#this isn't the end of the arc AT ALL
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I try not to get too rambly lately because I am indeed busy (trying to finish a Patreon piece rn!), but... I'd say this moment warrants it.
I have spent over a decade building up to this chapter and its developments. It's very much the climax of the entire story. The journey we've been on was always meant to lead us to this, for all emotions to come to a head, for all threads to converge right where they shall.
To make it clear just how long ago I intended for this particular plot point, I hereby present all evidence needed:
This is a scanned old artwork from a long time ago. I've kept it quiet for ages, showing it only to a few people, because I didn't want to give away too much pertaining how Gladiator would unfold.
This piece was scanned on November 11th, 2014, according to the properties of the file. While of course I was nowhere near the level of quality I am at now, this piece, at the time, was one of my unquestionable best. In fact, I remember @jordanalane straight up asking me if I had asked someone else to draw this, because it seemed sooooooooo beyond my style back in those days... I was pretty flattered by that, even if maybe I should have been proud and said OF COURSE it was me! 🤣But the point still stands, it was a rarity for me to do something of this quality 10 years ago, even if I absolutely could remake it and outdo it now.
What I'm saying is simply that I've spent a long, long time working towards this endgame. Once I realized where we were headed, the direction of Gladiator became kind of immutable in my head. It was the ending that made sense. The development that would bring everything together properly:
Our story started with these two clashing, as enemies, and altering their lives forever by what appeared to be a mere coincidence.
In that instance, Sokka was completely overwhelmed. He wasn't strong enough to fight one-on-one against Azula. She had the upper hand at every point in time. That was the starting point of Sokka's gradual power climb: he faced an unbeatable foe who then became his greatest ally, helping him become so much stronger than he ever knew he could be...
... Leading up to this: once again, they face each other as enemies, after what feels like a lifetime of bonding and sharing incredible adventures, growing together and becoming better people by each other's side. Both grew stronger across time... but Sokka, undoubtedly, had the steeper power climb. Thus, the outcome this time is nowhere near as straight-forward as it was back when the story began.
Sokka's growth was meant to bring him here, to face his worst possible enemy, and this time, actually have a chance to prevail. What most people surely didn't expect all along was for this worst-enemy to be Azula, of all people, after everything they've been through. But what exactly will he choose when he finally has a chance at victory against her? Can he stay true to who he is... or will the pressures destroy him?
Near the start of the story, Piandao warned Azula to be careful, for if she broke Sokka to the point where he no longer knew who he was, Sokka would lose his greatest strength. He warned her not to turn him into someone he was not. It's a thread that has been dangling all throughout the story, sometimes easily forgotten, but ever-present nonetheless: in pushing matters to the extent Azula has, is Sokka's true self lost now? Or will he cling to it still, even in the face of likely death, all be it to make an unthinkable choice that might just change the fate of the world...?
:')
Guess you'll find out on Friday! :'D
Preview: Gladiator Chapter 374
As memories of better times rush through their minds and hearts, Sokka and Azula collide on a battlefield, as enemies, for the first time since their fateful encounter in the South Pole. The armies around them remain at a standstill, waiting for the outcome of the duel between Princess and Gladiator.
One will hesitate. The other will demand for no mercy. As steel and flames clash furiously, the fate of the world shall hinge on the choice the victor shall make, upon facing a defeated foe: will the blade strike down...?
Or will they surrender?
Read Gladiator HERE or HERE
For a snippet of the new chapter, support me on Patreon!
#well... well#we're in it now aren't we :')#this is the point where you lot will decide between killing me or loving me I guess#I shouldn't be so nervous about this story's climax#but I've been doing this for eleven years and I know there's always going to be dissatisfaction#sooooooo might as well just roll with it#anyway#IT HAS BEGIN#THE REUNION IS A THING#AND YOU GUYS WILL FINALLY UNDERSTAND MY ARTWORKS#at least two or three of em I think#four if you count the one I put in the read more but I don't think any of you knew about that one#because I sat on it#like a dork#for ages#:'D#almost 10 exact years no less#I really hope you guys will enjoy how things turn out#this isn't the end of the arc AT ALL#but we're headed towards all the big explosions in figurative and literal senses alike!#let's goooooooooooooo!#gladiator preview#gladiator chapter 374#gladiator
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I'd contribute a tiny bit to the pro-Zutara side when it comes to the idea of Katara in the role of a co-ruler of the Fire Nation.
I understand where the negative arguments are coming from, how it's especially "shocking" if she enters the royal family (one which led the oppressive regime which waged war for 100 years and caused so much devastation);
however, firstly it is really no longer that family. Zuko committed high treason, almost died TRICE for that and still kept steady on that course, rejected his family, the family's terrible ideas about the world and both Ozai and Azula were imprisoned. Nobody supporting the old ways is still there. I don't understand negative arguments which treat Zuko's early background, lineage, political role (which may be incredibly undefined as the entire nation is being restructured, it's fantasy) as a more important factor than him as a person. He treats others with respect after undergoing redemption, he's demonstrably empathetic, he's working on undoing as much damage the Fire Nation has caused as possible, he was ready to die for these things. Secondly, why should a job or a title in a fantasy setting be a more relevant argument than love? If love was real and strong: if there's mutual respect between two people, understanding, cooperation, splitting of tasks, mutual care, communication on how to tackle problems, this is much more important and holds more weight than whether or not a role granting political power is from this or that side.
From what I've seen, the dominant headcanon for Zutara is that it wouldn't be oppressive to her but instead allow her to affect the world. It makes sense, most people want their favourite characters to be happy - AND there's no canonical evidence to suggest that being a co-ruler of the new Fire Nation would be a terrible, oppressive, restrictive position. Sure, there can also be headcanons where duty to other parts of the world might be too heavy and they split Zuko and Katara up, but this is a Tragedy trope and it only exists when there's incredibly strong love between them underneath this. So even this argument ends up supporting zutara.
I think that any arguments that use outside reasons why their relationship would be terrible are in the end much weaker in philosophy, compared to arguments about whether or not there are strong feelings between them. This is fantasy, love is an incredibly powerful force. And audience wants to believe in the power of love.
Now, if you ask me, I'd say I believe two characters absolutely do not need to have an on-screen kiss or anything completely explicit in order to convey that yes, they have deep feelings for each other. Shipping comes down to preferences, many people certainly simply Do Not Vibe with Zuko as a personality or whatever. However, this is a separate thing from what the characters are written as doing, how they are behaving in each other's company and how they treat each other.
So I'd say, if Katara loves Zuko (and vice-versa), then that's fullstop. Anything else is just an obstacle in their way which they'd tackle together.
#zutara#Isn't this hopeful?#Isn't this powerful#wouldn't his redemption arc be so complete that two from opposite sides could be together?#he is worthy of her that's the point#Why shouldn't viewers also project themselves onto Zuko after all? He ends the story as a hero
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teen wolf meme: [3/5] motifs -> resurrection
It's different now. I think dying did something to him. It did something to me, too. But none of it was good.
#teen wolf#lydia martin#kate argent#tracy stewart#scott mccall#peter hale#jackson whittemore#derek hale#hayden romero#twedit#twgifs#mine#my gifs#twmeme#yes i'm aware that it can definitely be argued whether resurrection is a motif in teen wolf or just a recurring plot device#and while it's certainly not a symbolic motif like fire and water was previously#the way it's utilized within the show does make me read it moreso as a motif than just plot#like water it's used to communicate an internal change but the ways it differs from water is that it usually occurs at the end of a#narrative arc whereas water typically appears at the beginnings#water is used to signify a character's beginning descent into something new and the resurrection is once that change is completed#jackson's arc in season two is started with his submersion in water and it's ended with his resurrection#and lydia's arc in eichen house in 5b is much the same with her in the river in her mind at the beginning and then her dying and coming bac#at the animal clinic#even lydia's arc in season two can be read within these parameters#it begins with her in the hospital shower as she digs hair out of the water and ends when she resurrects peter#so while yes there is a reversal there and lydia isn't the subject of the resurrection she is the agent of it#which honestly the same can be said for theo in 5a#basically what i'm getting at here is that my reading of the resurrections in teen wolf as a motif is very valid and you should all agree#also i completely forgot about jackson's resurrection until i was literally writing these tags so i had to go back and make a gif for that
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I don't think Jayce and Viktor literally died. They were kind of pulled into another dimension/astral plane/whatever you call it. We see older Viktor, and while it could be another Viktor, I think it would be more meaningful if it was our Viktor, finally free from the arcane, going through the universe with Jayce, fixing timelines together. Kind of like a cosmic mission.
#jayvik#arcane spoilers#arcane season 2#arcane#the yaoi isn't as doomed as it seems#i mean arcane s2 wasn't perfect#and jayvik left me feeling colder than expected#they played a huge role in the end and they barely had screentime this season????#i will always love jayvik tho#otp otp i adore them#jayvik screentime isn't the only issue I have with season 2 tho#the way piltover vs zaun was treated.........#“omg if we work together we can solve our differences” what differences tho there was a clear power imbalance and police brutality I'm????#plus jink's “death” was kinda forced and weak?? so last minute??? like I know she isn't actually dead but yeah#and sevika????? where's my wife?????? she did NOTHING on act 3???? did she even talk????#also mel has never been my favourite bc they mainly used her as a plot device and a romantic interest to a male character which suckss#but in s1 she started to show vulnerability in the end??? even early s2??? like girl where is all of that??#that's WAY more interesting than the “tough serious warrior” character she's become#anyway everything happened too quickly#too much time spent on noxus shit#ooooh i wonder what the next show is going to be about hmmmm#and so many things weren't explained#everything surrounding viktor and the arcane and what happened to jayce and viktor was kinda foggy#also wtf is sky doing there???? it should have been little viktor or something idk#plus where are caitlyn's dictator arc and vi's boxer arc?? they barely lasted???#and maddie should have been more prominent if she was working with ambessa? we barely saw her (or ambessa) manipulate caitlyn#also ambessa's plan wasn't 100% clear either so I'm guessing that plot line (and singed's???) will appear again sometime
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recently i've been thinking about rowan omondi in terms of the "supportive black best friend" trope. i've had this idea for a while that it would be interesting to see a story that deals specifically with the psychological effects of being the designated "support friend", especially in cases where that character addressing/expressing their own emotions and advocating for themself would be stigmatised because of their race... and obviously, rowan fits into this neatly, actively repressing and refusing to talk about his feelings because he isn't usually given this sort of support by his friends, it's usually him who's supporting them. and i guess on a metatextual level, once he begins to address his own emotional repression and step down from that support role, you could view it as him becoming cognisant of his own role as the "supportive black best friend".
#iwbft#rowan omondi#this post is absolutely cracked because it's my personal theory/lens/interpretation/story idea that i have literally never shared before#and then applied (as if it's a well-established interpretation/lens) to someone who is. not the main character of his respective work#and listen. we all love rowan. i just think ive thought about him way more than most people#i'm thoroughly uncertain of whether i've explained myself properly here. idk how much the conjecture of rowan's arc post-iwbft#is common sense to other people. and stuff like that#BUT! i hope you enjoy this post nonetheless#i would also like to say this isn't a criticism of IWBFT. i dont think alice was at all ignorant of the role she was writing rowan into#by making him an overly-supportive friend who also happens to be black#(in fact i think the specific way rowan's emotional repression displays itself is a deliberate subversion of what would otherwise be#a very archetypical role for a black character)#yea. im just positing a lens im not levying criticism at IWBFT or alice#osemanverse#thunder rambles#(these thoughts actually first came about when corinna brown was first talking abt tara's arc in s3. and then i thought about it again#when i watched timestalker and jacob anderson's character basically just gives up being the support character at the end LMFAO)
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...Something's kinda hitting me, guys. I think something just clicked.
So we all know that BB!DOTC is the arc I'm not staying faithful to, right? A lot of characters are getting total overhauls? I'd actually been dancing pretty heavily around the pro-colonialism themes in the original text, simply because I don't really feel comfortable handling them (same with certain sexual themes, it's not great for my mental health to force myself to engage with certain elements that are triggering)
So I'd made it so there was Park Cats (Wind Coalition and River Kingdom) who arrived relatively recently, and Tribe Cats (Sky's Clan, Shadow's Clan) who nestle into an unclaimed spot in the forest. All groups roughly equal in power until Thunder's Clan which was existing in defiance.
But Clanmew isn't JUST comprised of Parkmew and Tribemew-- there's a third contributor. Old Townmew, which mixes with Parkmew and forms Middle Townmew, mixing again with Clanmew to create Modern Townmew.
Since I'm now really thinking about the colonialism themes, especially in my re-read where it starts reaching its narrative conclusion in Books 5 and 6... I think I need to add that 3rd cultural group. I need to make them a player. I think I'm doing a serious disservice by only having the Park Cats, Tribe Cats, and then saying all others mostly lived in the town.
I'm gonna do a BB!Brokenstar with Slash. Previously I'd just cut him completely-- but I think I should, instead, walk him back from being "Pure Evil" like he is in-canon and make him into a real character.
One Eye's a god drawn to the festering stink and rot of the First Battle; Slash is a mortal, leading a group like any other in the Forest Territories.
I think I'm also going to significantly bump up the time the Park Cats have been in this territory. Slash and his cats have been fighting them for years, and until the Mountain Cat influx, were basically spread through most of the Forest.
#Since BB!DOTC starts with leaving the mountain and ends with the First Battle#I'll also have a lot of time to explore Thunder interacting with all of these cats#Something often misunderstood is that Colonialism isn't... new.#It didn't come from capitalism. People have invaded and subjugated native groups for eons#What's new is how refined imperialism made it and how it's down to a bloody science now#I have plenty of cats to populate these groups too unlike newer material#Better Bones AU#BB!DOTC#I might have Slash and Thunder's groups eventually merge towards the end#That would make sense as to how Thunder's Clan was seemingly suddenly on a similar standing to Sky's#...could be a prettyyyy badass ending to the 'thunder ties to do a ton of diplomacy' arc by having him realize-#-his group has a LOT more in common with Slash than all the bigger groups#Kind of subvert DOTC's message by having him believe Slash IS a bloodthirsty monster who hates love and friendship#And then he realizes at some point. That was a fucking lie#That's sounding pretty good to me actually what do youse think
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Happy birthday Sakura & congratulations for the conclusion of Clear Card Arc!! ✨✨✨✨
#cardcaptor sakura#card captor sakura#clear card arc#ccsakura#clamp#sakura kinomoto#syaoran li#akiho shinomoto#yuna d. kaito#I definitely wanted all of them together to celebrate the conclusion of the story#kinda had to rush it towards the end#of course these celebrations had to happen during a national holiday when I was busy otherwise#so yeah it isn't perfect but I tried to finish it since this one has been hanging around for 5 months
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s5 episode 2 thoughts
i wrote the following episode writeup two days ago, and still, there is so much to process. but let past me take over as we begin our adventure into some DELICIOUS angst with a happy ending content:
i wasn’t going to watch this episode tonight because i am feeling tired and sick, but then i scrolled down a little bit and read some of the next episode’s descriptions, and boy. i want answers. which i will not receive if i do not watch the episodes prior to them. so. here we are.
i’ve also heard that this episode is really good, so i’m excited to dive in, even if i have a headache while watching it. usually i try to preserve my watching experiences for when i don’t feel ill, but sometimes you just have to push through it.
(it WAS really really REAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLY GOOD. my sickness was not fixed but some other part of me was)
okay. the description... mulder is looking for a cure and the FBI snitch. and he receives help from an unlikely source…. is it krycek??? let us see
(it was not krycek)
we begin with the recap, and again, the combination of skinner’s gruff “call a doctor” while holding scully's limp body and mulder’s defeated face at hearing the vial just has water in it is crazy
mulder is at the hospital at 5 am!!! he’s looking for scully :( no one is helping him!! he is getting maaaaad omg
“i’ll calm down when i have a REASON TO CALM DOWN!!”<- OHHHH he is always going to cause a scene in a hospital. someone please pair up this scene with one breath to make a nice matching gifset thank you <3
the doctor wants to know who tf he is when skinner comes out of the room!!! OH FUCK, I FORGOT SKINNER THOUGHT HE WAS DEAD LMAOOOO “you move pretty good for a dead man” <- well yes he does!
“i’m only half dead” now what do you mean by that… is he saying that without scully he is only half alive.......
oh skinner is PISSED! he is following him into scully’s room… please save the fighting for when she is not trying to get rest, thank you very much
oh my GOD, mulder sees her in the room and he literally has to put his hands on his knees and breath, and he cannot do it… holy fuck… he asks skinner what happened, and when he doesn’t answer right away he asks “DUE TO WHAT?” again, and skinner has to say she’s dying
(i immediately hit replay to watch him collapsing in on himself and gasping for air again. pain. pain and angst. feels good. like pressing into a bruise)
SKINNER AND MULDER START FIGHTING???? throwing hands. “don’t make me put you under arrest. DON’T” <- this is escalating. very quickly. we haven’t even had the intro yet. holy fuck.
(my skinner and mulder angst heart is deeply satisfied)
oh my god… how he’s watching her through the window……………..
the intro was cut short, but i expected this
ohhhh no, mulder is here before section chief blevins… he’s in troooOOooOouble!!!
“the fact of you being here alive, it gives the effect of shaping this investigation into something altogether different” <- well yeah. that is very much the case. let's all state the obvious together.
blevins and the squad seem to be surprisingly patient with him as they explain they need to know who the real dead guy found in his apartment was. they say, well, you know, this is going to be a murder charge. so please say something to help yourself out here. and he says idgaf bye <- LEGENDARY!!!
ohhh skinner is following him out… skinner says he has been withholding evidence. he knows mulder shot the guy, killed him, then shot him again to hide his identity!!!! woahhhh!!! this is huge!!!!
skinner tells him to admit why scully lied on his behalf, and he says that her disease was given to her by someone at the FBI. he takes a moment to process that, then asks who, and there is a whole lotta guilt in mulder’s reply: “i failed to find that out, sir” <- NOOOOOOO i’m sad :(
oh mulder, and your intrinsic, ancient guilt.......
“you don’t want to forget who your friends are, agent mulder- to remember who you can trust” <- oh my god oh my gooooood. you KNOW i am a SUCKER for the whole mulder/scully and skinner dynamic, and he knows that skinner made the deal with the devil for him but scully doesn’t know that and she doesn’t trust skinner and oh my goooosh
mulder nods, while skinner watches him leave. i hope he has taken this talk to heart.
section chief blevins is at the racetrack again with CSM?? and he’s watching senator kennedy speak about human cloning. which seems random. how is he even watching that while at the racetrack? they didn't have ipads
CSM points out he said mulder’s not to be underestimated <- haha yeah THAT’S my boy!!
ohhhh, but blevins knows CSM let him escape…. and CSM isn’t alarmed by this! he’s all smirky, even as blevins says their FBI man has been exposed.
“mulder’s in trouble. he needs help. we can give it to him” “in exchange for?” “his new loyalty. to us” <- WOAHHHH
some dude was behind blevins the whole time and he says “you can proceed now” so is he off to go get mulder???!?!?!
scully is waking up!! OHHHH look at his smile when he sees her…. oh somebody kill me. he loves her SO much
(author's note: tearing up just thinking about this as i make these notes readable. goddddddddd)
she’s so worried that someone is going to see him, but OH MY GOD he grabs her hand, sits on the bed, tells her it’s okay, and kisses her cheek “i’m officially among the undead” <- WAAAAAAAAAH I LOVE HIM
(and while in the moment this only inspired the deepest of affection, i now find myself thinking of a vampire au, and who would be the vampire... but let's get back on track)
she asks what happened, and he says he didn’t come there to talk about that <- YEAH THAT IS WHAT I WANTED TO HEAR!!! you tell her not to worry sweet girl
but she won’t take it, says he doesn’t need to protect her!!! and that is just like her, to die arguing. so he fesses up that he will have to testify everything that he knows
he does NOT want her to worry oh my god “it doesn’t matter” “yes it does” (gently) “hey scully, how about those yankees?”<- OHHHH MY GOD i cannot stop saying oh my god, but what even is there else to say?
i just. he loves her so much. he wants her to relax and be calm and be okay even when she would never let that happen in a million years. and the fact that she is worried about HIM while she is literally dying… bro. i’m emo.
scully is trying to warn him that skinner is the mole, and he’s touching her face, saying no, it’s not him, and oh, i’m melting. my heart is melting.
WOAH WHAT??? she is saying to tell the committe he has to testify before that SHE KILLED THAT GUY??? to keep him safe???
he smiles and shakes his head, saying he can’t do that, but she responds with “mulder, if i can save you, let me” oh my god???
“let me give at least some meaning to what’s happened to me” <- OH MY GOD??????? no no no no no no no.
(the implications here... trying to find meaning... nobility in sacrifice... the religious imagery it inspires....... we need to unpack this at length someday)
OH enter maggie and bill scully, watching as mulder sits on her bed holding her hand, smiling like the dutiful son-in-law he appears to be, which is especially crazy, when you consider the whole “and where has this mulder guy been” thing bill had going on when we last saw him. but mulder says he was just on his way out.
AND he kisses her hands as he leaves… the tenderness which i feel towards this man is so sensitive and indescribable
and oh my god, mulder introduces himself to bill. he says he’s sorry about his sister… but bill has something else to say- WHAT IS IT??
“mr. mulder… i know something about you, about what dana’s been through with you, so… let’s leave the work away from here, okay? let her die with dignity” <- OH MY GOD????? WHAT THE FUCK???????
bill you literally SUCK what the HELL?? you don’t know ANYTHING about what they have been through!!!
he looks like he was just slapped :( and bill goes in and holds her hand while mulder is there just standing opened mouthed, unable to believe what he just heard :(
what the fuck.
bill count ur days.
so now the guy from the racetrack that was with blevins seems to be on the loose with a sniper gun!!
ohhhh, mulder is leaving the hospital when he sees CSM!!!! “please tell me you’re here with severe chest pains” <- JHDJSJDJ okay yes i laughed.
OHHHH he says that the water he got in the facility is essential to scully’s survival???? and that he’s here tonight as a friend?? so they go outside to talk about it… but the sniper, isn’t he loose????
cutscene to the lone gunmen’s headquarters, where mulder is emptying the water vial into a little dish, saying CSM promised him something would be in there. and there is some… thing?? a microchip??
OH! he says that maybe it has to do with when the chip was removed from her neck!! because she got very sick shortly after it was removed!!! woah... that is wild to think about. so maybe if it had stayed in there this wouldn't have happened??? but she would have kept getting abducted because they would have known her location? but earlier someone said it was the procedure that takes their eggs that makes them sick. but how does that involve the alien? who knows. probably not chris carter.
kritschgau is here now; he’s been summoned before the committee
he confesses to giving classified information because he knows what the government is hiding from the people!!!! developing a moral compass late in life
but he denies knowing who killed the guy found dead in mulder's apartment, whose name is scott…
“i’m aware of one connected death, though” <- is he going to say scully???
NO!!! his son, who died that morning!!!!! oh no :( i feel bad now
he says that part of his work comes from a congressional lobbying firm?? called “roush”. blevins and some other guy exchange looks but skinner asks what it means. and kritschgau says idk. well. me neither
back in scully’s room, mulder is being yelled at by bill as he tries to explain the microchip from the tube might make her better. maggie seems to want bill to settle down, while scully is staring hard at it.
she says that everyone has their heart in the right place, but it needs to be her call… oh, so diplomatic… and she decides to try it
bill looks like he wants to kill mulder, and mulder tries to dodge his eye contact. it was very emotionally charged.... but also a little bit funny
so now the sniper guy is back. he’s setting up the rifle, but where???? and to shoot which of our characters???
bill comes out of the hospital room and mulder is working overtime to try and avoid his gaze until he realizes it is impossible.
“see, she’s your big defender, but i think the truth is, she just doesn’t want to disappoint you” <- bro WHAT?? how fucking infantilizing can you be??? just because she’s your little sister doesn’t mean she can’t make her own informed decisions about living and dying??
bill, we are GOING to throw hands at some point
OHHHHHHHH bill blames MULDER for all of this AND for missy’s death……… again…. not very fair…. scully made her own decisions… but if i were bill, i might feel the same if it were my family….
ohhh my god this whole exchange needs to be on my blog:
“has it been worth it? to you, i mean, have you found what you’ve been looking for?”
(mulder pauses, before answering in a whisper) “no”
“you know how that makes me feel?”
“in a way, i think i do. i lost someone very close to me- i lost a sister, i lost my father- all because of this thing i’m looking for”
“this what? little green aliens?”
(mulder looks down, before smiling) “yeah. little green aliens”
“you’re one sorry son of a bitch. not a whole lot more to say”
holy FUCK
1. i love a man who loves so unabashedly and so unapologetically. i love a man with his heart on his sleeve, and i love mulder for this reason, even if he is terribly stubborn and often infuriating. look at him. look how dedicated to the truth he is. look at how much he loves her.
and 2. for their own sake, i hope they elope when they get married, but for the sake of pissing bill off, i hope they get married in a traditional fashion, and he has to sit there and watch and regret everything he said when this inevitably saves her life and they get to grow very old and happy together because of his quest for aliens. and then they say their vows and kiss and bill writhes in the knowledge that he is a mean person. that is all. for now. because i will probably have more to say later.
fuck you bill. all my friends hate bill.
mulder's phone rings… he answers it, saying “one sorry son of a bitch speaking” and it’s CSM??? asking how’s our patient? well. i guess he can take some credit here for the potential recovery, but “our” feels strong.
he says he’s arranged a meeting he will want to attend??? hmm. hmmmmm. hmmmmm. much to ponder here. mulder do NOT make any deals, CSM is a NASTY FUGLY SLUT!!
so mulder’s sitting in a diner, sipping coffee, when someone pulls into the parking lot??? it’s CSM himself.
WITH THE CLONE SAMANTHA FROM BEFORE???
“you know 'em or something?” “i think that’s my sister”, he says to the waitress <- WHAT??
obviously though, he realizes it’s the fake samantha, right? like this trick won’t work on him twice... right?
she looks at CSM and says “my father” <- HUH??
nah, i do not believe it’s her at all. she says she was frightened, and she tried to forget everything from that night. she was told she was going to see her father. and CSM said basically that she was an affair baby and he's the bio dad. and he took her in and was so kind.
nah. i’m not buying it at all….
but mulder is crying……….. he’s had a rough go of it though these past few days, okay?!?!?! so don't be mean to him for believing what HAS to be an obvious lie
he tries to explain that CSM is probably lying to her about many, many things, because he has obviously known mulder’s whereabouts for a very long time, and has never told her
he says that she should come see their mom… but she says she can’t do it, she needs time, she has children of their own, and she won’t tell him where to find her. I DON’T BUY IT i’m glad she left before her mom could see her, because she doesn’t deserve that heartbreak AGAIN.
he assures her they will reunite on her time and he lets her go. even though he very much does not want to. which is a lot for his character. how he lets go of the iron grip he had on her arm...
i wonder if he doesn't believe it, deep down.
she says she’ll think about it, and she leaves, getting into the car with CSM. mulder is utterly gagged.
hmm. HMMM. CSM is trying HARD to get him to pledge to the dark side. but will the same tricks work again???
meanwhile, scully is being injected with something. but she looks so sad as her doctor doesn’t seem hopeful.
she asks if he’s ever seen a miracle, and he says he’s seen recovery from the brink, but he won’t dare call them that
sniper guy?????? has his rife aimed at CSM??? or mulder??? or both???? because they are standing next to each other
they’re meeting up. “you give me these things- the only things i’ve ever wanted- and i can’t think of any reason for you to do so” <- HE’S LYING ABOUT THE SAMANTHA STUFF, HE HAS TO BE. WE SAW A WHOLE CLONE ARMY OF PEOPLE WITH THAT FACE. IT CANNOT REALLY BE YOUR SAMANTHA, MULDER.
but he says he will offer him the truth, about the project. mulder says he knows the truth. CSM fires back that kritschgau was the one lying!!!
“in exchange for what?” “quit the FBI, come work for me” <- WOAH he was shockingly forward there. i can kind of admire that. now please say no, mr. mulder.
AND HE DOES SAY NO!!!!
“what have you given me? a claim of a cure for scully? is she cured?” (oh the way he said that was SO sassy, it felt like a read)
“you show me my sister, only to take her right back” <- again. DID he do that, though?
“you murdered my father. you killed scully’s sister, and if scully dies, i will kill you” TELL HIM BABY!!
“i don’t care whose father you are, i will put you down” OUGHHH GET HIM
sniper guy puts his gun away when mulder leaves!!! so must be it’s mulder he’s after!!!
cut to scully cam… it’s her mom!! she called to see her and gives her a big hug.
“i fight, and i fight and i fight… but i’ve been so stupid” hey what do you mean. hey sweetheart what do you MEAN by that.
OH she is having a crisis of faith…. she feels guilty for being closed off to father mccue. ohhhh....... is the blaming herself for being too scared to turn to god??
she tells maggie she has no improvement, and they hug and they cry; “i know you’re afraid', maggie says, "i know you’re afraid to tell me, but you have to tell someone”
blevins is watching more press about human cloning. is that why they do these experiments with the women? for cloning purposes? is that what i am supposed to believe from this?
blevins calls someone, and sees skinner in the background of the hearings on cloning… now what is he doing there. blevins says their colleague was supposed to fix the FBI problem, and then he will fix it for good… is he talking about the sniper?????
back to scully’s room, where she is sleeping, and mulder is entering. he’s watching her sleep, then laying his head next to her and SOBBING. WHYYYYY???? OHHHHH....... he couldn't bear to wake her up. someone please hit me with a hammer.
then he is here at a meeting with blevins, who says something urgent has arrived. it’s the analysis that shows he fired the shot into the dead guy!!! from an undisclosed source!!! and unless he offers someone else up, all evidence points to him being the killer!!
is he bluffing??? did skinner sell him out?? no, that cannot be it...
blevins claims that scully was going to name skinner as the mole, and that they have found substantial evidence against him, which mulder refuses to believe. well… he is A mole, but not THE or THIS mole!!!
he’s basically saying name skinner and you walk free????? mulder doesn’t answer, just says he’ll see blevins at the hearing. verrrrry shady
he goes back to scully, who asks why he’s here, he has a hearing!! this has never stopped him in the past. and he confesses to having stopped by last night, but not having the heart to wake her up :( she’s asking why…
he says he was going to take the deal with CSM, but changed his mind after blevins tried to get him to implicate skinner!!!
(skinner being his grounding force to returning to his sense of morality... no no no it's fine i'm definitely super cool about that)
scully offers again to take the blame, but he refuses, saying he couldn’t do that to her family or live that lie (the truth motif)
“we all have our faith… and mine is in the truth” <- YESSSSS the comparison to religion in his dedication… everyone has been saying and observing it for the past 4 seasons, but now HE has!!!
“then why’d you come here if you’d already made up your mind?” (laughing) “because i knew you’d talk me out of it if i was making a mistake” <- OHHHH to be known is to be loved…. <3
and father mccue walks in right then!! she says “you’ll be in my prayers” and he kisses her cheek, saying “have the father say a few hail mulders for me, okay?” <- LMAOOO AWWWWW BABY
she’s crying as father mccue walks in and mulder walks out…
and her honesty in telling him that she will pray for him, after running from her own belief for so long; it was as if she thought praying would be a declaration of weakness, and maybe it is, to submit yourself to something higher, to ask for a mercy you cannot earn... but she is going to, and not only for herself on the brink of death, but for her best friend who is going through his own turmoil..... oh scully........
now for the hearing. he's late! fashionably so!
they’re setting the stage- we know that man was killed with your weapon- and mulder says he wants to set the record straight.
skinner asks for a break??? but mulder says he’s ready to proceed….. oooo what are they each getting at…. skinner looks stressed af
he says he was assigned to work with scully, who he thinks was to spy on him…
“that agent scully did not follow these orders is a testament to her integrity as an investigator, a scientist, and a human being” <- YESSS 🔥that is my girl who is motivated by the eternal burden of doing the Morally Correct Thing :,)
he’s explaining that she lied about his death because he asked her to, because she was a victim of the grand conspiracy that is killing her (this is cut with footage of the sniper looking at CSM through the scope of his rifle, and scully praying with father mccue)
he’s saying he will name the people responsible for this tonight!!! but they just want to know if he shot scott!!!! it's getting more and more tense and loud, before we boil over to a yell:
“i can’t do that sir, because the section chief is the man i’m about to name!” (murmuring) <- OHHHHHHHHHH HE DROPPED A BOMBSHELL ON THE VILLA
(we enter slo mo) (sniper fires at CSM) (blevins is shot by some other guy, who puts the pistol in his dead hand) (CSM lays on the floor, bloody, holding the picture of baby mulder and samantha)
DID CSM JUST DIE????? i refuse to believe it. that bitch can’t be killed……. nope nope no way. unless i see his corpse (NOT his headstone or his funeral, his actual CORPSE) i shan’t buy it.
so much just happened????
the next morning, skinner is with mulder at the hospital. who, as if just hearing me, tells mulder that CSM is dead, shot holding the photo of him and samantha
NO BODY WAS FOUND??? but it was too much blood loss for anyone to have survived. so someone took the body?? OR someone brought extra blood to dump on the ground and fake a death!!! makes you think!!
mulder claims he just guessed it was blevins behind it all- do i believe it? or do you think it was his years of solving crimes that allowed him to pick up on it subconsciously? i'm going with that interpretation
and blevins had been on roush’s payroll for four years!!! a biotechnology company!!! for cloning??? for aliens?? and of course all connections are now being erased.
BUT NOT EVERYTHING…. SCULLY’S IN REMISSION!!! skinner is shocked and mulder says it’s the best news he’s ever heard 😭🥺 my BABY
when skinner asks what turned it around, he says he doesn’t know, and they’ll never know…
oh my god, i love that their beliefs combined to cure her… his obsession with the Truth and her literal coming to God, and which of them was actually responsible is entirely impossible to tell. oh i actually LOVE THAT SO FUCKING MUCH. RAHHHHHH THAT IS SO POETIC. their guiding forces in life, and we have no way of knowing which is responsible for her life being saved. but it happened.
and skinner wants to see her!!!! leaving mulder to hold the bloody photograph of his baby self… and he’s crying… it’s been a very long few days for him
oh my god… i need some time to think on this all….
so, 2 days have passed since i watched this episode, and i still have SO many emotions. in no particular order, some things i am dwelling on: bill's cruelty to mulder; mulder smiling as he held scully's hand, trying to distract her; him unable to hold himself up as he sees her in the hospital room; skinner telling mulder to know who his friends are; skinner trying to pause the meeting before it even began so he could offer some sort of advice to mulder; scully crying into her mom's arms, surrendering to god; scully, who knows that mulder is not a believer, and has ridiculed her for being so in the past, telling him that she will pray for him; scully worrying about him when she is the one who is dying; scully reclaiming her agency when she decides that she wants to use the microchip; mulder saying that her remission is the best news he could ever have possibly heard; and skinner going in to see her while she was still surrounded by her family
WAAHHHHHHHHHH
so. a lot on my mind. a very, very, very good episode. i thought the blevins reveal kinda came out of nowhere since he has mostly been a set piece rather than a real character, but honestly, that wasn't the heart of the matter here, so we can disregard it.
i'm not sure how i feel about the potential samantha reintroduction. actually, i do know how i feel: i just didn't much care for it. frankly, i just don't buy it at all, and it felt like a lot to cram into one episode, especially since they've used the whole "is it really her?" plot point before. so it felt like a bit much on top of the already incredibly high emotional stakes.
but other than these thoughts, the episode was fantastic. finally, we get something happy! the potential end of scully's illness! mulder and skinner basking in her presence as she recovers!! her surrender to the omnipotent! his surrender to the truth, but not at the extent of his morals!!! everyone is so happy and the wedding is tomorrow!! i will see you there!!!
(what did you think?? did you like this one as much as i did?? did any moments make you tear up?? anything you noticed that i missed? please tell me!!! i'm really excited and want to chat on the subject :D)
#i am happy :)#angst with a happy ending is the best kind. and the angst here was EXCELLENT too#in the last season it was just too much all at once but here it felt like a natural culmination of what they had been leading to#i hope it takes her some time to recover just for plot and pacing purposes and she isn't just magically all better#because that would make the whole arc feel very unbalanced if this was the end#but. angst with a happy ending. angst with an open-ended space for hope.#sorry to mulder about your sister but we have time to figure it out and CSM is def lying anyway#and i refuse to accept that he is dead. i am not silly. if he IS dead i will lowkey be annoyed because he was consistent#and because i like the way he talks. he's intriguing. and i don't want another deep throat! i want to learn about the ones we already had!#anyway. very good episode. cannot wait to hear what they people think.#juni's x files liveblog#the x files#txf
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alright everybody can we please stop tagging me/talking about me in the notes of pro keefe/sokeefe posts. i know strieefe has made it so that it's really funny to talk about how much i love him and how much i'm in denial when i say negative things about him under those posts (and that's all in good fun and not the problem), but we have to think about the fact that the ops are just trying to make a positive post and probably don't want a keefe hater in their notes /srs
#i'm not mad or anything like that. promise. it's just a phenomenon i've noticed that has slowly started becoming a trend#it just becomes increasingly difficult to respond in a way that stays true to my opinions while ALSO trying not to offend op#so i usually end up ignoring those mentions or reblogging with like “no comment” or something. which isn't fun for anybody#i've had this happen more than once by more than one person. this is a pro keefe/sokeefe post why are we talking about me of all people#i don't want to offend op with my inevitable anti keefe opinions. talking about keefe haters on a pro keefe post is . . . a choice#i make an effort to try to stay out of pro keefe/sokeefe spaces. trust me when i say i have seen whatever post you're tagging me in#i'm a kotlc tag stalker to the core. i have SEEN these posts don't worry. i just don't interact with them. that's all#when i see them i am definitely tempted to go on a rant about how wrong op is about sophie and keefe's dynamic and how it actually SUCKS#or how much keefe is a shitty character with a poorly written arc and atrocious six-year-old humor. i have written about this AT LENGTH#but guys. the notes of a pro keefe post is NOT the place to be summoning me of all people. what do you even want me to say#i've been @ed on posts like “i love sokeefe” “keefe sencen. you agree. reblog” “people that don't understand sokeefe just don't get it”#<- all fake examples btw. but close enough to real posts i've been summoned to#and it's like. i mean yes i COULD go on a rant about how much i thoroughly disagree. but like. it's just not polite. so i won't#atp how am i even supposed to respond to your mention? i don't even know#on top of that if i reblog a pro keefe post with an anti keefe response for all my probably mostly anti keefe followers to see----#----then they'll agree with me. that version will get reblogged and soon there might be more people on op's post that disagree with them#okay this got way more incoherent than originally intended. hopefully it got the point across. and so on#just things to think about! nothing wrong with @ing me on keefe posts just think about how you want me to respond before @ing me----#----or if i will even be able to respond in any real capacity at all#kotlc#kotlc fandom#keepblr
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Skull and Co
Ok so the writing hasn't been going so great (upset stomach + laptop acting on the fritz) but it gave me time to bat around with a new l&co au where Skull and Lockwood's situations are reversed.
Lucy runs away to London and joins an eccentric agency run by a teenage boy who only goes by Skull. He was a talented orphan boy apprenticed by a well known if eccentric spirit researcher and agency leader, Edmund Bickerstaff, who died suddenly a few months ago. Skull chose to continue the agency on his own, hiring George and later Lucy. Lucy and Skull have a caustic but playful banter between them. She is intrigued by this mysterious boy who owns this whole agency not mention the master he still looks up to even in death.
While digging through the basement - looking for supplies bc Skull and George together are a messy, disaster duo - Lucy finds a Source jar in the basement containing a chatty, affable Skull who calls himself Lockwood. He's a boy from the Victorian era who could see spirits clearly back in the day. His parents, also researchers, dedicated time to understanding their child's abilities. They died a few years before Lockwood himself did under mysterious circumstances. Lockwood has intermittent memories of his life and none of his death. Skull is annoyed Lucy dug that old thing up, stupid skull was always making pleading faces at him but Skull can't Listen worth a damn.
The series would follow the agency as they grow as people. Lucy learns more about the wickedness that happened under Dr. Bickerstaff and how Skull had often been forced to particpate. Skull will be coming to terms with his mentor's abusive behavior and realize that he genuinely does want to be a better person. They're also trying to solve the mystery of Lockwood's death which ends up spiraling into the mystery of the problem itself.
#lockwood and co#Skull runs such a disaster agency god bless him#and and George practically turn the whole house into a cesspool of experiments and old coffee mugs and books#Lucy isn't much better#Holly is Beside herself when she eventually comes along#Skulls growth will be accepting that bickerstaff was bad to him and the things they did were bad#There'd be an arc where the agency used to be known for lots of agents dying only to realize bickerstaff was sacrificing them#for his experiments#lucy and lockwood are Constantly Talking and it drives Skull insane bc hes always gonna be a jealous petty little thing#Skull is hiding Lockwood's jar all the time making lucy run around trying to find it while yelling at skull#at least 50% more chaotic than canon#george is vibing bc he can be as weird as he wants and not even COME CLOSE to the weirdness of his roommates#skullyle and locklyle are both valid#maybe lockwood comes to life at the end of the series and skull is like great can I kill him again
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Have we talked about the priest? The way his body marks Wee Morag's death as a heavenly judgment.
Morag is terrified when she sees the priest. She's said she's afraid of how graverobbing will stain her soul (she holds the common belief of the time that desecrating a body will stop that person from entering heaven - Aziraphale's correction that that's not how it actually works is brushed off) but she agrees to help Elpeth get a single body to help them survive. But now that they've done it she's met with the face of holy judgment and Morag is so badly scared that she falls into the gun's trip-wire and ends up dead.
(Something about being met with a dead priest and not a live one - a priest who can no longer offer forgiveness or absolution)
We know this grave robbery is happening with the approval of an angel, but Morag's death feels like a sign that heaven disagrees.
There's something bigger here about the hard-learned morality that Aziraphale is gaining on earth, his growth to understanding the greyness of human morality, and how he keeps reverting back to attributing his view of goodness to Heavenly Goodness. But it's not, it's human goodness. And despite the clear signs that they are different things and heaven isn't interested in his (near-)human perspective, he still can't make that disconnect.
#Azirphales arc in the flashbacks is all about heavenly Good/Evil vs human good/evil#and the way aziraphale keeps learning more about human good/evil while heaven bites back saying thats not what theyre about#but Aziraphale refuses to believe the hard-learned morality he has gained on earth isn't the morality that heaven is beholden to#the connections to the end of Job where Aziraphale has just proved he is so full of human goodness and he feels such enormous guilt about i#good omens#good omens meta#good omens spoilers#Aziraphale#tw death
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im so tireddddd of the "halkenburg is just as bad as benjamin now" hot take. listen a halkenburg villain arc does sound fascinating i won't lie but we are so very far from that point. yes, halkenburg has abandoned pacifism. but also have you ever considered that pacifism could have... flaws.... when you are an (unwilling) part of a fatally unequal system that children are steadily losing their lives to.
sorry you can't handle a radical but i'm still with halkenburg on this. you'll never get me to side with mr. military industrial complex
#“watch this post age poorly” I DONT CARE#noah fence but these are the same people that call gon a psychopathic monster. nuance is dead.#yes halkenburg is someone with flaws. but you're not about to put this “he's just as bad as the villain” schtick because ppl are dying#like i'll believe it when i see it#but the “well his intentions are good but his methods are flawed” has become such a ridiculous trope in recent media that im just tired#every single one of halkenburg's followers is willing to put their lives on the line for him because they genuinely believe in him#and his ideology#and halkenburg himself is JUST AS WILLING TO DIE FOR THE CAUSE#we are literally seeing this play out before our very eyes#saw someone say he was all talk; good ideas but it was all theory and he crumbled under pressure (yes. actually. they said that)#like im sorry if commitment isn't putting a gun to your own head and pulling the trigger i don't know what is#end of rant.#hxh manga spoilers#txt#screeds#prince halkenburg#hxh#hunter x hunter#hxh manga#succession war arc
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SPOILERS FOR THE GRANDEST GAME!!!!
This is a Brady hate post, because what I said in my review of the book is not enough to express my feelings about him
Looking back, he was acting much older than he was and treated Gigi like a child, despite being only 3 years older than her, which makes the "relationship" weird. And he touched her stomach like that? Even when I liked him, I still found it weird. Knox's reaction was amazing though "She's 18 and I'm 25, I can't see anything"
He kinda took advantage of her skills, she solved most of the puzzle but he still had no hesitation to accept the second chance, even when he barely did anything the entire game. I want to point out how Odette, who we know notices everything, probably saw that Gigi deserved the chance the most and offered it to her first. And even though I think she should've accepted, because she deserves it, I still love how she knew that she didn't earn it like the other teams and denied. That's fair play over here, which is something Brady didn't do, because he actually wasn't even good enough to deserve to stay in the game, he wouldn't have made it without relying on Gigi, therefore kind of cheated his way back in.
He shamelessly lied to Knox and Gigi about his mom being sick to manipulate them in a way, especially Gigi, who took it upon herself to carry them through the game because of this and OFFERED HELP EVEN IF SHE DIDN'T WIN! That's a good person over here!
He also told Knox about their mentor and father figure's death out of the blue? Imagine the shock in Knox, like wtf was that announcement?
PLAYING WITH GIGI'S FEELINGS!!! He got her into him, told her all the things she wanted to hear, just to drop the bomb that it was all a lie? And that he's still in love with Calla? That was such an asshole move of him and I know for a fact that it worsened Gigi's insecurities about not being enough, not having anyone to love her and being too much even more! He was too good to be true and I hate how I fell for his lies along with her
Some of this might be over exaggerated and maybe I'm too blinded by the betrayal but I don't care! I hope he doesn't have a redemption arc and that she doesn't actually end up with him, because he sucks so much that I somehow ended up rooting for the kidnapper. If you know one thing about me, I DESPISE the kidnapper x kidnapped trope and any dark romance trope in general, which shows how low I'm getting for the sake of my girl's happiness and how low Brady set my standards.
#the grandest game#tgg#tig#the inheritance games#the hawthorne legacy#the final gambit#the brothers hawthorne#gigi grayson#brady daniels#knox tgg#idk his last name#gigi x brady#gigi x slate#I'm literally giving up on my hatered for kidnapper x kidnapped because the other option sucks so much#though they might do it better#maybe I'll actually like it this time#if it turns more into enemies to lovers where he doesn't want to hurt her but is forced to#which is actually very likely#I'm slowly convincing myslef into loving them#though there isn't much left to convince#i folded when he called her sunshine#i'm conflicted#all i know is that i don't want her to be with brady#idc about who she ends up with as long as it isn't him#i think she'll be amazing in an enemies to lovers arc#with a grumpy x sunshine as a bonus#she looks like the type for such trope#how did i completely change the subject in the tags?
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Alina didn’t choose to have her powers taken from her and she didn’t intend for them to be lost. You can’t say Alina chose her ending when the ending was deliberately forced on her without her consent, and she is actively upset by this.
It has been said before and I will say it again:
Alina explicitly wants her power in the books. She has conflicting feelings on it, which is normal, but does on multiple occasions admit to herself as well as others that she likes the power, that she wants it, and that she does not wish to lose it.
This is not due to a lack of conceptualizing Alina liking her powers and Alina’s greed for power as separate things. This has nothing to do with Alina’s greed. Outside of Alina’s greed for power, she comes to love this part of herself she neglected all her life because she was raised by people who could not understand her and who taught her to be wary of her own people and culture, so much so that she subconsciously avoided dealing with who she actually was.
Equating Alina’s power with her greed is exactly what those oppressing grisha do in justification for their hate crimes. You are using the same logic as a cast of people set on genocide and oppression. Not to mention the direct connection between grisha being based on jewish persecution and how the thing that defines grisha is equated with greed, which is a highly common antisemitic depiction of jewish people.
Alina is the ethnic jew raised by goyim. She is the repressed queer child of homophobic parents. She is everybody who only got to realize and express themselves after finding and connecting with their community late in life.
A story about a persecuted minority hunted because of what makes them different ending with your main character, who is a part of that minority, losing that piece of themselves and being forced to assimilate, is incredibly problematic. And anybody who makes this criticism about “Alina choosing” forgets that Alina is a character who’s only choices are those made for her by the person who wrote her.
Another thing that people constantly misrepresent is that Alina is not happy to be stripped of her powers at the end, and explicitly expresses sadness, grief, rage, and anger about the loss of her powers. This is separate from her finding happiness despite her grief, but the grief never goes away. Which means that anybody saying she was happy to lose her powers or chose to do so is factually incorrect. Her agency is stripped from her in the end.
She doesn’t get to choose the peaceful life because the peaceful life is chosen for her. This is not a natural ending to a meaningful character arc of self realization. This is the regressive and brutal shafting of a character who’s arc was abused at every turn, and who’s actual development was walked backwards. Not because of her powers but because she is prevented from ever finding peace with her powers by the narrative.
She doesn’t have to fight a war ‘because of her powers’. She has to fight a war because her people are fucking oppressed. Laying the blame on what makes her different instead of the people who have singled her out because she is different indicates a severe lack of understanding in regards to racism, persecution, and oppression.
Her powers didn’t become so corrupt that they failed her in the end. She didn’t see the consequences and choose peace to avoid them because she wasn’t allowed to see anything at all. Her path was decided for her before she could even look down the other.
People focus on Alina and her powers because that is the story. It is a story about realizing something crucial about yourself that has been kept from you and repressed your whole life. It is an incredibly important story to tell. It is a coming of age story about self realization and self actualization and finding agency after a life where you realize you had none.
Blaming Alina being grisha for why she is stripped of her grishaness is fundamentally flawed argument. If the greed for power was what was supposed to be punished, then she would only have lost that which she sought in her greed. And if a balance needed to be reached, then there would be just as many sun summoners as shadow summoners in the world. Because she lost more than that and because of the discordance in thematic symbolism, the message becomes a punishment not for “greed” (which shouldn’t have even been the message in the first place for a plot and setting like this), but for something else. It becomes a punishment for her being grisha and coming to love and accept herself for it. It becomes a punishment of reveling in one’s difference. It becomes a statement about living outside of the boxes society tries to place people in. It becomes a message about oppression and assimilation on the side of oppression and assimilation.
The most important criticism about the ending will always be about the framing of Alina losing her powers. Alina choosing peace and love over power as a message would only have been able to work if Alina had been able to choose it. And to do so she would have had to choose it when she still had her powers. That is the only progression her developmental arc of “choosing peace and love” could have taken if it didn’t want to become regressive and strip her completely of her agency.
#grishaverse#shadow and bone#sab#alina starkov#sab salt#sab critical#ruin and rising#sab negativity#sab meta#myramblings#i need to get this off my chest before i explode#this is a vagueblog yes im sorry i had to put all of this frustration somewhere im sorry#this isn't worded very well but i am at my wits end#hopefully after i make this i can go back to focusing on the positive things that i actually like about sab#i actually dont mind the ending (it isn't as if cheap endings dont exist)#but when people come out and say it was good for alina or that she liked it or that the message was in any way a good one?#when it was actively harmful and entirely regressive?#no#alina's arc is a regressive one#which isn't exactly bad#but when it's framed as GOOD well... then there's some bs going on#fandomcourse#negative#negativity#antisemitism mention tw#genocide mention tw
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kinda wild to me that one of the most compelling aspects of both Chuuya and Kunikida's characters to me, that I never really see talked about, is how they're heavily set on a doomed crash course towards complete and utter destruction, and how I am so, so worried for them both.....
#bungou stray dogs#been thinking a lot about chuuya lately (shocking for me i know (said with no sarcasm truly lmao it is rare for me))#cause of the 15 manga and also playing the fucking jeht quest in genshin impact ugh (where's the one dual genshin bsd fan who Understands)#but like this pressure has been building up for chuuya for so long due to being used and manipulated by all these people#first the sheep then mori then verlaine then still mori now#he was groomed since childhood just like dazai#but unlike dazai he didn't have an oda to help him get out of the mafia........ he's still stuck there#and his personality is different from dazai's. dazai was more self-aware imo (but still a groomed emotionally abused kid don't get me wrong#but chuuya's whole thing is needing to belong and wanting a leader to be loyal to but ending up in positions of leadership himself#which makes him feel pressured but he accepts and stifles any negative feelings just because he wants to belong#and all this crushed him with the events in the light novels and yeah he went through character growth but he's...... Still In The Mafia...#and that fucking scene asagiri added to the cannibalism stage play i don't think hardly anyone even knows about bc IT'S NOT DISCUSSED ANYMO#where mori emotionally manipulates him with the flags!!! and it deeply hurts him!!! and he presumably deals with that shit all the time!!!#it is WORRISOME. it WORRIES ME okay.#chuuya doesn't have anyone who can save him from the mafia (dazai is in no position to okay; it's all he can do just to try to save himself#and it's so so scary. it spells awful things for him.#didn't asagiri say he'd have a rough path or something??? and he added that fucking scene in the play!!! it haunts me!!#i fully expected this shit to hit a turning point in the meursault arc but we can't have nice things i guess#and as for kunikida a;lskdfl (took me this long to get to him oop) literally the ending of Entrance Exam (the novel) is just#One Big Foreshadowing for Kunikida's downfall#he's compared to the azure king for a reason. Sasaki saw the azure king in him for a reason. it's fucking worrying!!!!!#there hasn't really been anything like that since in the manga (just like for chuuya lol ugh) but he's TERRIBLE at coping with his trauma#and it only gets more apparent once shit hit the fan in the doa/hunting dogs/meursault arc#it's not good!!! i'm worried for kunikida too!!!!#even if the manga isn't focusing on this these worries are always in the back of my mind man#both kunikida and chuuya are doomed to hit some kind of breaking point eventually and i await those moments with dread yet anticipation#i want dazai to be able to save kunikida from the despair being too good a person brings the way he couldn't save oda#and chuuya.... if we get a scene with him & mori mirroring the one in dark era where dazai finds out that mori orchestrated the kids' death#oh man i think i'll fucking die (give it to me i need to cry)
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Correspondences from Pilot NET #5
[BEGIN CHATLOG]
Expiritus_Sancti: ...something is not right...
70KU-N4H-W4: P! are you alright? we thought we had lost you; what's going on?
Expiritus_Sancti: Everything- everything is- Shoddy? Is that you? I-I'm alive? Oh thank RA, everything's gone to hell, it's-
calibanhammer: Slow down, Phoenix. You're still semi-dissociative. Are you okay?
Expiritus_Sancti: Y-yes, I'm fine. The Albatross got me out safe, but... it's bad. Chernobog beat me there. I was too late.
calibanhammer: Backtalker is dead, then?
Expiritus_Sancti: Presumably - Commodore's entire block was already thoroughly destroyed by the time I got there. Whatever Backtalker was looking for is obliterated by now. They succeeded.
calibanhammer: That would explain the comms blackout, then. After you went off in pursuit of that signal, there was a company-wide comms blackout for CMC - everyone lost contact with everyone. Slipshod and I had to get out of our cockpits to contact Dancer and Sawbones; they were both fine, despite the damages, but by the time we were able to talk things over, Commodore had all but disappeared from the battlefield.
70KU-N4H-W4: comms are back online now, but nobody on any side can get hold of Commodore. we think she may have blacked out comms on purpose after getting the news - it ain't good, regardless. if what Backtalker was saying was true, and what got destroyed really was her last remnant of Sylvia...
Expiritus_Sancti: ...we think Commodore went off the deep end?
70KU-N4H-W4: sure fuckin' looks like it. I think the rest of her team has too, actually - do you recall Commodore talking about how she hated being called "mercenary queen"?
Expiritus_Sancti: Vaguely; why?
70KU-N4H-W4: every motherfucker in the company is using some variant of "glory to the mercenary queen" as their sign-off now, instead of the usual "till legends bleed". real fuckin' ominous. feels like a threat, and I can't be sure it ain't also aimed at us as well as Backtalker - or, rather, the conglomerate of traitorous assholes calling themselves Backtalker
calibanhammer: Some context - Slipshod managed to trace some of those ID Expunged messages back to their sources. They all come from different areas in CMC territory. Some from public access boxes, other from personal intercomms, and still others from third-party devices. "Backtalker" isn't a person, it's a movement: in short, there's been a full infiltration of CMC right under Commodore's nose, and their revenge has finally hit home.
Expiritus_Sancti: ...Christ-the-Buddha almighty. So we've been being lied to this entire time. Fuck.
70KU-N4H-W4: not only that, but I've got word now that Z has decided to sign on with CMC right in the middle of this whole mess. (wish I was kidding, but Z's case worker is literally online discussing the details as we speak.) apparently Signal wants to hire our lawyers on to deal with whatever mess that whole ordeal is gonna come with, which just reeks of desperation and bad decisions
Expiritus_Sancti: Oh, absolutely not. Kennedi, get on call with Legal immediately; tell them to deny any and all offers made by CORSAIR Mercenary Company until we give them further notice. If they ask for details, tell them that CMC is currently compromised by internal sabotage, and anyone claiming to represent the company at this time might seek to further incriminate CMC as a legal entity.
calibanhammer: Roger that, Phoenix.
Expiritus_Sancti: As for you, Slipshod - get in touch with Command. Tell them we're coming back to base. The longer we stay here, the higher risk there is of becoming graywash fodder.
70KU-N4H-W4: way ahead of you, P - Command gave us the all-clear to disembark a while ago
Expiritus_Sancti: Phenomenal. The Albatross are busy dealing with Chernobog; hopefully they'll be alright fending it off long enough for us to get out. I can ping them later and give them a status update.
70KU-N4H-W4: ...I'm gonna assume we're calling the brawl off until further notice, then?
calibanhammer: The call has been made; Legal has been notified. At this stage, the brawl is no longer relevant - the safety of CMC and ourselves comes first. Dancer and Sawbones have already been informed as much; their damages are fixable, as are ours. For now, we mount a tactical retreat back to base and prepare for the inevitable backlash from CMC for cutting off their legal lifeline.
Expiritus_Sancti: Right. Let's get out of here. We stay any longer, and the Requiem might just turn into a graveyard.
70KU-N4H-W4: with the way things look, it might as well already be one, P. that being said - you don't think we're gonna be on call if someone's gotta take down a feral Commodore, do you?
Expiritus_Sancti: I don't know. Given how much SecCom-era technology CMC utilizes, plus whatever tech Z brings to their table... this may not be a fight we have any chance of winning.
calibanhammer: Agreed. A storm brews on the horizon; best we take shelter while we still can.
Expiritus_Sancti: ...couldn't have said it better myself. C'mon, girls. Let's go home.
[END CHATLOG]
#lancer rpg#lancer ttrpg#lancerrpg#correspondences from Pilot NET#Intercompany Brawl#CMC Villain Arc#OOC: prepare for the worst folks - that tag isn't a joke; CMC's going full villain arc and MSMC might just end up in the crossfire#what a fucking time to be a merc#anyways go keep an eye on CMC and Z's blogs - most of the action from here on out is gonna involve them#you won't hear much from me unless we get roped into legal affairs and/or some kinda assassination plot (which HOPEFULLY won't happen)#that being said MCMC and CMC aren't on friendly terms right now so if things get a bit tense just know this is all for the sake of plot :P
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