Prompt 115
“Seriously old man?” the rumbling voice nearly caused Tim to jump, his eyes darting away from where Ras was sitting, the Al Ghul almost seeming to perk. It was kind of hard to miss the man… teen… being? It was kind of hard to miss the owner of the voice what with how their hair looked like it was on fire.
They motioned around at well, everything, crimson eyes looking exasperated. “Really?” They were definitely motioning towards him, interrupting Ras when he opened his mouth to talk. “No, I don’t want to hear it, I swear- Did he kidnap you?” That was definitely aimed at him.
“N-no?” Tim was feeling slightly unbalanced and may be on hour sixty without sleep at this point, if the hour long nap was counted. “I need help finding my not-dad who's lost in time.”
The being let out a strangled noise that Tim could nearly swear was almost another one, but couldn’t vocalize his slurred thoughts as the dude muttered something, motioning around as though he was tempted to strangle something or someone.
Ras cleared his throat, looking almost awkward which was how Tim knew he had to be dreaming or drugged. Probably drugged. “Jordan, how good to see you, it’s been so long-”
“Can it Pops,” the being-named-Jordan scoffed, finger pointing towards the Demon’s Head. “Moms still pissed and isn’t coming back any time soon with you still pulling this shit.”
Tim felt his brain stall, process for a moment, then process some more over what he just heard before his mouth ran before it could catch up. “Ras is married???”
845 notes
·
View notes
I've had some ANF thoughts today. Y'all know how much I hate the "love triangle" aspect of the story with Javi, Kate, and David, right? If you can even call it a love triangle; it's more of a "David and Kate never felt like a married couple to begin with and now Javi has the chance to bone his sister-in-law as if that's not a weird thing to do at all👍" thing, so... not great.
I'm also just not fond of Kate as a character in general. She's pretty good in ep1, but after that it's a slippery slope as she's relegated to the injured love interest for Javi. There are interesting aspects to her, like how she's resourceful and on top of things, she keeps track of herds and overall is shown to be incredibly smart. But, she also has moments where she has to let herself be emotional and a little panicked because she knows she needs to get it out of her system in order to focus. She gets frustrated with Gabe and says things she shouldn't, and she just.... I dunno, does dumb shit sometimes? And that would be fine if it made sense... but it doesn't.
I was always more interested in the Garcia brothers aspect of ANF, and felt the story would've been improved if it focused more on Javi and David, their relationship as brothers in the past and how different it is after they've found each other again in the apocalypse. One of the best scenes in the entire game is the rooftop scene where David ask Javi to stand with him.
And so I was thinking about ANF this morning and what could be done to make Kate fit better in the story and like...it hit me: Kate should've been their sister.
No, seriously, hear me out: Kate should've been written to be the middle child of the Garcia siblings instead.
Do you know how much that would fix? Throw that stupid love triangle in the trash. It was never good, it did nothing for Kate's character, and now David and Javi don't have to bicker about who she's married to and who gets to bone her, okay? No bullshit fight at the end!
David was already married once, just let him be divorced or a widower, and a single father. Javi can have a new love interest; hell, give him two if you want, let him be a bi king over Eleanor and Tripp- wait, no that just creates another love triangle, damn it-
Anyway... if Kate was their sister, then her entire character overflows with potential that wasn't there before.
I say make her the middle child who was stuck with two rivaling brothers, one a military man who became a single father and the other a professional baseball player who lost it all in a gambling scandal.
What about Kate? Perhaps she's a single woman who doesn't know what she wants in life. She doesn't want to settle down and have kids like David did, but she also doesn't want to sink so low like Javi did. She wants to travel, but needs money to do that so she does what she can save up, but there's always something that makes her dip into her savings.
Y'know... like her father getting sick and needing to pay for treatments, which Kate is happy to give up those savings so for a chance for him to beat cancer, but there's always that little bit of bitterness lingering inside her that keeps saying, "it's never about what I want, it's always about David or Javi, I'm going no where, I'm no one, even I don't know who I am or what I want, what am I doing? Papa got sick, so Javi ran away again, and so did David when he reenlisted, and who got left behind to take care of everything? Me, it's always me left to take care of Mama and Papa, and the kids, and everything else!"
Maybe she acted as a mediator between the brothers, too. They always relied on her when they were pissed with each other, they vented all their problems to her, and she always tried to get them to connect on something, but never found that right thing.
Hell, this way she could get along with the kids better, too. She's just Aunt Kate. She always volunteered to babysit them for David. She and Gabe still have their tiffs due to clashing attitudes, but there's no "you're not my mother!" vibe.
Suddenly Kate's her own person and not just an object the game throws at you for the brothers to grunt "she's muh wife!" "but I love her, too!" at.
ANF becomes the story of these three siblings who experienced the worst night of their lives together: their father died after a long battle with cancer, their mother is distraught, Javi didn't show up in time, David's drinking on the porch and Kate's trying to look out for everyone. Then the outbreak happens, their father comes back as a walker and bites their mother, David rushes off with her to the hospital while Kate and Javi take the kids...
Years later, Kate and Javi have accepted that they've lost their parents and big brother, and they're doing what they can to keep their niece and nephew alive... until Kate gets shot and they reunite with David, because then everything gets extra complicated with the three siblings trying to repair broken bridges and survive together until they hit a breaking point where Kate gets sick of David's shit. She's done trying to be nice and play mediator, she's ready to do what she thinks is right and an argument breaks out... and Javi's forced to choose between his brother or sister, and the tragedy becomes about being unable to save one of them... not matter what, in the end, Javi will lose a sibling because no matter how hard he tried, they still fell apart.
And that's just the tip of the iceberg.
I just really hate every plot they give Kate, y'all. She was done dirty.
And I loathe love triangles that involve two siblings [usually it's brothers] falling in love with the same person, okay? I don't have the patience for it, I just want all of those love triangles to go far, far away from me forever and never bother me again.
Anyway, do you love this thing I do where I show up after months of inactivity to slap something like this down before scurrying away? Because I'm scurrying now.
76 notes
·
View notes
arc 4/season 2 of re:zero really did have a bunch of sets of siblings with lots of focus on them. it seemed to be a bit of a recurring theme for the season. family bonds as a whole were really important, especially where the backstory was concerned, but in contrast to that, the sibling relationships seemed to be about moving each other forward. in different ways though...
like, you have frederica and garfiel. they're estranged half-siblings, but frederica still obviously cares so much about her little brother. the reason she left was because she wanted to make a place for him and the rest of the people in the sanctuary in the outside world. garfiel was stuck inside the past, fearing the outside world for what happened to their mother. but when he finally faces his trial again, it's the memory of his sister that gives him the motivation to move forward.
similarly, in emilia's second trial, it's her conversation with archi that enables her to face the present for what it is. even though trial archi seemed to be pushing her towards the world of the trial itself, that's exactly what reinforces her will. with her memory of the real archi, she calls him "big brother" for the first time, and she thanks him for always being worried about her. the sad thing is, unlike all of the other sibling duos, archi has already been dead for a long time. but even then, like we saw in the first trial, he gave his life because he wanted emilia to keep moving forward.
and in otto's backstory too... he spent most of his childhood completely unable to interact with the world around him. the constant noise was too overwhelming, to the point that he couldn't actually hear anything else. he had no way to understand or communicate his feelings. and though his parents did their best to understand him, he was still stuck in this state. it wasn't until oslo decided to teach him how to write that he was finally able to express himself. despite the fact that it was harder for otto than other kids, he finally managed his first real message to his family, "thank you for everything." and with that, he cried for the first time since was born, and was able to move forward again.
even the antagonists this arc are siblings. meili and elsa dont get as much focus into their relationship as the others (not for this arc at least), but one very obvious development is that elsa has someone she cares about. elsa "bowl hunter" granhiert, a serial killer/assassin/vampire who takes great pleasure in watching people die, and tearing out their organs, has a person she cares about. this is a humanizing trait for her, and that's on purpose. loving meili literally makes her "more" human. someone that she's also willing to give up her life for. and later on, in arc 6, we see just how much elsa's death impacted meili and how she hasn't been able to move forward since that day.
this theme is even more noticeable in the negatives too. in rem and ram's case, who have already been set up as a matching set all the way back in arc 2. they're identical twins, they've loved each other literally since they were born. ram awoke her powers as a newborn just to save her crying sister. they share a deep and powerful bond. but... what the hell happens when that goes away? because rem had her name and memories eaten, ram forgets she ever had a sister. her character digresses, her entire world is now centered on roswaal, she's more devoted to him than she was before. without her sister, ram moves backwards.
and of course, there's the sibling duo that this entire season centers around- subaru and beatrice. i've talked before about how subaru's relationship with echidna and roswaal is like a foil for his relationship with his actual parents. subaru has been raised living in the shadow of his father, but his actual dad never once forced him into it- he encourages his son to stand on his own and be his own person. roswaal is the opposite, he corners subaru in an attempt to make him a mini roswaal. subaru's mother was always watched him closely, but never made his choices for him. echidna is the opposite, where she wants to manipulate and control subaru's every action to satiate her own goals and desires.
but echidna is also beatrice's actual mother, which places beatrice in the role of subaru's sister in his fucked up found family echidna had created. but beatrice and subaru were never forced together, they chose each other. beatrice was left alone in a library for 400 years, abandoned by her mother and left to wait for a person who would never truly come (who never truly existed). she has been stuck for so long, unable to break her chains. but the action that finally does free her from this stasis is when subaru asks her to choose him. the only way for them to escape this "family" and move forward was for them to choose each other.
88 notes
·
View notes