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ruby-whistler · 3 years

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This is targeted at your dream apologist post, just to be up front. Just wanted to give my two cents in on some of the stuff w/o doing a whole rebuttal, since… I don’t really want to lol. To start off, I had an issue with how you framed the beginnings of Lmanberg. How Lmanberg formed wasn’t colonizing, it was just independence from the greater dsmp from a set of members that disliked the way things were ran by Dream (and by more direct extension, the rest of the dsmp citizens, namely sapnap.) Dream was protecting his power, not any kind of attachment made to the server, I’d argue, becuz in the end the way he relinquished control was by gaining more; by getting leverage over one of the original members, Tommy, via taking his discs.

Another thing, you shouldn’t be angry at ppl for not feeling sympathetic for a character that’s done such heinous things against other characters. You’re more then welcome to feel bad for him yourself, but no one else has to. After watching the whole of Tommy’s exile arc, it’s very clear to see the Dream was cruel and horrible to a child that hardly deserved it. Dream was dehumanizing to Tommy. Making him put all of his self earned items into a hole every visit and promptly destroying it all, telling Tommy that his friends don’t miss him, blowing up Logstedshire after finding Tommy’s secret room (that he hid from Dream to stop him from destroying it) filled with Tommy’s resources for escaping, not even allowing him to leave, these aren’t the actions of a good person put into a hard place, or a person with trauma dealing poorly with said trauma. That isn’t justifiable. Dream shouldn’t be allowed to hurt and inflict trauma onto another person becuz he has trauma. What he did to Tommy and to his friends (saying he didn’t care about them, saying he only cares about Tommy’s discs, Sapnap even had that sad moment of “you don’t think he meant it did you?” which. Yknow. Look between the lines methinks) was awful and doesn’t have to be forgiven by either the victims or the fans of said victims.

My opinion on the prison stay is…. I don’t really care lol. I definitely do see it as he deserves it, because what he did to Tommy was horrific. I don’t have any real sympathy for an abuser, especially one that does shit that I’ve had done to me before and done against a character I relate to heavily. So. Sue me if I think that Dream should have his shit rocked. Ignoring that Dream had very clear reasons as to why he was put into the prison and the fact that many characters have reasons to hate his guts and also not feel sympathy for him is…. Definitely the Dream apologist mantra. Noah fence ^^

One last bit since this ask is getting real long, but it was narratively cathartic to see Dream actually receiving punishment for his actions. Cathartic quite literally means “psychological relief through strong emotions” so. Yeah. Sorry ppl were getting it mixed up with catharsis, but there’s the word they probably meant to use. Didn’t realize it would be such a crime to mix up two very similar words but what can you do with a younger audience.

This isn’t meant to be an attack, or mean, so I’m sorry if I’ve been a little passive aggressive in my wording, but to be fair. Your post was as well ^^ Cant wait to hear your response, if you feel like giving one.

Alright, so first as a quick disclaimer, I’m going to out a summary of the original post’s points, just to ensure that we’re on the same page;

The post does say:

- don’t dehumanize c!Dream because it continuously hurts people who relate to and/or sympathize with him, also dehumanization in general is an inherently wrong mindset

- don’t attack people who sympathize with him because he’s a victim of abuse besides other things

The post never says:

- you cannot hate c!Dream and not sympathizing with him is wrong

- the things c!Dream has done are to any degree excused

- don’t dehumanize c!Dream because he’s a good person

- people who dehumanize c!Dream are real life abuse apologists

If you read the post and didn’t get these points from it, i advise you to reread it as I made pretty much all of these abundantly clear.

I don’t know why you’d start talking about L’manberg, but sure; I never said it was colonization. I said some people who have had their country colonized relate to him because he had his home torn apart and is desperate to return it back to its original state. This is a completely valid reason to relate to him as it is a pretty big part of the character.

Dream wasn’t protecting his “power”, because he didn’t actually have any power on the SMP besides technically owning it. Before L’manberg, all he’d do is walk around, fix creeper holes and the prime path, jump into conflicts and end them if they got too pointed - he even fixed Tubbo’s house once after Tommy burnt it down, he got unfairly mugged by Sapnap and Tommy because he had weaker armor etc. He never used his position as landowner unfairly and was on the same level as any other member; his only concern was too keep the community united and semi-peaceful. Of course he had an attachment to the server, it had been his home for months, maybe more on the SMP timeline.

Do you genuinely think listing the bad things he did is going to do anything to my empathy or the empathy of other c!Dream fans?

I saw the entirety of the exile arc live, and I saw what was happening, and I hated it, and I hated c!Dream. Yet I’m sympathetic to him when he goes through a similar situation, perhaps because I’m not a biased hypocrite.

I never said c!Dream was a good person. Saying “these don’t look like actions of a person with trauma” doesn’t make sense to me because, as you said later on, it isn’t justifiable either way. I’m not saying anyone has to forgive him. You don’t need to forgive an abuse victim for their prior actions to recognize their situation is messed up. You’re making up points to fight against in your rebuttal that I never actually said.

I’m not saying “don’t dehumanize c!Dream because he’s a good person”. I’m saying “don’t dehumanize c!Dream because he’s a person and dehumanization is wrong” and “people who relate to him shouldn’t be hurt or harassed”.

He didn’t even do “terrible things” to his friends, by the way. Tommy has said like five times that he doesn’t care about anyone but the discs but when he said that isn’t true his friends believed and forgave him. Dream says it once while something that matters to him is being threatened, so that it doesn’t get destroyed, and suddenly he’s hurting his friends (double standard methinks). As if he didn’t repeatedly try to help them and care about them up until that point and they abandoned him even despite his prior actions. He did things that might’ve hurt them, but that doesn’t compare to the amount of things he did for them. Saying he doesn’t care is blatant mischaracterization.

If you think (fictional) people who have done bad things deserve to be horribly abused and have their basic human rights violated, you know what, you do you. Be a fictional abuse apologist, be as bad as the people who say c!Tommy deserved it, go on. I disagree with you however, and I’m sure many people who are actually sensitive and care about/relate to fictional abuse victims (I have seen many c!Tommy apologists say the torture is awful and he doesn’t deserve it, thankfully) will disagree as well, so why should I care about your wrong opinion? If you’ve dehumanized him and are failing to see you’re incorrect and hurting people, bad for you. You’re just proving me right that this is a very real problem that this community has to do something about.

#tw abuse #tw torture #abuse apologism #c!dream neg #(in ask)#discourse #my asks #crit anon

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dracolucius-abraxusmalfoy · 4 years

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To the anon who asked for Draco and Harry introducing each other to their respective friend groups, I give you weeks late fluff. This was asked for along with a prompt that led to this post.

this turned out way longer than I was expecting so a- have this full-blown one shot.

________________________________

They told Ron and Hermione last night.

It had been... eventful. Mostly, Hermione had smiled a lot and after Ron had recovered enough to lift his head from the table where he’d slammed it he’d patted Harry on the back a lot and given him many long contemplative looks; like he was reevaluating every piece of knowledge he held about Harry through the lense of Harry-and-Draco. He hadn't said much the rest of the night. Harry doesn’t think he minded too much.

Rose, of course, had been thrilled.

Both her favourite uncles? Together?

Because Draco’s presence in their lives, for all that this new perspective is exactly that, isn’t. He started visiting Teddy and Andromeda first, and then, somehow, very very slowly, that morphed into Draco and Narcissa visiting Molly with Andromeda and Teddy, and Draco taking Teddy to his play dates with Rose and Victoire and Fred and Roxanne. Morphed into Draco’s sudden appearance at Christmas dinners, his presence at Sunday lunches.

No one had flinched. Not Ron, who plays chess with him in silence on Sunday evenings and not Hermione, who after all his misdeeds had invited him to stay for tea after bringing Teddy by with nary a concern. And not Bill, or Arther or even Fred, who Harry imagined would have the greatest reason out of all of them to dislike him. They accepted Draco without question and Harry had been... at a loss, to be honest.

Hermione had gone on and on about how they had all forgiven him and how Harry should too and isn't he just great with Teddy, Harry. You can’t hate someone forever she’s said to him once, in the quiet, murmuring fire loud empty that is the Burrows living room at night. Had looked at him sadly as Harry stared at the door Draco had just left through with his mother. Harry hadn’t replied. He’d simply hugged her, and made his way through the fireplace to his own home, simply laid in his bed, eyes wide open till early hours of the morning in his uncertainty.

Because Harry didn’t know how to tell her that he knew. He knew all that already. He didn’t know how to tell her that he’d forgiven Draco Malfoy for all his crimes the moment he’d lowered his wand. Didn’t know how to tell Hermione that for a very brief moment, over the summer of rebuilding Hogwarts they’d almost been... friends.

So he hadn’t. He didn't tell her any of that. Let her think he still hated him, let everyone think that, and let Draco avoid him. Avoided Draco in equal measure.

They hadn't spoken once in the three years Draco had miraculously become part of his family, for all that Harry silently considered him part of it.

And then, one day, suddenly they had.

It didn't start slowly, but it did start quietly. With Draco’s solid warm presence beside him on the back porch of the Burrow. Still not speaking, but watching the moon ascend into the sky.

Draco had only said one thing, that night. Right before Harry had gone inside. He’d stopped him, and asked, in a quiet, unsure voice, if Sirius had ever shown him the Dog Star. He pointed. That’d been it.

A week later Draco was in his living room, shovelling too spicy Chana Masala from the shitty takeaway place down the street into his mouth.

Harry’d never seen him so unrefined, so carefree, so uncareful in his actions; opposite to his always and total control. And yet, around Harry, he’s careless. And Harry, in return, is calm in his presence, unwound and unanxious, in a state so different from on edge, only as relaxed as he is in Ron and Hermione’s presence. Talking with each other was effortless. They worked.

And here he is, a year later, still secret, and clutching Draco’s hand in his as he stands frozen on Pansy’s doorstep.

He’s been here before. He’s been inside before. He and Pansy are... if not quite friends than friendly acquaintances. She gets along well with Ron, and she’s been coming to Friday pub nights for years. He shouldn’t be afraid of her, and yet, for some reason, he’s terrified.

Finally, Draco convinces him to step up to the door, letting go of his hand in the meantime.

Pansy opens the door and invites them in. She raises an eyebrow at Harry, perhaps a question, maybe an observation, but she does not say anything, just shows them into the living room and sweeps her floor-length skirt up her knees in the heat of it.

Harry and Draco sit down on the couch, and Draco reaches forward to poor them both tea, unthinking in his actions, as he always seems to be around Harry, he carefully slices lemon and picks out the seeds before placing it in a cup and handing it to Harry.

The gesture is so domestic it makes Harry’s heartache and he can hardly stop the push of a smile onto his lips.

Pansy does not interrupt them, and when Harry turns back she is simply watching them.

“Is there a reason you’ve come to visit me, boys?” She asks, and she doesn’t sound perturbed, and yet somehow Harry thinks she’s trying to.

He daren't glance at Draco, but he can feel the tension radiating off him. Wishes he could reach out and touch him without spoiling the speech he had so carefully prepared.

So carefully prepared and, apparently, completely abandoned.

“Potter and I are dating. That is, Harry and I-“

Pansy looks shocked, one eyebrow ticked high enough to disappear behind her bangs.

“Why are you telling me this?” She asks, and she looks... baffled.

Draco’s face crumples “I... Pans, of course, I’m telling you.”

“No. No, of course. Draco, darling, I just-” she pauses for a long moment as she glances between them, eyeing the space between them on the couch and Harry is caught between wanting to, defiantly, move closer, and squish further sideways into the armrest.

She looks them both in the eye in turn.

“Was this supposed to be a secret?”

Bonus:

“What do you mean you knew.”

“Draco, you moved in with him.”

“I still have the flat! I didn’t tell anyone I was moving!”

“When was the last time you were even there Draco?! I thought you were stuck in the lease!”

“I don’t understand, Pansy... How?...”

“Draco, darling, I’ve known since about a week after it started. You were obvious. I genuinely thought you both just hated PDA or something.”

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warsmith-38 · 3 years

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How I would do RWBY pt. 2

Season Two

Emerald and Mercury go to book store.

Try intimidating ex-White Fang owner.

He’s tense, but not impressed.

Adam walks in.

He shits himself.

Tries fighting.

Dies. Painfully might I add.

Emerald and Mercury banter. Adam just seems bored.

Cinder (teenaged, not adult) scolds them for 86ing the guy in such a public and possibly trackable way.

Adam assures them that they weren’t seen. He has practice in that sort of thing.

Torchwick is annoyed at working with these people but at least he’s getting paid a mint.

Cinder says that, with all of the stolen dust, phase two of plan can to be started soon.

Neo give her a look of ‘get over yourself, you chuunibyou.’

Meanwhile, back at the ranch.

More guests arrive.

Ironwood talks with Ozpin about world affairs.

Grimm populations and attacks are getting worse, but are still manageable.

Says that he has brought plenty of extra security in the form of Penny and a big amount of security robots and mechs.

More bonding scenes because reasons.

RWBY + JNPR have food fight because funny.

Velvet and Blake are closer than earlier and give little ‘anti-racism’ classes for Weiss.

Blake is friendlier with everyone now that she knows they wouldn’t kill her since she’s a faunus.

Ruby has taken on the role of mechanic for everyone’s weapons.

Jaune dominates wargaming night.

Ren and Fox try to help Ruby with her hand-to-hand skills (Yang is not a great teacher of such things)

Scene of properly meeting team SSSN.

Nice guys, but a little too uncoordinated in style.

Ruby ends up having a frustrated breakdown.

Gives WBY speech of how they have to get involved and screw the people telling them to sit down and let them handle the problem instead.

Blake is the first to go along with what she’s saying.

Yang and Weiss argue that this is not a good idea, saying that this sounds like Ruby just wants to go play vigilante again.

Blake says that Ruby has a point, nothing will get accomplished if they sit around doing nothing.

Weiss is the one that cracks next. Agrees that the authorities aren’t exactly inspiring confidence since the run in with Torchwick.

Yang finally gives in, if only to make sure Ruby doesn’t get herself murdered.

Ruby, in her excitement to actually be doing something, rushes out the door to get snacks and runs into someone.

That someone is Cinder.

Cinder, Emerald, Mercury, and disguised Neo (Team CEMN (Cinnamon (work with me here))) keep up the façade of Haven guests from canon.

Ruby almost immediately starts gushing over their cool weapons before being reined in by WBY.

Emerald pickpocket’s Weiss’ wallet and snags rich girl’s cash before putting it back.

Mercury and Yang have a very clear stare-down of ‘punching vs kicking, who will win?’

Neo and Blake…stare at each other (Adam is Blake’s Rival/Foil. Blake v. Neo is just pair the spares).

RWBY has made new friends. (The poor dears)

RWBY start their investigation.

Team SSSN turns up to help at the last minute.

Okay, sure, free help.

Blake and Sun try to find local White Fang schmucks.

Scarlet and Sage go off to do random shit.

Yang drags Neptune to Junior’s club to check the pulse of the criminal element of the city.

Ruby and Weiss dig up information at library place-thing.

They encounter Penny on the way.

Penny acts weird(er) and tries to bolt off.

Weiss agrees that Penny is suspicious as hell and, with all the happenings, that means that she could be a potential lead.

She lets Ruby go after her while she about her investigating alone.

Penny reveals to Ruby that she’s a mechanical maiden (Persona 3 is best Persona).

Ruby is VERY interested now.

Ruby already liked her as a person and now she knows that Penny is a person who is also a weapon.

Zero downsides.

Penny, happy to be accepted, let’s slip that she knows some crazy stuff is happening in the world.

Says that that’s why she was allowed to come to the tournament, as extra back up just in case.

Says that the communications tower is the most obvious target but might not be the actual target.

Can’t elaborate further because of Ciel and her bodyguards showing up.

Ciel gives Ruby the third degree on encouraging Penny’s truant behavior.

Ruby gives her the finger.

Ciel takes Penny away and Ruby gets back to work.

Weiss gets whatever information about the White Fang and Torchwick that isn’t classified, and a little that is, transferred to her.

Her older sister is a high ranker in the military and her father bankrolled a good chunk of said military.

Ain’t nepotism a bitch?

Yang and Neptune come up empty handed, but Yang got to pick another fight at the club before the cops showed up so she’s all good.

Neptune thinks that that’s all Yang went there to do in the first place.

Scarlet and Sage get captured by the White Fang. (They said they had fresh cookies, what were S + S going to do, say no?)

Blake leads Sun along a trail of breadcrumbs to a White Fang hideout.

Sees a recruitment rally going on.

Blake has a heart attack seeing who’s giving a speech.

It’s Adam.

Speech is an emotional call to arms against the cruelty of humanity.

Crowd is skeptical but still listening.

Reveals his brand.

Crowd is now enthusiastic to sign up for the White Fang.

Adam reveals newly stolen war-mech.

Says that they’ll test its power by executing Scarlet and Sage.

Blake spoils his moment by covertly revealing that Roman is the pilot of said mech (Neo is co-pilot).

Crowd turns against Adam for his hypocrisy.

Adam cheeses it.

Roman takes it on himself to attack Blake and Sun.

Scarlet and Sage are freed and take on the rowdy crowd.

While running, Blake and Sun encounter RWY and Neptune.

Sun and Neptune get good hits in but are btfo’d.

Scarlet and Sage find them and all is good for team SSSN.

RWBY has quasi-rematch against Roman + Neo.

Fight goes well.

Team CFVY shows up and stomps the mech.

Looks like Team Rocket’s blasting off again!

RWBY celebrates a fight well won.

CFVY are pissed that RWBY would do something so dangerous and make them promise not to do things like this again.

RWBY lies through their collective teeth about not doing it again.

Get put on probation anyway.

Pyrrha and Jaune are having a moment together before Jaune ruins it.

Jaune admits that he lied and cheated his way into school due to impatience and lack of immediate combat skills.

He confesses all of this out of guilt and plans to turn himself in.

Pyrrha is actually rather angry at him.

1. for cheating to get what everyone else fought tooth and nail to earn the right to and 2. Putting the rest of his team at risk due to his inability to keep up with them in a fight and for associating them with a cheater/liar.

Not to mention lying to her face.

Says good riddance.

Cardin overhears and blackmails him into doing what he says or else he’ll narc on him and say that NPR knew and thus were complicit in the crime.

Jaune goes along with it while creating plan to oust Cardin and get him kicked from school.

Has conversation with Ren and Nora, both of whom are pissed at him.

Of course Pyrrha told them.

Jaune tells them that he knows he’s a piece of shit but also has Cardin to deal with.

Ren and Nora begrudgingly agree to help him get rid of Cardin.

Tells them his plan.

Plan proceeds to fail and Jaune ends up fighting all of CRDL alone.

Loses.

Grimm outside of their power-level shows up.

Jaune’s quick thinking and tactics get it killed.

Cardin is grateful and promises to keep quiet about blackmail. Even means it too.

CRDL is never a real issue again due to them actually realizing that it’s a very cuntish thing to bully the guy and/or the friends of the guy who actively saved their lives.

Jaune plans to give one last apology to his team before he turns himself in.

NPR say that they deliberated amongst themselves.

They have decided that Jaune doesn’t get to take the easy way out.

His penance is to train his ass off, night and day, to catch up to them on the physical level.

Jaune’s role is to be the strategist and that it’s his job to make plans that keep them all alive.

If he fucks up, they work his ass harder until he doesn’t fuck up.

They haven’t fully forgiven him, but they’re giving him a chance because they genuinely like him.

Jaune is touched by their compassion and promises make up for his mistakes.

Sparring day in class.

Jaune has match against disguised Neo.

Neo wins but Jaune starts to have suspicions.

Pyrrha and Mercury spar.

Pyrrha wins but Mercury now has valuable data on her overall fighting style and semblance usage.

Cinder and Ruby are last match of the class.

Cinder has fire powers as a semblance.

Has second semblance giving her bullet time.

Bullet time doesn’t work all that well against Ruby because of her super-speed.

Ruby gets some pretty good hits in. Kinda kicking Cinder’s ass.

Cinder then decides she’s done playing nice and goes on full offensive. Even starts to scare the crowd.

Times up!

Due to technicality, Ruby won the fight.

Aura cohesion (health bars) Cinder:48% Ruby:51%

Emerald and Mercury are blue in the face with fear of what Cinder might do, having officially lost a fight.

Cinder helps Ruby up, apologizes for going overboard, and offers to buy Ruby lunch the next day.

Ruby happily agrees to hang out with her newest friend.

Cinder later explodes at her hideout and incinerates a White Fang member that got a little too close.

Adam pretends to care. Doesn’t actually.

Ruby and Cinder become shockingly good friends (as far as Ruby is concerned).

Cinder explains the concept of a second semblance, confirming to Ruby that she’s a ten-percenter.

It’s somewhat rare, but it’s common enough that people know how it works and why it unlocks.

Great emotional duress.

She was raised in an orphanage that REALLY sucked.

She awakened both semblances pretty quickly and was snatched up by the authorities as soon as possible to be a huntress.

She’s mostly lying about the details but there is still the base truth.

Ruby tells her that she lost one of her parents too.

Summer just didn’t come home one day, being told she was killed in the line of duty by a lucky grimm.

She’s always thought that there’s more to this story, but doesn’t have the means to follow up just yet.

It’s part of why Ruby wants to be a huntress, to do her best to make sure that some other kid never experiences that kind of loss because of the grimm.

Cinder tells her that that’s not the worst motivation. (she means it more than she thinks)

Since Blake saw Adam at the rally she has become obsessed with analyzing all the data gotten during investigation.

RWY is worried.

Yang talks to her about it, giving the speech about her mother and the problems with obsession.

Blake talks about how dangerous she knows Adam to be. Is vastly terrified of him.

Yang reassures her that the team can handle that punkass.

4 on 1, let him try it. They’ll put the boots to him. Medium style.

Blake reluctantly snaps out of her funk.

Dance comes.

Everyone’s having a good time.

Pyrrha decides to properly forgive Jaune.

They kiss and, after a wacky JNPR argument because funny, so do Ren and Nora.

Insert the cool JNPR dance scene here.

Ruby is happy for her friends but notices some bullshit going on near the comm. tower.

Cinder is infiltrating it wearing something that actually makes it difficult to tell who it is.

Makes a big show of knocking the guards unconscious.

Places real obvious hacking device onto console.

Ruby comes in and shoots at her.

Cinder pops smoke and disappears.

Authorities arrive and (as far as they can tell) disable the hacking device.

Ruby is given a commendation for her actions and her team is taken off probation from earlier.

Upper echelon is pleased that enemy plot was foiled.

Exactly as the bad guys wanted.

Ozpin presses the doubt button.

Teams gets chaperone assignments.

JNPR requested a special Grimm bounty mission.

RWBY gets put on simple observation mission.

JNPR spends time tracking and eventually fighting nuckelavee grimm with Prof. Port.

Ren comes to terms with fighting the grimm that killed his parents.

Y’know, sub-plot stuff to relieve some main plot tension.

RWBY is sent with Dr. Oobleck into ruins to observe and document the growth rate of the non-hostile presence of the local *loud snoring*.

Actually sent near suspected White Fang supply depot with hope that they uncover it and fix problems.

Find it fairly easily after a little bonding moment or two with everyone.

Torchwick and Adam are in charge of train depot. (Torchwick gets the train, Adam gets the depot)

Ruby goes in on her own because she was told not to do things like that.

Ruby gets double-teamed by Roman and Adam. Neo watches like a little shithead.

Ruby fights like a demon but still gets bested.

Adam says that he is now bored and leaves Roman to finish up.

Oobleck and WBY show up.

Roman starts the train, tries to cheese it.

RWBY + Oobleck board the train.

Yang fights Neo.

Weiss fights masked White Fang member (later revealed to be Ilia).

Ruby and Blake fight Torchwick.

Oobleck fights the stormtroopers.

Neo, the crafty, dodgy, dexterity style, sly-bitch, kicks Yang, the brutish and blunt boxer, in the ass.

Raven pops up through a portal.

Neo am-scrays after almost getting her shit pushed in.

Raven says a scant few things to Yang and leaves her a trinket and a map, telling her to follow it when she can before leaving.

Weiss wins her fight.

Blake and Ruby kick Roman’s ass.

Discover train is full of dust explosives to blow up a chunk of Vale and let the grimm through in droves.

Was originally intended to be deployed before explosion but Roman decides ‘fuck it’ and tries to turn it into a kamikaze run at the last minute out of spite.

Oobleck disconnects the explosive cars.

Train still rams hole into central Vale.

Grimm incursion.

RWBY fights as best they can.

Almost get overrun when Teams CFVY, SSSN, and CEMN show up to help.

CEMN only involved because evil plan failed and they want to try and clean up any possible evidence.

Neo (in disguise) tries not to be obvious that she’s still tired from earlier.

Horde battle with large hydra (or something) grimm being final boss of season.

They kill it, of course.

After the battle RWBY thinks that the problem is more or less solved.

Adam is still loose but his plan is foiled and his co-conspirator, Roman, is in prison.

All they have to do is hunt him down.

If he’s going to try something, it’ll be at the tournament. RWBY will have an extra eye open during.

JNPR returns triumphant from their mission and wonders what the hell happened while they were gone.

Cinder is livid that plan-A failed and they lost their best chance to kill Ozpin.

Yeah, their plan is to fuck up Vale and get and chance to kill Ozpin.

Is reassured by the mysterious figure she’s talking to (Salem) that plans can change and still succeed.

Adam is looking through security footage taken from depot.

Sees Blake.

He smiles.

Season two done.

#RWBY #Ruby Rose #Weiss Schnee #Blake Belladonna #Yang Xiao Long #Cinder Fall #Emerald Sustrai #Mercury Black #Adam Taurus #Neopolitan #RWDE I guess #I regret nothing #How I would do...#Team CFVY

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ibijau · 4 years

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Second to last instalment of the Bad Timeline, and seeing how original timeline LXC deals with this :D

BIG WARNING for suicide, blood, major angst, and implied violence against animals.

The first few days of hiding in Cloud Recesses had been the worst ones.

Xichen had been consumed with rage and grief and sheer betrayal over what had happened. He had known that Jin Guangyao was not all that he seemed, events had opened his eyes to that long before Wangji and Wei Wuxian barged in with the mangled body of his first love. But he had never imagined that his friend, his sworn brother, the man he'd trusted above any other, would have fallen so low.

Huaisang’s own betrayal had been rubbing salt into the wound.

Of course, being manipulated into stabbing Jin Guangyao had been a shock… and there could be no doubts about that manipulation, not once Xichen had had some space to think about it. He knew what his husband was like when he lied.

And yet, he could have forgiven this.

He could not forgive that Huaisang had never said anything about Mingjue’s death. That he had allowed Xichen to remain friends with the man who had so cruelly murdered the man he loved. That he had never trusted Xichen after all, no matter how much Xichen had tried to convince himself otherwise. Or had Huaisang thought that his husband had been an accomplice in his brother’s death? Xichen had pushed so much for Jin Guangyao to play Cleansing to Mingjue, he’d wanted so badly for his best friend and his lover to get along again. Huaisang would have been excused for suspecting Xichen.

But then, it meant everything between them had been fake. It meant Xichen had never become as good at reading through his husband’s acting as he had believed. All that affection and tenderness, those moments of happiness, the way Huaisang melted at the first sign of gentleness… could he really have pretended about that? And if so, what did it say about Xichen that he had taken all of it at face value, so desperate for closeness that he’d fallen for those lies?

By the end of his first month in seclusion, most of Xichen’s anger had calmed.

It was replaced by guilt.

He had failed Mingjue by trying to force that friendship with Jin Guangyao, by refusing to see the warning signs. Mingjue had told him that Jin Guangyao was dangerous, but he hadn’t listened, hadn’t wanted to judge too harshly someone who was so hardworking, who had risen in spite of difficult origins.

Maybe he had failed Jin Guangyao as well, by not seeing how life in Lanling Jin was changing him. In spite of all evidence, Xichen still believed that his sworn brother had been a good person once. Perhaps all this tragedy could have been avoided in Xichen had just known how to offer help the right way. Jin Guangyao too had suffered from his efforts to maintain the friendship between him and Mingjue. Who knew if he would have turned to murder if they had just been allowed to drift away from each other.

Above all, Xichen feared he had failed Huaisang. They were married. They were cultivation partners. They were friends even, or so he had thought. And yet, Huaisang had never come to him with what he had found out about Jin Guangyao. He had preferred to take revenge alone rather than to share anything with his own husband.

How to blame him, when Xichen had failed to protect those he loved before.

Somewhere near the end of the second month of seclusion, Wangji came home, Wei Wuxian trailing behind him.

Xichen, at first, refused to see him, just as he refused to see anyone. Guilt was harder to wrangle than anger, it ran deeper, it was more insidious.

But when Wangji insisted and returned several days in a row, Xichen gave in. His brother was not one to come knocking on his door without good reason.

Wangji was the same as ever. He sounded worried when he inquired after Xichen’s health, but when his concerns were dismissed, he simply went straight to the reason for his visit.

"I discussed your marriage with uncle,” he explained. “Gusu Lan can afford to repay your dowry, should you wish it."

Xichen stared at his brother, trying to make sense of what was offered. Then, at last, it hit him.

He could divorce Huaisang.

He would never have to see him again. After everything that had happened, it should have felt like a gift, a blessing from the heavens. A kindness to both of them, when their marriage had turned out such a failure.

Instead the thought was more painful than the betrayal had ever been.

Huaisang was a liar, a manipulator, a murderer, a monster whose crimes were no lesser than Jin Guangyao’s.

But he was also Xichen's husband. He was a man who had opened up to Xichen over the years, letting him see parts of him that no one must have seen since his brother's death. They had laughed together, run their sect together, been happy together. Xichen refused to believe it had all been faked. Nobody could have been acting so perfectly, so consistently. Something had been real

And whatever his crimes, at least Nie Huaisang had never committed them for personal gain, but only to avenge a brother he adored. The means had been questionable, but the intentions were honourable.

Besides, even though he had never known how far they ran, Xichen had long known there were deep shadows within the man he loved.

And he still loved Huaisang.

That thought shocked him, just as he had been shocked when he had first realised he felt that way.

Even after everything, he still loved that odd little man he was married to.

Even after everything, he did not want to lose him.

Xichen looked at his brother, and smiled in the polite, controlled way he had learned to do in unpleasant situations.

“I am very grateful that you would offer this,” he told Wangji. “But that will not be necessary. I need time alone at the moment, but unless he asks for it, I have no intention of separating from my husband.”

“Hm. He hasn’t asked.”

That lifted a weight from Xichen’s shoulders, freeing him from a tension he had not realised he was holding. After everything that had been revealed, Huaisang could easily have asked for a divorce as well. Nobody in the cultivation world would have blamed him for rejecting a husband who had been so close to his brother’s murderer. If Huaisang hadn’t asked for it, there might still be hope.

Xichen knew some of their relationship had to have been genuine.

Feeling a little lighter, his smile turned more sincere.

“I hear you’re married as well now?” he asked his brother. “Eloping, at your age… that’s not very serious, Wangji.”

Wangji smiled, unapologetic. He looked happier than his brother had ever seen him, and Xichen felt another weight leave his body. Even if Huaisang and him did not manage to reconcile, some good would have come from this disaster.

A little after the four months mark, Xichen felt ready to face the world once more. The guilt had not fully eased out, and the anger still returned sometimes, but he was growing too restless to stay in Gusu.

He thanked his uncle and brother for letting him stay this long, for respecting his need for isolation.

Then, at last, he left for Qinghe.

He left for home.

It was oddly pleasant to fly to the gates of the Unclean Realm at sunset and greet the guards. They all seemed very happy to see him again. Xichen realised the opposite was just as true. After ten years there, Qinghe Nie had become his sect, even if something of Gusu Lan stuck to him.

This really was home.

"Our Sect Leader will be glad you're back," one of the men said. "He's been moping around like a lost soul since he returned with…"

The other guard elbowed him sharply in the ribs. Xichen pretended not to notice.

"My husband can be a little dramatic," he agreed, feeling both guilty and pleased that Nie Huaisang might have missed him. "I hope he has not neglected his duties too much, or I'll have to scold him. Do you know where I might find him?"

He expected to be directed to the gardens or the aviary, unless Huaisang had gone for a trip. Xichen would not mind waiting a little.

"He's in his room," the first guard explained, glancing at his comrade who shrugged. "He's been there since early afternoon. He gave orders not to bother him for a few days, even if guests came, but… Master Lan, I don't think that applies to you."

"Yes, go ahead and knock some sense into him," the other agreed. "He's been moody lately, it will be good for him that you're back."

Lan Xichen thanked them for the information, and crossed the gate. It worried him a little that Huaisang would decide to isolate that way. Even though his cultivation had improved over the duration of their marriage, he did not think Huaisang had ever made efforts to practice inedia so far. Hopefully he was not pushing himself too hard.

In spite of the guards’ hints that Huaisang appeared to have missed him, Xichen felt a growing tension seize him as he walked toward his husband’s room. Anxiety, he guessed. He hoped that Huaisang would want to see him again, that the guards were not mistaken, that he had made the right choice in coming home. Even if they could not reconcile, at least they should talk, there was so much they had never told each other. They needed to talk. They would talk. Xichen would not leave Qinghe until things were finally clear between them. He would…

It was only when he arrived at the door of Huaisang’s bedroom that Xichen realised the odd feeling he’d had since stepping inside that building might not have been nerves alone.

He could feel intense resentful energies coming from that room, strong enough to nearly gag him. Whatever was going on was so powerful that it should have been noticed by passing disciples and servants… but nobody ever came near Huaisang’s bedroom without his permission, and if he had specifically requested to be left alone…

Overcome with fear, Lan Xichen hurried to open the door.

The stench of blood hit him immediately. No surprise there. Several animals laid on the ground, some of them still twitching and agonising.

Xichen barely noticed them.

His full attention was on a pale shape on the floor, surrounded by words hastily scribbled in blood.

A naked man, his wrists and throat slashed open.

Xichen shouted as he ran toward Huaisang, falling to his knees in the pool of blood and pulling the body in his arms. It was still somewhat warm, but growing colder with each passing second.

“What have you done?” Xichen cried, holding his husband close. “A-Sang, I was coming home!”

Xichen could feel no heartbeat, not breath, but still tried to regain enough control of himself that he could share his energy with Huaisang in a desperate attempt to save him.

“I was coming home,” he sobbed. “I was coming home.”

The body in his arm did not react.

Xichen cried harder, never letting go, never giving up his attempt to heal his husband.

“I was coming home.”

#xisang #lan xichen #nie huaisang #mo dao zu shi #the untamed #suicide tw #bad timeline #this au really deserves its nickname lol #jau writes #I swear I'm sorry #I swear the next instalment should be a little less bad #but yeah this one's a bad one ahah

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small-reptile-cake · 5 years

Text

Vigilante AU (updated/fixed)

Concept:

We live in a world of injustice, where powerful people get to overshadow and overrule others basic human rights, and those with true power conceal themselves under the shadows at the risk of being killed or outcasted from society. However, in a city where hate and panic flood the streets, a select team of special people are willing to put themselves out there and defend those who can no longer fight for themselves. Virgil Sinclaire(18)

Powers:

Telepathy

Can read and invade the minds of other people with unsettling, fear inducing thoughts.

His range of hearing is of up to three blocks.

His powers caused him to be mildly agoraphobic; he spent a great part of his life hearing the sick thoughts of strangers on the street and the thousands of times he could simply tell when he was about to get mugged, making him afraid of leaving the safety of his apartment.

Now he wears headphones most of the time to muffle the voices.

Always lived in the same tall building, the higher he is the less he has to hear.

Born and raised in New York.

Studies/Interests:

Highschool dropout. In between his phobia and the terrible influence from his peers, he decided the education system wasn't for him.

Wanted to be an english major.

Enjoys writing scary/realistic novels.

Affiliations

Lives with his aunt and cousin.

Was lured into a group of thieves disguised as anarchists/protesters who claimed to fight for “True justice”, and that they would protect him. Truly, they were just hiding their true intentions and using Virgil’s powers to cause harm out of pure self gratification.

When their motives were unveiled, he still rejected becoming a part of the Alliance

Now, he belongs to his own neutral alignment in which he will not condone giving aid to those who he feels don't deserve it and will absolutely turn to revenge if necessary, even through unconventional means.

Is still willing to help the Alliance, or the “Light Ones” as he calls them.

Patton Kane (22)

Powers:

Healing

His healing can range from treating people (whether it be physically or emotionally) to fixing broken objects (Only if they’re visibly torn, like a broken key or a broken cup).

The risk of healing people’s emotions is that it’s only temporary, and Patton will absorb both positive and negative emotions from the individual.

He can’t fix something that’s been set on fire (A book or clothes) because it’s simply beyond his reach to reconstruct something that's been turned to dust.

Studies/Interests:

A gastronomy student.

Often attends to baking courses/seminars during the week.

Teaches kids with disabilities how to bake on the weekends.

Part of his tuition was paid by working as a babysitter and a store clerk. The rest was obtained from his parents

Was an animal hoarder back in college even though he didn’t have the space or time at the moment. There were stray cats, dogs, even a rat that lived in the same building and got caught in a trap one day. He healed it and brought it home because he didn’t want the owner to find it and kill it.

His family had to talk him out of it and he even went to therapy to deal with the guilt of having to give his babies up for adoption.

Now he only adopts people as his children.

Affiliations

Virgil activates his fatherly senses the most and constantly getting invited to eat at Patton’s

He’s always encouraging the vigilante to go out, then ultimately visiting whenever Virgil just doesn’t feel safe enough to go out.

He also loves playing video games together as long as they aren’t horror themed.

Went to highschool with Logan, he was a few years older but since their parents knew each other and Logan didn’t bother socializing with people in his grade, they became close.

They would both occasionally help their peers though small gestures, such as easing someone before a test, or getting someone out of a fever. It was when they met Roman that he dragged them onto greater things and eventually led to forming the alliance.

Logan Altman (20)

Powers:

Super speed

Is ironically always worried about wasting time

The best thing about his power is having more time to appreciate each moment and scene as it happens before his eyes, analyze it, then carry on.

Will stutter whenever he tries to speak at a normal pace. Roman had to help him practice his speech so it wouldn’t give away his identity during superhero duty.

Needs extra calories, and therefore is often found snacking on protein bars, fruit (and obviously Patton’s famous oatmeal-chocolate cookies)

Can be very hot headed and impatient at times.

Studies/Interests

Majors in chemical engineering, takes up astronomy in his spare time, as well as philosophy and english.

Wants to learn german and spanish.

Uses his super speed to be able to take all of his classes during the week, complete his chores in time and always have some spare minutes.

Keeps a schedule that he’s very loyal to or else he might take up more than he can handle and stress himself out (Again).

Despite being so diligent of his work, he always falls asleep in time, makes sure to have a healthy diet and gives himself some time to relax and contemplate.

Affiliations

Has been friends with Patton since elementary, their parents know each other. Their relationship was very stiff at first as the sensitive hero used to infuriate him by taking too long to do things and getting carried away all the time. This led to some outbursts that were always forgiven as long as Logan apologized afterwards.

One day he went too far while Patton was particularly sensitive, causing him to cry. He’s learnt to control himself since then.

He and Roman were classmates in fight grade when Roman moved in, by then he wasn’t friends with anybody else from his generation.

They started to hang out after a few very intense debates regarding the historical accuracy of a few medieval TV shows, and if it was acceptable to deviate from the obscure reality of those times.

Genuinely loves watching Roman perform classics on stage. The first time he saw him was during english class when they were to bring presentations to class, he performed a paragraph from one of Chèjov's tales.

Despite often treating him like an idiot, he recognizes Roman to be brilliant in his own field. And having him in class was always an amusing experience.

Thinks of Virgil’s occasional presence as comforting, but ultimately disagrees with his views on society.

Is constantly trying to convince Virgil to retake his studies, expressing concern for his future.

Roman Garcia(20)

Powers:

Morphing objects as he touches them

He can only change the shape of an object, not the material it’s made of (if he touches a metal chair and shapes it into a sword, it’ll still be made of metal)

It used to be very difficult for him to create things as he couldn’t focus hard enough on a single shape at the time and the images in his brain would get jumbled.

Later on he was diagnosed with ADHD. His family refused to medicate him and for many years he was forced to deal with it without knowing what it was and what to do about it. That, until he met a teacher that dealt with the same thing who was willing to educate him on he matter. From then on, he’s been learning to surpass it and perfect his technique.

Studies/Interests:

Drama school, also forms part of a few independent acting groups dedicated to performing musicals in small theatres.

Writes fantasy novels, as well as scripts for both theatre and film. He loves how different both formats are and the different things he can achieve with both

Can also write and listen in spanish, but is pronunciation is still too stiff to talk back.

Affiiliations:

Went to highschool with Logan, Patton was their senior.

Moved in to New York from Albuquerque with his little brother. Their entire family is from Venezuela.

Comes from divorced parents, had an abusive father growing up.

Doesn’t necessarily hate his brother, but is extremely weary of him growing into a villain since his powers are rarely ever used for anything other than chaos.

Has a strong attachment to Patton due to the hero’s overbearing, fatherly attitude. Often rings him up at random times to just hang out and watch “Brooklyn 99″ together or learn new recipes. Whether they are in a bad mood or not, it’s always heartwarming to spend time with each other. He really hated Virgil at first for stealing Patton’s attention.

Is currently really fond of Virgil as he can understand the struggles of being forced to move apart from your family. He also really appreciates the vigilante’s willingness to listen

Devin C. Pierce (20)

Powers:

Shapeshifting

Uses his powers to his own advantage and to help those he cares about.

Doesn’t care about fighting evil or turning evil because good and bad are constructs and totally subjective.

Studies/Interests

Drama school

Takes up law as his second major, mostly influenced by watching fake trials on TV and watching legal dramas.

Totally didn’t show Remus “How to get away with murder”.

Affiliations

Met Roman on an improv night at a bar, they got a few good laughs by being absurd and original.

Roman doesnt know about his powers but they're still good friends. Is often asked to babysit Remus when Roman is out fighting crime.

Is constantly teasing Virgil because, in Devin’s words; he’s a “Hypocrite who thinks of himself morally superior to everyone”

Tells everyone the C in his name is for classy.

Remus Garcia (14)

Power:

Morphing objects as he touches them

His creations are always a lot more gruesome than Roman’s

They range from weapons, dick shaped statues, inedible food shaped objects to prank people and tiny versions of torture devices he saw in some horror game about the dark ages. They all decorate his room

Studies/Interests:

He also sculpts manually and enjoys painting. Most of his art is abstract. Only draws explicitly gorey scenes when he’s angry.

He learnt French in secret for years just to one day start pretending he didn’t know spanish anymore and piss everyone off.

Enjoys reading horror stories on the internet a lot. He even found Virgil’s blog while deep diving once, but he doesn’t know that.

Affiliations

Moved in with Roman because his parents were busy with work and couldn’t tend to his “needs” all the time

Constantly trying to get Roman to take him on his missions. Since Roman doesn't trust him not to kill anyone, it never happened.

Is old enough not to need a babysitter, is chaotic enough to need one and only Deceit can handle him.

Patton is greatly unsettled by him, but Remus loves when he comes over to cook for them. He tried to show him his sculptures once when he was younger and it didn’t go well at all.

He is constantly trolling Virgil whenever they’re around, thinking about disturbing things the moment he walks through the door.

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diveronarpg · 4 years

Photo

Congratulations, KITA! You’ve been accepted for the role of CORIOLANUS. Admin Minnie: Kita, I genuinely don’t think we’ve had a Cyrus like yours join us in Verona. The way you capture both Cyrus’s beauty and his ugliness both. All that entitlement, all that arrogance, all that charm — you’ve grasped it masterfully. You understand Cyrus on a deep, personal level; but that’s not why I was so excited to accept your application. Ultimately, it was this line that really won me over: “But mostly, I am here because of this: if I do not stand witness to a falling star, if I do not love him as he is–, then I fear no one ever will.” I’m already in love with your Cyrus for who he is, and all the potential he has to ruin my life! Please read over the checklist and send in your blog within 24 hours.

WELCOME TO THE MOB.

OUT OF CHARACTER Alias | kita Age | 20 Preferred Pronouns | she/her Activity Level | I think I can be fairly active. I am a full-time student, so my priority will always be there, but I always aim to get my replies done within a week. 6/10 or more? Hopefully more. Timezone | EST

(also English is not my first language so pls be kind)

IN CHARACTER Character |

Cyrus Vicente Sloane ; CORIOLANUS FC: Lorenzo Zurzolo

Alt fc: Wolfgang Novogratz

What drew you to this character? |

oh Gods, where do I begin? Of all Verona’s monsters, Cyrus Sloane has to be one of the worst. At once, spoiled rotten, cruel and innately duplicitous, Cyrus is an arrogant princeling whose tyranny knows no bounds. And yet, as soon as I finished reading his biography, I knew it was over. He materialized in my mind like some sort of phantom, flashed that winning smile at me and visions of him haunted me ever after.

I saw his head across Brigette’s lap on a lazy summer afternoon. Sipping champagne out of long-stemmed glasses, wearing filigreed gold masks to cover their ugliness inside, the two of them are tyrants, fickle and fiendish things about to wreak terror on a city that has only known it.

———— “do you love me, cyrus?” she pouts. he smiles. when he kisses the petulance from her lips, there is no answer needed.

I saw his lips tilt upward into a smug grin as he and Lawrence meet up in a dingy bar. When the time comes, he throws his head back with laughter, he leans in, whispers something just loud enough for the other man to hear. This is a dangerous game to play, Lawrence knows. Nothing, after all, is ever given freely. But one look at Cyrus, at that indigent boy who seems not at all concerned with his traitorous tongue nor the consequences of it, and his fears are momentarily assuaged.

———— “all of this is just talk between friends, signor vernon,” cyrus says, waving off worries with an unconcerned shrug. lawrence pauses, raises an eyebrow, “is that what we are?”

I could wax poetic about why Cyrus is the way he is, why he plays at being charming, demands to be worshipped. But, in the end, it boils down to this: the rot in Cyrus Sloane is that he could not find it in himself to be forgiven. The anger he has in his heart, the revenge he plots– it is all because he cannot find anyone to blame but himself.

In Capetown, he learned to make weapons out of fleeting sweet-faced grins and honeyed lies. Barely into manhood, he won the hearts of his countrymen, had the ear of a kingpin, sat poised for an easy throne. But, though he had everything one could ever dream of, he still gave it all up in order to return to the place of his first and most terrible failure. Look, I have no doubt that he tells himself that he hates his mother. I have no doubt that he even believes that. However, I know that if you cut him open, you would see that he only hates that he does not hate her, not really. He hates that he cannot fault her for anything that she has ever done.

He had always idolized her, had always thought her the paragon of perfection, of stoic and unbending strength. He had never even blamed her for being cold to him– after all, his mother was never anything but pragmatic. She must have had her own reasons to toss him to the wolves. He blames her only for this: for propping up a mirror to his nature, for casting a light on a part of him that he would rather have never acknowledged… for reminding him that he was weak enough to be unwanted, that no matter how hard he tried to be beloved—he would only ever be left behind.

Yes, he is a sharp and cutting thing, hard to look at. He burns so bright, my icarian boy. He fashions himself so easy to be loved and flies so close to the sun, taunting it to shoot him down. He will ruin Verona, if he has his way. He will almost certainly burn himself up to do it. And I suppose I have applied— in part, to try and stop him, to save him from himself. But mostly, I am here because of this: if I do not stand witness to a falling star, if I do not love him as he is–, then I fear no one ever will.

What is a future plot idea you have in mind for the character? |

1— Nothing short of a prodigy in politics + war, this princeling figures some form of leadership to be the most natural application for his talents, and, as it seems, he seems destined for it. Impressed by Cyrus’ verve and natural aptitude for diplomacy, Cosimo has promoted the young man to an emissary and holds Cyrus in high regard. But, while Cyrus seems content in his position and its upwards mobility, he does not intend to take orders forever.

In his biography, there are inklings of a betrayal from Cyrus to the Capulets written throughout his biography. His position to Lawrence as an informant is an obvious clue of lack of loyalty, but it definitely goes far beyond that. Cyrus pays no mind to any man (nor God). He is only concerned with his own interest.

While the possibility of Cyrus becoming a Montague is tantalizing, I think Cyrus hates the Capulets for what they have done to him, but he hates all of Verona the same way. Trading loyalties to the Montagues, to another mob family with a rigid hierarchy isn’t how Cyrus sees himself. He wants to be King, not just a soldier with a different perspective of the Castelvecchio Bridge. Right now, Cyrus does his best to play at peace. But, as the war in Verona streets escalates, the number of neutral sanctuaries decreases, I intend to make Cyrus prove himself loyal to a side, once and for all— whichever one that may be.

———— “Do you not trust me?” Cyrus grins. With his teeth bared and the whites of his eyes glittering in the dark, he looks like the Cheshire cat. You think you have never trusted him less.

2— Earnestly, I think that Cyrus probably wouldn’t betray the Capulets for the Montagues. However, I didn’t say Cyrus wouldn’t betray the Capulets altogether. In fact, for his goal (just like… enacting revenge on all of Verona), I think it’s more likely than not that he will betray them at some point. A thread I’ve been following through the biographies is Cassian’s ties to certain neutral parties (olivia + mona in particular). I could be misreading, but Olivia has her eyes on him. Mona knows his secrets. Like snakes, they cut through the grass, wrap themselves around the prey and they squeeze. Pressure mounting, Cassian might crack sometime soon. And Cyrus— well, he’s nothing if not an opportunist.

In the biography, it is explicitly stated that Cyrus seeks to overtake Cassian. Though Cyrus plays the part of being his dutiful student, he has no real affection for his mentor. Ever since he has been in Verona, he has tried to get closer to his mentor. However, when he spots Olivia’s watchful gaze on the man, I think Cyrus will jump at the chance to act– to finally show that he is not someone to be underestimated. I think this is a perfect opportunity for him to stumble.

I would love to see him team up with Mona and Olivia to amp up the pressure on Cassian. And moreover, I would love to see Cyrus’ loyalties be swayed to them entirely. In my eyes, Mona Chen is someone who thrives in duplicity, whose mother (and father) has not been kind to her and someone who Cyrus knows- will never bow to anyone. It is those things that Cyrus respects. It is those things that will make Cyrus vulnerable to her.

Perhaps Cyrus just passes information about Cassian to Mona and Olivia at first. he offers his assistance from time to time. But maybe things go deeper. Maybe he sees Mona as the coming storm, as someone who will brings the winds of change. Maybe Cyrus can be even convinced to follow her entirely. In any case, this is a perfect opportunity for Cyrus to make a misstep, for him to reveal too much about himself and having that be his undoing. Mona is a woman who deals with secrets and has no problem weaponizing that. It would be awful for him, if she had some dirt of him.

———— “You cannot think that I will let you crush my mentor,” he says, “at least, not without my help.”

3— What is Cyrus without his mother? What is a list of plots without Cyrus and Vivianne on it?. Honestly, I don’t even know where this is going to go. I just know that it’s going to hurt so exquisitely. If you asked Cyrus about his mother, he would laugh. I have your love, he would say, why do I need hers? There is no hard feelings between the two of them, he says. What she did gave him a better life. I mean, just look at him. He was spoiled in Capetown, given everything he ever wanted. And now that he is back in Verona, his good fortune has only followed. Right?

In the years since Cyrus left Capetown, Vivianne has only thrived. She has married Cosimo, become the underboss of the city’s best crime family (fuck u, montagues). She has even found a surrogate daughter to replace him, one that she loves in ways that she never could with him. It is clear that the problem was never with her. To a layman’s eye, Cyrus is nothing but an indigent boy who aims to make Verona his playground. Reveling in every waking moment in the city, he’s a reckless and terrible thing, content to leave caution to the wind so long as he conquers these streets. But the truth is– he has no appetite for ambition without her as an audience, no desire to prove his happiness and success if the news will not travel somehow to her ears.

He hates Vivianne. But what he hates most about her is that—while he would have done anything for her attention, she never seemed to care for him. ———— “You have the world, Cyrus,” she says, calm as ever. He laughs. ”Does it matter? I would have given it all up if you had just been there.”

Are you comfortable with killing off your character? | not yet.

IN DEPTH In-Character Para Sample:

//// I WROTE THIS LITERALLY ALL TODAY BC I WANTED TO GET MY APP IN PLS DONT JUDGE TOO HARSHLY

Mass had only ended an hour or so ago. The candles lit for the service still smoldered from having been snuffed out. But Cyrus held no pretensions—sanctity had left this house of worship far before that.

There was nothing holy about this place, he ascertained.

Perhaps there never had been.

Of course—he would not deny that, as a child, Cyrus had found the Cattedrale di Verona impossibly beautiful. A feat of architecture like no other, it had filled his chest with wonder to see the golden mural that arched across the vaulted ceiling, the reverential way sunlight passed through the stained glass. However, he had long since learned that the spectacle was only a clever ruse. Just like most things in Verona, beauty existed only to hide the rot that so often lurked beneath.

As he walked through the empty pews now, he felt a visceral disgust with himself. How had he not seen it? While he sat in these very seats, knelt on this very floor, sought out something bigger than himself, looked in every corner to find out why the room always felt so empty, he had been blind to the cracks in walls, the chips in the paint. The priest had said once to him that “in god, he would find all answers”—but there was no salvation to be found here.

Even when he had needed it the most, he had never found any salvation here.

Yes, you see he understood now. There was only one reason why he came to the Cathedral now: to drink in his bitterness, to remind himself of the debt he was owed.

The Cathedral was his, just like this city was. Not in that he believed in it or that he loved it more than anyone else, but because he had paid for it ten times over. It had promised him mercy and benevolence and safety, but, when every alley had looked like fear and every corner had held another terrible surprise, it had denied him of all of it. When he was weak, they had cast him aside, and he still remembered that casual cruelty, still felt the sting of rejection and could not bear it.

With no one around to stop him, Cyrus clambered atop an empty pew and went to light a cigarette. While the puff of smoke rose ever upwards, caressed the faces of Abaddon and John, St. Michael and Magog, he laughed. How prescient of them, he thought to himself, to paint a picture of their own reckoning.

He stubs his cigarette out on the pew. It leaves a scorch mark, but he does not seem to care. He offers a rakish smile to no one in particular. He laughs.

“You would forgive me,” he says to the empty air.

(And look- look at that winsome smile, at that careless leer. You could try to fault him for something. He would dare you to. But you would still forgive him anyways.)

#accepted #accepted: coriolanus

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archetype-online-blog · 5 years

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Archetype’s Great Choose Your Own Villain Adventure

You’ve finally done it — you have written an amazing hero.

She has all of your own best traits: kindness, bravery, stubbornness, cute glasses. You don’t know if you want to be her or marry her. Readers will see themselves in her and dress to match her style. Critics will fear her. And best of all, she is wholly, undeniably, ready carrying the weight of your complex plot.

But now you need to craft your antagonist. And this fellow really needs to measure up.

Don’t worry, though—in this post, we’ll break down some of the many tools you can turn to when creating someone to foil your protagonist’s plans.

Just how bad is bad?

A. An Evil Villain? This villain has no morals, or if she does, she buried them deep down a long time ago. She’ll sacrifice her family, friends, and everyone’s free will for eternal beauty, unlimited power, or world domination. Think the Evil Queen from Snow White or Sauron from Lord of the Rings.

B. A Disgruntled Opponent? This villain's had a lifelong streak of bad luck. His parents were killed by someone eerily similar to the hero, global warming flooded his lair last week, and the hero spilled coffee on his pants while saving a cat from a tree this morning. Really, all he wants is a nap—if he has to chain up a few good guys for some peace and quiet, it’s no more than he deserves. Think Luke Castellan from the Percy Jackson series.

C. A Good Person with Questionable Goals? Rational people presented with the same situation won’t always agree, because at the end of the day all people, even equally good people, have different values and morals. If your hero wants to flip the switch and save five people on the train track but your antagonist doesn’t think the one man on the other side should die, you’re probably going for this dynamic. This is Captain America: Civil War through and through.

Just how serious are they?

A. Funny and exaggerated? A villain like this is there to put a wrench in your hero’s plans (and probably provide lots of comic relief), but not seriously threaten anyone with bodily harm. They may think they’re irredeemable and say they couldn’t care less about another person, but they’re either confused or wildly incompetent. Think about it: nobody believes Dr. Doofenshmirtz is going to do anything more than mildly inconvenience them.

B. Menacing and exaggerated? Your villain shoots lasers out of their eyes. Their knuckles are embedded with knives. One whiff of their breath causes paralysis. One word from their mouth has civilians leaping off cliffs. They wear only black, and their evil lair says “Evil Lair” on the front door. They also probably have a lot of henchpeople. Basically, everything about them screams Bad Guy, to the point where it’s definitely not realistic. A good example is Gru from Despicable Me.

C. Spookily realistic to the point of goosebumps? The world is a scary place, and sometimes it’s important to represent that in your work. Antagonists can be made all the worse by the fact that they’re just regular people doing reprehensible, unforgivable things. Think Frollo in Hunchback of Notre Dame or Mother Gothel in Tangled—attempted sexual assault and child abuse are no joke.

Was your antagonist …

A. Brought into being because of the actions of your hero? Some villains might have been a cashier down at the 7-Eleven if it wasn’t for that chance encounter with your hero all those years ago. Now, though, they’ve sworn to get revenge for their slighted pride—stupid heroes and their ego, right? Buddy Pine, AKA Syndrome from The Incredibles, is a great example of this.

B. Morally transformed by a dramatic life event? Sometimes good people do bad things when they’re under a lot of stress, especially if they’ve been traumatized. Have they been forced to make an impossible choice with consequences that haunt them? Tortured because they were good? Watched their family die? Depending on who you ask, the Punisher falls into this category.

C. Doing the wrong thing for the right reasons? Sure, your antagonist stole the diamonds and fired a warning shot at the reception outside the gala, but the real baddie is holding her wife hostage at home. Your hero would have done the same thing—right? Think the origin story of the Hook-Handed Man from A Series of Unfortunate Events, or Killmonger from Black Panther.

On a related note, does your antagonist …

A. Have a history with your hero? In many cases, the protagonist and the antagonist go way back. Maybe they were once friends (this has tons of potential—do they know each other’s weaknesses? Have certain pet peeves they’ve sworn never to exploit?), or maybe they’ve just fought about this issue many times before. Have they dated? Were their parents friends? Think Catra from Netflix’s She-Ra reboot.

B. Fear your hero’s reputation? This antagonist knows your hero is coming, and as much as he tries to deny it, he knows he’s not ready. Maybe there’s a prophecy. Maybe the hero just has a really good PR team. Either way, the villain is going to try to shoot first—and if he misses, he probably won’t get another chance. Voldemort.

C. Have no interest in your hero whatsoever — the hero wants to stop them, but they don’t think the hero is a threat. There’s always a chance, though, that your villain doesn’t even think your hero is worth the time of day. Maybe they’ve heard of him, maybe they haven’t—what does it matter when they’re not going to be stopped either way? This villain feels toward your hero what Irene Adler feels toward Sherlock Holmes—totally unbothered, and maybe occasionally amused.

Other fun questions to ask:

Do they have a sidekick? Why does that sidekick serve them?

Do they have an accent? Is it real or for effect?

Do they have powers? Do they wish they did?

Do they have a color scheme?

Does something dramatic happen every time they come into the room (lightning strikes, mirrors crack, a woman screams, etc.)

If left in the room with a wailing baby, how would they handle it?

If left in the room with a barking dog, would they handle that differently?

What are they afraid of?

Things to be cautious of:

Excusing appalling behavior via redemption.

Some things are just inexcusable—or at least, they should be, if we don’t want to contribute to the negative energy out there in the world. So ask yourself … has your antagonist beaten their wife? Sexually abused someone? Harmed children? Acted extremely racist? Gleefully supported fascism? Brutally killed their own father in cold blood?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, think really carefully before planning a redemption arc.

If you want your villain to turn to the good side by the end, they can still do villainous things. They can lie, they can betray those who are close to them, they can plot world domination, they can even kill. But there are lines you probably can’t let them cross if you don’t want them to be hated by your other characters for all eternity. Let’s put it this way—Aladdin, whose worst crime is stealing bread, is redeemable. Loki, who was supposedly being mind-controlled during the first Avengers film, is questionable. Hannibal Lecter, who eats people, is a lost cause.

A really, really phenomenal example of a villain doing sometimes-okay things and yet not being excused for his misdeeds is Count Olaf from A Series of Unfortunate Events—both the books and the Netflix series. There are genuine, emotional reasons he’s a terrible person, and he even does halfway decent things every once in a while. And yet, he’s not forgiven by the characters or the narrative, and he’s treated as the villain he is until the bitter end. Actually, A Series of Unfortunate Events is great at this all around:

Charles: You have to understand, he had a very terrible childhood. Klaus: I understand. I’m having a very terrible childhood right now.

A less great example is Severus Snape from Harry Potter. When it’s revealed that he loved Lily and occasionally didn’t have it out for Harry by the very end of Deathly Hallows, it’s like the narrative wants us to forget about his bullying, bigotry, attempted genocide, child abuse, pet-murdering, deception, and every other foul thing he gets up to for thousands of pages.

Queer coding. There’s this thing Disney does that you might be familiar with. Let’s pick a few examples and see if you can pinpoint it.

Simba vs. Scar

Hercules vs. Hades

John Smith vs. Governor Ratcliffe

Ariel vs. Ursula

That’s right—male villains tend to be more effeminate and delicate than their tough heroic counterparts, and female villains are hell-bent on corrupting sweet, innocent princesses. Even if the characters themselves aren’t meant to be read as gay—even if they don’t appear gay at all, aside from the coded traits—there’s a history of this being used to reinforce negative stereotypes.

That’s not to say that you can’t have gay villains—make everyone LGBT+, if you want. Goodness knows there are enough straight characters out there to last several lifetimes. But if only the villains are gay, and all the heroes are straight, you’re getting into the dangerous territory of suggesting that the traits that villains have are traits that only gay people have, and vice versa.

The same thing applies to race—if all your antagonists are black or Asian or Jewish or Romani and all your heroes are white, what does that say about how your readers should view good and evil? And if all your villains are disabled or mentally ill and your heroes are able-bodied, might you end up spreading the wrong message?

Writing diverse stories is amazing and so, so worth it! But it’s definitely going to take extra sensitivity and care—so make sure you’re fully committed, or you risk doing more harm than good in the end.

Questions? Concerns? Send us your thoughts at [email protected] or leave us a comment!

#archetypeonline #genre fiction #blog post #antagonists #short stories #young writers #science fiction #fantasy #bad guys #character development

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algaecoma · 6 years

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This started as me thinking about what I loved most about Emori and turned into Clarke shaming, Bellamy justification and Murphy appreciation, so ...

I love how the other characters love Emori’s shamelessness. How they’ve all done things that make them ashamed and how she’s there refusing to let anyone else judge her. (My thoughts on why I think Jasper and Emori would have been great friends is a subject for another time.) Spacekru needed a serious dose of self-love and allowing them to accept their shame.

Clarke does not, quite the opposite, or at least to stop feeling shame about being ashamed of herself. Which honestly I think is one of the major factors in Bellamy’s self-improvement kick. He’s letting himself feel guilty about the bad things he’s done, similar to how Murphy started doing that after Raven in the dropship in season two. Clarke stopped letting herself feel guilt, because she didn’t have anyone who knew enough to tell her ‘yeah, you’re Wanheda, but we kinda love you anyway.’

Bellamy has always forgiven Clarke too easily and honestly, Clarke has always forgiven Bellamy too easily. I very much hope it’s Raven who gets to do the ‘you messed up, we’re super pissed, but like, you’re still family’ speech.

Then again, I think Murphy would be the one Clarke would most want to.

The stories she told, Madi found that her favourite was Octavia and I think that’s because Clarke was framing Octavia as both of them. Obviously Madi was Octavia, that parallel was painfully clear, but I think Clarke is too.

She’s been protected by others her whole life, sheltered from consequences, only now there isn’t anyone to protect her and she gets reckless. What Clarke needed was a Lincoln, someone who wouldn’t protect her from other people, but would protect other people from her. Not an Indra, who wouldn’t protect her or others, but would teach her to protect herself, Clarke’s problem has never been not knowing how to protect herself.

Instead of that, Clarke got another Octavia. One who also knew how to protect herself from others and Clarke got focused on making sure Madi knew to protect others, because that was what *Clarke* was missing in that timeskip.

Madi’s recklessness comes in the service of other people. Clarke’s season 5 recklessness comes in the service of Madi. (Her earlier recklessness has always been in the service of as many as possible.)

Bellamy is reckless too, but it’s controlled. His difference is that what he was lacking was self preservation and the ability to protect others from himself. With none of the others in Spacekru needing him to protect them from an external threat, he found himself well outside his comfort zone. Bellamy still has next to no self preservation, but he’s been learning from people who people need protecting from.

None of Spacekru are willing to hurt each other, so they turn that dangerousness inwards. Bellamy has six case studies to see what works and what doesn’t. He’s something of a chameleon

Harper turns her guilt at surviving into a desire to see Spacekru survive, that works, so Bellamy turns his guilt at killing into a desire to see Spacekru survive. Monty turns his guilt over not saving Jasper into a desire to look after Spacekru, that works, so Bellamy turns his guilt at not saving Clarke into a desire to see Spacekru survive. Raven throws herself into her work, that doesn’t work, so Bellamy takes time to rest. Emori throws herself into learning a new skill, that works, so Bellamy does the same.

And then, because he’s all about protecting others over himself, he tries to do something about those it hasn’t worked for. The ones isolating themselves.

He allows Raven to work, because she’s essential to getting them back to the Ground, in a sense he sees her productivity as healthier than Murphy’s laziness. Neither are great, mental health wise. Besides, Raven isn’t isolating herself, she’s got Emori, she’s just not resting. Bellamy does a bit, makes her sleep and eat and do other stuff and Raven listens to him and everyone else follows his example, so she’s kind of good, frustrated by the impossible problem, but managing. It keeps her busy, not having anything to do would leave her in the same state as Murphy.

So, Echo is throwing herself into her fight training. Maintaining a skill that won’t be useful for five years and maybe not even then. Bellamy looks at that and goes ‘uh, no, not healthy’ and joins her. Offers to show her how to use a gun, she offers to teach him how to use a sword, they wrestle a lot ... Bellamy makes sure to include her and eventually one of the others (I suspect Harper was the first, not having a specific purpose/role) comes and joins their training sessions and she’s got some tips on fighting a stronger opponent and would like to see how they do with thrown projectiles and Echo brings out a bow and Bellamy gets hold of a baton. The others join them for their own reasons, that’s a genuine success and Bellamy just forgets about Murphy for a while?

Especially once he and Echo start sleeping together because they’re stressed, they’re hot, they’re surrounded by couples, they’re in close physical proximity, they’re wrestling, they’re pretty evenly matched, Raven doesn’t make a move for either of them, they genuinely enjoy each others company outside of just physical attraction, they appreciate what the other has done for them and for Spacekru, they need to know they can be forgiven - there’s a million reasons they got together and they both have the fear that it’s temporary, that the moment they get back to the Ground it’ll turn out the other was just with them because it was convenient. That fear has very much not turned out to be true.

Anyway, Bellamy’s basically notices Murphy’s absence. Like something reminds him Murphy exists and he’s like ‘Murphy’s been ... quiet. That’s suspicious. Murphy doesn’t do quiet.’

And he starts asking and no one knows anything more than that. Monty’s been avoiding him after the algae incident, knowing Murphy doesn’t forgive. Harper never much liked him, about their only interaction was him hitting on her as an insult back on the Ark. Echo’s only concern was that he wasn’t making trouble (as had Bellamy’s been). Raven has never had the patience for Murphy’s bullshit and she certainly doesn’t now with way more important concerns and frankly she’s tired of hearing Emori complain about him.

So Bellamy gets the story out of Emori, who he’d avoided asking because of the certainty that if Murphy was up to something she’d be his partner in crime and finds Murphy is ... lying around on the opposite side of the Ring watching TV.

Dastardly.

So Bellamy tries very hard to do the same thing he did with Echo and bring Murphy into the group. It doesn’t work, because Bellamy is improvising and has zero actual understanding of what Murphy’s problem is.

Murphy needs to eat, when Raven needed that, Bellamy made them eat together as a family. Murphy eats, but he won’t eat with them.

Murphy needs a purpose, when Harper needed that, Bellamy asked her what she was good at. Murphy is good at things, but he won’t tell Bellamy what they are.

Murphy needs people, when Echo needed that, Bellamy joined her at the thing she was already doing. Murphy sits around watching films, he tells Bellamy to float off when he tries to join him.

When we rejoin them in canon, Bellamy is at the point of assigning spending time with Murphy as a punishment and being the only one of the entire group who’s still willing to try. He tries ordering Murphy back, refusing to leave, telling him he’s not useless, telling him the others miss him, telling him he needs to train, bribery, threats, pleading -

Nothing works. Except Murphy is right there literally telling Bellamy what he needs. We see Bellamy finally get to the point where he’s so stuck for ideas he’ll go with Murphy’s suggestion. He challenges him to a fight. Puts terms on it, winner gets to decide what Murphy does. Murphy agrees to those terms, fully aware that Bellamy has always been a much better fighter than him. Plus, Bellamy’s been training with an Azgeda assassin and someone who knows all the tricks a less strong fighter can use.

Murphy doesn’t stand a chance.

Murphy knows that.

Murphy is essentially asking to be forced to do the thing he wants to do.

Now the reason I think Murphy is the one Clarke most needs a pep talk from is because he understands completely. He’s remarkably good at empathy, see Ontari and Jaha for examples of when that goes badly for him and Indra and Pike for examples of when that goes well. (Major problem is that he understands and empathises with those that hate him and after his mother has trouble believing those that love him aren’t going to change their minds. Emori’s unconditional love is the cure to that one.)

So, Murphy gets it. He knows exactly how easy it is to cut off from the guilt and just be the monster. It’s what he did on the Ark. It’s what he did under Bellamy’s command. It’s what he did after Bellamy betrayed him and he was tortured.

What it took to knock him out of it was Raven. Her complete lack of sympathy, her demand that he stop feeling sorry for himself, her refusal to say that the bad things he’d done were allowed because bad things had been done to him. And he listened and he acted on that and she saw he had worked hard and he apologised and she told him that it wasn’t the apology that made her forgive him.

I don’t think Raven can do the same for Clarke. Not this time. She’s already forgiven Clarke. Because Clarke saved Shaw, because Clarke was willing to give her life for Spacekru, because Clarke remembered her family was bigger than just Madi, because Raven failed to find a way back to the Ground, because Raven failed to save Eden, because Monty and Harper died to find an alternative.

Raven needs her own damn pep talk.

Murphy as family therapist sounds absurd, but ... it’s useful. Corrupting Jordan just enough his innocence doesn’t get them killed. Hating Bellamy just enough his love doesn’t get them killed. Loving Emori just enough her ruthlessness doesn’t get them killed. Believing in Raven just enough Raven’s fear of failure doesn’t get them killed. Amusing Madi just enough her loss of childhood doesn’t get them killed. Challenging Echo just enough her confidence doesn’t get them killed.

Shaming Clarke just enough her arrogance doesn’t get them killed.

And I think Monty knew that, why Murphy was the one he mentioned to them. It wasn’t just Jordan he was asking them to take care of, those two who love far too much, far too hard, far too easily. He was telling them to take care of Murphy, too.

So that Murphy could take care of them.

#john murphy #broody male protagonist Bellamy #clarke griffin #when the real answer is likely that the creators like Bellamy and Clarke too much #always pro poly #pro becho #pro memori #neutral about bellarke #neutral about murphamy #neutral about murven

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error-what-blog · 6 years

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Jihyun x Mc | Dolor.

Trigger Warning: Suicide.

Dolor: a state of great sorrow or distress.

I hope you enjoy~

Every was blank. Like all warmth and colour had been robbed of you and all that was left was an unfilled canvas.

Much like your emotions. You couldn’t transmit what was happening into reality. Was it some cruel joke? Was this an anniversary prank?

“. . . What did you say?” The woman speaking didn’t sound like your usual self. This one was vacant, almost, like she was devoid of any positivity. You couldn’t feel the warmth or gentle tremor in his hand as he looked at you with what one describe as utter desolation and regret. But you weren’t looking at him. You were looking straight in front of you, looking out the window at the city buzzing by. None of the people out in the real world aware of the atomic bomb that had just been dropped upon your heart and soul.

Jihyun repeat himself once more, only causing another debilitating blow to your heart. The pain made it all real. This was happening.

Jihyun had admitted to you that he had committed the biggest crime in a relationship.

Infidelity.

You snatched your hand away and brought it to your mouth to stifle the painful sob that wracked through your body. Your mind was blurred, only one thought being played on repeat.

“With who?” Your voice sounded weak, like you would shatter to pieces at any moment.

“(F/n) I don’t think--”

“With you, Jihyun?!” You snapped, completely terrified that it would be the woman that was the cause of many insecurity in you.

“It-It was Rika.”

No.

You felt as though a part of you had been violently ripped away from you.

Your dignity.

Your trust.

Your heart.

“A-And she wants to move back in with me in two weeks when she is scheduled to be discharged from the clinic so-”

“I get it. I’ll pack my things and be gone by the e-end of the day.” Part of you wanted to scream and cry at him for doing something so wicked with her of all people. The woman who attempted to blind him, who abused him. The woman who tried to have you kidnapped.

“No! I-I didn’t mean t-today! You can stay here u-until you find somewhere!”

“Wow, Jihyun. Two weeks to find somewhere?! How fucking gracious of you. God, I can’t even f-fucking look at you right now,” You spat, angry tears falling from your eyes like a waterfall.

“Fuck this.” Was all you said before standing up, phone in hand, and walked out the door.

Once you were on the street, a cold breeze shot up your spine. You dialed the only person you could at the moment, your best friend.

Saeyoung.

You knew he would help you. He still hadn’t completely forgiven V for lying to him about Saeran and especially for turmoil Saeran had been placed under that caused him mental health issues that were still in his life at the moment.

“Hey bestfriend!” His cheery tone shouted down the phone but was immediately cut off when he heard your desperate sobs through his end of the line. “(F/n), what’s the matter?”

“V-he. . . Jihyun ch-- please just come get me,” You cried in the phone, barely able to choke out a coherent sentence. With a quick okay, the call was terminated and you stood in your spot finally beginning to let everything soak in.

Your relationship with your fiance Jihyun Kim was over. You were no longer his bride-to-be or future Mrs Kim. It seems like it had been that way in his heart for awhile. The hours he would spend visiting Rika had lengthened over the past few weeks, and while it bothered you, you had full trust in V. The weight that was still enclosed around your ring finger assured of that at the time. But now it only signified your own indiscretion. It made you aware that everyone, no matter how nice you could perceive them to be, could hurt you in tremendous ways. Like he had.

The screeching of tires pulled you from your thoughts and you saw a red head jump out and run towards you. He stopped in front of you, scanning over your body for any injuries. If only he could see how truly damaged your heart was. “Are you okay?”

You throat closed up as the slow falling tears began to overflow once again as your threw yourself around Saeyoung, wheeping your heart out. The hacker wrapped his arms around your shoulders and held you close, whispering the same thing over and over again.

“It’s okay, you’re safe with me.”

He quickly led you to his car, already having assumptions about what may have happened to you and Jihyun. Soon enough, you were on the road to the bunker with your whimpers beingt the only sound to occupy the space.

Until Seven spoke. “Look you don’t have to tell me now, but I’d like to know why my best friend is so distraught, okay?” He asked with genuine concern lacing his tone.

“Jihyun. . . he ch-eated on me,” You choked out before furiously wiping at your eyes as a you exhaled a shuddered breath. “A-And that’s n-not even the best part. . . It-It was with Rika.”

Saeyoung’s head shot to look at you, his eyes widened with deep-dyed shock. He physically could not believe that V had gone back to that black-hearted monster who abused his own brother for years.

“It seems as though I’m not the only one who finds it hard to g-rasp,” You stifled out.

Saeyoung remained silent throughout the rest of the car journey, not wanting you have a panic attack in the seat beside him. He would ask the ten million and one questions he had when you were in his house, relaxed and with a cup of tea. He wanted to wait until tomorrow but he thought it best to get the worst of it over with as soon as possible.

So when he pulled into the bunker, got you out and to a couch, he ran off to fetch you some tea. In the time he was gone, Saeran had emerged from the room with his signature jumper on. He nearly froze when he saw you sitting on the couch with a look that epitomised depression. You weren’t as close with Saeran as you were with Saeyoung because according to Saeyoung, Saeran felt a little weird around you sometimes due to the fact that at a time, he wanted to kill you. But he seemed to disregard that, as he quietly asked if you were okay.

You smiled sadly at him and shook your head, as another onslaught of tears flowed. The twin settled himself on the couch beside you, awkwardly looking at you as he tried to find something to say. Saeyoung came back with your tea, handing it to you before placing himself beside his brother. You took a moment to really look at them together now that Saeran’s hair was now back to its original colour. They both looked concerned for you but you could tell that their lives were slowly becoming more peaceful now that Saeran was back and working on his issues.

“Did he say why?” Seven asked, causing his brother confusion. Saeran didn’t question it because he felt he would get his answer with yours.

“No. He just sat me down and told me he was seeing another woman. I asked him who it was and he told me it was Rika.” Saeran was visibly shocked but stayed quiet, not wanting to start thinking about that woman.

“Did. . . he say about wanting to stay together?” Saeyoung questioned quietly, not wanting to believe that he was actually getting back together with Rika.

“E-Ehm . . .” You paused to try fight the sob fighting its way up your chest, “He actually told me that Rika wou-ld be moving back in with him. . . in two weeks when she’s discharged. God, he only gave me two weeks to find a place before fucking throwing me out.”

The brothers were beyond appalled at how V handled the situation. He told you he cheated on you, broke up with you and told you that you had to move out within two weeks. “Well y’know what? Fuck him, you can stay with us until you get back on your feet again. He lost an amazing person.” It surprised you that this outburst had come from Saeran.

You gave him a gentle smile before thanking the two.

It was the next morning. You emerged from the Choi twins’ guest bedroom with deep bags underlining your eyes and a grim countenance. Saeyoung and Saeran had both woken up early to make breakfast for you as best they could.

“How are you feeling?” Saeyoung asked worriedly.

“Jihyun texted me to come get my stuff. Would you mind bringing me after breakfast?” You asked, the dread crushing what remains of your heart very evident in your tone.

“Of course. . .” He said quietly, sympathy for you flooding him. He couldn’t even imagine the hurt you were going through. He didn’t know what it was like to have a lover admit to you that you weren’t the one who occupied their thoughts and heart.

After breakfast, you and Saeyoung made your way to what was your home literally not even twenty-four hours ago. Not even a full day since your relationship crumbled and slipped through your fingers. Not even a full day since you had told him that he was your reason for exisiting.

When you arrived at the apartment complex, you told Seven to wait in the car not wanting to get him involved with this anymore than he already had. This was between you and V. When you arrived at the front door, you knocked gently having left your keys in the apartment. The door opened to reveal a haggard Jihyun. He had a deep purple underscoring his usually bright but now dull blue eyes. He was pale, almost white and generally looked like he had seen better days.

He let you in wordlessly as he assessed you, probably thinking the same of what you thought of him. You quickly made your way to the bedroom, pulling out your suitcase and began to fold clothes to busy your hands as they quivered relentlessly. This was by far the most painful thing you had ever experienced. You were saying goodbye to something you thought would last until you died. You loved this man. You loved him with every fiber of your soul. He was your everything. He made you smile when you woke in the mornings and before falling asleep.

He filled your world with a new colour spectrum only to whip it away from you just as quick.

You felt used. Your insecurities of being a replacement for Rika had only been confirmed. You couldn’t comprehend it. You couldn’t wrap your mind around why he chose to lead you on.

Your eyes shot towards the door where he stood, watching your every move with what looked like regret deep in his eyes.

Regret for even going out with me, I assume.

When all your clothes were packed and your shoes in another bag, now came the excruciating part. Deciding who gets to keep the shared belongings.

“Uhm. . . Is there anything you’d like to keep?” You asked feebly, feeling a wave of pain spread across your chest until there was a tingling in your fingertips.

He only stared at you for moment, his face blank and unreadable. “I. . . I don’t mind. You pick what you wish to keep,” He said. It was strange not to hear ‘love’ at the end of the sentence. Although, that was because you were not his love.

You walked around the apartment that still beared symbols of your time together. One thing you noted was all the pictures of you together were off the walls making them look empty. You picked up very little; a teddy bear he gifted to you on Valentines Day, a painting he created for you and an engagement gift given to you by Jumin. It was a small statue of a man and woman holding each other close. You placed them all carefully in the bag before making your way back to Jihyun in their bedroom.

As you entered, V lifted his head from between his hands and stood up. You almost wanted to question why he was so sad but you couldn’t even bring yourself to try and care because your own heart laid shattered within your being. “V. . . If it’s okay, would you mind if I had the photos of us together?”

He nodded absentmindedly and left the room for a moment and returned with a photo album filled with your most treasured memories. You held it in your hand as you retreated from the room, ready to leave as you hauled the suitcase behind you. Jihyun followed you out and just before you left, he asked you for something. “(F/n) . .” He started, stopping for a second like he was in battle with himself. “Could I have the ring back?”

He just stepped on the fragments on your heart like it was nothing.

You twisted the beautiful silver band from your finger and dropped it into his, saying one last thing to him before you walked away, “I hope you and her are happy together.”

Saeyoung got out of the car to help you with your bags when he saw you struggling at the door. He could also see that you were crying once again. This was how you were going to be for the next while. Seven knew how much you loved Jihyun. He remembered seeing you look at the artist like he was the single most important thing in your life. And that he was.

You were silent on the way back, and went to her room once they got there. You just wanted to be alone because without V, you felt like nothing. You felt like you were as significant as a grain of sand on a beach.

After you hauled your bags into the room, you pulled out the bear and tucked it underneath your chin as you retrieved the album and began to reminisce all of your times together. Quiet sobs shook your body as you came across the picture of you and V standing together at your engagement party. You thought you could see the love in his eyes but you were wrong.

All of these memories that meant the entire universe to you were only a burden and nuisance to him.

Word of your break-up with the head of the RFA became known to the members quickly. Your phone was flooded with messages offering emotional support and sympathy for you. You appreciated it a lot but it made you uncomfortable knowing that things in the RFA would now be different. Parties would be awkward and filled with despair when they were supposed to fill you with pride and joy.

Three weeks went by and Seven had begrudgingly set Rika up with a new profile at Jihyun’s request now that she was well. You had an idea of what was going to happen and you were sitting idly by until Rika took another thing you loved away from you.

Your position in the association.

When it did happen, the chatroom went surprisingly dormant for a few minutes after. No one knew what to say. It didn’t seem right for her to just swoop in and take your place there too.

But it was you who made the first response. Just a simple, “That’s fine,” before logging off and deleting the app. Saeyoung was in your room no more than two minutes later, only to see that you were curled in a ball on your bed sobbing once more. Saeyoung made his way to the edge of your bed, holding his arm out to let you hug him. No more than a second later, you were buried in his side with endless cries escaping your mouth.

It felt like Rika was doing all she could to make you miserable. First your fiance and then your role in the RFA. One might argue that it was hers to take but with the cirumstances over the past three weeks seemed to make Rika’s actions cruel and insensitve.

“I don’t know why she’s trying to make my life hell!” You cried into Saeyoung’s shoulder.

You recieved no reply in response, Saeyoung at a loss for words for how you were falling apart piece by piece. Jihyun and Rika weren’t giving you any break from heart ache. They were plucking away your most treasured things one by one, it was like they wanted you to break apart irreversably.

It had been three months since your relationship crumbled and you were stripped of your title. To say the very least, you were lost without V. He brought your days so much happiness. Even before you were in an official relationship with him, speaking with him in the groupchat brought you a sense of ease in your otherwise dull life.

So when it all ended, all you were left with was memories and a future you wished would happen. And that was the most gut-wrenching part. That you would never have the life you wanted because Jihyun was the life you wanted. You often dreamed about having children and growing old with him. It became your only want in life and it seemed very achievable for a long time.

But you were wrong.

So all you did was look through your photos together and hugged the stuffed bear close to you. The nostalgia of the photographs had worn off at this point, but you couldn’t let go. The photos and bear were the only thing you had left of your love.

Saeran and Saeyoung worried for your wellbeing. You either slept too much or slept too little, you ate a lot of fatty foods but gained no weight; actually you seemed to look skinnier as time stretched on.

So they thought they’d get you out of the house. They decided that the RFA party would be a good place for you to start. You could see all the members like Jumin, Jaehee, Zen and Yoosung and if you did see the other two, Saeyoung hoped it would be some sort of closure for you. He hoped that you would see V and realise that he wasn’t worth all the pain and suffering. He wasn’t worth the tears and sobs.

You initially didn’t want to go. You knew that if you saw them together, looking happier than when you and Jihyun were a unit, that you would not be able to handle it. But then Saeran made a deal with you. He told you that he would go and you could be a support beam for one another. His social anxiety was very prevalent in his life and he often felt uncomfortable even in small gatherings of people so adding a ton more and Rika to the equation would heighten it by a tenfold. But he didn’t care about that; he cared about you. Saeran had suffered from a very paralysing depression in his life and he would be damned if he let anyone he cared about even feel a shred of depression.

So when the evening came, yourself, Saeyoung and Saeran all set out to the party. You were all restless on the way there, all contemplating all the possible outcomes of the night. But when you made your arrival, you were greeted by Jaehee who gave you a warm hug and a heartfelt, “I’m so glad to see you, Mc. Zen, Mister Han and Yoosung are all waiting for you inside.”

Just as she said, you were practically pummelled with hugs from Zen and Yoosung when you entered the main hall. Zen made a point of letting you know that he was sorry about you losing your place in the RFA. Yoosung just shot you a sad smile. He didn’t want to say anything because his loyalties laid with his cousin. He still had the notion in his head that Rika could do no wrong.

Jumin was still very close with V. However, he didn’t approve of anything that had transpired in the previous months. Jumin knew of all of Rika’s abuse and felt let down that Jihyun was with her once more and at the cost of one of his friend’s hearts.

You caught glimpses of Jihyun and Rika over the duration of the night but Saeran would then be quick to pull you away and to a place where you wouldn’t have to see them together.

But no one in the entire world would be able to prevent from seeing the horror that ensued towards the end of the night. Rika and V had ascended the stage and Rika began to speak about all of her guests and money they were raising. . . And her engagement with V.

“V and I would also like to announce something. As you all know, we were actually supposed to get married two years ago but due to certain circumstances that could not happen. But now we are finally able to do it! Jihyun and I are getting married at the beginning of Spring next year to signify new life.” A round of applause and “aww’s” rang out through then room. V searched for your face in the crowd and he immediately pin pointed the shocked expression on your face, your eyes staring straight ahead of you. “And I organised this slide show to show you how much I love you, V!” Jihyun looked at the pictures now projected onto a large wall for everyone to see.

First was a picture of them in the park together, second was of them holding each other close, another being of their enclosed hands. Each causing pain to erupt in your being because of how identical they looked to some sitting in the album in your room. But they weren’t the worst. The picture that truly made you want to get sick was of Rika in a wedding dress shop, wearing a beautiful gown. Your eyes were glued to the screen in horror, tears welling in your eyes.

You bolted from the crowd, Saeran losing you in the process, and made your way to the door. Once you got outside the cold air swept through your bones as the rain quickly drenched you. You knees buckled beneath you and you let out a frustrated, pained scream as you truly took into account what you had witnessed. And when that reality crashed onto you, you had to rush to the nearby trashcan as you emptied your stomach. When your gags came to a halt and you were breathing heavily, shaky hands keeping you up, a familiar voice caught your attention.

“(F/n).” There he was. He looked so handsome in his suit and you hated that your heart began to race at the very look at him. He looked so worried as he watched you. He looked over your form, seeing what all of his decisions had done to you.

Deep bags, pale face, thinning body and dull eyes.

“What did I do to make you hate me so much?” You asked weakly, wanting to know where the urge to shatter you came from.

“I-I. . . I don’t hate you,” He stuttered, looking like he was genuinely saddened.

A humourless laugh escaped your mouth as you smiled at him through your tears. “Then what was that V? Those pictures looked so alike the ones we had, you gave her the same engagement ring, you guys have the same goddamn theme and time for your wedding as we did, for fuck sake V she’s going to be wearing my dress!” You screamed. The only reason Jihyun knew what your dress looked like was because he didn’t believe in the sentiment of not seeing the bride in her dress. “So don’t you dare lie to me and say you don’t hate me because you don’t just do that to someone! You don’t just take away everything special they had in life and give to someone else and then rub it in the other person’s face! You set out to make my life hell, you and that bitch! So you know what, I’ll give you the satisfaction now. You win, you got what you wanted. I’m done fighting, I have to live my life watching the man I love live out a future that I wanted with someone else. And live with the fact that he hates me and I will never, ever understand why.”

You panted reptetively after your meltdown, leaving Jihyun at a complete loss for words. He had never seen you like this before, so completely hopeless. He could only watch as you shivered in the cold, your hands trying to produce warmth as quiet cries fell through your lips.

“What the fuck did you do?!” An angry Saeran screamed as he ran to you. He removed his jacket and placed it around your shoulders, all while glaring daggers at the blue haired man who only watched you with sorrow.

“I’m so-”

“Don’t even speak. You’ve done enough damage tonight,” Saeran hissed, already walking away with you tucked in his side.

Jihyun shut his mouth, and watched as he walked away with you. In all his years walking the earth, V had never loathed himself as much as he did at that moment. He had to live his life with a girl he didn’t love and know that the woman of his dreams was now disconsolate because of his actions.

“That’s what you both deserve,” Rika said behind him, a crazed smile stretching across her lips.

With that, Jihyun began to walk. And walk. And walk. He walked until he thought his feet would bleed from the pain. Until he was at the bank of a rushing river.

A desolate smile spread across V’s face as he remembered all the times you spent with him. He pulled out his wallet and retrieved a hidden photo. The only picture he kept. The picture that captured him proposing to you.

Coldness consumed V as the water embraced his body, something that truly mirrored him emotionally. It was freezing, dark and depressing. Jihyun finally felt like he had made the right decision for once. This was something that the RFA would be happy for him doing, right?

As darkness consumed his mind, a final thought ran through his head;

I’m atoning for the pain I caused you. I’m sorry.

{Word count: 4464}

I wrote this fic after having thought of the idea in bed one night. I will continue writing requests tomorrow and I hope you enjoyed this!

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ameliarating · 6 years

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Yo, Villain anon is back, took me a while due to RL duties, but I'm not missing out on learning more about both sides of the "villain discourse" and broaden my views. On to point 1 "Expectations": I see, I think that's the crux of the problem, that these people expect ALL fictional characters who the narrative paints to be on the "good" side have to have the same views and responses to a villain as they have, which is not only boring but also highly unrealistic when individual free will is 1/2

2/2 part of the story at hand. I also haven't yet seen any fanwork where the entire cast of the "Good guys" is forced to completely forgive the villain. The phrase "Forgiveness doesn’t mean that the forgiver has to accept the person they are forgiving back with open arms." also exists which means not even those who DO forgive have to necessarily accept the villain with open arms. But giving a truly remorseful villain a chance to get better elsewhere instead of killing them off is worth exploring

Yeah, I completely agree with you there. I’m all about second chances, for villains, for heroes, for everyone.

On to point 2 "Tropes": Haha, looks like I fall into the same trap some of the "Antis" do, doesn't it? Looking at it from all sides it is kind of stupid that fan works are scrutinized this deeply when "canon" works that actually get published worldwide sometimes use these Tropes in harmful ways as well. People rant about that too and are allowed to get upset about them, but it rarely goes as far as personally attacking the authors, often because they have money, lawyers and other privileges 1/2

2/2 at hand. Take i.e. George R.R. Martin as an example. Much of the stuff he writes about in ASoIaF is genuinely fucked up, be it violence, abuse and sexual all the same, yet no one is openly accusing Martin of being a villain apologist, secretly into rape/incest or a pedophile. Likewise is shipping characters who totally hate each other like hero/villain or abuser/victim in most cases fucked up? 'course it is, but if you can give Martin the benefit of the doubt why not the fan authors?

I’d never thought about that! You’re absolutely right. I mean, I do hear people taking Martin to task for all sorts of things in his writing, but never like that. Never calling him an apologist or implying that he wants the world to be any sort of way.

"And it’s unclear who’s doing the bullying here." In most cases where this applies the characters portrayed doing this are friends/allies of the victim char who have already forgiven the villain. A recent example would be from Kingdom Hearts 0.2 where the good guys largely accept the character Axel/Lea on their side because he helped save the protagonist. Beforehand in the story though he worked for the bad guys and kidnapped a girl. Now they propose that girl train with this guy 1/2

2/2 and when she's understandably upset about being paired with her kidnapper for training one of her best friends and a supposed teacher figure (who is actually frickin' Mickey Mouse) swipe her concerns aside by stating that he's definitely on their side now. That is a CANON event though, nothing written in any fanwork.

Oh man, I’m a fake KH fan. And by that I mean, I know next to nothing about Birth by Sleep, so I don’t have much to comment on there except that that sounds really obnoxious (the writing and story, not your comment). I certainly don’t like it when characters who are supposed to be “good” do bad things that the narrative endorses.

Knowing Axel, I can certainly imagine that he might have been on the side of good (or maybe I just want that to be the case, I do love him) there. I get wary about people complaining about things like this sometime, because so often when people are talking about characters being forced to forgive, they also end up talking about characters not deserving forgiveness.

I agree with you though - I think characters should be allowed to be forgiven, but I don’t like it when the narrative forces it.

Last but not least point 3 "Star Wars": Yea, the old EU had some true gems and some really idiotic stuff running for it (like the whole plot with the resurrected Emperor), but in many cases it helps fleshing out the stuff the movies neglected. The new EU by Disney also does that, including with TV series like Rebels. Deciding not to focus on someone's crimes to make a character more easily redeemable is all fine and dandy, but one can't really blame people for seeing it as relativizing and 1/2

sweeping things under the rug when the crimes are so obviously severe than anything that reasonably could be forgiven. Crimes getting swept aside or "buried" by focusing on positive things concerning a person is something that real world media do all the time and due to the whole social networks nowadays more people are aware of it than i.e. 1977 when the first Star Wars movie was made. That's why I can see many people having a problem with this way of storytelling and to set "wrong priorities".

Here’s where I disagree with you. I actually can “blame” people for seeing it as relativizing (though I’m not sure exactly what this word would mean here) and sweeping things under the rug. Well, I wouldn’t use the word “blame” but I think they’re missing the point of what a story can do.

Stories focus on things. That’s the point of stories. And in cases where no one real is actually getting hurt, I don’t actually think there should be anything unforgivable in a story so long as it is written well. As far as I’m concerned, anything can be reasonably forgiven if the story makes a good case for it. Which is not to say all characters must forgive any one character (see the case of Axel above) but if a character does forgive another character, then sure, why not. That can happen. It can certainly happen in fiction.

I also don’t agree that people in 1977 were less aware that real crimes are swept under rugs to push real life narratives. That’s always happened. And as always, having things be okay in fiction are not the same thing as having it be okay in real life.

#villain anon #Anonymous #asks

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ohgodwhy151 · 6 years

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Annie Leonhardt, The Quiet Genius

I’ve talked about Bertholdt being an observer who realises that his judgment will come for him and it will likely kill him and I’ve talked about Reiner being a man who has lived long enough to see the hypocrisy in the world he lives and sees children making the same choices he made. But I haven’t talked about Annie, the silent genius. Out of all three of them, Annie is the one who saw through the lies about Marley and Eldia first and realised that nothing she could do would change that. Annie is a genius who merely wanted go home to her father. (And out of all of them Annie is my favorite)

Thanks to the recent chapters we have learned SO much about Annie due to the various flashbacks we’ve seen and this has made it a lot easier to study her character and the ways in which she sees the world and how she deals with the guilt of her actions. So once again I’m going to do something different, I’m going to break down the Annie we see in the 104th (The guilty Annie) and the warrior Annie. (The angry Annie) So let's do this!

First off let’s focus on the angry Annie as it’ll naturally lead to guilty Annie. So we first see Annie as a cadet for the warrior programme and she is introduced as an amazing fighter (Which establishes she’s already training with her father, that’ll be important later) but we truly first meet her in the famous bug scene. Bertholdt trying to comfort Reiner tells him he thinks loyalty is a very important in chapter 94 “I think loyalty is important. Right? Don’t you agree? Annie?” She is first introduced in a conversation about loyalty, this sets up so much about her and response does, even more, to set her up as a character who doesn’t value national loyalty or patriotism. “What? I wasn’t listening?” Such a small scene that does SO MUCH to show the sort of person she is. Someone who likes to be alone, someone who doesn’t care for patriotism and someone who either lacks empathy (Killing the bug) or is still developing her sense of empathy.

We then see Annie being briefed by Magath in chapter 95, along with Bertholdt, Reiner and Marcel. And while it is a small panel Annie’s expression tells us that she doesn’t care, she is looking away from both Magath and the information displayed in front of her, once again showing how little she cares for the mission. Then after being told about her participation in the mission she immediately goes to leave, not even stopping to watch the fight between Reiner and Porco. Once again showing how little she cares about the affairs of the Marley and thinks the idea of inheriting the Titan powers is absolutely BS.

And before I get on to Annie’s fight with Reiner after Marcel was killed a telling scene that is often overlooked is the night before Marcel was eaten, when he explains to Reiner that it’s because of him that he got the Armoured Titan. It is an incredibly important scene for the development of Reiner (something I’ve already covered) but Annie being Annie is silent, not quite in the same way Bertholdt is (Who is usually quiet to observe a situation) But she is completely silent and once again looks entirely disinterested. (And another little thing that Isayama does amazingly in this scene is making sure Annie is never the focus of a single panel, not once. And this plays into her character as someone who simply wants to go with flow and not attract any attention to herself)

So then we have the fight scene with her and Reiner, the scene is possibly the most important involving Annie (Along with her smile with Eren and the breakdown in Stohess but I’ll get to them later) The fight begins after Bertholdt. Reiner and Annie have run away from the Titan that killed Marcel, after Annie suggests that they return to the port Reiner disagrees and tells them. “We need some kind of results, we can’t go back without it.” (Something that goes to show how well brainwashed Reiner is) To which Annie replies. “So, in other words, you’re going to threaten us to protect yourself?” This is where the fight begins and comes to define the nature of their relationship and by looking at what they said it is easy to understand. Reiner’s focus is on the mission, regardless of what just happened. While Annie is concerned with her own safety. (She specifically said “Us” as a coy way of emotionally manipulating him by making think of Bertholdt, his friend.) She realises that without Marcel the chances of their mission succeeding are greatly reduced, Annie is worried that doing this will kill her and realising this breaks her and (chronologically) is the first time we see her having an emotional outburst and violent one at that.

During her attack on Reiner what Annie says is SO telling. The first thing she does is tell Reiner to “Tell him (Magath) it was all your fault!” Immediately telling us that Annie is genuinely worried of dying, not of losing the honor that holding the Female, in fact she goes so far as to say. “Honorary Marelyan? Chosen warrior? Who gives a damn? Marley, Eldia they can all go to hell! They’re all liars!” This… This shows just how smart and observant Annie is, a young child can see right through the lies and BS that both Marely and Eldia perpetuate. She doesn’t care. Not at all, and this separates her from Bertholdt. (Who also saw through the lies etc. Likely not to the extent Annie does) While Bertholdt saw through the BS he tried to “End the cycle of tragedy.” While Annie simply doesn’t care, she doesn’t want to change anything, she simply wants to survive. (This is something I’ll touch on later when talking about her conversation with Marlo) So back to her fight, one of the last things Annie says is. “And I’m the same! I need to get back alive.” This is raw and primal, similar to Reiner’s breakdown on top of Wall Rose and Bertholdt’s plea while fleeing with Eren. Each one of the RBA trio has their moment and Annie’s is at such a young age showing how intellectually mature she is. Not only does she realise how hypocritical the world she lives in is, but she too understands herself as someone who merely wants to survive. And damn… does it hurt to realise that this YOUNG CHILD doesn’t want to be a child soldier or warrior. She just wants to survive. (And if you want to see what she actually wants to do with her life it eats donuts, play with cats and drink limeade… Seriously read “Goodbye Wall Sina.”) Yet again I find myself typing YOUNG CHILDREN! Because no matter how many times we see the Female Titan killing people remember that a CHILD is controlling that and suddenly SnK somehow becomes more depressing.

So now we finally move onto guilty Annie. This is the Annie that lives among the 104th and finds herself faced with the people whose lives she ruined. It is at this point that each of the trio develops their own means of coping with the guilt. Bertholdt passively observes, Reiner, who can’t cope develops a new personality the protect the ideals drilled into him and Annie distances herself from the guilt to avoid it.

Eren notices this while training with Reiner he says. “As usual she’s good at slacking off.” This tells us that Annie regularly skips off training to avoid being around other and Shardis notices while marking their training. Unable to cope with being around the people whose lives she ruined Annie tries to distance herself from those people so she won’t have to come to terms with the guilt Bertholdt is trying to understand and Reiner has run away from. This is why Annie tries to leave as quickly as possible when Reiner forces Eren to confront her, as shown when she says. “Can I leave now?” She only stays to beat Reiner when he touches a nerve by referencing Marcel. “Remember what happened when you came here.” And his lecture about a soldier’s responsibility.

At this point Annie sees Eren as one of the people she has to avoid, someone whose mere existence reminds her of her crimes. (By the way by this point Annie has lived within the Walls for roughly 3 years and already sees past the hypocrisy of the military system, once again showing how smart and observant she is.) So she leaves Eren with a valuable lesson about the stupidity of the system he lives in, but that night she watches as he uses the move he used on against Jean and the reaction we see is shock. And we don’t see Annie react like this to a lot. If anything it shows Eren’s admiration for Annie and her skills, and this is so important for Annie’s character because here she is, in a world she hates, surrounded by people she doesn’t want to be around and training for a war she doesn’t support BUT here comes this boy who admires her. And it feels good.

The next day when Eren asks Annie what she thought of the move he copied from her. Annie reacts by smirking and saying. “It was hopeless, a complete trainwreck.” And when Eren asks why Annie makes a choice. She smiles, genuinely smiles and offers to teach him. At this point Annie has decided that if she is going to “Play soldier” She’ll try to enjoy it and Eren will allow her to enjoy it. (To an extent.) To her Eren is someone who (At this point.) Can’t judge her, someone who listens to her and shares her hobbies. These are two teenagers who share the same hobbies, beliefs and share a lot of time together. (Now yes I ship Eren and Annie so I’m more than a little biased but even if you don’t ship it you can’t deny the importance of their relationship to her character) It is Annie once again putting aside her mission for her own sake. (Reiner compromises the mission unintentionally and Bertholdt does his best not to become attached)

Despite all this Annie still commits to her mission, in stalking the church members and the underground areas. It is also at this point that Annie has her say about the hanged man. Annie says. “He probably wanted someone’s forgiveness.” Now each of the trio’s thoughts on the hanged man says a lot about them and Annie is no different. Annie likely wants to be forgiven for her actions so the pain and guilt that weighs her down can be alleviated in some form. This idea is brought up during Annie’s conversation with MPs in Stohess.

During this conversation Annie explains how she sees herself as “A normal person going along with the flow.” And this is who Annie is. She understands that “Going against the flow extraordinary courage.” She says thinking about Eren. Annie merely wants to be able to do what she needs survive but still be considered a “Normal person.” Once again. A YOUNG CHILD WANTS TO BE CONSIDERED HUMAN! I wish I could scream that louder when people call Annie or the other two monsters. If you call them monsters you are failing at reading and understanding SnK. One of the big questions that the series asks is. “Who do you think the real enemy is?” Is it the Titans? Is it the Colossal, Armoured and Female Titans that broke down the walls? Is it the government that hide all this information from the people and manipulated the people to perpetuate peace. (Look up the philosophical idea of the “Noble lie.” You’ll think of this series and the government arc.) Or is it the ones sending the Titans to the island? Or maybe it is the fault of Eldia for cultivating such hatred in the world? See. At this point, we are so far removed from the original “Enemy.” And Annie realises this, she understands there is no point in fighting this, because there is no proper answer. She doesn’t want to upend the system. Just live in it and survive as a human and that is why I’m calling Annie the Silent Genius.

That was my take on Annie Lenhardt. Please tell me if you agree or disagree in anyway I want to hear what people think.

So yeah. That was the RBA trio. If you have any other characters you want me to analyse let me know, or even if you want me to look into the dynamics of character relationships or the themes of entire series let me know! I want to write stuff!!!

Also send me headcanons or fic ideas for Annie. I’m craving ideas for writing!

P.S this is dedicated to one of the biggest Annie lovers out there @nakamatoo

#Annie Leonhardt #bertholdt hoover #reiner braun #snk #Eren Jaeger #meta #character analysis

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bartsugsy · 7 years

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then why would you want aaron to be with him? or do you not like aaron either?

Aksjsjsks oh u know me anon, a true aaron hater 😂😂😂

im dying

WELCOME TO MY TEDX TALK TBQH HERE WE GO

i think, i mean first of all, aaron obviously loves and wants to be with robert, but can’t be at the moment because there’s a baby and also tbh because robert needs to get his god damn shit together

aaron… clearly doesn’t care that much about the immorality behind the shit robert pulls. aaron’s morals are sort of just as fucked up - in mean, they met THROUGH CRIME. they’re both sort of awful. rob is a lot more shameless about it but aaron robbed home farm and kidnapped lachlan all by himself, for instance 😂 he’s a true dingle, that one. since they got back together, aaron’s concerns have usually been, in canon, more along the lines of: pls don’t let robert put himself in jail and also does robert love me enough

on the first point, see: ssw and “i could lose you”, the police questioning rob about withdrawing the money to pay ryan, the argument over breaking lucky out of jail.

on the second: everything about the rebecca saga - i think aaron actually understood that rob was using her for her connection to the whites and the chance to get some more money (see: the talk in the back room after finding out about the kiss) but that didn’t stop him from feeling uncomfortable about it and so the question was always this awful mix of - does he love me enough to stay faithful and does he love me more than he loves money and scheming?

and that’s been the sticking point. canon has shown robert actively dropping scheming with rebecca/making money for aaron (aaron’s birthday) and also obviously there was that whole BURNING 10K thing smh - robert does love aaron more than he loves money and power but at the same time, oh boy does he love money and power! and he makes some fucked up choices around them.

the actual issue of why they broke up is more around obviously rob knocking up rebecca - which happened more because rob was genuinely angry at aaron, angrier than he’d been in such a long time. i’ve spoken about this so many times, but as far as robert was aware at that moment, he’d spent all this time struggling without aaron, unable to sleep, pouring money into a lawyer to try and get him out early and here’s aaron, disregarding all of that, taking drugs and threatening his chances of early release

and aaron going to prison? that’s something aaron did by himself (and ok also finn) that hurt robert and liv. a lot. that’s something that affected them both horrendously that was aaron’s fault. i have a friend whose dad punched someone at work which led to him getting fired and his mum literally up and left him - that level of violence against others really can break up relationships. aaron put someone in hospital and went to prison for it and robert chose to stay and didn’t hold it against aaron - until that one moment of weakness, where everything was a little too much, and he allowed himself to really be angry at aaron for putting them in that situation - and he fucked up massively. because he’s an idiot. and also probably because he has some issues around putting aaron on a pedestal sometimes and seeing aaron itching for more spice and being really very, horribly, awfully human was very very difficult for robert at that moment.

like. aaron put someone in hospital and robert barely said a word to aaron about it. that’s insane. and mirrored in a lot of ways in aaron’s initial reaction to staying with robert after the reveal and finding out about the baby. they both have the worst communication issues and also they are both so desperate to stay with each other that they overlook things that need to be talked about and dealt with. and that’s what’s been getting them in trouble since the moment they got together properly.

anyway, i’m literally more sympathetic towards the ons than i am basically anything else robert has ever done e v e r, which is ironic because that’s the one thing that fucked up robert’s life and ultimately pushed aaron away.

and ok let’s look at what aaron knew, from his side, that was expressed in canon, in the most simplistic form we can:

robert was angry at aaron for taking spice and slept with rebecca to hurt him, regrets it massivelyrebecca is now pregnant and not getting rid of the baby and also not leaving the village or going anywhere robert doesn’t want the baby but also is sort of fucked up about itaaron wants to be with robertaaron thinks robert would be a good dadaaron wants robert to spend time with his child if that’s what robert wants (because he very much loves robert)aaron doesn’t want rebecca to spend time with robert and does not know how to handle the fact that the baby is a reason why that has to happenin fact, rebecca being around is a constant reminder of the worst parts of robert and all those parts that he gave into earlier this yearand she has clearly expressed to aaron that she wanted to steal robert from him aaron has no real reason to trust that robert wouldn’t end up with rebecca despite everything because aaron is only human and its natural to be insecure about ur partner spending time with an ex who they kissed and also slept with in the last yearaaron wants to believe that robert only wants himaaron pushed most of that resentment on rebecca moreso than robert because that was an easier option for himultimately, he also resents robert and it doesn’t take much pushing for him to take that anger out on robert as well as rebecca, with almost deadly consequencesthe whole situation, likely in conjunction with the fact that he’s already experienced a lot of trauma earlier that year in prison which we are reminded of with the jason call back when aaron tries to buy spice again, is horrific for aaron’s mental healthaaron removes himself from the situation - both because he himself is struggling and because he almost killed robert - he says that he doesn’t need this and neither does robert.

i know i’ve seen a lot of people say that robert was the one who was bad for his mental health but it was so so so much more the situation as a whole than it was robert - and the situation was borne out of robert’s horrible decisions and god damn is that why robert needs to sort himself out and stop making horrible decisions on impulse whenever he’s feeling emotions that are hard to handle

- aaron needed to do it, because aaron was in a place where he was reacting with dangerous levels of violence every time he was upset at or about robert

and now robert needs to do it, because…. well, look at the little fucker, throwing himself into getting control of home farm as if that’s going to fill the emptiness in his chest, without any regard for anyone else’s safety or feelings. it’s a miracle no one has died yet (again) as a result of robert’s recklessness and carelessness over the lives of other people - and there have been enough close calls. this isn’t like… a cry of help to aaron though? this isn’t about rob trying to get aaron back lmao. it’s about him thinking he’s lost aaron for good and so deciding to do exactly what he was doing before aaron came along - which was slowly getting home farm and all the money and power that comes along with it. only this time, he’s acting almost deranged, because… well, he’s having a breakdown isn’t he?

for aaron and robert to get back together, aaron needs to continue to be in a place where he won’t resort to violence and robert needs to wake up and realise that being careless about people’s lives and doing what he’s been doing etc etc isn’t a good way to live + whatever else they’re gonna have him face up to lmao

but like? if robert stops being a dick and chasing after money and power at the expense of all the good things in his life (which - if anything could ever teach him that that’s not as emotionally fulfilling a way to live as being with your family and the man you love, i feel like this situation might)? i don’t see why aaron wouldn’t be happy with robert? they’re in love with one another and people can change and better themselves and lbr aaron literally said himself that he still thinks of himself as being in a relationship with rob because emotionally they’re both totally committed to one another.

robert may be a terrible human but he loves aaron and he’s spent a lot of time trying to be better for aaron - he’s saved aaron’s life over and over, is someone aaron wants to spend the rest of his life with, is someone aaron slips work to spend his entire day with, makes aaron laugh, loves aaron’s sister, someone who decorated an entire insane and beautiful house for them to live in, is someone who couldn’t sleep in their bed without aaron in it, someone who thinks that aaron is beautiful inside and out, someone who threw a surprise wedding for aaron because he was panicking about going to prison and needed something to ground him a little, someone who devoted all of his time and energy to supporting aaron through one of the toughest fucking periods of aaron’s life without asking or needing anything in return

robert is awful to most people but most of the time he tries like hell to be the best he can be to aaron and most of the time? he succeeds

sometimes he doesn’t and those are the moments where we internally slap him upside the head but like… that’s also how relationships work, usually

(but also thank christ rob is getting the redemption coma or whatever bc he needs it)

and aaron loves him back - even after everything, aaron defends robert to people, he truly believes in the best parts of robert because he’s seen them, as well as the worst parts - and he’s forgiven the worst parts because that’s what aaron does and that’s not a bad thing or a weakness or something he needs to be gently pushed out of, that’s a beautiful quality in a human being tbh fuck everyone who doesn’t appreciate and respect aaron’s capacity to forgive whilst still sticking up for himself and making sure no one walks over him, because he absolutely would never let anyone walk over him, not even robert - aaron knows his own mind and his own heart and he’s going to do whatever he’s going to do, fuck what anyone else thinks and if that means believing that robert is deserving of his forgiveness, i don’t think that’s something that makes him weak nor is it necessarily even something that takes something away from aaron, that’s hard for him to do or makes him lesser in any way. idk i’m a forgiving person and i get how against the odds easy that can be sometimes, even if it’s not necessarily the best idea always 😂

IM GETTING OFF TRACK BASICALLY AARON LOVES ROBERT AND ROBERT LOVES AARON AND THAT WASNT ENOUGH FOR THEM THIS YEAR - EVERYTHING IMPLODED AND SOMETIMES IT WAS AARON’S FAULT, MORE OFTEN IT WAS ROB’S FAULT AND GOD SOMETIMES IT WAS THE WORLD JUST BEING RELENTLESSLY SHITTY TO THEM AND PILING ON SOME MORE PAIN

BUT WANTING AARON TO BE WITH ROBERT IS NEVER NECESSARILY AS SIMPLE AS “I DISREGARD AARON’S FEELINGS IN FAVOUR OF ROBERT’S” BECAUSE I SECRETLY HATE AARON, BECAUSE TO ME, AARON’S FEELINGS ARE ALWAYS INEVITABLY GOING TO BUILD BACK UP TO WANTING TO BE WITH ROBERT

AND I HAVE A LOT OF RESPECT FOR AARON’S FEELINGS HENCE THE JUSTICE FOR AARON’S FEELINGS 2K17 MOVEMENT THAT I KEEP HAVING TO BRING OUT

but it’s just that that decision to be together again doesn’t necessarily have to turn into the hell that 2017 was for them both

🤷🏻‍♀️ they can be better than that and they can genuinely make one another happy - they just need a better run at it, with less awful impulses towards violence or infidelity or what have you

(and also it’s a soap and their relationship is hella entertaining)

#long post #....no one is gonna read that question and not anticipate having to scroll for their life right #THIS TURNED INTO A RAMBLING MESS IM SORRY IM SICK RN #IM NOT ON MY A GAME #meta #answering anons

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sunsetsover · 3 years

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Would you ever want EE to do a proper mental health storyline for Ben, or would you be concerned they'd make a mess of it?

I say "proper" not to dismiss everything that's already happened but more... he's obviously got a mental illness but the characters and writing don't really acknowledge it properly, it's more an unnamed Thing that causes angst and drama and is just like... oh man, there'sBen being unreasonable and crazy again! Whew he tried to kill his dad and had a breakdown but anyways!!! As fans we can say this that and the other is subtext but it would be cool to have a story where he/his family and friends - and the audience - actually have to acknowledge it as something more than Just Ben Kicking Off, Again, or Daddy Issues, Again.

i def wouldn’t be opposed to it !! i mean i’ve been saying ben has bpd since i first started watching again 2019 and i still firmly stand by that lmao and to be perfectly honest i’m not NEARLY as critical of ee’s handling of delicate storylines as a lot of ppl online like tbh i think they’ve done a decent job of all the difficult sls they’ve had recently (except chantelle/gray’s but even then (controversial opinion incoming !) i think for as much of a piece of shit gray is he’s a really interesting character and in a sick kind of way i like his scenes bc the actor is really good at playing an absolutely despicable bastard so in a weird way i get why they’d milk him for all his worth but that’s another can of beans lmao) like i think bobby’s mental health sls were handled well (apart from the fact his ocd sl kind of disappeared but that’s not an issue w the sl itself) and so far imo they’ve done a p great job w isaac’s mh sl so i’m not one of those ppl who are like ‘omg no more serious/difficult sls the show isn’t good at them !!!’

if they were to do it it’d have to be some point in the future i mean w callum’s ptsd sl basically confirmed they’d have to kind of play that out and then give it a rest for a little while so maybe in a couple of years?? and imo if they were to give ben a mental health sl they’d have to have some big trigger/episode happen to kind of bring up the issue again bc like u said it’s kind of like swept under the rug for a lot of characters as ben being ben and plus aside from in the aftermath of the boat stuff last year he’s been fairly stable since he’s been w callum so you’d need some kind of catalyst to send him off the rails again for it to become an Actual Conversation. and if callum started seeing some more professionals long term for his ptsd it would make sense for him to maybe be more likely to call out issues as he sees them?? if that makes sense ??

(as for an actual bpd sl i wouldn’t be opposed to that either i mean i feel like more ppl need to know what bpd is/what it entails just in general plus all of the ground work is literally right there and has been since ben’s childhood like imo you could not get a better diagnosis for ben than bpd but that’s just me !! but on the flip side i know a lot of ppl would probably be super critical of it a) bc of ben’s past actions/behaviours w crime and his manipulation and stuff and ppl w bpd get a bad rep for manipulation anyway but i personally am all for bad/imperfect rep plus imo it would help explain some of that behaviour and b) bpd is so kind of unknown?? niche in a way ?? and like there SO many different experiences w the same disorder that there are bound to be ppl complaining abt how it’s inaccurate or whatever ?? like i’d get why the ee team would be like ‘not worth the aggro lmao x’ but like i said imo if they WERE to go that way w ben’s character there’s no better diagnosis for him than bpd so ..... and i know you didn’t ask abt this specifically but if they were to go this way this is what i would want lmao)

idk i guess a mental health sl for ben is not smth i desperately want bc in my heart him having bpd is canon as far as i’m concerned but at the same time it’s definitely not smth i’d be opposed to if ben’s mental health issues became a serious problem again u know??? like it would be really nice to be like ‘ben’s not causing this problems just for the fuck of it, there’s a reason and this is it’ but at the same time i get why as a show they might not wanna do that so ??? idk i’m not particularly bothered one way or the other bc like i said in my heart me and him are bpd twins so !!!

the ONLY reason i'd be apprehensive is bc of audience reaction. like nbf people's reactions to ben's actions last year when he was so clearly going thru a crisis were so ugly and genuinely difficult to read as a mentally ill person and i haven't forgotten or forgiven that plus seeing how ppl are already reacting to callum actually showing symptoms of his ptsd and being Obviously Mentally Ill the exact same way and it's already tiring and UGLY like honestly ??? the majority of ppl in this fandom aren't mature enough and don't have the critical thinking skills needed for such a serious sl for ben and/or callum. they didn't during callum's struggle w him coming out (it wasn't as bad then but i promise it was still there) they didn't during ben's deafness sl/his breakdown in the aftermath of that and they are already showing that they're gonna be the same during callum's ptsd sl. and it's irking bc it's like.... ben and callum are BOTH victims of traumatic childhoods and abuse and are BOTH pretty obviously dealing with mental health issues bc of the shit they've been thru but the minute they actually show symptoms or act in a way that is clearly bc of trauma and/or mental illness it's literally like the world is ending on here n the characters are being ruined and their relationship is being ruined etc and don't even get me started on the way they talk abt these symptoms completely ignoring the fact that these are actual real life symptoms of real life illnesses that affect real life ppl..... the way ppl used to talk abt ben struggling to cope w his disability used to COMPLETELY fuck w my head as someone who used to do similar things while i struggled w my disability .... aha ....

but that's neither here nor there lmao the point is it's not the show i don't trust to do a decent job it's the audience's ability to handle it for what mental illness actually entails (aka the difficult/ugly symptoms) while not be complete dicks about it or making it abt ballum. but at the same time i wouldn't be opposed to a mental health sl for ben at all !!! i'd probably just hope it's not anytime in the next year or so and then disappear off the internet while it plays out lmao

💞💞💞

#sorry this is so long and also that it took me so long to answer lmao #tldr ben has bpd idc what the show says idc if it ever becomes canon he just does ! i can't make the man not borderline !#eastenders #anon #question

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republicstandard · 6 years

Text

Kipling, Lawless Britain and Legal Jihad

The much maligned British bobby has had a rum deal of late, and I'm afraid it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better, this article included. British society is spiraling into an entirely predictable and polarized future, which has flat-footed the flatfoots (flatfeet?) and their handlers in Whitehall.

To be honest, it is not the street constable at fault- after all, they can only enforce the laws in the manner in which they are trained, not to mention the brutal conflation of relentless migration and slashed funding and staff levels with which they have to suffer under. Even so, it is surprising that so much evidence of the double-standards of law enforcement in the United Kingdom has come to light so swiftly.

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Police at #speakerscorner have just confirmed we are living in a 2 tier policing system it's 1 rule for us and no rules for the religion of peace the United kingdom has fallen https://t.co/gdDtC4NYjH pic.twitter.com/XccKOdx9wZ

— #IAMTOMMY (@TRobinsonOnline) April 2, 2018

This video is a clip of a much longer piece that illustrates the two-tier system in place in the United Kingdom. When the concerned citizen reads the letter of the regulations, the police officers shrug and say it is being looked at higher up. Despite religious gatherings and worship being strictly banned from the park, the police do nothing- because the worshippers are Muslims. This video is nearly a year old, featuring a Kurdish Christian convert from Islam being physically attacked by a mob of Muslims.

youtube

Based on the actions of the state lately, it might suggest that Britain is merely following the rules of the great game, despite the public expressing their desire to seriously curtail immigration through the Brexit vote. One might be forgiven for seeing an ulterior motive in the way the negotiations have been handled by a decidedly Europhilic Tory party. It would be a shame, though surprising to none if the UK Power Elites take the line that less EU migration to the UK simply means more space for non-EU workers.

The UN itself demands it.

#Migration is: • inevitable • desirable • necessary this Easter, let’s not forget those who are caught in crises around the world 🌎 pic.twitter.com/e7fT1FE0D1

— IOM - UN Migration (@UNmigration) April 1, 2018

The Britons will simply have to put up with it all though they are suffering their own crisis, right now. Right now this global government is advocating for the demographic replacement of Britons, and no one in power in Britain seems to care. The Tories don't care. Labour definitely doesn't care. Ann-Marie Waters seems to be the only politician to give a damn though her nascent party has barely begun, and holds no seats. Female Genital Mutilation can be openly advocated in the United Kingdom, though the practice has been criminal for years. Not one person has ever been convicted of FGM in the country, and there has been only a single case brought before the court. Ever. I do not think that this will change, despite more people from cultures that circumcise little girls coming into the United Kingdom.

We know for sure that the police will do nothing as despite needing zero complaints to pursue and ultimately convict Mark Meechan of teaching a dog to respond to "Gas the Jews", the South Wales Police are unwilling to consider that advocacy of genital mutilation within their jurisdiction might be worth looking into.

It's just not a priority. The long arm of the law becomes short indeed when there is the possibility of being called a racist- so utterly craven are the British Constabulary today.

We have to stand up for ourselves. No one else will. The Establishment is not our ally. De-facto Sharia law is not our friend #SpeakerCorner #freedom pic.twitter.com/mgaHkoMN1J

— Katie Hopkins (@KTHopkins) April 2, 2018

I invite you to think for a moment what is really going on in this video. How you interpret this video might depend very much on your opinion of Katie Hopkins, the much-derided firebrand who unlike most of her critics, puts her money where her mouth is. She goes to places to see for herself the carnage that is headed our way. For saying that the crowd of Muslims are not her culture or her people, that British people need to stand up for their own culture, she is jostled, insulted, kicked and pushed by a crowd of Muslim men. Not because she is bigoted, or because she is a racist, but because she is right; and I think deep down everyone knows it. This is the reason why Hopkins receives death threats and this is why Hopkins can easily be physically harmed and her attackers will not receive retribution.

"Who can we look to defend us if we can't look to you?" Bob the Builder - a regular at #SpeakersCorner - questions the @metpoliceuk on why they are not enforcing the law for certain individuals despite being presented with video evidence of a crime being committed. pic.twitter.com/NdUDTAErC3

— l u c y b r o w n (@lucyfrown) April 3, 2018

Meanwhile, genuine racism from the followers of the warlord Mohammed goes unpunished and uninvestigated by the Police. Muslims can call a black person "nigger" on camera and there will be no prosecution, no investigation, not even a conversation. Assaults can be carried out on the Kuffar with impunity. Perhaps the policemen are scared of a large group of religious fanatics that they know are better armed than the police themselves.

Speaking of implements of violence, gird yourselves, dear readers, to be startled at the fiendish cache of deadly weapons unearthed by the brave police in Barnet.

Officers from @MPSBarnet were over in @MPSEnfield on #opsceptre found these items in ponders end recreation ground #saferEnfield pic.twitter.com/W5jHd7AVw5

— MPS Barnet (@MPSBarnet) March 20, 2018

Yes, a kitchen knife and some gardening tools have been safely removed from the streets of England. Sleep well, citizens. Don't pay attention to headlines about Pakistani rape gangs or Black youths murdering their way across the capital. It's all a bad dream. The worst you have to worry about is racist tweets and gardening shears. Go back to sleep.

For ages now @WestmonsterUK has been highlighting the ongoing crisis on the streets of London. There has been little outrage. Last night a 17-year-old girl was shot dead, 16-year-old boy was shot & 15-year-old stabbed. This is an emergency. https://t.co/M2GNw0nb01

— Michael Heaver (@Michael_Heaver) April 3, 2018

It appears that we are running out of enough narrative to wrap the truth in. The dream is cracking at the seams, the joins aren't so well papered over in this version of reality. The holes in the plot are too jarring, the suspension of disbelief breaks and we are shot out of the story, dismayed and disillusioned.

All that is left to do is prevent all conversation, make all dissent illegal, and become more Orwellian than ever before- except with Sharia-flavored liberalism as the despot.

You can't say it, so you are discouraged from thinking it. You can't think it, so you are discouraged from seeing it. Restrictions on speech rapidly escalate into an attack on perception itself.

— The Stoic Emperor (@TheStoicEmperor) April 1, 2018

I find myself often thinking of Kipling lately. His words, almost always conveying a story of the British Empire, today are perhaps our most valuable treasure-trove of descriptions about ourselves. Rivaled (and in some way succeeded) only by Orwell himself, who explored the being of us as a people in a different way, Kipling often wrote in patriotic terms.

We may not speak of England; her Flag’s to sell or share. What is the Flag of England? Winds of the World, declare! ~ Rudyard Kipling, The English Flag

The year before Kipling died, in 1935, he spoke at the annual dinner for the Royal Society of St. George, specifically noting on patriotism and "deploring the loss of ancestral virtues." The Spectator of the 10th of May 1935 disagreed strongly. In their view, pacifism and globalism were the future.

The roots of modern pacifism lie far back in the history and character of the British people. They were willing to fight for constitutional liberty because they wanted liberty, and went to prison to establish the right to freedom of thought and expression. In the past, they have willingly granted asylum to aliens on British soil, partly because they believed that freedom of movement and trade were profitable, but partly also because their standards of conduct were based on a conception of the personal rights of every individual as an individual, and not merely as a Briton. Citizenship of the world is a notion which can be more easily entertained by the British than by other people. The conception of citizenship which can be widened out to include the native inhabitants of countries once subject and now becoming increasingly free makes us less insular than we once were, and certainly more ready to respect citizen rights in foreign countries.

If this catalogue of British virtues may seem to savour of complacency, it should be noted that we are endeavouring to name only those virtues which belong to the British brand of patriotism—a brand of patriotism which is peculiar in that it minimizes the warlike elements in love of country, and makes us not, as Mr. Kipling suggests, soft in our championship of peace, but competent to take them lead in spreading the peace idea in the world.

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I do not think Rudyard Kipling would have taken any pleasure at all in being proven correct. I invoke this review of Kipling's perennial correctness to make a point- it is not a new thing that our very identities as Britons has been under assault. The brand of patriotism suggested by The Spectator was and remains a feckless perversion; framed as the sole alternative to the bellicose and imperial patriotism of the Victorian era, it misses the point of Kipling entirely. His patriotism was not the equally false my country right or wrong kind that is so easily twisted by the demagogue. Kipling was in love with his country, but not blinded by it so much that he could not criticize it. I too have learned to love England, and I take my lead in this from Kipling himself. We are lucky to have such a teacher available to us.

We thought we ranked above the chance of ill. Others might fall, not we, for we were wise— Merchants in freedom. So, of our free-will We let our servants drug our strength with lies. The pleasure and the poison had its way On us as on the meanest, till we learned That he who lies will steal, who steals will slay. Neither God’s judgment nor man's heart was turned.

Yet there remains His Mercy—to be sought Through wrath and peril till we cleanse the wrong By that last right which our forefathers claimed When their Law failed them and its stewards were bought. This is our cause. God help us, and make strong Our will to meet Him later, unashamed! Rudyard Kipling, The Covenant. 1914

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itsnelkabelka · 7 years

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Speech: Foreign Secretary Speech at Chatham House London Conference 2017

Good morning everybody,

It is fantastic to be here in this wonderful hotel, that I think that I opened or reopened. I opened many hotels across London in my time as Mayor and I definitely reopened this hotel at one stage and this is after all an example of the kind of infrastructure that you were just talking about Robin. It is an inspirational structure that was created many, many decades ago, over a hundred years ago, and it has been beautifully upgraded and it has stood the test of time and that is what I want to talk about this morning.

All you young, thrusting Chatham House types look far too dynamic to remember the early 1980s or indeed the late 1970s. Do you? I certainly do.

I remember being chilled to the marrow not just by the newspaper graphics, the hundreds of nuclear missiles trained on this country by the Warsaw Pact.

Scarier still were the attempts by the UK Government to reassure the population, the pamphlets and films that told you such things as how to build a fallout shelter.

You took several doors off their hinges and propped them up diagonally against a wall, reinforced by suitcases full of books, and then you were told to tune to Radio 4, where the contingency plan was to play endless re-runs of Just a Minute.

And there really was a time when British children knew all about the four-minute warnings, and the perils of radiation sickness, and we all read a book called Where the Wind Blows by Raymond Briggs, and brooded, as I did as a teenager, on the horror of those weapons.

For decades now that threat has seemed to vanish. It went with the end of the Cold War.

We don’t want it back.

That is why people are now watching with such interest – and the first stirrings of apprehension – the events in the Korean Peninsula.

Kim Jong Un has tested 19 missiles so far this year, and has conducted four of the six nuclear tests ever carried out by that country.

It is now widely accepted that Kim is coming closer to being able to launch a nuclear-armed ICBM at the continental United States.

I should stress that this has not only prompted outrage in America, but it is a prospect that has been unanimously condemned by Russia, by China, by the EU, to say nothing of the dismay of those quintessentially peaceable countries – Japan and South Korea.

It is this increased tempo of nuclear testing, coupled with florid outbursts of verbal belligerence, that have reawakened – even in this country – those forgotten fears.

The public can be forgiven for genuinely starting to wonder whether the nuclear sword of Damocles is once again held over the head of a trembling human race.

So now is perhaps a good moment, in a calm and dispassionate way, to take stock.

Before we reissue that old pamphlet called Protect and Survive, before we teach our kids how to hide under the desks or lay on stocks of baked beans or spam, let us look at the history of nuclear proliferation, how nuclear weapons have spread, and how we have collectively sought to contain their spread.

Back then, as now, most predictions were gloomy – and yet those gloomy predictions have been utterly confounded by events.

America was of course the first to use the bomb, in 1945; then the Soviet Union detonated a device at Semipalatinsk in 1949; then we were next, the UK, in 1952; then the French did their test in the Sahara in 1960.

At that point the then American presidential candidate, John F Kennedy, predicted that by 1964, within only four years, there would be ten, 15 or 20 nations that would acquire nuclear weapons.

As things have turned out, it is now almost 60 years after he issued his warning – and yes, the NPT has some notable non-signatories including India and Pakistan; and yet the number of nuclear-armed countries has yet to reach double figures.

This is on the face of it an absolutely astonishing statistic and an extraordinary achievement.

When you consider that every previous military development – from firearms to fighter jets – has spread among humanity like impetigo, you have to ask yourselves: why? Why have nuclear weapons been the great exception?

It can’t just be the kit. They can’t be so complex that only a handful of so-called advanced nations have the intellectual wherewithal to make them.

It is true that the process is laborious and highly expensive – but the basic technology is more than 70 years old and indeed has been taught in universities – if not schools – for decades, for generations.

The answer is partly that many countries wisely decided, after the war, that they were going to take shelter under the nuclear umbrella provided by the United Nations.

Nations in both Europe and in Asia opted for this protection, a commitment that must be rated one of the greatest contributions by America to the unprecedented epoch of peace and prosperity that we have all been living through.

I should observe that some European countries found themselves under a rival umbrella provided by the Soviet Union, though at that stage they had no choice in the matter.

And it was that American offer – that guarantee – that made possible the global consensus embodied by the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

By this treaty 191 countries came together to recognise the special role of the five existing nuclear powers, and also to insist that there should be no further dispersal of such weapons.

Nuclear technology would be made available to other countries, provided it was used exclusively for civilian purposes.

That was a great diplomatic achievement.

It was an effort in which the UK – as one of the leading upholders of the post-war rules based international order – played a crucial role.

[political content deleted]

That diplomacy has helped to make the world safer, more secure, more confident and therefore more prosperous.

It has helped avoid what might otherwise have been a Gadarene Rush to destruction, in which the world was turned into a great arena of Mexican stand-offs, a nuclear version of the final scene of Reservoir Dogs.

That far-sightedness is now needed more than ever, not only to keep the NPT, but also one of its most valuable complementary accords, the nuclear deal with Iran.

To grasp the importance of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, we should remember that just before it was signed in 2015, Iran had enough centrifuges and low-enriched uranium to be only months away from producing the essential material for at least one nuclear weapon.

Let us remember what the consequences would have been – for Iran and the world – if Tehran had gone down that road.

Never mind the response of Israel, or indeed the United States to the fact of nuclear weapons in the grip of the Iranians, a regime that has been capable of blood-curdling rhetoric about the mere existence of the “Zionist entity”.

A nuclear-armed Iran would have placed irresistible pressure on neighbouring countries to up the ante, and to trigger an arms race in what is already one of the most volatile regions of the world.

Imagine all those mutually contaminating sectarian, dynastic and internecine conflicts of the Middle East today. Then turn the dial, and add a nuclear arms race.

Think of the nightmare that deal has avoided.

It is a nightmare we can continue to avoid if we are sensible, if we show the same generosity and wisdom as the negotiators of the NPT.

And first and most important it is vital to understand that President Trump has not withdrawn from the JCPOA. He has not junked it.

He has continued to waive nuclear-related sanctions against Iran, and having spoken to some of the most influential figures on Capitol Hill – none of them fans of the Iranian regime – I have absolutely no doubt that with determination and courage the JCPOA can be preserved.

This is not just because the essential deal is in the interests of Western security – though it is – but because it is profoundly in the interests of the Iranian people.

This is a great nation, of 80 million people – two thirds of whom are under the age of 30.

They are highly educated, both men and women.

They watch Youtube; they dance to music videos, even if it is in the privacy of their own home.

They use and understand technology and they are bursting with a capitalist and entrepreneurial spirit.

If we can show them that they are welcome in the great global market-place of ideas and innovation then, in time, a very different relationship is possible with the modern heirs, of what is after all, one of the greatest of all ancient civilisations.

That is the possibility the JCPOA holds open - not just averting a perilous and debilitating arms race, but ending the long and largely self-imposed exclusion of Iran from the global mainstream that so many millions of Iranians yearn to join.

Of course, we in the UK, we share with our American friends and with many of our allies – in Europe and across the Middle East – their legitimate concern over the disruptive behaviour of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in countries hundreds of miles from their borders.

It is simply provocative and dangerous that Iran has supplied tens of thousands of rockets and missiles to Hizbollah in Lebanon - weapons that are even now pointing at Israel - but whose use would bring the most destructive retaliation not upon Iran – the responsible party – but upon the people of Lebanon.

It is no conceivable benefit to the tormented people of Yemen that Iran should be supplying missiles that Houthi rebels use routinely to strike targets in Saudi Arabia; behaviour which alas can only strengthen the convictions of those in the region who believe they have no choice but to respond to Iran’s actions.

And frankly it’s astonishing that the Iranians – who rightly complain that the world looked the other way when they suffered so tragically from the chemical weapons deployed by Saddam Hussein in the 1980s – should even now be abetting and concealing the crimes of Bashar al-Asad who has used the same methods against his own people.

So I think it’s right that we should join with our American friends and allies to counter this kind of behaviour wherever possible.

But that does not mean for one minute that we should write Iran off, or that we should refuse to engage with Iran or that we should show disrespect to its people.

On the contrary, we should continue to work to demonstrate to that population in Iran that they will be better off under this deal and the path of re-engagement that it prescribes.

And that is the model – of toughness but engagement, each reinforcing the other – that we should have at the front of our mind as we try to resolve the tensions in the Korean Peninsula.

It is right that Rex Tillerson has specifically opened the door to dialogue.

He has tried to give some sensible reassurances to the regime, to enable them to take up this offer.

Remember the four Noes – that have been offered by the South Korean president and reinforced by the US Secretary of State.

No seeking regime change in North Korea; No seeking to force the collapse of North Korea’s regime; No seeking to deploy US forces beyond the 38th parallel; No attempt to accelerate the reunification of Korea.

These are the commitments that we hope will encourage Kim Jong Un to halt his nuclear weapons programme, to come to the negotiating table, and thereby to take the only path that can guarantee the security of the region as a whole. You will often hear it said that in weighing up those options Kim must bear in mind the woeful precedents of those who disarmed.

Of Libya, where the leader listened to the blandishments of the West and gave up his nuclear weapons programme – only to be overthrown with Western connivance.

Or of Ukraine, which actually surrendered its nuclear arsenal, only to suffer the first forcible loss of territory in Europe since 1945.

It is therefore suggested that Kim would be sealing his own fate if he were to comply.

I reject those analogies.

What finished Gaddafi was an uprising of his own people, including on the streets of Tripoli.

Even if he had been able to perfect a nuclear arsenal in time, and even if it is true he had a justified reputation for mercurial and unpredictable behaviour, it seems unlikely that he would have decided to nuke his own capital – including himself.

As survival strategies go, that would have been eccentric even by his own standards.

As for Ukraine, the fundamental difference is that no one, not South Korea nor any other neighbour, has any designs on the national territory of North Korea.

And the crucial question Kim Jong Un surely needs to ask himself is whether his current activities are making Pyongyang any safer for himself and his regime.

No one, I’m sure no one in this room, certainly no one in the UK or around the world wants any kind of military solution to the problem. No one actively desires that outcome.

But Kim Jong Un and the world need to understand that when the 45th President of the United States contemplates a regime led by a man who not only threatens to reduce New York to “ashes”, but who stands on the verge of acquiring the power to make good on his threat, I am afraid that the US President – whoever he or she might be – will have an absolute duty to prepare any option to keep safe not only the American people but all those who have sheltered under the American nuclear umbrella.

And I hope Kim will also consider this: that if his objective is to intimidate the US into wholesale withdrawal from East Asia, then it strikes me that his current course might almost be designed to produce the opposite effect.

Already President Moon of South Korea – hitherto seen as one of the political leaders most open to engagement with the North – is installing the US-made THAAD missile defences.

And in Japan and South Korea it is easy to imagine the growth of domestic pressure for those governments to take further steps to protect their own populations from a nuclear North Korea.

In short Pyongyang faces the same dilemma as Tehran:

By continuing to develop nuclear capabilities Kim risks provoking a reaction in the region that is at once defensive and competitive, that reduces not increases his security and therefore reduces not increases the survival chances of the regime.

And therefore I hope that Kim will see that it is no part of Juche – his family doctrine of national self-reliance – nor is it in his interest of national security to end up with an escalation of America’s military presence in East Asia, let alone to run risks that could imperil his regime.

And until he understands that I am afraid that we have no choice collectively but to step up the pressure on Pyongyang.

It is one of the most encouraging developments this year that the UN Security Council – with the strong support of the UK - has unanimously passed three resolutions to tighten the economic ligature around the regime.

When I joined a debate on North Korea in the Security Council earlier this year, I was struck by the unaccustomed absence of discord.

For the first time the Chinese have agreed to impose strict limits on the export of oil to North Korea, which until now was taboo.

There has been an unmistakable change in Chinese policy, and that is warmly to be welcomed.

In his speech to the 19th Party Congress last week, President Xi hailed China’s standing as a world power

And I would say there is no more urgent problem for China to address – nor any where Beijing has greater influence – than the threat to international security represented by the behaviour of North Korea.

There is also unprecedented discussion between China and the US on how to handle this crisis, a closeness, by the way, that I believe bodes well for the world; and I should again pay tribute to my colleague Rex Tillerson for his efforts.

Whatever we may think of the regime and its behaviour, the ruling elite of North Korea is in the end composed of human beings.

We must find ways of getting through to them, and at the same time not just toughening the sanctions regime but enforcing those already in place; and in this respect again, the Chinese hold the key.

This is the moment for North Korea’s regime to change course – and if they do the world can show that it is once again capable of the diplomatic imagination that produced the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty – arduously negotiated – and that after 12 years of continuous effort produced the JCPOA nuclear deal with Iran.

It will not be easy, but the costs of failure could be catastrophic.

We cannot dis-invent nuclear weapons or wish them away; and the events on the Korean Peninsula are the clearest possible rejoinder to those [political content deleted] who say that we should unilaterally cast aside our nuclear weapons.

To wield a nuclear deterrent, as this country does, is neither easy nor cheap; indeed it imposes a huge responsibility on this country.

We are one of the handful specifically recognised by the NPT to possess such dreadful weapons, and we do so not just in the name of our own security but – via NATO – for the protection of dozens of our allies.

And by holding that stockpile – a minimum stockpile, I should say, which has been reduced by half since its Cold War peak – we play our part in deterring the ambitions of rogue states.

It is 25 years since the end of the Cold War, and a new generation has grown up with no memory of the threat of a nuclear winter, and little education in the appalling logic of mutually assured destruction.

Hiroshima, Nagasaki. Their destruction, the full horror of what took place is now literally fading from living memory.

When people like Alun Chalfont drew up the NPT, those horrors were still fresh in the hearts of the world.

We must not be so forgetful or so complacent as to require a new lesson in what these weapons can do, or the price of failing to limit their spread.

The NPT is one of the great diplomatic achievements of the last century. It has stood the test of time.

In its restraint and its maturity it shows an unexpected wisdom on the part of humanity, and almost evolutionary instinct for the survival of the species.

It is the job of our generation now to preserve that agreement, and British diplomacy will be at the forefront of the endeavour.

Thank you all very much for your attention.

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