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writing-of-a-british-bitch · 4 years ago

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Blame Me - Chapter 1

Fandom: The Walking Dead

Specified gender: Female

Word Count: 4.3K

Pairing: Daryl Dixon x reader,

TW: canon typical violence, canon divergence, gore, mention of past major character death, zombies, a lot of time skips

Genre: Horror ig?

Series: Blame Me

Requests: CLOSED

Masterlist

A/N: (Y/N) isn’t in this chapter much but she will be soon! This is my first time writing for the walking dead, so I know Daryl is probably out of character. Constructive criticism is always appreciated :) Send me a DM or an ask if you want to be tagged! Enjoy!

When Daryl found out about what they'd done to Merle on that rooftop - left him for dead- he was livid. Merle was no angel, that was for damn sure, but that was still his brother, and they just left him there. And when they got there, and Merle was gone, with nothing left but a hand he'd had to hack off himself? It felt like his world was crashing around him. He couldn't do this. Not again. Then this new sheriff asshole had the nerve to tell him to calm down. Fuck that. He couldn't lose his brother, not him too. But Daryl couldn't seem to catch a break, and suddenly they'd lost half their camp, taken a failed trip to the CDC (that almost cost them their lives - again), and Sophia had gone missing. He was sick and fucking tired of losing people. Maybe that's why he was so hellbent on finding a little girl that wasn't even his. They'd set up a little camp on the edge of some old guy called Hershel's farm, but Daryl didn't want to get too close. He had this awful feeling creeping up his spine, something was gonna go wrong. Someone was gonna die. He couldn't take the blame again. So he stayed away. Set up his own tent, his own fire, Merle's bike parked up against a tree, animals on a line. Just like the old hunting trips he used to take with his brother. Sometimes she'd come, but it wasn't her thing. She'd been keeping him company so far. Even if she wasn't really here. Daryl was so focused on skinning a squirrel that he didn't even hear Carol creeping over. She still had remnants of tears tracked down her face, but they'd been long dried.

"Daryl?" Carol's meek voice broke through the silence, and Daryl looked up briefly a grunt of recognition leaving his throat. She sat down next to him on the log he was perched on "Thank you for everything you've done for Sophia. Her own daddy would have never done the same."

She'd thanked him twice already. He found her doll, not Sophia. As much as he wishes he had. Damn near died for it too, since the throbbing pain in his side liked to remind him

"Only found her doll," He mumbled, glancing over quickly. Carol nodded and gave him a small smile.

"Well, that's just one step closer isn't it?" She replied but she got no response except the famous Dixon stare. He wasn't much of a talker. He was just glad she understood that. They sat there for a few minutes, watching the fire, surrounded by the comfortable silence until Carol looked over to watch as Daryl skinned another squirrel, and a little glimmer on his hand caught her eye. "Hey, what's that?"

"What're you talkin' 'bout?" He huffed out, putting the squirrel to one side, and stabbing the knife into the log beside him, finally giving her the proper response she'd been asking for. Carol reached out and took Daryl's hand, examining it, ignoring the blood on his hands. He'd be surprised if she wasn't used to it by now. But she was right. On his ring finger was a silver band. Just plain and simple. Very Daryl. He snatched his hand back the second he realised what she was talking about. Carol was grinning at him, a tender look in her eyes. God damn that woman for being so observant. Though truly, they'd been in the same group for months and none of them ever noticed, so how observant could she really be? "Shut up."

"You're married?" Carol still had that grin on her face, and though her look was tender, there was a hint of sadness in her eyes. His girl wasn't with him. And while he hadn't fully accepted the fact she could be dead, he had accepted the fact that his chances of ever seeing her again were slim. Especially since it'd been so long.

"Worn ma ring whole time and you ain't never noticed?" Daryl shot back, more defensive than he'd like to have been. He didn't like being snappy with Carol, but, as anyone would have assumed, the topic was a touchy one.

"You and Merle were always off somewhere, or sitting miles away from us. Can't blame me for that," She replied, and to be fair, she wasn't exactly wrong. There was a pregnant pause, where Carol was trying to figure out what she should say. Could he even tell her? He didn't want no pity, but damn, talking about his girl, the memories? Talking to someone who wasn't Merle about her. Maybe it'd be nice. Or maybe not. "What happened to her?"

There was that silence again. The pause weighed heavy on both of them. Daryl took a deep breath and looked over at her. Fuck it. If there was anyone he could tell, anyone he could trust, it was Carol.

"Weren't nothin' bad. Didn't feel it then. Merle and me, we was goin' on 'nother huntin' trip. Ma girl only came sometimes. Weren't her thing. She was goin' to visit her ma, gave me this damn thang," He picked up a battery-powered video recorder from by his foot that Carol hadn't even seen. Yeah, maybe he was wrong about the whole observant thing. The corner of his lips twitched upwards as he opened it. "Said, 'just so you don't forget me'. I told her we'd only be gone two weeks," his fingers fiddled with the buttons, and he grew quiet, clicking onto one of the videos, but not playing yet. "Dead started risin' a week later. The ring and these dumb videos are all I have left right now."

Carol watched him as he talked, seeing the blank expression on his face warp into sadness, as he played with the video recorder, the way his eyes flickered over to his ring every now and again. He didn't think he'd been this vulnerable since he'd last seen his girl.

"She must have been really special to put up with someone like you," She teased, trying to make him a little more comfortable, nudging his shoulder. He smirked, finally looking away from the recorder.

"Yeah, she was," Daryl stated simply, before pressing play on the video.

"The hell you doin', woman?" Daryl's gruff voice sounded from behind the camera, as it spun around to reveal Daryl and a girl, maybe a year younger than him, with (H/C) loose and wild, as she danced around a kitchen. There was loud laughter behind the camera, Merle had been a dick when he found the recorder and kept filming them (he knew Daryl hated it). Lord knows he was thanking that asshole for filming it now. Merle said something in his southern drawl that Carol couldn't quite understand, but by the scowl that appeared on Daryl's face in the video, he clearly heard it. The girl beside him let out a chuckle and suddenly launched at Daryl, clinging to his arm as she bounced on her toes. Daryl lowered his glare to her, but Carol saw his eyes soften slightly. Merle spun the camera around to face him and made some raucous comment about christening the new house while he was away before the camera spun back around. It ended a second later, with Daryl swearing at Merle and using his hand to block the camera, and the girl let out a loud laugh.

Carol was smiling at the camera until she looked over at Daryl and saw a hardened look on his face. Damn those emotions of his.

"What was her name?" She whispered, scared if she spoke too loud, he'd crack.

"(Y/N)" were Daryl's final words, before he picked up the recorder, crossbow, his knife and his half skinned squirrel and moved into his tent, zipping it behind it.

His girl always knew what to do. Knew how to help. She was a leader, even if she liked to deny it. She'd know exactly what to do. Shane was a damn idiot, and Daryl knew she would have dealt with him already, rather than fucking about as Rick had. When Shane threw the barn doors open, letting all them damn walkers out, despite the whole groups' protests, he knew right there that his girl would have dealt with him. And when Sophia came trailing out, pale and cold, white-eyed, dirty with a bloody chunk missing from her shoulder, she would have known exactly what to do. But instead, he was the one catching Carol and watching as Rick put a bullet between her eyes. Daryl's girl would have known exactly what to do. But she wasn't there. As much as he wished she was. He was the one who comforted Carol and tried to help. But, equally, he was also the one who threw blame in her face and screamed at her. She didn't deserve that. No way in hell. But, he didn't know what to do. His girl would've.

"There ain't nothing out here but mosquitoes and ants," They'd only left Rick, Glenn and Maggie two hours ago, but Daryl was already starting to question his decision. He forgot how much his brother liked to run his mouth, and his hunger didn't help calm the situation much either.

"Patience, little brother. Sooner or later, a squirrel is bound to scurry across your path," Merle responded, stood over by the tree to have a piss.

"Even so, that ain't much food," Daryl kept his eyes trained on his surroundings. There'd been more than a few walkers sneaking up on them recently, and he was starting to get paranoid that it was the beginning of a herd.

"More than nothing," That asshole really have to choose now to go all quiet? All his damn brother did was talk.

"I'd have better luck going through one of them houses we passed back on the turnoff," Daryl observed, looking over in the direction of the turnoff as Merle zipped himself up and walked over. He had that shit-eating, condescending look on his face. Great.

"Is that what your new friends taught you? Hmm? How to loot for booty? You gotten real quiet since y'all left me on that dead infested rooftop in Atlanta. Them prison pussies soften you up?" Merle teased, looking over at his little brother with an amused look in his eyes. Daryl just snarled slightly, looking back in the direction of the street. "Oh, cmon now, can't be givin' ol' Merle the cold shoulder after all the shit we just went through."

"Man, fuck off," Daryl hissed back, glaring up at his brother. His side was throbbing with what he suspected was a broken rib, or at the very least bruised, after Merle's kicking and punching back in the arena. Merle narrowed his eyes in response, walking over and giving Daryl a light shove.

"What? Ya forget about how I took care of ya? Now ya spent some time with Officer Friendly and you're suddenly too good for ya brother?" He snapped, raising his eyebrows. Daryl huffed and straightened his back.

"Just lay off, Merle. There are walkers crawlin' 'round and ya runnin' ya mouth like a damn fool," he shot back, making a point to keep his voice low. Merle only let out one of his loud raucous laughs, causing Daryl to advance quickly.

"Easy, little brother. Ya lookin' like ya might pop a vein if ya keep gettin' pissed like that," Daryl didn't say anything, just stared back at him, the famous Dixon glare returning. "It's the Dixon's back together again, ain't it a good thang?"

"Not all the Dixons," The younger Dixon grumbled, pulling his crossbow up as a familiar growling filled the air, and a walker stumbled out from behind a tree. A quick pull of the trigger and the damn thing was on the floor, bolt between his eyes. Merle watched him for a second, watched the flash of anger and sadness in his eyes.

"Ya ever find 'er?" He asked quietly, as his brother walked over and pulled the bolt from the fuckers head. Daryl glanced up at him, holding his gaze for a minute before starting to walk again.

"Man, we've been at it for hours. Why don't we find a stream, try to look for some fish?"

"I think you're just trying to lead me back to the road, man. Get me over to that prison," Merle scoffed. Damn it. He knew his brother'd put up a fight but he didn't think he'd pick it up so quickly. Then again, his brother was an idiot, but he wasn't stupid.

"They got shelter. Food. A pot to piss in. Might not be a bad idea," Yeah, and the rest of his family. And his video recorder.

"If ya gonna try and lead me back to that prison, you could at least answer my damn question, baby brother," Merle stated, noticing how Daryl's shoulders tensed slightly. There was silence, apart from the occasional rustling of trees, which made the brothers look around, never letting their guard down despite the conversation.

"Naw. She was up in South Carolina before these bastards starting comin'. Knew I weren't gonna find her here. Doubt she came back," Was his response, but apparently, that was enough for Merle. For now at least.

"C'mon let's go hook some fish," And with that Merle was steaming ahead, leaving Daryl in place. He let out a sigh and spat on the ground before trailing after the elder Dixon.

But of course, they had to save someone else's asses, nearly getting themselves killed in the process. And of course, Merle wanted to rob this poor family. They had a baby for Christ's sake! "The shit you doing, pointing that thing at me?" Merle raged, once they got a good distance from the group they'd just rescued.

"They were scared, man," Daryl reasoned, narrowing his eyes for what felt like the millionth time.

"They were rude is what they were. Rude and they owed us a token of gratitude," God, if his girl were here, she would have knocked his teeth out by now. She loved Merle and cared about him, but they clashed heads more than he and Daryl did. And damn that was a high number.

"They didn't owe us nothing," he shot back, looking back in that direction, even though the red car the group had been in were long gone

"You helpin' people out of the goodness of your heart? Even though you might die doing it? Is that something your Sheriff Rick taught you?" Merle said with a cold laugh, interrupted halfway through with Daryl's comment of "There was a baby!". Merle couldn't help but think that his brother had gone soft. "Oh, otherwise you would have just left them to the biters, then"

"Man, I went back for you. You weren't there. I didn't cut off your hand, neither. You did that. Way before they locked you up on that roof. You asked for it!"

"You know-- you know what's funny to me? You and Sheriff Rick are like this now. Right?" Merle crossed his fingers in front of Daryl's face, only aggravating the hunter further. " I bet you a penny and a fiddle of gold that you never told him that we were planning on robbing that camp blind. I told you that that woman had made you soft. Hell, ya got married just ta make her happy. Dixons don't need no one but each other!"

"Ya leave ma girl out of this, ya hear? Besides, it didn't happen," Daryl growled, voice dangerously low to the point that even Merle knew he truly should drop his sister-in-law out of the discussion.

"Yeah, it didn't 'cause I wasn't there to help you."

"What, like when we were kids, huh? Who left who then?" Daryl hadn't really meant to say it. He hadn't. But once it was out, the air set on fire, and both brothers were seeing red.

"What? Huh? Is that why I lost my hand?"Merle retaliated, pointing and getting right into Daryl's face, knowing how much it got under his skin.

"You lost your hand 'cause you're a simpleminded piece of shit!" Daryl turned his back, moving to pick up his backpack from the floor when Merle lunged forward, gripping the fabric off his shoulders.

"Yeah? You don't know-!" A sharp tug, and a loud rip and Merle's words caught in his throat. Silence filled the air, as the raised and discoloured markings down Daryl's back presented themselves to the world. Some of them were from hunts, or from accidents in the apocalypse, but some, Merle recognised them too damn well from his own time spent with their daddy. Once Daryl had fully clocked what had just happened, he pulled the shirt back up as much as he could and slung his bag over the top. That was it. He'd had enough. " I- I didn't know he was-"

"Yeah, he did. He did the same to you. That's why ya left first," Daryl answered sharply, not turning back to look at him. Merle just shook his head.

"I had to, man. I would have killed him otherwise," Daryl only chuckled humourlessly, and set off in the opposite direction, only turning back when Merle added, "Where you going?"

"Back where I belong," Was Daryl's reply, not even noticing he'd started to spin his ring with his thumb at his side. Old habits.

"I can't go with you. I tried to kill that black bitch. Damn near killed the Chinese kid," Merle tried to reason, but Daryl could only scoff in response. Classic Merle.

"He's Korean," He stated simply.

"Whatever. Doesn't matter, man. I just can't go with you, "Merle pulled a face, and for a split second, Daryl felt guilty. But he was an asshole. If he decided to come, then so be it, but if he decided to stay behind, good riddance.

"You know, I may be the one walking away... but you're the one that's leaving- again."

"What's goin' on that brain baby brother?" Merle asked, leaning in the doorway to the cellblock, slightly alarmed to be sat quietly at the top of the stairway, where his sleeping bag was, spaced out. Normally, he'd be pacing or cleaning that stupid crossbow for the thousandth time. But no, he was dead still. Dead quiet. The others were out and about. Most of them were in the yard, clearing out the walkers that Axel had stupidly let in when he opened the gate. Michonne, Rick and Carl had gone out on a run to their home town for weapons against the governor fucker. And Daryl, Merle and Little Asskicker (who Daryl had found out had been named Judith, but Little Asskicker seemed more appropriate) had been left alone in the cellblock. Rick trusted Daryl enough to keep her safe from Merle.

"Ya really think she made me soft?" Daryl pondered out loud, holding Little Asskicker close to him, as he started rocking her slightly. Merle laughed, waving his metal attachment around dramatically.

"This place's 'bout to go crashin' to the ground, and you're thinkin' about your lady?"Merle wasn't a man of affection, Daryl knew that pretty well, but he also knew when he was deflecting. Merle talked about (Y/N) sure, but only briefly. Since the brothers and his girl got separated in the beginning, they both steered clear of long conversations about her. Daryl just stared Merle down, until he let out a huff, and took a few slow steps into the cellblock. "She made ya soft, ain't gonna lie ta ya. Even you can't deny that, little brother. Never said it was an entirely bad thing."

"She made me better. Never really know what she saw in me, but whatever it was, I'm glad she did," Daryl's lips twitched upwards, as he looked down at Little Asskicker. His girl would love her. She'd love Carl too. Hell, she would love everyone. She would've kept things calm.

"Look, I'm an old redneck asshole, but that girl o' yours is the best damn thing that ever happened to ya. Ya ever find her again, you don't let her go, hear me?" He didn't miss the commanding tone in Merle's voice and part of him wanted to laugh at it. Been a long time since he'd heard that tone. Daryl just nodded. "Ya still got that video recorder witcha?"

Daryl nodded, before jerking his head towards the little pile of stuff besides his sleeping bag. Merle climbed past him, careful not to knock the baby, and picked it up. He sat next to his brother, and for a second it was awkward. They hadn't been this close in years. Not like this. But when Merle opened up the camera and clicked on one of the videos, the awkwardness dissipated.

It took a second for the camera to come into focus, as the blazing Georgia sun reflected off the lens. Once it came into focus, Merle was once again filming the couple. Daryl and (Y/N) were stood in a little lake and both of them were just washing dirt and dried animal blood from their arms and legs, chatting too quietly for the camera to pick up. Merle mumbled something behind the camera about "being too fuckin' absorbed in their own world", when suddenly a laughter-filled scream tore through the peace, as Daryl sent a massive splash in (Y/N)'s direction. She was giggling but giving him a playful glare, the famous Dixon glare. He let out a loud laugh as she tried to push him into the water with little success, until he stepped back and lost his footing, pulling them both under the water. The camera shook as Merle let out a roar of a laugh, stumbling forward towards the water, as the pair came up, both sat on their asses in the shallow water. (Y/N) looked over to Merle, beaming with that smile that made Daryl's heartache, but flipped him the bird when she realised he was filming, shouting "asshole" at him. Daryl just chuckled and pulled her into him, no longer giving a shit about the camera, and kissed her, which they were both smiling into. Merle then said something childish like "horny kids" or something before the video ended, with Daryl and (Y/N)'s foreheads pressed together.

"She's something special ain't she?" Daryl said, through a voice that was thicker than he wished it to be, looking down at Little Asskicker with a sad smile.

"Hell yeah, she was."

Daryl didn't know how much more he could take. The prison had fallen, and they'd taken Beth. He swore he'd protect her. Swore to himself, swore to the memory of Hershel, swore to Maggie. And he still lost her. And when the group of assholes found him sat in the middle of the street, practically walker bait, he was starting to get desperate. He'd do almost anything at this point, he was so lost. His brother was gone now too. He couldn't even rely on that asshole. The one and only thing he'd been able to grab to remember his family was that fucking video recorder. But he'd found Rick, Carl, Michonne. And while he wished he could've found everyone, he was more than happy to have found the kid most of all. Though, he couldn't deny the anguish that filled him when he saw no sign of Little Asskicker and a sombre look on their faces when he asked I think it was safe to say that Rick was going off the deep end again. The man ripped a guys jugular out with his fucking teeth! After everything, Daryl honestly couldn't blame him, but last time Carl nearly lost who he was because of it. That couldn't happen again. Despite it all, they kept walking, and walking and walking, along the train tracks to this place Terminus. 'Sanctuary for all'. Somehow he found that hard to believe. But maybe he would be surprised. Maybe it would be a sanctuary. Maybe they could take a break for once. Yeah. As far as Daryl was concerned, it wasn't damn likely.

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space-girl-and-droids-art · 3 years ago

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Clone Wars: Stories of Light and Dark- Book Review

“Clone Wars: Stories of Light and Dark” Is an anthology of stories narrating some of the arcs of the clone wars from the perspective of the characters. It gives more details and depth to some episodes, as well as giving us information that makes us have a different view of the events.

This is not exactly a review, but mostly my reactions to reading the book. I do recommend it, if you loved the clone wars and want another perspective on some of the arcs this will be a good read. That said, this does contain spoilers for the clone wars.

#1 “Sharing the same Face” -Jason Fry (from the episode “Ambush”)

Okay this was once one of the most light-hearted episodes of the series and now I ended up crying. I did not expect an order 66 reference here. Every time Yoda addresses Dooku is painful. Seeing how Yoda perceives the clones is really heart-warming, but knowing how it all turns out in the end is really sad and during the whole text you are really aware of that. In the show you kind of forget about what’s going to happen for a while, but this text just keeps you thinking about it constantly. It was a good read, I loved it. I found it really interesting knowing Yoda approaches the clones the same way he approached his students at the temple, and knowing what his opinions on the clone army it was a good detail. Loved this one.

Did I care that much about this episode before? No. But watching it right after reading this made me cry for half an hour. (I am a really emotional person, so take this with a grain of salt.)

#2 “Dooku Captured”- Lou Anders (From the episodes “Dooku Captured” and “Gungan General”.

This was a funny read, and the fact that the events are narrated by Dooku Himself made it even more hilarious. It’s supposedly a holorecording Dooku was doing for Sidious, and you can tell by his words that he was so done. Poor Dooku deserves a meditation day after it. You can tell how annoyed he was by the whole situation and his perception of Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi. They really are bothering for the count. I’m surprised he didn’t retire after this event, man’s gotta be really tired. Also, when they were tied together, they just shared a braincell and most of the time, Dooku was the one carrying it. The love he had for Qui-Gon does not extend to rest of the lineage, clearly.

At first it was really slow, but after they get captured by the pirates it just gets funnier. Good story to read after the sadness the previous text gave me.

Also, the fact that Dooku canonically records himself venting to Sidious is hilarious to me. Like, can you imagine being Palpatine and receiving daily vlogs from your apprentice ranting and complaining about Anakin and Obi-Wan? Dude was tired, of course he would let Anakin decapitate him in the end.

#3 “Hostage Crisis”- Preeti Chhibber (from the episode “Hostage Crisis”)

For an Anidala shipper this is a must read, because you will know exactly what Anakin thinks of his wife and how he views Padmé. This text was more Anakin centric (I believe the next one is Padmé centric) and it was a delight. I haven’t read much in canon about stuff that involves Anakin’s feelings so this was really good.

The scene from the beginning of the episode? Is hotter when you read it, trust me. For a clearly SFW text, this was intense. I’m pretty sure I can guess all of Anakin’s kink only by what was implied in his thoughts. Is also really sweet to see how much she cares, but also know why everything went downhill at the end. Good retelling.

#4 “Pursuit of Peace”- Anne Ursu (from the episodes “Heroes on both sides” and “Pursuit of Peace”)

I really love Padmé Amidala. My favorite senator. If you have seen my review of Queen’s Peril you KNOW How much I love her, and even when this text was written by another author, I still got the same feeling about her. Padmé is amazing. This arc is one of my favorite of the Clone wars because it’s the arc that let you see that it wasn’t a black and white kind of situation, both sides were being played. An none of them were really worrying about their people, they were in it for the money. I love reading Padmé’s thoughts on the whole situation. Also, the way this story is written makes what went down with Padmé and Anakin in the third episode make more sense and more in character. She is a strong, good, and smart politician. But she is also motivated to see the light in the dark and preserve the light, it gave me major Qui-Gon from “Master and Apprentice” vibes. It did make me tear up a little, because when I finished it, I realized everything she did was for nothing. She was too kind in a galaxy already so corrupted.

Also, Palpatine stop calling her “my child” you disgusting sith lord, I know you are responsible for her death and so do you, so shut the f up. Padmé was doing everything right and she hasn’t done anything wrong in her life whatsoever.

“Just because there’s darkness in something does not mean you do not love it. You show it love, you show it light, and you hope it chooses the light”.

She was talking about the senate but you just KNOW she isn’t really talking about the senate.

This story re-telling broke me, just as the first one. I am not ready for the next one. Do I have to? Man, I really don’t want to go through Umbara again.

#5 “The Shadow of Umbara” -Yoon Ha Lee (from the episodes "Darkness on Umbara," "The General," "Plan of Dissent," and "Carnage of Krell”)

I was, indeed, not ready for it. It doesn’t really add much to the story… except pain. Rex’s pain, to be precise. Let my man mourn Hardcase :C I just wanted to give him a hug, him and all of the clones to be honest. Fives was as good as always, but re-reading his lines knowing what happens to him made me sad. I hate Pong Krell, get you dirty hands off my babies. I don’t think this re- telling made me sadder, but that’s only because it was just as painful as the episodes.

Dogma my beloved, you deserve everything.

I love how this arc develops Rex character and his attitude towards the war in general.

#6 “Bane’s Story”- Tom Angleberger (from the episodes “Deception”, “Friends and Enemies”, “The Box” and “Crisis on Naboo”.)

Is Cad Bane the Regina George of the Bounty Hunters?

The answer is yes. Yes, he is.

I wasn’t really excited to read about Cad Bane at first, I felt that everything that had to be said about the guy had already been stated in the show. He was just a mean bounty hunter in space. But this was actually pretty funny to read, specially because it’s narrated in first person from Bane’s perspective on what happened with Kenobi. And it’s hilarious.

He is basically re telling the events to Boba and Bossk while he is in jail again. During his story you can learn a few things about him as well, specially what his thoughts are in relation to some important topics. You would think he is only concerned about the money and blasting people, and you would be right. But he also does have an opinion on what’s happening on the galaxy at large, on the jedi, on Palpatine and Dooku. But those opinions don’t affect how he gets the job done. It was really interesting seeing him internally judging Kenobi for being a liar, and knowing something is wrong with the jedi order if they pulled that off. He knows everyone is being deceived, but doesn’t know how. That’s why he doesn’t care, and doesn’t get involved on anything unless you offer to pay him. Money moves him, but not the people who has it.

It was a good story, and I also liked to see how Bane respects Boba and sees him as the one that’s going to take his place eventually.

We know from the deleted episodes that Cad Bane was supposed to be killed by Boba Fett, but we haven’t seen that in canon yet. I really hope they answer what happened to Cad Bane in the current canon, I would love to see that in a comic, or in a book.

#7 “The lost nightsister”- Zoraida Cordova (from the episode “Bounty”)

I love Asajj Ventress for a million reasons and this story just made me love her even more. It’s the same story from the episodes but with an insight of what Ventress is thinking about. Which is unsurprisingly very depressing but the story itself turns out to be pretty uplifting.

It’s about her thoughts on what happened after the massacre of her sisters, her family, and how she deals with everything she had already lost. How lonely and worthless she feels. But during the course of the story, we see her reconnecting with who she is, and learning her value. Learning she is a powerful person, master or not.

It was also really sad to see how she compared herself to others. She was really sad and angry that nobody cared about what happened to her people, no one that cared about her. She saw how people wanted the girl in the box back and thought about how nobody would ever do the same for her and it was sad.

I also find very depressing that she couldn’t mourn her family.

But then she said this:

“What made her so special? What made her worth—No. She couldn’t think that way. This girl’s worth didn’t diminish her own. “

And like, I’m 100% rooting for her here.

Also, I love that once she realized the girl from the box was being smuggled to be essentially a child bride, she didn’t hesitate to scam the old creep. She may be an assassin, but during the course of this story you learn that she is disgusted by men who take advantage of female beings. I also love her internal monologue after the guy was bothering her in the cantina and how she just knows that if she can defend herself, she will do it with no hesitation.

Lovely story, I love knowing more about Ventress. Beautifully written.

#8"Dark Vengeance”-Rebecca Roanhorse (from the episodes "Brothers" and "Revenge")

It’s so on brand for Darth Maul to have his entire story be about Kenobi. It’s narrated by him, but directed towards you, like he is telling the reader a story. That in some stories could be like an awkward thing, but here it was well done. I love Maul and like, I could picture us having that conversation, well, me listening to him monologuing.

I really liked that he started telling the story from the events that happened on Naboo. You get to really see what happened from his perspective and understand why his hatred of Kenobi only grows over time.

Also, Darth Maul was like “I can excuse murder, but I draw the line at being rude”. Which is so morally wrong, but very fitting to his character. He is really upset at Kenobi for not caring about what happened to him. From what I gathered of the info that he let us know, he would probably like it more if Kenobi killed him instead of having to spend all those years in the garbage. Nobody cared for him enough to go and check up on what happened to him. That doesn’t excuse murder though.

The interactions he had with Kenobi let us know that it was not very jedi like the way he treated Maul, ignoring his rage and letting it consume him. Obi-wan just kept adding fuel to the fire because he was also really angry at Maul for the murder of Qui-Gon, not realizing that that would only make Maul be even angrier. And we know how that ended up for Satine Kenobi.

Final thoughts: Savage, I love you.

#9 "Almost a Jedi"-Sarah Beth Durst (from the episode "A Necessary Bond")

I thought this story was going to be from Ahsoka’s point of view. It was not.

I’m not mad at it though.

The story itself does focus on Ahsoka but it’s narrated by Katooni. It’s basically about how much she adores Ahsoka and wants to be like her, but also doubts herself a lot. She thinks she is not good enough to be a jedi. But her experiences both with Ahsoka and with Hondo Ohnaka makes her change her mind.

I want to say that I love the fact that it’s canon that she drew a poster of Ahsoka for her room because she really admired her that much it's so wholesome. It’s cute, and also let us see the perception the younglings had of Ahsoka.

Also, the bond between Hondo and Katooni is really wholesome. This also made me realize that this encounter with a young jedi is the reason he is immediately friendly with Ezra in Rebels. Ezra and Katooni do share similar personality traits sometimes.

Deep diving in Wookiepedia after reading this I found out that Hondo’s ship in Galaxy’s Edge is called “The Katooni” and now I’m sad thinking he was probably devastated when he learnt about Order 66 and what Vader did to the younglings. Great now I’m angsty about a chaotic evil space pirate.

I think it was confirmed by Dave Filoni that those kids are dead now. May the force be with them, they were good enough jedis.

#10 "Kenobi's Shadow"-Greg van Eekhout (from the episode "The Lawless”)

This is the re-telling of one of the saddest clone wars episodes. The episode just lets you think that everything’s going to be alright, that they are going to survive together, lets you hope that they take off just in time… and then it doesn’t happen. I’m still not over Satine’s death. And this made it even sadder. There were so many points their story could’ve gone differently, but their story was already at an end.

This is in third person but heavily focusing on Kenobi’s thoughts along the way. He really was close to turn to the dark side, but his love for Satine and his grief made him not surrender to it. But he felt an anger, a justified one, but an anger that I have never seen in a jedi other than Anakin Skywalker. And we all know what happens to him.

It was a good but sad reading. I won’t be reading this one again. It’s too much. I knew what was going to happen and it still hit me hard. I wish things would’ve gone differently for the both of them. I wonder if we will get flashbacks to this in the Kenobi show.

Also, I really need an Obi-Wan Kenobi and Satine book of their time on the run.

#11 "Bug"-E. Anne Convery (inspired by the episode "Massacre”)

I can’t talk openly about this story because it’s not actually featured on the clone wars. It’s a really good story, specially if you want to expand on the lore regarding Dathomir and the Nightsister in the new canon. It’s perfectly executed, and even when the story isn’t about any of the main characters it hooked me from start to finish. Definitely one of my favorite stories of the book and If I had to pick one story from this anthology to read again it would be this one.

It has more gruesome details than the others and the atmosphere is dark, and I loved it. I would read a whole Dathomirian Nightsister novel written by this author if it was in this exact same style. I really liked it a lot.

In summary, I really enjoyed reading this Anthology. I would really recommend it to anyone who is fond of the Clone Wars or the prequels era. Adults, Kids, Teens, Young adults. I think I would’ve enjoyed this book as a kid as well, and I enjoyed it a lot now in my early twenties. It contains a little bit of everything and that makes it a really complete anthology.

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homunculusalphonse · 4 years ago

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Sorry, I know you may be tried of this, I just wanted to comment on this:

I just saw a Su Critic hail atla and diss on Steven universe because:

“Aang didn’t kill the firelord, but he didn’t forgive him and was put in jail and azula deserved to be put in jail too because she was a monster”

“And supposedly Steven forgave the diamonds and they were just redeemed”

Yet they forget that in Steven Univsrse:

The Diamond were put to work in order to fix their mistakes and were made to give up the power they had over society and to destroy and dismantle the hierarchy and toxic system they had set up. Yes, Steven doesn’t kill them, but he doesn’t forgive them either.

At least Steven tried to addresses how the blame of all the world's problems didn’t relate to some single enemy that could be fought, rather it’s a complex systematic network beyond anyone's control.

This is a meta from another day, but even the Diamonds were under the pressure of conforming to the standard of their own society, it was when White was proven of not being perfect and when Steven broke the pedestal (literally and metaphorically) she was standing on when they were able to finally convince her!

You can disagree on this, but isn’t this much more nuanced and thematic than what atla gave us?

Hi, don’t apologize! I always want to ramble and talk about how crappy the su cr*t community is LMAO, so don’t be afraid to send more asks!!

Anyway... wow. That take is so bad FJKHDGHFKGHF

For one, while I’m wary of how Azula stans make excuses for her abusing Zuko, I hate it when ppl completely demonize her by calling her “crazy” and a “monster”. Azula was 14 and she was groomed by her own father. Though I guess it doesn’t help that ATLA still reinforces these ableist stereotypes in the show (and especially in the godawful comics they published).

Anyway, I’m honestly tired of ppl parroting “ATLA IS BETTER THAN YOUR STUPID FAVORITE SHOW, DEAL WITH IT” every single time. They don’t do that only with SU, but practically any other cartoon they’re not satisfied with. I mean yes, of course Zuko’s character arc is maybe one of the best out there, but ATLA is not the ultimate best cartoon model, really.

For instance, I give ATLA credit for giving us an eastern worldbuilding, but everything was still written by white people and, as far as I’ve read, ATLA incorrectly portrays many cultural aspects from eastern countries. For instance, I remember reading somewhere that the Agni Kai was portrayed as something violent in the show, whereas irl it’s supposed to be a much different and positive ritual (I can’t find the post rn but I’ll include it in the reblogs at some point). And let’s not forget the way the show treats Jet and Hama - two non-white victims of genocide - by either killing them off or villainizing(?) them; or both when it comes to Jet.

Second, it doesn’t actually treat its female characters right, like... Katara was done so dirty in the end, she was reduced to “the Avatar’s girl” and she was never given the chance to truly think through how she feels about Aang. Suki had some cool moments but in the end she didn’t have much relevance beyond Sokka. I could say the same for Yue and maybe even Mai.

Oh yeah, the canon ships in the show are just... wow. Very badly-written?? I think Sukka is the only good endgame relationship, because M/aiko was toxic and awful for both Mai and Zuko, and K/ataang has some very creepy mother-son undertones with Katara coddling Aang all the time. I mean, these ships had some potential? At least K/ataang had, because at the beginning of season 3, Mai was mostly treated like an obstacle to Zuko once he returns to the Fire Nation and realizes he doesn’t want that meaningless, futile life anymore.

But onto your argument, you’re absolutely correct!! Steven never forgave the Diamonds. We see it in the SU movie how they don’t really give a crap, they just want to appease to Steven and we see how uncomfortable he is with them. While I can kind of agree with some folks that the SU ending was a little rushed (at least onto White Diamond), I still appreciate the Crewniverse showing us the progress of Homeworld society: from an imperialistic command to a carefree, accepting society all across the universe - while still dealing with gems who don’t accept the new system (e.g. the other Lapises, Eyeball and Aquamarine).

And I also agree that SU dedicates to show the changes in the system while ATLA... didn’t really do it in the show (the comics do a really bad job at it btw, and I haven’t watched LOK either). But I wouldn’t say SU is objectively “better” than ATLA as a whole. Idk. I try not to compare the shows like that, lmao. Both SU and ATLA have huge strengths of their own, and it’s very unfair to reduce them - whether it’s in a positive light or a negative one.

#asks #atla critical #racism tw #long post #ranting #sorry for the long answer lmaoo #but thanks for sending me asks!#steven universe

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itsclydebitches · 4 years ago

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(1/2) Personally, I could never get into Geralt's relationship with Yennefer when I started reading the books. The first thing we learn about their relationship in The Last Wish, is that he broke up with her because he couldn't stand her possessiveness and the way she treated him. That was massive red flag on it's own already, but then I got to the scene in The Bounds of Reason where Geralt tells her that he doesn't care anymore if she forgives him for breaking up with her. And he's

I’ve finished up my work for the day so I’m going to break this down to pass the time lol. My journey with Yennefer of Vengerberg has basically been:

Hearing about her prior to getting into Witcher stuff and being legitimately excited to meet this sexy, badass sorceress that everyone is head over heels for.

Meeting her in The Witcher 3 and hating nearly every moment we spent together (with a few exceptions) because she is rude, self-centered, cares little for the boundaries of others (like frequently invading Geralt’s mind), and will destroy everyone and everything necessary to get what she wants. The fact that what she currently wants is Ciri’s safety doesn’t change how horrible her actions are.

Getting reassurance that CDPR butchered her characterization and believing it because when has an adaptation not messed something up? God knows that’s happened to many of my faves.

Reading The Last Wish for myself and going, “She’s not better here. She worse.”

Coming to the Realization™ that Sapkowski, as an author very interested in undermining fantasy tropes, must be deconstructing the concept of True Love/Love At First Sight. After all, we’re not actually supposed to believe that a woman who treats Geralt like Yen does, a man who is canonically so lonely he’s picking up bards on the side of the road, and the both of them being bound together by highly suspect magic is supposed to be representative of real, healthy, destined love. These two are incredibly dysfunctional together and the point is for them not to stay as a couple, demonstrating that neither the characters nor the reader can bank on tired structures (like Hot Male Protagonist meeting Hot Female Protagonist) as evidence of “true love.” Sexual attraction and a djinn wish does not a healthy relationship make.

The further, disappointing realization that this is not, in fact, the point Sapkowski is trying to make. Or if it somehow is he hasn’t done a good job of writing it.

Struggling with other aspects of the series, notably how many of the women are written/treated. Finding it difficult to get into the main story-line. Coming to the conclusion that, like Doyle, I massively prefer Sapkowski’s style in a short-story format.

Deciding to put the books on hold for a while and check out some other material. Maybe I’ll like Yen in the comics!

I do not like Yen in the comics. Neither does Vesemir.

I post a few times about this dislike and marvel at how often events are twisted to paint Yen as a victim. One moment stands out regarding Yen dumping you in the lake in Witcher 3. When I expressed discomfort that she would do this to Geralt and then “jokingly” threaten to kill him next, someone basically asked me, “Well, did you pick the dialogue option where you’re an asshole to her?” It was asked with such confidence that for a moment I floundered. Had I chosen something that justified such treatment? Yet this is the exchange:

“Yen... Told you already. I lost my memory.”

“And I’ve lost my patience.”

(Side note: Yen is fully aware of how much Geralt despises portals.)

I begin to realize that a lot of the fandom truly believes that “Expressing a fact” equals “Being an asshole” to Yen. That any disagreement is automatically asshole behavior. Which is how Yen herself views the world. As fans have pointed out – myself included – she has a habit of rejecting responsibility and convincing others she’s the victim in most situations (with the one exception I can think of being her admitting that she destroyed the sacred site in Skellige), whether we’re talking about her condemning Geralt for sexualizing her (ignoring that she orchestrated that situation) or likewise condemning him for leaving her (ignoring that her behavior is what drove him away). I find myself re-emphasizing to others that my issue is not with flawed characters, but rather how Sapkowski’s story and the fandom insist that Yen isn’t actually flawed in these ways.

Watching the Netflix adaptation and promising myself that I’m going to give Yen a clean slate. Let’s start over. I connect with her for the first few episodes and then everything falls apart once she starts blaming others for her own decisions, getting obsessed with a biological child in a world filled with adoptions, abandoning a woman to die because she dared to insult her, having to re-watch her taking over Geralt’s mind only this time with an orgy that’s super iffy in regards to consent… There’s a lot going on there.

My friend – who knew I disliked a character but didn’t know who/why because I didn’t want to bias her ahead of time – slams into my texts talking about how much she hates Yen too.

I make a few more posts expressing my personal discomfort with their relationship + how the fandom tends to erase her behavior for endless praise, rather than just acknowledging that they love the ship and Yen has done horrible things. I get a couple of anons (which I delete) about how I’m just a misogynistic – and now racist – asshole who can’t understand how badass she is.

I grapple with the fact that my primary ships are indeed Geralt/Jaskier and Geralt/Regis. Maybe I am drawn only to Hot White Guys and have internalized misogyny to work through? Then I remember the hundreds of other het/femslash ships I adore, the thousands of other badass women in media – including the Witcher – that I love and conclude that no, I just really don’t like relationships where parties are cruel/disrespectful/borderline abusive to one another. Hence why I criticized Netflix for taking an already wonderful relationship between Geralt and Jaskier and making Geralt insult him all the time/punch him.

More and more I find myself uncomfortable with fans taking scenes where Yen verbally accosts someone, assaults them, or otherwise does them dirty and talk seriously about how they aspire to be her. I experience an intense need to remind everyone that being a badass and standing up for yourself does not mean treating people the way Yen frequently treats others.

I read a lot about how many fans can’t get behind a Geralt/Triss pairing because of how Triss treated him in the past, even if she’s now improved. I completely agree. I wonder though why the same doesn’t seem to apply to Yen. I’m told I just need to read more of the books (which I’m honestly not eager to do) because she gets so much better later on. Don’t you care about character growth? When I respond, “Yes, but even if she does grow I’m not comfortable with that relationship because of all she’s done in the past – to say nothing of what she does in the future if we take the games as canon too.” That response does not go over well. So Triss’ past actions justify a reader’s discomfort with the relationship, but Yen’s past actions have to be forgiven? Witcher and RWBY are the only fandoms I’ve come across where women can commit truly heinous acts and the response is “Yas queen!” rather than, “Huh, that’s a cool antagonist.”

As I work through these differing opinions I’m constantly reminded that Yen is an excellent mother to Ciri and each time I wonder what bearing that has on how she treats Geralt.

I’m likewise reminded of all the Big and Important sacrifices Yen has made for her family. Those deserve acknowledgment! But it doesn’t change her everyday behavior. Even if Yen stopped pulling shit like mind control, torture necromancy, and scaring people to the point where they assume she’ll rain fire down on them if they disagree, she just doesn’t extend basic kindness/respect on a day-to-day basis. Some people love that in a character. I personally don’t. I find Yen to be a vain person who puts her own self-comfort over others’ lives just as often as she deigns to save them. Dandelion is just going to have to wait until she’s had a bath before his curse is lifted. Margarita will have to do without her help because Yen doesn’t want to get her clothes dirty:

“Mucking through ruins and sewers, hmm. I’d rather leave it to the expert.”

“Meaning you’d rather waltz in once the hard work’s done.”

I finally finish The Witcher 3 and find Yen tolerable from the boat onward, mostly because we don’t have to do much with her.

I start the first Witcher game, wondering how I’ll find her in the first two installments. Frankly, at this point I’m not terribly optimistic.

And every once in a blue moon, in a sea of post-Netflix Yen adoration, I see a post going, “Hey, ship what you ship but can we just acknowledge that this relationship isn’t the happy-go-lucky, super healthy, #goals pairing that most of the fandom wants to paint it as?” and I’m compelled to reblog :D

#hauntedcollectorapple #witcher #mymetas

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echodrops · 5 years ago

Text

Why You Should Be Shipping Shigaraki/Ochako

No, no, hang on a second--I see that side-eye you are throwing hard enough to ruin your peripheral vision. I feel the shade you’re casting like a thundercloud rolling in. But you didn’t read wrong. I meant what I said.

I’ve never made a secret of my love for rare pairs, but for once in my damn lonely shipper’s hellscape of a life I would love it if my favorite crack ship in a fandom had more than two fics (I’m NOT JOKING) to its name.

What can I do to correct this egregious oversight before the entire summer passes with nary a whisper of the most romantic ship since Juliet wherefore art thou’d Romeo?

Well, what else? I was forged in the fires of early 2000s’ fandom, and I know that desperate times call for desperate measures meticulously researched and extremely rose-tinted

Shipping Manifestos.

Fam, I am about to blow your minds, align your chakras, open your third eyes--because Shigaraki and Ochako is the most slept on ship in the entire BNHA fandom, and if you give me ten minutes like an hour (holy shit, this is long), I can prove it.

Disclaimer: @mistystarshine is the enabler who convinced me to write this but we were both enabled by @ohmytheon’s Reconfigure (on AO3) so you know who’s really responsible.

Spoilers to Chapter 231, watch out.

First off, I know what you’re thinking. Maybe you’re still reading from pure shock. Maybe you’re doubt-reading to get your daily fix of internet skepticism. Maybe you’re waiting for me to say these two characters are meant to be because she wears pink and his hair is blue. Maybe you’re already freaking out about age gaps but like that is what future fics and AUs are actually for!!!

I’m not telling you to give up your IzuOcha or Kacchako. I’m not gonna pry ShigaDabi out of your eager little villain stan hands. But if you’ve never considered multi-shipping, now is the time my friends, because I’m totally serious heartfelt here! I’ve got VALID reasons for shipping Shigako--ten of them, in fact:

1) Midoriya is taken for granted as Uraraka’s love interest--but Shigaraki is incredibly similar to him.

There are reams of meta on the parallels between Midoriya and Shigaraki, with plenty people noting how Horikoshi specifically set the two up as foils to examine similar character development despite their drastically different circumstances. Yet for all the meta pointing out that Shigaraki and Midoriya are basically the same character through a mirror darkly, I’ve never seen anyone bear that thought out to its logical conclusion: there are traits Uraraka admires in Midoriya that are extremely apparent in Shigaraki too.

Multiple times in the manga, Uraraka expresses admiration for Deku’s resolve and refusal to give up. His determination in the face of impossible odds and his sense of dedication to his cause are powerful motivating factors in Ochako’s storyline, and Deku’s behavior--his willingness to charge straight into danger and his unflinching pursuit of his goal to be #1--have basically become the standard to which Uraraka holds herself.

Her crush is literally founded on an appreciation for Midoriya’s drive, earnestness, and constant growth as a person.

But these are all traits that Shigaraki also explicitly possesses. Shigaraki’s unwavering resolve is so strong that even though everyone around him says dream is unattainable... they follow him anyway.

Ujiko flat out tells Shigaraki he’s chasing a pipe dream, but he’s willing to come along for the ride strictly because of how committed Shigaraki is to making that dream a reality. The strength of Tomura’s conviction alone persuaded a collection of the most volatile and difficult personalities in the manga to band together and become found family the most well-known anti-establishment organization in all of Japan.

Shigaraki never, even in the face of overwhelming threat, backs down from a challenge, and he approaches each impossible task with absolutely as much effort, ferocity, and refusal to quit as Deku. He is just as dedicated, just as much of a shounen protagonist main character, and just as willing to push himself above and beyond as Deku.

The traits that motivated Uraraka to become the character she is today, many of the exact same traits that formed her crush on Midoriya, are all there in Shigaraki. In another world, the person who inspired Uraraka to go “Plus Ultra” could be Tomura himself, and if 1) no sense of self-preservation, 2) ZERO CHILL, and 3) dogged obsession are what Uraraka finds attractive, Shigaraki clearly has 'em covered. Oh no, he’s meeting all my standards.

2) Being serious though, Ochako’s role in the plot would be vastly improved by more meaningful interactions with the antagonists, even if just in battle.

I’ve written before about how badly the writing of BNHA treats Ochako, and why her constantly being out-of-focus is a hallmark of the genre’s crippling inability to handle dynamic female characters, but it bears repeating: in her current position in the story, Uraraka’s character has minimal agency. She exists to fill the role of Deku’s love interest (at worst) and an emotional crutch (at best). Again, absolutely no hate on the IzuOcha ship--it’s clearly canon endgame and “wholesome” I guess is what they’re calling it nowadays. But the way IzuOcha’s being written in canon is actually the worst possible thing that could happen to Uraraka’s individual character, because Ochako’s crush on Deku has been given virtually no bearing on the story’s main plot and allows Horikoshi to consistently reduce Uraraka’s personal accomplishments to “inspirations from Deku” (in order to, likely, fulfill young male readers’ fantasy of having a girl fixated on them).

Is Uraraka about to do something cool in the manga? Wait for her comment about being motivated by Deku.

Does Uraraka actually get to see some action and get involved in a fight? Wait for someone to bring up her feelings for Deku.

Is Deku about to have a dramatic clash with the story’s villains to advance the main plotline? Wait for Ochako to entirely vanish (at worst) or get sidelined into a three panel clip where she’ll use the same martial art move she’s been using since like chapter 10 (at best).

If I have to read “Gunhead Martial Arts” one more fucking time... Give Ochako her OWN supermoves goddammit!!

The story of the comic itself continually pushes Ochako out of any position of relevance. She’s not one of UA’s strongest fighters (despite having a quirk that, if applied like ANY of the male characters, has incredible potential), she’s not given half the emotional depth or attention even side characters like Kirishima get, and her backstory lacks the development many of the male characters’ get (I’m looking at you, Todoroki).

As a ��good girl,” she isn’t allowed to get her hands dirty like Toga, she isn’t allowed to get as bloodied or ugly as any of the boys, and she can never be allowed to surpass the main male characters in coolness or plot relevance because girls can be “heroes” but they can’t be The Hero™. (I’m literally gagging, guys.)

Which is EXACTLY why a plot involving Shigaraki and Ochako--in ANY capacity, even just a flat out fight against each other!--would actually be a fan-fucking-tastic addition to BNHA.

Skip the token Toga vs. Ochako chick fight where they squabble over who loves Izuku more. Let Toga talk to Izuku as herself for once. Let Uraraka throw down with the League’s leader. At least once, Horikoshi? Just once?

Literally any form of plot that puts Shigaraki and Ochako into contact would mean moving Uraraka into a more central position within the manga’s plot, would boost her screen-time, increase the likelihood of her contributing to the story’s primary conflict, and would give her more to do and emotionally engage with than just repeating the same lines about Deku being amazing on an endless loop. There is untapped character development potential in spades here if Uraraka was given chance to genuinely interact with the other half of the story’s cast!

Give👏 Uraraka👏 something👏 meaningful👏 to do!👏

Putting the story’s foremost female character on out there on the frontlines with the manga’s actual main character antagonist would finally break her out of the mold she’s been forced into by genre stereotypes and set her on an even playing field with the male heroes at last.

A meaningful encounter with Shigaraki could be Ochako’s ticket to being treated respectfully by the story itself (and hell if giving underappreciated characters a real place in the world isn’t Tomura’s freakin’ calling card already).

3) Okay, I know the words “subverting expectations” leave a bad taste in everyone’s mouth nowadays, but there is a huge difference between “throwing inexplicable plot twists at the audience just for shock factor” and “averting stale cliches in an emotionally rewarding manner.” Sure, cliches do exist for a reason, but there are still many instances where actively avoiding a cliche plotline is a great choice. A shounen manga’s token love interest ending up with someone other than the hero--namely with a (reformed) villain--would be an interesting flip on the trite “hero gets the girl” script.

Look, we all know how it goes: Hero clashes with Bad Guy. They duke it out all over Kingdom Come. RIP like fifty square city blocks. The Hero wins, heads home triumphant, sweeps his Princess off her feet, and sails off into the hero rankings sunset. End of the same story we’ve seen a million times. Sometimes it’s done well and the audience is left satisfied. Other times, the heroine involved is reduced to the hero’s reward, less person than wish fulfillment. In either case, tying up a romantic subplot with a hero is the go-to way of resolving female characters’ storylines and, at this point, pretty much a given in manga, even when the romantic subplot is never given the development it deserves, leaving audiences bewildered at how and why the hook-up actually happened.

I’m not saying every comic should “subvert expectations” and cancel its romantic subplot between the hero and heroine, of course not. But I am saying that it would be pretty refreshing to see something else for once.

By virtue of their role, villains don’t usually “get the girl.” Even redeemed villains rarely end up in happy, healthy, well-written relationships. It’s not impossible but it is unlikely that a series’ designated female lead ever wavers in her attentions from the main hero to a new romantic target.

So it would be pretty cool if one did, if the moral of the story’s romantic subplot wasn’t just "token love interest completes painfully shoehorned romantic gestures.” A good romance with a redeemed ex-villain instead of a hero would take a lot more explanation. It would demand, by its very nature, more work on the author’s part to suspend disbelief. The characters would have to develop an entirely different rapport from the normal interactions between designated love interests, and, to a certain extent, strong character growth would be required in order for such a romance to even get started. There’s more moral complexity and conflict to a subplot like this, and a greater sensation of choice--if the heroine doesn’t have to end with the hero by the end of the story, well hey... That means she could end up with just about anyone. Whoa.

Even more so, in the specific case of Shigaraki, who has lived a life of misery and manipulation, the idea that he could come out on the other side, grow as a person, redeem himself, and eventually enter a healthy relationship with someone who isn’t going to hurt him is an idea I find deeply appealing. I think there are a lot of villain stans, myself included, who see parts of themselves in Shigaraki. If a character who has been so severely impacted by abuse can still heal and ultimately end up happy, to me, that’s a far more hopeful and heart-warming conclusion than the alternatives. I did warn you this manifesto would be rose-tinted, didn’t I?

I want storylines that prove that none of us are beyond saving. That people who make bad choices can still change. That romance isn’t a reward for playing the “right” role. That heroines have options. That there are still pleasant surprises to be found in romance plots.

4) But why Shigaraki and Ochako, in particular? It’s not like they have any remotely shared life experiences--

Oops. Friendly reminder: Ochako is the only major character in the manga besides the villains who is overtly described as, I quote, “poorer than poor.” Todoroki, Yaomomo, and Iida can all make it rain; Kaminari, Mina, and Jirou can afford stylish clothes; Kirishima can drop a stupid amount on night vision googles... Even Midoriya, whose father “works overseas,“ can afford plenty of All Might merchandise. One of the popular fandom theories for a while was that Ochako could be U.A.’s traitor specifically because of her desire to help her parents financially, and I think that most readers at this point can discern a clear divide in BNHA’s society: heroes are the “haves” and villains are the “have nots.” To be a hero in this story is to attend a prestigious school, have access to expensive support items, gear, insurance, fame and glory, etc.

Meanwhile, with the exception of All For One, to be a villain in BNHA’s story is to be marginalized, live in unfit conditions, lack access to basic safety and nutritional resources, and struggle to make ends meet. When ability to thrive in a hero-centric society is synonymous with being a good and worthwhile person, anyone who doesn’t just naturally excel in the hero-driven economy is treated as flawed at best and suspect at worst. Poor characters in the story are ignored, and, as demonstrated with people like Twice, left essentially to fend for themselves.

Uraraka’s status as lower income is mostly played for laughs. She’s still a privileged character in that she can attend U.A., receive hero items for free, has a safe place to live, etc. But it is important that the story acknowledges her family’s situation, because her financial status does set her apart from her classmates.

She is less privileged than the others. Being “the poor character” situates Uraraka in the interesting divide between those who couldn’t cope and chose to rebel against hero society instead, versus those who conformed to the hero system in an attempt to improve their situations. In different circumstances, if Uraraka’s family was just even the tiniest bit worse off, we might be seeing a very different character here, one who had to make some much harder choices to keep her family afloat.

Having been in the position of "going without,” Uraraka also has a unique understanding of the “real world” that many of her heroics classmates might lack. She understands what it is like to go hungry, to not be able to afford to keep up with the newest trends, to be constantly anxious about the future--to feel unsuccessful, overlooked, and under constant pressure to perform. As someone who wasn’t raised in the lap of luxury or even really a middle-class home, Uraraka has more insight into--and would likely have more empathy for--the plight of the downtrodden daily criminals of the BNHA world. Just based on her own life experiences, Ochako is more likely than her classmates to recognize how harsh reality can be, and understand the temptations that lead people to make terrible decisions.

This makes Ochako an especially interesting character in terms of her pro hero future. Would she be able to sympathize and reach out to struggling "villains” more effectively than others from her class, who lack her humble background? Would she be able to better see the big picture of BNHA’s society, and the way it actively creates villains from its marginalized populations? Would she be able to look at the League not just as criminals, but also as people who never stood a chance within the confines of a rigged social structure?

Uraraka’s background shifts her closer to the story’s villains than many of the other hero characters, and puts her in a unique place to both empathize and become motivated to change the flawed system that produced people like Shigaraki and the League in the first place.

5) Likewise, Uraraka’s background actually makes her more palatable to Shigaraki than other heroes. At least at the beginning of the comic, Uraraka isn’t shy about admitting that one of her reasons for becoming a hero is to help her parents financially. Ochako’s original motivation for heroism isn’t portrayed as nobly as others’ like Deku--Deku has no ulterior motives for being a hero; he just wants to save people and wouldn’t care about personally benefiting.

Instead, Ochako is presented as someone who (initially) sees heroism as a means to an end. It’s not that she doesn’t want to save people, but that she’s not doing so only for the intrinsic worth... the hefty paycheck that comes from heroism is a big draw.

Over time the manga has shown her shifting away from this (which actually makes her character less unique, unfortunately), but I’m sure it’s still a thought for her, and she’s definitely going to send paychecks to her parents in the future. At the end of the day, heroism is still going to be Uraraka’s ticket to a better lifestyle, even if she’s committed herself to it honestly by the time she leaves U.A.

But it’s this exact form of personal motivation that Shigaraki is much more likely to understand than the “goody-two-shoes” motivations of people like Deku. Multiple times in the comic Shigaraki has expressed confusion with society’s habit of clinging mindlessly to symbols, of their blind faith in the virtues of heroism, and their ability to simply overlook suffering because “surely a hero will do something about it.” Stain’s ideals about “true heroes” go straight past Shigaraki, who seems to hate heroes who are earnest (All Might, I’m talking about All Might) far more than those who are simply faking their way through for fame.

Shigaraki understands humans who are driven by personal gain. He respects the individual desires of people he cares about. Someone in the hero industry explicitly seeking tangible benefits would likely, to Shigaraki at least, come across as more genuine than someone who claims they have no ulterior motives, and a person who is blunt about their needs and grounded in the reality of BNHA’s world would likely be much more acceptable to Tomura than someone who spews trite lines about peace and justice.

Shigaraki’s feelings for heroes have been irreparably damaged by his conditioning from All For One, but there are certainly some heroes that he would find less loathsome than others. He will probably never understand Deku’s selflessness. All Might’s saccharine symbolism actively infuriates him. But a person who became a hero to put food on the table? To provide for her parents (maybe especially because it is her parents she’s trying to provide for)? That’s at least understandable. If the manga’s future does see Shigaraki redeemed, my thought is that the only type of heroes we’ll ever see him willingly interact with would still be heroes just like Ochako, with more “down to earth” personal motivations. Uraraka, your codename is “If I had to date a hero”...

6) While we’re talking about shared life experiences, there’s another very obvious similarity between Shigaraki and Ochako: neither one of them can touch things with all five fingers.

Cute/fridge horror observation: Shigaraki is even daintier about touching things than Uraraka is; Uraraka usually lifts just her pinkies, but Shigaraki frequently uses as few fingers as possible.

Yeah, yeah, they both have to be dainty and careful with everything they hold. It’d be cute to watch them eat together. They could mutually gripe about the annoyance of video game consoles not designed for four-finger use. More than that though, neither one of them can touch other human beings without the risk of causing death.

Uraraka, as a hero, has the more privileged quirk design (she can turn her quirk off, while Shigaraki can’t) and until recently, the comic was always very careful to portray Uraraka’s quirk in a way that no one was endangered by it. But dropping Zero Gravity into the hands of a villain for a single chapter reveals the truth: Uraraka’s quirk has just as much lethal potential as Shigaraki’s.

Like Shigaraki, Uraraka has to face the reality that her touch alone could jeopardize the safety of anyone she comes into contact with, in her daily life and in her hero work. Drop some debris without looking twice? Just crushed a civilian. Release your quirk without thinking? Now the villain you floated is paste on the sidewalk. Thought that it was safe to float away the building? Oops, you crushed someone still trapped inside. Yikes. In a one-on-one battle, Uraraka is actually at a disadvantage not because her quirk is weak, but the dead opposite--in an outdoor fight, she would have to actively work not to accidentally send people off into outer space.

Having an auto-activate touch quirk means that both Shigaraki and Ochako have to be conscious of every single thing they touch all the time. Both of their quirks require constant bodily awareness, and both come with the lurking knowledge that “My touch causes problems.” Even for Ochako, who would merely be a nuisance if she accidentally floated objects indoors, it’s easy to internalize frustration and negative associations with one’s own body. Every day, Ochako has to be careful with herself in a way that few of her peers do, another factor that sets her apart.

One of the story’s overarching themes is the idea of “self-acceptance” and what it even means to “accept yourself” in a world where (almost) every human being possesses a distinguishing feature, often built into their bodies at the expense of standard human functioning. For people with limited control over their quirks, who can’t choose when the effect activates, a quirk is a constant burden and facet of their identity that entirely re-shapes how they interact with the world. Both Shigaraki and Uraraka face the practicality of having burdensome, even lethal, auto-activate quirks that require constant self-awareness. This is a similarity that, of the major characters, only Shigaraki and Ochako possess so far. (Even other major characters with touch-based quirks like Overhaul appear to be able to choose when to activate their quirks).

The “funny” way Shigaraki and Ochako hold things seems like just a small similarity until you remember the amount of practice and frustration it must have taken to internalize a four-fingered touch. Until you remember that this similarity marks them both as very careful and self-conscious characters. Until you remember that Shigaraki’s got a one-touch instakill... but so does Uraraka Ochako.

7) Okay, similarities are cool and all, but you know what they say: opposites attract. And if we’re talking character motivation, there are no cleaner opposites in the entire series. Shigaraki and Ochako are actually even better emotional foils than Shigaraki and Deku, because Ochako’s central motivation is “Make as many people smile as possible” and Shigaraki’s is, literally, “Make it so no one can ever smile again.”

I know I ragged on it earlier, but now I’m going to use it to my full advantage: as the story evolved and characters grew, Ochako’s “true” motivation to become a hero revealed itself: she feels a deep, intrinsic happiness when witnessing the happiness of others. Her desire as a hero is to spread relief, the sense of security that allows people to go about their days smiling. She literally feels happiest when everyone around her is happy.

Even more so than Deku, this casts Uraraka as Shigaraki’s diametric opposite in the story, because Shigaraki’s entire pipe dream goal also hinges on the smiles of others--and how absolutely much he hates them. Shigaraki’s goal is total world destruction because he just resents the happiness of others that fucking much.

On the surface alone it’s more fascinating than the story will probably ever live up to: Ochako, the heroine who wants to spread smiles; Shigaraki, the villain who wants to destroy them. Even if we’re just talking canon, zero romance involved, that would still be an interesting conflict to explore. The story could cover a lot of deeper ground by drawing the comparison between these two characters more directly. It would definitely validate Uraraka being involved in more major plot events, at the very least.

BUT this was supposed to be about shipping, so of course I can’t leave it there, and leaving it there would only be half the story anyway, because nobody is born hating smiles. Everything we’ve seen of Shigaraki’s past so far indicates that he was a kid with a cute dog, a warm relationship with his sister, and an interest in heroes--i.e., a decent life that probably included his own fair share of smiles. Shigaraki’s hatred and resentment are direct products of the traumatic manipulation he suffered at AFO’s hands. He despises the idea that people around him can smile and act upbeat, even when they objectively know villains are lurking all around them. He is actually sick to his stomach at the idea of people blindly putting their faith in heroes, knowing what he does: that heroes often fail, that there are many people who desperately need to be rescued and are instead overlooked. The world failed Shimura Tenko and then had the nerve to keep on smiling without him.

Other people’s smiles represent nothing but the joy, security, love, and peace that Shigaraki Tomura hasn’t experienced since the day his quirk manifested. The sight of any living thing fills Shigaraki with rage because everything bright and beautiful, everything good and calm and kind and soft and warm, is everything that Shigaraki has lost and believes he will never, ever get to experience again.

Shigaraki doesn’t really hate the pure happy smiles of others; he hates the fact that the world has taken away every single thing he ever had to smile about.

It is my belief that Horikoshi is hinting at a redemption arc for Shigaraki, especially as we see the League become closer allies. But Shigaraki can’t be completely redeemed, can’t be persuaded to give up his world-destruction plan, until he can look at the smiles of others without scorn. Until the bright, upbeat attitudes of heroes other people no longer feel like a personal attack. Until he’s happy enough that the happiness of others no longer hurts. Until the weight is lifted.

And I can’t think of any character more obviously suited to helping lift an immense weight than Uraraka, the zero gravity hero who wants nothing more than to spread smiles.

8) Speaking of lifting weights... Kacchako is a popular ship stemming in large part from Bakugou’s refusal to treat Uraraka with kid gloves. He faces her head-on as a real opponent and views her like any other hero hopeful.

As I’ve said before, this is pretty much the most respectfully the series itself has ever treated Uraraka Ochako, and it caught a lot of attention because it was one of the rare occasions that a female pro hero-in-training was really treated as an equal to the male characters. Kacchako shippers had something awesome to work with.

But... You know who else treats women as equals? (Hell, you know who treats literally everyone as equals, from those with mutant quirks to trans people to those with severe mental health issues?) You can say what you want about Shigaraki’s habit of, you know, mass murder, but in terms of viewing others equally and respecting (okay, let’s be real, it’s probably closer to just ignoring) differences, Tomura is about as open-minded as BNHA characters come. The League is an equal opportunity employer.

Unlike actual hero characters, Shigaraki has never once suggested that Toga is incapable of keeping up with any of the male members of the League, and in fact has entrusted her with many of the League’s most dangerous and crucial missions. He explicitly has faith in her ability and skill.

Toga’s right there in the fight against Gigantomachia and the QLA, as much an equal member of the League as anyone else. In terms of gender equality, the villains seem to be light-years ahead of their hero counterparts, and Shigaraki in particular doesn’t discriminate, among his allies or his opponents either. He’s not a “spare the women and children” kind of guy; every hero and villain challenger is treated with equal violence (and equal snark), whether they’re male, female, a long-time pro or a student in training.

In whatever context--canon opponent, AU ally, or a future romantic interest--Shigaraki would take Ochako just as seriously as Bakugou did. If you like Kacchako because Bakugou doesn’t dismiss Uraraka, that same dynamic would be present in Shigako too.

9) And on the topic of Shigaraki and women... It doesn’t feel accidental that every single female character who ever had love for Shigaraki has been taken away from him. A distinct part of Shigaraki’s storyline is that all positive female role models have been systematically removed from his life. He lost his grandmother, a hero he could have looked up to; he lost his mother, who he now has no memory of; he lost the older sister he clearly held dear... All For One’s control over Tomura has always been total, but this particular detail feels especially insidious: was All For One’s spite for Nana so strong that he delighted in deliberately destroying every single relationship Tenko had with women connected to Nana’s legacy? (Or is AFO perhaps just a raging misogynist? Every single one of his known associates is male and he seemed to despise and mock Nana particularly hard...)

In any case, the point I’m trying to make here is that, even ruling love interests out, Shigaraki’s storyline would be enriched by forging a meaningful connection with a female character like Ochako. Acceptance--maybe even some grudging admiration--for a female hero? A fantastic opportunity to show just how different the “villains” are from the discriminatory society that produced them. Supporting friendship while he’s on the road to recovery? A+ way to diversify interactions between the male and female cast. Send a tough girl to Tartarus to question his motives? Nice chance for tense dialogue and some good old noire-esque foe yay. Hostage situation that takes a turn for the surprisingly cordial? Fun way to explore different dynamics and humanize the villains because hey, they treated the “damsel” to dinner shortbread cookies. My god, Shigaraki could even develop some positive sense of rivalry with a woman, for example! The possibilities are endless if you’re actually willing to give female characters a shot!

Being more serious, Tomura’s life has been dramatically marked by the loss of his female family members, and--at least from what we know so far--his entire youth was spent without the presence of reliable friendships, let alone any form of “love” that wasn’t disturbingly fake. Beyond his fragmented memories, he has no models for healthy relationships, romantic or otherwise.

Letting Shigaraki develop to the point that he could form a mutually positive relationship with a female hero character would be extremely cathartic for me as a reader. I don’t mean “rewarding redemption with a last-minute happy ending romance”--I mean actually getting the opportunity to watch Tomura rediscover what it means to be genuinely loved and realize he has the capacity to give love and be happy in return...

Reaching that level of mutual support and closeness--especially with a female pro hero--would be the biggest “FUCK YOU” that Shigaraki could give to All For One, short of, you know, actually killing him.

Shigaraki Tomura has a critical (and deliberate) lack of healthy connections to women. BNHA, coincidentally, has a criminally under-utilized female lead just twiddling her thumbs over here, waiting for a meaningful plotline to be thrown her way.

Sure, putting AFO in prison is cool and all, but have you considered... crushing his pride and legacy of evil by helping the boy he tortured for years learn to love again? I’m just sayin’!

Uraraka Ochako, snatching Shigaraki right the fuck out of AFO’s hands:

10) Basically what the whole thing boils down to is this: Shigaraki Tomura needs a hero.

Don’t mistake my meaning. A lot of “girl meets bad boy” plots end up amounting to “girl becomes emotionally responsible for fixing bad boy’s issues,” and that’s not what I’m gunning for--Shigaraki has to redeem himself because redemption is only meaningful when it stems from the character’s own inner desire to change; I’m not quite rose-tinted enough to buy into the Love Redeems trope myself. I’m definitely not advocating anyone dump Shigaraki Tomura as he is now into Uraraka Ochako’s lap and expect her to turn him from a beast to a beauty. It’s not an unrelated woman’s responsibility to fix a broken man.

But! From a reader’s perspective, I think we can agree: Shigaraki’s redemption cannot be complete until he learns to believe in real heroes. He doesn’t have to like them. He doesn’t have to support hero society. But he has to be able to look at real heroes like Izuku and Ochako and admit that they are doing what’s right--that society is a better place because they are here. Shigaraki’s path to recovery can’t even begin until he’s capable of at least acknowledging that the world has things worth saving in it.

If Horikoshi moves forward with a redemption arc for Shigaraki, it will probably be Deku who Detroit Smashes the message of truly noble heroes into Shigaraki’s head. That’s his job as the resident Warrior Therapist, I suppose. But you know... to me, it might be even more meaningful if Shigaraki’s hero--if the hand that reaches out to rescue him--isn’t The Hero’s™ but just a hero’s. We all know Deku is selfless and good to the core. As All Might’s perfect successor, he really has nothing to prove. It’s everyone else who is in question. It’s the whole rest of hero society that owes Shigaraki Tomura an explanation for the suffering of people like the League’s members. It’s everyone else who needs to prove they can do better--that in the future, there will be no bloody children left abandoned in back alleyways.

Uraraka Ochako’s conviction is to save people. As a female hero who hasn’t lived a privileged life, she’s uniquely situated to think about those who are most often overlooked. In a world where violence begets violence, where only those with strength and flash excel, what a powerful message it would send for the terrifying antagonist to effectively be rescued by someone the story itself has called “a frail girl.” At the end of the day, heroics isn’t supposed to be about mountain-destroying explosions and mach punches--heroics is supposed to be about heart, about reaching out a gentle helping hand, about spreading smiles to those who need them most.

Tomura’s faith in heroes has been brutally stripped from him, and every part of his conflict is tied up intimately with his misdirected hatred: it wasn’t actually heroes who isolated and hurt him--it was villains. In order to move forward, he will have to come to that horrible realization, deal with that means for himself and his place in the world, and recognize the truth: there are goodness and good people in the world. Selfless heroes, those who wouldn’t turn their backs on a crying child, do exist. There are people, even now, who would extend a kind hand to Shigaraki Tomura and do their best to bring a real smile to his face. Because that’s what’s really going on, after all.

Shimura Tenko is still waiting to be saved.

And I know just the person to do it.

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nautilusopus · 6 years ago

Note

sorry this is a lot but I enjoy your opinions. G, P, U, W, X, Z

G - Have you ever had an OTP? If so, do you remember your first one? Who was in it?

Nah. I’m aggressively boring and uninvested in general in most romances so I usually just go with whatever’s canon and call it a day.

The closest thing I got to ever shipping in the past was being mildly surprised that people saw Link and Zelda as an item in Twilight Princess because they don’t really talk much in that game (they have maybe two conversations? Three if we count any presumed dialogue they might’ve had during the last boss battle when they’re on a horse together). I wouldn’t say I’m actually invested in it one way or another though. Link didn’t really have much of a personality until Wind Waker came along.

P - Invent a random AU for any fandom (we always need more ideas).

FFXV AU where Noctis asks literally any questions at all about anything and interacts with the plot as an active participant in it instead of a copypasted emotional beat from FFX and thus doesn’t die at the end due to lazy writer caveat. (spoilers i guess)

I am so so so so tempted to write this and the urge has been growing stronger over the last few weeks. I imagine fans of XV wouldn’t be too thrilled I’m writing fanfic specifically because I hate everything about XV, but y’all keep circulating posts about how writing fanfic to fix canon is totally valid!!! so I fully expect everyone to walk the walk after talking the talk.

On another note, AU where Cloud never actually makes it to Midgar after Zack gets filled with lead, thus never meeting Tifa at and least screwing his head on semi-straight, and just wanders around in the wilderness as a weird amnesiac murderhobo in a perpetual fugue state. Hijinks ensue I guess.

Shit, I should write that.

And now I have 48 fics queued. Look at what you’ve done. Are you proud of yourself?

U - Three favorite characters from three different fandoms, and why they’re your favorites.

alright let’s get the obvious one out of the way

Cloud because I used to fucking despise him and over time he really grew on me after I was exposed to his genuinely moving character arc and narrative that actively trampled every expectation I had about what it would be. Dumb asshole that unabashedly loves his friends, which is something that you rarely if ever see in other protagonists of his mould which is why it infurates me as much as it does when people (Square or the fanbase, it’s annoying either way) try to downplay it. That was one of the things that made him unique and compelling in the first place and you’re actively discarding it? Fuck you.

It’s genuinely refreshing to see someone try as hard as they can and fail catastrophically in every possible respect, and then that’s just the result and he has to come terms with that pain as something shaping who he was instead of just learning a lesson and then getting over it. There are a lot of matter-of-fact moments like that with regards to loss and pain in VII but Cloud’s arc actually took one of said moments and made it extremely cathartic.

I have a lot of fukken feelings about Cloud, man. That character analysis essay is officially four years old and the ETA on it is “whenever I guess”.

Azula from ATLA. I mean, I adore basically everyone in that series so I don’t even know which one I’d call my favourite, but I do think I ought to highlight Azula since a lot of who she is kinda gets overlooked. She’s like a family-friendly Eva character.

It’s genuinely fascinating to watch her break down, and on a second rewatch you can sort of tell which beats fell into place where. Ironically, she considers Zuko the “favoured child”, and part of the reasons she utterly despises/loves/despises him as much as she does is because she tries to earn his approval in her own weird, sociopathic way. Then, when he inevitably bails, he not only rejects her, he goes and shacks up with even more people that consciously chose to love him, and for all her talent, after all her hard work, all she has is Ozai, who’s probably never loved anything in his life. The unfairness of it all.

The breakdown she has at the end isn’t even anything new, really. It’s just the first time other people get to see it.

Speaking of Eva, Shinji. DISCLAIMER: YES SHINJI MASTURBATED TO COMPLETION OVER ASUKA’S COMATOSE BODY IN A BLATANT DISPLAY OF NOT ONLY HIS GENERAL DISLIKE AND FEAR OF WOMEN BUT IN AN EXPRESSION OF HIS REFUSAL TO PROJECT AFFECTION ONTO PEOPLE BECAUSE PEOPLE CAN REJECT HIM, PREFERRING TO SEE ASUKA AS A PERSON-SHAPED OBJECT INSTEAD. THERE I HAVE ACKNOWLEDGED THE PROBLEMATIQUE ™ BIT NOW. CAN I LIKE THIS CHARACTER YET?

Shinji and Cloud have a lot of the same character arc, as I’ve mentioned probably more than a few times because I repeat myself a lot. Where Cloud is a more optimistic take on defining oneself on one’s own terms and as a result accepting that they can be someone worthy of love, Shinji’s side of that concept is waaaaaaaaaaay more cynical, in that Shinji kind of… doesn’t learn to do that in the end. Refuses to, in fact, to the point where it gets everyone killed. Also Kaworu is Zack if Zack actually had character development and if C//la/ck was actually canon. Where Cloud overcomes his fear of rejection by learning he is deserving of existence on his own merits, otherwise why would he have people that care about him in the first place, Shinji is crippled by it and spends most of the series screaming at anything that remotely resembles responsibility. For a guy that repeatedly tells himself “I mustn’t run away” his reaction to everything is almost exclusively to run away.

Now, I’m not necessarily implying that if things had gone worse, Cloud might have masturbated to completion over Tifa’s comatose body, but like… I’m just saying.

(Though Aeris and Tifa were admittedly a lot more stable than poor Asuka or Rei ever were, as low of a bar as that may be.)

In case it wasn’t obvious, I clearly have a Type. And that type is a maladjusted child soldier screaming VALIDATE MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE from the top of the lightpole they climbed up to avoid their feelings, and they all deserve a good hug and a firm shove down a flight of stairs or two, in either order.

W - A trope which you are virtually certain to hate in any fandom.

Love triangles. If I wanted to see a bunch of assholes do a bunch of petty bickering fueled by hormones and poor communication and pitting two people against one another for extremely asinine reasons, I’d lurk outside a high school.

X - A trope which you are almost certain to love in any fandom.

Apart from the aforementioned Type ™ I have, people getting overwhelmed by gestures of basic human decency and the implications of that.

Z - Just ramble about something fan-related, go go go! (Prompts optional but encouraged.)

God they did poor Luna so dirty. You could have replaced her with another fucking crystal or something and it would affect the plot about as much. Man, didn’t the selling point for FF used to be its rich, inventive storytelling?

Come the fuck on, Square, you had female characters figured out in fucking 1992. This isn’t hard.

#asks #neon genesis evangelion #forfdorfsorf #avatar #goddddd i need to write a vii eva crossover already #the number i does not count it is a crossover only in spirit #tofuthebold

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curiouscastarchive · 6 years ago

Text

01 || Sage & Leon; the First but Not the Last

the following is a head canon drabble about the first time Sage and Leon slept together. it’s under a read more because it’s long, not nsfw ; enjoy!

She watches him, sapphire hues a thousand miles away as Leon busies himself with the mundane task of cleaning up his kitchenette. The airstream is anything but five star accommodations, it’s certainly not a stay at the Ritz, but it’s cozy; and safe, it’s innards lined with iron and salt, making the thing demon and ghost proof. Smart really - but in the short time she’s known him Sage has been given no reason to doubt the Ramsey’s intelligence.

“You’re a real piece of work, you know that?” She spouts suddenly, sliding her beer off to the side, in turn crossing her arms one over another to rest against the cool surface of the table.

The elder hunters dark brows knit together, his frame half turning as he finishes off with his chore, wringing the rag out that he’s been using before tossing it to the side. “‘Scuze me?” He asks, making a point to turn all the way, giving the raven haired female his full attention while simultaneously crossing his arms over his own burly chest. The girls a fighter, that much Leon could tell from the moment he met her. Her brothers a little soft, too soft for their line of work if you ask him; but the duo has only been at it for three months, they can barely tell the difference between a revenant and a shifter. They’re kids; at least in a hunter’s mindset - despite both twins having just passed their twentieth birthday.

“You. You blow into our lives, turn everything upside down, get us to spill our guts, study our story inside out - and when it’s time for you to pony up - you wuss out!” Sage is shocked he’s so aloof, but then that’s been Leon’s M.O. from the second she’d encountered him at the Road House, him mumbling to another gruff looking character about something called a changeling; none sense - at least that was what the Lee girl had assumed when she’d first spoken to him. She’d been proven wrong though - and very quickly, so fast in fact her head could have spun like a top, subtlety was apparently lacking from a hunters repertoire. “Seriously, Z and don’t know anything about you other than that you hunt. It’s insane!”

“Right.” Leon utters, giving his head a shake as the quirk in his smile wavers. Sage has been on about his ‘story’ from the moment she shared her own; it’s a topic he doesn’t like to breach, unlike some people the older hunter doesn’t LIKE to put his life on display, doesn’t see the point. Rehashing old wounds aren’t going to make them ‘go away’ make him feel better. It’s only going to tear him up, remind him how useless he’d been; how naive to the world around him. Leon Ramsey doesn’t like to feel stupid, much less inadequate. His story might not be as graphic as some of the ones he’s heard, maybe not quite as gut wrenching - but it’s his story and it causes him untold counts of pain each and every time he things about Angie; why should he dredge up the past just to quell someone else’s curiosity? “We’re not having this conversation again.” He says as he turns, fetching himself a beer from the mini fridge.

“No! You don’t get to do that! I’ve spent more time with you in these last three months than I’ve spent with some of my blood relatives; I deserve to know something - anything.” Sage continues, prodding with her words. She doesn’t like the fact that Leon’s kept himself so closed off from her, especially not when she’s seen him just about every day in the past several weeks. Call her crazy, but the eldest Lee twin believes in building a connection, sharing and caring; all that bullshit. But she’s young - and fresh in the game, you can’t really blame her for not understanding just how dangerous it is to get attached in this life.

“Oh sweet heart I don’t have to tell you anything.” Leon snaps, slamming the butt of his bottle down so hard the glass threatens to crack. He’s done more than enough for this girl and her brother - offered them his time, knowledge and protection. In Leon’s mind he owes them nothing, and Sage is way over stepping her bounds if she thinks she’s going to demand any kind of answers out of him.

The girl’s eyes widen at the sound, her body jumping slightly - Sage hadn’t expected such a volatile response. Leon’s usually all jokes and smooth lines - anger is an emotion she has had yet to experience with the older hunter; and it looks like he’s about to let loose a shit storm of it on her. “Excuse me?”

“Just who the fuck do you think you are, Ms. Priss? ‘I blew into your life’ I’m sorry - but the way I remember it you were practically begging for answers back there, shit you might as well have been up on a soap box with a mega phone they way you were going on and on. ‘Oh - something attacked my Dad, this guy had creepy eyes, his teeth were weird - help me, help me!’ Christ you’re lucky you’re not in a padded room with all the shit you were spouting.” Leon isn’t a typically angry person - but when the switch gets flipped he’s apt to let loose, all the disgruntled feelings he’s kept buried or packed behind a dam suddenly flooding his mouth; a very appropriate case of verbal diarrhea. “I offered to help you and I have, believe me I can just as easily stop helping you.”

Sage is taken entirely aback, heat rising to her cheeks as she watches the raven haired male go off on her, his voice raising with venom with each and every syllable that passes through his teeth. Her own thin brows draw together, mouth agape as she attempts to get a word in edge wise - but is continually cut off by Leon’s sputtering.

“You think you’re the only hunters with some sob story, the only people who’ve ever suffered loss? News flash, honey. We don’t do this because it’s fun or exciting. I could name twenty hunters right now that have a story just like yours - some infinity worse. But that doesn’t matter. Loss is loss. Look you’re a fucked up puppy, I get it - we all are. But just because you’ve earned a member ship to this shit show of a club doesn’t mean you automatically get to know how everyone else got their card stamped. Some people don’t like to air their dirty laundry, life isn’t a god damn Jerry Springer episode.” Rage emirates from those usually warm chocolate hues, his form animated, gesturing here and there until he leans forward at the very end, both hands bracing his brawny form as he lowers himself to her level using the kitchenette table for support. “Here’s a tip. You wanna get along with people like us? Next time someone says ‘they don’t wanna talk about it’ don’t. PUSH.”

The space between them is minute, barely three inches - so close in fact Sage’s nostrils fill with the subtle hint of bergamot and spice that Leon douses himself with every morning. It’s a pleasant smell; one she can remember making her insides warm - for a reason she can’t quite place. The Lee’s own body trembles. She’s not used to having someone berate her in such a way and she can feel her cheeks turning rose coloured as the beat draws on. “You’re an asshole.” She says after a moment, lip glossed petals drawing together in a fine line.

“Takes one to know one.” Leon utters back easily, his own eyes narrowing slightly as if to underline his point. What happens next no one could have predicted, certainly neither the experienced hunter or the novice just beneath him.

Sage’s body jumps upward, enough for her delicate palms to grasp the collar of Leon’s deep grey v-neck. Her lips crash against his own, the tension surrounding them exploding into tiny fire sparks of passion. She’s always though the Ramsey was handsome, and his easy charm had always been a draw. She can’t quite explain why the argument has lead to this - but there’s nothing inside of her that tells her it’s wrong.

The kiss is unexpected, that much is putting it lightly. Leon had fully expected Sage to slap him, to storm out of his airstream, back to her mustang and out of his life entirely. Certainly that wasn’t his intention with his out burst; but neither was this. He doesn’t deny her though - Sage is a bombshell, a straight TEN if Leon had ever seen one and he’d be lying if he said he hadn’t felt the chemistry bubbling between them over the past few months.

It isn’t long before they clumsily shamble to what can be loosely described as Leon’s bedroom and from there it’s a flurry of wanton moans and flesh on flesh. The next morning the raven haired male will crack; explain is origin to the girl who by all rights should hate him for going off on her so unexpectedly. Sage will smile, crack some lame joke about his being a stubborn child and they’ll kiss again before the Lee twin receives a worried text from her brother effectively ending the complicated encounter. They’ll continue on like this for a long time, their relationship a labyrinth of emotions - with Sage vehemently denying she’d ever done the deed in the first place, to wit Leon will only prove her wrong yet again by seducing her in some way shape or form; and Sage will give in, almost every time.

#seven minutes your senior ⇢【 Sage Lee ✖ 】#i'm more like the hugh hefner of hunters ⇢【 Leon Ramsey ✖ 】#save #drabble tag tbd

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hgentertainment · 2 years ago

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Diversity in the 2000′s: A Joke

Representation within the early 2000′s was an absolute joke. For those of you who don’t know what I mean, let me explain.

In popular media studios and networks were grasping at every straw and chance to gain favor with audiences. “Look! We have a black character, we are so woke and unique!” Most of the time these black female characters were nothing more than a harmful stereotype. In fact, I’ve noticed you can cut and paste each character into a different show and almost nothing would change. They usually are there to be the best friend, the hype man to the main character.

Now, to give the 2000′s the benefit of the doubt, there are a few moderately good examples of black representation, Chyna in ANT Farm, Cyborg in Teen Titans, Virgil from Static Shock, and Raven from That’s So Raven are amazing examples. But what examples aren’t so good, or, who are some characters that had the potential to be amazing and were done so extremely dirty by the writing team?

Mercedes Jones

Glee

There was another character I was tempted to put on this list, but I didn’t even know his name until I had to look it up. Glee does not have a good track record with their black representation. Matt doesn’t get any dialogue for the entire series, and Jake Puckerman falls into the violent sleazeball stereotype really quickly. Unique was fine black representation, her sassiness though felt a little more as a dig on trans issues but that is another topic for another day. Even Santana, most everyone’s favorite character, was categorized as the angry Latina from the ghetto.

My biggest problems lied with Mercedes. Within the first season they put her in these god awful, ugly outfits. Then, they continue to giving her the stereotypical angry black girl lines like “I will cut you” and “oh hell to the no.” Then, she has the audacity in the first season to say that Rachel Berry is a better singer when it is so obvious to everyone that Mercedes Jones was the powerhouse voalist. As time progresses, the writers slowly do away with these stereotypes and make Mercedes a wonderful character, and one of the best within the Glee universe. Still, they consistently only give her the Black musicians, as if that is all the is there for. They restrict her vocals to RnB and HipHop, and when it’s not that it’s artists like Whitney Houston or Stevie Wonder, which feels extremely racially motivated.

They go in quite a bit with her relationship with food, which adds to the ‘black women are big’ stereotype.

Mercedes Jones and Amber Riley’s talent deserved so much more than what the writers of Glee ever gave her.

LeShawna

Total Drama Series

Just like Mercedes, you ask anyone who’s ever watched Total Drama who their favorite character is and it will no doubt be LeShawna. She was driven, focused, and the character that absolutely deserved to win. Not to mention she was a friend to everyone. Now, all of these are very good character traits to have and what make her so beloved. Yet, she is so overtly the angry ‘hood’ black stereotype. That’s the biggest shame of all because when you take away her consistent usage of “white girl/boy” and getting called a “ghetto rap star wannabe” she is an amazing character.

Within the canon, LeShawna is the first person people come to for a shoulder to cry on, and she is the first character that will come to their line of defense. Her being loved by many doesn’t erase the fact that she is based off and presented as such a harmful loud, black woman stereotype. Harold even makes a joke about her being “big and loud” within the first episode!

The writers tried to axe this part of her personality, still giving her a blaccent and not changing how she speaks too much, but they give her such awful personality traits. She would never have betrayed her friends for a trip to the spa, I’m just saying.

Ivy Wentz

Good Luck Charlie

Ivy, oh Ivy, I’m so sorry for everything this costume team put you in. Ivy is a key example of the Black Friend Forever trope. For a majority of the series, Ivy does nothing more than answer every time Teddy barks for her attention. One of the first things that caught my eye was how she said she never got good grades, which is such a harmful stereotype that black women are stupid. In another episode she has an addiction to chocolate. Once more this is an example of the ‘big black woman stereotype’.

When Ivy is not just being Teddy’s lapdog, she is consistently yelling and violent. There’s a scene where she pushes Teddy’s ex-boyfriend Spencer against the lockers and starts screaming at him for information. There were episodes where we got a glimpse into her family life, and they gave this character a sense of normalcy when the spotlight was on her. You have to infer a lot about her personality and her relationship with her parents, though, where it is easily spelled out for Teddy.

Ivy had potential to be a great supporting character if she had more moments to herself and didn’t show up only when a joke was needed.

Hazel Aden

Degrassi

Oh boy. This one is almost infamous, isn’t it? Hazel is one of the most universally hated Degrassi characters and I both understand yet don’t understand why that is. She was only used to be Paige’s little minion. While Hazel had no overtly racist stereotypes attached to her, she was extremely underused. Her relationship with Jimmy Brooks (who is a tad problematic in his own right) is underdeveloped and I felt nothing when it was over.

The show had so many opportunities to let Hazel shine, especially after Jimmy got shot. Instead, they focused on how she was there to help Paige, or Jimmy. She was like their very own Manic Pixie Dream Girl. There were a few times within the show where Hazel told Paige off for being a selfish bitch, and those scenes felt cathartic. As the character who has had to deal with the brunt of all her behavior it felt good to have her pop off in the way that she did.

Degrassi is another show that has issues with black representation. The Van Zandts are probably the only okay example within the show, and I’d argue the same for Mike Dallas as well. He gets better. But Hazel was the first, and her big storyline in her 6 seasons on the show is that she was an Islamophobe? Yeah. Big flop.

There are a lot more examples than just these four, but these four are the ones that have always rubbed me the wrong way. All of these characters had such potential to be the best in their series, if they weren’t already. I would have much rather watched an entire season of Mercedes Jones in LA than whatever Rachel Berry was doing in New York.

#hanna says things #tv #degrassi #good luck charlie #disney #glee #total drama #total drama island #tdi

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salarta · 7 years ago

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Why Havok should NOT be involved with Polaris

It’s time I made a post about a very important topic: why Polaris should not be interacting with Havok at all right now, especially not in any kind of romantic sense.

Before I go into detail, I’ll just say: I obviously have no creative control over what companies do. I have no control over what people tell companies that they want to see. I’m not the sole arbiter of what can and can’t be done with Polaris. And frankly, no one person should fit that bill. It limits options.

However, I know, for a fact, that shoving Havok into things Polaris is doing will absolutely ruin her. No amount of promotion for her on Gifted, or with a cover for X-Men Blue, or anything else, is going to matter if it all gets funneled into putting Havok on a pedestal and establishing Havok as “better” than her.

The history I’m about to describe explains all of this, and why I can be so absolutely certain Havok is terrible for her.

After the paragraphs above, I’m going to start in the last place you expect: good beginnings. You see, when Polaris was created, she was the more feminist alternative of the team.

Jean Grey was more “traditional” due to being made in 1963, while Polaris was made in 1968, right as feminism was rising and shortly before the Equal Rights Amendment. Lorna represented women standing for themselves and exhibiting independence. We had the potential for Polaris and Havok to have a relationship as equals.

It all came crashing down pretty quickly as soon as people at Marvel decided to make Lorna and Havok exclusive.

What are you seeing here? As explained by other, more well-read people, Uncanny X-Men #127 - released in 1979 (correction: I’ve been informed this was a new story added to Classic X-Men #33 in 1989, which was a reprint of Uncanny X-Men #127 plus this story) - serves as an explanation behind why Polaris and Havok left the X-Men. The explanation? Havok keeps imagining horrific ways he and Lorna could die. How does he express that?

By blasting the shit out of some rocks and yelling at Lorna with alternating rage and mania, with extremely possessive language. Havok doesn’t care what Lorna wants, what Lorna needs, it’s all about him. He’s afraid of the danger and prizes his life above the common good, so when he decides to ditch the X-Men, Lorna “has” to ditch the X-Men too.

Polaris as introduced, and not exclusive to Havok, was a firecracker who didn’t hold back her tongue. But now? Now, she’s perfectly pliant and submissive. Her feminist backbone and independence is completely missing.

I know what some of you are thinking. That’s just one depiction. That’s one awful story. Hold on to your butts. There’s more.

Here’s Lorna Dane in Uncanny X-Men #219. She’s cowering behind a rock, absolutely terrified that Sabretooth is after her. She’s so afraid of the big bad Sabretooth, in fact, that she’s thinking about how badly she wants her savior Alex Summers to “kiss the bogeyman away.” Uncanny X-Men #219 came out in 1987. From 1968 to 1987, Lorna went from badass feminist woman, to passive and submissive lover, to complete infantilization.

How did that happen? With occasional appearances like this.

In X-Men #97, published in 1976, we see Lorna supposedly happy to be a doting would-be housewife out in the country, taking care of the housework and waiting on “her man” to come back. She’s completely out of anything X-Men or mutant related, and she talks him up like he’s her whole world.

In Incredible Hulk #150, 1972, a biker gang harasses her, and Havok rescues the “damsel in distress.”

Another example:

This is from a What If? story from 1981. It’s not 616 canon, but it still greatly affected perceptions of Lorna and potential stories for her. In this story, Lorna sacrifices herself for a plan that (if I remember correctly) is devised by the Summers brothers - both Cyclops and Havok. Her dying cry is to say Havok’s name, establishing the idea that even in death he’s all that really matters to her.

These depictions built up a toxic pattern where she became exclusively dependent on Havok to define her as having any value whatsoever - and that she had to be increasingly pathetic to demonstrate Havok’s importance.

After this, Lorna got a series of additional poor treatment where other characters besides Havok (e.g. Storm, Zaladane) were used to tear her down. Havok isn’t the only character that benefited from stories that treated Lorna poorly. This post exists because he’s the most notorious and persistent case. He’s the only character who continues to benefit from this history and continues to hold Lorna back to this day. It was very important for me to acknowledge other issues exist in the gaps and why the focus here is on Havok before I move into the next phase: what happened after Claremont, after the 70s and 80s.

Or to put it another way, it’s time to get into X-Factor! Great! Right?

R.... right?

Oh hell.

To make a long story short, when Lorna is finally a) in control of her own body, b) given her actual power set back, and c) not being written by someone (read: Claremont) who gives her a power that’s literally about how her very existence makes everyone hate her and breeds hatred in general, we’re still left with two decades of “Lorna exists only for Havok” garbage as her be-all and end-all.

Now, to be fair, Peter David did make crucial baby steps to fixing things for Lorna, and the short arc be DeMatteis is excellent. On the other hand, this.

tl;dr Wolfsbane is implanted with a psychic bond that makes her crazy obsessive for Havok.

So, going into X-Factor, there’s acknowledgment that Polaris and Havok have been linked as a couple way too much over the past two decades. Havok gets Rahne as someone obsessively lovesick for him in a major and consistent fashion, to the point where she will even threaten and attack Polaris out of jealousy. What does Lorna get?

Nothing.

Lorna has no one. The closest she gets is Random for like an issue. Havok, as leader of X-Factor, gets two women jonesing for him on his team: Polaris and Wolfsbane.

See, this is the way things go. Havok gets romance options. He had Goblin Queen during the Claremont era, Wolfsbane here, Wasp in Uncanny Avengers recently, and I’m sure many more. Lorna’s only ever really had Havok. The obvious reason for that? She’s seen as an extension of him. She’s seen as a character who literally can’t figure out what to do with herself without him.

Oh, you thought I was exaggerating? How cute.

At one point, Havok “died.” He disappeared to the Mutant X alternate universe, but people thought he died. With his apparent death, writers had no idea what to do with Polaris. Havok being her entire world and only reason for being was so firmly entrenched that in efforts to find a story for her, they made her obsess over his goddamn clothes and costume like a hoarder for his specific brand of man funk.

No, I wasn’t kidding. Marvel really went there. They decided Lorna should be so “committed” to Havok after his “death” that she’d treat his costume like the one true holy cross.

We’re seriously not even done yet. There’s still fucking more.

Eventually, writers started to remember that she had connections to Magneto decades ago and thought to actually explore those connections again. I’m talking about Genosha. They finally gave her a story that wasn’t about how great and glorious and shiny golden boy Havok supposedly is.

Until they tried to force it back into being a story about how great and glorious and shiny of a golden boy Havok supposedly is.

Out of nowhere, her motives for being on Genosha shifted from finding her place in the world and becoming her own woman, to getting involved in Genosha exclusively for Havok’s sake. Whether it’s “What would Alex want me to do?” (WWAD for short) or doing things there only to try to bring him back, Marvel tried to turn her into a female proxy/adherent for Havok’s will. In his absence. Due to presumed death.

When this junk wasn’t being done, for a good 5-6 years, Lorna actually got to develop her own interests and beliefs. She experienced things unique to her, like surviving the Genoshan genocide and dealing with that trauma.

No, we’re still not done. After the genocide and trauma, after Havok returned and she had a big bridezilla moment from Havok leaving her at the altar, after losing her powers on M-Day and having an identity crisis, and after her time as Pestilence for Apocalypse, Marvel ultimately decided they should be on a path to romance again.

Here’s how they decided to kick off the attempt.

Start of Uncanny X-Men #475? She’s independent. She’s touring the world. She’s dealing with a direct personal threat with a promising potential story arc that could have easily spanned multiple issues.

A few pages in? She’s “rescued” by Havok and crying as she insists she’s some kind of dangerous monster who deserves to be in prison. For what, I have no goddamn clue. If it’s for her time as Pestilence, she had no control over her actions. If it something after Pestilence, we never saw it.

We’re not told what Lorna supposedly did wrong - because in Marvel’s eyes, whatever the hell happened to her doesn’t matter. What matters is that big strong golden boy Havok gets to look like her savior as he consoles her for some made up crime that for all we know amounts to having given someone a sliver. Oh, and she made sure to have makeup on for his entirely unexpected arrival for maximum arm candy hotness.

She then joins the Starjammers to be on Havok’s team, just like she was on Havok’s team for X-Factor before that, just like she left the X-Men to go out in the middle of nowhere and gush about getting to clean his dirty underwear before that.

I know you’ve been patient, but no. It gets worse. Keep in mind, this happened between 2007 and 2011. We’re not talking about decade ago anymore. We’re talking about recent events.

Polaris gets captured with the rest of the Starjammers and gets tortured. We get zero insight into her trauma and pain, her thoughts, her ordeal. We get Havok sulking in his manpain about getting her in the situation, but all we get of Lorna’s POV is a bunch of sleep and getting knocked out with a punch to the face.

There is so, so much that could’ve been explored with Lorna in her own right even here. The Genoshan massacre immediately comes to mind. But, no. That would acknowledge that she has worth and character development outside Havok. Can’t have that.

During their time in space, toward the end, Polaris actually does get rare moments with Crystal and Luna. In these moments, she gets to show some of her actual personality.

With Havok? We get this.

A depressed, emotionally broken mess.

With other characters, Lorna is playful, witty, full of life. With Havok, she’s a sad mess. Because in those scenes, her purpose is to enhance Havok, not be her own character with her own thoughts and feelings. Her sadness in those scenes is to support Havok’s sadness by making her worse so he can “comfort” her.

And then they get back home, and Polaris follows Havok to X-Factor, because of course.

Throughout this massive post, I’ve guided anyone still reading through a chronology of how awful Havok has been for Polaris. You might still think “Those were terrible stories, yeah, but things can be better in the future.” Here’s some visuals. They serve a purpose. I’ll explain below them.

These pictures are just a small sample of covers and general art. In some, body language is possessive. Havok has an arm over Lorna’s shoulder, or she’s leaning in a cheesecake pose, establishing his authority over her. In others, Lorna is very close, but slightly behind him - demonstrating that she’s in his shadow and he takes priority.

A lot of people disregard covers and details like this, and think it’s all nitpicking, but covers actually send messages. The message here is that Polaris should be seen as a character primarily in Havok’s shadow.

Are there other covers where Lorna is in a better position? Of course. But covers like the ones shown here are more common. And that’s the point. They represent the prevailing attitude toward Polaris that Havok is more important than her, and her unique identity should be subsumed in favor of boosting his prestige.

When they’re together, Havok comes first, she comes second if at all.

And as you have seen in aaaaall the examples I’ve given here, history keeps repeating. Every time Havok gets anywhere near Lorna, everything goes to shit fast. Anything she has to offer gets utterly demolished and thrown away.

THIS is why Havok should not keep getting shoehorned into everything Polaris is doing right now. He’ll ruin her. It’s guaranteed.

There’s a chance that enough time kept apart, with Polaris getting to establish who she is in her own right, could eventually lead to their relationship being a good thing for once. But we’re a long ways off from that. The relationship between Polaris and Havok contains decades of toxicity. You can’t wipe that slate clean with five years apart - and we know this because five years apart wasn’t enough time when they tried it in the 00s, either. It didn’t prevent how horribly she was treated to get her into space and make her part of the Starjammers.

And even as they’ve been apart as a couple, Marvel won’t let Polaris do anything without him popping up. Havok was there for reuniting with her father, for her origin story, as cameos on All-New X-Factor, and recently for her “big return” on X-Men Blue (which put far more effort into promoting Havok than it put into Lorna).

Even when they’re not a couple, Marvel is so wedded to the idea that Lorna’s identity should be all about Havok that they keep shoving him into her stories. As if she needs his permission before she’s allowed to have any kind of character development.

While Marvel excluded her from Uncanny Avengers and Axis while Havok was on them without her, and put Havok on an X-Men anniversary amalgam cover with 4 of the O5 but didn’t put Lorna on any of them.

Compared to Lorna, Havok has been given an obscenely high pedestal and infinite opportunities. Lorna’s had neither. She didn’t get her origin story told or get to lead a team of her own for over 40 years in part because of Havok. It’s time she got respect in her own right for her own merits and potential. She won’t get that with Havok around.

So when you see me rage online about Havok horning in on a story she’s in, or say I’ll drop The Gifted if he ever appears on the show, now you know why. I don’t trust anyone - not Cullen Bunn, not Neil Gaiman, not anyone - to write Polaris and Havok interacting right now. The track record shows that no matter how good they are or what their intent might be, it’ll ruin things for Lorna.

As a Polaris fan, I want the best for her. Not the worst.

#polaris #lorna dane #havok #alex summers #x-men #marvel #problems

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god-hunter · 7 years ago

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Ultimates 2 #100

Whoa whoa whoa. What happened to Issue #10?

Well friends, Marvel has finally gone back to their original numbering. So when you combine every issue of the Ultimate Universe Ultimates books, as well as the 616 Universe issues of Ultimates... it’s very convenient for Al Ewing that it worked out this way. You could say that Ultimates 2 #9 was really Issue #99.

Either way, this is the end of this volume, and also a fresh start for Ultimates... wherever they go from here.

And yes, if you couldn’t tell, that is Absolutely the original Ultimate Universe version of Captain America, Ant Man and I believe Iron Man onlooking at the 616 Ultimates.

This book... ::sighs:: It went in weird places. But Ewing definitely had a bigger vision of bringing the Ultimate Universe back. And, in this issue he finally did it.

I don’t know in how much detail I’m gonna go with this issue, because I’ve truly lost all fucks. But since it’s the last one and that Avengers v6 seems to tie-in to this in the long run, we might as well go through it.

So here goes. The end of Ultimates 2! The return of the original numbering!!

[Some Spoilers]

Galactus stands amidst nothingness with his Eternity Watch. [The one he just formed like.. 2 issues ago...]

Narrations remind us that Eternity has been consumed by the First Firmament, so they’ve been forced to evacuate “...to the outside of all things.”

It seems that there’s a Prime Earth and a Counter Earth now. [That’s what The Maker and High Evolutionary have created.

Galactus thinks they only have one hope. His heralds. His... Ultimates!

We cut to our actual team, who have been teleported from space to this Counter-Earth Laboratory. [Which is totally non-canon, btw. Unless you mean to tell me, that after this moment, they were brought right back to space, and then the events of taking care of Hydra Cap occurred.]

So... The Maker is at the Lab with the Ultimate Hulk, Cap, Giant Man and 2 others. He immediately sics them on our Ultimates.

We get to see America fight Captain America, and it’s so rushed that it doesn’t hold any wait. I really don’t understand the motive other than ‘you shouldn’t exist.’ [While in the Original Ultimate heroes’ perspective, I absolutely feel like they deserve a second chance at life here, and if the Maker provided that for them, then so be it.]

Hank Pym has an awesome moment, where he remembers dying during Secret Wars. Then Carol Danvers decks him.

“...Who exactly are you people?” Ultimate Cap asks. When America refers to her team as the “Paramedics of the Universe”, Cap orders his team to stand down.

Then the Maker pulls a sick, wicked, villainous move and somehow rips Cap from existence.

“I brought you into this world... I can take you out.” He didn’t want them both playing nice. He just wanted them to fight each other, and for his guys to come out on top.

Spectrum immediately deals with him, while Tony analyzes her light form with complete intrigue.

Then we find that the High Evolutionary destroys him without much effort, saying something about betraying him.

“He betrayed the very concept of me. What he did... is against evolution.”

They figure out together that they’re being.. ‘digested by a higher reality’?

Adam Brashear asks the High Evolutionary if they can reverse the process.

“...I’m not sure I can even work the controls anymore.”

This is where Ultimate Iron Man comes in to save the day. He briefly explains that he has nanites in his body that help him interface with other machines. [That’s pretty cool..] Then he smiles at Spectrum, basically asking her for help.

She tells him that the whole room will help him... communicate with the machine...

[And this is where Ewing sort of loses me..]

But whatever. Galactus can see from afar that they did it! ALL of the Ultimates, new and old work together to help ...Eternity Remember.

Eternity itself climbs out from the First Firmament’s body.

The Eternity Watch sees this as their chance to go in and fight off The First Firmament and/or Logos. The Cellestials seems to be weakened or dying. And, even Black Panther gets his hands, or mind dirty I should say. [...Not in that way.] When he summons The Tiger God to help destroy Logos.

At this point, I throw my hands in the air. There’s no point for explanation.

Cosmic stuff is Cosmicky. The Tiger God rips Logos apart, splitting Chaos and Order back into one.

The Never Queen watches all this and chimes in. Revealing that she’s saved an original Celestial. Apparently, it seeded into many others.

“Rise... my Celestials. My Avatars of the Possible! Rise anew-- The Fifth Host!”

[What the fuck are we talking about!???]

So original Celestials dive into this cosmic battle against Logos and the First Firmament.

Um... and Eternity has a moment with The First Firmament, where he’s struggling from his grips. But he is still becoming stronger from the work of our Ultimates.

And he is strong enough to call upon HIS Ultimates.

Which bring back some old-school characters.

‘...The Multiverses Assemble.’

[Where is the first??] {Ohhh that’s The First Firmament. Gotcha...}

The Second - The Originator of the Omega Force.

The Third - Creator of Lifebringer

“(The fourth is missing...)” They literally tell us that he’ll return another day. [Oh, okay.]

The Fifth - Maker of magic.

The Sixth - Inventor of Science.

The Seventh - Infinity. This is a female character that I recognize. She is Eternity’s Sister-Self.

So this group of... Ultimate Ultimates work together to... cast the First Firmament out into “...the next place. And heal him... if we can.”

...I don’t know who asks this, but “...what happens now?”

Galactus explains that the Eternity War is over. Eternity is unchained. The living tribunal is his normal 3-headed self again and wants to discuss Chaos and Order’s conduct. Ego, the living planet, loses his body and is happy to be a floating head again...

And the Original Ultimates now have a new space craft.. To which they’re apparently gonna travel in space together.

Carol and our Ultimates are hanging out with Galactus and she asks what’s next. More importantly, she asks if they can finally get some help taking down that Shield.

Yet again, they get an apology from him. He can’t breach that shield, but he can sense that there is hope on the horizon.

“...yes. Return to your Posts, Ultimates.”

With a wave of his hand, they are teleported back to Earth, where we see Carol destroy a Hydra tank, and T’challa sits on his thrown.

Monica and Adam are able to sit at a table and enjoy coffee together as a couple. America is off fighting monsters on some other planet.

[In one page, we obviously skipped days or even weeks of continuity.]

And that’s fine.

Secret Empire was almost done when this issue came out, so the lack of spoilers was a good thing. Also, for the story they’re telling, this served it’s purpose.

Galactus has a final thankful thought about this entire thing they all went through.

“I will not forget. Heralds come and go--and I have had many... But my friends are for Eternity.”

-The End-

Yaaay! Holy shit was that a cluster-fucked mess.

I remember being really bummed out when I finished this book. Because morbid curiosity got the better of me. There were just the right amount of characters that I cared about, and just the right amount of intrigue to keep me interested in what was going on in space.

But man did this thing go nowhere.

The only thing Ewing managed to accomplish as far as I’m concerned is that he brought back some fan-favorites from the Ultimate Universe back to life. And I never even followed them before, so... Really. There’s a lot of things that didn’t hold a lot of weight for me, here. But that might be completely different for other people who read this book.

Um. I’m really glad there won’t be an Ultimates 3.

However... I do have a sneaking suspicion that somehow the events of this moment are about to spill into Avengers & Champions with their brand new story “Worlds Collide”, coming out next month or so.

I’m really looking forward to that, so... look forward to Avengers #672!

Also, now would be a good time as any for me to finally read Marvel Legacy #1.

So who knows, what I’m reviewing next.

Later guys.

#Ultimates 2 #Issue 100 #Al Ewing #Marvel #NOW! 2017

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