Lucas and the Worms (Goosebumps 2023 Analysis 4/5)

If you haven’t yet read the previous parts I’ve written of this analysis I highly recommend you do. However the jist of it is that I believe each haunted object linked to the kids was chosen deliberately by Biddle and symbolically represents a major struggle the kid linked to the item is dealing with.

This time let’s discuss Lucas. Fair warning, this one is a fair bit darker then the other sections. Trigger warnings for discussions of suicide and self harm.

(Spoilers below the cut, I seriously recommend watching the show before reading it’s worth it)

Lucas is the fourth point of view character, staring in the episode Go Eat Worms. Prior to this episode three things about Lucas are made apparent: He’s reckless, he’s (seemingly) laid back to the point he doesn’t seem to care about much of anything, and he’s extremely socially awkward/unaware.

Now Go Eat Worms emphasized all these traits but it also portrayed the reasoning behind them which changes the perception of Lucas from a burn-out skater boy who couldn’t give less of a fuck to someone who is… well, all of that as well as excessively self-destructive.

While a lot of Lucas’ social awkwardness seems to come from a genuine struggle of not knowing what to talk about or what would be socially appropriate I believe a part of it also ties in to his laid-back attitude. In The Haunted Mask Isabella rips into a multitude of Lucas’ insecurities, one of the most effective being when she insults his “jackass facade.”

Based on Lucas’ reaction here, which is something close to a flinch or a cower, we can tell Isabella hit the nail on the head. Lucas deliberately gets himself intro trouble and then ignores the worry or anger that this behavior ignites. The perfect example of this is in Go Eat Worms when Lucas drags his bike to the school roof and rides it down straight into Colin Stokes car. He severely injures himself in the process but he brushes off Colin’s shouting and Margot’s fretting in the exact same manner: essentially giving the impression he could not care less.

While this reaction is partially affected by the worms in general this is in line with Lucas’ previous behavior, as he reacted similarly when he first got in trouble for destroying Isabella’s drone in The Haunted Mask. At first he comes across as simply an asshole, uncaring of the damage he is causing around him. With the added context of his recent Dad’s death however, alongside some of Nora’s lines (such as her line to Colin in The Haunted Mask about how she “assumed he’d be sad after Dennis died, not reckless”) which all imply that this behavior goes deeper then just simple impulsive trouble making.

It becomes increasingly clear over the course of Go Eat Worms that Lucas is dealing with a severe amount of grief… badly. We open the episode with him attempting to talk himself into performing the same trick his Dad did when he died where Lucas ends up fighting off tears. It’s implied Lucas spends a lot of time in his Dad’s old shed and he has a poster of his Dad’s stunt work on his wall right over his bed. When breaking down at the Booms of Doom Lucas states that “we’re (meaning his Father and him) so similar. We’re Father and Son.” His grief is quite literally consuming him and only a few minutes into the episode something becomes very clear: Lucas is severely depressed.

The other important thing about Lucas’ behavior that’s elaborated on is his most obvious trait: his recklessness. Lucas’ introduction is quite literally skateboarding off a roof and giving himself a possible concussion. Throughout the other episodes we continue to see him perform other unsafe acts: Skateboarding down the stairs, jumping at a tall height to catch a drone and landing on the pavement, and attempting to eat a worm (not necessarily as bad but still shows a disregard for his health and general well-being). We know Lucas likes skateboarding and other dangerous stunt stuff due to his Dad however the amount at which Lucas gets Injured is notably excessive as Nora quite blatantly calls it reckless. Lucas is also extremely nonchalant about his actual injuries, one of his first lines being: “it’s fine Mom, it’s just my head this time.”

Not all of Lucas’ disregard for himself can be blamed on grief however, as it’s also subtlety implied throughout the show that Lucas is insecure. Specifically, Lucas is extremely insecure about his own intelligence. The first we see of this is actually at the Halloween party, when Lucas makes a joke to Margot about coming as a guy with brain damage. While this can be taken as a dig at his penchent for injuries his tone seems to imply something else, it’s too serious. We see it once again in The Haunted Mask when Isabella is digging at Lucas. While her comments about him pretending to be a jackass get to him the comment he has the worst reaction to is her first one: “This moron.” There is a noticeable shift in Lucas’ body language here, he is no longer calm or nonchalant. It’s the first time we see him openly upset. Then, in Reader Beware, Lucas states: “You make me feel so dumb, but not in a bad way like… literally everybody else.”

Lucas also tells Margot here that he once broke six bones in his hand at the age of six, implying his reckless behavior has been something he’s struggled with for a long time.

All of this is to say, Lucas in Go Eat Worms and throughout most of the show is dealing with both severe grief, some sort of depression, and what seems to be a fair amount of insecurities. He’s in an extremely bad place mentally and his self-destructive behavior shows this.

Then he finds out about his Mom’s affair and eats the Biddle worm.

The Biddle worms work like this: once one is consumed the consumer will begin to feel ill. While unconscious the other worms will work their way into the consumer’s body and burrow under the skin. They will make the consumer completely unable to feel pain both mental and physical, and will heal any wounds the consumer receives, even broken bones. The only way to expel the worms from the consumer’s body is to put the consumer through intense mental anguish. The worms will attempt to reenter the consumer and the only way to avoid this is to physically destroy the worms.

Before we get into the worms themselves let’s discuss Lucas’ reaction to them. Once discovering that he feels no physical pain Lucas’ first reaction is to slam his hand so hard into his locker that all his fingers snap (keep in mind that when he did this he had no idea if they would heal). Once he realizes his healing factor he then drives his bike off the school roof into Colin Stokes’ car, where it’s shown he severely hurts his shoulder in the process. Thanks to the worms these wounds heal, however the most interesting part of this is Lucas’ line to Margot when she tries to check on him. “I feel fine! I know you’re in pain Margot but that’s the wonderful thing about pain, you can choose to turn it off!”

Lucas is in a severe amount of emotional turmoil, finding out about his Mom’s affair is essentially his breaking point. It becomes clear through this line and his behavior that Lucas distracts himself from mental pain by physically harming himself: he is quite literally self-harming.

Lucas shows no indication of suicidal thoughts prior to the worms driving him to the Booms of Doom (though he does perhaps show a softer version of it. The whole mentality of “walking across the street without looking, not actively seeking death but not avoiding it either” sort of idea). However, as the worms emphasize Lucas’ reliance on recklessness and physical pain to bury his mental pain, the worms also broadcast how quickly that behavior can spiral into something more. While I don’t believe Lucas goes to the Booms of Doom looking to kill himself he also does try to proceed when Nora tells him that’s exactly what his Father did.

The worms are then expelled as Lucas is forced to face the grief he’s been trying to bury. However, they attempt to take him back and Lucas is only able to fight them off with the help of his Mom and Margot.

The message of this one is clear: Running from grief or insecurity and trying to deal with it through self-destructive means will not fix the problem. The only way to genuinely begin healing and moving forward is to rely on the people around you and face the feelings, no matter how difficult they may be.

#Me with my DR7#I have SO MANY IDEAS; SO MANY TIDBITS OF INFORMATION ABOUT THEM #Did you know Hitomi's name meaning is 'pupil of the eye' or just 'pupil' or 'eye'? #...I absolutely did that as a bit of fun with how she ends up a Bill Cipher stan #Ryuji's name comes from the Persona character; I do not Persona but that boy is my SON #Ishida comes from the combination of his two inspirations' last names; Owada and Ishimaru #Katsuo literally picked his name because it means 'victory; hero; manly' #(He's transmasc if that explains it) #I don't think Honoka and Mio's names had any specific little easter eggs #I just like how they sounded #Ava...well her full name is a play on the word Avatar #Why? Spoilers #Ryuji loves rhythm games; especially ones like DDR or ones that require him to move his hands #Honoka's a fan of gimmicky mystery shops; and has a taxidermied possum in her room that she got from one #She's also fond of mushrooms (as evidenced by her skirt)#That might also have a significant role in her and her brother's backstory #Ishida has two dads and the very BIG personalities that came from them #He's all about extreme sports stunts but also safety is his number one concern #To the point where he tends to take it too far and WILL slam a helmet on your head if you look like you're doing something dangerous-#-without safety gear #His preferred mode of transportation is his trusty electric scooter #Katsuo got into his school as the Ultimate Tennis Player but he was only enlisted as that due to his mother #In actuality; his love and preferred career choice is in robotics #He's also quite fond of horror movies #Hitomi was raised as an orphan in a two-bit circus and developed her talents as a surgeon by stitching the performers-#-back together after dangerous stunts #It was there she also developed a love for anomalies and oddities (hence the Bill Cipher stanning) #I feel like I'm almost out of tags so I'll move this to a new post

Slamming all of this in one post and continuing it because I got a LOT more to say

Mio has severe social anxiety, but surprisingly no anxiety about performing in front of people. She prefers to let her dancing do the talking for her.

She also LOVES super cute things, like plushies and dollhouses. She knows they’re a bit juvenile but they’re just so CUTE

I also lied about her name; it means beautiful or cherry. She is very beautiful, but the cherry part is a reference to Sakura from DR1. She was initially going to be similar to her in personality, but I decided against it due to how the writing mishandled Sakura a lot.

Ava’s birthday is February 14th, and she usually gives out homemade baked goods to other people to celebrate the holiday, rather than the other way around.

She started doing this as a kid, because she had no friends and everyone would forget her birthday due to it falling on Valentine’s Day. So she took to trying to make other people happy by giving them gifts instead.

She also loves cooking/baking shows, and also has a deep loathing for fondant.

Circling back to Ryuji, but he has a whole collection of otamatones and they all have different names.

Between him and Honoka, she’s the oldest by a few minutes. This doesn’t matter much to her personally, but Ryuji always jumps to her defense whenever someone asks who the older twin is.

Also another fun fact about Katsuo’s name; the last name Matsuda comes from the Death Note character of the same name.

Ishida’s personality is very reminiscent of Mr. Poolcheck’s from Gravity Falls, in terms of intensity. He also happens to be my voiceclaim for Ishida.

In terms of orientations, the group is as follows: -Ryuji: Bi -Honoka: Aroace -Mio: Lesbian -Ava: Lesbian -Katsuo: Gay -Ishida: Gay -Hitomi: Aroace

I love them all so SO much, and I’m so excited to write them in a story (I RP them already but I’m still excited!)

My take on a Genshin Impact Circus AU Part 4 with Noelle as a strongwoman and Amber as a death-defying archery stuntwoman. Their backstories are under the cut!

Noelle:

First off I have a very self-indulgent headcanon that she is ridiculously strong. Like. Can benchpress people. Canonverse or AU.

She used to help out around the circus and she was kind of indifferent to the fact that she was likely going to be a maid. It's a respectable profession. And helping out at her childhood friends' (Kaeya and Diluc) manor as she'd been born into doing seemed like a good job.

How she got into the circus life requires a bit of backstory. Back when they were kids, Kaeya, Diluc, and Noelle would mess around (as kids do) and have little challenges for themselves. Who can run the fastest, who can do the best cartwheel, who can jump the highest, and the like.

Noelle got a little hesitant as she got into her early teens bc she was always told to be ladylike, so she spent one or two of their hangout sessions watching Kaeya and Diluc and talking. One day, however, Kaeya and Diluc are being Teenage Boys and lifting heavy things trying to outlift each other. Noelle has lifted furniture when cleaning up after these two so she figures this one unladylike thing would be okay.

She comes up behind them and just. Picks them both up. On top of the things they were lifting already. Kaeya and Diluc have to take a second and just look at her like "yeah no you are never sitting out of our competitions again"

And so they try other things like cartwheels and tests of courage like who can climb the highest on a tree and things are back to normal.

Skip forward a few years and Crepus dies. There's a huge mystery around it that not even his son's attendants are privy to. The only thing people know is that the sons have been sent away to boarding school. The whole manor is abandoned, all the workers fired.

Noelle for the next few years spends her time working at laundromats, and other odd jobs, but eventually she runs out of luck and suddenly there's too many people and not enough opportunities.

One of her friends from one of her old jobs invites her to go out and see this new circus that happens to be in town. She goes because why not. And wouldn't you know it one of the acts is her childhood friends doing these death-defying stunts that hit her with a wave of nostalgia bc their entire act consists of essentially the song "anything you can do" but with more and more dangerous stunts.

Noelle of course has to say hi, so they catch up and Noelle's lack of work comes up and would you look at that Aether and Lumine happen to have an opening for a maid.

So Noelle settles in, continuing to lift heavy shit to clean under it (Bennett swears up and down he saw her lift a fridge once but he might've been sleep-deprived). She also got into helping Chongyun with the techy stuff so sometimes she'll be at tech rehearsals moving things around and one time a rope holding up a person breaks near Noelle and she. catches it.

Now, one night. One of the acts drops out at the last moment bc injury or last-minute commitment or the like. And it leaves a gap in the show. Everyone else is busy. And panicking bc the circus is still relatively new and they really need to build their rep rn.

They start wondering what kind of last-minute acts they can put together like "what about the gymnasts??" "They all have group routines" "do they have old routines??" "Not polished enough for what we need" and someone somewhere pipes up "man I wish we had a strongman or something" and Diluc and Kaeya immediately whip their heads around to look at each other for like half a second before Kaeya bolts. He finds Noelle doing her usual rounds she's been doing for like a month now and Bennett was right, she is currently under a mini-fridge that she is lifting over her head whilst leaning it against a wall.

Kaeya takes Noelle by the shoulders and just zooms her over to where the commotion is happening and pitches the idea to Aether and Lumine. They're hesitant as hECK bc this is a huge risk they're taking since Noelle isn't even a performer but Diluc pitches that they could literally just scatter really heavy items and have Noelle clean under them and as long as she looks at the audience every once in a while it can be played off as a bit.

Noelle with qUITE the stammer says that she'll try her best but at this time is in need of a moment. She has never performed before. Kaeya and Diluc have to go perform so they leave her with a shoulder squeeze and a thumbs up.

She gets on-stage. She flinches under the lights for a second. She takes a deep breath and focuses on the first thing before her with her best "oh heavens, it's filthy in here", and she gets through the entire act by doing that for every object. So the audience is seeing this seemingly petite young girl lift the equivalent of a hecking car in order to clean under it.

Needless to say, there's roaring applause the second Noelle leaves (which she hears from far away because holy shit I just cleaned for people and they liked it)

This was a bit of a one-time thing and she goes back to her regular maid duties until the circus gets a new strongman by the name "Zhongli".

His style is more about lifting exTREMELY LARGE ROCKS, and breaking them in half whilst giving a history/geology lesson on them.

He quietly observes the maid who he hears fantastical stories of That One Time She Charmed An Audience By Cleaning. He was bewildered at first but saw the merit of it while watching her clean. He immediately decides that this girl has sO MUCH. POTENTIAL that is being wasted by having her work as a maid. He has nothing against maids or their profession, but he invites her to train with him.

Noelle gets hELLA stronger and they come to a conclusion. Noelle performs part-time and is a maid part-time. She doesn't have a particular performance style. She'll sometimes play catch with Zhongli and his big rocks, other times she'll be in the background of performers like Amber in the art lifting some hEAVY SHIT.

She gets along with Chongyun super well bc Chongyun has to make less trips to move his equipment since he's worked with her. She's a blessing for when they have to pack up and move.

Amber:

Amber's story is a little more straightforward. She started out engaged to a suitor. Amber was the kid in kindergarten who was learning about dragons and "idk what everyone else was doing". She's known what she wants for a long time, and what she wants at the moment, is not a relationship.

Throughout her childhood she was a very lonely child. Her family exposed her to lots of academic or ladylike things (do not ask me when this au is set, it's the 1800s and the 1990s at the same time or a suspendes steampunk time) to get her away from the thing she liked most: archery. She'd been exposed to it as a kid and latched on.

This drove a bunch of suitors away, so her family got more desperate and exposed her to more classes and activities to get her away from it. She went "that's easy, I'll just practice at night"

So she does that. She practices at night and underperforms in the coming weeks. It is during this time that her parents (high class ppl) find her a man to marry for some business deal idk.

The man's nice enough. It's just obvious he can only take Amber in small doses, and Amber takes full advantage of this to practice and stay in shape.

How Amber gets into the circus life was essentially running away. She bonds with Eula over this.

So because of all the attempts to make her fit into the ideal lady description, her rebellious streak said "yeah we're going to go as far away from that as possible" and she goes "I'm going to run away with the circus" bc that's what the books she's read say is the most rebellious thing you can do.

She finds THE FIRST circus she sees and begs to be let in. This is the shadiest most sketchy place but Amber sees it as the key to her freedom. She signs a contract.

They treat her like the US treats their students. She barely gets time to practice for performances and she's mostly doing dirty work. When they ask her what she can do she's like "I'm really good at archery" and they go "cool, you're going to be doing that while everything is on fire now. Can you do a handstand"

Essentially they push her and push her and push her to do more and more hazardous things she has to pick up on under the threat of being kicked to the curb.

After a while of this Amber is extremely burned out (pun intended) and as she's packing up after one of her shows, covered in burns but proud bc she hit all her targets without killing anyone, she's approached by a blond foreigner.

Tbh for all she's read, Amber really doesn't consider leaving and this time she can't run away since she's now bound by a contract (not Zhongli's btw in case anyone was wondering).

This foreigner tells her that there's so many ways to improve her situation and that he runs a circus looking for members.

Amber refuses since she's not getting tangled up in another legal mess, but she takes his advice on how to take care of her burns, and improve safety while she's performing.

Skip a few months. She hears word of this mysterious new circus around. Her encounter with who she'll later know as Aether stuck with her, and so she goes. To see whether she could really shoot her arrows without being burned alive.

After a show one night, she tries to get past security and fails repeatedly. She turns to leave and wouldn't you know it there's Aether. And Lumine. Waiting for her once she turns the corner. Amber's biggest concern is her existing contract and when Aether and Lumine say they have a nICE lawyer, Amber sees her next step to freedom.

Aether and Lumine essentially gain custody of Amber (but like for adults) and Amber is. Shocked. She's walked through her new contract of employment clearly and essentially treated like a human being.

And now that she knows things and has more freedom (though still under the watchful eyes of Aether and Lumine to see how she does) her creativity and competitive streak flourish. She decides she actually doesn't hate fire, she just doesn't like when she doesn't know when or where it's coming. And she makes fast friends with the gymnasts, so she ends up incorporating that into her routines. Now she uses her canon goggles to protect her from the burning eyes of prolonged smoke exposure when she uses fire.

When she meets a little pyromanic girl named Klee, she's thrilled that someone this chaotic and sure of herself exists.

Kim Possible AU

In which Marinette is in gymnastics, is childhood friends with Adrien, and somehow became an agent-for-hire when someone accidentally dialed her number to call for help instead of actual, professionally trained agents. That’s right, they called a preteen for help, didn’t have the time to call anyone else, and rolled with it.

Also Adrien is a total goofball with a hairless cat. He still has both his parents, who start out overprotective but gradually loosen the reigns when it becomes clear that his friend will keep him safe.

(The reason I put gymnastics and not cheerleading is because I’m pretty sure that’s an exclusively American thing? Besides, gymnastics kind of makes more sense, skillset-wise.)

Origins

     • Marinette took gymnastics since she was seven, mainly because her clumsiness had been turning into a bit of a problem. (Parents start to get worried when their child’s having genuine physical difficulty in not hurting themselves. They thought gymnastics would help her learn balance, and also allow her to burn off some of her natural childlike energy.) By the age of eleven, Marinette is the best in her class, and is thinking about entering competitions.

     • Adrien is Marinette’s childhood best friend. Along with gymnastics, Marinette also started taking ballet, which is where the two met. Adrien was taking ballet because both his parents had taken it, and also because he thought it would be fun. Since he’d been taking it longer than Marinette, he helped her out in class, and the two have been inseparable ever since.

     • Adrien helped Marinette build a website to help get her name out there when they were eleven. They took videos of her doing a couple moves, and added a contact number. Unfortunately, (or, rather fortunately, actually,) Marinette’s number is very similar to a number for a group of agents who do pretty dangerous, life-saving jobs. 

     • Marinette’s first call is from a man requesting for help at a rather big bank in Paris, not far from her house. Being eleven, she doesn’t really understand that this is probably something she should inform the police, rather than handle herself. So, she and Adrien (who she sneaks out of his house) rush over, and save the day themselves.

     • Adrien had videotaped the impressive gymnastics Marinette had pulled off in order to safely get through the security lasers and shut them off. After that video was posted, she started getting calls on a much more regular basis, all from people in need of help. It wasn’t the sort of attention she was looking for when making the website, but she can’t deny she doesn’t love her new job.

The Present

     • By the ages of 16, Marinette and Adrien have travelled all over the world, gaining favors from a bunch of grateful individuals, and are pretty dang famous. They aren’t necessarily given special privileges at school, but if things are urgent, then they’re allowed to leave and makeup missing work online. 

     • Adrien is still a model, still plays piano, still takes Chinese, and still does a lot of different sports. On his own, he’s actually pretty famous. However, in this world, it’s pretty much impossible for him to display the ‘perfect, gentlemanly son’ persona when most of the world has seen videos of him screaming at the top of his lungs, running around in his underwear because somehow his pants got pulled off again. Yeah, he’s a straight A student with the classic, rich people training, but he’s still an utter dork and everyone knows it.

     • Marinette, while still taking gymnastics, has lost interest in making it a life career when she already sort of does it already. She’s picked up other interests, one of them being fashion design when Adrien had introduced her to what goes on behind the scenes in his workplace. She’s good at designing stylish, yet very practical outfits, and made uniforms for herself and Adrien for their ‘side jobs’ as agents-for-hire. 

     • While Adrien isn’t necessarily incompetent, he’s more of the ‘do first, think later’ type of guy when it comes to their dynamic, which often leaves Marinette to do the planning and problem-solving. At this point, it’s kind of abundantly obvious that, while Adrien is academically more profound, Marinette is vastly more analytical, and probably has a ridiculously high IQ if they ever bothered to check. 

     • There isn’t a main villain. Papillion doesn’t exist because Gabriel is completely aware of what his son is doing, still has his darling wife, and has literally no reason to waste his money on illegal activities. He’s a big name in the fashion world, it’s not like he’s looking for world domination or something stupid like that.

     • (I’m sure you’re wondering why the fuck Gabriel Agreste would let his only son go off on dangerous adventures like that on a daily. Well, he didn’t at first, but over time Marinette proved to be a more effective bodyguard than Adrien’s actual bodyguard, so he became more chill. Also, Adrien’s the face of his company, and with all the brave and daring things he’s done alongside Marinette, his popularity ratings are through the roof. Son has fun, is well-taken care of, still performs exceptionally in all his extracurriculars, and does well by the family business? It’s a win-win on all sides.)

     • I would make Lila Shego, except Shego is an actually likeable villain who’s genuinely smart, badass, and fun to watch. So, idk who Shego is, definitely not any of the catty girl rivals Marinette has to put up with, but you can’t have a Kim Possible AU without Shego, so she’s definitely in there. 

     • Max is probably Wade. Honestly makes the most sense, but here’s a suggestion: Max and Kim are the ones who contact Marinette when she has a mission. Max is great with numbers, technology, etc, but Kim’s expertise in completely random shit like sports, terrain, and necessary gear needed for specific situations makes him a valuable asset to the team.

     • We all know who Chloé is going to be, I don’t even need to say it but I will anyways. Say hello to our Bonnie, everyone. She was probably in that ballet class with Marinette and Adrien too, years ago. 

     • While Tom Dupain is still a baker, in this AU Sabine Cheng went on to pursue her dream as a literal rocket scientist, and succeeded. So, Sabine is basically Dr. James Timothy Possible. 

     • Adrien has a hairless cat named Plagg. His father is allergic to fur, and Adrien’s allergic to feathers, so he was sort of limited to pets like fish or lizards, neither of which he really wanted. He found Plagg outside gorging himself on camembert by a dumpster. Having been previously a street cat, Plagg’s growth was stunted, so he stayed pretty small.

     • Luka is obviously Josh Mankey. Marinette and Luka date for a while, but eventually break up on mutual terms due to him not being able to handle some of the dangerous things that pop up in her life often. While he doesn’t panic when things go south, he’s not really physically equipped to protect himself... He’s a musician, not a fighter.

     • Listen, y’all can fight me, Marinette’s longest relationship before finally getting together with Adrien is going to be with Kagami. Kagami handles the dangerous things that go on in Marinette’s life perfectly well, and they date for several months. Eventually, they do break up, but still remain good friends. (This is the period in which Adrien realises he’s jealous of Kagami, and has feelings for Marinette.)

Get Together

     • For those of you who haven’t watched Kim Possible, (and honestly what the hell are you even doing with your life if you haven’t,) Kim and Ron get together at a school dance (prom, but I don’t think prom exists in France,) and share a slow dance with each other. Uhhh so basically think Despair Bear, except Adrien and Marinette are wearing fancy clothes, just got together, and share a kiss in the end.

     • Marinette had recently broken up with Kagami before the dance, and is a little upset over not having a date when she already made herself a dress. Adrien is dealing with his realisation that he likes Marinette romantically, but keeps quiet about it and gives her a shoulder to cry on because she’s hurt, and he’s not going to take advantage of that. He suggests they go to the dance together as friends.

     • Kagami is there, and Adrien confronts her as to why she had broken up with the most amazing girl in Paris. She tells him that she came to the conclusion that, though she loved Marinette with all her heart, Marinette clearly had someone else as her #1. Kagami was sick of having to compete for that position when the other person didn’t even need to try. Adrien is left baffled by this.

     • Marinette overhears this as she’s walking over to ask Adrien for a dance. Kagami looked past Adrien’s shoulder, directly into Marinette’s eyes, and smiled knowingly. Then she walked away, sipping at her drink. 

     • Adrien turns around, pretty green eyes latching onto hers, and Marinette immediately understands what Kagami had meant. A slow song comes on, and she asks him to dance. Things fall in place from there.

     • (Of course, after they’ve kissed and become a couple, some dumb villain is going to inevitably crash the party and try to kill Marinette, as usual, but they deal with it like they always do.)

Alright that’s the end! This was an almost completed draft of mine I had, and since I’ve been lacking on content recently, I thought I’d quickly polish this up a bit and post it. I also have some other completed things I could polish up on, but eh, don’t feel like it right now. Enjoy!

(And maybe tell me how you’d imagine your favourite KP episode would go with Marinette and Adrien as the protagonists instead!)

Batman & The Flying Graysons Ch. 4

John set down the last of their things and dusted off his hands. This wasn’t even the bedroom proper, it was a sort of waiting room before the actual bedroom. And even this smaller space dwarfed the cardboard boxes. After living his life in trailers and trains and big tops, this was literally more room than John or Mary knew how to deal with.

Dick, however, saw no problems as he cartwheeled across the antique carpet. “Mom! Dad! Look!”

“We see you, little bird.” John smiled at Dick as he did a back walkover handstand.

“This place looks even cooler like this! I wish I could walk on the ceiling.”

Mary laughed, and joined him and walked over to her son on her hands. “Wow! It does look pretty cool.”

“Dad! Your turn! C’mon, Dad!” Dick repeated until John joined them on his hands, looking at the mansion from upside down.

The art deco light fixtures looked even more impressive from this angle. And he could see how Dick, with his childhood wonder and imagination, could see the coffered ceiling as a playground. 

Still on his hands, Dick raced out of the room, giggling all the way. John and Mary, laughing too much and nearly losing their balance, tried to follow. Except Martha and Bruce chose that moment to check on them, and either John or Mary or both let out a squeak of surprise before quickly, and with some embarrassment, righting themselves.

“Oh my, you are talented. If I tried that, I think my old bones would shatter.” Martha said while Bruce rolled his eyes.

“You’re not that old, Mom.”

“I know, Brucie, it was a joke.” Martha ruffled her son’s hair. John couldn’t help imagining her doing the same to Batman. “Hey, do you remember when you could do a handstand?”

“That was years ago.”

“Aw, you’re strong, I bet you could do it.” Martha’s encouragement left little room for argument. “Go on, let’s see.”

John watched as Bruce exasperatedly bent over and tried clumsily to kick into a handstand, all the while remembering how he’d watched Batman do far more impressive stunts not even twenty-four hours ago. When Bruce finally got onto his hands, he made a big show of shaking his limbs and falling onto his back.

Martha tutted sympathetically while Mary snorted, likely picturing the same image of Batman falling over like that as John was.

“After all those gymnastics lessons.” Martha said, though it was more poking fun than genuine disappointment. 

Bruce, pushing himself off the floor, shrugged with a dorky, innocent smile on his face, “I told you, it’s been years.”

Martha smiled, patting her son’s shoulder and turning to Mary and John, “Hopefully you weren’t attracted to my son for his potential as an acrobat.”

John almost didn’t remember what Martha meant, and once it clicked he fumbled to wrap his arm over Bruce’s shoulder, but the man was tall so he couldn’t comfortably reach. He tried to cover it with a charming smile.

“Of course not, he has other redeeming qualities.”

A crease appeared between Martha’s eyebrows, but she too tried to hide her concern with a smile.

“My son is good at many things, but communicating is not one of them. I really am sorry about yesterday.”

John felt Bruce winced. He subtly patted him on the back.

“Oh no, it’s okay-” Mary started to say, but Martha shook her head,

“You deserved to tell Dick in your own time. This will be a big adjustment for him, so if there’s anything I or my husbands can do to make it easier-”

"He seems to be adjusting just fine.” John laughed, pointing through the door to where Dick was now balanced on his hands on the balustrade.

Martha yelped when she turned around and saw him, and she yelped again when Dick, noticing his parents watching, lifted a hand to wave at them, so now he was balanced on a single hand, two stories up, above solid marble floors.

So not to give the poor woman a heart attack, Mary walked over and scooped her son into her arms. He was getting bigger, but she was still strong enough to carry him when she needed to.

“Dick, apologize to Mrs. Wayne for scaring her.” John said to his son as he removed his arm from around Bruce.

“But I didn’t do anything!” Dick whined.

“You were doing something dangerous. You know you should never balance that high up without a net.” Mary said, patiently.

“But you and dad perform without a net!”

Mary wanted to say something about her and John being adults, but what kid ever listened to that logic? Martha had half a lecture on how the marble could crack his skull open already forming, but, surprising everyone, Bruce spoke up.

“Your mom and dad only perform on the proper, safe equipment. Was that handrail built for someone to walk on?”

Dick looked back at the balustrade and then to Bruce, lip jutting out in a stubborn pout as he looked to his feet, “Probably not.”

Bruce nodded. “Right. So use the balance beam in the gym next time, and I promise we’ll watch, okay?”

Dick went from pouty to all smiles and stars in his eyes just like that, “Okay! Let’s go now!”

Having no idea where the gym was, Dick grabbed Bruce by the wrist, knowing he could show him the way, and shouted, “Dad! Mom! C’moooon.”

With Dick’s well-being no longer held by a wooden banister, Martha chuckled to herself. “I’m so glad they’re getting along. I want you all to feel at home here.”

There was no truthful way to respond that. So Mary and John just smiled and nodded agreeably. Once Mrs. Wayne turned away, their eyes locked, sharing a silent, harried look. This was going to be a big adjustment all right.

Dumbass Shit Anti’s have never seemed to critically think about ever:

Even if there are content warnings that won’t stop someone! 

If a group of kids decide to sneak into a construction site, or a dangerous part of a hiking trail, despite the clear warnings and restrictions given, whose fault is that.

TV Channels and Late Night TV have always been a thing since TVs conception. They have the adult content (more violent or sexual themes) play late when kids are supposed to be asleep, and adults are home. Or the content resides on a separate channel altogether. If a kid sneaks out to watch some bullshit on TV while their parents are asleep, and gain access to the mature channels that were separated specifically to avoid kids, whose fault is that.

Even if you give warnings not to do this bad thing in your writing in real life that doesn’t mean it won’t stop anyone from doing it!:

If there’s a stunt video or performance that clearly says ‘don’t try this at home/this is dangerous/these are trained professionals’ that still doesn’t stop some fucking idiots from trying those things and then ending up in the hospital. Whose fault is that.

Imagine just outright trying to ban those types of stunts from the public eye, or people attacking them over, ‘my son copied you and now he’s hurt, pay for your crimes!’ When the disclaimer says ‘don’t do this im a trained professional you could get seriously injured.’

I’ve seen people say that because parents are unreliable as strangers we basically need to Protect the Children as a sworn duty

I’m sorry but if a child doesn’t feel comfortable talking to their parents, and they go behind their parents back and get into dangerous shit those adults in their educational spaces never warned them about it, that’s the parent’s/teacher’s faults. You literally can’t say: ‘because parents and educational figures are possibly unreliable at best, it’s on the strangers responsibly enjoying their content to monitor children that are fucking around in the streets.’

That alone sounds irresponsible as fuck.

If an adult has alcohol in their home and their teenagers know not to drink it but they sneak around and steal/drink it anyways, whose fault is that. Some people go to lengths of fake IDs just to get alcohol! You don’t enact prohibition because of this.

That desire to break the rules already has to be within someone and something they want to act upon in literally any situation. This has been a clear literary dichotomy for decades, “Come on, lets sneak out and do things we’re not supposed to!” “Let’s break into my parent’s liquor cabinet!” “I don’t really feel comfortable doing that, it doesn’t feel right...”

TLDR; This is about peer pressure and being properly educated. 

If a stranger is making you uncomfortable in person young people know to leave, get another adult, scream, etc. But the same online safety education isn’t being strictly upheld by parents and educators these days like they used to be. They think ‘Here’s a tablet/the internet, I’ll put my child in front of it unsupervised to keep them busy’ with no warnings of who to avoid or tell if someone could be bad.

So I’m sorry to say but if you came in contact with someone who was bad and they influenced you, it’s your parents/mentors and educators that failed you.

For example “People learn from romantically/sexually indulgent media and mirror those harmful actions!” That’s because of a lack of proper sexual education or relationship education. Again it’s Educators faults for not providing healthy information and keeping something so normal stigmatized and taboo. Then people make misinformed decisions and it causes problems.

As long as parents and the educational community provide information and education about whats healthy, what things can be harmful and how to treat people, young people can make informed/educated decisions on their own as they grow up no matter who or what content crosses their path. Teaching kids/teens to recognize red flags of manipulation or abuse to keep them safe is what needs to happen. Not banning said content from literally any mention whatsoever. 

I myself had plenty of times as a teen online where even if I thought someone was a good friend, there were certain things I would never tell them about my identity and location. I was educated so that I could comfortably navigate digital spaces and still befriend people. If someone got too inquisitive, or creepy for my comfort, I simply cut ties or blocked them. And I was fine. As a teen, If I was sneaking around on adult sites or anime forums I knew I could possibly come across some content I wouldn’t want to see. If I did, I exited out immediately. And I was fine.

Questions of actions and morality have existed since humans had any society at all. If those sources that are supposed to be responsible for them i.e. PARENTS, TEACHERS, EDUCATIONAL FIGURES don’t do their jobs, that’s not on responsible strangers to modify their lives and personal spaces to accommodate young people that may happen to wander into them unsupervised, that’s on those figures because it’s their fucking jobs.

13x16 thoughts (from Paleyfest)

(I may need to go back and refine later but these are my post-Paleyfest notes on 13x16.)

I loved this episode!! It was a ton of fun. It was slapstick and silly but did some heavy lifting too. Honestly, it worked the way a lot of our favorite crack episodes did and alluded to at least one of them explicitly (”Changing Channels,” obvs, and I think there may have been more subtle references to others).

I’m too tired to do a full meta analysis but here’s a kind of bullet recap, first of the most plot-based elements:

The plot turns on the fact that the Scooby Doo world, suddenly, ends up functioning like the world Sam and Dean inhabit. The boys enter the cartoon assuming all usual cartoon rules would apply (and Dean’s ready to have a rollicking good time with them) only to discover that the first murder in the haunted house is real. Ghosts are real. Death is real. Sam wants to tell the Scooby gang about it from the get-go but Dean wants to protect them and preserve their innocence.

It’s already obviously about childhood, and losing it, but Dean makes it explicit by talking about how much he loved Scooby Doo because no matter where their dad had dragged them it would always be on. They were his friends and constant companions. He is really being thrown into the best part of his childhood….and you can see why it would be the best because it’s probably his fantasy and deepest wish that the ghosts, demons, etc. of the world he inhabits would turn out just to be bad guys in masks, death wouldn’t be real, etc. It’s Dean safe place in childhood because it takes his actual life (ghost hunting) and makes it safe and even fun. Dean wants to keep his safe place safe and is shocked and horrified when the rules of his universe invade.

It’s Sam who wants to tell them the truth about monsters from the word “go” even before it’s been revealed that death can come to Scooby Doo. (Dean laments, heartbreakingly, that it doesn’t matter if he dies…what’s important is that they make sure Scooby doesn’t die because clearly he’s such an innocent creature.) Sam, who did not have his childhood cut as abruptly short as Dean and who did not have to seek solace in a cartoon world because Dean helped him make a safe space in the real world, doesn’t see the point of lying about ghosts being real. Dean, who worked to keep Sam safe from this knowledge for YEARS of his own stunted childhood by acting as a parent, does want to keep the gang in the dark because he wants them to retain their innocence. It’s a huge lampshade to the different experiences Sam and Dean had as children and as sons.

They do eventually have to tell the Scooby gang and, wonderfully, it induces an existential crisis in them. Watching Daphne question the existence of God based on what she has inferred about the afterlife is amazing. It is not what I expected. Dean brings them back from the brink by reminding them of all the good work they had done before.

I’m going to tell the ending now and then double back to some other observations: the phantom they are chasing is the ghost of a small boy who is being manipulated, through a cursed object (a pocket knife given to him by his beloved father before he died), by an unscrupulous man (the real estate agent who we met in the beginning) who unleashes the boy’s anger on whoever he chooses for his own purpose…to scare people off of property he wants to buy. This way, the villain of a typical Scooby episode actually becomes the villain of this SPN episode…the evil real estate developer.

Before heading back to their world, where they burn the pocket knife and free the ghost, Dean convinces Sam and Cas to lie to the Scooby gang and tell them that they were right initially–ghosts aren’t real. He goes so far as to stage the unmasking of the cartoon villain (the one from the original Scooby episode) and helps them to explanations involving wires, cornstarch blood, etc. Sam is grumpy about it but does it anyway. It’s crucial to Dean that they leave the Scooby gang as they found them and not saddle them with the world the Winchesters live in.

Let me just reiterate…the ghost that has been terrorizing them is frightened little boy. Who kept a pocket knife (much like the one we see being used to carve the Winchester’s initials into the Impala) as a token of his dead father. His father is symbolized and memorialized by a weapon. The weapon is the object the little boy is tied to and that another man–a bad man–can use to manipulate him into hurting others because “I just get so angry sometimes.” To be free, the knife (weapon, father’s legacy) has to be burned. There are closeups on a very sad Dean while this happens (some sad Sam and Cas too).

It is blindingly obvious that the little boy, who is wreaking havoc on the cartoon safe space of his childhood, represents Dean. To stop the destruction Dean has to let something go (he starts the episode referencing Elsa and EXPLICITLY SAYING THIS LINE I CAN’T EVEN). Something that is keeping him angry. Something that is tied to his father. Something that can be used to manipulate him, employed as a weapon to hurt other innocent people (Mark of Cain/Demon Dean plot lines). Dean is full of anger and of self-loathing and it’s coming from the same source. That source is toxic masculinity. Let it go, Dean. Let it go.

Is it also tied to issues of sexuality? I think so. I’ll reflect a little bit below, but I wanted to do the whole plot-based analysis first.

And now the less plot-based stuff:

Ok, so can the ghost represent repressed sexuality/a different form of masculinity? SO MUCH YES. Point one: Cas is the only one who stops to take a look at the ghost and is thisclose to seeing through it’s big ol’scary disguise and finding a vulnerable child. He stops and squints at it, Cas-style, and says “I’ve never seen a ghost wear such a ridiculous costume. Unless…” and then he reaches out to it, starting to push aside the veil only to be pulled away. Now if that isn’t metaphorically precisely what Cas did, and does, for Dean and his performing facade I will buy a hat so that I can eat it.

Point two, there is a scene where the ghost is chasing everyone through a series of doors on either side of a hallway (you know the scene…they run across the hallway, doors open and shut on either side, feet flying everywhere). They successfully shut the ghost in a closet with iron chains, though it’s close to breaking out. Daphne presses her body up against the door to hold it. Dean checks her out very obviously in a way that is both superfluous to and inconsistent with the plot. This means that the silhouette of a conventionally sexy woman is QUITE LITERALLY holding the closet door closed on the ghost. Metaphorically, it shows how Dean is able to use his attraction to conventionally sexy women to hold back what’s haunting him…attraction to men, ideas about a certain type of masculinity. Does it work? BIG FAT NO. The ghost breaks out anyway. (<Puts on professor cap> Have you guys read “The Beast in the Closet”? It’s by Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick and is about “intense male homosocial desire as at once the most compulsory and the most prohibited of social bonds.” It’s about Henry James’s work but I think you would all dig it. <Takes off professor cap.>)

I wanted to start with that because I can tell that people are going to be very upset about Dean’s excessive flirtation with/pursuit of Daphne. And, yeah, I almost injured my eyes by rolling them so hard at some of the things he says. BUT THAT’S THE POINT. What he’s saying is a child’s idea of how a grown man would act with a woman he likes. And it bears a great deal of similarity to how Dean does act sometimes. We call it performing!Dean and wonder to what extent Dean is conscious of his performing. Given this episode I’d say..maybe .not that conscious? I feel like the overstated heterosexual dudebroness was done specifically to give us an over-exaggerated literal cartoon version of heterosexual Dean to compare to regular Dean so that anyone who doesn’t know Dean performs in his own life will have a lens through which to see it.

Also, Daphne is his childhood crush. OF COURSE he’s going to act like a moron around her. If I encountered [insert childhood TV crush here…for me it was Kevin from “The Wonder Years” for whatever reason] I’d act dumb as fuck! But you have to remember that she represents innocence for him…it’s established that all the Scoobies do (heh - puns!). Even if he’s kissing her hand or putting an arm around her or whatever there is no danger there, just like there’s no danger in the ghosts. Sexuality to Dean isn’t scary in Scooby Doo because it’s simple: it’s just a girl he likes. Except, just like how the ghosts are also dangerous, the love plot isn’t going to be that simple or that straightforward (heh - straight). You see where I’m going. Dean would rather be in a universe ghosts weren’t real because it’s safer and easier and kind of a fantasy land but they ARE real and he will have to deal with them; Dean would also rather be in a world where he was a suave, irresistible ladies’ man because it’s safer and easier and a kind of fantasy….but he’s not. Jensen even said so in his interview. Granted, Jensen’s comment may have just meant that Dean’s not suave like he thinks. But the actual episode draws a parallel that’s pretty damn clear.

Another reason to not worry: Daphne is zero interest in Dean at all. She has negative interest in Dean. Her lack of interest in Dean has created a void that is sucking all the air out of the room. She may not even know that Dean is hitting on her. She is so focused on Fred that no one else exists for her as a romantic interest. They are so obviously a pair, even though they are never shown to be together as a couple explicitly.<Stares directly into the camera like I’m on The Office.> Can Dean not see that? Is he blind? Well, he does see it, but he thinks Daphne is “settling” for Fred who represents a kind of masculinity that makes him uncomfortable (more in a sec). In point of fact, no one is romantically interested in Dean in this episode…unlike Sam who gets a lot of appreciation (and an eventual kiss) from Velma.

As for Fred, Dean begins by really hating him (so much that Sam remarks on it) and when pressed about why he attributes it to Fred’s self-confidence despite things like his “stupid ascot.” Dean comes to like and admire Fred and, ultimately, have the confidence to wear an ascot himself BECAUSE HE LIKES IT. It didn’t make Fred less of a man. It doesn’t make Dean less of a man to wear it with his plaid shirt. Fred helps Dean along the way to some self-acceptance. It’s nice. Fred is there to serve as a contrast to Dean’s overblown notions of what is “masculine” and offer another form of masculinity that is, manifestly, still appealing to the ladies.

Now, remember the Scooby Doo universe doesn’t have sex in it. It’s a cartoon. And they bend those rules only the tiniest bit here. All of Dean’s advances and even his jokes are PG. That innocence on the part of the Scoobies is played for laughs, Daphne remarking that Dean is silly for not knowing that “boys and girls don’t sleep in the same room” for example, but it’s also integral to the plot. (There are some other jokes too and, for a glorious second, I thought that they were legitimately going to reveal that Daphne and Velma were a thing but sadly not.) No one would want to ruin the Scooby universe by telling them about sex…not even Dean. Again, it contains a child’s conception of relationships.

I’m imagining some people will also be upset about how the episode treats Cas. I was especially stung that, right at the outset, Dean says flat-out that “Cas is basically a talking dog.” I made a noise of indignation that made people look at me. BUT let’s also remember how much Dean loves that talking dog. He’d die for him. He wants to protect him at any cost. He doesn’t want to spoil his innocence. So, yeah, that’s not a nice thing to say but it’s also not the whole story. Cas is grouped with Scooby and Shaggy the whole time and he bonds with them, SMILING (ALERT ALERT CARTOON CASTIEL KNOWS HOW TO SMILE) AND LAUGHING when he has to leave. He thanks them for showing him the importance of humor even in dangerous times. I think it’s a good lesson for Cas and his real affection for them reminds me of what a soft character he is inside, wanting to get a cat or save monkeys or keep bees. That’s been missing from Cas lately (even though I do LOVE bamf!Cas) so maybe this will help him recall it.

I want to say again that Cas is the one who can see through the ghost and its “ridiculous costume.”

Interestingly, both his entrances (his first appearance after Fred and Dean take off to drag race; when he reunites with the boys in the haunted house) frame him as a scary villain. The first is from behind and you just see the coat billowing out (though this did remind me of the girl running the drag race in “Grease” which…lol); the second he’s silhouetted in a window, approaching it in the rain, and is then covered with a sheet before he’s “unmasked” by Dean and discovered to be a friend. This is…pretty much Castiel’s character progression always. Looks like a threat but is discovered not to be.

Once they get back to their regular world Dean makes a remark about how that was the most fun he’s ever had “including that time with the Cartwright twins.” Cas studies him and asks “What did you do with the Cartwright twins?”. There’s a long beat in which Dean looks shifty and grins and shakes his head and turns away. Sam says “I don’t think I want to know.” Cas says nothing. Cas does want to know. This is new and part of a general progression that @amwritingmeta wrote a great analysis of where Cas is becoming able to think something like Forget that sacred oath…I must know what Dean did with those twins.

There was probably more, you guys, but it’s super late for my poor body clock. Please feel free to pass this on to anyone you think would like it but bear in mind that a) there are MASSIVE SPOILERS, b) this is just my interpretation of the episode, and c) I only saw it live once so my details may be wrong.

I thought this as a fantastic episode the more I think about it and I’m SO EXCITED to hear your thoughts!! <3

Jake Paul Promised Them Fame. Was It Worth the Price? In the vast world of YouTube villains, there may be none as famous as Jake Paul. The 24-year-old Vine star turned vlogger has polarized viewers with videos of dangerous pranks and stunts (though he continues to bring in millions of views). He is a serial entrepreneur linked to several dubious and misleading business ventures (though that hasn’t deterred investors). He has repeatedly offended and alienated his collaborators (though he keeps finding new ones). In 2020, he declared the coronavirus a “hoax.” It can often seem that he lives to provoke outrage. Now, Mr. Paul is facing allegations of sexual misconduct from other influencers. Yet he remains the blueprint for many social media stars today. Without him, it’s hard to imagine the current land rush of so-called “collab houses,” where young content creators film videos, throw parties and spur drama. Or the proliferation of prank videos on YouTube. Or the bad-boy archetype embodied by so many influencer-entrepreneurs born on TikTok. At the center of these comparisons is the Team 10 house, an influencer collective and talent management agency founded by Mr. Paul in 2016. The vision: He and six other creators, aged 14 to 19, would live together and leverage their collective followings for views and cash. Everyone would benefit, but no one more than Mr. Paul. “I know it’s a cliché, but, like, literally, I want to create an empire of dozens of talent under me, to take my power and multiply it so that I become bigger than myself,” Mr. Paul told The New York Times in 2017. Back then, the arrangement was uncommon; sure, influencers lived together (the O2L house and The Station had already come and gone), but the houses weren’t all businesses in their own right. Now, such setups are increasingly common — and highly lucrative. “People look to Team 10 house as the inspiration for collab houses today,” said Brendan Gahan, the chief social officer at Mekanism, an advertising agency. “The Beatles didn’t invent rock ’n’ roll, but they’re the most famous rock ’n’ roll band. Team 10 didn’t invent the collab house, but they became the most famous collab house and really defined it. They created the culture.” But that culture is now being re-evaluated, as stories mount from creators who say they were exploited for views. No Rent, No Parents … No Problems? When AJ Mitchell received a direct message from Jake Paul in early 2016 about an opportunity in Los Angeles, he was intrigued. An aspiring musician in small-town Illinois, Mr. Mitchell had earned more than 80,000 followers on Instagram. Mr. Paul, who was raising capital to start a media company focused on influencers, said he could help him become much bigger. Aaron Mitchell, AJ’s father, said he “was not very impressed with Jake” and that he didn’t want his son, who was 14 at the time, involved with Team 10. However, after extensive conversations with Mr. Paul’s parents, Greg Paul and Pam Stepnick; Mr. Paul’s assistant, Erica Costell, who was in her mid-20s; and Neels Visser, another member of Team 10, he and his wife, Allison, decided to allow AJ to join the group. The arrangement worked like this: Each of the influencers could live in the Team 10 house (a rented mansion in the upscale Beverly Grove neighborhood of Los Angeles) for free if they agreed to produce regular content for social media (which Mr. Paul would monetize) and participate in brand deals. (Mr. Paul declined to comment on the financial arrangement he had with house residents.) According to several former house members, Mr. Paul could also take 10 to 20 percent of Team 10 members’ YouTube ad revenue for up to five years, even if they left the group. At the time, it sounded like a good deal; Mr. Paul would help them become stars in their own right. On May 24, 2016, Mr. Mitchell arrived at the Team 10 house with a single suitcase. For several weeks he didn’t have a bedroom, so he slept on a leather couch in the living room. Mr. Mitchell was given a room to share with Alissa Violet, who was 19 at the time and publicly dating Mr. Paul. “It kind of felt unreal,” Mr. Mitchell, who is now 19, said. “I’d seen those people on social media before, growing up. I’d see all these funny videos so when I went out there I was like, ‘Whoa, this is real.’ It was like I was living in a dream.” Ms. Mitchell, AJ’s mother, would regularly fly in and stay at a nearby hotel. On some occasions, she even spent the night at the Team 10 house, sleeping in the room her son shared with Ms. Violet. “For me, as a mom, I’m very protective of my kid,” Ms. Mitchell said. She said that when she called older members of the group to check on her son, they assured her that things were going well; AJ, she said, never let on otherwise. “All I know is they were doing a bunch of silly stupid videos, being kids,” Ms. Mitchell said. “Sometimes being reckless, but doing silly videos.” The Prank Economy To get views, many YouTubers, including Mr. Paul and David Dobrik’s Vlog Squad, relied on pranks and practical jokes, drawing from a lineage of entertainment franchises like “Jackass” and “Punk’d” as well as the work of creators like Mr. Paul’s older brother, Logan. The people living and working in the Team 10 house served as subjects for all kinds of antics. Mr. Paul’s YouTube channel offers an incomplete record — many of his videos have been removed — but it includes footage of members of Team 10 being electrically shocked without warning and facing pressure to jump from the mansion’s roof into a pool. The videos give the impression of a rollicking frat house during rush season rather than a collaborative work environment. Former Team 10 members told The Times that Mr. Paul once chain-sawed through a bedroom door to wake up two people in the house. One of Mr. Paul’s former assistants recalled arriving for work to find her desk had been smashed for a video. The Times sought comment from Mr. Paul on the material of the YouTube videos and the accounts of former Team 10 associates, and he declined. It wasn’t just people in the house who were affected by Mr. Paul’s pranks: In 2017, a man sued Mr. Paul for hearing loss after the influencer blared a car horn at him; the case was later dismissed. “When it comes down to someone having to do something to get attention, every single day you have to do crazy stuff,” Mr. Mitchell said. “If you go back and look at those videos, you see a lot of crazy stuff and you’ll see why kids are drawn into it, because it was a house full of kids doing whatever they want. Every day it was a new crazy thing, but people wanted to watch it.” In his downtime, Mr. Mitchell would write songs in a notebook and play them on his keyboard. One day, he came home to discover his keyboard broken. Mr. Paul told him it had been thrown in the pool for a video. ‘He Was the Boss’ Followers were the primary currency of the Team 10 house. “If you got tagged in one of Jake’s YouTube videos, you could get 50,000 followers,” Mr. Mitchell said. “Jake would use that to manipulate everyone. If anyone didn’t do what Jake wanted, he’d tell everyone else in the house not to tag them. Jake had a monopoly, and he decided who got famous.” But there was money coming in, too, and members of the group had questions about where it was going. When Team 10 formed, Mr. Paul set up and controlled a business email accounts for each member to solicit opportunities. Mr. Mitchell said he was not aware of the opportunities that he was being pitched for or what was coming in. In the 14 months he spent as part of the group, he said he was paid directly for two brand deals but never received payment from Team 10. Mr. Mitchell relied on small amounts of money he received from his parents to cover expenses like meals out with the group. Mr. Paul had convinced Mr. Mitchell’s parents that their son would be taken care of, but no meals or structure were provided for him or the other teenage residents. Most of them had never been expected to shop or cook for themselves, and didn’t have the means to do so. “People see these mansions and they see people living like royalty, but no one knew I was sleeping on the floor or I didn’t have food,” said Mr. Mitchell. Veena Dubal, a professor of law at the University of California, Hastings, said: “We have all these laws in place that have been around for a century to protect child performers, but they have not been extended to safeguard the health, welfare and safety of children influencers.” Because these young creators make money through a variety of revenue streams, and are not employed by a single entity, they can be vulnerable to exploitation. “If there’s not some entity taking responsibility as an employer, then we’re going to see the kind of exploitative and unsafe practices that we have been seeing,” she said. The allure of living independently and building a following had worn off. “At first I was like there’s no parents here and we get to be free and do what we want,” Mr. Mitchell said. “I felt, like, free in a way. But having Jake be the adult was weird because we all listened to Jake. He was the boss.” During parties, marijuana and alcohol were available in the Team 10 house. Mr. Mitchell said he once drank so much that he blacked out. The group often attended parties where guests in their 20s and 30s would mingle with teenagers. Mr. Mitchell said he began a sexual relationship with a woman nearly a decade older than him whom he had met at an influencer party. He understands now that the relationship could not have been consensual given his age. “I was a baby. I had a baby face,” he said. “I feel like that’s just weird now.” Behind the Scenes By late 2016, Mr. Mitchell had left the Team 10 house, though he remained part of the group for several months after. His mother, who was staying at a hotel nearby, had found out about a party at the house and drove over to pick up her son. It wasn’t until recently that Mr. Mitchell told his parents the full extent of what took place in the house. Ms. Mitchell said she is horrified and angry. “I’ll tell you right now, had I known anything about any relationship with a girl 10 years older than him I would have had the law involved,” she said. Several months after Mr. Mitchell’s departure, the rest of Team 10 was forced to move; neighbors said Mr. Paul had created “living hell” for them and turned their sleepy neighborhood into “war zone.” The following year, Ivan and Emilio Martinez, two YouTubers from Spain who had lived in the Team 10 house, spoke about their decision to leave. In a YouTube video, they said Mr. Paul bullied them, terrorized them with pranks and made racist comments mocking their background and language skills. (The two speak English as a second language.) In a 2018 interview with the YouTuber Shane Dawson, Ms. Violet described what it was like to date and work with Mr. Paul. “He’s not a physical abuser, but mentally and emotionally, 100 percent, every day, 2,000 times a day,” she says in the video. “I can’t even remember a conversation where it was me walking away feeling good about myself.” “If we filmed a video, and he had to push me into a bush, normally, you’d nudge someone or pretend to push someone. He would actually shove me,” she says, as she shows scars to the camera. “He would just do it way too hard.” In a YouTube video posted on April 9, Justine Paradise, a 24-year-old TikTok influencer, accused Mr. Paul of sexual assault. The incident, she said, involved forced oral sex and took place at the Team 10 house in 2019. “In a situation like that, there was nothing I could do,” Ms. Paradise said. “I was physically restricted, and I felt emotionally restricted afterwards to even say anything about it.” Three friends whom she told directly afterward about the incident corroborated her account. Ms. Paradise said she plans to file charges. In a public statement posted to Twitter, Mr. Paul denied Ms. Paradise’s allegations, calling them “100% false.” Mr. Paul’s lawyer Daniel E. Gardenswartz, said in a statement to The New York Times: “Our client categorically denies the allegation.” Railey Lollie, 21, a model and actress who began working with Mr. Paul when she was 17, said he often called her “jailbait” and commented on her appearance. She said that one evening in late 2017, after filming a video, Mr. Paul groped her. She forcefully told him to stop, and he ran out of the room. Ms. Lollie quit shortly after the incident. “I was with Jake for months, and I saw what kind of person he was behind the scenes and what kind of person he put out to the rest of the world,” she said. Meanwhile, in Businessland In the business and entertainment worlds, the name Jake Paul continues to have cachet. In March, Mr. Paul announced he was starting a new venture fund; already, powerful figures in Silicon Valley have agreed to contribute to the fund. “These older investors come in who have no idea about social media and they see he’s got a lot of followers. From their perspective, it’s success,” Mr. Mitchell said. “The real story is, Jake should not be getting any money from investors from the things he’s done in the past.” Mr. Paul, who was an athlete in high school, began a boxing career in 2020. “It brought back the competitive, athletic Jake Paul,” he told Rolling Stone recently. Fighting has helped Mr. Paul expand his audience. It has also made him richer: In an interview with ESPN last year, Mr. Paul said he earned “eight figures” for a fight against Nate Robinson, a former N.B.A. star. For his most recent fight, against Ben Askren, a former mixed martial arts champion, Mr. Paul’s disclosed pay was $690,000. (After the fight, Mr. Paul wrote in an Instagram post that the fight had drawn 1.5 million pay-per-view customers.) Where other YouTubers, like David Dobrik and James Charles, have faced financial fallout after accusations of misconduct, Mr. Paul has yet to see such consequences. “If Jake’s sponsors and investors don’t hold him accountable, then why would he change any of his actions?” Ms. Paradise said. Source link Orbem News #Fame #Jake #Paul #price #promised #worth

Forgotten Women Friday #18

Dorothy Levitt- 1882-1922- Britain

“The Fastest Girl on Earth”

Dorothy Levitt is proof that women were participating in auto racing from almost the dawn of its creation. Born in 1882 in London, Dorothy became the first British female racing driver, the world’s first water speed record holder, the women’s world land speed record holder, and a pioneer for women in racing and engineering. When Dorothy was growing up, racing was still a developing sport for men, let alone women. In 1902, she got a job as a secretary for Napier & Sons, an engineering company that had begun manufacturing cars in 1899. Cars produced at this time had to be entered into official trials so potential buyers could see how they performed. Dorothy’s boss got the idea to have her drive their cars in the trials as a publicity stunt, so Dorothy was taught how to drive and perform maintenance on cars. One of Dorothy’s employers, seeing her natural gift for cars, sent her on a six month apprenticeship with a French automobile maker in Paris. When she returned to London, Dorothy taught Queen Alexandra and the royal princesses how to drive, along with female American tourists.

In 1903, Dorothy competed in her first road race, making her the first British woman to ever do so. At a time when cars were for the wealthy and women were expected to remain at home, Dorothy quickly caught the attention of the nation. She was described in the papers as living a “bachelor girl” lifestyle with her friends in the West End and she often sported an ultra-feminine style while driving, complete with a matching hat and veil. In the coming years she medaled frequently at various races she entered and even won the British Harmsworth Trophy for setting the world’s first water speed record in a 40-foot, 75 horsepower speedboat. In 1906 she broke her own previous record for the women’s world speed record by driving 90 mph and she was dubbed the “Fastest Girl on Earth.” In an interview with a newspaper Dorothy said, “One can hardly describe one’s sensations. There is a feeling of flying through space. I never think of the danger. That sort of thing won’t do.”

Dorothy became an outspoken advocate for “a woman’s right to motor” and published her own book, The Woman and the Car: A Chatty Little Handbook For Women Who Motor or Want to Motor. In her book she advised women to have a gun on them at all times for protection and to hold up a compact mirror to see what was behind them while driving, therefore pioneering rearview mirrors seven years before their invention. She also encouraged women to drive, writing, “There may be pleasure in being whirled around the country by your friends and relatives, or in a car driven by your chauffeur; but the real, the intense pleasure, the actual realisation of the pastime comes only when you drive your own car.” After 1910 however, Dorothy abruptly disappeared from the public eye. She died in 1922 from “morphine poisoning while suffering from heart disease and an attack of measles.” To this day, Dorothy Levitt remains a pioneer for women in racing and engineering and for women seeking their dreams despite going against societal norms. She was truly a woman before her time that literally paved the way for all women to drive cars and to demand equal rights behind the wheel.

hi, just found yr blog. what do you think are the biggest differences b/w light in the anime/manga and light in the live action drama? (and are you looking forward to the netflix movie? lol)

hey ❤︎ sorry for getting to this late but i’m so glad i rewatched the drama recently so i can remember the major differences i had in mind while observing drama Light’s actions, though it’s impossible for me to tackle them all at once right now because there are too many. i’ll make a cut from here.

drama Light wasn’t so supposed to be the perfect adaptation of manga Light in the first place, and the major difference you can find is that manga Light is the perfect son that soichiro’s always been proud of; ever since early childhood, he wanted to be a police officer / detective just like his father and his strong sense of justice has never once left him. he brought honor to his family and was always simply perfect, with perfect school records, perfect academic and athletic performance (not to mention perfect outward appearance) his parents couldn’t have possibly wished for a better son. this and the fact that Light has never suffered from any childhood trauma (presumably) and had a perfect life despite being tedious and monotone for someone of his intelligence, at least before he picked up the death note. whereas drama Light wasn’t exactly the perfect son that soichiro was very proud to have, and this has a lot to do with the fact that Light’s mother, sachiko, had passed away when Light was still a child. this is a VERY important plot twist that ought to change Light’s character altogether and inevitably made him grow up to be someone a little bit different than he was in the manga. shaken by his mother’s sudden death—which is a tragic childhood experience manga Light was lucky enough to have never gone through—drama Light grew up feeling enraged with his father’s field of work, because in some way it had been the reason that stole his mother from him (even if Light was smart enough to know that it was just bad fate, he blamed his father for not being there for his mother when she was dying) and his respect and admiration for the japanese police have considerably decreased ever since. drama Light had the chance to notice the police’s shortcomings way before manga Light did, and thus found out that there was something very wrong going on with the world from such an early age. the police isn’t doing its job properly, and isn’t promising the perfect justice everyone awaits. this is accentuated by the fact that drama Light was exposed to its failure in person. if anything, it was somewhat the reason that ruined Light’s home, making his father rarely ever show up and leaving him and his sister alone. my point is that drama Light had more reasons to be angry with the world than manga Light did.

another major difference is that manga Light is more intelligent and a better strategical planner than drama Light, which means that his motives were stemmed from his boredom and not only his twisted sense of justice and uncontrollable ego. drama Light, however, wasn’t shown to be bored of his life or faking enjoying other people’s company; he’d seemed to lead a perfectly normal, happy life while maintaining friendships in college, going to concerts and social events and interacting with others as well as doing good in his part-time job. drama Light is normal, therefore less intelligent. this is not to imply that manga Light displayed any abnormal behavior pre-kira, but he’d certainly made it obvious that he was faking his way through life until the very moment he’d decided to be god (and even after that, he kept doing so, but this time with purpose behind it). i believe that the drama makers wanted Light to be more realistic and relatable to the audiences that are undoubtedly not on manga Light’s intelligence level. of course, drama Light is still gifted with extraordinary intelligence as well, as he was able to carry all the plans that were set by original Light in canon. examples of instances that show he might not be as good as original Light are the entire scene prior to L’s death, in the way that Light did not predict whatsoever that L could’ve faked the death note. had mikami not been the one to kill him, L would’ve been able to arrest light yagami as Kira. another instance is also not predicting that there was a chance the agent raye penber ‘mark dwellton’ might’ve simply not written his own name down or any name down for that matter, and if it weren’t for misa’s interference, Light would’ve ended up dead. not to mention that drama Light is less of a good actor; he’s a great actor, true, but not as good as canon Light. drama Light showed obvious panic when L informed him about misa’s arrest, and although it is normal for him to show worry about her as his girlfriend, he should be able to know that L would know better, and would take note of his every action. he couldn’t keep his cool around the people that have bust him out; mark dwellton, L, and eventually his father, every confrontation of these led to Light’s confession of being Kira, and these characters being able to discover his identity in the first place only proves that Light’s plans had been flawed. in the manga, there was never someone who ended up exposing Light as Kira, except for raye penber whom Light had planned would be dead by the second he found out, the same goes for naomi misora, and misa was on his side from the very beginning and had the unfair advantage of the shinigami eyes. drama Light’s own shortcomings could’ve killed him on more than one occasion, and his intelligence is to be admired for coming out of it successful every time and managing to find a way out, but manga Light was a true mastermind for never allowing it to happen in the first place. of course, it is VERY important to note that the character light yagami in general is ABNORMALLY lucky, so lucky in fact, that anything could’ve gone wrong at any given time and yet he’d always end up a winner. it could only go on for so long before he was exposed, though.

this is a trivial distinction but drama Light is also less good-looking than manga Light, who’d seemed to actually take his looks to his advantage and use them to further his necessary purposes. this should also start me talking about the fact that drama Light might’ve not been okay with using something as shallow to manipulate people in the first place, which makes him just a little less corrupt than original Light. he’d never seemed to directly manipulate misa into getting him what he wants; she’d always seemed to jump into the opportunity completely voluntarily. he never kissed her or showed her affection to lull her in (the only time he did, he was trying to save both their lives, so that was an exception) not to mention that DRAMA LIGHT CARED ABOUT MISA MORE THAN MANGA LIGHT EVER DID. the stunt he pulled by giving her that unexpected letter and telling her that she was going to be attacked—that had been extremely dangerous, especially since L was monitoring his moves at the time (i think) and anything so conspicuous might’ve led to suspicion. manga Light didn’t even want to be seen with misa in public. drama Light literally created a public scene just to be able to save her life; he cares just the slightest bit about her. not to mention that he was/is a fan of hers, even if going to her concerts was merely peer pressure—a reasonable assumption. still, drama Light cared about misa to an extent, and showed he really wanted her out of those restraints and wanted L to release her when she was put in confinement (mostly so that she wouldn’t be able to expose him, true, but you’d have to be blind not to see that he was genuinely concerned about her).

drama Light had a softer side for both misa and L. he’d mentioned he wanted to be L’s best friend forever, which was extremely unnecessary and cheesy and gay, but the point is drama Light STOPPED for a second and let himself think of what he and L could’ve been had they not met under these circumstances. manga Light was too busy trying to kill L to let himself dwell on such thoughts, because L was the ultimate enemy. drama Light put his emotions in front of reason at particular times, and this was one of them (along with what i just discussed about trying to save misa). drama Light was more empathetic, and never considered ordinary people to be lesser than him; he had a better hold of his ego, because he didn’t have reasons to think he was above people in the first place, at least not before the death note. meanwhile, manga Light ALWAYS had this in mind, before and after the death note. drama Light realised he wanted to be god halfway through the series, after being fully exposed to Kira’s powers—he’d never let himself think about this before. manga Light realised he wanted to be god literally from the very first chapter of death note. this is due to the fact that, as i said, drama Light is less perfect, less intelligent, less good-looking, more normal, more realistic. he’s not a perfect sculpture that didn’t even seem to be real, the way manga Light was. he was greatly affected by his circumstances and a bit older when he found the death note, and didn’t immediately start thinking the world would be better if he used it—it took him some time to rationalise it, this is because his sense of justice has been dormant ever since his mother died, a very noticeable difference. manga Light didn’t take his time because his sense of justice and WAITING to do something for the world have been boiling inside of him for quite some time, and the death note only made it erupt at last. pay attention to the fact that this is not saying that any one of them is 2D because they’re both VERY complex (manga Light even more so) but overall, there is a considerable difference in personalities and past that made them not share the same exact character. it would be better to view each one separately, because drama Light has certainly made mistakes that manga Light would never allow himself to make, and you can’t even blame him for this because he grew up differently, and was designed to be different from the very beginning.

Arrow - ‘Spartan’ Review

“I guess bad news wins this round.”

For once we have an episode where Daddy Issues abound and none of it involves Oliver.

In a show that focuses so intently on familial relationships particularly of the Daddy Issues variety, I was as surprised as Oliver to realize that Diggle had never mentioned his father let alone stepfather before this. It was more surprising to learn that the normally composed Diggle had grown up in such a resentment filled environment.

Diggle grew up believing that General Stewart, played by the estimable Ernie Hudson, was the coward who let his father die and then married the dead man’s wife. To add insult to injury, he then spent the rest of Diggle’s childhood trying to “toughen” both Diggle and Andy up. I may not have lived through survival training but as someone who had a literal Army Drill Instructor for a stepdad, I can attest to both the harshness and the rigidity that must have existed in the Diggle household.

That said, it’s a hard lesson to learn that one’s perspective and reality are not always the same thing. The General was not a monster. He was a man who tried to do right by the family he married into. And he cared so much that he was willing to be the villain so that John and Andy could believe their father was a hero instead of a soldier who made mistakes and got men killed.

Like the present day, the flash forwards revolved around Diggle’s family issues. After weeks of wondering what became of Diggle’s other son, we discover that J.J. has fallen far from the proverbial tree. Connor and J.J. grew up in a military household that put a premium on duty and service. In an act of rebellion, he became the leader of the Deathstroke Gang which, as rebellions go, is about as drastic as you could get. It also feels like history repeating itself. Andy and John reacted to the General in very different ways.  John was determined to prove to him how an honorable soldier should behave, while it seems Andy mastered the fighting and survival skills with none of the morality to balance it out. One can only hope that J.J. escapes his uncle’s fate.

Even Emiko was not immune to the Daddy Issues bug. Dante may not have been a blood relation, but he obviously considered her family. And based on what we’ve seen, his love for her extended to grooming Emiko to take over the Ninth Circle. However, her unwillingness to sever ties with her old life appears to be a continual bone of contention between them. And his attempt to solve the problem backfired while simultaneously achieving his goal. Instead of giving Emiko clarity and purpose, her focus shifted to avenging her mother’s murder. Oliver’s Hail Mary to save Emiko gave her that opportunity. Vengeance achieved, Emiko now seems more committed to the Ninth Circle than ever. Too bad Dante won’t be around to see it.

The one possible exception to our Daddy Issues theme is Felicity. She wants a life outside of the vigilante shadows and she thought the Archer program would help her get there. Yet when her invention is stolen and used for nefarious purposes, she wonders if she has become her father. The answer is a resounding no since she was willing to destroy her creation then risk the possibility of it being used for evil. Just for the record, how does someone as intelligent as Felicity not realize how dangerous a program like Archer could be until after the Ninth Circle got their hands on it?

And on a side note. Just when I thought my distrust of Alena was misplaced, she proves me right. She may be well-intentioned but is there any doubt that Alena is responsible for Eden Corps/Galaxy One’s eventual possession of the Archer program?

Which brings us to whatever Galaxy One’s current plan is. Despite his ability to decimate the Canaries, I was a little shocked at how easily Galaxy One’s terminator was defeated in last week’s episode. Learning he was just one of hundreds brought the threat level back up to “Oh God, oh God, we’re all going to die!” parameters. Especially since there aren’t many Canaries left and Team Arrow is not what it once was. I imagine the newly hidden explosives will play a major role in Galaxy One’s ultimate demise but at what cost?

While it makes for great storytelling, every journey into the future is another reminder of Team Arrow’s failure to make Star City a better place. J.J. is a gang leader while Mia and Connor swap stories about their messed up childhoods. The Archer program has made The Glades a police state and Star City a dystopian horror show. It certainly lends credence to the Mayor’s argument that Oliver’s return to Star City made things worse and not better.

I know I’ve spent a lot of time on character rather than plot but I must admit I was particularly impressed with how tightly written this was. It succeeded in furthering the season-long arcs both in the present and future while focusing on the development of multiple characters in the context of a singular theme. It may not have been a perfect episode (I’ll always have nits to pick) but it is certainly one of the most well-crafted episodes Arrow has produced in a while.

4 out of 5 power units

Parting Thoughts:

Oliver and Emiko’s fight was particularly brutal. And either Stephen Amell has upped his hand to hand skills or he’s grown a lot less precious about his stunt double performing.

Dr. Will Magnus is straight out of the comics. And really is the world’s foremost authority on robotic engineering.

Deathstroke territory? Did Slade go bad again? Or was J.J. just trying to piss Dad and Uncle Oliver off?

Also, Mia talked about the awkwardness of Diggle family dinners in the present tense. Does that mean John and Lyla are still around?

Structurally, I understand why Rene and Oliver haven’t talked about Emiko but considering that she means the most to the two of them, it is surprising.

Does Oliver keep “Classified” folders just lying around?

Quotes:

Felicity: “Well, I’ve hacked enough government servers in my day to know that this is the Department of Defense. Not that I do that anymore, because I work with the SCPD.”

Stewart: “Now where are you? Working with the cops? Playing vigilante? That’s no career. That’s a dead end. No offense.”

Mia: “OK, Public Enemy Number One, sit tight.”

Virgil: “Pistol beats keyboard, Darling.”

Felicity: “You must be General Stewart, AKA the stepfather that John hasn’t told his closest friends about."

Connor: “Are you ever going to let me off the hook?” Mia: “Doubtful.”

Mia: “John Diggle has one son in Knightwatch and another who’s leader of the Deathstroke Gang. That must make family dinners interesting.”

Oliver: “I’d imagine his files are really, really classified.” Felicity: “'Really, really classified' sounds really, really fun. I’m on it.”

Stewart: “I wanted you to be prepared. And it paid off. Look at you now.” Diggle: “Really? We’re captured and probably going to die in here.”

Diggle: “Go to hell.” Dante: “Hold that thought.”

Stewart: “You all right, John?” Diggle: “Why did you give him the code?” Stewart: “A thank you would be good enough.”

Alena: “It’s like we’re tracking the DNA of a DNA tracker. This is so meta.”

Felicity: “Oh my God. Oh my God. I am my dad."

Connor: “I guess there are perks to having a gang leader black sheep brother.”

Stewart: “John” Diggle: “Yes, sir.” Stewart: “Call your mother.”

Shari loves sci-fi, fantasy, supernatural, and anything with a cape.

Fiero headcanons

So... these are another first of me as far as Elena of Avalor headcanons are concerned. 

The ones I posted for Doña Paloma were my first attempt at headcanons for a questionable character.

These are the first I post for an actual villain. And I admit I’m a bit nervous.

As I have said before, I don’t think character writing is my strongest trait, and that’s all the more true when it comes to villains. Hitting that right balance of ‘realistic and not one-dimensional, but still clearly evil’ is something I’m not the best at. 

And I may have let some personal biases get in the way here, as I admit I like Fiero, both as a villain and for what I believe is his relative potential for redemption. I also admit to have grown a bit too attached to the Fiero x Prisma ship. 

I hope I still managed to come up with an unbiased headcanons post that doesn’t turn a blind eye to the fact Fiero is a villain... but I’ll let you be the judges. 

On a different note... for headcanons about a villain, these are actually relatively light in nature, but you still find darkness in them, such as dealing with the deaths of loved ones and struggles with personal darkness. As such, reader discretion may be advised here. 

With that said, please check below for my headcanons on Fiero, with references to Alacazar, Zuzo, Chief Zephyr, and Shuriki.

Fiero

Starting out at the circus

For much of his life, Fiero would reside in Avalor and harbor bitterness over the fact he hadn’t become its royal wizard, but to the surprise of all but the few who knew him, he was not born there.

He was born in Tangu, but not to locals. Instead, he was born in a circus, the Circo Arcobaleno, which was owned by a Corinthian family. His parents were Ferdelance, a snake charmer from Paraiso (known to audiences as Ferdelance el Fantástico), and Flama, a fire wielder from Cordoba (known to audiences as Flama la Fogosa). Both had already been well versed in their arts before joining the circus, and both joined the circus when it was doing a tour through their kingdoms.

Their romance was a simple case of them spending time together as two ‘relative outsiders’ at the circus and hitting it off. And while some were put off by their scary names, Ferdelance was nowhere near as dangerous as the snake he was named after, despite his fondness for using black snakes in his acts. And while Flama could be feisty, she wasn’t out of control or deranged or destructive by any stretch of the imagination.

Both of them were loving and supportive parents to Fiero, though the boy managed to be a touch upsetting at times. By and large, he was a well behaved boy, and though not exactly nice, he was compassionate, despite what his literally fierce name would suggest. He also took the moral standards his parents taught him to heart. But he could hold a grudge as fast as he could hold a friendship, and even at a young age he could already apply his cleverness to being patient and determining the best punishment to those he felt wronged him or someone else he cared about.

Not helping matters, Fiero had a disconcerting amount of natural talent for magic, greater than his parents’ put together. While Ferdelance could do little more than talk to snakes, and Flama could ‘only’ generate fire, manipulate it, and touch it without being hurt, Fiero could already do much more even at a young age and without proper training.

His natural talent enabled him to join his parents’ circus acts at a young age, but many of the performers were worried about what kind of havoc such a child could bring about, while others were jealous such a child had more success than them.

His parents tried their best to keep an eye on him, but both knew the sad truth: despite their best intentions, a parent can’t keep an eye on their child forever.

Unfortunately, the moment they stopped being able to do so arrived much sooner than they had expected.

A heated act

When Fiero was eight years old, the Circo Arcobaleno had stopped at Avalor during a tour, and after the tepid reception their act had gotten at Paraiso, Ferdelance and Flama were devising a new number to bring into being. Like many of their acts, it was to have Ferdelance’s black cobras combined with Flama’s white flames, but they figured that by combining those with a few more exotic snakes, asking them to make more complicated maneuvers around the fire, and make the fire itself more spectacular, perhaps their reception in Avalor would be warmer.

As it turned out, things got quite heated up when Flama, in her frustration at not producing the proper act, shot a jet of flames that set fire to a nearby bush. Both them and the snakes got scared, and many of the snakes ended up biting Ferdelance and Flama in their fright after being accidentally stepped on. Thankfully, the couple managed to sound the alarm, and the circus crew tried to contain the fire.

The nearby villagers did their best to help, but something about that magical fire seemed to make it more difficult to put out than a regular one. Fiero did his best to try to help by using his magic to put out the fire, but not only did he lack formal training, the fire had grown vast enough that he could never make it vanish alone.

As they tried to find out ways to put out fire, someone mentioned that if the wind changed directions the fire would just burn itself out. Inspired by the comment, Fiero instead generated enough wind to push the fire back where it came from. His magic was still too weak to properly do so, but he managed to slow down its spread enough for the circus people and the villagers to put it out.

To everyone’s relief, no casualties ensued from the actual fire, although there was heavy damage to the circus tent. But worse, Ferdelance and Flama had already been killed by the snakes’ venom, having been left unattended in the midst of the chaos.

Upon seeing what had happened, Fiero broke down in tears.

A new family

Reactions to Fiero’s stunt were very much mixed. Some lauded him as a hero, others were worried that such a young child already displayed this level of magical prowess, and a few even suggested he might have deliberately murdered his parents.

The circus crew had a gathering, and decided that although they didn’t believe Fiero had started the fire and he had done well by putting it out, he was too dangerous for them to manage. He needed actual magical training, and they couldn’t afford to give it to him at the circus.

The villagers told them of Wocketio and Zumba, a skilled couple of magic practitioners who didn’t live all that far away, and who would tutor Fiero for sure. The circus crew accepted, but they did not know how to take him there. Thankfully, a trio of jaquins that had shown up to see the circus (only to see it burned down) offered to take the boy there.

Upon arriving at the couple’s home, the jaquin who had carried him, a gray-furred one named Zephyr, explained the situation to the best of his ability to Wocketio, while Zumba tried her best to comfort Fiero. He said that indeed he could take the boy under his wing and teach him magic, and he wouldn’t even charge for the services, but he would need to sort out the details with those who were responsible for him.

As it happened, there was very little to sort out. Besides those worried for how dangerous Fiero could be, there were those worried for how much he might steal their thunder after having full magical training, which had already been happening before. Those had little problem spreading their philosophies to the others, and as a result, the circus people just wanted Fiero gone. When Wocketio came to work things out, he found the ruins of the tent left behind and any trace of them gone, with them having only left a message about how if the wizard wanted to keep Fiero, he could do so for free. If not, then the boy was not their problem anymore anyway, for it had been decided he had no place in the circus.

Wocketio was beyond outraged that they would simply throw the boy out like trash, but he made the decision then and there that he wouldn’t let him go back to that circus anyway.

As a result, Fiero stayed with Wocketio’s family. There was one person not very happy with the deal at first - Wocketio’s son, Alacazar, who had never had to share his parents with anybody. But Alacazar did feel sorry for him, and soon ended up defending him when Fiero joined him at their school and was ridiculed by others due to his circus origins and due to his rather introverted and insecure nature, not to mention his fear of what might happen if he lost his temper, never quite fought back.

But Alacazar did defend him, much to Fiero’s surprise, as those kids were Alacazar’s friends. And he kept doing so even as his friendship with Fiero’s bullies became strained at best or ended at worst.

In the end, despite the troubles of the adaptation period, the two boys became as close as if they had been brothers their whole lives.

Edge into bitterness

As they grew older and learned more and more advanced forms of magic, both boys kept proving just how skilled they were. However, Alacazar always remained just a tiny edge better in many areas. Nothing too special - no outside observer would notice, and even Wocketio and Zumba had to make an effort to notice the difference, but it was still there, and it was enough to plant a tiny seed of doubt in Fiero’s mind, which sometimes tried to grow into something more. Perhaps those who said he was ‘inherently less’ were right after all.

Both his adoptive parents and adoptive brother kept trying to dissuade him from such notions, and it mostly worked. Alacazar and Fiero kept practicing and studying magic together, having a wonderful time doing it, and even going into adventures in the meantime. The first crack in their friendship only appeared when Alacazar was eighteen years old, and the time came for him to summon his chanul and find out what kind of creature had been assigned to him, which it turned out to be a fox named Zuzo.

Fiero congratulated him, and said the choice seemed to fit, before he mused out loud about what his chanul would be like. Hearing him, Zuzo replied that he could tell him that right away. Or rather, he could tell Fiero that he wouldn’t get a chanul. While he did know the Maruvian ways of magic, he was not from Avalor and had no direct Maruvian ancestry (a seemingly freak event given that there were descendants of Maruvians in both Cordoba and Paraiso) so he would never get a chanul, period.

Zuzo did try to temper it by saying that nothing would prevent a friendly chanul from giving advice to him and that he could still summon chanuls to see if he could get advice, and Zuzo himself claimed he wouldn’t mind helping him if he needed it.

But to Fiero, that just wasn’t the same thing. It was still something that Alacazar happened to have by sheer circumstance of birth while Fiero himself could never achieve it.

Wizard to malvago

Despite his slight resentment, Fiero did not hold it against Alacazar, and the two remained friends. But over the course of time, more cracks would appear in their friendship.

A year later, when the evil wizard Morkemagi came and killed Alacazar’s parents, Alacazar and Fiero fought him together and defeated him together… but the credit went only to Alacazar. Fiero did recognize that Alacazar tried to make sure he was recognized also, but no one paid any mind. Fiero either had been negligible or not a factor at all.

And Fiero’s resentment grew over the following years as similar incidents happened. Whenever they dealt with any magical peril, the general populace only credited Alacazar. Whenever anyone showed up at their home in search of magical assistance, they only wanted Alacazar. And worse, whenever Fiero dealt with any magical peril on his own, everyone assumed either it couldn’t have been all that serious or that Fiero had been making it up for glory.

Granted, there were the fair ones willing to give Fiero due credit, but to him, the others were not only too numerous but spoke too loud.

In the end, Fiero made a decision: he would find the Scepter of Night and use it to vanquish any terrible and undefeated creature that still lay in Avalor and other realms. Once that happened, he would be recognized for his value, and more, he would be doing good things for everyone.

He did think about using the Scepter of Light, but not only did that artifact belong to the royal family, it needed Maruvian magic in the blood to be wielded. The Scepter of Night lay unclaimed, and had no such Maruvian limitations. So it was his only option.

Alacazar kept trying to dissuade him, but while Fiero did still appreciate his concern at that point in time, he was undeterred in his goal. However, he did promise to not use the Scepter if there were true hints it could lead to dangerous harm. He wanted to do good, not bring harm.

That said, a side effect of studying about the scepter was that he also started studying other dark magics… and once he started dabbling in them more often, he couldn’t help but take some comfort in knowing that at least this was something he was better at than Alacazar.

That said, he did feel it taking a small toll in his personality, so he did his best not to dabble all that much in it.

In the end, it turned out that his personality was intact enough that he could still fall in love, as he found out when he went to the Conjurers’ Conference and met a sorceress from Tangu named Amaya, in whom he got interested enough to ask out (to his mild amusement, Alacazar also met a sorceress he asked out at the same event). Amaya accepted, and over time they became a couple, although unlike Alacazar with his girlfriend, Malih, Fiero did not get married just yet. First he wanted to be someone Amaya could be prouder of. Someone with actual feats to put to his name and his name alone.

And his chance arrived when news came that Gregorio, the old royal wizard of Avalor, intended to retire and was looking for a successor. Hearing that, Fiero leapt at the chance, as it would give him two things he wanted. For one, he would be in a good place to do the good he wanted. For another, upon becoming royal wizard  he could get his hands on the Codex Maru, the old spell book that word of mouth said Avalor’s royal wizard had, and use it to find the Scepter of Night.

So he threw himself into practicing for the upcoming examination, with much help from Amaya. He was so touched by her support that he did his best to make time to be with her without neglecting his studies, and even put in the time and money required to buy a ring and pop the question, to which she said yes.

At last, things seemed back on track.

And a week later they went off course, during a battle with a fire demon that showed up unexpectedly in Avalor, and which ended up burning Amaya alive, causing someone else Fiero loved to be lost to flames.

Fiero was devastated, but he was undeterred. Amaya might not be around, but she had been helping so much and had been so supportive of him that he would not let her effort be for nothing. He would get what he had wanted to give her.

Such plans went away on the day of the examination. For the first time, Fiero was genuinely on top, and yet it still did him no good. The king had also summoned Alacazar for the examination, and he wanted Alacazar to be his royal wizard. When Fiero tried to protest, King Edmundo threw him wave after wave of insult… to the point Fiero snapped and started hurling his magic at anything and anyone in front of his eyes, not caring about anything else.

It lead to a duel with Alacazar, at the end of which he was defeated. More than that, Alacazar was given the honor to punish him.

At the end of the day, Fiero’s life was spared, as Alacazar, rather than sentencing him to death like the king and others had been expecting, pardoned him instead, even though his wife, Malih, had been among the victims.

But in some ways, being alive was a worse punishment for Fiero.

His tamborita had now become grey and with a snake stamped on it, symbolizing how he had fallen into a malvago, which Fiero had been trying to deny would ever happen to him

He had just become what he had tried to make people understand he was not.

He had become evil.

Dark years

Though Fiero had to move into an isolated cottage in the middle of the jungle, he stayed within Avalor’s borders, and managed to keep his files on magic. He might have not gotten the Codex Maru, but he was still determined to find the Scepter of Night. He knew he could no longer be recognized for any good he did - he had done too much evil already.

He even ended up changing his look in recognition of it. He grew out his hair and slicked it back, and started wearing black robes instead (although the blue cloak with black cobras in a white outline had already been part of his looks from long before he became a malvago, as a tribute to his birth parents). He also began studying dark magic only.

But he still wanted to at least achieve one goal: to vanquish threats to Avalor.

But without the Codex, he stood no chance… and any attempts of his at finding the Scepter failed thoroughly. And as he spent decades living alone, he could start to feel it taking a toll on him.

Perhaps it was the reason that, over fifty years later, when a woman named Shuriki came seeking him out, he let her in and even fell for her advances, though he could sense what kind of foul creature she was.

He paid for that dearly, as it was indirectly thanks to him that Shuriki learned enough about Alacazar to later send some of her cronies to fight him while she took care of the ruling couple, as he had opened his heart too much. And more, once she got the throne, one of the first things she did was banish from Avalor everyone who had magic but hadn’t gotten it from her. And Fiero was first on the list.

At a loss on what to do, he ended up going to Tangu, the land where he had been born, and stayed there for the following years, sometimes visiting other kingdoms for brief periods, and occasionally getting news from Avalor, such as those of the bounty Shuriki had put on Alacazar’s head. A bounty that he refused to try to claim. Alacazar had spared him, and they had been friends long enough that, though they were now enemies, Fiero could not bring himself to kill him or otherwise lead to his death.

Eventually, he also had news of Princess Elena’s return to the crown, upon which he decided to go back to Avalor, right on time to witness the proclamation of Alacazar’s grandson being appointed as new royal wizard.

He immediately decided to seize the chance to get the Codex Maru, and this time he was perfectly willing to resort to dirty means to get it. After all, he was already evil, and nothing he did could change that, so what were a few more nasty deeds along the way? And if he managed to cause Princess Elena some pain (her being the one meant to be more affected by all his deeds that night) all the better.  It might seem surprising to some given how Alacazar was the one picked for royal wizard instead of him, but Fiero had much less problems with the boy than he had with King Edmundo’s great-granddaughter.

His plan backfired when he ended up remaining a stone statue for over a year, but he was eventually released by Shuriki, who wanted to be lead into the royal treasury.

At first, Fiero agreed to help her in exchange for the Codex Maru, again planning to get it for his goal of finding the Scepter of Night. But when it became clear just how overpowered they were by Princess Elena, Fiero changed plans.

He would instead offer the Scepter to Shuriki under the cover of wanting the post of Royal Malvago, and put her in the direct path of Elena’s wrath. That way, if Elena won, he would have a greater chance of being out of the greater harm’s way. If Shuriki won, he would be able to seize the Scepter from her, kill her, and finally go about achieving his initial goal.

Sure, perhaps Princess Elena would be killed in the meantime… but he told himself he was past caring about that. After all, it was just another evil deed to add to the list.

All the same, for whatever reason, part of him always seemed to feel just a touch subconsciously uncomfortable with taking the most evil approach, to the point he would consistently go for the less dangerous and damaging spell during a battle, even when a more dangerous and damaging one would be better.

Perhaps that was part of the reason he ended up finding himself in a position to be defeated by Alacazar’s grandson and turned to stone yet again.

But it was not the end.

Fiero would come back once more… but where he would end up that time would be up to him more than anyone else.