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sassykinzonline · 2 months

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when people talk about naruto's repression they kind of miss a crucial element which is that it actually makes complete sense.

firstly from the power perspective, simply put, by its very nature he requires repression to function on a most basic level. this is opposite to the sharingan, which thrives on huge displays of emotion. im going to assume that the reason this is missed is because it runs counter to the personality traits each character is known for: the "emotionless, calm and cool" one actually is constantly accessing and expressing the most powerful of emotions, and the "expressive, empathetic and emotionally honest" one is actually warring with letting true emotions come to the surface. comparatively, when you look at starfire and raven from teen titans, you see that their personalities reflect their power. starfire is bright and expressive because thats how she best accesses her powers, and raven is subdued, controlled and calculated in order to control her powers. this means that contrary to popular belief, naruto isnt starfire-- naruto is raven. there are actually a few moments where you are subtly shown just how calculated naruto's displays of emotion are, and how they are reinforced in such a way (context is naruto being saddened that his request for parental affection was rebuffed):

which brings me to my second point: socialization. this part is straightforward. from itachi actively causing and incentivizing hatred and anger, to various mentors/people of influence (eg. kakashi) remaining silent at clear expressions of violent anger-- these negative emotions are not punished or discouraged when it come to the context theyre in. why? they are beneficial to the agenda of various characters. the revenge plot only starts being punished when its disadvantageous to the state. remember that there is a monetary value attached to the murder of itachi uchiha, and this is actually a common way to earn money. when you look at naruto, there is never a single instance when naruto is encouraged or even tolerated for having these emotions. the only exception who does this leaves him due to their own parallel struggle (side note: this is why naruto distinctly says the reason for his obsession is that this person accepted him more than anyone else, given this person is the only one who saw naruto's pain and anger and actually blamed his aggressors for it). naruto, raised implicitly to know that everyone seeks to be a tool of the state, and that in his case this is not just a choice but a requirement for his humanity. iruka's acknowledgment of naruto comes with an indication of possession, implying conditionality. people like kakashi, hiruzen, and others in positions of influence witness the abuse he faces, and ignore it or groom him into accepting the idea that he should appeal to his abusers for eventual acceptance. naruto meets gaara, someone with the same condition as him, but with radically different circumstances. whereas naruto's condition symbolically papers over his pain over time, gaara's is self-protective and defensive against his pain. gaara also occupies a position of power as the member of a royal family, and has siblings who are afraid of him but do hold some level of affection towards him. gaara's feelings of loneliness, while rational, come from a different place than naruto's. for gaara, he is surrounded by community that he doesnt know how to access. naruto has no community, he needs to find a way to forge one, but even when he does it is superficial. this dynamic is repeated in his introduction to killer bee, who from an early age is granted family and institutional protection. this isnt to say that the treatment of jinchuriki is ethical or healthy, but that naruto's situation is actually uniquely oppressive. kushina is the closest naruto gets to someone who validates this pain, but she cannot truly relate to him because she is never cripplingly alone (again, not to say her life was not difficult or oppressive or traumatic) and the object of her affections returns those feelings consistently and early on. naruto's trauma is thus compounded over and over by the conflict his need for his specific love interest causes: naruto is only tolerated as a weapon of the state, and in order to be an effective one he needs to love and be loved, but his love interest who allows him these negative emotions is an enemy of the state, leading to further isolation/tension from the state and pushing him towards the love interest.

as such, i actually think naruto does remarkably well at balancing this conflict and tension in a way that keeps him functional. though, obviously and eventually the compounding of his trauma and the repression of his pain is something that needs to be addressed. the only person who is capable of doing this in a way that puts naruto's wellbeing first ("when i saw you in pain...i also felt pain" and the subsequent frequent moments of protection and defence) only reunites with him at the end of the manga, so you never get to see that actually happen.

im assuming the reason why a lot of this is missed is partially because through framing this repression as positive through the majority of the manga (aside from naruto's own personal thoughts), the reader is never really forced to decide how they feel about the concept unlike the inherent conflict of the radical revenge plot. the other part is the grander, underlying allegory in the naruto story which is the varied manifestations AND expressions of trauma. through readers' responses and attention to certain individuals in the naruto story, you can learn how they relate to and look at trauma. to me, naruto himself is actually the example of a trauma victim who shows a brave face and thus isnt recognized. naruto is the woman who puts on makeup to cover the bruises to go to work a day after she is assaulted. who tells herself that she must have some part in it, so it isnt abuse. maybe she grew up in a family where no one answered when she cried, so she learned to keep it moving and stop crying.

lastly, on a greater scale, people also forget a crucial aspect of "yin/yang" is that things with a large properties of one, by nature will also come with a small amount of the opposite. thats what the smaller inner dots represent.

a more surface level example of this is that naruto's face is brash, large, and masculine-- these are yang traits and they are predominant in his appearance. however, looking closely at his rounded cheeks and eyes and the soft nature of his eye colour, there are subtle yin elements. naruto's "positivity" or "optimism" is fueled by a certain level of negative repression.

#naruto analysis #naruto meta #naruto #naruto uzumaki #uzumaki naruto #sasunaru #narusasu #pro naruto uzumaki #uh who are relevant characters to tag here #gaara #kushina uzumaki #sasuke #sasuke uchiha #uchiha sasuke #the rest is up to god #i wrote this in one go so typos are expected

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thewritetofreespeech · 3 months

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pleeease do the wedding headcanons for bg3!! can you do all the main boys (and maybe ascended astarion??) 💍

Gale

Gale does try to subtly warn you that it will be a big wedding, with the Dekarios Clan far & wide, but you hadn’t realized how big.

Cousins, uncles, aunts, friends of the family, friends of friends of the family all come to attend. To the point that you can’t have sides at the wedding as the groom’s side would swell over the other. So you choose to have no sides.

Gale’s mother is head of the clan and officiates the wedding. Utterly beguiled by you and the happiness you bring to her son. And a day she thought would never come while he was intwined with a goddess.

Tara acts as ring bearer. A title she is at first insulted about but then refuses to give up. No take backs.

They will have to transmute another wing onto the tower for all the presents. Gale blushes & stammers at other well wishes of having children right away. He’s not against it but he wants to have you to himself a little while longer.

Wyll

Given his background that I made up and also his rank in society as the eldest son of Ravengard, it was probably always an expectation of Wyll’s to get married. Family lines and all that.

Even when his life was in shambles, deep down he always believed that he would one day be free, get married, and have children with his partner.

It would be a very traditional wedding, with military aspects given his link to the Flamming Fists. This includes uniforms, sword arches, etc.

He cares very little for the formality but takes great pains to follow the traditions.

Wyll is much more interested in the reception. To dance with you who is finally all his, makes nearly ending with the world almost worth it.

Astarion

He’s surprised you want to get married and have a proper wedding. Can you just be continuing on as you are? Together because you want to be, not because you have to be. Astarion also doesn’t like…labels.

But, if it’s what you want, he supposes it wouldn’t be the end of the world. It’s just a big party at the end of the day, right? He likes parties.

It’s an intimate little affair with all your core friends come to join you. You couldn’t possibly have everyone you helped or made acquaintance with at the wedding. Astarion insists on keeping it small as you’ll never financially recover from all the ale you would need for that.

Makes his partners outfit and his own. Something matching, but not on the nose. More of a photo negative matching set. With no red. He doesn’t want to think about blood or the past today.

After it’s all said and done, Astarion can see what all the fuss might be about. To tell everyone you’re his. To tell everyone that you’ve chosen him. To have a symbol of that for all time. He’s glad you made him go through it.

Ascended!Astarion

Why? You’re already his. A piece of paper or foolish mortal ceremony is pointless when you have eternity together as Ascended and consort.

But….there are advantages to a wedding. Nobility and the merchant class of all Baldur’s Gate, not to mention powerful allies from afar, striding in like obedient lambs into his castle to pay tribute to the two of you. That is something he can get behind.

He has the grand ballroom flooded with night orchids, casablanca lilies, and any other night blooming flower he can think of. Just because they have to have the ceremony at night doesn’t mean that he’ll have your wedding be dull and dingy, devoid of color.

A costume change couple as there is an outfit for the ceremony, the reception, first dance, and departure. All custom made with the finest materials available. The kind of craftsmanship that takes 7 seamstresses 7 days & nights to finish on time. But it’s worth it.

Astarion would dance you around the ballroom. As if you were the only two in the room. Floating on air. He’s completely lost interest in his schemes and guests with you in his arms. He’ll come back to them later but they aren’t important when you’re with him.

Halsin

Never believed in marriage or weddings. Binding another person to another with words seemed unnatural to him. People are free to come & go as they please.

But, he also never considered himself a monogamist until he met you. His heart shifting from more of the bear into the wolf. Do not wolves bite and mark their mates like they might do with rings?

It would be a very small wedding. And by small he means just the two of you.

Together in a forest, under Oakfather’s gaze, using a traditional hand binding of the druids with crowns of flowers and simple garb, you make your pledge.

He would want to consummate your marriage immediately. Right there under your marriage tree; if you let him. He could be persuaded to at least wait until you’re back at your home, but it better be a short walk. Otherwise he makes no promises.

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wings-of-fire-confessions · 29 days

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Hot take. Everyone needs to stop pointing at one character in Jade Winglet and be like “AH! They're THE asshole of the group! That one! That one specifically!” Because everyone is an asshole.

Moonwatcher won't shut the fuck up which causes people to feel bad (Reference; Winter Turning, Pg. 75) because, hypocritically, she only has a censor if it “benefits” (hard quotation because it has always failed her. Reference; Luna and Moonwatchers interaction) her.

Qibli is an ass, like, a HUGE ass. He pressures Turtle and berates the very thing he's self-conscious about. He's got massive main-character syndrome; he wants power, he always wanted power, but he wants COMPLETE control of power without any repercussions. One of the reasons he refused Darkstalker's offer was because he wasn't entirely sure he would slip something in there.

Winter is an ass, he literally attacks other dragons without thinking about it (Reference; Peril), he's quick to strike and like Qibli, berates Turtle for being “a waste of potential” to his tribe.

Kinkajou goes off on everyone's backs and uses the remnants of the magic scroll to control and transform Darkstalkers against his consent or will. She has essentially killed him via poison. The whole book and DS character arc was trying to push through a narrative that you shouldn't control people, that you shouldn't take away their free will, and that you shouldn't transform their being into a form for your desire and comfort. Yet it's completely flipped on its head because Kinkajou wanted to be “a little silly” with her solution in ending the IceWing and NightWing conflict. She does exactly just this and that makes her part of the asshole list.

Turtle is inactive, his inaction causes a lot of problems for the others in a negative way in order to preserve his own self. He uses animus magic on Anemone just to make sure that he doesn't get any attention but this backfires and his sister is left not only being used as a WMD by Queen Coral, additionally, she is also left feeling alone in her magic. Turtle just sat on the sidelines as he actively watched Anemone get used like a tool by her mother and groomed by a disgusting snotball of a power-hungry political obsessed eel bbq dragon. His “neutrality” was incredibly toxic towards the upbringing of his sister. Yet, despite being the one guy everyone likes to pounce on and beat down he's probably the LEAST asshole character out of everyone in Jade Winglet. You can point at Turtle's issue of “not doing anything” and dig deeper to realize he's a child for one (an even younger child when he enchanted Anemone) and for two it's an unhealthy trauma response from his family. He has helped and supported every single Jade Winglet member in their “fall/on their knees” development and all he ever got in return was those to treat him like garbage (with Peril being the only one who wanted to help him and realizing how shitty animus magic is for him and attempted to make a situation better by ripping up the scroll with good intentions in mind).

Peril is probably the most self-explanatory but she tries. I can't really say anything else about the flaming toaster oven w/ the pizza box inside it dragon that not everyone else has said negatively about Peril before. She's uncontrollable and she constantly talks about hurting others, yak yak yak… Brownie points is that she's attempting to become a better person and trying to find her own path in life.

Now that everyone has run away typing furiously in the comments reblogging tags about this and that I want to emphasize that everything I said above is about CANON CONTENT. You can LOVE YOUR ASSHOLES!!! I personally LOVE MY ASSHOLES!!! There is nothing wrong with acknowledging that the protagonists that you read aren't the greatest people in the whole wide world. I know I wouldn't want to be in the same room as Peril if she was an actual person; with that said that doesn't mean she ISN’T my favorite dragon in the whole gosh darn freaking series. Winter is a bastard, I love Winter. Qibli is a bastard, I love Qibli. Moonwatcher… Actually, no. Moonwatcher can not. (this last one is a joke and a personal opinion, if I was to look at her into it retrospectively and have a positive thing to say I would say she's very neurodivergent relatable, and her power is very autism-coded.).

Jade Winglet is full of bastards.

I love my Jade Winglet bastards.

Stop being in denial and using “well I don't like [Insert Jade Winglet Member] because of what they did with [Insert Plot Point Here]” and accept that your favorite is a bastard. Tired of hearing about this rank system on who's more fucked up than the other and debating if they deserve love and respect for that. Ofc they do. They're your favs, y'all don't need to push or morally justify trying to like your favs by putting another Jade Winglet member down. You aren't impressing anyone or going “GOTCHA!” for this thought process.

Now stop fighting you cursed dragon hyperfixated disaster fandom. (/j)

Drops Mic

#wings of fire confessions #wof confessions #wof #wings of fire #Jade winglet #arc 2

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couldve-been-cloud · 1 month

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I just really appreciate the designs in dungeon meshi.

How marcille was created to have clothes that seem fantasical yet almost realistic, like if magic existed mages would wear those robes but also the blues make her stand out from the more natural colors of the party and the environment, because she isnt natural in a sense. Marcille is a half-elf she's a hybrid she has a longer lifespan than others, its why she stands out, she wields(weilds?) magic and how she was more talented than others, she always stood out and I'd like to think thats why she's put in blue.

Laois is the pictured in textbook example of a knight in shining armor, blonde hair, broad shoalders,and towers over the normal person. But he likely is the most strange one through technicality, he loves monsters and knows every behaviour and fact about them but will also not hesitate to strike one down. He's usually pictured being seen in a more or less negative light by his peers putting his love for monsters as a focal point of his personality is how others remember him. And another fact i wanna spit out is that he keeps himself well groomed because he hates resembling his father, a man who sort of neglected him in my knowledge of some manga panels. He looks like a normal almost background character but its his characteristics that set him apart and give him individuality.

Chucklefuck looks like a squirrel but if you shaved it bald.

Senshi is the typical wisdom old character that the party encounters that greatly help their journey. His beard and armor alongside his helmet work well and gives him a rounder silhouette which puts off a welcoming, safe vibe. His soft (maybe musty) beard also hides his formidable strength, in the adventurers bible he canonically is the strongest out of the party. I like how he kept his helmet from one of his fallen members(brothers?) and how it shaped my image of him. When the party encountered him in the first episode I really did like senshis design and i really liked how his eyes looked and how practical the gear he carried was, I liked how its obvious his muscles were from both his race and his years of daily chores. Also what happened to the golems he kept in that room, are they just walking around with veggies on their back?.

#chilchuck #dungeon meshi #laios touden #delicious in dungeon marcille #senshi #laois dungeon meshi #little rambles

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kienava · 1 year

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So someone asked me to make a post about Blake’s development so far in order to discuss the question of where Blake’s character can progress at this point in RWBY given that her arc with Adam wrapped up in V6 and she didn’t really carry a plot line in V7-8. I do media and story things for a living, but I’m also an intimate partner abuse survivor - needless to say, Blake’s story is important to me. Hopefully my perspective helps answer concerns about Blake’s story being “over,” because I think it’s very much the opposite.

(Continued below the cut because this turned into an entire essay.)

I want to preface this by saying I understand why it might be difficult to picture what Blake’s story looks like going forward. I largely credit this to the relative dearth of compassionate, healing-oriented narratives about abuse survivors in media. A lot of what we see is either revenge fantasies or stories about facing the abuser and arriving at a point of ultimate catharsis. In some sense, this is a broader fault in the standards of western storytelling, which is oriented around that singular, climactic catharsis, but that’s another essay. In truth, a mostly linear progression towards a pivotal point of recovery isn’t how healing from abuse works. It’s a messy process, and life is rarely as linear as in fiction. I think RWBY incorporates that nonlinearity into Blake’s arc very well.

Speaking of Blake’s arc, let’s look at that.

When we first meet her in volume 1, she’s introduced as an aloof, independent loner who’s very resistant to getting closer to people. Most of her classmates perceive her as mysterious and alluring at best, callous and cold at worst. Once we start to understand more of her history, it’s easier to see her attitude as the defense mechanism it is. She wants to keep people at arm’s length because she doesn’t trust them not to hurt her – but she also believes that she will harm people she gets close to just because of who she is. That whole Beauty and the Beast dichotomy, you know? Adam told her that she ruins things. It doesn’t help that he groomed her into a terrorist organization and thus her surrounding community has also labeled her a threat. She’s got a few overlapping layers of distorted thinking to work through when it comes to her image of herself and others. The way she perceives people is, at first, overwhelmingly informed by her traumatic experiences with Adam and the White Fang.

It’s pretty strongly implied that Blake bent the rules in the forest and intentionally selected Yang as her partner. When we first see Blake dashing around in the shadows, Yang is taking down a Grimm while sassing it to death. Blake talks later about how Adam’s charisma drew her to him initially, so it’s no surprise that when she was choosing her next partner, she gravitated to the same superficial qualities. During the first White Fang arc, after her self-destructive spiral, Blake starts to genuinely trust her teammates for the first time. That trust is tested when Yang fights Mercury. In this moment, Blake is confronted with the possibility that a pattern might be repeating itself: what if she was drawn to Yang for reasons beyond the superficial? What if Yang doesn’t just share Adam’s positive qualities, but his negative ones, too? The impulsiveness, the violence, the abuse – but Blake stops herself. She chooses to trust that Yang isn’t Adam, and she says as much. She’s accepting that Adam is in her past and electing to move forward. How perfectly, neatly linear.

Then the end of volume 3 happens.

For an abuse survivor, the idea that an abuser you’ve gotten away from might come crashing back into your life is possibly the scariest thing in the entire world. This is exactly what happens when Adam shows up, and Blake’s worst fears come true. He makes a point of hurting someone she cares about simply because he can to prove that he still has power over her. Blake runs because she thinks the only way she can protect the people she cares about is to be away from them. That paradoxical duality of (1) fearing harm will be done to her by others and (2) doing harm to others herself rears its head.

One specific question I was asked is why Blake talks about Yang so little in volumes 4 and 5. If Blake isn’t talking about the people she left behind, is she even thinking about them? I say, well of course she is. It’s coloring her entire attitude.

When Blake returns to Menagerie, she’s back in the place where she met her abuser. She’s at her parents’ house, a place that has been a symbol of everything she left behind when she ran away the first time. Now she’s run from another home. Menagerie is riddled with traumatic memories for her, both interpersonally and on a structural, systemic level. Everywhere she goes could be a place where Adam said something awful to her, made her obey him in some way, asserted control. She also has to confront him in person again, too.

With Adam around, of course she’s not going to risk mentioning Yang. He got one inkling that Blake cared about someone else and cut their fucking arm off. The one time Blake mentions Yang by name, her voice cracks so obviously it’s like she’s forcing herself to get the word out. Through both of these volumes, Blake has other external goals, but she’s still trying to protect someone she cares about. At this point, she’s constantly struggling with two motivations: hope and fear. She wants to make the world a better place, but she’s terrified of what she’ll have to confront in order to do it because of what she’s already lost. Her choice to reunite with her team and fight shows that ultimately hope wins out.

In Volume 6, Blake and Yang facing Adam is essentially the B plot of the whole volume. He appears in flashes before the major confrontation at the end, but the damage he’s done to both of them is intrinsically tied into Blake and Yang’s relationship throughout.

The end of this volume offers the climactic moment of confronting and overcoming the abuser. Afterwards, Blake collapses and cries. Catharsis! Yay! We’re done now, right? This may be why, to some people, defeating Adam is the obvious “end” of Blake’s character arc. Again, I’d argue that this perception comes from how abuse is often depicted in media, but there’s also a very intense pressure in the real world for survivors not to speak out and share their stories. Even people who are abuse survivors might not publicly claim that label for a multitude of reasons. Namely, it fucking hurts to think about it, and also sometimes people are real weird about it. I don’t blame anyone who doesn’t want to carry that weight around all the time. We can see some inklings of Blake dealing with this challenge over the course of the show, though they’re subtle. Early on, she explicitly avoids talking about Adam until she absolutely has to, and even when she does start to unpack what he did, she often talks about it with visible shame (averting her eyes, etc). Unfortunately, shame is a very common sentiment for abuse survivors to carry, and addressing it is a major part of Blake’s journey as she starts to heal in volume 6.

Another point of interest posed was to look at Blake’s role in volumes 7 and 8. There’s an argument that she doesn’t really do anything or that her role is as a somewhat generic support figure within the group. I wholeheartedly disagree.

While Blake doesn’t carry a plotline herself during the Atlas arc, she and Yang embody polarized attitudes towards the global conflict the group is facing, and that contrast serves the larger narrative very well. Because she was raised by activists in a context where she was constantly thinking about civil rights, Blake wants to address the broader ideological conflict at play. Yang, whose childhood consisted of raising her younger sister, wants to help people in a practical, immediate way. Blake is an abstract, big-picture thinker, and Yang is more focused on what’s right in front of her. This isn’t a dig at either of them; it’s just a difference in prioritites. At first, Yang worries that these differing priorities will be a source of tension between them, but when she and Blake talk things through they’re able to understand each other without judgment. Blake is learning to reconnect with the idealist she used to be in her early youth, someone who fought for a cause purely because she wanted to make the world a better place. She’s able to embrace that side of herself around Yang even though they have different priorities, and they’re still able to support each other’s goals.

Furthermore, on a purely interpersonal level in V7-8, Blake has interactions with other characters that speak specifically to the healing journey she’s been on. Yes, these are significantly quieter moments than a fight to the death on a bridge over a waterfall, but that doesn’t mean they should be written off. Quiet and peace are part of healing, and that doesn’t have to undermine the story’s integrity. Dramatic tension is still possible amidst this, as we saw in Blake’s talks with Yang where they discuss their team’s split strategic approaches. When Blake talks to Nora about the importance of not losing yourself in someone else, that’s her speaking from experience. She’s lost herself in a relationship before, and she knows how hard it is to come back from that, but she survived. She healed. The asserted importance of self-compassion in relationships has a unique gravity coming from Blake. She has a strongly developed ability to balance interpersonal empathy with community- and global-level stakes, which we’re already seeing glimmers of at the beginning of V9 as she steps up to come up with a plan on the island.

In summary, Blake’s arc isn’t just about that final showdown with Adam. She faces her abuser, runs away, faces him again, and again, finally evicts him from her life for good - and after that, her story continues.

She goes on to find ways to heal from her past. That process involves renewing compassion for her loved ones, her community, and the world as a whole; learning how to love without fear; and reconnecting with who she was before she was forced to become aloof and detached to protect herself. Although the circumstances of abuse convinced her that she was a coward, she is, and has always been, an incredibly brave character. She’s finally recognizing that at the current point in the story. Ultimately, I think this is the thing connects her to Yang and the rest of team RWBY so strongly: they’re brave enough to love and have hope even when forces of adversity tell them they shouldn’t dare to. Blake is a courageous idealist with a heart full of compassion, and ultimately not even Adam could destroy that about her.

My serious answer to the question of where Blake’s character will go now is that I think she’ll be a sort of de facto leader on the island as Ruby spirals into existential depression. Hopefully that arc resolves in a way that’s consistent with the show’s overall message about hope winning out, and past this volume Blake will still carry that optimistic but grounded revolutionary spirit and continue to be a center of compassion and hope.

My catharsis-oriented answer is this: aside from being trapped on a magical fairy tale island, Blake is free for the first time in a very long time, and she can go wherever the fuck she wants.

#it's time for KIE'S OPINION #blake belladonna #rwby v9 #rwby spoilers #cw: abuse #tw: abuse mention #i have a lot of thoughts about blake. if you couldn't tell.#i went full english lit minor #anyway if anyone starts clowning on this post i will not hesitate to block your ass

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david-talks-sw · 1 year

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It's a shame that the multi-media franchise of star wars have twisted the original narrative of the Jedi. I really love the sequel trilogy, I love season 7 of TCW, and Dave Filoni is amazing storyteller. But over the years, it's gotten to the point where the Jedi are being criticized to such a degree that now some people believe the Jedi should've changed their entire belief system. It's great to criticize the Jedi. They are flawed and not perfect. But now because they are now being framed negatively over the past 2-3 years and so now, some justify their genocide, disrespect their belief system, and believe Anakin was a poor victim who got caught up in everything. Lucasfilm or any writer is to blame for this, but I think people need to look a little more deeper into the media literacy behind star wars, and consider the fact that a child is going to love the Jedi despite their flaws and will be sad when they see them get killed. Because star wars is made for children who can look up to the Jedi as role models.

All of this.

I frankly don't know what else to add, @thecenturyofmusic said it all.

I also think there's an argument to be made for shifting global values.

I don't know about how it was in the U.S. specifically, but I don't remember there being as much of an emphasis on mental health back in the early 2000s as there is today.

Back then, I remember many fans sorta getting the core story but hating it, which resulted in a lot of them just bashing the Prequels.

Nowadays, a spin has been put on the Prequels wherein Anakin is the poster boy for the mental illness, he's just a victim:

he grew up a slave which gave him severe PTSD,

then was ripped away from the arms of his mother by

an elite order of emotionless monks whose emotionally-repressing teachings are the perfect representation of toxic masculinity and force you to never get emotionally attached,

who berated and rejected him at every turn,

he also doesn't have a father figure except for the Chancellor, who grooms him and isolates him,

and instead of supporting him in his hour of need, the Jedi hurt Anakin psychologically to a degree where at some point he just loses it and kills them all, because as far as he's concerned they were evil to him.

And... yeah. It can be interpreted that way. It resonates more to people when seen that way.

But it wasn't meant to be seen that way.

If it was, then we'd have seen very different Prequels.

Watto would have physically abused Anakin left and right like he's DiCaprio in Django: Unchained, instead of joking around about humans with him.

Shmi would've been on the ground crying, holding Anakin's leg and screaming "please no give me back my babyyyy!!!"

Literally every shot of the Jedi emoting, screaming, chuckling, being worried would be absent and they'd all speak with a monotonous voice, including Yoda, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan.

If we were supposed to feel like Anakin is in the right and the Jedi are in the wrong then we'd be shown an Anakin who isn't petulant, arrogant and overly emotional. We'd see a normal person who gets berated by a group of unfeeling old men.

Anakin wouldn't call Obi-Wan his father twice (which is admittedly a nuanced situation because while Anakin may see Obi-Wan as a father, Obi-Wan sees Anakin as a little brother so hey).

We'd see Anakin explicitly state that he's afraid of his wife dying, maybe carrying her unconscious body to the temple steps begging for help only for someone to reject him at the door because "it goes against protocol" and that's when Palpatine swoops in.

Y'know, more explicit, emotion-eliciting stuff?

But we didn't see any of that. Because it wasn't about any of that. If it was, then it goes about delivering its message in the weakest way possible.

While nowadays, the popular take is that Anakin's downfall is the fault of everyone around him, the intended take was that Anakin's fall was his own fault. Anakin is a victim of his own flaws.

The Prequels weren't meant to show you what happens when you keep pushing a mentally unstable person, they were about cautioning children about not giving in to their own fear and greed.

"How does a good kid become a bad man?" He let his inner demons - fear, anger, greed - get the better of him.

And that's not necessarily a take most people agree with these days, but that takes us back to how much importance you actually give to GL's original vision.

#jedi order #anakin skywalker

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atopvisenyashill · 2 months

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I consider Gael’s death one of the most suspicious ass shit for the crown to ever pull. Like AFTER Jaehaerys and Alysanne’s death was this all revealed? Did no one wonder where potential heir to the throne, direct daughter of the current king went? Did no one think “hey isn’t that too many suspicious deaths in a really short span of time” like many of us fans did??

And like, I get that spring sickness happened but somehow i suspect that that at this point the Targaryen Doctrine of Exceptionalism is well and truly settled enough that no one should’ve EVER believed that.

I definitely see how the Jaehaerys Did Something Theory is very plausible, but I’ll admit that I also consider that Alysanne’s support of Rhaenys leading her to likely going to Dragonstone which is why we don’t see any significant opposition to Aemma’s marriage in 93 AC may have set up a trend in Alysanne coming and going from Dragonstone whenever things got too tough for her to handle which meant leaving Gael behind without the level of care and caution she’s used to from those around her, a slightly more compelling story. Because this is what happens when you take a girl who is very used to be doted and taken care of by her mother and her mother alone only to be completely isolated in an environment hostile to her gender with only maybe Aemma to check up on her who is also 11.

Yeah especially with the “she died of a sickness” thing when Jaehaerys has been trumpeting his family being Above All That for years, for everyone to just swallow it is weird and weirder still that the truth eventually leaked out. like WHO LEAKED IT. WHY. there’s no way there weren’t a million conspiracy theories about it either!!!

and i definitely get your point about gael being left alone unsupervised, i just think that was more viserra & saera than gael - from how often she’s described as Alysanne’s pale shadow, her constant companion, sleeping in her bed, it’s very reminiscent of queen charlotte’s little “nunnery” of daughters - and their suitors were chased away specifically because of this environment. makes me feel like gael was the only real companion of Alysanne’s as she got older, and was being dragged from place to place - not “doting” so much as smothering, as with charlotte’s daughters. especially as alysanne aged and started forgetting people’s names and faces - she needs someone to look after her and it would be difficult to find a new person, so it might as well be her daughter.

for me, Jaehaerys Doing Something is interesting in part because of what it does to alysanne and her rationalizing away being groomed by her own brother, but also, it makes sense that she’d take this approach to her last child - after ignoring saera & viserra so much they start begging for negative attention until it leads to saera leaving & viserra dying, it makes sense to me that alysanne would overcorrect by smothering gael, and that just as her sisters chafe under the negative attention from their mother, gael chafes under the positive and constant attention from her mother, but no one would dare get close enough to offer her a marriage to escape. we already have a few stories where a girl in an environment that hates girls finds herself withiut her mother’s protection with the middle girls; for the youngest i think it makes sense that george would go for the idea that the monster alysanne’s girls ultimately needed the most protection from wasn’t an outsider, but the one in her home, sleeping in her bed.

#asks #gael targaryen #anti jaehaerys i targaryen #alysanne targaryen #nepobabyeurydice #gael and the bard

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batbeato · 3 months

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My partner keeps telling me to go on Tumblr whenever I launch one of my 20-10000 minute ramble-rants about Umineko at them so here I am AGAIN

Something that a lot of people love about Umineko (and I do too!) is how much Umineko centers its female characters: Umineko focuses a lot on the rich inner lives and emotions of these women, all of whom have been negatively impacted by ideals of submissive feminism and the needs of the patriarchy.

In general, in Umineko, there's this phenomenon that I don't often see elsewhere, where male characters' emotions and feelings are treated as less important, less interesting, etc. than female characters' are. This is interesting to me, and I think it makes sense - in many spaces and works, female characters are treated as caricatures - they are tragic dead mothers, loving wives, sexy girlbosses who secretly have a soft spot for the protagonist, etc. It's only par for the course that in a work where female characters are so celebrated and explored, it is male characters who suffer the fate of being reduced to more base qualities and have their feelings and emotions brushed off or waved over.

Umineko takes the concept of the absent dead wife, mother, lover and turns them into these complex, unknown ghosts who haunt the story: Kinzo's wife, Bice, Kuwatrice, Asumu. These are all female characters central to various plot points and aspects of the story, including thematic ones, but these women are very rarely, if at all, given space to truly express their inner thoughts. This is in contrast to the Ushiromiya women (Eva, Kyrie, Rosa, Natsuhi) who are so often able to express their innermost thoughts in these long, emotional sequences. Umineko doesn't allow space for these women to be caricatures, but instead seems to make space for them to be characters we simply don't have enough information on.

I think Asumu is the best example of this: she is a character with very little actual voice in the main story. Rudolf theorizes that she knew about Battler's true parentage and raised him with love regardless, but also worries that her death was due to his lies and infidelity. Her cause of death is never revealed. Kyrie talks about Asumu as a smart woman who played dumb and innocent to steal Rudolf from her, and there is the distinct concept that if Asumu hadn't died of Cause X, Kyrie would have killed her soon after. Battler sees Asumu as an uncomplicated, loving mother. And then, when Ryukishi released Last Note, we saw this different side of Asumu - an arrogant, jealous woman who took pride in her skill at puzzles and believed that she could have saved everyone, but also still a loving mother who loves her son, and even accepts her son's half-sister, Ange, in the end. Never a caricature, always cast in shadow, but with depths beneath.

But back to what I mentioned before - male characters being treated as those flanderized, flatter caricatures, with their feelings brushed off. It's very interesting to me, because it's not even just a case of male characters simply not having the screentime - they do. Battler and Kinzo get the most of it, but George also receives plenty of discussion as well.

Battler and George, however, are the male characters who I see the most flanderization of. Battler is a pathetic crying malewife twink bottom. George is a child predator who grooms Shannon.

George is a man who was raised by a hovering, overprotective mother with ridiculous expectations of him. She made him study every day and tried to instill values befitting of the power and status she hoped he would someday have into him. However, he saw how Battler, who was meant to be 'inferior' to him, getting along better with girls - even the one he liked - and grew jealous. His relationship with Shannon began because of this, but it also helped him to understand his own flaws, and he tried to change himself. Coming from a place of privilege, this is a difficult task. He also truly loved Shannon, even though he sometimes had a patronizing view of her due to his own instilled biases, and was even willing to go against his family for her. He isn't a perfect person, but he was attempting to change and grow.

Battler is a man with a deep empathy for others and is overly emotional at times - a trait I think is unfairly made fun of, given how men showing emotion is often portrayed as unmasculine, feminine, and shameful. He has a strong sense of right and wrong, and though clumsy and foolish at times, does his best to help others. He was raised by his grandparents for 6 years, so he is somewhat divorced from the privilege he now once again holds as a member of the Ushiromiya family, and makes mistakes because of that. He makes a lot of sexual jokes, but it's implied that this is due to being socially awkward after reuniting with the family he hasn't seen in six years. It's very difficult for him to truly despise someone, but once his trust is broken, even if he still loves them, it can be very hard to earn that trust back.

...I don't think the fandom needs to focus more on the male characters, per say. No one should be told they need to focus more on X than Y because enjoying X is more ethical, progressive, fair, etc. etc. But I would like to see people at least acknowledging the complexity of the male characters in Umineko more. The malewife Battler jokes are funny, I admit, but I'm tired of the child predator George jokes. Can we please leave people who ship Shannon and George alone? At this point, I'm beginning to worry about if they're alright... seeing a lot of hate for something they love can't be pleasant.

It's a general trend I see - liking a male character means you need to prioritize female characters more. Liking a het ship means you need to make it gay, or appreciate gay ships more. If a bisexual character dates someone of the opposite sex, this is bi erasure or erasing queer representation. But it's alright to like male characters, het ships, bisexual characters in het relationships, and so on. What isn't alright are the biases that are keeping queer media from receiving as much publicity, as much funding. What isn't alright are the biases that give male characters much more complex writing than female characters in many pieces of media. We as consumers can examine these things in the production and text of the works we enjoy, but I think there is too much focus on this ethical consumption of media.

...And that's how we end up making child predator George jokes - to reconcile the existence of a flawed, nuanced male character (who can and should be criticized of course) with the fact that Umineko is such a woman-central media. Umineko needs to be one of the 'good ones', the 'ethical ones'. So the male characters must be reduced to jokes, to one-liners. It is an overcorrection on a fandom level to reconcile with a society level issue, one that can harm fans of those characters and introduce toxicity to a place that should be about sharing love for a small universe we all enjoy.

(Whoops. This is why my partner told me to go on tumblr, huh?)

#umineko #umineko spoilers #sexism

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msookyspooky · 3 months

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"Bo started the town and lied! It's so obvious he did it all!"

(If yall don't stop babygirling my man Vincent)

Bo and Vince are equally traumatized and equally fucked up in different ways.

Bo never received love or affection without the threat of what would happen if he wasn't good, any negativity was met with harsh punishment and he clearly was troubled at a young age with no help, called a monster as a tiny boy, has physical scars from it he has to see daily, still seems to hold his mother in good regards (Especially script Bo) but subconsciously takes his mommy issues and need for control out on bound women to both re-live his childhood trauma and to possibly get both love and revenge on his mother through women (No excuse obvi just pointing it out WHY I think he does it).

Vincent was encouraged to cover his face and wear a mask even at home, his deformed face was the main focus and his parent's did nothing to make him feel like he deserved normalcy (Mama said your talent would make up for what God took from you), watched his brother be abused and probably had Bo resenting him for it and he might resent Bo for being the problem child ruining their childhood, was groomed to follow in his mother's footsteps, has little to no communication to anyone but Bo (Maybe Lester) and is probably a perfectionist that needs control as well from the pressure of being the Golden Child to his Mother and was the one that waxed her corpse.

So idk WHY we all think Bo was the only one that could've started the town's wax corpse thing??? Yeah he is an arrogant blow hole that loves manipulating people but the entire movie he might as well be the ringleader that's just talking to the audience and suckering people in but Vincent is the one really doing most of the heavy lifting behind the scenes. Yes, that could be Bo manipulating him and making him do it all or it could be them as a team (I vote this one) and Bo is just obviously more inviting or it could be Vincent doing it all and Bo is just helping to reap the rewards of helpless women at his disposal and getting out pent up rage on people.

It could've been Bo looking for an opportunity to finally take out his sadistic rage

It could've been Vincent who did it in severe grief over his Mother aka the Handler that made him codependent on her and is just as twisted as his twin

IT COULD'VE BEEN TRUDY/THEIR MOTHER! Just because Bo lied to Carly; who says he's lying to Vince??? Seriously, Trudy was a shitty Mom and a bit nuts herself if you ask me strapping their fucking child down till he bleeds or making their kid a wax mask to cover their face even at home so who is to say in her final years she wasn't the one that did this??? (Not counting the script that heavily hints Bo killed both his parents after years of abuse but still didn't say WHO waxed the corpses first)

I accept all HC but it would not shock me if Bo convinced Vincent to do it after preserving Trudy...If Trudy did it and they really are trying to make their Mother proud...Or if Vincent in his grief waxed Trudy's body in memory of her but also waxed a person as revenge/spite and Bo being the guy he is went with it.

#I'm not even a Bo apologist but us neglecting the fact Vince is the one waxing ppl always bothered me #Bo barely did anything but lie and tie up women and cut a finger off #Vincent was the one going HAM #like Bo would've got caught or killed without Vince #vincent sinclair #bo sinclair #house of wax 2005

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xxlovelynovaxx · 5 months

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Honestly, I hate the term "puriteen".

There's a post that keeps going around from a religious trauma survivor about how they are in favor of calling fandom wank "purity culture", but also in favor of the word "puriteen", and I don't know how to tell you this, but you've fallen for basic generation gap type propaganda and more than that, for ageism.

Like, there are whole ass articles challenging the idea that it's all young people spreading purity culture bullshit. Even potentially a study, iirc, though I can't currently find it so take that with a grain of salt.

At least in the US, kids nationwide are challenging book bans, fighting the racism and queermisia that are in part driving them, and saying basically "hey, y'all adults know we can tell the difference between fiction and reality, and that we don't think bad stuff is okay just because it happens in fiction but that also doesn't make the fiction bad, right?"

Like, have you examined your own harmful biases? Because yeah, there are some young people who have some of the worst, absolutely christofascist-informed ideas about fiction. There's also plenty of older people, 30, 40, 50 year olds and older, saying this shit. But, get this, only discourse skews young because internet usage skews young. Have you bothered to look at how many young people actually agree with you? With how many MORE of them are on your side than not?

Have you bothered to look at just how many older people, online and offline, hold these ideas? At the ages of the dozen people actually driving most book bans across the country? At how it's moms for liberty and similar organizations doing the harm? About how saying it's "for the kids" doesn't mean it's "by the kids"?

At how book bannings targeting children are actually yet another form that oppression of youth takes?

Like, this is not some statistical trend you can point to. Blaming kids is entirely based on anecdata - and it's blaming them for something that negatively affects them first and hardest.

You saw a couple of teens who had arguably been groomed into a dangerous puritan ideology by adults who may have also sexually harassed them (especially by distributing both fictional nsfw materials and sometimes even actual genuine CSEM) and decided that this is something related to their age and not, y'know, their status as a vulnerable marginalized class, nevermind something that is nowhere near universal.

You ignored the majority of actual minors saying "yeah no they don't speak for us" in favor of the idea that teens are irrational and basically "stupid" until they reach a certain age, as if this is related to age at all. You ignored the many people your own age and older doing this shit. You ignored how it wasn't even your own age that informed your own opinions, except perhaps to the extent that having what media you could access severely restricted as a child may have limited your ability to form opinions on the media you couldn't access.

I grew up in a culturally christian agnostic household. My trauma is only religious-adjacent, but it was informed by the same kind of purity culture driven by christofascism.

I didn't learn what sex was until 8th grade health class. I wasn't allowed to read books with sexual material in them until well into high school, and even then was discouraged from doing so if it didn't "contribute to the plot". I was shamed for masturbating as an adult living at home (because my mother refused to knock or let me get a door that locked), was told people into BDSM are dangerous, and routinely had my main kink that my mom knew about (piss) treated as essentially a dangerous and harmful mental illness.

My mother repeatedly encouraged me to come to her to discuss anything sexual growing up, and praised me and told me other kids would have hidden it from their parents and she was glad I was such a good kid who didn't keep secrets, and then used it all against me. She tried, pretty hard, to indoctrinate me into purity culture, and yet from the moment I was actually allowed access to social media at 18 and could seek out different viewpoints, I started to realize how very bullshit that all was.

It took a little bit of extra time to interrogate ideas surrounding kinks like cgl, abdl, and general nsfw agere, just because I saw anti-kink messaging around those first, but funny enough the very first counterargument I actually saw convinced me of how bs the anti-kink stuff was with that too.

Like, I don't know how else to explain that a small minority of kids being indoctrinated by a high-control group is not in fact indicative of what most kids believe or that age is a factor in an ideology held as much if not more by adults than kids. And that for the few that are being recruited into these groups in which there is no accountability and concrete evidence of actual predators growing unchallenged, perhaps a sneering insult and blame is not in fact the way to treat people who are more victims of purity culture than you will ever be.

(Also, do you care more about being "right", or effective praxis? Because even in the case of true malicious actors, you should in fact care about not reinforcing the control of the abusive group that meets many criteria of the bite model by proving that said group are the "only" safe people who "respect" them, and that everyone else will insult them for their immutable identity. It's the same reason you don't mistreat the mormons and Jehovah's witnesses that knock on your door, because you are literally doing the cult's work for them if you do.)

You should also care about interrogating your own ageism instead of going "no, that's not bigoted because children are really like that!!1". Fun fact, that's just as bigoted as if the word "children" was replaced with any other marginalized group. Your own ignorance and biases about children being irrational and unintelligent are not actually the "facts" you think they are.

The word "puriteen" is as useless as it is inaccurate. Most kids aren't actually for purity culture. Plenty of adults are for it. Acting like this is about age because of some bullshit pseudoscience about "brains that aren't fully developed" (brains never stop developing and the cut-off of 25 that's often cited and more often internalized was based on a study that didn't actually examine people OVER 25) or because kids are all "irrational" and "unable to think critically" and just "like that" shows me you've never once actually spoken to the vast majority of kids.

I have trauma from purity culture that's heavily adjacent to religious trauma, and we should retire "puriteen" forever.

Bigotry is never justified. Not to fight purity culture, not to fight other bigotry. If you are handwaving this as hysterical or ridiculous or over-the-top accusations, or that they prove you right about teens:

1. You're part of the problem. Convincing people that a marginalized group and their allies' accusations of bigotry are bullshit or crazy or overblown is foundational to the perpetuity of the marginalized group's oppression.

2. If you need to hear it from an ally and not a kid, I'm turning 27 next month.

3. Not wanting to examine your own discomfort around being called out for your bigotry and the ways you justify it, is a you problem.

If you are marginalized yourself in any way, unless you are somehow privileged enough that you've never experienced this, you should know EXACTLY how shitty it feels to call out bigotry and have people (who are often not marginalized in that way) laugh in your face and call you insane for daring to suggest they could be bigoted by doing [actively and glaringly bigoted thing].

If you've never had this happen, because you've only called out types of bigotry that most people recognize as such to people willing to listen, you may also need to examine your own internalized bigotry against your own identity. You may have done this to people in your own community who were brave enough to call out forms of bigotry that are less recognized and whose accusations were more ridiculed. You may be accepting mistreatment of yourself and your community because you're too scared of backlash to call it out, or even think you deserve it, and that's... not good.

#discourse #youth liberation #ageism #childism #adultism #fandom wank #shipcourse

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roadhogsbigbelly · 5 months

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she did NOT say that fictional csa is fine though, that’s the thing that everyone is very expressly telling you. and IM not defending ““people who jack off to fictional children”” either, where the fuck are you getting that, do you just say this shit to every trans woman you see? you can’t argue by putting shit in people’s mouths. the “standards” you are describing are the same standards that the people you’re smearing agree with. im not saying its all or nothing at all, you just can’t take anything we’re saying seriously

when you read "stopping being mean to sex freaks who like ageplay and incest shipping" why do you think that suddenly stops at loliporn or fictional csa when that's part of the package? do you think "ageplay and incest shipping" only applied to game and thrones fanfiction and mild "daddy" play? like of course those posts saying "don't be say you love sex freaks if you don't include ALL sex freaks" is also including fictional csa, like fucking cailou porn or whatever. because the posts those are response to are like "stop being mean about people with weird fetishes that make you uncomfortable! (except fictional csa fuck you you can die)" if she's not supporting fictional csa great, but why did she reblog the fucking post than?

and again the fact that i criticized her has nothing to do with her being a trans woman, that didn't even cross my mind, and i've criticized cis men, cis women, trans men, non binary people and people of all genders and sexuality that have been dismissive of concerns over this shit. i've criticized cis women on twitter for publicly posting their weird underaged boy rape fantaties and i got accused of "hating women's fantasies", i've also critcized other cis gay men for drawing actual "toddlercon" and got accused of being a "pick me" gay, and other variations of "stop criticizing grown adults for what they do in private even if they post in publicly actually oops"

i don't actually care what people do in the privacy of their own homes, but the only reason people on tumblr make posts about how "you should stop being mean to people about their age play, incest porn" is because most people don't actually keep it private actually, or else other people wouldn't be seeing it and complain about it. like if you go into someone's dms or a locked private space to "out them" for being into scooby doo or even some actually more harmful fantasy than that's still kind of gross and intruding and they shouldn't do that, but if said person is doing it in a PUBLIC FORUM than yeah they're not above criticism because it's their own "private fantasies" when it's clearly not.

(and before you take words out of my mouth i am not inherently against public displays of sexuality or even kink, i don't think a child seeing a man in a pup mask and harness is going to tramatize them, i think they'll be fine, and in general i think try to hide the fact "sex" like. exists from children does not nothing to deter grooming and kind of causes it in some cases. i've seen people insisting that people who don't lock their nsfw twitter accounts of adults have regular but explicit sex that they're are personally grooming children who might have to figure out porn exists, and i think that's an unhealthy attitude to have. my point is more that the entire argument that noone can criticize or have a negative opinion on "ageplay" or "incest kink" because "it only exists between two private consenting adults" is just. not true.)

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stranger-rants · 10 months

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Very convenient to turn off reblogs on that post @henrysglock after you went on a tangent about Billy fitting the profile of having a conduct disorder using extremely decontextualized bits of his story twisted in the most negative way possible while giving Henry the benefit of the doubt at every turn despite evidence to the contrary. Let's see:

Comparing Jonathan and Billy is your first mistake. They're not the same because the context of their abuse is not the same. Jonathan has a biological brother who he grew up with and loves. Billy and Max didn't have a choice in becoming step siblings, and they have no strong attachments to each other. Not only that, but Billy is parentified by their parents who make Max his responsibility creating tension between them.

He never was going to kill anyone with his car. If you genuinely believe that then you either take things way too literally or you've never heard of playing chicken. He was pissed off because of the move, which he blames Max for - and Max blames him. Max notes that this behavior isn't a pattern. It's new, and it's triggered by the move. It's fucking ridiculous for you to sit here and confidently say Billy was trying to kill anyone at any point while you give Henry every benefit of the doubt.

Be serious.

Billy also didn't attack Lucas "simply because he was black" and as a side note you don't have to have a conduct disorder to say and do bigoted things. You remove very important context to simplify the situation which isn't helpful for any character involved. He doesn't just push Lucas. He tells him to stay away from Max, and I'm going to need you to think about why Billy who wants nothing to do with his step sister would care about Max hanging out with Lucas, especially when Billy had just before been abused for "letting" Max run away.

Billy didn't want to be there, so to say she had to take a bat to him in order for him to leave her alone ignores that context. He was also incapacitated on the floor, so the bat was excessive. He also does leave her alone. He leaves everyone alone after that. The antagonistic behavior was an acute response to the move, and he settles into relatively normal but still dick-ish teenage boy behavior.

And picking on kids at the pool remorselessly? You're really stretching it. You are judging him based on one line that may be mean but it's in response to a person running when they're not supposed to. He's also 18. He's not a full grown adult man who is so much older than the children there. Again. Be serious.

...and don't even get me started on façades. Billy is literally trying to survive his father's wrath and you are using his responses to it to make the most disingenuous and vile assumptions about him. He isn't trying to get what he wants. He needs to find Max, or else. Teenagers lie. Teenagers put on acts, especially when they're in trouble and abused teenagers like Billy get preyed on by adults because of it.

Conduct Disorder is not just being a dick or being mean, especially when its reactive or related to an irritating situation a person is in. All of this in depth "analysis" of Henry and you cannot get the most basic details about Billy correct or give him any benefit of the doubt to him in return. Billy does not persistently disregard the rights of others. That's inconsistent, and his control over Max is a direct result of being parentified. He does not attempt to take their autonomy away. He even tried to defend Max's right to independence by saying she doesn't need a babysitter. He does not try to manipulate people into giving him what he wants. If you are looking at a teenager seeking attention from other adults as manipulative and "charming" then you sound no better than the people who blame teenage grooming victims for leading the adult on.

#fucking unreal #fandom wank

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gale-gentlepenguin · 9 months

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Gale Reviews: Elemental

(Get it, cause there is a character named Gale thats an air elemental. Lol. thanks @knightsweeties for the GP)

Now Elemental is the most recent Pixar film and it was marketed Poorly. With the recent mid to bad movies Pixar had been putting out, Disney likely wanted to just let this movie rot.

Is this a pixar flop or is it a Gem put off too soon?

Animation

Plot

The Characters

The Romance

The Lesson

Final Thoughts

_____________________________________________________________

Animation

Look, if there is one thing Pixar does is good animation.

Elemental is a good looking film, there is detail and the way the characters move and interact with the area of Element city is phenomenal. Its clear that the animation team wanted to really show how each elemental worked and went about their day.

My favorite bit of animation had to be when Ember and Wade were in the underwater museum, it was gorgeous and had a beautiful moment.

While it is great, it is also nothing ground breaking. Its a good looking animated film, but compared to the caliber I have seen this year it doesnt stand out as something astounding. But it is still very good animation

9/10

_____________________________________________________________

Plot

Ember is a fire elemental that is being prepared to take over her father's store. But as her first chance to prove herself pops up, she has a fiery outburst and it causes Wade to pop out of the store's pipes.

After chasing him around element city trying to stop him from submitting the citations to have her dad's store closed down, they end up on the same side trying to fix the leak that started it in the first place.

The two, while being opposite elementals, end up gaining a spark for one another. But her being a fire elemental and him being a Water one causes more than just a physical clash, but a cultural clash.

The rest of the film is exploring their relationship and helping Ember realize what she really wants to do with her life.

The film's plot isnt an epic adventure its actually quite grounded in reality. Its a story of a child of Immigrants that feels like she owes her parents for the life she leads and wanting to meet their expectations while also finding out things about herself. The movie also explores themes of racism, culture clash, as well as other themes that make the film more real in ways one wouldnt expect. Honestly handling the racism thing better than Zootopia, especially because there was no bad guy in this, just real life obstacles and dealing with coming of age.

But, the problems around the Film start to crack when the main reason Ember's parents left Fire land makes no f***ing sense. Only their house was destroyed, they had family and friends in fireland that could have helped them, especially because it was only their house!

Also Wade's mention of not getting along with his dad is interesting but without having a single flashback or interaction with the long gone daddy of Wade makes it ring hollow.

Then there is how things in the film wrapped up a bit to quickly in the third act.

Though with those problems aside it is a very heartfelt film.

7/10

____________________________________________________________

The Characters

Ember: A Fire elemental that had spent her entire life learning and training to be ready to take over her father's store. She is confident, quick thinking, artistic, abrasive and short tempered. Which unfortunately makes it hard for her to deal with customers, her temper. And while initially seen as a negative, Wade's perspective on her anger wasnt negative, he phrased it as a positive, that her emotions were trying to tell her something. Sure enough, he was right and it was that despite living her entire life groomed to take over... she didnt want to take over the store. And hearing about other avenues and jobs made her wonder if maybe there was more to life. She loves her family to the point that she felt obligated to take care of the store. Ember is probably one of the most in depth characters Pixar has ever written and I wish there was even more explored with her.

Wade: A water elemental that is super emotional. He is in many ways the exact opposite of Ember. He is nervous, clumsy, great at communicating, emotionally secure and kind. He is lost and looking for a purpose to drive him, taking different jobs to try and find his path. After meeting Ember and seeing how driven she was he couldnt help but fall in love with her. Ember becomes the focus and drive for him as he wants to be a better person for her. Despite being smitten he is also ready to call her out on her BS, and he wants her to acknowledge her emotions. He wears his heart on his sleeve and when he cares for someone he goes the extra mile.

The rest of the characters are solid. Ember's and Wade's families being rather hilarious in their own way. And of course Clod, the GOAT. Gale is also an interesting character that shows how family memories can help shape us as people.

The characters are solid and I do wish Wade was explored more, I know the movie had only so long.

8/10

_____________________________________________________________

The Romance

I liked it. I think it is very well done and pulls the audience in.

It never feels awkward or weird, it just feels like seeing a relationship that wants to work despite everything going against it. Honestly it is a good allegory for couples with Cultures that are different from one another. The culture shock and how families can initially view your SO as an outsider or have a negative bias against them.

Ember and Wade bring out the best and worst out of eachother and it works because they both care about the other and want the other person to be happy. Its a love that grows and adds so much as each scene adds more.

Now since its a movie it might seem like it happens fast, but it actually is well paced.

And lets be real, you were on board once 'Steal the show' started playing over their dating montage.

9/10

_____________________________________________________________

The Lesson

The movie has several lessons that I think could fill this spot and it tackles each with varying degrees of success.

Loving your parents and understanding that you are not obligated to follow their dreams.

You never know who you will fall for, and even if they seem different they can show you great things

Understanding one's emotions and heart is the first step in pursuing what one wants

There are also talks on how having bias against others is bad, which is true, but I think the 3 listed address more of the core themes of the movie.

They are good lessons and some are done better then others.

7/10

____________________________________________________________

Final Thoughts.

Its a solid 8/10 for me.

Pixar has been going through a weird period but this film is more in line with their better films.

I cant say I think it is one of their best, but its far from their worst. If this is the direction Pixar wants to go in then I will call it an improvement.

This film is underrated and could use more love

#elemental #gale reviews #pixar #disney

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satansapostle6 · 5 months

Text

The Man Who Sold The World | Luke Castellan

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Katherine. She was the one who started it all for Luke Castellan, the reason he did what he did.

Warnings: Mature themes/language. Violence. Sexual content.

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen: Sorry

“If it’s a girl, I think I wanna name her ‘Adrienne’. If it’s a boy, I wanna name him ‘Luke’,” Katherine grinned as she sat in front of a small campfire, with Luke’s arms wrapped safely around her.

“Aw, you mean we’re gonna make him a junior?” he complained.

“What, what’s wrong with being a junior?”

“Nothing, it’s just… I know I’m gonna get lazy, and I’m gonna start calling him ‘Junior’, like every other lazy dad, and start morphing into Homer Simpson.”

“Hey, at least you’ll be one of the dads that’s there,” Katherine reasoned, “And doesn’t traumatize their kid. Not to mention… You’ll be the only dad who still has a ‘V’.”

“Fair enough,” Luke sighed in surrender. “You know… I never could’ve imagined myself having a kid. Especially not before twenty, but… Katherine, I’m glad I get to do it with you.”

She smiled, knowing she shared the exact same feelings.

“You know, I, uh… I can’t speak for the Katherine with a soul, but I really feel good about keeping this baby,” she admitted, changing the tone of the conversation.

Luke nodded slowly, recognizing the poignant fact that normally, in their specific situation, keepingw the baby would have been more of a choice as opposed to an obvious next step the way it would be for slightly older couples.

“Honestly, Katherine…” Luke trailed off for a moment, shuddering internally at the idea of having to abandon the idea of having a child with her, shaking his head, “I don’t know if I would’ve been able to get through it. If we decided not to keep it.”

His eyes held a deep sadness, even as he just imagined the hypothetical.

“I know,” she murmured, understanding his attitude towards children.

“I just… I want the chance to be better. Better than my father, and the gods, and better than I’ve been. I really do. I’m scared, shitless, but I know that’s what I want,” he thought.

She just nodded as she listened.

“Do you really think we’re doing the right thing?” he said after taking a beat. “Bringing a child into this world?”

“Hey. Look at me,” she held his face in her hands.

He looked at her almost pathetically as he felt her fingers clutching his jaw, saving his pouty puppy eyes only for her.

“You know what not to do to a child, because of your own father. We both do; you know not to abandon your kid, and I know not to groom my kid,” she laughed as she made her point. “But… we also know what to do with a kid. I’ve seen you care for these kids at the camp; the kids in our cabin, Annabeth? You wanna love them like your own,” she reasoned.

Luke smiled as he listened to her, accepting her praise. “You see the good things in me I don’t wanna see,” he said softly.

“I love you, Luke Castellan,” she reminded him in a cool whisper.

“I love you, Katherine Montalvo. More than anyone in the world,” he teased her back, kissing her lips as he held her in a silly sort of bear hug. “Hey, what if we have twins?”

“Oh, don’t even say that!” she warned.

The two of them laughed as they were actually able to enjoy themselves together for the first time in months. They both had expected the pregnancy to have a negative impact on their lives, especially with Kronos and the nightmares that plagued them both, but oddly enough, everything was fine.

Neither of them had even dreamt of him or heard his voice in weeks, so they assumed that they’d been doing everything right. Katherine had decided that as long as Luke kept up their work in the last several months of her pregnancy, everything would be fine for the both of them. Of course, they still hadn’t broken the news to Chiron or Mr. D, or really anyone else, but that, they figured, was a more minor obstacle.

“Oh, I forgot, I haven’t even told you about my plan!” Luke realized as they sat cozily in front of the fire.

“Ooh, what plan?” Katherine asked eagerly. “Wanna keep getting me knocked up? Make Kronos a whole baby army?”

“Can you be serious?” Luke shook his head, laughing at her.

“I am being serious! You know how much fun we’d have making that whole army?”

“Okay, listen. Chiron told the Head Counselors he’s planning a camp field trip to Olympus, in August,” he explained.

“Okay, I’m intrigued,” Katherine nodded along, realizing they’d be visiting the home of the Gods themselbes.

“You know what’s in the throne room of Olympus?” he asked her.

“What?” she asked expectantly, allowing him to answer the rhetorical question.

“The Big Three’s symbols of power,” he murmured, referring to the brothers Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades.

Katherine looked at him in awe, the warm light from the fire along with the darkness of the night making him look psychotic.

“Wait, if we get our hands on those…” she realized.

“The gods will wanna kill each other,” Luke completed, a victorious grin on his face. “We’ll start a war, and Kronos will reward us.”

“It’s perfect,” Katherine realized.

“We can steal two of them; pit two brothers against the other one,” he pointed out. “They’ll start destroying each other before Kronos is even back.”

“Oh, baby, it’s perfect!” Katherine exclaimed, crashing into Luke as she wrapped her arms around him and kissed him.

They pulled apart after a long, passionate kiss, reveling in their own evil plan.

“We can do this,” Luke promised her. “Just you and me.”

“You and me,” Katherine murmured, lost in his baby blue eyes as she leaned in for another kiss.

*****

Everything was still perfect. It had been a few days since Katherine had first discovered she was pregnant, and still nothing had gone wrong. She and Luke were still waiting to tell everyone the news, enjoying their happiness together before it would ultimately be ruined by Chiron or Mr. D’s wrath. Today was the first time he wasn’t insanely busy with Head Counselor duties during the day, so they had decided to take advantage.

The two of them decided to spend their afternoon sitting on the beach looking out at the Long Island Sound, the waves gently crashing on the shore in front of them as they talked, about anything and everything.

“Okay, so we’ve come to a compromise,” Luke announced. “Megan if it’s a girl, per my request, and Luke if it’s a boy, per your stupid request,” he teased.

Katherine wasn’t completely sure, but she’d felt Luke had responded positively to the name ‘Megan’ because it had reminded him of his own mother’s name, May.

“Are you that opposed to me wanting to name our hypothetical son after you?” she exclaimed in amusement.

“It sounds so egotistical!” he cried. “‘Oh, I’m a big, strong man, and my firstborn son, my only heir, needs to carry on my bloodline and my legacy’!”

“You are a big, strong man,” Katherine teased, looking up at him in a way that made him crumble. “And kind, and warm, and funny. I want our potential son to turn out like you.”

“Okay, fine,” Luke pretended to complain, knowing the way she spoke about him made his heart skip a beat. “We can name him Luke Jr.”

“Yes!”

Luke laughed as he threw his arm around her, looking out at the calm waters.

“I can’t believe we’re gonna have a baby,” he said quietly. “What do you think happens, when two demigods have a baby? Is there even a word for that?”

“You’re gonna have a baby?!”

Luke and Katherine both whipped around with a start, realizing that someone had been standing right behind them. Luke then realized why he hadn’t noticed when he saw Annabeth standing there, dark blue Yankees cap in hand.

“Annabeth!” he exclaimed, horrified.

His reaction shifted from anger to fear as he realized no one else knew, and Chiron would have to be told eventually. Katherine looked up at her boyfriend in shock, silently pleading with him to resolve the situation.

“Annabeth, I can explain…!” he tried to calm her down.

“You can’t have a baby!” she cried.

“Hey,” Luke began, trying to reason with her, “We’re nineteen…”

“And still at camp!” the daughter of Athena argued. “Chiron’s gonna kill you!”

“Look, we’re both adults,” Luke reminded her, “I’m sure we’ll just have to work it out…”

“You have to tell him! Now.”

“I’m not telling him right this second,” he scoffed.

“Well, either you are, or I am!” she crossed her arms angrily. “There’s no way I’m risking him finding out I knew about this—”

“He’s not gonna find out,” Luke assured her.

“Famous last words!” the blonde girl argued.

“Look. Just give us a few days, and we’ll figure it all out,” Luke offered, “Okay?”

“Alright. Fine!” Annabeth exclaimed angrily. “But if you don’t tell him in three days…”

“I’ll tell him,” Luke assured her, trying to diffuse the situation. “Wait. What are you even doing over here?” he asked her.

“Well, it seems stupid now!” she exclaimed in disbelief. “Lee told me to find you and tell you Mikey keeps picking his nose, and it’s disturbing people.”

“Seriously?” Luke sighed, realizing he was only in this predicament because one of his ten year-old campers had a nose picking problem.

Annabeth Chase stormed off in silence, leaving Luke and Katherine alone on the beach.

“I’m sorry,” he sighed, finally meeting her gaze, “I fucked everything up…”

“It’s not your fault,” she promised him, taking his hand. “We’ll just tell Chiron soon. No big deal.”

“No big deal,” he repeated the mantra, holding her close as he looked out at the water.

The next day, things took a turn for the worst. Luke had come back in the middle of the day after a patrol around the camp’s perimeter. He had left early that morning and hadn’t gotten to see Katherine all day, and he was looking forward to spending more time with her once he got back. And he found he did get to spend time with her, only not in the way he’d hoped to.

“Luke!” Annabeth came and found him as he headed toward the showers, exhausted and covered in sweat. “Chiron—”

“Annabeth, we’re gonna tell him soon,” Luke told her with a sigh. “But please, just let me take a shower first, I’m so tired—”

“Chiron said you need to get to the infirmary! Now.” Annabeth yelled over him, her grey eyes full of worry. “It’s Katherine!”

Luke’s face fell as he put the words together in his head, immediately panicking. He started sprinting off in the direction of the infirmary, as Annabeth followed.

“What the fuck happened?!” he demanded breathlessly.

“We were eating lunch… I sat next to Katherine, and she seemed fine. But then her stomach started to hurt, bad. I brought her to the infirmary, and she started seizing.”

“Seizing?!” Luke exclaimed.

“Yeah. It was bad,” Annabeth told him.

She began to regret saying that as she realized it only made his panicking even worse. He all but knocked into everyone in his path like bowling pins, scanning the room for his girlfriend.

“Katherine?!” he yelled, panicking as his heart started to beat too fast for him to keep track of.

“Over here!” one of the Apollo kids called to him.

Luke ran to one of the cots in the corner surrounded by people, trying to shove his way through the crowd.

“What’s going on?!”

He finally made his way through, looking like he’d seen a ghost once he saw all the blood. Katherine was almost unconscious, lying there passively as everyone just watched. It seemed the healers were all just cleaning her up, cloths full of blood around the bed. She was lying beneath a sheet on her lap for her own privacy.

“What happened?!” Luke yelled.

“Luke, I’m gonna need you to be quiet,” one of the daughters of Apollo said as she tried to tend to Katherine. “Don’t freak her out. We just gave her some herbs to numb the pain and help her sleep, but she’s still scared.”

But Katherine seemed pretty subdued, almost unconscious at this point. Luke looked up to see Chiron, who had a very grim expression on his face.

“Luke, I need to speak to you in private,” the centaur announced, his jaw clenched.

Luke went along with him, too afraid of what was happening with Katherine to be nervous about Chiron. As Chiron pulled him away from the crowd of people, Luke was the first one to speak.

“Did she—”

“Lose the baby? Yes,” Chiron said, the fact coming out more angrily than he intended.

Luke’s jaw dropped as he looked back at the crowd standing around her cot, at a loss for words.

“And while I do have much sympathy for you, Luke, unfortunately there is another issue at hand,” Chiron said as patiently as he could. “I need to know what happened to this girl’s soul.”

“What?” Luke looked at him in confusion, starting to panic and cry.

“Luke, why does Katherine not have a detectable soul in her body?” Chiron demanded.

“I… She almost died,” Luke breathed, trying to avoid sobbing as he quickly came up with a lie. “I prayed to my father, anyone to save her. And then she was pretty much fine. I don’t know how it happened—”

“She must’ve died momentarily, and left her soul behind in the Underworld when she returned,” Chiron realized quickly. “It happens to mortals, and to demigods even more often.”

Luke stared at him blankly, not connecting the dots as his mind wandered back to Katherine and the baby.

“When mortals die, and come back with out a soul, they sometimes change, and their loved ones just attribute it to a near-death experience.”

“What does this have to do with anything?” Luke asked impatiently.

Chiron looked at him gravely, delivering the news to him as kindly as he could. “Entities without souls rarely survive childbirth, Luke,” he told him. “Not only was the life of Katherine’s child at stake in carrying it, but her own as well. She could have died.”

Luke’s entire world seemed to melt away as he stood there, slowly realizing the grave mistake he’d made.

“I, uh…”

He didn’t know what to say to Chiron. He stood there, frozen, trying to come up with some sort of apology, until the older man realized that it wasn’t him who really needed the apology.

“Just go,” Chiron nodded sadly, permitting him to leave. “Be with her. We’ll sort out the rest later.”

Luke Castellan didn’t need to be told twice. He was back at Katherine’s side in an instant, as the healers all did their best to clear the area to give them space. Annabeth was the only one who remained. She just watched sadly as Luke took Katherine’s hand in his, breaking down as he tried to talk to her despite the fact that she was in and out of sleep.

“I’m so sorry,” he choked out, struggling to get the words out as he hung his head. “I wasn’t there… You needed me, and I wasn’t there!”

Annabeth’s face twisted into a pained expression of grief as she watched her friend’s entire world fall apart.

“I don’t know how I’m supposed to forgive myself,” Luke confessed, watching over her as she slept. “I was nervous about telling people, and you could’ve died,” he sobbed.

“Luke,” Annabeth tried to comfort him, “It’s not your fault—”

But Luke just shook his head, refusing to listen to any justification of what had almost happened to the one person he cared about.

“I almost killed her,” he reasoned, “Because of my own selfishness. I didn’t listen to you, and I killed our baby, and I almost killed her. I knew I shouldn’t have been having a baby! What the fuck was I thinking?! I’m not fit to be a parent, I shouldn’t be anybody’s parent!”

Annabeth tried to find the right words to comfort him, but even as smart as she was, there still weren’t any words that could’ve made up for what he’d lost. She wanted to find the right words, to soothe her friend after he’d lost what could’ve been a child, but even as smart as she was, she was still twelve years old.

“You know…” she began, trying to think of a fact that spun this in any positive direction. “They don’t really call it a fetus until it’s about eleven weeks old,” Annabeth provided awkwardly, quickly realize that definitely wasn’t the right choice of words.

“It was a baby,” Luke insisted, still too angry with himself to even consider being angry at anyone else. “It was our baby, and now it’s just gone. All because of my selfishness. What the fuck was I thinking, like I was gonna be a father?! I’m a piece of shit!”

Annabeth’s heart broke for him in that moment, and although she’d always hated when people said ‘I’m sorry’ to her, because she thought it was pointless, and stupid, she found in that moment it was all she had left.

“You’re not a piece of shit, Luke,” the younger girl promised him. “You’re far from it.”

“I wanna believe that too, but it’s hard to say that to a dead baby,” he muttered, resentful of himself.

“I’m sorry, Luke,” she said quietly. “I really am.”

They both knew that ‘sorry’ comforted no one. She turned to leave him, as he watched Katherine sleeping, the whole thing weighing on his chest. He sat by her bed the entire time, waiting for her to wake up, but she never did. He must’ve been up for another ten hours or so, but it didn’t matter for him. He needed to be there for, because he wasn’t when she really needed him to be there.

Luke didn’t sleep at all that night. He was up all the way until early the next morning, when Katherine woke up from her long sleep, eyes lowly adjusting as she sat up.

“Hey,” Luke said immediately, eyes heavy and bloodshot from exhaustion.

He was antsy with heavy bags under his eyes, and Katherine knew something was wrong. It took her a moment after the herbs she’d been given the day before, but she remembered what had happened to her in its entirety.

“The baby,” she said slowly, the reality setting in for the second time. “It’s gone?!”

Luke grimaced, fighting back tears as he gave her a quick nod, reaching for her hand. But Katherine handled the news much differently than he did, and probably much different than she herself would have under different circumstances.

He just looked at her, waiting for some horrible, traumatized reaction as she processed the information she was given. But no reaction ever came. Katherine just sat there, leaning up against the wall as she tried to come up with something, anything at all, to feel.

He saw the pain in her eyes, the way she so blankly stared off into nothingness, silently begging to feel anything.

“I, uh…” she tried to think as the reality of the situation hit her.

Like watched sadly as her hand instinctively went to her stomach, feeling for something that just simply wasn’t there. It was like a ghost limb to her, the feeling of still having something that had been lost.

“I don’t know what to say,” Katherine reached a conclusion, staring off at nothing as she tried to get a grip on reality.

Luke watched helplessly as she slowly began shaking, like a puppy left out in the rain, panicking as her hands cradled her stomach, looking for the baby as she still tried to understand that it simply didn’t exist anymore.

“I lost my baby, and I don’t know what to say!” she howled, devastated.

“I know, hon, I know,” Luke said, feeling useless as he squeezed her hand.

He didn’t know in that moment what would comfort her, but something in him knew it didn’t matter. Nothing could’ve eased this pain.

“My baby…!”

Katherine was reduced to tears as she buried her face in her hands, crying so many tears that even her hair began to wet. In need of comfort himself, Luke got up off of the chair, wrapping his arms all the way around her as she collapsed onto his shoulder. They both wept together, but even Luke knew that the pain she must’ve felt was entirely different from his own.

Overridden with guilt, he held onto her as tightly as he could, his body desperately seeking out comfort in hers. He felt helpless in his predicament, unable to fight or kill or persuade anything to get his child back, or ease his girlfriend’s pain.

Chapter Seventeen

#luke castellan #pjo luke #luke castellan imagine #luke castellan x reader #percy jackon and the olympians #percy jackson #pjo #pjo series #pjo fandom #pjo hoo toa #rick riordan #riordanverse #riordan universe #jake abel #adam milligan

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