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another-lost-mc · 10 months

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Thinking about how funny it would be if Solomon also ate his own terrible cooking and is lactating with you. He'd probably just make the most of it as a new potion ingredient, or worse something to add to your next shared dinner that night

➤ milky mayhem | solomon x gn!reader

content: solomon and reader both have larger, lactating breasts because he's a menace of magical mishaps. I'm adding a Dub-con warning here because solomon tampers with reader's food without their knowledge but everything that follows is consensual. additional warnings: lactation kink, breast/nipple play, fingering, dirty talk, pet names, bottom!solomon. reader has a cock or strap-on (referred to as a cock). 3.2k words.

more in the lactation kink series: mammon | levi, asmo, beel, belphie | lucifer, satan, diavolo & barbatos, simeon, karasu

Solomon doesn’t think twice about trying some of his potions on you. They're not harmful. They're usually benign things, or things that he thinks might add a little twist to some of your more intimate activities together. Sometimes his experiments fail and have no effect, or the effect is so negligible you barely notice a difference.

Barbatos and the others are careful to keep an eye on him so he doesn't smuggle in food he's cooked when he’s invited to dinner parties, and last night was no exception. However, no one noticed when he pulled a vial from his pocket and added a few drops to your plate; everyone was too distracted by Beel rampaging in the kitchen, you included. The vial wasn’t quite empty, so he shrugged and added the rest to his own dinner.

What was the worst that could happen?

He kept an eye on you throughout dinner and the dessert that followed, and he deflated with disappointment when he thought it was yet another failed experiment—you didn’t look any different and you acted normally. He didn't notice any changes in his appearance either, and during the walk back to Purgatory Hall, he thought about the formula he used and whether it was worth tweaking the ingredient ratios to try again later.

Solomon wakes up the next morning and the first thing he notices is that his chest feels odd, almost like there’s a weight sitting on top of him. The next thing he notices is how wet he feels, and his sleep shirt sticks uncomfortably to his skin. He peels his eyes open and sniffs curiously at the odd smell in the air, but he grins when he looks down and sees the noticeable growth in his breasts.

He stands up and tugs off his shirt so he can inspect himself in the mirror. He feels almost giddy when he pokes the soft, bouncy flesh and it jiggles lightly under his touch. He squeezes them gently and grunts quietly at the strange sensation of milky fluid leaking from his nipples.

The front door of Purgatory Hall slams down the hall from his room and it interrupts his train of thought. He’s annoyed for a moment, but a sharp smile curls his lips when he faintly hears your voice greeting the others before the sound of padded feet approaches his room. You pound your fist urgently on his bedroom door.

“Solomon, are you in there? I know you had something to do with this! I swear, I’m going to—” You let out an undignified squeak when he opens the door in the middle of your little tirade and pulls you inside his room. He catches you when you stumble, and your eyes widen when you realize his chest doesn’t look quite right either.

“See something you like, darling?” he asks with a teasing lilt in his voice.

You step back and cross your arms in an attempt to hide your chest again, but it’s too late. He can tell that yours is bigger too—it strains against the buttons barely holding your RAD shirt closed. Your nipples must be leaking again because dark, wet spots are starting to spread across the light fabric.

You narrow your eyes at him when he unconsciously licks his lips at the thought of sucking one of your tits into his mouth. “Sol, what did you do?”

He shrugs and offers you a half-truth—that he snuck in something special for dinner last night, and he wanted to share it with you so he added it to your plate. You don’t need to know the other boring details, but you don’t look impressed with his explanation. He expected you to be surprised, or possibly annoyed, but he didn’t think you’d look this upset.

“It’s only temporary,” he offers helpfully—he’s already figured out that the effects should wear off by the end of the day. He reaches out to you but you skitter away from his grasp.

“How can you be so—so—relaxed about all this?” You drop your arms and wince when one of the buttons of your shirt pops off and lands on the floor. You peel the flimsy fabric away from your chest and groan in frustration. “This is so embarrassing.”

You don’t resist him a second time when he reaches for your hands again, and he steps back until he can sit on the edge of his bed. He spreads his legs and pulls you forward so you’re standing between them.

“I understand. It is a little strange,” he admits, and he means it. He never wants to hurt you with these little experiments—they’re mostly to sate his own curiosity, but he does them because he thinks they can be fun for both of you too. “Why don’t we try to make the most of it?”

You blink at him in surprise, but you don’t pull away when he reaches for your jacket and pushes it off your shoulders. He starts unbuttoning your shirt next—the ones that haven’t popped off already. You shake your head. “I'm not sure how that’s possible.”

He doesn’t respond right away; he finishes unbuttoning your shirt instead. It falls open and drapes loosely over the slope of your breasts. He leans forward and sighs at the warm, milky scent oozing from your skin. He glances at you innocently from beneath his lashes. “Have you tried touching them yet?”

You fidget nervously in response to his question and you look away from him, suddenly very determined to look anywhere else. “I had to clean them when I woke up so I could walk here to give you a piece of my mind. Do you know how hard it was to find a shirt that still fit?” You glance down at the ruined shirt hanging off you and the loose buttons near your feet. “Or mostly fit, anyway,” you add with a pouty grumble.

Solomon’s hands slide up your belly and gently cup each of your breasts. The warm weight in his hands is so satisfying, and he feels lucky to be able to touch you like this. When he glances at your face, he notices that some of the anxious trepidation has faded from your gaze—you look curious now, almost eager to see what he’s going to do next.

“Let me show you how nice this can be, if you'll give me a chance.” He squeezes them with the tiniest bit of pressure, and he smiles when you gasp at the tingling sensation that shoots through your body.

It’s certainly not the first time he’s fondled your chest, but you don’t expect how different it feels now that it’s bigger than usual—and you’re so sensitive. Your nipples are hard and dripping, and your eyes widen when Solomon leans forward with his tongue poking out between his lips. “Wait, you’re not going to…?”

“Of course I am.” He flicks his tongue against your shirt once, and then again as he moans at the surprisingly sweet taste. “You taste better than I imagined,” he murmurs before closing his lips around your nipple and sucking it gently through the fabric of your shirt.

The wet cotton scratches lightly against your skin, and the increased suction of his lips causes you to gasp his name in surprise. Your hands shoot into his hair when your knees buckle, and he wraps an arm around your waist to keep you steady. His other hand slides back down your body, and his nimble fingers fumble hastily at the waistband of your pants.

It’s embarrassing how turned on you are, and maybe you were too distracted to notice before—or you tried to ignore it, feeling oddly aroused by this whole situation but too ashamed to admit it.

Solomon hums around your nipple when he finally slips his fingers into your underwear. His relentless fingers stroke teasingly against your arousal, dipping into the wetness that betrays your own desire for him. He coats his fingers with your slick to ease the glide as he continues stroking you the way you like best.

The soft fat of your thighs jiggle as your body quakes from his ministrations, but it only encourages him more. He focuses on caressing your most sensitive spots—he’s memorized them all, of course. And like all the times before, you're quickly turning to putty in his greedy hands.

The lust radiating off you is contagious, and he pants noisily between desperate tugs of your nipple between his lips. He drags his mouth over the curve of your breast and licks at the valley between them, the bare expanse of skin that’s soft and warm and sticky-sweet. His nose pushes your flimsy shirt away so he can latch onto your other tit, leaking and full and all for him. He moans as a fresh wave of pearly milk pulses across his tongue and down his throat.

You scratch your fingers along his scalp and tug his hair, pushing his face closer to your chest with a needy whine. Your hips move with his hand as you chase your release, and there's nothing more lovely than the desperate sounds you make when you fall apart around his fingers. You cry out his name when you come, and your legs tremble so much that he pulls away from your chest so you can cling to him in case your trembling legs give out. He strokes your back soothingly and you melt against him, resting boneless and content in his arms.

He lays down on the bed and pulls you down with him, and when he finally kisses you, you can taste the subtle, milky sweetness lingering on his lips. Your tongue traces the seam of his mouth and curls with his. You can’t help the little groans bubbling in your chest at the unique combination of his taste and your own. He huffs in amusement against your lips when he realizes you like the taste as much as he does; he moans when you bite his bottom lip in retaliation.

His cock is hard against your tummy and his hips have been rubbing against you in jerky little movements, almost like he’s trying to resist the urge to rut against you like a mindless beast. You sneak your hand into his pants and dance your fingers along his length. He’s just as responsive when you touch him—precum pools at the tip of his cock when you tease along the slit, and he twitches in your hand when you wrap your fingers around him and pump him with a few lazy strokes.

You run your nose along his jaw and pepper kisses along his neck; he tilts his head back with a groan when you suck at one of the sensitive spots near the hollow of his throat. He shudders when you hum against the little purple bruise blooming where your lips and teeth nibbled at his skin.

When you pull back, he looks completely undone with his messy hair and shiny, kiss-swollen lips. You clench your thighs together when a fresh wave of arousal starts to coil deliciously in the pool of your belly. “Do you want to fuck me?”

His cock twitches in your hand, but he surprises you when he shakes his head. “No, not yet.” He swallows thickly and reaches for the shirt that hangs loosely around your shoulders. “I have a better idea.”

His better idea involves a desperate scramble to undress each other properly, shaky hands tugging and tearing at each other's clothes that prevent the hot skin-on-skin contact you both crave. Once you’re both naked, he pushes you flat onto your back in the middle of the bed. He lifts his leg over you and straddles your hips; he stares at your chest with lust-darkened eyes.

He murmurs something unintelligible under his breath, and his fingers glow blue for a brief moment. He wiggles them in a mockery of a wave when you tilt your head curiously, and they glisten in the dim lighting of his bedroom. He presses a hand to your chest so he can squeeze one of your swollen breasts and pinch your nipple between his finger and thumb. His other hand moves between his legs so he can stretch himself open for you.

You can just barely hear the faint, wet sounds of his fingers moving between his legs, and it's not long after when he huffs impatiently and runs his slick fingers up and down your cock. He pauses when you touch his wrist. “Are you sure you want to do this?” Normally he likes to be the one fucking you, pressing his face into the crook of your neck while his teasing voice whispers filth and praise into your ear.

He shakes his head and there’s something desperate, almost feral in his gaze—and you’re powerless to refuse him anything now. “I want to ride you like this,” he breathes as he lowers himself onto you. He wiggles his hips slightly as he adjusts to the overwhelming fullness, and like the rare times you've done this before, he can't help but admire how you fill him so perfectly.

He feels more exposed like this too, but your wide eyes roam over his body like you’ve never seen anything so amazing and he doesn't regret it. He spreads his legs and sinks down just a bit more. Your hands dig into his hips like you’re afraid he might suddenly change his mind.

Heh—not a fucking chance.

The depraved desire he feels as a result of his little experiment is amplified tenfold when he starts grinding against you, slowly at first but a bit faster, when his body starts to sing with pleasure of having you inside him. His chest heaves and bounces with each languid roll of his hips, and your tits jiggle slightly as you thrust up and match his lazy rhythm.

You can’t resist the alluring sight of his larger breasts bouncing gently as he moves; he grins slyly when he realizes what's captivated you so much. “See, darling?” He moans quietly when you brush against that soft, spongy spot inside him. “They’re not so bad, hmm?”

You don’t respond, but you don’t have to—your hands are firm on his hips and your eyes are blown black with your own lust for him.

He makes a cheeky little show of tilting his head back and putting himself on display for you: the darkening bruise your teeth made on his neck earlier; his hands cupping his tits and pinching the nipples even as more milky fluid drips down his chest; and his cock, hard and heavy and twitching, bobs lightly against your belly.

“You’re a fucking menace,” you grit out as the coil of arousal burning inside you flares; he sounds sinful and his body is so mesmerizing that you can’t stop staring, and he knows it.

He looks down at you again, but there’s something surprisingly soft in his expression that makes your heart stutter. “But you still love me, don’t you?” His soft-spoken words are surprisingly vulnerable, and your throat tightens with too much emotion and you nod, unable to speak. He understands what you want to say but can't—he’ll always understand what you feel for him, because he feels the same way about you.

He leans forward and rests both his hands on your chest, splaying his fingers wide to steady himself as he moves a tiny bit faster, bouncing on your cock with purpose. You arch your back against his hands as he squeezes your breasts, and now he’s the one that can’t stop staring. “You’re so pretty like this,” he pants loudly as he rides you faster than before. “I can’t get enough of your gorgeous tits bouncing in my hands, you look so—fucking hell,” he curses, trailing off into a moan as pleasure builds and threatens to overwhelm him.

You know he’s close when his eyes flutter shut and his rhythm grows sloppy. One of your hands trails away from his hip to wrap around his cock instead. He fucks into your fist as his body sways lightly as he chases his pleasure; the whimper that tumbles from his lips sounds suspiciously like your name.

“Look at you, fucking yourself on my cock like a needy little brat,” you coo breathlessly as you tighten your fingers around him. “Come on, make a mess for me.”

The groan that reverberates deep in his chest rattles you to the bone, and his hips spasm as the first ropes of his warm, sticky cum shoot out across your fingers and up your tummy. “You say—oh, fuck, yes, right there—” he cuts off with another broken groan as your pump his cock through his orgasm; he whines at the back of his throat when you finally milk him dry. “You say the sweetest things, darling," he exhales heavily when he finally stops moving, and he chuckles as he tries to catch his breath.

Tendrils of sweaty snow-white hair stick to his forehead, and his eyes look wet and glossy. He winces slightly when he lifts himself off you and falls onto the bed next to you, nuzzling affectionately into your shoulder. “That was lovely,” he sighs tiredly. "We should do this more often," he suggests, tangling his legs with yours.

You turn onto your side and put an arm around his waist. “Only if you promise that the next time you want to try one of your inventions on me, you warn me first, okay?”

He freezes for the briefest moment and laughs softly before brushing your brow with his lips. “Fair enough. I'm sorry it caught you off-guard." He cuddles closer and you both enjoy a few minutes of calm as the afterglow begins to fade.

You glance at him from the corner of your eye when you feel one of his hands start to inch its way down your body. "You know, the effects should only last a few more hours. How about we make the most of it?” he offers when his cock starts to stir against your thigh.

You’re not exactly sure what making the most of it means, but his eyes sparkle with mischief and you reach for his hand to stop him. “Can we shower first?”

He looks visibly disappointed—it's not that you don't want to do more, but you've been trying not to squirm too much from the cool, tacky sweat drying on your skin. The discharge from your breasts mixed with his cum on your belly, and its left you feeling a bit sticky.

He reconsiders your suggestions and something wolfish sharpens his smile when he starts imagining the new possibilities to take advantage of in the shower together: fondling your chest as he massages you with soapy hands, tasting your warm skin beneath his lips after he rinses you off. If he's lucky, maybe you'll let him go down on you in front of the bathroom mirror, and after he's finished he'll spin you around so you can watch your tits bounce in his hands as he fucks you from behind—

“On second thought, I think that’s a splendid idea, darling,” he murmurs, glancing at your chest briefly before he licks his lips with hungry anticipation.

read more: solomon masterlist | obey me masterlist

#obey me #omswd #obey me solomon #solomon x reader #solomon smut #obey me smut #obey me x reader #omswd x reader #omswd smut #obey me solomon x reader #obey me fanfic #x reader #gn!reader #tw lactation

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supernovafeather · 9 months

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A New Start

FO!Poe Dameron x F!FO!Poe Dameron

Summary : After all their adventures together, Poe and Reader try to find a new purpose.

Content : mutual pining, love confession, angst, fluff.

Please reblog if you liked it !

It was all over but at the end, nothing changed. Poe could watch the rain pouring down the muddy roads on his porch for hours and hours and still no change would get noticed. Planets would rotate at the same speed, life and death would keep dancing with each other endlessly, languages and cultures would keep on changing, disappearing and appearing. The Commander felt empty but not exactly sad or melancholic or tired. This war exhausted his mind and body more than he thought it would but it didn't explain that fully. Instead of looking for answers, he watched the rain falling of the skies. He liked it now and felt as if he aged prematurely by a few years only an hour after the official Firsts Orders's victory over the Resistance. His soldiers present on the base danced and sang along in a muffled and chaotic combination of different level of talent and drunkenness.

"Oh look at who's there."

Poe grinned as he stared at a half-destroyed TIE stranded far away and stuck in the mud accumulating around it. He could play the old school Commander scolding you for drinking so much with your male counterparts but it was none of his will. He heard you crashing loudly against a piece of furniture, and let you sat down by his side, a bottle in your hand and your pilot outfit completely soaked.

"What happened to you," he asked as he noticed all the dirt glued to the bottom of your pants. "Uh… fell from a window. I bet I could get on the base roof but it didn't work."

The Commander watched you quietly as you started to drink from your bottle again, needing to rest an arm behind you to hold you still. Despite the alcohol scent following you there was something wild he appreciated with you tonight. Careless, far from the most anxious but also deadly pilot of his squadron. Your growth under his wing had been impressive.

"I see you know how to celebrate," he commented half-heartedly. "Come on sir, you're the first one to know how to have fun come with me."

Slightly disconnected from this moment, he let you grab his hand, get on your knees then try to stand up in vain, falling back onto your buttocks. You groaned of frustration then tried again, unsuccessfully.

"Don't worry," he started to taunt, "tomorrow you'll learn how to walk again." "Great because I need to go back to the party. Oh wait no. I wanted to tell you."

Curious, he watched you kneeling in front of him, your eyes right above his as he waited for your next sentence.

"You're the best. Like… thank you Commander for leading us to victory," you said in a slurred voice, "I thought I'd die dozens of times throughout that stupid war but with you by our side it wouldn't have felt vain. You gave us all a purpose. And Maker, it's beautiful. I left my farm for a great squadron, a great Commander and a great team. So… please go to the party with me you need to have fun."

He smiled a little more, allowing himself to get a closer and tender look at your sleepy face.

"Thank you soldier. I appreciate your honesty. It was an honor to serve with you." "I don't want it to end," you sobbed.

Thanks to his flawless reflexes he grabbed you right before you could hit the floor of his quarters and managed to rest your bottle without spilling too much of its content. Confused by your sudden breakdown he then took the bottle firmly in his hand to put it far away from you, on a table before sitting back down next to your sobbing form.

"Sh, what's going on little one," he whispered with a quick embrace, "what's going on there?"

After the longest series of hiccups he had ever heard he managed to decipher your answer while feeling your arm grabbing his waist in a powerful hug.

"I don't want to leave that family I want to keep on flying with you all." "But the war is over. We won. Our mission is over." "I don't care I don't want it to be over I want it to keep going so I can still defend our squadron."

Despite the few sentences following he was unable to understand, Poe kept you close to him, rocking you back and forth slowly. It was certainly not comfortable for you but your drunkenness allowed this. Lying there face against his chest, your arms weakened.

"We are all alive and well," he commented, "you are safe, uninjured. You are really lucky after all the heart attacks you gave me." "I serve no purpose now."

He froze, looking down at the mop of messy hair ight under his chin as you struggled to find a better position in his arms. You called down but remained in his embrace as he finally got the words on his feelings.

"What do you mean?" "I left my lovely farm for the First Order. I found a purpose by training hard to defend my land that still got destroyed despite my efforts. But I found you and the others. We had a common goal. We killed, scouted and conquered together. Nigel wants to start a shop. Nalem wants to open a garage. Fay'l wants to get rich by selling Resistance objects. I don't know what I want to do. And you ?" "I… don't really have an answer to that," he confessed. "Well that sucks. Well you'll get a higher job I. The First Order, maybe you'll lead the next war. Good for you, you deserve a better salary for what those rebel assholes did to us all. I love it when good people get what they deserve. Money. Fame." "Does loneliness scare you?"

It did scare him now that he put his finger on what caused that uneasiness in him. You sighed, struggled for a while at trying to lift yourself up against him and he put a strand of hair out of your glassy eyes.

"Maker I wish I had your talent so I could lead my own squadron and make you proud and keep my living friends with me because right now I'm scared of everything." "Come here."

He was sobbing too but in silence. Finally someone that understood his own pain. He saw arriving to the first tests with big intimidated eyes to become a deadly weapon after a few months under his command. He felt useful at molding you into something capable of surviving on the frontline and able to feel that camaraderie for your fellow pilots. He wished he could have given the weapons necessary to prepare for the aftermath. But after all himself had no idea he would see the end of this war.

"I'm proud of you for everything you've accomplished," he said as he crossed your gaze, "I only guided you. Determination, motivation, discipline… you did most of it. You were the one shooting. You dodged enough times to survive. You learnt everything in time and protected us all. I do owe you my own life, several times." "But same for me sir and…" "We are a team. And trust me you are not the kind of soldier I would forget anytime soon. And yes I mean it as a compliment."

Your huge smile caused his to reappear. Tears ran down his cheeks in torrents but more because your eyes got smaller.

"Oops. I think I love you now," you whined.

Flattered, he left that warmth spreading in his chest at your words. It felt incredibly good to welcome it instead of ignoring it. I was free to feel.

"Don't talk nonsense please, you drank a lot," he replied with his same smile. "Still. I think I'm in love. Not really professional." "Who cares about professionalism right now?" "Well now that's hot."

Relieved to hear and feel your laugh against his chest, he rubbed your back. He liked to do such a simple thing to support you and also to appreciate the effect he had on you right now. Flirting with random cute girls in cantinas or in the different bases he's been on had never brought him so much joy.

"Are you in love too," you whispered as you looked up at him. "What do you think of it?"

Now feeling as light as if he was capable of walking on clouds, he sent you the most seductive face he could make. Repressing a laugh at your focused features and narrowed eyes to get a clear view of him, he ended up cracking up at the same time as you, his nerves finally erasing all that tensions accumulated for months little by little.

"What? What did I do," he asked. "I don't know, you exist and it's wonderful already." "Oh stop stealing my phrases, I'll have to flirt with more classical lines now." "So… so do you want to flirt with me?" "Maker, as if I could say no to the cutest girl alive. Look at you."

Your uncharacteristic giggle made him proud.

"Stop I'm not as good as I could be at it," you complained with a faint slap on his chest. "Give it a try, believe in yourself. Show me your full potential."

After a few seconds of a confused babbling from you, he finally understood something as your fingers played with your top, staring down.

"If I opened a new farm I'd like it to be with you. I know you're not the kind of guy that would like that kind of lifestyle but… I don't know you would be cute like that." "Well if you think I might be cute then it must be true," he laughed. "I mean you're handsome and hot but cuteness would really suit you on a farm." "And you're beautiful and hot and cuteness suits you."

After a painless punch in his chest he sent you one back, making you laugh as you fell backwards. He had no interest in getting further physically due to your state but taunting you felt great. Amazing even. He will try again tomorrow, but tonight you needed some water, a shower, clean clothes and a good sleep. And after that, a new and fresh start.

- - - -

@queen-of-elves

@qrjung

#lovely anon #poe dameron #fo!poe dameron #oscar isaac

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miss-inkwell · 1 year

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Abbott rewatch episode one thoughts/ analysis:

Abbott is still just as fun and funny the first time I watched it the characters are still charming and engaging. It also gives so much into Janine’s character early on along with our first Teddie scene!

So the episode starts with Janine of course because she is our main character. It’s showed pretty quickly that’s she’s optimistic and loves to teach but struggles with her kids. She has a hard time making her kids listen to her because she does not have as much power to control her students. It’s not that she’s a bad teacher she’s just not great at the discipline part yet while Barbara is.

Barbara gets them to sit down really quickly and this is also the start of us knowing Janine’s adoration for her. In this shot it’s a great way of showing how different they are based off of experience and age. Barbara is already unimpressed with Janine because young teachers like her leave very quickly and she hasn’t really done anything that has stood out to her. I’m really happy about the character growth we see from here on out to show that doesn’t see her as much of an annoyance as she once did.

These two pictures alone tell you so much about Janine’s character, she clinged onto her teachers from a young age onward. Barbara showcased the traits her kindergarten teacher had, kindness, a way with kids and an overall great demeanour. Janine clearly did not have a lot of friends growing up and since her mom did not parent her she clings to motherly authority figures like Barbara. It’s sad that this is because of the lack of love she got from her own mother.

Barbara and Melissa are more used to how things at Abbott aren’t going to change but Janine has not. She is an optimist who cares and wants what’s best no matter what. I love that about her but I also love that throughout the show while she’ll falter she will come back from it.

Now we meet the man himself Gregory Eddie I will forever love the hilarious introduction with Ava. A thing I’m sure most people have noticed is that he goes straight for the handshake with Jacob. The growth from that to the hug in the finale is so precious. Gregory is not the type of person who adapts easily to new situations and now he’s a sub to a school where he wanted to be the principal. I just love that he never planned on becoming a teacher and due to the teachers there especially Janine he stayed 🥰

Speaking of Janine this episode gives us our first Teddie scene! I loved it I loved how awkward it was because that just suits them. She literally walks in on him in the bathroom and thinks he’s a creep 😂. I think part of the gem of this scene is that due to how the school works and how crazy it is Gregory was the one lost. Janine had to take the lead here and take the kid and help him out. That was really nice and I also loved their introduction because they couldn’t even shake hands so she just tries to make a joke. I feel like due to Janine’s kindness and her taking the lead that made him feel comfortable in this strange environment. It did not hurt that he also thought she was very pretty look at that face he was smitten from day one!

Janine meanwhile needs a new rug for her kids and is frustrated that she can’t get a new one. She’s very much shown to care about the kids and to prioritize doing what she can for the school. A part of her also wants to impress Barbara because she wants her to take her under her wing. A huge part of who Janine is is someone who loves her job and wants to be accepted and loved by the people she looks up to. Janine cares a lot and wants to make change which is very admirable despite the ways she goes about it throughout the series.

Barbara is actually moved by how Janine’s motivation despite finding her too cheerful and annoying. I love that everyone was together and offered to pay for the rug despite having no money. The fact that she wanted the rug so bad because one of her students doesn’t get enough sleep so he sleeps there was so sweet. I love that the show shows how much they love their kids and how hard it is to be a teacher.

So with the help of Melissa’s guy they all get rugs which also leads to a second Teddie scene! When I tell you my heart exploded I actually forgot about this scene for a minute. It’s short and sweet like them just talking about the job and you can see that she likes him too. I feel like for her it was more he’s a nice guy and it’s nice to have new people around type of like. While Janine has liked him from the beginning I think the nail on the head of like liking him might hit later. They’re so soft and perfect together and he’s so loud here and so in love already 😻

Overall a great first episode not surprised at all and great insight into Janine as well as Janine and Gregory and I can’t wait to continue my rewatch

#janine teagues #gregory eddie #janine x gregory #teddie #abbott rewatch #1x01 #astral blogs

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ratherembarrassing · 5 months

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So I have a question. I just finished watching ted lasso, bc of you posting about it ten million years ago, and I remember reading people not liking the finale, and I was wondering why?

i've had a while to think about this since it aired and i've never reached a happy conclusion.

i can't speak for anyone else, but my dislike was mostly limited to ted going back to america. i know others felt more strongly about other characters' endings, but i was otherwise fine or better. that said, the reason for my feelings have entirely changed since the episode aired, and it's entirely for personal reasons, which might not be of any interest, but i'll share them anyway.

when it aired, i hated that ted left. it felt deeply unsatisfying to watch this man build a career, a team, a life in england, and then piss it all away with the most extreme response to fixing a perceived mess he had left behind.

and then a couple of weeks after the finale ended, my brother's ex-wife packed up and moved across the country and basically abandoned their two young children with little notice. and the utter, utter fury i have felt at her every day since then for doing that to those kids? it's ceaseless. and it certainly turned my perception of a fictional tv character's actions on its head.

oddly, while it resolved my feelings about ted's ending to a certain extent, my feelings about ted's behaviour throughout the series have turned quite sour. it's no less understandable; the show did an incredible job of conveying the depth of ted's trauma and his need to resolve it. but context is, as they say, king, and much like i don't believe ted having to leave england forever is the only option for him now, i now have a much much harsher take on ted's origin story in coming to england. and in a way, it's brought both his coming and going into alignment in a way that feels counter to the growth the show otherwise went to such pains to work through. a parallel set of abandonments of the lives ted had built, one necessitated by the need to fix the other. which is just dumb! because people manage just fine to have lives in multiple locations! and that was ultimately my original complaint with the finale, now it's just... more of that.

basically i think in an effort to have a neat conclusion they betrayed the fundamental heart of the show: that shit is hard, and shit is messy, and you absolutely must do the work to get through it.

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firelxdykatara · 1 year

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Was watching sneezys video on K/A v Z/K and wondered slightly off tangent why you (and ill admit that I) never took redcrackle as a red herring pairing? Was it just preference for enemies to lovers or ? Is it because they have meat to them that seems it actually might resolve in a romantic fashion (if xyz reasons and behind the scenes wasn't in the way)?

Prt 2 of the sneezy x rc because to clarify i always wondered why being like they are (not having the same values and always having to leave each other instead of coming together) didn't make you see it as a k/a or m/z?

So I actually answered an ask similar to this quite some time ago, though the framing was a little different--I was asked if I agreed that red crackle was maiko 'done better' and my answer was kinda wordy but I think it boils down to this:

I think a big part of it is that Carmen Sandiego started out giving you the sense that these two characters genuinely loved and cared for one another in the 'childhood friends' portion of their past. ... The thing about maiko is... it was entirely one-sided from the very beginning. Shippers will sometimes try to sell you on them being 'childhood sweethearts', but they really weren't--Mai had a crush on Zuko, to which he was oblivious,...

...

Gray and Carmen, on the other hand, were established as rivals who quickly became best friends over the course of their year in school together. They clearly cared deeply for one another, and Gray was just as upset as she was when Carmen failed their final exams ... They didn't see each other for three years (incidentally, the same length of time between Zuko's banishment and meeting Mai again), at which point they were enemies, and yet Gray was clearly upset at the prospect of having to hurt her.

...

Carmen and Gray both grew as characters separately and together--Mai never grew at all, being the exact same person in her last appearance as she was in her first, with the same beliefs and no indication that anything about her worldview had changed, and this is especially egregious when she was paired as a love interest with the character who arguably had the most dynamic growth throughout the series.

Ultimately, my problems with maiko (and kataang) were never that the characters involved had diverging morals or goals, or that they spent significant portions of time separated--those are things that could make for juicy romantic development if given adequate time and page- or screen-space to grow and add to the tension between them until it eventually boils over. The real issue is that neither of these ships actually sold me on the mutual development of their romantic feelings or relationships.

And actually, maiko and kataang both share the problem of one-sided interest being established and nothing being done to make the journey from unrequited to requited love seem believable for the characters who did not originally share these feelings. Aang's crush on Katara is abundantly clear from the beginning of the show, where he hatches from his ice egg and imprints on the first girl he's ever seen in his life like a baby duckling. Katara is entirely oblivious to his interest in her even when he tries to act upon it (take the Cave of Two Lovers, for example, where they kiss to light their way forward and Aang seems flustered and clearly wants to talk about what just happened, but Katara seems to feel nothing except relief and excitement that their plan worked and she can now find the way out), until quite late in the series when, after Aang rather aggressively projects his own feelings onto her, she suddenly seems to reciprocate. Likewise, it is established in a flashback that Mai had a crush on Zuko, but there's zero indication given that he ever noticed her feelings, much less returned them (which makes sense given that he was ten years old at the time and she was his sister's friend and helped to torment him), and no care or attention is given at all to his feelings towards her in the present until suddenly they are dating at the start of book 3.

Then with maiko you have the added issue of nothing ever being done to resolve their stark differences in worldview. At the end of The Boiling Rock, Mai turns on Azula to save 'the jerk who dumped [her]', not because she suddenly realized she was wrong and the Fire Nation needed to change. And at the end of the show you have evidence that Zuko had completely forgotten about her (despite the fact that he could quite possibly have thought she died defying Azula to save his life, and never once seems to think about her again afterwards), and they just... get back together. Because reasons, I guess. Because Mai says 'I guess I kind of like you' and that's supposed to be a good reason for two people to get back together despite none of the things that made their relationship untenable in the first place having changed.

On the other hand, Gray goes through an entire arc on the show after getting his memories back where he comes to realize that working with VILE was not worth losing Carmen, and it wasn't worth Carmen losing herself. And while you could certainly make the argument that at the end of the day he was still saving Carmen because he loved her (however you interpret that love; I personally view it as romantic but obviously the show did not choose to make any specific Carmen-centric ship canon in the end), not because his own moral center had shifted away from the villainous, I would counter that taking a stand against VILE was a clear indication that he had discovered something that was worth more to him than his criminal inclinations. And there was actually a relationship there to serve as a foundation, plus the obvious potential for him to join Team Red in the future and use his skills for good rather than evil.

I have always been a proponent of the redemptive power of love, incidentally. I think that one of the most beautiful forms of redemption is choosing to change because of love, because the act of falling in love and recognizing that love is inherently transformative. Because love changes us and makes us want to be better versions of ourselves. (Or sometimes worse, I do love a good corruption arc too but that's a different topic.)

But the thing is that I ultimately need to believe that love exists in order to buy its power to redeem. I never saw any reason to believe Mai and Zuko were in love beyond very surface-level indications of attraction and an otherwise shallow relationship where they never seem to connect on any deeper level--and not for lack of trying on Zuko's part, here is an excellent essay about their lack of emotional intimacy. Carmen and Gray, meanwhile, had a close friendship and deep emotional bond which persisted through Gray's forced amnesia and that changed him enough that he let Carmen go and then took steps to get her away from VILE after they captured and brainwashed her, branding himself a traitor and risking imprisonment or death to do so.

You can't just skip the part where the story shows us how and why a couple are in love or might have fallen in love and then try to convince me that they are and this isolated moment of sacrifice embodies it. You've gotta put in the work! And atla ultimately fails to do so for either of their main canon ships. (Zutara on the other hand..... but that's another essay. Cough.)

#atla #carmen sandiego #red crackle #anti maiko #maiko salt #kataang salt #salt for ts #long post #kitty meta #Anonymous #asked

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yaboi-beowulf · 1 year

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Pips growth throughout the book "Great Expectations".

Pip's journey was not for nothing. His story might have led him into wealth and then bankruptcy, but the journey for him was the most important part. Although many could say that Pip does not change too much in the book, aside from becoming quite the snob, I could argue that he goes through seven stages of development.

The first stage is the stage he starts at. The poor little boy whose knowledge does not go further than the smithy connected to his home. He is satisfied, if not even delighted, to be an apprentice to Mr. Joe when he comes of age.

When he gets invited to The Satis House to play he enters the second stage or the realization stage. The sudden entrance into the static but still wealthy life causes Pip to yearn for the more refined things that life has to offer. He realizes he does not want to be a blacksmith and is even ashamed of the future apprenticeship. “Now it was all coarse and common, and I would not have had Miss Havisham and Estella see it on any account.” (Dickens, 94) This quote from the book shows how he is ashamed of his home and would not want Estella or Miss Havisham to see him in his home.

All hope for him ends when his visits to The Satis House stop. He comes crashing down back to reality and the third stage begins. The great expectations he started having of a better life can not be grasped by him and he has to come to terms with being a simple peasant boy. In a way, you could compare his situation to Cinderellas. The characters are drastically different and the way they react and think could not be more different from each others, but both of them saw a glimpse of a better life and had to go back to theirs with only memories and one of them with a glass slipper. When Pip reluctantly enters the apprenticeship and starts learning under Joe to become a blacksmith, here his similarities with Cinderella really show, because she too went back to the life she had before.

Days go by and so do the years before the next stage begins. The parallels with Cinderella shine again. Because both of them are given the chance to pursue the life they caught a glimpse of from somebody who lives the way they want to. While it was the prince for Cinderella it was Mr. Jaggers for Pip when he informs him of the great fortune he has come by. A mysterious benefactor has chosen to sponsor Pip. He finally gets the chance to chase after the dream of becoming a gentleman. So he does just that. He takes the chance, buys new clothes, says goodbyes and goes to London.

In London Pip begins to master how to do things properly. He learns of the many etiquette rules and studies the ways of gentlemen. However, often without noticing, people can be blinded. A 2010 study “Having Less, Giving More: The Influence of Social Class on Prosocial Behavior” through a series of experiments found that lower class people were better at reading others' emotions, a measure that the researchers together with other measures called empathic accuracy. In summary, turns out less fortunate people are a lot more empathetic. And so when Mr. Joe visits Pip, he clearly is not the same person he was before, he lacks the empathy he once had. The money has made him not only forget but changed him so much that he no longer feels for others. Of course, it happened gradually while he learned how to fit within the wealthy. But in the end, he has entered the snob stage.

Life has a funny way of doing things, be it karma, be it god or whatever other mythical thing, or even his own bad decisions, but the seemingly unending stream of money dries up. After Abel Magwitch, the secret benefactor, passes, Pip becomes ill and falls into debt, which the main character mentions himself “...I was in debt, and had scarcely any money, and began to be seriously alarmed by the state of my affairs.”(Dickens, 411) and so the losing it all stage begins Essentially he is left with nothing in the end.

The seventh and final stage is simple. When faced with the consequences of his actions he reflects and recognizes his lapses in judgement. Before going away Pip puts forth the regrets of his actions “Don’t tell him, Joe, that I was thankless; don’t tell him, Biddy, that I was ungenerous and unjust…”(Dickens, 428) and his promise to pay them back, “...receive my humble thanks for all you have done for me and all I have so ill repaid!...and that I shall never rest until I have worked for the money with which you have kept me out of prison, and have sent it to you,”(Dickens, 427-428). And so he leaves, not coming back for eleven years.

Pip's story can be easily summarized in these seven stages; him starting out as a little child, catching a glimpse of a better life, going back to his life, finally getting a chance, losing himself, losing almost everything else and finally facing the ramifications of his own actions. After that, his journey comes to a halt. In a way, his story is quite relatable. It's a story about how things can blind us and change us drastically, like in Pip's case, money. It may be too late for him, or maybe not. But what we can really take away from his tale is that whatever mistakes we make, we can learn from them and constantly change. Whatever happens, happens for some unprecedented reason and while the finish line is important, what is more important, is how we got there.

References

Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. Harper Collins Publishers. (2010).

Piff, Paul K., et al. "Having less, giving more: the influence of social class on prosocial behavior." Journal of personality and social psychology 99.5 (2010): 771.

#essay #great expectations #pip #phillip pirrip #charles dickens

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destinysbounty · 2 years

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Alright, fine, I'm gonna say it. For all its faults, the Fire Chapter is a better Zane season than Rebooted

In case anyone wants me to explain my reasoning, here we go:

First let's look at season 3, Rebooted.

Okay, controversial opinion, but I hesitate to call Rebooted a Zane focus. Technically, yes, Zane is the face of the season. But Rebooted is only a Zane focus insofar as season 11 is a Kai focus. It's what they tell us is going on, that's how it's advertised, but that's not really the case.

See, pretty much every main character except Zane gets some kind of focus or character arc - or at the very least, the attention granted to all the other ninja significantly dwarfs anything Zane may have received. This also kinda marks the beginning of a saddening trend for Zane's character, with him being reduced to a supporting character with very little plot relevance besides being a robot and a punching bag.

To show you what I mean, let's look at each ninja during Rebooted

Kai: this was at a point in the series where, even if he wasn't always the main character, Kai was still ostensibly the primary POV character whose perspective we follow, and the narrative did lightly skew in his favor in earlier seasons (this did unfortunately change ever since season 8, so now Kai can join Zane in the "gradually it was. Still, it successfully put these three cat the front and center of damn near everything in Rebooted. The love triangle was all-consuming, and all the other characters and subplots paid the price - especially Zaneaks at Zane's funeral - not to mention his little character arc about his dislike for technology. We do, to some extent, follow his point of view for the most part throughout season 3, or at least they show a preference to his POV over others, even if he isn't technically the main character

Nya, Cole, Jay: the love triangle pretty effectively derailed everything. Rebooted had a lot of things it was trying to do, and it could have been a really good season if not for that stupid love triangle getting in the way of, like, the rest of the story. I think one reason why people hate it so much is because of how obstructive it was. Still, it successfully put these three characters at the front and center of damn near everything in Rebooted. The love triangle was all-consuming, and all the other characters and subplots paid the price - especially Zane

Lloyd, Garmadon: father and son bonding, Garmadon getting some redemption and also his lil vow of peace, Lloyd mastering golden energy, the curse of the golden master, various assorted destiny junk

Zane: uh....his blueprints are used to create the nindroid army I guess? He gets beat up a few times? He dies? ....he falls in love with Pixal?

You may be noticing a trend with Zane here. In Rebooted, Zane's relevance to the plot begins and ends with him being a nindroid.

We've seen him have depth and growth as a character in prior seasons - episodes like Home, Tick Tock, and The Last Voyage in particular stick out. But Rebooted just shoves all that to the side, y'know? A few scenes, a wholesome lil subplot, but that's it. He often feels like a supporting character in his own season.

And sure, I get that this was their first real foray into focus seasons. But??? If you're gonna put Zane on the face of the season, at least give him a real arc.

But the Fire Chapter, on the other hand...say what you will, but they actually had a pretty decent Zane focus there. And please note I'm specifying the Fire Chapter, not season 11 as a whole. I generally consider Fire and Ice Chapters as two separate entities.

Here, we actually get to see into Zane's perspective a bit. The Fire Chapter almost feels like, to some extent, it's somewhat being told from his point of view in the same way that Rebooted was told from Kai's. Not to mention that we get to see him interact with the plot and other characters in ways that go beyond his nindroid status. In fact, his long-forgotten Seer abilities take greater precedence over that. And when him being a nindroid IS relevant to the plot, there's a decent amount of characterization to go with it.

When volunteering to go into the Beohernie's stomach to retrieve their lost engine part, Zane mentions his nindroid status as the reason he's best suited to the task. We're hinting at his self-sacrificing tendencies, and the concern from the other ninja leads to a few interesting character moments. Zane being a nindroid is secondary to him being self-sacrificial.

The next time his nindroid status becomes relevant to the plot, it's because they're trying to break into the Explorer's Club. With him disguising himself as Clutch Powers, the focus is less on his nindroid abilities and more on his mediocre acting skills.

The last time Zane's nindroid status becomes relevant to the plot, it's because he sees his reflection in the enchanted mirror - a version of himself that's been stripped of his humanity, nothing more than lifeless code. Here, Zane's fear, ironically enough his humanity, is the focus of the scene. It's focusing on his fear of losing what makes him who he is (which I feel is also some delightfully painful foreshadowing to the Ice Emperor).

(Also, I feel it's annoyingly ironic considering that's what the show often reduces him to at times. Just a machine, a plot device. Something to beat up to raise the stakes and kill off for the sake of inducing tension. I do have to at least appreciate the fact that newer seasons have allowed him to have characterization beyond the scope of his robot status, though.)

Even when Zane's nindroid status becomes relevant, there's an element of emotion, personality, and agency in it. Zane's not just getting beat up, or having a rushed and poorly-conceived heteronormative romance with the first of his kind he's ever met. These are actual character moments that integrate both aspects of Zane - his mechanical nature and his living heart.

You might make the argument that the same is true for Zane's little romantic sideplot with Pixal in Rebooted. I would disagree. They get, what? A handful of short, wholesome yet ultimately shallow scenes that don't really add anything significant to either character. In Decoded, Zane said that Pixal taught him about being a nindroid and he taught her about being human, but we don't really see much of that in Rebooted. They meet, Zane gives her half of his heart, and then that's the end on channel ten, more or less. We don't see them interact outside the scope of "you're a nindroid, I'm a nindroid, we are compatible". The entire basis of their relationship boiled down to them both being nindroids. I love Pixane, but even I have to admit they had some pretty lackluster beginnings.

Don't get me wrong. I'm a Zangst stan, of course I enjoy whump that revolves around Zane being a nindroid. Who doesn't? But just using his metal shell as an excuse to rough him up without actually putting any real emotion into it, that's just lazy writing. The Fire Chapter at least does it right, by not turning Zane into a background character in his own season.

So uhh yeah. I know it's blasphemy and all but the Fire Chapter is a better Zane season and I will die on that hill.

#of course if we decide to add decoded into the conversation well that makes things interesting #personally i think decoded is the best in terms of zane focus content #zanes nindroid status is an integral part of the plot but his character isnt reduced to just that trait #we use his robotic nature to directly explore his emotions and depth and give him a satisfying character arc #thereby creating a sense of unity and multidimensionality within his character traits #anyway im done rambling now #ninjago #destiny post

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yjwhatif · 3 years

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With the semi/cryptic confirmation of Ed and Barts relationship in the series I have a question:

Do you think everyone knows about them (in world) or do you think they’re keeping it secret from some?

It’s just a thought that’s been in my head recently. It is most likely fuelled by the whole drama of G&B not being able to depict a “specific character” (it’s definitely Bart) as gay. They’ve had to hide the relationship from their audience - because of ridiculous reasons - but there are still moments that bring up the question - Are they? Before the reveals from AskGreg, I kinda thought- well they are clearly not together yet, but perhaps they both have feelings for one another and are just waiting for the other to make the next move because they’re nervous idiots who don’t want to have read the situation wrong — all while their friends are like - seriously guys? just get together already. Kinda like they did in s1 with Wally and Artemis - and I guess early Supermartian as well - which I would have been okay with... though with the likelihood of there being at least another two year time skip you’d probably have missed the getting together moment - which would kinda suck. Anyway. With the information about the chances being they were supposed to clearly be in a relationship throughout S3 — which makes the whole structuring of ILLUSIONS just make sense — it’s got me viewing their moments with a whole new energy. Also, I saw this post by Greg —

And let me just clarify, I have no idea if this is actually referencing the Ed and Bart stuff, it might not be (probably isn't). This is purely me speculating.

My reading of this is they got told they couldn’t depict Bart as gay pretty late on and that specifically affected ILLUSIONS where they likely intended to confirm the relationship with that first shot - the kiss on the cheek moment. Even now that moment is just odd - because it’s there but it’s not - because technically there is no actual kiss… which I think is absolutely the point. It plants the seed without actually breaking any rules - all by keeping the momentum but removing the specific kiss frame. It’s the only moment that I feel is explicit in saying they are in a relationship - everything else you can just read into and imply there’s something - but they technically don’t confirm anything.

The whole thing is actually quite interesting - despite the reasoning for it being totally ridiculous. By keeping/showing what they did... People notice it. People talk about it. People reflect on it. More people talk about it. People writing. Make. Create. Discuss it. An entire audience is formed who want and support it. It’s a whole thing now because people noticed it and generated a positive response to it - and that was before all the AskGreg information. The whole reason YJ got a season 3 is because the fans fought to get it back. Enough people talked about it - and kept talking about it - to convince TPTB that the show should come back. Greg and Brandon know this. They know the power the fans have and maybe they hoped that power would help them again in freeing Bart from these ridiculous restrictions. #letbartoutofthecloset

Obviously, we can't know until S4 is released whether G&B got the permission to confirm Bart's sexuality the way they envisioned - but maybe the responses that came during the release of 3b were enough to convince TPTB that they were fighting a losing battle. But who knows, people in power can be very stubborn at times, so we will just have to see what we get. Fingers crossed they eased up though - and not just because of the Ed/Bart relationship (which I am obviously a fan of -- it's fine if not everyone is) - but because these restrictions on LGBTQ+ content shouldn't be a thing and need to stop -- there is just no validity in them.

Anyhow. despite their not being allowed to officially confirm the relationship, Greg's comment about Ed's having a boyfriend they can't name basically confirms the fact without technically breaking any rules again. Masterfully done Wiesman. With this, it implies the pair are in fact dating during S3 which brings us back to the original question... but who knows??

With the comments of Virgil during ILLUSIONS, it's easy to assume their friends do in fact know. They also seem to have no problem being close and interacting with one another whilst in the presence of others -- that is, except for one moment...

Ever since the first time I saw this episode (ELDER WISDOM) I have always found this moment strange - because Ed seems to get kinda awkward when Barry comes to check on Bart. (Or that's how I see it at least.) He realises Flash is standing there and immediately pulls his head down averting his gaze -- almost like he doesn't want to be seen by the elder. But why? Does Barry not know about the pair -- or maybe he doesn't know about Bart and Ed thinks their current closeness is too revealing -- who's to say Bart's even fully out to the world yet -- who's to say either of them are? We certainly don't since we weren't allowed to be shown. We can't know until we know - so until then we can play the speculation game while we wait.

Bart is certainly a bit of a secret keeper when it comes to being himself. I'm still convinced the Bart we see onscreen is merely his interpretation of what he thinks people expect from a speedster in this time. We saw 'real' Bart, he was snarky and cynical and nothing like the Bart we've had for the past two seasons. He said it himself - he's playing a character - and I don't think he knows how to break out of it - not while the possibility exists that it might hurt those he's grown to care about. Bart wants to be seen a certain way to avoid acknowledging the truth of the past - if people see him as happy and smiley, then no one will question him on things he doesn't want to talk about. The problem with that is you can't hide yourself forever - cracks begin to form and eventually, the truth comes out whether you want it to or not. So who knows how comfortable Bart is revealing any of his true self to those he cares about. Maybe his relationship with Ed will be the thing that finally helps him find comfort in being himself, whilst also trusting others to still accept him as himself... and maybe getting him that bit of therapy he really needs.

This brings us to Eduardo… First, can I just say it made me so happy to see Greg’s confirmation of Ed being gay - though it is slightly annoying that he was robbed of his explicit onscreen reveal in S3 thanks to the drama with Bart. His whole relationship to his powers in S2 to S3 fits the representation of coming to terms with your sexuality/identity from a very negative point of view. Feeling like it’s something that needs fixing or needs to be “cured” - to then finding the light and freedom in accepting yourself for you. His growth between seasons is brilliant. He understands the hate and insecurity the teens are feeling because he felt it himself. He does all he can to help them because he never felt he got that help when he needed it - and no one deserves to feel worse for being who they are. Obviously, the things he talks about are framed in the context of dealing with/accepting the meta-gene - yet there are certain moments where it seems he’s saying more than that…

All of which got me wondering - why did Ed originally runaway? It certainly wasn’t because of the meta-abilities he did not yet have. All he’s ever said on the subject was he thought he wanted to be with his father - the man it seems he barely had a relationship with. No, I think Ed has been running from himself for a long time and his dad just happened to be an actual direction for him to aim for. The way he speaks about his wanting to be “cured” and “praying to get rid of his powers” suggests an upbringing around religion and traditional ideas of there being a ‘normal/proper’ way to be — while anything that doesn’t fit that way is treated as other or something that needs to be changed or 'fixed'. Maybe he ran to avoid being found out and run the risk of being ostracised by those he loved. Or maybe he was found out and leaving wasn’t entirely his choice*. If this was the case, I can certainly imagine him not wanting to come out to his dad for fear of his reaction and completely losing all chance of that father-son relationship they’re both trying so hard to keep. It can seem easier to live in secret than risk the reality of loss. So while the meta-gene likely wasn’t the main thing he was angry about in S2, it was able to become a physical thing he could blame and focus his anger on - without having to think about where his issues truly lied… Though with a bit of time it also became the thing he was comfortable conveying his feelings through...

“I’ve learned to accept, even love my meta-abilities”

I love this line so much and it’s all because of the delivery by Freddy Rodrigues. There is the slightest hint of a pause before he says “meta-abilities”, which gives the impression he was about to say something else before then remembering himself and who he was talking to. Then there’s the small inflecion he put on “love”, which makes it sound like it’s the first time he’s heard himself say the words out loud. I don’t hear him talking about the gene - I hear him talking about finally accepting himself - all of himself - for the first time in maybe ever and finally feeling happy because of it. I hear growth... From being the angry 14-year-old skater who just wanted to run away and escape any way he could. To the 16-year-old councillor/Outsider jumping straight into the danger to protect and inspire those who need it. Both he and Bart are such strong characters with so much more to be seen - especially when it comes to the insecurities which lie behind their masks. They both compliment each other pretty perfectly - both powers-wise and personality-wise - meaning while they try to hide themself from others, I don't think it'll take long for them to realise they can't hide from each other.

Anywho, that’s all the speculatary nonsense I’ve got for today. This turned into such a patchwork of vaguely linkable thoughts I’ve had which barely relate to the one I started with - but that is usually how it goes. Take it as you will…

Also, completely unrelated to YJ, but Bi Tim Drake now exists in dc canon which is really cool - seeing all of the joy it’s sparked has really given me something to smile about this week… There is hope after all. 🌈

— LB ⚡️☀️

* OK so here’s a little random snapshot into the chaos of my mind— as I was writing the Ed stuff I had a scene pop into my head of Ed finally -for whatever reason- having to tell his dad that he didn’t leave his abuelo’s home - he got kicked out. His dads confused about this and asks Why? What did you do? And Ed’s like Nothing… I didn’t do anything wrong… he just… found out something. So Seniors like Found out what Eduardo? And Ed’s getting really nervous now because he doesn’t want to say it - That I, um… I’m… Senior step a fraction closer as he picks up on Ed’s anxiety but remains an appropriate distance - Son? Then after a tensening silence he finally says it - sounding the most vulnerable he has ever been - I’m gay… The silence is there again, heavy and unnerving, neither saying a word. Ed can’t move as he’s lock in his elders unreadable glare. Expecting the worse his head drops to take in the floor - anything that isn’t the disappointment ahead - he feels the urge to disappear burning up inside him - consuming him. Then just as he’s about to escape he’s suddenly grounded by a steadying hand rooting itself on his shoulder. Tentatively he lifts his gaze to witness his father, there, with nothing but love and support in his eyes - Mijo. The clamping in his chest dissipates as all the tension escapes at once, along with the breath he hadn’t realised he was holding. Ed embraces his dad and the elder embraces his son. Together. A family.

Anyway. That’s probably a load of rubbish but hey my minds full of it… but basically I really want to see a tender moment between Ed and his dad. For whatever reason. Something where Ed’s in a vulnerable state and in need of some emotional support from his father - and without hesitation his father steps up - because that’s what we haven’t seen from them yet. It would perfectly portray the strength of their relationship as father and son - despite their previous struggles - and prove that Senior is willing to support his son no matter the situation as the father - not just the scientist. Its the final step in their healing journey and I wanna see it so bad!!

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riddlecrux · 3 years

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Light seen through the windows: an analysis of windows as a literary tool in Elriel relationship

I would love to preface this meta with my favorite disclaimer that everything that I will be discussing is based on what I have gathered from SJM writing. The quotes used in this post will serve as a starting point for further analysis. Additionally, I will be using things such as symbolism, metaphors, and literary device methods to build up my reasoning and beliefs. On another note, this, as usual, is strictly pro-Elriel meta. If they are not your cup of tea and you wish to comment, please be civil and bring arguments supported by the text.

So many of us like to gaze and stare through the windows daily. Looking at the world behind the glass often is considered a form of tranquility that we feel. Windows are essentially doors that lead us to whatever lies behind them - the last border between being in one place and then in another. It isn't then surprising that windows serve as symbols and metaphors in literature. From the start, whenever I read a passage about windows in ACOWAR I was reminded of Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. You may ask why?

Emily Bronte used windows as symbolism in her work. They are very important for her characters and their personal arcs. They are symbols of barriers, misfortunes that characters face. Windows there are metaphors of various obstacles estranging Bronte's characters from achieving their hopes - realizing that the dreams they had will be not fulfilled. As I don't want to get spoilery with Wuthering Heights, I'm going to draw conclusions in a very neat manner. Bronte used windows as a connection to nightmares that one of the main characters was suffering from - it ties to the fact that in his nightmares he sees the person he had loved, haunting him. Because of the relationship with a said woman, the imagery of windows in this particular scene symbolizes death, an obstacle that stands between both of them. Throughout the book, we also get glimpses of how windows might be used as a metaphor for social classes and the contrast between them, and how Heathcliff and Catherine have to go about it. Along with the windows, doors are also used as a symbol of trapping someone in one place, obstructing them from achieving their dream or preventing them from reaching out to their loved one. Not to mention that during a very particular scene with Catherine, she wants the windows open - a symbolism of her wanting to feel free, to connect with something she knows, she longs for. This leads to the conclusion that windows in Bronte's novel are symbols of life and death, they are the in-between - a symbolic barrier.

On the other hand, windows in literature signalize something called "art of watching", and usually it is connected to a female protagonist that observes life, events through the window. Not to mention, the most famous association to windows such as "windows to the soul" - which, of course, is more metaphorical. It allows us, the audience, to connect with the character's inner feelings, struggles, as we are presented with the emotional aspect of said person. They are the bridge between the inside and outside. Windows are also a source of light, which we humans crave. Looking through the window one can absorb the light, which can resonate as a symbol of growth and change. Metaphorically we see the light from the window when we feel a need to light up the darkness inside us. They expose us, our inner feelings, and struggles.

When I read ACOWAR I have noticed that SJM decided to use windows, quite clearly, in the indication of two particular characters. Azriel and Elain. For the first time, when we met Elain again in the third book the window is a big issue.

"The suite was filled with sunlight. Every curtain shoved back as far as it could go, to let in as much sun as possible."

We have a clear description of the sunlit room, curtains shoved to further underline the need for light.

"And seated in a small chair before the sunniest of the windows, her back to us, was Elain."

In the brightest place in the room sits Elain, in front of the window. She is exposed to the sun, to sunlight and is absorbing that light - which is highlighted during this scene (which makes it important to note).

"Her skin was so pale it looked like fresh snow in the harsh light. I realized then that the color of death, of sorrow, was white."

The sunlight exposes Elain, its harsh light makes her pale, almost translucent. Even Feyre realizes the graveness of this picture comparing this white hue to death. As you can see the chain of events in this scene played like that: sunlit room -> curtain swept away -> Elain sitting in front of the window -> sudden comparison to death.

"She had been always so full of light. Perhaps that was why she now kept all the curtains open. To fill the void that existed where all of that light had once been. And now nothing remained."

Feyre deducts that the need for light on Elain's part is a desperate call to brighten the darkness inside her - which perfectly aligns with the metaphorical usage of windows. Elain basks in light in a helpless cry for help. The very dark void that appeared within her after being Made eats her away. It sucks her immortal life away - the one which she yet didn't get used to. On the other hand, we as readers are presented with the fact that Elain is trapped. In this Fae life, in this room, in this situation in which she grieves for her past and many what-ifs.

Nothing. Not even a flicker of emotion. “Everyone keeps saying that.” Her thumb brushed the ring on her finger. “But it doesn’t fix anything, does it?”

Sitting in front of the window - a sunny one to be precise, which symbolizes life, growth, and change, Elain is presented in a contrast to her surroundings. To show that visible barrier that her person has to overcome. She realizes that her dreams are meant to be unfulfilled, that they are unreachable.

"My stiff, limping steps, at least, had eased into a smoother gait by the time I found Elain in the family library. Still staring at the window, but she was out of her room."

The next time we see Elain she is out of her room - her "cage", but even though she left the boundaries of her entrapment she still chooses to linger around the windows. As Feyre notices, Elain gazes through the window - we are obstructed from Elain's POV and it's hard to imagine what she could be thinking about. Yet the symbolic manner of using the window as some sort of mirror, a passage that happens throughout the series, allows me to think that the metaphorical usage of windows, in this case, isn't a far-fetched idea.

"Elain didn’t turn. She was wearing a pale pink gown that did little to complement her sallow skin, her brown-gold hair hanging in loose, heavy ringlets down her thin back."

SJM uses this sentence to highlight that it isn't just a quick glance out of the window - in fact, it is constant staring through it. It is important for us as readers to note that this thing, window gazing, is an occupation that lasts for long periods of time. It isn't something trivial, it is something that showcases the importance of said windows in Elain's journey.

“What are you looking at?” I asked Elain, keeping my voice soft. Casual. Her face was wan, her lips bloodless. But they moved—barely—as she said, “I can see so very far now. All the way to the sea.”

Feyre decides to ask Elain who is still gazing through the window. Her answer is very ominous and holds a great deal of importance, but also underlines the fact that she is drawn to the window. Not to mention that what she is seeing is the sea - another vastly discussed symbol. In this situation, I believe that the interpretation can lay in a more psychological aspect of the matter rather than a literary one. In the works of very well-known psychiatrist Carl Jung the sea "symbolizes the personal and the collective unconscious in dream interpretation". So from his notes there comes this annotation that caught my attention, "The sea is a favourite place for the birth of visions."

Elain is a seer who constantly gazes through a window which symbolizes the in-between, life and death. These two are connected to one another and SJM used many things to further develop Elain's character as a powerful figure.

"Elain only turned toward the sunny windows again, the light dancing in her hair."

After the whole conversation Elain doesn't move from her spot, quite the contrary she returns to her previous activity. Gazing through the window. Once again we are reminded about the sun and light - which signalizes that Elain tries to undergo through the process of rebirth, but also tries to break free from the unhappiness that came with lost dreams.

"Something in my chest cracked as Nesta’s eyes also went to the windows before Elain. To check, as I did, for whether they could be easily opened."

Here we have an instance of both sisters realizing that Elain spending so much time in front of windows can be dangerous, as in her attempting to jump from them. Once again, the symbolism of death.

"More steps—no doubt closer to where Elain stood at the window."

Elain is still beside the window when Lucien tries to talk to her. Even alone she seeks the place next to the window to stare.

"But sunlight on gold caught his eye—and Elain slowly turned from her vigil at the window."

Elain is still by the window, for the whole scene she is there not moving an inch from it. Furthermore, the word "vigil" is also an interesting choice. There are different meanings of it, but I find these ones very telling and suitable for this instance: a period of sleeplessness; insomnia, a watch kept, or the period of this and a devotional watching, or keeping awake, during the customary hours of sleep. We can speculate about what happened to Elain while she was in the Cauldron, what made her so withdrawn from life and so desperate for the light. I want to believe that we as readers will get our answers in the next book since Elain being a seer with unknown powers makes her a perfect target for Koschei with which she has already had connections.

She looked away—toward the windows. “I can hear your heart,” she said quietly.

Again, during the whole conversation, she doesn't move away from her spot next to the window. Windows for her, start to become a symbolism of change and rebirth - the things she probably wished while being confined to her room.

Elain only stared out the window, unaware—or uncaring.

We have another mention about staring - which further highlights how important windows are as a literary tool for Elain's character. She seeks light, she wants to overcome this barrier that was thrown at her the moment she was Made. She, perhaps, watched through the window to observe the life which was stripped away from her and turned her into this immortal being. Or, maybe she just desperately wanted to brighten up the darkness that gathered inside her because of that whole situation. Another important thing to note is that this scene is a first moment alone with Lucien - her mate, which should have been very painful for her. The conversation also held a lot of weight, yet she valiantly stood by the window as if somewhere behind it she could find an answer.

“So it can’t be a perfect system of matching. What if”—I jerked my chin toward the window, to my sister and the shadowsinger in the garden —“that is what she needs? Is there no free will? What if Lucien wishes the union but she doesn’t?”

Here we have an instance of "art of watching" in which Feyre observes Azriel and Elain through the window. By watching them she comes to the conclusion that both of them are better suited and actually can comfort each other in comfortable silence. The window here is used as a barrier to showcase parallels of two couples: happily mated Feysand and unhappily in love with other people Elriel.

"But I looked to Azriel, currently leaning against the wall beside the floor-to-ceiling window, shadows fluttering around him."

And here we are start with Azriel and windows (also in ACOWAR). He is another character that has an extraordinary connection to windows. He is often mentioned next to them and somehow parallels Elain's behavior - staring through windows, being near them.

"I blinked, realizing I’d been lost in the bond, but found Azriel still by the window, (...)."

As we can see Azriel lingers next to the window without moving away from it - as the scene progresses we know that the conversation lasts a good ounce of time, yet Azriel stands in his place by the window.

"Azriel didn’t so much as turn from his vigil at the window, though I could have sworn his wings tucked in a bit tighter."

The same wording, the same imagery. Both used for Elain and Azriel. Both of them keeping vigils at the windows, staring through them as if they could find an answer through them.

"The main room of the guardhouse was stuffy and cramped, more so with all of us in there, and though I offered Elain a seat by the sealed window, she remained standing—at the front of our company. Staring at the shut iron door."

This scene is when Elain is about to confront her lover - Greysen. It is underlined that she rejected her usual spot, which is by the window, and preferred to face the door. She was trapped, she knew that a very important discussion will take a place here. She chose to look at the door rather than at the window, which in this matter could symbolize hope for a change - she stared at the door which metaphorically means transition or imprisonment.

"(...) close to Elain’s side as she and my sister silently kept against the wall by the intact bay of windows."

Another instance of Elain and her being content with being next to the windows.

"I’d seen Elain staring out the window earlier—watching Graysen leave with his men without so much as a look back at her."

"Art of Watching", but also the window's symbolism of dreams that were unfulfilled. At that moment, we can assume, that Elain realized that her dreams concerning human life and her future with Greysen would only be unattainable dreams/hopes.

“What now?” Elain mused, at last answering my question from moments ago as her attention drifted to the windows facing the sunny street. That smile grew, bright enough that it lit up even Azriel’s shadows across the room. “I would like to build a garden,” she declared. “After all of this … I think the world needs more gardens.

At the end of ACOWAR, we have this powerful moment, in which Elain gazing out of the window sees sunny streets = life. A chance of rebirth, which also beautifully overlaps with the fact that she proposed building a garden! The in-between that she balanced on while gazing through the window for so many times turned from death and misfortunes into life and hopes of the future.

ACOFAS

"Elain politely refused, taking up a spot in one of the wooden chairs set in the bay of windows. Also typical."

From Rhysand's point of view, we can deduct that even they are aware of the fact that Elain and windows are something notable. It is a place where she feels comfortable and probably spends a lot of time.

"Beyond the windows, darkness had indeed fallen. The longest night of the year. I found Elain studying it, beautiful in her amethyst-colored gown. I made to move toward her, but someone beat me to it."

In previous quotes, we could gather information about how Elain craved the light and how desperate she was to lighten up her person. Here, we can see that she also started to embrace the darkness. She is again by the window, observing the darkness as if no one else was around her. And of course, the one person who goes towards her at that moment is Azriel, a personification of darkness in the books.

Azriel strode to the lone window at the end of the room and peered into the garden below. “I’ve never stayed in this room.” His midnight voice filled the space.

Azriel went straight to the window. And not an ordinary one, but the one through which you can see the garden. Life and light. I know many were theorizing if what kept Azriel so occupied by the window was Elain, but I would love to put some of my thoughts in this discourse. Yes, I do think that what caught his attention, or who caught his attention was Elain. However, Elain at that moment represents life and light - the things that are associated with windows. And if you spin it around you have Azriel=darkness, death staring at Elain=light, life. The in-between, the very initial symbolism of window in literature. Not to mention that in this scene we have Azriel watching the light and next we have Elain observing darkness.

“No,” Azriel said, not turning from the window.

Azriel remained at the window. “Will Nesta stay here if she comes?

“I’d still be surprised if they remember once the storm clears,” Azriel said, turning from the garden window at last.

We have a whole scene in which it is so heavily implied that Azriel was constantly staring through the window, not even bothering to move away from it. We also have another highlighted thing which is the fact that it was a garden window.

There was a tiny box left on the table by the window—a box that Mor lifted, squinted at the name tag, and said, “Az, this one’s for you.”

A small thing, yet a very sweet one. The fact that even his present was placed close to the window, which starts to become an Elriel thing.

ACOSF

"She’d barely slept for fear of Elain walking off this veranda, or leaning too far out of one of the countless windows, or simply throwing herself down those ten thousand stairs."

We have a reminder that during her stay at House of Wind, Elain was a symbol of death. She carried it on her while being associated with windows that were used as a source of light that helped her heal.

"Elain stood at the wall of windows, clad in a lilac gown whose close-fitting bodice showed how well her sister had filled out since those initial days in the Night Court."

Even when she visits Nesta, she takes the place by the windows. It is something that is strictly connected to her. As if the windows were part of her now.

Elain’s smile was as bright as the setting sun beyond the windows. “I thought I’d drop by to see how you were doing.”

Light, sun, life = Elain.

“You’ve got good coloring, I mean,” Elain clarified, striding from the windows to cross the room. She stopped a few feet away. As if holding herself back from the embrace she might have given.

SJM still used the passages to underline the passage of time that Elain spent standing next to the window. It is a place in which she feels good and perhaps safe.

"They’d sat in them, before this fire, so many times that it was an unspoken rule that Azriel’s was the one on the left, closer to the window, and Cassian’s the one to the right, closer to the door."

We also get the information that Azriel always was the closest to the window - which is an odd thing to add without a deeper meaning. As if to further build up that connection between him and Elain - that both of them are aware of the fact that they are also the symbolism of the allegory of windows. I believe that SJM really researched that light and darkness trope, with which she built and she is still building up Elriel. The windows are just another tiny nugget that further envelopes both of them as one. Because while Elain transformed from death to life, she still welcomed darkness and embraced it - and Azriel opened to the life and light, seeking it. As I said, windows are a literary tool, which perhaps wasn't the main idea in the SJM text, but the amount of parallels between both of them and even the same wording applied to different scenes tells me that it's yet another connection between them.

#elriel #pro elriel #elriel meta #azriel x elain #elain and azriel #pro elain #pro azriel

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sneezemonster15 · 3 years

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Calling bullshit on the opinion that Kishimoto doesn't know how to write romance.

The reason why this entire shipping business on Naruto has been going on for over a decade and still going strong, making fans go absolutely mindless, about a story which is not even about romance, about things that are so effective and impactful that the fans feel completely consumed with it, to the extent where they have almost completely defined their life and philosophies on its basis, is because Kishimoto can write a good fucking romance. And that's what he did. That's the reason why ships are fighting with each other, because it's not just about Naruto the manga or Naruto the series, it's about how they imagine their own romance, it's a deep, profound feeling. That's why they have strong motivations and convictions that drive their insight into the story. That's why there is so much polarity in Naruto fandom. They are ready to jump to protect their ship at a moment's notice because that's how much it means to them.

Are you telling me that it just happened on its own? Just happy coincidences and random factors?

No.

A lot, a lot of thought goes behind closed doors of the studios. I know this because I work in the business. The reason why I was so astounded with Naruto's story because it was actually a brave story. A brave concept. In a shonen. Because I am ready to bet a million dollars I don't have on the fact that Kishimoto knew what he was doing. Anyone who enjoys poetry, or literature, or drama can, if not approve, appreciate Naruto and Sasuke's story. Because it's that deep. Because it's that impactful. Because it's that dark. Because it's that tragic. Because it's that tender. Because it's that painful.

Because it's so...

(Applause.)

Romantic.

These are all the ingredients of a well written romance. This is the reason why I don't care about other ships because I know that SNS is not random or a projection. It's mindfully and carefully and even tenderly written and developed.

Kishimoto's projection? Oh sure. It stands to reason that someone from his real life affected and inspired his favourite character through and through. He did say that he based some characters on certain people from his own life. And he did base Naruto on his own self, if partly. And the reason why I am able to surmise that he could have had a real crush on someone like Sasuke in real life, is because how clearly and insightfully written and contrasted the two characters are. So nuanced. They are like poetry, that's why I am so dazzled with them. Their story is so beautifully shaped by their characters and growth that it creates a clear impression of who they really are in the story. Soulmates. That's the whole crux of the story. They are written out to be this literally 'once in several lifetimes' pairing that finally broke the bonds of hate with bonds of love and changed the entire world and as a result, grew themselves. This is reflected in themselves what with Sasuke being propelled with hate and Naruto with love and coming together finally in a world that they made happen, for each other. And all of their parts and counterparts with which they think and move and function are so well in sync with each other that they lock together perfectly, like two pieces in a two piece puzzle box.

To say that this intricately and intelligently and tenderly written story is just like, an accident, my lord no!

No. The content that is finally syndicated on screens all over the world, especially with the type of response Naruto has enjoyed, and believe me when I say this, everything goes through many levels of scrutiny during production; to the extent of why would this camera angle work better than all the other angles, here's a flowchart and analysis of all of them and let's spend three days on deciding it while the producers are going crazy frustrated with fanatic creatives. This is a very common thing to happen in most serious studios.

Naruto stood out at the time it came out and reached a much larger audience for several reasons. But one of them was that it got the right exposure and was shown to critics outside of Japan, who could appreciate and admire it's cinematic beauty and this reached a different subset of audience. This extra effort is not consistent but it shines at so many places, because it's just good storytelling technically and aesthetically. And the reason why Naruto and Sasuke stand smack dab in the middle of that storytelling, is because Kishimoto told their story with so much feeling, it literally shows. The nuance is just crazy. Note that I am saying nuance and not subtext, even though it's there in heaps. But I want to make a distinction clearly. Like I can write pages and pages over it. Anyway, their story stands out because the nuances are so well defined and mindfully drawn by Kishi, that one can't help but wonder if Kishi actually experienced them. And they are just small things but still get a lot of exposure in the manga and anime. And because they are so small but clearly noticeable, it makes us stop in our tracks and think. And the thing is Kishimoto could have easily done without them and it would have made everything still seem undisturbed but he chose Not to. That kind of decision is a direct result of deep understanding, feeling and thinking in terms of forming a certain visual approach and meaning. The visual language Kishi has used to show their chemistry, their bond, their need for each other, is so tangible, like you could cut it with a knife, that it makes one feel something is right below the surface, simmering and about to explode, but you can't put your finger on what it exactly is. Until you start to think. And it takes some time.

You think that kind of writing is random? Are you out of your mind?

No, Kishi is a maniac. He pulled something that was not easy at all. He is a genius. He is also sadistic because he knows he didn't give us a resolution. Resolution is cathartic to viewers and the reason that nobody got any with Naruto and still not getting any from Boruto is making everyone go crazy. Fifteen years is a long time man. And I can bet my other non existent one million dollars on it. He owns a lot of rights over Naruto franchise, I don't think he can be cowed down to such an extent even by the studio. Kishi fought studios for a few significant scenes of Naruto and Sasuke, he is not unfeeling about them.

Maybe I am being a mere deductionist but more often than not, deduction is right. It's a valid form of acquiring knowledge. Sherlock is right more times than he is not.

Anyway, my point is, Kishi can write romance. Kishi can write very good romance. He could have chosen to remove some tropes and make Naruto and Sasuke either just brotherly or friendly. But he chose not to. A lot of people think that they are platonic. And I think I know why. But I don't. They are not platonic. They seem like they feel physically aware of each other, acutely so. they just don't know what it is. Maybe Sasuke does, Naruto doesn't. Kishi used also such common tropes to show this element, but just because it is in shonen and between two boys, y'all won't believe it. Don't you feel that palpable feeling, the simmering tension and emotion when they fight at the valley of the end both times? And it makes you think maybe it's just you, and what you are thinking can't be true because this is shonen and it would mean they are gay, let me tell you, no it's not you. It is Kishi. And it takes skill to write. Something like this is almost always used as a trope of unaddressed sexual tension in media. Pick any romantic drama of this genre, where 'hate turned to love' or 'two unlikely people who fall in love' and you would find it in almost every single one of them.

Why do you think Kishi designed it that way? You think with all the detail (action moves are literally inspired by real life martial arts, lighting, sound, editing, dialogues that sound like out of a Bronte novel), that was him just playing innocent?

No. No. No. And No!

He wrote SNS throughout Naruto and Shippuden and is still doing something of an extension of it that has made Boruto a weird and uncomfortable to watch family drama.

#sns #sns in boruto #sasunarusasu #sasunaru #sasuke #naruto uzumaki #narusasu #naruto analysis #kishimoto why

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dolugecat · 3 years

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Real talk though, Dimple is hella underrated as a character. Its easy to dismiss him as just the mandatory lil mascot, but that’s a real shame. He’s basically just an even uglier, more grizzled Reigen, and has just as much of an impact on Mob’s growth as him too. He serves very important narrative roles and undergoes his own character development too! Here is just some rambles on his importance to the story and to Mob!

The dynamic between Mob and Dimple mirrors that of Mob and Reigen’s in that Dimple provides Mob with a link to sprits the way that Reigen provides Mob with a link to humans (paraphrase of something ONE said once bout them). And unlike Reigen, Dimple can actually offer exposition and insight on the spirt world!

Big one: Dimple has saved Mob’s ass many times! From forcing a reaction out of that sad ghost family, uncorrupting Mob in Mogamiland, taking care of Mob’s unconscious body a couple times, calming Mob down before he nuked the country when his house was set on fire, to all the shit that goes down in the last part of the manga (if you read it, you know and you might have cried too admit it)

Providing key insight on how Mob is feeling and initiating conversation with Mob so we get to hear his thoughts. Very important, especially earlier in the series when Mob had no friends! Without Dimple, Mob would barely talk when not with Reigen! And yet, Dimple isn’t a perfect narrator for Mob and definitely has his own biases/perspective, so it’s not noticeable that that was his main purpose!

Like many characters in mp100, Dimple’s character development cements the main themes of the series. Without even realizing it, Dimple has throughout the story been changing for the better bc of Mob’s influence, and honestly vice versa too! Just as with everyone else, Dimple is on a (misguided) journey towards self-satisfaction but doesn’t know what he really needs. It’s only with the help of others and the strength to look deep within himself that he overcomes his greatest struggles. Which is ya know, kind of what Mob needs to do (spoilers, he does yay for character growth and thank you dimple for leading the way)

He’s funny. Yeah, that’s pretty much it for this bullet point. Comedy is like 50% of the reason why Mob Psycho isn’t a super depressing series so points for comic relief!

Dimple serves as a good foil to Mob. As good foils do, the traits he has that are opposite of Mob draw attention to said traits. Next to Dimple, Mob appears especially honest, endearing, and well intentioned (some of the most defining character traits of Mob)

Being like the lil devil on a shoulder that temps people into doing selfish things. This provides extra tension and served as a catalyst for Ristu’s descent to emo-ness, as well as demonstrating how unwavering our beloved protag’s determination to be a good person is. And lets be honest, a lot of Dimple’s “bad” advice on how Mob should use his powers is exactly what most of us would do if we could. Dimple’s advice kind of a relief from Mob’s ridged mindset and provides the more self-centered audience a character to relate to (or maybe i’m just chaotic evil, I definitely would not be as morally good with OP psychic powers as Mob is lol. Although its not like Mob’s way was good either, both are wrong but that’s for another day).

#mp100 #mob psycho 100 #dimple #ekubo #mp100 meta #my post #kageyama shigeo #ignore if you saw the first post i messed up the tags #mp100 analysis #reigen arataka

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caffeinatedseri · 3 years

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The Strength of Selfishness

Each character in BSD has a degree of selfishness or selflessness in themselves, but the way this concept is executed opens discussion on the nuance of “selfishness,” or specifically the flaws in believing selfishness is an inherently bad trait.

Atsushi

Atsushi fits the description of selflessness, but I’d argue that he’s actually more selfish than he thinks he is (keeping in mind that being selfish isn’t necessarily a bad thing).

Akutagawa points out how Atsushi will needlessly risk his life in order to protect others, which sounds like a pretty heroic act, but it comes with a cost. Atsushi isn’t invincible, especially at this point in the story when he hasn’t fully mastered his ability, but his insistence on protecting others puts him in constant danger.

At the end of the day, Atsushi would have a greater chance of surviving many of the dangerous situations he puts himself into if he was more selfish by protecting himself before others.

However, Atsushi is also somewhat selfish in his motivations for acting so virtuously.

Once again, Akutagawa points out how Atsushi only acts this way because of his deeply rooted belief that he has to risk his life for someone else in order to give his life value. You could argue that Atsushi only saves others as an attempt to prove to himself that he’s worthy, an inherently selfish motive. If Atsushi actually died, he would be endangering the people he could save in the future.

Selfishness also includes self-centeredness. Particularly with Akutagawa, Atsushi’s tendency to focus solely on himself becomes especially noticeable. Atsushi constantly doubts himself and his strengths; he also ignores his privileges and the struggles of others, particularly when he can’t completely understand them — hence why he views Akutagawa so harshly but sees Kyouka and Lucy as people who need to be saved.

Despite all of this, Atsushi still creates a positive impact in other people’s lives. His innately selfish motivation is what drives him to protect others, and he ultimately succeeds in doing that (case in point Kyouka and Lucy again).

Akutagawa

Akutagawa is pretty similar to Atsushi in how his past led to his inevitably selfish motives, but his manifests in a different way.

Akutagawa has to be selfish to protect himself, due to a mix of his past prior to joining the mafia and Dazai’s teachings that collectively reinforced the belief that if he’s weak, he can’t survive.

This results in Akutagawa taking other people’s lives, a direct contrast to how Atsushi saves others, in order to prove his worth as a strong individual that deserves to live. However, this sentiment narrowly crosses the line of hypocrisy when Akutagawa does the very same thing that he criticized Atsushi for: looking for value in his life through other people.

Akutagawa also unnecessarily risks his life in order to prove his strength, which is arguably more dangerous and selfish than what Atsushi does.

When Akutagawa fights Hawthorne, he practically eggs on Hawthorne to kill him, or at the very least fight with the intent to kill. Akutagawa was also injured before entering this fight, so running away would’ve been all the more reasonable than continuing to fight.

Drawing another parallel to Atsushi, Akutagawa has that very same resolve of risking his life unnecessarily to prove his worth.

It’s undeniable that Akutagawa has killed many people — which is arguably extremely selfish — and loss of life really isn’t something that I want to push as morally correct. However, I would like to push the idea of redemption: finding a way to escape this messy lifestyle. I sincerely doubt that the incessant cycle of killing is any good for Akutagawa, or that it’s the life that he wants to have.

With Atsushi and Akutagawa, both of their character arcs will develop accordingly to this balance of selfishness and selflessness.

Ranpo

Ranpo is characterized in a slightly selfish way, but this mindset comes with good reason (relating to Ranpo’s past).

When Atsushi was kidnapped, Ranpo places priority on protecting the agency. If he were to meddle with Atsushi’s problem, which was technically a personal issue, then the agency as an organization would be put at risk. This isn’t necessarily a “wrong” mindset, but it is self-centered.

Of course, this is one of many examples to showcase Ranpo’s arrogance, but his arrogance is actually a form of self-protection.

“So his father knew, after all. He understood that Ranpo possessed an extraordinary gift. He knew his son had the special ability to observe, remember, and uncover the truth in the blink of an eye. That was why he sealed it away. He didn’t want Ranpo to go astray, to ever hurt others and make the world his enemy. His father wanted Ranpo to learn virtue and what’s right just like any ordinary person until he had grown up with good judgment and knowledge.” — LN 3, “The Untold Origins of the Detective Agency”

Before Ranpo met Fukuzawa, he was just a young, lost boy who didn’t recognize his extraordinary talents. His parents taught him to be modest to allow him to develop as a normal person, but he never truly understood who he was in comparison to other people because he was orphaned at a young age.

Thus, Ranpo had to embrace his superiority, in an albeit dramatic way, in order to accept the world and himself. If he believed that people weren’t as intelligent as him, then he wouldn’t have to hate himself for feeling like an outsider to a world he doesn’t understand.

Similarly to Akutagawa, Ranpo’s selfishness isn’t born out of hatred or negligence for others, it’s simply a survivalist instinct.

Dazai

Dazai’s case is a little trickier to define, but I feel that he’s changed a decent amount throughout the series. I’ve seen some people argue that Dazai only helps others because of Oda’s dying wish, which would make his motivations for doing so inherently selfish. This rings true for Dazai before becoming a part of the agency, but I’d say he’s changed a lot just from interacting with the other agency members.

Dazai’s shown to be capable of the selflessness that involves risking your life for others, but because he’s Dazai, he’s most likely never going to actually die (he has taken necessary precautions to make sure he doesn’t die like in Dead Apple). In this case, Dazai was willing to risk his life for intel from Fyodor, similar to how he got captured by the PM intentionally for intel on Atsushi.

What he says here is especially important: “Certainly, people are sinfully stupid. But what’s so wrong about that?” The Dazai that was once isolated from others, that lacked a sense of direction and purpose in life, has grown one step closer to finding that purpose.

It’s no secret that character to character relationships have a big impact on everyone in BSD, but it’s especially relevant for Dazai who’s growth comes from learning about human nature. He and Fyodor both share a level of super intelligence that ostracizes them from the rest of society, which consequently makes them incapable of understanding other people.

Dazai’s statement here just shows how he’s willing to look past people’s mistakes — yes, they may be sinful and/or stupid, but that’s just a part of human nature.

And in this case, he acts in a stupid way by risking his life for someone else. Yes, it may be stupid, but this selflessness is also a part of being human.

I’d also like to add that Dazai was somewhat selfish in leaving the PM so suddenly after Oda’s death. As an executive, he undoubtedly had some responsibilities to handle, and not to mention Chuuya who was dragged into the mafia because of him in the first place. However, leaving the mafia was ultimately better for his development, and you could argue that the PM is doing just fine with Mori remaining as the leader. Thus, Dazai is another example of how selfishness isn’t harmful in nature.

Mori

On the topic of Mori, he’s a character who outright acknowledges his selflessness as a necessity for the mafia’s advancement.

As I mentioned before, selflessness is a stereotypically heroic trait, but it’s flipped around in BSD. You see protagonists with greater selfish convictions than the antagonists, who live their life based on this idea of selflessness.

Of course, just because Mori is an antagonist, this doesn’t mean that selflessness is an innately “evil” trait. In fact, this selflessness is how he grows his organization and gains respect from his subordinates. Mori’s selflessness is used for the benefit of everyone else in the PM (ignoring the obvious crimes that the mafia commits of course).

Oda

Oda is often seen as the role model example for a “good man,” in the world of BSD — which is true to a certain extent. We certainly know how he was selfless in a multitude of scenarios, from saving the orphans at the Dragon’s Head Conflict, to his resolve to not kill anyone, and his push for Dazai to leave the mafia.

However, I’d like to discuss Oda’s selfishness. Oda was well-aware of Dazai’s issues during Dark Era, and he seemed like the only person who would understand Dazai at that level. Despite this, he still chose to die.

“(Dazai) is just a child who’s too smart. Just a crying child who’s been left alone in the darkness, a world of nothingness far emptier than the world we can see.”

— LN 2, “Osamu Dazai and the Dark Era”

Oda is an idealist first and foremost; when reality fails to match his ideals, it becomes unbearable for him to continue living on.

Oda was selfish in his conviction to die, because he knew he could’ve done more for Dazai, but he chose to leave him with a dying wish rather than staying with him to potentially fill that void of loneliness.

(I’d like to mention that Oda wasn’t wrong for his choice, because Dazai ended up on the right path in the end. It was simply an act of selfishness that ended for the better).

Kunikida

Kunikida is an idealist, much like Oda, but he also draws close to being a realist at certain moments.

Kunikida shares the same selfless resolve as Atsushi: to save everyone. His ideals seem unbreakable to the point where he would risk his life and succeed in the end no matter what, purely because he’s just that committed towards his goals.

This treads closely to Atsushi’s selfishness. In this case, for Kunikida, it’s somewhat a part of his self-fulfilling prophecy to make his ideals come true, but he acts selflessly because of these ideals that he believes in.

An important thing to note here is Fyodor’s grin, because Fyodor — as an idealist — is well aware of the fact that the greater the ideals, the loftier these ideals become in reality.

“By that very logic, then Miss Sasaki was not responsible for any of these recent events! She didn’t even want a world in which all criminals are rightly judged! She only— Tell me, Dazai! Was it right for her to die? Is this the ideal world I’ve sought for…”

— LN 1, “Osamu Dazai’s Entrance Exam”

At the end of the Azure Messenger Arc, Kunikida realizes the flaws in his ideals when he fails to uphold them. By trying to save both Rokuzou and Sasaki, he ended up losing the both of them. No matter how hard he tried to save them, there was no possible way for him to achieve the level of “justice” that he desired.

This teaches an incredibly valuable lesson to Kunikida that shifts his mindset towards a more selfish direction.

Kunikida’s experience leads him to teach Atsushi, another person strongly motivated by ideals, to not follow the same path as him. You could interpret this as a sign of Kunikida’s declining resolve, but I prefer to view it as another form of self-preservation.

Kunikida very well understands the pain that comes from not meeting his ideals, which could easily affect to Atsushi considering how difficult it would be to save Kyouka.

The scene in which Kunikida goes to save Atsushi parallels what Kunikida told him previously: “Your boat can only carry one person. If you let someone beyond salvation come aboard, you will only drown together.”

Notice how Kunikida is in a boat with plenty of space, but out of fear that his ideals won’t be upheld, he’ll lower them to an lesser standard. Instead of trying to save two people, he settles for one, despite the fact that he has the capacity for two.

This instance is a moment of selfishness from Kunikida, an act of self-preservation to prevent the inevitable pain that comes with unmet ideals.

However, Atsushi subverts his expectations by pushing himself to save Kyouka regardless of his sinking boat, because Atsushi’s own ideals motivate him to do so. Kunikida teaches Atsushi to be careful with the balance of selfishness and selflessness; Atsushi teaches Kunikida the beauty in being selfless.

#bsd #bungou stray dogs #bsd meta #bsd atsushi #bsd akutagawa #bsd rampo #bsd dazai #bsd mori #bsd oda #bsd kunikida #idk what an idealist is tbh

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crystal-moon-101 · 3 years

Photo

Managed to do another redesign with rewrite notes, this time my second favourite character in Ben 10, Azmuth The First Thinker. And just like Ben, he's canon self is such a mess that I wish to fix in my own way. The other Galvans in this picture are his family, with his father from the movie "Destroy All Aliens", his nephews mentioned by DJW, and their mother who is Azmuth's twin sister. So let me get into the notes and rewrite ideas of mine!

-Retaliator-

Yes, I am aware that this is most likely not his name, but I could not be bothered to make up my own at this point, and I also find it funny to have a Galvan dad called this, so I'm sticking with it. So Retaliator is the father of both Azmuth and Divi, a very humble and calm old galvan, who has seen a lot through his years, now retired and mostly just trying to keep the family together through small things.

Retaliator has the rare gene of having aqua/turquoise eyes, a recessive trait in galvans, similar to human with the red hair gene.

Retaliator looks younger than he should be, and that's because he is, in a way. You see, right before Azmuth vanished to start working on the watch, Retaliator fell ill to an disease with no known cure, and this caused the family to...kind of break down. A lot had happen up to this point (Things that will be noted throughout this), and none of them wanted things to end like this. So Azmuth did something he know he shouldn't have, as such a thing takes so much time and resource, and generally frowned upon, and ended up creating a new young clone body for his father's brains to be transferred too. By the time Retaliator woke up from surgery, his son was already gone, off in hiding. It this was event that really made Retaliator realize he may not have been the best father for a long time...

While he is retired now, Retaliator use to do work based around energy stuff.

Since he's family's back together, he likes to host game or movie nights, or even little dinners and get togethers.

He adores his grandsons, and loves to share stories from his past to them, and he's one of the few people they calm down around.

He will admit that he did...go a bit wild when he thought Azmuth died, fighting Ben in the Galvanic Mechamorph suit, but him and Ben have since made up, and the old galvan likes talking to the young lad often.

He has most defiantly embarrassed both of his kids by showing off baby photos of them.

He met his wife through work, like most galvans, with her being a much higher up worker. Surprisingly, despite their statuses, it was his wife who asked him out first, having found him very charming.

Retaliator can never thank Ben enough for convincing his son to come home, and despite their bickering, he enjoys seeing Azmuth's bond with Ben, as the two have a way of balancing each other out.

While he may be in a younger body, his mind is certainly still that of an old galvan, and can often act like his body is older than it really is due to the mental age of his brain.

-Azmuth-

Ahhhh, dear old Azmuth, how I love your character concept, and yet get so frustrated with your actual canon self...There is a lot I have changed in terms of his placement and behavior on the show, and while I can't note all of them down there, the major theme behind them is that he is not a complete jerk in them. Don't get me wrong, Azmuth would still have flaws and issues with his off-standing nature, but he would act in a way that feels more natural, showing his growth and change while mentoring Ben. He genuinely wants to help and is a good person, it's just...he still has a lot to work through. In terms of his slight redesign, I'll like to mention that if you look closely, his outfit is a mixture of his first original outside, crossed with his UAF outfit.

I did mention that I couldn't note all changes of him in series plots, since most boil down to be him being nicer and more realistic, but I will note one change because it's big enough to mention. For the Diagon/Forever Knight Arc, Azmuth did not create Ascalon, because I while I get he's smart and created things like the Omnitrix, I don't think he should be such a big source of dangerous artifacts in the series so often, especially ones that cause trouble. So instead, Ascalon was a weapon crafted in Ledgerdomain, to help fight Diagon who orientated there, and at the time had been trying to conquer earth, and Zenith leaving Azmuth happened because of miscommunication and issues between them instead.

That being said, Azmuth does get involved in the Ultimate Alien Diagon arc when Ben himself calls Azmuth over, needing his help knowing he can better understand Ascalon, and eventually entrusted Azmuth and the Galvans to keep it and the trapped Diagon safe.

Azmuth and his sister had a very rebellious phase as teenagers/young adults, this being the age that Azmuth said he was a lot like Ben, though admittedly, Azmuth was slightly more of an ass than Ben ever was. They were going through a tough time, and Azmuth reacted negatively too it all. Funnily enough, the one thing that seems to make him doo a 180 degrees in personality was his massive swooning crush over Zenith.

He won't ever admit out loud, but he does find Ben's trait of nicknaming his aliens kind of funny...

He shares a mentoring role towards Ben with Grandpa Max and Tetrax, with Max handling the more emotional and human side of Ben's problems, Tetrax handling the physical training and teachings, and Azmuth handling the more logical steps and hard truth Ben needs to hear. He's one of the few people to give Ben the smack of reality he needs from time to time.

That being said, Ben is also one of the few people able to handle Azmuth right back, and give him needed talkings to when the man is losing himself to a bad habit.

Mostly due to the fact that Tennysons seem to have a habit of making people very close to them like family, E.g with Ben seeing Kevin and Rook like brother figures at times, there seems to be subtle hints between Azmuth and Ben that there might be parent and child like moments between them, though both would deny it if brought up.

It doesn't help that Azmuth ends up taking it upon himself on making sure Ben is healthy and happy, based on scans from the Omnitrix he reads daily. Of course, he'll just say he doesn't want the boy he entrusted his watch with to die in a stupid way, but people close to either of them know that Azmuth really does care deep down.

He has said both "I'm too old for this" and "I'm too young for this" many times.

Azmuth has admitted that he's nervous around the Omnitrix, and doesn't like putting it on. He's not good at handling the idea of becoming something he's not...

The Malware arc for Azmuth was...a lot more complicated than canon. Azmuth really did try to fix Malware, but for some reason he couldn't, and it scared him that one, this might be the first problem he can't find a solution too, and second, he just came back from hiding and had been wanting to make changes in his life, so to fail and hurt someone already? He didn't know what to think. It didn't help when Malware started refusing his help and ended up endangering the lives of others, including galvans and Azmuth's own family. And despite it all, Azmuth kept trying over and over again to let him help Malware, but the villain always refused, until Azmuth eventually had to accept that he couldn't do anything. When Malware was finally killed, Azmuth went quiet for a good while, and needed time to recover from his mistake.

Due to some past issues, Azmuth mostly refers to his father by his real name, and only calls him dad or father during emotional or quiet moments.

Whenever they're hanging out, Ben likes to bring him and Azmuth cricket smoothies to drink together.

Despite how they seem to bicker often, Myaxx and him play off each other rather well, able to dry wit each other every day.

Azmuth and Albedo's relationship is also very complicated. Before Azmuth returned, Albedo was an outstanding Galvan and protégé, being praised every single day. This, unfortunately, made Albedo develop a prideful nature and his close minded views on the galaxy, as he rarely was ever put down or critiqued. His ego also got a bit of a boost when the great Azmuth took notice of him, and made him his assistant, and while he loved it at first, some issues started to arise when Azmuth wasn't like the other Galvans who praised Albedo to no end. That isn't to say Azmuth never complimented him and liked his work, but he was an honest man who knew no one was perfect, and especially wasn't going to worship someone, knowing what kind of ego that could make in someone. It doesn't help that Albedo just can't understand what Azmuth sees in Ben, and how the two bond, despite Ben's young careless nature, and being human. It ends up making Albedo want a lot more from Azmuth, the man he looks up too, and when he's denied that he eventually turns his back on the First Thinker. Azmuth can only hope that being able to turn into other aliens, and being stuck as human, will teach Albedo that Galvans, including himself, aren't what make the galaxy function.

Azmuth is typically one of the must unfazed people you'll ever meet.

Given most Galvans have an issue of seeing themselves as the top race, Azmuth is kind of fond of Blukic and Driba for being very open and helpful to outsiders, and was even the one to suggest them to join the Plumbers.

Zenith and Azmuth too meet up again eventually, and while they don't get back together, they do make amends.

Azmuth was fairly small for a Galvan for a long time, until he finally hit his growth spurt late into his teen years, something his sister use to tease him over.

Greymatter's DNA mostly comes from Azmuth, meaning Ben actually looks like a Azmuth when he was young, his family having made comments about Ben being his "Clone".

-Divi-

Here we have the twin sister of Azmuth, Divi. A dry wit, no nonsense, sarcastic and feisty single mother of her three chaotic sons. Unlike Azmuth's father and nephews, she was something I had to completely make up from the spot, since Azmuth was said to have nephews, that meant he had to have a sibling, so it was fun to create someone with an interesting dynamic with Azmuth. She is, after all, one of the few people to exhibit some of those petty family squabbles out of him. So I hope you enjoy her and her sons.

As mentioned before, Azmuth and her went through rebellious phases after some downfall in their family life, with Divi jumping around jobs and never settling for one, and even dating another Galvan that neither Azmuth or Retaliator approved off. When Azmuth first left Galvan Prime to go into hiding, Divi and her boyfriend had still been dating. However, when he finally came home, he found the boyfriend to be gone, and Divi now a single mother to three sons. Azmuth never got a clear story what happened to the boyfriend, but he knows that the break up was nasty, and that the boyfriend isn't on Galvan Prime anymore.

Sometime after Divi had her children, she eventually settled for a job in the nursery/incubation centre on Galvan Prime, looking after eggs and newly hatched tadpoles before they go home with their parents.

Divi is quite a blunt and honest woman, who has no time for dragging things on, and while she may sound harsh, she ends up just wanting the best for people. In fact her open nature of speech is how she gets people to listen and see reason.

Her and Azmuth had a...bit of a dysfunctional relationship growing up. Azmuth was actually a slow learning when he was young, and Divi had a habit of picking on him. They did eventually mallow out, until tragedy struck their family and they entered their rebel phases, and the bickering and arguing come from both sides. They have made up since Azmuth returned, but the two have their squabbles here and there, but they're mostly just playful banter or family habits.

Her and Myaxx get along quite well, and the two like hanging out with each other.

She's also fond of Ben since meeting him, and the two like chatting whenever he plays with her sons, he's even babysat for her a few times.

She has no interest in dating again anytime soon, and is proud to be a single mother.

She's the one who points out Azmuth and Ben's family like roles to each other often, mostly due to the fact that she understands what a paternal feeling is like, and because she's blunt about it.

She got her wisdom feet first out of her and Azmuth growing up.

While Azmuth was off in hiding, Divi reconnected with his father when looking after to him after surgery. So, unlike Azmuth, she mostly just calls him father and dad.

-Trapez, Cieven & Aegls-

The three mischievous nephews, sons and grandsons of the family. Left to right, Trapez, Cieven & Aegls, who are the triplets of Divi. The three are like glue, and are often playing or up to little tricks, creating chaos around Galvan Prime. While they mostly look the same and are all tricksters, they do have personality differences. Trapez is the best when it comes to emotions and the phycology behind it, something most Galvans struggle with, and can come across as the kindest of the three. Cieven has a lot of traits from Divi and Azmuth, being fairly intelligent and wanting to be a lot like his uncle someday, though does have some of their sarcastic nature as well. Aegls is the most energetic of the three, hype up often and quick with crafting and thinking of ideas. When you combine all three together, you get a force of endless chaos.

Their mother has been honest to them about who their father is, and why he isn't around, but the three have grown up fine without him, and will forever be grateful for the work their mother put into caring for them.

They were born while Azmuth was away, and so have been building up hype about their missing uncle for most of their lives, enough so that when Azmuth did come back, they all tackled hugged him while he was still understanding the idea that he was now in fact an uncle.

They love Ben and the Omnitrix, roping Ben into some of their pranks and shenanigans, and while Ben mostly tries to stare them into the right direction, he can't help himself half the time and joins in on the chaos, much to Azmuth and Divi's dismay.

They do become a part of my Ben 10 Next Gen Series, given Galvans take forever to age, and will finally be young tweens when the Next Gen takes place.

The three each have different dream jobs for the future. Trapez wants to be a psychiatrist or doctor, Cieven wants to be an inventor, and Aegls was to deal with energy based matters like his grandfather once did.

Never give these kids sugar or coffee, it will end badly.

The three...had a bad encounter with Malware during his rampage, and for a while were scared around Galvanic Mechamorphs...They get over it eventually, but Malware does haunt them for a long while.

They once picked up some colourful language from Azmuth and Myaxx when overhearing them once. You can imagine how Divi took that.

-The First Thinker Family-

The traumatic event that struck the family was in fact the death of Azmuth and Divi's mother, who was killed by someone who was after Galvan Tech. The family fell apart after that, with Retaliator falling into a deep depression and being distant from his kids, and Azmuth and Divi going wild in their teen/young adult years to distract themselves from the grief. They've all come together now and have been taking the proper sets to honor her memory, and become a family again.

While no one has outright said it, Ben has kind of become part of this little family in a few ways, and after a while Azmuth stops being survived when the boy shows up for family dinners or game nights.

They all live on Galvan Prime, though Retaliator is known to take trips here and there around the galaxy, wanting to see more of it during his retirement.

On the outside, many Galvans treat the family as there wise people, who have sage advice. And while that isn't wrong, once you get to know them they're a very chaotic family...

#Hope you enjoy what I've done with Azmuth's character and his family #I just really want to get across how I think he should have gone #Ben 10 #ben 10 omniverse #ben 10 ultimate alien #ben 10 alien force #Azmuth #Ben 10 Azmuth #Ben 10 OCs #Ben 10 Destroy All Aliens #My art #Ben 10 Rewrite #ben 10 redesign

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floralovebot · 3 years

Note

I really liked your aisha meta about her bonding and i was wondering what you think is her biggest weakness? And the other characters too if that's okay. Thank you:)

Oh thank you!! Hmm I had to think about this one for a second but I'll try to give you some good answers! Though to be fair, I think most of what I listed are things that have already been said aljdhgjladg

I do want to note, I think all of the major characters had room for growth and self-development especially within the first three seasons. We all know that characterization made a huge nose dive after season 4, so I'm not really going to be talking about the later seasons as they aren't super representative of their personalities (however, i will occasionally mention them for certain characters). \

Anyway, onto our beloved characters mental issues and why they should all be in therapy <3

The Winx

Bloom: I think Bloom is actually a very well rounded main character! She has positives and negatives and those don't often conflate with each other (and I think most of her "too perfect" characterization comes from later seasons). Because of that, I had a hard time thinking about what her biggest weakness is because,, she has a few. However, I think something that stays very consistent throughout the series is her escapism. Bloom is a major escapist, especially when she's feeling unworthy. She has a lot on her plate! And a lot of people rely on her, which naturally can lead to some pretty heavy thoughts ("Am I doing the right thing?" "Do I deserve to be the leader?" "What if they're safer without me?"), however those feelings, when they become too much, often leave her feeling like people are truly better off without her. Then she runs off to Gardenia or she shuts people out or she takes on some dangerous mission just to get away from people. Her escapism often leaves everyone, including her, feeling shitty and it would've been nice to see her grow from that.

Stella: Hmmm, so again most of the early characterization gave the characters a couple of weaknesses so I had a hard time thinking of what Stella's biggest one would be. However, something that I've always noticed about Stella that's always made me feel bad, is her extreme I Need To Fit In Or No One Will Love Me attitude. And obviously that goes into her childhood and upbringing, but it's something that stays with her even after meeting the Winx and having all those You're Perfect The Way You Are talks with Bloom. She often changes her personality/attitude/emotions to fit what she thinks other people will like most. But that heavily goes into her insecurities of thinking people only like her because she's pretty or a princess. Stella's a smart girl and she notices how people respond to what she's doing. But when she's changing something about herself to get others to like her and they respond positively to it? That's horrible for her overall self-esteem and to her just confirms her fears that people don't love her for her true self.

Edit: I absolutely don't want to come off as if I'm saying Stella's personality is fake! Here's a further explanation for hers!

Flora: I think some people might disagree with me on this one, but I genuinely believe Flora's biggest weakness is how often she rushes into something. On one hand, it's admirable and shows how strong she is, but on the other hand, it says a lot about how she lets her emotions run her and often doesn't think things through when someone she loves is in danger or she thinks she needs to do something Right Now. Unless someone else prompts it, Flora often doesn't plan or try to think things through rationally. I don't think it's a bad thing to be in tune with your emotions, but it can become a weakness when you only ever think with your heart and what it's feeling at That Moment In Time. Instead of trying to think rationally or make a plan, Flora often just follows her heart immediately, but that can be a bad thing when her heart is hurting and she's not thinking clearly.

Aisha: It's definitely her attitude of needing to appear emotionally strong all the time. Aisha gives more of herself than she receives from others and a lot of that comes from her need to be seen as Reliable and Good. However, that often means she doesn't get the time to sit with how she's feeling or she pushes her emotions down. She doesn't want people to know that she's feeling upset because she doesn't want people to feel bad for her or use their energy to comfort her. Aisha is definitely a "other people have it worse so what happened to me doesn't matter" kind of person and that's often what hurts her the most. She doesn't let herself be vulnerable and often only does so when she truly can't handle it by herself anymore. And I think this heavily goes into her childhood and how she's had to be independent from a very young age. Aisha doesn't know how to let other people in.

Tecna: Hmmm, on one hand I'd like to say it's her internal battle with her logical side vs her emotional side,, so I'm going to. Personally, I think Tecna is a lot better at emotions than she gives herself credit for, and I think that's her biggest weakness. She doesn't give herself any credit when it's something that doesn't come naturally to her. Tecna had to work on being more emotive and reading other people's emotions correctly and by S2 she's already doing so much better than she was, but she refuses to recognize that. Tecna is so stuck in the "what if i'm too logical/not emotional enough and my friends hate me because of it" headspace that she doesn't even see the progess she has made. Honestly, Tecna being too logical/not emotional enough hasn't been a real issue for years and she doesn't even realize that. It's a little ironic actually, she's so caught up in her emotions about being too logical she can't see how far she's come.

Musa: Her trust issues. Personally, I think Musa's biggest weakness is her problem with trusting people. Because she just.. doesn't. Musa has a really hard time letting people in (for rightful reasons) but she once she does let them in, she has a hard time trusting them too. This is most obvious with her relationship with Riven, but it also comes out with the Winx! She's constantly scared that people are going to leave her or that they don't really like her or that they do like her but she's going to end up driving them away and all of that negatively impacts her relationship with others. She just,, doesn't trust people and has an even harder time trusting herself. I think if Musa had been allowed to truly work through that, she would be much happier.

The Specialists

Sky: I think Sky's biggest weakness is pretty obvious! It's that he does not know how to interact with people. I think I'm one of the few people that doesn't actually hate Sky. I hate that, just like the other characters, he had room for improvement and self-realization, which got scrapped almost instantly for Perfect Prince Sky. Sky, like most of the other royal characters, grew up pretty lonely (and his parents are abslute shit). The only other people he would ever talk to are members of his family, other royals, or people who weren't royal but were close enough to it (ie Brandon and even Diaspro depending on which canon you go by). Because of this, Sky has a really hard time interacting with people in a casual setting. He's great in royal settings and all their missions, but that's because he's allowed to and supposed to act all serious and Business Like. When it comes to talking to people in casual settings, he often fails because he doesn't understand "normal" people and he's never been allowed to just,, sort through his own feelings. It would've been amazing to Sky grow from this, because even in the first season you see hints of Sky rejecting royalty and wanting to be normal. MAN I wish Sky got proper characterization, he would've been so much better if he did.

Brandon: Oh man,, I had a really hard time with this one, because Brandon honestly doesn't have a lot of weaknesses? I think something that could be considered a weakness is that,, he's very devoted once he decides he cares about someone. Which isn't bad! But it often puts him in dangerous situations because he wants to save someone. Like anytime Sky gets into trouble, Brandon is for sure right by his side. Or if someone messes with Stella? Brandon's there. And again, this definitely isn't a Bad Thing, but it can put his own life in danger. And in their line of work it often does. However, I do think this is mostly evened out because of Brandon's ability to call for help and think of a plan. He doesn't often just jump into things unless it's absolutely necessary. He's able to think things through clearly and strategize. Sorry anon but I honestly can't think of any Big Weakness for Brandon, because most of his weaknesses are evened out by some positive. (Like, I was going to say he's a bit of a pushover but,, is he? Then I thought well maybe it's because he's ready to die for Sky,, but like. That's his job? Idk man,, any Brandon stans wanna chime in please?)

Timmy: Hmmm I, once again, had some troubles with this one. Timmy has a few weaknesses, mostly in the insecurity region, but I had a hard time figuring out what his Biggest Weakness is. After some thought, I think it's his eagerness to prove himself, specifically when he doesn't need to. I think this definitely evened out in the later seasons once he got some confidence, but in the early seasons Timmy really wanted to prove himself. He wanted to prove that he was a good specialist, a good friend, a good partner,, just,, everything. He was really set out to prove that he was capable of things. This often put him in dangerous situations that he couldn't handle or something he could handle but was too nervous to. It didn't help that in early seasons some of the other characters doubted his abilities (cough tecna cough). But again, I think this really evened out by S4 and it's not a big problem anymore.

Riven: Ugh goodness where to start.. I think Riven's biggest weakness is actually a mix of Musa's and Timmy's. Riven has a hard time trusting people, especially himself, and he's constantly trying to prove himself. He wants to be seen as reliable and Good and that's where a lot of his competition with other characters, mostly Sky, comes in. But that heavily mixes with his distrust and hatred toward himself. I think most of his Trying To Prove Himself is actually him trying to prove something to himself. He's constantly looking down on himself and that need to prove and be better than other people is a product of that. And I think that's also why he has problems with letting people in. Obviously, he has some general trust issues, with wondering if people just don't like him and what not, but a lot of it is not trusting himself and not letting people get close to him because of that. Riven's biggest weakness is that he doesn't give himself any credit for the progress he's made and is constantly doubting whether or not he's a good person. And that messes with his relationships a lot because he thinks he's not good enough to be around people and that sparks his need to to prove himself. And even when his friends do try to comfort him or say he's enough, he doubts that too. Riven has a lot of problems but most of them go into how much he hates himself.

Helia: Well, as one of the resident Helia stans, I've thought about this a lot. And I've got to say, his biggest weakness is his complete inability to talk about himself. A lot of people think Helia is really good at talking about emotions, but that's only partially true. He's good at talking about other people's emotions. When it comes to himself,,, he's a mess. Helia is consistently really bad at sharing his feelings and even just general tidbits about his life (evidenced by all the times he does/says something and the others get surprised because they never knew that,, years into their friendship). However, this often strains his relationships with people because they end up thinking he hates them or doesn't trust them or something else. While I have my own issues with the later seasons, S5 did a really good job at focusing on this in the show (when it really only ever got hinted at or shown in the comics). The whole Flora/Helia/Krystal thing was a major product of Helia never sharing anything about his own life and Flora's insecurities over if she's good enough. With the mix of being able to talk to people about their feelings, but never his own, it creates this really awkward situation of people just like,, not knowing things about him and then doubting their relationship, but then not being confident enough to express that because Helia still talks to them about their feelings so he must care about them!! .. but does he? It's this internal struggle of he's obviously a friend but why doesn't he ever share anything about himself?? This is even shown in his relationship with Saladin, a literal family member!

I'm.. gonna stop here for now ajghaljdhglj I'm sorry this got so long! And that some of them were shorter than others..

#i did the specialists too because i wanted to talk about timmy and i would feel bad if i only included him #sorry this got so long but i hope you enjoy nonetheless #let me know your thoughts though! especially if you disagree! as long as youre not rude about it i love to hear what others think about thi #winx club #winx meta #answered #anonymous #i didnt proofread this sorry if theres mistakes ahgdljadg #mine.metas

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pip-or-something · 3 years

Text

last twilight in phuket analysis

on growing up

1. hokkian mee

teh making hokkian mee seems very symbolic of growth here. throughout part 1 he’s always saying his mom will make it for them, but this time, his mom isn’t around, so he makes it himself

2. the loss of the private beach

@liyazaki pointed out that they have to make room for themselves in the public beach and that’s brilliant and i love that take and i think it’s important and correct! carving out your spot in an unfamiliar place is definitely a part of the learning to be an adult vibes

my focus in this scene was a bit different initially but still in support of that same positive change. i noticed that it is oh-aew who’s most bothered by their private beach being closed and not teh. remember when teh couldn’t even admit to himself that he wanted to be close to oh-aew? and now he’s holding his boyfriend’s hand in public! now they’re hugging on a public beach, and he’s emotionally aware enough to comfort oh-aew! *hugs teh*

3. the closing of funan tutorial school

funan tutorial school was this place kind of like their beach - the two of them knew it inside and out, so there were spaces that felt like just theirs. it’s a short scene, but that shot of them being locked out through the inside is really showing that they’re now on the outside of phuket - or at least they feel that way. i also think that scene is one of the many hints that teh, even though he’s mostly comforting oh-aew in this, is also unsettled and upset by the upcoming change.

the view zooms out after that, though, showing that they’re part of a much bigger word - rather than being locked out, it gives us the perspective of looking inside from a place of greater freedom

if we want to get really abstract, it could be symbolic of the kind of inward self reflection that occurs when we see that the world is much larger than we thought

parallels

1. this scene

has a backdrop with the same very distinctive teal color that we saw at oh-aew’s house in itsay

the scenes ultimately are like the same thing but they play out differently. the same because it’s always been oh-aew making teh come to him but now they’re actually talking like teh’s asking why and oh-aew is telling him to come closer and when teh doesn't want to do something he just explains why instead of forcing himself and it ends up being cute instead of angsty i’m so proud of them!!!

on top of that in the itsay scene they were deliberately hidden behind that staircase and now here they are out in public and teh’s shy but it’s okay because they understand each other now! and by this i mean teh understands himself enough to communicate that and not overstep his own boundaries and oh-aew understands because! again! talking!

2. the dancing around each other at the beach scene in part one

vs. the dancing to each other here

the connection here is pretty blatant in my opinion but the change is sort of subtle. in itsay, they ended up falling on top of each other, but then oh-aew essentially said he was hoping to run into teh, and this happened:

here, we have a role reversal where oh-aew is chasing teh, and when he gets there, they stick together

i just can’t get enough of teh being open to vulnerability here! and in public nonetheless!

i’m refusing to delve into too much color theory here but i mean-- in itsay we had the blue scene and the red scene and here there both blue and red scenes alksdjflaksjflkjaslkdjf

maybe the most important thing i have to say

at the beach, teh says “there may be lots of changes,” empathizing with and validating oh-aew’s sadness and fears, which is lovely because, wow! teh experiencing and expressing emotion fully? again, ✨ character growth ✨

and then there’s this thing: we know that teh is a problem solver. i know that he is because my brain works that way, too, and sure enough, i think he found a solution

when he says “i love you” he doesn’t just leave it at that. he says “i’ve never told you, not once” and he very effectively reminds oh-aew that not all change is bad

ahhhhhhhh everything in this series is so deliberate

barely coherent thoughts

i can’t believe how nostalgic this made me??? about a place i have never been??? the music and the locations and just!!! it hasn’t even been a year since itsay and i’ve rewatched it too many times to count but it feels like ages and it feels like coming home

twilight literally means half-light so as usual the nadao team is super on point with their titles - i mean it’s the perfect middle between the sun and the moon, the perfect compromise

the shirts and their colors are so unsubtle i love it

lkalkjsdfalkjasdf the blanket in the first scene i’m Suffering - i caught myself looking for yongjian on the wall lmao

did they not show them playing in the water because pp is scared of it because if so: that’s really considerate and cute and appreciated

i looked it up and lavender roses symbolize enchantment and love at first sight which is very cute and also feels like it demands growth, which would be fitting in terms of everything else i said. they also happen look very similar to genetically engineered blue roses which are actually super interesting to read about and symbolize the unattainable. so that’s very much in line with our title :’) in this case, rather than the romance specifically, it would be more likely to symbolize the inability to truly revisit the past, if that’s even what they’re going for

teh said i love you while oh-aew was filming them helpppppp i bet did that on purpose so that oh-aew will have it with him at all times when they’re apart [queue intense sobbing]

i think teh also needed to hear oh-aew say “i love you” here too and i have a lot of thoughts on how teh was dealing with all of this but i can’t figure out how to put it into words??? i wanted to peg him as someone who doesn’t do well with change but i think it’s more like he dislikes being in control and i confused the two because there tends to be overlap and here i think there’s multiple things happening. he’s mostly in control of the change, he’s always wanted to go to the city for university. but i don’t think he expected the emotion that is coming with it (and i really fully believe he’s experiencing the emotions for himself, too, not just empathetically with oh-aew). he seems to be handling the emotion pretty well? he’s not telling oh-aew anything outright but i don’t think he needs to, he’s expressing himself a lot more here than he ever did in itsay and oh-aew still read him like a book then

anyway i feel like we’re going to get a focus on oh-aew in this second part (it’s what i’m hoping for!) but i want to remember to keep an eye on teh and his progress as well because it might be more subtle but i am sure it will still be there

#last twilight in phuket #ipytm #i told sunset about you part 2 #itsay 2 #I Promised You The Moon #bkpp the series #Billkin putthipong #PP Krit #i wanted to gif things but my internet is too weak for that here #so pictures and links it is #oh-aew #teh #teh x oh aew #ipytm side story #side story uhhh this is my life now thanks #phuket i will miss you </3 #oh this is a stupidly long post bye

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