#you don't have to try and whitewash them so bad you end up sounding like a colonizer or a homicidal idiot

[blackknight-100]

I'm just upset right now so this is not very articulate, but some people in the Tolkien fandom are so obsessed with defending the Feanorians and minimizing their mass murders it's actually absurd. Also it's really, really irritating when you can't go two days without running across a post desperate to turn them into soft people by explaining why "it's not that bad" and "guys actually I think only a few people died".

Or alternately not understand their oath or their grievance at all and try to explain why Luthien/the Valar own the Silmarils.

And I'm not talking about headcanons (you are free to make yours), these are actual parts of the text someone picks up and extrapolates to the nth degree to suit what they say.

Like look, I get it. The Feanorians lost the sacred, almost divine items that their father made, and now those are in the hands of an actual evil god who will not give them up, and whom they cannot fight, and they are oath bound to recover it. I get that. But you know what? 'The other elves were inconsiderate of the importance of the Silmarils as heirlooms to the Feanorians', and 'the kinslaying is a massacre that can in no way be defended by the oath and the need to recover jewels' are two statements that can and should coexist. And one of those deeds is worse than the other.

There are several people and cultures across the world (including mine) that has had their cultural property stolen and looted by colonizers, and the idea that something is 'yours' if you won it from a thief, instead of belonging to the person who made or previously owned it is distinctly colonial in nature, but you know what these people in the real world didn't do?

They didn't commit mass murder. They didn't turn into thieves themselves.

And if these very real people with very real grievances could deal with that (and continue to deal with it), I don't see why anyone should try to justify the kinslayings, or make posts explaining why the Silmaril actually belonged to Luthien and her descendants/the Valar.

Should Luthien have considered returning the Silmaril to the Feanorians? As a woman, no; not after what Celegorm did. As a princess and heir to her father? Yes. Thingol, despite his grievances about the kinslaying at Alqualonde, should have acted as a king and considered the diplomatic way out of this. Except the Feanorians didn't try to take it from Luthien, and Thingol was behind Melian's girdle so it didn't work out. Should Dior have tried to act as king and not antagonise the Feanorians after the girdle was lost and his people decimated by dwarves? Absolutely. All of this is true.*

What is also true is this: the Feanorians should not have fallen upon unsuspecting elves at Alqualonde and taken their ships from them. They should not have attacked Doriath, which had barely recovered from a dwarven attack, and killed people. And they absolutely, never should have gone after Sirion. SIRION WAS A REFUGEE CAMP! AND THEN THEY KIDNAPPED THE TWINS.

THEY KIDNAPPED!!! THE TWINS!!! WHO HAVE NO MATERNAL FAMILY!!! BECAUSE THE FEANORIANS KILLED THEM!!!

No amount of found family fics will stop this from sounding like the political removal of princes/lordlings from their culture and background and their artificial integration into people who have killed their whole family.

And literally all those people the Feanorians were fighting after leaving Valinor could have been their allies against Morgoth. You know, the evil god-creature that has two of their Silmarils? The one that killed their grandfather and drove their father to madness?

Also the Valar. Oh gods, the Valar. They suck. The sheer irresponsibility and condescendence they display throughout this whole fiasco, starting from the destruction of the trees till the very end is astounding. I'm glad most of the fandom seems to ignore them because if I saw a post defending Manwe I would actually throw hands.

*Should Elwing have returned it? Well, here it gets murky: as the leader of a refugee camp in Earendil's absence, she should have probably opted for the path of least violence (which is surrendering the Silmarils), except the Feanorians had already killed her whole family and this was past the point of return. It also would have a very unsound decision to give back a jewel so contested when it meant so much to her people to the elves that ruined their lives and killed their kin, and then sent letters so stern it might as well have been demands disguised as friendship.

[mikuni14]

Jack & Joker - Ep 10

What an emotional and eventful episode✨

Of course I can't help but start with their 🔥 scene. Everything was very beautifully shot, visually and colorfully a bit like old Hong Kong movies, full of half-tones, very lovely. Yin and War delivered, but no surpise here, it's them. I really liked how they were together in this scene, a very pleasant reference to MaxTul, those muscles, sounds, smacking on naked body, grabbing it, passion and desire at the highest levels, but lined with playfulness, carefreeness, love 😏 In both couples we can see what I always appreciate very much, that is, their naturalness and that as a viewer I have no doubts that these characters played by these actors are super horny for their lovers 😤 Special mention of the Ikea clothes rack, because I recently assembled exactly that type, so I kind of relate, cue Di Caprio pointing at tv meme lol. (hot muscle daddies who push themselves into it for my entertainment were not included in my clothes rack set, I think I'll file a complaint).

The scene with Joke's father: siiiiiiiiigh but yeah, sadly I expected this, I also expected to hear: "we actually love you and miss you / but why didn't you visit us, we were waiting for you god you screwed up again". I don't know how you can go from "he's not my son" and "a thief is always a thief" to "come home for dinner", but what do I know, right? I was prepared for this, I still hate it.

The constant references to death, the repeated words about farewell, about forgiveness, returning as a ghost 😬, don't fill me with any particular optimism. I'm 99% certain of a happy ending, but… I am starting to worry a little. There is also an option that in the finale we will have a time skip 🙄 due to Joke, Jack, or both of them being in prison.

I also watch with neverending sadness Joke's low self-esteem and how he thinks that he doesn't deserve anything good, and how easily he is able to throw away his happiness, ruin his future.

As a big fan of communication between characters, between lovers, I have a "I told you so" moment that doesn't give me any satisfaction tho, it's just too sad. Because technically, objectively, almost everything actually is Joke's fault (I know that Boss is first and mainly to blame) and he constantly does things behind Jack's back - with the best and purest intentions - but still. He keeps throwing himself into situations, sacrificing himself completely, just to help Jack, but in reality… well. He only gets him more into trouble every time. Joke never asks Jack if he wants his "help", he just decides for him. Besides, Jack clearly told him not to try to help him anymore. I wholeheartedly support them, but looking from the outside, this is not a healthy relationship, in which there is so little honesty, trust and communication. And in which one has clear, unaddressed tendencies towards self-destruction, not taking into account his health, life, or even the possibility of being in prison again.

Save and attempts to whitewash him "because he's stuck too" and "there's no other way for him" irritate me. Oh he's sorry? He's sad? Well, his victims don't even have that luxury, because they're dead. Save didn't even try to soften what he's doing, trying to help somehow, warn Boss's victims, he just did what he was told without hesitation and on top of that showed unnecessary overzealousness. I don't want to hear that he's "like the others" because he actively works for Boss without even trying to mitigate the evil he's doing. Sorry, but fuck this guy.

I've seen emerging controversies related to trans characters, who seem to be treated worse in J&J. Please remember that during the first ring heist, in the same ep Noo Lek was treated badly and a male model was also attacked and beaten, who was completely innocent, who earns money for a living with his face and his body, so this beating was doubly bad. And regarding Jennie's character being thrown from a height: in the same episode, a literal child was also thrown from a height (and survied because of the plot armor, let's be honest). I know it seems like trans people are treated worse, but in this show, something bad happens to someone all the time, people are hounded, beaten, tortured, attacked, poisoned, exploited, cheated, forced to sell their body parts (!) and no one is spared, including children and the elderly. I think we noticed what seems like a pattern because there are simply more of trans / non binary people than in other series, and they are just as much victims of the system.

........

So a lot happened, I'm starting to worry a little about the ending, so I'll go back to my favorite moment in this episode: Jack grabbing Joke by the chin and guiding him to a kiss and then pinning his hand 🔥

[terrys-min-catl]

abuse mention warning! if you're bad triggered by abuse mention and cant stand statements abt post victims abuse. then please ignore this post.

you've been warned

little sketch to not just there to exist my river of consious I see that many people perceive the conclusion of the arc as wrong because of Kevin's words about his father. That he wants to be better than his father, but quotes him and forgives him. And I didn't see the conclusion otherwise. lets talk abt this

"Can a victim of abuse say something like that?" Yes. They can and will say. We all see only a way where the victim of abuse becomes a healthy unit of society and doesnt repeat the mistakes of the past But these are rather exceptional cases that we always want to see. Most of the victims become tyrants themselves, without even knowing it. The desire to be better alone and therapy is not enough, the victim of abuse, whether they want to or not, will accept the habits of their abuser, especially if they spend enough time with them. Stockholm syndrome has not spared anyone as much as you whitewash characters whose synonym for their name is "trauma"

Who will a child grow up to be in an abusive family? An abuser. Kevin was brainwashed into total Stockholm syndrome and forgave his father. That's it. As much as I would like to have a different outcome, Kevin will not be a good father. This is a terrible, morally disfigured cruel character from childhood. How can he be a good father? When was the last time we heard about Donovan on a podcast? And about Charles? When Cecil, in the gaps between the news, manages to cram essay on the topic of products, mentioning how much he loves his son, his creativity, behavior, as well as his husband. And most often it's all one episode, which shows how involved he is in the family, how much he appreciates it, then Kevin… It's as if he exists in a vacuum from it. Whether he is so punctual, or idk. Remember the arc with mudstone abyss. How did Kevin feel about Charles' son? He disliked him so much, he couldn't accept his existence, that he began to doubt his relationship with Charles when he put him in front of a choice. It was only after the boy solved the problem with mudstone abyss that he decided to give him a chance to accept. Chance. We can only guess how things went further. But given Kevin's nature, his ways of solving problems, his problems in principle, I don't believe that their family is equivalent to Cecil's family. Naturally, I also want to believe that Charles is teaching him to be a good and accepting parent, that their life is beautiful in its own way, but it sounds too beautiful and unrealistic to me. sorry

The victims of abuse (in any relationship) will never come out healthy, and they will not be healthy anymore. Abuse is cyclical and not many people manage to get out of it, and even then not completely

Do you think that Kevin, who survived the abuse, will just let himself go from the past (but already in the present) and will not try to start from the beginning, but under his own supervision? I think their relationship is going to be kind of weird, but I believe in their existence. I don't think he needs to mention strexcorp every time he says something out of the ordinary. I didn't see any other outcome.

And Kevin himself?. Well, I love Kevin, I'm so happy at every au where he's mentioned. I like to joke about his silly nature, I want to hug him, my comfort character (even after such statements) and etc. But I see this character far beyond that. I see him as a person who has gone through a lot of terrible things and is still going through these terrible things. This is a brainwashed person, a victim of abuse, who is an abuser himself. This is a cruel person who goes to his goal, who sees his path as exceptionally correct and does not consider other outcomes of events. He will grow his little self up to be like himself, as any other person would do if they had a chance

I'm okay with the end of the arc, because I can't imagine a picture where Kevin just lets go of the past, where Kevin abruptly realizes all his mistakes, where Kevin will change his worldview, where Kevin won't want to repeat, but on his own behalf The character of black and gray morality moves forward, seeing only one path in front of him, and that is already trodden before him

In conclusion. I liked the arc, again, I liked the end, again, but I think it's too fast. this arc could be made as long as the arch with the university what it is, even longer. Where were we in a hurry? there was so much potential here, but like hh (pls forgive me for such analogy), we were shown only plot episodes and a very fast crumpled end. The end is fire, the way to this end is so-so let's hope that the authors will no longer mention so directly and unilaterally such conflicting topics as "family abuse"

Maybe my thoughts are not quite right, but everyone have their own pov and thats okay

[whumpy-daydreams]

A stint in prison

Masterlist

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CW: prison, forced drugging, needles

"Rowena Torsen, you are being incarcerated with immediate effect for attempted murder and abduction. You are advised not to resist or you will be forcefully restrained. Remove your clothing and wash using the shower behind you. Fresh clothing will be provided." A man behind thick glass finished his drone of information, and Rowena felt her hands be uncuffed. She didn't move. 

His majesty's prison. It was clean enough, well lit, and warm. Even so, Rowena would rather not be there.

"You have 15 minutes to shower," one of the soldiers said as they left the room. Privacy obviously wasn't an option, so Rowena stripped down, turning away from the glass even though there was a camera opposite anyway. She could deal with the lack of privacy. It wasn't optimal, but it could be worse.

Ten minutes later Rowena was dressed in a beige shirt and trousers, a typical prison uniform with a stamped black number on the back. Water dripped from her hair.

"Face the wall, hands on your head." Instructions came from behind the glass and Rowena rolled her eyes but followed them anyway, letting them re-cuff her hands behind her back. From there she was taken to the cells. Shiny whitewashed walls and plastic flooring kept the place sickeningly sterile, and even the bars of the cells were painted white.

As she walked through Rowena ignored the many stares she got from the other prisoners. Her cell was small, containing only a cot and a combined toilet and sink. A blanket and deflated cushion were the only other things there. 

“Welcome to hell.” A drugged-up voice droned from the opposite cell. “Don’t worry I won’t watch you piss.” 

The girl - woman really - was slouched against a wall near the bars. Her hair was matted and dull, eyes unfocused, skin sallow. Her whole demeanour screamed drunk or high, but Rowena doubted it was drink or recreational drugs. More likely she was being kept like this by the state which probably meant she was a danger to herself or others and couldn’t be restrained another way.

“My name’s Jene. They didn’t like what I said so they locked me up. Did you say bad things? Do you whisper bad secrets in people’s ears?” she slurred.

“No.” Rowena lay down on the cot. It wasn’t worth trying to converse with Jene, she was too drug-addled to understand anything anyway, but maybe she could get some sleep. Her face still hurt and for once she was glad there wasn’t a mirror to see how swollen it was.

___

Nine days after getting caught, a few minutes past 6:30, four guards came to her cell.

"A bit early for breakfast? Isn't it?" Rowena mumbled, still waking up.

"Stand up and put your hands on the wall or we will sedate you." One of them said, and Rowena realised this wasn't a usual day. From behind the guards, she saw Jene watching with sickening interest. 

"Why?" She stalled.

"Because I fucking said so. Hands on the wall Torsen." He didn't sound particularly lenient, and Rowena decided that she'd rather not be sedated, and followed his instructions. Two of the guards entered the cell and roughly cuffed her hands behind her back before dragging her out. 

"Where are we going?" Rowena doubted she would get an answer. She was correct.

They went through a tunnel of corridors Rowena hadn't seen before, and eventually ended up in a sort of garage, where there was a van waiting with several soldiers milling around. It appeared they had been waiting for her, and suddenly Rowena sensed that she might have the opportunity to escape. Almost on cue, a man approached with a needle and quickly jabbed Rowena's upper arm before she could pull away, injecting an uncomfortable liquid into her.

"What was that? I thought you weren't going to sedate me? Where are you taking me? What's going on?" She began to ask questions manically, pulling against the guards holding her.

"You're being transferred to a different unit. If you don't stop struggling we will fully sedate you." Someone explained as Rowena was manhandled into the back of the van. Her hands were re-cuffed in front of her so she could sit easier, and soldiers began entering the van with her, sitting alongside to presumably prevent her from throwing herself out of the back. 

Slowly whatever had been injected began to take effect, making Rowena's limbs heavy and her brain foggy. But more disturbing than that was the emptiness that came with it. That a part of her soul had left her body was the only way she could describe it - a void that filled her body as if her identity had been purged. Almost by instinct, she reached for her magic. And found nothing.

"What have you done to me?" She asked, fear threatening to bring tears. "What the fuck have you done?!" The soldiers ignored her, although one or two tensed, fingers twitching towards their weapons. 

Suddenly Rowena lunged forward and a soldier yanked her back. The barrel of a gun collided with her head, and she was knocked back into the van wall. As she looked back up a fist collided with her face and she passed out.

[grandmofftarkinsuggestions]

my thoughts on the bad batch after finishing it all (so far, seasons 1 and 2.) this isn't really exhaustive, just some overall thoughts on the series. overall, i liked it :)

the good:

- tarkin :) he's such a fitting character to pair with the batch and i kinda wish he was in more of it, but i'm obviously biased!

- animation. i love the blocky, shapely art style of the clone wars, and how it was replicated here. they have a much higher budget, expectations, and quality technology now, so it arguably looks even better/smoother.

- the political intrigue was on-par with many of the darker plotlines of the clone wars, which i typically really like. it's deep and philosophical without being too lofty or pretentious. i love the commentary on eugenics and genetic mutations in general and how they were incorporated in the plot, especially during season 1.

- the relationships amongst the bad batch (including omega) are all really good and fun. definitely pulls at the old heart strings to watch these soldiers tackle child-rearing.

- i liked basically every new character (with phee, hemlock, and omega being highlights) introduced in the series, despite my gripes with cid being an antisemitic caricature, which bothers me immensely as a jew myself.

(i will be getting into spoilers under the cut while talking about my problems with the series, so BE WARNED.)

the bad:

- i feel like season two did not feel as connective as season one, plotwise. it didn't feel like it was leading to some grand finale or greater thing, which is kinda the point with the batch wanting to settle on pabu, but it started to feel anticlimactic towards the mid-way point. it picked back up the pace during the last two episodes, at least.

- i absolutely detest that cid betrayed the batch. sure, it makes 'sense' enough given the way they set it up and sprinkled in hints of her being worse than she lets on, but it felt like such a cop-out, (and an antisemitic one at that, which i'll get to in the 'dirty' section,) especially after she literally said she's changed for the better as a person since when she was allies with grini 🙃. she will hopefully try to help the batch in season 3 but i hated that the writers did her wrong like that. i don't care that they made her seem guilty; it still wasn't enough for me. maybe don't make all your aliens racist, xenophobic, and antisemitic caricatures and i'll like the way you write them more.

the dirty:

- the whitewashing of the bad batch + omega. stop it. making the genetically 'superior' clones much paler than the rest is literally white supremacy.

- the whitewashing of caleb dume, aka kanan jarrus, which i don't hear as many people calling out, likely simply because they don't know that caleb and kanan are the same person. it would cost zero dollars and effort to unwhitewash these characters. do it, now.

- cid being an antisemitic caricature of a powerful, untrustworthy, criminal, money-hungry, penny-pinching lizard. what the fuck!

- this is definitely a lighter note, but is still very ageist and. hm.. kinda ableist in my opinion. the way they aged up tarkin to an extreme degree in this series to make it make 'more sense' for him to look 'so old' in anh.

peter cushing looked 'like that' because he was very sickly in real life at the time of anh, and tarkin, in theory, had nothing like that in his canon life, so why not try to justify it by saying that tarkin just aged really quickly between the end of clone wars and a new hope? but like. no. literally no. stop. there is enough canon evidence of tarkin having a chronic illness to justify him suddenly looking much older in anh. you didn't have to do him dirty like this.

i hate how they only die on the hill of making tarkin look and sound exactly like peter when it's unnecessary to do so (like in rogue one, and i liked cgi tarkin! it was just so unnecessary.) this is animation, so they could've easily made him look like peter when peter was 40-something instead of super aged up, but no. and i really liked how he looked in the clone wars! we could've had it all.

[mega-ringsandthings-world]

Hey!I just wanted to say as someone whose been a fan of The Hunger Games since the movies came out and I had the chance to read the books I love your takes on them.I have to be honest I don't really care much about shipping in the books I mean I love both the idea of Peeta/Katniss and Katniss/Gale but the execution...just wasn't the best in my opinion.I wouldn't have mind if K/G had ended up as friends I just really dislike how Gale's character was handled in the last book(cont part 2)

I aslo dislike the way Katniss idolizes Peeta and compares him to ''hope''and Gale to ''anger''.Not only does it do disesrvice to btoh characters but it turns them intro tropes when thye've both been through hell and war's chnaged them in different ways.I'm wondering do you think the movies had influence over the fandom and which ships or how certian characters that have be whitewashed (Katniss,Gale)are seen.I've sene other videos discuss how bad the reactions were to Rue's casting back then(c And I can only imagine how much wirse it could have been if they had cast POC actors to play Katniss and Gale still,I'm glad more POC like yourself are speaking up because lets be honest fandom canquickly become a toxic mess even more so with POC fans who hold different opinions btw,did you like the prequel that was about President Snow?I heard they're making a movie about it?Sign,I hope someday Hunger Games gets to be remade with more diverse cast because the world's so intersting Oh,and I just forgot to add sorry but while I know we're suppsoed to believe Katniss found love and hope in the epilogue I just feel sorry for her because her POV sounds like an empty shell of her fomrer self.Even her talking about her children is kind of alarming to me because she seems so detached from what's suppsoed to ber her family.I know it's realistic she would still suffer traumat,etc but somehing about the epilogue as whole just doesn't sit right with me. Thanks!! I'm glad you connect with my takes! I don't ship much in THG fandom either, and I personally can't stand Peeta/Katniss together romantically, but I would have taken Katniss and Gale just being friends at the end if it mean that they would not have been separated the way they were. I've talked about how Gale's character and relationship with Katniss became inconsistent and started to degrade by the third book, and I think a lot of that was due to the author wanting to lean into Gale and Peeta being narrative foils for each other, but you're right, that only does a disservice to them, and to Gale in particular. Because it comes off as condemning Gale and villainizing him for his reasons for fighting the war, which are all justified. You can't try to say peace is better than anger, when for change to happen, anger is necessary to gain peace, smh... Yeah! The movies did influence the fandom, the films glossed over and sanitized a lot of the book's "intense" themes, and focused too much on the romance and not on "starving people and killing children are bad." Plus the lack of diversity, and I do agree that the fandom would probably become even more awful if they had correctly cast everyone. There is a lot if inherent racism in the books themselves and in the fandom, and I can just imagine how much worse the hate against certain characters would be if they were properly cast. I have read tbosas and I liked it, but it still has problems. I don't expect the movies to be any better than THG movies, but that's what it is, lol. And I'd say we were lucky to get such a pretty good adaptation as it was. I certainly wish for another adaptation one day. And yeah. One of my issues with the ending was that it felt rushed and inconsistent, it's a major time skip, and we never learn anything about Katniss's life anymore except that she has kids and is still struggling to cope, and that it took her a long time to even agree to have the children, which is?? It slaps of the author wanting this particular ending even though it isn't one that was a fitting end. So it was just shoehorned in at the end, "oh, Katniss has the kids she was never sure about wanting to have and she and Peeta live happily ever after even though she still has issues" I think the reason why it feels off is because it was a handwave to wrap things up according the author's idea of correctness, and pander to her favorite pairing. Because if anyone cares to explore it deeper, it would fall apart.

[androgynousblackbox]

What do you think about the controversy around Pepa being lighter than her concept art?

Look, usually I want to listen to accusing side when it comes to whitewashing because that is a real problem that comes from an inherently racist idea that dark skinned people are inferior. Most of the time I can see the point people are trying to make and how it's harmful, reason why I will be against it. We should, in fact, try to avoid representations that are demonstrably harmful for minority groups and give a chance for those groups to feel seen too. But on this case in particular? Yeah, no, I don't see the reasoning. Like, if you tell me that the entire Madrigal family was lighter and Pepa was meant to be the only visibly darker character but then Disney decided "nah, let's make her lighter too so she goes along with the rest", then I would be 100% behind the people saying that is fucked up, because it would be. But what harm is actually doing that Pepa is the ONLY lighter skin member of the entire family? Arguably the ONLY lighter skin character on the entire movie that has any relevance at all? Even Agustín has a little bit more of color than her. She is not the protagonist of the story, she is a secondary character at the best of times. She is not given an unfair amount of screen time compared with the rest of the family. People just point at the concept art and go "see, see?? Disney whitewashed Pepa!" without bothering to take into account that the movie is already FULL with POC everywhere, from very dark like Félix and Antonio to lighter ones like Bruno and Luisa. And that without even counting the townsfolk, who also come in a full range of colors everywhere. Like yeah, on the most literal sense of the world possible, they did whitewashed her, but what is the impact of this? Why do we need to dennounce it? What harm do we try to prevent by doing this? Especially when you consider that both Antonio and Bruno are WAY lighter on their concept art than how they end up being in the movie, so on Antonio's case there was blackwashing even. Nobody seems able to explain WHY is bad on any way, they just throw the word whitewashing and that is it, doing this is bad, so it must be bad on every circunstance possible. It sounds to me like the people who insist that EVERY story where a queer person dies is instantly a Bury Your Gays, no matter if the story is full of other queer people who manage to live happily ever after, which goes directly against the reason why the trope is bad, no matter if literally hundreads of other characters died already left and right all over the story and no matter if literally no one survived. No, a queer person died and that is bad and no, we are not going to even bother explain how because we don't fucking know either. The people doing this probably have the best intentions at heart, but it just feels so limiting and just plain unnecesary. I personally? I like that they included someone like her. Not only because she literally reminds me to my own tía who is just as dramatic as her, not only because she is the first latina character on mainstream media (outside of Latam shows) whose skin tone is exactly as mine, but because it feels true to Latine families to have that much range of colors. The Madrigals feel close to us because they are so different among each other. People who complain about not all of them having a samey tone or anyone looking different than the rest has never put a foot on any country of Latam, less than anything Colombia, and it shows. I also think that Pepa serves as a good reminder that 1. genetics are weird and when you have a demographic as diverse as latines, they are bound to be weirder than that. Most latines are mixed as fuck. It's extremely rare to find a latine that is 100% anything. And 2. not all POC need to look the same. She is not my favourite character, that titles goes to Luisa, Dolores and Camilo, but I appreciate her for what she is and I appreciate what the team behind the movie were going for by designing the characters as they did. Having said that, I do hope they use that concept art for something else because that lady was pretty

too.

[obsessivelollipoplalala]

Yikes to people who try to say SBC’s script was better and that SBC was right in wanting to include all the “amazing stories” (sic!) of Freddie in the 70-80s. some people legit believe that brian’s trying to cash in on his dead friend by “portraying themselves in a better light” and making freddie “terrible and boring”. So what is it now? Apparently brian and roger rejecting that horrible script is a bad decision because “freddie would have wanted to tell those crazy experiences” referring to the cocaine, the sex, the decadent excess of rock n roll blablabla. I told them about the disgusting sex dungeon bit, Freddie basically flashing Brian and roger in a bathroom in their first meeting written as a joke, etc. And they really went “yeah that’s not worse than Borhap, in fact it’s better” ?!?!! And then they went to say how SBC was such a victim for trying to “champion Freddie as the rock star he was” but ended up getting bullied off the project by the evil Queen who wants to whitewash their story and hog the spotlight uwu. Brian and roger literally cant win. I thought it would be a nobrainer that we have been thankfully spared from that horrible version that couldve been made into an actual film, but no, some people WANTED it to be made. It’s either “they’re demonizing gay people” (which is a valid point on its own and the movie did do that), or “they’re making him boring and want to portray themselves in a better light!”.. JEEZ JUST PICK ONE

Wait, people are really saying this? This isn't made up? Man, I guess some people can't stop being dumb.

First of all, I wouldn't even put "boring" on my list of criticisms with borhap Freddie, but even if it were true, making someone boring is better than perpetuating the trope of the predatory gay man by making him whip out his dick in a bathroom with straight guys. I also don't think it's entirely true that Freddie would want everyone to know about his crazy experiences since he was a private person lol. If these people are saying the flashing and sex dungeon is no worse than borhap, and actually better, it sounds like they just have no brain cell capable of critical thinking. I mean, come on. It's self-evident why the SBC script was so much worse. My straight, 57 year-old mother immediately clocked the predatory gay man trope when I told her about the bathroom scene. Plus, those scenes weren't even all accurate. I'd bet good money that Freddie did not, in fact, whip his dick out in front of Brian and Roger or write "Bohemian Rhapsody" with a hard-on! Wilder stories =/= better script or more accurate story.

It's utterly ridiculous to say Brian and Roger hogged the spotlight with borhap when they're barely in the movie lmfao, and the SBC script had more Brian! The whole structure of the script is going back and forth between flashbacks and modern Brian telling the story and the script literally ends with him; if he really wanted it all to be about him, he would've gone with that script. If people are going to accuse Brian and Roger of something, it should at least make an iota of sense.

Next, SBC didn't want to portray who Freddie really was; he wanted to make him a caricature like Borat or Bruno. Freddie wasn't a cartoon character. He was a complex human being who was more than fucking partying, and who was very different in private than he was on stage, and it sounds like the dummies you were talking to can't differentiate the real Freddie from his performance persona. SBC deserved to be called an ass by Brian.

Tbh people like this are exactly why Brian and Roger probably rejected the script; for the past 30 years, they've heard that Freddie was nothing but a wild party animal, despite denying that he was promiscuous or an addict, and they knew the SBC script was the version of Freddie everyone wanted to gawk and laugh at. People don't want to see Freddie presented as a human being, but as a sideshow freak they can laugh at. I'm not saying borhap did a great job with Freddie, but it humanized him more than this garbage.

[tenduw]

How not to make a terrible Hetalia OC

Hi y’all, I feel like this really needs to be said, cause I was looking at different hetalia OCs the other day, and ngl many of them were, well, terrible.

First off, before I begin with my guide to making a decent oc, can I just say that any one of us can create an oc, in fact I would encourage people to. One problem with the hetalia fandom is that other than Scotland, Yugotalia and South America (somewhat) we haven’t really done our research when it comes to creating ocs and it really shows.

1)      Research – I do feel like some of you spend too much time looking at stereotypes of different countries and not enough time doing actual research. I am going to show you 2 different pictures here (Example 1 and 2 are below.) Notice the difference? Someone clearly researched into the issues faced by South Africa and decided on a way to come to a neutral outcome, whilst someone else didn’t do any research and decided that a White person was the best way to represent an entire population in Africa. Please research into the culture and history of the country when deciding to create the OC as if anything that would help you to try and understand the character you are attempting to draw or write. Also look at the hetalia tumblr or Instagram tag for the character as there might be an OC that you really like! I did so, and found really cool ocs by @disaster-fruit and @portu-cale! Then if this happens, there's already an oc you can see as the country! Just make sure to contact and credit the artist in any art you may produce.

2)      Ask -  Also remember that research doesn’t just apply to the internet! If you have a friend or some of your family members are from that country and have been there, then ask them about the culture! Not only that, but I’d suggest you also check out the country’s reddit, as there is a bunch of stuff you can find there which helps to gain a general understanding about what might actually be offensive and what won’t be. Also, I’d check out the tumblr tag for the country as well – really interesting facts about the country tend to come up.

3)      What you are creating the oc for – Are you creating an OC for a fanfiction or fanart? Depending on which one you are looking at then your research differs. Fanart requires you to be respectful towards the country, and obviously this is where most people in the fandom fall short – as you are literally drawing a representation of the country. Fanfiction in contrast tends to be more about characterisation, so rather than just make up a personality for the country, I would suggest that you read the history and facts about the country before creating a character for them. The thing about personified nations is that none of them are good or bad – they’re morally grey, so it’s important to do your research when deciding how exactly they are in this category. Patient Harmony on Fanfiction.net actually does this really well, and if you’re over 16 and are into the darker side of the fandom, I’d suggest checking them out!

4)      Think – Please think about what you are creating. This is most important when it comes to two areas – Colouring and Controversy. I’ll cover those in the next two points. Just remember to think before you create – what countries should I draw cutesy fanart for and which ones should I not draw it for? Also, think about the human names for the countries. You do have to look at names from the country you are creating an oc for – why the hell would Wales’ name be Victoria or Israel’s name Tal Haviv? Giving a oc of a nation an anglicised or Americanised name or making up a name because it sounds like the nation’s capital is just plain disrespectful. Also, please do research whatever name you do end up using as for example if Mexico was called Porfirio, you might not realise the problem with the name, but most Mexican fans of the show would. So do think about what you’re coming up with – And if something doesn’t feel right, then research it!

5)      Colouring – What skin tone are they? This seems to be the hardest thing for the hetalia fandom to comprehend and I can empathise to an extent. Of course, if the country is particularly diverse, such as Uganda then it will be somewhat challenging to come up with a skin tone for them. However completely whitewashing the country, like an ungodly amount of people have done with aph Mexico is ridiculous. Not everyone is white, in fact most people aren’t white – Just because you and your neighbourhood may be doesn’t mean that the entire world is! If you think that everyone is one skin tone then you need to get the hell out of whatever special rock you were living under. There are hundreds if not thousands of skin tones out there, and people do not either look like this: (is below) Or this: (is below) So if the OC you’re going to create is black, you don’t need to paint them the darkest shade of brown that you have. You also should avoid making them orange – If someone is from Africa, they are not orange! Likewise if someone is from Native America then don’t make their skin yellow! One thing in general that might help y’all out is if when creating your oc, you search on google images ‘X country people’ and see the results. JUST DON’T MAKE THE CHARACTER WHITE CAUSE YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO.

Also, I don't know why someone created an entire south America oc, nor do I understand why people keep making statetalia ocs

6)      Controversy – Now this one is going to be kind of long, but it really needs to be addressed. Just because you’re creating ocs for hetalia doesn’t mean that ALL stereotypes about the country need to be the main thing about the oc. Stereotypes about Italians loving pasta or the English loving tea are NOT the same as Mexicans being fence hoppers or the entire continent of Africa being malnourished. Like I’ve said many times already, do your research. An important thing to note, is that most of these stereotypes were made by 1st world countries and so naturally the most offensive ones are about the ethnicities that struggle to get any form of positive representation in the media. Another thing that needs to be addressed – Would you make fanart about any recent terror attacks? No? Then don’t make ocs that would have solely come about as a result of a disastrous event (e.g. Chernobyl). Also, you have to be reaaalllly careful when it comes to quite a few nations. Like Yemen and Palestine. It just feels really insensitive to draw cutesy fanart when their people are being targeted and insensitivity already is a major problem with the fandom. It’s 2020, not 2010 and it’s important to remember that!

7)      Try – Another problem with the hetalia fandom is that most people just stray away from non-european countries. On google, it says there are 196 countries in the world and if you add all of the micronations, you easily have more than 200 ‘nations’. The thing is, the countries that we keep missing out all have their own histories and cultures – this is a constant. I personally see hetalia as a series which serves to show that not all history is depressing and gory – it can be funny and amusing too! And it’s not just Europe that has amusing aspects to it’s history and culture. Where’s the jollof rice war between Nigeria and Ghana? Or the confusion surrounding how many islands Indonesia has? Creating ocs for the world’s countries literally means that what you draw doesn’t need to be as limited – You can have a BRICS meeting, or have a meeting between the African Union. Hetalia literally has a worldwide fanbase and wouldn’t it be interesting if we could spread more countries to the fans outside of the canon countries in the show? Shouldn’t it be our goal as fans of a show about different nations and cultures to introduce people to as many cultures as possible? So I encourage you guys to try with hetalia OCs – Just maybe run it by other people before making it public and MAKE SURE YOU DO YOUR RESEARCH.

It isn’t hard to create an OC, in fact I’d say it’s a bit easier for hetalia because we have access to everything we need to make one.

I hope this helps ^^

[peachyteabuck]

I know that this aroace Yelena topic may be tiring (as an aroace person that has been seeing this discourse all over my Tumblr and sometimes on TikTok, I am lol)

I have a problem where I can see the two sides of this, on one side i know that it is fiction, if I don't like it, i won't read it (personally I don't read Yelena smut because i don't feel comfortable for example) BUT as was said before, when you take a lgbtqia character, gay, lesbian, and turn them straight, most people would NOT take this very well, and the writers, fans that would headcanon and write them as straight would continue doing it anyway, the same ive been seeing with Yelena

My main problem is with the reaction twords the fact that Yelena is canonically Aroace, and everyone is trying to erase this by saying "that's not even explored in the comics" or *hoping* that in the MCU she "hopefully won't be Aroace" and that's so frustrating u know? If it was a gay or lesbian character with a chance to be canon in the MCU, people would celebrate, demand that marvel and Disney would make them gay, but just the thought of one Aroace character and suddenly it's all questionable? "Oh maybe she isn't"

I know that at the end of the day I can't control anyone's writing or headcanon, and that's alright, just don't be an jerk and put a whole community down just so you can fuck the character in ur head, or ship them with anyone

And about the "oh but aro and ace people can date and have sex" yes they can, but are their experience being written the way a asexual would deal with it? The way a aromantic person would feel? Most of the time I'm sure that it would be a big no

Again I'm not trying to attack you and I'm sorry if I sounded rude or anything, i follow you and I love your writing, but I've seen this discussion so much and it's like when we (Aroace people) talk about it, no one is really listening and it's frustrating sometimes

Sorry if it's too much and if my way of though didn't make sense lol

prerequisite context: i am never and will never deny the power of fanfiction to be morally abhorrent, and i have never and will never claim that fanfiction writers are never responsible for the context we produce.

so I guess there are a few main reasons people are claiming writing yelena within sexual and romantic contexts is bad, according to the people in my inbox:

1) unequal fan backlash

2) unequal fan celebration/comics = mcu

3) improper representation of ace/aro people who do engage in sexual/romantic contexts

in regards to those:

fan backlash and celebration are exceedingly poor reasons to do/not do something. mostly because, especially in the MCU, there are fans who are homophobic, they're conservative, they're trump supporters. several actors are those things. there's no reason to use fan response (whether backlash or celebration) as a motivation to do something, because fans are sometimes wrong. additionally, "fans" is a pretty wide term. are people who prefer comics fans? young teens? people who don't write fanfic? those who only make edits? tik tokers? cosplayers? whose opinions should we listen to? whose shouldn't we?

plus, as i've canon compliance in the MCU is a pretty massive beast. characters are whitewashed left and right, their origin stories changed and plotlines are plucked out of thin air or altered heavily from the source material. yelena can be aroace in one comic run and not in the other. what i've also seen are post-production comments, which are often made to pander so that directors can say they made "MCU's first ace character" without putting in the work. is that something we should listen to? it brings up the golden question: are fanfic writers responsible for fixing broken media?

i don't think so. we're often people doing this for free (or close to it). we're broke, we work other jobs, we have other hobbies. we don't have sensitivity writers or editors or researchers. why are we responsible for fixing massive canon mistakes in a 2k fic about pet play, and why aren't the creators of the media we're writing fanfiction about the center of the backlash?

lastly, the line "are their experience being written the way a asexual would deal with it? The way a aromantic person would feel? Most of the time I'm sure that it would be a big no" is exceedingly odd to me. who says ace people can't want to be werewolves? or engage in omegaverse? or fuck in hallways? or engage in BDSM?

what does it mean to write an aro/ace character in these contexts? what doesn't it mean? if a creator thinks aro/ace people are liars, and that ace people need to go to conversion therapy, but writes a fluffy yelena fic where her and reader have a movie night with no sexual/romantic context, is that good aro/ace representation? why or why not?

all in all, i understand if there's some frustration. but every time someone takes the "writing yelena in sexual/romantic contexts is Always Morally Wrong" side, all i see is misplaced and uninformed criticism. it's 100% better to either write the fics you want to see or support creators who do, than come into inboxes of people who don't.

[notbigondoors]

omg vis in that wandavision black and white scene is so cute xD we have to keep in mind that they're in a sitcom so I wouldn't worry too much about these types of gags, I don't think it means they're turning the characters into jokes.. although... that's what they did to thor and banner in endgame so I can see where you're coming from. it wasn't funny. and I LOVE comedies, i love thor: ragnarok, i love gotg and gotg 2, but... endgame's comedy wasn't funny, hope it doesn't bleed into wandavision.

{out of equations} Below the cut because nobody wants to see my rants, hahaha... I don’t want to be too down on this show because I haven’t seen it yet and for all I know it’s going to kick ass. But I’m... cautiously pessimistic. 

Yes to what you said, and that’s exactly where I’m coming from with this... Marvel has ruined characters before. They have turned both Tony’s and Thor’s PTSD and various other mental health difficulties into jokes. They completely obliterated Steve’s character at the end of Endgame with his inexplicable decision to go back in time and live a whole different life. Bruce felt like a completely different character entirely in personality, design, motivation, etc. in Endgame. So yeah, like... that’s where my fear and distrust lies... in Marvel/Disney and their ability to not destroy characters for ratings, comic relief, or even other more painful reasons like whitewashing, conformity to their corporate ideals, and things like that. 

Because again, I still push back as to why use sitcoms in the first place. They could tell this arc of Wanda’s Marvel story without using sitcoms. Even if they’re going to say Wanda somehow sat there as a child in Sokovia watching 50s American sitcoms, she wouldn’t think that that was an ideal way of life. Tight floral dresses, high heels, blonde hair, separate beds, suburban life... that would not have been seen as ideal by a young Eastern European Jewish Romani girl growing up in a village. It would have been seen as very different, foreign, and maybe even weird in a bad way, especially since the twins grew up apparently really disliking American culture given the way they were protesting against Stark’s technology by their teens. So... yeah they’ve already lost me on the basic premise and I’m worried that whatever explanation they have for choosing to set this very important arc of Wanda’s development in previous decades and in “TV-land” just won’t be enough for me. And then to make it a campy, canned laughter kind of setup just makes it worse.

I mean I guess I went with a different early background for Wanda than the MCU wanted. I drew from her comic background and filled in the blanks that the MCU seemed to have no interest in filing with canon material. I gave her a more rural, ethnic, and religious-based background, and now... after several movies of giving us hardly anything, now they’re going to tell us about her childhood and what happened during the experiments. Thanks, guys. So now my choices are to retcon everything (which I’m not going to do), to ignore WandaVision completely (which I also don’t want to do), or to make a strange hybrid of the two (I guess this is my fate). The background I use for her wasn’t... set up... to allow for her watching a lot of TV at a young age, especially American sitcoms. But I’ll do my best to mesh it all together. *shrugs*

Like... for me, the “feel” of the characters is lost here. They don’t feel like the same people, and quite honestly, if they had started out this way, I would have been completely disinterested and would never have wanted to write them. And to some extent I’m kindof fine with that for Vision because I’m fairly sure that that’s either a construct of Wanda’s mind of an incomplete/dead/half-functioning Vision she’s changing to be what she wants, or something to that effect. So it makes sense that he wouldn’t seem like himself. But why is Wanda behaving that way? She snapped from stress, trauma, and grief and for some reason........ thinks she’s a 50s housewife? Or 60s, 70s, 80s, whatever? I don’t get that. Just... why? They didn’t have to do that, and yeah, if I trusted them more to handle characters properly, I’d have more hope and be more optimistic, but after what they’ve done to some other Marvel characters, I am definitely worried.

I’m more comforted by the interviews I’m seeing with Lizzie where she seems happy with the development of Wanda during the show. She’s been playing her for a while now, I know how much thought she puts into her roles and how she likes to get into her characters’ heads, so I would like to think that she wouldn’t take a role that would just destroy the character. So right now my hope is hinging on my trust of her liking Wanda enough not to want to ruin her completely, heh. Also, in an interview she specifically said there’s a reason for it all. So... okay. I will hang on that. XD I honestly really hope I’m wrong and you can all tell me so after the fact, like... I hope the show is awesome and blows my mind. But I’m trying to prepare myself for a train wreck just in case.

Also I rambled more about Wanda than Vision, because I guess I have more problems with the Wanda aspect of all of this than the Vision aspect. Vision... while I don’t particularly like seeing him jump at a tiny noise when he’s fought in large scale battles and has never shown himself to be that jumpy before, his character is going to have to get a little bit stretched out and weird and beyond the norm for him, because it’s Wanda’s interpretation of him. She’s kindof bending him to fit these ideal living scenarios (at least I assume). So I can let go a little more easily with him because I don’t really count that as the real Vision, or at least not how Vision would really be if he was of sound/free/normal mind. But why Wanda is making these choice and feeling the way she does about it is an enigma to me. I get what she’s doing and why overall, but just... the TV sitcom thing... I’m just so sorry Marvel felt the need to do this incredibly serious and painful arc in Wanda’s life using the comedic vehicle of TV Land. I would have preferred a movie in which they actually address what’s going on with Wanda head on instead of trying to candy coat it in an attractive and lighter-contented package.

BUT AGAIN... I WILL SAY... maybe I’m wrong. I hope I am. I’ll be watching along with everyone else, so... we’ll see!

[heartbeatan]

Crimson Park (Chapter 6)

Return to Chapter 5.

Return to Table of Contents.

Return to Desperado Series.

Return to Jungkook Fanfictions.

Return to Masterlist.

Chapter 6

Your stomach was in knots since the discovery. You poured over the evidence tirelessly, hoping to find some sort of explanation for where the money was going, but no matter which way you looked at it, Carter had a quarter of a million dollars that was unaccounted for. Dongnam was out of the country and unreachable, so your first opportunity to speak to him was going to be at the operations meeting – and you were dreading it. You knew the kinds of things Dongnam did to people who betrayed him, and you were none too pleased about the idea of having to witness it – especially since it was you who was ultimately the one exposing him.

Like an addiction, you found yourself out at the club once again; trying to forget the world around you; trying to hideout from what you had to do. Jungkook escorted you again this time, and – like clockwork – he escorted out the stranger you brought home with you at the end of the night. This time wasn’t so bad – that is until the sex was over… but, hey, at least you got some this time. Jungkook stopped asking if you were okay, but you could see in his eyes that the question wasn’t far from his tongue - even through the rearview mirror.

“You did good work,” you said to Jungkook. “Good job.”

“Thank-you, ma’am.”

Jungkook was in the driver’s seat while you sat in the backseat flipping through the papers you had strewn over your lap. You were on your way to the meeting. This time, the location was far out of town, in a country estate. Each meeting was in a different location for the sake of safety and to avoid prying eyes. Jungkook willingly volunteered to come as security, while Taesub and Joohyuk were happy to remain behind.

“What’s going to happen to him?” Jungkook asked hesitantly.

“I don’t know. But I can’t imagine it will be pleasant,” you looked up at him through the rear-view mirror. He looked back at you, a shade of concern in his eyes. He figured out easily that the whole thing had you bothered. “But he put himself in this position.”

Jungkook nodded.

“What’s going to happen when we get there?”

“Ah, yes. We should talk about that,” you cleared your throat. “I’ve asked that you be kept to the perimeter.”

“But I’m your bodyguard.”

“I’ll be fine in the house. I don’t want you anywhere near it.”

“Why?”

“God, you always ask so many questions.”

“Sorry, ma’am.”

Jungkook shut his mouth, but, regardless, you chose to answer him.

“I like that our team stays unnoticed. If you’re by my side the whole time, you’ll be noticed – especially this weekend of all of them. There’s going to be a lot of ruffled feathers.”

“Isn’t that more of a reason that I should be with you the whole time?”

“I’ll be fine. Keep your phone on, and I’ll call you if I need you. But otherwise, I’m asking you to remain as inconspicuous as possible. Please.”

“Ok,” he promised, but he sounded disappointed

"The other two always wanted to join me as well, but they get it now. One day you'll realise that here it’s better to remain under the radar, and then you'll understand."

"Well, we've got about another hour, why don't you just explain it to me now and give me a head start?"

"Maybe on the way back, I've got too much to do before we get there."

⁂

The estate was like walking into an episode of Downton Abbey. A massive home with a yard which went beyond farther than you could see. Jungkook pulled the car up along the long driveway which circled around a fountain and then he stopped and parked in front of the grand staircase. As instructed, after helping you out of the car and grabbing your luggage, he left to find his accommodations down by the perimeter in the old yard hands’ buildings. You found your room on the second floor, tucked away from the others. It was a tiny, whitewashed wood panelled room with a sloped ceiling. It must’ve been a servant’s quarters in its day. You changed your clothes, then turned to the mirror to fix your makeup, being sure to wipe off and reapply your lipstick before you headed out to the first meeting of the day.

The morning session dragged on forever despite how busy you were. Employees reviewed their progress and profits and aired their grievances to Dongnam. You had to be on top of nearly all they reported and all they requested, breaking down the numbers and finding if there was room for their asks. Nonetheless, you were pleased for the slow clock since you hadn’t been called yet to meet privately with Dongnam.

After the afternoon’s meetings concluded, and everyone else headed to the bar in the saloon, you were summoned to his office. As you made your way there, your body coursed with adrenaline, you had to consciously slow yourself down. Dongnam in many ways was a gracious leader, but you had worked for him long enough to know that demeanour could change on a dime.

“Come in,” you heard his low growl from the other side of the large, wood carved door when you knocked. You creaked it open and strode inside, taking a seat immediately in front of Dongnam’s desk. He didn’t look up at you at first. It made you think of Jungkook, since you pulled this same move the day you met him. It was unsettling now to see the comparison. But Dongnam always did this, no matter how well he knew someone or how much he liked them. You, however, didn’t shuffle uncomfortably in your seat the way you used to when you were in his presence. You may have feared the things Dongnam did, but you refused to let him think you were intimidated by him. That’s why you were one of his favourites. So, instead you studied his greying features – his goatee, his salt and pepper hair and the wrinkles forming across his face – until his charade was over and he was ready to speak to you.

“I see profits are up almost across the board,” he finally spoke.

“They are, sir.”

“Except for the whore houses in the city,” you flinched at his use of the term.

“No, sir.”

“What did you think of Shamrock’s proposal?”

“To get more girls?”

“Yes.”

"I think it will have the opposite effect."

"What makes you say that?"

"Because we can't sell the assets that we already have. We've cut food supply back about as far as we can sir - it's almost cruel at this point, in my opinion. If we bring in more mouths to feed, it'll get worse - and I don't know how many men want to pay for sex with an emaciated woman."

"What do you propose then?"

You kept your demeanour still, even though your insides were churning. You handed him the proposal you and Jungkook had worked on.

"There's a lot of information in there, but basically we've gone through our stats, and I think that we've come up with a solution that will help us adjust to demand as demand changes. I think we might even come out above target this way."

Dongnam scanned the first few pages.

"I can walk you through it in full, if you'd like?"

"I'll read it later," he set it aside. "Cobb wants to open up another weapons depot. I'd rather move the ones we have. How can we do that?"

You internally side. no matter how prepared you were he was always going to bring something on you that you weren't ready for. "I mean, we need to wait for another civil war to flair up."

“I don’t like that uncertainty.”

“Sorry, sir. It’s really not my department. I just run the numbers. But if it's any consolation, one thing in this world we can guarantee is war. Maybe you should open another depot and stockpile. Then you can sell more when that happens, and you have mass buyers."

He offered a noise as a response but nothing more.

“Do you have anything to report?”

You took a long breath then pulled Carter’s file from your bag and handed it to Dongnam.

“What’s this?” he asked.

“I think Carter has been cutting salaries of his employees and pocketing the rest for himself.”

Dongnam opened the file and began scanning the pages. He said nothing, so you continued.

“You personally haven’t lost any income; however, his employees are only getting a portion of what he is reporting. I couldn’t find where the remainder was going, so I can only assume he’s keeping it.”

“How sure are you?”

“Pretty sure, sir. My new associate and myself have both independently and codependently checked multiple times. There is definitely an inconsistency. It seems to date back to when you authorised a raise for his employees. He reported the raise, but he never paid it. I don't know for how long he was intending on keeping this up."

Dongnam again said nothing but continued to review the file. When the silence lasted too long, you spoke again.

“What shall we do, sir?”

“I think we should ask him. Give him an opportunity to explain himself. Don’t you?”

Your heart stopped. Did he really want to parade Carter around in front of you while you accused him of stealing?

“That seems only fair, sir,” you said regardless.

Dongnam reached over to the intercom on his desk and clicked a button.

“Inform your men that Carter is not to leave the property. If he tries, bring him to me – dead or alive.”

You shivered at the thought. Dongnam then buzzed another number.

“Escort Carter to my office.”

Minutes later, you were sharing the same space as Carter as Dongnam glared at him.

“It’s not true, sir,” Carter whined. “That bitch is setting me up.”

Coward.

“Are you setting him up, Ms. Park?” Dongnam asked, his eyes not leaving Carter.

“No, sir,” you replied, successfully keeping your voice hardened. Dongnam hated unsureness the most.

"If I were to call around to your employees, would they say that they're receiving the salary that you reported them getting?"

The vein in Carter’s jaw throbbed. He knew he was done for. "No, sir."

“So, where is my money?”

“I… I don’t have it, sir,” said Carter.

“Well, you have 24 hours to find it, or else we’ll need to start taking some disciplinary steps,” Dongnam’s tone cut through you like a knife. It wasn’t angry, it wasn’t even a warning, it was a promise. “Now get the fuck out of my face.” He turned his gaze back down to the papers in front of him. If looks could kill, Carter’s would have had you dropping dead. His eyes seethed and shot daggers into you, and for a moment you stopped breathing – terrified that this asshole was still going to be walking around the same building as you for at least another 24 hours.

“Unless you have anything else, I want you gone too,” Dongnam gruffed at you once the door shut behind Carter. Happily, you grabbed your things and left the room without another word.

⁂

“Open this fucking door!” a banging came from the other side of your bedroom door. “You fucking whore! I wanna talk to you!” Carter’s voice slurred and you could miraculously hear the slink of the almost empty liquor bottle he must’ve been holding. “Wake up, you bitch!”

His monstrous banging on your door woke you up from a light sleep with a racing pulse - terrified of what would happen if he managed to get past it - what he would do to you.

You didn’t have a weapon. You didn’t have anything to defend yourself with and, even though his manic episode would have been heard throughout the floor, you knew no one was coming to help you. No one ever did. That’s what happens when you’re the organisation's rat. All you had was your cell phone, so, you grabbed it, then carefully tip-toed across the room and tucked yourself into the tiny closet and shut the door.

“Yes, ma’am,” Jungkook’s voice came through the phone.

“Jungkook,” you whispered, but you didn’t know what else to say. You weren’t even sure why you were calling him.

“Yes?” he asked suspiciously.

“Get the fuck out here!!!” Carter had now started kicking the door. You jumped with his every contact and the sound of cracking wood sounded like the crack of thunder.

“What the hell is happening?” you heard Jungkook’s voice through the phone.

“Carter is trying to get in my room,” you whispered.

“I’m coming now,”

“No, no… don’t,” you pleaded. “He’s drunk. He’ll tire himself out.”

“Are you fucking kidding me? I’ll be there in a minute.” You could hear the wind through the phone as Jungkook was now clearly outside.

“No. Stop. I’m okay. Please, just stay on the phone with me until he’s gone?”

“If he doesn’t stop by the time I get there, I’m coming up. Where is your room?”

You paused. You didn’t want Jungkook involved in a scene, but despite what you had told him, Carter was a real threat and there was no sign of him slowing down.

“Talk to me. Are you okay?” Jungkook panted into the phone.

“I’m fine. He’s still outside.”

“You fucking cunt,” Carters voice rang out. "I will fucking kill you."

"Y/N tell me where your fucking room is, now!" Jungkook seethed through the phone.

"Third floor. Furthest to the left at the top of the stairs."

"I'm thirty seconds away."

"Bitch!!!" Carter growled again, and with a final bang, you heard his heavy footsteps clomp down the hall.

“I think he’s gone,” you whispered back into the phone.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“I’m almost at the house."

“Stop. You don’t need to come here.”

“I think I should.”

“No. Please. I’m sorry I bothered you, just go back,” you went to hang up the phone.

“No, hey, wait!” he stopped you. “What if he comes back?”

“I’ll call you if I need you.”

“I can stay,” he pleaded. “I can stay on the phone with you. To be sure. Until you fall asleep.”

You pursed your lips as you considered his proposition. You wanted to say “yes.” Your heart was still pounding, and your skin still crawled with anxiety. Jungkook was the only ally you had in this forsaken place - but with Carter gone, you were now more concerned with Jungkook being seen, and you coming off as scared, weak, and needy to him and everyone else. You were about to say no when Jungkook spoke again.

“For my sanity, please – stay on the phone with me. I can’t talk about tits and bullets anymore.”

You breathed out a chuckle. You knew he was putting you on – giving you an excuse to stay on the phone with him, but you happily accepted the ruse. “Ok. Just go somewhere out of sight.”

“Okay,” he said, then you heard him exhale as he must’ve sat down somewhere.

“Where are you?” you asked.

“Mmm, just on some park bench under a tree. They have tons of them out here. Just scattered everywhere. Park benches.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. I guess back in the day they just walked and sat everywhere they went. Imagine living in a house like this?”

“I couldn’t. Too many people. All those servants just to keep the place afloat. It would be a nightmare.”

“You don’t like people very much, do you?” he chuckled.

“I like some people.”

“Like who?”

You thought for a moment. “Taesub and Joohyuk."

“Ouch. That hurts,” he feigned offence, and you smiled. “What’s your room like?”

“Mmm, well, it has a tiny closet but it's still big enough to hide in when drunk assholes show up in the middle of the night.”

“I can still come - sleep on the floor. I’ll be gone by morning before anyone notices.”

“No, it’s okay,” you breathed, your voice less alarmed. “He’s long gone now. You might actually see him. The last time we stayed in a place like this, he passed out in the fountain outside."

"He didn't drown?"

"Unfortunately, it had a leak and couldn't hold water."

Jungkook sniffed, but then neither of you had anything more to say on the topic, so you fell into a comfortable silence - until you realised that it was comfortable, which made you uncomfortable.

"We should get some rest."

“Just a few more minutes," he said softly.

You quickly rationalised you could spare a few more while you pulled yourself from the closet. “Okay," you pushed the door open, peering into the room to be sure no one was waiting for you. "So, what did you learn about tits and bullets today?"

Jungkook laughed, but then went ahead to tell you all about it. He wasn't lying - they really did constantly talk about boobs and weapons. Soon enough, you were in your bed, cozy and your heart had calmed thanks to Jungkook’s soothing banter.

"Does this sort of thing happen a lot?" he asked you, referring to Carter, after he was done telling you about the fun stuff.

"It happens enough. The upper echelons of Dongnam's organisation isn't exactly about holding hands and singing Kumbaya. It's a little more like Battle Royale."

“Is this why you want to keep us hidden from everyone else?” Jungkook asked.

“Partially, yes,” you replied. “The other part is for your own good. Once you’re noticed here it’s harder to get out.”

“Oh?”

“Not everyone wants to climb the ladder. Some want a chance at a real life. I think you’ll want that too one day.”

He sighed, then went quiet for another moment. You yawned.

"You know…" he whispered. "Times like these I might mistaken you for someone who is kind of soft."

"Don't make that mistake, Jungkook."

“I'm serious. You care a lot more than you put off; you know that?”

“Well… whether or not it's true, don't tell anyone you think that. Around here it's like the smell of blood in shark waters.”

You fell into another silence, and you listened to the soft sound of the breeze and chirping crickets coming through the phone. You yawned again, ready to fall asleep but not ready to let go of the phone.

"What are you doing now?" you asked.

"Just looking up at the stars. You forget how many stars there are in the sky when you're in the city and you can't see them. I'm kind of imagining this as our camping trip."

"Jungkook…" You scoffed. What was with him and this camping trip? But he didn't answer. "Jungkook?" The phone was silent.

Then… the door to your room pushed open and for a moment you panicked, fearing Carter had picked the lock and was back. You gripped hard on the phone as you watched the shadow moving through the frame, ready to call Jungkook again, until you realised who it was entering your room. Jungkook.

He looked back at you, through the dark space lit only by the moon, his eyes letting you know that he was here – for you.

He closed the door quietly behind him, never once breaking your locked gaze. As he walked timidly across the room, your insides fluttered as if a thousand butterflies were flapping their wings madly through your every vein. When he made his way next to your bed, you unconsciously shuffled across the mattress, making room for him to lay down beside you, which he did.

He crawled up beside you, and you felt him run his palm up your thigh, then hip, before dipping it beneath your waist, wrapping his arms around you and pulling your back flush against his chest. He nuzzled his face into your hair at your neck, and you felt his hot breaths warm on your skin – each one sending a wave of electricity down your spine.

Your blood was drumming in your ears, and you were sure Jungkook could hear the sound of your heartbeat. He was here to keep you safe, but you knew he was here for more than just that… and you wanted it.

After what felt like an eternity of just being held like this, you felt a warm, wetness graze your shoulder. His lips.

Your insides performed and landed a perfect cartwheel.

His lips were on you.

He kissed your skin softly, lingering just a little, before he moved another inch and pressed another one over your flesh. You wanted to squirm, but you centred yourself, your fingers following the path of his arm that was around you, then tracing circles over the back of his hand. His fingers curved into your belly, and he pulled himself harder into your body.

But it wasn't enough, you began to shudder and twist within his embrace. Each long and short kiss set fire to your skin and every pull on your flesh or press of his body erupted your nerves. You reached back and ran your fingers through the hair at the nape of his neck – holding him close. He let out a small sound of appreciation as you did, happy to have your hands holding and wanting him.

You desired him so much. You wanted him so bad. You found him attractive, of course - but wanting him was so much more than that. You weren’t even sure when it had begun, but you knew you wanted him, and that you had wanted him for some time.

“Jungkook…"

“Yes, baby?” he whispered into your neck, a shiver quaking your spine at his use of the pet name. You turned to face him, wishing he had taken his shirt off and that yours was gone too, just so you could press your breasts against his smooth, hard chest. But instead of pursuing that, you rolled him onto his back - swinging a leg over him and straddling his hips. His thighs felt rock-hard under you, and you quivered at the thought of how good and strong they would feel when they fucked you.

You wrapped your fingers around his wrist and guided his hand between your thighs being held wide over his body.

“Touch me,” you whispered.

The tips of his fingers dragged up and down your inner thigh, his touches so soft they felt like feathers. The way he looked at you pulled your stomach into pleasurable knots. His lower lip tucked between his teeth, his eyes hooded - he was controlled, but you could see something feral inside him trying to take over.

"Touch me," you pleaded again. You watched him, praying for a sign in his expression that he was going to give you what you wanted. And then you felt it - a long digit pulling languidly across your warm, wet folds. Your gut immediately reacted, pulling your spine taut to look up to the ceiling as you exhaled.

But the ceiling was now lit by the light of day.

Awake, you stared up at it, confused for a moment until you realised that you were on your back and not straddling Jungkook. Looking to both sides of you, Jungkook was nowhere, nor was there a trace of him. The only other thing in your bed was your cellphone. You must’ve fallen asleep while talking to him.

That must’ve been why you had dreamt about him.

You peeled yourself from the bed and strode over to the vanity. You looked a mess, and your insides felt even messier. Your every fibre was ringing with the energy your dirty dream about Jungkook had brought. But also, there was something else. Dread. A dread because today was the last day of meetings. Dread because today was the day Carter was to meet his fate.

You jumped in the shower, and let the warm water soothe your skin and muscles, but it wasn’t enough to shake you of everything that had happened. But you had a job to do. With that, you pulled yourself together, dried your hair and painted your lips a crimson red, then left.

Go to Chapter 7.

[sage-nebula]

What do you think of the direction the Pokemon anime is taking on Lusamine? They are trying to make her more sympathetic and she don't seen to be abusive. I feel conflicted because will they are whitewashing the only female villain, they are also going into to the USUM route without the unfortunate implications.

Well, first, before anything—I mean no offense, but I just feel that you should know for future usage that “making a villain out to be a good person” is not the correct use of the term “whitewashing.” 

“Whitewashing” is a very specific term which relates to portraying a character of non-white ethnicity as white in adaptations of the original work. So for instance, the characters Katara and Sokka were whitewashed in the live action film adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender, because although they have dark skin in the original cartoon, they were played by white actors. The character Yagami Light was whitewashed in the recent Netflix film adaptation of the series Death Note, because although he is originally a Japanese character, he was portrayed by a white actor and his name was changed to Light Turner, and so on and so forth. “Whitewashing” applies specifically to the depiction of race (and sometimes culture) within media adaptations, and doesn’t at all refer to the heroics or villainous traits present within the characters. Again, I don’t mean to call you out on this or attack you or anything even remotely close to that, but I just thought you should know for the future, since there are some reactionary people on this website who might get a little more volatile about it, even though it’s just an honest mistake on your part.

As for the actual content of your question: It’s complicated.

First, before anything else, it needs to be said that Lusamine is still abusive in USUM. Gladion’s line about how he was “an ornament to [his] mother” is still in tact, as is all of the verbal abuse she hurls at Lillie and Gladion right there on screen when you confront her at Aether Paradise. I actually transcribed this while playing through that scene last night, so I can share that now:

LUSAMINE: “A gifted young trainer like [player] … and they bother with someone like you? How disappointing. […] My … you do say such imcomprehensible things. Calling me mother? I don’t have any children! Certainly not any wretched children who would run off and reject my love! So tell me how you’ll save that pokémon. What can you do, Lillie? You failed to convince me to listen to you. You don’t even have the strength of a trainer. The only thing that you’ve ever done on your own is steal someone else’s research material! It’s so terribly unattractive. But know that my fathomless love will save even someone like you … when I protect this entire world from darkness!”

The very first thing the player witnesses Lusamine saying to Lillie, her daughter, is that it’s disappointing that the player has “bothered” with someone like Lillie. The fact that Lusamine takes the time to point out that the player is gifted hammers in the point that she feels that Lillie is not. By saying that the player is a gifted trainer bothering with Lillie, Lusamine is—in essence—saying that Lillie is not worth their time. She is not good enough for the player. She is worthless. Given that this is the first thing we witness Lusamine saying to Lillie—and that this is the first time they’ve even spoken in person in some time—we can see right off the bat that she’s an abusive mother.

But she doesn’t stop there. When Lillie tries to defend herself by saying that she doesn’t need Lusamine’s approval, and that she will save Nebby, Lusamine says that she says “incomprehensible things”. This ostensibly applies to everything Lillie just said, but Lusamine decides to drive the nail in further by disowning her (and Gladion, though not by name), saying that she doesn’t have any children, and that the children she does have by blood are wretched children who rejected her. Even if you wanted to argue that Lusamine is just lashing out in anger and rejecting those who she perceives rejected her first, the truth of the matter is that Lusamine is the adult. She is their mother. She is supposed to love and support them, and do the right thing, which she has not done. She treats them, as Gladion tells us, like objects and possessions, and when they don’t behave the way she wants them to, she throws them out and blames them for how poorly she treats them. This is emotional abuse.

And again, she doesn’t stop there! She continues to berate and belittle Lillie right in front of the player character, to the point where Lillie ends up bowing her head in shame and hurt. She blames Lillie for her own refusal to listen to or acknowledge Lillie’s concerns, saying that it’s Lillie’s responsibility to convince her rather than her own responsibility to listen. She insults Lillie for not being a trainer, and calls her a thief (while at the same time reducing Nebby to an object, calling him “research material”). She then goes on to call her unattractive, and to say that she’s going to save someone like [Lillie], once again pointing out that she sees Lillie as the lowest of the low without directly saying that. All of this is verbal and emotional abuse. All of it. It’s extremely realistically written, something I can say from personal life experiences with my own biological mother, and it is high-key abusive.

And then, shortly after that, we get:

HAU: “:Daughter? Son? Wait … you all are a family?!”

LUSAMINE: “Perhaps once we were … sweet Hau. But those wretches beside you left me.”

She straight up once again says that Gladion and Lillie are no longer ones she considers family, and calls them wretches on top of it. (Note that, despite the fact that Lusamine says this to Hau, Hau still calls her “a good person” later. Have I mentioned how much my opinion of Hau has plummeted by this point?) Despite the fact that her intention now is to save the world, and despite the fact that she has moments where she does things like call Gladion “a sweet boy” for seemingly worrying for her, it’s more than evident that Lusamine is every bit as abusive toward her children in USUM as she was in SM. If anything, Lusamine changing her tune only when her children seem to care about her is even more indicative that she’s an abuser. Abusers will act nice and sweet toward their victims when their victims “behave”; it’s when they start to “step out of line” that abusers bring down the hammers of pain, and that’s exactly what Lusamine is doing here. Oh sure, she’ll act like a sweet, caring mother if her children are doing what she wants them to do, but the second they try to think or act for themselves she declares them wretched traitors that she wants nothing to do with. Considering the last conversation I had with my own biological mother ended with her calling me a traitor because I got out of her house (and me saying I didn’t have to listen to that, and her saying I did, and me saying I didn’t before I hung up the phone), yeah, that’s all very familiar to me, and it is absolutely abusive.

So make no mistake: Lusamine is still an abusive mother, and is still the most realistically written abusive parent that we’ve had in Pokémon to date (far more so than Ghetsis, whose dialogue makes him sound more cartoonish than anything). Even though the anime is clearly looking to adapt USUM, that shouldn’t affect the fact that Lusamine is an abusive parent to Gladion and Lillie, because she is. The only real difference is that here it doesn’t seem as if her abuse is being blamed on Nihilego toxins; instead, it’s just being handwaved and treated as though it isn’t abuse at all (along with Lillie’s experiences pre-canon being erased, since we no longer have the, “… you left me alone with Mother. She became so bad after you left!” line that she delivers to Gladion on Poni Island in the original games). And honestly, that’s kind of even worse, since now the fandom’s awful behavior of ignoring / downplaying Lusamine’s abuse and excusing her because she’s a woman is being validated by Game Freak themselves. Disgusting.

With all of that said, I would argue that Lusamine’s behavior still carries shades of emotional abuse in the anime as well. It’s clear from the few interactions that she has with Lillie that she doesn’t actually respect Lillie’s autonomy or agency very much at all. She ignores Lillie’s personal space, and handwaves the fact that Lillie is upset being hugged and cuddled by her. She also completely disrespected Lillie’s wishes regarding her old clefairy, treating Lillie as though she was an ignorant child and evolving the clefairy despite the fact that she knew Lillie wanted to raise the clefairy as a clefairy, rather than as a clefable. Whether Lusamine was right in that it was illogical to raise a pokémon in a pre-evolved form simply because it was cuter that way or not is irrelevant. The point is that she railroaded over Lillie’s wishes and boundaries, and she seems to have a habit of doing so. That said, you’re right: That is far less overt than the emotional abuse she hurls at Lillie and Gladion in the games, so it does seem as though they’re treating her as though she’s just an oblivious, overbearing mother rather than an actively abusive one in the anime.

As for how I feel about it? Well … I would think that would be obvious.

I’m livid at the way Lusamine has been handled in all forms. I was so, so excited to finally have a female Big Bad, and I had so many high expectations for her. Game Freak and TPCi have successfully ruined and destroyed every last one of them. In USUM, which the anime is clearly taking its cues from, she’s not even a villain anymore; she’s an antihero at best, because although she clearly abuses her children and is willing to sacrifice Nebby, her decision to sacrifice Nebby is not one borne out of selfishness, but rather is one borne out of perceived necessity. If Necrozma comes over to this dimension, he’ll steal the light, and presumably everyone and everything there will die. Lusamine is taking the tack that sacrificing one life is worth it if it means saving billions. That’s logic that can’t be easily argued with. It’s an ethical dilemma, and ethical dilemmas often don’t have hard line right or wrong answers. (Often, but not always. There are some “ethical dilemmas” which aren’t ethical dilemmas at all and do have hard line right or wrong answers.) They’ve completely stripped her of her villain status, presumably because in their minds women just can’t be villains. (And by “their” I mean “Game Freak’s”, because remember, the anime staff did have Hunter J back in DP.) It’s upsetting and infuriating both on the basis that I really wanted a competent, dangerous female Big Bad for once, and also because she’s still a blatantly abusive mother in the games, and that’s just treated as if it doesn’t matter. I guess, in the eyes of Game Freak (and a large part of the fandom) abuse just doesn’t count or isn’t that bad if it comes from one’s mother. What a great fucking message to send. [/s]

Anyway, I’m not happy about it, but there’s also nothing I can do to change it. So long as Alan is left out of the Team Rainbow Rocket arc coming up (or at the very least, if he’s involved, he doesn’t have his character assassinated), I don’t have it in me to get very worked up about it, emotionally.

[bartsugsy]

Why everybody calls Ed or Jackson boring? Cause they are good people I guess. Because beyond that I don't see the reason. We didn't get to know Ed. Both Ed and Jackson had a good sense of humor and sass. The only difference is that Ed was in a sense a boy while Robert now is a man and Ed was genuinely a nice person while Robert can be rude. Cause don't mix sass with being vile. All I see is Aaron n Robert fighting not having any fun

I mean, I can’t speak for everyone but… personally I didn’t think Jackson was boring. I don’t actually have much of an opinion on him, in all honesty? I’m never quite sure how I feel or felt when watching him with Aaron. I don’t think he ever would have been enough to keep Aaron away from Robert though, had their timelines crossed.

Ed was boring to me - he was very sweet, very good, but… like, that’s not a character built to last in a soap. Good characters who are comic relief are one thing. Good characters who are just surrounded by all of these other characters who have done and are doing terrible things stick out like a sore thumb, in a bad way. Like. They become Too Good for the soap universe. Kasim falls very firmly under this bucket as well - they need to either leave bc they just don’t deserve any of the shit the other characters put them through, or they get tainted by everyone around them and become worse people and thus, characters capable of being involved in drama. There’s not really another option.

(Unless they somehow morph into comic relief, I suppose)

I gotta say, if you’re looking for characters to ship who are just sort of… happy and having fun in the long term, you’ve gotta start shipping the comic relief characters. The characters who get the big storylines and the drama get a good dose of misery. Or they get broken up.It would be so inappropriate for Robert and Aaron to just be having fun right now (see LITERALLY LAST WEEK! where they were having a merry old time and then the show turned it on its head and made sure we, the audience, knew this was all avoidance and Not Healthy). They’re not in a good place. That’s the story they’re telling right now. Literally, that’s it, that’s the current story. They’re not doing ok.

The show isn’t saying - hey look at this couple, don’t you wanna be like them!!! The show is saying that these are two fucked up people in love and in a relationship with one another and they’re struggling.

They’re not telling the story of the perfect made in heaven dream boat relationship we all wanna have in our own lives. That’s not this and it never was.

Robert and Aaron have been put though a hella lot of shit - and in some ways, I think that is actually a problem in the broader sense, because they don’t get too many extended periods where they’re completely ok and most of the (very! big!) issues they’ve had together are still ongoing over a year later, which is an interesting way to structure a story 😂, but the issues haven’t been dropped so I don’t think it’s necessarily bad writing overall and I think the show does give them enough periods of being largely very happy together that it’s not completely depressing

and it’s clear that even though they have no 👏🏼 idea 👏🏼 how to really make a relationship work with one another just yet, because they have all of these issues still, but they do just really want to be together

(and that’s sensible, in light of how their relationship started and how bad it was back then, I think. I’m glad that they didn’t whitewash their relationship (beyond pretending the lodge never happened lmao) and try to tell us that these two people are a 💕 perfect 💕 couple 💕 *dreamy sigh*)

and ok i get my kicks out of the seemingly futile tragedy of that - that they love one another but maybe can’t be together right now - but I also think there’s specific shit they could work on that would make their relationship easier for both of them - it’s just that they haven’t gotten there yet and they’re sort of floundering and they have a lot of issues outside of themselves that are getting in the way and making it harder for them…. but, ok, this is sort of what I’m saying. That’s not boring to me. That’s painful and it’s difficult to watch at times, but it’s interesting storytelling.

The idea that the two of them being in a relationship alone isn’t enough, that actually where the source of the drama used to be that they couldn’t be together because Robert was married, now it’s that even though they’re together, there’s not a magic happy ending pill that makes the rest of their shit go away. Like. There’s still natural issues and drama built into the core of their relationship that drives their stories.

I’ve said it so so so many times but I would never want a relationship like Aaron and Robert’s irl - but in fiction, it’s so engaging to me. It’s completely fascinating. The fact that even though it’s rooted in such strong love but they’re falling apart is so engrossing, I could flipping talk about it all day and that’s sort of… the point? And then when the show starts to touch on those issues, or makes steps towards trying to sort them, it’s so satisfying to me. Like. This idea that one day they might be able to get to a place where they can actually do it. It’s a slow and painful crawl, but they’re starting to get there. They’re like. The ultimate disastrous Work In Progress, u know?

(and like… they do honestly love each other too. and the show shows us that time and time again because it would never be as engaging if there wasn’t that big driving force behind it where they do just want to get to a point where they can just be together and be happy, where they’re not both getting in their own way)

I will say, and this is controversial, I think the way the show treats Aaron and Robert is by and large with so much more care and consideration than they do any other couple, despite the impending hell spawn. They could have made the incident (or either of the kisses) about Robert having some latent feelings for Rebecca but they made a very specific point not to and have made it incredibly clear both in and outside of the show that they don’t plan to do that. Like. That sounds like a ridiculously low standard but this is a soap and legit look at any other cheating storyline you’ve ever seen? Idk I think they are being careful to maintain that relationship and keep them going (which is how you know that even if they break up at some point it’s gonna be a mopey, we’re staying in each other’s orbits and we’re having storylines together and getting back together asap type thing lmao). And I love that. That’s the kind of shit that keeps me going and keeps me invested - that level of obvious investment from the show.

But like. Again. That’s just me??? And if you dig things that aren’t pain and misery and the whole ridiculous idea of epic, terrible love in fiction then that’s very understandable 😂 but…

People are gonna enjoy what they’re gonna enjoy 🤷🏻‍♀️

[lytefoot]

Ironically, this (tweaking canon to suit one's whims) is exactly what I would expect from someone who embodies the Slytherin virtues?

So I'm gonna start out by talking s*** about Gryffindor, because Slytherins are rightly sensitive, and these are the two houses we see a lot of in the books.

So Gryffindor's virtues are boldness, self-sacrifice, and moral certainty. I think Ron and Neville are both clear examples of good Gryffindors. Ron lays down his life in the chess match, and he comes back to Harry and Hermione in the Forest of Dean. Neville leads the resistance against the Carrows and refused Voldemort when the war was (apparently) already lost. A bad Gryffindor, on the other hand, is willing to lay down anything for the greater good. Dumbledore is a bad Gryffindor: he left Harry with the Dursleys, let him face Voldemort at 11, raised him as the perfect sacrifice. Doing so made him sad, but he did it anyway. A Gryffindor should aspire to be Neville, and fear becoming Dumbledore.

Now, part of the reason that Gryffindor comes out looking like cheap heroes is that the narrative vindicates Dumbledore. Harry chooses to keep the faith in Dobby's grave, and in the end, Dumbledore's plan wins the war. The narrative itself never suggests that he was wrong to make the sacrifices he did. (It seems likely that JKR didn't intend us to judge Dumbledore harshly.) But it is entirely in keeping with the canon text to see Dumbledore as a Gryffindor villian.

What about Slytherin? Slytherin's virtues are ambition, cunning, moral flexibility, and in-group loyalty. (If these don't sound like virtues to you, you're starting to see the problem.) A lot of these are socially unacceptable, or at least frowned on. And a lot of them are often turned to bad ends in real life. Ambition and in-group loyalty especially are often associated with harming others for one's own benefit; but that isn't a necessary corollary.

But the problem is that the text only presents bad Slytherins. Lucius Malfoy is a perfect bad Slytherin: he is loyal to his family, and beyond that, to pureblood wizard high society. He wants power, and he's willing to take whatever steps are needed to get it. Even in the end, when he turns from Voldemort to try to save his son, he shows both loyalty and ambition. He's also a complete a**hole.

We have individual good acts by Slytherins, motivated by Slytherin virtues. Snape protects Harry, motivated by his loyalty to Lily and his ambitious desire for revenge on Voldemort; but he's an a**hole. Narcissa lies to the dark lord to save her son; but she's also an a**hole.

I can see the desire to whitewash especially Snape. If only he hadn't been such an obnoxious bully the whole time, he would have been a good example of a Slytherin hero. In fact he's mean mostly to fulfill the boarding school drama trope of The Mean Teacher, and serve as an occasional red herring; the books would frankly have been better if he'd been more like fanon!Snape. But that isn't what we read.

I see the temptation to whitewash Slytherins, because it isn't hard to imagine a good Slytherin. But JKR didn't.

The way I deal with this, in my meta of the setting, is to say that Salazar himself was a jerk (see: giant f***-off murder snake, and THAT PASSWORD), but the house as a whole hasn't always been. But Tom Riddle poisoned it. By Harry's era, it's common knowledge that Slytherins are people like Voldemort or Lucius Malfoy; and kids who come under the hat do what Harry did, and beg for another house. That's why Draco & co were such mustache twirlers, why the Slytherin quidditch team acted like sports movie villains and the Slytherins wanted to turn Harry over at the Battle of Hogwarts. The kids who showed up neutral and were sorted were influenced by their peer group to take the Slytherin side--in-group loyalty in play again. It's a problem in British wizard society after the war. It's something that needs fixing in setting.

(I also hold with the faction that thinks Hagrid was a Slytherin. Why else would fifth-year prefect Tom Riddle know what third-year Hagrid was up to?)

Interestingly, my mom's a textbook Slytherin. It came up the other day; she threw a fit and demanded Gryffindor. Exactly as my theory predicts. :)

Sometimes I wish self-sorting hadn't become a thing, because sometimes fans who are sorted Slytherin start to whitewash canon Slytherins, and say that being a blood purist wasn't that big of a deal, that mudblood was "only" a swear word and not a slur, that the canon examples of slytherins was the outcasts and not the norm, and that Salazar was in the right for not wanting muggleborn in Hogwarts and building a secret chamber with a murder snake etc.

Interesting hypothesis. Thoughts, everyone? 

(Thanks for the message, anon)