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kalims · 2 months ago

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⭒ㅤnot gonna lie !

premise. pov prefect opens a ngl, except! the story they shared it from can only be viewed... by one person!

characters. first years

ace

not gonna lie ! smash tbh

unironically pretends that he never sent one when you start bombarding him.

uniquewhere: i didn't even see ur story

shrimp: [attatchment]

uniquewhere: i have no wifi to see that sorry not sorry

vehement denial is actually the most effective defense according to him. even if it bypasses all forms of realism, it's not real if he doesn't believe it to be! <- real life advice from ace trappola guys.

if you haven’t already guessed, he can indeed see the picture you just sent and just assumes his very first form of defense… no amount of proof will remove him from his little ball of: “i don’t know what you’re talking about.”

you gotta prepare some kind of miscrosoft presentation, and sit him down. though he will 100% do that thing where he plugs his ears in with his fingers pretending he doesn’t hear anything even though it doesn’t block out you reading out the words.

“here is the real, actual screenshot of my replies—”

“I NEVER EVEN SAW YOUR STORY.”

“ah, good! next slide after this is the views of the story!”

deuce

not gonna lie ! i like you

very demure, very straight to the point is deuce.

he would've written some long ass paragraph in all honesty but he just can't because he sees what he writes, deletes it, then cringes to himself.

atleast with that one he has the excuse for whichever scenario that might randomly ask about it.. (yes, he's thinking that far) weird flex but ok

1. "you ever confessed to your crush?" someone asking

2. "yeah sorta....." deuce

3. "???" someone confused

he was feeling reaaallyyy proud of himself. the anxiousness finally settles down, alongside with his rapidly beating heart. even if it isn't a real, confession it still brings him a bit of peace.

shrimp: I know what you did

tokyodefenders: WHAT?

there goes his heart rate.

like, you did not offer context to any of that but he's still gonna think you somehow, actually do know even if you didn't provide an explanation to... whatever it is you know about him!

tokyodefenders: whaTEVER IT IS IS NKT TRUE

shrimp: please, ur breaking my heart

shrimp: I like u too :(

heart? ascended

he's not even gonna question it. all his braincells got dumped out, and all he can focus on is that particular message. he isn't even gonna remember backtracking about the ngl cause he's gonna be like:

how did they hack my keyboard.. are they tracking it?! LOL

"I'm a mastermind,"

"HOW DID YOU KNOW?!?!" <- deuce, scared for his life.

jack

not gonna lie ! stop getting into trouble. I'm not always there to pull you out

is concerned with how many times you've managed to unknowingly walk into trouble, jack had been lucky enough (yes, him. not you, cause knowing you, you wouldn't be too phased) to be a near constant presence when the shenanigans during the tournament concluded, he stuck to you then.

as in reluctantly following around you like a tail. narrowing his eyes at the less than friendly faces often wore around you, that you were... well, amazingly oblivious to. or maybe you acted like you didn't know, the carriage didn't pick you up for nothing if you were here in nrc.

shrimp: do u rlly think I'm a troublemaker?

iheldheroncejacob: yes

the random topic being brought up went completely over his head. jack probably had forgotten he'd given the link to your story the time of your day, in all honesty

shrimp: well maybe I keep getting in trouble so u can rush in, and pull me out?

iheldheroncejacob: you're a terrible friend then

shrimp: :(

in retrospect jack is able to keep up with joking around, usually. but it's so hard to take you seriously that he takes whatever you say with a grain of salt, you're almost always tipping between flat sarcasm, or calm nonchalance between your words. it almost always has something to do with the people you're with.

the heartslabyul prefect for example, you take a kind, subtle undertone of teasing to (which is crazy, because you're scarily tame in the presence of the vice-dorm head.) and then you're all stony faced when you're with someone you don't like.

^ and you obviously don't dislike jack, if the little selfish, presumptuous nrc part of him would like to claim confidently so... would you really be joking?

only does jack realize the connection between your text, and the ask he sent when he's just finished his laps.

"I'm not your guard dog! why would you even get in trouble for that, next time I'm not even gonna spare you the time cause—"

"what a pee brain."

"what? don't compare my brain to a tiny pee—"

epel

not gonna lie ! CAN I PLS TRANSFER TO RAMSHACKLE AHHHH

you've never met anyone who's disliked being sorted into whatever the dark mirror fitted their 'soul' into as much as epel.

even without the private story only limited to his response, you're sure you could pick out his message and put a face to it.

epel, in his defense, still has savanaclaw as number one in his heart. though upon asking jack if it was possible to transfer there, the latter confirmed but it was... a tedious process, and suggested asking rook, who literally came from savanaclaw!

the boy only spared his friend a side glance before scurrying away. no use traipsing around that...

but of course, getting away from pomefiore is only a goal! always being near your proximity was a biiiiig bonus!

shrimp: hey I need ur files for the dorm transfer

catchwhathands: [escapeplan.jpg]

catchwhathands: I knew u wanted me in ur dorm!!

shrimp: actually I don't. ur the one that asked ;)

catchwhathands: who cares. I'm finally getting out of this hell YEAHHHH!!

shrimp: who said I was gonna use the files you sent?

okay, admittedly the moment he'd sent over the files, epel shut his phone, and quite literally did a victory lap around his room. making sure to frolic so vil has less chances of hearing his chaos...

the dorm leader woke up so easily from noises that you'd think rook was the reason he developed such a habit.

probably.

epel was already planning the plan! he could see the vision! maybe he could plant around ramshackle since it is a pretty big area. you guys would be together for the remainder of the year—and he'd finally bump the adeuce duo from their pedestal!

*ping*

"AGHHHHH STUPID FRIGGIN'—"

"epel!"

"sorry..."

sebek

not gonna lie ! since it is a request for unbridled honesty, I shall deliver what you've requested. you have done so without much thought, clearly! if you've given such leeway for... criticism! you, human, could use a lot more educating in terms of the glory of our eternal lord, the glorious malleus! in accordance to your previous, description of our relationship. the farthest I can give is acquaintance, but I shall only call you a companion (AKA friend) if you are atleast educated about my interests! as the good companion you desire to be!

woo, alright. he really wrote all that...

oh, uh oh.. you just got another ask from him, maybe even longer..?

shrimp: what would that make silver then

rizzvolt: my brother in arms!

shrimp: but hey, actually I do want to know

rizzvolt: ah! finally! I knew you atleast have some common decency, and sense. for that I shall agree for your request in our friendship! these are the most accurate ones pertaining the great lord malleus' biography! [link] [link] [link]

rizzvolt: is that enough? I will send you more, but only if you finish these three. I will test you rigorously to confirm that you are indeed genuine in your interest!

why he has all that, you have no idea.. if only he displayed that much dedication for his studies...

shrimp: I don't wanna learn about malleus

shrimp: I want to learn about you

rizzley: how dare you! the lord's name should only be addressed with a: 'lord', 'the great', 'the

...

sebek stares at his screen, just in the process of finishing his... educating sentence, because even in text, malleus should only be treated with the highest form of respect!

have you no integrity?! he wonders.

only then does he focus on your response, does he make a rather... dubious sound of shock? sebek doesn't know why he breaks into a cold sweat as he runs the sentence through his mind a hundred times in the span of a minute.

what is this... some sort of human illness? or maybe love—

of course he'd never even consider such a thing! (just did bro)

shrimp: sooo.. since you sent me an ask, does that mean you actually like me?

shrimp: sebeeeeekk.. did you actually read?

with the speed of lightning (and the adrenaline maybe, what else could this frantic pounding of his chest explain besides that you are indeed, dangerous!) he opens the story on your media

'send me an ask if you like meeee :)'

sebek promptly falls over.

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xwayka · 4 months ago

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Hello Tumblr!

I wanted to draw.... Jason!... in realism!!

yes, there is indeed a terrible prospect...

I forbid you to offend Jason!!!😞

#artwork #metallica #drawing #painting #digital painting #jason newsted #kitten jason newsted #bass #bass guitar

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writingforatwistedworld · 2 years ago

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Requests are open?? May I request Lilia and Malleus from the self aware au with a player who is an artist and draws them a lot?

Self-aware au

I do not take any responsibility for you reading this no matter which age group you are from!

WARNINGS: Yandere themes, obsession, death, murder, hypocrisy, fire, coma, unhealthy relationship, possessive behavior

Malleus Draconia/Lilia Vanrouge-Player is an artist who draws them a lot

Doesn't matter what kind of style and form of art you practice, you have a fan

Classical? Great! Realism? Wonderful! Stick-man-style? He put the picture in a golden frame (All hail the stick-man style!)

But if Malleus were to ever find out that said stick man is supposed to be him, well he would be over the moon

It was a totally normal day, a cat was choking up a hairball and some poor student fell off of his broom in flying class and was now stuck in a tree

But that is of no importance to us

What is of importance though is Malleus strolling down the path down to Ramshackle and seeing you sit on the stairs with paper and other drawing utensils

Completely normal. Peaceful even. Maybe a bit too peaceful

You see, if you hadn't been too absorbed into rubbing colored pigments into dead wood then you would have seen the tall black wall approaching you

A shadow falls over your shoulder and you scream

Is that... him? Why is the Overseer draw-oh

Malleus is metaphorically (more or less. Meh, he is probably this close to doing it also literally) frothing from his mouth after seeing himself in more than just one paper after the small stack stabilizing the paper you drew on slipped from your hands

Forgetting his manners he rips the paper from the ground, staring with eyes wide as plates onto the thinly pressed wood (granny is somewhere shaking her head)

Why would the Overseer, watcher over worlds, almighty ruler of everything, a god, draw him?

Coughing nervously you explained that you just are interested in are and liked to draw him

Later when he is back in Diasomnia Lilia is greeted with the sight of a tail-wagging Malleus (yes Malleus has a tail and I have no idea how he hides it)

“Lilia, the Overseer likes to draw me.”-moments before calamity struck and Malleus accidentally lit the dorm aflame from sheer joy

But... perhaps you shouldn't draw anyone else

Who knows? Maybe that person disappears for a while and just to be found in a deep coma (don't do it)

Whoa whoa whoa darling, let us not jump at him from nowhere with the fact that you like to draw him

After all, he is quite old and we don't know what his poor heart can still take

Now how about you tell him about your interest in art fir- ah... From your expression I take that it is too late for that

Indeed it is

One day you were just sitting there in Ramshackle, T-posing or whatever you do when you are not drawing

Remember that scene when Lilia was introduced to us? Well “How do you do fellow kids” over here just popped out of thin air

Now, that would have been nothing special if it wasn't for the stack of paper with his face on it on the table...

Lilia is staring, you are staring and the gargoyles are facepalming

Poor man has to take a seat all whilst you watch him with cold sweat running down your back

Suddenly Lilia isn't that “always energetic” guy but looks a lot more vulnerable

In Lilias mind however he is planning how to burn that one portrait of himself in the Draconia castle and replace it with your art

Or so he thought until he looked what else you drew

For goodness sake, someone call an ambulance! I think he is about to pass out!

If the situation wasn't already awkward enough for you (and euphoric for him) Lilia suddenly kneels down, saying something about being honored and him swearing to be forever loyal to you

Oh sweet summer child, how easily you told him “Oh thanks...” If only you knew what would follow...

You see, Lilia might have had seen a few too many heads being severed from their bodies but, oh well, all those students were a teeny tiny bit too close to you for his comfort

Suddenly there is an increase in missing students who get found in... uh... “not compatible with life” conditions

See? It's dangerous outside! Let him watch over you!

Says the person responsible for everything

You had shown your appreciation through your art, now it's his turn to show his

And what if a few students need to get hurt? (Yeah, “hurt”)

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inflammatoryfandomblog · 1 year ago

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Why is the worldbuilding in ATLA more cohesive than in TDP?

because the writers actually remember it as a context for its story and characters.

........... ok more elaboration.

the worldbuilding in ATLA and TDP is very similar in the respect that they have color-coded elements where each "nation" has each element. in both series the color-coding exists to make each group obviously and immediately different.

in ATLA the cultures deeply matter to the characters and story. as early as the first episode you see hints about the culture of the water tribe from katara and sokka. you know sokka has put this immense pressure on himself to be a Warrior and his sexism is partially an outgrowth of that. katara is fascinated by waterbending and her culture but there are no resources for her to learn because of the war, and you immediately get the idea she's also hoisted on a "mom role" from a very early age. all of this reinforces the patriarchal standards of water tribe culture and also the fact that they're impoverished thanks to the war. the characters would not be the same if you transported them to a different setting.

like some of the dialogue can be clunky and the entire conceit of the world is obviously kiddish ("fire nation" "water tribe" "earth kingdom" "air nomads" is not going to win any realism of the year awards.) but it's a very effective introduction to these characters and ties them explicitly to the setting.

in tdp it matters fuck-all. rayla is a moonshadow elf and the effects of their honor culture are clear on her. out of all the characters i'd say her, runaan, and ethari are probably the most developed in the aspect of "the setting should inform the characters." yes runaan and ethari are shitty parents but honestly like what would you expect from an honor culture society where one party is an assassin who allowed rayla to become one thanks to her guilt complex, even when ethari expressed doubts?

this is basically thrown away to tell her "oh dw all your parents (dads + bio parents) are all Good and Did Nothing Wrong." they also scrub away all of her flaws that she exhibited in the first season, or really anything that might make her seem like a "bad person." the moonshadow elves are just scrubbed to be Vaguely Good Guys With No Problems And Whose Choice to Ghost a Teenager Must be Respected (finger wag from the writers.) this could have been genuinely compelling drama for rayla. the setup is there. but they just forget about this stuff i guess.

how about callum and ezran? how does the culture of katolis or indeed any of the human kingdoms rub off on them? does their culture actually inform anything they do? i mean besides the fact that the human kingdoms aren't magical because of dark mage lords eating magic or whatever, which, by the way, the idea of dark mage lords doing this is like. in supplementary material and there is 0 indication of it happening in the actual show. do they have a particular culture or perspective at all? does even something as simple as the fact that they are princes and might have some differences with the common people ever come up? no. they're just bland POV characters who are high-minded to a kind of absurd degree. their context is very clearly supposed to be "Normal." which isn't a context at all because nobody's context is actually Normal. it should be normal to the character, but a grave mistake for the writer to treat it as such.

with the elves it's a little better but still not great. they have at least thematic set-up but moonshadow elf culture is the best of them, which isn't saying a whole lot. what exactly is the relationship between the dragons and the elves for example? who knows!

the writers frequently forget that their characters are situated in a particular situation in a particular world. i mean my favorite example to throw around is the time one of the writers said (on twitter) that khessa's comment to janai ("have fun with your pet") was meant to be a tease about their relationship. and that's insane to me. "have fun with your pet" does not work as a cheeky little tease when you are talking about a pow who's afraid for her life and you are a cruel monarch that tortures people for funsies? like this is khessa endorsing SA if you decide to take the show's context with any level of seriousness. this isn't a coffee shop au? this isn't a high school au? this is supposed to be a high fantasy with actual stakes that addresses Deep Themes? the context to a situation that these hacks themselves wrote should matter?

etc. etc. xadia does not feel like a real place because the setting is completely disconnected from the characters, and only matters to the story insofar as "wow look at this Cool Place you will find your Macguffin in!" It's just about worse in every way even if on the surface it may appear to contain """nuance."""

#tdp #tdp critical #asks #anon #settings feel cohesive when they can't be neatly separated from the characters #when it feels like things have causes and effects.#which i understand is very hard for tdp to wrap its head around. object permanence is difficult.#anyways i'm not watching s5. so sorry to any asks that reference things in it. I simply Do Not Care #people should ask me about how great the Flash is or a hot take on Casablanca or something.

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jor-elthatendswell · 1 year ago

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It's a well worn topic at this point but the imminent release of The Marvels has me thinking about how militaristic the Marvel Cinematic Universe is, with Monica Rambeau aka Photon, a habour patrol member in the comics, reimagined as a captain in the US Air Force.

She follows Hawkeye, who was changed from an argumentative former circus performer with a heart of gold (a character so staunchly against lethal force he once revoked his own wife's Avengers membership because she sort of, maybe, subconsciously allowed a villain to fall to his death) into a hard-nosed black ops assassin.

Sam Wilson/ Falcon made his celluloid debut as an army man with twin submachine guns attached to his wrists. It’s a far cry from his print counterpart’s introduction as a social worker by day who uses his skill at falconry to protect his neighbourhood.

If we allow the argument that modern cinema goers are accustomed to a sprinkling of realism to make their superheroes palatable (and it’s a strange argument really- why should realism be a desirable quality in summer blockbuster escapism?) then what actually constitutes “realism”.

Sure, a man who learnt uncanny skill with a bow and arrow growing up with a travelling show couldn’t possibly hold his own alongside Hulk or Thor in the real world (and, yes, there isn’t a Hulk or Thor in the real world; as I say, this is a strange argument), but if he learned those exact same skills in some kind of military context then that somehow passes the bar for realism? The sinister upshot is that these children’s heroes become more warlike just as, globally, they reach more children than ever before.

Increasing the realism of superhero stories only serves to make them problematic. DC Comics' Batman, who is the frequently subjected to “realistic” treatments, is the prime example. If, in real life, a billionaire tooled himself up with the best weapons and body armour money can buy and began dispensing violent “justice” with no accountability, then of course that wouldn’t be a good thing. If they wore a costume with pointy ears and started calling themselves “Batman” then of course we would question their sanity. But Batman isn’t real; it’s a story. Nobody thinks The Muppet Show advocates animal cruelty. Quite the opposite, if anything. ("Not unless they're watching it", as Waldolf once heckled) Yet if a filmmaker decides they’re going to make a “grounded and realistic” remake where Fozzy is played by a real live bear wearing a pork pie hat and spotty necktie, then that's a whole other story. Suspend your disbelief and superheroes are less like the police or army and more akin to volunteers and activists, doing what they can with what they have to improve the lives of those around them. Their actions take the form of crime fighting only because that’s what makes for exciting colourful adventure stories for children.

In the MCU, even Marvel’s poster boy, Spider-Man (another champion of non-lethal solutions, known for his compassion even to his enemies and who possesses an enduring appeal to young children) is given a literal sheen of the military-industrial complex in the form of “Stark Tech” armour, replete with military grade strike drones. Tony Stark even thought to equip his 15 year old protégé-cum-child soldier with an “Instant Kill Mode”. In a moment played for laughs in Spider-Man: Homecoming, Spider-Man rejects his on-board AI's attempt to activate this feature but seems untroubled that such an option exists and, indeed, come Avengers: Infinity War, he voluntarily deploys it. It’s not clear if Spidey actually does kill any of his alien adversaries, but it seems reasonable to assume that one doesn’t say “Activate Instant Kill Mode” without the intention of ending lives. Fans are expected to smile or applaud as Spider-Man says these words, recognising the call-back to Homecoming, rather than find it a gross misrepresentation of Marvel’s most beloved character or an alarming depiction of a children’s favourite.

The MCU Avengers as a whole are a US government “initiative “. The reluctant superheroes need to be cajoled into putting their differences aside for the greater good by army top brass Nick Fury. In a tweak from the source material, the ‘H' in Fury's organisation, SHIELD, stands for ‘Homeland’, making SHIELD as explicitly American venture as opposed to it being ostensibly intergovernmental in the comics.

There is a comic book precedent for this military take on Earth's Mightiest Heroes in the form of The Ultimates, a 2002 series by the British team of writer Mark Millar and artist Bryan Hitch. The Ultimates ,however, was satire. Millar was an unreformed lefty of the old school – someone who has boasted of voting Brexit for left-wing reasons, someone who once appeared on Russia Today as a guest of George Galloway. The Ultimates took swings at the gung ho jingoism of post 9/11 America. Captain America's “Surrender!!?? You think this letter on my head stands for France?“ is not supposed to be a badass one-liner, but rather a parody of the kind of things US media outlets were saying as Jacques Chirac proved less keen than Tony Blair to follow George Bush in bringing gunboat diplomacy to the Middle East. As Millar commentated at the time:

“The Ultimates is completely different because it's a character-driven piece and (something only a few people have noticed) my attempt as a left-wing writer to tell stories about an essentially right-wing concept and cast. It's very much the Anti-Authority, if you will. Captain America and so on are fully-paid members of the US military machine and this means a very different book and approach from a gang of slightly arrogrant, left-wing, superhuman utopians like The Authority ".

Wildstorm Comics' The Authority, which both Millar and Hitch worked on (although not together), was a precursor to Ultimates, featuring a team of similarly “any means necessary” heroes, albeit with a left-wing bent. The Ultimates does have something of The Authority’s utopian streak; Nick Fury and Tony Stark genuinely want to make the world a better place for everyone. It’s very idealistic – what if the head of the military and the biggest tech billionaire actually had the people’s best interests at heart? – and arguably closer to true superhero ethos (basically “with great power there must also come great responsibility “) than those characters more pragmatic MCU equivalents.

Yet, as Millar's one time writing partner Grant Morrison (who actually ghost-wrote at least one issue of The Authority under Miller’s name) observed in Morrison’s major nonfiction work, Supergods, the likes of The Authority, The Ultimates and, by extension, the MCU represent a “capitulation” to the view “that it was really only force and violence that got things done and not patient diplomacy, and that only soldiers and very rich people had the world figured out”. If the MCU is realistic, then it’s a sad indictment of the real world where the heroes are the ones with the best tech, the best guns and no compunction about using them.

Regardless of intent, The Ultimates left a door at Marvel’s “House of Ideas” just enough ajar to allow a malign notion to creep in: “These soldier superheroes are pretty cool. What If they were like that all the time? Wouldn’t they be more popular then”?

Certainly the navy SEAL aesthetic Bryan Hitch brought to the costumes (replacing the colourful tights and capes with pouches, straps and body armour) was soon adopted by superhero tv and film productions even pre-MCU. In fact, Hawkeye's journey from carny to commando mirrors the changes in superhero attire. Most famously, Superman's appearance with the red “overpants” derives from that of circus strongmen, but seeing any photography of early to mid 20th century carnival and circus performers makes it clear the early superhero creators had them in mind when they first put pencil to paper.

In an interview (found in Marvel Spotlight: Captain America, published in 2009) Hitch related how he showed an initial Ultimates drawing of Captain America with a machine gun to Grant Morrison, which Morrison then “described as the most obscene Captain America image [they’d] ever seen”. (NB: Morrison has since adopted gender neutral pronouns). Perhaps Morrison said this with glee, in on the joke with their friends, but in the years since, Cap with a gun became a common sight, even in family-friendly movies (where it was divorced from the irony of The Ultimates).

By a 2015 interview, Morrison lamented the fact that “the Avengers work for the government, and it's been like that since Mark [Millar] did The Ultimates” and said they were “bored with the idea that the best superheroes can represent is some aggressive version of the military. [...] They're supposed to be champions of the oppressed, they help ordinary people, they make things better for people. They don't prop up our grotesque, doddering culture of war and aggression”.

That same year Morrison introduced a new comic book superteam in the pages of The Multiversity. Pointedly the text likens this group, named “Justice Incarnate”, to a “cosmic neighbourhood watch” rather than any formal military or law-enforcement institution.

Millar himself reunited with his Authority collaborator Frank Quitely to create the comic Jupiter’s Legacy, which comes across in part as an apology for The Ultimates and all it begat. It concludes with the protagonists, Chloe Sampson and Eddie "Hutch" Hutchence taking up superhero mantles and promising not to make the moral compromises of their predecessors:

“No more bowing to authority and insitutions. No more deference to people in power”.

“There's a dignity in public service we mistook for old-fashioned, and a humility in having a secret identity, living among the people we protect.“

The Avengers, Marvel’s breakthrough billion dollar box office 2012 movie, by contrast, concludes with Iron Man dropping a nuclear bomb on the “Chitari”, an invading alien army and it seems likely this influenced Morrison’s comments on modern superhero stories.

In Supergods, Morrison

describes their childhood dread of nuclear weapons. The child of “ban the bomb” activists, the “gruesome hand-drawn images of how the world might look after a spirited thermonuclear missile exchange” which illustrated their parents anti-nuclear literature struck terror into the young Morrison. Therefore they seized upon superheroes as being an idea powerful enough to counteract – and overcome – the idea of the bomb.

“It’s not that I needed Superman to be “real,” I just needed him to be more real than the Idea of the Bomb that ravaged my dreams”.

Within the narrative of the movie, Iron Man takes the only option available to him to save New York. Destroying thousands of alien lives to save thousands of human ones. But The Avengers isn’t a documentary; the scriptwriters could have written a satisfying denouement which didn’t involve mass murder. They could at least have included some words of regret by the heroes over what it took to win, acknowledging that killing is not the ideal solution. Instead the Avengers trade banter and eat shawarma, collective conscious clear.

There is a moment in another Grant Morrison work, Final Crisis, which always brings the MCU to mind. In Final Crisis #3, drawn by JG Jones, (published in 2008, the same year the MCU began) “evil gods” from a higher plain of existence have been reincarnated on Earth. In order for the Justice League to counter this threat, a “draft for Superheroes” is implemented. Green Arrow (a Batman-a-like character who was subsequently reinvented to embody the countercultural sentiment of the late 1960s and has since served as the social conscious of the superhero set) responds to receiving his draft notice thusly:

“If anybody falls for this authoritarian, militaristic crap, it’ll prove I’m absolutely right about absolutely everything!... “

Cue the next page, where the drafted heroes have gathered en mass (including Green Arrow, impotently shaking his fist.)

Such an assemblage of characters in usually a triumphant moment in a summer "event" story, but here is framed as a sign that evil already has it’s hooks into reality. This world has fallen to the darkness and the superheroes who inhabit it are too morally compromised to realise it.

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wolfpants · 8 days ago

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Another in my series of Christmas fics and banner redesigns! This was one of my first ever fics. Honestly, scanning it for the quote has pulled me desperately back into this ship; I will be writing wolfstar in 2025 🌟

Heal Your Shrinking Soul | M, 23k | Wolfstar

Tags: AU non-magical, modern setting, writer Remus, actor Sirius, Stephen King references, Christmas, flashbacks, romance, angst, grumpy Remus, past lives, magic realism, alcoholism, alternate realities, memory, exes to lovers, angst with a happy ending

Two souls, eternally entwined. Remus and Sirius have always meant to end up together. But what happens when one of them strays down the wrong path? Loosely based on A Christmas Carol.

“I knew I’d find you in here, thoughtful boy.” Not-Sirius is gone, and Sirius, the Sirius from the vision in the same soft green jumper with his hair tied back neatly, is looking right at him. Remus glances around himself. They’re in the quiet haven of Monty’s library, and he can smell all of the books, old and woodsy, abundant as they are, piling shelves that stretch far beyond their heads, some volumes probably not touched since the ‘80s, since before James was even born. There’s an orange pomander on the antique desk by the window, and he can smell that too, the cloves sharp and fragrant and seasonal. Outside, snow covers the lawn in a perfect blanket of Christmas white. “Remus?” Sirius asks him with a cautious laugh. He closes the door properly, the handle clicking softly behind him, and he strides once, then twice, across the room, closer to him. Remus holds his breath, not sure what to make of his gentle gaze. He expects, as per their conversation earlier, that he is, indeed, late to the party. “Everything okay?” Sirius prods, then he sighs a little, looking at his feet. “I’m glad you made it.” “Me?” Remus blurts, pointing at himself. “Erm,” Sirius says, meeting his gaze again, his lips tugged upward at one side in quiet bewilderment. “Yes? Who else?” “You can see me?” “… yes?”

🌟 read heal your shrinking soul on ao3

#wolf's christmas fics #writing #one from the archive #hp fanfic #harry potter #wolfstar #wolfstar fic #remus/sirius #sirius/remus #remus lupin #sirius black

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iamnotoriginalphil · 2 years ago

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Undercover (Alex Blake x f!Reader)

Synopsis: You don't quite understand how you ended up playing the role of Blake's girlfriend, but your heart is too invested in the fantasy

Words: 3.6k

Warnings: mentions of homophobia, swearing, mentions of alcohol

You were fucked. It was that simple. There was no other way to put it other than you were completely and utterly fucked.

“Seriously Morgan, why do I have to do it?” you demanded, despite knowing the answer.

“The unsub wants age gap lesbians,” he said, “we’ve already been over this.”

“So send JJ. She’s young and hot and amazing in the field,” you said, wheedling him, “come on, please.”

“Oh no, we’re not doing this. If you can’t handle the heat you shouldn’t be our best undercover agent,” he said.

“You know I can’t do this,” you replied, following him.

“Can’t? Or don’t want to?” He flashed that infuriating grin that always made you want to strangle him.

“Morgan, you know why I can’t,” you said.

“An extra layer of realism isn’t going to hurt,” he replied.

“Morgan-“

“Oh look, there’s your hot date right now.”

You snapped your mouth shut, turning on your heels to smile at Alex as if nothing was wrong. She raised an eyebrow at you, pressing her lips into a straight line.

“You okay?” she asked.

“Fine and dandy,” you replied, letting your arms swing down to your side.

“What was that about?” she asked, eyes flicking over to Morgan who was talking to JJ. They both looked away when they noticed you glancing over.

“Morgan’s just being a pain in my ass like usual,” you said.

“We should head back to the hotel and get ready,” she said.

“Right. Yeah. I’ll meet you there. I need to… buy some date appropriate clothes.”

“I’ll meet you at 7:30.” You ignored the wink she shot in your direction.

Shopping was your idea of one of the circles of hell. Trying things on, figuring out if they looked good, if they fit you, it made you want to tear your hair out. It didn’t help that there was a part of you that wanted to look particularly hot for Alex, just in case there was even a sliver of the possibility that she might suddenly realise how much she wanted you when she saw you.

And if it meant you spent extra time getting ready, well, no one had to know about that.

You pulled the door open when you heard the knock at 7:30 exactly. You tried to smile to keep the butterflies in your stomach from overwhelming you. The smile slipped when the entire team was standing on the other side of the door.

“I don’t think we’re all going to fit at the table, guys,” you said, letting them in to your room.

“Damn girl, where you been hiding those legs?” Morgan asked.

“Behind office appropriate slacks,” you replied, “I save them to impress the girls.”

“Blake is a lucky woman.”

You let yourself look at her for the first time since everyone entered the room. Her blazer was the same from the last few days but her trousers were tighter than you were used to, showing off the long line of her legs. Her blouse was unbuttoned a few more buttons than she wore at work, showing just the hint of lace. Your breath caught in your throat.

“Indeed I am.” Her own eyes lingered on your body.

“Alright, you know how the night is going to proceed?” Hotch asked.

“Yes Dad.” You rolled your eyes.

“Morgan and JJ will be in the restaurant with you and Dave and I will be outside in the van,” he said, ignoring your snark, “use the codeword if you need to be extracted.”

“Of course,” Alex said.

“Now you’d better go if you want to make your reservations,” he said.

Alex held the door open for you and you ducked your head as you passed her. You weren’t properly alone with her until you were in the car, the rest of the team following you into the lobby of the hotel. She flashed you a smile.

“You really do look wonderful,” she said, “the girls you go out with are lucky.”

“Not so many of those these days,” you replied.

“That surprises me.” Her eyebrows drew together.

“I suppose I’ve been too busy to think about it,” you said, “this job is pretty hectic.”

“Mm,” she hummed.

She pulled up to the restaurant, throwing the car into park. You didn’t have time to blink before she was out of the car and opening your door. She extended her hand, threading her fingers through yours as she helped you out. You couldn’t help the smile at the feeling of your hands palm to palm.

“Sorry, could we have somewhere a bit more… private?” Alex asked the maitre d’ when you were shown to your table.

She shot you a look filled with intent. You didn’t even have to try at the flush on your cheeks, catching your lower lip between your teeth as her hand rested on your lower back. She led you towards a secluded booth. You slid in beside her, close enough for your thigh to press against hers.

“Should I order for you, honey?” she asked.

“You always know exactly what I want,” you replied, fluttering your lashes at her.

Her eyes dipped down, lingering on the plunging neckline of your dress. You arched your back, just a little and the smirk she gave you let you know she’d noticed.

“And do you know what I want, sweet girl?” she asked.

You shook your head. Her eyes glanced over the menu for a moment before dragging back to you. Her hand landed on your bare thigh, thumb brushing over your soft skin. You shivered, fighting against the impulse to press your legs together.

“I think you do,” she said, drawing closer to you until she was all you could see.

“Are you ready to order?”

You startled, jerking away from her to look up at the waiter. You looked down at your lap, not bothering to listen as Alex told him what you’d be having. You had to calm your heart. This wasn’t real. She was just playing a part. She didn’t feel the same way. No reason to get worked up over nothing.

“You’re being awfully quiet,” she said, tugging on the end of one of your curls.

You looked up at her. Her eyes had grown molten but the sex that had been rolling off her only moments ago had disappeared, replaced with concern.

“I suppose I’m not used to restaurants as nice as this,” you replied, “too many late night runs for burritos and meals consisting of instant ramen.”

“I remember those days,” she chuckled.

You reached out, lacing your fingers through hers, shifting yourself closer to her again. The smile on her face softened into something fond that had your heart beating faster than when her hand had been on your leg. Her arm was resting along the back of the seat, almost curling around your shoulders, fingertips brushing along your shoulder. You did shiver then, letting yourself press a little closer to her.

“Why do I doubt you were ever really bad enough with your money some days you had to choose which meal was the easiest to steal off someone else?” you asked.

“Are you just using me for a free meal?” You loved that smile on her, like the two of you were sharing a private joke.

“And a free place to sleep tonight,” you said.

“Sounds like I’m going to be getting lucky.” You didn’t know when her face had grown so close to you. You liked the way she was looking at you. You could quickly become addicted to it.

Her eyes darted up to something over your shoulder. The waiter was back, placing your food down, wine poured to compliment it. You felt yourself light up at what was placing in front of you.

“My favourite,” you said, looking at her.

“I know.”

She tucked a strand of hair behind your ear, fingers lingering on your jaw. You pressed a kiss to her cheek, soft and gentle. Her look of delight was enough to make your heart sing.

“Thank you,” you said, “for all of this.”

“I have to spoil my special girl,” she replied, voice surprisingly husky.

“So that I can spoil you later?” you asked, widening your eyes in mock innocence.

“Is that what you’re going to do, sweet girl?” She picked up her fork, shifting her attention off you.

You lent forward, lowering your voice as if sharing a secret. She ignored you until your lips brushed against the shell of her ear.

“Imagine I said something about seeing the lingerie I’m wearing underneath my dress just for you,” you murmured, too quiet for anyone but her to hear.

“Dirty girl,” she mumbled, eyes sweeping over your body again.

You felt a warmth flush move through your body, knowing that comment wasn’t for anyone’s ears but your own. You took a shaky breath and began eating as well.

And for a while it was easy to slip into the ruse of a date. Easy conversation, good wine, laughter. Soft touches, hands on your knee, fingers tangling. Kind smiles, sparkling eyes, shared warmth. It was the exact thing you’d dreamt about with this woman. The kind of romantic night you’d imagined over and over again. Your heart was fluttering the entire time.

The waiter cleared the plates and offered you dessert.

“Please?” you asked, pouting at her.

“Can we have a slice of the cheesecake with two spoons?” she asked the waiter, “and two coffees.”

“Of course.”

“How’d you find out I love cheesecake?” you asked.

“Believe it or not, I do pay attention to you,” she said, drawing closer to you, shifting until your bodies were practically pressed against one another.

You turned your body, shifting until one of your legs draped over hers. Your lip caught between your teeth again. She pushed your hair off your shoulder, her breath ghosting over the skin of your neck. Your breath caught in your throat.

“Laugh like I’ve just said something salacious to you,” she murmured, lips practically brushing against your earlobe.

You chuckled, a little self conscious, the flush on your cheeks not pretend. She drew back, just far enough to look in your eyes. Breath mingled together. Her eyes darkened as she looked down at your lips, still caught between teeth.

“I’m going to kiss you now,” she whispered, “is that okay?”

“I’ll have to reprimand you if you don’t,” you breathed.

You were surprised by the heat in her kiss. She stole your breath, her hand coming up to curl around the back of your neck, holding you in place. You moaned when her teeth sunk into your bottom lip, her tongue soothing over it before there was a sting. Her tongue brushed against yours and you were ready to fall to your knees at her alter.

Your own hand slipped under her blazer, seeking out her waist, wondering if you could get closer to her. Her other hand landed on your thigh again, thumb brushing the hemline of your dress, flirting with the possibility of dipping under.

“So sorry.”

You made a small whining noise as she pulled away, looking up at the waiter over your shoulder. She looked back, her thumb running along your bottom lip.

“All that pretty lipstick ruined,” she said, “I’m sorry, darling.”

“Don’t ever be sorry for a kiss like that,” you replied, offering her a small smile.

“If you don’t mind me asking, how long have you two been together?”

You both looked up at the waiter still hovering at the side of the table. His hands were clasped in front of his body and he was smiling down at you.

“Three and a half years,” you replied, “I don’t know how I got so lucky.”

You looked back at her. There was such tenderness in her gaze.

“You seem to still be so in love,” he said, “I’m hoping to find that.”

“I’m sure you will,” you replied, feeling the way Alex’s fingers dug in just a little harder in your thigh.

“I’m beginning to think so too. Enjoy your dessert.”

He slipped through the tables, disappearing back into the kitchen. You turned, catching the look Alex was giving you.

“I plan on enjoying something,” you said, winking at her.

She chuckled, scooping up a bite of the cheesecake.

“Open up,” she commanded.

You did what she asked, closing your lips around the spoon placed in your mouth. She slowly pulled it from between your lips, eyes darkening again. You moaned at the taste, enjoying the way there seemed to be a flush growing high on her cheeks.

“Good?” she asked, voice low again.

“Sorry, I’m just going to have to propose to this cheesecake,” you said after swallowing.

“Three and a half years and you leave me for a dessert,” she laughed, “I should have never brought you here.”

She stole a bite of her own of the cheesecake, eyes closing in bliss. You watched as her tongue darted out, catching a stray crumb on her lower lip and the fire within you ignited again. You were still able to feel that tongue brushing against your own.

“Never mind,” she said, “I’m leaving you for the cheesecake.”

“How about we share?” you suggested, “I hear throuples are all the rage these days.”

“Deal.”

You weren’t expecting the chaste kiss but you also weren’t complaining about it. The only disappointment was when she moved back from you. You traded bites of the dessert and slowly drank your coffee, Alex continually glancing over your shoulder at the waiter, keeping eyes on his movement. You kept leaning closer and closer to her until it was time to go. She signalled to your waiter, bringing him over.

“Could we have the cheque please?” she requested.

“Of course.”

You giggled into her ear, her fingers slowly trailing up and down your back. When he returned he tapped the front.

“I’ve uh, left you a little something in there.”

Alex opened it and you glanced down, finding a Polaroid of something you definitely hadn’t wanted to see. Scrawled on the bottom was a phone number. He was hovering, just a few steps away, as if hoping to gauge your reactions.

“Well, that is certainly him,” you said.

“Yes, definitely the one we’re looking for,” she murmured.

From there it was easy enough to finish up. She placed the money on the table as Morgan arrived to arrest the man. She slipped the photo over to JJ who wrinkled her nose when she looked it over. The four of you escorted him out under the watchful gazes of the restaurant guests, ignoring his protests.

His confession came quick once he was seated in a police cell, talking to Morgan. Standing on the other side of the glass, arms wrapped around yourself, you felt disgusted at the words he was saying. Just another man feeling entitled to a woman’s body, angry at queer women for removing men from the equation completely. You didn’t even see Alex until later, once you were already back at the hotel, Hotch having made the call it was too late to fly back home by that point.

Showered and in your pyjamas, you were sitting on your bed, the TV playing quietly in the background as you stared out over the city. You had to keep trying to calm your heart and remind it that Alex had been playing a part, undercover, that none of it was real and it didn’t matter how much you’d enjoyed being hers for the evening.

A knock sounded quietly on your door. You got up, tugging on your shorts, trying to make them a bit longer for company. You peeked through the peep hole, not sure what you were expecting. The answer still left you confused.

“Hi.”

“Can we talk?” Alex asked.

You help the door open wider for her, letting her in to your room. She walked in, her back to you as she stood in the middle of the room. She turned with the quiet click of the door closing, her arms crossed over her chest.

“It’s pretty late,” you said when it became clear she wasn’t going to say anything.

“We can do this later if you want to sleep,” she said, stepping forward as if about to leave again.

“What did you want to talk about?” you asked, stopping her with both hand on her shoulders.

“It’s…” she trailed off and you watched her eyes trail down your body again, throat bobbing as she swallowed.

“For a master linguist, you seem to be having some problems with your words, Doctor Blake,” you said, giving her a half smile so she knew you were teasing.

“Don’t.” Her eyes squeezed shut, “don’t call me that.”

“Why?”

“Because I like it too much,” she whispered, “when you say it.”

“Alex, look at me.”

She opened her eyes, looking unsure of herself. You tried to give her a reassuring smile.

“Why’d you come see me?” you asked.

“To…” she trailed off, “oh fuck it.”

She tugged you to her, one hand splaying on your lower back, the other tangling in your hair until your head was tilted up to her. Your breath caught as her lips pressed against yours, insistent and needy. Your own hands slid around your shoulders until your arms were wrapped around her and you could press yourself against her without restraint. She hummed into your mouth, keeping you pressed against her as her tongue swept in, making you lose all thoughts from your head beyond the feeling and taste of her.

She pushed you back until you were stumbling towards the large bed. You fell backwards, squealing into her mouth, pulling her with you. Her answering chuckle had a heat spreading through you. You kissed her again, turning that chuckle into a soft sigh.

She shifted until her knees were either side of your hips. You gripped them, tight enough to leave bruises as she kissed you so thoroughly there was nothing but her. Her hair fell around your faces, like a curtain blocking out the rest of the world.

Her lips trailed down your neck and you arched up, seeking her out. You gasped her name when you felt the scrape of her teeth, the flick of her tongue. She sucked on your pulse point, hands beginning to skim down your body.

“Wait,” you gasped, “wait, wait, wait.”

She drew back, sitting back, her weight comfortable on your pelvis. Her eyes were bright and her lips were kiss swollen but there was worry marring her features. You reached up, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, fingers lingering on her skin.

“I’m sorry,” she said.

“What’s… what’s going on here?” you asked, trying to catch your breath.

“I should have asked first,” she said.

“Asked what?” You blinked, not sure what was going through her brain.

“To kiss you.”

“Alex.” Your voice turned gentle as you sat up, shifting her to sit beside you, “tell me what’s going on in there.”

She bowed her head. You ducked your head to look her in the eyes, placing your hands over hers to stop the way her fingers were tapping against one another.

“I really enjoyed pretending to be your girlfriend,” she replied, “more than I should have.”

“You did?”

She looked over at you, bottom lip caught between teeth. She gave a slow nod. You couldn’t stop the grin spreading over your face.

“Thank god I wasn’t the only one,” you said, a small laugh at the end of your sentence.

“What?”

“Alex, you must be the only one on the team who doesn’t know about the massive crush I have on you,” you said, still laughing, “Morgan called it within the first five minutes of my meeting you.”

“The first five minutes?”

“And tonight you were just driving me crazy in all the best ways,” you said, “the way you were touching me? I was ready to ignore the rest of the team and just demand you bring me back here.”

“I can’t imagine anyone not giving in to the impulse to touch you in that dress,” she said.

“Oh, you liked it did you?” you asked, swinging your leg over her body to straddle her lap.

“Honey, I loved it,” she said, fingers beginning to trail over the bare skin of your thighs.

“What did you love so much about it?” you asked, brushing her hair back. She inhaled sharply when your lips pressed to the soft spot on the underside of her jaw.

“Well, I thought the colour was very pretty on you,” she said, head tilting back to give you better access.

“And?” you asked.

“And I especially enjoyed how.” She made a small noise in the back of her throat when your teeth scraped along her skin, “how low cut it was.”

“Mmm I hoped you’d like that,” you murmured, “anything else?”

“I like being able to get my hands on these legs.” Her fingers dug in, that damned thumb running over your skin again, “I like these shorts too.”

You kissed her again, swallowing her moans as your fingers tangled in her hair, gently tugging. The feeling of her hands on your bare skin was making you squirm, her thumb brushing higher and higher, finding the soft skin of your inner thigh. You whined.

“How about I take you on a real date?” she murmured against your lips, “just us, no team listening in, no unsub to find.”

Your kiss was answer enough.

#alex blake #alex blake x reader #alex blake imagine #criminal minds #criminal minds imagine

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papapandashipyards · 5 months ago

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Have you seen the amazing works of Paul Chadelsson? Chief on my mind is the amazIng https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cntb3wcZdTw

Yes indeed I have seen his work! I have been following him on Twitter for quite a while. Solstice 5 is an amazing film and tickles my sensibilities in all the right ways. His amazing repetitive details capture the absurd realism of the very real and crushing industrial architecture of our time. It gives the whole thing life. I love it. Not to mention the beautiful artworks he did for Homeworld Remastered, Deserts of Kharak, Homeworld Mobile (RIP) and Homeworld 3. Paul is a good egg. :)

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mariacallous · 4 months ago

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When Donald Trump first ran for the U.S. presidency in 2016, a wave of writing suggested that he was a realist. In this framing, Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton was presented as a neoconservative hawk who would start wars. Trump, by contrast, would balance U.S. commitments with its resources. He would avoid foreign conflicts and quagmires. He would be less ideological in his approach to nondemocratic states.

In 2024, this thinking has returned. Some realist voices are again suggesting that Trump is one of them. Trump’s desire to end the war in Ukraine—even though he simply intends to let Russia win—is taken as evidence of this. So is the selection of Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance as his vice presidential candidate. Vance has famously said that he does not care what happens to Ukraine. Conversely, he is a China hawk who seems to believe the United States cannot support both Taiwan and Ukraine simultaneously.

The notion that U.S. support for Taiwan and Ukraine is a trade-off is the most controversial component of the Trump realist position. Former Defense Department official Elbridge Colby, for example, has argued prominently that U.S. support for Ukraine undercuts its ability to help Taiwan, and that Europe should be almost exclusively responsible for helping Ukraine (or not).

But these hopes are badly misplaced. A second Trump term may well take an entirely different tack on China from the hawks—and even if he wants to move against Beijing, he lacks the discipline and ability to do so.

There is far more in Trump’s first term to suggest indiscipline, showboating, and influence-peddling than the clear-eyed, bloodless calculation of national interest that realists aspire to.

On China, Trump was undisciplined and sloppy. Yes, he turned against China in 2020, during the final year of his term, but that was more to deflect blame for COVID-19 than out of any realist or strategic reappraisal of U.S.-China relations. COVID-19 suddenly became the “kung flu” in Trump’s vernacular in an openly racist bid to change the subject.

Trump also undercut any ostensible focus on China by picking unnecessary fights with the United States’ regional partners. U.S.-South Korea and U.S.-Australia relations, for example, sank to their lowest point in years as Trump picked fights with their leaders because he wanted a payoff for the U.S. alliance guarantees.

Realism values allies for their ability to share burdens, project power, and generate global coalitions. Trump does not seem to grasp that at all. When Trump backed off his criticism of Japan, the turning point was apparently then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s relentless flattery, including giving Trump a gold-plated golf club, rather than any strategic reevaluation by Trump or his team. Such frippery is exactly the opposite of the cold calculation that we associate with realism.

Trump also sank the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and all but dropped earlier U.S. rhetoric about a pivot or rebalance to Asia. Were China a threat that Trump took seriously, then building a tighter trade area among the United States’ Asian partners would be a smart move to pool local allied economic power and build patterns of administrative coordination among those partners. Indeed, that was the rationale behind TPP and the “pivot” to increased engagement in the Indo-Pacific when it was proposed by the Barack Obama administration. Trump did not see that, either; he is obsessed with imposing tariffs, even against allies, which violates the realist tenets that concern allied power accumulation and coordination against shared threats.

Finally, Trump’s admiration for Chinese President Xi Jinping’s autocracy was blatant, and Trump has once again recently praised Xi as his “good friend.” The former U.S. president has spoken approvingly of China’s crackdowns in Tiananmen Square, Xinjiang, and Hong Kong. He solicited Chinese help in the 2020 election, and China happily channeled money to Trump’s family and his properties during his presidency.

Trump clearly craves authoritarian powers at home and is happy to take China’s money. He was happy to pardon Republican lobbyist Elliott Broidy, who was convicted for illicitly acting on Beijing’s behalf. It stretches credulity to suggest that Trump will lead the United States, much less an Indo-Pacific coalition, in a major shift against a power that he admires. China will probably just throw money at him if he is reelected—especially after seeing his U-turn on a TikTok ban, a policy that he backed in his first term but failed to deliver on, after facing pressure from billionaire TikTok investor Jeff Yass.

Little else in Trump’s first term suggests s a thoughtful, realist weighing of priorities: Trump’s most important first-term foreign-policy venture was the attempted denuclearization of North Korea. Unsurprisingly, that effort was amateurish, sloppy, and unplanned—and it failed.

There is a realist argument for reaching out to Pyongyang. The United States’ long-standing policy of containment and deterrence has not changed North Korea, nor did it prevent its nuclearization. North Korea is now a direct nuclear threat to the U.S. mainland. A realistic foreign policy would accept that as an unchangeable fact and react to it. Perhaps a bold move by a risk-taking statesman could break the logjam.

Trump might have had the chance to pull this off, but he failed due to his own lack of discipline. Trump did not prepare for his meetings with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un; instead, he simply walked off the plane and thought his New York tough guy shtick would somehow bowl over a man raised in the crucible of North Korea’s lethal family politics. There was no interagency process to build proposals ahead of time, nor any kind of realistic, measured deal that could have won over Pyongyang.

According to John Bolton, then Trump’s national security advisor, the president did not even read in preparation for the summits. Instead, Trump demanded the complete, verifiable, and irreversible nuclear disarmament of North Korea in exchange for sanctions removal, then walked out of the Hanoi summit when Pyongyang predictably rejected this wildly unbalanced so-called deal. Talks collapsed because Trump had not prepared and had no idea how to bargain on the issues when his first offer was rejected.

But Trump did get what he really wanted—lots and lots of publicity. His hugely hyped—and criminally underprepared—first summit with Kim in Singapore brought a week of nonstop news coverage. His later trip to the Demilitarized Zone, which included briefly walking inside North Korea, brought another wave of coverage. Trump even demanded that he receive the Nobel Peace Prize. This is showboating, not strategy.

The big issue in the realist case for Trump and Vance is that they will put Taiwan explicitly ahead of Ukraine in a ruthless prioritization of U.S. interests. As Andrew Byers and Randall Schweller write, Trump “understands the limits of American power.” From this perspective, the United States cannot reasonably hope to fight Russia and China simultaneously, much less a coordinated “axis” of those countries working with rogues such as Iran and North Korea. This notion is particularly connected with Vance, who has explicitly advocated abandoning Ukraine.

Yet Trump himself does not think this way. Trump’s supposed policy positions emerge on the fly as he speaks. He is lazy. He is not capable of the strategic thinking that realists want to attribute to him; one must only listen to his campaign speeches this year to see this. He routinely lies, makes up stories, and speaks in indecipherable word-salads. When Trump has spoken on Taiwan, he makes it clear that he sees it as just another free-riding ally that owes the U.S. protection money. In an interview with Bloomberg, Trump said the United States was “no different than an insurance company” and that Taiwan “doesn’t give us anything.”

It stretches psychological credulity to suggest that the United States under Trump will ruthlessly abandon a struggling, nascent democracy under threat by a fascist imperialist, but then abruptly fight for another new democracy under threat by an ever more powerful fascist imperialist. The prioritization of Taiwan over Ukraine misses the obvious precursor that the Middle East, in turn, is less valuable than Ukraine. But instead of reevaluating the United States’ position in the Middle East, Trump will almost certainly deepen U.S. involvement in the region because of the ideological fixations of his Christianist base.

The strategic case for elevating Taiwan over Ukraine is also far more mixed than Vance and Trumpian realists suggest.

First, China is much more powerful than Russia. So, a conflict with it would be far more destructive. The Russia-Ukraine war has been locally contained and, despite Russian bluster, not escalated to nuclear confrontation. That seems less likely in an open, U.S.-China war. It is an odd “realist” recommendation to suggest that the United States should take a provocative line against a stronger power, which increases the risk of great-power war, but not push its preferences on a weaker opponent where U.S. involvement is limited to a lower-risk proxy war.

Second, the U.S. commitment to Ukraine is much less costly than a parallel commitment to Taiwan. The United States is not fighting directly to defend Ukraine. It would have to do so to defend Taiwan. Taiwan defense would require the United States to project enormous force over a huge distance of open water at great expense—plus, there would be combat losses of major U.S. platforms, such as ships and aircraft.

By contrast, U.S. aid to Ukraine has mostly come in the form of money and midsized, ground-based platforms, totaling around $175 billion over two-and-a-half years. This is small and easily manageable because of NATO’s propinquity. U.S. national security spending is approximately $1 trillion annually; the country’s annual economic production is approximately $25 trillion. Notions that U.S. aid to Ukraine is an unsustainable overstretch, or that it is bolstering another “forever war,” are simply not correct.

In Ukraine, the United States is also using intelligence assets and coordination relationships with NATO allies that have long been in place—and resources that have little relevance to a Taiwan conflict. Washington is not going to engage the Chinese army in ground conflict, just as it does not need U.S. aircraft carriers to help Ukraine. As a specific example of a possible trade-off, Vance has suggested the United States lacks the artillery shell production capacity to meet both national defense needs and those of Ukraine. But that argument implies abandoning Ukraine today for an unidentifiable but apparently imminent U.S. ground war tomorrow.

Realist hopes for Trump and Vance assume an intellectual discipline that both men lack and elevate geopolitical trade-offs that are less acute than realists admit., Trump is lazy, unread, venal, easily bought, susceptible to autocrats’ flattery, captive to the ideological fixations of his domestic coalition, ignorant of U.S. strategic interests, and dismissive of alliances that amplify U.S. power. Vance is ostensibly more clear-eyed, but he is a foreign-policy neophyte in the pocket of Silicon Valley donors, including his mentor Peter Thiel. He has been a senator for less than two years, before which he was a financier and author whose interests were local.

The fiscal space to reorient U.S. defense spending is there. If Vance and Trump were truly serious about confronting China, they would not be proposing yet another massive Republican tax cut, for example. The traditional liberal internationalism Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden represent is far more likely to build a durable global coalition against Chinese and Russian revisionism than the venal caprice masquerading as strategy that Trump would bring back to the White House.

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little-peril-stories · 8 months ago

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“Proud Of” Tag

Thank you so much @mysticstarlightduck for the tag! (Post here.)

Rules: Post a snippet you’ve written that you’re proud of and tag 5 people.

Gently tagging (no pressure): @cssndr, @writingphoenix, @tabswrites, @pleasestaywithmedarling + open tag ✨

I let this tag sit for a long time (since Feb 24, apparently!). I mean, there are lots of lil moments and snippets that I'm proud of. But there were so many that didn't feel quite right for this tag, for whatever reason.

But editing TPOT recently led me to this moment in Bree's head. It's from my *favourite TPOT chapter, a quiet moment amidst the chaos of the plot. One night for them to truly bond before reality comes crashing down again.

*yes I know my favourite changes all the time lol

I love it. I love it so much. I love Bree and her wistfulness, her eternal battle between hope and despair, between idealism and realism. I love this glimpse into her thoughts and her past. And, heck yeah, I love the way I wrote it. So, without further ado, here's my "proud of" moment.

“What about you? If it was your last day, what would you do?” I’ve never really given it much thought. The seasons of my life have all been so different, each one swollen with dreams and wishes but never ones that felt real, like they could ever come true. When Father was alive, I wished to be far away—to be somewhere he couldn’t find me and poison my life with his endless bitterness. Once he was dead, I wished only to be fed and sheltered and safe. When I joined IA, my wish was simple: to not get caught. Well, now I’m caught, and wishes seem to mean very little indeed.

The Prince of Thieves

#tag game #proud of tag game #lps the prince of thieves #open tag #writeblr open tag

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derekscorner · 1 year ago

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Fated Rantings: Ground Zero

I finished Fate Zero

And what a ride that was. I don't even know where to start with all of this which shocks me because I went in knowing things would go to hell.

I started my whole Fate journey due to lore videos, curiosity and FGO so (just like the 2006 Fate Stay Night) I had a full grasp of what would happen. To be shocked anyway just goes to show that the cast and their dialogues sell this story.

There's a stark difference between hearing plot points and watching Gilgamesh slowly poke at Kirei's mentality. There's a difference between knowing that Blue Beard is summoned by a serial killer and seeing them discuss the nature of God.

And there's one hell of a difference between seeing memes of Iskander & Waver and seeing what is possibly the best bromance within Type-Moon.

I went into this expecting Saber to be a bit too idealistic and for Kiritsugu to be a badass only to leave it finding Kiritsugu the least interesting compared to everyone else.

Magus Killer Indeed

Now, I do not say that to imply that he lacks depth himself. Kiritsugu is unique in how he operates within his magic world and you're not supposed to view him as idealistically as Irisviel or Shirou do, he's a flawed man with a very fucked up history.

This man, like Shirou, wanted to be a hero of justice as a child. An innocent enough desire but one that was both never tempered in realism and was shattered by realism.

What I mean by that is that Kiritsugu is plagued by a paradox. Yes, the village being turned into ghouls and murdered was bad. Yes, Kiritsugu killing his own father because he felt that "he had too" is a very dark sign of his mentality even as a child.

But these things haunt him, they do not drive him. What drives him is his desire to be that hero. When his world is shattered he takes a dark approach to kill the few to save the many.

It's that pursuit that eventually shatters his goal with the realism of humanity. You can never truly save everyone, other humans will always ruin it.

But the realism that pushes him to try anyway is the grail. In this world the wish granter is real, tangible, thus the paradox. He fully believes the goal shattered by realism can be salvaged by the realism of the grail's existence.

He's usually so pessimistic and realistic in his approaches to the war and battles that it's almost jarring to see his character break once he learns that the grail can't just do anything. You can see that last bit of idealism in his soul die.

Worse, the grail taunts him. It can only grant a wish that a human themselves can understand. As an example;

you can't ask for fire if you do not know how fire operates.

Thus the grail shows him a way to grant his wish but that wish grants nothing. This is very crucial to his breakdown because the grail showed him in the purest terms that;

This is your way of saving others but ultimately it saves no one

That's the point of the boat example. No matter how many you sacrifice for the whole, the survives will further fracture. There will always be a minority and a majority, Kiritsugu's life was essentially pointless in the larger picture.

Now, it'd be too cruel to say his life had no meaning at all. He was willing to sacrifice his mother figure and mentor to stop an undead outbreak. He killed his father because he felt responsible for his actions and Shirley's death.

He had to have done some good, it just wasn't in the way he had hoped. The greatest tragedy here is possibly that he's unable to see it.

We the audience see it in those rare moments of him being a father to his daughter, to Shirou, or a husband to Irisviel. People were drawn to him and loved him and if he had stopped his pursuits for them he may have found a happier ending.

True Emptiness

Then there's this true demon of a man. For all the talk, the praise of their battle, and Kiritsugu's own foreshadowing, I expected a deeper connection between the two.

It's strange, you can't just bring up Kiritsugu's flawed mentality without mentioning Kirei's yet the two only physically met one time. It's fascinating because I expected a bigger grudge or more plot relevance to their dynamic.

Yet, at the same time, their lack of interaction makes the eventual fight more interesting because of where Kirei starts and where he ends.

Intriguingly, Kiritsugu pegs Kirei near instantly. He only had a mug shot and some info on his life but he could instantly tell that there was something very wrong with Kirei. He sensed the lack of love and emptiness and feared him the most.

In contrast, Kirei didn't know Kiritsugu as well as he believed. Half of his emotional journey is realizing that they're not as alike as he thought.

This is best shown in his battle with Irisviel and Maya. He assumes Kiritsugu sent them there to battle him and he can't comprehend it when that's not the case. In his mind he is fully incapable of understanding why those two women would choose to face him.

He can't comprehend the illogical actions love will drive one too.

That said, the far more interesting dynamic in Kirei's life is Gilgamesh. While Kirei fails in his assumption of Kiritsugu and lacks a full understanding of himself it is Gilgamesh who sees through Kirei instantly.

Their talks are some of the most interesting parts in the story because you can tell Gilgamesh is trying to make him realize his own nature. Gilgamesh has no grand reason for doing so, he's just bored.

For all the dorky shit Gilgamesh does, for all the moments of him being oddly good with kids, or a good king (in FGO) you can't forget that Gilgamesh defies morality. He's not above it he just does not consider it.

He seeks entertainment and Kirei is the most interesting thing there. A full grown man unable to feel yet subconsciously seeking too. The answer is always on the tip of Kirei's tongue. (he's in self denial)

It's truly fascinating to watch it unfold. This ancient demigod taking a mentorship-like role just so he can see what Kirei will do.

It's due to these talks of introspection and Kirei's other actions that I find it hard to see the duality of he and Kiritsugu. What ultimately awakens Kirei's understanding is watching Kariya's suffering.

Gilgamesh may point it out but that's moot. It's Kariya's motives that catch Kirei's attention most, it's the drama with Tokiomi that fascinates him, it's saving Kariya and using him later that makes it click for Kirei internally.

You could possibly argue the whole thing is Tokiomi's fault. He gave his daughter to the Matous and even if he was unaware of the torture she'd endure for years that- no wait.

He possibly went wrong the moment he schemed with the church. Watching the Tohsaka's and Kariya play out their drama awoke the monster that is Kirei but it was Tokiomi's fault Kirei was there at all.

It was also Tokiomi that summoned Gilgamesh....hmm there's a lot more to ponder there I guess but let's move on.

I can only praise the depiction of Kirei's awakening so far before it seems like I like his character or adore it. It's fascinating to watch but he's still a monster that shouldn't be walking among men.

The Best Fate Bro to ever live

I wanted to use the last section of this to talk about the best fucking boy. I do not care what anyone tells you, Iskandar is the best bro in the Fate universe.

The very first thing this man does upon being summoned is find a map. With the enthusiasm of a child he admires it looking for where his kingdom is now and seeing the world mapped out in whole.

There's something that is just genuinely pure about Iskandar in Fate/Zero. No heroic spirit is without questionable actions in the modern lens but this story does a good job of blending that by explaining Iskandar's motives.

He has a genuine love of seeing new things. That joy is so pure that his wish for the grail is to be reincarnated so that he can begin his conqueroring anew. I have no earthly clue how he thinks he'll be able to do that in a normal mortal body but no matter because I doubt he's thought that far ahead himself.

His patience in dealing with a prideful child is also second to none. His words are often full of small wisdom to the point I did not keep count of them all nor could I explore it all. He's always pushing his master to try new things and it takes root overtime.

It is very easy to see how Waver could become the popular Lord El-Melloi II in other materials. It all began here, regardless of timelines, there's usually a Waver that fought in the 4th Grail War with Iskander.

I'm not even sure what to write about Waver himself because so much of what made the impression was seeing him slowly changing due to Iskandar's influence.

In a mage society that belittles him for being "new blood" it is Iskandar that continually tries to open his eyes. That's highlighted best when Waver tracks down Caster easily using simpler methods due to his magical limitations.

He views it as bad but Iskandar makes a good point. To do something in a simpler yet equally relevant way (perhaps even better) is a talent worthy of praise. Waver doesn't recognize his own ingenuity nor does he realize that there's merit in someone who can think around their limitations.

It's the core of their dynamic and that moment when Waver goes from being his master mage to his subject is beautiful. That strong loyalty born over the story even saves Waver's life.

Gilgamesh spares him based on that undying loyalty alone. A far cry from where Waver starts.

Kingly Mentality

Before I lose myself in the praise I should point out that Iskandar is no fool. Yes, he rarely plans in Fate Zero and his pure love for the new and patience shapes his bond with his mage.

However, do not mistake that pureness for a simpleton. Iskander is simply straightforward to a fault. His greatest characteristic is that friendly straightforward nature he has.

He's the one servant that repeatedly stops to talk to the others, he's able to get them to talk when they normally wouldn't, and even when he expresses desire to take them into his army those present do not get that offended.

Gilgamesh, the king of arrogance, even begins to shrug this off. On some level he respects Iskandar's nature because he is true to himself.

Still, some do think his attitude toward Saber is bad in regards to the banquet of kings. Now this is tumblr which is bad for seeing what isn't there to begin with or it's twitter which has lost it's critical thinking skills long ago.

What do I mean by this? Simple, while Iskandar and Gilgamesh disagree they at least respect each other as kings. Similarly they disrespect Artoria as king but for differing reasons.

To Iskandar a king is someone who stands above men as a symbol of their ideals. Something to follow, a larger than life person to show them the way.

What lost Iskandar's respect for Artoria's kingship was her wish. Her desire to undo it all, even if for good reasons, is an insult to Iskandar. No matter how tragic he would not change one moment of his life because that would affect everyone that fought for him and with him.

He sees Artoria as a slave of her people and the ideals she was raised on rather than a king that's truly led and valued her men. It is here that some have issues.

We'll argue King Arthur another time, what's relevant is why Iskandar views it. The tragic thing being that he is not entirely wrong.

Artoria was raised to be a king, she was conceived in convoluted magic ways to be England's king, so when he says that he only "sees a girl who could not chase butterflies or fall in love" he is entirely correct.

I do not say that dismissing her choices mind you but she did sacrifice that normalcy regardless. Iskandar, as we've covered, enjoys life at it's core.

So what he sees in Saber is a girl who was denied life. She could not truly enjoy it which disconnected her from her people. He views it as sad and states that one reason for recruiting her into his army is to show her otherwise.

Now as to whether he could have is another topic entirely. What's important is that he can't respect her as a king because he sees a martyr not a king.

The Fate Route of the FSN justifies his views to an extent because Saber eventually finds some things she denied herself in Shirou. She ultimately just needed a chance to be a person and Iskandar wanted to help her do so.

There are some faults in his thinking, yes, but his intentions aren't negative nor his his disrespect of her kingship based on sex. He fully respected Saber as a king until he learned her wish.

Even after he respected her as a warrior and wanted to see her enjoy life...and cut down his enemies BUT STILL.

Conclusion?

Already? So abruptly? Kinda. This got too big to fit into one post and there's a lot I can't find a way to organically work in.

Such as Tokiomi's dumb ass making Kirei Rin's guardian when his wife is perfectly healthy and alive when he writes that will.

Or how Gilgamesh views Saber just as objectively and disrespectfully as you'd expect. His take on her kingship and sex is completely negative and objectifying, a contrast to Iskandar.

Hell the whole mutual respect and differences between Gilgamesh and Iskandar.

I also didn't get to the odd but unnervingly deep take on God between two mass murderers. (Caster & Ryuunosuke)

I definitely don't have it in me to cover Kiritsugu's family. Illyasviel is more of a FSN topic and Irisviel is hard for me to quantify. Her love for her husband and of the small things he showed her was beautiful though.

Oh well, ONTO PART TWO: https://derekscorner.tumblr.com/post/737301977761005569/fated-rantings-seiba-pt-2#notes

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For my other experiences with Fate go here: https://derekscorner.tumblr.com/tagged/fated-rantings

#fate series #fate zero #gilgamesh #fate saber #emiya kiritsugu #irisviel von einzbern #kotomine kirei #iskander #velvet waver #illyasviel von einzbern #fated rantings

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vintagesimstress · 2 years ago

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Mirai's Medieval Activities Add-On

Would you like to make your game a bit harder? Constantly worry that your sims might starve themselves to death? Or just add another touch of realism? If yes, look no further! Those add-ons are guaranteed to turn your TS4 into a survival simulator and give you a decent amount of frustration and stress :P

Here come two little add-ons for MiraiM's Medieval Activities mod. In case you haven't heard of it: it adds a new option under 'Travel' cellphone menu, called - you guessed it - Medieval Activities, which lets your sims pick from a list of rabbithole... well... medieval(ish) activities. While most of them are indeed distinctly medieval, some can be used also in other eras - especially the first one, which makes your sim go to the woods and collect logs. Your sim returns from this rabbithole activity with a bunch of logs in their inventory (plus a tense moodlet and tragic hygiene stats), which can later be sold for a decent amount of money. Unless... You download add-ons which make those logs necessary for using certain objects.

I fell in love with this mod the moment I found it, but was a bit disappointed to see the logs being (optionally) required only for otg stoves and fireplaces - both of which I'm not allowed to use in the iron age. I tried asking the creator if she could make an add-on for campfires as well, only to realise that the last post on her page was written half a year ago, not even by her, and it states that she's in a very bad health condition... And so, after overcoming the initial 'feeling like a total insensitive idiot' phase, I decided to give it a go myself.

There are two add-ons: one combined for campfires, bonfires and grills, and another one for the woodworking table. As for the amount of logs required, I totally made those numbers up, trying to adhere to some basic logic and Mirai's og stove & fireplace requirements:

lighting a campfire: 3 logs

lighting a bonfire: 5 logs (cause bonfires are bigger, right? And the fire seems to last much longer)

adding a log: 1 log

grilling anything: 2 logs

woodworking: requirements vary depending on the size of the craftable; anywhere from 1 log (knifeblock) to 5 logs (bathtub, table)

All has been tested in game, of course, especially the campfire, and oh boy, let me just tell you: this combined with the off the grid and simple living challenges makes every simday a fight for survival. Which sounds pretty darn accurate for pre/protohistorical times, so... Hurray?

Anyway. Have, ehmmm... fun with it and... ehmmm... enjoy.

DOWNLOAD (free on Patreon, no ads)

ABSOLUTELY, 100% requires Mirai's original mod to work. Don't put it in your mods folder if you don't have her Medieval Activities!

A hundred thanks to Mirai for creating such a cool mod in the first place. Sending you all my love and best wishes <3

***

Altered resources (aka potential conflicts):

recipe tuning files for all the woodworking craftables

campfire_AddLog (102352)

campfire_Light (101940)

grill_StartCrafting (35026)

grill_StartCrafting_RequiredIngredients (261962)

herbalism_BrewPotion_Grill (103875)

bonfire_light (121477)

bonfire_add_fuel (121485)

#mods #medieval #ts4 mods #iron age #dark ages #mirai

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lightdancer1 · 4 months ago

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And while rewatching the series I've also had a pretty obvious thought about Tara's motivations re: Willow and magic that I use for both meta and my fanfics:

Namely 'Why didn't Tara say anything consistently about Willow's potential magic problems until Season 6 started'. And the simple answer is the elephant in the room that she both lied to Willow for that first year of their relationship and was instantly forgiven and then after that everything with what Willow did with and to Glory to bring her mind back out of her worst nightmare. I sincerely think that Tara was probably anticipating even if she somehow failed to do the demon thing that this habit was going to blow up in her face and then it didn't.

It's one of the areas where one of her flaws, namely being an enabler, contributed and where her own insecurities worked hand in glove with everything with Willow's increasing arrogance for the explosion to a point that I think the main problem with the Season 6 storyline was not so much some of the courses characters took, as it was set up very far back indeed, but the complete switcheroo and back again on how magic works.

Not changing that wouldn't have really changed much, keeping Tara's more nuanced characterization from the previous seasons with a 'yes I made very bad mistakes but I learned from them rather than insisting I didn't,' as I keep noting, would have cost the series nothing and given Tara's moral role greater strength. She was never a saint, but like Giles her own experiences with her own mistakes would have brought greater weight to her noting the flaws in what Willow was doing and the path to the time bomb that is Dark Willow exploding in everyone's faces.

This Watsonian Tara who was deeply flawed has just as strong a case against everything in Season 6 as the Doylist version, and I make a specific point with my use of the Tara resurrection trope to both note that and to provide various nuances accounting for the inevitable thing canon never really tried to do, namely 'if that wasn't really a case of magic abruptly going from lesbianism to crack to lesbianism again, what the Hell was it.'

The Watsonian Willow in turn is blinded by the increasing power of dark magic and her older displays of power trips and what she believes she's doing and very, very self-deluded and extremely dangerous, with Tara essentially seeing the problem, assuming the Slayer can solve it short of the worst case, and bailing for her own safety and the more power to her even if she didn't really bother to inform anyone else what was poised to happen in the ways it did happen.

But I also treat all of this, ultimately, as the real problem being less 'magic addiction' and more the combination of slowly unfolding realization that magic gave a bullying victim with a huge axe to grind absolute power with which to wield the axe and a complete lack of concern for the collateral damage in so doing. This changes very, very little of how things unfold in Season 6 and treating Rack as more of a parasite who dulled people's awareness of what he was actually doing to them with the endorphin rush to obfuscate the truth allows for him to keep the creepier trappings without having to have the magic crack dealer staying precisely that.

And that's the ironic part, keeping strictly within the lines of the rules of all the other 11 seasons doesn't require changing much of anything any of the characters did, as that part was in its own way logical extensions of things. Now the finance plot, OTOH, was a belated bid for realism by people who never had to pay anything on a McJob which even in the 90s couldn't have done shit and it's a case where everything they did with that just gets worse fractally the more it's looked at.

It was a poorly structured bid for realism that failed because the bid ignored how much of the underlying assumptions were....not realistic. And that this same stressful financial situation miraculously disappears with the implosion of Sunnydale through Season 7 and all those Potentials plus the Scoobies plus Spike miraculously had consistent power, water, and food without this being a time bomb of a different sort shows why the realism for Season 6 was an avoidable mistake.

If they could handwave that, they could have handwaved the other and had Buffy's depression over her resurrection stay about where it was anyway.

#tara maclay #willow rosenberg #buffyverse meta

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