#i'm not gonna say that they're all equally right about everything
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I love your fic - A Long and Slow Recovery. Itβs so beautifully written and the emotions felt are so palpable. Just wanted to pass along my thanks for writing it!
Completely separate from the fic though- What are your thoughts on the Xianle trio - their break up and slow rebuilding of friendship in the novel. π
Thank you so much!!! ;-; I'm really glad you're enjoying alasr! I'm really proud and excited about it!
Ah I think about this a lot! As in, I think about it a lot to try and decide my thoughts lol. I'm actually rereading the whole novel rn to try and get a feel for everyone, especially the trio. I've been REALLY excited to write them.
Summary: I love them, I'm sad for them, and I wish them well. Rambling to follow:
So my opinion right now is I love them. I think Feng Xin and Mu Qing are really interesting as foils as well as just completely independent characters, and I love that Xie Lian can see them in both of those lights too. Neither Feng Xin nor Mu Qing are really understood or given enough credit by anyone except Xie Lian, and I don't know if any of them know what to do with that. The impression that I've gotten is that Feng Xin and Mu Qing don't even really want to understand each other, and that's really sad, but understandable. Feng Xin's straightforward form of loyalty doesn't translate to Mu Qing, and Mu Qing's fear that no one will ever care to see the best in him makes him preemptively prickly and eager to beat them to the punch, and that does not play well with Feng Xin's earnestness.
(I'm trying to figure out Mu Qing, especially. I like him as a character and want to do him unbiased justice while writing him, but he's such a unique, self-contradictory case lol. I've met people with his kind of defensive cynicism before--the "stop pretending to be a good person" mindset in the face of altruism--and I've always been annoyed with them as much as I pity them, but I like that he's such a realistic character in that way. I'm intimidated by the prospect of writing him but I'm looking forward to it.)
The Xianle trio breakup, to me, just shows exactly the differences in FXMQ's approaches to conflict. Feng Xin stays with Xie Lian as long as he does because it's a simple answer to him: he's Xie Lian's bodyguard and Xie Lian is his friend, so Feng Xin will stay because that's what is both honorable and personally loyal. It's the right thing to do, and it looks and feels right. Mu Qing leaves before Feng Xin does because 1) his mother needs him more and 2) he hopes he can help more by gaining power and resources elsewhere, because what they're already doing isn't working. It's the right thing to do, even when it doesn't look and feel right.
So at that point, Feng Xin displays the kind of loyalty that traditionally gets praised because it's shown in no uncertain terms, even when it's not performed in the most enterprising way. By the more cynical, Feng Xin's approach can be seen as short-sighted, naive, or even pretentious, when he's really just honest and incredibly steadfast. "Loyal to a fault" is canonically used to describe him somewhere. Mu Qing's integrity is easier to doubt by most people because 1) his reasoning can be interpreted as selfish, even when he's sincere and 2) his intentions aren't always purely good! He's a flawed person and his reasons for doing things can include pettiness and selfishness within the greater good intentions, but that doesn't discount the good in them, at least to Xie Lian. Even when Mu Qing is looking at the bigger picture, people can interpret that as him being cold and uncaring about the immediate problem, and he gets angry that he's the only person acknowledging the complexity or futility of the situation. Anyway, they both try their best to help Xie Lian Back Then and refuse to see the merit in what the other is doing. I forget exactly how much Xie Lian acknowledges that they're both trying to help, so, rereading lol. But Xie Lian is definitely Not in a good place and is definitely lashing out at everyone by the end, which I'm sure he feels ashamed of later.
And reconnecting and rebuilding the friendship!! When Xie Lian ascends again, "Fu Yao" and "Nan Feng" are sent to help him and of course their generals don't know about it. And Xie Lian sees through them pretty early and just doesn't mention it because he's a little shit (extremely affectionate), but he knows what they're doing and appreciates it. But FXMQ both feel like they've failed Xie Lian and want to make it up to him, whether he knows about it or not. And they have to work together to do it, as much as they hate it, but at least they recognize that they share that much in their priorities. I think that while it's ultimately hopeful and sweet, there's a lot about their reconnecting that's just straight up tragic. I'm assuming that FXMQ both feel so much shame and regret about what happened and how they left him, and now that they have another chance to help, the literal devil (extremely affectionate) walks in and takes their spot as Xie Lian's protector and right hand. I think Xie Lian still feels awkward around them, too, as much as he still loves them. I am really proud of them for talking it out as much as they do in the end, though. I need to reread some stuff to see how much they reconcile by the end and in the extras, but I remember it being a good prognosis.
I guess also, I think Feng Xin sees Xie Lian as someone he's been proud to serve and call his friend, because he believes in Xie Lian's ideals and good heart. Mu Qing, though, doesn't know what to do with this mixture of gratitude and the resentment that comes with being indebted to someone, especially because Xie Lian is the only person who's really shown that he believes in Mu Qing's potential, good intentions, and worth as a person. The classic "stop trying to be a good person, altruist" thing doesn't work on Xie Lian, because he really just IS that good, and I think that makes Mu Qing want to tear his own hair out as much as it makes him love Xie Lian. MQ and FX's opinions of each other, though, wow?? They're so convinced that the other's intentions are insincere (mq saying fx is holier-than-thou, fx saying mx is selfish), up until they're tested and they have to act together. They're competitive against one another, but they also know that they act well as a united front, so there has to be some grudging respect and extremely grudging trust there. It's funny how the breakup has FXMQ as divided, conflicting forces where in present day in the reunion, they're much more cooperative. Despite their issues, they've grown to speak the same language on some level.
Might have some serious errors in here lol, but I don't really think I have any particularly hot takes on the Xianle3. Again, I'm rereading the novel so I can get this stuff right, but pls forgive me if I'm off-base on something.
#silver-cyn#tgcf#alasr#my writing#oh look it talks#i just want the best for all of them tbh#i'm not gonna say that they're all equally right about everything#but they're trying their best and i like messy characters#i loved fx from the start because i have a soft spot for the honest earnest guys#despite yknow the sexism and honestly being a total dick to mq#but mq grew on me after i got over the cynicism that personally makes me crazy#i read some really great fic interpretations of mq and they helped open my eyes he's so fun and paradoxical and good at ruining his own day#and now i love both of their weirdo asses#i don't like to give characters free passes on their faults tho#thats boring and cheapens them#except hua cheng he's literally never done anything wrong jk not jk
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Having them as best friend's:
Multiple X Reader
Contains: Alastor, Angel Dust, Husk, Charlie, Lucifer, Vox, Velvette, Rosie, Adam, Lute, and Valentino
ALASTOR
You're gonna have to hear me out with this one: he's down for the gossip 24/7!!!
He will listen and talk shit with you 100% and I'm not arguing on the matter.
Someone says some wack ass shit to you in public? "I beg your fucking pardon?" With like the scariest grin that fucker can muster.
You start talking to someone? He interrogates them! If they're not strong enough to survive one little interrogation with THE Radio Demon, they're not good enough to date you. Sorry not sorry.
The friendship would be violent, but in almost a sibling type relationship. If he said something absolutely out of line, you'd smack him or kick him in the back of his knees. He'd always get payback, whether it was immediately or a few days/weeks later.
You called him a 'radio faced cunt' once in front of everyone and they all mentally started planning your funeral.
Until he clapped back with something equally as interesting.
He only accepted affection from you and Rosie. And Charlie that one time.
If you had a bad day, he'd know immediately by the look on your face and wouldn't let anyone talk to you until he knew exactly what had made one of his two favorite people upset.
He'd kill them if you told him to. Just supportive bestie shit!
Angel Dust
Let's be real, if you're best friends with Angel, you're probably equally as close with Cherri.
But just you and Angel Dust as best friend's? Shit, he's awesome.
Had a bad day? Go to his room and cuddle Fat Nuggets while you cry/rant about the days woes.
Spontaneous sleepovers BECAUSE YOU CAN!
Platonically flirting to the point that everyone thinks you're together. Neither of you deny the claims, just to keep everyone on their toes.
The words 'love you' followed by something like 'slut' or 'bitch' are common occurrences.
When it comes to dating, Angel just wants you to be happy.
But if someone breaks your heart? He'll come out with guns blazing with no hesitation. NO ONE hurts his bestie.
Platonic cuddles because you love his floof.
Would probably form some sort of marriage pact with you for fun one night when you're both wasted. "Yeah, I'd marry you if we're both still single in 100 years, Toots."
Husk
The banter would be unmatched. You call him a furry and he'll clap back with something that makes your jaw drop before you burst out into laughter.
He'd tell you how it is, regardless of whether you asked or not.
Sure, you're his best friend, and he cares about you. . . But it's because he cares about you that he won't sugarcoat something, even if it's not something you wanna hear.
He would listen to your problems, like any good friend.
He wouldn't trust anyone you had romantic interest in, especially since the ones you always went for had some serious issues.
He'd say something like: "Don't cry to me when that bastard breaks your heart."
And you wouldn't cry to him when it happened, but he'd make you a drink and silently take care of the problem once he had one of the other hotel residents hoist you up to your room.
The next morning you'd tell him he was right and he'd smirk as he wiped down the bar, but wouldn't say anything.
He was never good with affection, so he respects your space and you respect his.
He literally always has your back, even if you don't know it. You do.
Charlie
Honestly, you probably grew up together and that's how the two of you became best friends. (But even if you didn't, everything is still the same.)
She's the friend that's too trusting of everyone, so you easily filled the place of being the friend that questioned everyone's intentions.
You even heavily questioned Vaggie's intentions when Charlie insisted on bringing her around after finding her.
You only warmed up to Vaggie when Charlie admitted her feeling for her, to you one late evening. She was a nervous wreck, but you were always the level-headed friend.
Being best friends with the princess of Hell had some lesser known perks β invitations to high class parties, special access at LuLu World, and the most eventful sleepovers known to Hell.
Whenever you mentioned interest in someone, Charlie was the first to push you to go for it.
If it went wrong, she was always there first, telling you it would be completely fine. If it went good, she was the first to congratulate you.
She's 100% the mom friend. Thirsty? Here's something to drink. Cut your finger? "Here's a bandaid, be more careful."
A relationship similar to siblings, bit without any malice or envy. Just happy to be in each other's presence.
She literally documented everything the two of you did, since the very first time you called her your friend. She's not going anywhere.
Lucifer
Yeah, so, everyone thinks you're dating. Even Charlie is a bit suspicious. You're not, but you had been there by his side for as long as he could remember.
When Lilith left, you filled some part of the void, not allowing Lucifer to go hungry when he spent long days in his office.
On his good days, he's absolutely there for all the tea, especially if it's PIPING HOT. "That bitch said WHAT!?"
He has no filter and will unintentionally intentionally hurt someone's feelings when it comes to you.
He protects you as fiercely as he protects Charlie, despite knowing that you're capable of protecting yourself.
The two of you argue like an old married couple, which only fueled the dating rumors. . . Until you mentioned someone you had interest in.
Bro interrogated everyone you ever liked. Can't handle five minutes with the king of Hell? Not good enough for his bestie. Keep it movin' pal.
No one is allowed to call you a bitch, but him. Anyone else tries, they'll be met with absolute SASS.
Not even joking, Lucifer would be so sassy towards people, to the point that you picked it up.
So the two of you just went around unintentionally terrorizing demons!
Vox
You hate someone? Bet. He'll have someone spy on them and give you the real tea.
Brings you as the plus one for many major events, but bullies you the entire time. You thought you'd get five minutes of peace on your best friends arm? WRONG!
Literally throws toddler meltdown style temper tantrums when it comes to Alastor. You're usually the one who has to reboot him or just smack some sense into him.
You're both pretty level-headed most of the time, but one of you probably has a couple of screws loose. (It's definitely him.)
No one is good enough to date you. Not sorry.
If anyone looks at you wrong, they've signed their second death to double Hell.
You and Vox talk shit about everyone, especially if you've had a hard day.
If it was bad enough, he'd offer to kill the demon who dared make your day shit. He'd still listen to you though.
"Fuck that. You're not going alone." And then you have to wait 15 minutes for him to look 'good enough' to go out, even if you were powerful and just wanted to go on little walk down the street.
Body doubling. Different tasks, silence, but the comfort of having someone else in the room. Absolutely.
Velvette
She likes you slightly more than Vox and Valentino, which is fabulous.
Weekly designated sleepover nights where the both of you unload from the week.
Someone is rude to you? Cue Vel lecturing them on how they fucked up and their career is over, but make it musical.
You went on a date with someone and didn't tell her? "I want details, Lovey! Are they an overlord too? Tell. Me. Everything."
Prepare for Hell's greatest gossip sessions, especially around the topic of Hell's cutthroat fashion industry.
She might not seem like it, but she's a good listener.
You're leaving the tower to run a small errand? Surprise Surprise, she's coming with you and turning it into a whole day, complete with lunch and shopping!
She uses you as a model sometimes, purely because she can.
Will call you a sweet name and insult you in the same breath.
Gets worried if you don't text back within five minutes. She will literally show up to make sure you're alive. You're probably taking a nap.
Rosie
Literally the best to spend the day with. She loves walking with you or just having tea.
Much like Alastor, she would be down for the gossip, but she wouldn't go very far with it.
In terms of relationships, she'd want you to be happy, but would also threaten to eat your partner if they hurt you.
She'd be such a good listener when you came to talk about your day.
She'd even offer advice and just casually drop something like: "Listen to your intuition, darling. It'll tell you others intentions."
At some point or another, everyone questions whether you're dating or not, which both of you laugh at frequently.
She enjoys her privacy, but she also would love having you around more than others.
She would love giving platonic affection, just to make you feel loved.
Sometimes Alastor pops up and Rosie gushes about how the two of you would get along β and immediately you're just thinking how this trio would be iconic.
She doesn't care about your past, you don't care that she's a Cannibal. . . Well, she cares, but she would NEVER hold it against you!
Adam
He literally goes out of his way to piss you off.
There's a lot of threatening and him calling you stuff like 'Sugar Tits'.
Adam annoys you to the point of you WANTING to just jump to Hell, but you never do, because he's your best friend, and you wouldn't want to emotionally traumatize him by making him think that he lost his best friend to Lucifer, AFTER losing his wives to him.
He says "Suck my dick, Bitch" AT LEAST A DOZEN TIMES A DAY. It irritates you to no end.
The banter is unmatched. He wants to get sassy? You're the SASS MASTER.
You pushed him down the stairs for fun and he didn't talk to you for two days.
He doesn't give a fuck who you date, but if they hurt you, he's taking care of them and not telling you SHIT to avoid all of that mushy feelings crap.
The two of you argue too much for anyone to think you're together.
There's NEVER a moment of silence when you're out. He's always singing, talking, laughing, or mimicking the sound of some instrument.
Lute
She's annoyed 24/7 and you're one of the two main causes.
But she wouldn't replace you because who else would put up with her attitude and listen to her rants like you?
If you had a hard day, she'd probably make some offhand comment and then subtly try to make it better by like getting you ice cream with rainbow sprinkles or something.
She hates physical touch, so the only time she touches you is to smack you, probably for saying something very Adam-ish. "Say that shit again and it'll be worse."
She hates everyone you have romantic interest in, but let's you learn your own lessons the hard way.
Nobody could ever picture the two of you as friends, let alone dating.
She's like the sister that has it all but claims she's the black sheep of the family.
Her job comes before everything else in her life, that including you, but when she has time for you, there's usually food and shit talking involved.
She makes sure you drink water every day. She'd kick your ass if you passed out because of dehydration.
She'd give you the key to her place, but you'd never use it unless she told you to. (Like in the event she forgot her set or something)
(I've reached the 10 media limit, so just imagine a gif right here)
Valentino
He offers you a job almost weekly. You hold off on kicking his ass every single time because that's your best friend.
Derives great pleasure from pissing you off.
You don't agree with the manner he treats his employees, so you undermine him every chance you get, just to make sure they get the best treatment possible.
It pisses him off to no end, but he let's it go. He wouldn't hurt you. He couldn't, not without a whole bunch of backlash from quite literally everyone.
Whenever you start liking someone, he warns you to be careful because he knows the industry. He is the industry.
He's gossip central. Talks super exaggerated with his hands and his voice changes whenever he remembers another detail.
He's a touchy feller, that much is evident. He's always touching you in some way, but it's not sexual/romantic or violent, it's more reassurance for both of you. It's a safe middle ground.
You have to leave for some reason? "The limo will take you, but don't touch anything."
He throws tantrums on the regular and you've learned to just let them go on until he eventually shuts the fuck up and let's you speak.
He'll call you a slut and then ask if you want to get food. It's extremely clear that you're not dating lmao.
A/N: I hope this is okay! I've never written for a bunch of these characters, as I just stared writing Hazbin stuff last week, and even then, it was a small Vox one-shot and a Lucifer one-shot.
Requests are open, if anyone would wanna request something for one of these characters? I'd pull through to the best of my ability.
Part Two
#hazbin hotel#hazbin hotel x reader#alastor#angel dust#hazbin hotel husk#charlie morningstar#lucifer hazbin hotel#hazbin vox#hazbin hotel velvette#hazbin rosie#hazbin hotel adam#hazbin hotel lute#valentino hazbin hotel#x reader#hazbin hotel imagine
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their last dream of you βοΈπ
Yβall know how obsessed I am with King George and Queen Charlotte and Iβm equally as obsessed with period pieces, especially romance ones. I watched the whole show some time ago and I loved it so much and I felt it really resonated with me and reminded me of my divine masculine and Iβm so tempted to watch it again because itβs so beautiful and they love each other so much against all odds so thatβs why I chose them for my banner today and chose to use hands with loving energy from period pieces for my pile choices. Iβm about to start giggling lmaoo, Iβve got all this bubbling nervous energy about this reading I know itβs going to be a good one. Okay, enough of my useless rambling, I talk too much feel free to skip over this! Love you, enjoy! π
***
i.
Omg, I'm gonna start yelling!! I haven't even shuffled out the cards but someone part of this collective as well as their person is very sentimental. Someone really loves someone in such a timeless manner. In every lifetime, in every era, in every universe, a great love is shared here. Like I feel that ache in my chest that you get when you really really love someone and want to be near them. I really want to say buttons are significant, someone collects something or is prone to or has a tiny habit of holding onto things, even the tiniest most minuscule of things because it's in their nature to hold on and not let go. Someone could have a level of childhood trauma here too, a lack of instability makes them feel unsafe or they may struggle sometimes when they don't have all the answers or don't know what all is going on because it makes them feel very afraid and anxious and I hear someone is going through this right now.
You could be in separation with your divine counterpart and your person is mirroring you. I'm hearing βDon't misunderstand them. Don't judge them harshly or hold their actions to their spirit.β just because they're not speaking to you right now or just because things aren't extremely clear doesn't mean they don't love you or want to be with you and wouldn't go to the ends of the world for you. You know them as you know yourself because they are you. Show them mercy. Offer them compassion because I know how you love them and I know you couldn't really truly be upset with them even if you tried because you love this person so deeply and if you ever are upset it's only because you're afraid of not receiving the outcome you desire.
Oh, and you know what in the show Queen Charlotte there's this really cute part where George says that he's good with buttons. This person is good at the things you have trouble with, and this person really compliments and completes you, I'm hearing from this message that this person also wants to tell you that they appreciate everything you do for them and they think everything you do is perfect and beautiful. You could make no mistakes, you could do no wrong you're this person's angel. I haven't even shuffled the cards yet, this energy is SO strong I'm channeling from the heart to you. Ceramics, arts and crafts, or a fondness for aesthetics and the arts (music, dance, singing, etc) can be very significant to this group. Your person wants to enjoy the things you enjoy. I can't stop channeling, this person has so much they wanna say to you. HELP!!! π!! Okay. Iβm gonna actually start. Doing it in the form of a channeled message from your person about their last dream about you.
This person wants to speak to you through music by the way or they speak to you through music and through lyrics this person wants to tell you, especially if you have a playlist about them or if thereβs music youβve shared with them or theyβve shared with you to listen to it because theyβre listening to it. βPlease listen to it.β Something is coming in about the way this person talks to you on the phone or the things they call you βmy love.β There was a time you talked to this person on the phone and their voice, their words, almost took you out the game. I had to get it off my chest Iβm sorry! Theyβre like wanting to say so much.
This persons message about their last dream about you:
βI dreamt that I finally learned how to follow my heart and that I was finally the man (person) I wanted to be all this time for me and for you. In my dream, I finally got away from all the things that kept me away and kept me hurt and drained. Everything was changing. In the past I tried so hard to control my feelings for you and how things went because I was too scared to lose you if I tried to come to you and really put my all into us and our connection. I dreamt that finally was strong and I was able to come towards you and I did, everything was possible, everything was okay and I made things right. I said I was sorry and I told you how much I love you and how much I want to be with you and I did exactly that. I made a choice to be with you and it was the best choice I ever made.
I was free. I found freedom. I finally got away from all those karmic people and karmic cycles that I had trouble getting rid of in my waking life and I made time to focus on you, to focus on us. We spent lots of time together, and we went out and did things and learned things together. In my dream, we went to go do art together and we sat on the beach together and we just held each other and it was beautiful. And you looked so beautiful like you always do when you come to see me. I felt your skin, I could feel your breath on my neck when you hugged me, I could hear the sound of your heart when I laid down on your chest, and I heard your voice. And you laughed with me and you told me how much you loved me and about all the things you wanted to do together and I felt so loved and appreciated. I know that nobody loves me the way you do, I understand now.
In my dream, I finally had the courage to stop living for others and start living for myself and go after the things I want. I dream of you every night. Every day, I walk around in a dream state, thinking of you and you're motivating me even though youβre not here, I know I love you because you arenβt doing anything and I feel so drawn to you. While Iβm asleep, I can feel your kiss. I feel the warmth of your lips on my mine and I miss it. I miss kissing you and holding you. Iβm so afraid that youβre moving on from me or that youβre going to leave me. Please donβt leave. Youβre my moon. I feel so blessed to be loved by you. In my dream, I dreamt that we were happy and we were married and had children together and had all the things you told me you had wanted. I remember all the things you said. In my dream, the past, those people, old versions of our connections, the pain, the fear, was all gone. It didnβt exist anymore.β
About to start crying for real. This person feels like crying, they've been crying. I'm like at a loss for words I'm typing one single letter per minute right now- hold on to your hope pile one. Justice is coming.
***
ii.
Pile one was so big, I feel so guilty, I feel like I spoiled them. But anyway, I'm gonna do this in the form of a channeled message, your person is going to tell about their dreams of you. I'm getting immediately that this person really craves you pile two or they crave your touch. This person has deep romantic undertones for you, so much gentleness, compassion, and love but recently something has really made them wanna get down with you. I didn't think any of these readings were gonna take this turn but I just see this person fast asleep late at night thinking of how close to you their gonna get when they get the chance. I see this person really missing you. They may feel you spiritually and they may really love you emotionally but they want so badly to hold you, to be near you, their losing their minds trying to contain themselves waiting for the next time they see you in person. You've stirred up so much love in this person that they have nothing more to do with it than put it on you. They can't think of another way to show you their appreciation except to show you just how much they appreciate you.
I hear this person thinking to themselves and even telling others in the past or trying to describe to you the way they feel when they're near you and it's impossible. You light a fire within this person. They don't know what to do with all of it because there's plenty. This person could burn entire cities to the ground with the amount of fire they have within themselves because of you. It's greater than arousal. Don't get me wrong, this person is very much attracted to you, very much wants to be intimate with you but this person feels that heavy sensation in their chest about you, they feel their sacral chakra begin to activate, they feel the heat rising. If you've ever heard the song Melting by Kali Uchis. And Iβm hearing this person saying that nobody can make them feel this way. This person wants to fuse souls with you. This person knows that youβre their person. You couldβve not seen this person in a long time, even if theyβve seen you recently I hear them telling me itβs all the same. They cry when youβre not around, they donβt like it when they canβt see you. βWhy do I cryβ by Margo Guryan is a good representation of this persons feelings.
This persons message about their last dream about you:
βI dreamt that we finally reconciled and decided to try to have everything weβd ever dreamed of with each other. I dreamt that we talked and we had forgiven each other. Youβd forgiven me. Iβd forgiven you. Our past was behind us and we finally were ready to move forward and see things from a different perspective. We saw that everything weβd been through, everything we feared, all the pain we felt, and all the times we were in separation were all a part of the divine plan all along and for a good reason. I dreamt that finally, we loved ourselves the way we loved one another, I dreamt that we were confident and we had finally come into ourselves and our power and knew what we came here to do and knew that we loved each other and would not ever want to spend our lives or our time with anyone else.
I dreamt that finally we were in alignment with each other and the disconnection had ended and we didnβt have to struggle anymore. Outside of each other, with other people, outside of ourselves with our fears and our beliefs and feelings. I dreamt that we were finally doing everything we said weβd do and that we finally had it within ourselves to put all of our ambition and all of our dreams to good use in all aspects. I dreamt that you had abundance and youβd found your happiness and your purpose and I dreamt that I overcame all my fears and finally was able to do what I was meant to do and achieve all my goals. I dreamt that we were abundant and happy and successful. All of our dreams and wishes came true. And in all, we had each other and thatβs what mattered most.
I dreamt of how beautiful it felt to be loved by you, I dreamt of being made love to by you. I dreamt of your kisses, of your touch, of your body heat. I felt your eyelashes against my cheek, I could run my fingers through your hair, I remembered in my dream what it felt like to look into your eyes and how nervous and flustered that always made me. I remembered how much I love you. How you made me feel. How irreplaceable you are. I remembered how much I needed you for me. How unable I would be to ever be satisfied and content without your love and your presence. I miss your hands. I miss holding your hand. In my waking life, I wonder why you havenβt texted or called. When I wake up from a dream about you I find myself calling out your name or expecting you wholeheartedly to be there because the dream of you is a very real and vivid experience that canβt be denied. Iβm sad when I wake up in the morning and youβre not there. It makes me feel like Iβm in love with a ghost. I feel you, I hear you, but I canβt see you.
I feel you so strongly. My intuition tells me youβre near. I canβt shake the feeling. All I feel is raw emotion. Youβve left a big gaping hole in my heart that nobody else can fill the shape of but you.β
Letβs all just sit down together and cry. Pile two, your person is giving off this nervous energy. Their so nervous itβs like theyβre almost embarrassed by how much they love you and how attracted to you they feel. This person is just a little melty puddle around you. That could be significant. Them melting into a puddle lol they may have told you something like that before. Ugh. Breathe. Take deep breaths!! Everytime I finish the channeled message for a pile, I almost donβt want to start the other group. I donβt want to leave. I hear this person hides from you pile two, they hide how much they feel or they hide the effect you have on them because you make them so nervous. This person may look away from you when they speak to you because if they look at you they'll cry. Or this person really loves your eyes and the way you look at them makes them feel so vulnerable and weak in the knees. This is def a music group. Getting βweakβ by SWV. Ugh. Unhand me immediately y'all are making me so nervous. I don't wanna talk to you anymore.
***
iii.
GirlUH! -, I had to take a deep breath and go scroll around on TikTok and consume a bunch of nonsense just so I can have a break and pull myself together after piles one and two. Forgive me. I feel like I've been ambushed.
This person could really feel like they miss you or havenβt fully been able to let you go. Iβm getting βstill think bout uβ by A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie. This person could've been hurt by you in the past or experienced a lot of heartbreak in your connection but still hasnβt fully been able to release your relationship and let you go although you and this person may have been broken up for a while here if you and this person are separated and not together. I feel very antsy and nervous energy coming through with this person but itβs so strong that it almost makes me want to ignore it or push it down out of fear. This person may suppress or repress their own emotions and then try to up-level themselves or spend time with other people or throw themselves into work to try and make themselves feel better when theyβre in pain. Their technique is to be productive and I hear this isnβt working for this person. This person wants to see you pile three they feel like they have no other choice but to be with you even though you hurt them because thatβs the only way they see the pain going away.
Thereβs a complicated energy here and for some of you, youβre like ββ¦β like you donβt want to hear from this person because they may have broken your heart too or caused you pain too and youβre like over it but you feel them tugging on your energy or manifesting you... you may know this person is going through shifts here or isnβt the same and they sense that within themselves or the people around them sense that they arenβt the same. They keep looking for ways to take the edge off and not have to think about you anymore and itβs not working. This person may reflect on memories you have together or the happiness and safety they felt when you were around despite some sort of hardship within your connection. This person is conflicted and is sending you their energy for you to feel because they want you to feel it with them. I avoided starting this pile for a fat minute too. Like I was like βI'm not ready, I'm not ready.β You have this person nervous...
You and this person couldβve hurt each other or not have ended well or there was something that happened that left this person feeling bad about themselves and feeling unhealed and unsafe. I see a situation where they mightβve been vengeful and tried to get back at you for something or couldβve done something bad or deceptive and you called it quits and this person didnβt really expect you to leave for real or leave things so quickly and wash your hands of the situation. I'm SICK!! LOL, this person is sick, you're sick or you were. Sick of this. Sick of the way they feel.
This persons message about their last dream about you:
βI dreamt that I was working and trying to balance out my life and take things and myself seriously. I dreamt that I was a better man (woman). I want to be a better man (woman). I want to feel secure in whole within myself. I dreamt that Id achieved all the things that id been manifesting, everything physical and tangible but still I didn't feel fulfilled and I remembered all the things you'd told me about how the things we want aren't really about the things we want and the feelings that weβd feel if we had them. I'd dreamt that even in all my accolades love was missing and safety was missing and you represent that for me even though you hurt me and I caused you pain too. And in my waking life, I sometimes think about you and I sometimes miss you even still, even after everything but I know you're done with me and itβs best I just stay away. I've been sending you messages, or trying to manifest you so that you could remember our relationship and the good things we had and maybe forgive me and miss me too but I feel your resistance. I feel that you know my presence in your mind is not your own doing.
I dreamt that my manifestations were successful and that you came to me and told me that you missed me and wanted to talk to me again even after all this time apart. In my dream, you told me that you felt the same way like all the work you've done so far had been for nothing if we didn't have each other, and that you wanted to grow with me and work on what happened between us and that we would be together this time and be happy with each other. In my dream, you felt in your heart that we were meant to be and so you were motivated to come forward. To come to me. There was so much possibility for improvement. I was so glad. And we talked about our memories together and our experiences together and they werenβt all for nothing. They meant something to you. They meant something to us.
In my dream, any competition that existed, anyone who you were with you decided you didnβt want to be with anymore and you wanted to be with me and we were going to build together and be successful together. And I told you how I understood everything you said to me before and how much I had learned from you and how much you meant to me all this time and I told you how sorry I was and how hard for me it was to try and replace you and be happy without you. We were gonna be together. Everything was going to be okay. You had forgiven me. Weβd forgiven each other.β
I hear this person having a lot of wishful thinking, they have this fantasy in their minds of what things could be like if they wanted to settle down and be in love and I think that you played a huge role in being a primary example of what that was to them but I think they let you and your relationship slip through their fingers perhaps. They may not have been the best to you, may have closed themselves off or cheated on you or broke your trust due to you accidentally causing them pain or giving them a hard time in the past. And I think this person is still very much attatched to you and the idea of you and in their own minds they love you. And I say in their own minds because I don't believe you believe this pile three after their behavior.
What's really interesting is the significance of pride and prejudice coming up. You couldβve watched this movie with this person or tried to share this film with this person during a rough time in your relationship and the way they reacted to you or the film may be significant but I also think that the characters are significant. Mr. Darcy has a horrible way of showing that he loves someone and communicating and he does things that can be really hurtful and do hurt Elizabeth and sheβs like absolutely completely expressive that she does not want to be with this man under any circumstances (even though she does) and his half-assed attempt to come towards her and express himself (even though it was really good for his character because you know..) turns out being successful and Elizabeth ends up giving him a second chance and marrying him just as he had asked her to because she loves him but like youβre not Elizabeth and youβre not going to settle for the bare minimum and be like WELL, he said he was sorry!! BOO! YOU WHORE! π
π
π
! I love pride and prejudice I really do but at the same time. Elizabeth deserved more. Anyways anyways Iβm getting carried away.
***
Hope these were enlightening and you enjoyed these. Def gonna need a nap to recover from these. I love you so much and I appreciate all the support I've gotten with the readings and me sharing my gifts with you. I racked up a decent following on here off of opinions and aesthetics but I hadn't realized how much of myself Iβd been hiding away. I'm excited for what more I can share. Anyways, if you ever want a personal reading from me you could go to my Instagram either @cooki3face or @cookiefacetarot on Instagram and click the link in my bio <3 bye, my hands have permanent dents in them now from typing for so long!
#self love#self care#self improvement#self discovery#dream girl#self expression#healingjourney#self healing#manifestation#divine feminine#divine masculine#pick a card#pick a pile#pick a card reading#tarot reading#tarot card reading#pac reading#your persons last dream of you#love reading#tarot readers of instagram#tarot readers of TikTok#tarot readers of tumblr
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Lore Olympus Episode 265 Betrays the Series' Own Messages of Consent
I've been keeping it on the down low lately with new episodes of LO, both for the sake of my mental health and because LO itself has just become so... pointless and boring. There's only so much to say when nothing is happening, and in that regard, I will preface this with a "congratulations" towards Rachel, because she's finally found a way to best the "haters" - make the comic so boring that there's nothing worth talking about to begin with.
At first glance I thought this was going to be another one of those episodes. Good job, Rachel, you managed to pad out another episode with pointless fluff to get you closer to that looming end date. Just keep dragging, just keep dragging, just keep dragging-
But the longer I sat on it, and read the comments and posts about it in discussion circles, the more I've realized that this episode in particular has a load of issues that I don't feel good just sitting on and not talking about. Primarily because, over the course of about 90% of this episode's length, we see Lore Olympus - and Rachel - slyly undo everything that ever mattered in its subtext about consent, healthy relationships, and strong communication.
Granted, Lore Olympus has never exactly been the poster child for those things, but it's trying to be, so we're going to dissect it with an equal amount of scrutiny. It wants to be taken seriously, so I'm going to take it seriously and criticize it seriously.
CONTENT WARNING: EPISODE 265 SPOILERS AHEAD, AS WELL AS DISCUSSION OF SEXUAL ASSAULT, MENTAL HEALTH, GROOMING, AND SYMPTOMS OF MANIA, PROCEED WITH CAUTION
Episode 265 opens with an attempt at plot progression, returning to Morpheus who, last we checked, had been targeted by Kronos as the cliffhanger for Episode 259 before being shoved aside entirely for multiple episodes worth of Demophoon, pool-fucking, and a vision from Hera.
Honestly, I won't waste my 30 image limit on the episode's opening sequence because it accomplishes absolutely nothing. And by the time it starts to try and state what that goal is, it transitions away, because Rachel has the attention span of a squirrel on meth and having Morpheus state what her plan is would just be too much dedicated writing for her at this point, she needs another week at least to figure it out.
So instead we get exactly what was promised in the FastPass previews - the entire episode is spent, yet again, on Hades and Persephone, with the exact same topics, conclusions, and terrible sex as the pool scene.
Seriously, this might be a nitpick, but I'm so tired of Persephone not being allowed to swear. We've seen other characters swear. We've even had Kronos call her a "dumb fucking bitch". But this "girlboss" character who we're supposed to believe has "agency" can't be allowed to swear even when they're in an ACTUALLY STRESSFUL SITUATION? You know purity culture isn't exclusive to sex, right, Rachel? If you're gonna deconstruct it, maybe don't have the poster child of that deconstruction be relegated to a church girl? She's literally the Queen of the Underworld - adjacent to the ruler of Hell - let her fucking swear LMAO
Anyways, we see very quickly that Persephone is still feeling the ill effects of her anxiety that she was feeling in the last episode. Anxiety that, by the way, caused her to pass out. Please keep that in mind, don't let it escape.
And what is she stressing over? The genocide? The fact that they still don't have an actual solution to the ongoing "plague"?
Nah. The sleep dive. She's stressing over her husband doing the sleep dive again and - like last time - turning into a dad-possessed monster.
As always, the fear and anxiety is in no way linked to the actual devastation happening outside - it's just concern for the main male lead, because that's all Persephone's character and thoughts and opinions and "agency" can revolve around.
But uh. Remember that scene where Hades got possessed by Kronos and literally strangled her? Remember that scene I just asked you to keep in your brain about her panic attacks getting so bad she's been passing out?
Hello? No? Okay. Next.
I hate, I loathe, I detest this dialogue. Not because it's cliche as fuck - it is - but because the whole "I trust you, it's just xyz I don't trust" shit has been overplayed and debunked as a plausible response in relationship communication for years now.
We talked about this back during our discussion of Leuce - how it shouldn't matter if Persephone doesn't trust Leuce because ultimately Leuce can't do anything to her or Hades' relationship if it's built on as much "trust" as she claims it is, trusting Hades is all that should matter full stop - and it repeats itself here, albeit with Hades' dad instead of his canon first wife. This is a copout. Relationships actually built on trust can definitely still be worried about the issues posed by other people, but if you trust your partner, if you truly trust your partner, that's it. That's where the sentence ends. No shit you don't trust Kronos, we've been over this song and dance multiple times before and while he's definitely a bigger real threat than Leuce, your distrust for Kronos has nothing to do with how you're communicating with your partner who knows there's likely no other way and a solution has to be found. Nothing's being accomplished at this point from Persephone moping around and having sex with her husband, and he's showing 10x more initiative in actually finding a solution - even if it means putting his own safety at risk - than Persephone.
I didn't edit any of that, those are the legit real panels. Literally what the fuck is this dialogue, my tinfoil hat theory about LO being written by ChatGPT is becoming more and more plausible and I hate that, my crackpot theories shouldn't actually become reality.
Is there an owl in here?
LO is just spinning its wheels over the exact same conversation and points that have already been made. Nothing is being accomplished here, it's just more moping and going over the same problems - the centre of which being "what about H x P's relationship?? :(((("
All of that repetitive meandering and moping for "okay fine but if anything feels weird, get out" "okay". It, again, accomplishes nothing that couldn't have been accomplished during the pool scene.
And now we get this line. "I experienced greed in that way, and you do not possess it." Don't be alarmed if you were confused, I was confused too, as were many people in the discussion circles. Thanks to the ULO Discord, I realized she was talking about Apollo. She's literally comparing him to Apollo.
"After all this time, I can't comprehend you causing me harm. I've been at the receiving end of harm so I would know" is literally all she's trying to say. And even with it translated... I don't really like the implications of it at all. This has been a problem since S1, but there's always been this subtext in LO that because Hades didn't rape her, that somehow makes him less abusive or a better partner for Persephone than Apollo, that's all the SA has really been trying to achieve.
But Hades is abusive. He's intentionally pursued women who are in a crisis. He's trapped women in financial dependency. He's sabotaged women from having power and status on the same level as him.
And now, we're about to see actual abuse from Hades - the subtle kind that demands co-dependency, but is still abuse, full stop - but it's being framed as "romantic".
"Being an Originals creator was my big chance to prove myself, and I flopped"- wait sorry I misread. We're talking about Persephone failing at being Queen. Yeah, she definitely flopped. And it goes to show her true intentions in wanting to be Queen, now that she's hit rock bottom and isn't putting on a brave PR face - she wanted to become Queen not to make the Underworld a better place, not to be an example of being a better ruler among a gallery of scumbags, but to "prove" that she could belong and be one of the big guys, that she could be more than just a cereal box mascot.
Don't get me wrong, I can absolutely get wanting to rise above the odds and "prove" to everyone that you can be more than people's perceptions of you, but becoming the literal ruler of a realm that you then go on to destroy due to your own hubris, just to whine and cry about it and have your husband and your colleagues and your friends carry the burden of that destruction on your behalf... therapy would have been a better first step to overcoming those insecurities, not taking control over the lives of innocent people.
Especially when Persephone DID have status and power before becoming Queen, it just wasn't the specific kind of status and power she wanted. She was only a trust fund child with a huge net worth, a full-ride scholarship, and everything she could ever need provided to her with little struggle to get it - but she didn't have control over other people so it just wasn't good enough.
This is the perspective and attitude of a 19 year old who never matured. Who never could mature because she transitioned from her mother's control into Hades'. There were far better ways to prove herself, ways that we had seen her try to do, only to drop so she could pursue her co-dependent relationship with Hades - she gave up her schooling, gave up her apartment (which we only see her use maybe 2-3 times), gave up so many of her connections and support so she could be with Hades.
This is the result of 5 years of real-time grooming that we're seeing play out.
No, you are just saying them because she's your wife. You'd be saying it to Minthe, or Leuce, or Hera, or any other woman in Persephone's position because it's not about taking accountability, it's about keeping these women in a position of submissiveness and co-dependency, by giving them reassurance that nothing they ever do is wrong and that he's the only one that can give them that freedom from consequences.
And then we get the reinforcement.
I'm gonna spare you all the cringe of the actual sex scene (and yes, they do straight up go into having onscreen sex and it's... not hot at all), but here's some of the dialogue spoken by Hades during the entire sequence:
Again, let's remember the actual situation that led up to this and the position Persephone is currently in. For the third time Persephone has "accidentally" killed thousands of people. Over the past few episodes we've seen her try to realize how so many of these problems have been her fault and she clearly doesn't know how to make things right (and Rachel has made it obvious how much she doesn't want you to agree with this kind of self-awareness because much of it is being said through the mouthpiece of a rapist). And now we have Hades, reinforcing the thought patterns that would prevent her from growing and learning and changing. In this, a comic that's supposed to be "feminist", a comic that's trying to preach the importance of consent, a comic that's trying to make us believe this is a healthy, consenting relationship with strong communication skills.
These are literally grooming tactics. Hades is reinforcing the same thought patterns that will prevent Persephone from acknowledging her errors and mistakes. People are dying and Hades is telling her that if anyone has anything to say about it, they deserve to die anyways. The same man who literally rewarded her with sex for vandalizing a nymph's home is now telling her that she's not cruel, but kind:
Hades might not be Apollo, but he literally choked her out less than a week ago while possessed by his dad, and for the last SEVERAL episodes he's had the starry skin making him resemble who? Oh yeah, his dad.
Hades is literally holding Persephone in the same position Kronos did, while she's experiencing a literal meltdown that she's trying to stuff deep down - in fact, exhibiting a LOT of symptoms of mania - and initiating sex.
Doesn't this feel a little familiar?
Oh right, but he asks her if she's "still okay" mid sex only AFTER initiating chokehold sex with her without her consent and love-bombing her, so it's fine, clearly.
I remember being 17 years old and reading Fifty Shades of Grey for the first time, and even then understanding fully how toxic their relationship was. I can only hope the teenagers in Rachel's comment section can realize that as well, but judging by the comment section, I'm not holding out hope. This is literally "fifty shades of fucked up" material, and what's worse is that I can't tell if Rachel genuinely thinks this is healthy, or just doesn't realize how unhealthy it's coming across as. Even beyond how "cringe" this sequence is, it enters into the realm of being deeply uncomfortable and unsettling, and it needs to be talked about, Rachel can't be let off the hook for this especially when this is supposed to be, again, a comic that's intending to "deconstruct purity culture" and teach young girls about consent and boundaries.
And that's it, that's the end of the episode. It reads like the manifesto of a villain in the making at the hands of a predator, like Anakin being manipulated by Palpatine - "so long as you're with me, you'll have all the power, all the glory, and everyone else will be crushed underneath your heel."
Is that really the message we really want to come away from LO from? That it's fine for husbands to initiate sex with their wives through trauma-bonding and reinforcement of toxic thought patterns rooted in grooming because... they're married? That being a "girlboss" means sabotaging and abusing anyone who you perceive as a threat?
Is Hades really that much different from Apollo? Because so far, the line between his actions and Apollo's are seriously starting to blur. The parallels between Persephone and his past partners - Minthe and Hera - have always been clear, but they've never been quite so loud as last night's episode.
This is Hades' play, the play of a groomer and an abuser who depends on making their victims dependent on them - taking advantage of women while they're in a crisis.
For Minthe, it was financial - she had lost her job, blamed it on him, and he found a way to "solve her problem" that strategically put her into a position where she had to continue to financially depend on him for what's assumed to at least be a year or longer, through her apartment, her bills, and her job.
For Hera, it was emotional - she had chosen Zeus over him, and instead of addressing her marital concerns within the marriage, she participated in an affair with Hades in an attempt to have what she could have had if she had chosen Hades instead, a man who resembles her own abuser. Not only did this put her into a much more vulnerable position than him - if the affair was found out, Hera would have suffered the consequences far more than Hades - but it's also manifested itself into Persephone, who Hera has been using as a stand-in for herself, even going so far as to manipulate Persephone's image and how she goes about her decision-making, from intentionally pulling the strings to get Persephone a job with Hades so she could get closer to him as a "test" for Hades, to forcing Persephone to wear a wedding dress she wanted her to wear over the one Persephone had actually picked out herself.
And now there's Persephone, the newest addition to the cycle of abuse and untreated trauma, the true culmination of Hades' years trapping and manipulating women - financially dependent on him, emotionally dependent on him, and only where she is because she's made her entire identity revolve around him.
I'm not going to psychoanalyze Rachel in any way, I don't want anyone to think that this is permission to do so because Rachel's personal life is her own and I want to examine the material rather than the person. But so much of LO gives me such a gross impression that Rachel herself never matured past middle school, that she never grew beyond the mindset of being a 13 year old girl who felt like the entire world was against her and that no one could understand her, that she never gained the perspective most adults do by the time they're 25 at minimum after they've entered the "real world" and had the lived experiences that make you realize "wow, that girl I hated in high school for stealing my crush from me probably wasn't as bad as I thought she was and we were all just teenagers trying to navigate the hellscape that is adolescence."
And instead of actually analyzing those thought patterns and mindsets, Rachel is instead reinforcing it in her own audience of 13 year old girls and teenagers who will only hopefully maybe outgrow it and not just repeat the cycle themselves.
And this isn't entirely on Rachel's shoulders. It's on the shoulders of E.L. James, of Stephanie Meyer, of Colleen Hoover, of every "young adult" romance author who's peddled this strictly heteronormative "submission culture but not like the 1950's kind I swear" crap, that women should only aspire to find the richest man they can bag in their pursuit for power and after that everything in the world is owed to them and any problem they have can be solved by riding dick. Trauma? Solved. Genocide? Solved. The very real consequences of your own actions that affect others to such a degree that it will be felt for decades? Solved. Just ride that dick and get that money, girlboss.
Just like 50 Shades of Grey, if Lore Olympus was any other story, it would be a tragedy. It would be a masterclass in understanding and showcasing the signs of emotional abuse, financial abuse, grooming, trauma-bonding, love-bombing, and enforcing co-dependent habits for the sake of trapping people. It would be a precautionary tale to young girls to stay alert and be wary of older men, that men like Hades are depending on girls to fall for their tricks, their praise, their affirmations that they're so mature for their age, that they're not like other girls, that they would just be so set for life if they spent all their time and attention with them, so that they can "have it all".
I can only hope that even a third of the young girls who read LO naturally grow up, gain perspective, and learn that LO isn't the pillar of healthy relationships and consent that it tries to be. It's certainly a common thing to see these days, for people to join the UnpopularLoreOlympus / #antiloreolympus community with sentiments that they started reading it at age 14 and then (thankfully) learned that what LO was preaching wasn't healthy.
But for every other girl who doesn't realize this, it's reinforcement of the same cycles - the cycle of women being only objects for sex, pitting themselves against one another, confusing gender empowerment with abuse towards others, and making their entire identity revolve around a man and justifying it as healthy so long as it makes them rich and powerful.
Even if Rachel some day gets her own head out of her ass and realizes what damage she's causing in her audience, like Persephone committing genocide, no amount of self-awareness will undo the consequences. She'll still have the awards, the money, the accolades, everything she's gained off the backs of Greek myth, feminism, and good faith from an immature audience who doesn't know any better and isn't being given the tools to understand.
Even if she realizes that, that's something she's going to have to live with for the rest of her career.
And it's a fucking tragedy.
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so what are your thoughts about what happened to og!afo? while og!afo was able to stop pretending right before his death, i feel like it was just... not enough? do you think his character arc is not over yet and will continue with vestige!afo? because i can't stop thinking about 368 where shigaraki's face changed to afo's pre!potato face upong seeing yoichi and how in 369 afo kept saying "not yet, not yet!" and talking as if he still has some kind of a last card up his sleeve. and that trump card was mentioned again in this chapter.
If this were the actual conclusion to AFO's arc, I wouldn't feel satisfied! But like you said, Hori has already gone out of his way to include the "trump card" line and left the actual fate of AFO's vestige deliberately ambiguous (ex: using words like "suppressed/defeated" instead of "killed" to describe vestige-for-one). Like, there's a lot that points to his arc not being finished yet, imho.
That said, I do believe AFO's "trump card" is gonna be something particularly heinous, and may involve him tipping his hand/finally revealing his involvement in the Shimura Family massacre. Like, something we have to keep in mind is that Tomura sincerely believes that he killed his family intentionally and that he """enjoyed""" killing them + enjoyed destroying his homeβ itβs what he considers to be his origin, and "remembering that origin" is what allowed him to take back control of his body. So in theory, all AFO has to do in order to shatter Tomura's sense of self is cast doubt on that "origin" (which in turn may create a necessity for Tomura to finally remember his *actual* origin in order to take back control of his body again).
Like, I gotta stress: AFO's villain mask/demon lord persona finally slipping off to reveal the pitiful and desperately lonely human underneath does not equal him suddenly becoming a good person, so I'm 100% expecting vestige-for-one to try and pull some truly awful bullshit at the absolute worst possible time lmfao.
----
Anyhoo, a couple more points to consider:
I know I'm beating a dead horse at this point, but once again: names are everything in mha and Hori 100% wants his readers to pay attention to what names are being used/emphasized during key scenes-- especially when it comes to names being used to separate fantasy from reality, authentic from inauthentic, and the "actor" from the "character/role."
Chapter 393 begins with the LOV discussing the meaning behind hero and villain names and encouraging Toga to pick a villain name for herself (with Toga ultimately deciding to use "Toga Himiko" written in katakana as her villain name because she ultimately just wants to be seen as herself)-- chapter 393 then ends with Ochako referring to Toga as "Himiko-chan," in a stealth rejection of Toga's stealth villain name. Bakugo resurrects and starts proudly referring to himself as "Kacchan" instead of βGreat Explosion Murder God" + starts calling Izuku by his given name in total earnest. Meanwhile, Tomura stops referring to Izuku by his given name and starts referring to him as the much colder and distant "hero." Etc etc.
With this in mind, AFO still not having a name reveal-- not even during his own damn flashback/origin chapter-- is something that sticks out like a sore thumb.
This chapter was (appropriately titled) our farewell to "All For One: The Demon Lord/The Villain King/The Shameless LARPer" It's not necessarily our farewell to "*insert name here*: The Cataclysmic Mess Of A Person" yet. Yoichi and Tomura are the only ones who can properly say farewell to that side of AFO, because despite everything, they're the only ones who have some semblance of pity/"affection" for AFO as an actual human person (not as a god, or an object of worship, or a villain king, or a "role").
Death and Rebirth continues to be one of the big (and criminally underrated) themes of the series-- MHA frequently plays with the idea that part of a character's identity/alter-ego can "die" while their body lives on (or conversely, that a person's will can take on a life of its own and live on even if their body dies. which. y'know.)
All Might """dies,""" but Yagi Toshinori lives. Touya """dies""" and Dabi is born. Tenko """dies""" and is "reborn" as Shigaraki Tomura. Endeavor """dies""" during the PLW, leaving the world's ugliest crier Todoroki Enji behind. The representation of Keigo's hero identity (the fierce wings vestige) """dies""". Bakugo switches it up by dying for real, but upon resurrection, sheds his conceit and discards the "mask" he used to conceal his insecurities. Etc etc.
AFO himself has always been born (and reborn) from death. He takes his very first breaths while next to the corpse of his mother and half-dead brother. He died once, but was brought back to life by someone that society rejected and AFO ""accepted"". He has now died a second time, triggering a subtle change in Tomura that has made him even more dangerous (i.e. Tomura has started using the AFO quirk again, and more specifically, is now using the AFO quirk to whittle away at the collective "will" of OFA by stealing the vestiges one by one. This Action Will Have Consequences.jpg)
Killing AFO does not actually solve the root problems of this story, nor does it fix the longstanding problems of heroaca society (which all precede the advent of quirks and the creation of the hero/villain system)-- or rather, it might be better to say that AFO will never *truly* die as long as the world remains fundamentally unchanged. AFO is enabled by the status quo! He is allowed to keep existing and able to continuously resurrect himself over and over and over again as the ultimate villain specifically because of it.
My theory right now is that AFO will only die permanently when A) He is finally acknowledged as a human individual and given a name, and B) when Izuku finally takes Tomura's hand + Tomura is "finally taken out of the garden and back into the house," symbolizing the radical shift in the status quo that empowered (read: created) AFO in the first place.
Also worth mentioning: body!AFO and vestige!AFO are heavily implied to have some sort of "shared" awareness with each other-- we even see body!AFO flashing back to the UA cage match during his mental breakdown. This means there's a chance what body!AFO was feeling at the moment of his death might spill over to vestige!AFO, allowing for his arc to continue seamlessly from where it apparently "left off" during this chapter.
Which is good! Because this chapter has AFO finally admitting that "nothing is good" without Yoichi while also indirectly confirming that yes, the various traumas from his childhood DID in fact play a major role in his development into a villain-- AFO and Yoichi growing up in a society that ignored them is basically what fuels AFO's ridiculously self-detrimental attention seeking behaviors (like the AFOmight fight becomes retroactively hilarious when u realize AFO was trying to get as much attention out of mangling Toshi as possible and that his obsessive need to kill Toshi in front of an audience is what ultimately led to his downfall πIt's, uh, marginally less hilarious when u also realize that he impulsively killed Yoichi bc Yochi had stopped looking at him. π¬)
Anyway....!! AFO and Yoichi are both the "source" and the representation of the main conflict in this series-- og!AFO fizzling out without any fanfare is admittedly an appropriate narrative punishment for someone who wanted to be the eternal star of the show, but it doesn't offer a proper resolution to the actual conflict of the series: the cycle of irrational fear and insecurity leading to a lack of understanding, lack of understanding leading to rejection, rejection leading to the creation of villains, villains creating more fear in civilians and leading to the necessity of heroes, which inevitably leads to even more rejection, and so on and so forth, etc etc etc. Yoichi and AFO exist at the center of this cycle, representing it in its purest form-- and Tomura is the ultimate consequence of this cycle.
Ultimately, I feel like vestige for oneβs death may beβ¦.. gentler, for lack of a better word. Less focused on karmic punishment and more focused on giving Yoichi and Tomura a sense of closure. Like, it's honestly not about what AFO "deserves," but what Yoichi needs in order to finally pass on and what Tomura needs to finally detangle himself from AFO (although in the spirit of keeping it completely real, all three of them need to detangle themselves from each other lmfaoπππ). Neither Yoichi or Tomura have ever been granted a chance to truly grieve the loss of themselves or their families, and AFO is at the root of that as someone who is both "family" and as someone who also took everything away from them.
tl;dr Hori can eat his cake (punish AFO for his hubris by having him fight, lose, and die against versions of himself that *chose* to be better or regret how they treated their own "Yoichis"-- i.e. Toshinori, Endeavor, Bkgo) and have it too (finally resolve the ShigaBros century long conflict and the complicated feelings AFO-Yoichi-Tomura all have for each other, giving everyone the closure they desperately need) thanks to the presence of the vestige world.
I also think it'd be cool to get some sort of resolution re: the captain hero comics, since they were the "trigger" that started it all-- perhaps in the form of a dying dream sequence, where we get Yoichi and AFO as children again-- but this time Yoichi basically forces AFO to sit his ass down and finally read volume 4 of captain hero lmfao.
Like, a lot of AFO's actions/beliefs stem from his insistence that he ~already knew~ how the story was gonna end, and he built his life and plans around "rejecting" that ending-- I feel like a scenario where it turns out the ending WASN'T what he expected (like, say it was an ending where Captain Hero does defeat the Demon Lord, but ultimately chooses to save him rather than kill him-- something that mirrors Tomura's ultimate fate, rather than AFO's) would be a neat way to wrap up his and Yoichi's arcs from a metafiction perspective, since he and Yoichi both represent "different types of readers."
It would also be bittersweet, with the implication that things could have been different if AFO had just stopped being reddit pilled for five seconds and just read to the end with Yoichi in the first place-- the blueprint for an ending where the hero is no longer all alone and where the "demon lord" doesn't have to die/vanish at the end of the story was there all along, he just refused to see it.
tl;dr 2.0: AFO's ultimate punishment should involve him getting slapped in the face by tiny yoichi with his little comics over and over and over again until he develops an actual sense of media literacy.
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ive been hesitating to ask this bc youve been on a roll with the clone^2au (which i am frothing over) but could i poke you for some childhood friend au? bc GOD i wanna see how danny reacts to reuniting w jason or how the rest of the batfam react to learning jason never told danny of his resurrection or wondering if dannys gonna put jokers dead body on a display/offering to jasons grave. i havent been normal about this since i first read it and was wondering. thank you for your writing.
RAAAAHHHH DON'T BE HESITANT I AM JUST AS FERAL OVER MY CHILDHOOD FRIENDS AU AS I AM WITH CLONE^2 I AM DELIGHTED BY THIS. Like.,,,, i literally love them,,, so much. I can't listen to The Crane Wives without thinking of them.
(which is my fault - the ao3 fic of them has literally only crane wives lyrics for each chapter title and summary (posted AND the ones not written) so of course im gonna associate with them.)
(if you wanna listen to some of their songs while thinking of cfau here are my recommendations: "Once & for All", "Here I Am", "Hollow Moon" is a Danny AND Jason song to me, this would be my go-to song for an animatic of CFAU if i had the skills for it. "Tongues and Teeth", "Curses" and "take me to war" is a heavy cfau danny song to me, and of course, "the moon will sing")
Like they're BEST friends dude, they're two sides of the same coin and when they were kids they would do this thing where their 'fingers crossed'/'double-crossed' was them hooking their index fingers in the fingers crossed gesture.
and i'm actually currently rewriting my original post into a more fic-like format, and when I'm done I'll post it on here under the cfau tag - with the original post still in tact. But its,,, gonna be so long dude,,,, the original behemoth was just over 9000 words,,, and I've written 3k words already of the new one and we haven't even reached Jason and Danny reuniting at the gala yet,,, i need to get back to that,,,
and then to answer your questions!! god im almost hesitant to answer because i dont wanna spoil the little fic i had planned for it but also like,, its not like im gonna spoil everything, right? and answering the questions isnt the same as writing the scene down so!!
i love danny and jason's reuniting, like i've thought about it SO much and I've thought about it happening after Danny kills the Joker. I know the reveal could have been before that, and it could have been equally just as dramatic but like??? Thematically, doing it after danny kills the joker is SO good. To me at least.
Because like?? Jason's been in somewhat denial about danny's plan to kill the joker for months. ever since danny told him that he wanted to at the gala. And from Jason's pov its not even technically a plan. He sees his best friend for the first time after five years and his best friend still isn't over his death. He hasn't stepped foot in Gotham since his funeral and now suddenly he's here.
And he's still so full of grief over his death that he tells a masked vigilante that he's going to kill the guy that did it, who lives in said masked vigilante's city. And danny's got that look in his eyes that Jason knows so well that means he's being serious. And yet he still doesn't know if he should believe him or not.
And then he does. Danny kills him. And Jason can't fucking believe it. And when he goes and sees Danny, Danny's hands are still covered in blood. And that reunion? God like a fucking firework show. Danny's so fucking angry, and pissed, and hurt, and so goddamn overjoyed that he's alive and here that he sends them both to the ground, and if he doesn't calm down he's gonna take out the power in a five block radius.
there's just so, so much yelling on Danny's end. And then so much crying, first from Danny and then them both. because god, you're alive. you're here. i've missed you so much. i'm never letting you out of my sights again.
and Joker's death! God I don't want to actually say too much about that, but the way I have it set up thematically makes me actually not want danny to take any part of the joker with him as an offering. and he may actually forego that particular ghost etiquette and offer something else as an offering to Jason in substitute to not bringing him the Joker's heart/head/ritualistic body part.
Because you know what the last thing a man whose been spending the last two decades of his life building himself up to be larger than life would want? A death that's unremarkable. :) and that's all i'll put on the matter for now.
and the batfam!! they technically already know that jason hasn't told danny he was resurrected, and plenty of them have mixed feelings on them. largely bruce and dick i think, considering they saw firsthand how close jason and danny were when they were kids.
Dick was honestly surprised at first when he found out that Jason hadn't told Danny he was alive - and on one hand he understands the reasoning for it, and on the other hand he isn't sure if it was such a good idea. Especially after he sees Danny again after he arrives back in Gotham and sees just how badly Jason's death was still affecting him. But it's not like he's going to try and convince Jason to tell him - he can make his own choices, even if Dick has questions about them.
Bruce has much the same thoughts as Dick, so there's not really much to add here other than he might bring it up once or twice to Jason like, vaguely. And then immediately drops it when Jason shuts him down. He might actually somewhat...?? prefer that Jason hasn't told Danny because that raises a lot of questions and could jeopardize their identities. However, again, Jason can make his own choices and there's not much Bruce can do about it other than disapprove from afar.
Tim who knew of Danny from stalking the Wayne family shares similars sentiments of being surprised that Jason didn't tell Danny, but again, yeah, understands the thought process to some extent. Doesn't bring it up ever.
Everyone else who hadn't seen firsthand how close Danny and Jason are don't really have much opinion on it -- Jason didn't tell his best friend he was alive, great, he also didn't tell them either so it's not like its that much of a surprise. It would've been more of a surprise to them if Jason had told Danny before he told Bruce and co. Damian may make a comment or two about Jason not telling Danny, but its not about how he can't believe he didn't tell him or anything like it.
#dpxdc#dp x dc#dp x dc crossover#danny fenton is not the ghost king#cfau#childhood friends au#danny and jason are such best friends i love them so much#BUT YEAH ASK ME MORE QUESTIONS ABOUT CFAU I'LL SCREAM#AND THEN TRY AND ANSWER THEM TO MY BEST ABILITY#like i could go on RANTS almost SPECIFICALLY about rath (dan) and then about jason and danny#and their friendship like i've thought about this au with a combined soulmate au and immediately hated the idea because no!#no! i can't call them soulmates. i can't it doesnt fit. their bond goes DEEPER than that. its *better* than that#this wasn't written in the stars it was forged in the back alley streets of gotham with all the broken glass under their feet#and the smell of nicotine weaving itself into the fabrics of their shirts. their souls aren't intertwined because the universe said so#they're two balls of yarn tangled together because they batted it at each other and decided to play cats cradle. and then never bothered#to untangle the string from one another. you'll never know where one ends and the other begins#i actually have a cfau miscellaneous facts post in my drafts that i need to finish too and i might do that today because of this ask <33#the fastest way to starry's heart is through her ask box#asking me questions about my aus is the fastest way to make me make more content about them ajshld#see: clone^2 (i've been coasting off the fanart i got from them for the last two days) and now this#i need to stop more before i start waxing more poetic about jason and danny's bond with one another.#also also jason is equally as feral about danny as danny is about him (see: him plotting joker's demise since he was 14) its just not#showing as much since a lot of this is from danny's pov. like dw this isn't one-sided obsession its mutual.#see: jason seeing danny's scars and immediately wanting to find out who caused it and getting murderously angry about it#its not a starry post unless its long#idk maybe im just obsessed with the idea that relationships are chosen and forged with time and that the bonds we have arent because they#were predetermined but because we made them to be. Like how clone^2 said 'i choose to be brothers' and how danny and jason said#'i choose you. i will always choose you. you're my other half. the one who watches my back. i choose you.'
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Rottmnt weird drabble/one shot because I have anxiety so Leo has anxiety too.
Based on a headcanon you can find here.
Leo was at the verge of a panic attack. No, he was going into a full anxiety spiral. The best part? He was currently having a family dinner.
Everyone was having fun. Raph was stuffing his face with Mikey's meatballs, April was trying to prevent him from choking, his twin was recording everything with his phone, his father was scolding him for using his phone during a family event, Mikey was still cooking in April's kitchen and Draxum and himself were having a smooth conversation about biology. About literal photosynthesis to be precise. He might hate him but he has to admit Draxum really knew how to get him to talk.
There were oh so many details in every single thing his family was doing right now, but he's brain chose to focus on himself. How selfish.
Draxum was rambling about his favourite photosystem when it hit him. The increased heart rate, the tunnel vision, the distorted hearing, the nausea, the damn choking sensation and that fucking piercing pain in his chest that just won't go away for the rest of the week.
Why did his anxiety have to be such an opportunistis?
He stared at Draxum like he was trying to read his soul out loud. Leo could hear him but he wasn't listening. No words seem to get into his brain but the usual 'you're nothing but your brothers', 'too little too late for redemption', 'you'll never change', 'under that mask is a scared little boy'.
Did Draxum just make him a question? He could tell by Draxum's body language.
"So?" Said Draxum to the turtle that barely registrated anything but the strong static in his ears.
Masking this kind of things was easy for him. He just had to ignore and endure it in equal proportions and play face man. He could do it, he was the face man! The actor! The lier among them! Misleading was his specialty.
He would just put on another layer of paint to his mask and flee forward.
"I'm not sure." Leo said a bit too low but steadily nonetheless.
"Well, if you are not sure, I could suggest a few scientific articles". Draxum replayed, apparently content enough with the poor answer.
Draxum was suddenly silent, already used to Leon's seemingly infinite energy for conversation, waiting for him to say something.
So he said the first thing he could muster, the quickest he could: "I-I'd love to read t-them".
That was clearly not a good plan.
It had begun. The stuttering, because his poor mouth couldn't keep up with his anxious brain. He hated that. He's good hiding his panic in plain sight but his stupid stuttering is something he can't control or cover! He could only go mute and hope he's not asked many questions because of it.
But going mute would be extremely suspicious when he's literally in the middle of a conversation!
"Ok...?"
Ok, Draxum was a bit confused, he could work with that. That is fixable. As long as he can keep a low profile he's good.
But his breathing was getting more and more erratic and being and acuatic turtle didn't actually help keep the need to just breath at bay.
Could he fix this?
'Of course not, you're useless!'
'You're eyes are watering, you big crybaby!'
'Just flee. They're not gonna miss you anyway '
'They're better off without you'
He took a big, deep, audible, shaky breath and surrendered.
"Are you ok, bro?" Mikey, bless his soul, had just entered to room and immediately noticed his struggle, taking over the conversation. "Barry, mind if I steal my brother from you for a sec?"
Mikey did not wait for an official answer, he grabbed Leo by the wrist and forced him out of the room. That, in all honesty, scared the holy shit out of Leonardo. And everybody else.
He felt a little naked now that he wasn't around his whole family, but at least the living room smelled like April. It was a nice smell to focus his mind on.
"Leo... It might not be anything serious- and I hope it isn't! -but..."
"I-I'm hav-ing a p-panic a-attack".
Another shaky breath was all it took for Leo to become a hyperventilating and sobbing mess.
That image just fits too well π
#rottmnt#tmnt#rise of the tmnt#rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles#rottmnt leo#rottmnt leonardo#rise leo#rise leonardo#tmnt leonardo#tmnt leo#tmnt oneshot#tmnt drabbles#rottmnt drabbles#rottmnt oneshot#tmnt fanfiction#tmnt fanfic#rottmnt fanfiction#rottmnt mikey#rottmnt michelangelo#tmnt michelangelo#tmnt mikey#rise mikey#rise michelangelo#panic attack#leo angst#leonardo angst#rottmnt leo angst#rottmnt draxum#rise draxum
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My S6 BTVS rewrite
I know this season has a lot of haters but I actually love season 6, I don't mind the depressing parts (meaning: most of the season) because I think it all makes sense for where the characters are at, and I think that after fighting a literal God having a season where the villain is Life really works storytelling-wise.
Having said that, though, I think that a lot of things could have been handled better and since all I have are correct opinions I'm gonna tell you what those are.
1. Willow's magic addiction
Basically I think they went too far when the magic became drugs in the most basic sense, when they start acting like she's "taking a hit" every time she uses it.
I think all of the important plot points could have been kept while making willow's addiction to magic about her need to be in control of everything (and everyone). Up to Tabula Rasa I wouldn't change anything, her use of magic is wrong because she starts using it to bend the world at her will, empowered by having successfully brought Buffy back to life.
After Tara leaves her she starts using even more magic while being reckless with it, she injures Dawn and she commits to stop using it because she realizes it wasn't healthy for her or for the people she loves.
I would eliminate Rack and his stupid crack house hide out, and everything that has to do with the physical withdrawal of going "cold turkey".
I think this also makes Willow responsible for her actions, while making magic = literal heroin absolves her of the blame, in the end. The fallout of having to deal with her dependence of it would also be way more compelling.
2. Spike's attempted r4pe
I would keep their toxic relationship and everything that led up to that god-awful bathroom scene, my only change is that I would make it so Spike is trying to turn her instead.
Hear me out. It would make a lot of narrative sense because all through the season he's trying to convince her she's a dark being just like him, he wants them to be equals because he doesn't think himself worthy of her so he's trying to lower her to his level. So, after Buffy rejects him again he's not thinking clearly and, in his desperation, tries the only thing he swore himself he wouldn't do since he loves Buffy because of her goodness.
After it happens, Buffy feels betrayed, Spike leaves and decides to try to get to her level, to truly change himself instead of trying to change her.
This is a minor thing too but in this rewrite after Spike leaves we don't know where he went and we don't see him again until the start of s7 when he already has his soul. I know this couldn't be done because of James Marsters' contract but in my dream s6 we don't know what happened to him so when we see him again everything about his sudden disappearence and current mental state is a mystery and we find out along with Buffy.
3. Xander dies instead of Tara
Ok maybe this one is based on my dislike of Xander and my love of Tara but I think this would work really well:
Willow and Tara haven't gotten together yet, Willow is working on her more controlling tendencies and they're just friends right now. When Warren shows up Buffy is in the garden with Dawn and Xander went up to Willow's room to talk to her, so both Buffy and Xander get shot, Dawn takes Buffy to the hospital and dark Willow is born after she's not able to revive Xander.
After that things are mostly the same, only this time we get a grieving Buffy trying to deal with the sudden loss of both of her best friends. She's devastated and a part of her says that yes, Warren deserves to die.
After everything happens and Willow is close to destroying the world, Tara is the one who shows up, she appeals to Willow's humanity and, through her love and compassion, saves the world.
#i think about this a lot#so here you go#tell me what you would have changed if u want i love buffy talk#buffy the vampire slayer#btvs#btvs meta#spuffy#tillow#buffy#buffy s6#btvs s6#spike#mine
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Leon, in the intro to RE4make:
"September 30, 1998. It's a day I'll never forget. The cop inside me died that day."
---
Officer 1: So, tell me, Yanqui. Why did you come to this horrible place? As close to nowhere as I've ever seen.
Leon: Let's just say... looking for someone.
Officer 1: That someone must be very important, eh? The Chief gave the orders himself. "Help him," he said.
Leon: I'm sure you boys didn't come all the way out here to roast marshmallows.
Officers 1 & 2: (laugh)
Leon: (annoyed) Maybe you did.
Officer 1: You have a strange sense of humor. I'm gonna let you in on a little secret. Just between us. A lot of people have gone missing around here, and it's been that way for a while, now.
Leon: (still annoyed) Well, then. Should be just another day in the office, right?
Officer 1: Mmm... I mean, last week, there was a search for some missing hikers.
Leon: (sarcastically) I'm sure you'll do your best to help me.
Officer 1: (laughs)
[...]
Leon, much later in the scene: So much for helping me.
---
Leon, later in chapter 1:
(bitterly) "Gotta fix everything myself."
---
Leon tells Ada in RE2make that the reason why he went into law enforcement was to help people like Kendo and his daughter -- vulnerable people, good people, members of the community who are facing the worst moments of their life and need someone to help make it right.
And yet he says in the intro to RE4make that the cop inside him died that day. When we take that in context with what he told Ada about Kendo, what he means is that his desire to help people died that day. The belief that he could help people died that day.
His faith in humanity died that day.
Leon goes into his mission to save Ashley already expecting the two local officers that he's with to be completely fucking useless, and he gets immediately annoyed at the first hint that they are. His "So much for helping me" is said with a sense of "Why am I not surprised?"
He went into RE2make believing that people are generally good and that things will work themselves out.
He goes into RE4make believing that people are generally selfish and will take advantage of him, leaving him to work through any problem that arises on his own.
This is why he's so supremely pissed off at Ada when they meet back up again, and it's also why Ashley is so integral to his character arc. It's also why I've said in the past that Ada is a foil for Ashley in RE4make.
(NOTE: A foil is a character that is set up in the narrative to directly contrast with another one. Where one character is deficient, the foil character is strong, and vice versa. Where Ada is cold, Ashley is warm. Where Ada is physically capable, Ashley is defenseless. Where Ada is secretive, Ashley is honest. Where Ada is calculating, Ashley is impulsive. A foil does not necessarily exist to make one character seem better than the other; a foil exists to showcase two equals using a different approach and receiving different outcomes as a result.)
Ada is the genesis of Leon's cynicism. She's the reason why he expects less than nothing from people anymore -- the reason why he goes into every social interaction waiting to be screwed over. And she reinforces this throughout the narrative by trying to tear him down ("Leave the girl. She's lost no matter what.") or by keeping score ("Happy to help. Now you owe me.") -- which she takes even further in Separate Ways ("Don't worry, Leon. First time's free.").
In the six years since her initial betrayal, Leon has been forged into a weapon by the US government. The kind-hearted boy from RE2make who wanted to save the world now is more comfortable shoving a knife in the throat of an old woman than he is with carrying on small talk with people.
But weapons on their own are neither good nor bad. It's how they're used that determines that. Up until RE4make, Leon has been surrounded by extreme violence and senseless death (that's the point of changing Operation Javier btw), and he doesn't see a way in which his status as a weapon could possibly be used for good.
Until Ashley comes into his life.
If there was ever anyone who had a good reason to take Leon for granted and take advantage of him, it's Ashley -- but not only does she not do that, but she goes out of her way to make herself useful without expectation or strings attached. The only thing she ever asks for in return is a "thank you."
So, every time she gets that "thank you" -- every time she gets a real smile out of him -- she's returning pieces of his humanity to him. She's healing the hurts that Ada and the CIA inflicted on him so many years ago. She's showing him that there's still some good in this world, and it's worth fighting for. She's worth fighting for.
When Leon says: "This time, it has to be different..." he's not talking about his inability to save anyone in Raccoon City. That's a very surface-level interpretation. What he's referring to there is that Raccoon City destroyed his faith in humanity, ruined his image of himself, and poisoned his ability to create meaningful connections with people.
That's what has to be different this time. That's why the full line he says in the intro is: "If I could just forget what happened that night... the pain, even for a second... This time, it can be different. It has to."
RE2make took so much from him, but Ashley spent the entirety of RE4make giving so much of it back. But if she were to die in his arms in chapter 15, that hope and that healing would die with her. Her death would be a reaffirmation that everything that Leon wants or hopes for in this world isn't real, and that reality is nothing more than a series of random tragedies and chaos that results in suffering.
Ashley re-teaches him how to trust in people again, how to work as part of a team again, how to feel good about his own actions again. She teaches him how to hope again.
Ashley is the first person in six years to care about whether Leon gets or feels hurt by her actions. The most important line of dialogue spoken to Leon in the entire game is "Stay back! I might hurt you again..." as Ashley openly sobs over the mere thought of it.
Juxtapose that beside...
During the boat scene, Ada asks Leon in response to whether or not she's changed, after all of the damage she's already inflicted on him: "What do you think? Don't think too hard."
And so, in the ending, Leon answers: "I think we both know that this is where we go our separate ways."
Because, this time, things were different.
Because, this time, his partner was Ashley.
#resident evil 4#leon kennedy#ashley graham#ada wong#meta analysis#i hope this makes sense it feels very disjointed#i might edit it some later for clarity#but i wanted to get this out
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There's things I am understand from Tony Stans when they write 'Steve mistake ',
1. They will using reason Steven choose bucky over tony
2. Steve hide / lie the fact about tony parents death
3. Steven is not read accord and not make negotiations about accord
4. Steve recruit clint, sama and wanda and make them in raft. So it's steve mistake
From the four point the third point is bothering me. I am not gonna lie I kind forget the detail civil war but, steve did and the only one that read accord. Also if I am not wrong Ross didn't give chance go steve and everyone to negotiations about accord at all, I meant he said avenegrs onel have three days accept or retired. I menat what kind f&** is that. They have no time to negotiations about accord at all
And Tony said the can make negotiations after they sign the paper, that not how work. You can't make negotiations after to signed the papers, the UN won't considered that they want control, you signed you follow what is inside
So I think it's was weord they blame steve no want negotiations at all. Because there's no time for that, also Steven considered the accord if they for innocent protection and not for government to controlling innocent peoples. So why they keep point that?
I think they need to come up with excuses, half-truths and lies because no matter how hard the Russos tried to paint both teams as equally right, Team Cap is the only one in the right.
To your first point, Steve is against the Accords way before Bucky is even in the picture.
This is something that not only the haters but many fans seem to forget: Not everything Steve does has to do with Bucky. He has a separate life and a mind of his own, and those Accords go against everything that makes him who he is.
To your second point, Steve had no way of knowing Bucky had murdered the Starks. Zola said this:
Zola: "For 70 years, HYDRA has been secretly feeding crises, reaping war. And when history did not cooperate, history was changed."
Natasha: "That's impossible. S.H.I.E.L.D. would've stopped you."
Zola: "Accidents will happen."
And this was shown:
This required Steve to assume Bucky had been the only Winter Soldier at the hands of Hydra. He could have guessed but he didn't know for sure. And going to Stark to tell him "I found out your parents were murdered but I'm not sure of what happened", over 20 years after the fact is not exactly ideal. Not to mention Stark had hacked Shield's systems two years prior. He didn't exactly do a good job of digging there, and Steve and he weren't that close.
To your third point, whoever says that is lying. Steve is the only one shown reading the Accords:
My man has perfect memory. He knew very well those Accords were an abomination.
And to your last point, Sam, Clint and Wanda have agency and they knew what they were getting into before they went to the airport. Unlike Peter Parker who was lied to by Stark, Steve was very clear that he wanted his team to know who and why they were fighting, and the consequences of doing so. Even with a stranger like Scott:
They chose to follow Steve because they knew it was the right thing to do. Clint left his family, Wanda risked her life and her freedom, so did Scott, Bucky and Sam. All of them followed and did the right thing because they're heroes, it's what they do.
Ross knew very well what he was doing. As Secretary of State, not only did he keep the Accords under wraps until only three days before the UN meeting, he kept from the entire team that an Accord is not the same as a law and it was a constitutional violation to try and enforce it on the team and the citizens.
They had no time to negotiate. They would have needed to lawyer up and do everything in a short period of time: the meeting was in Vienna and they were in NYC, if you count the time it would have taken them to get there, the time they needed to find a lawyer they trusted to go through the whole thing and come up with a good enough case to stand up not only to the US Senate but the UN⦠yep, they had no time to do so. That was Ross' plan all along.
Stark telling Steve the Accords could be amended after he signed them was no more than an attempt at manipulation. There is something important to keep in mind here: Stark would NOT be affected by these Accords at all. As shown in the movie, he broke them when he flew to Siberia and nothing happened. Ross called him and he put him on hold, and nothing happened.
Stark is used to doing whatever the hell he wants (like basically telling the government to suck it when he refused to give them his suits. What happened to him? Nothing) and facing no consequences whatsoever. So in his mind, signing these papers means nothing, he can break them whenever he feels like it and he'll find a way to get away with it. For Steve and Wanda, the Accords were a direct violation of their civil rights. It's not the same.
Steve was never against accountability. The Accords were:
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this may contain written spoilers for the murder of sonic the hedgehog
This is outdated and getting a rewrite
okay, this is gonna be one of those crazy theories full of headcanons i make on discord, except this time I'M POSTING IT!
Hypothesis: Barry is a chaos user
Now, I know what you're thinking
"there's no proof of that what are you on"
AND I'D SAY "its just my little headcanon with no evidence :3c" however maybe there's some evidence, what if the THINK minigames are...
somewhat more real than just "think of what sonic would do"
what if Barry's chaos power is a very weakened (due of not knowing of it) form of ESP, so hear me out, here's my proof
During every interrogation this happens
0) have Barry collect clues before the interrogation
1) Tails says he and Barry have formed hypothesis or Tails makes an accusation/unfounded argument
(to which Barry progressively wonders why Tails and people keep mentioning them before an interrogation)
2) we have to select the correct type of evidence, from Barry's inventory, to form an argument
3) play the THINK minigame so that Barry can order their thoughts
4) Tails explains the argument flawlessly and barry sometimes lags behind
"but that isn't proof of anything"
SILENCE!
Hear me out: Barry's power is not only some sort of ESP, but some sort of inspiration or enlightenment kind of telepathy!
The game doesn't show Barry telling Tails anything, yet Tails forms almost always a very strong argument from a piece of trash Barry found laying around
Sure, he comments on them beforehand giving the player insight on how to use the clues during the interrogation
And Tails is a really smart kid, [and while we know IQ tests are dumb, he might have an IQ equal to eggman's, if not higher] however; Tails is... still a kid, he's prone to making mistakes
proof of this is in the very game in Espio's accusation! where all his arguments are weak and we have to help him out several times
[and several other times in different canon where being an 8 year old has overcame his high intelligence] [see: Forces]
and let's also remember Tails' intelligence comes in the form of excelling at engineering, robotics, coding, and mechanics; but there's different types of Intelligence, and just because one is super intelligent means they'll be great at everything
Eggman excels at the same things as Tails, however he took more time to make functional replicas of the phantom ruby, whereas Tails was able to make a functional replica of a chaos emerald in way less time.
The point is, Tails somehow always has something to say about things during the interrogations, and somehow always involves Barry even though they're not often adding anything
what if Barry is constantly giving Tails the information, and Tails being surrounded by chaos users always doesn't think much of it
plus this game has a lot of dialogue detail, wouldn't it be more correct to have them at least be shown to discuss something before presenting the argument?
but nope, Tails always jumps right into action the moment Barry shows a piece of evidence and does the THINK minigame
sure, it could be the discussion is done DURING the THINK minigame, but the dialogue doesn't inherently imply that, Tails often just tells us to think how the evidence links to the unfounded arguments from the interrogation
but if you aren't yet convinced: there's also...
Barry was always able to find clues, while Tails ... didn't really, even though they were working as a team, Barry always found the clues; even if for them they didn't seem as clues sometimes
sure, Barry is the avatar for us, and the game being a point-&-click needs to present us with minimal things to be able to interact with
but what if in Barry's mind it was somewhat the same, what if the same things we were presented with as interactable objects...
were also somewhat highlighted in Barry's mind
I'm not gonna use the trashbin thing as proof since theres a reason Barry did it through the game, they even tell Tails about it
but they do find every piece of evidence that could support any argument Tails bould be beginning to cook...
"but maybe Tails just made an argument with the things Barry collected and just wanted to include Barry on the interrogations"
there's truth to that; however, my argument can coexist with that one, Barry could've "inspired" tails with some sort of ESP during their THINK Sequences, and Tails could've formed a stronger argument through that!
in fact it sorta makes sense
Barry organizes the thoughts Tails presents them with AND shares the information with Tails to form the argument
all during a mind link while we are playing the THINK minigames!
LASTLY, and the weak part of the argument that I'm presenting; but still a part I wanted to include,
why was the final fight a THINK minigame? because Barry was helping!
do you think, after being inspired by Sonic the hedgehog he would stand in the background and do nothing?
it's implied the other friends of Sonic were also attacking the train during that whole thing
what if Barry was doing something
what if, specifically, Barry was giving information to Sonic of the train's next moves and where to go in the rail tracks
so that Sonic could spindash right into the train's carcass for amy to deliver the final hit with her piko piko hammer
is there any actual proof to this one?
unlike the other two arguments? not really
but it kiiinda makes sense?
yes.
Conclusion: Barry is a chaos user, specifically has a weakened/dormant ESP ability!
#[jackal barks of incoherence]#sonic the hedgehog#the murder of sonic the hedgehog#tmosth spoilers#the murder of sonic the hedgehog spoilers#barry the quokka#tails the fox#tails miles prower#sonic theory#tmosth#murder of sonic the hedgehog#[jackal howling of irrationality]
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Money Ties (Jungkook Love Story || Pt.2)
Pt.1 || Pt.3
Your parents have worked hard to get to the top and have made sure to teach you everything you need to know to be successful in this business: from tough but lucrative financial decisions, down to the right ball gown for any given banquet. A promising and extravagant future awaits you- that is, if you agree to one teensy detail...
Son of Mr.Jeon Sr. and heir to June Company, Jeon Jungkook is an immature playboy with nothing to offer a woman but good looks and a crap ton of money, and he stands to inherit much MUCH more, so long as you both enter into the arranged marriage contract that was drawn up before the pair of you were even born.
You're more than willing to try, but you're not sure you'll be able to stand each other long enough to inherit a single penny...
Series Warnings: There will be smut in the near future and I will label those chapters as such. As I say before most of my pieces- I do not endorse any themes, ideas, or behaviors in this series. This is all purely fiction/fantasy! Feel free to inbox me suggestions/ideas/what you'd like to see in this series and I'll see what I can do! Enjoy <3
Recap: It's as though everything is happening in slow motion; torturously absorbing every ounce of energy in your body for such a simple action as turning your head. When you finally look up at him, you see his expression turn from slight irritation, to full blown anger. "YOU." The venom in his tone is palpable. You smile sheepishly, looking from his parents, to him, to his parents, and then back to him, "H-hey, you." This is gonna be the longest dinner of your life.
"Jungkook," His father calls his name sternly, enough to get not only his attention, but the attention of every patron in the restaurant as well, "What the hell is the matter with you?" Jungkook looks at you and then back at his dad, "Well, Dad, the crazy bitch from the air port? The one that attacked me? She's at the very table with us right now." "I did not 'attack' you," You furrow your brows, unable to fake a smile any longer. "You absolutely did," He says, leaning forward so that his face is only inches from yours, "I have witnesses to prove it-" "That is enough," Mr.Jeon snaps, causing for Jungkook to abruptly stop talking. "Sit your ass down, right now." Jungkook quickly takes the empty place next to you and remains silent. Your heart is racing in your chest and you feel like a child who knows they're about to get their ass handed to them.
"Y/n," Mrs.Jeon says gently, "Could you please explain to us what happened?" "But Mom-" "Jungkook. Unless you want to be walking yourself to the bus stop after this dinner and also for the rest of the year, I suggest you keep your mouth closed." Mr.Jeon's demeanor has completely changed from the jolly dad-type you'd met earlier. "Go ahead, Y/n." You clear your throat, "I'm sorry for causing such a commotion on such an important day. It truly wasn't my intention. You see, I had just landed in Seoul and, while I was looking around, one of... his friends," You're not quite sure how to even address Jungkook, "had carelessly shoved me- I almost fell forward completely. When I turned around to try to address the situation, your son had cut in and was very rude to me. Everyone in his group was egging him on the more rude he got. He slapped two hundred dollars into my hand and then I..." You don't even want to say the rest. You can practically hear the marriage contract getting shredded to pieces in your very presence. "You...?" Mr and Mrs.Jeon stare at you anxiously. "She slapped the shit out of me," Jungkook finishes.
For a few moments, there's only silence. You want for the Earth to open up beneath you and just swallow you whole. Your dad is gonna kill you. Y/n, the dead woman walking. And then...laughter. Both Mr. and Mrs.Jeon are dying of laughter. You glance at Jungkook who seems equally as confused as you. "How is this funny?" He asks, leaning forward and banging once on the table. "So you- you slapped him? In front of all of his friends?" Mrs.Jeon asks between laughs. "Please tell me you threw the money back at him!" Mr.Jeon adds. "The money was still in her hand..." Jungkook mutters, which only causes for them to continue. "Oh son, I think you've finally met your match!"Mr.Jeon says, desperately trying to catch his breath. You're still trying to figure out what the hell is even happening. "I- I'm not quite sure how to react to...any of this, but I would like to apologize to you," You turn to Jungkook and bite your bottom lip, "I shouldn't have been so quick to violence. I don't know what took over me." He rolls his eyes, shaking his head and staring off into another direction, intent on ignoring you. "Oh don't apologize," Mr.Jeon says, "We know our Jungkook very well, and we know you wouldn't have done this if you didn't feel the need to." "I suppose so...but I really am sorry. I- I think maybe I should go back to the hotel and let you guys have a moment to talk," You say, looking down at your empty plate and trying to ignore your stomach, which is currently threatening to eat you alive. "Oh- alright. Well, we can always meet tomorrow for evening tea. I'll send a car to come get you?" Mrs.Jeon asks, her sweet expression putting you at ease. You nod, "Absolutely."
You stand up and grab your purse, "Oh, before I forget. I got you all gifts," You pick the gift bag up off the floor and one by one, take out the nicely wrapped boxes and hand them to each person; Jungkook takes the gift from you, his expression slowly fading into mild interest and even surprise at the very undeserved gift box. "Thank you," He says, bowing slightly. "Of course- I'm sorry again, everyone." "Don't worry about it, dear. Have a safe drive to the hotel. Please don't hesitate to reach out if you need anything at all," Mr.Jeon says before reaching under the table to grab something. He brings up a big manila envelope and hands it to you. You bow to everyone and then grab your things to go.
When you get back out onto the street outside of the restaurant, you let out a deep sigh of relief and thank God that's over- at least for tonight. Tomorrow will take care of itself. You take your phone out of your bag, hoping to see a missed call or two from your dad, though you're met with only a million texts from your very concerned (and nosy) mom. You close your eyes and take a deep breath and not even a minute later, the car pulls up to take you back to your hotel. At least you'll get to retreat to the comfort of a five star hotel- a luxury you very rarely treat yourself to. You do have a lot of money to spend, but your parents have always been very frugal and have taught you the value of the hard-earned dollar. If it weren't because the Jeons insisted on you staying in one of their hotels, you'd be headed to whatever cheap hotel had the best rate.
As you get in the car, your phone buzzes in your hand. You look down to see it's a message from Mr.Jeon.
πΌπ.πΉπππ: πΈ ππππ ππππ ππππ'π πππππ π’ππ ππππ πππππππππ ππ πππ πππππππππ. πΏπππππ ππππππππ πππππππ ππππ πππ ππππππππ ππ π π π ππππ ππππ ππ ππππ π’ππ ππ ππππ ππ πππ πΉπππ ππππππ. ππππ π’πππ ππππ πππ ππππ π πππ.
You really need to get ahold of your dad.
"They laughed?" "THEY LAUGHED," You shake your head, pouring coffee from the hotel coffeemaker into a pretty white mug. "Hey, at least you know he won't be a momma's boy," B/f/n laughs. After the day you've had, you'd give anything to be sleeping over house and sipping wine together over this hot gossip, but you suppose facetime will have to do for now. "I honestly don't even know about this anymore. I mean, if the incident at the airport was only our first time meeting, who's to say we won't absolutely kill each other once we're shoved together for 24 hours a day? Maybe this is like...an omen or something." "Or maybe," Her expression shows a tinge of excitement, "this could be the start of a romantic enemies to lovers romance?" You roll your eyes, "Be serious, right now. Please. I'm losing my mind here." "I am being serious! I mean think about it- two fiery personalities under one roof, you're beautiful, he's beautiful-" "How do you know he's beautiful?" You furrow your brows. "Aha! So you think he's beautiful?" She asks, mischief coating her tone like honey for bees. "I-I didn't say that... I mean, he is but that's completely besides the point," You blush. "Ugh, I'm honestly jealous of you." "Don't be. Life isn't some cheesy K-drama, you know." "Oh but it is," She sighs dreamily, "And you're the main character, honey." "Whatever...hey, I'm gonna have to let you go. I gotta try to call my dad again so he can help me look over this contract." "Alrighty- call me in the morning so I can approve your outfit for high tea." "Yeah, yeah, yeah."
You sit at the desk in your room, your eyes glued to the manila envelope; you don't even want to open it. For as long as your parents have been preparing you for this day, you feel so unsure. On paper, an arranged marriage is easy. You fulfill the duty expected of you, make sure your end of the bargain is being held up and reap the benefits: a stable life, steady income... "The Jeon empire." You echo the words from Mr.Jeon's text. It's crazy how he can so easily make his son's engagement sound like a business email. You guess that's how he and your dad get on so well. You take your phone out of your pocket and punch in your dad's number, though you're much less hopeful about actually being able to reach him. As usual, the phone rings and rings- though as you're about to just give up, you hear the click of it answering, followed by your dad's sleepy voice, "Hey honey," He says. You let out a sigh of relief; your dad's voice has always been able to soothe you almost instantly. "Dad- I've been trying to reach you all day." "I know, Sweetie- It's just been a hectic day. I'm sorry about that." "It's okay, dad." "How was your day? How'd the first meet go?" You look down, unsure about whether or not to be honest, though you quickly decide to just bite the bullet. You swallow hard before taking a deep breath, "Well, funny story- You see, I'd just landed at the airport and there was this group of people just huddled around Jungkook, though of course, I didn't know in that moment that it was Jungkook-" You're interrupted by loud snoring at the other end of the line, to which your entire face drops, "Gee, thanks for the support Dad. By the way, I slapped the shit out of my soon-to-be-fiance and now, I'm not even sure if there'll be an engagement. Isn't that great for us?" No response. He really fell asleep in the middle of you crisis. You put your face in your hand, completely giving up, "Sweet dreams, dad."
You're much too mentally crowded to try to look over the contract right now, so instead, you resort to doing what you do best: internet stalking. You're not sure why you hadn't thought of it before- looking Jungkook up on socials. You type in his name and, lo and behold, there he is. His completely public account stares you square in the face, along with his hefty following of 23,000+ followers. Your eyes widen in surprise. Who knew such an unlikeable person could be so popular? You look at the various pictures he's uploaded, scoffing at most of them. Selfies as far as the eye can see, mixed in with some of his hand gripping the steering wheel to whatever luxury car he's driving on any given day, some of hangouts with friends (many of which you remember from the airport). The comments are a mix of bros complimenting his physique and various possessions, as well as many women saying some of the most vile and thirsty shit you've ever seen- and you're almost certain he laps it all up like a thirsty dog.
One picture catches your eye in particular from a little over two years ago; he's sitting on a dock at what looks like a lake. He's in his swimming trunks, giving what looks like the only genuine smile on his entire profile- a pretty girl is sat next to him, leaning on him with an equally wide smile. Her arm hangs around his neck, pulling him close. He has a girlfriend...? You furrow your brows and chew your bottom lip; you can't be expected to follow through with this contract with someone who's in an active relationship- arranged marriage or not, you're not going to be sharing your husband. "She's tagged..." You mumble, noticing the symbol in the corner of the picture. You click on it, and it leads you to her profile; a wapping 50k followers. Every picture is perfectly angled and coordinated for the perfectly aestheticized feed. She's a model, it looks like. You've always been a fairly confident woman, but even you know there's no competing. "Lisa..." Even her name is simple and cute.
You look at the time. 11:00PM. "I should go to bed..." You mutter, though you don't feel tired at all. You shut your computer and just sit there for a moment; your mind races with so many different thoughts and feelings. Can you really go through with this? Do you even really have a choice? You're stuck between a rock and a hard place here, and the time difference between South Korea and home is making you feel extra lonely right about now...
Your eyes flutter open, triggered by the stream of light that's shining directly onto your face from the open window right next to you. You groan, turning your head in the other direction, though you quickly realize you're still sitting at the desk. "What the hell," Your head shoots straight up, and you wipe the drool off of your face. You wince at the immediate soreness in your back. Slowly, you scoot the chair out from under the desk to let yourself out and make your way over to the night stand where you'd left your phone charging last night. Six missed calls (all from your mom, of course), and one text from Mrs.Jeon. You sigh, swiping on the misseds call and bringing the phone up to your ear.
"Hello?" You say into the phone when it finally connects you. "YOU SLAPPED THE BOY!?" Your mom's voice practically bursts your eardrum. You close your eyes and let out a deep sigh. "HOW COULD YOU EMBARRASS US LIKE THIS!? YOU BETTER HOPE YOUR FATHER DOESN'T FIND OUT-" "Mom." "- AND YOU BETTER HOPE THEY DON'T RESCIND THEIR OFFER-" "Mom." "-I RAISED YOU BETTER THAN THIS-" "MOM!" You snap, your anger getting the best of you. Silence. "Mom- I'm sorry. Yesterday was a really shitty day and I didn't sleep well." "Is that my fault?" She asks. You purse your lips. Kinda. "Can you just listen, mom? I promise I had a good reason." "Well, go on. What reason could you possibly have had for slapping this nice young boy?" Your eye twitches at her assumption of his character. "Mom, the guy is a complete asshole." "Mind your language, Y/n. Men don't like women with potty mouths." "You literally curse like a sailor." "Yes, but I'm married." You roll your eyes, "Mom, one of his friends shoved me at the airport and instead of helping me, he was a complete jerk, publicly humiliated me and then tried to pay me off with a measly little two hundred bucks. Everyone was watching and laughing at me." "So, you slapped him because his friend shoved you?" Her tone is incredulous and mocking. You just can't win with your parents. Not at all.
All your life, they've been this way. Everyone gets to say, do, and feel whatever they want and you just have to keep your head down and take it. That's how they made it to where they are in life, and that's how they've raised you to be. That's why you're in this predicament in the first place: endure this fake ass marriage to get to stability and wealth, even if it's to a complete douche bag with no ounce of basic human decency. "Mom, I'll just call you later." "Yeah, you will call me later, and you better fix this. We've worked too hard to get your to this point and we will not let your irresponsibility screw it up for all of us." All of us, she says. All of us? Without another word, you hang up the call, and, as you always do- you gather yourself and get ready for the long and arduous day ahead of you.
You bite your lip as you watch the floors numbers on the elevator go higher and higher. Mrs.Jeon's text from this morning was a reminder to dress "smart casual" for high tea, and also her asking if you're okay with cucumber sandwiches. You thought for sure you'd have enough time to mentally prepare, but it's like the hours just flew by and you barely got anything done. The elevator dings, indicating you've reached your designated floor. "Just breathe..." You say to yourself, trying to calm your nerves. Maybe you should've had a shot of something before coming up, just to take the edge off. High tea is being served on the rooftop of the hotel you're staying at, and it is quite beautiful. Floor to ceiling windows wrap around almost the entire room, with a glass door leading to the balcony that would overlook the entire city. There are lots of tables around the room, though the only one actually set is at the opposite end from the elevator. "Y/n," Mrs.Jeon greets you, standing from her seat to receive you at the table. You bow as low as you can, "Mrs.Jeon, how are you?" "I'm doing just fine, thank you. Please have a seat," She says, motioning to the chair across her at the small table. You're delighted at the sight of the tiered stand with various different pastries and snacks, decorated nicely fresh flowers. "Wow, it's really beautiful," You say. "Thank you- our hotel gets fresh flowers every day from the nursery down the block. We like to support local businesses." "Well, that's generous of you." A waiter comes with a tea pot in hand, pouring some into the pretty tea cup in front of you on a small saucer. "Thank you," You say, bowing slightly. He pours some into Mrs.Jeon's cup as well, and gives a bow before leaving. Everyone's much more respectful here in Korea. Well, not everyone...
"I hope you don't mind, I told your mom about what happened between you and Jungkook yesterday," She chuckles, "I hope I didn't get you in too much trouble." You smile, thinking back to this morning's call, "Oh no, don't worry." "Truthfully, my husband and I were pleasantly surprised at how fiercely you stood your ground with him." "Oh no, I'm-I'm truly embarrassed." That's not a total lie, either; after your 'internet research' last night, you kept replaying the entire thing in your head over and over and thinking you should've just talked away. "Don't be," She takes the cream and pours a bit in her cup before offering to pour for you, "We know our son can be...a bit of an asshole." Your eyes widen at her colorful language. You almost want to ask her to repeat herself so you can record it and send it to your mom as vindication. "Oh, I don't know him very well..." And yet, you agree with her. "I hope you know you didn't ruin anything. My husband and I feel very strongly, even more so now, that you're the perfect fit fr our family." Your heartbeat picks up in your chest; you were sure you blew your chance to bits, but here she is, offering it all on a silver platter for you. "Wow, thank you. I was worried I'd messed it all up." "Of course not. I'm sure I worried your mom as well, didn't I?" You laugh nervously, "Just a bit." "I'm sure she chewed you out after our call. I'll be sure to call her again after this to ease her mind." "Thank you, that would mean a lot." "Sure. Now, after this, I want you to head straight to your suite and look over those papers! We sent a copy to your parents as well so everyone's on the same page." "Yes, of course."
The rest of the time was spent trading stories and memories of your respective childhoods, even some memories of when you and Jungkook were really little, when you'd play outside for hours and hours. Even then, you'd boss him around and he'd be after you like a puppy. If only things could be that easy again... Though, you've always been a big believer in the idea that anything worth having is also worth fighting for.
A/N: Hope you enjoyed the second installment! I know it was a long one but I'm having such a fun time writing it. Arranged marriage plots with an enemies/lovers trope is like my personal brand of h*roine (Twilight references for the win). As always, a comment/like is absolutely always encouraging and veyr much appreciated. Plz give me your validation UwU <3
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Sarah J. Maas is much more comfortable and better at writing multiple pov's books
I wrote this TWO years ago and never posted, but I think it's still valid, so I uptaded a bit. Welcome to my TED talk: if you love or hate Rhys, this is for you!
I was inspired to write this due some discussions I have seen here lately surrounding Rhys and the pregnancy plot in acosf, so I'm gonna throw my two cents here. Honestly, I don't think I have a very formed opinion on this. I don't agree with what Rhys did and I think it was wrong, but I do think it was on his character to do so. When I was reading acosf, I remember thinking how it was such a Rhys thing to try to come up with a solution to the problem before saying it to Feyre, especially considering that it was a life/death situation. NOW, that's not really a good thing, cause Feysand's whole thing is how they treat each other as equals and Rhys's attitude kinda of went agaisnt that.
Of course, there was the whole "let's not stress the pregnant person out, cause that won't do any good to anyone", which, let's be honest, it's true. But, still, I remember thinking how ewww it was that literally EVERYONE knew about that (hell, I think even Helion knew, right?) except for Feyre. And, yk, it's her LIFE, so she should know (obvs).
NOW, here's what I really wanted to talk about. I think one of our biggest issues surrounding this is the lack of reaction from Feyre. I think it's said in the narrative that she and Rhys had a huge argument about it, but that in the end it was cool. And that's really bad. For us, the readers, it was like "some really serious stuff" BOOM "unicorns and rainbows", we didn't get to see any of that
And the thing about this (and correct me if I'm wrong, cause it could be fake news lol) it was stated that they cut out a lot of scenes that sjm wanted to include, I suppose as bonus chapters, and those scenes were especially Feysand scenes. But her editor thought it was better to cut them out, because that would have diverged the attention from Nesta and Cassian (which, sort of did for some people anyway, but whatever).
And I think this is such a big mess and it's some bad writing in a way. I don't think sjm is a bad writer, quite the contrary, I enjoy her writing very much. But the issue with ACOTAR is that we had three books solely with Feyre's pov, so everything we know about all the characters were because of her and we sort of only had her character growth (if you get what I mean). And, now, we're having this trasition with each new book with two new pov's, and it seems that it's not really covering everything that it should cover to tell the story. ACOSF held a attention on Feysand that I understand why they did it, but if they're going to put a lot of weight into them to that specific story, they should've added more scenes with their pov's.
And, for me, everything comes down to sjm being a lot more comfortable in writing stories with multiple pov's. She did that with ToG and CC. To make a personal comparison with her latest books, hosab had a much better structure than acosf and I think the plot flew a lot better. I can't say the same for hofas, but I think the problem there was the unequal weight of the povs (Tharion and Ithan compared to the rest lol). But in ToG is done beautifully! Of course, sometimes we don't care about certain povs, but that's normal.
Anyway, really excited for some acotar 5 news and tbh, looking foward as to how we can slander Rhys again lol (I love him, ok)
#acotar thoughts#rhysand#feyre archeron#nesta archeron#hofas#tog#crescent city#sarah j maas#sjm#bloomsbury give us something
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I want to like Rhaenicent but I feel like Alicent protects Rhaenyra and cares for her way more than Rhaenyra does for her. Adult Rhaenicent seems rather one sided to me ngl. One way Rhaenyra betrayed Alicent was by marrying Daemon, a man who absolutely despises the Hightowers and who wouldnβt hesitate to slaughter Alicentβs children. Does Rhaenyra really not realize how ruthless Daemon is? Daemon is arguably the biggest threat to the Green kids who are Rhaenyraβs own siblings. It just kills me that Alicent stood up to her abuser for Rhaenyraβs life in 1x09 and Rhaenyra has never done anything of that severity for Alicent. And Rhaenyra will likely never know how much Alicent fought to save her. Idk, I just feel like Alicent deserves someone who will love her completely. I canβt see Rhaenyra being that person with the way sheβs disregarded Alicentβs worries and feelings.
I'm going to be totally honest and I say this with love... a lot of it becomes easily justifiable for me when i acknowledge that Rhaenyra is just a bit dense. like shes always been sheltered and naive, to the point of genuine stupidity sometimes. she isnt inherently so but her father stomped all over her developing any kind of critical mind early on and she did nothing to overcome that mistake. she became far too comfortable with Viserys waving his crown and magic-ing her problems away and its just a fact shes never managed to see things from alicents perspective... but that doesnt mean alicent isnt as equally important to her as she is to alicent. please bear with me because i promise i will explain this fully.
but first of all, to answer your question 'does rhaenyra not realise how ruthless daemon is?' I mean, giving her the benefit of the doubt ...maybe not? shes pretty much always always seen the best side of daemon. with viserys. with her. with their children. what does she know of daemons genuine ruthlessness? we cant say for sure. once again, giving her the full benefit of the doubt, we dont even know if rhaenyras aware that daemon murdered rhea. like daemons not exactly gonna bring it up and who else would dare suggest that to her of all people? sure shes seen him fight at tourneys she knows hes capable of killing but thats a controlled enviroment where its expected. and she clearly feels safe enough with him personally otherwise she wouldnt have laughed in his face after her grabbed her neck.
its going to be very interesting to see what they do with B&C for this reason. because if rhaenyra isnt involved, at least in the Details... will she be shocked by what daemon is capable of? depends on what version of rhaenyra we get post-luke i suppose. but i dont know if i believe they're likely to have her go That dark so quickly that she'd agree to B&C. (sorry. tangent.)
imo you have to try and see her perspective - rhaenyra is deeply Confused. she thought for many years alicent just suddenly Hated her on the basis of her /loose morals/, like purely hated her, the girl she loved is Gone overnight right when they'd begun to reconcile, and she couldnt really understand why. she just does not understand alicents perspective and she cant begin to fathom alicents situation. and in a way, how could she? shes never faced similar limitations theres an argument to be made she wouldnt be able to even conceptualise it without alicent taking her by the hand and walking her through it. even when they were friends i doubt rhaenyra thought about the privileges she held over alicent (after all, she was a child, it was just what she knew and as far as she could see alicent got to do everything she did so there was no visual imbalance). from rhaenyras point of view, all those years alicent was being unnecessarily antagonistic over something that didnt effect her. this girl she loved and in rhaenyras eyes she is betraying her again and again and again. and rhaenyra thought all that because she couldnt see the bigger picture. how could she begin to understand 'alicent fears what my reign could mean for her children' when viserys actively disencouraged her political interest - her opinion on that point would likely only be 'well obviously i would make sure nothing happened to them', not understanding that That isnt the reassurance she thinks it is.
so yeah. rhaenyra truly doesnt understand what went on or whats going on. but alicent Does (and this imbalance is perfectly demonstrated by the dialogue in the knife scene because, lets be honest, alicent pins down the situation and how rhaenyra fits into it kind of perfectly... whereas rhaenyra incorrectly attributes alicents rage to 'righteousness', not fear.). and personally i think thats why it seems unbalanced or one sided, especially in episode 8. alicent could afford to be genuine, rhaenyra isnt hard to read, whereas rhaenyra still had her guard up because she was just so fucking confused lmao. she briefly saw the gentle, beautiful, kind girl she was in love with in alicents treatment of a dying viserys at the dinner table - and upon realising alicent actually Does still have that side to her rhaenyra doesnt know what to do except subtlety apologise for perhaps not truly Seeing alicent and for accusing her of trying to harm viserys. she thought the alicent she knew was long dead until that moment - the girl has got emotional whiplash. so its not that rhaenyra loves alicent less. her reactions in episode 10 make it very clear there is still A Lot going on there for her (and we know emma d'arcy's pov on it was that rhaenyra genuinely considers conceding the throne with the hope of alicent 'taking her back'). shes just very very Very muddled about whether the current version of alicent is Still the person she loves...
and i think maybe 'love' is the wrong word for what they have when theres so much piled on top but its definitely a devotion. its this constant need to reconcile and be close that they just cant shake because a part of them will always desire the other.
tl;dr rhaenyra is just... kinda dumb god bless. and their imbalance is in their ability to understand the situation, not in the amount of love thats held.
(besides they were never exactly going to be a healthy equal deserving love thats not the point of them imo. they are a missed opportunity. a greek tragedy. starcrossed lovers. etc)
#ask#anon#hotd#alicent hightower#rhaenicent#rhaenyra targaryen#this is barely legible i know#but you get it
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Collection of Be My Favorite Meta after Ep 11 pre Ep 12
[I will try to come back and update this too so please tag me if you see good stuff not mentioned!]
Sorry if me organizing things this way offends anyone, this is mostly for myself to be able to refer back to specific thoughts from everyone's meta so I've grouped posts by points being made which means some posts get linked a bunch of times and a some points in each post may not be represented below because my brain can only hold so much. Please feel free to let me know if you hate it!:
Episode 11 didn't give us the resolution we wanted re: the lie in ep 10: @lurkingshan was right out of the gate with this take.
Maybe Episode 12 will fill the communication gap in ep 10 like we all wanted by giving Pisaeng a chance to say what was left unsaid: @bengiyo put this in his original thoughts and I am still thinking about it! @incandescentflower wrote a really great post on some of the ways Pisaeng leaves things unsaid
Pisaeng time travelling puts Pisaeng and Kawi on equal footing: @bengiyo wrote the definitive piece on this and credit to @grapejuicegay for making a similar point and expanding on it; @he-is-lightning-in-a-bottle made this point too.
There was something off about the montage in ep 11: @bengiyo made this point; @waitmyturtles added some notes about why and @visualtaehyun added a couple notes on this too; @jjsanguine posited an interesting wrinkle about the stasis of time travel and whether that could be what needs to be fixed
[on the other side of this with me is the "the montage was satisfying" crowd: @thegalwhorants wrote this; @incandescentflower I think your post counts too; gonna link myself here too]
The ep 11 scene with Pisaeng and the doctor is extremely important and painful: @heretherebedork wrote a beautiful post about this; @nemesis-21 did too; @marbles290 did too; @visualtaehyun put this in the current Thai political context; @snidgetwrites added the Indian political context
They might go back to decide to fight for equal rights: @rocketturtle4 said this really well
They might go back and decide to use the system to their advantage and get Kawi and Pear to marry: @grapejuicegay laid this one out
They might go abroad to be able to get married like Pisaeng's mom wanted: @marbles2900 wrote about this
Kawi's death may be unavoidable: @williamrikers summarized this nicely here; @shortpplfedup seems to be hinting at thinking the same?, @thegalwhorants posited this too; so did @knighthacker here; also theorized this in my ep 11 reaction post; @minorista wrote great angst about this and @neonsbian added the twist of them riding the time loop to stay together
The point may be that time travel isn't the answer/can't solve everything, and love takes work: @waitmyturtles made this point, and I love it; @stuffnonsenseandotherthings also made this point here (sorry I missed it earlier!)
Pisaeng may try to break up with Kawi in the past: @rebel0777 laid out options for how this would play out; @tinycowboybro noted Pisaeng foreshadowed this; @zzh3 added that maybe Kawi goes to find him on the same beach
Has Pisaeng already been time-travelling?: @waitmyturtles added this wild theory that the montage was time travel Pisaeng's perspective
(Counter to this, @pandasmagorica points out that because of the mechanisms of time travel in this show Pisaeng cannot do a perpetual time loop.) [NEW]
This means the timeline we saw has been erased: @ellaspore wrote this very eloquently; some folks have chimed in to say they're ok with this (@rocketturtle4 and @bengiyo)
BUT WHERE IS THE CAT: @sparklyeyedhimbo made possibly my favourite observation thus far
For anyone confused, here's how the time travel mechanism works in this show: @telomeke wrote a great explainer out, and @benkaaoi makes an important point about why it matters, @jjsanguine laid this out too (I'm going to be selfish and link my reblog thread because I built on this a little in my reply)
[ADDED:]
I tried my hand at figuring out the timeline for the show here.
@stuffnonsenseandotherthings makes the point that by shifting from Kawi to Pisaeng as the protagonist, this show is queering the narrative
@grapejuicegay added some thoughts about the timeline mechanics and how it affects the consciousness of Kawi and Pisaeng.
[updated 4pm EDT Aug 7]
#be my favorite#be my favorite meta#meta on meta#be my favorite ep 11#everyone is brilliant#i love it here
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After watching the preview episode of the re-cap show, my first thought is actually a confirmation of something I believe for awhile now, and it's that in my opinion Tobin & Christen truly are in a different phase of their life now. They've changed, right in front of our eyes, they have built this whole other work reality that no longer NEEDS to be connected with the field, they are beyond. I'm not saying they're retiring tomorrow (even though I think they WILL do it very soon), I just feel they have found their dimension elsewhere. And it's deeply beautiful.
I noticed just how GOOD they are despite this being their first experience in this kind of projects. I remember Tobin's first videos for the company, about her art, and she didn't even look at the camera. Since becoming co-ceo, and maybe since stepping up after Pinoe's silent exit, she kinda found this new confidence. She joins events and promotional works by herself that before she would have attended only with Christen, or not attended at all.
Now she produces and hosts a show, and she's funny, charming, thoughtful, wonderfully loud when she laughs and freely honest when she speaks.
Even the choice of their first guest is pretty revealing. It actually tells how little we know about their lives and their relationships. That's why I usually talk about opinions and impressions, because that's all we have.
And exactly about my opinion about their new phase of their life, I think Ellis and Christen probably might have talked about things at some point. And not about her tactical choices but about her silence when Christen tried to expose Dames' toxic behaviour. It's not something you just ignore and sit together to joke, laugh and talk Football.
The interview was actually really brilliant and honest. I think Tobin took the lead because anyway she had a different relationship with Ellis but also it really seemed more her space, she has always had a complete vision of football, tactically and strategically. That's why it seemed she really talked Ellis' language. And it was deeply fascinating, curious and educative.
I'm not gonna deny that listening to Ellis actually talking about football and about her choices was truly interesting. Despite all her personal mistakes, I think she really knows her job, and she knows how to do it. I never heard Vlatko having such professional insights and I really admired him before, when I still had not realized he has no idea how to manage team and players and he doesn't really care about them either.
Ellis was pretty honest about her tactical decisions, I don't know if she would do exactly the same now, especially with Christen. But I still love how equally honest Christen was with her. The quote "I'd let you babysit my daughter but I don't think I'll play you in this game" is not really a joke and both of them know it. But it was a moment of Truth.
I think Ellis appreciated and appreciates Christen both as person and player, she made a choice, a debatable one, but still hers. And Christen faced her for it. But in the end I liked to see that she still considered her time playing for Ellis as a learning experience, it puts everything in perspective.
I always thought Christen was way much more than the sweet and zen person we often see. She did make a few interesting remarks to Ellis among the lines of jokes, she knows how to tease Tobin (probably her favourite pastime), she can be snarky and witty, and it's pretty awesome.
That's why I was in love with the blunt confrontation between Tobin & Christen. It was actually what I expected, Tobin always so free and direct, Christen so smart, witty and a little biting! The Daily Debate was just amazing but what I noticed is that every time Tobin talked, with Jill or simply telling something, she always included Christen in her moments, in her thoughts, her memories, her experiences, she looked at her, waited for her reaction.
The most technical part of the conversation was so intriguing for a football fan. I loved the Marginal Gain philosophy, it's the success in the details.
Also, about the USWNT, I think Tobin doesn't have much admiration for Vlatko, as coach and person. At one point she said something like "talking about chewing and spitting β¦" and she went on saying she and Christen wouldn't be at the World Cup, it says something.
In the end, I think they really nailed this first episode. I wanna see Christen take the lead in the next episodes and I can't wait for them!
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