i think it would be really funny if their first meeting was incredibly awkward but they still became friends

dialogue by @rarlkove

pls tell me more about her + her relationship with iroh and lu ten.. she's so fascinating

GUH. thank you for asking anonsie pie. (TAKES DEEP BREATH

fuhua is a firebender, but wasnt part of the FN army. she was an entertainment firebender at this speakeasy/club for the elite joint in caldera city. her and iroh were both pushing thirty already when they met. he was just sorta tooling around with his military buds doing bachelor playboy prince shit and they ended up going into the joint. fuhua was the biggest hardass out of all the girls working that day, so she was the one entrusted to entertain His Royal Highness and his posse of noble dickheads.

iroh and fuhua actually hit it off pretty well. he was very enraptured by her while watching her perform and bend and whatever, so he followed her when she took her break and struck up a conversation with her, bought her fancy drinks and stuff. he liked her whole attitude (he is well known for liking women with attitudes) and look and whatever. she found him charming and easy to talk with despite his status. irohs pals ended up leaving after a while but iroh stayed behind because he wanted to talk to fuhua allllllll day and was totally caught up in their growing tension. eventually fuhua had to leave, so he offered to walk fuhua home. she accepted, they (naturally) had a one night fling, iroh went back to the palace, that was supposed to be that. cus having flings isnt an out of the ordinary thing for young iroh he was a #slut I'm sure we can all agree on that.

HOWEVER azulon naturally at this point is very tired of his favorite son going around whoring himself out but never picking a wife because he's pushing thirty and he needs an heir if he wants to do more military stuff. so azulon lined up a bunch of well born daughters and was like "Okay son I've had it with your dumbassery pick a wife right now". and iroh didn't like ANY of the women azulon had picked out. but then he remembered fuhua, who he got along with like a house on fire.

now please note, I made it clear in my awesome comprehensive list of Horrible No Good Fuhua Personality Traits that this woman is NOT built for marriage OR having kids. she's meant for the single hot girl life, bottomless mimosas everyday and coconut hair treatments and living alone with a cat that's as much of a jackass as she is. But its not like she can say NO to the crown prince of the fire nation, obviously. even if he seemed like a decent (????) guy. iroh found her not long after and proposed to her like "hey my dad wants me to get married but i didn't like any of the noble women Please Please PLEASE be my wife I'll make sure you never have to want for anything".

having a fun little evening chit chat session at the bar and then getting freaky for one night with a handsome guy is one thing. Being forced to marry him and have his kids is another!!!!!!! <- and fuhua is tormented by fear of having kids. on top of her just Not liking them and not being willing to give up her single hot girl lifestyle, she is tormented by fear of pregnancy and labor and all that. pregnancy and childbirth can kill you, it can kill your child (AND THEN SHE'LL HAVE TO GET PREGNANT AGAIN because she cant stop until she gives iroh an heir), it can ruin your body, so on so forth. there's a lot of factors to it that get overlooked.

and on top of that, fuhua may have worked in a club for the elite, but she was not well born. she is not a noble. she has no military creds, no training, no nobility rich people etiquette, no nothing. azulon was NOT pleased, and he made that very clear to iroh. iroh didn't give two shits, but what he didn't do was defend fuhua from azulons ire. because azulon would insult fuhua pretty openly, ALL the time. about her commoner status, her lack of "manners", how she doesn't support iroh's military ventures and shit, so on and so forth. azulon wanted iroh to have a wife that was like ilah, basically. and the worst part is that azulon would do it AROUND fuhua, but never to her face- he'd always phrase his antagonism as a question to iroh, as if fuhua was irohs misbehaving lapdog or some shit. and iroh NEVERRRR got on his dads case for it because "that's just how my father is lol don't let it get to your head dearest!!!!". just very blase and ignorant. naturally, fuhua got sick of it VERY quickly.

she took her frustration out on anyone she could. she stopped being nice to the servants, she'd antagonize ozai (who was like. a teenager at the time.), despite ozai going out of his way to avoid fuhua at all costs (ozai shared his fathers sentiments on her status and lack of manners, but he couldn't compare her to his mother. because ozai never got to meet ilah himself<- i hc that ilah died in childbirth having ozai (which is part of the reason why azulon hates ozai so much and iroh was so distant with ozai)), so on so forth. fuhua has a pretty short fuse, so she got super angry and bitter with EVERYTHING very quick. she tries to pick fights with iroh but iroh is like???? somehow oblivious to his wife's turmoil.

and then she gets pregnant and he just starts writing it all off as hormones. she hates it as much as she knew she would, but her growing hatred for iroh and everything in existence makes it even worse. she treats being pregnant like having a bug under your skin or something. its like her worst nightmare. she isn't even allowed to smoke her pipe while shes pregnant. she would, if it meant that shed kill the baby, but then she'd just have to get pregnant again. might as well get it over with. <-its at this point where she already starts planning to run away from the palace as soon as she gives birth to the baby.

on a rare night where shes pretty relaxed, iroh asks her if she wants to come up with names with him over tea. its so randomly pleasant that for a second she thinks that maybe she could become okay with this life, so long as she can get her husband to grow a pair and defend her from his father. they come up with a big list of girl and boy names, and end up going with hana for a girl, and toshiro for a boy.

azulon announces literally the next day that the kids name will be either ilah ii for a girl, or lu ten for a boy. iroh puts up zero fight about this despite him having literally just decided on names with his wife the previous day. fuhua goes right back to hating his fucking guts.

fuhua does not internally acknowledge the baby as a human. she insistently refers to the baby as an it, sees the baby as irohs spawn, etc, etc. at the point in her pregnancy where her hormones and body pain are at its peak shes genuinely insufferable to be around. like to the point where even iroh cant take it, so she just. holes herself up in their chambers for the most part. but soon she gets weirdly excited- because while even the idea of inevitably giving birth very soon scares her shitless, and even sensations of movement and whatnot from the baby makes her want to cry hysterically- its also the final bridge she'll need to cross before she can leave.

she'll leave the baby with iroh. he can have it, she doesn't want it. shes not sticking around long enough for it to be decided that iroh needs a spare heir. she'll leave empty handed and leave the main island entirely, cut her hair even. she'll go and live quietly in shu jing with one of her cousins or something. if the palace sends out a witch hunt to try and find her, she'll run to the fucking earth kingdom if she has to. shes not raising iroh's child, she's most definitely not having another one with him. she'll kill herself if all else fails.

and essentially, lu ten is born without complications, is confirmed to be a firebender. fuhua notes that iroh holds the baby with tenderness and reverence, but decidedly wouldn't care either way. she leaves in the night as soon as her legs allow her.

azulon almost sends out a witch hunt for her, but iroh tells him no, he'll go look for her himself. its not like she would've gotten far, as she's still recovering from childbirth. iroh just sends out some of the domestic forces all across the island to sneak around and try and find her. fuhua had decided to stop and stay one night at a little inn by the docks of the homeland before leaving to shu jing at first light, but for a hefty price (and fear of the royal familys wrath), the innkeeper rats her out to the soldiers that come in asking about her.

the soldiers return to business as usual once shes found just as asked, because iroh wanted to confront her alone. by the time he gets there in the early morning, he finds her preparing her raft by the docks. they confront each other and have a final one sided screaming match, fuhua pulls a knife and tells him if he tries to take her back she'll kill herself. iroh is pretty despaired, but thinks better of it and lets her go. he returns to the palace and convinces azulon (with difficulty) that he's okay with her leaving, and that lu ten is probably better off with just him anyway.

its only when azulon realizes that he agrees with that sentiment and expresses relief and satisfaction that it hits iroh how much azulon hated his wife. for some reason. but its not like he can do anything about it now.

iroh finds out through his contacts where exactly fuhua has settled down, but he ends up dropping it because he stopped caring. he has no time for a wife anymore regardless and probably never has, feels distant guilt about that, but also gladness that fuhua took the initiative to put herself first (<-WHICH IS UNFOUNDED ON HIS PART). because he'd rather she do that then stay and have lu ten subjected to her vitriol (<-IROHS FAULT).

and fuhua does end up living alone with a cat that's as much of a jackass as she is and gets coconut oil hair treatments and bottomless mimosas everyday like God intended. she doesn't keep track of whatever the fuck her ex husband does unless she hears about it on the street or whatever.

a few years later she hears that iroh's brat younger brother has taken a wife, and she has to laugh about that. she goes home and pours one out for the poor wretch.

even later than that, she hears that all the suffering she went through for iroh amounted to nothing. because iroh has allowed the dirt eaters in ba sing se to kill his son. it takes all the strength within her to not feel any kind of satisfaction or vindication at the karma of it all.

when the whole nation has a state of mourning in lu tens honor and portraits of him are plastered everywhere, its the first time she gets a glimpse of what he ended up looking like. he has iroh's square jaw, his eyebrows, his sharp eyes- but he has her high cheekbones, her narrow face, her long nose, her dimples, her deep brown skin. handsome and gentle-faced.

she looks at him for a while longer, digests all that information, and then promptly goes back to browsing the market. because shes making crab and asparagus soup tonight and frankly, that's more important to her.

Guillermo having more in his life than just pursuing vampirism for the first time in season 4--spending time with his human family again, having a human boyfriend (rancid as he was), actually having an income (even if he did have to embezzle it), being on a more equal footing with Nandor, coparenting Colin with Laszlo, working at the club with Nadja--IS directly connected to him not asking Nandor about turning him ONCE for almost the entire season or even alluding to it or mentioning it until 4x10.

Like we get so many allusions to Guillermo being a weird, lonely kid who was bullied and not very happy with his life or himself, and clinging to vampirism as something that would give him power to avoid being bullied and confidence to avoid loneliness and find happiness. He explicitly links "becoming a vampire" to "being happy" in "The Wellness Center," even

But by the end of season 2, Guillermo already has power, which only grows through season 3. And for the majority of season 4, Guillermo is happy as well. He's really enjoying his human life for the first time. So he stops asking Nandor to end it and turn him into something else...until nearly everything that made him happy is ripped away within the span of a few days.

But if I think about it too much I'll expire.

So are the Big Bads of Junior Year going to be the Rat Grinders? AKA kids who leveled up 'the normal way' by doing a bunch of quests, grinding, taking on any enemy to get more powerful, but because of the 'luck' and 'opportunities' given to other kids (ie the Bad Kids) aren't being lauded or appreciated like they expected so they're taking it out on the Bad Kids, have taken advantage of it the summer they were gone, and are doing what they can to punish them for 'being rewarded despite failing at what's expected of them, despite actually saving the world'.

I wonder if all the members of Rat Grinders have classes that reflect those of the Bad Kids? We already know they have a rogue and a bard...

bronya and dan heng having special guest appearances in their partner's trailers

Can't take off my mind this very specific flavor of sskk dynamics from a timeline that goes like: the doa arc never happened. Skip forward to bunch of years past the canon events, and you have sskk who can't really call each other enemies since it's now evident to everyone they enjoy seeing each other, but aren't friends either since they do very much still work for enemy organizations. And they just keep stumbling across each other on their respective missions from opposite fronts, trying to capture the same target for their own team, and they keep fighting and competing with each other in a way that is almost playful (but never going easy on each other because then where's the fun!), making them both almost look forward to meet and clash with the other on missions and to fight for the same target. And the mission accomplishment rate has now decreased to a 50% for both of them but neither of them can bring themselves to really care because for the first time they're having the carefree, mindless fun they never experienced in their lives and they have a person they enjoy to spend time with to the point they even got past denying it. And Atsushi telling Akutagawa “even if I let you go now, I'll still have to hunt you down” and Akutagwa replying “hunt me then” and theatrically disappearing out of a window or something leaving Atsushi laughing and just. them being together although nobody is going to say it out loud

i know hes going through it or whatever but i honestly cant focus whenever kazakami shows up. he looks so much like what i imagine kim dokja to look like its distracting.

thinking about how the movie theater scene in season 3 is one of the few pivotal byler moments where there’s actually a large group of people around them (they’re almost always alone or the people with them aren’t included in the shot...the only other crowded scene i can recall is the rink o mania fight tbh) but they still managed to frame it with so much intimacy and tension, mike and will’s faces being close to each other, everything around them blurring and mike’s voice being so gentle and soft and caring as he asks will if he’s okay...

so there really is no excuse for why there’s such a lack of intimacy in nearly every mleven scene and why they choose to make them have moments with either the ugliest backgrounds, with way too much clutter or people around them that makes it painful to watch, or with the scene ending up being played as comedy 😭 (maybe not all of their scenes but its like 80% of their important scenes that its kind of hard to ignore especially throughout s4...like what the hell is this)

its such a stark contrast to the way byler scenes are shot...mind you they were in a literal junkyard in the scene below and jonathan and argyle were right in their vicinity but they still managed to frame it as if they were the only two people in the world and the cinematography is visually pleasing

like this is barely a competition at all...how are we still debating which relationship is meant to be endgame 🤦‍♀️

Was thinking about your au and realized that whichever neighbour wakes up last is in for a very awkward reunion

Imagine waking up to your entire neighbourhood being in an apocalyptic scenario, and you’re the last to find out about it-

technically the last neighbor is Sally BUT Julie is the last "normal-sleeping" neighbor to wake and yeah! she sure has a hell of a time! i mean tbh it's kinda her And Barnaby? they wake up within a week of each other (the neighbors wake via Pacific Rim kaiju rules) so their breakdowns overlap <3

not to be FUCKING dramatic, but crochet is intuitive and logical and knitting is of the devil and feels like every step is just made up on a whim

✧ The Ardal stars ✧

Guess who just found the clip of Con O'Neill talking about how Taika Waititi said that Ed's and Izzy's relationship are like Jesus' and Judas' in Jesus Christ Superstar? THIS GUYYY

Aaliyah & Cruz’s first meeting | Special Ops: Lioness 1×01

Aaliyah x Cruz

James has a thin scar on his neck. 

It runs from the base of neck to the hairline which is behind his left ear.

How did this happen? 

He got nicked by the whomping willow when stopping Snape from going into it. 

It’s a constant reminder for the entire group the deep effects of the prank, and how it effected everyone. 

whenever someone reads a prequel or a retelling and complains about knowing how it will end since the beginning I'm like. bro. dude. bitch. however you prefer to be referred to.

✨THATS THE FUCKING POINT✨

It's about the tragedy of reading all the ways the characters are unknowingly building towards the very same fate they are so desperately trying to avoid.

ITS ABOUT THE BITTERSWEET JOY OF KNOWING THEIR STORY IS STILL WORTH TELLING.

REGARDLESS OF HOW IT ENDS.

if your story is only good when reading through it the first time? if the reading experience is spoiled by knowing what happens?? (pun fully intended) it's not that well crafted a story imo.

Sometimes it's not about what is going to happen. Sometimes it's about reinterpreting the characters. Sometimes it's about exploring themes through a story we already know.

Sometimes the storytelling is enhanced by knowing how it is going to end.