Stroheim’s leg, he demands that Joseph chop his leg off, claiming that he would gladly lose limbs if it were for the sake of Germany. Joseph, who previously did not care for the Nazis, makes this remark:

“I thought he was a coward, but when the going gets tough, his bravery shines through.”

 Stroheim then proceeds to sacrifice himself by using an explosive device to try and take both himself and Santana out at once, something that brings our protagonist to... tears.

 At this point, I was getting confused. Why is the Nazi who just massacred a village being mourned by our protagonist (who did not spare a second of thought for the slaughter of an entire group of Nazis a few minutes ago)? You could make the argument that Joseph didn’t see or know about anything Stroheim did, but the way this scene is framed makes it feel as though we are supposed to feel the same as Joseph here- we are supposed to feel bad about Stroheim’s death. I do not see how this was in any way earned or justified and it feels jarring and inappropriate.

 Later, after Joseph meets Caesar in Italy, it’s revealed that Caesar has a friend that’ll take them over to the site where the other Pillar Men are being held. He also just so happens to be a Nazi.

This character is portrayed as a good man with any rivalry explained away by the fact that Italy and Germany are allies. The fact that he’s a Nazi is nothing but a background detail, and Caesar’s friendship with him is treated as something harmless. When Joseph’s group arrives at the Pillar Men’s site, Caesar’s Nazi friend is killed by Wamuu and it’s treated as something tragic yet again as Caesar mourns his death. This is twice now that a Nazi character being killed is taken as some horrible casualty of the Pillar Men that we’re supposed to feel bad about. (The Nazi character didn’t even do anything particularly brave this time.)

 After this, the Nazis are out of the story until Joseph’s group travels to Switzerland to find the Red Stone. There, they are again encountered by the Nazis, revealing that they have been watching them this whole time. Joseph’s group and the Nazis then agree (though through pressure from the Nazis) to help each other, with Joseph’s group giving them information on the Red Stone and the Pillar Men and the Nazis letting them into their base for shelter and providing help with defeating them. (Interestingly, it is said yet again that the Nazis are seeking world domination, but this is pretty much ignored.)

 They are then all ambushed by Kars in search of the Red Stone, but as Kars tries to attack, a retaliation happens from none other than Stroheim. It turns out that, despite Stroheim’s body being blown to bits, he was rebuilt with the Nazi’s advanced technology and is now a kind of cyborg, allowing him to come back from the brink of death with an entire arsenal of weapons in his body. Joseph remarks on Stroheim’s return with this... interesting line of dialogue:

 Too… pompous. Stroheim is just too pompous. Yes. That’s the problem. (This is sarcasm.)

 After Stroheim fails to stop Kars, the Nazis are once again out of the story until Kars tricks Joseph and he’s swarmed with vampires, where the Nazis barge into the plot once again. They and the Speedwagon Foundation have developed anti-vampire technology and helped in the final fight by getting rid of the vampire army so Joseph can focus on Kars. Speedwagon makes a lighthearted comment about Stroheim:

You would think that he would have a significantly less friendly attitude toward the fascist that kidnapped him, forced information out of him, and was responsible for awakening the Pillar Men in the first place, but I guess not.

 Stroheim helps Joseph fight Kars and they both witness him getting launched into space. At the very end, Stroheim receives a mention in the summary of the character’s fates, where it’s stated that he... dies an “honorable” death fighting for the Nazi army in Stalingrad.

 “Honorable.” The Nazi general. The fascist. The character that sexually abused innocent prisoners he was using as slaves. The character that mercilessly slaughtered an entire village of innocent people to fuel his weapon of mass destruction. The character that does an explicit Hitler salute and is shown in nothing but Nazi attire throughout the story. “A proud German soldier.” “Honorable.”

Yeah, can you see why this is bad?

 The way that the Nazis are portrayed is, at best, a severe flaw in Battle Tendency’s writing. At worst, this is, intentionally or not, actual Nazi sympathizing. Regardless, this upsets the balance of the entire part and makes for some incredibly uncomfortable viewing, to the point where it supersedes every positive aspect of part two- in a lot of ways, it is the real rot underlying this part, tainting the entire story and making every character at least a little bit unlikeable. This is the reason why I can’t say that I fully like Joseph or Caesar as characters. It’s the reason why I avoid talking about this part in casual discussions, and when I do, I have to use such vague language and swerve around major plot points to not immediately escalate the conversation, as I have been doing throughout this analysis until now.

 Every attempt to defend this that I’ve seen has involved ignoring the obvious and pushing claims that are just not true about what Battle Tendency did here. You can’t call what happened to the Nazis a character redemption; no true change in belief occurs here. The Nazis never stop being Nazis, nor do they cease seeking world domination. Stroheim never faces consequences or is even criticized for slaughtering innocent people to use in his experiments. The only reason why he realizes that he was wrong for doing it was that Santana was too powerful to control. It’s not a “WWII hadn’t started, so the story operates like the Nazis aren’t bad because we didn’t know it yet” scenario, because we see the Nazis have explicitly fascist goals and commit atrocities before their rapid portrayal shift. It isn’t just a worst-case “teaming up with one enemy to defeat a larger one” scenario, either, because as we can see, Stroheim and other Nazi characters are actively praised and treated as good people after this point. No matter how I look at it, this is indefensible.

 If this wasn’t already bad enough, it also makes the whole story confusing and unfulfilling. Remember, the Pillar Men are supposed to be omnicidal tyrants, but the only hordes of people we see them kill are Nazis. This is intended to paint them as monsters who kill without a second thought, but it doesn’t register because the only people they’re killing are tyrants themselves. (If you ask me, it has the exact opposite effect of making them the most likable characters in the story.)

 Not only that, but aren’t the Nazis even more of a threat than the Pillar Men are? With their similar desire for world domination combined with highly advanced technology, exponentially greater numbers, and, thanks to Joseph, knowledge of Hamon and the Red Stone, they’d also pose (and obviously ended up being) a massive threat. Battle Tendency ended on a “happy” note due to Kars’ defeat with only a brief side mention that World War II began at the story’s conclusion. Joseph stops one disaster only to completely ignore, if not aid, another starting. (Hell, Jewish people are never even mentioned despite being the most major of the Nazis’ victims. What’s up with that?)

 What makes this whole thing especially angering and upsetting to me is that this series has quite a bit of messaging that’s very anti-Nazi, including in Battle Tendency. Let me put it this way: In terms of actions and desires, what makes the Pillar Men different from the Nazis? The Pillar Men wanted immortality; so did Nazi Germany. The Pillar Men wanted world domination; so did Nazi Germany. The Pillar Men slaughtered innocent people without care; so did Nazi Germany. Every single thing that the Pillar Men are treated as evil for, the Nazis explicitly wanted and did as well, if not even more and more successfully. If the Pillar Men are treated as evil tyrants who need to be stopped, why aren’t the Nazis acknowledged for attempting the same thing? Why is Kars’ slaughter of innocents and desire for immortality and world domination an inexcusable evil, but Stroheim is forgiven and gets to become a core ally despite trying to achieve the same thing and never realizing that his army is in the wrong?

 There are more examples of this, too. Do you remember Battle Tendency’s opening scene, where Joseph defends a black child from being brutalized by corrupt policemen in a cheesy but blatant anti-racism message? What about Lisa Lisa, the point of her character advocating for gender equality and the idea that women can be just as capable in battle as men? What about George Joestar II, who fought in World War I against Germany and was framed like a hero for it? All of this (attempted) messaging- gender equality, anti-racism, anti-genocide- are things that do not fall in line with a pro-Nazi line of thinking. Not only that, but remember, you also have the fact that in the beginning, Nazis were explicitly portrayed as bad. They were treated as evil for having the goals that they did. You saw the way that they brutalized minorities and viewed every other nation and people as inferior to them, and it was framed as harmful.

 This is where my opinions get more complicated. While the portrayal of Nazism in Battle Tendency is an unforgivable oversight regardless of its original intent, I do not believe that Battle Tendency was intending to send a pro-fascist message. I just do not think that a writer with a truly positive view of Nazis would put scenes like Stroheim’s sexual abuse, slaughtering of clearly innocent prisoners, and blatant irrational German ultranationalist beliefs into the story. So, then… How did this end up happening?

 I think that there are a couple of underlying problems that led to this. The first one is the broken way that Battle Tendency treats its antagonists. When Stroheim and the Nazis were being more appropriately portrayed as evil, it was before the Pillar Men were introduced into the story- Santana and the others were still in their “dormant” states, so they were not yet a threat. Stroheim was Joseph’s main priority in stopping as he was the biggest threat introduced so far, and so he was treated as a villain.

 The moment that Stroheim’s portrayal flips can be pinpointed to when he begins fighting the Pillar Men instead of aiding them. The characters, instead of objecting to his help, instead seem to completely forget what Stroheim was doing beforehand and accept his and the Nazi’s allyship with little to no fuss. Their attitudes become very lighthearted, with the most negative comments being light teasing about Stroheim’s obsession with German superiority. The Nazis suddenly start being portrayed in a disturbingly positive light as they become recurring characters due to proving useful allies against the Pillar Men; to rub it in, it’s even revealed that Caesar has a friend who’s a Nazi. The Nazis stopped allying with the Pillar Men, so in the eyes of the narrative, they have become the “good” guys.

 Another thing that I think contributed to this is the recurring theme that Battle Tendency has towards honoring power regardless of good or evil. The same thing happened to Straizo, Esidisi, and Wamuu; once they were defeated, the story tries to make you respect them for their fighting strength even though they were evil. It doesn’t matter if they were good or bad, the story says- they were strong, honorable fighters that committed to their beliefs with all of their hearts, which is worthy of respect regardless of morality. After the Nazis were shifted from their “antagonist” role, I think this theme might have been haphazardly applied. Stroheim was a prideful soldier committed to his cause, and so, according to the story, it doesn’t matter if he was an evil, genocidal tyrant hellbent on world domination… he was “honorable”.

 This is the only explanation I can think of; the story simply forgot what kind of character it created. Since Stroheim was not with the main bad guys anymore, and he was “honorable”, he became an ally, even if that means ignoring his vile actions and beliefs to paint him in that light. What was previously a genocidal fascist is suddenly now a goofy exaggerated nationalist who’s ultimately a brave soldier at heart. The fact that Stroheim is a totalitarian and a murderer with no difference in desire from the Pillar Men has to be greatly downplayed and eventually just forgotten about. 

 I don’t think I need to explain how this is bad writing. The story introduced a threat that is just as severe, if not more so than its main villains, but did not have the desire to deal with that conflict- so instead, it opts to make fascists the good guys out of the blue, which is monumentally thoughtless even in the most charitable lighting you could give it. While I believe that this messaging was likely accidental, that does not change what this botched writing ends up signaling to the viewer. When it comes to Nazis in fiction, you have to be careful with the way you portray them- something Battle Tendency did not do. Ultimately, nothing will excuse the fact that this part made a Nazi a good guy, and I wouldn’t blame anybody for skipping Battle Tendency or even dropping the series entirely for that.

---

 My issues with other parts are to do with typical writing flaws and maybe some mishandling of subjects that ultimately does not ruin the entire story. Battle Tendency, though, has flaws overpowering any of its strengths to the point where it’s nearly unwatchable for me. I have no desire to read the manga or rewatch the anime for this part and I’m honestly glad that it doesn’t get acknowledged very much going onward. What’s a shame is that there are a lot of good things about it- the antagonists were great, the protagonist was entertaining, and I like many of its themes and how it expands part one, but overall, it’s just not good.

[dimiclaudeblaigan]

it's so interesting for me to hear that houses localization changed the script to vilify(?word?) the church bc when i played the game (i recently finished my first and so far only playthrough in lions route) for the first half of the game i was waiting for the shoe to drop to reveal the church is the big bad guys but it never came and the revealed was actually ed. idk if it should have been obvious but i was too focused on suspecting the church to see it or if it was actually subtle as i tend to be oblivious to hints(¿word again?) given in media lol.

idk where im going with this but i hope it makes at least some sense bc i am so sleep deprived rn

and the thing tou said about Henry being changed i am so curious of that too

hope you have a nice day and better sleep than me!

I'll answer the last part first since the rest is more descriptive.

Basically Henry went to Wizard School (tee em) and it was a cool and great experience. In JP, it was... iirc basically close to torture/hellish? It was a more mature situation/topic, but the loc changed it to be silly and fun sounding. For some reason Treehouse in particular seems deeply if not fatally allergic to mature topics and/or properly handling them.

Thank for about the sleep comment and I assure you, I sleep too often!! I wish I could send you some of my sleep and make it extra quality for you. :(

As for Three Houses, yeah, in AM it doesn't really happen that way. Nobody is really vilified (not even the imperialist warmonger invading neutral lands!) in AM (same with AG in Hopes).

What you saw/understood was the whole point! It was made it look at first like the Church was suspicious, but then the reveal was meant to be no, it was a fellow house leader all along. That was what the red herring part about the Church was all about. You were supposed to suspect the Church at first, hence Jeralt's warnings, and if you're playing GD, Claude's suspicions.

Unfortunately what happens in the other routes, especially in CF, is that Rhea's trauma is never explored, no characters stop to understand her motivation, etc. She's just used as the resident bad guy because she's Edelgard's enemy. Basically, you're seeing it from the point of view that Rhea is bad because you see it from Edelgard's perspective... but it fails to work because the game, in particular the localization, amps Edelgard up as a huge progressive hero. AM is the only route that really confronts her about her "views", and even then, it's a mess because all the things she argues with Dimitri about aren't her end goal (i.e. they don't ever end up actually happening in the vast capacity she claims she's going to do).

About Edelgard:

The localization avoids any particularly negative comments about her and changes or outright removes them (true of Hopes as well). In Dimitri's case it would make sense because of their connection, but when it ends up just being another route in the pile of feeling sorry for Edelgard (and... not Rhea, who had her family massacred and their bones turned into weapons), it just feels stale.

They basically tell you Edelgard is very cute and easily embarrassed, and she's just this headstrong progressive woman fighting For The People (tee em). The truth is (as per the game itself, i.e. content they can't change/localized because it's the contents of the game itself) that she's invading innocent lands, conscripting her own citizens, turning her citizens into demonic beasts to add to her military strength (lelz when u can't even rely on ur nation's own military strength without demonic beasts), and victim blaming anyone who fights back (if you have yet to see the extremely infamous "no u" line from Edegard to Dimitri in CF, you've been blessed) among other things.

They basically shove it down your throat, characters and narrative both (in the loc in particular), that Edelgard is good and just, while the story itself is looking at all that like ???. The JP script still tries to take good care of her and her image, but they're a lot more blunt about her/her goals (i.e. they don't dance around them nearly as much).

The localization showers what she does with love and attention, and even when they have to say she's the problem/aggressor, they still pretty it up as much as possible (such as Dimitri wondering if maybe her vision of society could possibly be just and righteous, instead of outright admitting what she's done is absolutely atrocious when it's way worse than anything he ever did, all of which he admits to doing and takes responsibility for).

The JP version is more clear on her being the villain. There's definitely bias toward her (as the writers were, confirmed by an interview), but it doesn't slap you in the face with it nearly as badly. Also, Dimitri has won a character popularity poll every year since the game's inception in Japan. In the west, Edelgard is much more popular than she is in the east. That, of course, is because of the way the loc pushed the writing for her/about her.

Edelgard's "progressive" stuff is supposed to be just propaganda (which is ultimately, even as per the western endings because there's only so much they can change). The way the loc frames it is that it's actually what she's aiming for. It's what she uses to inspire people to fight for her though, not what she's actually doing.

About Rhea:

This one's the real doozy because it's a victim of the above. Since they wanted to pretty up Edelgard's dialogue and make her A Hero (tee em), they needed whoever her main enemy was to be the "villain". Since Edelgard, now popular because of the tweaks in her dialogue, hated and wanted to kill Rhea, so too did her raging fans who gave no fucks whatsoever about any character who opposed her... even if it was just to save their own life!

They changed the tone of Rhea's voice in the loc to make her more angry and villainous sounding, rather than sad or kind. She was basically altered in the loc to make Edelgard look better. Like, of course, in the perspective of playing a villain in CF, she's the bad guy and the enemy. The problem comes when they have Rhea say things that are more aggressive than in the original script, and change her tone to sound demeaning and vicious (when she was otherwise not or not as much).

But like, why? The only reason any of us can think of is because they wanted to market Edelgard more. This is likely a result of the west's views and especially political views, since Edelgard's pretty words would sound good to a westerner's political beliefs... until you dig into them/the actual story content more.

Rhea also being the head of a Church probably got tweaked because of the west's recent irl views on religion. Religion in the west has been looked poorly upon in recent years. Instead of accepting this is just a fictional game though, the loc team just... pushed that they're Really Bad.

Rhea is more of a victim of them needing someone to be worse than Edelgard to make Edelgard look like less of a villain (which again, this isn't the case in the original script nearly as much), and they couldn't use Thales/the Agarthans because you were allied with them in that route.

The other characters vs Rhea as a villain choice:

The goal wasn't to make a playable lord a villain in the loc's case. It was the intention of the original script with Edelgard, but the loc tried to make her actions sound more justified because ??? like idk, I can't wrap my head around them justifying what she does.

Dimitri isn't handled too badly by the narrative itself and he's overall seen as a good person (even the loc didn't alter that or Edelgard's ablest mentality toward a mentally unwell person), so he wasn't really a good candidate for all that. Also, Dimitri's story is one of recovery, and because they ventured into mental illness, he wasn't a good candidate. He was treated well and pretty fairly (Edelgard not treating him particularly well makes sense with her character, but the narrative itself doesn't push him as being a monstrous person. Even in the time he considers that he was, there's depth, logic and complexity to the situation).

Claude being the main bipoc character would have just been an all around disaster if the loc or even original script tried to make him the top villain, yadda yadda (understandably). There was no chance that was going to go over well, especially in the west (have you seen the shitstorm GW caused? And that was with the writing not considering him a villain!!). He was basically safe from the get go as far as villainy if they writers/localizers didn't want serious backlash (there are discussions about the overall treatment of poc characters in Houses/Hopes, but I can guarantee it would've been legit backlash if he was made to be a genuinely and intentionally horrible person, so that wasn't really an option if they wanted this game to actually sell and be enjoyed).

So since Rhea isn't playable and is the head of a Church, that kind of makes her the only candidate. Players will get attached to the other lords and not like killing them, so it won't feel like a badass victory to kill them. I guess for some reason the loc team just... hated Rhea or something?

Dimitri's death in CF is either extremely sad and garners audience sympathy, or in the other version of his death in CF it's clear his mentally stability is starting to break right before he's killed, which in and of itself is another topic. Claude is either free to go by choice of the player or can be killed, and his death is sad and he's not villainized. Aside from how some characters treat Claude's death (in contrast to Dimitri's which is never outright villainized even by Edelgard), the scene meant for the player at the time it happens is supposed to leave a bad taste in your mouth.

So again, it really just leaves the loc team with the option of Rhea if they want to make the final battle seem like a big victory for the player. VW also has its big happy victory, and surprise surprise, Rhea dies in that route (offscreen no less!).

SS kills off Rhea but actually makes it sad, and it's, you know, actually the route that focuses on her/the Church most. AM doesn't kill her off and doesn't treat any character death as a badass victory, and instead gives a bittersweet ending (which again would be in line with Dimitri's connection to Edelgard, and it only feels botched down because of all routes obsessing over her).

So while, technically, the writing in the JP script wasn't trying to make Rhea as bad as the western version of the game, if the loc wanted to go for that, she was the best option. It just... came at the expense of butchering her character to make Edelgard shine, which shouldn't have been done but it was.

[kindahoping4forever]

I miss your fics. I hope you’re doing well tho

I appreciate this, thank you 🥹

For the record, I miss my fics too! This unofficial hiatus has been out of necessity rather than choice, and I can honestly say there hasn't been a day where I don't fantasize about A Grand Return. 💙

[gh-0-stcup]

One thing that's so odd to me about the Eugenia Cooney thing is how there's still people who think she's in denial about her ED.

She knows. She was in a treatment program, she mentioned in it Shane's "documentary". The people who are wondering what she's saying to convince doctors (and the recent crisis team) that she's fine kind of boggle my mind.

She just tells them the truth. That she has an ED and either that she's trying to work on it by herself or that she does not want to get better. It depends on where you live, but very often medical professionals aren't going to bother putting limited resources towards someone who does not want the help.

She can say, "Yes, I'm anorexic. Yes, I know I could die. No, I don't think going somewhere would help but thank you for the resources." Whether they decide that's grounds for commitment or not depends on the laws of her state and the personal judgement of those evaluating her.

Leaving her to die and moving on to the people who are in her same physical state but begging for help isn't exactly a wild decision.

[zorkaya-moved]

zarina had the biggest character development arc in obey me out of all verses tbqh.

all because: 1) she is in a position where she is literally at the bottom of the food chain. she came from the human world. she was AT THE TOP of the food chain, fought her way there, suffered her way through there, but got there. in devildom? in the celestial realm? she's like a dust particle before ancient powers. it hits her pride, but also slams her survival mindset: how can I survive and flourish? how can I protect my family from this??? 2) forced to accept that aside from humans, angels and demons are actually real. and witches too. which means that there are far more things to take into consideration when she lives on 3) her survival instincts kick in a bit too hard in the beginning because she has 0 information, and it means getting it at any means possible while making sure she won't die. 4) almost dying countless times because of some of the demons' inability to control their power, attempt to use their powers on her, or plains lower demons trying to get at her with pranks that could end in death if she wasn't smart/quick enough or she didn't have one of the brothers by her side 5) her masks don't work on demons like lucifer, diavolo, barbatos... it's hard; the fact that they see through her acting rubs her the wrong way. it was usually her being able to play her way out of any situation, but here it just doesn't fucking work. she needs to learn new techniques, be smarter, be quicker, be more adaptive. they force her to be less stubborn and learn flexibility 6) accepting magic because now it's an essential skill. she didn't want to learn magic at all because to her it felt like it goes against all of her hard work with working out, with studying, with military training, etc. however, she sees it's essential... and even... fun. and it's challenging 7) she had to ... forgive belphegor. for killing her. in the timeline she appeared in. she watched him, learned about him, but she'll never forget that. she'll NEVER forget that. but she forgave him. that's a massive fucking character development. it was the hardest thing for her to do. i mean, if she forgave other brothers for ALMOST killing her (aside from mammon), then she concluded it was logical to forgive him as well. logical. rational. yes. 8) understanding that in those 2 moments when she was 'supposed' to die, lilith's spirit actually protected her and saved her. meaning that if not for lilith, she would've died. twice. in the human world. thus, her accepting that she owes to lilith to ... understand the demons, the angels, and these news worlds. she owes it to her. 9) when she became a threat to 3 worlds and had to choose between stabbing herself or lucifer to sever the contract, she concludes that - yes - she doesn't want to die, but if it means protecting her family in the human realm and those people she came to care about, then she'd rather die herself. she's a human. but there are pillars of powers like lucifer who must live on to keep the balance. so, yes, stabbing herself was done out of 'i'm not as important in terms of power as thes people are, but also I have those I need to protect.' 10) luke got the best treatment right away because he reminded zarina of her youngest brother aleksey. but simeon? took a bit. she didn't trust his kind nature at all because she thought that angels are less trustworthy than demons due to how cynical she is, but... took year(s) to understand that he is genuine. she also apologized for her behavior because she's an adult and she must acknowledge her wrongdoings.

Zarina, altogether, remains the same: ambitious, confident, and adaptive. A survivor and fighter at heart. She has to learn how to be less judgemental, how to look at others in a new light, and be honest about her experiences with emotions. About how and why she behaves the way she does. How her past affected her. She needs to learn to trust and let them in, which she hadn't done since her team. Building relationships with others may take time, but it does develop. She's still selfish, but she is FORCED to learn to be more flexible. She is FORCED to break out of that ice. She is FORCED to face the changes.