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soleminisanction · 5 months

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The thing I keep coming back to, now that I've wrapped up the first part of "Batgirl, Repentant" and am starting to outline the second, is how much the book's hyper-focus on Steph hamstrings the story I think they're trying to tell.

I say I think because obviously I can't read the writers' minds so for all I know they taped the random lip service about hope and justice and fighting for the little guys onto the Stephanie-love-fest in a half-assed response to criticism, but I'm trying to give them the benefit of the doubt and believe that when the first arc ends with:

And that gets followed up two issues later with Steph telling Damian:

I want to take them at their word that that's what they're going for. But it's not the story they tell at all because, for all the lip service paid, there's not a single plot point that actually backs those themes up. Every single narrative element is instead 100% oriented around Stephanie, her feelings, her desires, and her ambitions, none of which involve helping or protecting other people.

Batgirl's first appearance in issue 1 isn't about bringing hope or protecting anybody, it's about, "Ooooh, who is this mysterious new Batgirl who's such a badass but looked down on by The Man for being a little chaotic? Ta-da, it's Stephanie Brown!!"

When she talks about promises being made to her mom (by which of course I mean lies, she's just lying to her mother) or the supposed "promise" she didn't actually make to Tim Drake, it's all framed as unreasonable expectations that other people are piling onto Steph's shoulders, without so much as a second thought for how the person she supposedly made these promises to might feel.

When Cass leaves her the Batgirl costume, it's not with requests to carry on the legacy or protect Gotham in her absence or even to look out for Barbara, it's all about Cass's relationship with Bruce (as though that was ever her motivation!) and then "Now the fight is yours, Stephanie" while she vanishes into the rain in her underwear. Like Batgirl is a toy she's letting Steph have her fair turn with now that she doesn't want to play anymore.

When Steph thinks about the symbolism of the Bat and of Batgirl, it's not about how it can be a symbol of hope and protection in the darkness of Gotham, it's about how it makes her feel powerful. Even when she worries about messing up it's framed as, "Nothing I do ever ends well" and "It's just a matter of time before I get caught," not concerns about the harm her previous attempts that "didn't end well" wound up doing to other people.

And despite the fact that there's a riot going on in the next few pages, she's not inspired to go out and help with that, but to assist a single dumbass cop who got in over his head.

And then again when Babs shows up to chew her out in the next issue, it's all about Steph and her safety. "You already died" this and "You have a death wish" that. Barbara Gordon, the original Batgirl, only gets to talk about the symbolism of Batgirl as it relates to Stephanie Brown -- "Wearing that Bat on your chest might scare off the smaller thugs, but you're literally asking, no, begging for attention from more dangerous criminals. You're a mark for anyone who wants to make theirs."

Again, even the fact that she fucked up in the past and hurt people is framed around Steph -- "The last time you tried being helpful, you accidentally brought Gotham to its knees." And while Steph pays lip service to "doing this instead of sleeping" because she "thinks it's right," she doesn't ever elaborate on what exactly is "the right thing" she thinks she's doing, and it's not like she's gone out to protect people. You can't even argue, like you maybe could with the street race, that she's doing a flashy display to show ordinary people there's someone on their side -- she's beating up random goons in an isolated chop-shop.

Then of course there's the fact that nothing about Scarecrow's whole Thrill plot makes any sense because he's not being written with any kind of coherent villain motivation, it's all just being done to set up moments for Steph. Why do some of his goons decide to spike the punch at a random college party and then run away at just the right moment to make themselves look as suspicious as possible? Because Stephanie's going to be there and they need to hook her into that plot.

And when Steph argues with Babs later about why they should work together to solve this case, does she express concern about her classmates or her university, or even point out that Barbara isn't working with an on-the-street agent like she has in the past and hey, maybe you'd be a little less stressed if you had someone to share the load?

Nope. It's just "I'm just as much a part of it now as you are!"

To say nothing of my eternal, teeth-grinding frustration over Barbara's characterization. "I'm only being so hard on her because I'm jealous that she's Batgirl and I'm not anymore." Fuck all the way off, Bryan Q. Miller.

This whole thing is so bad that when you get to the climax of this arc -- when they've tracked Scarecrow and his goons to their creepy hospital lair -- the stakes aren't that anyone is in danger, or that there's any chance that Scarecrow might be able to escape in the next five minutes before the police arrive. In fact, if Steph's actual motivation was to make sure Scarecrow saw justice, it would've been a better strategy for her to stay outside watching the exits so she could jump him if he tried to make a run for it.

But she doesn't do that. Because the actual stakes for the climax of the first arc are that if she doesn't swing in and beat the shit out of Scarecrow right the fuck now, the police will beat her to it and then Stephanie won't get the credit for saving the day.

They even try to clumsily raise the stakes by implying that Scarecrow works for Black Mask, a plot point that goes absolutely nowhere because -- whoopsie -- Black Mask is dead at this point and has been since before Steph came back to life. He only ever showed up again as a Black Lantern in Blackest Night, at which point Ivy fed him to a plant.

(They did not fix this in the trade paperback version BTW, I checked)

There's some effort to turn Steph's fight with Scarecrow into something more by having him spout some weird nonsense about how he's controlling people with drugs because, "Nobody truly has a choice little girl" while she represents free will fighting back against attempts to take it away, but that's seriously hamstrung by the fact that writing is all over the place.

Like, at the start of Steph's big dramatic speech, she's all but arguing against the concept of free will, echoing an earlier classroom discussion I've bitched about before, saying that people (by which of course she actually means herself) stay when things get tough "Because we don't know how to do anything else."

But on the very next page she poses the question again and answers it with... frankly complete nonsense.

Because the point isn't actually 'control vs. free will', the whole thing -- all of the forced, misunderstood philosophy that fills out this entire arc -- is actually just repeating the same question Babs was asking earlier, this time in metaphor -- why does Stephanie keep throwing herself into danger, why doesn't she just quit?

And her answers, apparently, are, "because this is who I want to be" and "because I don't know how do anything else." Neither of which spare even a passing thought for anyone but herself, which is kind of a problem if you're trying to present Batgirl's mission statement as bringing hope to the people around her.

Then there's the bit about "facing your worst self," which refers to slightly before this, when Scarecrow drugs Steph with Thrill (a move that makes no sense in-universe because again, Scarecrow is only here to set up set pieces for Stephanie and has zero internal logic of his own). What Steph sees during that sequence is her ex-boyfriend and previous identity tearing her down and telling her that she's not good enough to be a superhero, which implies that her 'worst self' is self-doubt, or possibly "letting other people make you doubt yourself." Again -- all about her, with other people framed as nothing but obstacles to her happiness.

And just to remind you-- she has no actual reason to be here. She's not "saving the city," the city is not under threat. She's not doing anything heroic by throwing herself into this fight. She's only doing this because she wanted the credit for saving the day. That's the only stake the story ever establishes.

It's like there's this standing assumption that she must obviously want to be superhero for selfless reasons, therefore they don't need to bring that up ever and can just focus on how much she wants to be one and how noble it is that she's willing to fight through pain and hardship to be one.

But that's just not how it works? Maybe if you were still writing for the Golden Age when the storytelling was simpler and characterization was optional, but not in 2009. Part of the purpose of a solo book's first arc is to establish/re-establish the core hero's motivation and, if it's changed, explain how and why.

Just as a contemporary example -- Red Robin sends Tim Drake off on what's literally a personal quest and spends its first arc establishing how he's darker and more alone than he's ever been before... but it still opens with him rescuing a kidnapping victim, reaffirming that, whatever he's going through and whatever he has to do to accomplish his goal, he's still, at heart, a hero who will put his own needs aside to protect an innocent. That's also the role that Tam Fox essentially plays in the second arc, giving him someone to protect even when he's isolated from the normal push and pull of the DCU.

Whether you're approaching Batgirl (2009) as a new reader who's never met Steph before in your life, or as someone who read her previous material, there is nothing in this first arc, or those that follow, that establishes her motivation beyond, "I want to be Batgirl and I won't let anyone tell me no." She'll occasionally say she's being selfless and heroic, but it's not backed up by her actions or her thoughts.

Perhaps the most blatant self-contained example of this "It's all about Stephanie and obviously she's a perfectly selfless hero so we don't need to bother establishing it," mindset comes in the denouncement of the first arc. They recreate the vow in the dark -- not the most iconic scene in Batman history but still one that's well-known, a moment that goes all the way back to the first appearance of Robin, when Dick and Bruce vowed an "undying oath" to fight together against crime and corruption and never to swerve from the path of righteousness, symbolically committing themselves to act as a light in the darkness and protectors of the innocent.

Batgirl (2009) recreates this scene... by having Barbara vow to support Stephanie Brown and only Stephanie Brown in everything that she does "for as long as she wants it" so she "won't go out alone" and end up in a chair like Babs did. Meanwhile, Steph's response boils down to, "Oh yeah totes me too," because, according to the book, she doesn't need to take an oath, it's just completely self-evident that she's already made her right choice and will obviously continue to do the same forever and ever, no doubt about it.

Two extra little details scattered throughout:

Through the entire series, Steph is constantly doing this obnoxious humble-brag thing of, "I'm Stephanie Brown, and I'm just a normal girl tee-hee" over images of her doing badass Batgirl things that are obviously supposed to be ironic, and she always uses her full name. The trade paperback version is literally called, "Batgirl: Stephanie Brown" because there's nothing else to say about this story. Tim Drake: Robin didn't use his full name this much and it was actually in the title.

And that's not even getting into how often they waste entire pages on splash images of just... Stephanie. Not Stephanie doing anything special, just, Stephanie, and we're supposed to be very awed and impressed by her because she's Stephanie Brown and she's Batgirl now wowie wow wow.

That one tiny little caption box in the upper-left corner of the last page of the storyline? That's literally the first and only time that the concept of "Batgirl makes sure everyone gets home to see tomorrow" is ever mentioned.

This his is all just the first storyline. This same pattern continues on into the rest of the book, only getting worse as they add in other Batfamily member guest-stars for Steph to show up and prove wrong, and stock civilians who do nothing but shower her with praise and adoration. The tiny little sprinkles they offer up of, "Oh yeah I'm doing this to bring hope to the people of Gotham!!" just don't compare to deluge of "Steph gets to be Batgirl because she wants to be Batgirl, that makes her the coolest motherfucker on the planet, and if you disagree you must be sexist."

---

TL;DR (and sorry this got so long) -- Bryan Q. Miller et. al seem to be either under the impression (or want to give the impression) that they're telling the story of Stephanie Brown, the plucky young girl who never gave up on her dream of being a superhero no matter the haters or setbacks she faced, and how seeing her succeed despite being so average and relatable inspires other average people to have hope and fight for a better tomorrow.

But the story they actually tell is of Stephanie Brown, a teenage girl utterly obsessed with becoming a superhero to the exclusion of all else, including her own well-being, future, and relationships with her friends and family, apparently just because she likes the way it makes her feel, has no self-control and can't imagine herself doing anything else, who is applauded and cheered for this by everyone she meets, save for a small handful of haters who are just there to be proven wrong, beaten up, or both.

The first could've been a good-ish story -- ish, because it doesn't actually engage with Steph's previous characterization, but that's a different post -- but it's just not the story they told.

#stephanie brown #batgirl #batgirl 2009 #batgirls #dc comics #dc #batman #meta #comics meta #barbara gordon #cassandra cain #hmmmm I wound up spending all day on this whoops #ah well it was a sick day and I needed to get it out of my head #there are worse reasons not to move for eight hours

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shrack · 6 months

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"but loki keeps absolutely fumbling the bag. you could have timeline shattering sex with that man who looks like he works in a bank, but no. you have to "save the world" or whatever"

You know what i think this is? This is the stage of unrequited love where the person with said love embraces every opportunity to be together, knowing full-well their time is limited and his feelings will likely not be returned. And Mobius seems to have made peace with that. As long as he can savor being by Loki's side and make snide comments about his fixation with Sylvie (which Mobius is jealous of but does not interfere with), great. He has chosen to privately enjoy what he can get.

This is the stage where the recipient of unrequited love does not know yet how much this person means to him.

The first time they were separated, Mobius was pruned, and Loki still felt strong emotions for Sylvie. The horror and grief were cut short because all three of them were reunited not long after. There was no time to actually perceive and process loss.

The second time they were separated, Loki was time-slipping. To his knowledge, /he/ had higher chances of dying. While we may interpret Loki's feelings for Sylvie as an act of self-love, Loki prioritizing saving the multiverse is an act of love of life. He has not yet reached the stage of having the capacity to welcome the love of another person distinct from himself. Further, I don't think he's aware Mobius waited for him longer than he should have, and I don't think he would have considered anyone would do that for him as a possibility. But Mobius did, and he is once again keeping all of this to himself because he doesn't think Loki will ever love him back anyway. Mind, I don't think Mobius feels any real bitterness about this. I think he enjoys having someone to feel this way about, even if the only person who will ever know is himself.

From a narrative perspective, these kinds of arcs and plot points come in 3s. I think it's well-established that Mobius is more than willing to make a sacrifice, a hard decision for Loki's sake, and I think Loki will not be okay with it the next time such a need arises. The culminative acts of love and affection without need of reciprocation will only become clear to Loki in hindsight.

i agree completely!! sillyposting aside i think theyre such a good example of "a fell first b fell harder"

like of course loki puts saving the world first. what would he do without life, without living? he's aware that this is his second chance, and he doesnt want to jeopardize what he's gained back, so of course that's his priority. and i think that's also why mobius is taking the "slow, cerebral approach" and thus teaching it to loki—they both love living. and mobius has only really gotten to discover how much he loves it because he's gained that freedom thanks to loki, whereas loki knows that freedom and would be remiss to lose it for everyone else. i think theyre such fascinating parallels that way

i think, unfortunately, this is similar to how his and thor's relationship ended up between ragnarok and infinity war. loki only really begins to understand how much thor cares for him a few hours before he has to sacrifice himself to save his brother. tva!loki gets to see thor mourn over his corpse and only then does he understand the depths to which his brother loves him. and i fear that the writers might fall into that pattern again; loki is an action man, and it might take mobius breaking from his slow approach and doing something drastic (again) for loki's sake before loki realizes just what he has in mobius.

all this to say that if mobius dies to save loki....good luck charlie

#as soon as i saw my post parrotted back to me i had a real fear that someone was pissed at me for saying it like that #but this was an absolute delight!!!#lokius #also if you read this as th*rki shipping.....please god dont. theyre brothers

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londonspirit · 6 months

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Our Flag Means Death has just wrapped up its sophomore season, and it’s time to say goodbye to our favorite pirates for, well, at least another year. Streaming service MAX hasn’t renewed the workplace comedy/action-adventure show for a third season, but if the numbers are anything to go by, they would be foolish not to start talking about it.

David Jenkins, the writer/creator and sometime director of Our Flag Means Death, did a finale postmortem interview with io9, and we talk endings, piracy, and how comic actors and serious actors mesh. A quick warning, this interview is literally about the last episode of Our Flag Means Death, and contains spoilers. Proceed with caution.

So, here’s the thing; Jenkins and I have spoken a few times about Our Flag Means Death. He knows that I adore this show. He also knows that I adore Izzy Hands (Con O’Neill), the beleaguered first mate and jilted lover of the central couple of Blackbeard (Taika Waititi) and Stede Bonnet (Rhys Darby). He has also been keeping a secret from me for months: In this last episode of season 2, Izzy Hands dies.

“Are you mad at me?” Jenkins asked, almost plaintive as we said our ‘Hello’s under the auspices of the designated MAX PR person. “Oh, well. I’m not really mad at you, but I am disappointed,” I responded. “I think I’m sad at you.” This, he said, is worse.

At the end of the season, Izzy Hands dies in Blackbeard’s arms, giving Blackbeard permission not only to “be himself” but to leave piracy behind for good. It happened in the kind of cruelly random way that people often die in this genre of action/adventure stories. That didn’t make it any easier though. And at the end of the season, Blackbeard’s inability to save Izzy meant that there was simply no more reason for him to be a pirate anymore. Who was he doing it for? What more did he have to prove?

Regardless of the narrative reasons why Izzy Hands died, I was devastated. Did it make sense in the context of the show? Yes. Was it a deeply moving and incredibly well-acted moment? Also yes. Was his death made all the more affective because of how Izzy had been ingratiated, accepted, trusted, and even, at points, loved by his crew? Absolutely. So, of course I teared up a little.

Jenkins looked slightly sad himself, saying that “Ghosts exist in this world.” I told him not to make promises he couldn’t keep. At this point such a comment feels like it was made to make me, personally, feel better. I’m not sure Izzy could make a return at some point, nothing is certain about Our Flag Means Death’s future right now. It almost feels like Jenkins feels bad that he made me sad. I don’t know if he realizes how sad he’s going to make a lot of people.

This isn’t going to be an interview entirely about Izzy Hands, but he’s a big part of it—after all, his death is arguably one of the show’s biggest shocks yet. Looking back at Izzy’s arc over the two seasons, Jenkins said that he doesn’t see Izzy as a pure antagonist in season one because on some level… Izzy was right in his hesitations about Stede. “His boss is falling for this manic pixie dream girl, and he’s got to keep his boss safe because that’s his job,” Jenkins explains. “And then he has to get this ship to operate like a normal ship would operate. And they’re all weirdos. So he’s got the worst middle management position. And on top of that, his boss is a lunatic.”

Towards the end of season one, Izzy does have a turn away from ‘reasonably upset at Blackbeard’ to ‘serious antagonistic force’. But when he gets what he wanted–Blackbeard back to legendary form–it doesn’t really work out. “Be careful what you ask your God for, because you just might get it,” Jenkins warned. “Izzy gets it and it turns on him. That toxic relationship that he wished were all his, becomes all his… he’s crushed by it, and both he and Blackbeard both have to rebuild themselves.”

In Izzy’s case, the rebuilding is quite literal–his leg is amputated and replaced with a wooden prosthetic, carved from the unicorn figurehead of the Revenge. After this, he has to go through a transformation, Jenkins said he has to ask himself “What am I going to do with myself? You know, who am I going to be? After [the crew] makes him the Unicorn leg, I think he kind of sees like, ‘oh, this crew cares for me’. And I don’t think he’s ever felt cared for in that way.”

This season also saw a lot of Izzy interacting with Stede, often in more fun situations than the snipes back and forth in the first season. When asked about how Con O’Neill and Rhys Darby got along on set, Jenkins just laughed. “I really love building a show with really funny actors and then really serious actors. And the funny people are usually scared of the real serious people. And the real serious people are scared of the funny people. They terrify each other.”

For those that might not know, Darby is a stand up comedian and has been in many of Waititi’s darkly comic films. O’Neill, on the other hand, has been taking dramatic roles since his twenties, and has recently appeared in productions like The Batman and Chernobyl. “I think from the beginning people saw Con and were like, ‘Oh, man, I got to be like, really have to be in my game’,” Jenkins said, imitating Taika Waititi’s lilting Kiwi accent. “And then Con was like, ‘Oh, I don’t know what he’s doing, he saying I should just follow along with the improvisations’—” again, imitating O’Neill’s raspy drawl. “And then they’re both so good that by the end of the season they’re not scaring each other as much. But that admiration remains, and I think that was very much true between Rhys and Con.”

The decision to have Izzy die wasn’t one that Jenkins took lightly. “It was hard. It was hard to kill off Izzy. It was hard to tell Con that he was going to die. And he was so lovely about it. But, at the same time, he took it hard,” Jenkins said. “Like this thing we built together is going to die. It’s one thing to write it, it’s another thing to produce it, and to see Con carry that knowledge through the episodes, knowing what was going to happen to that character. Con took it really seriously.”

Jenkins also thinks that Izzy was able to say exactly what he needed to at the end of the show. “I think he gives his own eulogy. It’s about belonging to something. And that we do this for each other, you know? He came to view piracy as a thing we do for one another. And being on a crew is something you do for each other… he gets to a place where he eventually sees that it works because everybody is helping each other. Everybody cares for each other, and there needs to be some structure, but for him, it became less about dominance and more about belonging to something.”

The final shot of the season is actually Izzy’s grave, outside of Ed and Stede’s cottage. “I think him being buried near them is a lovely image,” he said. “And there’s a reason that that happened. I think they both were sad to see their friend go. And I think they’re both thinking, ‘let’s make this work not just for us, but in memory of Izzy’.”

One of the prevalent rumors about Our Flag Means Death this season was that it was originally supposed to be 10 episodes rather than 8. But Jenkins says no; it was always going to be 8. They were looking for ways to cut budget, and moving the production to New Zealand and cutting down the episodes really helped with the bottom line, as well as being better for the cast and crew. “It takes so much to make one episode happen. Every department is strung out by the time you get to the end of the season,” he explained.

“The story of Stede and Blackbeard is a three-season story,” Jenkins said, looking ahead to where the show could go from here. When asked if the ending of season two–Frenchie taking over as Captain of the Revenge, Stede and Ed in a shack on the beach, preparing to open their inn, and Izzy Hands buried in front of their home–was a kind of “safeguard” in case the series didn’t get that third season, Jenkins shrugged. “In a way,” he said. “The first season ends on such a downer, so it made sense to end the second season in a kinder spot.”

But he says that he “still has questions” about what happens next. The Republic of Pirates has been destroyed, Izzy’s killer is still out there, and does Frenchie have what it takes to captain a pirate crew? Our Flag Means Death is not a complete story yet. “I think there’s plenty of story left for season three, but I think that it was important to end this as if it was the end of the show, and on upbeat note and avoid the kind of “kill your gays” trope. I don’t want to see Steve and Ed punished for giving it a go. I want to see them really say, ‘yeah, we’re going to we’re going to try to have a relationship’.”

When asked how he would approach the third season , Jenkins thought about it for a few seconds before answering. “I would very much like to see pirates come to America. Historically, they were in New York City and the Carolinas. And now, in the story, the Republic of Pirates is gone… I think that stories about piracy are a little bit like stories about the West. They’re stories about these things that are going to end inevitably,” he said this sadly, like the inevitability comes from looking back on the past and thinking the present couldn’t come out any other way. It’s a bit of a eulogy. “In some ways, I think then seeing them have to deal with some of these things in a country that’s coming together would be good. And I think it would be a good way to end the season, and see how they adjust to it.”

The final scene with Izzy and Blackbeard is incredibly, desperately sad, and clearly required a lot from both O’Neill and Waititi in the moment. “When Izzy died, I said, ‘Would you like to play music on set?’” Jenkins recalled. “ He went ‘Yeah’. And so I made an Izzy Death playlist and put it on during the takes.”

This is the second time I have been teased with an Our Flag Means Death playlist. The first time was from music supervisor Maggie Phillips after the first season had ended. I had to ask for this playlist, but Jenkins didn’t want to share. He mentioned Carole King, implying that “Bitter with the Sweet” was played. I was not doing well with this information, especially after I put my face in my hands. He tried, once again, to console me but I was lost in my Izzy Hands feelings. Maybe taking the good with the bad was personal advice. Or, more honestly, I just think he felt a little sad too.

#our flag means death season 2 #ofmd s2 #ofmd s2 spoilers #spoiler #our flag means death #ofmd #david jenkins #intérview #gizmodo

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korkiekenobiconfirmed · 10 months

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I'm on a roll with the s/j/m hatred tn so I'm going to compile a masterlist of all her shitty lgbt/poc representation and why it sucks booty cheeks. it should be noted that none of this is meant as shade on any of the characters themselves... I actually happen to like quite a lot of them

EDIT: there are some nice additions to this post in the notes you can check out

LGBT rep

Aedion (Bi/Pan)

Literally known as “Adarlan’s Whore” (a nickname that references both his allegiance to the king and his tendency to sleep around)

His only same-sex relationship is with a vaguely-mentioned unnamed lover from the past (it’s not even said straight-up that they’re a man, but I’m assuming they are bc they’re mentioned to be a commander of the Bane)

He’s shown being attracted to women and only women for two and a half books. He’s a womanizer retconned into the slutty bisexual stereotype

His liking men & women is compared to prostitution

It’s insinuated in koa that he slept with an ex while he and Lysandra were fighting (because the cheating bisexual trope is such a new & creative one!)

Helion (Bi/Pan)

He’s always trying to have 4somes with three of the main characters

Realistically he’s probably one of the most powerful/interesting High Lords but this gets sidelined in favor of him flirting with eVeRyOnE

All we really know about him is his name and the fact that he’s a bit of a manwhore… very 2-dimensional

He has an affair & a child with a married woman… just the Slutty/Cheating Bisexual Trope (Volume 2) :/

Mor (Lesbian? Possibly bi?)

She’s never shown in any real relationships (with men or women)

She had tragic off-screen relationship with a mortal queen a few hundred years ago

We get literally no hints that she’s gay throughout the series, she just randomly mentions she likes women at the end of book 3

She gets no happy relationship, she stays closeted to spare Az’s feelings (as though he’s not a grown ass man), she’s retconned into her sexuality most of the way through the series… just shitty shitty rep all around

Hasar (Lesbian)

She’s a villain, and a shitty one at that

Lesbian rep from a side character in one novella that half the fandom didn’t read? What’s even the point?

Thesan (Gay)

A very minor character & his unnamed “lover” who serve no narrative purpose whatsoever… thanks for nothing sarah

Emrys & Malachai (Presumably gay)

Oh look! More minor, background mlm that might as well not exist for all they do for the story :/

They are cute though, I’ll give them that

POC rep

Nehemia

First (and only) black main in ToG

She dies to fuel the white protag’s character arc… a very tired trope

She was actually a pretty well-written, likable character up until her brutal murder, which made it that much worse to hear about her organs strewn all over the room

Sorscha

Described as “plain” (particularly in contrast to the white women like Aelin & Lysandra)

We know she’s POC because of where she’s from, but the way her features are described suggest she could still be white

Dark hair, gold eyes, “tan” skin

She really just fawns over white-boy Dorian every 2 seconds before dying a violent death to fuel Dorian’s arc…

…Aaaand I’m sensing a pattern here

Nesryn

Much of her character (especially in QoS) is reduced to her beefing with Aelin (and thus being villanized by the narrative) because of jealousy over Chaol

Simply described as having “tan” skin (again). I think sarah is allergic to calling people brown

She is also described as plain compared to white protagonist

She has a (presumably middle eastern) family that only wants her to stay home and be a baker/someone’s wife

Yrene

Once again very racially ambiguous to the point where she could even be white, with “tan/golden” skin, golden hair, and golden eyes

She almost immediately ties her literal life force to a white man she hated like a month ago. Seriously, can WOC not fawn over a hunky white man for once?

She defeats erawan in the end — considering she’s been a character for such a short time, this just feels more like a deus ex machina the anything really set up by the plot

Helion

Not going to fully rehash what I said above but generally… he has great potential, but is basically not a character

Tarquin

He’s portrayed as very nice and reasonable, if young and naive, yet he literally only exists to get manipulated/robbed by the main characters

He seems like such a sweetheart. He deserved much better than Riceman and Feyrug doing him dirty like that

I’ve heard rumors of a High King/Queen F*ysand plotline in later books…if that happens, Tarquin will likely be bending the knee and forgiving the people who fucked him over just a short time ago

Lucien

He’s described as very caring and loyal (yay!) which seems to always get him taken advantage of (damn!)

He’s portrayed (especially in ACOWAR) as someone we’re supposed to dislike when all his actions are perfectly reasonable

He’s literally retconned out of being white when it’s revealed Helion is his father instead of Beron. I’ve seen ppl get mad at “white-washed” fan art but it’s hard to expect much else when his original character description was straight red hair, amber eyes, and “tan” skin (holy shit agAIN)

The people of the White Fangs from TOG

They’re described as having black hair, black eyes, and “tan” skin

They live isolated in the mountains (away from civilization) and are described as “savage” and warlike, always raiding villages in the mountains and stealing women away from their homes…

Cain, who’s from these people, dabbles in dark magic/religion nobody else understands

This is feeling, intentional or not, like a horrible Native American caricature. Idk maybe that’s just me

#anti sjm #anti acotar #anti tog

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azems-familiar · 1 year

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any thoughts on Cal's embracing the darkness? specifically...darkside!cal/bode.....👀

oh BOY do i have thoughts, actually. for both of these. i'm actually currently working on a fic (sitting at a little over 5k and probably going to be ~10k when it's done) which goes AU on Nova Garon and involves Cal fighting Bode there.

thoughts on Cal falling in general: yes, absolutely, i am so here for it, i love corruption arcs and i feel like this one is really well-built. from the beginning of the game we see how he's been struggling, how he's gotten darker and darker over the gap - he no longer reaches out to Ninth Sister (that it's time to set you free line right before he murders the shit out of her made me GASP), he's been working with Saw (who we know to use a lot of unsavory methods to the point that it got him disowned from the greater rebel alliance), he's been alone (which he never handles well At All). he consistently chooses to fight even when he shouldn't, he's not letting go of anything, he's gotten desperate. it makes sense. to me, Cal is the kind of person who pretends he's fine until he absolutely cannot anymore, whether that's hiding injuries or willfully refusing to realize he can't cope with things emotionally, and i feel like that's fairly well supported by the fact that the rest of the found family has each gone their own ways because they needed to make strides forward for themselves they couldn't while they were with him, no matter how much they love him, and because they can't help him until/unless he wants to be helped.

Cal also doesn't handle betrayal well, on top of Cere's death being the second time he's lost a master. to me, it's no surprise that he completely snaps on Jedha, and i think his fall is reinforced by a) the massacre on Nova Garon b) the fact that he outright refuses to listen to/understand Bode. Cal i think has a very black and white worldview due to his trauma and his youth in which he sees the Empire as a monolith and puts the crimes of the Empire onto every single person who serves it, and he struggles to understand why people would give in rather than choose to fight. i think we spend the game with him watching him run more and more on anger against the Empire as well as his desperation for Tanalorr, and that anger becomes more and more selfish until we get the snap on Jedha. honestly i think with the way the early game was written, even if Cere hadn't died, he would've still fallen, just possibly not when he did. it's been building up to that.

(i also love redemption arcs, i will say, but for a truly satisfying redemption arc you have to hit rock bottom first, and i want to push Cal there.)

in terms of fallen!Cal/Bode - also very much for this. part of this is just because i think the two of them killing people as fallen Jedi together is attractive and also what they deserve <3 but honestly narratively i think it just... works. mostly we'd just need Cal to work through his anger at the betrayal and actually properly understand why Bode did what he did (which is what i'm working on in the oneshot i'm writing), and to find a solution for everything that assuages Bode's paranoia. i do also think that with time, Bode could be convinced to return to fighting the Empire, especially if he knew Kata would be safe while he did it, but he's been through a lot and he's not there yet. but it's very clear that he doesn't like the Empire (only working with the ISB because he sees it as the only way to keep Kata safe), and i think it's also quite clear that he cares a great deal about Cal and didn't want to betray him at the point he did, but that he saw it as a choice between Cal's safety and Kata's safety and the latter had to be his highest priority. i absolutely don't think he'd find fallen!Cal any kind of turn-off, let's be real here, and honestly it's a dynamic i want to explore more of, maybe in AUs or something? i'm tossing around an inquisitor!Bode enemies to lovers au concept that might eventually turn into a fic at some point...

i may have gone slightly off topic here. anyway my thoughts on these are Yes, Yes, and More Yes, also i will go into an explanation of why i think Cal is actually fallen and not just struggling if people want. and also my final thought is that the Dagan parallel in this game is actually Cal and i will expand on this if asked to

#asked and answered #jedi survivor #cal kestis #bode akuna #spyscrapper #i got this ask and was like GREAT time to ramble #hopefully this is not too long and comes close to answering you. unfortunately i tend to wander off #unless i'm given specifics and even then sometimes. it's the adhd

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petruchio · 7 months

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kind of the follow up to my original glee theory of season 1 as the story of will schuester but this is my theory of the moment glee truly died being when finn kisses emma:

If season 1 is Mr. Schue’s story of self actualization, that in itself is a smaller arc in the story of Rachel’s — which encompasses the whole of seasons 1-3. Rachel needs to learn humility, and she does. It’s the only way she gets into her college — she learns she can and will fail, and only then does she get what she wants. It’s the lesson the whole show is trying to teach her. The same as the “lessons” Mr schue teaches in the glee club. They all compound to show Rachel that vulnerability and humility are just as essential to her success as the brazen confidence we see in the girl we meet at the start of the show.

We explore Rachel’s self actualization most through the way she interacts with other characters. For example, she learns not to underestimate other people via Mercedes. She learns to treat others with professional respect and finds how to have a partner rather than a rival through Kurt. But all those lessons pale in comparison to the most crucial and significant of her relationships on the show: Finn. Her changing relationship with Finn is easily the most central to her development. In the beginning, she wants him because it “looks right.” He’s in the football team, dating the cheerleader, etc.: he’s the perfect high school love story. But as the show goes on, and she gets to know him, she uncovers a lot of his flaws and insecurities. Finn isn’t the perfect guy she’s imagined him to be, but he’s real. She takes him off the pedestal she’s built and learns to love the real him. She’ll have to learn this lesson for all her dreams. New York isn't the magical place she thought it was — they go to nationals there in season 2 and don’t win. She bombs her NYADA audition, potentially losing her shot at her dream. What Rachel is learning over the course of the show is that she has to reframe her thinking about all these dreams. What makes her a whole and complete character is that she does this in every aspect of her life. And interpersonally, we see it in how she interacts with Finn. So, it’s natural that at the end of her arc, at the end of the third season, at the end of her development from maniacally overbearing loner to cool popular and well-loved star, it’s Finn who sends her off. Her song, Roots before Branches, sums up the last three seasons: those were her roots. Now, the viewer might imagine, this star is off the grow her branches.

It’s a fitting ending for the three arc story of Glee. Season 1 showed us Will’s development, but the second two seasons show us Rachel’s. Will learns how to be a better teacher, then the show shows us the impact of that development by showing us his impact on his star student.

The only problem with that? The show didn’t end there.

But what do you do with Finn now? He’s already served his purpose in the narrative you thought you were building. Rachel HAS self-actualized, in large part thanks to Finn. But the final step in that self-actualization was letting him go. So how do you keep the show going?

Do you follow Rachel to New York? Follow her arc as she comes a star? Or do you stick to the glee club back home and try out another character to follow as she comes of age? Both seem like winning formulas — the audience is already attached to Rachel and invested in her growth, so that story will keep them watching. And the self-actualization of another young high schooler has proved to be a winning formula before, so it follows that we might as well stick to it. The show would have been better off choosing one of these avenues. Instead, it clumsily attempts to do both at the same time with one glaring issue.

They have to keep Finn on the show. At this point, he’s too famous to be fired and his character too beloved to be cut. But what can he do? He’s already served his purpose. Rachel let him go. How do you justify keeping his character in the story?

You can’t have him follow Rachel without undoing all the development of the last three seasons. So, your only choice is to drag him into the new glee club plot line. But you can’t keep him there indefinitely — he can’t become the next Will without going to college or getting an actual teachers license, but that would take him out of this plot, and you can’t justify a third simultaneous plot line for the show. So you spin your wheels, throwing all of HIS character development away, until you’ve ruined the character so much that the only thing you can think to do to justify keeping him on the show is to have him kiss his former teacher’s wife. And that’s where Glee truly and finally crumbles. And it will never again recover.

#caroline speaks #long thoughts #glee #someone needs to take my edibles away from me when glee is involved honestly

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bro-ken-spoon · 5 months

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My Wild, Off-The-Wall Doctor Who Theory

Okay, so. I've got a 60th special theory. It's very probably wrong. But I'm posting it here just in case it isn't.

What if the Doctor really, actually, for real dies. The Doctor is dead. But Donna regenerates.

I know, I know, I know, hear me out.

First, from a behind the scenes standpoint. The Doctor Who marketing team has been leaning pretty heavily into the concept of regeneration. They did an hour long Youtube livestream with all of the Doctors regenerations, and everyone on the marketing team seems to be trying to ensure that everyone in familiar with the concept. Now, this could be to prepare us for why Fourteen regenerated the way he did, but it also could be that the next Doctor isn't techniclaly Fifteen. Except, one point against me, I think his theme is actually going to be called “Fifteen” so that’s maybe an indicator that I’m dead wrong, but I’m having fun with my crack theory. So anyway, Davies both hasn’t called Gatwa Fifteen *and* in a recent interview for SFX Magazine, he said that he’s going to be calling Gatwa’s first season “series one” which is. So wild. He’s starting all the way over. And that’s so funny to me. So, from a technical standpoint, there’s not much to suggest that this couldn’t happen. It’s not likely, but it could.

Second, from an in-show standpoint. What sci-fi mumbo jumbo could make this possible? Well I’m glad you asked. SO, Donna’s last episode, Journey’s End. Ten gets shot by a Dalek and is brought inside the TARDIS, where he thinks he’s going to regenerate. But, last minute, he puts all of his regeneration energy into his severed hand. Later on, as the TARDIS is crashing, Donna, who's been hearing a heartbeat, reaches out for the severed hand. There's definitely an energy transfer there, and it does end up creating TenToo, who is almost like a mix of Ten and Donna (The DoctorDonna.) And at the same time, Donna gets some attributes of the Doctor as well. Mainly, we see that she now knows pretty much everything the Doctor knows. And of course, this is what's killing her. But what if she got other attributes of the Doctor as well?

When Ten is leaving Rose on the beach for the second time, TenToo tells her that he'll grow old with her and that he "can't regenerate." And listen. I'm not saying that all of the Doctor's attributes *had* to be split evenly between TenToo and Donna during the metacrisis. That might not be how that works. But if it did....that would mean Donna got the regeneration aspects. It doesn't make that much sense, but it's not out of the realm of something that could happen in Doctor Who. Honestly just this part (and not the Doctor also dying and Donna becoming Gatwa) makes more sense. However, the only line of dialogue we currently have from Gatwa is him saying "Is anyone going to tell me what the hell is going on?" which is a very Donna thing to say, and I just think that would be so neat. The Doctor definitely could've also said that. Especially since he does seem to be wearing Tennant's new suit (just deconstructed) but I would just be so interested in the implications of it.

Now, obviously, we have to contend with fan reaction. People would absolutely hate this. He is The Doctor, yknow. He's a British pop culture icon. He's been around for 60 years. But Davies was best, at least in New Who, at giving the Doctor well-rounded character traits. He had a character arc that he went on that went mostly ignored during the 11th, 12th, and 13th Doctors in favor of different arcs because that's kind of the nature of Doctor Who. But he's also been around 60 years, and the character just keeps getting older and older. Even Tennant's Doctor, three Doctors ago, was constantly talking about how old he felt, how tired he was. There are places you can go from there, Twelve attempted to a little bit, but he's just going to keep getting older and going through more things and at some point, especially 60 years on, that could get narratively stagnant. But what if there was a way to keep "The Doctor" without keeping the same character. They could even be called The Doctor after having dropped the Donna part from "The Doctor Donna." It would switch it up, be interesting, go new places (like, maybe an "I'm the last of the Time Lords but do I even count as a Time Lord?" arc, that'd be fun.) And also, watching the incarnation of the Doctor who famously "didn't want to go" accept his death. And a reminder that it's David Tennant, who would be the best choice to end the Doctor on, if they ever were going to do that. British people and hardcore fans might hate it, but I'd kind of love it. I've also seen the theory that Rose Temple-Noble could regenerate as well, as a result of the same process, and that's also interesting but I don't really have a narrative idea of where that's going.

Anyways this is probably all a load of horse shit but it's just wild enough that I'm having fun feeling like a conspiracy theorist about it. Thanks for reading!

#doctor who #doctor who 60th anniversary #theory posting

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wackybuddiemewbs · 2 years

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Some spec on who's to live and to die on next season's 9-1-1 no one asked for...

Note: This will be long, in not the fun way, most likely. This won't be pretty. Or coherent. Or deep. Or a hot take. But the cringe's never stopped me. So yeah. Let's get this over with, right? Cool. Cool.

With the recently released trailer (obsession overload since then!), I've seen a lot of interesting convo and thought pieces on whether the person Buck is supposedly losing out in the field is “just” a stranger or someone they actually know.

And while my prediction game is shit, I have my money on either Captain Mehta or Lucy at this point, in the event that it is indeed someone they know.

Here's why I think that might be the case:

It'd make narrative sense for it being either of the two. It'd forward the plot overall and wouldn't contradict where their characters are at present.

It'd serve to further progress Buck's and Eddie's characters in their individual and shared arcs.

It'd be in-tune with the reactions we see from Buck and Eddie in the trailer.

So let's start with the latter, and that is how Buck and Eddie are portrayed to react to the death of the person, granted that those are *not* two separate scenes and some funny editing for the trailer.

If this was, suppose, Taylor Kelly, I don't believe Eddie would be stoically crossing himself, not with Buck right next to him as he's losing that person. He'd be more visibly upset – for Buck's sake already, right? Coz that'd be his ex right there.

Like, sure, Eddie tends to keep his cool (unless he buys suits and feels baby-trapped without a baby, just many, many salads and muffins). But he's had a relationship with Taylor that was at least friendly enough. Even if they weren't ever BFFs, I don't think he'd be this stoic about her passing. He may keep a straight face for Buck, but then the gesture wouldn't fit. He would be more focused on offering Buck comfort than cross himself, when there's nothing in the narrative that'd suggest Taylor to be overtly religious or him feeling the need to pay some kind of tribute to her by crossing himself.

Though the crossing *does* have me sold on the idea that it is “one of their own”, but someone who's distant enough for Eddie to *not* start crying or showing a strong emotional reaction right there. Say, if this was Bobby, you bet we'd see a different reaction. More so since he's in therapy now and learns to talk about his feelings.

So that leaves either people Eddie hasn't gotten to know at all that well on the 118 or someone from another team. And that'd leave three candidates from the established ensemble that we got to know:

Ravi

Lucy

Captain Mehta

Ravi and Lucy are new members of the 118, which means they'd fit the aforementioned conditions.

So let's start out with Ravi.

Ravi's character was further developed during Eddie's leave from the LAFD, but Eddie's been shown around him before. They weren't BFFs necessarily, but it is implied that they were friendly and that they spent a lot of time together on the job, as one does when you work for the fire department, right? So Eddie just doing the stoic crossing after someone he knows not just as a colleague died? I find it kind of hard to believe, personally. Also, if we take into account that he knows Buck is next to him, who's known him even more? Even harder to believe for me that this is what he'd go for.

Second question we'd have to ask ourselves in that context: What narrative purpose would it serve – for Ravi, and for Buck and Eddie? And that's where I draw a blank when it comes to Ravi.

First, Ravi's come more into his own as a character with his own arc, his past, his wishes, his personality. What purpose would the build-up have, only to toss him under the bus (blimp) now that they created more opportunity to progress his character?

Second, if this death is supposed to be a catalyst for Buck and Eddie, then what purpose does Ravi's death have that is specific to *them*? Other than being “one of their own”?

It'd potentially have more impact (emotionally, theatrically, etc.) for Hen to lose Ravi. Because they have had a lot of those heart-to-heart scenes in the past season. Buck losing him would be devastating, surely, but it wouldn't be specific to what may be bubbling underneath Buck's surface this whole time. That he's tried his best to fix things and be fine – which is what I take to be the focal point of that arc, should they go for it that they want to portray him spiraling following the events.

So that rules out Ravi for me, really.

So what of Lucy?

Lucy would make a lot more sense. Her death would be much closer geared to the reactions we see from Buck and Eddie, for instance.

Eddie doesn't know Lucy that well as of now, as far as we, the audience, know. She was introduced in his absence. And it may well be that Buck didn't really talk about her because of the whole kissing thing and his relationship troubles with Taylor. And Eddie's own issues. And just about everything else going on at the time (also great way to highlight lacking communication, am I right?).

So Eddie being more stoic and “paying a bit of a tribute” to a colleague by crossing himself would be a more natural reaction, granted that he'd think that Buck is on a similar level of knowing her. It wouldn't be out of place, and it'd leave room for Buck to freak and Eddie going on ahead to comfort him then. And it'd give an opening for a conversation, as Eddie might see that Buck's not been talking about himself recently, and he doesn't know what's going on with him.

So what would be the narrative purpose her death might serve to her own arc?

Again, more than I'd think Ravi's death might server to his.

While she has been explored some in the past season, we haven't seen as much of her as we've seen of him. So if she were to go, it would be devastating, since we got to know her, but it's not like we would see a lot of loose strings about her character. It would be about a good person, a great co-worker, being taken out of her life. So that would not pose a contradiction to where they left her character last season, developmentwise.

On another note, I don't know if there might be something to be said about filming logistics. If I remember correctly, the actress won't feature much (at all? Please don't quote me on this!) due to another role she's landed. So maybe “writing her out” would be convenient. But let's cast that aside for the moment, because that's not narrative-related spec.

What narrative sense would it make for her character to die, then? To reiterate, it would be devastating for sure. We see a good person and teammate, someone who's funny and confident, a trained and capable firefighter, who's just taken away from us. Because that's what can happen. A cautionary tale that none of them are ever truly safe, no matter how tight you work together as a team, and no matter how tough your plot armor may seem.

Hehe. It rhymed.

But that'd apply to any firefighter or police officer dying in the field, too. So that wouldn't be specific to *her character* or to the characters who can't save her.

And the closest would be Buck, right?

For one, after the awkward... beginnings... she and Buck progressed in their friendship already in the past season. Buck offered her an outlook, shared in his past when she was brooding about losing someone, etc.

That might be foreshadowing, or her running out of dumb luck, if you catch my drift.

For her own character, it'd mean she might die as she lived. Risking her life, not looking back, not hesitating to help people. It may mean she'd see her own purpose fulfilled and dies not happily, but without regrets, really, which would hit that bittersweet spot very well. If we get some personal revelation preceding the call, it might also be adjusted to something about her past that we don't yet know about her. Say, her saving someone who'd reflect on a past regret of hers (be it about the life she may have lived instead or whatever else). And the conclusion of her death being later on that the team reckons with the fact that she is gone, but that her death didn't mean as much as the life she's lived. And that she seemed at ease where her life ended, how it ended, because she served the purpose she's chosen for herself. That kind of thing.

While we have only caught glimpses of her character thus far, that might be just the narrative upshot on a more general level. That it is someone we've only just gotten to know, someone the team only got to know recently. And then she's gone. Ripped out of her life. Out of theirs. And they don't even know who to call, that kind of thing. Which would also be tough on Buck especially, maybe even a callback to Red, in the sense of not being remembered. But that might be a bit of a stretch.

What I find specific to her character is the function it serves to Buck's character. And that is that she is introduced as a mirror for Buck, as a way to look at himself. When he looks at her, he sees a part of himself. Not just the daredevil kind of tendencies that he may even enjoy about himself, the risk-taking, the liveliness. Because that is what the kiss has always felt like to me: a way for Buck to embrace (kiss, reconnect with) a part of his old self, the one that was feeling alive, that didn't feel sad and inadequate in helping (fixing) the people he loves (Maddie, Chim, Eddie). Things didn't turn out that way for him once he sobered up, but I think the want for it remained. And that's what her death might well bring back to the surface.

In that same way, he might see “his own future” through her, as someone who's been around longer and still features that kind of personality that's close to his. The part of himself he embraced dies in his own arms. Which would leave him to figure out how he can still be the one to get away, if you catch my drift a second time. How he can bypass ending up where she ended up. How he can prevent his future from the loss of more people close to him.

If this is in any way preceded by some last-ditch effort by her to save someone else at the risk of her own life, it'd fit oh too well. Because that would be like forcing Buck to watch himself doing a rescue and failing. It'd force him to look from down there as he climbs a crane, at the risk of being shot by a sniper. It'd force him to look at himself through the eyes of the people around him – and how it'd feel like to lose him (her). He'd find himself standing on the other side, looking in, and being unable to do anything about it. Like the people around him must have felt before, watching him put his own life at risk.

And that may well edge him closer to the breaking point.

So the metaphor of losing someone out there in the field while losing himself in the aftermath... that would make a lot of narrative sense for me. It'd give room for his character to progress. If they are going to have Buck unravel, that sure would present a great opening.

It'd also fit in with Buck feeling immense guilt of not having saved someone. Even if he may have understood by now that he saved Eddie by crawling under that truck and getting to him. If he can't get to Lucy in time in the crowd or whatever else, his guilt will be overwhelming. And it may inspire him to go back to some of his old coping mechanisms. Even though Eddie slammed it into him that he is not expendable, Buck losing someone like Lucy, having been unable to do anything about her death, may prompt him to go back to his old habits to feel alive. To feel something, anything, that's not this kind of all-consuming guilt.

Because even if we make progress emotionally, we sometimes have setbacks, and we have to start over. So Buck trying to help fix things for Eddie leading to Eddie helping Buck to put himself back together in the aftermath (even without the Buddie goggles)... That seems like a plot point naturally flowing from that idea of trauma coming back in waves. And how you have to tackle it time and time again. Together.

It'd certainly open up an opportunity for Buck and Eddie to address the will, which still feels like Chekhov's gun here, just like the overdue talk about how the shooting affected Buck and Eddie, both individually and together.

We've gotten bits and pieces last season, with Buck giving an opening when they are at equine therapy and addresses the shooting at least. But they did not, in any way, on-screen, talk about how the shooting affected them emotionally. How it affected and traumatized them together. He just stated that this got him thinking about it. But not *what* he felt during the shooting, or after, or how he feels about it even now.

So, to sum up, Lucy is a viable opportunity, from a narrative standpoint. Her character would progress Buck's arc immensely, if that is the route they are taking. And if her character's upshot is to be the mirror, the glimpse into Buck's future, to inspire change, that'd fit and not have her character “go for nothing”.

And then we have Captain Mehta.

To me, if the Chekhov's gun that's supposed to go off in season 6a is the shooting and its aftermath, then that guy's death would be a perfect catalyst for it.

Again, it'd fit with Buck's and Eddie's reaction as we've seen so far in the trailer. Eddie may not remember as much of the shooting itself as Buck does. So to Eddie, Captain Mehta might just be someone who was also there when it happened. Eddie will certainly have heard that he helped get him to safety, which would fit with him crossing himself stoically and seemingly wanting to pay his tribute in some way. And it may well be that he does not comprehend how much of a trigger that man may grow to be for Buck, or rather, how much his death might be. Because he doesn't remember what happened immediately after he was shot.

What narrative purpose would Captain Mehta's death then serve?

Well, we haven't gotten to know him much. If it is so to happen, we might get some personal info right before he dies (similar to Claudette – they dug into her character some more to make it *mean* something when she died). Like, he's about to have a child or whatever else. And then disaster strikes. Tomorrow isn't promised to anyone, you catch my drift again, I hope.

So him dying would be sad, but more of a catalyst for other characters, namely Buck and Eddie. It would be less about concluding things for a character and bring his arc to an end. His death would trigger a situation, start a conflict, if you will.

With Lucy, I struggle a bit on that, since they developed her as a character in her own right. Sure, maybe that's supposed to be it, to make it hurt even more, as I mentioned before. And that's where I'm struggling on what the show might opt for. Captain Mehta's death would be more on the side of “this character was primed as a catalyst for other characters later on, which is why we didn't develop his character in greater detail before”.

If Captain Mehta is supposed to die, it's his death and his role in the shooting that would serve the narrative purpose. That would make Chekhov's gun about the shooting go off most likely – and may then lead to others going off as well. But that'd be the most obvious connection to Buck and to Eddie – the shooting.

This, again, could lead to a conversation about the will. But it doesn't necessarily have to. Yet. What it would provide in both cases is an impact on both Buck's and Eddie's characters. Because it is something they have not discussed, have not really moved past yet (and never really will, less so if they just try to move on from it without talking about its impact on their lives and emotions).

If it is supposed to be Lucy, it'd seem more likely to me that the narrative upshot is her relation to Buck, being a mirror to him. That would make Chekhov's gun about Buck's unraveling or confronting him with where he might end up if he continues with his tendencies.

That scenario may open up a conversation about the will, if we further assume that Buck will get himself into danger to save Chim during the car chase (Buck and those bicycles...). Like, a scenario where Eddie calls him out for being this reckless along the lines of "Did you think about what that would do to Christopher? You remember you're his legal guardian?" and everyone else goes 👀👀👀 (which is a fanfic trope they can pry from my cold dead hands). That'd make the shooting perhaps a topic to be discussed, but it wouldn't be the initial, focal point.

What that scenario doesn't provide as much is the impact it'd have on Eddie personally. Yes, it'd affect him to see Buck spiraling. And if we get some talk about the will, we might, but not about the shooting itself. Which is a narrative path that may work all the same. It's just a question of when to address which conflicts or loose threads.

Which is why I am so torn on whether it'd be Lucy or Captain Mehta in this scenario. To me, it really boils down to what plot points the writers wish to hit WHEN. Lucy's death could get them the same plot points covered as Captain Mehta's death might (shooting, will, Buck unraveling). It just depends on what they wanna go for first.

If Lucy is meant to go, it feels like Buck unraveling would be first, which might give an opening to the will. And perhaps the shooting. But the shooting would only ever flow from Buck's unraveling, which may force Eddie to step in and force the overdue conversation.

If Captain Mehta is meant to go, the starting point would have to be his role in the shooting. So Buck unraveling would be in relation to it, the catalyst, but the shooting would be the focal point from which all other plot points flow. The will can turn up in that same context, but doesn't necessarily have to.

To come back to my initial 3 points (again in reverse order):

Both would fit from the limited information we have from the trailer, i.e. Buck's and Eddie's reactions to the person's death.

Buck and Eddie would be given opportunity to progress individually and together in both instances. If Lucy dies, it'd start out with Buck likely unraveling in some shape or form, seeing a life he could have lived pass, being unable to save that part of himself. And Eddie would see him spiraling and finding himself having to step in. Which may force the conversation about the shooting and/or the will. If Captain Mehta dies, the focal point would be their shared trauma of the shooting that they'd finally have to address. Buck's unraveling would then be the catalyst for Eddie to realize that he has to talk about it to Buck to help him “fix” things again. In both instances, it would facilitate Buddie progression (if I may put those goggles on for a second here), to force them into the realization how much they care, need, and love each other.

Both would make narrative sense. It'd drive the plot along for the 118, losing one of their own, and how that'd affect them as a team and as individuals. Either seeing people being ripped out of their lives despite being so experienced, or to highlight that tomorrow isn't promised to anyone. Even someone the audience got to know a lot more personally may go. Because that is what happens in their line of work. And finding ways to move on from there, hitting the bittersweet spot about someone having followed her heart – even if that meant to her own death.

Last but not least... the Buddie goggles.

Because you did not expect that I could keep them off towards the finale of this way too long, verbose post, right?

Even with the Buddie goggles on, both Lucy and Captain Mehta make as much sense within that arc, if that is what the writers are (finally) going for this season.

Eddie hasn't seen Buck lose someone who's close to him (Maddie was gone temporarily, the others were people they haven't had a personal connection to). If they lose either of those characters, Eddie will see Buck's devastation over losing someone close to him first-hand for the very first time, I believe.

And now as friend or future love interest, he'd want to be there for Buck, more so if Buck starts spiraling in the aftermath. Because Buck's been there in the room with him, and you bet he'd do the same for him in a heartbeat.

I think we've talked a lot about how Eddie hasn't seen Buck's reaction to him being buried alive, and we may never really get there, but that might be the twist in that arc: Eddie would get to see real-time, unfiltered, what Buck is like when he loses someone close to him. How Buck was like when he thought he'd lost Eddie. When Buck completely loses his professional cool that he was able to keep while Eddie himself was spiraling (see Eddie finding it hard to breathe during the hospital call last season where Buck told him they move on to the next).

Extra points (not that extra points from me would amount to anything, but I'd still give them) if we see Eddie actively trying to get through to Buck, but initially failing.

Here's why:

It might be very interesting to see Eddie finding himself ill-equipped in his mission of Buck up Buck 2.0. Before, he always got through to him. He got Buck to leave the loft after the embolism (okay, only to get caught up in a tsunami, but that wasn't his upshot, c'mon). He snapped Buck out of it when he thought it had been better, had he gotten shot by the sniper instead of Eddie. He was all smug BF over dinner, telling Buck he isn't going anywhere when he considers to transfer after Chimney leaving. Up until now, Eddie's always found the means to get through to Buck eventually. To keep him off that ledge.

It would be brutal and dramatically delicious to see him feeling like he can't get through to Buck, even though he is so accustomed to it. Even though Buck did it for him, and we all know what a tough case Eddie's been to crack.

And it may well be that he has to come to the painful realization that he can't get through to Buck because of the elephant in the room, Chekhov's gun on the wall: The shooting. Potentially also the will.

Because he may still struggle with it himself so much that he feels like he should leave it to his therapy sessions with Frank alone. It might be that he feels not ready for it yet, to go back to that fateful day and face those scary, scary emotions attached to that moment. Only to realize that he has to do it. Not just for Buck's sake, but also for his own.

Like, I'm a downright hoe for all the hurt and all the comfort, so I'd be damn FED with that, but it'd fit from a narrative perspective. In my view, at least: Eddie and Buck would be forced to have that overdue conversation (Chekhov's gun) about the shooting and/or the will. How it impacts them. Because it's the only way they can move forward. Because their tried and trusted methods, the way their relationship used to work, it no longer works that way. It's something deeper, something much more intimate, and even downright scary. To realize just how close you let that other person be in your life, and how much you need to let that other person in, so you can both heal.

Also, Eddie would see first-hand what Buck's seen in the last season: What happens to your loved ones when they eat it all up and don't find an outlet and start spiraling as a result. How helpless you find yourself to be when you don't find a way to get through to them. He'd have to see Buck in the way that Buck's seen him in season 5.

You know, being mirrors to each other, which might be an overall theme coming back full swing this upcoming season. That kind of thing. If we see any more shots involving mirrors, you know where I got my money.

And in that same vain, that may very well serve as a catalyst for Eddie to realize his (romantic) feelings for Buck. Because that wouldn't just be about seeing his best friend struggling. This would be a callback to not being able to help Shannon (i.e. his dead WIFE) and wanting to break the cycle with Buck. Which would force him to have a hard look at himself and his feelings for Buck, and how they might be much closer to what they were for Shannon than for any of his other friends (i.e. romantic vs. strictly platonic).

And if we get some callback to Carla telling him to follow his heart, only for him to go to Buck... I will eat glass. Not literally. But I will eat lots of glass. *crunch*

To me, it could go a number of ways from there. We may even find ourselves in a situation where they don't manage to talk about it until well later (6b), but still try to offer and seek comfort with each other (not friends with benefits, but more like... and then they had sex because of tragic event A, and they just want to forget their grief and find comfort in each other's arms kind of way). I find that not at all otherworldly, really. And it may force the conversation all the harder (pun maybe intended).

Like, imagine a scenario where Buck seeks comfort with Eddie and Eddie offers it, not knowing what else to do since all other attempts of his failed thus far. Buck stops spiraling somewhat. All's well. All's fine. It's alright, right??? And damn, that can maybe even sexy in ways a certain someone did not learn in Sunday School. Then shit hits the fan, because of course it does. And both Eddie and Buck have to realize that just seeking comfort in the intimacy between them isn't fixing it.

Because A) they are not just there for comfort but for the lurve, B) it doesn't fix the initial problem, which is Chekhov's gun about the shooting and/or the will and Buck's struggles, and C) since when has that worked out in a narrative ever???

So it might well be that Eddie feels like he's got it under control, only for Buck to spiral again, fast, harder, and much further down. And Eddie has the Oh moment right there and then that he doesn't just want the intimacy that springs from grief (is grief sex a thing like angry make up sex??? Like narratively? Asking for a friend). That he wants to be with Buck in that way not just as a way to forget, but because he's chosen him in his heart long ago, but just hasn't allowed himself it yet. Love confession. Confused Buck noises. Kisses and tears. See you next season. Wham. Bam. Thank you, ma'am.

But even if we don't go that path, and resolution about the shooting will be reached without anything Buddie-like happening this season, it would be a great eye-opener for Buddie, still.

Buck having Eddie show up, seeing him in his struggles (contrast with his parents much), and doing anything he can to save Buck from himself self-deprecating. Someone choosing him, and choosing him at his lowest, not on the height of a heroic deed, but right when he hits rock-bottom. Someone who chooses and loves him anyway.

Eddie choosing to follow his heart, which would be to go to Buck, to be with the person he loves, through thick and thin. To be the partner he felt he wasn't to Shannon. If we get some gay/bi reckoning before that, choosing himself and embracing his sexual identity. Realizing that the person he thought he had with Ana was Buck all this time, and he just didn't look at him in that way because he was just always Buck to him.

Like, it'd bring things full circle in a lot of ways. At least from where I'm standing (okay, sitting, typing away unnecessarily on my laptop, fine).

What remains by the end of this post (I know, fuckin' finally, right?), is that if we are losing one of our own next season, Lucy and Captain Mehta may get us to just those plot points.

And yeah, I do hope to see some of my beloved fanfic tropes to become a reality. A fangirl can dream. And if canon goes a different way, you bet my fingers are already typing to indulge myself with those scenarios.

But at the very least, they owe us a Buddie hug. Even if they don't go for Buddie this season, they deserve a hug. We deserve them hugging. They HAVE TO HUG, okay? Okay. Now, that didn't relate to anything from my initial long-ass post about who might die next season... and I can't seem to think of any elegant ways to make that come full circle. So I will just end on this note:

I hope our firefighters remain safe and that it's just someone else. But if we lose one of our own, that's the people I'd sadly bet on.

Thanks for coming to that... talk. With myself.

Cheers!

Merry start into season 6 of this wee-woo-show that's got us in its vice grip! 🚒🚒🚒

#911 spoilers #911 season 6 #911 speculation #evan buckley #eddie diaz #evan buck buckley #buddie #buck x eddie #eddie x buck #evan buckley x eddie diaz #eddie diaz x evan buckley #I have a lot of thoughts about them #none make sense #but they are there

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meeko-mar · 2 years

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Bnha 362 thoughts:

It honestly doesn't make sense narratively for him to be *dead* dead

in one aspect alone, let's consider;

Bakugou's entire arc? is FROUGHT with loss. Losing. Failure. He has gone through life thinking ONE thing, and then getting proven WRONG every step of the way.

He gets captured by Sludge villain.

He loses to Izuku on the first training day in UA.

He gets DESTROYED by All Might and is forced to work with Izuku during their finals.

He gets rescued(in front of Izuku no less) by All Might at the USJ incident.

He gets targeted and kidnapped at the training camp. Gets used as a pawn during AFO's fight with AM, rescued by his friends(including Izuku who had come up with the plan.) All Might loses his power due to this incident, and Katsuki internalizes it.

He feels neutered under his internship with BJ, and feels like he falls behind while others had so much more exp on their internships.

He FAILS his provisional liscense exams.

He realizes that All Might gave Izuku his power and feels unworthy.

He wins against Izuku at ground Beta, and after that, things look a little more "in his favor", like the 1-Av 1-B exercise, getting his Provisional License...but then the war happens and he is back to "losing" by getting stabbed (I count it as a loss b/c it was a potentially fatal injury and he wasn't able to triumph over it properly)

The next big battle is THIS ONE and. Well. We all know what has been happening, and what has HAPPENED.

Katsuki has now, on top of his long history of losing, failing, and having every one of his principles he started with challenged and shut down, after finally UNDERSTANDING IT and making choices to be better, including making up with Izuku himself, faced the ULTIMATE loss, and DIED in battle.

The end.

EXCEPT NO. THAT CAN'T BE IT. it can't be a final death, it doesn't make SENSE.

I mean, it's not even a NOBLE death. If Horikoshi wanted to go "Noble Death" with it, he would have done so when Katsuki got skewered making the sacrificial play. But he can't do that again, because he already did that move!

Izuku isn't even there to see it.

So this isn't that.

And Bakugou, whatever he started as, has become an essential part of this story, a deuteragonist instead of an antagonist. His story is intricately tied to Izuku's, and we all SEE that plainly in the canon, and how deeply important to each other they are. Horikoshi himself said something about coming to really like him as a character.

What the heck would be the point in killing him off so unceremoniously?

Before Katsuki actually has a chance to truly win(and save)?

Katsuki's arc STILL doesn't feel complete.

And it's as if the Antis are getting what THEY want, and his arc is ALL punishment for what he's done, instead of truly rising above it(he's come quite a long way, but to truly triumph he should be able to make all the changes he has, acknowledge the damage he's done, and then truly begin to flourish.

But he's still taking the L and getting brutalized by AFO.

He literally STILL asked, as he is DYING, "Can I keep up with you Izuku?"

He has barely landed a hit on AFO in all this and in his "final" moments thinks about Izuku and how he WANTS to keep up with him.

This is horribly incomplete.

So unless we SOMEHOW get a vestige or ghost of Katsuki performing final acts in this war that turn the tides, but don't get him back, which would suck...

Then my bets are on SOME WAY getting him back via resuscitation, or the Nitroglycerin Revival theory, something to do with the Second's Quirk, bringing him back.

We could argue then about the effect that has on stakes, or if that would be just a deus ex machina ending, but

Bottom line is that I feel like leaving such an important character, such a POPULAR character as *dead* dead, without at least having a true victory moment to close out his own story....LET ALONE one shared with the protagonist whom he has been codependently developed alongside the entire time...without at least making a single difference in the final battle, doesn't make narrative sense. When Hori said he wants to do right by this character, and that what he came up with should be pleasing to all fans.

SOMETHING IS STILL MISSING in Katsuki's entire arc and I don't know, personally, I don't think he'll stay dead?? I'm not sure how I want it to happen, but...

There's been so much build up, there are talks that haven't even occurred between them to our knowledge. There's LOOSE ENDS. There's a lack of fulfillment to Katsuki's story if you take this as the end.

Yes, his challenge through the story was to learn to SAVE and that will be important, but he hasn't even reached the climax on THAT yet, and I don't consider what happened in the war arc and retrieval arc to be that end-all be-all climax.

This can't be the end of Katsuki Bakugou. (and I'm hoping its not just gonna be some Jedi Ghost shenanigans)

#I would deeply deeply prefer Izu and BAku to fight side by side and BOTH SURVIVE THE WAR PLZ #bakudeku #bnha spoilers #bnha 362 #Katsuki Bakugou #just thoughts #We still need Izuku's feelings too #and that is gonna HURT #please just let him be ok SOMEHOW #ahhhh #if they end up split on different planes I am STILL GONNA BE DEPRESSO #wonderduo

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detectivenyx · 2 years

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Do you think Byuakuya is a badly written antagonist in Trigger Happy Havoc? Do you have any thoughts on his redemption arc if you want to call it that?

this likely won't be a proper answer but wince media summarised a lot of my thoughts when they made this video where they ranked the DR1 cast (byakuya is pretty early in the video so i didn't add a timestamp). i do have a better view of it than them, since there was an inciting incident to his arc (getting upstaged at a trial bad enough that he basically calmly ragequit), and byakuya never really stops being an asshole, he just is an asshole to monokuma and junko instead (which since they're a. the villains, and b. also assholes, is less noticable, so people mistake it for byakuya learning to not be an asshole).

but in all honesty? i hate the very rigid 'protag/support/antag/traitor/mastermind' setup that the community has fallen into as of late, though some of this is my fault for talking about these tropes and breaking them down without kind of exposing how to build them back up again. DR1 was probably better than people remember since these roles weren't as rigid back then; byakuya was an asshole but he interjected during trials way less and actively screwed with one trial, instead of what his successors did, which was to be cryptic assholes about the right answers. DR1 was also where characters were kind of allowed to break molds and all contribute about equally to the story. sdr2 kind of loses me once mikan dies, since it has all these excellent characters and just doesn't use them (or only uses them to create new corpses), because it's so obsessed with nagito and chiaki and concentrates all the tropes into them. v3 was even worse in the tropes department, but it had a reason at least; it was creating a feeling of going through the motions while raising the stakes deliberately for its ending twist and its message.

but when it comes to the larger fandom, learning why narrative decisions were made is second fiddle to just taking them at face value and using the fact you know they exist to sound smart and well read. and as a result, fangans take these rigid tropes and make 0 changes to them, which results in a lot of them feeling really stale. characters are treated generally as just tools to push the plot along. so like. if you're writing a fangan, seriously, spread out the roles among the cast and have them do different things to different situations. otherwise you might as well just copy-paste the same trial 5 times with find and replace done on the names, it'd be less work and mean about as much.

eg. if you're making a fangan about, say, skullgirls, cerebella shouldn't react the exact same way to the death of beowulf vs. the death of ms fortune, and she probably wouldn't react the same way during a trial either. in beowulf's trial, maybe she's trying her absolute best to seek out the murderer since she's a huge fan of him and has helpful info regarding the case, but during ms. fortune's, maybe black dahlia is the killer and cerebella is keeping info she knows on the hush-hush since a. ms fortune took the life gem from vitale's dad, and b. she feels obligated to save his mom over herself, showing that she's (what the skullheart sees as) pure of heart, even if who she's trying to save is about as pure as dehydrated piss.

this went off the rails quick but i wanted an opportunity to talk about this issue and what could be done better in a ton of fangans. but keep in mind there's no 'easy' fix for any aspect of writing. it's fucking hard and if you're looking for easy shortcuts to good writing, it'll always wind up being terrible.

#- nyx (they/she)#sdr2 spoilers #ndrv3 spoilers #dr spoilers #skullgirls #danganronpa

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blueboltkatana · 2 years

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thoughts on wano arc now that it's over?

hi anon i haven't been active on Tumblr at all for the past... what?! month now? So i have to apologise for not answering this when you sent it to me I hope it hasn't been that long. Regardless let's get into it. Warning: spoilers duh

So Wano was definitely an important arc, and it was a good arc I would say, maybe i would give it an 7.5/10 because it had its very good moments especially Gear 5 which I feel like it kind of carries the whole arc by itself and without it, it would be maybe a 6 out of 10 arc.

Unfortunately though, the Arc had some things that I personally, didn't like that much:

My biggest problem is mostly with the way Zoro's character was handled as well as some missed opportunities here and there; I would have preferred that Kinemon had died on the rooftop when the scabbards fought Kaido because it would have made the moment very emotional and made the stakes higher. Also i believe Izo should have survived the battle because his death was kind of unnecessary to me from a narrative standpoint, plot wise I understand but i feel like it could have been avoided.

Going back to Zoro, it's no secret he's my favorite but i like to think that i judge him fairly and so far he's had minimal character development that was His and only His. Wano was hyped to be "zoros arc" bc it comes right after wci which was sanji's arc and it's about fucking time we get some info about the mossmans past. During the whole arc he's constantly compared to Ushimaru and Ryuma only at the end to be confirmed that he is completely unrelated to them and he fights the second in command of the main villains crew as always, very cliché and a let down after all the hype that the possibility of him fighting kaido along luffy got. At the end Luffy is the one who's compared to Ryuma which was so weird?!?

Anyway, bottom line is, i got mossbaited.

Another disappointing conclusion was that of Yamato and not for the reason you think. Honestly i knew he wasn't gonna join very early on, ask me how i knew but you'll laugh, but the REASON oda gave was so lame!?! Wym explore wano?!? Boy get ur ass on that ship istg😭😭😭. Explore Wano my ass. Come on Oda be fucking fr. I got newnakamabaited.

i don't like that momo was turned into an adult but his mind is still 8 years old... like that don't sit right with me it just doesn't. His design looks good and everything but he's literally a child in an adults body it's weird i don't like it.

Hyori ending that shitface orochi was great but i wish Zoro played more of a role or at least was PRESENT when it happened bc he literally SWORE he would avenge Yasue!!! ODA OPEN THE FUCKING DOOR I JUST WANNA TALK!!

ok now that i got the criticism out of my system here is the good impressions:

Gear fucking FIVE BABY! that shit was crazy and so well thought out absolutely marvelous.

Zoro unlocking his kingly ambition was sick as fuck and he did have some incredible moments this arc that i really appreciate.

Robins first serious fight since pre ts 😭😭💓💓💓💕😌😌i loved it, as well as sanji's character development and the progress he's made <3

Kid and Law teaming up and all the moments they get to interact woth each other and the strawhats are sperb. I love it. the final separation was disappointing though, needed more tears and sad music from both law and luffy. (I'm joking that wouldn't be in character but.it would have been hilarious)

The bounties I'm pretty ok with. Jimbe getting such a high bounty was surprising, it might mean smth more than we know.

Also Shank's appearance 🤩🤩🤩

And the crossguild... the panel of croc and mihawk... Dilf nation REJOICE! THEY'RE BACK! God i fucking missed mihawk and now he's gonna be more active in the story i can't fucking waitttt

Overall good arc, great moments and essential to the story. the shipping game was strong especially for rarepairs and ships that haven't been very talked about in a long time were revived bc the characters interacted again after years lmfao so that's a win.

thank you for the ask, if there's any specific thing you wanna talk about go ahead bc I'm sure i forgot some stuff. <333

#jackie talks #blue answers #Ask #anon ask #one piece spoilers #one piece wano arc #Wano spoilers #op 1057 #op spoilers #jackie rants

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house-of-chemical-wolves · 1 year

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sorry friend wolf but 4, 6, 9, 12 and 20 for the tolkien questions c:

Oh Friend Fili.....these are tough........

4) What passage in Tolkien's books or in any of the films/shows/media speaks to you the most?

Gotta say, this is probably the hardest one to pick. Here's the quote I'm going with, from Thorin and Bilbo's final conversation in The Hobbit:

"There is more in you of good than you know, child of the kindly West. Some courage and some wisdom, blended in measure. If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world."

The Hobbit is my favorite of the books, and I think this quote sort of epitomizes the themes of this particular story. The value of their journey and everything they went through to reclaim the mountain was not in the treasure hoard, but in the home they would make of it in the end. It rounds off all the themes, and tips the narrative arc as well as Bilbo's character arc into their completion, with his decision to journey back to the Shire after Thorin dies.

Also it makes me cry. It makes me cry every time I read it. It makes me cry for what was, and could have been, and what will never be. I cried just typing this out. It emotionally devastates me. It breaks my heart into a million bloody little pieces, and I will never be over it.

(If you're curious, my number two choice is Sam's speech to Frodo at the end of The Two Towers. You know the one.)

6) Favorite character in all of Tolkien's work?

.....In the middle of the earth, in the land of Shire lives a brave little hobbit whom we all admire! With his long wooden pipe, fuzzy woolly toes, he lives in a hobbit-hole and everybody knows him- Bilbo! Bilbo Baggins! He's only three feet tall! Bilbo! Bilbo Baggins! The bravest little hobbit of them all!

9) The place (and time) you would most like to visit in Arda? Why?

Firstly, I would like to visit the Shire, always. It's beautiful and green and generally peaceful (aside from, you know, the Scouring and whatnot).

Secondly, I would like to have seen Khazad-dûm in its heyday during the Second Age. We know that Khazad-dûm became a haven for refugees from Nogrod and Belegost after the battles against Morgoth, as well as a thriving center for art and trade and intercultural exchange (especially since this was also a time and place of much friendlier relations between dwarrow and elves).

What we see of Khazad-dûm through the main narratives is mostly tragic- a place defined by grief and ruin. I would like to have seen it when it was a place defined more by joy and laughter and creation.

12) Tolkien's work contains a lot of interesting themes: devastation of war, things lost that cannot be restored, rebirth/renewal, holding true to one's companions even when it is darkest, and others. Which is the most important to you?

Courage. Courage in the face of overwhelming, even impossible odds. Bilbo encountering Smaug, and then trying to barter peace with the Arkenstone ("Going on from there was the bravest thing he ever did."). The Battle of the Pelennor Fields ("We cannot defeat the armies of Mordor." "No, we cannot. But we will meet them in battle nonetheless."). The Battle of the Black Gate ("We must walk open-eyed into that trap, with courage, but small hope for ourselves."; "A day may come when the courage of men fails...but it is not this day! This day we fight!"). Frodo and Sam's last climb up Mount Doom ("Sam struggled on as best he could, having no guidance but the will to climb as high as might be before his strength gave out."; "A gleam of hope returned...So foot by foot, like small grey insects, they crept up the slope.").

....Damn, I really made myself cry again with this one.

20) What is your favorite Tolkien universe headcanon? Why did you choose to accept it?

Friend Fili, I'm stealing this one from you (though I will admit, this one has been so integrated into my view of Middle Earth that I actually forgot it wasn't canon XD).

It brings my heart joy to believe that the hobbits, who so love the rolling hills and little rivers and all things that grow, are creations of Yavanna. Also because Bagginshield. Always because Bagginshield.

#friend fili as always you are a gift and a treasure and i adore you <3 #klngfili #tolkien asks #ask game

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reviewsthatburn · 1 year

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THE LAKE OF SOULS follows Harkat and Darren in a very weird place on Mr. Tiny's direction, doing cryptic steps in order so that Harkat can find out who he was before he was a Little Person (a stitched-together creature made by Mr. Tiny from a soul that wanted a second chance). Once they reach the Lake of Souls, Harkat must retrieve his old soul and find out who he was before he died. Partway through they meet a very strange ex-pirate named Spits who (the book won't let you forget) really wants to drink alcohol. I wasn't enjoying how much he took over the narrative, but it has a great payoff so it works out overall.

Full review at link.

#BookReviews #Fantasy #Horror #Recommended #the lake of souls #cirque du freak

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the-iceni-bitch · 3 years

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I Long to Be

Pairing: Mr Freezy x hit woman!reader (kitten), Officer Bill x hit woman!reader (PG only for now)

Words: ~2.1k

Summary: Your new dynamic has Bobby ready to explode.

Warnings: explicit language, explicit sexual content (fingering, over the pants hand job, dry humping, mentions of oral and penetrative sex), emotional manipulation, reader is a massive bitch, slightly subby Bobby (what?!?!), cheating adjacent, domestic violence as foreplay, inappropriate behavior at a funeral, gossipy neighbors, SMUT!!!! 18+ ONLY!!!

A/N: This is mostly just setting the stage for the next arc I’m gonna do with our murderers but whoo boy are you sluts in for a treat! Sorry for inflicting the stache on you, but I’m just gonna lean into it.

I am no longer doing taglists so if you want to stay up to date on all the latest filth, follow my sideblog @the-iceni-library and turn on notifications!!!

You moaned softly when Bobby pulled you back against his chest, the hand that wasn’t digging into your tit buried knuckle deep in your cunt from behind as he stroked your walls slowly.

“No marks.” You ordered when you felt his teeth scrape over your pulse, ignoring the snarl he shot you through the mirror before settling for licking a thick stripe up the side of your neck. “Don’t fucking pout at me, pretty sure even those dumb fucks out there would notice if I walked out there with a hickey. Control yourself.”

“You need to quit being a fucking bitch.” He growled when you squeezed his cock before starting to stroke it through his slacks again. “It’s been five days, if I don’t feel that warm snatch wrapped around me soon, I’m gonna fucking kill someone.”

“Then you’ll just have to wait even longer, Bobby. I told you, we’re gonna drill some fucking self control into you.” You rolled your hips into his hand when his palm ground into your clit, dropping your head back against his shoulder and purring when you felt his cock throbbing under your palm. “Plus, I’m still pissed at you for the unbelievable pile of bull shit I had to dig you out of.”

“But… fuck, kitten.” He buried his face in your hair to cover his groan when you squeezed him again, bucking his hips into your grip and tugging softly at your nipple as you brought him towards his peak. “I fucking need it. You can just suck on the tip a little, just tide me over, I’m fucking dying.”

“You’re fucking dramatic, I’m still letting you come, so quit being a bitch.” You felt warmth bloom under your hand and smirked at him, your pussy sucking on his fingers as he started fucking them into you harder until you came with a broken sob.

“You goddamn cunt.” He looked furious when you pulled away from him, growling when you wrenched out of his grip to straighten your dress out. “I swear to god, you keep fucking holding out on me and I’m gonna split you in half in front of those cunts until you’re bleeding and begging me to stop.”

“No you’re not.” You shoved your tits back into your dress and did up the buttons. “You’re gonna play the grieving husband and father for as long as I tell you, and once I feel like the fucking heat has died down enough, maybe then you can get your dick wet. But until that happens, you’ll just have to settle for hands and dry humping. Now shut up and try to look wrecked.”

He didn’t have to try, he was wrecked. Dealing with your constant teasing without being able to actually fuck you had him feeling like his nerves were frayed to the limit, and topping that off with having to play the tormented widower was testing the self control you were adamant he exercise. There hadn’t even been any jobs for him to redirect his pent up rage, so he was stuck settling for furiously jerking himself every night as he longed for your perfect, warm cunt.

You gave him a sympathetic pat on the shoulder before opening the door and heading back out to the wake, not bothering to fix your face as it fit the narrative that Bobby had been comforting you while you cried yourself out. With how haggard he was, your stupid cunt neighbors had no problem accepting when you told them that you and Bobby had been supporting each other through this tough time.

Bobby’s jaw was clenched tight as he stood at the edge of his living room, barely paying attention to the twats who kept coming up to him to tell him how sorry they were for his loss while he watched you act like the perfect grieving friend. You shot him a glare when he tried to move closer to you, hiding your smirk behind your drink and leaning against the wall when he accepted another unwanted embrace like a good little widower.

“Hi, Suzy?” You had to act quick to school your face when you turned and found the fucking cop who had flirted with you at the damn crime scene standing there, you had not expected to see him again.

“Officer Bill!” You caught Bobby start out of the corner of your eye, shooting him a glance to settle him before turning back to your surprising visitor. “Robert’s just over there, did you need to talk to him about something? I thought everything was closed.”

“It is, and please just call me Bill.” He gave you a nervous smile and stepped a little closer to you, fidgeting with his hands as he struggled with what to say to you. “I just… I couldn’t stop thinking about you and I know these things tend to put all the focus on the family but I wanted to make sure you were ok? Since she was your best friend, I’m sure things are hard.”

Oh shit. Your flirting had worked a little too well, this boy was sweet on you. It took some doing for you to fight the pleased smile that tried to spread across your face, especially when you caught Bobby glaring at you over the cop’s shoulder when the man reached and gave your arm a reassuring squeeze.

“It’s been so hard.” You gave a small sob and could have laughed when he drew you into his chest, burying your face in the warm planes of muscle as he did his best to comfort you. “I feel so alone now. I’d usually talk to Mary about this, but now I have no one. Maybe I could talk to Robert but he’s suffering so much worse than me, I don’t want to burden him any more.”

“God, you’re so sweet, honey.” You managed to disguise your snort as another sob, pressing your body close to his and trying not to grin when he settled his hands at the small of your back, “You can talk to me, Suzy.”

“Bill, you just met me.” This was working out great for you; a dumb cop who was already wrapped around your finger and a new way to piss off Bobby, what could be better? “I don’t want to take advantage of you.”

“Baby, no, never.” He gave you a soft smile when you lifted your head to meet his gaze, cupping your face in one massive palm and gently brushing his thumb over the curve of your cheek in an effort to soothe you. “I just wanna help, but we don’t have to do anything you don’t want, ok?”

“Okay.” You leaned into his cheek and sighed softly as you batted your eyelashes at him, it had been a while since you had played this game, but seems like you were still a fucking pro. “Thank you.”

“It’s my pleasure, darlin’.” You let him give your waist a squeeze before stepping back, your eyes finding Bobby’s and narrowing at the look of unbridled rage you found there until he was cowed. “There’s a little bakery near here if you wanna have some privacy.”

He nodded towards the gaggle of housewives that was watching you with interest while the rest of your neighbors started filtering home and you sighed, accepting his hand and letting him lead you towards the front door while you gave Bobby one more warning glance to keep him from doing something stupid. As soon as the door closed behind you the busybodies went crazy, whisper shouting at each other as they tried to keep some semblance of decorum while they packed up all the leftovers and helped Bobby clean up, or rather, did all the cleaning while Bobby started downing scorch like it was his job.

Thirty minutes later and he was finally alone, exhausted from all the unwanted hugs and sympathies he had to endure and wanting nothing more than to lose himself in you. But he couldn’t because you were still out with that fucking cop. He sulked in the chair at the front window, watching your house as he slowly drained the bottle of scotch and tried to keep himself from imagining what you might be doing with that fucker.

By the time the bastard’s car finally pulled up in front of your house an hour later, the bottle was empty, Bobby wallowing in a pool of self pity that he never would have admitted to and growling when he watched the officer help you out of the car and lead you to your front door with an arm around your waist. When he watched him give you a peck on the cheek he almost lost it, dropping the bottle and cursing when he heard it smash against the floor. At least you didn’t invite him inside, sending him on his way with a little wave before strolling into your house without a second glance.

Bobby waited a few minutes after the cocksucker pulled away before storming over to your place, barely keeping himself together until he was able to knock on your front door.

“Hey there, Bobby.” You gave him a wicked grin when you opened the door, stepping aside and letting him in.

“The fucking cop?” He was itching to slap you, or maybe choke you, he was absolutely furious.

“Bobby, Bobby, Bobby.” You shoved him a little and snorted when he stumbled slightly. “Drunk again. What the fuck am I gonna do with you?”

“Fuck me.” He was so drunk he didn’t even care anymore, grabbing you by the back of your neck and dragging your face to his until his lips were devouring yours.

“Jesus, did I fucking break you, Bobby?” You chuckled when he growled in response and shoved you against the wall, grinding his hardened cock into your hip as he tried to wrap his hands around your throat. “No fucking marks! God, still haven’t learned, have you?”

Your slap sent him reeling, the only thing that kept him upright being your tight grip on his collar as you watched him with mock concern. He tried to snarl at you when you gripped his jaw in one hand, shaking his head with a demeaning tut before leaning forward to bite at his lips.

“You need to dump that fucking cop, kitten.” He purred into your mouth when you wound one leg around his hip and dragged him into you, letting him rock against you slowly with a low moan as his dick twitched in his pants.

“And you still need to fucking control yourself, instead of charging over to your single neighbor’s house like a bat out of hell right after your wife’s funeral when you know every fucking busybody in the neighborhood is gonna be watching us like a bunch of hawks.” You let him lift your other leg to wrap around him, pressing you into the wall and moaning into your neck as he ground right against your clit. “I’ll make you a deal Bobby; you manage to keep that temper of yours reined in and the neighbors off our backs for a whole month while I make that sweet, dumb cop fall in love with me, and I’ll let you do whatever he does to me, so you don’t combust.”

“You’re such a bitch.” His breath against your neck was desperate, the rhythm of his hips writhing against you growing frantic as you both neared your ends. “You let him fuck you and I don’t care, kitten, I’ll fucking kill him.”

“Aww, don’t worry baby, it’ll just be the tip.” You laughed when he snarled into your throat, forcing himself to pull back before he sank his teeth into you so you didn’t decide to torture him even more. “Look at you being so good, and I didn’t even mention your reward.”

“What is it?” Christ, you were just whipping men left and right today.

“Once I get that moron to give me his whole heart, I’ll let you help me break it.” He hit you at the perfect angle and you shuddered with bliss, your release soaking the front of his slacks as his own filled his briefs. “But in a way that keeps him wrapped around my little finger so we can use him if we need to.”

“Ugh, fuck. Fine.” He sighed defeatedly into your neck. “But if I haven’t had my dick sucked once by this time in two weeks, I’m getting a fucking toy.”

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thebibliosphere · 3 years

Text

Hunger Pangs: True Love Bites (an update)

Friends, vampire romancers, and monster lover aficionados…

I’ve got a fairly important update for you all. As I’ve mentioned many, many times, I’m struggling with the length of Phangs. There is simply too much book, and while I’ve made substantial cuts to the original manuscript, it’s been at the expense of many things I love and want to keep. Including my sanity.

To give you an idea of how bonkers the size of this thing is, the halfway mark is, at present, registering at over 700 pages on Kindle and the Apple store. Which is roughly, give or take, 500 pages in paperback. It is huge. And I’ve no idea how I created something of this size, and still not have all the things in it I want to include. So, to remedy this, and to avoid cutting out any more of the things I love, I’ve decided to split Hunger Pangs: True Love Bites into two books.

Regrettably, this means that the Ot3 doesn’t become firmly established until book two. It’s still heavily implied, and you get all three characters interacting together (read: flirting their supernatural socks off), but their relationship as a triad won’t be fully formed until the second book. Which is not what I want, and I know it’s not what a lot of you want either. But I need to be realistic here and do what makes sense for the narrative arc of the story, and also for my health. I thought with giving myself an extra month of wiggle room to keep working on things I’d be able to fix this issue, but truthfully, it’s not something I can fix. Not without cutting Nathan’s character arc and his development as a disabled character, and honestly, I’d rather scrap the whole novel than remove an iota of his arc.

It is extremely important to me to have a queer disabled, romantic lead who neither dies, nor is “cured,” and is still portrayed as lovable, sexy, and above all else, happy, while still experiencing difficulties and setbacks that comes from living with disabilities and chronic health issues. And Nathan is that character. He’s a deaf, disabled werewolf who uses mobility aids and wears a magical hearing aid who eventually learns to overcome the ableism and alienation he faces because of his injures*, both from the outside world, and from his family. It’s a huge part of who he is, and the narrative of acceptance and positivity that makes Phangs what it is. And I just... can’t lose that. I can’t. I’ve tried and I can’t.

I also just don’t want to delay the book any further.

You have all been incredibly patient and understanding in waiting for this novel while I scraped my health off the floor over the last four years. And while it’s perhaps not the exact thing I wanted to put out into the world, what Phangs was intended to be and what it has turned into over the last few years are entirely different things.

What started as a funny post on my blog, which was never meant to be anything more than something playful, has morphed into a fully formed microcosm. The plot and world building didn’t so much get away from me, as grow multiple extra arms and legs and sprint off the slab. And while that was happening, the character arcs were off doing their own thing. Becoming fully formed and nuanced behind my back. What should have been a trilogy now looks like it might be a five-part series. Possibly six.

The good news is that you’ll get book 2 much sooner than previously expected! The reason for this is that most of it is already written, I just need to take the time to restructure and edit things, as well as take a short hiatus to get my hands fixed up. Turns out typing over 4 million words in one year when you have Ehlers Danlos is really not good for your hands. (This is also why my inbox is still currently closed.)

But I still understand that many of you wanted this book purely for the Ot3 and that’s fine! The Ot3 still happens, it is set in stone. It’s just more of a slow burn than previously expected. And I get that’s not what some of you want or signed up for, which is why I’m letting you all know now.

So, if you’re disappointed and would like to cancel your Amazon pre-orders, I’m sorry to hear that, but I completely understand.

If you are a Patreon/Ko-Fi supporter, please know that you will receive the second book as part of your initial pledge. (This includes those of you who pledged for exclusive hardbacks, and some named characters who have been shuffled into book 2 to let them have more than a passing name drop.) I do not expect you to fork out more money for the story you have already paid for, some of you many multiple times over. Without you, none of this would be possible, and I still wouldn’t be here. Thank you for making this series possible and helping to keep me alive and paying for my medical bills.

Anyway, I am sorry for this wall of text. And I’m sorry if I’ve let any of you down with this news. The happy polyamorous paranormal triad is still coming. And you can take that last part however you like.

Also, for those asking, links to the Fluff and Fangs edition (without smut) will go up a few days after the launch of Flirting with Fangs (with smut) which launches on the 24th of November 2020. I’m not sure if Amazon will try to ding me for having two editions of the book up at once, so that’s the reason for the extra wait. Thank you for understanding, and for asking. Your continued interest in this kooky world I’ve created has kept me going, and I really hope it’ll be worth your wait.

Thank you for understanding, and again, I'm sorry if this is disappointing news to anyone. I did my best, but sometimes our best still falls short of what we would like. -Joy

#Hunger Pangs: True Love Bites #Hunger Pangs book #Phangs #Joy Demorra #Hunger Pangs by Joy Demorra #book updates

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