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descendantofthesparrow · 4 years

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Maybe a soulmate au of your choice with a gender-neutral reader? Whatever you pick is bound to be cool!

Combining two requests this anons and @sephiralorange! Soulmate au! Sharing wounds

*GRAPHIC CONTENT! TALK OF BLOOD AND BONE*

Since you were little, your parents had been worried for you, even with the utmost care and sheltering, you somehow ended up with bruises all over you, sometimes even huge lacerations on your back, as if someone had taken a blade and slashed it down.

They were relieved each time when you would move along as if they didn’t exist, no pain, no aches, nothing, that was how they knew they were your soulmates wounds.

So instead, they worried about your soulmate, taking the best care of you to help heal the wounds on his side, as the faster you heal, the faster they did.

Once you realized why your parents always looked at you with such pain in their eyes, you took it upon yourself to keep yourself out of danger. You knew if you ever got injured they wouldn’t feel it but you couldn’t bear it if they did.

At 10 years old you watched as blood poured from your wrist, dripping down onto your carpet and staining it. Your skin peeled apart, the white of your bone showing, you almost threw up.

What were they doing?! You grabbed your towels, pressing them to your painless wound, wishing for whoever was hurting them to stop.

Soon, it stopped; a slight slice in the corner of the gaping wound telling you someone had ripped the weapon away from whoever was hurting them.

You let out a shuddering sigh, grabbing the medical kit from beside you and beginning to disinfect and wrap your arm, making a mental note to thank your parents for having you take those medical care classes for the extreme soulmate.

Your mother had screamed in horror as she looked at your wrist when she came home from work. She picked you up out of bed and had rushed you to the hospital; the doctor who took you in was confused in how you weren’t screaming in pain before realizing it was a soulmate wound.

They fixed you up and sent you home with some antibiotics and sterilized bandages, requesting you to come in once a week to change bandages and to look over the wound.

Once you were old enough to know about the isle of the lost across the sea, you knew.

Your soulmate was on the isle, what was happening to you would have been stopped years ago in Auradon.

You hoped one day your soulmate would be safe one day, but the reappearing bruises and cuts scared you, and if they stopped, you feared for the other option in your mind.

When Ben's proclamation for the new generation of children born from the villains came around, you jumped at the chance to support it, advocating for the VKs to come to Auradon to live their lives in a safe environment.

Your parents, knowing that their child’s soulmate was an isle child, they eagerly funded the program, helping buy the extra food they needed, any medical expenses, or rooming during the season breaks.

You had never been prouder of them.

But still, none of the recent four vks matched your scars, specifically the one on your left wrist; it had taken a long time to heal, leaving a heavy scar deep in your wrist.

You sighed, looking around the locker area, Mal and Evie chatting with each other as they switched their books out, Carlos and Ben waiting for them by the rails.

Tomorrow there would finally be another round of VKs.

One of which was Mal’s “arch-enemy” Uma, the daughter of the sea witch Ursula.

Honestly, she sounded cool, enough to want to seek her out and attempt to be her friend, but with Mal’s stories (most of which you took with a grain of salt) she seemed to be unapproachable.

But you always made it a point to wait until you met someone and got to know them before believing someone else’s stories about them.

“Look there’s scarry~” a group of nasty, privileged teens walked by you, taunting at your visible scars and bruises. “It’s a wonder that their soulmates even still alive!”

“I think that even they’ll be disgusted by them!” they snickered with their friend, squealing as you turned around and “accidentally” smacked their shoulder.

You grinned, making them pale slightly “what’s wrong~?” you purred, sneakily flipping your switchblade in your freehand “scared of lil’ ol me~ ‘scarry~’?” you took a step towards them, making them squeal and run off.

You rolled your eyes and closed your switchblade, pocketing it before turning back to your locker, stashing your history books before grabbing your nursing elective books.

“you ready for tomorrow (y/n)?” Evie asked as she passed you, stopping to lean on the rails to wait for you.

“as ever” you cheered, closing your locker and turning to Evie, a thought came to your mind. “hey uh, do you think….that maybe….THEY are in the next round?”

“they who?” Evie asked, tilting her head. You lifted up your wrist, shaking it around a bit, Evie’s eyes widened “oh! Um…I don’t know, I don’t remember anyone on the isle with a wrist injury?”

You sighed, shaking your head, letting your arm drop to your leg. “alright then, more of the waiting game I suppose, see you guys later”

“see ya (y/n)!”

Mal waiting till you were out of earshot before turning to Evie with a smirk “Harry has a wrist injury”

“he does!” Evie gasped, rummaging through her memory “but I don’t-“

“oh, right you weren’t…….around” Mal winced, remembering Evie's banishment from the main isle “um, harry tried to cut off his hand when he was 10, ya know, to get his hook?”

“That’s awful!.....oh…..oh!” Evie gasped, clapping her hands “Harry is-!”

“-Harry is (y/n)s soulmate~ also, remember when we went to the beach? (y/n) had scars all over their back, they looked exactly like-“

“-a hook ran down their back. Oh my” Evie sighed, her shoulders dropping “poor (y/n), thank goodness she didn’t feel any pain from it, I think even I could hear Harry's screams from my mom’s castle.”

“They were horrific, even my mother ordered him to stop, according to her they were “annoying” Mal curled her lip in disgust in thinking of her mother’s lack of sympathy.

“Shoot we have to get to class!” Evie jumped at the bell, grabbing Mal’s hand and pulling her down the halls to class.

Harry had not grown up with bruises or scars other than his own, no cuts, no scrape of the knee, nothing.

It was the one thing his dad was proud of him for,

“Nothing to be distracted by my boy! no true love to ruin your plans!”

But….one day, when Harry woke up with a large bruise on his jaw that wasn’t there when he went to sleep, and couldn’t recall getting hit in the jaw, nor did it hurt when he poked it,

He realized he had a soulmate.

All his wounds healed faster than they should’ve as well, his wrist healing within the month, the scars on his back never becoming infected.

His soulmate was looking out for him, taking care of “his” wounds on their side to help him.

He realized he loved his soulmate before he’d even met them.

They had to be from Auradon, no kid on the isle would be able to care for themselves this way.

So the day he got the letter to go to Auradon, he couldn’t wait until the limo came to pick him up.

Maybe he would finally meet them!

As he stepped out of the limo, his breath escaped him.

There, waiting by the doors, was the most gorgeous person he had ever seen. They looked to have soft (s/c) skin, (hair type/hair color) hair that reached their (where ever ur hair ends), very faint scars littered across them, Harry’s eyes drifted down, gasping as he spotted a bandage around their left wrist.

He looked from his own bandaged wrist to theirs, now he didn’t know if he was jumping to conclusions, but the feeling he got from just looking at them told him that he was looking at his soulmate for the first time.

he felt Gil shove his shoulder a bit, moving him forward a bit, he took his eyes off his soulmate and started to walk with his friends and following Ben and Mal around the dorms.

The new group had been settling in for a month now, you had tried to talk to Harry but he had been….shy? to say the least, he wouldn’t speak and couldn’t keep eye contact with you.

But whenever you walked away, you sneaked a look back at the tiro to see Harry hit his head against the table they were sitting at.

You snorted as you thought back to it, the pirate was quite handsome, what luck would it be if he was your soulmate huh?

He didn’t seem to be interested though, always off Standish and silent. What you didn’t know was that he ranted to Uma and Gil about you, constantly gushing about your eyes, saying they were brighter than the neverland stars.

Or about how your smile just made him feel things that he just couldn’t explain.

Uma and Gil were very close to just punching him in the jaw right in front of you to get him to stop rambling to them.

Your train of thought was interrupted as someone tapped the edge of your book, you looked up, smiling as you looked into Evie’s blueish brown eyes. “hi” you whispered, avoiding the chance of getting the library mad.

“hi~” she whisper-sang back, sitting down next to you and setting her bag on the library table. “whatcha studying?”

“history stuff” you hummed, flipping through another page “for the test tomorrow”

“ah, I for-“ Evie trailed off, staring at your face intensely “whats-(y/n) your jaw!”

You put down your book and touched your jaw, feeling nothing but gathering heat. “is it bruising?”

“yeah! Oh, there's, your shoulder too!” the librarian shushed you, stopping as she got a good look at your bruising body.

“oh shit” you muttered, pulling up your shirt to see multiple fist-shaped welts forming around your body. “they’re getting into a fight-“

Evie’s phone went off, and she picked it up, eyes widening “Harry’s getting cornered, lockers, come on!” she grabbed your wrist, tugging you out of the library and towards the lockers.

You pulled your wrist out of her grip and ran faster toward the lockers, skidding to a stop as you turned the corner. You gasped.

There against the lockers was Harry, being held down by two tourney jocks and Tyler, the asshole who had been obsessed with you since middle school.

“they’re mine, you filthy pirate!” Tyler spit in Harry's face, punching him in the jaw again.

“they-“ Harry spit a mouthful of blood on Tyler's shoes, looking back at the seething boy with a bloody grin “-they aren’t even yer soulmate yeh jackass”

Tyler screamed in rage and socked harry in the face again, slamming his head against the locker “shut the fuck up you asshole!”

“(y/n) your face” Evie whispered, you took out your phone and quickly opened the camera, in the same places Harry was getting hit, was forming welts and bruises on your face.

“that’s it” you snarled, swiftly taking off your jacket and tossing your phone at Evie, bolting towards Tyler and Harry “TYLER BACK THE FUCK OFF MY SOULMATE YOU JACKASS!”

Tyler perked up, eyes widening in horror as your fist flew at his face. You hit him with a hard right hook, breaking him away from Harry and blood spurting from his nose.

“ah-“ you grabbed his shirt and pushed him back towards the rails, hitting him in the jewels and tripping him over the rials, sending him to the ground below.

You turned, glaring sharply at the two leftover jocks holding Harry down, they looked from Harry to you and released him, backing away with their hands up before bolting off somewhere.

You looked around at the forming crowd, letting out a single snapping word “GO!” the Auradon kids scrambled off, leaving you, Evie, an arriving Uma, and an almost unconscious Harry.

You sighed and ran towards Harry, kneeling next to him and cupping his face gently. “harry, can you hear me?”

He shook his head a bit and shifted his striking blue eyes to you, he gave a small painful grin. “alright then” you huffed, giving him a soft smile “you’re an idiot Harry Hook, Uma!” she stepped next to you, kneeling next to you, giving harry a look “can you help him?”

“I can….but im thinking he needs to learn a lesson of not ranting to me about you” she huffed, giving Harry a shit-eating grin.

Harry groaned and flipped her off, Uma chuckled and waved her hand, the bruises on you and Harry disappearing. “there, now yall get officially acquainted and ill take evie somewhere so she doesn’t disturb you with her squealing” she stood and walked over to evie, dragging the grinning Evie away by the arm.

You sighed and took Harry's hand, pulling him out of his sitting position to stand with you “so why don’t we go get to know each other hm?” you grinned as Harry chuckled and held out his arm.

You wrapped your hands around his arm and let him lead you off to where ever.

What a way to “meet” your soulmate huh?.....saving him from getting his ass kicked.

-end-

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#Descendents #descendants #disney descendants #harry hook #harry hook descendants #harry hook x reader #harry hook imagine #request #two left i think?#then back to rewrite

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be-not-afeared · 3 years

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Jaime Lannister and John Silver: of arcs and endings

Or, herein follows a possibly niche comparison between the character arcs of Jaime Lannister (Game of Thrones, HBO, 2011-2019) and John Silver (Black Sails, Starz, 2014-2017), in which I will argue that Jaime’s character arc fails not because of Jaime’s actions, but because of the way his story is framed to the viewer throughout the series, using Silver as a springboard to explore the requisites for a tragic yet satisfying ending.

(Yes, this is 5K words long. No, I am not sorry. Spoilers for Jaime’s and Silver’s storylines in their respective shows, and while I’ve tried to stay vague about the Bigger Picture, read at your own risk.)

Okay, so. I was, and still am, to an extent, a huge Game of Thrones fan. I’ve pored over the books, been to conventions, and spent a good couple of years while I was at uni discussing fan theories on message boards into the early hours of the morning. Jaime Lannister has been one of my favourite fictional characters for over a decade. Yet I certainly wasn’t alone in watching in horror as years of hopeful build up was thrown away in the span of one and a half episodes during the final season of the show. There are *many* things that hurt about season 8 of Game of Thrones. But the swift 180 we see in Jaime, from aiding the Starks in the Battle of Winterfell and finally choosing Brienne, to abandoning her to return to Cersei 20 minutes later, was, for me, one of the deepest cuts.

When I started watching Black Sails this August, I was immediately compelled by Silver – unsurprisingly, as someone who has exactly one favourite character type: Traumatised and Morally Grey Anti-Villain. Watching Silver’s character develop over the four seasons of Black Sails was an absolute joy, and his ending in the finale, though *incredibly difficult*, was nuanced and in character and satisfying. (Am going to try and keep as vague as possible on details here, because Black Sails is an incredible show that more people should watch and I don’t want to completely spoil the ending). Silver and Jaime are two characters with a lot of similarities and their characters arcs appear to run in direct parallel with each other: both selfish and arrogant men who become more empathetic and invested in others as the series progresses, in large part prompted by the loss of a limb. However, the gulf in reception of their overall arcs can be pinpointed to one huge disparity between the way both storylines were framed to the audience, and that is difference between redemption and tragedy.

“I was that hand”

But first! Let’s start with the more obvious stuff.

When we meet Jaime Lannister and John Silver in the pilots of their respective shows, they are both introduced as arrogant and self-serving – yet charming – men, who place the needs of themselves (and Cersei, in Jaime’s case) above all else. Silver kills and impersonates the cook on the merchant ship Flint’s crew captures, and has no qualms about lying his way onto the crew whilst simultaneously planning to sell the Urca schedule to the highest bidder. For Silver, his own survival comes before any sense of moral code. We are told stories about Jaime before we properly meet him – that he killed the previous king, Aerys Targaryen, that he has no honour – but nothing that we see first-hand contradicts this; at the end of the pilot he attempts to kill a child to cover up his and Cersei’s incestuous relationship. Silver is certainly supposed to be more likeable than Jaime, but both men, despite their lack of morals, are presented as charming, clever, and good with a one-liner. As we move through the early seasons of both shows, they are consistent in these traits, although Jaime is presented as an outright antagonist whereas Silver from the outset is a morally grey unknown entity, keeping viewers on our toes wondering if he’ll turn against Flint, against Billy, against Eleanor. Things change, for both men, however, with the direct lead up and fallout of the loss of a limb: Jaime’s hand and Silver’s leg.

The introduction of Brienne of Tarth as Jaime’s foil kickstarts his path towards becoming the honourable man he once dreamed of being. During their roadtrip across Westeros, she challenges him and is able to get under his skin in a way we haven’t yet seen before. This comes to a head when the duo are captured, and Jaime intervenes during her attempted rape, lying about her ransom worth and saving her from an awful fate. The result? The immediate amputation of Jaime’s sword hand, representative of Jaime’s identity (“I was that hand”). Jaime is punished for the first selfless act we see him commit on the show with the loss of the source of his power and self-worth.

Silver, in a similar fashion, finds himself in a position to save the crew he has spent two seasons disparaging. When he is offered the opportunity to betray his crew for an escape route, he refuses (the reasons for this refusal never outright stated, although I imagine Flint’s “where else will you wake up in the morning and matter” and Billy’s “that’s our brother you’ve got there” both factor heavily). Again, the result of this refusal is the brutal torture and eventual amputation of Silver’s leg – a man who in his own words is “not a joiner”, prone to taking what he needs and leaving, to reinventing himself, to always having an escape route. As actor Luke Arnold says: “He's a guy who's always had one leg out the door, and then they cut it off.”

What is interesting here is not only that we have two characters who are *punished* for moving beyond their selfishness, but that that punishment is specifically catered towards their defining characteristics. Jaime is left unable to fight, unable to defend himself, unable to uphold his reputation. Silver is left unable to run, unable to leave his past behind him, unable to remain without attachments. Both are left vulnerable. The loss of Jaime’s hand forces him to reinvent himself in a world ruled by swords; as Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, father to Tommen, and an honourable man working to uphold his oath, through Brienne, to Catelyn Stark. The loss of Silver’s leg, however, leaves him *unable* to reinvent himself; forcing him to rely on his crew and paving the way for the growth of his relationship with Flint and Madi. In losing their limbs both Jaime and Silver are set on paths towards gaining empathy, and are able to become invested in those around them.

“Defined by their histories, distorted to fit their narratives”

Game of Thrones and Black Sails both engage heavily with ideas of myth-making and storytelling. Stories are woven into the mythology of Westeros; a world with thousands of years of history revealed to us slowly over the seasons to suit the narrative and the teller. We are told the story of Rhaegar Targaryen’s kidnap and rape of Lyanna Stark in the pilot, and at first this serves to provide a tragic landscape for Robert’s unhealthy relationship with his wife and his crown. It is only as the show develops and we hear more about Rhaegar and Lyanna that we realise there is more to this story; in season 5 Littlefinger recounts the events of the Tourney of Harrenhal to foreshadow the reveal of Jon’s parentage later that season, that Rhaegar and Lyanna had a happy and consensual relationship and that it is Robert who could be viewed as the villain of this sequence. We are taught through watching the show to never assume that any given story is true. Black Sails similarly plays with the idea of the power of the storyteller, combining historical pirates with fictional pirates and an origin story for Treasure Island, and going to great lengths to show that history is in the hands of the victor. Most of the primary sources of pirate history are from the perspective of civilised England, and in the process of watching the show we come to realise the bias inherent in these histories; much like in Game of Thrones, they are stories, and should not be assumed to be either true or accurate. As Jack says in the finale: “a story is true, a story is untrue […] The stories we want to believe, those are the ones that survive”.

Jaime Lannister and John Silver are both characters defined by stories that are forced upon them without choice: the Kingslayer and Long John Silver. We meet Jaime as the Kingslayer; our opinion of him is immediately formed by the story of him stabbing in the back the King he had sworn to protect, and cemented by the fact that our protagonist, Ned Stark, a man we like and trust, is the one telling this story. The Kingslayer’s presence is so strong in the first two seasons of the show that Jaime becomes nameless, reduced to this one defining act. It is only after the loss of his hand, and through his developing bond with Brienne, that he is finally able to tell his own story and we realise our entire perception of Jaime’s character has been based on an incorrect interpretation of events: that in killing Aerys Targaryen Jaime was saving the population of Kings Landing from destruction via wildfire. It is only after the truth of this story has been revealed to us that Jaime is able to begin moving past the Kingslayer and forging a new identity.

We see this in reverse in Black Sails, for the story of Long John Silver is not introduced until the season 3 finale, but like Jaime, this story is not told by Silver. Billy creates the myth of Long John, commits the acts attributed to him, and uses him as a figurehead for the pirate rebellion all without Silver’s knowledge or consent. Season 4 sees Silver wrestle with this identity of King of the Pirates, surrounded by people who want to use ‘Long John Silver’ for their own benefit: Billy, Israel Hands, even Flint. As the power and influence of Long John Silver the story grows, John Silver the man is disregarded, and his value reduced to how he can further everyone else’s individual causes. Though he does embrace this title (for a time, at least) to further “Flint and Madi’s war”, a cause he doesn’t truly believe in beyond his investment in Flint and Madi as people, we come to realise that the ‘character’ of Long John Silver that we know from Treasure Island is only that: a character, a story, a collective created for a larger cause that Silver himself eventually betrays.

I have seen some criticism of this scene, but for me one of the few redeeming moments of the Game of Thrones finale was Brienne writing Jaime’s story in the Book of White. Despite Jaime’s less than satisfactory conclusion, with this act he is finally able to move past the Kingslayer; Brienne has rewritten his narrative, and he will be remembered as a Knight who “died protecting his Queen”. Silver is offered no such release. By contrast, the story of Long John Silver is all that will be remembered; the worst fear for a man who cannot bear for his own story to be known. Indeed, we learn that “those who stood to benefit most from [Long John Silver] were the most eager to leave it all behind”. While Jaime is able to escape the story of the Kingslayer, the story of Long John Silver is what will endure, “all that is left of [him] is the monster in the story they tell their children”. Hello Treasure Island.

“Reviled by so many for my finest act"

We can see here that Jaime and Silver’s narratives deal with similar themes, but often in contrasting ways. Just as with storytelling, Jaime and Silver’s backstories are key parts of their storylines in their respective shows, but operate with very different functions. (It is only as I am writing this that I’m realising how similar the themes of Game of Thrones and Black Sails actually are? If only Game of Thrones had the follow through of Black Sails... We were all rooting for you, etc etc).

Jaime’s backstory, and the truth of the act that earned him the title ‘Kingslayer’, is revealed to us mid-way through season 3. This comes at a very key moment for his character: Jaime has just lost his hand and is at his most vulnerable, and Brienne’s stubborn and persistent honour is clearly starting to affect him. “I trust you,” he says to her in the bathroom scene in 3x05, and we can assume that this is the first time he has said this to someone who isn’t a Lannister in quite some time, possibly ever. Essentially, the reveal of Jaime’s backstory comes at a moment where we are already beginning to soften towards him and are therefore open to hearing an alternative interpretation of events. While Jaime needs to be able to tell his story to begin to move past the identity of the Kingslayer, if this reveal had come too soon it wouldn’t have had the same dramatic effect, as viewers wouldn’t have been open to seeing him in a different light. All we saw of Jaime in the first two seasons was the “man without honour” that everyone believes him to be; by mid-season three we are already beginning to realise that there is perhaps more to him that meets the eye, so the reveal of his backstory has the most impact.

(This is exactly what Black Sails does with Flint’s backstory, and I firmly believe that if we had been told his story in season one as was originally the plan it wouldn’t have been anywhere near as effective. We needed to know more about Flint, and to see his uneasy partnership with Silver begin to develop as we delved into the backstory piece by piece, so that by 2x05 our hearts were ready to be broken. Buuut that’s a different essay.)

Black Sails loves a backstory. As we move through the show we slowly learn why and how our favourite characters came to be in Nassau , and universally these reveals add to our understanding of that character and their motivations: for Flint, for Billy, for Max, for Jack. We enter season four with Silver as the only character we don’t know anything about prior to the pilot. Surely then, we were about to get a ‘Jaime Lannister bathroom scene’ equivalent, a moment that will add depth and understanding to Silver’s character? Were any of the stories he has told about his past true? Who is Solomon Little? … Instead, what we get is one of my favourite sequences of the entire show, in which, after Flint realises that he knows nothing of Silver’s past, Silver reveals that Flint, and by proxy the viewer, knows “of [him] all [he] can bear to be known”. Silver is the ultimate storyteller, master of manipulating and deceiving others through the power of a narrative, yet he cannot bear to be the story himself. We never learn Silver’s backstory, and all he reveals of his past is that it speaks to “events of the kind no one can divine any meaning from, other than the world is a place of unending horrors”; he has chosen to repress his past, has rendered it unspeakable, and both Flint and the viewer are only left to wonder at what these “horrors” could be.

Although this lack of backstory adds nothing to our view of who Silver *was*, it is key to understanding who Silver *is*, and *why* Silver makes some of his more controversial choices further down the line. Silver’s need to repress his past is as key to his character as Flint’s need to define himself by his own backstory. We understand from this that Silver has experienced a level of trauma which is unspeakable, quite a feat for a show with plenty of other horrific backstories and especially pertinent given that Silver is one of our most gifted orators. Silver’s inability to process his past explains a lot of his actions in the early seasons; his coping mechanism has been to move through life without forming attachments, convincing himself that he doesn’t need (and shouldn’t need) other people. It is safe to assume that Madi and Flint are the first people he has let himself be truly vulnerable with, which paints his actions throughout season four in a different light; loving people is new for Silver, and he doesn’t know how to do it in a healthy or selfless way. The placement of this scene is as important to Black Sails as Jamie’s bathroom scene is to Game of Thrones; we needed to have already seen Long John Silver’s significance to the war spiral beyond Silver’s control, to have seen him become compromised by his love for Madi and the beginnings of the collapse of his partnership with Flint, for this scene to pack the punch that it aims for and to beautifully set up the culmination of his arc in the finale. How devastating, for a man who cannot bear for himself to be known, to be the one figure whose story will outlive them all.

Both of these scenes have stayed with me long past my first watch, and feel vital to understanding Jaime and Silver as characters. For Jaime, his backstory informs all his actions moving forward, his desire to transcend the Kingslayer, to become an “Oathkeeper”, or even “Golden-hand the Just”. For Silver, his lack of backstory informs all his actions up to this point in the narrative and prepares us for the choices to come. Just as Jaime is defined by his past, Silver is defined by his *lack* of past.

“This is not what I wanted”

So, we’ve tracked Jaime and Silver’s characters throughout the show, but how do they both end? The answer, of course, is… tragically. Jaime is offered a glimpse at what could be a peaceful life, in Winterfell with Brienne, before turning it down to return to Cersei’s side only to meet his end while the duo try to escape the collapsing walls of Kings Landing. Silver betrays Flint and Madi in a horrific fashion, ensuring that they both survive though knowing that in doing so he was destroying his relationship with Flint and that there was a chance Madi would never forgive him his actions. (Or, this is my chosen interpretation of the ending, in any case, although the point still works if you prefer one of the other readings). Just thinking about Silver’s ending in Black Sails makes me want to cry. Thinking about Jaime’s ending in Game of Thrones makes to want to cry too, although for a very different reason. Neither are the ending we would hope for these characters in an optimistic and ideal world. But Silver’s decision to betray Flint and Madi feels narratively satisfying in a way that Jaime’s decision to betray Brienne and return to Cersei never could. Why is that?

Jaime Lannister’s character progression from season 3 onwards was set up as a redemption arc. We thought we were watching a jaded and selfish man become an honourable man. The show, admittedly, takes its sweet time with this journey in comparison to the book equivalent, and inserts some *interesting* deviations which I won’t dwell on here (looking at you 4x03 and the entirety of season 5). But, ultimately, the journey that Jaime finds himself on from the moment he loses his hand seems to be heading for a triumphant ending. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t expecting him to survive the series. But I was expecting him to go out in a blaze of glory – fighting side by side with Brienne, perhaps, or protecting Bran, or one of the other characters he had wronged in the past. There was also always the chance that he would end up fulfilling the much subscribed to book theory of the valonqar, although this admittedly looked less likely as that particular line of the prophecy was cut from the show. When Jaime finally leaves Cersei at the end of season 7 it is such a triumphant moment – after years of struggling with these warring parts of himself, his toxic love for Cersei and his growing moral conscience, a decision had been made and a tie cut. We enter season 8 assuming that there is no going back. We don’t get a hint of any conflicting feelings from Jaime about this decision in the first half of season 8; we are focused on preparation for the Battle of Winterfell, and revelling in the joy of having Jaime and Brienne in the same place for longer than a single episode for the first time since season 4. We get the knighting scene (which, let’s be honest, is where the season peaks). We get the battle. We get the sex scene between Jaime and Brienne (which I… don’t love, for many reasons up to and including the weird virgin shaming jokes from Tyrion in the previous scene and their level of intoxication, but still gives no hint that Jaime is battling an inner war). And then later in that same episode, despite Brienne pleading with him to stay, we get Jaime’s snap decision to return to Kings Landing to attempt to save Cersei: “You think I’m a good man? […] She’s hateful, and so am I”.

The issue here isn’t the decision itself, or Jaime’s choice of words. We know that Jaime isn’t a good man. We know that he’s done awful things for Cersei’s love. And, if we think about it, it makes sense that he wouldn’t be able to leave behind a lifelong co-dependent and unhealthy relationship without looking back, and that he would be driven to return to Cersei’s side when the reality of her impending death hit. The issue is that none of this decision making is presented in the show itself; there was no build up, no foreshadowing. Instead of showing us why this decision was made, the show presents this scene as a shock twist, leaving the viewer with whiplash wondering how Jaime’s story could have taken such an unexpected turn so quickly. The redemption arc that we all thought we were watching was not a redemption arc at all, and don’t think I was alone in finding this revelation deeply unsatisfying.

Let’s leave Jaime for a moment and turn to John Silver. Even for viewers who entered Black Sails without knowing they were watching a prequel to Treasure Island (such as myself!), we can assume that most people have heard of the fictional pirate Long John Silver: the ‘villain’ of Robert Louis Stevenson’s adventure who embodies what it means to be a “gentleman of fortune”. When we meet clean-shaved, smarmy, two-legged Silver in the pilot most viewers will at least have an idea of the trajectory his arc will take – and that it won’t end with him and Flint skipping off into the sunset hand in hand. We know, because of history, that the pirate rebellion is doomed to fail, that slavery does not end in the West Indies, that Nassau does indeed fall back under English rule, and that piracy is eventually stamped out of New Providence. And we know, because of Treasure Island, that John Silver will end up hunting for Captain Flint’s treasure, while Billy Bones dies from a stroke at the very idea of a visit from Long John and Flint drinks himself to death in Savannah. In essence, we know that we are watching a tragedy.

The genre of tragedy dates back to Ancient Greece, and describes a narrative that presents an examination of human suffering while evoking a sense of catharsis. Aristotle defines tragedy as “an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude … through pity and fear effecting the proper purgation [release] of these emotions.” In other words, in order for a tragedy to achieve this state of emotional release, we as the viewer need to both anticipate (or, fear) the resolution and feel sympathy (or, pity) towards the tragic hero. Black Sails does this masterfully. The pathway towards the destruction of Silver and Flint’s partnership has its grounds as early as season 2, before it has even really started to develop, where Silver talks of his fears of being “used and discarded” by Flint. In the finale of season 3 it is made explicit during their conversation before the battle, with Silver interrogating what he sees as the pattern of Flint’s loved ones dying “not just during [their] relationship, but because of it”. Silver finds himself “unnerved by the thought that when this pattern applies itself to [Flint] and [Silver], that [he] will be the end of [Flint]”. As they lock eyes across the water later on in this episode, the setup of their opposition, complicated by the genuine care between them, is complete, and we enter season 4 dreading the crumbling of their relationship. Season 4 dangles this dramatic irony over us; every time Flint mentions the indestructible force of their partnership, the things they can achieve when there is “no daylight” between them; every time Silver mentions that Flint has his “genuine trust and friendship”; every time they both speak of their partnership in the same terms as the love that Silver holds for Madi, “I’m committed to Flint, I’m committed to Madi” / “he is my friend, too”, we dread the moment where this will all change. We may not know how it will play out, but we know it is coming. The “fear” is very much present. As, indeed, is the “pity”. We understand why Silver makes the decision he does, even if we don’t agree with it. The show has taken lengths to track the development of Silver’s ability to care and make himself vulnerable to others; we believe in his love for Madi, and understand why he believes that he is doing the right thing. Silver’s tragic flaw is that in gaining empathy his selfishness moves to encompass those he cares about; he will do dark things to protect them without consideration of their own choices or agency. The finale of Black Sails is difficult, beautiful, and yes, tragic, but we end Silver’s story understanding and perhaps even empathising with the decisions he made, believing him when he says that “this is not what [he] wanted”.

Tragedy vs redemption

John Silver’s story is a tragedy. And I believe that Jaime Lannister’s story is also a tragedy; a deeply flawed man who tries to escape the inevitability of an abusive and unhealthy relationship, only to eventually fall back into this cycle and become consumed by it. The problem is that this wasn’t the story we thought we were watching. The ending of Jamie’s character arc has none of the fear, none of the pity, none of the catharsis of Silver’s, because there was no signposting towards this end. If Jaime’s arc had been treated as a tragedy from the outset then perhaps it would have felt emotionally satisfying rather than rushed and unexpected.

Admittedly, as Jaime is not as central to Game of Thrones as Silver is to Black Sails, the show could not spend as much time detailing his inner world as Black Sails does to the latter. However, if the show had framed Jaime’s story with a sense of tragedy rather than triumph, then his decision to return to Cersei in season 8 would have had the same inevitability as Silver’s betrayal. In season 1 of Game of Thrones, as in the first instalment of A Song of Ice and Fire, Cersei tells Ned Stark that she and Jaime “are more than brother and sister. We shared a womb, came into this world together. We belong together”. However, the show doesn’t include Jaime and Cersei’s later, darker ruminations, that “we will die together as we were born together” (Jaime, ASOS), and “we will leave this world together, as we once came into it” (Cersei, AFFC). Jaime and Cersei’s doomed fate in the books is entangled in a way it never is in the show, and doubly so when you factor in the possibility of Jaime actively causing Cersei’s end due to the valonqar prophecy. In addition to this, if we had seen Jaime leave Cersei earlier in the narrative and then grapple with this decision, showing him struggling to be the man Brienne believes him to be and overcome his past actions, then his failure wouldn’t have seemed so out of the blue. With very little effort or changes on the part of the show, Jaime’s *entire* arc could have been framed in a way that would have made his death a tragically fitting end to his and Cersei’s story.

Jaime and Silver both end their respective narratives in very similar places to when they were introduced, or at least they do on the surface: Jaime unable to leave Cersei even in death, Silver alone and eventually chasing treasure (yes, Madi is still in the picture, but I don’t think we are meant to infer that their future relationship will be a trusting one). However, for Silver, this similarity is only surface deep, for we followed his growth and development and understand the tragedy of his choices. Although Jaime goes through a very similar pattern of growth, the framing of his arc as redemptive means that the unexpected nosedive into tragedy in season 8 doesn’t have the weight or impact that it intends, and we are left without understanding *why* he makes his choices. Jaime’s arc is a failed tragedy that doesn’t fulfil the cathartic requirements of the genre, but with a bit of reframing it could have been as emotionally resonant as Silver’s.

Long story short: watch Black Sails.

#game of thrones #asoaif #Black Sails #jaime lannister #john silver #long john silver #black sails meta #game of thrones meta #also this is just my opinion and i am fully aware i have blind spots when it comes to both of these characters #this is just part of my new agenda to make everyone in my life watch black sails

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lordofcrowns · 4 years

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➤ “If I were to warn you, what would I say...?”

C A P T A I N C Y R I L S T A C Y

Cyril is highly defensive, hard to hit, and extremely quick to punish anyone that gets in his melee range. Melee to mid-range is where he’s the most dangerous, because that puts his opponent both within bullwhip range, and grabbing range. In combat, Cyril’s motive is always to subdue his adversary, not to kill. His goal is to force them to surrender, and he will employ whatever nefarious and cruel tactics he must in order to manage this swiftly. He will grapple, choke, bruise, beat and break bones without hesitation if he has to.

His bullwhip is the weapon he’s the most proficient and dangerous with, as well as being the weapon with which he can inflict the most pain and fear. Typically his whip is used for crowd control - it is most often utilized to halt someone’s retreat. It’s common for people to attempt to flee, only to be tangled up in the coils and yanked back into Cyril’s range. It’s common for individuals to suffer dislocated joints or snapped limbs when this happens, to say nothing of the way the whip cuts into the skin upon latching onto them.

Once someone is stunned, entangled, or otherwise slowed enough for Cyril to get a firm grasp, he can use his right hand to shock them and effectively paralyze them long enough to shackle or bind them. In most encounters, once he’s shocked someone, unless there is outside intervention - the fight between those two is over.

U N T O U C H A B L E

While it’s no secret the Captain keeps his right eye covered, the reason as to why widely remains a mystery. Those oblivious to his name and reputation will typically assume he lost that eye somehow, or perhaps that he keeps it covered as some sailors prefer to do, to allow for better sight in the darkness below decks as well as to sharpen one’s aim. Few ask, as it’s of course terribly rude to pry into such things.

Those who do know of him will often insist the covered eye is magic, a source of power and the very thing that renders him “untouchable”. Rumors often circulate that this magic eye is also the source of the crackling lightning that sparks and manifests from his right hand, allowing him to knock people down for the count so easily once he merely gets a hold of them.

As if to deliberately reinforce the frankly wild belief and ridiculous rumors that he is invincible, Cyril outwardly bears no scars nor marks on his body.

[ bold for often // italicize for situational // strikethrough for never ]

commander / duelist / “honorable” / dishonorable / would have others do their fighting / stealthy / long-ranged / melee / technological / sorcery / superhuman abilities / has fought in an illegal tourney / a lover of fighting / a hater of fighting / cowardly / reckless / strategic / uses underhanded tricks / renowned for their skill / trained ( sword and shield ) / untrained / keeps skills secret / won a battle / lost a battle / ruthless / merciful

╳ F L A W S

♔ S T R E N G T H S

Tagged by: @whitherliliesbloom & @windupzenos ( Thank you both! )

Tagging: @verdandir @manawalls @finalvalor @noscean-scholar @wanderlust-spirits @cero-tia @menphinasbow @windup-dragoon @thebratcat @mystellis @reshaepocan @pearlescent-scales @bastets-ocs @alun-ura @finalsongxiv @amurr-reha @ennochian @mieyun @deviri @ashadowatthefork @unmend @candideangel @alinteau @sati-ffxiv @bolt-from-the-dark @ishgardianblossom @shroudblessings @sunnythanalan @windupnamazu & anyone else interested!

[ I know I’m a bit late on this one, so no pressure & if you’ve already done it / been tagged - my apologies. Also, please feel free to use me as your tagger even if I didn’t mention you, I would love to read more of these! ]

Full stat breakdown & continued Cyril related ramblings under the cut:

C O M B A T M O D E : C A P T A I N C Y R I L S T A C Y

★★★★★★★★☆☆ — STRENGTH ★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆ — OFFENSE ★★★★★★★★☆☆ — DEFENSE ★★★★★★★★★☆ — SPEED ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆ — DURABILITY ★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆ — ACCURACY ★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆ — AGILITY ★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆ — STAMINA ★★★★★★★★★☆ — TEAMWORK ★★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆ — STEALTH ★★★★★★★★★☆ — MELEE ★★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆ — BLADES ★★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆ — BLUNT ★★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆ — RANGED ☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆ — MAGIC ★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆ — TRAPS ☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆ — MEDIC & ★★★★★★★★★★ — BULLWHIP

G E N T L E D I S C L A I M E R : Cyril is written more akin to a thriller genre villain, sometimes teetering over into horror depending on the situation - while still being set in high fantasy. I just realize he might be a bit much, perhaps too dark or violent, depending on your preferred entertainment genre / expectations, so please consider this a soft warning if that’s not something you enjoy!

O V E R V I E W [ C O N T I N U E D ] :

When in a fight, Cyril typically will come across collected, poised and honestly rather cocky. Cyril is something of an expert at breaking people’s morale and shattering their confidence, and that kind of behavior on his part often starts the very moment he and an opponent, or potential opponent, meet. Cyril will insult, belittle, talk down to, and make a great display of pity towards his adversary - this usually includes offering them ample opportunities to surrender to him before things get bloody.

In the inevitability that someone refuses to surrender, he’ll then dare them to prove themselves to him, which he will equate to proving themselves worthy of autonomy. Cyril will demand their attention and effort, and rather playfully jeer at them the whole time, especially if they seem distracted in any way [ say, for example, if he’s holding their loved one(s) hostage ]. That, however, is typically only his behavior at a distance, or as the fight begins and the two are getting a feel for one another.

Once a fight picks up, and especially once Cyril’s genuinely in melee range - you can expect him to start pushing and forcing himself into his opponent’s personal space. Definitely a byproduct of his confidence, but also typically something he can get away with due to sheer size and strength. He’ll grab, grope, and try to get people into uncomfortable holds they can’t easily wriggle out of. Choke-holds are common, whether he’s wrapped his arm about their neck from behind, or simply clasped his hand about their throat. Getting up in someone’s space may also mean pinning them to the wall, or pinning them down on the ground - he’s skilled at grappling and comfortable with either. It’s also common, both as a way to disorient as well dishearten, for Cyril to slap an opponent if he sees an opening. Usually a slap in the face is paired with an insult - maybe they let their guard down, maybe their footwork is poor - whatever it may be, Cyril will capitalize on any chance to humiliate his opponent.

In addition to getting uncomfortably close, one can expect him to snarl, shout, curse, and even growl at his opponents. Words may still be exchanged, but instead of playful banter one might instead hear whispered threats or extremely dark insinuations and other foul comments. It starts to sound like he’s finished being playful, though that isn’t necessarily the case. After all, he usually treats people like playthings, and encounters are often a game played at his leisure. Cyril likes to scare people, and he likes to see their reactions. He also just so happens to be entirely too willing to make good on any threat he whispers.

At his worst, if an opponent refuses to go down, or say his temper is getting the better of him - Cyril’s restraint will falter and he’ll start being unnecessarily violent. His temper is notoriously fickle, so whether his reaction is appropriate for the encounter he lashes out in or not is hard to say. He has a history of beating people bloody - be it with his whip, his body, or both - until they pass out. Cyril has kicked and crushed people under his boot hard enough to shatter bones and crack ribs, as well as doubtless inflicting many a concussion slamming people against this or that structure. His temper boiling over to such a degree as to see such behavior is rare... but not as rare as it should be.

O U T O F C H A R A C T E R N O T E S :

Cyril is written to be a powerful and ideally ( if I’m doing my job right ;; ) terrifying villain to go up against. He’s supposed to feel impossible to overpower, coupled with losing to him of course having massive & heavy repercussions - both for a hero / heroine and for that individual’s loved ones. I really wanted him to be scary and unforgivable.

While not invincible in any way, he would like to have others believe he is. Therefore, he invests no small amount of effort into selling that invincible image, with a generally rather high success rate. Rumors abound of an “untouchable” Captain Stacy, who boasts no scars and loses no duel. Which... it’s true he’s not yet lost a duel, but why that is can be written about another time.

I’ve written Cyril to intentionally be a villain that someone cannot simply overpower with brute force. Winning against Cyril is going to take strategy, forethought, and ultimately in some cases, stooping to his level or even flirting with a diplomatic relationship. He is a pirate, after all, pirates love to parley.

He’s generally meant to put a hero / heroine in a difficult position, where they’re forced to make decisions and do things they wouldn’t ordinarily do in order to defeat him, because again - simply overpowering him is not going to work. And at the same time, he cannot just be ignored or avoided, because his trade and his tendencies are too cruel and intrusive to cast a blind eye towards. Morally, he cannot be allowed to continue what he does, and someone has to put an end to it. I wanted to make him a villain that challenged heroes on a deeper level than just physical strength.

At least, all of that is what I hope for when I write him. Did I succeed? Who knows.

Thank you for reading! 🌹

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yokasaris · 4 years

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RP Themes

[BOLD what you WILL, italic what you will CONSIDER, strike what you typically do not]

I ROLE-PLAY (WITH) THE FOLLOWING THEMES / GENRE / STYLES :

#ooc stuff #rp stuff #what does flex mean in RP context?

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wiltedthrone · 4 years

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@griimhilde says: CAPTAIN HOOK - Does your muse have any triggers?— villain meme (accepting)

youtube

moving right along thank u thank u

OKAY BUT SERIOUSLY this song fucking haunts audrey.

D1 — this song plays at the tourney game when ben proclaims his love for mal, and everyone parties and cheers for them like she’s not ben’s whole ass girlfriend. quite possibly the worst moment of her life UNTIL

D3 — at the gathering to welcome the new vks that has been made mandatory for everyone to attend, the band not only plays an instrumental of the song as mal and ben make their entrance, BUT ben serenades mal in the same spot that he first met her (which, hello, audrey was also there for) with that song.

she fucking hates that song. just hearing the phrase itself still stings.

bringing up anything about maleficent is also especially bad, not just because she’s been told horror stories about her since she was kid, but also after the whole queen of mean thing, it’s even more of a sore subject.

she doesn’t react very well to sharp or raised voices because it reminds her of the verbal abuse she suffers from her grandmother.

seeing her friends hang out without her takes her back to those days of having no friends and makes her question if she did something wrong to upset them ( again ) because why else would they not want to hang out with her?

#♡♛. 𝐢𝐭'𝐬 𝐭𝐞𝐚 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞! asks answered.#♡♛. 𝐦𝐲 𝐰𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐝 𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐬. char study.#griimhilde

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its-r-i-d-i-c-u-l-o-u-s · 5 years

Text

Call Me A Freak- Chapter 14: The Martyr

Words: 2,089

Warnings: anger and aggression, descriptions of violence and injury, murder, panic attack, physical and mental abuse, suicidal thoughts? (plans?)

Ch 13 | Ch 15

~ ~ ~

Jay forced me down into one of the park benches outside the school.

“How could you?” Jay snapped at me.

I didn’t react. In all honesty, I was a bit numb from the whole experience.

“Jay!” Evie hissed. “Not now.”

“You lost your cool back there,” Jay continued. “You went full out Maleficent on Chad, when you promised you were going to try and be civil until the Coronation.”

I snapped, shoving Jay away from me. “I lost my cool? The only reason I intervened was because you practically had him by the throat, Jay!”

“You instigated a fight with an old woman-”

“I didn’t say a word to her!”

“-you caught the attention of the whole school-”

“She’s the one who yelled!”

“-and you threatened the life of a student!”

“Shut up, Jay!” I screamed.

“Guys!” Carlos tried to interrupt, but it was no use.

“No!” Jay screamed. “All you’ve done this whole week is push away everything that could convince you to go against your mother and I’m sick of it. She’s not all powerful, Mal!”

“She’s my mother-”

“And I’m your best friend!”

It all came tumbling out of my mouth before I could stop it. “Best friend? Ha!” I looked between all three of them. “You three think that we’re friends? You guys are just the deadweight kids of the people my mother is using as her stairs to power! She plans to kill you and your families the MINUTE SHE TAKES OVER!”

Jay faltered. “Excuse me?!”

Carlos stepped between us, breaking our eye contact. Suddenly, I was staring into another’s angry face. “Mal, what are you talking about?” he insisted.

“You’re all fools if you think my mother cares about a single one of you,” I laughed. I looked insane. I felt insane. “She killed all my siblings! I’m the only one left!”

“Oh my-” Evie gasped, but I wasn’t going to let her finish.

“My mother lives for the thought of slowly and painfully killing all of your parents. They drive her crazy!”

“And what about us?” Carlos tried again. “What reason does she have for wanting to kill us?”

“Reason?! She doesn’t need a reason! She’s insane. We’re both insane,” I snarled.

“Mal,” Evie said, softly. “You’re not like your mother. You don’t need to go along with her plans-”

“NOT LIKE MY MOTHER?!” I screeched. “You think I don’t have blood on my hands?! Believe me, I do.”

“What are you talking about?” Jay asked, stepping out from behind Carlos.

“Do you guys remember Gothel’s kid? Michael? He was 2 years younger than us. He went missing in July.”

“Mal-”

“He’s not missing,” I spat. “He’s dead. And I know this, because I was the one who smashed in his brains. I was the one who watched my mother’s goons carry him out, like they have with others, and dump him into the water.”

“Mal.” Evie tried to step forward.

“I KILLED HIM!”

My voice echoed outside the empty school. No one responded for a minute. Then, I heard a soft, “What?”

Behind me was Ben. He looked completely shell shocked when I flipped around to stare at him.

It felt like my heart had just become a center of gravity and the whole world was compressing down on my chest. Why would I say any of that? I had never told anyone before. It was an awful, horrible stain in my humanity that I would never recover from. I could never escape from the memories.

And now it was out in the open. Now Evie and Carlos knew. Now Jay knew. Now Ben knew…

I bolted. I had nowhere to go, but I couldn’t stand there a minute more. I couldn’t look at the horror on my friend’s faces. I couldn’t stand there and admit to Ben what I had just said.

~ ~ ~

Michael screamed out in pain, as I took another swing to his ribs. I did my best not to hit too hard. I couldn’t bring myself to. But anything was torture in his condition.

He deserves to pay for his crimes I tried to tell myself, but there wasn’t any way to convince myself of that. No one deserved this. He was just a kid, trying to survive in a world of thieves and murderers and monsters. Monsters like me.

~ ~ ~

I ended up in a hallway. It was empty. Silent.

I skidded to a stop, tripping over my feet and hitting the ground hard.

I couldn’t get up. I couldn’t go anywhere. I curled into myself. Sobbing. Trying desperately to push old memories away.

~ ~ ~

“Oh, hurry up already and finish the job,” my mother snarled. “Kill him!”

The boy couldn’t even look up at me. He lay almost completely still, a slow, piercing whimper escaping his throat.

“Mother, I can’t-”

“MAL!”

~ ~ ~

“Mal!” Someone was calling me from a distance. “Mal?! Where are you?”

“Mal, it’s us! Please… we just want to help!”

~ ~ ~

“Kill him!”

Beat.

“Kill him!!!”

Beat.

“KILL HIM!!!!!!”

Smash…

You know when you touch something with a strange texture and you hands feel weird? Like they didn’t like it and are trying to expel the feeling?

After hitting Michael across the head, my arms numbed. As if trying to forget the feeling of his skull being crushed underneath the crowbar.

I vaguely recall hitting the ground and watching my vomit mix in with the pools of blood.

I didn’t move a muscle as my mother ordered for the guards to take him away. I didn’t move until my mother lifted me up by my collar, almost like a kitten, and dragged me back inside.

~ ~ ~

Ben lifted me from my shoulders, gently placing me in his lap.

“Mal,” he whispered. “It’s okay. It’s okay.”

“Ben, I’m so sorry,” I gasped.

“She needs to monitor her breathing. Deep breaths,” Evie advised, from behind him.

“It’s okay,” he kept saying. “Breathe with me.”

“I didn’t mean-” I sobbed, “I didn’t mean to-”

“Shh… You’re okay,” he said into the top of my head. “Just keep breathing. There’s nothing to apologize for.”

“But-”

“You are not your mother,” he told me. “You aren’t evil. You aren’t a villain. You’re my Mal. And I love you so much.”

~ ~ ~

“Is she going to be okay for tomorrow?” I could hear Jay say quietly.

“She’ll be fine,” Evie reassured. “She just needs a couple of hours to rest. She’s… been through a lot.”

“No kidding,” Carlos mumbled.

I took in a deep breath, then pushed myself up. I was in my bed in the dorm rooms. “I don’t need to rest.”

They all turned to stare at me, wide eyed. Evie and Carlos sat across from one another at the table. Jay was already standing and quickly walked up next to the bed.

“Hey, Mal. How are you feeling?”

“Kinda shitty,” I mumbled.

“I’m so sorry for yelling at you today,” he admitted to me. “I lost it on you.”

“We both did,” I replied, quickly. Jay and I didn’t really do the sappy, heart to heart stuff, but it meant a lot to me that he tried. “We have more important matters at hand right now.”

“Mal, we don’t have to talk about this now. You need to get some more sleep-”

“The Coronation is tomorrow, Evie. There is no time.”

Everyone looked around, waiting to hear what I had to say.

“We are not going to take that wand tomorrow,” I insisted. “And you three are never going back to the island.”

Evie and Jay’s faces lit up. Jay even wrapped his arms around me in excitement. But Carlos picked up on my lack of enthusiasm.

“And you?” he demanded. “You said the three of us would never go back, but what about you, Mal?”

Jay’s muscles tensed around my back and I slowly pushed away.

“That… That depends.”

“On what?” Jay growled.

I looked between them all. “Jay… you asked me yesterday to really think about what makes me happy. And I have… And I thought about you guys. I mean, stealing things doesn’t make you happy. Tourney and victory pizza with the team makes you happy!”

A smile crept onto his face.

“And you,” I said to Carlos, “scratching Dude’s belly makes you happy, who would’ve thought.”

I giggled. A tear slipped down my face.

“And Evie, you are so smart. You amaze me every time you open your mouth.”

She looked about ready to burst into tears.

“And you’re right, Jay. I don’t want to take over the world with evil. It doesn’t make me happy. I want to stay here, with you guys. And with Ben… Because Ben makes me really happy.”

He looked me up and down. “Then what’s the problem?” he asked.

I sighed. It had taken me awhile to come to this conclusion. I was still trying to process my thoughts as I said them aloud to my friends. But I knew in my heart it was the right choice.

“Tomorrow, after the Coronation, I will give Ben the antidote to his spell. And I expect… he’s not going to be happy with me. I’ll come clean about everything, except your involvement. And when it’s over… if he decides to send me back to the Isle, back to my mother, I will go.”

“You can’t!” Evie shot up. “Mal, she’ll kill you!”

I shook my head. “Honestly, I hope she does. There are much worse things I’ve seen her do.”

“We’ll go with you,” Jay decided. “Tell Ben that we were all a part of it. That way we’re all sent back and can protect one another-”

“No! You guys don’t understand. You need to stay here. You need to stay away from your parents and… be happy. There’s no reason for us all to die. In fact, my mother will happily use you three against me. I have to go alone.”

No one argued. There wasn’t anything to argue.

Evie rushed forward and wrapped her arms around me. “I’m so proud of you, Mal,” she whispered, tears streaming down her face. “You are so brave.”

“Let me in.” Carlos got up and pushed his way into our arms, joining the hug.

Once the three of us were settled, we looked at Jay.

“Please no,” he grumbled, but Evie grabbed his arm and pulled him in with us.

There was silence for a beat or two. Just the four of us, with our arms wrapped around one another, heads down.

“It’s not fair,” Carlos said. “You’ve spent your whole life being tortured by Maleficent and now, you have to be the martyr who stops her grand plan.”

Jay squeezed me closer to him in the hug. “Don’t worry. If Ben sends you back there tomorrow, I promise I’ll kill him for you.”

We all laughed.

Finally, we slowly pulled apart from one another.

“I actually have a surprise for you, Mal,” Evie confided.

I raised an eyebrow. “A surprise?”

“Yeah,” she breathed, a grin on her face. It was somewhat distorted by her tears, but it was happy nonetheless. “I’ve been working on something for you. For the Coronation.”

She shuffled back to her closet, pulling out a long, lavender dress.

“Oh, Evie,” I started, but she shushed me.

“Come take a look.”

She held it up and I started to touch it, identifying the separate pieces. The skirt was long and ruffled. It had a short train, which was scrunched up on the floor at her feet.

There wasn’t much in the way of sleeves and the collar was high, haloing my neck just like my mother’s did on her cape.

“Evie, it’s so beautiful,” I told her.

“It gets better,” she said, with a smirk. She then, flipped it around, giving me a look at the wide open back.

“Oh no,” I muttered. “Evie, I can’t wear this.”

“Of course you can!” she prompted.

I shook my head wildly. “Evie, my scars! My burns! Everyone will be able to see them.”

“That’s the point,” Carlos admitted, wrapping an arm around my shoulders to look at it as well. “Think of the statement you’ll be making! About what kids have to face on the Isle all the time! Anyone who has a single doubt about Ben’s proclamation will have to eat their words when they see you walk with the new king, proudly displaying your past pain.”

I chuckled. “My current pain,” I half-joked.

“So, you’ll wear it?” Evie asked, bouncing with excitement.

I nodded. “Yes, Evie. I’d be honored to wear it.”

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horrorvillaintourney · 19 days

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HORROR'S NEXT TOP GENDER

New bracket, featuring as many trans (or trans-coded) horror characters as can be shoehorned in there. Do you know if you each submitted one of these we'd have the biggest competition I've ever done?

RULES

no real people. i allowed a few last time because i thought it was funny because vampires don't exist. trans people do.

not just villains! any horror character is allowed.

you are allowed to make multiple submissions, but not to submit the same character multiple times.

harassment will result in the disqualification of your chosen contender.

#horror's next top gender #dr frank n furter #angela baker #leatherface #horror villain tourney #horror movies #horror film #horror

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zorawitch · 9 months

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can't believe i haven't shared this on here but i'm currently running the @horrorvillaintourney as a sideblog. still accepting submissions, and i need about 29 more for the bracket. i know i have a couple slasher fans following me here so if you're interested in something like that, the submission link is in my pinned post there!

#horror villains #horror villain tourney #horror #horror film #horror movies #a.t. shrieking

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indulgnces · 5 years

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hi howdy hello!! i go by jess and this is my first time playing my sweet bb girl, so i’m pumped! more about my girl audrey below the cut!

❛ ( SARAH JEFFERY ) ◈ dude, shut up ! AUDREY ROSE from DESCENDANTS is on screen. their fans swear they’re just DETERMINED & OUTGOING, but we’ve all seen their JEALOUS & STUBBORN side ! according to TRUMAN WIKIA, they’re TWENTY-ONE years old, BISEXUAL, & identify as CISFEMALE ( SHE/HER ). they’re currently a STUDENT & are RELIEVED about life in truman. luckily they have HER DIARY & HER SONGBIRD NECKLACE with them & can visit THE FAIRY COTTAGE whenever they want. penned by JESS.

sooooooooo confession: i’ve never watched a descendants movie from start to finish 😬 I know! crazy considering I’m playing a character from the movies, but like, have you guys ever seen a character and just be like wOW, that is My Type of character? cause that’s what happened with audrey. descendants 3 came out and was trending, and I checked the tag and like was 👀👀👀 to audrey to the point that I watched queen of mean and got HOOKED. caught a replay of the movie and watched all the audrey parts while skipping over the rest. since then I’ve been in love with my girl and she’s been on my mind so much that I’m returning to rp after a small break to play my girl. In preparation I skimmed through descendants 1 & 3, and adurey’s youtube short story so I’m good to GO.

CANON LIFE

“A lifetime of plans, gone. Our family status, gone. Audrey, you were supposed to be his Queen, and you let him slip through your fingers. Your mother could hold onto a prince in her sleep.”

daughter of sleeping beauty and prince phillip, princess audrey has been groomed since she was a child by her grandmother to become the queen of auradon. she’d been friends with prince ben since she was a child, and was expected to marry him when she got older.

grew up used to the finer things of life, and as such, audrey was a bit self-absorbed and spoiled. became the most popular girl in school due to her status and beauty. was cheer captain. finally became romantically involved with ben at some point in high school. life was going exactly as planned.

then ben decided to invite 4 villain kids (vks) from the isle of the lost to auradon, and everything went to shit. the stark black and white, good vs. evil mentality was deeply ingrained in audrey’s psyche, so she was very much AGAINST the idea of any isle kids coming over. convinced the vks were up to no good, she never warmed up to the them, and bullied them (mostly mal) at times. and you know what? she was RIGHT

mal used a love potion to steal her boyfriend, who then humiliated audrey by serenading mal during a tourney match, where audrey was cheering at. no one gave two shits though?? or suspected foul play at all?? they just cheered and were like “ah, cool! our soon-to-be-king has suddenly declared his love for this new vk who’s only been here for a few days! how awesome and totally natural !! “

audrey was still plenty popular by the end of the movie, but her fairy godmothers decided to treat adurey to a spa trip, which turned into an extended trip that required her needing summer school bc she missed so much school (aka why she was absent for descendants 2)

by the time audrey came back in descendants 3, everyone was ALL up mal’s ass crack. ben proposed to mal in front of everyone, serenading her with the SAME song he did in the first movie when he ceremoniously proclaimed his love for mal while simultaneously dumping audrey, and everyone cheered AGAIN for their union. damn thing broke audrey’s whole ass heart. on top of that, her grandmother chastised audrey for her failures in securing ben and basically failing the family.

she also lost her status come d3??? like, at the end of d1, she was still cool as fuck. but come d3 girl is not even being invited to her friend’s birthday parties anymore?? she has no friends?? no one gives two shits about how she must be dealing with everything? and wow does that not help things at all.

that night, in her loneliness and anger, audrey decided to steal the queen’s crown from the artifacts museum. it was a petty thing. she was hurt, and just did NOT want to see the crown she’d envisioned as her own for all her life be placed on mal’s head. she didn’t have a goal beyond taking the crown. however, when she went to the museum, maleficent’s scepter sensed audrey’s emotions and desires for revenge, and revealed itself to her. it’s glow lured audrey to it, fed into her emotions, and bing bang boom, audrey became the ultra fabulous QUEEN OF MEAN

under the scepter's influence, she put half of auradon under a sleeping spell, the other half she turned to stone, then she made ben a beast after he rejected her, and made mal an ugly old hag. she was foiled at the end by mal, and ended up falling under a sleeping curse as a result. with no True Love’s Kiss to awaken her (rip), the heroes ended up getting Hades to use his magic to wake her up.

at the end, she apologizes for her crimes & her emotions were finally acknowledged when mal and ben stepped up and apologized for their inconsiderate past actions to audrey (wELL, they never actually apologize?? they say ‘I owe you an apology” but both don’t like actually say sorry, and that’s 100% something audrey has noticed for sure). she celebrates at the end with everyone else when the barrier is brought down and is last seen dancing with harry hook

POST CANON

totally headcanon that she’s still not 100% happy as she’s shown in the end while dancing around okay

she’s STILL lonely!! she STILL wants those apologies!! she’s STILL lost about what to do with her future now that her whole life plan has blown up in smokes. she’s HURT okay. her friends? abandoned her! ben? abandoned her! that one hurts the most bc after spotting that pic of audrey/ben as children together, I 100% hc that they have been best buds for years before falling into a relationship. and while it’s clear ben was not really ~in love~ with audrey ( i image they ended up getting together bc it was just Expected yknow?), audrey still had feelings for ben. even if it wasn’t true love (she def wasn’t In Love tho she thought she was), she did still love ben. he was her best friend, and the fact that he never came around to apologize to her for humiliating her the way he did after the love spell broke HURT.

also hc that she had to take a remedial goodness class following her stunt

the ending given to her is life a brief showing of her and harry hook smiling at each other all soft like before dancing, which like, i’m game for, but in terms of her actual future, audrey was trying to figure out just how to do life moving forward following everything

TRUMAN

“Tell me it was all a bad dream.”

yeah so I said audrey was relieved about her life in truman? 100000% true!

her life was incredibly sad and lonely before, so convincing her that all that shit was all just a bad dream was an incredibly easy thing to do for the descendants actors okay (im sad for her bc of this tbh)

her life as she knows it: she still comes from a family of high status and money. not technically a princess, but she sure does act like one. believes she was born and raised in truman, but was sent to boarding school at auradon prep since she was a child, where she thrived and grew into a typical Popular Girl (head of cheer team/one of the most beautiful girls), before returning to truman after graduating. basically she believes she had the same perfect life she had before in canon, minus the vks, ben, and the whole fairy tale/royalty stuff (basically everything that ruined that perfect life).

all that other extra stuff, including going all queen of mean and losing ben and being drop kicked by literally everyone, is just POOF, fuzzy memories, bad vivid horror story nightmares! every now and then she’ll witness an engagement, or spot a serenade, and it’ll trigger an overwhelming sense of sadness, but for the most part, she’s content putting her life behind her. her new life is a much happier one. that could totally change once she starts encountering people from her past life again.

only really recognizes her family members as family members, and maybe recognizes some past auradon friends (maybe chad charming as her ex since he’s the only one who didn’t totally abandon her rip)

since “returning” to truman, she’s entered university on the island. she wasn’t sure where she was going with life, but she knew she’s always been really good at drawing and really good at event planning. so in uni, she decided to keep her artistic talents as a hobby and pursue a career in event planning. in pursuit of this, she’s a senior at college, majoring in hospitality management.

PERSONALITY

positive: determined, headstrong, outgoing, self-assured, polite, moral, dedicated

negative: jealous, stubborn, demanding, bossy, petty, close-minded, seemingly mean (tho she doesn’t consider herself mean, okay? she just can come off as mean/rude)

CANON CONNECTIONS

ben & mal: need them both bc they are the ones who hurt her the most so i’d loooooove to play out these dynamics in truman!! they’d be the most Triggering faces for her

jay & harry & chad & uma: underrated audrey ships i’d love to play out bc literally crumbs are given to the majority of these dynamics, and so I want to just...explore them?? three of these 4 are vks and 2 of those 3 are people audrey actively pursued in some sort of ~connection~ at the end of the movies when the Couples got together, and she did that even tho she is very Moral and has confusing feelings about vks, and i just wanna know more!!

TRUMAN CONNECTIONS

yeah this is getting long, so I’m planning on posting a whole separate post in the truman plot tag for these wanted connections!

and yeah! that’s everything on my girl! if you’ve made it this far, you’re the best my dudes!! I’m gonna be on mobile for a good portion of the day before coming on at night, but if you’d like to do any kind of plotting with my girl, just go ahead and hit that like button, and I’ll slide in y’alls dms! ♥

#truman:intro #♦ audrey rose — intro.#intro

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umaspirateship · 4 years

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“All Was Quiet”

@descendantssecretsanta gift for @malicebertha

After Christmas, Mal thought, it was like the whole castle had fallen into a deep sleep. The decorations were still up, the fires still roaring in the fireplaces, the snow still settling on the ground. Even the lake was silent, the water rushing soundlessly beneath a thick layer of ice. She’d made the trek out there, wrapped up in a thick coat, scarf, and hand-knit hat, after lunch, and watched as the sun, from where it peaked out behind the clouds, threw sparkles over the ground.

It was too quiet.

Mal wondered how her mother bore the endless quiet of the kingdom for a hundred years, how she wanted it to last a hundred more.

She’d gone to the Enchanted Lake again hoping that she’d be able to get her head back on the right way. Instead, she’d worked herself into a state, and soon found herself walking back to the dorms, furious.

There wasn’t anyone around, even, to appreciate her sharp and burning glares! They’d all left, to home, for the holidays. Which Mal hadn’t minded, at first. Ben had stuck around, after all, and had organized all the typical Christmas activities for them. They’d decorated the tree, drank hot cocoa, had snowball fights, and gathered around the fire to open presents. But now, in the silent hallways of Auradon Prep, it was almost like Mal could hear all of the voices of the people who had left.

Lonnie had taken off almost as soon as the final bell rang, hoping to catch the first train out in time to make it home before the blizzard hit. She’d stopped just long enough to give Mal a hug, and a small gift. “A token,” she’d said, “from my family.” Mal had turned it over in her hands a few times, trying to work out the details. “It’s supposed to give you good dreams,” Lonnie said as they walked together towards the front doors. “But it works as an ornament, too, if you tie a ribbon on the top.”

Mal had placed it on her nightstand, lying snugly on top of her spellbook, and wished for it to work. She kept it there, even after the tree went up, and looked at it when she couldn’t sleep.

She missed Jane, too, despite all the trouble she’d caused. Well. It had saved Mal from a lot of trouble, in the end, anyway. Jane had given her the chance to choose Good, and anything could be forgiven in Auradon. Besides, they’d grown close, and, by the end of the semester, found themselves studying together in the library to prepare for their Introductory History of Auradon final. Jane had even stayed a little after term ended, fluttering around the castle and wrapping things up before the holidays before Ben had rather passive-aggressively peer pressured her into going home to celebrate with her mom. Jane’s gift had come in the mail two days before Christmas and had come out of the plain brown mailing box bright blue with a giant bow.

“I’m not really artsy like you, or like Evie,” read Jane’s card, “But I hope you like it. It’s always best to be cozy during the holidays, and I hope I can help with that a little!” It was a pillow with cross-stitching splashed tastefully on the front cover. Little blue snowflakes fell in a white cotton sky, and little versions of Mal, Evie, Jay, and Carlos, were standing in the snow, making a snowman. On the back, in smaller text, read For Good Friends, Merry Christmas, Jane, 2015. She’d carefully handstitched the message on a small red cloth, and sewn it on the back. Mal liked the art, but almost liked the message even more. “For good friends.” She wished Jane had been there to give it to her in person, so she could thank her for real. Mal had never been good at communicating through letters, and even on the Isle would prefer to go in person than send a message through a middleman. And, now that she was feeling more confident about herself, Jane had a smile that could light up the room and could give hugs so comforting they were becoming famous among their friends. There were lots of things about a person, Mal thought, that you couldn’t really experience when they weren’t there.

Mal even, to her horror, missed Audrey. Audrey was bossy, and selfish, and thought everyone else was beneath her. But, then again, so was Uma, and Mal had been friends with her for a while before the ruthlessness of the Isle had torn them apart. Or, well. Before Mal had self-sabotaged their friendship. Even Mal herself was bossy, and selfish, a lot of the time. She’d keep things to herself, hide her plans, and always expected her orders to be followed, without explanation. She cared about her friends, but everyone else she mistrusted. She still wasn’t sure there wasn’t some secret con or scheme behind every dazzling bright Auradon smile. She respected Audrey for that, at least, that she was upfront about who she was. She was royalty, Audrey always snapped, and that meant making and using connections, to her own benefit. “You wouldn’t understand,” she’d tell Mal, whenever asked about some new element of Auradon court life. But Mal did understand and thought it fascinating. Mal had been top in her Evil Schemes class at Serpent Prep, thank you very much. Eventually, Audrey had given up shoving Mal away every time she bothered her in the hall. “You may not have manners,” Audrey would humph, obviously still mad, “But I do.”

It did get easier, being friends, after Mal and Ben had broken up. Mal wished it hadn’t happened. Or that it hadn’t impacted her friendship with Audrey so much. But suddenly, Audrey found that Mal wasn’t so different from her after all, since she wasn’t wearing her Ben-tinted glasses. Well. Mal said “friends,” because that’s what you called everyone in Auradon you talked to. But she still saw Audrey as her rival (and Audrey still saw her as a nuisance). It was thrilling and hilarious and exciting. Mal loved it. So it wasn’t that much of a surprise when, rather than give her a present, Audrey said, “You would just steal anything you wanted, anyway, so there’s no point in buying you a gift.” Mal replied, “And if you wanted something, you would have already convinced someone to buy it for you.” Audrey had rolled her eyes and stalked off, calling over her shoulder, “I’m leaving because I’m late for Calculus, so don’t think you’ve won!” Mal wished she was here, because then, at least, she’d have some way to release all this pent-up anger.

And Mal WAS angry. She was angry that her friends were far away, that she was alone. She was mad that it was so quiet, it put her off, and mad her feel like something was awfully wrong. She was furious that she’d never been able to experience an Auradon Christmas before and now, just after her first one was finished, she was spending time thinking about her mother of all people. Her mother who was still a lizard trapped in her room. Mal thought about going back to their dorm, but thinking about the little lizard lounging about in its cage next to her bed just made her spiral even further into frustration.

Mal didn’t know what to do.

“Woah,” came a voice from the floor lounge. “Where are you going so fast? You sure you don’t want to try out for the team?”

“No Jay,” Mal said, coming to a stop in front of the couch where he was sitting. “I don’t want to play tourney. It’s bad enough having to listen to you and Carlos and Ben blabber on about it all the time.”

“Hey, no need to be rude,” Jay said, grinning, “You love coming to our games, and you know it.”

“Whatever makes you feel better,” Mal said. She flopped down on the couch and sighed.

“Do you want me to leave?” Jay asked. “I can always go watch Carlos play that videogame he made me buy him.”

“Isn’t that a singleplayer game?”

“Yeah, well I said I was just going to watch, didn’t I? Plenty of people watch gaming videos on the internet.”

Mal rolled her eyes. “As exciting as that sounds, Carlos probably doesn’t want to be bothered right now. You know how he gets with new tech.”

“Yeah, I know,” Jay said. He fell silent, watching her thoughtfully as she glared at the wall.

“Got anything I can punch?” Mal asked after a while.

“Isn’t the holiday season supposed to be about goodwill and cheer?” Jay said, laying his head on her shoulder. “Who pissed you off this time?”

“No one. The air. My mom. I don’t know.” Mal laid her head against his and frowned. “Why is Auradon so goddamn confusing? I don’t even know what I’m angry about anymore.”

“Didn’t you like the holidays?” Jay asked. “I thought you had fun. At least a little.”

“Yeah. Yeah, I did.”

“But?”

“What happens now, Jay?”

“I don’t know what you mean,” Jay said, lifting his head from underneath hers so he could look her in the eyes properly.

“Now that it’s over,” Mal said. “I mean. Haven’t you noticed how quiet it is around here?”

“Yeah, I suppose. It’s weird being at school when there’s no one else here.”

Mal stood up and waved her hands around, “That’s it! That’s it exactly! Everyone kept going on and on about being home for the holidays, and it was fine, when we were busy, distracted, whatever. But now that the celebrations are over, everyone’s still gone, and we’re not home! We’re at school! It’s weird Jay!”

“Well, yeah. We’ll always be different. We’re villain kids, it makes us who we are.”

“But I just want to spend a holiday where things make sense,” said Mal. “I guess Maleficent ruined that for me, forever.”

“Not entirely,” Jay said. “Look, Mal. We’re at school, yeah, but we’re home, just as much as we’ve ever been. We have each other’s backs, that’s why we’re family. Do you want something to punch? Then I’ll find you something to punch. But personally? I think we should find Evie and Carlos first. Come on.” Jay stood and started heading down the hall. “I think Evie’s in her room, messing with her new serger.”

Jay and Mal found themselves dragging Evie and Carlos out of their rooms, away from their shiny new toys, and into one of the classrooms at the back of the library.

“Why are we here?” asked Carlos looking around.

“I wanted to pick someplace that wasn’t covered in Christmas decorations,” said Jay. “This is the closest place I could find.”

“Aren’t there still Christmas lights on the windows?” Evie asked, pointing.

“Like I said, somewhere that isn’t covered in decorations.”

“Okay, whatever man,” said Carlos, “But why are we here? I was almost to level nine!”

Mal sat on one of the desks and crossed her arms when Jay sent her a look. Evie, glancing quickly between the two of them, hummed. Carlos threw his hands up, “Well? What’s going on?”

Evie spoke first. “You know, I never thought winter break could be so lonely. We’ve all sort of grown to be independent people, I guess, since we don’t need to stay so close here. But, now that everyone’s gone, it just means I spend a lot of time stuck in my own head. I’ve made four dresses since Christmas, four, and they’ve all turned out a mess!”

“I keep feeling like I should be studying,” Carlos let out a little laugh as he spoke, “And I’m even starting to miss playing tourney if you can believe it.”

Mal smiled a little and said, “I’m starting to hear Audrey’s voice nagging me when I’m alone. You don’t think I’m going nuts?”

“I’m pretty sure that’s not how it works,” Jay said, “I’m pretty sure that’s just a sign you care about her.”

“You jerk!” Mal said, leaning over farther so she could shove him a little. “You didn’t tell us why we’re here, anyway. Stop dragging on and get to the point.”

“I thought, maybe,” he said, “We could make this place feel a bit more like home? I know we’re still at school. Like, I literally brought us to a classroom. But. Any place can be home if we add the right touch.”

“Oh my gods,” Evie said, putting her head in her hands. “You’re going to make us play Villainous.”

“Yessssss,” Carlos pumped his hands up and down, “I’m going to win!”

“Remember rule one!” Jay said, grinning, as they chanted in unison, “Mal always wins.”

Mal smiled and pushed up her sleeves. This was better than punching something. It was better than stalking around the Enchanted Lake in the snow.

“It’s a good thing we’re in this classroom,” Mal said, “Because you’re all about to get schooled!”

Christmas traditions were nice and all, Mal thought as they raced around the classroom, (Jay nearly tackling Carlos when he won the crown for the second time) but in the lonely and quiet hours after the holidays, and before school was back in session, there was no place like being here, with her friends. Being home.

#descendantssecretsanta #repost #mal

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stardyng · 5 years

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i have a question, what was the difference between the starks holding theon hostage, and the lannisters holding sansa hostage? i mean theres the obvious difference of how the lannisters beat sansa, but people say that theon wanted to be in winterfell, and how ned is all rightous and just. but didnt he take theon away from the iron islands as a hostage to make sure that theons father didnt rebel again?

There are certainly specific differences between the Lannisters holding Sansa hostage and the Starks holding Theon hostage, though that doesn’t erase the fact that Theon was a victim of everything that happened to him. I think the biggest reason as to why people don’t understand that Theon’s situation was horrible, is because we don’t see him go through all that from his point of view, and his situation is not as explicitely bad as Sansa’s.

When it comes to Sansa, it’s nearly impossible to ignore the cruelty that she had to suffer. She underwent evident verbal, physical and sexual abuse from a series of people in positions of power that the narrative encourages us to dislike, and we see all of that horror from her point of view. As viewers, we are meant to dislike the inner working of the King’s Landing court, despise Joffrey, understand but be wary of Cersei, abhor Littlefinger, Marillion, and all the knights in the Kingsguards. Therefore, when they mistreat Sansa, viewers nearly instinctively criticize them for what they did. It’s quite interesting that the only figures in Sansa’s story that have treated her wrongly that are almost absolved of what they did to her are characters that are written to be more likable, and that the viewers like more. Hence why Tyrion, Sandor Clegane and Olenna are rarely criticized for the part they play in Sansa’s unfair situation.

Whereas with Theon, the narrative doesn’t push you to give pin blame to any of the people responsible for Theon’s situation at the beginning of the series. We don’t get the explicit experience of him living in Winterfell in fear that someday Ned Stark will cut his head off for what his father may possibly do. Unlike the bulk of characters that are keeping Sansa trapped in King’s Landing, Ned is presented in an extremely positive light by the story. The viewers are encouraged to like him, side with him, and invest in his legacy. Not only that, but him taking Theon as a ward is an action of his that’s strangely shrugged off by the narrative. It happened, but the only character who gives Ned any accountability for that is Theon himself, and even then, Theon has these thoughts as he’s been vilified in the story, and the viewers are generally already extremely attached to Ned Stark, so most of them don’t end up shaming Ned for his action, but rather Theon for not being grateful enough. There are some people who even act as if Ned was a father figure, or even a good father figure to Theon. While Ned would play the father from time to time, he wasn’t truly a positive figure in Theon’s life. He was the man who potentially could have executed Theon. He did nothing for Theon to be remotely grateful of him.

Part of the reason that happens is because of the way Winterfell and the Starks are presented compared to the Lannisters and King’s Landing. While there are Lannisters that people end up liking, as a whole, the Lannisters are major villains that complicate the life of the main heroes of the story. All of them are incredibly flawed characters morally and generally speaking, and their bad acts are explicitly criticized in the narrative. King’s Landing and everything about the way it’s structured is often criticized by the narrative as well. Plus, the horrors that happen there because of the people in power is just almost impossible to ignore. The Starks in this story are presented as this ideal that every one else has to compare to. Their morals, their beliefs and their values are the ones that everyone else have to emulate and if they don’t, they are lesser for it. They like the Old Gods so characters that like the Old Gods are superior. They don’t care for tourneys and extravagance so characters who see through these things are superior. The list goes on and on and on. Any character (especially these living in Winterfell at the beginning of the story) who dares to set themselves apart from the values, priorities and views are lesser for it. The more a character emulates everything that GRRM wants people to like about the Starks, they better they are. Winterfell and the Starks are hailed so much that they are practically absolved by the narrative of any kind of blame for Theon being a hostage. Then, characters like Theon, Sansa and Catelyn valuing the Northern values more as the series continues is portrayed like an improvement, and the fact that they didn’t completely identify with the North before is a character flaw. That’s a part of the narrative that I especially don’t like.

Moving on from that, despite how the narrative does try to explain how Theon became the way he is, it doesn’t push the viewers to blame any of the other characters for it, especially not the central heroes of the story. However, Theon lost most of his family in the Greyjoy Rebellion, was separated from his parents, his sister, and everyone he knew and cared about as a child. He had to do that despite the fact that he did nothing to warrant such a punishment. He had to live surrounded by people with different views, cultures and values than him. He had to live with the fear that he could be executed because of something he couldn’t control himself. He didn’t truly have a family in Winterfell and only one friend. The hardships in Theon’s lives before the series started may not be as evident as the one from many of the other characters through out the series, or even what he went through with Ramsey, but these hardships as a hostage are still incredibly valid. Theon didn’t become a victim of his circumstances because of Ramsey, he was one before because Ned Stark kept him captive in Winterfell for practically half of his life.

#theon greyjoy #theon #asoiaf #asoiaf meta #a song of ice and fire #sansa stark #sansa #anti ned stark #i finally answered this one #sorry to anon that i took so long #but i finally did it #asks

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steve0discusses · 5 years

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Yugioh S3 Ep 25: We Finally Address the Dead Bakura in the Room

It’s been a long while guys, a long wait. We had a lot of filler. That filler ended up being just a hell ton of characters, and since the show knew they would only be filler characters, every single one of them had to die. So, now that they are all absolutely dead (at least until we’ll need more filler later) we can finally get back to what we were trying to accomplish since S2, to finish this one single tourney that has been going on for a week in the show’s timeline but about a year and a half in the timeline of anyone watching from home.

It’s finally here, we’ve finally made it to...

A tower that Kaiba really did make in just that shape.

Sometimes you can really tell that this kid is a 16 year old. (who is occasionally 18 whenever it’s necessary. But only occasionally.)

I want you to know that it was probably this image that got this post flagged from my drafts folder. This show and getting me flagged, I swear. I’ve now reached a point, that the moment I click “Save” in my drafts folder, I get an automatic flag. Just automatically. Maybe once you’re tagged enough times, they just start putting you into a special group? I dunno. I’m not concerned about it since this blog is quite kosher, it’s just kind of funny to me that this will probably continue to happen whenever I post from here on out, and the massive dick tower Kaiba made is not helping my cause.

In case you are wondering, Kaiba and Mokuba are completely over losing their only surviving family. They act as if getting trapped in a VR nightmare where your Dad is trying to control all human life is something that is completely trivial and something that everyone goes through at one point. They’re completely over it. Most people would cancel the tourney after seeing the horrors they just witnessed but...Seto still wants those God cards, so, no one has spoken a lip about Noah at all. And probably never will ever again. RIP, Noah arc.

This episode (as well as the next one, since I’ve gotten in the habit of doing these two at a time for weekend updates) is pretty short. This is mostly because they’re recapping S2. Luckily for you and I, this is not really necessary since this is a recap blog and I can just...scroll down...to see what happened in S2 (and I did have to do that because I forgot...a lot)

But, I imagine kids who started watching this show who with the Noah Season and just kinda walked into this situation aboard the blimpjet from Hell were...hella confused at all these rando characters and Egyptian curses coming out of nowhere. The Noah arc and the Real arc are like two completely different feeling arcs.

(Read more under the cut)

They were probably also super confused at this random blonde lady in the hospital who is Joey’s friend but also, if I had not actually seen this show before, I’d just assume was his own mother because she’s drawn so much older than him.

Joey and Mai are now like...basically dating. Honestly, this is probably the best relationship Mai has ever had, and it’s taken place entirely when she’s in a coma.

On the other side of the Blimp, Marik is also checking up on his own beloved coma patient -- but by checking up on him, Marik actually intends to kill him.

Still trying to kill Odion. How many times are we gonna get this guy hovering over Odion’s bed with a knife (that they leave the tip off of in the English version) ?

What follows is a bizarre scene of Marik threatening to kill his Sister but never actually doing it. Honestly, this would be them until the end of time. Marik is never going to kill his Sister. It would be too much effort. He couldn’t even kill Odion when Odion was just asleep right in front of him.

And this is probably there as a sign that Marik still has a slightly less evil side in there somewhere but also...Marik is a villain that doesn’t like actually doing the work required to be a villain, which is how that entire Noah arc happened, youknow? Everyone should be dead by now. It’s been DAYS.

Honestly this whole scene was freakin weird, but not as weird as the next scene.

That’s right, the thing I’ve been waiting for for so long. That thing I’ve brought up every freakin episode for 25 episodes. We’re finally going to talk about it. We’re finally going to address it. I can’t believe it’s actually happening, I honestly thought this wouldn’t get addressed until S5.

It is amazing how many times Yugi’s friends have walked into Yugi having a freaking melt down with himself and how many times Yugi’s friends have been absolutely cool with it. They’re just...used to this now, I guess. They’re just used to Yugi crying at the top of his lungs with the lights off in someone else’s empty room. Completely normal Yugi behavior.

And then...this happens.

For absolutely NO REASON AT ALL, Yugi decides to lie.

I mean if I had a quarter for every lie Yugi says in this show, we’d be drowning in loose change, but it still surprised me a whoooole lot that Yugi would bother to lie about THIS. This thing that you could so easily debunk. This would be so easy to catch on to. The fact that no one wonders “wait, how is he getting air if the jet is still in the sky?” or the fact that when they’re outside, getting some air later in this very episode no one wonders “wait, Bakura’s not even here?”

Like why does any of Yugi’s friends even trust him at this point? Yugi is constantly lying and he’s not even good at it.

And maybe it’s because Yugi thinks that if he says Bakura died, then everyone would get their confidence shattered by Marik and would become too weak to fight back but like...they just witnessed half of Kaiba’s family die and now Yugi thinks they can’t handle Bakura--their shadiest asshole friend--getting killed by the same serial murderer that put two other people in a coma?

He doesn’t even tell the Kaibas “hey, so Marik killed one of your duel champions, do you maybe...need to do something about that?” No. He just...lets it be. Why tell Kaiba? Why tell the guy in charge of this tournament that one of the people in your tourney killed the other tourney people? Why even threaten Moki to threaten to enforce the rules for once his life?

Yugi, I swear.

God bless the storyboarder.

It’s been a while since I praised the storyboarder, mostly because I forget, but man, seeing this pose from this angle is such a good joke. Kaiba just committing to his signature pose until the camera cuts away.

And then, they step off the blimpjet and unanimously agree that Kaiba has deffo brought them here to murder them all and hide the bodies.

Admire this hell hole and then remember that Yugi told everyone that Bakura went outside for “fresh air” and they didn’t immediately ask “you mean in the dump? The literal trash compactor that’s outside? You said Bakura just walked out into the piles of weapon’s factory and rusty sharp metal and is just...waltzing around out there?”

I mean, at this point they should have put two and two together but it’s this team so...I guess they’ll just never know the truth.

And then Joey decided it was time to fight club again.

Marik really did leap up here and go like, “man, this is SO pretty” and it’s supposed to be taken as a sign that Marik loves destruction, but honestly? I don’t think Marik has any idea what things should look like above ground in the first place. He might think this is what normal above-ground people like.

Then, Marik patiently asked Mokuba what the duel order would be and that’s when Mokuba lost his freakin gourd just out of nowhere.

I mean Mokuba doesn’t really like talking to Marik, I get that, but how much of an asshole do you have to be before Mokuba doesn’t like you?

Anyway, they all enter the tower and learn about a whole new mode of playing the game. It took a very long time, and since I don’t go over card games here, is another part of the reason why this update is mercifully short.

They go on these...elevator cars????? And, as they attack eachother they sort of get pushed to the top of the tower, and whoever gets there first, is the first to duel and so on.

They make a very big hullaboo about who they want to duel in the finals. Every single person here. We spend like 5 minutes in everyone’s head wondering about what their strategy will be in this mini game that makes really not much of a difference.

There’s not even guard rails, they could’ve just given him a little push.

I take that back, there are guard rails on these things, but because none of these people ever sit down, the guard rails that are a foot and half off the floor of their cabin will make absolutely no difference.

Like please notice that every single one of their weird duel cars has a padded seat that none of them will even use.

Overall this looks like a whole lot of dueling and I’m looking forward to skipping it. Honestly it’s nice, when was the last time I had a 25 length cap post? S1, right? Like all the way since S1. Ah, good memories.

Anyways, if you just got here, this is a list of the other recaps of this series, starting at S1 Ep1 and moving forward in chrono order.

#yugioh #yu gi oh #yugioh recap #photo recap #episode recap #s3 ep 25 #seto kaiba #mokuba kaiba #yugi muto #tea gardner #joey wheeler #tristan taylor #duke devlin #marik ishtar #ishizu ishtar #I guess mai was there for one scene too #ah a recap of a recap episode

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