#feels weird just throwing them together without any sort of relationship growth
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New Face, Who This?
Don't mind me, just playing in the sandbox that is @ghouldjams cod fae au. Mal switches things up, as they are wont to do, and trips up a certain fae in the process. Featuring ghouls oc Witch who I adore.
Mal looked at themselves in the mirror. They turned this way and that, but something just felt. . . off. Pursing their lips they sighed, changing into the fifth outfit that morning. Ugh, still not right.
“Maybe it’s time for a change,” they murmured. When was the last time they did this? Twenty years ago? Maybe more? Yeah, it was time to switch things up.
Stripping bare, they stared at the mirror once more. It was always easiest if they could see what they were doing. To start Mal focused on their face, studying the wide jaw and square face they had become accustomed to for the last however many years it’s been. Reaching forward toward their reflection, fingers splayed, they twisted their wrist. Mal’s reflection fractured, tesselating out in patterns and colors like a kaleidoscope, before suddenly snapping back into place.
The face staring back at them was much softer, rounder around the cheeks with a charming mouth. Some things remained unchanged, like their fiery red hair and their bold eyebrows. For whatever reason they always stuck around.
Moving on to the rest of their body, they wanted to move on from the sleek and slim rectangular build. In the end, they went for something a little more filled out, hints of muscle and practical strength within a sturdy frame. They’d have to workout to maintain it, they were using magic afterall, not working miracles.
With the excitement of a new canvas, finding an outfit was easy, opting for a long sundress. The lack of sleeves accentuated the new muscles in their arms nicely, while also complementing their new more feminine face. A last little splurge of magic allowed their hair to grow just long enough to place in a messy bun.
As usual, the day was rather slow, mainly spent at their combination check out and consultation table project planning for recent clients. Creating patterns, planning dye lots, etc. etc. Their project ledger wasn’t completely full yet, so their curtains were pulled wide open, and a sign that said ‘Welcome, during business hours’ hung from the door.
This meant that a certain handsome fae could slip in with no resistance, immediately waltzing up to the counter with a confidence that should have been annoying, if they weren’t in such a good mood.
“Well hello, I - oh.” He started his greeting, but stumbled mid way through as Mal looked up from their ledger.
They raised an eyebrow, “Hello to you too.”
Confusion was visible on his face, “Sorry, I was just expecting someone else.”
“And who would that be?”
“The last time I came in, maybe a little over a week ago, there was someone else here. Kind of small, very cute, with shaggy red hair almost the same color as yours.”
“Hunting for information, are we?”
A boyish glint sparkled in the others eyes as he leaned over the counter, “Now that I think of it you two look quite a bit alike. You two wouldn’t happen to be. . .siblings, would you?”
Before Mal could even begin to think of a way to respond to that Witch glided in through the door, the wards tingling in delight and recognition of their clever creator. “Oh my gosh you will not believe the tea I have for you today, I heard that -”
It only took Witch a second to notice the changes, and only a few more to piece together what Mal had done, “Wow!!!! You look great! I love what you’ve done with your hair, and that dress looks gorgeous on you, did you make it yourself?”
Gossip forgotten, Witch ran up to dote on Mal, feeling the material and gushing over their new look. After a few minutes of this, the fae man coughed gently.
“Shit! Sorry, I’ll let you finish up with your customer,” Witch said.
“Oh, I’m not a customer,” he said.
“Then what are you?”
“A nuisance,” Mal said, “a nosy one at that.”
Witch snorted, but said nothing.
If he took offense to Mal’s comment, he didn’t show it, “All I want to know is who that fae is that I talked to a few weeks ago. About yea tall, pretty hands and shaggy red hair kind of like yours? Tell me, is red hair and attractiveness a job requirement? Or am I just incredibly lucky?” His lopsided grin would have been annoying if it didn’t look so good on his face.
Witch opened her mouth, “M-”
At the sound of their name starting in Witch’s mouth, Mal gave her a desperate look in warning. Even though ‘Mal’ wasn’t really their true name, it’s not something that they gave out left and right, let alone to loitering mystery fae.
With barely a stumble in her speech, she corrected herself, “My friend here runs this shop by themselves. And damn well at that.”
He chuckled, “Well then, aren’t you full of surprises.” This time, Mal didn’t miss the once over he gave them. When their eyes met, his golden eyes looked molten hot.
A blush rose to their cheeks unbidden, and Mal brought their hands together in a decisive clap, “Well! If you’re not a customer I must ask you to leave immediately as is shop policy,” a delicate line of fine print illuminated itself in recognition on the welcome sign, “Good day to you sir.”
The typically controlled and smooth wards were swift and erratic as they buffeted the mystery fae towards the door, however he resisted them as much as he could, “Tell me your name! What may I call you?” He called out frantically, attempting to brace himself against the wards unseen force.
Mal raised their hand to aid in one final push to send him out the door, but paused as their eyes met once again. There was a desperation and sincerity in his features. Before Mal knew what they were doing they opened their mouth.
“You may call me a fox, sir hunter, for that is all I am to you.”
“And a lovely Fox you shall be,” he said, before he was sucked out of the door and summarily deposited on the street, curtains closing with a solid thwunk.
The silence was thick in the shop before Witch broke it, voice strained with barely contained laughter “~You may call me a fox for that is all I am to you~”
“Shut upppp”
“Well, he’s a handsome hunter, I'll give him that.”
Mal put their head in their hands, “He’s a nuisance and nothing more.”
“Suuuure.”
They giggled desperately, “He is!! He comes waltzing in saying that he doesn’t want anything and then I kick him out cause he’s loitering!”
“God Mal you’re insufferable, he’s flirting with you you idiot.”
“He is not.”
“If you say so. But you best believe that I am going to bring this up over dinner because never in the time that I’ve known you have I seen your wards react like that.”
Mal raised their head, eyebrows furrowed, “Dinner?”
Witch gave them a confused look, before letting out an exasperated sigh, “I forgot to say it out loud huh.”
“Yup.”
“Well, your ass, my house, I’m making dinner cause I haven’t had you over in ages. Be there or be square.”
“I wonder if I could actually turn myself into a square.”
“Dammit Mal.”
#1fae1#maelstrom fic#maelstrom writes#oc: mal#oc: witch#I need a name for this fae#theres only so many epitaphs I can give him#Lowkey want to name him Handsome#Cause 99% of his descriptors have started with handsome#ghoul you keep giving me so many great ideas for Mal#did anyone catch the movie reference?#wonder if Mal will see a certain someone wearing a certain beanie at dinner 👀👀👀👀👀👀#im so bad at slow burn i just want these two to fuck#but i also want them to have a reason to fuck yknow#feels weird just throwing them together without any sort of relationship growth#augh
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Thoughts & Theories about MacGyver 5x10 [MacRiley]
HOLY SHIT!
This episode was absolutely INSANE. Im writing out my thoughts once and for all because I need to stop thinking about everything that happened (I highly doubt I will be able to but here's to trying)
SPOILERS FOR 5x10 OFCOURSE
Straight off the bat, I was screaming *internally* and yelling at Mac when he showed the diamond to Bozer. I suspected it yesterday when we got the snippet of Murdoc saying the words DIAMOND and RING with extra emphasis..(everyone on twitter said I was jumping to conclusions.. I thought so too honestly) But damn I did NOT expect them to actually do that!
Now here's why I am not mad about it anymore. [this is my interpretation you are free to disagree]
Firstly, when Mac told Bozer he was going to propose he didnt say I’m doing it because I love Desi or I want to spend the rest of our lives together or because she’s the one (doesn't mean he doesnt care for her ofcourse)
He said “Ever since I lost my dad & Jack, I have been thinking about the bigger picture and a commitment to make things work is exactly what Desi and I need right now. A grand romantic gesture.” He wanted to propose for stability so he could finally be on the same page with her. They never really defined their relationship before and this was a way for Mac to final bring it together. A grand romantic gesture is usually something people use to win their partners back which is what Mac was trying to do I guess. It almost sounds like he has to do it so he doesn't lose her again
(ill get to my second reason in the end)
Then ofcourse Bozer tells Riley about it so she can be prepared. Bozer is such a good friend. He is supportive of Mac AND wants to protect Riley. I love him for it! He really is doing everything to be the best friend he can to both of them. (Leannas death was so painful and I just want to hug him but thankfully Riley had that covered.)
Next we get the BIG REVEAL. The moment all of us had been waiting for.
The moment that SHOOK Angus MacGyver and CHANGED EVERYTHING!
Rileys Feelings!
“You want me to say it out loud? Fine. Yes I had feelings for Mac. There I said it. and yeah watching him and Desi together was breaking my heart so I moved out of his house. I should have said something to him a long time ago but I didn’t and now its over. ”
I had the opposite of a HEART ATTACK! (my heart rate was through THE ROOF!)
I have to say they really really outdid themselves on this reveal.
SIDE NOTE: If anyone comes for Riley and tries to call her a slut or a home wrecker? You will have me to deal with. Even after Murdoc played the clip of her confession she still tried to deny it and brush it off so it wouldn't complicate things for Mac and Desi. If Riley had wanted, she could have easily told Mac this to his face while he was dating Desi and then let things happen from there but she DIDNT. She kept that secret buried so deep she herself was in denial.
(also if anyone calls Mac a player or anything like that.. I will end you. He is doing his best to deal with everything that has happened to him and people keep giving him shit for it....)
Anyways, we see Mac’s expression & he is just confused and shocked and clearly not trying to think about it because it changed EVERYTHING for him.
[Murdoc saying I THINK IM ON TEAM RILEY was a HUGE HIGHLIGHT for me! I love him so damn much!]
Desi took it really well too actually. If they keep going down this road of growth and maturity for her I think I could actually like her again. (Russ too when he apologised to Bozer)
She didnt throw a hissy fit or say I knew it or look at Riley like she was the villain. She focused on the mission & I respect her for that.
(Riley does say, “the next thing you are going to hear on that recording-” and then gets cut off by Desi.. If this will come into play at some point later on or if it was just her trying to explain herself, remains to be seen.)
Then after the climax, we finally hear Riley say the words to Mac in real time and we get our FIRST MacRiley hug of the season!
At this point I thought they would agree to be friends and make the friendzone thing clear BUT NOPE. (you have no idea how happy I am about it not going down like that!)
I was also a puddle on the floor. SO
“Mac look-”
“You don’t have to say anything if you dont want to. Really.”
“I want to. Last year in Germany. I realised I was starting to have feelings for you. Real feelings. I didnt want to make anything weird between you and Desi. I didnt want to mess up our work or our friendship so I decided to bury it. Until the feelings passed.”
“Emotions aren’t a science. You can’t control them.”
Gosh they are so perfect together! The way they look at each other and the HUG! OH MY GOD THE HUG! Its just perfection.
Now we also see this from Desi’s POV. Again no anger or jealousy from her. I think it was an understanding. She realised that she and Mac were never going to work.. maybe a little pain but honestly everything that went down with her and Mac was her fault too. The lack of trust and understanding was always a problem for them. Sure, things were going well but she didnt seem like she was ready for a commitment if im being honest. If Mac had proposed I think Desi would have said no.(again nothing wrong with that)
She didnt want to label their relationship..they haven't said the words I love you to each other and I dont think they even live together. It really was way too sudden.(these are just things im assuming people define how well a relationship is going by.. I have no experience.)
Then ofcourse we have what im calling the goodbye scene. Its the break up before the break up in my opinion.
Desi tells Mac that they should pretend the last 24 hours never happened (that might actually include Mac wanting to propose but make of it what you will..) and that they should have a clean slate. But its very clear from Mac’s face and Desi sees it too that he isnt 100% onboard with it. He cant forget about it.
Which is when Desi says “Look Mac just do whatever you feel is right” and Mac looks confused.
She then gives him a goodbye kiss.
Look if you have ever watched any show/movie before where the characters are saying goodbye to each other or breaking each others hearts...THERE IS ALWAYS A KISS ON THE CHEEK. A final farewell of sorts.
That is what it seemed like to me. It was Desi telling Mac to do what he has to. Even if it inevitably leads to their break up.
Again real emotional maturity from Desi here!
Then we get the scene, Monica Macer (the show runner) tweeted about back in December.
Mac knocking on someones door. If im being honest? I thought it was Desi’s place and he was going to propose...
BUT it turned out to be Riley’s.
Mac clearly hasn't stopped thinking about what happened. I wouldnt either if my best friend who has put her life on the line for me and trusts me 100%, now has feelings for me? That would turn my world upside down too.
especially if I had feelings for her that I buried so deep that I never acknowledged them.
Also this is my scenario for how their first kiss goes down just FYI.. (Mac showing up at Rileys doorstep and finally confessing his feelings and kissing her *probably won't happen that way now though, but I still love it*)
Mac hesitates for a second before finally knocking on her door.
“Mac? Everything okay?”
“I can’t pretend like the last 24 hours didnt just happen. They did. So I gotta ask. Did it work?”
“Did what work?”
“Hiding your emotions and letting it pass. Did they go away?”
and I proceeded to pass out. My brain just checked out...
Now initially in all my freaking out I thought Mac was asking Riley about his feelings. If HE buried them deep enough would he still be able to move on with Desi but then I rewatched it and I realised he was asking RILEY if her feelings were still there, if there was still a possibility of something ever happening.
She never told him its all good now! my feelings are gone and it was a long time ago. She told him she buried it but he needed to know if a future with Riley was something tangible.
BASICALLY ANGUS MACGYVER ASKED RILEY DAVIS IF SHE WAS STILL IN LOVE WITH HIM. *I think I need to go to a hospital now*
So this was my second reason for not being annoyed about the proposal. The writers used it to show what a huge impact it would have on Mac. How much Rileys feelings would actually mean to him. the GAME CHANGER it would be.
A friend of mine said it was kinda funny and a little jarring but I liked it. (I could have done without the proposal) But I understand why they did it. They couldnt have Mac and Desi break up the same day Riley’s feelings came out because then people would hate Mac. They had to make him want to take the next step with Desi but then drop a bomb on him, that would make him question everything.
Again this is what I took away from it.
BUT GOSH WAS THIS EPISODE AMAZING!
I do get that some people are not happy with this and some said it was too sudden *not like we’ve been waiting since season 1 or anything* but I think after 5x11 things will slow down again. Mac may break up with Desi only at the end of the season when he finally comes to terms with his feelings. (Some people are still cautious and I get it but after everything that just happened I find it hard to believe that Mac and Riley won't end up together after all.. not to mention the leaked script conversation between Mac and Riley from 5x15)
Now I dont know how the final scene ends.. they definitely dont get called away for their solo mission immediately after because Mac’s cheek injury is relatively healed in this stills, which means Riley does answer Mac’s question. She may try to avoid it or deflect but he is standing right there so...who knows.
Next weeks episode is a MacRIley solo mission and lets just say things definitely are heating up a bit..*wink wink*
YUP IM HYPED.
BRING ON THE SEXUAL TENSION AND THE ANGST!
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Drivers License Pt. 2 (Ron Weasley)
a/n: You guys absolutely went off for part 1, thank you so so much!! Someone requested that I make a part 2 where y/n finally gets a happy ending, but without ron so I decided to kind of run with the idea, this time sort of from ron’s point of view.
disclaimer: the timeline in the books/movie are gonna line up in this one. I know they didn’t have a seventh year and i know ron kissed lavender before winter but this is obv not cannon, go with it, also fred dying was a prank anyway so YOU THOUGHT it would be included. absolutely not.
After taking y/n’s affection for granted, Ron realizes he’s made a huge mistake when she’s moved on to be happy without him
warning(s): cussing, sadness, broke my own heart writing this
Pay attention to the gif, keep it in your mind towards the end.
Part 1
___________________
And all my friends are tired
Of hearing how much I miss you, but
I kinda feel sorry for them
'Cause they'll never know you the way that I do
It took a long time for you to move on from Ron, you didn’t have to look very far to do so. Ginny had told off Ron one night for hurting you without realizing the twins were awake and hearing all the nasty things Ron put you through. By that point he and Hermione were no longer together, she realized he was too good of a friend to lose to a ‘stupid school relationship.’ So now he was alone, completely clueless to the fact that someone else had begun pining over you.
“Merlin, not this again.” Harry groans into his textbook. The wizarding world was on the verge of destruction and all Ron could speak about was how much he missed you. “Ron, we get it you fucked up with her, get over it.”
The boys had heard the same speech everyday. He would first start off with ‘I know I say this a lot’ then go onto name the things he misses most about you. Your hair, your eyes, your laugh, how small your hands are compared to his. He then groans about how stupid he is for, well, everything.
“I never heard you talk about her before now,” Dean adds, actually semi-invested in the drama that surrounded Ron’s love life. “Whats so special about her anyway?”
How could he even begin to explain what was so special about you. As much as he wished he could say he lied to you about everything he said to you, how easy it would be if he never gave a shit about you, that just isn’t the case. You had this way of making him feel safe whenever he held you. He wasn’t lying when he told you that you felt like home, he just didn’t mean to say it to soon. Maybe that was the reason he decided to kiss Lavender Brown, knowing you were watching. He wanted to push you away in the most hurtful way possible that you never even thought about coming back to him, but immediately regretted that decision.
You also had this weird hold on him, even when he was with Hermione, he would catch a glimpse of your smile and his heart would drop into his stomach. He would see your eyes sparkle in the light of the living room fire place when you were visiting the Burrow and want to scream out that he never meant to hurt you. He notices things about you that you probably hadn’t even noticed about yourself. The way your nose will scrunch when you focus really hard when Ginny tries to teach you wizard chess, how he wishes you would let him close enough to teach you. His heart aches when he notices you shift away from him, even after he and Hermione broke up. When you and Gin walk into the Great Hall for dinner and you go out of your way to sit as far from his as you can.
“You don’t understand,” Ron huffs out, rolling onto his side, wishing you were laying close into his chest like you used to. “She’s something else.”
“Ron, I know you miss her and everything but I have to tell you that you missed your chance,” Harry tells him. “Ginny tells me more than she probably should about all of this, she’s finally moved on from you mate, let it go.”
But how could he? How could he move on when you’re constantly around? He can hear a laugh from all the way down the hall and immediately know its falling from your lips, he’ll hear the sound of an engine from his bedroom window and know you’ve arrived for one of your weekend stays. The way you get on so well with his family, you’re perfect for him, you always have been but he took you for granted and now all he can do is complain to his friends about how he let you go.
And I know we weren't perfect
But I've never felt this way for no one, oh
And I just can't imagine
How you could be so okay now that I'm gone?
He thought for a long time that you were a temporary fix for his feelings that ran deep within him for Hermione, but being with her only made him realize that it was you all along. How could he have been so stupid? He refused to let his friends know you were together, in fear that Hermione would lose the feelings he had prayed she felt toward him, but in doing so he only pushed you away.
“Ron, we can’t keep sneaking around like this.” You would tell him after he pulled you into a broom closet in the middle of the day. “They’ll find out eventually, it’s not like Ginny would be cross with either of us.”
Ron was never able to give you a clear answer when it came to why you had to hide from everyone, not wanting to admit to you that it was because he was hung up on his best friend. Looking back now, it was the stupidest decision he ever made. While your relationship was chaotic and spontaneous and secretive, it was still something he now yearned for everyday, he needed to feel what he felt for you then. More specifically, he needed you to feel what you felt for him back then too. Admittedly, he never loved Lavender Brown, she was only there to stroke his ego. He thought he loved Hermione, but how can you fully love someone if your heart is connected to someone else? Loving you felt different than with anyone else, his chest burned and his hands tingled whenever you were around him.
That’s why it hurt him so badly to see you move on, and not to just anyone. After Ginny’s outburst toward her brother over how he continued to treat her best friend, a certain Weasley grew closer to you. At first, George wanted to apologize to you for the way his brother treated you as well as help you navigate co-existing with the boy. However, the more time you spent with George, the closer you became. You found yourself laughing at his stupid pranks that wouldn’t have even warranted a grin years ago. You felt the need to be near him grow more everyday, Ron noticed your sudden draw toward his brother as well.
He couldn’t understand how after, according to Ginny, crying over him for days on end, barely being able to get into your car to drive to the Burrow in fear of seeing him you could all of a sudden move on to his brother. Now that he realized how bad he messed up, he’s miserable that you weren’t around him, that you didn’t love him like you used to. How could you not feel the same hollow feeling he did?
What Ron didn’t see was that you did feel that hollow feeling, for months actually. You watched him fall in love and out of it twice before he realized you were the one, but by that time you didn’t have anything left to give him. You were healing in a way that caused you to grow apart from him even further. You found happiness is sleepovers with Ginny, helping Molly in the kitchen, and now long drives with George. You no longer felt like you needed Ron to survive. You didn’t eat, sleep, and breathe him anymore and that killed him.
You were careful to never make Ron feel the same way you did when you saw him with Lavender and Hermione, you weren’t as cruel as he was back then, but it was no secret that you and the twin had sparked some sort of relationship. Ginny was over the moon, as she began to lose hope in having you as a real sister by being with Ron, George came in and saved the day. If you thought Ron was mature for his age, George was practically ten times more. The more responsible of the twins, he always seemed to know exactly what to do and say in every situation. He always gave the best advice. What to do when a professor wouldn’t let up, how to sneak around the halls of Hogwarts at night, and most commonly how to continue in your growth while the one person who seems to stunt it is living only a stones-throw away. While you were still in school and he was running the shop, he would send you letters updating you on his life and beg you to come work at the shop with him and Fred when you finish school, telling you that you would make an excellent addition to the team. His words never failed to make you blush.
He’s three years older than you, almost twenty by the time you had moved on completely from Ron, so nothing ever really happened with George then, but your growing companionship could only be expected to blossom from there. Ron couldn’t stand it. Of all people you could seek comfort in, it had to be his brother. He would hear you gushing to Ginny about the most recent letter you received in the Common Room or witness you and George chatting about something completely arbitrary over Christmas and seethe with anger. In his mind, if you had ever truly loved him like you say you did, you wouldn’t be so content knowing that you two would never be together.
Red lights, stop signs
I still see your face in the white cars, front yards
Can't drive past the places we used to go to
'Cause I still fuckin' love you, babe
It was no longer a secret to any of the Weasley clan that Ron was miserable. When he’s at school, he’s complaining to his friends about what he could have done differently so that he could have you. At home he begged his sister to stop bringing you around, as if he had any say in whether or not you visited the Burrow. Now being old enough to use magic outside of Hogwarts, he would apparate out any time he heard you pull up to his driveway. He would go to London mostly, distracting himself in the busy streets and crowds of people.
It never worked. Somehow everywhere he turned he thought he would catch a glimpse of your hair blowing in the wind. He would shake his head just to realize you were never there. Any white car that passed next to him would immediately strike fear in his heart, thinking you were behind the wheel, but you never were. He couldn’t decide if he was looking for you in everything or if he was so afraid to see you that he imagined you everywhere. Nevertheless, there was nothing Ron Weasley could do that would effectively distract himself from you, and he’s now starting to realize it’s all his fault.
If he hadn’t been so self centered to fall into Lavender Brown’s compliments and praises due to his egomania, he would have never kissed her in front of you. At the time he thought of it as kind of a test, how far could he push you before you were no longer kissing the ground he walked on. Seeing you still tremble at his touch or your cheeks heat up whenever he said your name made him feel good, like you would never leave him. Now that you’re gone, he’s kicking himself for pushing that limit. He didn’t know it would take him falling into Hermione’s arms in that hospital bed in front of you to ruin your good opinion of him forever, but if he did he swears he would have called out your name that day instead.
On top of the Dark Lord plotting to take over the wizarding world as he knew it, his last semester was filled with memories of you. Any time he would walk into the common room his heart would fill with sorrow, recalling how it felt to first kiss you there. He would also replay the moment he kissed Lavender Brown in that very spot, after pulling away catching a glimpse of you rushing through the crowd of Gryffindors to get away from him. In that moment he felt like the world’s biggest arse, yet it didn’t keep him from holding onto Lavender a bit longer. He avoided certain hallways that would force him to pass the broom closets and empty classrooms he pulled you into throughout the school day, hiding you from his friends. What a stupid thing to do. Part of him knew back then that he would never feel the way he felt about you for anyone else, but he was greedy.
Seeing you happy without him ripped his heart out of his chest and tore it to shreds. How you would smile down at a piece of parchment, assuming it was a letter from his brother. The sound of your voice carrying through the dorms as you and Ginny would stay up late in the common room talking about nothing and everything all at once. He couldn’t bear living right next to you, co-existing with you, while you just ignored him and grew apart from him.
“Y/n,” He calls your name. You’re alone in the common room, that is until he came in. You hadn’t heard him say your name in a while, you find it doesn’t have the same impact on you as it did a year ago and you’re grateful for that. “Y/n, can I talk to you?”
“What is it, Weasley?” You ask him, hoping the dismissal you intended in your tone translates. You had spent months avoiding him, avoiding the longing gazes, so that you could pick up the pieces of your heart that he shattered and put them back together. He doesn’t respond for a while, just admiring how you look in the glow of the fireplace. “I don’t have all night, get on with it.”
“Right,” He replies, shaking his head in an attempt to clear his thoughts. He takes a seat on the arm chair across from the couch that you’re sat on, careful not to get too close. Your face is cold, he almost doesn’t recognize you without your smile. “I messed up, Y/n. I know I did. I fucked it all just to have a quick fix because I’m arrogant and selfish. I was so lost back then, in my own pride, that I didn’t know what I wanted out of life. But I know now what I needed then, what I need now.”
You don’t reply. Your heart is sinking but you do a great job of hiding it. Your face doesn’t change even though your inside is screaming. After months of crying and misery, watching the first boy you had fallen in love with fawn over what felt like every girl in the school, you had finally stopped hurting. Your heart doesn’t ache when you see him anymore, you don’t blush when you hear his name and you stopped yearning for his touch. Yet now, he has the audacity to try and fix it. Months ago you would have welcomed this grand gesture of what you can only assume to be a confession of the love he never lost for you, but you’re not the person you were then, thanks to the boy sat in the armchair that forced you to grow up and move on from him so soon.
“Say something.”
“Say something?” You ask, gawking at his audacity and slamming your book next to you. “You dangle your little relationships in front of me for almost a fucking year, pretending like I never meant anything to you and you’d like me to say something? Do you understand what kind of pain you caused? I cried until I had nothing left because you told me all these nice things about me, you told me you loved me, then you kissed Lavender right in front of me. Not only that but I spent hours, Ron, hours sitting next to your bed in the hospital scared shitless that you were going to die in there. You know who came twenty minutes before you woke up, Granger. I was there for hours and who’s name you did you call out? Hers. Months ago I would have eaten this shit up, Weasley. You could have come in here and told me my hair looked different and I would have fallen in love with you all over again. Not anymore. I’m finally happy, you don’t get to ruin that because things didn’t turn out the way you wanted them to with Hermione.”
He sits in front of you, shocked. Part of him expected you to always want him, to come back to him even after all this time but he was wrong. He looked at you, hoping that maybe you were lying, that you were just scared to get hurt again so you put on a face for him but the look in your eyes told him more than what just fell from your lips. You hate him.
“Y/n, please.” He whimpers as you start to collect your things to leave this room immediately. There are only two of you but you feel suffocated. “I love you.”
“Shut up.” You tell him, not in jest, not to tease him but genuinely wanting him to stop speaking. “Don’t you dare say that to me ever again. You don’t deserve to know what it’s like for me to love you, you never did.”
You leave him sitting alone in the common room, heart shattered from your words that dug into him like a thousand knives. He replayed it over and over again, to feel something other than the numbness that was sure to come in time when you love someone you cannot have. He still had to be around you, watch you live your life without him. He had to see you laugh and know he could never put a smile like that on your face ever again. In order to fully heal from the heartache he was facing he knew he had to separate himself from you, to leave for a while so he didn’t have to see you fall in love with his brother, but he couldn’t. He decided he would rather have you in the smallest way possible, watching you from afar, seeing you smile like you once did at him, then never see you again.
Sidewalks we crossed
I still hear your voice in the traffic, we're laughing
Over all the noise
God, I'm so blue, know we're through
But I still fuckin' love you, babe
Years Later
Following your last year at Hogwarts, you followed George’s orders and began working at Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes. The twins were overjoyed to have your help, George especially so to have you around so often. With you 18 and he 21, after all these year he made his move on you, your friendship blossoming into something more.
You finally knew what it felt like to love and be loved back. George never tried to keep you from his friends, he never snuck off with you to hide your relationship, rather he paraded you around, proud that ‘someone like him was able to swing someone like you.’ He made you blush every time he looked at you, his handsome smile always pulling at your heartstrings. You had become addicted to being loved in that way.
Ron didn’t love your new relationship with his brother as much as as you did. He knew you deserved someone good, someone who would treat you right, he just wished it didn’t have to be someone who placed you in his life indefinitely. His heart ached whenever he would see George’s hand reach for yours as you giggled through the backyard of the Burrow. The worst was when he caught the two of you kiss for the first time.
It was late in the Summer, just after you and Ginny finished your years at Hogwarts. You were visiting just like you always did that time of year and late one night Ron heard rustling down from the main floor. Fearing that an animal had gotten in the house, he immediately searched for the origin of the noise. What he was met with was worse than if an acromantula had found its way into his kitchen. There you were, your hands tangled in his brother’s fiery red hair and his resting on your waist, your body pressed up to the sink. As he watched your lips against his brother’s, he felt as if a fire had engulfed his heart, his chest beginning to sting as it became harder to breathe. He didn’t say a word, he didn’t stop you two, just turned on his heels and darted back to his bedroom. When he was finally safe in his solitude, he slid against his door and broke down. The memories of the two of you in that very kitchen years ago flooded his sense.
During winter break of his sixth year and your fifth, the two of you spent your time cooking and cleaning together in that kitchen, laughing over the littlest things. Even when you weren’t right next to each other, he could still hear your laugh over all the commotion in the house. It was and still is his favorite sound. He wishes that he could bring that sound from your lips again, hoping that maybe one day you’ll realize your love for his brother is really misdirected love toward him, but that all changed.
You’re now 22 and George is 25. You have officially been together for four year. The shop had expanded immensely, renovations to the first store and new shops opening up all over the country and the continent. You count yourself lucky to be a part of it, to be able to say your boyfriend was the co-owner of the most successful joke shop in Europe. Being able to see how his eyes glow like it’s his first day of work every single day still makes your heart smile.
Tonight is another unveiling event of a new shop, this one in Spain. However, this new location being the 10th shop to open up in the continent, the boys decided this launch party would be more formal than the last, a bigger celebration. You all are dressed up, George in a tuxedo and you in a floor length gown. You loved seeing George in his everyday clothes, thinking he would look handsome in a potato sack, but there is something about that boy in a suit. All your friends and family are there, investors too. It’s a night you’ll remember for the rest of your life.
Ginny is still your best friend, you can’t imagine a day when she isn’t. You still have sleepovers in the Burrow even though you had your own lives and own flats. She’s still with Harry, a ring now occupying her left finger. When he proposed you and Ginny immediately started planning the wedding, there was no question who the maid of honor would be. She practically begs her older brother to make an honest woman out of you every time she sees him because she wants to, like almost everything in your lives, go through this experience with you.
Ron is there, of course he is. One of the biggest milestones in his older brothers’ career paths so far, he wouldn’t miss it for the world. He works at the shop sometimes, never with you, Fred and George would never be so cruel to ask him to do such a thing. He watched you for most of this night, his brother’s hand resting on your lower back every time he looked. While he knew your smile that you were putting on for investors and old friends was partly exaggerated so you could better play your role of proud girlfriend to the co-owner, he still admired how it sparkled like no one else’s he had ever seen. You grew more beautiful with every year you aged, this of course hurt him to still see you so happy without him.
You catch Ron’s stares throughout the night, you ignore them for the most part. You have come a long way, you were sixteen with you had your heart absolutely shattered by the boy and now you’re an adult. You have a job, a home, a life that at one point you could have never imagined living without him. The boy you were once completely and utterly bewitched by is now just a faint memory, a small ping in your chest when you think of how someone could hurt you so badly at such a young age. You catch his eye and smile at him, no longer angry with him. Like most things, George helped you process your anger. He couldn’t stand to see you so furious anytime you saw someone who mattered quite a bit to him. George has his moments when he hears something Ron did to you for the first time and becomes outraged, now that he loves you and everything, but he always reminds himself that its in the past.
Ron smiles back, you can tell he’s forcing it, but it’s a step in the right direction. Something tells him that he’ll never fully get over you, that part of his heart will always be in your possession. The only way he can describe his feelings whenever he’s around you anymore is blue, every shade of blue. Sometimes are better than other, a sky blue, a bit brighter but still a hint of sadness. Other times are a navy blue, complete and utter darkness. He hasn’t decided what tonight is blue-wise.
“Fred and I would like to thank you all for coming tonight.” George speaks into a microphone placed on an elevated surface in the new shop. You can’t help but admire his features, he looks so mature. “As you all know, courtesy of this bloody massive sign above our heads, this is our tenth shop to open across the continent. It feels surreal to say, eh Freddie?”
“You said it, George.” Fred replies. “Everyone in this room holds a special place in our heart, you’ve all, in your own ways, made this shop what it is today. We are so grateful to have such loyal and fantastic business partners, friends, and family.”
You want to cry, not a sad cry, but burst into tears over how far the two of them have come. When you first joined them in working at the shop, it was just a corner store on Diagon Alley, now it’s a world wide chain. You see the ins and outs of the business, knowing just how much work the two of them put into this dream. You’re able to catch George’s gaze, mouthing an I love you which he returns with a wink.
“Before we let you all get back to the party, theres one person we would like to specifically thank,” George speaks again before pointing down to you and motioning you to come up with them. You shake your head at him, not wanting to impede on the well deserved attention and praise the boys are getting. “Y/n, this isn’t an option come on up here. Alright, for those of you who don’t know this is my lovely, gorgeous, smart, talented-”
“Alright, get on with it Georgie!” Fred interrupts, making the crowd of people laugh. “I think they get the point.”
“Okay, okay.” George puts his hands up in defense. “Like I was saying, or those of you who don’t know this is Y/n. She’s better known to most of you as the lady who was stupid enough to say yes when I asked her to be my girlfriend, but she was the stores first hired employee. She has been with us for all the renovations, all the expansions and has always supported us in every hair-brained idea Freddie and I have come up with. She has since become our creative director for the company as well as held a seat on our board for, well as long as we’ve had a board. Without her, I think we might just crumble to the ground.”
“Oh stop that!” You don’t mean for it to come out so loud, but you make the crowd laugh again and your cheeks heat up. You slide in front of George to bring your mouth up to the microphone. “They’re making my role seem much larger than it is, all of this that you’ve seen over the years has very little to do with me.”
“Pay no mind to her, she’s being humble.” George retorts, and you decide to stop fighting it. “I guess what I’m trying to say is our lives, especially mine, would be a lot harder if Y/n wasn’t in it. I couldn’t think of a better place, in front of a better group of people, to ask this question.”
Before you can process his words, your boyfriend is lowering down on one knee and pulling a small box out of his pocket. You hear gasps and whistles coming from the crowd, making you turn to see Ginny with the biggest smile on her face. You look back down to George, your hands going to cover your gaping mouth. This is not real. The red haired boy opens the box to reveal a ring, a massive diamond in the center with what seemed like a dozen smaller diamonds surrounding it. So this is where all the money the shops have been making was going.
“Y/n, my dearest love,” He doesn’t even get a full sentence out and you’re already shaking. “It will never make sense to me why you said yes to being my girlfriend, but I’m hoping whatever came over you that day is over you now so you’ll say yes to this one too. Y/n, will you make the happiest bloke to every walk this earth and marry me?”
You can’t even form words, your heart feeling like it’s migrated to your throat. You can only nod and pull him up from his kneeling position to pull him into the tightest hug you’ve ever given. “Yes, yes. One thousand times yes. Georgie, I love you!”
George gives you that smile that melts you in every way and places the ring on your left finger. Ginny finally got her way. He pulls you in for a small kiss and your friends and family clap and shout with joy. You can hear Molly shouting over everyone else. Everyone in the room is clapping and celebrating but one person.
Ron’s mouth is agape, watching as you say yes to spending the rest of your life with his brother. He wants to be happy for the two of you, he wants to be able to celebrate with his family but the dull ache in his heart that has been present since the night in the common room that you told him to never say the words you just shouted to his brother turns into a sharp pain. This is the final nail on the coffin that is the hope Ron held that you would one day be together. That small glimmer dying as the ring is placed on your dainty hand. It doesn’t take long for Harry to notice the look on his best friends face, excusing himself from Ginny for a moment.
“You alright?” Harry asks quietly, careful not to draw attention to the one person in the room that isn’t happen for the newly engaged couple at the front. “Ron you have to at least pretend to be happy for them.”
Ron looks over to Harry and shakes his head. “I wish I could be happy for them mate. Everything in me wishes I had done something differently so it was me asking her that question.”
Harry is quiet for a while, watching as Ron’s face keeps the shocked and defeated look that its held since he saw his brother get on one knee. He balls his hands into fists every few minutes to keep himself from going completely numb. “You really still love her, don’t you? After all this time.”
“‘Course I fucking do.” Ron whispers, not meaning for it to come out as harsh as it did. He and Harry talk for a little while, just to keep his mind off the obvious stressor in the room, until Ginny is pulling Harry away to come and congratulate her best friend. Ron is left alone as we watches your smile, a genuine one this time, is glued to your face as you show anyone and everyone the ring. George is standing proudly beside you, holding your waist. You never look his way, too involved in sharing the most exciting moment of your life, though Ron wishes you would look over to him. He wishes he could catch your eye and sense some form of regret, then come save the day, but that never happens. Today is the darkest shade of blue imaginably, knowing for certain that your whole heart belongs to someone else. Quietly, for no one else to hear but him, he utters:
“I love you, I always will.”
#ron weasley#ron weasley imagine#ron weasley x reader#harry potter#harry potter imagine#george weasley#george weasley imagine#weasley imagine#weasley twins#gryffindor#gryffindor imagines
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So maybe this is just wishful thinking on my part...
But when you see how this boy smiles, how huge that smile is.
ALL. THE. TIME.
It is kind of weird to see his smile change for a little bit when we get to this scene.
He is asking Charlie what she thinks, and she is genuinely overjoyed by everything he has done to make her hotel more welcoming and warm for demons interested in staying.
Her joy and happiness are so apparent, she approaches him with a huge smile of her own. And for a split second, that huge smile of his seems to soften. Just slightly, but if you pause it's there. Maybe this is just coincidence, but unlike some of the weird ass animation frames we get when we pause at awkward moments, his softened smile is longer than just a single frame.
Which leads me to think maybe, just MAYBE this is a quick break in the mask Alastor puts up. Because perhaps he is genuinely touched by how happy and appreciative Charlie is for his hard work. Which, if my theory on Alastor is correct, such appreciation is something he never received in hell for all he had done over the past century or so.
I'm not saying this because I ship Charlastor, either. I thought these two would do really well together even just platonically long before I jumped on the Charlastor ship.
The reason why is this:
Charlie and Vaggie are in a relationship, according to sources which include Vivzie herself.
However, without actually finding out through outside channels, I would have just figured the two to be rather close friends. There isn't anything that could really be considered romantic interaction between the two at any point in the pilot.
There are factors that could be involved as to why this may be, but it just seemed odd not to establish their relationship as more romantic in the pilot if they are romantically involved. Especially when the pilot is meant to establish these sorts of things prior to the actual show.
At multiple points in the pilot, their relationship seems to be somewhat off-balance. Charlie seems to rely on Vaggie more than what could be considered normal. Not to say depending on others is wrong, but the give and take between these two in those regards isn't normal for a balanced and healthy romantic relationship.
Vaggie is loving and supportive when we first meet her, but she also indulges Charlie in her dependency to her. Again, this isn't to say that depending on the ones you care about is wrong, but you also need a sense of independence and self-identity. These are two things Charlie seems to struggle with in the pilot.
Vaggie, like anyone who cares about someone else, wants to protect Charlie and see her succeed. We see several instances of her doing as such.
She even goes so far as to pull a spear on Alastor, who she knows is far more powerful than she is but does so because she wants to protect Charlie and the hotel. This is admirable, but the biggest issue with Vaggie's desire to protect Charlie is it keeps her sheltered.
She also endorses Charlie's cold turkey method of "discouraging sin" which we know would not work.
Charlie demonstrates some naivety in the pilot on how Hell (and by extension, the world) works, something that Vaggie does point out briefly but never fully drives home. Charlie feels the need to sing about her goals and dreams "because that is how she best expresses herself," even though life is not a musical. In her song, though Charlie's goals are noble, her ideas on how to reach them are short sighted and inconsiderate. More self-serving to her personal goal than to actually achieving lasting change within a sinner.
We see her throwing away vices each sinner possesses, seeking quick solutions to problems that cannot be solved with them.
This, of course, earns her no favors with her audience for which she is trying to sell her idea. So naturally they laugh and scorn her.
As princess of hell, it would not surprise me if she was sheltered by Lillith and Lucifer. Given her personality upon meeting her, that seems rather likely.
Charlie cannot learn any other way or experience the world as she should in order to grow as a person and into the princess Hell needs if she is constantly protected and sheltered by those who care about her most. Leaving the nest to pursue her goals was a good first step, but unless she can get out and experience the world instead of being sheltered from it, she won't be able to learn or grow.
This is where Alastor comes into play.
Alastor, from the beginning, has kept Charlie and Vaggie separated. Or at least not together for any extended period of time.
After all, Alastor can get away with more when someone is wearing Rose-Colored Glasses than when someone is constantly shooting glares his way.
This is something that both works for and against Charlie. For her in the sense that spending time away from Vaggie and around Alastor would allow her to experience Hell in a more direct way. In the way that Alastor sees it, which would allow for a big paradigm shift and for character growth from Charlie.
But against her in the sense that it leaves Charlie vulnerable to getting hurt. Granted, when you get hurt that is an experience you also learn from. But how Charlie would get hurt is something else entirely.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Alastor spending more time with Charlie who looks for the good in everything around her, would likely also inspire a change in him and his world view. Even if miniscule.
In this sense, the two are good for one another. They would learn and grow from each other. Which is the goal in fictional stories like this.
This isn't to say Vaggie is a problem character, or that she is wrong to want to protect Charlie. On the contrary, I personally find Vaggie to be a very relatable character. But she, like every member of the Hazbin cast(and every denizen of hell, let's be honest), has some growing to do. And she can't really do that herself if she is focusing all of her energy and attention on protecting Charlie from anyone and everyone she considers a problem or a threat.
But regardless where the shipping chips fall, it will be interesting to see how all the relationships grow and change as the characters themselves do so.
Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.
#hazbin hotel#hazbin hotel alastor#hazbin alastor#hazbin hotel charlie#hazbin hotel fandom#hazbin hotel vaggie#hazbin hotel theory#have been thinking about this one for a while
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•ALLEGRA BIANCHI•
IG info/bio: @/theeallegrabianchi | 303k followers| Entrepreneur | bad bitches go to therapy thxz 🦭👄
(24) 26 years old
From Swansea, Wales
Ofc she knows who Catherine Zeta-Jones is...her mother literally resembles her and remembers people coming up to her mom countless times asking for a pic growing up, and Allegra hated taking pics for these imbeciles...mainly because the attention wasn’t on her
has a dysfunctional family...
her mother is critical of almost everything she does but at least she paying attention?
and feels her father is neglectful and only seems to be heard when she’s in his face
all they know how to do is scream at each other instead of talking calmly to one another
her mother is of Venezuelan heritage
And Her father is of Italian heritage
her father’s side of the family resides in calabria italy
he named her after his high school gf that passed away due to his irresponsible drunk driving on their senior prom night
Her parents do not have the healthiest of relationships due to her father constantly cheating on her mother in the past...leading to verbal and physical fights
also has a kid or two outside of their marriage because of his unfaithfulness and allegra learned to hate them because of the hurt her mother showcased
In the beginning she was only around them because her father enforced it, that she needed to know her family “blood is all you got in the end.” He would always say but that was bs
Would take her, her half sibs, and her full sibs on day trips/weekend trips in his suburban
Has three full older brothers and one full younger sister
Because of this, Allegra did not have a clear view of what love was supposed to be and felt that anger in a relationship is supposed to be somewhat of the norm?
Many times she wished at night in her bed with a pillow over her head that her parents would just file for a divorce already when their fights would get bad to the point things would get broken and her mother would h*t her father (once with a metal bat) and throw him out of the house
Has had the cops called on their household before and cps definitely has/had a file on them
Has been in family therapy before and is currently in therapy mainly for herself because of the trauma & how it’s messed with her spirit as a person
Loves? Cares for her parents from afar but will never understand their relationship and why they’re still together to this day
Can go months without speaking to any of her family members and be completely fine with that
Had her younger sis, Nerina put her PRIVATE shit on blast via internet after love island aired and completely cut her off since she is “a clout chaser and money hungry bitch who can’t take care of own her child cause she opened her legs to a meth head who loves prison” OOP
she only has a decent relationship with one of her brothers who’s two years older than her, Vito. They seem to be the closest out of the sibs and he’s the only one she bothers to speak to from time to time
She’s a “cocktail entrepreneur” so I’m guessing she has her own business where she specializes in her own cocktail drinks? Working in some upscale rooftop/penthouse bar where she successfully makes profits from her signature drinks or has a brand that focuses mainly on cocktails
It took years for her business to take off and hasn’t been easy, not one bit. At times it felt like everyone wanted to see her fail and she has openly spoken about her struggles as not only a entrepreneur but as a woman in this business where no one wanted to take a chance on her
That just lit the fire that’s already inside of her
Aries sun + Leo moon + Scorpio rising? (Personality vs how you react to things emotionally vs you’re outside shell for those who don’t follow this too much. I’m not too in depth about it but I do find it interesting!)
Or should she be reversed as a Leo sun with a Aries moon? Aries are direct, fiery, one step ahead of others, impulsive, and know how to take charge. Leo’s are dramatic, loves attention, passionate, loyal, warm, and have a need to express their passions, and scorpios are intense, secretive, mysterious, and work strategically
anyways, I feel like she’s definitely improved as a person over the span of two years? Or at least I hope she has cause everyone goes thru changes
And she was frustrating in s1 so I just know she had some deeper issues going on so I really think therapy is helping her ass I wish it would help me lmao
Being cheated on honestly made her feel like her mother, weak in her mind she was with this dude for awhile—3 years and he just up and thought it was okay to cheat on her? With his personal trainer?! Yet he didn’t gain any muscle mass?! The ultimate disrespect!!! but one thing she knew? She wasn’t going to stick around like her mom did
But she was bitter about it foresure. She ultimately wanted to corner the girl for messing with HER man but part of her knew she wasn’t the only one to blame. However that didn’t stop her for cussing her out via voicemail a couple of times while intoxicated
Allegra always strived for love cause she’s never really seen it before or felt it
Sure she’s had many boyfriends before?And their names didn’t matter not only because she didn’t remember them? But she never felt the spark with them in the first place?
Maybe she wasn’t meant for love so she kinda put on this bitchy front and always been that way with some shitty friends she had around her until she recently cut them off a year ago
has gotten herself into trouble as a kid: trespassing, and destroying public property, smoking in the girls bathroom, physical altercations, cutting class, being assigned community service, etc... all with these friends she’s had for years!
Before she met her problematic friends in secondary, when she was in her pre-teen stage she was involved in the handbell team and in the Color guard but hates to admit it even tho her parents have pics all over the flat
went away to uni for a semester and wanted to join a sorority but the hazing was extreme to the point she was sent to the hospital then accepted? Which led to more trauma in her life so she dropped out
A few years later she decided on online courses and moved out of her parents flat as soon as she could with the $ she saved up and did not leave in the house since it was not safe to smh
Therapy was really helping sis, she felt a lot better and was working on her deep rooted issues mainly the anger and hurt and never really realized how it revolves around her life. She was super thankful for her therapist and reshaping herself
Many didn’t buy it but she knew she couldn’t give that much of a fuck? She couldn’t. In order to grow you got to learn that you have to involve for yourself and not others
She didn’t like the person she saw watching the show back but when she came back to the reunion a part of her hoped people saw some sort of change in her—even if it’s only been a few months since the show then
Sometimes she’ll slip back into old habits, wanting and doing so by snapping on people and blacking out by getting intoxicated and knowing that healing is a process and valuing yourself is the exact same
has a toy poodle that she loves deeply
doesn’t have many outside friends after cutting off the ones that were toxic
is pro-ab*rtion and had one herself which was aired out by her sister online
has a cozy flat that has a lot of brick exposure inside, a navy sofa which is her favorite piece in her house, and a view to die for!! which erases the fact that her apartment is “cozy” which she uses to replace the fact that it’s much smaller than what she originally wanted. She dreams big ya know!!!
currently has a crush on her art teacher who resembles Adam Rodriguez
but also feels like liking your teacher/instructor is a bit weird? Even tho they’re both grown
yes she is taking art classes now outside of work to find something that’ll bring her peace and these pass months they have until COVID hit where classes had to be cancelled yet she was contacted to continue online but she felt her art was truly shit but he says art is subjective
She feels like there’s a connection there? But at the same time isn’t looking for another relationship until she fully works on herself first! That took awhile for her to accept after she fell into some relations with a few ppl after the show
from there she realized that she might like girls too? And got a little annoyed that it took her this long to figure out especially with the way she felt around MC and cherry
doesn’t like to admit this but her fav holiday is Christmas? Even tho the theme is majorly corny to her but it actually makes her happy?
Feels like that was the only time her family showed love towards each other, and even tho they didn’t come from much, they always followed thru with their traditions
and she misses them a little bit around this time and might be the first one to call them even if the calls are short lived and kinda awkward at first
Loves making gingerbread houses and cookies
i feel like she now embraces her forearm hair but still gets everything else lasered
Miss Allegra has inches okay?! But I definitely feel like now in 2020 she’s chopping that shit off into a pixie cut and when she posts on the gram her hair is usually always damp when she shows it off
some comments — jake: lovely! Jen: babe, ur beautiful! Erikah: 😍 Tim: how hot! You’ve got the whole resident evil thing goin for yous
“Did he just call me a virus?”
And she might get a like from mason that’ll make her feel some type of way
We all have to go thru some growth you know so do you girl!
You can’t tell me she doesn’t play stabscotch!
Used to be obsessed with social media way before going on love island but lately doesn’t mind disappearing for months at a time? You have to cleanse yourself from that shit
idk i see her being mostly cool with jen or erikah and will hang out with them from time to time? Maybe they experienced some growth too, shit I sure hope so
still feels something for mason??? But at the same time maybe it was mainly superficial since mason wasn’t fucking with her like that, not 100% but at the same time gets frustrated that he still doesn’t see where she’s coming from and it’s been 2 years???
She loves hard if given the chance and then feels like shit when it doesn’t work out cause it feels like she wasted a fuck load of time
she no longer follows him because she feels like it’s better for her spirit or whatever and she doesn’t need to see him with someone else
the only guy that she really interacts with is Tim, yet tim is cool with everybody!
Otherwise there’s no real connection with her and anybody else? She wants to keep love island separate from herself now because she’s not exactly the same as she was two years ago? And hopes someday people will get that
Probably watches those auction shows on the telly late at night when she can’t sleep, hoping and can afford some of those things one days
I feel like she has chronic migraines too?
Once had a significant other buy her Allegra-D in all seriousness for her birthday because it reminded them of her & thought it would help her headaches 🤨
Loves the snow, but hates cleaning it off her car! S/O to those HOA fees, bless it cause leggy’s deff bussed her ass once before breaking her collarbone and sued like a mf!!!
Since her hours are hardly consistent since she’s mainly her own boss, she’ll have late nights/early mornings when she returns home and has to shift days where she cleans the flat but when she cleans??? It’s best everyone stays tf out of her way
And don’t try to help her cause you’re doing it wrong 10/10 of the time, she loves cleaning and has dropped mad money on those super expensive vacuums
Only knows how to make what’s relative to her culture: arepas, penne alla vodka, and cawl but otherwise than that? She’d rather clean then spend hours in a kitchen cooking unless she’s making cocktails ofc!
also loves shopping for clothes but shoes are her fav things to shop for
Deff has a steamer over a iron for her clothes
Keeps eucalyptus and lavender oil in her purse at all times
posts mainly on her stories and made a deal with her supporters that she’ll go live once a month since she feels like she owes them that? Since she’s not as active anymore but she really doesn’t owe anybody shit but out of the newfound kindness of her heart...she does
Believes she got Covid before they all decided to do a shut down/lockdown of restaurants, bars, etc.. and her suspicions were proven correct after she decided to get tested
her anthem? Kali Uchis — Dead to me (acoustic version)
#litg#litg allegra#litg headcanons#litg headcanon#litg moodboard#litg mason#litg Tim#litg jake#litg jen#litg erikah#litg mc#litg oc#had to make to drama filled since s1 did us right along with s2#I do feel like Allegra bettered? herself after the show and stand by that#I still laugh when I see her character in my head and the fact that someone said she looks like the bride of chucky#anyways I like giving people the benefit of the doubt and I think ppl like her better than Lucy? lmao so this is for y’all allegra stans#decided to give s3 a break and play s1 again hope that’s cool lol#also no longer doing celeb crush/music choices anymore cause I’ve run out? lol alright bye!
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Nott’s Conflicting Narratives
[[Spoilers for Campaign 2 up to Episode 75]]
Man. D’you ever get the need to talk about how much you love your favorite character? Because I am feeling PASSIONATE for a specific little goblin girl right now.
I love Nott. She’s the peanut butter to my jam, the sugar to my spice, the awkward green butterball mushing around in my heart. She’s my absolute FAVORITE character of the cast and one of my all-time favorite characters in general. So, of course, I feel the need to bend over backwards, snap my spine into a pretzel, and projectile vomit my absolute love for this woman all over your dashes.
In this piece, I wanted to talk about her personal growth over the story and how she’s evolved from what viewers believed was merely a skittish, oddball of a green powder monkey klepto into an equally odd but emotionally resonant mother desperate to reclaim her life and family.
In my opinion, Nott’s overarching story revolves around a mother attempting to recapture her personal narrative from a world that has tried to tear it away from her.
Let’s first establish Nott’s position as the “mother” of the Mighty Nein.
Time for a recap.
As we discover in episode 49, Nott is a little goblin girl, who was once a young halfling woman, who was once a halfling child. In her desperate dash to protect her family from goblin kidnappers, the halfling woman known as Veth Brenatto is recaptured and put to death. Her corpse is then reanimated into the flesh puppet goblin suit we know and love today. In this process, her skin, body, and even mind are reconstructed to be more goblin-esque – a situation which Veth vehemently despises. To put distance between herself and her former life, she renames herself “Nott the Brave,” an anagram of Veth Brenatto.
“They made me everything… that I thought I was. Not pretty…not good. Just not.”
This event is significant for a multitude of reasons, primarily of which revolve around Nott’s relationship with motherhood.
In her essay The Symbolic Annihilation of Mothers in Popular Culture, Berit Astrӧm (2015) observes that mother characters are routinely devalued in popular culture via what she terms “symbolic annihilation.” Gaye Tuchman (1978) originally coined the phrase to describe the way in which media trivializes, condemns, or outright excludes mothers, but Astrӧm extends it to include the removal of mothers from narratives entirely.
We’ve seen this play out time and time again: for example, how many times have we questioned “what happened to the mother” in Disney movies? Often, we see that their exclusions leave little impact on the story and characters, with many media franchises unceremoniously minimizing the mother’s very existence as if it held no more meaning than an ironically titled paperweight.
Now, how does this apply to Nott?
Nott’s character is an inversion of this trope. Although she is killed by the goblins as per the trope’s wont, the narrative does not revolve around her son or husband trying to cope with her loss. Instead, the narrative remains centered on she the mother as this little goblin girl punches a fist through the earth and screams NOT TODAY SATAN. Her story revolves around her identity as a mother, and it takes shape in a plethora of different ways.
Nott exhibits many atypical characteristics that are not commonly associated with the idealized form of “motherhood.” She’s loud, she’s boisterous, she’s mischievous. She’s self-admittedly “strange” and eccentric. She saw it suit to dump a pitcher of cucumbers and proceed to eat them off the ground. Absolutely no one can convince me that this a goblin-specific trait and not just Nott being her weird little self.
And yet, Nott exhibits many typically feminine/motherly traits as well. In spite of her vulgarities, she’s gentle and kind towards Caleb, and it takes some time for their relationship to evolve beyond that. She likes dresses! She likes feeling pretty even though the situation rarely allows her to be. She likes to collect buttons and baubles and cutesy trinkets. And most of all, Nott expresses love. Beau’s the first person in the group to say it to someone else, but Nott is the first of anyone to emphatically express her love for this ragtag group of misfits they’ve wrangled together.
“I know we have things to do, and I want to do them, but the reason I want to find these people and rescue them is not to use them, or not because we’ve invested time in them. But it’s because… I love them.”
Nott is very much “the Heart” of the Mighty Nein, in spite of her idiosyncrasies and eccentricities. In this sense, she views herself as their mother – not just as Caleb’s parental figure, but the entirety of the group. It’s not just a meme, with adoption papers scrawled across a series of barbeque-stained napkins in chicken scratch. Over time, she’s genuinely adopted the M9 as her own, welcoming them under her stubby wings. Nott has said as much several times, but most significantly in episode 76, when she told Caleb that she wanted to protect everyone on their own individual quests.
“I protected you so that you could go on your journey and find yourself and fulfill your quest. I feel like I’ve got to do that for everyone now because, I don’t know, deep down inside it feels like my quest might not be done till everyone else has figured out who they are and what they want in this world. Everyone’s seeking something, you know?”
This protection – this overwhelming need to shield, to safeguard, to provide security and aegis – is crucial to recognizing what Nott is as a parent. A protector. A defender. Nott firmly believes that protection is representative of parenthood, its indistinguishable mirror image.
How do I know this? Nott confirmed it word-for-word in episode 13, when she explained her relationship with Caleb to the rest of the M9.
“Caleb and I have a very special…relationship. And it’s that of a parent and a child. But I am the parent, you do understand that, correct? I protect him. He’s my boy, and I keep him safe. … It’s my job to protect him, because I love him, and I am his protector.”
Nott clearly associates parenthood with protection. She reiterates it again and again. If you fall under her protection, you are her child. It doesn’t matter how old you are, how strong you are, how quick you are – she will protect you to the very last inch of her life. And over the course of the campaign, many, many times over, she’s nearly given said life to ensure the protection of others. An early example is when Nott threw her body over Caleb’s to shield him from attack. In 45, she drew the blue dragon’s attack to save Jester, shaving her hit points down to 1.
Nott again establishes this in 76.
“So I feel like, I need to be there to protect you all. To rescue you when there’s a dragon about to kill you and use my body as a shield; or to pull Beauregard out of the mouth of a worm; or to catch you when someone falls with a feather fall spell.”
This is a fundamental aspect of her character, and explains the majority of her actions. Even though she’s anxious and scared, Nott powers through her fears to protect her loved ones at any cost necessary – with a few nips to soothe her nerves, of course.
And as sweet as this gremlin of a goblin is, she doesn’t extend her protection to everyone she meets – she’s self-sacrificial, but only to her proverbial children, after they’ve spent more than enough time becoming comfortable with one another. In episode 75, for example, Nott suggested that Reani was expendable and thus should go first when facing the dragon. She likes Reani, sure, but if it came down to her and the M9? The outsider would be the first to go.
This further lends itself to the idea that Nott perceives protection as parenthood, self-sacrifice as motherly duty – she’s not just a nice gal throwing down her life in order to ensure the welfare of others, but only for the select few she deems in need of her protection.
However, Nott isn’t just a mother, which comes to the crux of this post. For the majority of the campaign, Nott has primarily identified as a mother figure – to Luc, to Caleb, to the M9 at large. But over time, she’s steadily developed into wanting to be more than just a mother. At the very least, she’s expressed her desires more openly over the course of the show as time has gone on. This development intersects with her identity issues as Nott struggles to reconcile two conflicting lives.
Throughout her short life – and I do mean short, she’s only about 25 (I’m turning 25 this month and the extent to which this little goblin has pushed herself through sends me into anxiety just by association) – Nott’s life has followed a very, shall we say, standard route. She’s always been someone’s daughter – someone’s wife – someone’s mother. Veth Brenatto grew up the small town of Felderwin with very few expectations of their people beyond the usual sort, assuming that said small town followed real-world small-town culture. As such, Veth traversed domestic paths in life, not straying far from those expectations. In spite of her intelligence and capabilities, Veth remained a housewife essentially, assisting Yeza when need be and taking care of Luc. This narrative held steady for some time.
And everything changed when the Fire Nation goblins attacked.
Veth’s narrative as a mother, as a wife, as a little halfling from the little hovel hole of Felderwin, was abruptly disrupted when she became Nott. Her narrative was stolen from her, manipulated and perverted into something she deemed grotesque. Forced to co-exist with the tribe, Nott becomes the torturer’s assistant – the absolute antithesis to motherhood in the representative forebearer of violence, depravity, and death. Her desire to nurture and protect is met with oppression and bloodshed.
It’s no wonder Nott detests the narrative the goblins thrust upon her. Her goblin exterior fundamentally represents a life forced upon her, a narrative chosen without her consent.
“I just don't like how I feel when I see my hands or my feet. They just feel wrong. I want to be different.”
“I'll be honest. I've started forgetting what it feels like to be a halfling, to be me. I don't remember everything any more. I feel like every day I'm more and more goblin. I don't like it at all. I don't like myself at all.”
“There's still something that's not right about this. This is not my body. It's just not me. And people liking you is nice, and people accepting you is nice. But if you feel wrong inside your own skin, then, well, you can't be a good mother or a good wife, or a good anything, really.”
Upon escaping, her narrative again changes: she’s no longer anyone’s assistant, but existing for herself. And only herself. Before she meets Caleb, she’s alone, unwanted by the populace at large and unable to return to Felderwin. She’s no longer a mother – just detested vermin looking to steal and connive, so people would believe.
That is partially why, in my opinion, she adopts Caleb as her own so quickly. Of course, Nott sees him as a means to an end in the beginning, as does he. They both admit that they had ‘other intentions’ in staying together than purely out of goodness of their hearts. However, it is evident that well before the campaign started, these two forged a bond that went beyond that of convenience. Nott fills the hole in her heart, the hole in her very narrative, by becoming Caleb’s adoptive mother, assisting him in his ventures and protecting him whenever need be. By doing this, she is able to choose for herself, to differentiate herself from the goblin’s narrative of pain and misery. She is no longer just “not,” she is Nott, Nott the Brave.
As was aforementioned, Nott’s motherhood narrative grows to include the rest of the M9. However, with time, she reaches a conflict within herself: while she hates being a goblin, she enjoys her new lifestyle. Is she afraid? She’s fucking petrified. Yet like the rest of the group, she’s fallen in love with adventuring, the highs and lows that demonstrate the extent of her capabilities. Nott isn’t just an assistant anymore – she can do magic! She can fight, she can pick locks, she can adapt firearms and create explosive weaponry. Hell, she can wield a crossbow with the dexterity of an Olympic gymnast and liquidate giant spiders into bloody pastes on the wall. With the M9, she’s seeing the world, far beyond the borders of Felderwin and her small-town life.
And suddenly, Veth’s narrative as a stay-at-home mom isn’t so appealing anymore.
Is there a problem inherent to existing as a housewife and full-time mother? No, of course not. Nevertheless, Nott has found herself in a strange position – she longs for her old life and family, ripped away from her by the gnarled claws of fate, yet remains enthralled by the wonders this new narrative can offer her.
In 36, Nott reveals to Cadeuceus that she believes the M9 could be representative of a new life for her – a new narrative.
“I’m not a religious lady, but I will tell you that, for me, this journey with the group has been a bit of a sign. … A sign that there could be, for all of us, another chapter.”
It’s a new chapter, a new narrative, a new life for Nott. One she could never have imagined possible for her in the confines of her small town. And by god, does she want to live it. Nott expressed this desire to live this life to its fullest, to live this new narrative to its fullest, in 27 after Molly’s death.
“Mollymauk was a rainbow man who represented life at its fullest. And. That’s what I want, even more than… even more than what we’re going for before. Together, we’re sort of living life now, aren’t we? And before, we were… in the darkness, so. … I want to find them so we don’t go back to the way it was, when we were hiding in the shadows and, and ducking into alleys to get away from people. We were safe, but we weren’t really alive, right? With these people, we’re having fun and winning contests. And. And killing bad guys, and rescuing children…it’s amazing.”
I’m of the opinion that Nott’s speech is reflective of both her experiences with Caleb as well as her own in Felderwin. She was living before – and she enjoyed it, yes! She obviously loves Yeza and Luc. But now, she’s seeing what life can be like when lived to its fullest, seeing what life can be like when she spearheads her own narrative. She gleans inspiration from Mollymauk, who decided to head his own narrative and remain unrepentantly unconcerned with what his past might have been like. With his death, Nott becomes convinced that she needs to truly lead this life, lead this newfound narrative with this family she’s amassed.
But with that realization comes conflict once the dredges of Nott’s previous life begin seeping into her narrative. This is especially once Nott reunites with Yeza in Xhorhas.
“Caleb, I’m feeling uneasy. … I, because. What the fuck am I doing here? I just was reunited with my husband, and I’ve – I -- we were given a chance to go on an adventure and I jumped at it like that. Am I a bad person? I just left him, I ditched my husband in a den of monsters to go adventuring with you.”
Rather than hold down the fort with her newly reunited husband, Nott instinctively leaps at the chance for adventure, the chance to go out and see more of the world. She doesn’t even think about it, it’s just oh? A side quest? Well fuck me rosy, time to knock my crossbow. Because that’s what Nott would do, not Veth. And once she realizes what she’s done, Nott begins wondering if she’s a terrible person for living her life. She begins questioning her intentions, wondering whether her actions are the ploy of some subconscious desire to remain free, remain independent of her responsibilities.
“You don’t think I’m just…delaying the inevitable? Scared of going back to my old life, or anything?”
Nott further recognizes the disparity between her two lives and how wide the gulf between them yawns.
“It’s just, I just don’t know like. Is he gonna…even like me anymore, I’m so different. Not just physically, I do different things now. … Will I like it? I’ve gotten a taste of adventure and, and seeing the world, and now I’ve gotta go back and be a…a housewife again?”
Nott doesn’t even know if she wants to be called Veth anymore. Not by people who have come into her life since Veth’s apparent demise. When Caleb asks her in 59, she dismisses the question and asserts that they should just go with Nott for now.
She asks Caleb to tell her what she should do, in a desperate plea for someone else to give her direction in life. Because driving your own narrative is hard. It’s a painful, painful process, full of ups and downs and mistakes and setbacks. But Caleb fundamentally cannot decide her narrative for her -- it’s Nott’s narrative, not his. He can help her along and support her, but he will never be able to direct it. She has to do it for herself.
(As a side note: I love, love, love how far Nott and Caleb’s relationship has come. Prior to the Xhorhas arc, Nott never bothered him with her problems, drudging on ahead as she didn’t want to “distract” him from his personal quest. She’s exactly like a mother, masking her insecurities and fears from her young child so that they won’t worry about what they can’t control. And now, as her child has grown up and become more aware of his mother’s struggles, she’s leaning on him more and more for support. It truly mirrors parent-child relationships and is representative of how far these characters have grown over time.)
With these conversations, it becomes evident that Nott is seeking more than family, more than the life of a housewife. And yet, simultaneously, she embodies the narrative of a mother, loves being a mother, and loves the people in both her immediate and found families. To merge these narratives will be an almost insurmountable task, from her perspective -- how can you raise a family when you’re constantly adventuring? You can’t endanger their lives. Conversely, is it responsible of a parent to endanger their own life, potentially risking everything for adventure’s sake? To widow your husband and orphan your child if something goes horribly wrong? If she becomes a housewife again, how long can she keep up the charade pretending she’s a halfling? If she stays, will she forever remain uncomfortable in her own skin? How long will she even live? Nott is juggling so many plates, and dropping even one could result in the partial devastation of these narratives she’s cultivated.
And she’s scared. She’s really, really scared. Nott is petrified of what comes next -- she knows it’s inevitable that she’s going to have to face these conflicting narratives in the future. She knows she can’t ignore it forever. And that prospect terrifies her. She says this explicitly in episode 69.
“I'm just scared, that's all. I'm scared of...I'm scared of what happens next. You know? I don't know what's going to happen after this. I found my husband. I found my son. And I want to go back with them so much. ... But I'm worried that if I go back, that'll be it.”
This overwhelming, paralyzing sense of fear has driven Nott to drink. Even more so than usual. Over the course of the show, Nott has made no secret of her drinking habits. She’s a drunkard -- she knows it, the M9 knows it. You, me, and the NSA agent watching you behind the screen know it. But it’s no accident the M9 has begun commenting more and more on her habitual intoxication. She simply is more intoxicated than usual. She’s depending more and more on her alcoholism to get through each day.
Nott is of course afraid of enemies, of secret dangers lurking behind every corner. She’s a perpetually anxious person, constantly filled with frenetic energy. But these anxieties have worsened ten-fold with the inclusion of her intersecting narratives and responsibilities. And honestly? With all that going on in her brain, Nott just flat out doesn’t want to think about it. She wants to live in the moment -- not in the past, not in the future, but the present.
“I'm thinking about things. And I don't want to think about things. I don't want to think about anything. I just want to be on an adventure with you guys and that's all I want and I don't want to think about anything else past that.”
And so, she turns to drinking. As she tells Caleb, drinking is her own form of self-care. While she may protect others, she herself needs protection too -- from her own thoughts, fears, and inner demons. From the physical dangers that manifest in front of her very person.
“I know you all have my back, I know you all care for me, but no one has my front. So this flask that I drink from, it’s not for fun, I’m not taking nips because I’m looking for fun. If I wanted fun I’d be in Nicodranus with my family. This flask is my shield. It allows me to do these things, to go forward and to protect all of you.”
Nott needs to shield herself from fears that she may not come back to her family. She needs to shield herself from fears that she won’t find a remedy to her situation, that she won’t ever be Veth again. She needs to shield herself from fears that these conflicting narratives will never reconcile, thereby isolating her from either family she’s come to love as her own.
All in all, Nott is currently torn between two lives -- one whose existence is linked to traditional motherhood, and another whose fate is yet undecided. And yet, by continuing with the M9, Nott has found herself on the path towards potential self-realization. This route she treads has the potential to shed the narrative the goblins thrust upon her and totally make one anew, one that is her own. In that sense, it’s representative of what this narrative means as a whole: Nott is more than just a mother. She’s a mother with autonomy. A mother with hopes, dreams, and aspirations. Unlike Berit Astrӧm’s (2015) analysis of symbolic annihilation, she is more than just a paper cutout of idealized motherhood left to be abandoned.
Indeed, Nott can be a mother without being the mother archetype.
Nott will certainly struggle to reconcile these narratives. She loves being a mother, but she clearly wants to love herself too. She wants to be more than just a mother, and thus she quests to recapture her personal narrative -- one where she can be both a mother and retain her personal autonomy.
I love the nuance and complexity Sam has demonstrated with this character, and I’m sure we’re only going to see more in the future.
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RWBY Recaps: “ACE Operatives”
We’re back, folks! I have to say, I think overall this is one of the strongest episodes we’ve gotten since “The Lost Fable.” Are there still concerns? You know it, but on the whole I’ve got to give credit where credit’s due. So with that unexpectedly optimistic mindset, let’s dive in.
We open right on the group’s first mission and for a moment I was worried that, like with Oscar’s shopping, this time skip would be passed right over. Especially after we hear Pietro apologize for “holding onto your weapons for so long,” telling us that between the Academy tour at the end of last episode and this mission today, at least a few weeks have passed. Long enough for one guy to re-design multiple combat outfits and weaponry, plus an additional boost here and there. Luckily, the first part of the episode cuts among three distinct times: when they got their weapons, when they first heard about the mission, and this present day flight/landing, which as a technique I like quite a bit. It gives us a sense of each time while keeping us moving forward. No one is thinking, “Ugh. Do we really need to hear a mission briefing when most of last episode was learning about this plan in the first place?” because we already know this is taking place in the past. Just sit through the snippet and then the rest of the info will come through voice-overs while the group jumps out of an airship. Good balance of exposition and action.
What we learn in these flashbacks is that Ironwood wants to use an abandoned dust mine for the satellite’s launch. Only problem? It’s inhabited by a very old, extremely dangerous geist. Kudos to the writing team for the Volume Two callback. I’ve always been intrigued by Oobleck’s comment that grimm are capable of learning if they continue to survive and here we finally see an example of that. This geist isn’t just strong, it’s smart enough to hide in the mines themselves.
Shot over all this we see Atlas military personnel taking out the everyday grimm in the surrounding area, proving that their weapons can handle that task in most situations. Why doesn’t Ironwood’s robots have that then? Or as others have pointed out, something even more powerful like Penny’s lasers, or some of the upgrades the team gets? Chock it up to lack of funds... or simple plot setup. If the robots had been able to take out a bunch of grimm easy-peasy then there wouldn’t have been any cool premiere fight for our group. Then again, all of this casts their snarky comments about Ironwood’s defenses in a new light. Clearly they’re a force to be reckoned with when the plot actually allows it.
We likewise see the group receiving their new gear and... okay. Here’s where the griping starts. Though it’s admittedly small compared to most of my criticisms. First off, why is Jaune receiving a random scrap of Pyrrha’s outfit? Logically this makes no sense to me. Pyrrha’s body disintegrated into a bunch of dust. I can buy Jaune incorporating other armor and fabric into his gear because they were living together and Pyrrha must have spares, but where did this come from? Did Pietro go ask a family member for a random memento for the (from his perspective) equally random teen that showed up? It’s entirely possible that I’m missing something---I’m sick as a dog at the moment and am probably one fever degree away from mild hallucinations---but the whole setup seems incredibly weird. We see Jaune open his box. We see his look of shock. He see him fingering a torn piece of Pyrrha’s skirt. But how does all that come together in any logical way?
More importantly... why? Why is this still a thing? I get it, Jaune is grieving, but to be frank this has been his one-note characterization for over three volumes now. More importantly, everyone else is grieving too. This is another case of the writing prioritizing what the audience knows over what characters know. Meaning, we got to see how close Jaune and Pyrrha were. We know they were in love, but outsiders like Ironwood and Pietro see them as a unified team. Why not give a scrap to Jaune, Nora, and Ren? Really, that’s what rankles the most: this continuing focus on Jaune over the rest of his team. Especially when that focus just leads us in circles of the ‘Jaune is sad’ variety. I thought we were supposed to be learning more about Nora this volume, so why not give her something to remember Pyrrha by? I realize we’re only through the third episode, but in a series that averages twelve each volume, that’s a fourth of our material gone. Please. I’m begging you. Enough about Jaune. We’ve watched him cry and rage and lash out for three years now. He’s gotten to move through every type of grief the writing could throw at him. Let someone else take the spotlight for a change.
(It’s also just all around weird because Jaune is smiling sadly, implying he’s moving on, but then we have Clover narrating about how they’re “going to kill this thing...” which reminds us of Pyrrha’s murder in a way not really conducive to the whole ‘moving on’ vibe... it’s just odd.)
Second gripe: why doesn’t Oscar get anything? I’ve written before about how overall the group still treats Oscar as the outsider and boy oh boy, do we see that trend continuing here. I’ll speak about this more in a moment when we get to the Ozpin situation, but for this scene in particular there’s no reason he shouldn’t be included. If Jaune can get a cool addition to his shield after updating his own outfit, Oscar can get a cool addition too. Take five seconds to have Pietro point out that, as a random farm kid buying combat gear for the first time, he didn’t totally hit the mark. Here are a few things to keep you safer. Hell, you could even have Pietro---who we have established goes above and beyond in his inventions---pull Oscar aside with an updated weapon and Oscar could have gotten all quiet, examining his cane, eventually thanking Pietro, but emphasizing that he doesn’t think he should change things just yet. Or without anther’s input. Or, if Atlas doesn’t want to waste funds on the farm boy let him get a haircut like literally everyone else! We could have allotted Oscar a few seconds of screen time instead of getting what we always get: the team banding together and him nowhere to be seen.
He’s a part of this mission. He’s integral to this mission. He is a main character now. It’s about time the writing started acknowledging that.
The final flashback, at least, includes Oscar a little more. I realize my screenshot isn’t the best, but the expressions here really do say it all: Ruby mindlessly geeking out over new tech while Oscar stands sadly in another doorway.
We hear him say, “Hey... Ruby?” before he’s cut off and we return to the present.
We’ll get back to him in just a moment. For now, the airship opens to reveal everyone’s new look, which isn’t actually a reveal because this scene dominated the trailer.
Ah well. I have to say though, from here on out one of the main reasons why this episode feels strong to me is because of the overall dynamic among the characters. First, it was smart to break everyone up into different teams to search for a hidden grimm. If they’d tried to cram twelve characters into the same shot for the rest of the episode it would have been a disaster. Second, these smaller teams allow for the sort of teasing/comfort/playfulness we’ve grown used to among these characters, but have largely lost over the last two volumes. One of my favorite moments is when Yang is caught staring at Blake’s new haircut and we get a look at this massive blush.
Not to ship on main, but please note the parallel between this moment and Nora/Ren, two characters who are more firmly established as a canonical couple. Although... here when Nora compliments Ren’s hair he shuts her down pretty hard. There’s none of the casual indulgence we’re used to from him. Since when does Ren insist that Nora take a mission seriously, outside of making those requests in an equally teasing manner? Nora notices as much too, clearly upset, and Jaune is just... dense. It makes me wonder though if this is the direction they’re heading in for Nora. Give her romance troubles in the form of Ren pulling away now that their relationship has had a chance to sink in.
Not sure I’m a big fan of that. Granted, it depends on how they handle it, but on the whole I’m not really invested in reducing Nora’s rare and much needed development down to a cliche ‘Oh no. A boy doesn’t like me’ plot-line. We’ll have to see though.
I also really liked the moment between Weiss and Blake a little later. This is how you tackle racism in your story. Not by having the group risk their world-saving mission by Weiss impulsively throwing civilians into the trash, but by having an incredibly privileged woman acknowledge her privilege. Weiss mentions how angry this mine’s failure made her father, but she doesn’t use the abuse she suffered as any sort of excuse, like she would have in the earlier volumes. Instead, Weiss acknowledges for herself how hard that time was and then apologizes not only for what he’s done to the faunus, but also for “all my complacency in it.” Weiss was a child. We can’t hold her to the same level of responsibility as Jacques. But as a privileged woman in this world Weiss’ complacency does perpetuate her father’s active sins. So it’s fantastic that she admits as much to Blake. In front of all the others, no less. To me, that’s a far better sign of growth than what we got last week.
It’s also during this time that we see Blake eyeing the SDC boxes with anxiety. It could just be bad memories. It could imply that she had some hand in this particular attack. I hope it implies that she’s thinking about Adam because... is anyone going to bring him up? Seriously? Two teammates killed a guy. The self-defense aspect doesn’t erase the fact that they each rammed a piece of a blade through his stomach and watched him topple over a waterfall. We should be dealing with this! Not reducing it to one hug from Ruby right before a major battle. Hopefully this is setup for some (now long overdue) reflection.
Meanwhile, an interaction that doesn’t work as well is when Ruby comments on how freezing she is and Weiss notes that without proper equipment or aura insulation you can freeze to death in an hour. So... is that what the group is doing then? Wasting precious aura whenever they’re outside because Blake wants her arms unzipped, Weiss wants bare spots around her chest, and Yang needs to artistically keep one leg and one arm totally unclothed? The issue is not, “How does the group stay warm?” because plenty of stories have logistical questions like that and unless you’re a fan overly invested in the minutiae, you shrug it off. When is the group going to the bathroom during these endless missions? Who’s carrying pads for when three of them hit their periods at once? No one cares. Rather, the issue is that the writing draws attention to the question and then fails to answer it. Just like they did when suddenly death via cold was something that had to keep them in the creepy town when death via cold was never a concern up until then. Where was hypothermia when Yang insisted Ozpin hash out all his secrets in the snow? It’s a rather convenient ‘Sometimes it’s an issue, sometimes not,” situation. Obviously aura isn’t doing much to keep them toasty though if Ruby feels the need to comment on how cold she still is. And that attention then invites further questions like, “Why then are they still dressed inappropriately for the weather? Should we expect them to fall more quickly in battle because aura is going towards making sure they don’t freeze to death in under an hour?” Better to just leave it alone.
Talk of the cold leads into Oscar though because Yang comments, “I suddenly don’t feel so bad about leaving Oscar behind.” Which... no. You did leave him behind. Don’t try to make that palatable with stupid upsides like, ‘Well at least he’s warm!’ Worse, the group does nothing to justify that decision. Realistically I can buy why they’d leave Oscar out of this mission. We’ve established that this particular grimm has already taken out a lot of people and, without Ozpin, Oscar is still a newbie fighter. With the exception of the train and one grimm in the premier, I don’t think Oscar has fought many grimm at all. So really, it would take two sentences to establish this. Tell us that this mission is way out of his skill range and throw out that he’s training with Ironwood or something. That’s it. That’s all it takes, but the writing bypasses that and leaves us with, ‘The group left Oscar behind... for reasons?’ Which, in the context of his entire time with them looks really, really bad. Because they left him out of the dinner in Haven. And the hunt for supplies at the farm. And in retrieving the relic. And left him alone at the Argus house. And left him out of the upgrade joy. We’ve now established a trend of the group outright ignoring Oscar, whether it’s during bright celebratory moments or agonizing traumatic ones. Doesn’t matter, he’s left out of the loop, and now we see the same thing happening here. Rather than a simple and logical, ‘Oscar isn’t ready to fight a super old geist,’ what we’re left with paints the situation as, ‘Oscar is left behind because Ruby disagrees with him.’
Because without clarification, that’s the context. We get another (very short) flashback where he (thank you, thank you) points out that what they’re doing to Ironwood is precisely what Ozpin did to them. (Although Oscar tries to soften this by saying it only “feels like” the same thing.) Ruby looks guilty for a second... and then that’s it. We’re back to at least a day later where they’re on this mission, they’ve left Oscar behind, and Ruby is re-explaining why her morals are sound.
I’ll admit I’m pleased that Yang points out that they agreed no more lies and no more half-truths. I honestly didn’t expect her to say even that much against her precious sister. But still, on the whole this dilemma isn’t much of a dilemma at all. It’s reading precisely like the airship debacle: a few characters giving token disagreements but when push comes to shove whatever Ruby wants, Ruby gets. You know how above I pointed out how much I like the split present/past business so that we can have a balance between talking and action? Yeah, that only works if the talking is generic exposition. We don’t need a long-winded discussion about the details of this mission. We do need a substantial discussion about the absolute hypocrisy the group has fallen into. That split between past and present is important. Are you honestly going to tell me that over all these days---if not, arguably, weeks---the group never once had a conversation about this? That we don’t get to see that downtime filled with some actual growth? And we could have easily achieved that with the current setup. Extend Oscar’s flashback into something significant, leaving the geist battle for next week. Let him be angry for once, furious that after all the shit they put Ozpin through, and by extension him, they’re just going to turn around and do the exact same thing without even an apology? An acknowledgment that they were wrong? Or create space to have that discussion now. Harriet comes out of the mine saying a part of it has collapsed and they need time to clear it, giving Team RWBY the chance to really hash some things out and disagree for once. Instead, as expected, secret keeping is framed as the right decision without anyone but Oscar acknowledging the hypocrisy in that. They even go so far as to say, “Why don’t we play along for a while before me make any major decisions.” Newsflash:
Graphic design is my passion, all.
Overall it’s not quite as pro-protagonist as it could have been, but it’s not great either. We’re left with the fact that the group has this time sitting with their own lies and apparently, after all that, what they’ve settled on is denial. Great. Fantastic. I hope Oscar finds new friends at the Academy who encourage him to really call them out on this later.
We also learn that Ruby gave the relic back to Oscar. So the writing is self-aware enough for her to acknowledge that carrying it around on her belt is a horrendously bad idea, but not self-aware enough to keep her getting it back in the first place? Imagine you hired someone to transport a priceless painting to your super safe vault and then when it finally arrives you go, “Actually, you did such a good job getting that here I think it’ll be safer in your hands as you go about your life. Rather than the vault I specifically built for it.” Except the painting is a magic relic, the vault is also nearly impenetrable via magic, and the transporter is now a 14yo who, as established, is the weakest fighter of the group. For the love of Ironwood’s characterization, please let that relic be a fake.
Really, on the whole that moment could have been touching... but again, context. ‘Here’s the relic back that I basically stole and then ripped all Ozpin’s trauma from him by wasting an invaluable question.’ Yeah. All the while everyone is still talking as if Ozpin isn’t even there. Ironwood, in his ignorance, has been the one person to actually address him, despite the fact that the entire group knows he’s listening in. You know that feeling when you’re sitting with a bunch of people you’re not particularly close with and it’s clear they’re deliberately not including you in the conversation? Yeah, it’s like that only a thousand times worse. No wonder Ozpin still hasn’t tried to come out. No one cares about his vessel, they still actively hate him, and they’re all hypocritical to boot. I’d stay hidden too.
Anyway, back to the actual plot. Qrow has been paired off with Clover and at first we get a really excellent conversation about teamwork. We as the audience know precisely why Qrow prefers to work alone, but when he slips and Clover manages to catch him, it functions as a fantastic counter. See? Qrow might have bad luck, but this is precisely why he does need to be around others. They can help him when things get tough.
However, that message is severely undermined when it’s later revealed that Clover’s semblance is good luck.
Not only does that remove the previously stated wonderful message---because now it’s not about Qrow learning to accept help, it’s about how Clover’s semblance just conveniently cancels his out---it’s just an iffy stretch of my suspension of disbelief. Really? Out of all the people they could have met, that Qrow could have been paired with, he happens to find the one guy with the exact opposite semblance to him? Clover is an incredibly handsome and charismatic guy. He’s the leader of the strongest kingdom’s strongest team. He just happens to have the best version of Qrow’s greatest weakness. I know I said I wanted more passive semblances, but I would have preferred something other than this heavy-handed introduction.
Although... are they passive? I had to pause the episode for a moment when Qrow throws out, “sometimes I can’t keep it under control” because excuse me?? There are times you can keep it under control? Since when? How? I know we’re loose on our semblance rules here, but c’mon. Is Qrow’s entire life governed by a trait outside of his control or not?
We see a similar issue cropping up at the end of the episode when Harriet informs Ruby that there’s “something else” going on with her semblance. Look. RWBY isn’t Dragon Ball Z. The characters don’t need to tap into unheard of powers every season to keep things interesting. As Yang herself points out, Ruby already has super special silver eyes.
Her semblance is speed and transformation and transforming other people along with her. Weiss is already a super special Schnee with a super special hereditary semblance that creates glyphs and summoned fighters of whatever she’s killed. Blake is already a super special Belladonna with ties to the world’s biggest resistance group. Yang... okay, Yang is admittedly an ordinary girl with an ordinary background and that’s one of the things I still love about her. She grows stronger through more training, better strategy, and turning any weaknesses into strengths---like her arm. It’s so much more powerful to give characters that kind of arc than to fall back on, “[gasp!] You were secretly special all along.” So who knows what else they’re going to add to Ruby’s semblance. Whatever it is, it’s not needed.
I will say though that semblance issues aside, I’m liking the Ace Ops way more than I thought I would. Given that introducing five more characters was, objectively, a bad move. But they’ve got real personality attached to them. I appreciated that Clover thanked Qrow for the save (they could have made a guy that ‘perfect’ way more arrogant) while the rest spent a good portion of the time teasing RWBYJNR like they’re little siblings. Which I adored. For the first time in volumes we got to see our heroes portrayed exactly as they are: teens in training. Nora says that it “feels like we’re an actual huntsmen team,” acknowledging that they’re not yet. They’re the students following the professionals, helping out without getting in the way. It stood out to me that the geist fight is identical to the one we got in Volume Four, with the exception that it’s way, way better. They come up with Jaune’s strategy to remove the limbs in an instant, rather than taking the entire fight trying and failing to do damage. I don’t think a single member of the Ace Ops took a hit, despite the fact that this geist was a huge threat to the rest of the Atlesian army. Like Team RWBY at times, there was seamless communication, perfect execution, and the one time they made a mistake? Ruby was there to help them out. I really appreciated that the writing had RWBYJNR sit this one out until their particular skills---in this case Ruby’s speed---was actually needed, as opposed to an arrogant, ‘How dare you not let us fight!’ where they endanger themselves and others by insisting that they know best.
This is the RWBYJNR I want to see more of. Ozpin remains a huge, glaring issue, but if the writer’s can keep this sort of attitude in mind we’ll be making good strides away from the horror that was Volume Six. No more, “We don’t need adults,” please. As a bunch of adults just demostrated, they’re way out of your league.
Finally, we end the episode on Tyrian again. Showcasing RWBY’s new love of horror tropes, he appears beneath the flickering lamp light (complimenting the jump scare we got with Blake earlier on). He approaches Forest, the activist from the airship, and we end with Tyrian’s tail coming his way. Did he just poison him? Did he kill him? What’s the end goal here? Just sow chaos by leaving a bunch of bodies lying around? It’s unclear, but whatever is going on, Tyrian sure is busy.
Also, RIP #FRWBY.
Until next week!
Minor Things of Note
I like that Jaune and Blake both looked at their hair before we cut to them with new looks. Still not over Jaune’s style though. He’s french fry head now and no one will convince me otherwise.
It looks like Blake’s blade has been welded back together with a bit of yellow something-or-other...
Bad execution on an otherwise cool introduction to Marrow’s semblance. That was epic how he managed to stop both centipede grimm at once, but then Harriet just... slams them? Awkwardly? They don’t even disintegrate? Idk. Her end of that team attack didn’t live up to Marrow’s.
Team JNR has a very “headfirst approach.” True enough. Although, it’s not like they had an easy way to stop like their Ace Operative teammates. They did the best they could under the circumstances lol.
Jaune also has a landing strategy! I would have rather the writing just acknowledge that than give us that weird moment with Pyrrha’s fabric.
Not sure if I like Qrow’s new outfit or not. To be fair, that man would look stunning in a paper bag, so I’m not sure I’m an objective judge of any change here. Also to be fair, my own fashion ‘skills’ leaves something to be desired. So I think I’ll just bow out of this particular conversation.
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Notes On a Conditional Form- The 1975
(This is my review of Notes, which, obviously, I adore)
People tend to have a fixed idea of what the 1975 are, love or hate them. To some, they’re a plastic pop band who write (great) 80s-influenced songs like “The Sound”. To others, they’re the millennial Radiohead or U2 (pick your comparison depending on how much warmth you feel towards Matty Healy), obsessed with chronicling and holding forth on the State of the Nation, embodied by perhaps their best and most critically lauded song “Love It If We Made It”. The mixed reviews of their fourth album probably stem from the disappointment of both camps above: for the first group, superstar single “If You’re Too Shy (let me know)” is evidence that the band could continue to be great if only they mined this genre more. The second camp desperately searched for proof that Notes... has Something to Say, didn’t really find it, then concluded that it’s a weak or inferior album. In reality, though, 1975 are neither of the ostensibly polar identities above. As they are fond of saying, they create as they consume, and they consume a vast landscape of music constantly: it’s their life’s passion and one that has been apparent since their earliest EPs. Even though their last two albums appear on the surface to be perfect examples of the plastic pop (ILIWYS) and political polemic (ABIIOR), in reality each blends both and throws in some ambient instrumentals and other left field moments for good measure. No one who has heard Matty Healy and George Daniel talk about their creative influences and processes could ever confuse them with any other conveyor belt pop band or be in any doubt about their commitment to their art.
Following up 2018’s critically lauded A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships was always going to be a tall order but the 1975 can always be relied on to do the unexpected. This is a band who by the point of becoming massive had given up on ever actually becoming massive, so made a first album full of songs that they loved, that they now admit they might never have made if they had had any idea that global stardom was beckoning, because it’s just a bit weird. They apply the same kind of logic to Notes...: on the back of huge critical acclaim from A Brief Inquiry...they went inwards and simply made the kinds of music they loved consuming and playing, heedless of expectations. Notes.... has long been spoken of by the band as a metaphorical notebook, a looking back to their roots, collected and recorded around the world on their global tour last year. Originally due in May, then August 2019, then February, then April 2020, it’s been a beneficiary rather than a victim of unimaginable global circumstances, more relevant and strangely prescient than ever now. It turns out it does have something to say, but in lowercase rather than capital letters, and it’s a better album for it. Any capital-lettered statement, after all, could only have appeared completely outdated and irrelevant in the midst of a global pandemic.
Conditional verbs are “if” verbs, used to imagine events in certain conditions, and this is what Notes... is: a collection of songs posing questions and examining sets of circumstances and relationships that make us who we are, for better or worse. It’s an ending to these four albums of sorts (“I just wanted a happy ending,” Matty pleads in “If You’re Too Shy,”) but also an exploration of the impossibility of tidy, definitive endings. The final track of A Brief Inquiry... , the vital and unexpectedly uplifting “I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)”, began with the line “I bet you thought your life would change but you’re sat on a train again.” That’s where we are on Notes and why its third track, not the final track, is called “The End”, to underline the point. This instrumental re-works the instrumental track “HNSCC” from the band’s 2013 EP Music for Cars, making it more orchestral. It’s a lovely way to develop this theme: that everything that happens to us is conditional to other events in the past, present or future. It also explores the idea that concepts of linear growth as people are artificial. Notes... embraces the lack of any kind of coherent narrative in life that we can tie our experiences together neatly with, the struggle to know and accept yourself, to be that person that you present to the outside world.
Anais Nin wrote: we do not see things as they are; we see them as we are. A Brief Inquiry.... is a great album but it also captured a moment in time both culturally and for the band, particularly Matty Healy personally. Having derided him for years, there seemed to be a huge will amongst the press to make this album succeed because of everything he had been through with addiction and rehab between 2013-2017. That was the narrative- he’d fucked up, now he was clean, gleaming and healthy in tasteful fitted jumpers and suits, with the haircut of a Mature Man, and they’d made a Political and Important album. The band were apparently finally deserving of the acclaim afforded to serious artists. But there were notes of caution: an interview Matty did where he spoke of being wary of being a poster boy for sobriety because he hadn’t been sober for long enough. I remember worrying about him when listening to all of this- what if he couldn’t hold it together? What then for him and the position in culture that he and the band were now occupying? It was almost a relief when he confessed in a 2019 interview to briefly relapsing: it was honest and it was real.
Notes sees Matty embracing the honest and the real like never before, and it’s apt that the album moves through the idea of Endings to “Frail State... “ “Streaming” and “The Birthday Party”, a hauntingly beautiful song about sobriety, questions of shifting identity, growth and relationships (“We can still be mates because it’s only a picture,” is the narrator’s rejoinder to a friend taking the piss out of him for buying an expensive artwork that the friend can’t relate to). It’s a song that narrates a tale, in the tradition of A Change of Heart, Milk or Paris, that is both humorous and devastating, particularly in its last line: “I depend on my friends to stay clean. As sad as it seems.” Maybe you do need to be knowledgeable about the band’s personal circumstances to understand that “The Birthday Party” isn’t just a dull and over-long tale about being bored at a party, as Rolling Stone appears to have taken it, but to paraphrase “Frail State of Mind”, it seems unlikely. In any case, Notes.... is a deeply honest album, one that paints Matty Healy in as unvarnished a form as he has ever appeared, talking candidly and literally about piss, shit and erections. As he has said, it’s an album without ego.
Appropriately for an album looking back, making notes on all those “if...then”s, Notes... is more eclectic than ever before, a distillation, as the band say, of their previous sounds as well as the music that has inspired their own creativity over the past nearly two decades. The reaction of the album’s detractors to this has been to see it as a jumbled mess of Too Much-ness, which is to completely miss the point. Notes... is deliberately and thoughtfully structured, each track including threads and connections to other songs and iconography of the band’s world, an intertextuality that is sometimes darkly humorous, sometimes poignant and very much underlining that theme of honesty. “I never fucked in a car, I was lying,” opens “Nothing Revealed/Everything Denied”, Healy lacerating his ego by referencing Love It If We Made It’s memorable opening line as well as their early song “Sex”, and later “you can’t figure out a heart. You were lying,” undercutting the swagger of 2013’s 80s-maximalist “Heart Out”. More poignantly on “Roadkill”, again recalling the lie of linear growth and maturity, he sings “if you never eat you’ll never grow. Should have learned that quite a while ago,” looking back to one of the band’s most loved and most “apocalyptic adolescent” songs, as they term it, from their debut album, “Robbers”. The intertextuality is there in the music too, from the re-working of instrumental track “HNSCC” in “The End” (a connection missed, unforgivably, by seemingly every critic) to the inclusion of original demo of standout track from A Brief Inquiry... “It’s Not Living (If it’s not with you)” at the start of the surreally titled “Shiny Collarbone”. This is the largely instrumental EDM track sampling Cutty Ranks that for a number of critics seems to represent the fact that the band have lost their way and just started putting out random filler. They haven’t on either count, and the sample is a lovely reminder that even when farming seemingly the furthest reaches of the 1975’s discovered land, the music is always quintessentially theirs.
Perhaps the farming metaphor isn’t the most appropriate though. The band have spoken before about the choice that they have as artists to be “cowboys or farmers”, to keep re-working old ground or move forward and discover new places. To the charge that the songs here are just not as good as their earlier albums, well that depends on your perspective. Even the poor reviews aren’t quibbling with the strength of “If You’re Too Shy...” but truly that’s not the best songwriting on display here. The 1975 can write songs like “Too Shy” while knocking about having a laugh, stoned out of their heads. As they say themselves, it’s not a stretch. They’d rather push themselves, which they do. Regardless of genre, though, any band will stand or fall on whether they can write a catchy tune or not. The 1975 have always been able to write a catchy tune and it says something that over 22 tracks, each one has that catchiness and each one is distinctly itself. “Tonight (I Wish I Was Your Boy)” begins with a pitched up sample of “Just my Imagination” by the Temptations, it’s a love song in the 1975 tradition: bouncy and irresistible major key melody juxtaposed with an emotional sucker punch: “She said they should take this pain and give it a name.” They cleverly subvert the genre, pairing the beauty of the melody with the brutally honest: “Tonight, I think I fucked it royally.” It’s one of the best songs on display here and another perfect example of how the 1975 can take that most over-done of genres, and make it completely their own.
Because of the evolution of the album, seven songs, not including “The 1975” with Greta Thunberg, were already well known before its release. “People”, the first of these after Greta, is fantastic pop punk, a track that has lost none of its impact in the 9 months since its original release. “Nothing Revealed/Everything Denied”, the self-referential track referred to above, is a catchy treatise on the search for meaning in our lives, fusing a soaring choir-sung chorus with Matty’s witty rapping. A trio of tracks explore what some critics have labelled “emo garage”: a thread that begins with the pulsing and affecting “Frail State of Mind” (“Go outside? Seems unlikely,” and is followed through with the standout “I Think There’s Something You Should Know”, surely a future single that would be perfectly at home on Radio 1, and “What Should I Say?” In the instrumental vein, the George Daniel-created masterpiece “Having No Head” transports the listener to another sonic world. There are several throw-backs to the band’s previous emo-indie incarnation Drive Like I Do with “Then Because She Goes” and “Me and You Together Song”. And then there’s a couple of gorgeous ballads: the profound “Jesus Christ 2005...” and the love letter to the band “Guys”. In a way this closing track is almost a microcosm of the band: love them and this is a beautifully turned love letter to friendship and loyalty in the face of life’s challenges. Hate them and it’s a cringeworthy, naive irritation.
Of course, there is no happy ending or neat bow tied round Notes.... at the conclusion of its 22 tracks. We leave Matty still struggling with himself, life and his conflicted desires but with two tracks- the gentle “Don’t Worry”, a Tim Healy- penned song that is performed as a father/son duet, and “Guys”- we are reminded that it’s our relationships that will help us through, the connections we build. We are all conditional forms in this sense.
The vinyl of Notes... is poignantly inscribed with the words 'If this is to be read in the future, please know that this was us trying'. It would be very easy at this stage in their career for the 1975 to put out albums filled with variations on “Chocolate” or “The Sound”, and it might make some fans and critics happy, but they don’t want to. They are triers. Perhaps it’s this very workaholism, their obsession with pushing boundaries and experimentation, speaking up and refusing to stay in their lane that so riles up those ready to sharpen their critical knives. They are those too clever and too keen kids at the front of the class, annoying the fuck out of those who can’t be bothered or just can’t compete. Having spent last year taking political stands on issues ranging from misogyny in music to abortion laws in the US to the treatment of the LGBTQ& community in the UAE and doing their bit for the environment by commanding fans to be quiet and listen to a Greta Thunberg monologue for five minutes at their live shows, selling recycled merchandise and planting trees for every ticket sold, they are still unable to rest in the midst of a global pandemic, engaging with fans through Twitter listening parties and an interactive website called Mindshower where fans can create their own music and artwork and reflecting on what live music might look like in the future when we can finally get out there again. It all sounds a bit like Radiohead in the 2000s, except Radiohead never made an album as sonically beautiful or coherent as Notes... either immediately post-OK Computer or in the 19 years since. The 1975 are many things but they’ll never allow themselves to become stale or apathetic or lazy and for that at least they should be recognised: they simply care too much. And as for that vinyl inscription, in the future they won’t just be remembered for trying but for achieving what most bands never do even in a lifetime of striving.
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One week later
I think that this time, despite the magnitude of what happened in the show, managed to have a mostly non-kneejerk reaction to it, but a week (and a looot of thinking) later, I think I got a better understanding about how and why I feel about this episode, S4 so far, and the show’s future as a whole. Going to make this a bullet-point style list because making a single conversation about all of this would be either too long, or end up feeling disconnected at times anyway. Bad things first, then the good ones to close on a positive note, for a change.
THE BAD
- The thing I always loved the most about this show has been its ability to use individual events and interactions between the characters in almost any given segments, even ones more fillery in nature, as a way to slowly advance the growth of the characters from a pre-established Big Event™ to the next one. This always gave the show an aura of strong continuity despite its storyboard driven and episodic nature, and allowed me to claim that even events clearly facilitated by some sort of plot based compulsion (such as the Truth Cube in Sleepover, or the photo booth in Booth Buddies) were still largely natural, just more flashy ways to push the characters in directions they were already taking.
The first episodes of S4, up to Curse of the Blood Moon, didn’t really do this. They felt heavily more compartmentalized than the usual: S3 ended in an explosive way that seemingly set up all the characters for immediate changes or payoff, but then this current season kinda ignored that. Not completely, because both Moon Remembers and Ransomgram has Marco tell Star things like “rip the bandaid off” and “own up to your mistakes”, which could be clearly applied to the “Tell Tom about the kiss” situation (never mind that she didn’t do that, it was still relevant and her going the wrong way about it was part of the point), but between an increased focus on plot and plot exclusively, and a two parter season premiere that chose to focus exclusively on finding Moon (reasonable decision, really, but it ended up making 40 minutes of show feel a bit empty on the emotions side, in my very subjective opinion), Curse of the Blood Moon seemed to happen a bit out of the blue, especially considering that Star and Marco’s feelings were apparently so strong and so intrusive to justify even Tom being able to see them in the former case, and Eclipsa’s comfort and counseling having been needed multiple times offscreen in the latter. Things that we didn’t see at all in the first 7 episodes, with the exception of Star never reacting to Tom telling her that he knew the kiss with Marco didn’t really mean anything. It’s not a necessarily tragic scenario, especially if the show purposefully wanted to wait for Curse to kick start a new chapter in the shipping of the show, but this bridging between seasons taking one third of the last one felt a bit excessive and largely devoid of sufficient build up to me.
- Kelly / Kellco. Anyone who’s familiar with my blog should know that I always struggle to never insult ships, characters or elements from the show that other people might like. And even now I don’t want to cheapen the value of personal preferences at all, nor tell anyone “No, you can’t ship this!”.
But at the same time I have to say that, in the context of the show, these new Kellco developments look (ready to eat back my words in the future, as usual) extremely pointless, and handled badly. Kelly feelings something for Marco, kinda unilaterally liking him, that’s something the fandom has been speculating ever since Lava Lake Beach. They shared an emotional moment over heart break, and then clearly developed a friendship from there, and hanged out more. Kelly’s lines in The Ponyhead Show then confirmed without doubt that she felt something from Marco, but that he seemed to be largely unaware and oblivious about it. Just like you’d expect Marco to be, especially a Marco who spent the previous season focusing on how strong and intrusive his feelings for Star were.
At this point essentially everyone, me included, expected for Kelly’s World to be used as a way to bring up Marco’s unrequited (as far as he knew) feelings once again, to introduce Curse of the Blood Moon. I expected Marco to either go something like “Sorry Kelly but I’m not ready to give up on my feelings for Star” or, at worst, a frustrated Marco who’d have thought and reflected about Kelly’s feelings for him. Instead, out of the extreme blue, we got a Marco who was uncharacteristically all too aware of the situation, going “I don't want these feelings for Star they're getting in the way of other feelings" while being all blushy and then being more than receptive to Kelly’s emotionally confused flirting.
Now, if this was reality, there would be absolutely nothing weird in a kid like Marco being dual in his feelings, really liking Star while also being tired about all the pain those feelings have been bringing him for the better part of a year and being receptive to another girl being ready to jump his bones. But this is not reality, and these events absolutely lacked any form of proper build up, they were (wow, I can finally use the word Starco haters have been throwing around for years!) forced. Not entirely, but for a great deal. Jarco had Sleepover and Naysaya providing a strong buildup to the ship revolving around Marco overcoming some personal hurdles; even Tomstar didn’t immediately go for the ship after the well-timed dance in Club Snubbed, but first had Demoncism, giving some sort of basis to the exes getting back together, and Tom and Star had a pre-established relationship and we both knew that Tom still wanted Star, and that Star still had hung up feelings for Tom, if just physical attractions ones (from her behavior in Blood Moon Ball and Mr. Candle Cares, very spread out over the show, I admit). Meanwhile Kellco went from “ok they shared an important moment one season ago and Janna teased Kelly in a holiday special episode but after that their interactions have been nothing but background ones” to “Marco and Kelly lose track of time reading about fighting on a bench, then as the warm hues of the sunset wash over them they fight hand in hand, as one body and one spirit, and the fireworks and music happen and there’s more blushing in a single scene that there has been in the whole show and in all the kisses in it so far”. That’s... very, very, very heavy handed. Very “manipulative”. Especially since Kelly and Marco aren’t even properly together yet I guess, since Marco might have gotten over his feelings for Star (hahaha yeah as if), but as far as we know Kelly still isn’t completely over Tad. So where is this relationship going to go from now? Why does it exist? In what ways it doesn’t shit on what Jarco already taught Marco? How is it going to “end” once Marco inevitably realizes he still feels thing for Star without making Kelly look like a throwaway rag? Obviously I don’t have the arrogance to assume I know how things are going to play out from here on, so who knows, maybe Kellco is going to be part of an important arc, but from where I’m standing, from what I know now, it’s hard not to see it as a hamfisted attempt at going “Haaaa these confused teens, it’s only fair that they get their share of experiences!”. Which is ok, sure, fine, but FICTION ≠ REALITY and things need some kind of build up and reason to happen. If it’s just supposed to be padding to keep the situation in a status quo for a while, “Marco is with Kelly and Tom is with Star and everything is right in the world and they don’t have to think about their feelings anymore” then... bleah.
- This is tangentially connected to both the previous points, and it’s not really THAT bad, just me being a bit nitpicky about a still legitimate direction the show decided to take: by having this constant comparison between THE OTHER SHIPS and STARCO, now stronger than ever after Curse, the former being very casual but also ultimately unrewarding, “we hold hands we blush a little and we are ready to kiss and be a couple”, while the latter being “dozens of life changing events are needed to progress the ship even by little; NOTHING BUT PAIN can ever come out of Starco for the people involved until it’s officially recognized as being completely and utterly full, pure, complete, mature and life lasting love”, can kinda give a wrong message about relationships and teen love, or an annoying one at least. “Hey kids, don't try to actually have fun or be happy with romance, because that's not how True Love™ works. If you actually find it kind of easy to be happy with your significant other, that isn't love!" [quote by @ngame989]. Obviously I’m using a hyperbole for the sake of clarity, and it’s clear that Star and Marco’s relationship is based on finding it easy to have fun together, always. But if we talk strictly about romance and the way the show approaches to it, it’s kinda undeniable that Starco has been nothing but a source of sadness so far, and the only genuine moment of happiness, this one, lasted about three seconds and overlapped with a realization of True Love.
By now I have fully accepted that the show is not going for an early Starco relationship to then show it growing and changing as the two make the first steps together, but that they’re waiting for a “ok we’re both completely sure this is what we want”, and it’s a completely fair direction for the show to take, but it also contributes to this “fetishization” of true love. Still, execution matters way more than the larger brush strokes in this case, so we’ll see.
- The timing. I’m going to talk about why this incoming arc can actually be a very good thing in a moment, but at the same time introducing the idea that the Blood Moon might have forced feelings now, 30% through the last season, when absolutely nothing before that ever referenced of foreshadowed it, and with essentially no references to the Ball throughout the show (last direct one was in Naysaya and it was Tom throwing shade at Marco...), feels kinda jarring to me.
- This is a bit more of a personal note, but not entirely: Star and Marco enter a dance in their memories with the specific goal of “destroying their feelings”. One minute into spending time together having fun without any kind of distraction for the first time in forever, they literally fall in love. Not crush, love. The whole setup of the Severing Stone’s function literally confirms that. What kind of tension can Kellco and Tomstar deliver now that we know that Star and Marco can and will fall in love with each other if given a moment to truly think about nothing but each other and themselves? The endgame was kinda clear before as well, but now it has officially ruined any chance at making other ships feel worthwhile - beyond their value for the growth of the characters involved, obviously. I mean their intrinsic value as a ship / source of romantic drama.
THE GOOD
- Even if I’m not a fan of the timing, I can see a lot of potential in an arc revolving around the question “Are these feelings genuine? Is Marco/Star the person I truly love and want to be with?”. Now, obviously we know that the feeling were genuine and that the Curse didn’t force anything, so it’s not really the answer to the question that matters. What’s important is how they’re going to get to that: by having Star and Marco more or less directly tackle this question in a context where there is apparently no sadness and pain brought from unwanted feelings, some positivity can FINALLY be associated with Starco as a romantic relationship. Obviously we don’t know how things are going to play out now, but if both dorks are now convinced that they are only friends (something that didn’t happen at the same time since early S2) they can enjoy their relationship to its absolute fullest, and see along the way, together this time, that they both want more. I don’t know if one or both of them lied about not having feelings anymore, or if it’s placebo effect, or if the Severing Stone has some lingering after effects. What I know is that these two now feel like they can be completely comfortable around each other once again, while still having all the feelings of friendship that were the base for the romance once already,
and that the last time they had a moment to truly be together with each other and enjoy their feelings to their fullest, they fell in love, like love for real, certified by the Severing Stone taking that moment away as a price.
So yes, we all know the answer to this question already (articulated a bit better by the show’s composer in this post),
- Curse of the Blood Moon as an episode itself is far from being without merits: it opens with a wonderful display of one of the many sides that make Star and Marco’s relationship so adorable, with the duo having a secret cereal date at night without waking up Meteora; shows how in sync and how well they understand each other (yes, this was a set up for the scene but you can’t tell me it’s the curse’s fault, that’s bullshit); it literally had Marco tell us that he likes every single thing about Star and her personality (again, not the curse’s fault. That’s bullshit.), and the dance itself was utterly perfect and pristine and had Starco fun, Starco flirting, and Starco love all happening the moment they could focus on each other and forget about the rest.
Also, while I’m not necessarily the biggest fan of Tom having achieved “good boy status” simply by getting slightly better with each episode instead of taking some affirmative action on the nature of his relationship with Star, I don’t mind seeing him helping his friends, at all. Sure, this can contributed to making him feel more “pathetic”, with scenes like the spat on the elevator apparently underlying a lack of compatibility between him and Star compared to her and Marco, as many other scenes before, and that’s the part I don’t particularly enjoy, but the overall journey he went through, that’s good. It should have featured more defining moments of change in my opinion, rather than a simple “little by little always better and gets points for trying”, but it’s still vastly preferable to a world where we can’t get some Tomco bromance moments, and this kind of relaxed situation, as infuriating as it can be at times, could potentially contribute to what I said in the first point, give Star and Marco the chance to understand what they feel for the other in a completely or almost completely positive way.
- This is connected to the first point and not necessarily an objectively good one on its own, more like something that further contributes to feeling like there’s potential for things to develop nicely from her on: the brunt of the romance in Starco fell on Marco for most of S3, at this point Star was less of an active player than him when it came to liking each other. But Star is the Main Main Character, we can’t have that happen. With this new turn of events, with things being “reset” into New Game +, the spotlight moves once again on Star and this time we can finally have the Main Main Character answer the question “do we love each other?”. Obviously Marco is surely going to have a role as well, he’s still a protagonist, but it’s Star’s story before anything else, and this “Free Will and Choices” arc can easily tie Eclipsa / ruling Mewni to Love, and strongly relate to the blonde (ex) princess.
- On the same note of “elements that makes one hopeful about the show’s potential but still don’t really confirm anything about what’s going to happen”, we have this quote from one of Adam’s interviews:
Adam describes Star as someone who is “all over the place” in terms of life as compared to Marco who unlike Star has yet to outwardly reveal his feelings. “But, she’s one of those people who so much stuff is going on for that she doesn’t necessarily, in my opinion, she doesn’t really have time for a romantic relationship. She’s too busy. She’s got a lot of things going on her plate,” he explains.
“But, she’s one of those people who, in my opinion–I’m not saying this happens, I’m just saying this is why I like them–I feel like she’s going to be one of those people who is gonna stop one day and have a second to breathe and then dust is gonna settle and she’s gonna look and see through all the settling dust and fog that someone has been there with her the entire time and she’s gonna see Marco,”
and while there’s absolutely no way to confirm this, especially since everything Adam says is always nebulous PR talk that has to be taken with eighty grains of salt, looking at list of episode post-mid season finale suggests that this “dust settling down” might happen sooner than later, the second half(ish) of the season having way more episodes with titles suggesting either Earth things, or a generic downtime for the teens to focus a bit more on their own lives, and a little less of Eclipsa. Obviously there’s still necessarily going to be plot happening, but I can also see how they could be going (strong emphasis on the could) for a journey that allows Starco to finally happen in the series finale in an explosive way, with both Star and Marco being utterly sure that this is what they truly want, and that they love each other, not just like or crush.
Cornonation
Doop-Doop / Britta’s Tacos
Beach Day / Gone Baby Gone
Sad Teen Hotline / Jannanigans
Mama Star / Ready, Aim, Fire
The Right Way / Here to Help
Pizza Party / The Tavern at the End of the Multiverse
Cleaved
To conclude and sum up, my greatest issues so far are with the way S4 handled romance and relationships in its first 7 episodes, rather than with the new arc Curse of the Blood Moon apparently set out, or with the idea that the show is almost certainly going for series finale Starco (still kinda hoping for just a little something before that though, with the finale being the true celebration of what they have). It’s not the show I’d have liked the most, but it’s still one that has all the potential, so far, to honor the kind of build up Starco had, and the amazing characters Star and Marco are. But this first third personally disappointed me in a number of ways, and it kinda hinders my ability to fully trust this potential to actually become the reality of a good execution. But “hinders” doesn’t mean I completely lost any hope, and there are certainly dozens of ways to properly pull this off. We’ll see.
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Waging a War Over a Heart can be Pointless. Let’s Love her Together: Polyamory
“Hey Yasha,” Jester spoke up to her barbarian friend, “what do you think of Beau?”
It was a question that caught the barbarian off guard, forcing her to stop sharpening her sword and look at Jester. They were the only two in the room, it was their first night back in Zadash after a long mission, most of them were out of spells for the day and resting, Beau was downstairs drinking with a few impressionable young women who seemed very interested in the monk.
Yasha thought a lot about Beau and thought a lot of things about Beau. It had been three years since they started traveling together, the Mighty Nein had grown closer and more powerful as the years went on. They were something of a famous or infamous name in the Empire and the Menagerie Coast depending on who you asked. They had all changed, grown in some ways despite being the same in just as many.
Fjord had learned that he didn’t have to pretend to be Vandren or what he thought was a good leader, he learned they would love him all the same. Caduceus learned about the world that was outside his little grove and that it was okay. Caleb learned that he wasn’t the monster he saw himself out to be, and that finding redemption was far more healthy than trying to change what couldn’t be changed. Nott had learned to not hate herself for who or what she was, she had still taken Caleb’s offer to change her into a halfling when he offered the chance to her, but that was because she didn’t feel right as a goblin, not because she hated them. Molly had changed a lot in some ways, at least to her, coming back from the grave a second time would do that to a person and when he came back as Mollymauk he cried tears of joy.
Jester had changed quite a bit as well, she was still happy and excited, full of joy and mischief, but experienced had tempered that, even though it had never, could never snuffed it out. She had also grown quite beautiful, she was always pretty but now she looked like a blue, more muscular version of her mother. The biggest change was that she stopped chasing fairy tales, stopped chasing after men because they were handsome and nice and there. Beau had asked her about that once, Jester told her that listening to fairy tales was something for little girls, now that she’s a woman she’s going to be creating legends.
Oh how things had changed for Yasha, her love for Zuala was still just as strong, stronger than ever actually, but she learned that she didn’t need to torture herself over her loss. She celebrated Zuala, she celebrated the life and love her wife had brought to her life instead of mourning Zuala’s loss and hating her own weakness. It had taken a visit to Zuala’s grave and talking with her spirit to make her realize that she didn't have to sacrifice her own life and happiness just because she was gone.
Which lead her to Beauregard. Beau had possibly changed the most without losing who she was back when they met in Trostenwald. She was still a young woman filled with fire, that had caught Yasha’s eye so long ago, back then she had been mourning Zuala and felt ashamed that her eye had strayed for even a moment. Beau was still full of fire, but it was more directed now, she had grown up to be a brilliant woman and a stalwart friend. Recently Yasha had caught herself staring at the monk, just randomly, when she was
“Beauregard? I think she is very strong and a good fighter,” Yasha said trying to be half truthful, she did but that wasn’t the only thing or things Yasha thought about Beau.
“Well yeah, she’s always been that, but is there anything else,” Jester said in that voice that she thought she was being sneaky when she really wasn’t at all.
“Beau is a dear friend who has stood by my side for years Jester,” Yasha said flatly, “I think quite a great many things about her, if you would like to ask for something more specific than perhaps I can answer, but you need to come out with it.” She adored Jester, but even with all her growth, Yasha was still terrible at reading social cues, she wanted people to be blunt when speaking to her to make things less confusing.
“Well I’m just wondering if you find Beau pretty,” Jester asked quietly, lost in her own thoughts.
“Yes Jester,” Yasha admitted, “I think Beau is pretty. She’s always been quite nice to look at,” she admitted stiffly. Despite being small Beau had a nice amount of muscle on her, especially her arms and legs, Yasha had caught herself staring a bit too long when Beau did her morning workout.
“I mean yeah, that’s true,” Jester admitted, “she has always been beautiful,” she said zoning out as she remembered something. “Her face has always been nice to look at even though her nose has been broken a few times. Her hair’s always been really pretty, though I think I like it better when she wears it down now that it’s gotten so long. And her butt is fantastic, much nicer than any of my mother’s clients I can tell you that much, the men and the women.” And now Yasha felt her face starting to heart up, Beau did have a nice butt, it tended to draw the eye when she did her flips and bends. Weird as it was to talk about. “But…, is it just me or does she seem, more…, yano, lately,” Jester said snapping out of it gesturing with her hands for something intangible.
“I suppose so,” Yasha agreed reluctantly, anyone other than Jester she’d be too uncomfortable to talk with, but it was bearable with the blue tiefling, with Molly this conversation would definitely be unbearable. Beau had been more lately, she seemed more free, she seemed lighter, she wasn’t more attractive, but she was just more. “Is there a point,” it was sort of painful to talk about Beau like this with Jester.
“I just noticed that ever since we became famous, there have been a lot of women that have been flirting with her,” Jester said a little pouty. Yasha had to grunt in agreement, there were many young and some older women that found the famous monk quite attractive, asking to touch her arms, or see her do a flip, bothersome. Of course Beau wasn’t the only one who had fans, all the Nein had admirers, but Beau, Fjord, and Caduceus seemed to have the most. Fjord was the most handsome and charismatic, Caduceus was someone big and exotic, and Beau ate the attention up with the ladies.
“I don’t blame them,” Jester continued, “I like to touch Beau’s arms when I can, but I’m her friend and the one who heals her, I’m not some horny woman who likes groping her.”
“Jester,” Yasha chastised her lightly, it wasn’t like she didn’t want to think about Beau’s arms and how Beau was probably swarmed with women right now cooing and fawning over her asking her to make a muscle. They were nice muscles but Yasha’s arms were bigger and so were Jester’s, Yasha had seen Beau’s arms in action, they were far more impressive when fighting a giant monster than they were in a bar giving soft women the vapors.
“I’m just saying she deserves better than a fangirl who likes her because she’s famous,” Jester said angry as she got up to pace around the room. “Beau’s always been pretty and awesome,” Jester continued, “maybe she used to be more awkward but that was part of her charm. Now these women flock around her because she’s famous, not because she throws herself in front of a hydra to make sure it doesn’t hurt us, they don’t know what it’s like to have her hug you after rescuing from slavers, they don’t know what it’s like when she makes a dumb joke to try and make thing less heavy. Beau deserves someone who loves her for who she is, warts and all. Beau deserves to someone who loves her like…, like.”
“Like you,” Yasha says quietly, a pit forming in her stomach when she did. She should have known what Jester really wanted to talk about.
“Or like you Yasha,” Jester said softly and sadly, “Beau’s had a crush on you since she laid eyes on you.”
“I-I,” Yasha stammered, it was true, even she knew that Beau was head over heels for her smitten since she walked into the Nestled Nook with Molly advertising for the Fletching and Moondrop. That was practically a lifetime ago, and Yasha was a different woman. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m not attracted to Beau, she’s gross,” she said pathetically. “Besides,” she said somberly, “even if I was attracted to her and looking for a relationship, I’m pretty sure I burned that bridge a long time ago.”
She had told Beau about Zuala last, she didn’t know why, or at least she pretended to not know why. Yasha liked the awkward flirting Beau used in an attempt to woo her and secretly didn't want it to stop. When she had told Beau, she expected the little monk to be angry with her, to claim the aasimar was leading her on. Instead, Beau just looked up at her with those big beautiful blue eyes full of regret and apologized for making her uncomfortable and promised it wouldn’t happen again. It hurt Yasha to see her like that, she had no way of knowing about Zuala until Yasha told her, but she still felt guilty over it and it broke Yasha’s heart.
Since then Beau hadn’t flirted with her, well Beau was still Beau and Yasha was a beautiful woman with arms meant to carry other women, but it was never like before. Just friendly Beau flirting that she did with every woman. At the time it was a relief because it meant that Yasha didn’t have to be confused by the strange charming monk woman that was unwittingly sneaking her way into Yasha’s heart. Now though, that she might be ready to pursue a romantic relationship again with someone, someone that she’s fought beside and was secretly charmed by, it just made her feel regretful.
“Yasha,” Jester said like a mother scolding her for lying, “Beau is so fucking attracted to you, she watches you when you’re not watching her. We’ve spent the last ten minutes about how pretty and cool Beau is and pissed we are at all the sluts throwing herself at her. I mean not that there’s anything wrong with being slutty,” Jester assured her for some reason, “just the problem is when they’re hanging off of our future girlfriend.”
“Wait what,” Yasha asked wondering if she was missing something or if she was just talking to Jester.
“Well yeah, I think Beau is pretty and cool, you think Beau is pretty and cool, both of us are pretty and cool, so why shouldn't we date her,” Jester said as if it was the most logical thing in the world.
“There are quite a few things wrong with that plan Jester,” Yasha said putting her foot down.
“We’ll yeah, we’re a part of the Mighty Nein Yasha, our plans our shit, yet we always get good results in the end. It’s why we’re famous,” Jester said with her eyes bright with excitement. “Now here’s the plan.”
“I still haven't agreed to this Jester,” Yasha said but she felt it was inevitable at this point.
“Look Yasha, I like Beau and I’m willing to fight for her, but I also love you. I’m not sure if it’s the same way, but I’ll fight all those women downstair in every tavern in Wildemount if I have to, but I won’t fight you for her. Would you fight me for her,” Jester asked giving the barbarian those soft sad puppy eyes.
“Of course not Jester,” Yasha said softly, truthfully, if she had to she would fight for Beau, but she don’t think she could fight Jester for another woman.
“Then why not just team up and make Beau love us? We know Beau better than any of those shitty fangirls downstairs, we know what Beau likes. She likes strong women and look at these,” Jester said flexing her arms and showing off her large bulging muscles for a tiny cute tiefling, they were quite attractive. “We could go down their and use our feminine wiles, our huge muscles, and our knowledge of Beau to seduce the fuck out of her until she’s our girlfriend.”
“That is awfully aggressive for romancing someone Jester,” Yasha said skeptically.
“It’s Beau Yasha,” Jester said as if it was obvious, “I’m sure she’ll find it even more romantic if we do it my way.”
“I can’t argue with that,” Yasha admitted. Beau would probably find it the sexiest thing in the world if two women beat the crap out of a bunch of other women in the hope of romancing her into a relationship together.
“so you’re in,” Jester asked.
“I’ll go along with it, I’m not sure about this though.”
“Yay Yasha,” Jester said jumping up and hugging the larger woman. Normally it would be comical, but Jester was nearly as strong as Yasha herself, it felt nice to be hugged like that. “We’re going to have so much fun.”
Which of course that was the moment Beau walked into the room looking tired, “man if you told me a year ago I’d get sick of hordes of women hanging off of me I’d of punched you in the face for that lie. Now, well be careful what you wish for right,” she said brushing herself off. She turned to see Jester hugging Yasha, “am I interrupting something here, I could leave to give you guys some privacy,” she said at the scene.
Yasha and Jester looked at each other, they were very close and it would be very easy to interpret what she saw as sexual or romantic, and they quickly split apart. Jester recovered first though, “why would we want to leave Beau, when we were so excited for you to be here,” she said in that tone that for some reason she seemed to thing was sultry.
Beau took a step back, “is Jester okay,” she asked nervously, Jester’s voice might not be seductive to most people, but when it was directed at her, Beau fell for it hook, line, and sinker.
“She’s fine,” Yasha said, sitting down on the bed. She patted a spot beside her for Beau to take a seat. “We just learned something new and want to discuss it with you, if that’s alright,” she tried to sound as gentle as possible, she wanted Beau to know that she was safe here and that the two of them would never hurt her.
“Alright,” Beau said confused but unafraid, she knew that the rest of the world could try and hurt her and break her but the two of them never would, “lets talk.”
Critrole femslash week day 5 entry, Polyamory. This is my first attempt at an ot3 ship, I’ve never had anything against it, but I’ve just never thought of it really. This is a future fix be warned, hope you enjoy it. If you do, leave a review, a comment, a reblog if you can, likes and kudos are good, but they’re not real feedback
So yeah, this came about because I had this thought that Beau is actually very desirable, despite what the characters in the show act towards her (other than Keg) like she is and outside of the show itself there are plenty of sapphic women who lust after her and Marisha, what if that happened in the show itself and why.
That’s why this is in the future where the Mighty Nein are kind of famous, in a way that Vox Machina never were. Vox Machina were a group of powerful adventurers, but they were basically big in Emon and Whitestone where they pretty much made their bases. They are influential and powerful, but they interact with the leaders of the countries and are just around the people. The Mighty Nein are kind of a brand name thing, they tell people who they are all the time if only to see their reaction when they realize there are only 6-7 of them. Beau is seen as the exotic hottie among the Wildemount women, since she’s so open with her lesbianism, something that despite there being open sexuality in the game apparently it really wouldn't be. Like there are a lot of LGBT+ people in Critical Role, but really I feel that’s because the players are very openly supportive about LGBT+ people, not really because the universe should be at that spot socially, if that makes sense. Like there are people like Howardt who didn’t care about Tary’s happiness and despite knowing his son was gay still was going to marry him off to a women to gain wealth, or like Beau’s parents who despite living in a world where there are powerful women who are literally just as good as men, still despise their daughter because she’s their daughter and not a son. Like I’m glad that things like sexism and homophobia only exist when they’re a problem in the world Matt Mercer made, but unfortunately it’s pretty unrealistic to me. I’m not sure if I’m conveying my point correctly, but since most people don't read these things it doesn't really matter.
I’m not going to pretend that both Yasha and Jester having a crush on Beau isn’t at least a little out of character, but the prompt was polyamory and this is what I thought of.
And yes, I did bring Molly back to life, it’s a future fic and it’s a fanfic so I can do what I want.
#critical role#critical role spoilers#the mighty nein#beauyasha#beauyester#beauyashter#beau x yasha x jester#jester lavorre#beauregard#beauregard lionett#beau#yasha#yasha nydoorin#fanfiction#fanfic#crfemslashweek#critrolefemslashweek
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Characters
Zoey
Zoey is mostly only talked about in this book, with minimal content told from her perspective. This makes it especially apparent how weird it is for her chapters to be the only ones told in first person.
The little that we do get from her perspective mostly reiterates the same information constantly: She feels guilty for Heath’s death, she can’t remember anything, and her soul is in pieces. The problem is that the book can be pretty selective about when she has memory problems, plus it makes it sound like her soul is shattered – as in broken into several little pieces – but it’s actually only in three pieces. Four, if you count Zoey herself. This means that Zoey is made up of just courage, compassion, joy, and whatever Zoey herself represents.
It’s also kind of weird how her brokenness is conveyed. Beyond just her memory problems, she’s also disappearing. That doesn’t make sense with what Thanatos and others have said about the effects of a shattered soul in the Otherworld. Zoey should be in a Caoinic Shi’, a non-existent Gaelic term for a zombie-like entity. That doesn’t sound like she should literally disappear.
Then we finally get to the part where Zoey actually does something. (Incidentally, the fact that Zoey is almost completely inactive in this book falls completely flat as a demonstration of her brokenness because she’s never been an active character in any previous books.) I know I said this in earlier posts, but this really, really should have been a big dramatic moment. We’ve spent the entire book building to it. I’m not expecting three full chapters or anything ridiculous like that, but more than a single page should be expected. Like, even something as simple as Zoey having to prove her acceptance of each part of her soul, maybe having to remember and feel those emotions before she can call them back into herself. Something more than just saying, “Hey, come back,” and having it happen immediately.
Zoey is also absolutely useless when she confronts Kalona. She summoned wind and didn’t use it to stop the spear. Given that she was able to stop a magically teleporting arrow at the end of Hunted, this is inexcusable.
Also, Zoey is now a queen. For some reason.
Stevie Rae
Stevie Rae sort of fills Zoey shoes in this book and boy does it show. She refuses to address problems, has a completely unnecessary love triangle that consumes much of the plot, and throws around her unofficial title as High Priestess (and, occasionally, her affinity) to get what she wants. I used to at least kind of like Stevie Rae, but she’s honestly just as bad as Zoey now.
Seriously, Stevie Rae was supposed to be the nice character, the one who admonished her friends for being too mean or catty. And yet, in this book, she says a man has a “pea brain” because of how he dresses. Let me point out that Stevie Rae’s style of dress is frequently mocked or insulted by other characters and she hates it. Why would she do that to someone else?
I think this shows that the authors struggle to write any actual distinct narrative voice or characterizations unless they’re leaning really, really hard into stereotypes. It’s hard to talk about Stevie Rae’s role in this book without talking about her love triangle. It is such a waste of time! She doesn’t need a love triangle – the very idea of her having any relationship with Rephaim, even a platonic one, should create more than enough conflict on its own! The conflict that comes out of the love triangle doesn’t make sense. Aside from Stevie Rae feeling confused and guilty in a tired rehash of Zoey’s every relationship ever, the love triangle comes to a head with Dallas discovering her relationship with Rephaim and then acting 100% out-of-character and suddenly becoming evil. And guess what? His freak out would have made just as much sense if he was a close friend realizing he’d been lied to for days and feeling betrayed because of what he’d been lied to about. The romance angle adds nothing, especially because their relationship was barely established in previous books. It’s just an excuse for Stevie Rae to make-out sometimes and have a sex scene interrupted.
As for Rephaim, it often feels like the authors don’t know what the focus of that conflict should be. The fact that he killed Anastasia and Dragon wants revenge for it is acknowledged, but it’s more about Stevie Rae’s fear of people discovering her relationship with Rephaim and consequently rejecting her and killing him. There’s not really a sense of expectation for him to actually try and make up for committing murder. The book does also acknowledge that Rephaim is barely humanoid, but only in so far as “beast” and “monster” are being treated as synonymous with a superficial idea of evil. That he’s a giant bird is acknowledged as a problem for their relationship very sparingly. Even Rephaim’s intention to continue serving Kalona and thus Darkness isn’t really addressed – not in a way that grapples with the moral implications of what he’s willing to support and participate in. Stevie Rae cares about his connection to Kalona because of how other people will react.
The situation with Rephaim is status normal for pretty much the whole book – she’s trying to hide him from everyone. The only changes that happen is she bonds her soul even more deeply to his by paying a debt to the black bull, but – surprise! – that’s kind of pointless because she apparently already developed feelings for him anyway. I have no idea what purpose that debt is supposed to serve in the book other than giving her something new to angst about. The only reason anyone finds out about Rephaim is because he storms in on her and Dallas, and that only happens because of the other subplot finally showing up. By the end of the book, she’s right back to square one with Rephaim because Kalona returns and they can no longer be together like they were for much of this book.
Aside from love triangle drama, Stevie Rae really doesn’t do much in this book. She talks to people. A lot. Eventually, she performs a ritual and completely screws it up, but uncovers information about how to get Stark into the Otherworld. Towards the end of the book, she finally does something about the rogue fledglings that have been regularly murdering people, but only because it’s on the news and people might blame the House of Night. And her solution doesn’t stop them from murdering people! She just forces them out of the tunnels so she and the other red fledglings can go back to living there.
The Twins
Might as well not exist. After page 134, they are literally not present for the rest of the book.
Damien and Jack
They contribute some research and exposition that, honestly, Darius and Thanatos could just as easily have provided. They also might as well not exist. Just like the Twins, they literally aren’t present passed page 134.
Also, Jack has yet to ever use his affinity.
Stark
Easily one of the most obnoxious parts of this book. I can’t really even think of what he contributed. Did he come up with any ideas or solutions on his own in this book? Thanatos and Darius brought up the bulls and Isle of Skye, Nyx guided him to say the right words to get on the Isle, Kramisha provided the poem, Aphrodite told him Heath was key to getting Zoey to move on – he couldn’t even accomplish the task of defeating the Other on his own! And he was specifically was supposed to be on his own for that. But no, Seoras slices Stark’s eyelids and gives him strike-line-vision, and then the Other just kills himself.
Oh, wait, sorry. The Other impales himself and “dies”, except he’s not dead, so then Stark is taken over by the sword and cuts him in half. Because that’s honourable, somehow.
Stark defeating the Other is also super anticlimactic. Stark gets cut up a bit and it’s clearly meant to be nail biting and intense, but his wounds don’t affect his ability to fight, he’s somehow able to do everything by instinct, and then he gets magical strike-line-vision handed to him through now effort of his own. As someone pointed out in an anonymous ask, this situation would have been way more dramatic and character building if it actually focused on Stark’s past wrongs and inner demons instead of a bunch of b.s. about recognizing his arrogance and accepting brutality. Let me see Stark facing the wrongs he committed while serving Darkness. Let me see him forced to acknowledge that he’s a rapist without running away or lashing out at the people who call him on it. That would require real character growth.
But that would be haaaard so instead we get b.s. and magical solutions handed to him with no effort or sacrifice.
Well, there is a sacrifice technically, but it’s also stupid. Stark lays on a stone platform and gets cut up a bunch. That’s it. Somehow, he doesn’t bleed to death from having his eyelids, chest, ribs, etc. repeatedly sliced open over probably more than an hour. I get the whole “keep him on the edge of death” thing, but logically he wouldn’t be able to stay on the edge very long like this before he outright dies. Is there no other, less ridiculous way this could have been accomplished? Or were the other ideas not brutal or “manly” enough?
Kalona
He had arguably a very significant role in this book but, much like Neferet, barely actually appeared. The two scenes he narrated were both either entirely unnecessary or at least detrimental to the tension and mystery of the conflict. Knowing exactly what he and Neferet were plotting from the outset made all the subsequent chapters of characters talking and hypothesizing particularly mind-numbing.
The real problem with Kalona is that the series does a terrible job of giving proper weight to what, exactly, makes him a villain. You can’t redeem him by showing that he ~*loves*~ Nyx when his heartbreak at her hands is used to justify rape, murder, enslavement, and plans for world domination. Everyone seems to forget or gloss over those details, though, because the authors so desperately want him to be tragic and redeemable.
His fight with Stark is incredibly stupid, too. Why did he summon a spear if he wasn’t even going to use it?! I get the impression that he was torturing/taunting Stark by slowly beating him to death with his bare hands while Stark was armed with a claymore and still useless, but that would have been more effective if he was actually unarmed.
Aphrodite
Where once Aphrodite was a character with actual agency, she’s more and more degrading to the point of being a narrative tool. A whole new aspect of her affinity is discovered by Thanatos, who she met less than an hour ago at that point, and who also teaches her exactly how to use this new affinity. She’s told by Stevie Rae about the poems and the words of the white bull. She learns through a vision with Nyx exactly how to get Zoey back from the Otherworld and what will happen if she doesn’t.
Aphrodite doesn’t actually do anything in this book. She’s a conduit for information and nothing else. You could replace her with an unnervingly accurate Magic 8 Ball and the only difference would be less horrendously obnoxious dialogue.
Neferet
Neferet’s character has never been particularly subtle – she’s the reason I created the “foreshadowing with neon signs” tag for this blog – but it’s gotten out of hand. Her dialogue is the most over-the-top, dramatic, stereotypical villain crap I’ve ever seen.
This is the first book where Neferet kind of actually has a tangible plan, but she’s still kind of going about it in a ridiculous way. She knows Kalona is a) banished from the Otherworld, and b) has an incredibly strong lust for Zoey. Despite all this, she sends him to the Otherworld with the expectation that he can and will stop Zoey from pulling her soul together and returning to her body. Here’s an idea: Why doesn’t she have Darkness act directly against Zoey instead of using Darkness to bind Kalona to an Oath her very likely can’t fulfill?
Other than that, Neferet is basically non-existent in this book. I have to wonder if the authors are trying to pull of a Voldemort effect – the more infrequent appearances of the villain are, the more dramatic and terrifying it is when a confrontation does occur. With Voldemort, you always know he was up to something and often got glimpses of it through Harry’s visions, Daily Prophet reports, or various Death Eater activities. Plus, enough was established about Voldemort very early on to make him a genuinely terrifying figure. With Neferet, we know she’s responsible for the undead fledglings and a few deaths, but… why? Her goals are so vague and her “evil plots” are often so nonsensical or out-of-nowhere that it’s hard to take her seriously. Why did she target and kill football players in Betrayed? Why did she kill her own professors in Chosen when she obviously knew the High Council wouldn’t support her immediately declaring war against humans in retaliation? How did any of this contribute to her ultimate goal of freeing Kalona? And then, once Kalona was freed, why was her focus on taking over the school that she already had full jurisdiction over? Why is she simultaneously trying to convince the High Council that that she is Nyx Incarnate and that they should elect her as the next High Priestess of all Vampyres? Would one title not suffice?
What is Neferet trying to do? Vague plans of world domination have been mentioned, but we don’t know why.
Nyx
Why did she only ban Kalona’s body? Why leave such an enormous loophole and never intervene when his spirit goes to the Otherworld?
Why does Nyx stop guiding and speaking to Zoey? Zoey is literally in her realm. She’s closer to Nyx than she ever has been in the past, and yet this is the one book in the series thus far where Zoey receives almost no guidance from Nyx. After Zoey pulls her soul back together and Nyx shows up to force Kalona to revive Stark (more on that later), Nyx says Zoey has made her proud again. What’s that supposed to mean? Is she mad at Zoey for grieving? Also, Zoey didn’t have her elements before she pulled her soul back together. I’m not sure if that’s because her incomplete soul made her unable to use her affinities, or if that’s an example of Nyx actually taking away Zoey’s affinities. Nyx did definitely take away Zoey’s tattoos, however, because they didn’t return when Zoey got her soul back together, but rather several minutes after Nyx showed up.
If Nyx respects free will so much, why the hell did she force Kalona to give a piece of his immortality to Stark to revive him? Literally the explanation given as to why she didn’t ban his soul from the Otherworld is because Nyx respects free will too much. This is an absolutely enormous, baffling inconsistency.
Why did Nyx show Aphrodite this detailed vision of everything that will happen if Zoey doesn’t return to her body and specifically include that scene with Stevie Rae and the two versions of Rephaim fighting each other (which has nothing to do with Zoey), but she doesn’t bother explaining or showing Aphrodite that the Native American boy she sees is actually Rephaim. How does she expect Aphrodite to help Stevie Rae if she won’t actually tell Aphrodite what’s happening?
She also Stevie Rae and Rephaim an image of him as a human but gives absolutely no indication of how this might become reality. Why? What are they supposed to do with this completely context-less information?
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Charmed - Season Seven Review
"I don't think we're getting out of this one, girls."
Season Seven is one of Charmed's weirdest years. After the mess of Season Six, the series seemingly finds its way again. The first 13 episodes take the season in an interesting and thoughtful direction, after which the show starts to build towards some sort of resolution, though said resolution feels rushed and odd. Despite what is clearly a season begging to close out this seven-year story, there's sadly more aneurisms on the horizon in Season Eight. Before that we do get to experience some surprisingly decent material, with a few crappy episodes thrown in for good measure.
Following the events of Season Six, the Halliwells' lives are still in turmoil after Gideon's betrayal, and the death of future Chris. The most interesting element of this is Leo's struggle to clear his name after killing Gideon, something that gets even more complicated after Barbas' meddling in the premiere forces Leo into murdering another Elder, this one completely innocent. This destructive behavior sets Leo on a path towards the Avatars, a mysterious group initially introduced in Season Five, back when Cole was groomed to join their cause, a cause that was at that point, unclear.
There’s also the introduction of Kyle Brody to contend with, a detective who has a large distrust of the Avatars, thanks to their role in murdering his mother and father when they stumble into the wrong place at the wrong time. His relationship with Paige is interestingly drawn, with her loyalty to him being tested in an altogether different way than Phoebe's was back in Season Four. Brody has some valid reasons for siding against the Charmed Ones, reasons that Paige herself understands. He loses his life while trying to stop the Avatars’ plan to remake the world in their image from coming to fruition, but his death is a powerful moment, and gives Rose a rare chance to make Paige appear likable again. His reincarnation as a whitelighter is completely unnecessary, though.
The Avatar arc is actually one of the more inspired of Charmed's long running stories, mostly because it attempts to tackle something a little “grayer” than would be typical of the series, especially this late in the game. Though they seem to initially offer a better world for the Charmed Ones, one without demons or evil, the Avatars’ "new order" isn’t as clear cut as it seems, with free will eradicated. The girls are left with no other option but to join forces with a demon named Zankou in order to reverse the world altering spell in 'Extreme Makeover: World Edition' (the episode titles are starting to get real wild). The resolution to this whole debacle is a refreshingly tame one, with the girls reasoning the Avatars out of their position of power, and parting ways with Zankou who promises to come face to face with them further down the line. Initially I was a bit underwhelmed by what transpires with the entire arc, but looking back its actually quite poignant, interspersing moments of intriguing mystery with bitter realizations about the world these characters exist in.
The seeds sewn during the girls' reluctant team-up with Zankou are used to great effect later on the season. Some of the episodes in question are plagued by poor execution, notably in 'Death Becomes Them', when the guilt the sisters' are forced to relive when Zankou resurrects innocents they failed to save just doesn't hit home; it's a fantastic idea that doesn't push the boundaries far enough. Zankou himself is still a terrific villain, with Oded Fehr's performance way outshining the bland macho-posturing of the Z-list demons around him. His villainy comes to a head in the finale, with the girls "sacrificing" themselves to stop him from taking control of the Nexus beneath the manor. The episode itself is a tense, exciting ride that gives Zankous's master plan a lot of gravitas, and has a few fun call-backs to elements of past seasons, though it's oddball ending leaves the season in a weird place, with the girls faking their deaths and escaping the potential exposition of their explosive showdown with Zankou at the manor. The ending has some interesting repercussions in theory, and the open-endedness of it is pretty exciting, but it's not exactly where I would want the show to end up. In hindsight, it would seem almost a mercy to viewers to end it here, rather than face the shit-show that is the show's final season. Not to mention how clumsily this is all dealt with after the fact. Ugh.
Outside of the resonance of the Avatar arc and Zankou's generally fun presence, the season feels a little off. 'The Bare Witch Project' is an embarrassing approach to modern day sexism that is unintentionally sexist itself. Any excuse to get Alyssa in her underwear, right? 'Freaky Phoebe’s is another shitty hour that is the perfect example of how tired the possessed sister trope has become. And 'Imaginary Friends' is a bad re-hash of the "let’s turn Wyatt evil" plan that was done to death in Season Six, with the episode further hindered by the black-sucking hole of boredom that is Wes Ramsey's portrayal of an adult Wyatt.
The generally tired attitude is evident in the rest of the guest casting, too. Phoebe's annual love interest this season is the terribly cast Nick Lachey, whose character Leslie steps in as a ghost writer for Phoebe's column when she takes a sabbatical from dishing out useless advice. Of course, the writers use this opportunity to shove them together, even though their chemistry is non-existent. Erica Dane's charm that kept Jason Dean afloat last season just isn't there with Leslie, either; stick to the boybands and reality shows, Nick. Things do look up briefly mid-season, with Billy Zane's brief arc as ex-demon Drake, who momentarily suspends Phoebe's descent into a chasm of whining and self-importance. Zane is ridiculously charismatic, elevating otherwise drab material and injecting life into an increasingly bored looking cast. His exit after just three episodes is sad to watch, but it's more of a tribute to how great Zane was rather than how well Drake was written.
In general, the sisters’ journeys this season are a little uninspired. Paige does find some purpose with her inheritance of Magic School, a job she later passes on to Leo when she fully embraces her whitelighter duties. Phoebe thankfully parks sperm hunt '04 to embrace her role as a source of relationship advice; it’s a nice change of pace from her standard plots revolving around bland love interests but she's just as annoying as she was when she was man-hunting. Piper is still focused on helping Leo, though it’s her role as a mother of two that's one of the few elements that help her to remain somewhat relatable. That aside, there isn’t a whole lot of growth where Piper’s concerned, despite remaining the only tolerable character.
Potions and Notions
Phoebe regains her power of premonition this season. It’s the only of her three powers that she ever gets to use again on-screen, with empathy and levitation remaining too strenuous on the budget.
Death makes his second appearance here, and his first since Season Three. I love that there’s reference to the fact that it was only Prue who saw him last time. One of the rare occasions where the series keeps its continuity in check.
I loved the shots in 'Extreme Makeover: World Edition' that showed all the people going to sleep, with the characters addressing little plot holes like the planes in the sky falling without a pilot to fly them.
Julian McMahon reprises his role as Cole in the 150th episode ‘The Seven Year Witch’. It’s disappointing that he only gets to interact with Piper, who is temporarily stuck in some form of limbo, but he remains a huge talent, and it was great to see him on the series again.
In the season finale, the girls use Astral Projection when trying to trick Zankou. There’s a reference to Prue having taught them the skill at one point, though back in the day it was heavily implied it was one of Prue’s individual talents, not a learned ability.
Spells and Chants
Death: "Which means ending death effectively ends life, throws off the entire cosmic design, the whole point, and for what? A single fleeting life. This is bigger than your sister, Piper. Much bigger."
Paige: "Well, you're gonna go deaf first. Don't forget, you're the older sister."
Piper: "Yeah, I love you too."
Paige: "Last column?"
Phoebe: "Well yeah. How much advice can a world with no conflict need? I may be out of the job."
Paige: "You okay with that?"
Phoebe: "I've got better things to look forward to."
Leo: "I tried to change the world for you ... and I would do it again in a heartbeat. "
Phoebe: "Those demons do have a way of keeping you warm at night."
Piper: "Yeah, but that's only because they have fireballs."
Best Episode: Witchness Protection; a remarkably affecting episode, with Charisma Carpenter's incredibly likeable Kira bringing the show together in a way that hasn't been seen since early season five.
Honorable Mentions: Charmageddon; Something Wicca This Way Goes.
Worse Episode: The Bare Witch Project
There's a general sense that those behind the camera (and in front of it) wanted this to be where Charmed's journey ended, and it's hard not to argue with that. By the time we reach the season finale the series had completely drained the well of ideas and, despite a short lived creative resurgence during the initial Avatar arc, the season was mostly a mere shadow of the series Charmed used to be, and the sisters themselves were starting to grate. Sadly, the WB Elders kept the show plugged in for one more year. The only reprieve of the show's extended life is the potential for the series to craft an ending that feels a little less rushed. In hindsight that still doesn't justify the trash we get fed in Season Eight, but 20/20 I guess...
5 out of 10 world altering spells.
Panda
#Charmed#Piper Halliwell#Phoebe Halliwell#Paige Matthews#Charmed Reviews#Doux Reviews#TV Reviews#something from the archive
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Let’s Shred Voltron
Here’s a rather rambling, non-comprehensive breakdown of the ways VLD has royally screwed over its entire cast. Because I’m fed up and needed to get some of this off my chest so I could move on with other projects.
Allura is now a Workaholic Married to the Job. This girl is being made to do everything—be the team’s main diplomat and the leader of the Voltron Coalition (whose alleged size and scope makes the UN look like a children’s play group; this unto itself is a job for at least ten people), be the heart of Voltron by encouraging the rest of the team and giving them advice, pilot the Blue Lion (which entails plenty of dangerous and exhausting aerial and hand-to-hand combat), generate wormholes, be the “support brain” with her knowledge of alien tech/culture/races/etc.—the list could probably go on. This poor girl has been turned into the show’s workhorse, and not even realistically so either. She should be exhausted, worn out, maybe not broken—at least in her resolve—but completely drained by being pulled every which way all the time. But she’s the same enthusiastic, inspiring, almost peppy girl we met at the beginning, which implies that either Alteans have utterly incomprehensible reserves of energy or that the writers don’t care about writing her realistically, they just want her to do all their work for them.
This noble princess has also now been effectively dethroned, with the loss of the Castle and her crown—despite the fact that there are Alteans still out there who, now that Lotor is gone, will quite possibly be looking to her for leadership. This loss of any significant position of power or status aside from being the pilot of the Blue Lion was made abundantly clear when Allura, technically the ruler of the Altean diaspora and leader of the Voltron coalition, was put into a Galaxy Garrison cadet uniform. This was an insult to all the paladins, but most especially to Allura, as it indicates she is now subservient to a government military organization for a country and planet she isn’t even a resident or citizen of (a la the Avengers submitting to a government agency via the Accords in CA:CW). Allura has been stripped of any and all reasons for recognition except her status as a paladin. That (aside from her doing almost all the work to get everything done) is the only reason she still remains relevant.
She’s also been put into relationship roulette. I am thoroughly convinced that Monsanto was setting her up to be paired with Keith during the first two seasons (they spend a lot of time together, and aside from Keith and Shiro’s relationship theirs was developed by far the most out of anyone on the team during that time). Then, when the fans didn’t jump on board that ship and (at least when Allura was involved) tended to look more toward Lance or Shiro as possible romantic interests for her, they did their usual waffling routine and backed off, sticking a toe into the Shallura pool (the “hand touch” bit in S2 and the seesawing tension between Allura and Kuron) before doing their level best to get Shiro out of the story completely and sticking Allura with Lance instead. Now, I’m not against the trope where the guy has a crush on the girl and the girl at first doesn’t like him but eventually comes around (see Han Solo and Princess Leia for one of my favorite examples of this being done properly), but in this particular instance it feels more like the girl being turned into a plot device and stuck with whatever guy the writers decide doesn’t have enough payoff in the story otherwise. It’s fully possible that, written right, Lance and Allura could have ended up together quite plausibly. But the way it has actually been done—extremely arbitrarily with little development of their relationship or healthy growth of either character—it’s a travesty for both of these wonderful people.
Shiro has been taken from his position as The Leader and The Hero, which he filled far more effectively than Keith (see my Sorting Hat Chats analysis of the characters, as well as below) and been turned into fourth tree from the left (right alongside Coran, Krolia, and Romelle). He’s been given the consolation prize of piloting the ridiculous and totally stupid and unnecessary Atlas, but aside from that he—rather like Allura with her status as Blue Lion pilot—has no other relevance to the story.
Plus (and this is a major bone I have to pick with Monsanto) he was arbitrarily given a magic muscle disease that has never been mentioned or alluded to at any point before S7—and then Word of God revoked its existence in the show’s present time because “he’s technically a clone so he’s magically cured.” Aside from this appalling behind-the-scenes wand-waving being an absolute and total writing mortal sin, it makes absolutely no sense because Keith apparently knew about it and yet made no mention of it for six seasons, even when his friend, who apparently needed magical wristbands to keep him healthy, was in an alien prison for a year with no treatment. Shiro should be a total decrepit wreck in 1x01 after going that long without proper treatment. Yet he’s not only fine, he’s able to engage in hand-to-hand combat with five enemies less than two days after escaping (see the 1x01 fight in the cruiser hangar). This is deus ex machina at its absolute and total worst.
And… okay, I’m going to really rant for a bit. Buckle up, buttercups, it’s about to get messy.
So down to brass tacks: Shiro and Adam’s relationship. I don't care if you want to view it as romantic or platonic. Any way you slice it, portraying this relationship as loving, affectionate, and admirable in canon or fandom is an insult to anyone who has loved ones willingly going into danger or away from home for long periods of time—astronauts, military members, law enforcement, firefighters, pilots, sailors, students studying abroad, missionaries and social workers in foreign countries, heck, let's throw in a good chunk of scientists for good measure, as well as the canon characters Colleen and Katie Holt, the McClain and Garrett families, and Mr. Kogane. And that's just the first ones that come to my mind. There are many, many others.
Let’s take a look first at exactly what was involved in the infamous “don’t count on me being here” scene. Shiro has some weird disease that means his health is going to decline in a few more years (see the bone picking above). Despite protests from higher-ups (which, this being a military organization, an admiral saying that a lieutenant cannot/should not participate in a mission should have utterly slammed the door on even the possibility of Shiro going), Shiro has decided to go on the Kerberos mission. Back in 1x05 Sam Holt referred to being in space for “the next two months”. Because Pidge, normally a very accurate scientist, said “it takes months for our ships to get out here” in 1x01 when passing Kerberos, I’m going to give Sam the benefit of the doubt and assume the “two months” is referring to the trip to Kerberos only. So, two months there, two months back, probably no more than two weeks exploring (this is to a degree a token voyage, after all; presumably after its success more rigorous explorations would be conducted). So I’ll give it a generous total time of five months, at most. Five months. Foreign exchange students are gone from home longer than that. And, considering the amount of contact modern astronauts are able to have with people back on Earth, I highly doubt the Kerberos guys were radio silent during their trip. And despite his apparent muscle problem there are no health ramifications for Shiro going on the mission (as in, going won’t make his condition worse). So we’re looking at five months of long-distance relationship, essentially. This is way, way better than many people with loved ones in, say, the military get.
Now, "Don't count on me being here when you get back"—this is emotional manipulation, plain and simple, using threats to the relationship as leverage to get what the speaker wants out of the other person. It is almost identical to saying "if you do X I'll never speak to you again" or "if you do X I'll break up with you", a common verbal threat tactic in abusive relationships. I have a good friend who was in a relationship like this, and the ugliness of that breakup has ramifications even years later, both socially and in my friend's mental well-being. I also knew other people in (non-romantic) friendships with somebody who used similar types of phrases and manipulation to get them to do what she wanted. The strain ultimately tore apart the friend group. These sorts of phrases and tactics are red flags of the highest degree and indicate a relationship that is in no way, shape, or form healthy.
So. Adam doesn't want Shiro to leave for the five-month trip, ostensibly for Shiro's health. But we have no indication that the Kerberos Mission poses any sort of risk to Shiro's health, preexisting medical conditions included. Which means what's really at stake here is Adam just doesn't want Shiro to go and is using any possible reason or tactic, no matter how flimsy or manipulative, to push that goal. This is horribly self-centered and appears to be based entirely in a selfish desire to have Shiro around as much as possible for as long as possible without any consideration for Shiro's desires and dreams (it's made pretty clear that the Garrison, space exploration, and the Kerberos Mission have been Shiro’s dream and goal for years if not his whole life). To even consider this as anything less than selfish possessiveness is dangerous and downright insulting to Shiro, as well as to every single person who has loved ones gone for long periods of time and/or in dangerous circumstances.
Net result: no matter how you read Shiro and Adam's relationship, we should all be glad that Shiro GOT OUT.
(And relationship drama is possibly one of the oldest, cheapest methods for easy plot tension out there. It requires little to no effort on the part of the writer and can create lots of drama without anybody getting developed, just lots of “but you said you loved me!” type stuff ad nauseam. The families of the other paladins have gotten developed, or at the very least been given cameos; why not, instead of using a cheap relationship trick to give fourth-tree-from-the-left Shiro any sort of interest in S7 at all, give us some background info on him? All we know about him is that he worked for the Garrison. We know nothing about his parents, if he has any siblings… we could have gotten so much more, and yet the writers stuck us with this idiotic hogwash.)
Okay, mini-mega-rant over. Moving on…
Keith’s been strongarmed into a leadership role for which he is painfully not suited. To make this square-peg-in-round-hole setup work the writers have copy-pasted a good chunk of Shiro’s personality on top of the erstwhile lone wolf, turning Keith into a schizophrenic who oscillates wildly between inspiring noble leader and the shy, blunt, anger-prone guy we all came to love in the first two seasons. (That is not to say Keith is incapable of being a good leader; see aforementioned Sorting Hat Chats analysis. But this is not the way to get Keith to be a good leader.) To prevent this poor jerry-rigged human from being completely outshone, Shiro has, as I said before, been stripped of almost all personality and pushed as far back into the scenery as possible without disappearing entirely (and Monsanto has outright said they think he’s dumb and boring and wanted to get rid of him. But they were afraid of fan backlash when, for some weird reason, the fans actually liked him. So they didn’t kill him off and opted instead to be their usual spineless chicken selves and not pick a plotline, nominally keeping him around while making Shiro pretty much useless).
Lance is being made to operate as “Voltron’s right hand,” which runs counter to the lore established in S1 and 2 and, thanks to Keith’s writer-induced schizophrenia, means he’s actually leading Voltron by proxy because Keith has latched onto him as the strategist and moral compass (when Keith’s “Shiro personality” isn’t coming out). This has locked Lance into a particular role, when he actually operates best shifting to fit whatever role the situation calls for (again, see the Sorting Hat Chats analysis for more on this). The poor guy is really starting to come across as dragged over the coals and put on the rack; he’s take an awful beating at the hands of the writers and is worn down and damaged with no sign of relief. He seems to be getting Allura as a consolation prize, but as I said before this is a disservice to both of these characters and really just throws Lance’s suffering in his face.
Hunk and Pidge have largely been left by the wayside. Hunk was barely a step up from joining the line of trees in the first place, as the balmera arc was the only place he really shone (he’s had a few bits in episodes here and there, maybe—maybe—once a season, but more as a “look, we haven’t forgotten he exists!” thing than any sort of real character development). And Pidge, once she completed her “find my family” arc, faded into the background right along with Hunk. She tends to be a smidge more prominent than he does, if only because she’s the computer geek—and because she’s the team’s other girl, since Monsanto is all over that doggone “representation” bandwagon—but she’s largely served her purpose and now is simply the tech whiz plot device.
And… oh, good Lord. Don’t even get me started on the rest of the cast. Coran has never gotten a huge amount of development, but to be fair he’s always kind of been a goofy Alfred so it makes sense that we wouldn’t peel back his layers too much. He’s nominally interesting but largely there to help the other characters do their thing. But all the Holts have pretty much just been pawns in Pidge’s arc—we’ve seen so little of Matt Holt as to have no real idea of his personality at all (most of what we “know” is actually fandom-developed), and although Sam proved useful for the “return to Earth” bit he’s only gotten a little more development than his son. Krolia too was pretty much just a plot device for Keith’s arc and finding the Altean colony; since then she’s just disappeared into the scenery to become second tree from the left. Romelle has earned true MacGuffin status, as the literal only thing she has done for the story is reveal Lotor’s treachery (despite the fact that she, along with Krolia, is a powerpack of a character and could probably take down the empire single-handed if given the opportunity).
Plus the villains have been shortchanged along with everyone else. Part of the reason, I think, so many people loved Lotor as a bad guy was because he actually had a pretty good motive and a well-developed personality. He was a whole person. Zarkon kinda was, a bit, since he was obsessed with the Black Lion and that at least gave him some sort of drive. But Haggar? Who, by the way, we haven’t seen since S6? Sendak? Pshh, please. Why on earth would Monsanto bother to give the bad guys motivation and personality? That would distract from Keith’s leadership arc, and Allurance! And—and space wolf! And explosions! And look, Voltron has a new power, so don’t look at the man behind the curtain through the plot holes you could drag a planet through!
I am so done with all this nonsense. So I’m going to go fix everything with fanfiction. Bye.
P.S. “Monsanto” is my admittedly derogatory version of “Monsantos”, the contraction I’ve often seen used to refer to Lauren Montgomery and Joaquim Dos Santos, the executive producers and master-not-minds of VLD.
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Distance: Isaac Lahey
requested: nope I just love Isaac and have lots of feelings
pairing: Isaac Lahey x McCall!Reader
word count: 3.1k
warnings: arguments, emotions, mild cursing
summary: After four years apart, the reappearance of your best friend brings up things you wished to forget.
a/n: Happy New Year! Can you tell I’m still bitter that Isaac left? I hope your 2018 is filled with growth, happiness, and warmth!
Snow in Beacon Hills was rare.
It was almost as rare as seeing a shooting star, the delicate snowflakes landing and melting almost instantly. They were a constant reminder of how temporary everything was, and for you they were a painful reminder. The last time it snowed in Beacon Hills, you suffered the loss of an ally and the disappearance of your best friend. Seeing snow brought up the vivid memories, forcing you to relive it every time.
“What’s the duffel for, Lahey?” You asked, leaning against the doorframe of his bedroom. He had lived with you, your brother, and your mother for months at this point, the McCall house becoming a safe space for him after losing his family.
“I’m leaving,” He replied, throwing clothes into the duffel frantically, “Tonight.” Instead of the light, joking tone he normally used with you, his voice signaled something serious.
“Why?” You asked, trying to fight back the sudden tears that were making their way up.
“I’m going to France to help Argent,” Isaac sighed, “He can’t be alone after - after what just happened.”
You stared at the ground. Nobody had the heart to say the truth: Allison’s death was catastrophic.
“He’s a grown man,” You began, “He doesn’t need the help of a teenager.”
“He just lost his daughter,” Isaac spoke, “After losing his wife, and his father, and his sister-“
“So we’re all just supposed to lose you too?” You snapped, no longer able to hold back your feelings.
“You’re not losing me,” Isaac replied, his voice calmer than you expected.
“You barely know him, Isaac,” You mumbled. You never called him by his first name, not in the many years you had been friends. You two went on a strictly last-name basis. “You have a life here.”
“There’s nothing here for me,” Isaac raised his voice, “I’m not a ‘star student’ like you or Lydia. Sure, I’m good at lacrosse, but that’s only because of what I am. I don’t have a family. There is nothing here for me.”
“No family?” You asked, hurt by his words, “So we’re not your family?”
Isaac could tell the damage he had done. “That- that’s not what I meant.”
“I think I know what you meant,” You sighed, turning around and heading for the door. “Have fun in France.” You hid yourself away in your bedroom, watching as Isaac would soon leave through the front door, disappearing into the snowy distance towards his future.
Though it happened years ago, that memory make your face burn and your stomach flip. The wounds were still raw, the lack of closure from that relationship causing you to to suppress it every time. You took a deep breath, removing yourself from your spot at the window, hoping desperately that you distract yourself once again.
“(Y/N)?” Your mom spoke, knocking on the door frame, “I’m heading to work.”
You turned, nodding. “Okay.”
“You alright?” She asked.
“Yeah,” You lied, “I just- I miss Scott.”
She nodded. “Well, he comes home tonight. And I assume he’s bringing your big ol’ group of friends home too.” She gave you a weak smile. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Bye mom,” You called out, sighing before following her down the stairs. You were a year younger than your older brother Scott, something that brought the two of you closer than anyone else you knew. Especially after Isaac left, Scott became your best friend, someone you knew you couldn’t live without. He left for college a year before you did, heading over to UC Davis to start his journey to become a Veterinarian. You, on the other hand, went to school across the country, arriving home a few days early due to a lucky - but stressful - final exam period. You had just finished your first semester, feeling accomplished, but coming back to Beacon Hills reminded you of everything you left behind - and everyone you missed.
You flopped down on the couch, clicking on the T.V. for some sort of distraction. The snow outside began to stick, something that definitely didn’t happen in Beacon Hills. Though you knew it was a coincidence, you felt like it was a sign for something more ominous. It always was in Beacon Hills.
“Hey, is (Y/N) home?” Liam asked, following his alpha and friends towards the entrance of the McCall residence.
“Her car is home,” Scott spoke, putting his key into the handle, “I assume.” He looked over at his young friend, raising his eyebrows. “Why?”
“Just wondering,” Liam lied as Scott pushed open the door, walking into the familiar kitchen. He could smell the scent of leftovers coming from the fridge, and the sound of the T.V. from the living room. You were home, watching jeopardy.
“(Y/N)?” Scott called, walking in and throwing his suitcase onto the island in the middle of the kitchen. He walked through the dining room, spotting you sleeping peacefully on the couch. You stirred, raising your head and blinking.
“Hey,” You smiled, “Scotty’s home.” You pulled off the blankets, standing to walk over and welcome your brother home. “I missed you.”
“I missed you too,” Scott smiled, engulfing you in a hug, “I hope the East Coast has treated you well.”
“Aside from the terrible weather,” You spoke, rubbing your eyes, “Boston’s great.”
“Hey, so Stiles and Liam are here. Is that cool?” Scott asked, his hands sitting on your shoulders.
“Sure,” You nodded, “I assume more of the pack’s gonna join later?”
“I’m leaving to pick Lydia up in an hour,” Stiles called out, “Her flight arrives in an hour and I’m gonna be the first thing she sees.”
“Hey,” You teased, “I’ve seen the boys at MIT. You’ve got some competition.”
Stiles rolled his eyes, grabbing a can of soda from the fridge. “Exactly why I have to be there.”
You followed Scott into the kitchen, sitting on one of the stools next to your brother and his friends. The four of you caught up on life, listening to Stiles’ stories of learning from the FBI program, Liam’s experience working during his gap year, Scott’s time at UC Davis, and the amazing city life you experienced in one of the best East Coast cities.
“I’m gonna head out,” Stiles spoke, “It’s snowing pretty hard out there, I gotta allow for traffic.”
“Have fun,” You smiled, puckering your lips at him. He rolled his eyes, patting your shoulder before heading out to his trusty blue Jeep.
Scott’s phone began to buzz on the table.
“Who is it?” Liam asked, furrowing his brows as he looked at the unknown number.
“I dunno,” He shrugged, “It’s probably got to do with work or something. I’ll go take this.” He grabbed the phone, heading out into the living room and leaving you and Liam alone.
You and Liam were never close, the weird tension coming between you two as the younger members of the pack. Mason and Corey were already in a relationship, leaving the two of you to spend lots of time together, especially as the three of them began to work towards graduating early. Unlike Mason and Corey, Liam took time off to get work experience before going to college nearby, but you could tell that some people just expected the two of you to start a relationship sometime. Truthfully, you recognized Liam was attractive, but you knew you didn’t want a relationship any time soon, especially not a long distance one.
“So,” You spoke, breaking the silence, “You’re working with the lacrosse team, right?”
“A little, yeah,” Liam nodded, “It’s pretty cool.”
You nodded.
“(Y/N),” Scott spoke, walking in, “You won’t believe who just called me.”
“Who?” You asked, hoping it would be some sort of celebrity or someone important.
“Argent,” Scott replied, “He says he’s coming home for the holidays to be with mom and he wants to surprise her.”
“Really?” You exclaimed, “She’s gonna be so excited.” Argent had left to do some work with a reformed hunting group in France for a while recently, and was finally done. It had been several months since your mom had seen her boyfriend, and now she was finally going to be reunited with him.
At least someone in this house had found love.
“He’s flying in tomorrow night,” Scott continued, “We’re gonna pick him up while mom’s at work, and then bring him home for her before she finishes up.”
“Great,” You nodded, “Sounds great.”
The next day, you and Scott headed off to the airport to pick up Argent after your mom left for work. It was nice to catch up with your brother one-on-one, the long drive giving you the time to discuss things you didn’t wanna discuss with anyone else. Regardless, you refused to bring up Isaac, knowing it would be impossible to talk to Scott about something you couldn’t explain. It was more than an argument - it was the end of a lifelong friendship, and you had no words to describe the pain you felt.
When you arrived, Scott parked the car and the two of you headed inside to pick up Argent. You stood over by the terminal exit, waiting to see Argent walk out.
“There he is,” Scott spoke, “He’s - He’s with someone.”
“Do you recognize them?” You asked, squinting. Scott had heightened senses from his werewolf gifts, meanwhile you still suffered from an outdated glasses prescription and a very mediocre sense of smell.
“No,” Scott spoke, “Well - kinda.”
You looked, watching as Argent came closer with someone he seemed to be very close with. Scott had mentioned last minute that Argent said he was bringing one of his associates, but you assumed they had just been flying together. You squinted, trying to identify the tall, muscular figure. He had these dark, dirty blonde curls, with a stubble that could only be grown with age and time. He was wearing a light jacket, something that looked like it would keep someone warm backpacking through Europe in the summer, paired with neat pants and work boots.
What kind of associate was this?
“Holy shit,” Scott muttered, “It’s Isaac.”
Your stomach flipped. “W- What?” You asked, looking frantically at your brother. The last you had heard of Isaac was that he was working in France, but you had no idea that he joined up with Argent again after all these years. What could he possibly be doing with Argent? Why did he feel the need to come back here, after all this time?
“Scott, (Y/N),” Argent smiled, pulling the two of you in for a hug, “You remember Isaac Lahey, don’t you?”
“Yeah,” Scott smiled, giving Isaac a hug as well. You stood back, only nodding, your arms crossed.
“Let’s go,” You mumbled, “We don’t wanna be late.”
The car ride home was agonizing. Isaac’s voice had changed a bit, each word that left his lips pulling his newly acquired French accent away.
“What have you been doing for the past four years?” Scott asked, staring at Isaac from the rearview mirror.
“A lot of things, actually,” Isaac spoke, “I worked for a little while in different odd jobs before finishing school. I then started doing work for the group of ex-hunters that Argent was visiting, mostly just doing business deals with them. That’s when Argent offered me a job working for him.”
“He’s got fantastic people skills,” Argent added, “Isaac is able to close a deal in seconds.”
You clenched your jaw.
“What have you been doing?” Isaac asked, “You still working for Deaton?”
“A little,” Scott replied, “I go to UC Davis now, and (Y/N) goes to school in Boston.”
“Boston,” Isaac repeated, sending a shiver down your spine, “What are you studying?”
“I’m undecided,” You replied quickly, “I’m thinking behavioral sciences.”
“Cool,” Isaac nodded, “That’s cool.”
You were silent the rest of the ride.
After Argent surprised your mom, he took her out to dinner and left the three of you alone in the house. You tried getting people to come over - but Malia didn’t want to see Scott after their breakup, Lydia and Stiles were on a date, Mason and Corey were spending time together with their families, and you had nothing in common with Liam.
“Shit,” You mumbled, sitting in your bedroom alone. Your desk lamp flickered slightly as you threw your phone down on the bed, flopping down with it.
There was a knock on the door frame.
You looked up, finding Isaac standing with his arms crossed, leaning against the door frame.
“What?” You asked, trying to make it clear that you didn’t want to talk to him.
“I’m ordering food, do you want anything?” He asked, “Scott suggested Chinese.”
You bit down on your bottom lip. “Sure.”
“You still like Lo Mein?” He asked, raising his eyebrows. It was clear he was trying to break the ice with you through your stomach.
“Yeah,” You replied, grabbing your phone and rolling over. “Thanks.”
He nodded, heading down the hallway as he pulled open the best Chinese Restaurant in Beacon Hills and dialed their number on his phone.
Within minutes, though, he was back.
“Can we talk?” He asked, his voice sounding more normal at this point.
“About what?” You asked in response, “The last four years?”
“A little before that,” He answered, “About our last conversation.” He took a step forward into the room, but the look on your face persuaded him to stop there. “I thought about it every day after that.”
You were silent, refusing to look him in the eye. Your heart raced with a mixture of anger and hope, refusing to give into his attempt at an apology but reminding yourself of the relationship you once had.
“Do you know why I came back?” Isaac broke the silence, “I came back because I realized that France didn’t have what I was looking for.”
“And what was that?” You snapped, “A bunch of people who praise you? A job with Argent?”
“You,” He corrected, “I came back because France didn’t have you.”
“Nice try,” You sighed, “That took you four years to realize.”
“No,” Isaac protested, “It took me a week. But at that point, Argent had made it clear that he couldn’t live without me. By the time he was ready to come back here, I thought it was too late to come back. I heard about you and that Theo guy-“
“Nothing happened between us,” You interrupted, “He was just… into me.”
Isaac nodded. “Regardless, hearing about it made me - it made me upset.” He paused to collect his thoughts. “I realized that I felt more for you than I thought.”
“That was a year ago,” You calculated, “Why didn’t you come back then?” Your hands were shaking as you stared at your once best friend as he professed his feelings for you in the only way he knew how. He definitely matured in France, both physically and emotionally, but one thing remained the same - Isaac wasn’t great with talking about his feelings.
“Honestly?” He breathed, “I was scared.”
“Scared of what?” You asked, sitting up and crossing your arms.
“This.” He stared at his shoes, breathing. Even though you couldn’t hear his heartbeat, you could tell it was racing.
You had no idea where to take the conversation. You looked at Isaac and then out the window, staring at the snow that melted in the yard.
“I’m sorry,” He mumbled, “This was a bad idea.”
He took a step back out the door and turned down the hallway, leaving you alone with his words.
After dinner, Scott left to go put in some hours at the clinic while you and Isaac were left alone in the house. You could hear him walking around downstairs, trying to find some way to distract himself from the new situation he had created. Once in a while, you would hear him sigh, pace, and mumble, but soon only the sound of the T.V. filled the house.
You snuck downstairs, walking into the kitchen to grab something to drink. You spotted him asleep on the couch, trying hard to be quiet so you wouldn’t wake him up.
“Scott?” You heard him ask, the sound of his raspy and sleepy voice sending shivers down your spine.
“No,” You called back, “It’s me.” You walked towards the living room, biting your bottom lip as you stood in the entryway. The two of you stared at each other for a moment before you spoke.
“I missed you,” You told him, “I didn’t lose a pack mate that night, I lost my best friend.”
“I know,” He acknowledged, “I’m sorry.”
“You promise not to leave for France again?” You asked, “Or at least give me a heads up next time?”
Isaac smiled from his spot on the couch. “Absolutely.”
“Now,” You spoke, “Move over, Lahey. We’re watching some Christmas movies.”
Staring out the window, you barely noticed that the mug of tea you held in your hand was fogging the glass. Your mind was cloudy, thinking about all different things as you watched cars drive by your apartment. Music was playing softly in the background, the sound of soft drums and piano keys calming your busy mind. The smell of food coming from your tiny kitchen filled your nose, sending a warmth through your body.
“What time is it?” Isaac asked from across the apartment.
“Six-thirty,” You replied, checking your phone, “Is everything alright?”
“Why did we agree to host Christmas?”
“Because,” You called out, moving from your spot by the window, “You wanted to show mom how established you were as an adult now.” You walked towards the kitchen, passing the couch and adjusting one of the pillows and standing in the doorway. You stared at Isaac, watching as he cooked enough food to feed the small army that would be arriving soon. Things had changed significantly after Isaac went to France those four years, but the distance between you quickly closed that winter. It seemed like forever, now, especially after you graduated, moved back to California, and moved in with Isaac. “With your fancy new job, your fancy new apartment-“
“And my fancy new fiancé,” He smiled, taking a break from his work in the kitchen to kiss you. You played with the gorgeous ring against your finger, smiling when Isaac broke away slowly. He continued cooking, looking over at you and flashing a grin. “What’s that smile about?”
“Nothing,” You lied, leaning against the door frame, “Just us.”
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The Price Of Flowers - Chap 4
Note: This is the longest chapter so far, but there wasn’t a good place to break it up. Everything kind of flowed into the next part, so you get extra to read. Enjoy all. Poor Keith though, this is the start of things going down hill for him.
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Chapter Four - Is Love Enough?
Shiro had once told him that riding behind another guy could be a bit awkward for other men. Something about too much chest to back contact involved to hold on properly, making it weird. Shiro had never minded because he’d take any excuse to put his hands on Keith, but other guys, especially those who felt a bit insecure, might care quite a bit.
Thankfully, Lance wasn’t one of those guys. When Keith offered to drive him to the “thing”, sparing him having to ask Hunk to borrow his car again. Lance had agreed with enthusiasm. He’d texted Keith back with the address immediately, along with a time to stop by.
Which is how he ended up here, pulling up in front of the little house Lance and Hunk rented together. Keith kills the motor and kicks down his kickstand. Dropping his helmet on a handle before walking up the scraggly lawn. There was an unfamiliar car parked beside Hunk’s in the driveway. Company? Maybe that’s why Hunk had to abandon all his plans with Lance this week.
Like college housing everywhere, no one bothered to insulate when the residents couldn’t afford to move somewhere better anyways. A heated argument, no, no one sounds angry, more like a very loud impassioned discussion, drifts through the walls as Keith approaches. Most is lost to indistinctness, but the words “doesn’t work” “treatment” and “it will” were clear enough. Keith knocks extra hard on the door. He has no intentions of invading their privacy.
“He’s here!” Someone shouts, followed by the sound of thumping as someone rushes to the entrance. Lance throws open the door with a smile, “You made it!” Lance says stepping out and shutting the door quickly behind him. Keith only gets one look at Hunk’s pinched expression before his view is blocked, “Are you ready to go?” Lance says, already stepping off the front porch and heading out to the street.
Keith spins around and hurries to catch up, “You’re excited,” Keith observes. He’s pretty interested too, ever since he found out Lance’s thing was actually the space exhibition being put on by the local museum, but Lance looks half a beat from just running there himself.
“I’ve been looking forward to this for a while,” Lance says, picking up the spare helmet Keith had strapped to the back of his bike. The helmet is black, much like his own, except with a purple stylized kitten head on its back. His own has the same design in red. He and Shiro had bought them as a matching pair, after Shiro insisted on replacing his old ratty one. There may have been some commentary in there about Keith reminding Shiro of a cat, but even someone like Shiro was allowed to be wrong sometimes.
“Well I’ll make sure to get you there on time,” Keith clips his own helmet on and throws a leg over his bike. Without a moment’s hesitation, Lance slides in behind him. Wrapping his arms around Keith’s waist and holding on tight. Lance always does that, like he’s scared of falling off or something, “I’m pretty good at this, you don’t have to worry,” Keith assures him.
“I’m not worried,” Lance says. Not worried eh? Keith guns the engine, streaking off down the street. Lance shrieks, and Keith, well, good thing the helmet hides his grin.
-
It’s Friday afternoon, so the exhibit is pretty crowded. He’s grateful Lance’s pre-ordered tickets have them walking straight past the long line waiting outside to the exhibit proper. Absolutely nothing looks fun about sitting in line with a bunch of bored kids.
The inside of the exhibit is something else. Whoever put this thing together deserves a promotion. There isn’t one little dinky room set aside with a moon rock or two. The museum has dedicated a whole section to the display. Little signs point towards the various areas of interest, from the things astronomers had learned from the Hubble Telescope to the possibility of someday colonizing Mars. There is so much to see.
“So where do you want to go first?” Lance asks, stepping in close to Keith. Their shoulders bump with proximity, but in this crush of people it’s the only thing keeping them from getting seperated.
Keith examines his options carefully, but truly there is only one answer he was ever going to give. Something he has dreamed about since he was a child, and still does hope to accomplish some day. Keith’s face splits into a huge grin, a kid set free in the candy store, “Astronauts.”
Lance shakes his head, “You would,” Lance says, smiling almost fondly. He reaches for Keith, hesitates for a moment, then grabs Keith’s wrist, “Come on mullet, let’s go read about people that have heads even further out in space than you.” With a tug, they are off. Zig zagging through the crowd towards the first exhibit.
The exhibit is designed to progress through time. Guiding its viewer through the story of mankind’s trip to somewhere beyond the earth it was born on. It begins with Cosmo the first mammal in space, onto Neil Armstrong, to the first probe on Mars. Their journey temporarily stops at that portion of the exhibit, while Keith gets the chance to show off a lifetime of collected trivia to a group of excited six years olds. If there parents hadn’t come to collect them, he’d have happily stayed there most the day. It’s rare to find people outside of Shiro, who find what he has to say interesting.
It’s when they are leaving that display, heading towards a life sized model of a modern astronaut’s living quarters, that things start to get weird. Lance has been holding onto Keith wrist off an on for pretty much the entire time they’ve been here. Ostensibly, he’s doing so that they won’t get separated while wandering, but it’s while waiting behind the other patrons, that Lance does something strange. They’re standing in line and then Lance is slipping his hand down from Keith’s wrist to catch Keith’s hand with his own.
Keith stops trying to peek around the corner to get an early look, and glance down at their joined hands, “Umm, what are you doing?” Keith asks. He’s not the most socially aware, but he’s 99% certain this is a weird thing for male friends to do.
Lance’s looks away sheepishly, like he just got caught with his hand in the cookie jar, but he doesn’t move to change his grip, “It was getting a bit awkward to be holding your wrist all the time. I kinda looked like some control freak boyfriend scared to let you walk free,” Lance explains.
Maybe, he could see how they might give off that image, people thought all sorts of strange things, but the new grip was giving those people an equally inaccurate portrayal of their relationship, “Well, we’re in line now, so you don’t really need to hang onto me at all,” Keith says, shaking off Lance’s hand.
“I guess,” Lance says, rubbing the back of his head, “It was kinda nice though?” Lance looks up at Keith with expectant eyes.
Keith blanks. Nice? What did? Just what? “Uh, ok,” Keith says instead of anything more meaningful. The space before them opens and Keith seizes the distraction, “Hey look, it’s our turn. I’ve always wanted to go inside one of these,” Keith says hurriedly, stepping into the model.
If Lance is disappointed by Keith’s non-answer, Keith isn’t looking to see it, “Look at these beds, can you imagine having to sleep strapped in every night?” Keith says, trying to get them back on track for their fun evening.
“They must end up having pretty strange dreams,” Lance replies without enthusiasm.
“And here is where they store the freeze dried food. I loved this stuff as a kid, Dad used to buy it for me when he went into town,” Keith says without thinking, and now the awkwardness is being pushed back by memories of a time long gone. Dad’s old pickup rattling down the dirt road leading to their tin roofed shack. Hollering out for Keith to come help with their meager groceries, that still always managed to have a treat sneaked in for Keith.
He must stay quiet a moment too long, “They probably sell some in the gift shop.” Lance’s voice breaks the chain of memories, “I could buy you some if you like?” Lance offers, from right beside him. When did Lance step so close?
Keith shakes his head, “Nah, it fine,” He says, stepping out of the model. It’s lost a bit of its charm for the moment. Outside is there is a presentation on some of the challenges of space travel, with little graphs and pictures. A good diversion for his thoughts.
It’s pure chance that has him stopping in front of the display on Hanahaki’s disease. Seems NASA has avoided any of their astronauts becoming afflicted while in space, but as the possibility of long term manned missions to other planets in our solar system come closer to reality, they fear a real possibility of having that lucky streak broken.
If someone where to hide their pining until the ship launched, long distance curing of the disease could be awfully tricky. Not everyone will have their vine growth destroyed or stalled by hearing a voice on the line saying they love you too. Leaving a high possibility of requiring surgical removal. No one wants to be the first person forced to perform lung surgery in zero-g.
“You know, when my grandma was young they used to call it the Lover’s Curse,” Lance says, hovering uncomfortably close once again. Keith’s heard of the disease referred to that way before, mostly by the elderly, “But she always said it should be called the Lover’s Blessing instead.” Keith quirks an eyebrow at Lance. He struggles to see how suffocating slowly because you are in love with someone that doesn’t love you back could be seen as a blessing.
“It’s true,” Lance says, not perturbed by Keith’s disbelief, “She said Hanahaki was a blessing, because if you had it, it meant that you really loved someone. People whose feelings are transient don’t develop the disease. Only those with true love in their hearts can catch it.” Lance is smiling softly, looking off as if he can’t see his grandmother spinning her tale.
“That’s why you should never get rid of it, she said. You’ve been given a gift from beyond and to throw it away would be the gravest of insults to your own feelings,” Keith doesn’t miss the supernatural tinge Lance puts to his explanation. Seeing how they still can’t figure out how someone catches the disease, it’s not exactly a rare belief that there is something more to it than a cold.
“But an insult is better than dying.” Keith points out. He has to, because nothing is sadder than those stories of young boys and girls slowly choking to death in a hospital because their crush panicked and ran, yet they still refuse to have those feelings removed.
Lance’s face grows serious, more serious than Keith has ever seen him. Blue eyes look straight into to his own, “When you love someone. Nothing is more important,” Lance says. Something about that statement rings true. Can he really call anyone out, considering his own feelings for Shiro? If the older man hadn’t loved him back and he’d developed the disease, could he have really walked into a hospital and had those feelings just cut out of his chest because they were impractical?
“I guess you’re right, in a way,” Keith says, “It’s not a simple problem.”
Lance relaxes a bit at Keith’s concession, “Of course I’m right, I’m always right,” Lance says with a cheeky grin. Keith lets him have his victory, and doesn’t point out he very clearly said, in a way, “Hey, why don’t we take a walk outside. There’s something I need to tell you, and I’d prefer somewhere with a few less people eavesdropping.”
They’ve already hit most of the things he wanted to see, so there is hardly a reason not to, “Sure, sounds good,” Keith says.
Lance doesn’t grab for his wrist or hand this time, and Keith appreciates that. They’ve had enough awkwardness for one evening.
Lance takes the lead, and guides them towards the closest exit that won’t set off an alarm. The fresh air outside is a nice change, as is the space. Keith feels a bit less like a human bowling pin than he had constantly trying to dodge people inside the exhibit.
Surprisingly, Lance doesn’t start speaking the second they are free of the crowd. If anything he seems a bit lost in his head. Keith knows what it’s like to try and get the words straight for something important, so he doesn’t push. Just picks a direction that looks nice and starts walking.
They make it two blocks before the bomb drops, “I have Hanahaki.”
Keith nearly trips over his feet, “What?” He must have misheard.
Lance stops walking and turns to Keith, “I have Hanahaki’s disease, the Lover’s Curse, I’m host to flowers,” Lance elaborates. Oh god.
“How? When?” How had he not noticed? How had no one noticed? No surely, others knew. Coughing up flowers wasn’t subtle, unless Lance just found out?
“I started seeing petals a while ago, but I guess I kinda always knew something like this might happen. I’ve felt this way for years.” Lance is scratching the back of his head again, as if admitting to a friend you have a potentially fatal disease is only something mildly embarrassing.
“You need to tell them. Whoever it is you need to tell them how you feel immediately. This is your life.” Keith’s reaching out, grabbing onto Lance’s shoulder for emphasis, barely holding off the urge to shake him. He’s not overreacting. Putting off telling your crush your feelings, is how young healthy men and women, with full lives ahead of them, end up dead on the sidewalk.
“I can’t just tell them. It’s more complicated than that,” Lance says, but he doesn’t shrug Keith off.
“Explain,” Maybe it’s as simple as distance. The person is too far away for Lance to just pop in and admit his feelings. If that’s the case, Keith will get Lance the money he needs. He doesn’t care if has to go begging door to door or sell off half his belongings. He doesn’t have many friends and he won’t let any of them die if there is anything he can do to prevent it. He’s already lost too many people.
“They don’t know that I like them,” Lance confesses, head sagging forward, “I’m worried about scaring them away by coming on too fast.” Okay, well yes, he can remember what that was like, but him dithering over telling Shiro that he meant more to him than just a friend wasn’t playing russian roulette with his life.
“Lance, look at me,” Keith waits until Lance is looks him in the eyes, “You won’t scare them away. If you care for them, give them a chance and tell them the truth. You may be pleasantly surprised.” That’s how these things went. The fear of rejection was almost always larger in your head than the actual possibility of it.
“Still…” Lance’s voice trails off, before he can even start.
“You’re a great guy Lance. You’re fun to be around, and they’d be an idiot not to want you,” Keith says, and it’s the truth. Whoever this person is will probably be flattered when Lance confesses. People love Lance, and it’s not every day that someone develops Hanahaki from pining for you.
“Thanks Keith,” Lance say. He grasps the hand Keith left on his shoulder, pulling it down to hang between them, “That’s what I needed to hear.”
Keith looks down at their clasped hands in confusion. Dejavu, why? “Keith, I’m in love with you.” Keith’s head jerks up, staring at Lance. He’s what? “I have been for years,” This has to be a joke, “Ever since we got so close while Shiro was gone.” An elaborate joke…There is not an ounce of humor in Lance’s eyes. He’s…He’s…Lance is serious.
“I’m in a relationship,” Keith says. The words feel numb on his lips, his head light like he’s in free fall with no ground in sight. He’s not prepared.
“I know. I know,” Lance says, pushing on. Unlike Keith, he’s had time, “And I was happy to wait for you. I know when he came back from all that it wasn’t a good time, so I kept quiet,” Lance squeezes Keith’s limp hand, “But circumstances have changed, and I love you Keith. I love you like no one else does. This disease, it just proves that. Proves that my feelings for you are something special. This is the universe’s sign we were meant to be.”
“I’m in a relationship, with Shiro,” Keith repeats, like the addition of two words will change the flow of events sweeping over him.
“Look,” Lance is searching for something in his expression he won’t find, “I know this is a lot to take in. I’m sorry, but this is our chance. I want to be with you Keith.” Words abandon Keith. There isn’t a response to any of this.
Lance lets go of his hand, “I’ve got my own ride home. You take some time to process everything, and I’ll call you back later, okay.” Lance gives him a quick hug, before stepping away.
“Okay,” Keith says. Maybe Lance waves goodbye, maybe he disappears in a puff of smoke. Keith can’t say which. Just at some point he’s alone on the sidewalk, and whatever stalled his systems decides to let go and let him panic.
Oh god, Lance is in love with him. Lance is dying. Lance is dying because he is in love with him. Lance is dying and instead of getting treatment he’s wasting time to go paintballing with Keith and hanging out at museums. Doesn’t he understand how serious his situation is? Why, why would he? Where these dates? He dating Shiro, Lance knows that. Why is he confessing to him? Why is he taking him out on dates? Why had no one talked to him about this. Hunk.
Hunk’s concerned face earlier. Letting Lance borrow his car for something that maybe Lance never planned to take anyone but Keith too. Hunk must know something.
His phone is out and dialing Hunk’s number in a flash. The line picks up, and Keith doesn’t wait on polite greetings, “Did you know about this? Did you know that Lance is dying?” He hisses, because there will be no misunderstanding what he is talking about. No beating around the bush. He will have answers.
“So he told you, then,” Hunk’s voice is tired, as if this is the inevitable conclusion of something he’s seen building miles away. He did know then.
“He told me he has Hanahaki’s and that he loves me. Why hasn’t he had them removed?” Keith’s only a decibel away from shouting, and he knows, he knows Hunk probably doesn’t deserve this. But he can’t stop himself. The dam has been broken and his emotions are now running free.
Hunk sighs, “Lance is old fashion. He doesn’t believe the flowers are something to be removed.” Hunk explains. His grandmother. A gift from beyond. Idle conversation, taking on horrible new meaning as statements of intent.
“I’m in a relationship,” Keith says, as if maybe third time will be the charm, “I don’t love Lance. I love Shiro. He has to see a doctor.” Surely Hunk can explain that to him. Pull him away from the fairy tail leading him over the edge.
“I know.” Hunk says, and he’s getting so tired of everyone else having already had time to think this all through, “I’ve tried telling him that, but he’s certain you’ll change your mind if you get a chance to see what a great guy he is.” There is a moment’s pause, before Hunk continues, “Look Keith, I’ll try talking to him again. Maybe he’ll listen this time, but I’m pretty sure he won’t. In the meantime, can..can you do me a favor?”
If it will get someone to talk so sense into Lance, he’d do anything, “What do you need?” Keith asks.
“Can you at least consider it?” What, Hunk too? “I know it’s a lot to ask, but he’s my best friend and I’m scared. I don’t, I don’t want to watch him die.” Hunk says in a rush, and the fear tinting his voice is too obvious to miss.
“Hunk…” What is he supposed to say?
“I know he may stick his foot in his mouth sometimes.” Hunk fills the silence, “But he’s a good guy, and he thinks the world of you. Please just, just give Lance a chance.”
“I…I…” He’ll what, leave the man he loves? Or maybe he’ll sit by while Lance dies. God what will he do, if Lance doesn’t change his mind?
“I have to go. Lance is calling,” Hunk says, “Goodbye Keith, and please think about it.”
The call ends, and Keith is left alone with the unthinkable.
Next >
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Suits: What Comes Next?
What can Suits do next, in 7b and 8a and beyond? It’s a question I’ve been thinking about for a while, and while I’ve explored it in fic I think it’s about time I do a proper meta post. Strap in for lots of weird predictions about how Suits can go on, and what the potential pitfalls of each route are.
TLDR: Suits is probably but not definitely doomed. Their safest option, in my opinion, is to decisively break up Donna and Harvey in 7b, give Harvey an absolutely awful time through 8a (maybe 7b and 8b too?), and double down on another ship entirely. This is not their only option; Darvey is still on the table.
Word count: ~3K
Question 1: How can they handle Mike and Rachel’s departure?
First things first, now that Mike’s leaving, the powers that be are losing the core relationship of the show. Assuming the reason Mike’s leaving is that he and Rachel got a better job/life opportunity elsewhere (as opposed to, say, the two of them get killed off), there are two options here:
1.) Brush over Mike and Rachel’s departure as a happy, happy event for everyone involved. The remaining characters move on with their lives with minimal angst. Maybe a new sidekick (Alex? Donna? Louis? someone else new?) fills the Mike-sized hole in Harvey’s plot lines.
Pros: Patrick J. Adams described Suits as a fundamentally “aspirational” show. In his opinion the show can approach darkness, it cannot dwell there. This would allow the show to carry on with its typical plot lines without angst.
Cons: This may feel out of sync with the previous seasons. If everyone can pick up and move on without Mike in a heartbeat, then why were they so dedicated to keeping him around and protecting him for all this time? Also, now that two more members of the original core cast are leaving, Suits is at risk of having too few meaningful plots. Glossing over Mike’s departure would mean dropping a major source of potential drama.
2.) Dwell on the implications of Mike and Rachel’s departure. Harvey’s abandonment issues might come back to the forefront.
Pros: Drama. Tension. Sensible, in-character consequences over the loss of the Mike-Harvey relationship.
Cons: If the show dwells on Rachel and Mike’s departure, so will the audience. And if the audience is upset about the departure, they might end up alienated, sick of the reminders of what’s now missing. Also, as mentioned above, this show doesn’t like serious angst; it might be hard to strike the right tone.
Question 2: How to end 7b?
Patrick J. Adams has strongly hinted that the finale of 7b will include the Machel wedding. 7b is also intended to serve as a backdoor pilot for Jessica’s spin-off show. That’s all well and good, but what happens to our core remaining characters, Donna, Louis, and Harvey?
Suits knows the benefits of ending on a cliffhanger (or some sort of tantalizing promise of new conflict), they've done it every season except maybe 6. I think they have to do this again. Because they’ve now lost half their main cast, they’ll probably try to hook people more than ever and give them an incredibly compelling reason to tune back in. What sort of cliffhanger they might use depends on the answer to . . .
Question 3: What’s the driving tension of Season 8a?
(8b’s also important, of course, but I think it’ll be the ending of the series. And since I don’t have a great intuition for how this show can end without Mike, I won’t make detailed predictions. All I’ll say is that I think at least 2 out of 3, if not all 3, of the Donna-Louis-Harvey group will be happily and stably in love, and I think all three will achieve some level of personal growth. I predict that they’ll all be happy with their careers and that the firm will be doing well. Either that or the firm crashes, in which case Harvey probably throws up his hands and moves out of New York, lol.)
Okay, so fandom loves fluffy slice-of-life stories that don’t have conflict, but mainstream TV shows? Not so much. There ought to be a driving conflict that makes 8a run. I think Suits can have three major types of tension:
External Tension: A mostly-new set of characters invades and raises hell. Examples include the Danbury plot of 6a, the investment banking plot of 4a, and the failed Darby merger from 3.
Pros of external tension: So many options for drama.
Cons of external tension: Meh. Suits has done this a lot already, and how do you top the stakes of Danbury? What new threat can outside characters present that we haven’t already seen? If it’s just that “the firm’s in jeopardy again,” I think a lot of viewers will yawn, but the obvious ways of raising the stakes (disgruntled ex-client attempts murder, someone ends up in the hospital for multiple episodes, Louis makes good on the Daniel Hardman death threat, etc.) would potentially be too angsty and out of place.
Another potential issue is that the end of 7b would ideally introduce this new bunch of external troublemakers, and if 7b’s finale is already packed with the Machel wedding and Jessica’s pilot plots then that’ll be tough.
Old-Conflict-Resurfaces Tension: Oooh, this one could be fun. A decent way for Suits to go out (assuming Season 8 is the end) is to do a fabulous villain team-up. Maybe Daniel Hardman’s working with Travis Tanner, who’s being paid off by Charles Forstman, and so on. More broadly, if Suits can reach into its established rogues gallery and present some old threats as more menacing than ever and weave a credible yet surprising legal plot, that might be a way to go.
Pros: Lots of options for drama, though less than above. Potentially cleaner and more elegant, since Suits doesn’t need to introduce bunches of new settings and characters. If done well, it could viewers guessing all throughout, rethinking old episodes and searching their memories for clues to unravel every new mystery. All in all this could feel like a very fitting end for the show.
Cons: This may be very hard to pull off. It can tip one way and become boring, or the other and become absurd.
Internal Tension: My personal favorite. Something changes among our central trio, and they then generate a driving plot of their own free will.
Pros: Elegant. Minimal set-up (well, no, but the setup is all the character dynamics we’ve learned so well over the past seven seasons). A great way to propel meaningful character change and wrap up the central arcs. I think audiences will care about this tension more than any other kind, because it’s all about Donna, Harvey and Louis, and those central characters are what the general audience cares about most.
Cons: We’ve already seen a lot of Donna, Harvey and Louis. We’ve seen how they react in stressful situations. Pushing them to new limits is hard, there are few events that can still do it. The powers that be would have to be pretty damn careful to keep everyone in-character without just rehashing dramas we’ve already seen.
Question 4: Who is Samantha Wheeler?
For those who don’t know, Katherine Heigl is joining the main cast of Suits for Season 8. She’s playing Samantha Wheeler, a “talented new partner at Pearson Specter Litt who challenges the status quo and will either become the firm’s greatest ally or most powerful enemy.”
It’s possible that Samantha will come crashing in and become the one-woman generator of an “external tension” that drives Season 8a. I’m hard-pressed to come up with what’s so special about this character that she can cause such big waves, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible.
Pros: New drama. New relationship dynamics. If she’s connected via backstory to one or more of the main characters (and she probably should be, otherwise the audience is at risk of just not caring about her), that could cause drama amidst the Donna-Louis-Harvey group. Also! She might provide new romance opportunities, and god knows Suits likes its love stories. If Darvey and Louis/Sheila are both definitively together by the end of 7, I think Samantha is even more likely to have a love interest.
Cons: Things are already changing a lot from 7 to 8. The audience is at risk of 1.) being confused, 2.) being bored because they’ve already seen too much like this, 3.) feeling alienated because this isn’t what they signed up for, and/or 4.) just not caring. Adding a brand-new main character may exacerbate these issues.
Question 5: WHAT HAPPENS TO DARVEY?!?!?!
The powers that be wrote themselves into an interesting corner with the 7a kiss. The Darvey tension’s been simmering for ages, but it’s finally been pushed so far that Donna and Harvey have to confront it. If the Darvey will-they-won’t-they dance isn’t finished by the end of 7, I think audiences will revolt.
The writers are devoting serious attention to the fallout the kiss; the consequences will propel plenty of 7b drama, and I won’t be surprised if Donna and Harvey spend 5.99 out of 6 episodes feuding. That said, by the time the season is over, the Darvey plot should be decided one way or the other to avoid the aforementioned audience revolt. Working under that assumption, there are two options . . .
1.) Darvey gets together in 7b.
I’m going to quote another Aaron (the namesake of Rick Sorkin?) discussing the long-time workplace romance of another fictional Donna: “They are in a tough spot . . . because she works for him. Besides, sexual and romantic tension is, to me, much more fun than taking the tension away by having the sex and romance.” And while I can’t find the article at the moment, I’ve seen a related quote from Sarah Rafferty, where she said that she hoped Darvey would happen in the very last episodes of the show, if it happened at all.
Why might they say this? Because hardcore Darvey shippers may be thrilled to watch an entire Season 8 of canon Darvey, but I think more casual viewers will lose interest. The unspoken will-they-won’t-they tension has captivated viewers for years, and once that’s gone so is one of Suits’ biggest hooks. If the powers that be still want the Donna-Harvey relationship to draw people in, they’d better cook up something really special to replace the sexual and romantic tension.
Donna and Harvey have prepared for this relationship for so long that a lot of the typical sources in television love stories (one of them is jealous, one of them cheats, they miscommunicate, they aren’t familiar with each others’ priorities) would make little sense; they should be past that by now. If there’s any relationship conflict, that would have to be written quite carefully.
Another option is to let Donna and Harvey be happy together and throw conflict at them from the outside-- maybe someone else comes and tries to break them up, or threaten them professionally, and maybe they close ranks and become a wonderful battle couple.
(Personal note: If Darvey gets together, I’d like to see canon unquestionably establish Donna as Harvey’s equal in 7b and 8. I want to see them contributing equally to their relationship. I want to be convinced that they’ll both be happy in the long term, that this isn’t a relationship where Donna sacrifices for Harvey but has to grovel for his support in return, and I think they’re not there yet. Harvey really isn’t there yet. Getting there could generate plot.)
So these are some options for how canon can keep viewers invested through S8, but . . . I bet they won’t be as compelling for the general audience as the 7-season mating dance.
2.) Darvey gets smashed to hell in 7b.
I know I’m the only one, but I think this is still a real possibility!
At this point, Suits is running into two issues. One, it feels overall predictable and unsurprising. Two, it feels like it’s pushing its characters out of character in order to manufacture surprises (see: Harvey’s sudden infatuation with Paula, rule-obsessed Sheila’s sudden willingness to cheat on her fiance). If they can thwart viewer expectations on one of the biggest questions-- will Darvey happen?-- while remaining true to their characters, that could be pretty damn cool.
It’s also a reasonable option, in my opinion. It could generate plenty of plot for Donna and Harvey in 8a, since they might completely burn their bridges in 7b and have to rebuild from scratch, and it also leaves room for a different central romance!
So there’s this ship that nobody talks about. It’s a m/f ship, which means it’s more likely to be canon on this sadly heteronormative show than, say, Marvey. The characters have had compelling plots and interactions from Season 1. They’ve laughed together. They’ve survived drama. They respect, care about and understand each other. They have the same interests and hobbies. They have hilariously sexual conversations. They have literally said “I love you.”
I’m talking about Louis and Donna.
Yes, I’m serious, and so was Sarah Rafferty when she claimed Donna needs someone more emotionally open than Harvey to be her “life partner,” and so was Rick Hoffman when he said, “I just don’t understand how Louis could not be attracted to a woman like Donna.”
Pros of Lonna: Surprises! Drama! I can see this being the internal tension that drives 8a, and hell, I can’t imagine a better cliffhanger for season 7′s finale than a Lonna moment. This wouldn’t be radically out of character-- I’ve been checking, and there’s a surprisingly large amount of foundational material for this ship-- yet it’d massively upset audience expectations and also the existing relationship dynamics between Donna, Louis, and Harvey.
No, I’m not forgetting Harvey. Maybe he doesn’t want Donna himself, but seeing Louis end up with her would upturn everything he thought he knew about the world. Given that Mike’s also leaving and that he might still be dealing with Paula-related guilt, this plot twist would send Harvey reeling, especially if he and Donna are still working out the fallout from the kiss. If he lashes out and screws up his professional life too, then that can generate legal plots as well as personal drama.
Long story short, Lonna is potentially a massive plot generator.
Cons: The big downside of Lonna is that (besides Rick Hoffman and Sarah Rafferty who have been discussing it at least since Season 2) practically nobody ships it. Louis is so often treated as fodder for jokes, it’s possible that audiences just wouldn’t take it seriously. Also, a lot of Darvey shippers would be furious and heartbroken.
Question 6: What’s my ideal season 7 finale?
Okay, I know nobody is actually asking this, but I want to tell you!
Mike and Rachel dance peacefully at their wedding reception, safe in a happy bubble, oblivious to the world burning down around them. Jessica’s in the Plaza lobby, threatening some poor sucker over the phone in a desperate bid to save her political career. Harvey’s locked in the bathroom, fighting off a panic attack and failing, wondering whether he’s sick because of Paula, or because of Mike, or because Donna’s not speaking to him anymore . . .
Meanwhile, Louis and Donna share a sweet, intimate conversation on a hotel balcony that leads to a sweet, intimate kiss-- only to have Donna pull back, gasping as though she’s been burned.
SUITS RETURNS IN FALL 2018.
(I don’t know about you guys, but I would so tune in for that Season 8.)
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