#yeah never had a problem with the jealousy plotline

[quadrantadvisor]

What if I scripted Stephanie Meyer's "The Host" into a TV show, and I kept all the rad as fuck sci-fi concepts and the messaging about human love and resilience, but I removed all the nasty bioessentialism and openly advocating for teen girls to date adult men. What then?

Probably would keep the focus on Wanda and Melanie's relationship, rather than the love square/jealousy plot. I never liked how after Melanie started "fading" in the book she basically became a nothing character. Also the way she completely lost all sense of self and/or rationality whenever her dude was around was uh. Dumb.

Also the cast of the human survivors are so potentially interesting, but we never spend any time with them. They could have sub-plots! We could get to know them! The funeral scene of that one guy would be way more emotionally effective if he like. Actually had a character before dying.

We're keeping all the alien species as they were described, like the telepathic underwater plants, or the polar bears with hand blades, or the bats who communicate entirely by singing. Also benevolent parasitic communism. That's good as is.

But yeah every scene with Jared or Ian needs to be at least slightly reworked, so we can get them to the level of "flawed yet compelling" instead of "irredeemable assholes". And we're aging Melanie up a few years, that's going to solve a lot of our problems from the get go.

Uncle Jeb and Jamie are mostly good, they can stay. And the basic plotline of the human characters being rightfully terrified of Wanderer because of what her species has done to the human race, but as a result mistreating her, since there's no way for her to adequately communicate she's not a threat to them, and then slowly learning to accept and to trust. Honestly that slaps. I love when characters get the shit beat out of them because of Circumstances. I love when people who think that they have to be enemies, because they have every reason to be, because not only are they on opposing sides but they have actively harmed one another already, decide to become family instead. Favorite storyline, has the same vibes as that one ATLA fanfic where Zuko's taken captive on a water tribe ship, y'all know what I'm talking about [you likely do not know what I am talking about].

Basically The Host would be one of my favorite books ever if it didn't suck so bad. Also no one ever cared about the movie adaptation. A TV show could be so kickass. Thank you for attending my ted talk.

[redrobin-detective]

My issue with the Tucker's jealously subplot wasn't just that it was unresolved. It was like: how? He had front-row seats to Danny struggling in school, barely sleeping, living in terror of his own family, getting hurt and beaten and blasted through walls on a daily basis...how could Tucker be jealous for longer than a month? Like, sure, the powers are cool and all, but Tucker knows better than anyone the cost, the baggage the powers came with, and that it never truly got much easier for Danny.

See I guess I can understand it a bit. One, issues like jealousy and such are rarely logical vices and not exactly something one can help. Two, these kids are 14 which scary and astonishing and it's totally believable to me that a young boy who loves superheroes would want powers himself. Three, and this is the big one to me, Tuck's jealousy is less a comment on Danny and more on how Tucker views himself.

We see over and over that the trio are at the bottom end of the totem pole and get bullied and verbally abused daily. That does things to a kid's self esteem. And then your best bud (also possibly the only one Lower on the social hierarchy not that we're keeping score but shh we kinda are bc thats how teens) gets badass powers overnight and is now a superhero? Tuck has seen up close and personal all the shit Danny goes through as Phantom, he knows bc he's been beside Dan the whole time. Hell, in Kindred Spirits it was outright stated that being the 'support' Tuck and Sam often get the short end of the stick with clean up and damage control while Danny is off fighting. He gets all the stress and tension and danger of ghost fighting without the dope powers.

But its more than the powers, Danny is now somebody. He's powerful and kind and a good leader, he's gonna be a beloved superhero if not Ghost King. Early trip ups or not, Danny now has value to society. Sam is rich and determined and smart, she was always gonna go places. Tucker is feeling not only left out by his only real friends but examining his own worth compared to an OP superhero and wealthy kickass heiress. Tucker cannot see his own value and is viewing himself as the perpetual sidekick, destined at best to be Danny/Sam support and at worst to be deemed unworthy and forgotten while they go onto bigger and better things.

This is all nonsensical bc Sam and Danny adore Tucker and he himself has many amazing qualities but self esteem is hard to reason with, much less with a very young, very stressed child. Now a young, stressed child can't really conceptualize the difficult notion of ones own worth to others/society so it primarily manifests in jealousy over Danny's powers. This feels realistic for Tucker and his age group and I approved. I am mad we didn't get the resolution he deserved which would be Sam/Danny validating Tuck's importance as a person and also giving Tuck a chance to be his own man outside the trio. The throwaway Tucker is Mayor now at the end of PP was an attempt to wrap it all but it was disgusting and we don't talk about that foolishness.

I really liked the idea of Tucker running for Student Council President and taking an active part in the school OUTSIDE of his friends/ghosts. It would have given him a confidence boost, a chance to put his skills (organization, leadership when need be, planning, technology) to use and earn some credits for himself. Plus he could be more of an aid to Phantom by giving his friend some leeway in school with having some authority. That would be the confidence boost he needed but didn't get. But in my mind eventually Tuck/Sam/Danny DO talk about it and Tuck gets some relief and goes on to be successful and happy with his own endeavors while still being a close and integral part of Team Phantom.

[imagining-in-the-margins]

Hi! You often give alot of insight into anons like this and your my fave CM blog so that's why I'm here! So I'm finishing up the last seasons (and lord it is hard to get through) and they just introduced Max and I cannot stand her. She was just so rude and it felt like she had 2 different personalities the entire time she was on screen. And I worried that this meant I was like hating women because I don't like other female characters like Maeve, JJ, Hailey, and Seaver. But then I started thinking and I honestly think it's cause these Characters are women poorly written by men. But then I wondered how they created likeable Characters like Emily, Kristy, Blake, Tara, and Penelope (leaving out others like Savannah because they're under developed in my opinion) I don't know what's the difference in the writing for these Characters or of there isn't any at all and I'm just being hateful in a way. What are your thoughts?

Ah, I think about this a lot. Thank you for thinking I’m interesting enough to answer this, also!

I think you’ve really hit the nail on the head with the writers doing a poor job at most of their female characters. However, I think it’s possible (and very common in this fandom) for people to dislike any character Spencer showed an interest in, which is also problematic and rooted in internalized misogyny. To me, it all comes down to why you dislike the characters.

(A LOT More Below - Bit of a Rant)

The first step I took when reflecting to see if this was my problem was rewatching and seeing which female characters I loved. Along with the ones you listed, I also found a number of side characters I greatly enjoyed, including Lila, Austin, Dr. Linda Kamura (from Amplification, the anthrax episode), Einstein, Megan Kane, and a few other random case characters. So, right off the bat I found multiple characters who Spencer showed an affinity for. I also greatly enjoyed Cat’s character, although I found her to be underdeveloped in canon (Fanon has done a good job, IMO) and often contradictory in her character design.

If you didn’t like any of these women, and your reason is related purely to Spencer’s reactions to them, chances are you might be suffering from a bit of jealousy rather than improper character design - not that you need to like them all (or the ones that I like), but because they are all very different. You should, theoretically, find something to enjoy about at least one of them.

But the CM Writers have a TERRIBLE habit of writing women that are easy to hate.

There’s a bunch of controversy I see over Haley Hotchner, but the truth is that they wrote her to be hated. That was her sole purpose. Her character’s decisions were poorly thought out and she was shown to be malicious 80% of the time. This was intentional. She was written to personify the trope of the nagging housewife. If you dislike her, you have done nothing but follow the narrative.

That being said, you should also criticize why they wrote her this way. Because it didn’t make any sense. She married a prosecutor - a dangerous, time consuming job. She had Jack when she knew he was with the BAU. Why did she randomly change her tune? Why did she suddenly demand he gives up on his dreams that she was fully aware of for years? I’d argue they wrote it like this to further the narrative of “the wife who traps you with a child to force you to do what she wants” which is garbage writing. I wish people could look at the potential she had if they hadn’t written her like... that.

Maeve, I find, is problematic on multiple aspects and I’ve talked about it before. Her narrative was poorly thought out because as soon as they pitched the idea of a long-term love interest for Spencer, everyone (most notably Gubler) rejected it. They didn’t think it was necessary for his character, who already had a lot going on with the ignored plot lines of his drug addiction and mother.

There were multiple problems associated with her character that were never addressed. The fact she essentially just took advantage of a patient because she was bored, she seemed to “correct” his interests and show annoyance when he disagreed with her, she lied about having a fiance, she was shown to be considering breaking up with him... there’s a lot.

Her character is poorly written. It had a lot of potential, but they just kind of stopped caring once they decided to kill her off. She had more faults shown on screen than redeeming qualities. For many, they liked her because they see there was a potential that we’ll never see (fair). But for people like me, we interpret it as a idealized fantasy of what could have (but probably wouldn’t have) been, which is not healthy for Spencer.

JJ is an interesting character because you can feel the constant struggle between AJ Cook and the writers. They really sabotaged JJ at every step of the way. I’ll be honest and say that I think there are some reasons to hate JJ, but they aren’t the reasons I see most often. Almost all of the JJ hate I see is surrounding the idea that JJ is an evil, manipulative, jealous bitch. But.. she’s not. Even in Truth or Dare, when she pulls that asshole move that was wildly OOC for JJ (in my opinion), she isn’t shown to be jealous or cruel about it.

I think she’s the most likely target for people who’s hatred is driven from jealousy or disliking conventionally attractive women and assuming them to be bitchy by nature of looking “beautiful.” I think Lila Archer* also falls into this category.

But as I said, JJ was also written with a lot of flaws. I think it’s fair if you don’t like her character or the way she treats Spencer, but I also hope that you similarly criticize the whole team in the same way, and don’t just pity Spencer because he is smol uwu babie who needs protection.

(* Yet another reminder that I ask everyone to not message me about J Depp or Amber Heard. Reactive Abuse is an extreme trigger for me and I will block you if you try to get me to talk about it)

Seaver got a lot of hate based off one line of dialogue. I think it was a bad line. If they had left it out, there would be essentially no reason in my mind to dislike Seaver. I used to dislike her a lot, but the more I rewatch the show, the less she bothers me. She was just a young student who wanted to learn about her father/herself. She was MASSIVELY underdeveloped because they kicked her off just as quickly as they invited her in.

NO character was developed that quickly. Her scenes were a bit cringey and the plotlines were bad, and her character was mediocre. I don’t think she deserves the hate she gets. She is a lukewarm character.

I hate everything Max’s character represents. She was introduced to show that Spencer could be trained to be “normal” and it’s anti-autistic bullshit. She had no personality besides “I hate my low-brow job as a teacher and couldn’t be fucked to change it until a man told me I was smart.” She was cracking high-school-clique jokes while her family was about to be murdered. She immediately abandoned said family to make out with her boyfriend who just admitted to enjoying kissing the woman who tried to murder her family.

Her character makes absolutely zero sense. I do not understand how she is so liked. I really don’t (other than the fact that RLC is absolutely wonderful).

If they had left her character out, I think we would have been better off for it. We could have seen Spencer wrestle with defining himself by the women in his life and learning to love himself (without just replacing those women with... another... woman...)

That being said, those who cling to Max for hope of a happy ending for Spencer... I felt that. Fanon and fanfic can solve all character deficiencies. I believe in you.

So, yeah. I’d say if you’re worried about why you dislike women characters, you’re probably on the right path. I’d just reflect on why you dislike the characters you do and whether they are written as misogynistic stereotypes. It makes complete sense to reject characters written for the purpose of making you hate them, but we should all pour one out for the brilliant actresses that had characters with so much potential if not for men ruining it.

[vivithefolle]

I loved your ranking of character arcs (for the main seven)! Would you mind going into more detail about Ron's character arc, and how he developed from the first to the last book? I apologise if you've already answered a similar request! :)

[Ranking of character arcs]

Well, during the first three books Ron is rather static - he’s awesome, but he doesn’t has much in the terms of “character growth” moments. He does epic stuff like the chess match, following the spiders et all we know, but that isn’t character growth as much as it is freaking badass.

The first three books serve to sow the basics for Ron’s character: he’s a devoted friend, he can face death with a laugh, and in spite of his bouts of rudeness or temper he’s fundamentally kind and doesn’t take himself too seriously - something two people like “boy-who-lived” Harry and “child prodigy” Hermione desperately need.

But what the first book does is introduce Ron’s emotional baggage.

"I'm the sixth in our family to go to Hogwarts. You could say I've got a lot to live up to. Bill and Charlie have already left -- Bill was head boy and Charlie was captain of Quidditch. Now Percy's a prefect. Fred and George mess around a lot, but they still get really good marks and everyone thinks they're really funny. Everyone expects me to do as well as the others, but if I do, it's no big deal, because they did it first. You never get anything new, either, with five brothers. I've got Bill's old robes, Charlie's old wand, and Percy's old rat."

This introduces us to Ron’s inferiority complex and its origins.

And later on, The Mirror Of Erised helps elaborate:

Harry stepped aside, but with Ron in front of the mirror, he couldn't see his family anymore, just Ron in his paisley pajamas.

Ron, though, was staring transfixed at his image.

"Look at me!" he said.

"Can you see all your family standing around you?"

"No -- I'm alone -- but I'm different -- I look older -- and I'm head boy!"

"What?"

"I am -- I'm wearing the badge like Bill used to -- and I'm holding the house cup and the Quidditch cup -- I'm Quidditch captain, too."

Dumbledore will then add his grain of salt -

Harry thought. Then he said slowly, "It shows us what we want... whatever we want..."

"Yes and no," said Dumbledore quietly. "It shows us nothing more or less than the deepest, most desperate desire of our hearts. You, who have never known your family, see them standing around you. Ronald Weasley, who has always been overshadowed by his brothers, sees himself standing alone, the best of all of them. However, this mirror will give us neither knowledge or truth. Men have wasted away before it, entranced by what they have seen, or been driven mad, not knowing if what it shows is real or even possible.”

Something to know about Dumbledore - he’s JK Rowling’s mouthpiece. When she wants to tell us something, she puts it in him.

And... well, this looks like a rather... selfish interpretation of Ron’s desire. Especially the “standing alone” part. It somewhat implies that Ron is selfish - especially compared to Harry’s desire which is oh so pure and oh so sad because boo hoo orphan family stuff. (I may be letting all the times Harry fans have pulled the “butt herry iz an orhpan!! :’((” card colour my perception.)

“The best of all of them”. When Ron sees himself being both Head Boy and Quidditch Captain. He’s combining his brothers’ successes into himself. His belief is that this is how he could stand out and be loved - by combining his brothers’ accomplishments.

Anyway.

Goblet of Fire then makes us see Ron’s main problems - his insecurity can lead him astray. First he believes that Harry left him behind during the Triwizard, because why not? After all Ron has already seen that betrayal can come from the craziest places (Lockhart, aka adults/authority figures, Ginny being the Heir Of Slytherin aka family even against their will, and last but not least, freaking Scabbers, aka SEEMINGLY INNOCENT THINGS YOU FEED AND PROTECT). Add to it his budding feeling that he is overlooked in favour of Harry (the twins giving Harry the Marauders’ Map...) and Ron’s emotions get the best of him, which isn’t helped by Harry’s entitled attitude and his acting as though Ron is stupid for questioning him. And then Viktor Krum appears as a prop show us what a catch Hermione is and to be all that makes Ron insecure. The Yule Brawl serves to foreshadow Romione but also to show the negative aspects of Ron’s insecurity, namely jealousy and how he lashes out when he feels betrayed. However, at the end of Goblet of Fire, Ron symbolically outgrows his jealousy by asking Viktor Krum for his autograph.

Order of the Phoenix will then go on to show Ron being jealous of Krum, although being a bit less vocal about it... and it also gives Ron half of the things he’s dreamed of in first year: he’s made a prefect, and joins the Quidditch team. But those are immediately made hollow by the... lackluster reaction of his loved ones and by Malfoy being a vile piece of pond scum. The fact that he’s prefect could have been used to make Ron take on more responsibilities and showcase his motherly side more, but Rowling only used it to again pit him against Hermione by making Ron look like “the immature one” and making Hermione “the responsible one”. And then, to REALLY drive home the point that Ron isn’t allowed to have anything for himself, she has Dumbledore say “oh yeah Harry, you were supposed to be prefect, even though you’re basically allergic to rules and authority and also are emotionally stunted”, and so in a symbolic way VALIDATING Hermione’s reaction to Ron being prefect. Yeah fuck you too Rowling. And the Quidditch debacle could have been used to give Ron confidence in himself. Actually, it does somewhat give him confidence once he trounces Slytherin in the last match of the year. But the fact that Harry and Hermione weren’t present means that Ron’s victory is an afterthought, a background event, a minor thing. Yet, Ron still proves his maturity and patience by just accepting that his friends weren’t here to see him play. They don’t deserve him, seriously. This year also marks a drama-free year for Ron and Hermione, which could have then been built up to make them grow even closer in the next book... but oh, the faults of TERFs...

Half-Blood Prince basically takes all of Ron’s progression through the last two books and says “see that? All that? Well let’s pretend it never happened and do it again, but shittier!” The thing is, Rowling wants Ron to “make himself worthy of Hermione” like the very progressive person she is. But she is also aware that Ron is kind of a naïve romantic who wouldn’t date around while he’s in love with someone else. Unless... Unless she resurrects plotlines that have already been finished, thus bringing Ron back to square one. Now he’s back to not being able to play Quidditch properly and Hermione acts the saviour because girl power. Now he’s back to being enraged by Viktor Krum’s name. Now he’s even less mature than he was in Philosopher’s Stone because Plot Be Like That. JKR did do a pretty good job at setting up the whole argument, not gonna lie. Since Ron is so sensitive to betrayal, finding out that Hermione had lied to him about Krum would indeed make him furious, especially when he finds out that Ginny knew about it and (apparently) so did Harry. Basically, the entire sixth year is built to undermine Ron’s growth and character, both because Harry must be in love with Ginny and in order to properly appreciate Ginny he has to appreciate Ron’s qualities less, since Ginny and Ron basically have the same qualities Harry appreciates but he can only be in love with Ginny; and also because Ron “needed to make himself worthy of Hermione” courtesy of double-standards, sexism and general immaturity from our author.

Finally DH closes the horrible loop. Rather than letting Ron grow secure and confident, Rowling instead insists on pulling him down, and down, and down, then gives us Harry saying “she’s like my sister, I thought you knew” as if that somehow would fix the self-esteem issues and the self-hatred and the sheer abuse Ron is subjected to by his friends - and for someone as obsessed with "love redeems” as Rowling is, it probably is, but those of us suffering from depression know better. Even though the Epilogue shows us Ron being happy and confident enough to joke about fame, it still leaves a bitter taste in the mouth when you realize that Ron-bashers take the “Confunded the instructor” lines to absurd levels and use it as “proof” that Ron is a bad husband / lazy / a cheater / etc... when it’s immediately followed by -

"I only forgot to look in the wing mirror, and let's face it, I can use a Supersensory Charm for that."

This is basically Ron doing the wizard equivalent of the rear-view camera. But of course, bashfics have been written to make it so Ron causes a horrible crash accident and Hermione calls for divorce and blah blah blah sigh.

[faulty-writes]

Warning: Mention of characters from Manga. 

Fandom: My Hero Academia 

Pairing: Student!Hizashi Yamada x Student!Reader

[ This is my third piece for the Hero Bingo event hosted by @bnhabookclub, the theme for this is Runaway Bride. I added a bit of a twist to it as opposed to what most would think a runaway bride plotline should be. Still I hope you enjoy. I love Hizashi Yamada! ] 

[ Most would think a U.A. student’s life revolves around training, work-studies, and internships. However, most don’t realize that while U.A. students may be the talk of the town. They can participate in normal student activities. Despite your dedication to the support course, you decide to audition for a play U.A. is putting on. However, your friend Hizashi Yamada seems to disapprove of your decision and when he finds out a wedding scene is to take place. He is determined to bend some rules to finally get you to understand how he feels about you. ] 

Hizashi smiled as he watched you laugh along with the group that consisted of himself, Shouta Aizawa, and Oboro Shirakumo. However, more often than not you weren’t included when the students of Class 2-A made fun of the three boys. Dumbigos seemed to be their favorite word to use when describing the trio, which you didn’t take too kindly to. It wasn’t unusual for students to have friends in different classes, in your case.

You were a member of the Support Course and happened to meet Hizashi that way. He had come into the Development Studio asking for some type of sound device that would direct his voice quirk more effectively, of course, you were more than happy to help and found the over-enthusiastic blond to be charming. It wasn’t soon after that, you noticed Hizashi would come to the Development Studio just to see you and try to strike up a conversation.

You had gotten introduced to his friends that way and before you knew it, the four of you were hanging out and occasionally making weekend plans with one another. Of course, Hizashi seemed to be the one most after your attention. You thought nothing of it seeing as Hizashi was quite unreadable but unknown to you. He held feelings for you, which had started when you began defending not only him but Shouta and Oboro as well.

You never seemed to like the way the other hero students treated your boys and though it was almost amusing watching you scream at the bullies. Part of Hizashi felt bad, if anyone tried anything to hurt you. More than likely he wouldn’t be able to hold himself back. But luckily it never came to that, most would think that students in U.A. High were only dedicated to their department. However, that wasn’t the case.

U.A. also catered to various other aspects of High School life which included being a part of the school band, participating in after school activities, and putting on plays hosted by the drama club. Usually every High School had one major play they put on every year, though Hizashi never took part in such things. Acting wasn’t his strong point and he believed in being honest which often clashed with his acting ability as he hated things that made a mockery of true feelings. However, he wasn’t expecting you to actually want to audition for a part.

You had mentioned it during lunch as you sat against the wall with Shouta, Hizashi, and Oboro. “So, did you guys hear about the play U.A. is putting on?” Oboro smiled and nodded his head enthusiastically, “Yeah! I heard it’s supposed to be a really good one, what do you think Shouta?” he asked as he elbowed the grumpy boy who was only trying to finish his lunch and avoid conversation.

He let out a sigh and turned his attention to Oboro, “Who cares.” he said with a shrug. “It’s just some stupid play, nothing will come of it. I don’t know why Y/n is even mentioning it.” you frowned, Shouta was always such a stick in the mud. “I mentioned it because I’m thinking of auditioning for a part.” you said and gasped when Hizashi grabbed your shoulder. “Whaaaaaaat?!” he exclaimed, making you wince at the high volume of his voice.

You covered your ears and squirmed around to face him. “Don’t do that.” you scolded with a soft glare. “Oh uh...sorry.” he said as he rubbed the back of his head, “But ya caaaaaaaan’t audition!” he exclaimed once more and you held a finger up to your mouth. “Shhhh.” you hushed him, though you found his words confusing. You crossed your arms and looked at him suspiciously. “Why not?” you questioned, and Hizashi seemed a little nervous.

“Well...because…” he glanced away, trying to come up with a rational explanation. “Because?” you asked, trying to get him to speak. He shook his head, “Well, if you’re too busy practicing for the play. Ya won’t get to hang out with us as much!” he said, Shouta and Oboro looked at him just as equally as confused as you. Truth was, Hizashi didn’t want anything to take you away from him.

His personal feelings for acting and such might have something to do with it. Yet, Shouta and Oboro seemed to disagree with him. “Aw, come on Hizashi!” Oboro said before swallowing the food in his mouth, he’d always bring a bento box for lunch, and ironically, he’d always make a mess as well. There were small pieces of rice sticking to his mouth and cheeks, which in a way was almost cute.

But Shouta would always comment that Oboro was more like a toddler when he ate. “You have to let Y/n audition! We can always spend time together later.” he suggested, flashing a bright smile at Hizashi but Shouta huffed in response. “Stop making a big deal out of it Hizashi,” he said before he resumed eating.

“Three against one ain’t faaaaaaair!” Hizashi cried out before pouting, you couldn’t help but chuckle at his display. “I win,” you said before leaning close to him, “and I will audition, even if you don’t like it.” you said before standing on your feet, you brushed off the front of your uniform. “Better luck next time, I don’t know why you don’t try auditioning. You’d probably be good,” you said as you patted his shoulder.

“I’ll see you guys later, I want to get a headstart on my newest piece of equipment.” you waved Shouta and Oboro goodbye before leaving the cafeteria. Hizashi watched you leave with a pout and slumped against the wall, letting out a sigh. Oboro blinked at his friend’s odd behavior. “Is something wrong?” he questioned and Hizashi shrugged. Shouta rolled his eyes, “Do you really have to ask that?” he questioned, “It’s obvious what’s wrong.” Oboro still seemed lost.

“What do you mean?” he asked, though Shouta seemed more annoyed than usual. His eyebrow was twitching and his jaw was clenched. He was just trying to eat his lunch in peace. “Hizashi…” he said, effectively catching the boy’s attention. “Just tell them how you feel, it’s not that hard.” Hizashi jumped and glared at Shouta before pointing his finger at him.

“It is that haaaaaaaaaaaard! How do ya expect me to tell them!?” Shouta shrugged, not offering an answer while Oboro tapped his chin. “Well, I have an idea…” he said, though Hizashi and Shouta knew that Oboro’s ideas weren't the best. Hizashi was willing to listen anyway. “Okay, picture it!” Oboro began, holding his hands up in the air. “Dress up in your hero costume and buy a big bouquet of roses! Then you…” he trailed off when he noticed the look his friends were giving him.

“What?” he said before dropping his hands and Hizashi once more leaned against the wall, staring at the fellow students in the cafeteria. “How am I going to tell Y/n how I feel.” Hizashi whispered though he had enough confidence. Finding the courage to blurt out the words that sang from his heart was another obstacle entirely. Yet, his jealousy seemed to work against him a few days later when you told him you had gotten a lead role in the play.

You almost thought you had broken him with the expression he pulled, his jaw was dropped and his glasses were halfway down the bridge of his nose. His eyes were wide and it almost scared you, “Are you alright?” you asked, and Hizashi shook his head. “What did ya just say?!” he demanded, which made you jump. “Uh…” you pressed your hands to your chest, tilting your head. “I just said I auditioned for the play and I got a part!” you exclaimed happily, “It’s going to be amazing, there’s even a wedding scene!” Hizashi tried to push down the growl building in his throat.

“W-Wedding scene.” he repeated and you nodded, “Yeah, I mean there’s also a kissing scene but it’s nothing more than a peck on my groom’s lips. Well, I should say Sensoji's lips.” you replied and that growl finally escaped him. Sensoji was a student from Class 2-B and someone Hizashi tended to clash with. Just knowing your precious lips would be stolen away from that overgrown gorilla before he had a chance to taste them, made his jealousy rise. He clenched his fists and you took note of the awkward tension that was beginning to fill the air.

“Is something wrong Hizashi?” you questioned, taking note of the small trembles that began to course through his body. He clenched his jaw and looked toward the floor, “I-I’m fine. I have to go, I’ll catch ya later.” he said before quickly turning on his feet and running down the hallway. Ignoring your call, “Hizashi! Hizashi!” you stomped your foot, clearly confused. What the hell was his problem?

“Shouta!” the blond yelled as he approached the depressed-looking boy who was walking past the gates of U.A., Oboro right by his side. “Hm?” Both of them turned to look at Hizashi who scraped his shoes along the ground and caused dirt to fly up. “Guuuuuuuuys!” he cried out, causing Shouta to sigh and Oboro to raise his eyebrows in surprise. “Something wrong, Yamada?” he questioned as the boy caught his breath, nodding his head in response.

Shouta frowned, in all honesty, he just wanted to go home. But he was slightly curious as to what was bothering his friend, but he could guess just as easily. It was clear there was one thing on Hizashi’s mind lately, and his suspicions were only confirmed when the blond lifted his head and spoke. “It’s Y/n!” he exclaimed, pointing toward the U.A. building. “Huh? What about them, are they injured? Do they need help?” Oboro questioned and Hizashi shook his head. 

Shouta took a step forward and narrowed his eyes. “They told you about the play.” he stated, catching Hizashi off guard. “What…” Shouta and Oboro exchanged a look, “Opps uh well…” Oboro rubbed the back of his head before Shouta reached out and placed his hand on Hizashi’s shoulder. “Y/n already told us, I was hoping they wouldn’t find you but looks like they did,” he said before dropping his hand and Hizashi let out another growl.

He reached up to ruffle his hair, letting out a small burst of anger before he took a deep breath. “There’s a kissing scene!” he suddenly shouted, however, Shouta and Oboro seemed unphased by this as they were more than used to Hizashi’s loudness. Though the few students that were walking by jumped in surprise. Shouta raised his eyebrow and placed his hand on his hip. “So?” he questioned and Oboro shook his head.

“So?” he repeated before wrapping his arm around Shouta’s shoulders. The boy grunted in response, clearly annoyed as his friend pulled him close. “We have to prevent that kiss from happening!” he declared, throwing his fist into the air and Hizashi quickly followed. “YEEEEEEEEEAH!” he screamed yet again, Shouta groaned and Oboro released him before covering his ears.

“Keep it down,” Shouta warned before looking at Oboro who nodded in agreement. “Buuuuuuut,” he said, causing Shouta to almost cringe as he knew that Oboro was about to talk about yet another brilliant idea. “I have a solution! Remember my old idea?” he said, and Shouta rolled his eyes. “How is your old idea going to help?” he questioned but Hizashi held his hand up. “Now waaaaait a minute Shouta, I want to hear him out.” he said, and Oboro smirked in victory.

“Alright, you ready? This time you’re going to confess your feelings to Y/n and put a stop to that kiss in the process!” Hizashi smiled as he heard those words and nodded, “Let’s do it!” he declared enthusiastically as he folded his hands into fists, determined to finally tell you how he felt. Though he had to be careful not to give himself away and you began to grow concerned when he started avoiding you and a little suspicious when you saw him around the auditorium and during rehearsal.

It was even more concerning when you noticed that Shouta and Oboro were tagging along with him, what were they up to? You tried to ignore it and focused your attention on your role, though if you were being honest with yourself. You were a little nervous, you hadn’t expected to get a lead part when you auditioned. But at least Hizashi hadn’t complained, in fact, he hadn’t mentioned anything revolving the play since the day you told him you had gotten a part in it.

Strange. As opening day approached, you had tried to track down the trio. But it seemed the three dumbigos were nowhere to be found and in a way it upset you, one would think their closest friends would be there for them. Especially opening night of the play, maybe you misjudged them? But you didn’t need them if they were going to treat you this way.

Still, as the auditorium filled up, you couldn’t help but pull back the curtain and try to find their faces in the crowd. Unfortunately, it seemed they weren’t going to show up. Nemuri seemed to notice your odd behavior and walked up to you before the first act, “Y/n,” she said as she placed her hand on your shoulder. You jumped in surprise and turned to face her, “Hm?” she chuckled, “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you darling. But you seem on edge, last minute jitterbugs?” she questioned and you frowned, should you tell her?

You weren’t sure, then again. You trusted Nemuri, even if she was a third year. You sigh and shrug your shoulders. “Hizashi isn’t here,” you began, “and neither are Shouta or Oboro. I haven’t seen any of them since I told them about this play in the first place!” you exclaimed as you stomped your foot, a small amount of anger filling you. “I mean...aren't they supposed to be here? Aren’t they supposed to support me? I...I don’t know what’s going on and all of them have been acting so strange lately I just…” you groaned and slapped your thighs.

Nemuri was a little surprised by your display, but she seemed to understand your dilemma and offered a smile. “I’m sure they’ll be here, you know those three. Especially Hizashi, he likes to make an entrance.” she explained as she placed her hand on her hip, you wanted to believe her and she did make sense. Those three boys left impressions everywhere they went.

“I…I guess.” you said before your sensei announced it was time for the first act and everyone needed to get into position. Nemuri smiled at you, “Good luck out there, break a leg.” she said with a wink and a soft blush came to your cheeks. “Uh, thank you.” Nemuri waved you goodbye as you ran off to take your position. Butterflies came as you watched the curtain go up, though you were a lead role. You couldn’t help but continue to glance over the crowd, praying that your friends would show up.

However, as the second, third, fourth, fifth act came. You had stopped searching as it was clear they weren’t going to show and honestly, it hurt. Your classmates noticed your sad expression, though none of them asked what was wrong and you couldn’t blame them. More than likely they were nervous about the outcome of the play and how it would improve or worsen U.A.’s reputation.

As the final scene approached, you felt a little awkward dressed as a bride. The white dress clashed with how your character was supposed to feel, how any bride was supposed to feel. Anger and sadness seemed to be swirling like a hurricane inside of you and maybe that was a good thing, as it numbed the butterflies that had bothered you at the start of the play.

Still, you couldn’t help but wonder why your friends hadn’t shown up and hesitantly scanned over the crowd one last time as you walked onto the stage for the final scene. There were rose petals scattered across the floor and a few extras standing around, the scene was supposed to resemble a church in which your character was about to wed the love of their life. This also happened to be the kissing scene you weren’t exactly looking forward to, still given your sour mood you could care less. You walked onto the platform where Sensoji stood, he smirked as he saw you.

You cradled the fake bouquet of flowers to your chest, though this scene called for you to be cheerful. You just couldn’t bring yourself to smile, in fact in that moment. It almost seemed like you were standing on the stage by yourself, words became blurred as you got lost in your thoughts. “You may now kiss the bride.” That was your cue to complete the scene, but you were busy looking at the floor. Your expression blank and the extras on stage looked at one another.

“You may now kiss the bride.” the words were repeated and it wasn’t until one of your classmates nudged you that you snapped out of your thoughts. “Huh, what?” you questioned and realized your mistake, oh right. A fit of laughter came and you felt your cheeks heat up, damn it. You looked at Sensoji who seemed to be getting impatient, “Uh sorry.” you muttered before stepping closer and tried your best not to cringe when you felt him grab your arms gently and pull you close.

“Pucker up.” he said and though it disgusted you, it was part of the play. You swallowed and closed your eyes, leaning close. You could feel his hot breath against your mouth just before the lights went out. Several gasps filled the room and those on stage, including yourself, looked around confused. This wasn’t part of the play and you hissed as the stage light illuminated the entrance of the auditorium.

Your eyes widened as you saw Hizashi, dressed in leather from head to toe. However, you quickly realized it was his hero costume which raised another question, why was he wearing it? You turned on your feet, scanning the spotlight area and rolled your eyes when you saw Oboro perched next to the oversized light. Where was Shouta? Well, it didn’t matter.

It seems everyone else was at a loss and Hizashi smiled as he raised a microphone to his lips. “HEEEEEEEEY there listeners!!!!” he announced and you winced at the volume of his voice. He continued to smirk and raised his fist in the air, “I’m here to stop an INJUSTICE!!!” he exclaimed and your eyes widened. Confused looks were exchanged before Hizashi pointed to the stage and somehow you knew he was directing that finger at you.

“Y/N!!!!” he screamed and you felt embarrassed, especially as all eyes turned on you. Damn it, Hizashi. Your cheeks flushed and you glanced to the floor, a moment of silence came and Hizashi suddenly seemed nervous as his smile faded and his shoulders slumped. You slowly glanced up, was this why he hadn’t shown up? Was he just planning on doing this the whole time to ruin the play?

Shouta was perched down behind the last row of seats, acting as Hizashi’s support. “Hey…” he said, catching Hizashi’s attention. “Hm?” he responded before Shouta shook his head. “Stop letting your nerves get to you and just tell them how you feel already. I can’t believe you dragged me into this,” he said as he rolled his eyes and Hizashi almost wanted to growl but Shouta was right.

He needed to tell you this, even if this was the most extreme way to get his feelings across. He took a deep breath and turned his attention back on you, he felt his heart accelerate and brought the microphone to his lips once more. “Y/n, I can’t allow ya to kiss another man!” he shouted, and you looked at Sensoji who seemed to be fuming. His hands were curled into fists and you were a little afraid of what he’d do. But you focused your attention back to Hizashi. “Why…” you said before he took a step forward, “I love you!” your jaw dropped, did...you hear him correctly?

In the background, you could Oboro cheering. “Yeah! You finally did it Hizashi!” he said as the sound of his faint clapping filled the air and Shouta face palmed himself, Oboro normally brought unwanted attention to the three of them. You were still in disbelief and your feet seemed frozen to the stage, you placed your hand to your forehead. Maybe you fainted on stage and this was all a dream? Unfortunately, you knew the reality of the situation.

Hizashi, Shouta and Oboro were late because they had made up this whole scheme just so Hizashi could confess that he loved you? It was both creepy and yet somehow, touching. You took a step forward as Hizashi extended his hand, “I love you, Y/n! That’s why I cannot allow ya to kiss that so-called groom!” he pointed to Sensoji before running to you and in turn, you pulled up the bottom of your dress and ran to the end of the stage where Hizashi extended his hand out once more.  

“Hop on down from that stage and runaway with me!” he said and your face flushed, the sound of your heartbeat echoed in your ears and yet, you found yourself reaching for his hand. He smiled at you and without warning, grabbed your wrist and pulled. You gasped as you found yourself falling off the edge and straight into Hizashi’s arms. You were shocked and pressed your hands against his chest.

You hadn’t expected him to do such a thing, Hizashi was excitable but he’d never do anything to hurt his friends even if it was a joke. Still, you couldn’t help but look at him with adoring eyes. He smiled back at you, “Do ya truuuuuust me?!” he questioned and a small amount of fear filled you, what else was he planning to do? Your fingers curled into the front of his jacket before you hesitantly nodded.

“Great!” he chuckled before scooping you into his arms, you squeaked as your shoulder bumped into his chest. “Hizashi!” you cried out, it was one thing to be lifted up. But you were still wearing the wedding dress which was uncomfortable and the people that sat in the audience continued to look confused. You were grateful the lights were turned off as your face was bright red.

“Let’s go!” he said as he turned to run, your arms wrapped around his neck before he kicked open the auditorium doors and continued running. “Hey!” he said, tilting his head down to look at you. He found your expression and the way you perfectly fit in his arms to be adorable. You swallowed and parted your lips, “Y-Yes?” you said, your voice a little shaky. “I really stole my bride away huh?” he joked before kicking open another set of doors and ran toward the front gate. 

Shouta and Oboro were trailing behind him but stopped as they passed the front doors of the school. Watching as Hizashi ran off with you, the sound of clapping echoed from the auditorium. “Do you think they thought that was part of the play?” Oboro questioned, and Shouta shrugged. “Even if they did so what,” he replied before slipping his hands into his pockets. “Come on.” he said as he began to walk and Oboro tilted his head, “Come on what?” he questioned as he followed behind.

“We need to make sure Y/n returns that outfit to the drama department.” he said, though even he hadn’t expected Hizashi to carry you away. “Oh...right,” Oboro said and stopped when he stepped onto the sidewalk. “Do you want to ride one of my clouds?” he questioned, ready to manifest one on demand. But Shouta shook his head, “No…” he replied before looking into the distance.

“I can’t see them anymore, maybe we can just wait until tomorrow.” he said before he resumed walking. “Huh? So we’re just going to let them be?” Oboro asked as he placed both arms behind his head. “We...did a pretty good job with that though, huh? I didn’t expect it to go so smoothly,” he said and though Shouta didn’t want to, he found himself smiling.

“Yeah...at least Hizashi finally got Y/n.” he said as he looked up at the sky, the moon was full and white in color. “Do you think we’ll be lucky enough to see Hizashi carry off Y/n when they get married for real?” he questioned and Shouta turned to look at him with an eyebrow raised. Oboro blinked, “What?” he pouted and looked at the ground as he continued to walk. “It’s a nice thought,” he replied, but for now. He was happy his friend finally found the happiness he deserved.

[halorocks1214]

the law of relativity

AO3 Link

Word Count: 9963

Summary: The Law of Relativity states that each person will receive a series of problems (‘tests of initiation’) for the purpose of strengthening the ‘light’ within. We must consider each of these tests to be a challenge and remain connected to our hearts when proceeding to solve the problems. This law also teaches us to compare our problems to others’ problems and put everything into its proper perspective. No matter how bad we perceive our situation to be, there is always someone who is in a worse position. It is all relative

Previous Parts (in order): Alan | Virgil | You are here! | Gordon

WHY 👏🏼 CANT 👏🏼 I 👏🏼 WRITE 👏🏼 FICS 👏🏼 IN 👏🏼 MO 👏🏼 DER 👏🏼 RATION 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 also just bluuuergh. dont ask about this fic. part of it was written in a dark auditorium, another was written in a different state, another was written on a frickin bus, this fic has been places ill tell you what. half the time i think this is hot garbage and the other half i think its actually decent so im posting this while my head is in a good headspace and then promptly yeeting myself off the internet for a few hours to wait and see what happens. this series is becoming less of a canon divergence AU and more of a straight-up AU because of certain details im trying to worm in there buT IM TRYING MY BEST

thanks once more to @gumnut-logic, because of the length, this time i used three prompts, them being "What do you mean?", crease, and dream (and they werent even used that much sksksksk)

Warnings for both graphic and non-graphic depictions of violence, as well as mentions of torture and other PTSD/panic attack related stuff. I went deep with this one fellas

Orphan.

The word tasted dirty in his mouth.

He can still see the footage in the backs of his eyelids from when he watched it exactly one year ago. He was the only other (living) adult at the time in the family outside of Grandma, so he was permitted to see it. He remembered they originally didn’t want to show him, mainly because of his age, but Grandma was fierce, and she put one hell of an argument on the table.

One Scott refused to let fall through the cracks by breaking down. If only Grandma knew how he cried his eyes out and screamed to high heaven that night in the hotel room after essentially watching his father be blown to bloody smithereens then she was a goddamn saint for keeping it a secret. It made sense, she was the mother to his father. She had quite the line up of stories from Jeff’s childhood. Scott sensed the early-greying of his hair came from her, heh.

The rest of his family eventually saw it, of course, they did. Scott couldn’t shield them forever. What he will protect, selfishly he might add, was how angry he was at how much better they took it than he did. They cried, yes they did, but they never fully broke down like Scott did. Later in life, he wondered if it was jealousy: jealousy at not truly being able to let go. Whatever it was, he made sure to swallow it along with whatever alcohol he chose for the weekend.

Just add it to the ever-growing pile of shit he had to deal with. Nothing new.

Suddenly he’s 20 again and seated in a plane to be taken to his first stint in the Air Force. He said his goodbyes to Virgil, Gordon, and Alan back at home while Grandma and John metaphorically held his hand all the way to the airport. John was… quiet, more so than usual, but Grandma was stuck right in the middle between being a sobbing mess and ecstatic at the fine young man he’s become.

You’re just like your father. He would be proud.

Scott was secretly glad she never physically said it. It gave him plausible deniability in thinking that those words weren’t laced behind her big, bright, prideful eyes.

The first time went well, maybe even great. He stayed for a couple of months, did some flight tests, and while the training was brutal, boy did he learn a lot. When he came back home it was to a family slowly stitching itself back together. Grandma was a full-time house member, Virgil had taken up painting, Gordon talked about potentially going back to his swim meets, and while Alan was still as silent as ever, he was perkier than when Scott last saw him.

It would be on and off for the next few years: a couple of months at home, slowly and painfully taking over the role their father had (he can’t remember when he essentially received joint custody of his younger siblings with Grandma, but hey, he’s not complaining), then a couple of months out at the Air Force base where he slowly climbed up the ranking platform. He became skillful, perhaps too skillful. When he got his rank of Captain he felt it was less of an honor and more of something they owed him.

He was getting cocky. Never enough to be a danger to his fellow men, but enough to be somewhat of an occasional annoyance. Charles smacked him upside the head more than once. It felt like the world was right-side-up for once. Scott made many-a-calls to John and Virgil, the former enjoying his first few rotations up in space and the latter squarely in the middle of college. Gordon was being offered sponsorships to hell and back, and Alan was quietly getting along with the other kids at his school. Grandma was on welcoming duty for Kayo, who was taking her slot in the Tracy family with grace, though, a warning that their family would take custody of her if something were to happen to her parents would have been nice, Dad.

Of course, nothing ever goes right for their family for too long.

Orphan.

Age 24, it was supposed to be a simple retrieval mission of civilians. Scott was put in charge of his squad and then some. At night, they rolled-- well, flew out to get the job done. Scott can’t even remember the country anymore when minding his own business. Australia? Finland? Perhaps Bangladesh? There was a place John was insistent Scott never do rescues in, Virgil tended to agree, and the eldest unhealthily let them banish him from ever stepping foot there without argument. He could never remember the name off the top of his head until John’s familiar International Rescue, we have a situation rung out in the living room followed by the name of the country.

He would immediately forget it later, trauma too strong, too volatile, but the way his heart stopped and his head shattered and the way he felt ice water rush down his back was a good enough reason to quietly leave the room and let John delegate the job to one of his brothers. Sometimes John found him retching in the toilet halfway through the mission. He made sure to always mute Scott’s wrist communicator, even if it was never turned on in the first place.

The plane touched down. Orders sent the ground team out. But then the ground team took longer than estimated. Scott tensely waited where he was told to. It wasn’t the first mission that took a little longer than predicted and knowing humans, it surely wouldn’t be the last. Then, words mixed with heavy static came over the radio. H--p. Co-- ---7--. --nd ba---p --me--at--y.

Scott sat tensely in his seat, remembering his orders and suddenly hating them. Radio back to home if the mission goes south. Well, it didn’t look like they had the radio anymore. Still didn’t hurt to try at least. Scott spoke the familiar protocol that was ingrained into him when trying to call base. Dammit. Nothing. Probably some kind of blocker of sorts. Sitting up straight as a board, Scott looked through his options.

… He was in charge here. If something happened to his team the fault would lie squarely on his shoulders. Going against everything but his gut, he went out to help his squad. He can’t really remember what he exactly did anymore, but he does remember that it made a noise. Like a Looney Tunes scene: he flinched, froze, waited to see if anything or one heard, breathed a sigh of relief, and continued.

He eventually stumbled across one of his closest comrades, Arnold Brigeets. Yes, the name was ironic and half the reason he joined the force in the first place. The guy was one of the people that actually trained Scott and also seemed to be one of the few that was genuinely proud when Scott became a higher rank. It’s why Scott was more appreciative of Arnold than others, that, and well… Scott thought his fatherly abilities were good. The guy did have three kids back home.

Orphan.

Ducking down behind the cover his older friend was semi-situated behind, Scott watched as Arnold jumped at the intrusion before sighing. Scott had run into some enemies that he swiftly took down-- nothing too serious, he didn’t have the time or weapons for such an act, but they definitely would be out of it for a while-- so Arnold must have too on his way to find cover as well, hence why he was so on edge.

“Thank God,” Arnold wiped his forehead, “Glad to see you join us, kid.”

Scott was breathing heavily, but the grin he attempted was still there, “Y-Yeah, so what happened? More threats than we thought?”

Arnold shook his head, “Yes and no. There were a lot more baddies than we thought, but that’s because the civilians weren’t civilians. It’s a tr--”

Boom. The familiar sound of a gunshot.

Arnold fell over. Never got back up. Dropped like a rock in a lake, never to come up to the surface again.

Scott was so caught off guard he couldn’t react to the gun that swiftly beat him over the head, knocking him out cold. The only thing on his mind was oh fuck oh fuck I messed up I shouldn’t have come I wouldn’t have made any noise that way why did I--

They had him for roughly two weeks. Scott always thought the plotline in movies where the villain vehemently denied knowing any important information was dumb as hell. We’re not stupid. We wouldn’t go after someone if they didn’t know something.

The things they did hurt and no amount of I don’t fucking know anything! would help. Those two weeks were lost to Scott in a sea of pain and torment. The only thing he remembered was being captured, then waking up in a hospital drugged up to his gills with his superiors staring at him like he cured cancer.

“You saved the rest of your squad from sharing the same fate as the first half.”

“I-I did?”

“You betcha, son. I only wish I was there to see it! People be saying you were like an animal in how you took ‘em all down.”

Scott’s never remembered, and he wanted to keep it that way.

He was given the highest honors, even the chance to skip a couple of ranks to be at the same level as the big boys, but the night they were going to share the news to the golden boy himself, they found him in one of the bathrooms with a bloody hand and a mirror shattered with no hope of fixing it.

He was honorably discharged to a family that was so thankful he was home. Words like missing in action and POA never stopped haunting their nightmares. Scott was too, God, of course, he was, but sitting around and doing nothing was the last thing his traumatized mind wanted or maybe even needed. After doing what he considered to be the biggest fuck-up of his life, he needed to feel important.

This isn’t the first time he’ll say this and it surely won’t be the last: thank Christ for Grandma.

“You want me to take over?...”

“Yep, it’s about time Tracy Industries received a new pair of eyes. The Board certainly thinks so.”

“But… they’d rather have a crazy, PTSD-infected veteran over you?”

A rough pinch to his ear, “Hey now, don’t call yourself that,” the gentle motherly tone was back as soon as it left, “Besides, that crazy might exactly be what they want. Half of their argument is that I “don’t take enough risks.” They’re getting tired of listening to an old fart like me.”

A moment of contemplation, followed by the cheeky raise of an eyebrow, “So you’re saying you want me to take so many risks they have no choice but to take you back?”

A bark of laughter, “Damn straight.”

He learned the ropes faster than normal (healthy, is probably the correct term), and he immediately won the hearts of both young and old in the company. Instead of flying planes every few months, he worked on business reports and vetoed new ideas every couple of weeks. It felt satisfying for the most part, and his family was just happy he was still alive to enjoy it.

However, there was a slight roadblock on his way to becoming a somewhat stable person.

He became prone to violent blackouts. It had to have started when he blacked out and saved himself from those two weeks of hell, which made the most sense. Something was always destroyed when he came back to life. John was the best at calming him down due to his own experience with panic attacks, however, John couldn’t always be there, and the next rotation for NASA was coming swiftly. Scott swore up and down he would be fine, he could figure something out. John went back into space with an eyebrow permanently raised.

It was just him and Virgil home (Grandma had taken Alan and Kayo to watch Gordon swim) when he, unfortunately, proved John right. Scott wasn’t sure what triggered it, but he vividly remembered coming back in Virgil’s extremely tight hold. The first thing Scott thought to say was damn, beanstalk, when did you get so strong? but then he laid his eyes upon the forming bruise on his younger bro’s face and hasn’t recovered since.

Virgil swore he never held it against Scott. Scott definitely thought he should have.

That night brought sudden clarity to Scott that he was doing this horribly wrong. He was a ticking time bomb, and it wouldn’t be long before something was damaged in a way that couldn’t be fixed. Scott needed an anchor. Something to ground him before he took it too far. John wasn’t going to be earthside forever, Grandma was busy with Kayo, Alan was just a kid, and Gordon was living the dream. None of them were viable.

Then, as he was thinking, he was suddenly aware of how calming Virgil’s arms were around him, how they were preventing the growing panic attack in his chest from getting even bigger.

It was easy.

For once in Scott’s life, his eyes were big and young as he asked Virgil, “Help me, please.”

After a few brief seconds, Virgil gulped, “Okay.”

From then on, Virgil was Stone Number One. Scott’s admiration for Virgil outweighed the guilt of putting the black-haired man in that position in the first place. Virgil was glad to follow his older brother’s leadership, but just as qualified to bring him the hell back when he went too far. From getting too sacrificial to preventing a good punching-out some of the idiots they dealt with, Virgil made sure Scott knocked that shit off.

Time went on, Scott was a top-notch CEO at Tracy Industries, John was having one hell of a time up in space, Virgil was graduated and had so many life opportunities to pick from, Alan was thriving at being a (mostly) stable kid, Kayo was 100% acclimated to the family, and Gordon--

Scott found himself gripping the wooden desk very abruptly. He was shocked he didn’t snap a chunk off in the process. Why was he thinking about this right after a giant business conference? Who knows at this point. If this giant origin story seemed jagged and jumpy, maybe even somewhat vague, good, that’s how it fucking felt.

Back to said story.

Scott always thought he and Gordon would have the least amount in common.

They do, but out of all the things they could have picked to be similar, why did it have to be the PTSD caused by military-related jobs? Scott was 24 when he got his, Gordon was just under 20. It may have been a few years since their respective accidents, but they’re never going to go another day without it feeling like it was just yesterday.

At this point, Gordon was up and walking again, mainly thanks to John and Alan while Virgil and Scott helped in their own ways. Grandma’s cooking was what probably motivated him the most though, ha, the need to get away from it… Scott smiled. Grandma was always a constant. Honestly, if it weren’t for her, the family might have fallen apart. Literally.

What has he been saying throughout this whole shindig? Thank Christ for Grandma.

One day out of the blue, Grandma reserved the entire family (yes, even Kayo and Alan) private plane tickets so they could spend some time on the mainland for a few days. Honestly, even if the island wasn’t getting major renovations, you hooligans need to get out more. Have some fun. Try not to kill anything, especially each other, she all told them while creepily grinning. John and Virgil smacked Gordon more than once on the plane for insisting that she finally snapped, dudes, she’s gonna kill us.

Most of the time during their little vacation, Scott heavily focused on his breathing. He was pretty sure he knew what she was doing. He would be lying if he said he wasn’t nervous, but the same went for his excitement.

Dad showed him these plans the day after his 18th birthday. You’re a man now, Scotty, I need your help making this big boy decision with me.

As soon as they reset foot down on the island, Scott took a deep breath and felt relaxed at the salty taste in the air. It was weird, nothing on the outside was changed, and yet… it still felt different.

“Guys!” Virgil yelled out, “Stop playing in the water! We just got back, aren’t you two tired?!”

Blinking back to reality, Scott looked over to see his two youngest brothers doing exactly what Virgil was yelling at them for. Poor Johnny was a little damp too, which is what probably caused Virgil to shout at them in the first place. The blondes didn’t care. They continued to prance around in the shallow waves with their pants legs rolled up, acting as if they didn’t hear anything outside of their laughter. Gordon shoved his hands down into the liquid and threw some directly at Alan, nailing him right in the face.

Scott exhaled slowly. He couldn’t imagine them doing this 8 years ago.

Regardless, the artist was right, and they couldn’t waste too much time. Kayo was swift in grabbing both gentlemen by the ears and dragging them onto dry land. They all painstakingly trekked their way up to the-- what would you call Tracy Island? Mansion? Over-blown cabin? Well, whatever it was, Scott would always be willing to call it home.

Stepping inside, each brother took in the view, which was underwhelmingly not that much different, except for one tiny thing. John suddenly noticed a figure already standing in the living room and blinked, “No way… it’s--”

Gordon jumped in, both with his body and his words, “Brains?! Dude, how’s it hanging?!”

The scientist in question jumped at the voices before clearing his throat and readjusting his glasses, “O-Oh, hello again, T-Tracys. It’s good to see you all once more.”

Virgil slung an arm around his shoulder, ignoring the blatant squawk, “Man, how long has it been?! What made you finally decide to crawl out of your hole?”

Snickers came from all corners of the house. Brains stood up straighter, “W-Well, I was contacted b-by Mrs. Tracy over here with an offer I c-couldn’t turn down.”

Eyebrows tilted in all shapes and sizes. Someone cleared their throat. Everyone turned to look at Grandma once again, “I think if you all follow me, you’ll swiftly understand what I’m talking about.”

I already do, Scott thought matter-of-factly. John seemed to be understanding it now, Virgil was on the cusp of remembering what his father was hinting at for him, and Gordon was just as lost as Alan. It made sense, Jeff talked to all of them about it, but the oldest had seniority. The two youngest not remembering just by words was expected, especially since that was going to be rectified very quickly.

The hangar under the island was beautiful. Point blank. It smelt of iron and steel and grease and engine and that was the first time since Scott had been in the Air Force that he didn’t gag or flinch at the thought of flying something again. Scott had seen the plans his father drew. He assumed Jeff finished building it, but he never got to physically see it since…

In some ways, he was glad he didn’t. Now he got to experience it with (most of) his family, and that made it ten times better.

After letting them absorb the scenery, Grandma slowly turned around to look at them all, “You remember that dream your father had?”

The four oldest blinked, Kayo simply raised her eyebrows, meanwhile, Alan, being the teenager he was, didn’t read the emotion in the room, “Oh, yeah! Aunt Casey always talked about how he was going to “change the world” and stuff. What did he call it again?”

Scott felt way more confident than he had in a while, “International Rescue.”

Grandma nodded, gleeful at the happy look on her oldest and youngest grandsons’ faces, “Well, I’ve been thinking about some things. I know we don’t exactly worry about money, but after everything your father put into these girls… I’d hate for them to go to waste.”

The Tracy family jumped at that. John’s mouth was wide open in shock, yes, shock, “That station is still up there?”

Grandma sighed, “You mean ‘Five? Not for long. Not if we don’t send someone up there within the next few days.”

John blushed at the grin Grandma gave him. Clearing his throat, his big brain came to a startling conclusion, “Wait… you brought Alan along?”

The other big brothers in the room jumped at that. Kayo was the only one with enough balls to say the truth out loud, “Mrs. Tracy, I mean no offense, but he’s--”

“Just a kid?” Grandma smirked, “A kid that’s topped the VR charts for Intergalactic Fury for weeks straight while simultaneously getting nothing but A’s in his classes?”

Scott nodded slowly in comprehension. He remembered Alan talking about that game for a while. It was some kind of online racing simulator of sorts. Scott caught the prettiest string of words from Alan when going to bed one night. Nearly made him shit his pants. He made the kid promise to keep it PG-13 if he wanted to keep playing.

Still, the elders in the family slowly turned to look at the freckled boy with both shock and pride. Alan blinked with wide-eyed innocence, “But my English class is only at a B--”

“Shh, kiddo, I’m making a point,” Grandma rolled her eyes. The other brothers snickered. Yep, still Alan. Grandma sighed, “Now before you point out that video games are different, I know, but the difference between them and this is that video games don’t have some of the most talented older brothers in the world to guide him.”

Said older brothers jumped at the idea. Before any objection could be made, Grandma continued, “Besides, the GDF seemed to be okay with it. The Colonel was willing to oversee some of his training too.”

John flinched at that, “But IR is supposed to be independent!”

Grandma slightly frowned. She didn’t exactly like it either, “It still is, but in the world of business, compromises have to be made.”

Virgil huffed and crossed his arms, “Well, that’s… rough. Here I thought only Scott would have to deal with the bullshit of business.”

Grandma chuckled at the somewhat un-Virgil-like behavior, “It really is, Virgil. But about that Scott part,” she slowly turned to look at him and him only, “I hate to give you more work to do, but if you want to work within their restrictions?”

Suddenly every pair of eyes in the room was on the head of the family. Gulping, Scott looked down at his feet to think. It was a tense few moments, nobody sure what he was going to decide, least of all him, before the brunette cleared his throat and brought his face back up with a grin.

“Well then,” Scott turned to look at the bright tip of ‘One, chest fluttering with a feeling that became unfamiliar to him over the past few years, “I guess now it’s time to state the obvious.”

From then on, every time he loaded into that cockpit of his girl, he felt lighter than air.

“Thunderbirds are GO!”

Everything was okay again.

Mostly.

Orphan.

Scott took another sip of his whiskey and refocused on his reports.

---

Scott was in some kind of dissociative state the whole way home.

Alan doesn’t deserve this. He’s still a kid, barely an adult, and he’s going to go through utter hell because you screwed up. You were 24, Gordon was just under 20, Alan was barely 18. Alan’s going to get fucked up like you and it’s all your fault.

His movements were robotic and rigid. Anyone with a working eye could tell he was deep in shock and running on autopilot. Mostly Jeff. Especially Jeff. The rest of the brothers all noticed too, but they were also running on their own empty fuel tanks, so the only thing they could do was guilty send their older brother the occasional glance of pity and concern.

Jeff was going to need to talk to them about that. Somehow. Maybe he shouldn’t be the one to point it out since he feels just as bad. His sons were too much like him, sometimes, and that made his guilt burn all the same. He should’ve been there to warn his sons about the dangers of unnecessary guilt. Having that kind of guilt was a parent’s job, dammit, and maybe grandparents only occasionally.

But then he remembered where he’s been for the past 8 years and… who really was Alan’s parents anymore? His gut was screaming it sure as hell isn’t you, but he knew his sons would want him to step back into the role as soon as he was physically fit to do so, not just for Alan, but for themselves as well. They would deny it, but they probably just wanted to be kids again too, even if it was only brief, fleeting moments.

Who was to tell the protective, fatherly side of Jeff no to that? No better time to fix things like the present after all.

He saw Scott go up the stairs when they first stepped into the living room, so that’s where Jeff was going to go too. Footsteps light, Jeff retraced his eldest’s pathway to his bedroom. Only, he stopped before said bedroom. Unfavorable noises were coming from the closed bathroom door, and Jeff could only swallow whatever emotion it made him feel. Taking a deep breath, he slowly opened the (unlocked) door to the bathroom and laid his eyes upon the incriminating scene.

Jeff was met with the sight of Scott retching his entire stomach into the toilet, hands aggressively grabbing his sticky, hair-gelled hair and trying to make himself bald from the strain.

Jeff’s reaction was always based on autopilot, and it will never stop being so.

Ignoring his protesting body, Jeff kneeled and placed a hand on his son’s back, only to abruptly pull back like he touched a hot stove when Scott only got more hysterical at the contact. The brunette clenched his eyes shut even more (and they were already shut as much as possible) while his head became a special kind of crease. Like he was in pain, “God, I wanna go home. Why won’t they listen I swear I’m telling the truth! Please, I just want Dad--”

Jeff was frozen on the spot, heart stopping in the process. His brain shut down while he watched his son continue to mindlessly ramble and panic. His freaked-out mind barely registered footsteps from behind in the hallway, followed by a voice going what’s going-- holy--

Something thundered past him. Blinking once, Jeff guiltily watched as Virgil kneeled behind the eldest and wrapped his arms around the thin man’s shoulders while taking Scott’s hands in his in a protective blanket, “Scott! Jesus-- we’re at home, you’re safe and it’s June 14th, 2--”

Scott only struggled more, panicking at the fact he could no longer yank his hair out. Dammit, it was the only way he could feel in control, don’t take that away too! “No! I swear I’ve said everything! Please--”

Virgil immediately knew that this was one of those attacks that Scott wasn’t coming back down from with pure human intervention. Add-on the sight of his father’s big eyes signifying the man was at a loss at what to do, Virgil had no choice. He snapped loudly, remembering the comms were still on and only feeling slightly bad at the way Scott flinched in his arms, “Shit-- John! It’s Scott! Get the stuff! We’re in the upstairs bathroom!”

Muffled footsteps through a few walls in the house could be heard. Jeff’s mind was only starting to catch up when the brother Virgil called for came rushing into the bathroom (Jeff never remembered it being big enough to hold four of them) and ignoring Jeff (practically shoving him out of the way too, man, this was bad) on his way to the main problem at hand. Landing on his knees in a way that made Jeff wince, John gently grabbed one of Scott’s arms from Virgil’s hold and subsequently pulled a needle from nowhere and injected something into Scott.

The response was instantaneous.

Scott’s breathing, while still labored, got slower. He stopped struggling as well, and the way he sagged reminded Jeff of ice melting into a puddle. The two other brothers’ shoulders also sagged, relieved at the crisis averted. John stood up, knees cracking as he rubbed the back of his neck. Then, he froze at the sight of something in the doorway, “G-Gordon…”

Virgil snapped his head up from where he was looking at Scott. Jeff did something similar. Yup, in the doorway was the strawberry blonde, eyes wide, making him younger by about 10 years. The ex-Olympian in question inhaled, closed his eyes, and soon speed-walked his way out of the entrance to the bathroom. Dammit, neither Gordon or Alan have seen something like that and it probably spooked him more than anything. He’d understand with his own PTSD-related issues, but still, seeing the “never weak” big brother freak out in such a scary way...

John combed a hand through his hair, shaking his head. As he started walking out of the room, he whispered to himself, probably hoping no one heard him, “Dammit, this is all so fucked…”

Unfortunately, Jeff did hear, and the dirty language made the father flinch. John was always the best about making sure Grandma didn’t wash his mouth out with soap, and the fact that he so willingly didn’t care meant that everyone was at the end of their rope. Still reeling at the sight, Jeff couldn’t react to the gentle arms that picked him up off the floor and slowly led him out of the suddenly stuffy room.

With the click of the door shutting, Jeff realized what Virgil did, “W-Wait, Scott--”

“Will be okay for a few seconds,” Virgil finished for his dad, “I know it’s nearly been a decade, but the one part of you I definitely know hasn’t changed is the need to comfort us, just like we hoped.” The small grin that fell over the middle child’s face put Jeff a little bit at ease, but Virgil wasn’t completely done, “So, I’m going to let you take care of this, but I just want to make sure you’ll handle it with grace. Take this slowly, okay? Scott might be doped up, but he’s still… volatile, in a sense.”

Jeff cleared his throat, suddenly choking on the unneeded tension, “Okay, Virgil, I promise, just… what happened? That was… bad, and really bad at that too. I know Scott would never let something that severe willingly come out in front of his family.”

Virgil rubbed the back of his neck, clearly not ready for this conversation, “Listen, Dad,” he inhaled sharply, cutting himself off before sighing in a way that said fuck it, might as well get this over with, “As much as it felt like it did, the world didn’t stop spinning because you… well, we had lives we somehow wanted to continue living. We all have lives and stories now, and this is Scott’s story to tell.”

Jeff was getting misty-eyed again. Back when he was just a kid, Virgil couldn’t keep a secret to save his life, mainly in part due to his insomnia-related issues (Jeff has to wonder if he still has them, more problems for the future) and general lack of filter because of sleep-deprivation. Now Jeff knew there was a starch difference between a kid who couldn’t keep his mouth shut and a man who genuinely knew how to respect another man’s privacy, but…

It just hammers home how much he’s missed with his boys. Gulping, Jeff made a mental note to talk with his mom about certain things he’s missed. She’ll know a lot more than he would, “Okay, Virge. Thank you, for stepping up there.”

Virgil’s shoulders relaxed at Jeff’s words, as well as his father’s hand patting him on the shoulder, “Thanks, Dad. Just… go easy on him. I know it’s a little late for this but none of us ever properly talked about things. It was very unhealthy, deep down we all knew that, but…”

“You just couldn’t get the proper emotions out?” Jeff finished for his son. At Virgil’s soft nod, Jeff exhaled, “I’m not going to say that it was a smart decision, but we’re all here now. We can move forward with this.” Jeff squeezed where his hand laid.

Virgil blinked before curtly going, “Yeah. Goodnight, Dad. Take care of Scott.”

Virgil stepped around his father and walked to where his bedroom most definitely was not, but Jeff could deal with that in a little bit. He had another son who he was pretty sure just had a violent PTSD attack of some kind, plus, Virgil seemed to sour at something Jeff said. The ex-astronaut wasn’t sure what it was, so he didn’t chase after him out of worry that--

Wait.

We’re all here now.

Dammit, Jeff. Out of all the sentences you could’ve picked...

Alrighty, just add that to the ever-growing pile of things that need to be talked about later. No biggie. Jeff found himself sighing and rubbing the back of his neck much like Virgil did a few minutes ago. Turning around, he was met with the bathroom door once more. Shaking his head, Jeff slowly crept into the room and saw that not much was different, especially with Scott.

His heart softly cracked, but, again, he can deal with it later.

Sitting down on the ground and grimacing at the way his body ached (was gravity always this rough?), Jeff leaned against the floor cabinets about 2-3 feet away from Scott, who made himself into a nice comfortable ball in the corner next to the toilet, his palm smushed against his forehead. Jeff waited a few seconds. Then minutes. Then he realized he would have to be the one to initiate the conversation. He probably should’ve realized that right when he came back in. He opened his mouth, but his wasn’t the one that words came out of.

“It was… Zambia.”

Jeff’s heart stopped and his mouth snapped shut. He couldn’t stop the way his eyes clearly showed his panic, but hopefully, he guiltily thought, Scott was a little too doped up to not realize it, “Scotty, what do you mean?”

Scott shrugged in a way that spoke he thought what he was admitting wasn’t a big deal. Yep, clearly not with it, “Mission went bad… caught for a couple of weeks.”

Jeff was hoping his first fuck back on Earth, spoken to himself like right now or otherwise, would have been a comedic thing, but the way nausea rose in his throat said this was anything but funny.

Scott wanted to be in the Air Force. Badly. Who was a father to deny his son’s want to be part of such a noble cause? He gave him tips, took him to meet friends in high places, sometimes even sparred with him when he turned 18, but then Jeff was suddenly thousands of miles away with no hope of ever having the chance of sparring with his eldest again. Despite it, Jeff hoped Scott went on to become the best pilot the world has ever seen.

Part of this looks like he did, but at what cost?

As much as it felt like it did, the world didn’t stop spinning because you… well, we had lives we somehow wanted to continue living.

Aw hell, “Jesus, Scott…” Jeff couldn’t tell if it was the brashness or the lack of a nickname that made Scott flinch and he hated it. He immediately softened his tone and brought his 27-year-old child into his arms, “Shh, shh, we’ll be okay. We’ll figure this out.”

Like father like son, old habits die hard, and as easy as it was to still be able to comfort his children, Scott seemed to just as easily take it as he used to 8 years ago, “Alan doesn’t deserve this kind of hell, God, he’s barely not a kid anymore! Why--”

Jeff tightened his hold to keep his son in reality, and because he didn’t like the tone behind those words, “Hey, you didn’t either--”

Scott somehow managed to fling himself out of the hug, focus incredibly on point for someone who was doped up to his eyelids five seconds ago, “But I fucked up! I made the wrong call and then suddenly Arnold was dead and he had a wife and kids-- shit, what the hell did I do?”

Okay.

First of all: way to put him back in that headspace when that’s the exact opposite you were going for, Jeff, father of the year. Second: dammit. Just… dammit. This was a big fat hand grenade in a giant handbasket that they didn’t have time to gently get out while simultaneously not yanking the pin clean off with the grace of a drunk elephant. Jeff was no stranger to Survivor’s Guilt, but there was a whole untapped pile of metaphorical C4 within his son’s head that was ready for someone to push the goddamn button.

He wanted it to be him, desperately, because it sounded like he already failed his family enough, it was all he could do at this point, but he absolutely hated that he couldn’t do it right now. This was going to take a lot of time, which they didn’t have, plus, Jeff thought he had a pretty good understanding of this new Scott and the rest of his kids. Jeff was aware that if he didn’t help his sons find their baby as fast as possible over everything else it’ll lead to a fate nobody wanted.

A shaky sigh, “Okay, Scotty, let’s get you to bed. We’ll talk strategy in the morning.”

Scott simply nodded as his father flung Scott’s arm around his broader shoulders and picked him up. Slowly and painfully but surely, father and son meandered their way to Scott’s room. With a thump a little harder than Jeff wanted, Scott flopped down on top of his sheets and immediately started snoring. Despite everything that just happened, the father couldn’t help but grin at the sight. Well, there was another thing Jeff gracefully passed onto his son.

Jeff only took Scott’s shoes off. He would’ve loved to pull the sheets up around him too, but the father didn’t want to take any chances at waking him up. Slowly tip-toeing out of the room, Jeff gave one last glance back at his son before finally letting him be and gently shutting the door. He had three other sons he needed to console, but his tired joints told him to selfishly take a moment for himself for right now unless he wanted to collapse and give his family more to deal with.

Jeff eventually made his way to his room-- which was sadly unkempt, he noticed-- and sat down on the edge of his unfamiliar bed to think.

He’ll figure something out. If he had to crawl through images of his son being brutally and bloodily tortured then by God he would with the fury of a thousand suns.

He was back and he wasn’t going to throw away any second or even third chance he was given.

---

“I got him.”

Virgil turned his comms back on, and with it, Scott’s heart restarted for the first time in a few weeks. Taking a moment for a breather, Scott leaned against the wall while practically wheezing. They have him back, holy shit, they have him back. Scott vaguely heard Gordon cry in pure relief and joy. He saw John’s side of the comms flutter for a bit before a bright flash happened. Blinking away the white spots, Scott looked at his wrist to see a fully detailed map of the compound.

Gordon spoke what they were all thinking, “Woohoo! First Allie comes back, then Johnny-boy gets us a free ticket out of here! We’re winning this race, baby!”

A very loud moment of silence. John cleared his throat, “Actually, I was going to say glad to see you in one piece, you little shit,” a playful gasp came from Virgil’s side. It was too high pitched to be from the pianist’s mouth. Scott chuckled, but the paranoid part of his brain said John wasn’t done. His brain was right, ‘“But guys… that wasn’t me. Or EOS. We still haven’t found a way to get past the metal they made these walls out of.”

That silence was even more deafening than the last, and before Virgil could utter out his typical what the fuck, a small logo appeared at the corner of their new map. One that was all too familiar. The Chaos Crew wasn’t the only one who could brand their awful deeds.

Son of a bitch.

Virgil’s order over the radio was meant for Alan, but Scott couldn’t help but listen to it too.

“Shit, Alan, you need to run.”

Making quick work of the compound once more, Scott, while booking it even quicker than last time, opened a private line between him and Gordon, “Hey, how would you feel if I said go help Virgil while I cover Alan?”

The first response was stuttering, which Scott expected, but then it was followed up by something completely out of left field for Gordon, “... Okay, just as long as you promise to bring Alan back in one piece.”

Part of Scott wanted to console Gordon, another was questioning why Gordon was so quick to give up, another wanted to say of course, I will, idiot, but the first part that made itself verbal was easy, “You know I will, buddy.”

Scott could physically picture Gordon’s tiny, little, somber nod clear as day, “Sounds good, captain. See you on the other side.”

With a click, Scott was back on the group comm. Suddenly remembering what exactly his job was, he pulled out the map so graciously given to them by The Hood. Looking at all the dots, one was heading towards a prone one (oh if that asshole did anything to Virgil…) while another one was heading right for Scott himself. Actually, in just a few seconds, right as Scott rounded the corner he would--

“Woah, look out there, Tigger!”

Yes, you heard that correctly: not tiger, Tigger. Tigger hadn’t been used since Alan was itty bitty. It always seemed like the kid had endless energy with the way he wouldn’t stop bounding off the walls and furniture. Even as a baby, Lucy had to sit with him for a few hours while he slept in his crib to make sure he would stay there. In fact, their mother gave Alan that nickname herself. She was quite the Winnie the Pooh fan, and the rest of the family figured it would be one of the ways they could keep her legacy alive for the tiny potato.

Wrapping his arms around said flailing potato, albeit much bigger than a baby, Scott thought he would collapse then and there. Alan was here, in his arms, and yeah, the sight of his dirty and somewhat ripped up IR uniform made him mad, but Scott, for once in his life, decided to focus on the here-and-now, aka his precious, alive little brother, who finally stopped struggling at the realization that hey, the person holding you is a good guy, time to turn off fight mode.

Smushing their foreheads together as much as possible, Scott desperately fought to keep the waterworks back, a smile from ear to ear hopefully taking whatever energy his tear ducts had, “You are getting such an ass beating when we get home, little bro.”

Alan jumped back with a look of What the hell?! What did I do now?!

Scott simply rolled his eyes, “Really? “Not important”? You graduated high school, tiny dude! That’s huge! You remember Gordon’s party, right?”

Alan’s mouth gaped before he closed it with slightly puffy cheeks. Those same cheeks tinged with a small blush. Alan wasn’t exactly expecting to be smothered so soon (well, he did cry his eyes out on Virgil’s shoulder, but that was different!). Shaking it off, Alan moved his hands rhythmically and rapidly, To be fair, we weren’t sure he was going to get one for a while.

Scott faltered a little bit at the ASL. Darn, he should’ve seen Alan’s lack of talking from a mile away. Scott carefully hid his disappointment from Alan. Lord knew what the kid would take it as, “Yeah, that’s what he got for barely making it. Imagine what you’re going to get!”

Scott assumed his semi-fake charm worked, as Alan seemed to play along without any kind of suspicion, Oh yeah. Fair enough.

This kid, man.

Then, slow clapping came from a dark corner, making Scott’s heart leap out of his throat as well as push Alan behind himself. Glaring as much as he could towards the invisible evil-doer, Scott didn’t have to think twice, “Alan, take my map and find Virgil and Gordon.”

The youngest looked like he was going to object.

“Go.”

He no longer did. Good.

Listening to the field commander’s orders, Scott felt his wristband slip off his wrist and a warm body leave his vicinity. An inhale. Also good. An exhale, followed by an even darker glare, “What more do you want?”

Short and straight-to-the-point and angry, two things Scott typically wasn’t. Regardless, like a cold gust of wind, footsteps started approaching him from the shadow. Once Scott saw the outline of a body, he tensed even more. Virgil would snap at him for clenching his jaw so much.

A dark chuckle reminded him of what was important. The voice that spoke reminded him of something completely different, “Now then, brother, let’s not be rude to each other!”

Scott’s pupils shrunk at the familiar sight of Gordon stepping towards him. Except it wasn’t Gordon, because Scott knew that Gordon knew better. He also knew Gordon didn’t cheekily smile like that, even after a prank, nor did he walk that straight. He always had a funny walk after WASP, and Gordon wore that fact like a badge of honor.

Oh no, Scott definitely knew who this was, “What the hell are you playing at?”

Fake-Gordon rolled his eyes, like it wasn’t obvious, “I mean if we want to go that route, why did kid insist you being in the military was the coolest thing he’d ever heard you do? Maybe I wouldn’t have been pressured into joining a branch myself in the end.”

Scott’s nostrils flared, and by God, his pupils might have actually slitted like a snake’s, or possibly even a dragon’s, “Excuse me?”

Scott blinked, and suddenly he was met by not-Virgil, “Plus, why was our conclusion after hearing a three-year-old wanting to see snow to go to a ski resort? It had to have been those big, selfish, beady eyes, right?”

“C’mon, Scotty, we gotta give you some kind of calming exercise. There’s going to come a time when neither me or John are going to be there.”

“Hmm… does yoga work?”

A snort, “Well, that’s not too bad of an idea. Maybe the person pissing you off will stop whatever they’re doing at the sight of you spontaneously doing downward dog.”

Laughter, an unfamiliar action, “Yeah, okay, but for real, those breathing exercises I’ve seen you do look okay. Let’s start there.”

Scott was not a liar by heart. He had to admit that those exercises were doing jack shit right about now.

Another blink, another brother. Familiar ginger hair was all Scott could see, “To continue that previous point, why did Dad start International Rescue again? And what led to his demise?”

“Sounds like a piece of work. Why do you keep dealing with these people again?”

“Someone has to pay the bills, Johnny. Grandma’s too focused on making the perfect poison for us.”

A roll of eyes, “Right, because the billions we have saved wouldn’t be enough to last a couple of families a few lifetimes. Glad to see your calming exercises are working at least. How’s that going for you, by the way?”

A pause. A flicker of vision around the room. Someone cleared their throat, probably himself, “It’s probably not as bad as whatever space is throwing at you. You handling it okay up there?”

Another pause, followed by a sigh, “Well, since you asked so nicely…”

Scott wanted to deflect the truth so badly right now more than anything else. Telling him he couldn’t pilot ‘One anymore would be a much more enticing option than what he was hearing.

Suddenly, Scott was looking in a mirror, “Besides, I know more than anybody that he wasn’t wanted. A mistake. I thought we Tracys hated being imperfect?”

The Hood must have known their backstories from internet articles, and being the mastermind he was, it probably took him all of three seconds to see Alan had some hidden self-worth issues. By playing the biggest Guess Who? game of all time, The Hood was most likely able to figure out some less-than-positive ideals Alan thought about himself throughout his childhood and danced circles around his already weakened mind to string together some spineless blame to put on the kid by sheer evilness alone.

Knowing his kid brother, it worked.

Scott wasn’t thinking straight-- maybe even at all when the first punch was thrown.

Just like that, Scott blacked out and was running on terminator mode. John would be disappointed. Virgil would be horrified. Gordon might find it funny. Alan wasn’t here, and thank God for that. Scott wasn’t entirely sure what he was doing. All his mind was telling him was make lots of pain hard and fast. His brain also blocked out any hit The Hood was giving him in return. Pain flared for a few seconds, then it was swept away in the puddle of rage his mind was currently being consumed in.

Soon, his out-of-it mind found its target and gripped his-- The Hood’s arm, no disguise would make him have an identity crisis, thank you very much-- nice and rough.

Scott heard the familiar snap of cartilage and felt only partially bad. If he was thinking more clearly, he would be disgusted with himself. Yes, even The Hood didn’t deserve this level of Scott’s fury. Oh, he definitely deserved to be hit by a truck, but not by Scott. It was mostly due to Scott’s sanity. If he could be this graphic and violent at all, even to the worse possible criminals, that meant he could be that way during other moments, and that was not a territory he wanted to cross into.

Welp, he was here now, and he’ll hate to admit it in the future, but the only thing that brought him out of it was a tiny gasp from a few feet away. Snapping his head up, Scott’s eyes landed squarely on a smaller-than-normal Alan, who was currently clutching his arm to his chest in an emotion Scott didn’t want to figure out at the moment. So much for going and finding Virgil and Gordon.

“Allie, help…” fake him grunted out, only making real Scott growl and tighten his hold (and probably making his case worse). Looking up from the person in his arms, Scott felt his heart split in two at the sight. There was fear and uncertainty in Alan’s blue eyes and boy did it hurt. Scott couldn’t tell if it was because even seeing a potentially-fake Scott being beaten up was bad or if it was because he’d never seen big brother be this brutal, even towards their enemies. Whatever the reason, it involved Scott being the main root of the problem.

Wait, that was The Hood’s plan. Shit… make Scott act past the point of no return in a way that was unfamiliar to Alan so the kid couldn’t be fully sure who was who, and Scott fell right into his trap, hook, line, and sinker.

Fuck.

Bloody well done, Scott, you absolute moron.

Scott faltered a little bit, “A-Alan, I--”

That falter was enough for The Hood to break an arm out of his grip and elbow him in the face. In the brief second of freedom he had, he tried dashing towards Alan, but Scott was too quick for everyone’s good and soon had the imposter back in his arms, both of them struggling in a way that made them look like they were tied into the weirdest knot in existence.

Then, an earthquake struck.

No, literally.

A big shake of the abandoned compound threw the look-a-likes about and subsequently off the platform they were on. The place was old; it didn’t take a lot of weight for that guard rail they made their way over towards while fighting to snap right off. With a yelp, the two of them gripped the edge as much as they could and held on. Crap, I know we talked with Fuse about potentially setting some stuff off, but--

Blinking, Scott saw a familiar mop of blonde hair come into view. Alan was rather panicked, clearly not sure which Scott was the real Scott. Not only that, he had little time to decide which one to save. Goodie, another reason to despise The Hood: not only has he put Alan through weeks of torment, now he’s forcing the kid to decide to either save his oldest brother and biggest hero or his personal torturer.

And Alan won’t know until he picks.

Holy hell, this was getting worse by the second. Hopefully, big brother charm can work its magic and get them the hell out of there.

“Alan, quickly, over here!”

“I can’t hold on for much longer, Alan, hurry!”

The two Scotts glared at one another in the exact same way, not making Alan’s job much easier. Another shake, another slip down the metal cliff, more screams, and Alan looked ready to tear his hair out. Scott watched as the kid looked around rapidly, probably praying for a miracle in the process. Suddenly, the kid jumped when he must have spotted something important. Within the blink of an eye, he was gone and out of their range of visions to retrieve it.

Whatever the hell he noticed better be important, because if just ended up wasting precious time then--

Another shake, probably the last one. Still, it was enough.

Both their grips gave away at the same time, screams identical (God, did he always sound that wimpy?) as they plummeted to their demises. Scott was briefly able to look up to see his brother pop his head over the cliff like a chipmunk again and grab the (albeit broken) arm of The Hood and save him. Dammit, Scott should have expected that, though, that display of anger was uncharacteristic to Alan. Probably terrified him even more than he already was. Fuck, Scott deser--

Suddenly, a rope wrapped itself around Scott’s left arm and stopped his descent. Hard. Hopefully, it was only torn stuff, they didn’t have time to deal with dislocation--

Wait.

Scott wasn’t dead if he could think about these kinds of things.

Blinking, he looked at his arm to see the familiar rope of his grappling hook around his forearm. Moving his eyesight to look past that, he saw the wide, blue eyes of his baby brother struggling to stay on top. The Hood was using his non-broken side to try and climb his way back up to safety. Huh, that’s weird. When did Alan get ahold of that? Scott must have dropped it during his scuffle with--

That’s when it hit Scott.

Alan saved them both.

Alan saved them both.

And it would be all for jack shit if Scott didn’t get his ass up there to help.

Panicking, Scott gripped the rope and started to ascend. He had two working arms and a smother complex to boot; it wasn’t long before he overtook a struggling Hood, who could only use one arm and a weakened brother (that bastard was so lucky Alan had a literal heart of gold).

Flinging his arms over the edge and pulling himself up-- and shrugging off the extra help Alan offered. Save your strength, baby bro-- Scott was in a much calmer search-and-destroy mode. He yanked his evil look-a-like up, turned him on his stomach, pinned him down, and before he could even watch Alan blink, “Sign something.”

There, now he watched Alan blink.

Scott pulled out one of his best ‘big brother’ smiles ever, “Tell me something in ASL. I don’t think The Hood learned that kind of etiquette.”

The body beneath him growled, making Alan jump and Scott tighten not only his hold but his glare. Further prove big brother’s point, why don’t cha? He lost the angry look immediately to grin at Alan once more, who seemed to be slowly getting the picture. With a gulp, the blonde slowly strung together a sentence that Scott had to laugh at, just a little bit.

Damn, could you teach me to fight like that, Scooter?

Nodding his head, Scott had to concede, “Sure. Consider it a graduation present.”

Alan blinked again, and the immense relief that washed over the boy’s shoulders would be enough to banish nightmares for at least a couple of days. Suddenly, The Hood’s disguise blinked out of existence, making both brothers jump that time. Scott didn’t falter in his grip, however. This man was going down right here and now, Scott thought darkly, staring at the prone body beneath his.

Scott saw Alan continue to sign out of the corner of his eye, You know you look like shit, right?

Scott chuckled. Alan was always able to put a smile on his face no matter the circumstances, “Yeah, well, kindred spirits, little bro.”

Scott was probably as pale as Alan was with such lack of sleep and food. Running on what was essentially a prolonged PTSD attack wasn’t healthy in the slightest, and no doubt whatever kind of bruises and scratches The Hood gave him didn’t help, however, seeing hope fill those deep-blue eyes when Alan learned he was truly being saved drowned everything out, including the way those freckles were getting lost in those eye bags.

Yeah, their entire family probably looked like shit, and the recovery process was going to be even shittier, but they were going to suffer through it together as a family would.

That made it all worth it.

Shuffling himself so one arm was free while the other kept The Hood pinned, Scott held it out towards Alan. The flinch the youngest made tore a hole in Scott’s heart that was only slightly patched when Alan leaned into the warmth and safety of his biggest bro. Long recovery process, remember? Regardless, Alan still took to the hug like a dehydrated zebra did a pond, and that was good enough for Scott.

The Hood groaned underneath them.

Yep, good enough.

[venus-says]

Yes! Pretty Cure 5 GoGo Episodes 38-48 + Movie

Bloom, flowers of life.

And we reach the end of another season! Wow, it has been a while since I could say this for precure. But we're finally here again.

The GoGo ending was a pretty interesting one, I quite enjoyed it, but before talking about it I wanna comment on the movie of the season because I wanna end this post on a positive note and if I leave this to the end I won't achieve that.

Y!PC5GG: Happy Birthday in the Land of Sweets♪

So, this movie was a choice. I feel like if you're someone who likes Nozomi and Coco you will probably like this movie, but if, like me, you're someone who sees this relationship as problematic then you will probably not care or hate this movie. To be honest, I think that even if you do like this pairing you may not like this movie as much, because even though this movie is very Nozomi focused and a huge part of that focus is on her relationship with Coco, the everything around it isn't much interesting so in the end, it's nothing really special.

I personally didn't enjoy this movie, but it wasn't even because of the Nozomi and Coco stuff. To begin I don't like that they introduced another character that is used to instigate jealousy in both Nozomi and Milk, thankfully they don't do much with that. I don't like how the other cures are useless here, like yeah, Aqua & Rouge and Mint & Lemonade fought against the minions but they didn't really impact the outcome of the movie, and they just forget Milk has powers up until the end where she's beaten down by the villain. And I also don't like how in the call to action scene they start to cheer for Dream only and not for the Precure and I don't know this kinda sounds disrespectful, it makes it look like the only important cure here is Dream and the other ones are just backup dancers, though Shining Dream is a pretty beautiful form, I can't deny that. But the thing I hate the most about this movie is one specific scene, while Coco is being controlled by Mushiban, and he corners Dream against a pillar or a wall and he gets close to her in a very predatory way and he says "Make me feel satisfied" and the way they frame the scene looks like it's something sexual and it's just very gross, and it gets grosser when you think it's a much older man behind Coco saying those words. I get that by the context of the movie he was just talking about turning Nozomi into chocolate and eating her like a snack, but the movie frames it like Coco is going to kiss Nozomi by force and it's not cool to see. I'll probably never watch this movie again.

While I'm still here in this gloomy mood let's talk about what I didn't enjoy in the actual season?

So my fears came true, we had almost like a boss rush in this final quarter which made those defeats a little less impactful, in fact, the first episode of this section we had the defeat of that pair of villains and I can't remember much about it. Mucardia's end was also kinda lame, first because we had a fake-out death and second because he was just killed away by the Director in the blandest way possible and it was pretty lame.

And speaking of lame endings, poor Anacondy. They really went to the "I'm in love with this man route" for her and in the end, she was just used and discarded by the man she loved like if she was the wrapping paper of candy, it was pretty sad. It was impactful, and it made me hate the Director more than I already did, but I wish she could have gone in a glorious way rather than by the hands of a crap man. And since we're talking about him, gosh I hate this dude. He's like those guys that get obsessed with a girl and just can't accept when they say no and instead of looking at themselves to try to find out why they don't want anything to him he just keeps forcing himself like if this is gonna change something. The Director is the concept of thrash man impersonated in a cartoon character. It was very cathartic seeing the cures whoop his ass with that giant rose.

The last thing I didn't like was the resolution for the mystery of Syrup's past. Like, seeing how this was a big thing throughout the whole season you would think his past would be more than just "he was born in the Cure Rose Garden, he was raised by Flora, and he was attacked while he was doing a delivery from Flora to the Director and that's probably what made him lose his memory". I don't know, for the amount of build-up this had I expected them to do something bigger with this. And it feels like that was the plan at some point because in the middle of the season we see Syrup meeting the Director and recognizing him from somewhere, it seemed like there was more to uncover there, but no, we just got some lame past stuff.

Before moving to the positives, I wanna quickly mention the Christmas episode that wasn't anything exceptional, but that there was some cool stuff in it, like Syrup being a fan of Santa since, when you think about it, Santa IS a delivery boy. To be honest, I was just glad they didn't have any sort of world-threatening invasion in this episode, it was very refreshing. XD

In any case, as it's usual for any precure season we get episodes for each cure's closing arc as an integral part of the final quarter. Being completely honest, I feel like Kurumi and Karen got the short-end of the stick here because while they had good episodes it didn't really give me the impression that they were concluding anything for them, different from Urara, Rin, and Komachi who got episodes where the conflicts had conclusions that tied-in more with their future aspirations and the path they've been walking through this season and also the previous one.

I think the reason why Kurumi and Karen's endings didn't feel as conclusive is that other things in their episodes stole my attention more than their conflicts. For example, in Kurumi's case, we see her feeling pressured because of her mission, which is very in tune with her whole thing as a caretaker, but this episode also shared space with working her relationship with Nozomi and that's what I was more focused in rather than Kurumi's personal thing that felt like it was more in the background. In Karen's case, the conflict was she doubting that she had what it takes to follow a career in medicine, but the show was putting more importance in King Montblanc being sick and again Karen's plot was kinda in the background. This is not to say that their endings were bad, it just seems a bit forgettable when you put that in comparison with the other episodes for the other girls.

For example, Urara's final episode was about her doing an audition to get in the same musical her mom performed before she passed, we also have a MOTW plot that works in a way to directly affect her negatively in this audition by making a Little Mermaid plot where Shibiretta steals her singing voice. This is a combination that works with Urara both in her precure life and in her civilian life. It concludes her arc and it feels rewarding to see her finally pass that audition. Kurumi and Karen didn't really have that. Actually, Rin and Komachi didn't have a conclusion that was so well rounded as Urara, but it was more centered on them, they were still in the center and able to shine in their episodes, though I wish Komachi had done more in her episode, it didn't really feel like she had much agency in that episode.

The Nozomi episode is a bit unfair to put in this comparison because while it is an episode that dwelled with her efforts in studying in order to fulfill her dream of becoming a teacher, this episode was more to show the difference of power between them and the Director while Nozomi's conclusion comes around in the end during the final fight and the aftermath of the battle.

And about this finale, this was very enjoyable. I like that we had the final conflict happening through 3~4 episodes but it didn't feel like they were stretching a plotline or maybe dragging the finale for more than it needed to. It was pretty solid, it was well built, and despite the problems, I mentioned it was pretty good. I think my favorite moment of this ending was when Syrup was giving his speech to the petrified cures, and we could see that the things he was talking about was pretty much related to his growth and his development through the whole season and it was pretty moving, I also think it was hella cute when he mentioned that letter the cures sent was the first letter he ever received in his life and that he was really happy about it, and my heart just melted and all I wanted was to hug him and say "you're a good boy, my son T-T" to him.

I also liked that whole seed of life and how seeds have infinite potential discourse at the end, yeah it was a bit of a stretch after all depending on the case seeds are pretty predictable, but it was a good message for the end, it hit the points it had to hit so I count it as a win. I also like how in the end Flora turned into a seed in hopes to bloom into a new life in the future, it was a pretty optimistic and happy way to end the show and it was a good way to wrap-up this pretty good season.

And that's it for Yes! Precure 5! I gotta be honest, I didn't think I'd enjoy this season as much as I did because I wasn't the biggest fan of its predecessor and I didn't have high hopes for the sequel, but I found myself enjoying the show more and more as I would go, even with its flaws and the elements I don't like. It was truly a joy to find a new love for this season, a new love for this world, and a new love for these characters. While the original season is at the bottom of my list of favorites during this series of rewatches, this sequel sits more close to the top, and that makes me very happy. So, what are your thoughts on GoGo? Let me know in the comments down below. Next, we're finally getting to Fresh which is one of my favorite seasons and I'M VERY EXCITED!!! I can't wait to watch this season again. But that's for another day, for now, stay healthy, stay safe, never stop resisting, thank you so much for reading, and until the next time. See-ya~

[violet-sabres]

Some quick observations re: TROS and some "reylo"musings (spoilers)

- the editing removed A LOT of emotional pay-offs for so many scenes. The decorations and actors change quickly, a bit randomly - in fact it takes a while before this movie finds its tempo and footing. Something weighty happens and no reflection is allowed even in briefest sketch of a reaction. Next scene. Next scene-

- Poe, Finn, Rose and two new female characters were absolutely robbed. Both by the ungodly pace of this movie (there is much potential for scenes that could mean much much more in the whole storyline. As is, they are discarded as soon as they happen). The bond between Finn and Poe got severed in the beginning with some awkward finnrey moments and strange jealousy (was that what it was???) from Poe. I say either carry out the finnrey thread (which was also beautiful actually, though Finn deserves so much better than how she treats him in TROS...) or finnpoe, something which JJ himself built up. Rose should be given an independent arc with no romance involved, or a love interest of her own.

- Rose's infatuation with Finn is never touched. Rose herself is absolutely erased - she is a statist, providing some dialogue with absolutely no weight behind it. JJ treated her terribly - it was his privilege and responsibility to utilize whatever he got from Johnson as he saw fit; but throwing away her potential only underlines the racist sidelining he did to all characters of colour.

- the heteronormativity I can't understand - Finn and Poe are JJs babies after all (and yeah, I know - shareholders...). Why tease hetero relationships for both and STILL leave even them hanging?? Like, he discarded Rose bc first of all racism, second - Johnson's 'leftovers' I guess? Unacceptable. The lady of Poe's was sketched boldly - but still sketched. Her inclusion wouldn't feel so random if Poe wasn't shown to be this randomly emotional abt her all of a sudden. Why now? It felt a bit forced and this is a shame bc she (and Janah, omg Janah...) is super cool. I'd love to read and see way more about all of them.

- Finn and Janah - wonderful rapport, so much empathy and loyalty, they are wonderful together. I definitely could see them together as well - so many threads to explore! There was so much potential to embed meaningful relationships for Finn into the plot. Janah is one of those that felt quite right but deserved more still. She deserves a story of her own. Not for the first time it is a secondary character of colour who carries so much potential and substance and gets sidelined. I dont mind Kylo content btw - but this series was shown to concentrate on 3 people and a villain. Keep to this proportion or perish I say. They didnt keep them and the movie feels unfairly skewed towards the force dyad of Rey and Ren. Hence, robbed. We were robbed of much of quality content here.

- the implication/suggestion that Finn may be Force sensitive held so much promise. I love Finn and Boyega played him with so much passion and dignity. He grew into leadership without pretense or drama, was competent and knowledgeable about the inner workings of the Fleet and found hope he was struggling for. Honestly the problem here is that his prominence was teased to be greater than the actual time and the weight of scenes he was given. This movie should be longer, scene order less abrupt and random - so the characters that were shown to matter in the first part could matter here as well.

- JEDI FINN please. The potential of it was teased - they should scrap some of the scenes and build those kinds of plot points more thoroughly. Finn's arc should be more - but that doesn't mean Boyega played it any other than magnificently. He got what he was given and made it his. I hate that this still means it was not as much as he and Poe deserved it. Same with Rose.

- galactic generals (*husbands) Poe and Finn. It could be marriage, it should be - Isaac played a man in love. I enjoyed this new romantic angle with the spice smuggler lady as well - but it required more buildup. As it was, it made for an awkward and frankly homophobic ersatz for finnpoe plotline of the first and even second movie. I hate wasting the potential of new characters in the movie, and this is what happened here. Also Poe's smuggling past - no previous setup that felt offensive to many bc of its randomness and no previous grounds in existing media. Felt like unnecessary sensationalism here.

- Rey is complicated here. I didnt like her attitude towards Finn and wished for more appreciation of their own idiosyncracies between them. Finn deserved his love (whether romantic or platonic) to be recognized. It was lacking here.

- I loved the fight scenes, the dialogues with Ren that should begin in TFA if they wished for the romance to be acceptably wet up. Driver is so fucking physical and huge, a bit awkward and very strong. To me it was attractive - but to me Kylo always lacked the threat in him when it came to Rey; I know this isnt so for others and respect that.

- Choreography is super effective here, the body work of Rey and Ren is wonderful.

- lighting, the sith locations were one of my favourites

- the creatures - while in the background, theybwere lovely. They made for lusher world out there.

- Palps was eh. Needed for the ending setup, ultimately fell a bit flat. The twist re his endgame would feel better if the whole scene didnt play this fucking quickly.

- the death (you know whose...) is quick and abrupt, passing fleetingly with no real depth or importance. They are rushing to another scene so quickly they forget that if you love somebody enough to accept them fully, this person's death tends to leave some kind of impression. As it is, Rey is hardly the first character robbed of emotional engagement in TROS.

- sigh. Ren. I love to hate him and hate to enjoy him still. Also feeling like a hypocrite bc would I enjoy him if not for my prefernce for how Driver looks like? Would anyone who I respect a bit more than his most fanatical reylo fans? I have no answer really.

I've never seen a character ripped into shreds from so many angles. For incels and dudebros he is a pussy (a lot of girls I know also mentioned that). He is supposedly not cruel enough, not awesome like Vader, whatever.

For others he is a genocidal criminal, and that he is. You can't sidestep Tuanul or his passivity in front of Star Destroyer wiping out whole planets. He is implicated in this genocide - and that scene where he is supposedly mutely watching it from the distance falls flat if its intention was to show he wasn't entirely behind Hux's agenda. He still never stopped him. So yeah, it is obvious that for many he is absolutely undeserving of any empathy, much less a romance plotline with movie's heroine. Especially when the first scenes setting it up were so messed up.

Now I hate the word reylo and I'd rather choke than call myself that. But I did enjoy their enmity and idk love?? towards each other? It should be plotted more consequently and I believe if JJ didn't muck it in tfa people would be a lot less opposed to the whole villain x heroine thing. Nobody opposes it bc of that - it's the torture bed and it's the "whatever I want" line that made so many recoil. It's the absolute lack of coherence at a time where more self awareness was needed from the director of the very first part in the series.

I believe there is a kind of generational divide on topic of their romance. Youve got gen z "antis" who argue about the abuse (and have a lot of good point more reylos should think hard and long about) - and mostly adult to older women (this includes older milennials also!) who grew up steeped in gothic romanticism that, up to gen z growing up, was a dominant romance paradigm in the West.

Youve got your Wuthering Hills, your Pride and Prejudice and Beauty and the Beast. I hate it. I absolutely abhor it, and the more the reylo fandom hammered their whole relationship from this angle, the more I was distancing myself. I believe the whole genre is steeped in toxic masculinity and yes, you can look at reylo from this angle as well - and I understand that when you saw those scenes from TFA, and didn't feel convinced by entirely paradoxal romance teasers (bc JJ mixed them both in equal measure, and thus killed wide enthusiasm for reylo for good) then what happened in TLJ and TROS must look like the embracing toxic hetero romance in entirety. And to some degree it is - entirely by JJs fault. The other elements that you mightve ignored in tfa suddenly get amplified in tlj, in tros and youre left wondering why the hell Kylo Ren could ever be seen as romanceable?

But the thing is, while the analogy of angry white male pursuing a pure young woman seems fitting, it doesnt work for me here. I also acknowledge that it may be in part bc I'm used to the gothic paradigm, attracted to Driver as Ren and feeling safe and assured that Rey would stay herself despite whatever he wanted from her (and she did in my opinion, she never caved even when she loved him). Kylo is white, and he is aggressive - he is a villain, he tortures and hurts Poe and Finn and plays psychological games with Rey, he shouts a lot and is very physical, which in itself looks threatening.

All those could end up somewhat accepted bc he is a villain - people will accept the consequent villain, or paradoxical one done with self- awareness on side of their creator. JJ was absolutely unaware of what a mess he did I bet - the worst elements that crossed "reylo" off the list for so many people I'd argue were first sown by JJ himself in paradoxical chase of I tease this-now I don't. Here's what I mean.

It was JJ who put Rey on that horizontal torture bed, even when Poe's was upright. It was JJ who had Ren say those gross words abt taking what he wanted. It was also JJ who irreaponsibly and paradoxically played with symbolism normally reserved for gothic princes DESPITE the gross elements he himself planted - the mask going off to reveal a goofy Disney prince, the crouching so as not to scare her, the freaking bridal carry, the humanizing via showing Ren's vulnerability. I actually hated some of those scenes - I loved the face reveal no lie, but what followed was unacceptable. Why style your villain this lush and vulnerable when you're shooting your own foot a few minutes after, with dialogue that had whole groups of young women discard him as trash? Why not polish your villain with more self awareness so that the ground for the romance is understood and cautiously accapted?

So youve got an internally cracked TFA that for some was obviously teasing reylo but for others made it unacceptable forever. This is one hell of a difficult mix to continue with and I believe if JJ was given the 2nd part to work with, perhaps he might be able to somehow work with Ren so that TLJ wouldnt feel like slap to the face to those who saw mostly the worst parts of Ren that JJ himself designed. Perhaps he would also polish the romance teasers or got rid of them altogether, idk. TROS shows that while he was eager to discard anything that Johnson had put into motion, he chose to leave reylo content still. This is really paradoxical to me, today as it was back then.

Now reylo isnt super mainstream - if he got rid of it, it would surely anger a lot of people but also satisfy an equal amount of others. Yet he chose not to and I'd argue it is because he planned for reylo to happen from the beginning, just in a shitty way we first witnessed in the worst scenes of TFA.

I'll also argue another point - if Johnson was given the saga from the beginning, reylo wouldnt be nearly as much hated and regarded as abusive for so many. It is this particular humanization of Kylo that was criticized by so many that would protect the 1st part from that torture bed, and from taking whatever Kylo wanted. As it was, when all this sudden humanity followed JJs paradoxical mess, only opposition could come bc it kind of must - it looked for many as woobifying somebody who was already irredeemable. The irony is that JJ probably never planned for this - maybe he thought he could pull this off, somehow work out the agreement between ugly Kylo and Kylo worthy of Rey. Johnson just put a fat line between TFA and his own vision, and irresponsibly ignored all the ugly heritage that should be better worked on if he ever hoped to rectify JJs paradoxes. He didnt do this and thus the mess.

I dont know if it would ever be possible though. Perhaps theres been a shift in ethics, in aesthetics even, so big that for the gen Z this kind of relationship is unacceptable. I dont see anything bad in this - even if I enjoyed a lot of reylo's potential, there will be better content, better romances done by those kids who despise reylo now as well. Meanwhile I plan to stay on this weird pole stuck deep into my ass between reylo enthusiast and haters bc I cant for shit choose a side fully.

Bc I dont see the abuse this clear cut - but am also unsure how much of it is my cultural baggage, the history of normalizing toxic masculinity etc. I bet it's both to some degree, like with all gothic romance genre, - and that there wouldnt be this whole rift at the heart of tfa without toxic masculinity normalization at all. Without it there would be no torture bed and no threats. And the irony is that Johnson would probably see to that better. But not as good as a woman behind the camera to begin with - if you want a heroine at its heart that is.

Like, you can see JJs initial vision as pretty homogenous - the bed, the words, and ignore all the paradoxical romance symbolism in there. You can also look at it as fractured and absolutely lacking coherence, and fish for the elements youd like to stay in next parts. I welcomed Johnson bc he took the best in Kylo and left JJs mess behind. This is also the very reason youre gonna hate the TLJ if TFA felt coherent for you. Bc you cant ignore that which felt threatening and cruel and very much obvious.

I have no easy recipe at dealing with this saga. I cant throw my weight behind reylo fully, ever, but will cautiously accept the potential it could have should it be more coherently written. I love so much of art and those fics that are in line with my wishes towards how Ren should be done from.the beginning.

When I was considering what to.think abt all that, back in the beginning, I didnt want for Rey to cater to emotional demands and baggage of an aggressive male, and I believe she actually doesnt - time and time again she asserts herself, maybe messily but she has the right to her anger and pain so the messy it has to be. She is shown to hope for him becoming better - and isnt manipulated or groomed to do so, and if loneliness was the only reason to stick to him then any other person would suffice, which isnt the case. She is loyal to the cause to the end and happily carries on despite Ren dying, even if it's clear she loved him. She is her own woman and the magnitude of his emotions, the physicality of his behaviour hardly influence her - she neither cowers before Kylo nor caters to him, ever. I love her for this, actually.

So there you have it, my messy thoughts on both TROS and 'reylo' dynamics. I cant say Im satisfied with both. There could be more, Ren could be fleshed out better in the beginning. The potential of so many characters was left undeveloped. I dont feel satiafaction even with elements I loved abt reylo bc there is no counterpart in other aspects I hoped to see developed. I wanted Rey to have more time with Finn, for Finn to have more time with Poe, for Rose to matter in tros as well. I wanted more of Rey and Leia, and for Ren to have more coherence to his character. Ultimately I got crumbs and some bits unable to be stomached.

Go and watch tros, stay in the place of engaging with this series that feels best to you, closest to your needs abd perceptions. Tros will not satisfy anyone in full, also bc of editing and the pacing - which is terrible. Reylo will either frustrate you or frustrate you for entirely different reasons. Dont take JJs shit, dont take Johnson's. Take from the saga whatever works for you.

I dont think it's possible to fully embrace reylo, without reservations. There are grounds for the so called antis to point out the toxic masculinity and potential for abuse. There are tropes suggesting romance despite this still, all in just TFA. It was a mess from the very beginning and it's normal people took sides.

I'm just glad it's finally over.

[quintessence-sentimentalist]

quintessence-sentimentalist Takes on 30 Days of W.i.t.c.h.versary!: Week One

So I’ve been way too swamped as of late to keep up with this challenge day-by-day, even with only written answers (because guys, I write long answers, even when I cut myself short). As a solution (at least to start), I’m going to lump my answers for days falling within the same week together. Here’s Days 1 through 7!

Day 1: Favorite Guardian

Well, glancing up at my username and icon, I think it’d be remiss not to say Will Vandom, at least in some respect.

Will was my favorite from the beginning, back when I only had the chapter books with comic inserts. I can’t quite put my finger on why I gravitated to her, though I get the feeling that my love of energy/electricity-based powers had something to do with it. Plus, she got the cool transformation trinket! I’m sure there are many, many more reasons why she became my favorite, but this was also a good 15 years ago and even my obscure-detail-focused memory is having a hard time tracing back.

I’m not as passionate about comics Will as an adult, just in terms of how they loaded the poor girl up with so much drama that it’s just overwhelmingly exhausting, and she has some pretty immature reactions to her problems with her mom and Matt (pre-relationship). But animated Will is still my girl, with her awkwardness and quipping (of a different sort than Irma’s) and the way she grows as a leader, to the point where she’s basically set up a long con on even the viewers as a battle strategy in the latter quarter of season 2. This was the Will I grew to love as an adult rewatching the series after many years.

Since I’ve always been a Will Girl in some form, this has to be my official answer, but very honorable mentions to Irma and Hay Lin across both media. 

Day 2: Favorite Villain

Alright, if we’re talking the animated series and you aren’t new around these parts, we all know it’s Shagon. Listen, this arc is 90% of the reason why I love the cartoon as much as I do, because they took a character from the comics with a nebulous backstory and a spooky, badass design who was relatively underused even with being Nerissa’s strongest/preferred minion, and decided to pull out all the stops. They gave a recurring character (who, okay, I already loved) with very strong ties to the girls - and who’d already evolved out of his role in the comics at the time - his own challenge/story arc about literally facing his inner demon; they gave the Guardians a deadly enemy to face off against (distract them) while Nerissa is off plucking up ex-Guardians one by one; they gave Will and Matt some brutal emotional turmoil that’s actually new and refreshing for the two of them (let’s send the repeated comics jealousy plotlines back to the kitchen, yeah?). And, uh, they made an already spooky, badass character design EVEN SPOOKIER AND MORE BADASS. 

(The darker colors all around? The brilliant gold mask? The dark angel wings? I have been in love with this design since I was 12, alright?)

But! If we’re talking comics, then I’m going with Yua. I’ve talked about this at length before in a different ask game, but I think I gravitate to Yua because a) I’m largely not about full-on villains in any media and b) she’s a beautifully complex character in the context of the third arc’s narrative. 

I’m not going to reiterate everything I said before and just redirect to that post, but I just find it fascinating that the banshee - whose species we’re repeatedly told are eeeeeevil by nature - shows more humanity than the actual human antagonists in this arc. She never wanted harm to come to Maqi, taking him away the second she’s freed as both revenge on her oppressor and a means of keeping this little boy safe from his father’s single-minded crusade. Yua even directly expresses this sentiment when Maqi falls, horror-struck and swearing that it was always about hurting Ari and never Maqi. And even when Maqi is... eurgh, “healed” (yeah, there are a lot of problems with the resolution to this arc), Yua has the opportunity to strike Ari at his happiest and complete her vengeance, but seeing Maqi so delighted makes her retreat, at least for now. 

So yeah. More humanity than Ari and his blind rage in his quest to “cure” his son, and more humanity than Riddle & Co. in abducting an innocent teenage girl on the mere suspicion that she has powers with the intention of putting her through human experimentation. Yua takes Best Villain in my heart because she’s not a villain, not really.

Day 3: Favorite Love Interest

Again, unless you’re new here, it’s no shock that - if we’re talking animated series - it’s Matthew “I’m Arguing With a Housepet” Olsen. 

As wildly different as it is from the comics, I do so adore his character design, with his dark hair (which, uh, may have been the first indication that I have a Type when it comes to my favorite male characters) and purple hoodie. His personality is so endearing too, because he’s not just the idolized older boy we initially see him as in the comics, but like... a legitimate dork. He’s sweet and plays guitar and generally exudes Cool, but you get to know him and it’s easy to see that he and Will are like souls. Not the best about expressing their feelings to the person they like, but always ready to step up and fight.

That’s another quality I love about cartoon Matt. Even before the Shagon arc, very shortly after even learning of the Guardian secret, Matt wants in on the action. It’s not in a “living out his action hero dreams” way, or even really a matter of impressing/protecting Will: it’s more about not being the guy who sits safe on the sidelines while everyone else is risking their lives, and trying to prove (largely to himself, in the end) that he’s worthy to be Will’s boyfriend when she’s a honest-to-Kandrakar warrior and he’s just “Funny Matt.”

I’m going to skip the Shagon arc for now because I assure you I could probably talk for ages about cartoon Matt, and we don’t have that kind of time now.

As for comics, I definitely have to go with Eric Lyndon and - technically a pseudo-love interest - Joel Wright. Oh, and Peter Cook!! Basically, all the sweet guys who don’t get quite as much attention with the comics and whose romantic relationships developed a bit later.

Day 4: Favorite Ship

Surprise, surprise: it’s animated Will/Matt. I’ve blubbered about them before, I will blubber about them again (please give me reasons to do so?), so I’m going to spare you all this time around. Just know that they’re my longest-held major OTP, and that it normally takes a hell of a lot to get me to full-on ship something.

(Real quick though: mutually pining dorks? Matt’s insecurity about being enough for his badass electricity-flinging girlfriend? Will’s drive to just blast shit down to find and save Matt? “If this all goes south, I’m gonna be beside you”??? Please ignore my choked sobbing.)

Anyhoo, there are a couple different comics ships I’d say qualify, though I might not be as passionate about them as I am cartoon WxM. Hay Lin and Eric are positively adorable, and I love how their relationship was slow but not agonizingly so. Hay was the only one not to get a love interest of sorts from the very start, taking us all the way to issue 18 before a guy makes her giggly. And I really appreciate that it wasn’t just a superficial crush, that while Eric was cute, it was his kindness and the time he spent with Hay that made her go, You know, I think I like this guy. It was a refreshing change of pace, they’re both adorable, and we ignore the fact that Eric was mysteriously written out and Hay has that one issue in the Dark Times late in the series where she falls head-over-heels for this rockstar-ish guy for no real reason and changes her style to try to impress him. 

Honorable mentions go to Irma and Joel, who had excellent potential and should have still been kept as friends even if they decided to give Irma a different SO (we ignore the later issue where Joel just wistfully looks at Irma with his “We used to be friends” thought bubble and no actual explanation for why they aren’t anymore); and Cornelia and Peter, who I don’t give enough credit and definitely need to reread.

Day 5: Favorite Friendship

This is a tough one - can I say all of the W.i.t.c.h. girls together? Because outside of the first arc, there isn’t really a whole lot of focus on the smaller group friendships. 

Cornelia and Elyon is a good one, though, literally spanning worlds because Cornelia is dead-set on saving her friend. I’ll toss Orube and Will into the mix as well, because Will was crucial to Orube’s initial character development and they seemed to have the closest relationship moving forward.

Day 6: Favorite Cover/Pinup/Promotional Art

Oof, giving me the hard questions, are we? I have a few favorites, but one of the first that came to mind was this one of Will. It’s the cover of the 21st chapter book, which I think is actually the pinup for issue 21. They must have changed it up for the US release in order to keep it more in-line with the actual plot.

Day 7: Favorite Episode/Issue

Hrm. Let’s change it up and start with the comics on this one. Off the top of my head, I have a soft spot for issue 32. It’s the zenith of the Sylla sub-arc, so the stakes are high, the girls get cute semi-formal clothes when they go to the opera to spring and hopefully evade Riddle’s trap, Sylla double-crosses Riddle and teams up with Medina and McTiennan (and I still think there’s a missed opportunity here with wiping that particular team’s memories of the girls), and we get the most iconic page in this entire comic with Orube beating up Riddle’s goon while brushing off a suitor and then coyly asking him to be her arm candy. 

Issue 50 is another one I like, though largely because I enjoy the futures presented for each of the girls (I particularly love the concept of park ranger Cornelia and writer Will). And as a lingering vestige of my young, comic-Will/Matt-shipping heart, issue 40 is another nostalgic choice.

As for the animated series, I routinely consider my favorites on the chance that Greg Weisman still sells scripts at cons and I get the chance to buy that of a favorite episode. But true to form, basically all of my favorites are heavy Will/Matt episodes...

“D is for Dangerous” is fun because it’s the first time Will gains her quintessence lightning (yay!), the running gag with the Sisterhood of the Traveling Mr. Huggles is amusing, Elyon’s deadpan “Barehanded folding. My one talent” still kills me, and Matt and Caleb’s epic failures of training montages are great. “M is for Mercy” is brutal, with Shagon at his absolute deadliest and taunting Will with Matt’s disappearance, the utter hatred Will has for this demon who’s taken on the form of the boy she loves (and, unbeknownst to her, is legitimately a twisted reflection of Matt), and the sight of Shagon at his lowest while at Will’s mercy and her offer to teach him just that. “S is for Self” has not one but two musical numbers for Matt, and we finally get the resolution to the Shagon arc, so of course it’s a favorite.

But what the hell: I’m going with “T is for Trauma” as my favorite. I watched this episode three times the day it aired, and I still love it to this day. We get the introduction of rejuvenated C.h.y.k.n. (who wipe the floor with the W.i.t.c.h. girls at first), the Egyptian-themed costumes for no actual reason (“Could someone tell me how that man could look at me and think camel???”), Matt getting to fight as the badass normal for the first and last time since “L is for Loser,” etc. But most of all, this is Hay Lin’s episode, and it is absolutely soul-destroying but with a magnificent payoff at the end. It hurts to see the naturally lighthearted, high hopes member of the crew with her spirit absolutely shattered by her grandmother’s apparent betrayal, Eric’s brainwashing, and Nerissa’s general existence, and it’s just as painful that this was the way they gave her character development, but I have to commend this episode for one of the heaviest lines ever: “That’s how you survive the trauma - not by knowing it will be alright, but by having no other choice. ...I don’t have the luxury of breaking down right now.”

[takaraphoenix]

Review: 3x15 - To the Night Children

Heidi... was annoying. Honestly, how are there so many older vampires in New York and literally not a single one of them thinks “Mh, been around for a couple decades/centuries. Know that challenging the Clave is not a good idea. Maybe I should remove this fledgling vampire from being in charge?”...? Like? How is this even a thing??

How are all of those more experienced vampires letting this girl play them like this...? I just... damn. That’s such a shallow world-building there.

Honestly love how Maia took care of that one. That was... a damn good scene and also clever. Not to mention, you literally can't charge Maia with anything. All she did was inject water into her own veins. When a vampire attacks her, then that's on them.

I really do like that we learn more about the Institute though! World building! I appreciate it! So they have a large cafeteria. Does that mean they have Shadowhunters who are solely cooks then? I'm genuinely curious about this. Are there more careers than just soldier and politician?

How. Is. Luke. Arrested?? They have been tailing him for a while now. And... they really think he managed to sneak off and slaughter everyone in the restaurant he owns??

There is literally no evidence on Luke doing this? This should not stick and Luke now playing the martyr on it feels and smells a lot like “Well. We have barely been using Luke all of last season and we kinda have no use for him so uh let's shelve him in prison I guess??”, because that's what this show does when it runs out of plotlines for a character. Just write them off. Urgh.

How are Alec and Isabelle so insanely unprofessional though? I mean, seriously, how can Isabelle not keep a poker-face and wear her opinion on Heidi on her sleeve like that? You play them, you don't just flat-out say every single thing you think during an interrogation? And Alec just the same, all the faces he kept making at Isabelle. It's like they have zero training in interrogation.

Someone explain Underhill to me though. He was friendly with Alec this whole time we've known him now? And suddenly he makes snide remarks behind Alec's back? Had they given that like to Raj, who has shown such characteristics before in the show, but this convenient “What actors aside from the main six do we have on scene today? Let's just slap this plot and these lines onto them so we don't have to pay anyone else for being there!” is a serious problem for this show.

Magnus' reaction to Underhill's comment on their relationship was so inappropriate though. Like Alec isn't allowed to have friends and talk to them about their relationship? Honey, have you forgotten that you yourself went on a drinking and dancing spree with Dot when your problems started and she nearly kissed you and you never told Alec about this? So, maybe be a little less judgmental that Alec talks about his personal relationship problems with a friend... regardless of how long he's known that friend. Like, “Underhill is attractive so it bothers me”, uhm “You dated Dot and she tried to kiss you as soon as you opened up to her... and that kinda bothers me” would be a really great comeback if Alec knew about this whole scene...

Jealousy can be cute. When someone is actively hitting on your partner and you get protective, that is cute. When your partner has friends and confides about personal problems in his friends and you act like he shouldn’t do that, then that is not the cute kind of jealousy at all. That is the alarmbells go off in my head kind of jealousy.

Okay, here's a really stupid thing: If I were Jace I would most definitely not just hug Aline and accept her words. Jonathan shapeshifted into Sebastian and played you all. Jonathan literally just shapeshifted into Jace to play them all. A face you know suddenly returns to the Institute without you having been notified about it before? Let's do some check-ups and do that weird stone-thingy that Clary had done to check Sebastian's identity. Actually, let's just... always do that, just to make sure. I would just at this point be way too paranoid to just hug people and share info with them??

Let's put the complete lack of security protocols and caution aside, I like Aline and I'm glad she's back. I mean, I'm generally glad to get more on the characters around the main characters. And a hot, angry sword lesbian is always a great addition to everything, really.

And she is also really very right. Because Clary didn't just beat her up, Clary completely lost control of herself. And y'all gotta be more weary about that. Losing control of your body is kind of a problem on this show and it usually gets female characters killed on this show!

So... a huge plotline this season... is that Isabelle investigates the Clave for torturing Downworlders, but... she still goes and arrests Raphael to hand him over to the Clave? Like, that's a thing that happened, yeah? Really? Because that was the moment where she should have just shouted “RUN” and let him escape this time, because seriously you are literally investigating that they're torturing Downworlders and Raph is a Downworlder. What the fuck.

Also, I need book-readers to reassure me that Jonathan is more than just an incestuously horny little bitch please? Because... honestly... I was kinda looking forward to villain!Jonathan. A layered villain though, due to his history. But... he doesn't... really... villain all that much? He just wants to bang his sister and does his best to get her and literally nothing else? It's a bit... uh... disappointing.

HOLY FUCKING BULLSHIT. Magnus and Alec literally had the conversation about moving in like not a month ago. And Magnus was actually being reasonable that it's way too soon to permanently live together. But of course was Magnus losing his loft literally only happening so they could further the ship, because every single bad thing that happens to Magnus really does only serve the purpose of Ma/ec. What the actual fuck.

Jace just makes me... tired at this point. Honestly, how are these writers getting paid to write? We fanfiction writers would do it better for free! This boy has been through nearly all the traumatic experiences possible at this point. We had him cry about it in the first episode, but then he got his girlfriend back and Suddenly Magically He Was Healed. No more crying, no more breakdowns, no further backlash from his mental illness. There... There is literally nothing I find more disgusting than when writers think that True Love can cure trauma and mental illness. That is not how either of those work, you absolute fuckers. And to then, additionally, use Jace as Clary’s emotional crutch because she has been through “so much”? Fuck you, dudes, just fuck you hard.

If you are too inexperienced a writer to properly deal with the emotional toil that trauma has on characters, then you should just not put them through said trauma. It’s just genuinely offensive at this point toward anyone who’s ever actually suffered in any form, because you’re acting like “Well, get yourself a hot girlfriend! It’ll make everything better *lol*” is an actual solution.

Why can’t you treat trauma with respect? And teach a responsible and respectful way of dealing with it? Instead of just using it for raw, pure shock-value and then just brushing it under the rug and having the characters continue on like nothing ever happened afterward?

The TL;DR of it all:

Thank the gods and Maia for ending the Heidi plotline

Luke Garroway deserves better, what the fuck

Jealousy can be cute. It most definitely is not cute when your boyfriend confides about personal problems to a friend. This was A Bad Ma/ec Episode

Aline is wonderful, I need more of her, please don’t just shelve her again when you don’t know what to do with her

Raphael Santiago deserves better, what the fuck

Jonathan, you little creep

Jace Herondale deserves better, stop putting him through trauma and then not dealing with it but making him deal with other people’s trauma, you asshats

[shirtlesssammy]

10x01: Black

Netflix won’t show me The Road So Far, so I have no clue what’s happening when a demon accuses Sam Winchester of being one of them --soul long gone. Sam’s got her tied up and he’s been torturing her, so maybe she’s delusional? 

J/K, Sam’s just being Sam Co-dependent Winchester and trying to find his brother, who’s been traipsing around all summer with his new BFF, Crowley. (Which, yay for Sam for finally taking action when his brother is in trouble, but like, whoa, buddy, take it down a couple hundred notches.)

Four Weeks Later

...and every lore book and connection he has, Sam is still at a loss as to where his brother and Crowley are. He wanders into Dean’s room and finds a note on his pillow, “Sammy Let Me Go.” Sam’s not about to let that happen, especially when he finds a news article about a slain man in Wisconsin. He calls Cas with his discovery.

For My God Why Don’t I Watch This Moment More Science:

Cas is….NOT DOING WELL. He’s sweaty and coughing and laid up in bed when Sam calls. Sam excitedly talks about the lead, but Cas coughs through the whole exchange. Sam stops, realizes Cas isn’t doing well, and tells him nevermind. They leave their conversation with the question, “Do you think there’s any chance…any chance at all that Dean is still even remotely Dean?”

Cut to Dean singing Karaoke at a bar. Uh, oh boy. I mean, the more we unpack Dean Winchester, yeah, this is totally Dean. I guess this new version of Dean is pure Id. He wouldn’t be singing “I’m Too Sexy” though. Lol, bby demon Dean.

While Dean does his thing (badly). Crowley talks with a couple of dudes --(The much speculated ⅔ of the triples Dean and Crowley did extraordinary things with.)

Cut to Dean and the waitress, Anne Marie, in bed. She’s late for her shift, and Dean makes it clear that she shouldn’t grow attached to him. She’s less than impressed with his tact. Crowley busts in and busts up the party.

Cut to Dean and Crowley now playing foosball with the ⅔ of the triplets. Crowley is showing his jealousy on his sleeve. Oh, Drowley! How people missed this blatant of a storyline is beyond me.

Dean notices a man grabbing Anne Marie and heads to investigate, and by investigate I mean beat the shit out of the dude. Even at his worst, Dean’s base motivation is pure; execution might be a bit off though.

Cas continues to waste away in some dank and dark motel bed (this show did him dirty for so long). There’s a knock at his door, and Hannah is there. Oh, Hannah, how I love you. There’s an awkward exchange when Cas inadvertently flashes her, but they quickly move on and Hannah asks for Cas’s help in finding a couple rogue angels.

Sam investigates the death in Wisconsin alone.

At night, Dean leaves the bar to find a demon he knows has been watching him. He’s ready to roll.

For Demon Science:

Sam watches the police surveillance footage of the death and finds Dean on the screen! As Sam watches the footage of Dean taking out the dude,  IRL Dean takes out the demon with the First Blade. At the end of the footage, Dean looks into the camera and his eyes flash black. We’ve all been there, right Sam?

This is all I have to say about the next scene of this episode:

(Ugh, ugh, ugh. This is why I don’t rewatch these episodes.) The tl;dr of it all: Cole is a gross vengeful asshole and he’s coming for Dean.

Meanwhile, Hannah and Cas are on their road trip. Hannah notes that Cas’s grace is failing. He’s dying. Cas ignores his imminent problems to focus on the bigger picture.

Sam’s on the trail for Dean and interviewing the Gas-n-Sip attendant who witnessed the entire assault. He doesn’t have much to add though, much to Sam’s exasperation. He does bury the lede a bit by giving Sam the dead demon’s phone. Sam looks through it to find the demon worked for Abaddon. Sam calls Crowley on the phone. Crowley assures Sam that the only demon inside Dean is Dean. And Crowley is so far gone on Dean it’s not funny. Lol. Sam makes it very clear that he will get his brother back, even if it kills him. Crowley taunts that he has to find them first. Smart Sammy was tracking the call though. (Natasha: I love that the Black Spur bar is on Knife River Road. Lovely.)

Cas and Hannah pull into the angels’ ultra warded camp in the middle of an idyllic forest-lined river. There are angel-shielding sigils painted all over trucks, rocks, the tent… There’s a fisherman peacefully casting into the water. It’s Daniel, one of the rogue angels.

They proceed to talk in metaphors. In this metaphor, the rogue angels are trout in the stream fighting to evade captors/fishermen. I approve of this symbolism even if it’s just been smashed in our faces like a fresh cream pie.

Hannah tells Daniel that they’ve an angelic duty to serve Heaven. Daniel counters that the Fall of angels was their liberation. “I have choices,” he tells them. “And with each choice, I begin to discover who I really am.” I’m just going to fake cough “CAS” at the TV for a while. Hannah draws her blade but Cas talks her down (while the second rogue angel lurks in the background. Dun dun DUN).

At the Knight-of-Hell bar, Dean and Crowley info dump on us that Dean needs to kill to sate the blade. If he doesn’t kill regularly, then he’ll turn into a demon. Crowley’s been gift-wrapping pissy demons to assuage the Mark. (So this is love...mmmmmMMMmmm...so THIS is loooooove…) Anyway, Crowley wants to talk about their future. Their “professional future” - he’s forced to clarify. I don’t ship Dean and Crowley but OH MY GOD this episode just dances along that edge so delicately well. Do I think this episode and select later interactions lay a strong groundwork for Dean/Crowley action? Abso-friggin-lutely, I do.

Crowley tries to urge Dean to begin ruling Hell by his side so that “all of this that’s bloomed between us never ends.” EYES EMOJI! Crowley drops the news that Sam’s on to their location and furthermore, that Crowley knew Sam was tracing the call. Demon Dean, eternal party boy, is too much for Crowley to handle. Sam’s impending arrival forces a choice: Sam and capture, or Crowley and Hell.

As Sam drives to the Dark Knight Bar on Pointy Things Road, his headlights go out and the car sputters to a halt. At first we’re led to suspect demons, however Cole pulls up and malevolently offers to help Sam fix his car. They open the hood to find a kill switch in Sam’s car, and Cole’s got the remote. Cole takes Sam out quickly, knocking him out - poor bby.

Back at the bar, Dean sings - I shit you not - “Imaginary lovers” by Atlanta Rhythm Section. I...just…

Dean gets generally trashed, sings terribly, and sleeps it off miserably. Anne Marie approaches as he wakes and offers him a glass of water. They discuss Dean’s sense of “honor” in beating the shit out of her ex. She tells him that his defense of her was out of control and had nothing to do with doing something good for another person. It was all about his own issues. In response Dean denigrates both her and himself, burning the brief flare of shared honesty to the ground. Well, good to see that demon Dean is just as self-destructive as regular human Dean. I guess.

Around a cheery campfire, Cas, Hannah, and Daniel chat. Daniel tells Cas that there is wisdom to be gained from the human world. Hannah’s entirely out of the conversational loop; she just doesn’t get it.

Hannah: If you are to be free, that is to be decided by all angels. Daniel: There's that angelic irony.

Adina shows up right when the conversation starts getting too philosophical. Heeeey buddy! Angel blades are drawn and the fight escalates quickly between Hannah and Adina while Daniel and Cas try to get them to chill the fuck out. Unfortunately, he can’t prevent them from trying to kill each other. Cas kills Daniel to save Hannah, suffering a grievous wound from Adina in the process. Adina races off into the night.

Cole continues to be the Ugh, Whatever plotline of this episode, hauling Sam into an abandoned building. He ties him up, interrogation style, and tells Sam that he’s after his brother Dean. See, when Cole was a kid, Dean broke into his house and killed his actually-a-monster father. Cole’s been on a revenge quest ever since.

Back with Cas and Hannah, they drive awkwardly away from the riverside camp. Cas mourns Daniel’s death.

Hannah ties rebellious angels to dangerously self-guided angels like Metatron and Naomi. Cas counters.

Cas: Perhaps I've been down here with them for too long. There's seemingly nothing but chaos. Not all bad comes from it. Art. Hope. Love. Dreams. Hannah: But those are human things. Cas: Yes.

Me: [Writes a two thousand word essay on this exchange, while crying.]

Dean does his own lonely night-time drive and fields a call from Sam.

Dean tells him that he’s ditched the bar and by extension, Sam (me: crying intensifies). Only, it’s Cole calling. Cole threatens Sam’s life unless Dean gives himself up. “You listen to me,” Dean says with quiet, chill calm. “There's no trade. There's no meet-up. There's no nothing except the hundred percent guarantee that somewhere down the road I will find you, and I will kill you.” Cole can kill Sam - or not - but Dean will still murder his ass. Probably. Dean drives mysteriously into the night, leading us all to wonder just how far gone he really is.

Let’s Howl at those Quotes:

I miss him.

Get a room, you two.

I’m sensing awkwardness.

Where’s the porn?

Problem is, we don't know if this guy's a hero or a psychopath.

Dean Winchester completes me.

If I have to spend one more night in this fetid petri dish of broken dreams and B.O., I will cut off my own face.

Want to read more? Check out our Recap Archive! 

[knightofbalance-13]

https://rwdestuffs.tumblr.com/post/178357985392/done-dirty-the-white-fang

Too bad both are technically terrorists because both use fear to achieve their political goals and both ultimately are failures because both are just inferior versions of Ghira’s philosophy who, mind you, is the only ACTUAL civil rights leader the White Fang had.

Yeah, I maybe getting into my own political beliefs here but at least I can explain myself better.

Y’know, finding interesting ways to showcase the subject at hand is getting difficult…

How, you’ve just used common as fuck memes. These aren’t even your ideas, they’re the ideas of others you’re using.

You want to know something?- I’d say that the humans were pretty damn fortunate that all the faunus wanted was equality. They could have easily had enslaved their would-be-racist asses after they had won that war (actually, this sounds like a kickass ‘what-if’ story, if someone wants to make that, send a link my way please).

1. That is racist Dudeblade. Ruby, Yang, Jaune, Nora, Ren, Pyrrha, Coco, Yatashuri, Neptune, Ozpin, Oobleck, Glynda, Port and so many more have not display racism at all. Hell, most of these have actually displayed the EXACT OPPOSITE by just treating as normal people. Anything else would be racist.

For fuck’s sake, weve seen four racist characters in RWBY. One of which is reformed, one of which is a jackass bully, one of which was an attempted TERRORIST and the last is Snowy Satan.

2. Dudeblade, mind explaining to me how the people of Remnant today are responsible for the actions of PEOPLE THEY’VE NEVER MET? Especially since, by your logic, every single Fanaus is responsible for the actions of the WF. Meaning they have more blood on their hands due to the Fall Of Beacon than humanity as a whole.

And 3. Goes to show your mindset for this doesn’t it? Goes to show you have a political bias to make things look bad.

But really, the narrative seems to be really split on how we’re supposed to treat the WF. If we’re supposed to sympathize with them, then making them a terrorist group that Blake has to reform makes that hard. If we’re supposed to hate them, then making it so that they were retaliating against oppression and racists was a poor choice.

Yeah-

You know you can sympathize with people while also condemning their actions right? I mean, that is literally the only thing that stops me from feeling completely detached from you people. After everything you’ve done with LESS justification, I can still see you all have your issues.

Or can you only see the world in monochrome?

To clarify before I go any further: I side with the White Fang. Not with Adam. The WF is a civil rights group made to ensure the equality of Faunus (And is for some reason the only civil rights group to do so), and defend them. Adam, on the other hand, is a white kid who kills people in schools because he got rejected by a girl he liked (arguably the most accurate thing about the racism plot). This is the main point of the image used.

Too bad Dudeblade, that’s not how that works.

When you side with one side, you side with everyone in control of that side. That includes Adam. And thing is: you just displayed the exact same thought process as Adam with your opening paragraph.

That’s like if a Nazi said “Oh, I just side with the idea of rebuilding Germany. I don’t with the Furher.” The people charge DEFINE the meaning of the group. And the last two were terrorists.

Also, as BLM shows, you can’t get equality through fear. You just devolve yourself to your enemies’ point.

On it’s own, the idea of Faunus isn’t necessarily a bad one. Taking inspiration from racism in America isn’t a stupid choice. But they didn’t take inspiration from racism in America, they based it on the struggle of African Americans in the US. And when you just copy/paste that onto your fantasy minorities that are supposed to be a stand-in for all racial minorities, it creates a problem.

A. The Fanaus were never enslaved. That alone disproves the ‘copy paste’ bullshit.

And B. You’re using American sensibilities to argue about the Fanaus so by your own logic, your arguments don’t work.

See, there are reasons as to why people would be afraid of faunus outside of them looking different. They hold inherent advantages like superior hearing, and night vision.

An easy fix for this would be to make it so that different faunus types are treated differently.

Dudeblade-

Name me one advantage an African man has over a Caucasian man.

The moment you make this about genetics, the moment the racists have a point.

Racism is petty, nonsensical, destructive and superficial. Your way would just justify that.

For example: Velvet. She’s got bunny ears. That means that she’s one of the “non-feared (Read: ‘good’)” faunus because all her trait does is give her better hearing. She’s ‘cool’ because she poses very little threat. Blake could also be in this category because she also only gets better hearing, but she might be trusted a little bit less because she gets better night vision thanks to her feline heritage. She is also ‘cool’ because she poses very little threat.

Except ALL fanaus have those traits. So there’s no difference.

Also people are racist against Asian people despite being genetically shorter than Cauasians. How are you gonna justify that? Easy answer: there is no justification. You just don’t understand racism.

Now we go to the other side of the spectrum and go to Tyrian. He would be one of the “Feared” faunus. Scorpions on their own already freak me out, so making one human-sized and still letting him keep his venom is terrifying to me. Tyrian is ‘uncool’ because he poses a very clear and dangerous threat.

Again, no one cares about ‘safety’ or whatever. Doing that would JUSTIFY the racism as natural paranoia. It’s the same reason why the X-Men don’t work as racism standins-because the bias against the mutants is JUSTIFIED since mutants have abilities that grant them a distinct advantage over normal people AND they can kill so many people so easily.

Faunus could have been used to showcase multiple forms of fear. In fact, these natural weapons and abilities would be an easy reason to justify humans hating them (again: Jealousy is right there). 

THAT. IS NOT. THE POINT.

How do you NOT understand that doesn’t work because it sends the message of ‘racism is okay so long as the race is a threat to you!’ God, are you TRYING to make RT look racist? Or are you THAT blind?

See, if it were jealousy that fueled the hatred, then a lot of things would make sense. Humans are mad that they can’t have the advantages that faunus have, so they attack and belittle them. Not only would this make sense, but it would be a far better idea than what’s going on right now (though, to be fair, it’s not that hard to be better than the canon story for faunus discrimination).

And yet somehow, you made a plotline where Jacques Schnee’s abuse of the Fanaus and Cardin’s racism would be JUSTIFIED and make THEM the good guys. 

People in the real world do not fear races because of genetics. That implies an idea like racism could exist in an intelligent world. People are racist because they were either taught that and never taught that was bad, they have a fear of what is different (an irrational holdover from our primitive days) or they had a bad experience and irrationally connect that to all people of that race. Racism is NOT justified. It is completely and utterly IRRATIONAL.

And this would miss the entire point of the WF plotline and just make Remnant so far removed from our world that no one could relate or care about the characters. You bitch about the fucking plotline and yet make the WORST POSSIBLE VERSION of it.

But it’s not just the Fang as a whole that’s been done dirty, there are also several members that have been dirtied too. Like Sienna Khan.

Oh goody, we can watch Dudeblade fail to understand individual character purposes as well as entire fictional race purposes.

The woman is a skilled fighter, has an interesting motivation, and managed to take over the White Fang.

And then she goes down like a bitch.

The writers tried to fix this by showing her off in the trailer, but that makes the situation far far worse.

- Sienna fights like that, and she gets defeated so easily?

Speaking of the trailer, it shows exactly WHY Sienna went down so easily.

Namely, Sienna TRUSTED Adam. Adam was her golden hero, her shinning example, her prepared successor/second in command in waiting. Adam was suppose to be the pinnacle of what Sienna’s ideals were. So even when he was within killing range, she never thought Adam would harm her.

Same thing with Batman and Miranda Tate in The Dark Knight Rises. Batman never considered the idea that Miranda was a threat to him because he trusted her.

Look, it’s possible to have a character show off how badass they are  even if they’re already dead. Take a look at Episode of Bardok from Dragonball. We, as the audience, know that Bardok is going to die, but seeing Freeza using his deadly technique after Bardok gives it his all in one final attack against the tyrant is one hell of a way to go out.

But Sienna just gets stabbed after less than five minutes of screentime.

A. That’s Bardock, Father Of Goku you idiot. Episode of Bardock is the one with time travel and him becoming the Super Saiyan that Freeza’s family feared.

And B. So are we gonna just ignore how Freeza negated that attack by simply POWERING UP an attack of his own, in his first form no less, thus suffering from the same issues that you bitch about here?

For a show that got known for it’s fight scenes, it really lacked in the fighting to justify why Adam managed to beat her.

And to preemptively shut down any argument that “Sienna didn’t have her aura up,” I have to ask you why you wouldn’t have your own guard up if the people around you were pointing their weapons at you, and had very clearly betrayed you.

Because Adam was still a trusted lieutenant in her eyes as well as the reason why Sienna was able to become High Leader in the first place.

Do yourself a favor and never play a Danganronpa game. You wouldn’t make it past the first trial.

Sienna not having her aura up seems a lot more stupid now, doesn’t it?

Maybe if I smoked a bunch of weed, drank a bunch of beer and smashed each bottle against my forehead.

Adam is also a character that was ruined. Not because he’s a terrorist, mind you (see comment about him being rejected above), but because they decided to make him a bitter ex.

A. So was Sienna. She literally said she wanted respect through fear, which is the same as being feared.

And B. He was always gonna be an abusive lover. The evidence was always there. The disconnect between what Blake described and Adam’s actions, her irrational fear of Adam, the worry and fear she has of people becoming like Adam. Not the show’s fault you reject reality.

Adam being a mentor figure and only a mentor figure should be enough to justify his relationship with Blake. There’s more relationships out there other than romantic and friendships. There’s student-teacher relationships, familial relationships, co-worker relationships, etc. 

Except it always had romantic undertones and it makes the pain of Blake leaving even more poignant-

Oh wait, you don’t understand writing. What was I thinking?

Adam being Blake’s mentor that fell from grace is really the only relationship we need for those two. It establishes a real fear, and it doesn’t add……… the problematic complications of an 18-year-old dating a 13-year-old.

Adam is a mass murdering, genocidal, racial supremist douchebag.

Adding Edhepophila isn’t even worth discussing.

Not only could this be a means of mirroring the relationship that Jaune had with his dead prop Pyrrha dead prop, but it would serve as a really cool moment of Blake surpassing her teacher when she inevitably defeats him. While I will acknowledge the fact that standing up to an abuser takes a lot of courage, it also takes courage to stand up to a mentor that you looked up to and admired- and finally tell them off or defeat them. That abuse story could have gone to Weiss, and her standing up to her abusive father- which she did. That was an awesome moment for Weiss.

A. That’s sexist dudeblade. You never call Jaune a prop to Ruby.

B. But it DOES seal the idea of fear and Adam’s sheer madness and evil. Just because a character wasn’t what you thought doesn’t make them bad.

But I guess Blake dodging into Adam’s sword and Adam somehow forgetting about Blake’s semblance was a higher priority. As was a priority for the writers to make sure that Adam goes down like a bitch. 

You know, kind of like how Yang forgot ‘Gee, swords are kind of a bad thing for me?’

Not like Adam and Yang have direct paralells to each oth-

Oh wait, they do.

... Don’t you look stupid?

I’d like to reiterate that as a surface-level idea, faunus racism isn’t a bad one.

Well your version is.

I’m sure that when we were younger, we all slapped animal parts onto a human, called it a new race, then called it a day. But it’s the poor implementation that makes it hard to sympathize with either side. 

Despite the fact that you don’t argue against the Fanaus side AT ALL and in fact side with them (well, superficially since you side with the terrorist group that uses them as a shield.)

Yeah I call bullshit.

Apparently, when fighting against the grimm, you can only resort to violence. And the grimm are a force with no mercy.

But when fighting against inequality, you can’t use violence at all. Because the racists will obviously learn the error of their way if they see their targets sitting around a campfire singing Kumbaya.

Dudeblade-

The Grimm DO NOT have the intelligence for discussion. They have animalistic intelligence AT BEST. You cannot reason with a wild animal, you can only run. But even worse, the Grimm DON’T WANT to stop. They WANT to kill. They WANT to destroy. You cannot reason with something that not only cannot understand you but doesn’t want to stop.

Let me give you an example of this. In Persona 3-5 games, there is an entity called the Reaper. Under certain circumstances, the Reaper will seek out and attempt to fight you. In Persona 5, you can actually communicate with the Reaper. You can ask it for an item, or for money or even to join you. But no matter what you try, it will always say this:

This is the Grimm.

You are trying to compare the complexities of racism in individuals to this, a creature with no desires other than your demise.

That is how stupid you look.

Also: I don’t wanna here this shit from a guy who, in this same post, tried to portray racism as something that could be rational.

And the fact that there are no humans pushing for equality is also a historical mistake. For a bunch of writers who basically copy/pasted the struggle of minorities in America onto their animal people, they seemed to have missed the part where even people in the majority were on the side of the minorities.

Proof?

Because no shit no human would join the White Fang, they’d probably just kill him. They’re racists.

As for actual equality: Ozpin, Ironwood and Leo all accept Fanaus without question, even former White Fang members. That is a push for equality.

Sympathy is a great start, but that has yet to go anywhere.

Aside from Vale letting fanaus own stores and not showing an ounce of racism aside from one asshole who could be from mistral for all we know and a convicted criminal?

There was no mention of any humans at the protests siding with the Faunus, there were no mentions of humans boycotting restaurants alongside them- It’s just the faunus struggle. 

Maybe that’s because the only protest we’ve ever seen was interrupted by the White Fang, meaning that if humans DID try to protest they’d actually be at MORE risk than anyone else because they run the risk of being murdered by the White Fang AND human racists unlike the Fanaus. Kind of like you usually don’t see BLM members who are white.

And it would be great if the writers would think this through a lot more than they have

A. Excet you know, anytime they do you just ignore it so why even bother,

And B. *throws him a shovel* the guy you want to talk to is over there, six feet under. You had your chance, you never said it. Now you get to pay for it.

Because all a lot of us want, is some freaking nuance for the racism arc.

Except you know:

Not only have most of the people who bitch about it shown they don't want nuance, they want their side to be seen as absolute good and everyone else as absolute evil.

Not only have you suggested a version that would make the racists JUSTIFIED in their actions, thus making the fanaus the bad guys here. 

But there is nuance. You just ignore it.

I would say that I want you assholes to acknowledge your bullshit but-

Yeah we all know how you’d react...

[iamacolor]

What did you think of season 3 in general? I want to know because I personally think that the first half (and even more than half) was not that good, I feel like the episodes were kinda useless and boring and not that funny, and then there was the video game release episode and it felt like going back to seasons 1 and 2 and after this episode I felt like it was Superstore again, all those last episodes were pretty eventful and great! But yeah the first half was messy and badly done imo

Oh I’m really glad I’m not the only one who’s feeling this way! 

I think this season (at least the first half) is the weakest in terms of characters’ arc and storyline. At one point I even stopped watching for a few weeks and caught up later on because not only was I busy but it didn’t make me feel that need to watch it every week unlike the last part of the season did. In the last weeks I’ve been super busy but I always took the time to watch the episode because it felt much mor engaging and dynamic. Like things were finally happening! I haven’t watched back the season but I honestly don’t remember much from the first part so this is mostly going to be based on the impressions I have left (and also messy.

I think one of the problem is that most of this season has been mostly Amy centered. And I don’t mean it as in “Amy doesn’t deserve to be the main” but the writers decided to have most of her storylines be about how much of a mess she was after her divorce, how hard it was for her to “get back out there”. And so it didn’t make for a very engaging main character if she’s mostly the joke and there’s not much progress going on. Even the important dynamic of Jonah and Amy was dropped. They didn’t have many scenes together after the first ones that were awkward and tense and then it got better and instead they threw Jonah at Kelly. 

I don’t mind that much that Jonah got a girlfriend. But the problem is that since most things were said through amy’s pov, all we got of that relationship at first was that amy was jealous of kelly. We didn’t get to see many real relationship moments between jonah and kelly and for me the chemistry wasn’t there. And then when we got mor focus on the relationship it was during the second half when a lot of things between amy and jonah were happening and so things weren’t going great anyway. And this also means that for most of the season, all the jonah and amy content we got was amy’s jealousy and slowly realizing her feelings. I mean they were a few episodes where it almost felt like Jonah wasn’t into Amy anymore because they didn’t interact much but at the same time I think that the writers never managed to convey properly that Jonah was into Kelly so we got a weird situation.

The problem I think comes also with the fact that at the beginning of the season, the writers dropped the dynamics that had been explored in season 2. After the tornado I expected more of Dina and Garrett. There was clearly something there and, if not romantically, there is the potential for a real connection. Same goes for Jeff and Mateo. Mateo called Jeff during the tornado to confess his feelings so I was expecting something more at the beginning of the seaosn and instead nothing. I don’t remember much happening in the first part of the serie other than jonah dating kelly and moving in with garrett (which is something with a huge potential both for comedy and character dynamics that I think hasn’t been used enough) and amy being a divorced mess.

And then the video game release episode happened and I was like finally!!! finally!! that’s the superstore I love!

I was already interested in the story of dina being pregnant with glenn’s child, I thought it was really original and unexpected but showed growth in both characters and how they get along better now. I really liked Dina throughout the whole season tbh Watching her get closer and closer to Amy and also Cheyenne felt very nice and it’s now one of my favourite relationship on the show. But I disgress

The video game release episode finally gave us something that we had been lacking for so long. That Jonah/Amy connection. Not just amy pining on jonah or jonah pining on amy. But the two of them being together and behaving like they would never with other people. Being carefree and fun and it reminded me of all these moments they shared together in the previous seasons that showed us how well matched they were, how good friends they are. These scenes in the tunnels and the stock room are just a delight to watch.

And then finally Amy admitted her feelings and it truly felt like things were moving forward. And it’s like suddenly the writers remembered that they had to really give us something to look forward to. They also brought Mateo and Jeff around at the same time and gave them a really interesting storyline and reunion. I’m a bit disappointed that we didn’t get as much of Dina’s pregnancy explored but I’m hoping we see more next season although amy’s one will probably take the spotlight.

Every episode after that, we were given something good, something big, something to look forward to, something that would shake things up. The security footage release and its consequences, the beverage guy, jeff quitting his job, jonah being jealous, amy not being defined by the fact that she’s a divorcee and so on. The last episodes have been a feast as a amy and jonah shipper and even the fight was something I loved, everything felt earned and I think I’ve already expressed my feelings about the finale lol I’m just left with so many questions and nervousness now! And I’m still not a fan of the pregnancy plotline and still don’t see the point of it. Life is complicated I get it thank you superstore please move on to another obstacle for you main female character to overcome

I do feel that the writers wrote this season mainly about amy and that even the second half was mainly about amy and jonah which is a bit of a disservice to the other characters. Especially Garrett and Cheyenne who didn’t have much going on this season which is a shame. Especially since it makes it look like now that cheyenne went through a pregnancy and got married she doesn’t have a story to tell. And now that Garrett isn’t connected to Dina we don’t see much of him. Which is another reason why I’m sorry that they didn’t explore the roomate dynamic more.

I did love Sandra a lot though. She’s truly my favourite not-so background character. Just hilarious all the time.

The jonah/amy content in the last episodes was just a blessing,w e got so much more than I ever expected and I still can’t believe it and I’m shipping them harder than ever and I love them so much more now it’s crazy

Also I have to say that my experience of superstore has been higly upgraded by the fact that people started talking about it with me which made me get more involved in the fandom and in turn talking about it with more people and really thinking things through( with many long novels like this one I’m sorry) and it made the experience so enjoyable, it’s amazing. So that’s also one of the reason why I love the last pert of the season so much!

[frazzledsoul]

I’m going to rant a little bit about the Emmy submission process for GoT, because I am twelve doses of extra bitch tonight and I can’t help myself

( excuse the bitchiness of this slightly drunk Kit/Jon fan for this next part)

Anyone still whinging about Kit Harington being submitted in the lead actor category: please get over it. First of all, he was nominated in the supporting category in 2016, so it isn’t unprecedented that he might get another nomination, no matter how terrible you personally think he is. (Anyone who’s counting: Emilia has been nominated three times, Nickolaj once, Maisie once, Kit once, Lena four times, Peter every year). Because the GoT cast is so large, most of the actors get nominated in the supporting category, but it’s hardly shocking that there’s a lead actor/actress push for Kit and Emilia in the last year. Like it or not, Kit is a lead: while Jon’s storyline wasn’t what he or anyone else wanted in this last year, the Jon/Dany plot thread was what the entire season wove around. Jon’s actions formed the crux of the climax of the series and are what led to its final resolution. So submitting this nomination on Kit’s behalf isn’t a travesty, nor is it unexpected: he showed up, he did his job, he defended his character’s actions to the media until he was unable to. After a decade of sacrifice and toil in this role for a character payoff that wasn’t anything what he expected or earned, it’s beyond cruel and disrespectful for HBO to refuse to submit him for any awards, no matter what category they’re in, especially after they have milked his personal anguish at that plot twist to promote the documentary. It’s unlikely that they are going to move any actors out of the supporting category that weren’t part of the plot thread that formed the basis of the storyline of this past year, especially ones that have a record of winning repeatedly. So yeah, Kit and Emilia earned this last push from HBO, and I think it’s the minimum that the show owes to them after how that plotline ended.

I don’t think any of the characters that engaged in massively OOC behavior earned awards nominations for their actors. This includes Kit, Emilia, and Nickolaj. This is a long-standing thing with me: if at any point I don’t recognize what the hell you are doing because your character has been possessed by some sort of unfathomable demon I don’t recognize, I don’t think an award is warranted. I know this isn’t fair and it is not the actor’s fault when these things happen, but I don’t think “they did the best with what they were given” is good enough. Good performances require consistent character arcs, and in three major cases in the last season things got way out of control. I also don’t think the writers should be rewarded when they deliberately write depressing character arcs and twist their characters out of proportion in order to Emmy grub. We don’t have proof that this happened (it’s only rumored), and I know, NOT FAIR, but I’m reminded of the one case where a writer gleefully destroyed her show so her lead actress could get an Emmy nom and admitted it to the press and it still makes me scream when ten years later the awards she won for another show were deemed “make up rewards” for the one she ruined (hi Amy Sherman-Palladino! And also, fuck you).

The three characters who engaged in massively OOC behavior are almost certainly going to have to have their actors submit episodes with this behavior for Emmy submissions if they are nominated.

I’m going to take this one by one.

Kit: Lead actors submit one episode if they are nominated: supporting actors submit two. Kit’s going to be pushed to submit the series finale since that has all of the angsty, emotional stuff. The biggest problem I have with Jon’s storyline is that he flat out excuses Dany’s acts of mass murder before Tyrion manages to convince him that Dany needs to be taken out. There’s no way those words are anything in line with what Jon believes, and I don’t think they were originally his words. I believe those were originally Jorah’s lines, because Jorah was supposed to survive until the end and go beyond the wall with Jon and Tormund. The Jon Snow I knew would never say those things.

Kit could circumvent this and submit 8.04 as his episode instead (rousing speech! Emotional scene with Dany and his siblings! He’s actually a proactive character making his own decisions! Plus no engaging in mass murder or excusing it!) If it gets this far, I hope he does.

Emilia: While I don’t think Dany becoming a mass-murdering lunatic was out of the question eventually, she turned into a psychopath essentially overnight and it wasn’t believable at all. Even in the series finale when she’s acting slightly more human in her final scene, she still says stuff that is insane (Cersei didn’t “use the innocence” of those civilians you firebombed against you, Dany! She had nothing to do with it. WTF).

So if Emilia submits either of the last two episodes she’d definitely showcasing OOC behavior, but she could circumvent that and submit 8.04 instead (Feast jealousy! Emotional scene with Jon! Slowly losing her shit after seeing Missandei murdered but not yet taking it on thousands of innocent people!) 

Nickolaj. There’s no way out of this one. Nickolaj has got to include at least one episode where Jaime is massively out of character. Jaime is noble and generous and has heart eyes for Brienne in 8.02, but it goes wrong very, very fast in 8.04: there are a handful of good scenes in the first half of the ep, but then Jaime randomly decides he’s a bad person who must die with Cersei after a) fighting alongside the people on the opposite side of a war with her b) knowing that she hired someone to come kill him and um, not caring? and c) watching Jon and Dany leave to GO KILL HER AND TAKE HER TITLE and just chilling for weeks after the fact until he finds out Cersei might win. Then he breaks Brienne’s heart and leaves. It doesn’t get better in 8.05: he tells Tyrion he doesn’t give a shit about innocent people (he was haunted all his life by being shamed for saving innocents from a tyrant, but okay, whatever, idiot writers), runs through the streets waving his golden hand even though he’s technically a fugitive, and then finds Cersei so they can comfort each other while being crushed by bricks.

There’s no way Nickolaj can get out of submitting one of those horrible episodes. He was in one scene in 8.01 and spent 8.03 stabbing zombies. He probably should hope he’s not nominated.

So who did have a character arc that was consistent enough to earn a nomination? Theon, Brienne, Sansa, Arya, and Tyrion. I believe all of these actors (as well as Kit, Emilia, and Nickolaj) earned enough respect from HBO to submit them as possible noms but only a few actually deserved one. I’ll be rooting for whoever actually gets one, but I just wanted to make my feelings clear here.

Of course, all of this is moot anyway. Peter’s the only nomination we can count on and he’ll probably win. Guess the only thing left to do is wait and hope the writers don’t get nominated for the wretched way they ended this show.

[butchscientist]

@lilithdemonoftheunderworld yeah obv alec deals w/internalized homophobia and shadowhunter society is homophobic but you can write abt homophobia without your writing being homophobic. there's the whole mess with alec's biphobia toward magnus. and magnus' gender nonconformity being treated as either a joke or a fetish. and in tales from the shadowhunter academy when she writes about two girls drooling over malec w/it either being intended to be interpreted as a joke or relatable or sth, not sth that's incredibly creepy and gross. the straight characters get so much more depth and attention. and clary being magically able to see instantly that alec is gay with her het gaydar, and then using that to attack and ridicule him? and alec and magnus never get the same depth as the straight characters. and sizzy get a happy solution to the whole immortality problem and it's all happy but malec gets a plotline where alec tries to go behind magnus' back and only changes his mind bc what, killing raphael would be against the law? not because idk, that's such a massive violation to do that behind someone's back. the straight couples get to overcome gigantic hurdles with relative ease (or are struggling against incestuous irresistible feelings but cc's weird incest fetish isn't the subject of this post lol) while malec always has to be having major fights over minor issues? like izzy can easily forgive simon for cheating cuz he Had To Do It but magnus having slept with multiple people & having had multiple relationships in his centuries of life is sth alec has to have massive jealousy issues over? like a lot of the things would maybe be minor issues individually but they pile up and make it pretty clear cc doesn't know how to write anything other than het

[eightbots]

legacy of mandalore thoughts! spoilers don’t read

i liked that a lot actually. like it’s got the usual Rebels problems - they do the setup and the payoff, but they skip the reminder with plots and characters, so they’re never as good as they could be. so Sabine’s decision to spare Saxon and his death for example ironically land better on repeat viewings than on the first one. still one of the best episodes they’ve done though.

hearing some Mando’a was gr8, hopefully someone will translate it

the lady Mandalorians had more armor, which is nice. that always bothered me

i liked Tristan a lot

not as much as Ursa though?? i’m actually glad she’s not Rook Kast, since lbr Rook was a total asshole and i want one of the few maternal relationships in Star Wars to be decent

Cronus (?) is a really nice planet. i’d live there

Ezra: “Hi!” Every Mandalorian in a 50 mile radius: *murder mode*

same

so was Saxon “the Emperor’s Hand” in the Legends sense or does it mean something else here?

i adore characters who are politically-minded to the point where they knowingly or unknowingly sacrifice their bonds with people for gain/the greater good/self-preservation *cough*Baru*cough*

i’ve said this before but if there was an entire show about Mandalorian politics i’d eat it up

Ezra’s brother-jealousy was hilarious

the music is still 👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻

Saxon should really have been around more to be an effective villain sadly

Mandalorian art is so good

probably my favourite fight scene after Vader vs. Ahsoka?? complete with a nice call-back to RoTS. Ursa bucking tradition there at the end was awesome. i legit thought Sabine had been shot the first time for a second

this better mean half of season 4 is dedicated to the Mandalore plot tho

everyone’s saying Bo-Katan will be the leader Sabine finds, and i hope so, but considering she’s set to appear (probably in the finale) and that that plotline probably won’t happen off-screen she might not be the one. here’s hoping though

now i have to endure multiple episodes without Sabine?? bluh. Rebels has the weirdest pacing i s2g

but yeah that was great. i’m a sucker for pretty much everything this episode did, so no surprise