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queenofapeacefuldawn · 4 months

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SPY × Family: Chapter 93 analysis

this is my first time doing something like this, and I'm no expert so please take my analysis with a grain of salt! all of this is my own theories, so you might disagree with me. please don't be mean, though (also, long post incoming!)

SPOILERS FOR CHAPTER 93 UNDER THE CUT

The chapter opens with the Eden kids getting the results of their marks, with Anya's...

overall rank shooting up, from 213th to 168th. Showing how she's slowly adjusting to the school and its pace of learning, despite being younger than everyone else (and, also, presumably doing extremely advanced things.... I remember seeing the pythagorean theorem on the board once in the anime)

Damian got highest in History (good job, buddy!), and Anya got second-highest in Classical Language (the one exam she genuinely studied hard for). But what I want to focus on is her expression:

Shock. She'd put up that front (that fake-face, if you will) in front of Becky, Damian, Emile and Ewen, pretending to be all cool and suave but when she sees her results, she's genuinely surprised to get good marks in Classical Language. And even her excited reaction. She was scared of disappointing Twilight (and maybe even Sigmund and Barbara) because she'd genuinely worked hard for this exam, tried to understand, and gave it her best attempt.

But, then, it all comes crashing down with her 24 points in math: but a win is a win!

Maybe this is Twilight's turning point in the fact that acquiring knowledge can be interesting, exciting, and not just a tool of survival? Twilight himself doesn't have a great relationship with studying, (see: his father scolding him as a child for not studying, later: his friends dying because he didn't know enough about the campaign they were going on... but Twilight's relationship with knowledge and its pursuit is a whole other post in itself).

Honestly, him realising that Anya is actually thriving in the setup where education is fun for her, opens up two new avenues:

Twilight himself trying to make learning fun for Anya (unlikely, he tried that before... it didn't work.)

Him leaning on Sigmund and Barbara to tutor Anya (this seems more likely- Endo is probably going to cement the Authens as recurring characters, so them being Anya's surrogate grandparents/neighbors/tutors would seem like a great way to do so!

And then...

My main focus is on the fact that he mumbles this (also his face. But that's irrelevant). Twilight may claim, "I don't understand children", but he's an extremely perceptive man. As much as I love to clown on him, he's highly skilled at picking up on cues of people's feelings. The few times he's failed are mostly due to Anya's shenanigans trying to hide her telepathy, mixed with his usual flavour of overthinking.

But the couple of things he knows about Anya are this:

She was probably raised in an environment where Classical Language was used.

She's not fond of talking about or remembering her past.

Which is why he didn't have the heart to fully sound out the question. In the case of Anya, this is an extremely delicate matter, and he doesn't want to upset her (or, in his words, "ruin Operation Strix.") The way he asked the question and it's portrayed made it feel like he'd been pondering on it for quite a while (which he has; since the beginning of the Cruise Arc), but more so usually. Most likely due to her high marks in the Classical Language tests (aka a dead language), and the fact that she got excellent marks in it, despite formally studying it for less than a year (at least, as far as he (and we) know.) He's been thinking of the possibility, and also thinking of a way to ask her. In the end, when he does ask her—

she lies.

and he lets her. (at least, that's my interpretation)

Obviously, he knows she's not ready to speak about it yet (though we know it's probably connected to her telepathy, so she's not ready to divulge that info).

Look, as much as I love talking about how clueless he is with his own feelings, in this scene, he was just... perceptive? I don't know if that's the right word. But he was trying to keep Anya happy, and bringing up this complex topic without ensuring proper care for her wouldn't be fair to her. And he knows that. So, he leaves it at, "Just forget about it, okay?"

This entire scene felt so... tense, and in itself felt like a fucking gut punch, so I don't know how I'll react to the reveal.)

And now, onto the main focus of the chapter:

him.

If I'm being honest, I thought Demetrius was, like, 16-19 (judging by his voice in the anime), and not... fucking twelve.

Honestly, that just makes his character all the more tragic: he's barely a teenager, and yet... he's going through this. From his awards ceremony, we can see that he got, what, 6 stellas? In addition to the eight he's gotten to be an Imperial Scholar, and if he performs this well in every exam... bro is literally hoarding the Stella supply of the school (sorry, bad joke).

But...

this panel comes up. It's definitely not Anya's telepathy malfunctioning, (heck, it works on Bond and even penguins). Honestly, I think, again, it could be one of two things:

He was experimented on, like Anya

He was trained, (most likely by Donovan), to keep his mind blank.

We're told that he and Donovan had an extremely close relationship:

This could be in support of both the theories: it could be Donovan checking up on his "experiment's" progress (a crude term to refer to him), or, it could have been him subconsciously training Demetrius to hide his thoughts, keep them safe. Anya's project is connected to Desmond's administration, and at the time she was "made", Demetrius would have been around 7 or 8. Old enough for him to figure out what he wanted to have been in life (ofc, that's different for everyone! It takes time, and 8 is an extremely young age to figure out what one wants to do). But, like, how Damian wants to be a politician, it's most likely that Demetrius, the prodigal, studious, first child, would have to follow the path of politics laid before him.

So it could have been Donovan teaching Demetrius to protect his sensitive thoughts from the "weapons" he himself was making: the test subject(s) of Anya's project (again, a crude term to refer to them). Donovan was putting a lot of faith into creating telepaths (most likely for covert work), and them having unwavering loyalty to his administration was not very likely.

And, even if Anya's project was the work of another administration or even country, there's no doubt that Donovan would want to keep his thoughts hidden from these kinds of spies: ones than can see into your very mind, especially if the world is at war: a physical battle or a war for information.

The first theory of Demetrius himself being a test subject is probably Not What Happened; so I think it's probably just Demetrius being trained to keep his thoughts hidden.

But then, we get some of his thoughts:

Which is a lot reminiscent of:

So, it's probable that Demetrius imbibed this from his dad.

It's honestly a bit scary to see how Donovan's "parenting" has affected him: for him, age 12, to be like this.

After this, the chapter ends lightheartedly: Anya trying to emulate Demetrius, and Loid Being Tired™️.

I'm mostly curious about Demetrius: I was so excited when he was finally revealed! But I hope we get to see more of his thoughts, soon. Especially more about his relationship with Damian. But, this chapter was fantastic!

(This was super fun to do- if i do posts like this for chapters as they come out, would you all like it? Again, I'm not an expert in psychology (or even analysis). It's just me and my silly lil thoughts. I hope you liked it!)

#spy x family #spy x family manga #spy x family manga spoilers #spy x family chapter 93 #loid forger #spy x family chapter 93 spoilers #agent twilight #twilight #anya forger #subject 007 #sigmund authen #barbara authen #donovan desmond #demetrius desmond #damian desmond

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whoblewboobear · 4 days

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There have been a lot of negative posts about how this season turned out bc of the rat grinders exclusively and everyone is entitled to their opinions on the season. But in light of it, I’m gonna throw out some positives about this season 💖

Sophomore year will always hold a special place in my heart because of the Fabian arc but Junior year might be my favorite fantasy high season overall. I loved learning about Ankarna and Cassandra. I thought I’d be bummed out not seeing some of my fave npcs but the downtime mechanic and the stress tokens added sO much. The Porter & Jace reveal was incredible. KRISTEN’S CAMPAIGN ARC!!! Fabian and Mazey!? K2 and all the blimey shenanigans 👏 Everything with Wanda Childa and Ruben and fig’s complicated women podcast was sooooo funny. I genuinely laughed harder this season than I have with any other d20 season I’ve seen.

I feel like with this season they really hit their stride with pacing too. It felt a lot more fluid with how we rolled into combat most of the time. I loved that first party of the year and seeing Adaine become the party wizard. After ep 18 it makes me love the party with the Oisin missing his shots so much more bc he got in that nasty little one liner later. I adored that the rat grinders were essentially a red herring to keep the bad kids looking elsewhere to take the heat off Porter and Jace a bit.

We didn’t see much from all of them, and we didn’t see nearly enough about Lucy, but I really loved the Rat grinders as in school rivals for the bad kids. Ruben was hands down my favorite but goddamn did I also love how much of a girlfailure Kip was. I loved seeing her rage out and I hope we get to see her really go nuts in the finale too. I really really warmed up to Mary Ann last episode with her tugging on Jace’s shirt and saying she didn’t feel good and then seeing her rage when her strawberry got destroyed. She’s so fascinating to meeee. I loved everything with Buddy and Kristen. I wish they had more scenes together. And while I’m talking about the Dawns, that entrance from Bobby Dawn as the new cleric teacher made my skin crawl in the best way. I loved Kristen calling him frumpy and sad on her teacher evaluation too- and holy shit Fig meeting Ankarna for the first time? Ankarna being the inspiration Fig needed to make music again too?

The incredible art from Cait May this season was hands down one of my FAVORITE d20 artist collabs ever. Just overall improved designs for everyone that just make so much more sense for their characters and art for new characters that made me adore them even more. Also holy shit the Porter maxi is genuinely my favorite mini that’s ever been featured on the show. I’m typically not into how the minis look in general, they always look a lil goofy to me but goddamn when they hit, they fuckin HIT.

And speaking of Porter, I really got endeared to him this season. Yeah he turned out evil and always has been a dick to gorgug and is definitely a shit teacher, but before the reveal I loved his training with Fig and Zara. One thing about Fantasy high is that I just love a lot of the teachers. My two faves this season being Terpsichore and Henry! They’re both so dedicated to their students and are such a specific type of teacher that you’ve definitely met before in real life. Like all my favorite math teachers back in school were so much like Henry and that made me love him even more.

Of course my #1 favorite thing about the world of Spyre is the religion aspect and how Brennan and Ally both approach it. That scene with Ally connecting with Yolanda and Lucy to allow them some comfort in the afterlife was so beautiful. Kristen’s talks with Bucky throughout the season were very touching and hit very close to home as someone that grew up in a religious household and doesn’t connect with the divinity I was raised on. Just- wow wow wow. I also really love that despite the breakup, Tracker and Kristen still have really interesting convos about divinity even if they don’t agree.

I loved seeing different dynamics in the bad kids too, I love the huge sibling energy that Fabian and Adaine have and the bond that Kristen and Fig have. I love how interwoven all the bad kids feel as a group. I love the little quirks that they all have, and I loved all the fandom posts about them like the sharing clothes posts and the one about how everyone lets Riz crawl on them to get better vantage points. I love Riz’s wall of text breaking down to gorgug about how much he appreciates him. Him calling gorgug a sweetie almost made me cry. I of course love all the parent/child moments this season. I loved the bad kids finally healing Lydia and seeing how happy it made Ragh. I LOVE Aelwyn and all her cats 🤧 I loved seeing Baron again and I loved how the bad kids got to the funhouse version of mordred through riz’s briefcase. I love seeing Adaine and Sandralynn bond. I loved finding out that Sandralynn and Sklonda go out for drinks and are friends. I just 💖 and goddamn, Ayda’s message to Fig and how Zara helped to surprise Fig with it. I love how Bill and Pok are such proud dads of their boys and I hope they’re doing some bonding over drinks in the after life.

And I cannot end this post without saying that I loved how cinematic this season felt too. It had INCREDIBLE imagery that you could easily visualize. Everyone at the table was in their element this time around from a role playing and a strategic standpoint. Everyone had their moment to shine and something important to do this season that fed back into the main plot. So thank you to Brennan and the intrepid heroes for giving us another killer season. After the season ended I was planning to finish Starstruck and Neverafter but I might just rewatch Junior year all over again just to get it out of my system.

Feel free to add things you loved about Junior year!

#dimension 20 #fantasy high junior year #d20 fhjy #fhjy

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seabirdtxt · 4 months

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.Irminsul stash --Traveler_Inventory

You and Scaramouche head over to ask the Traveler for some groceries [< prev] [Blog tag] [next >]

Notes: SAGAU without cult shenanigans, mostly filler chapter. sorry for the long hiatus!

WC. 1.5k

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As much as you enjoyed spending your time running around Teyvat in-game, nothing quite prepares you for how vast it actually is.

Of course you’ve known that, logically speaking, it’s impossible to correctly scale an entire city using a limitation such as video game engines. You are still knocked completely off your feet at the sight of the sprawling verdant domes and alabaster walkways of Sumeru City.

You jog down from the Sanctuary doors and lean over the railing, eyes tracing the knotted branches of the Great Tree where they mesh flawlessly with the infrastructure of the city. The scale of things is easily dozens of times bigger than what is shown in-game, and despite the beautiful graphics it has, the game definitely cannot do justice to the sheer variety of buildings and people that make up Sumeru City. Unable to help yourself, you make wordless noises of awe as you take in the scenery.

“You’d think you’ve never seen a city before,” Scaramouche’s deadpan voice states from a few paces behind you, where he’s lazily following you down the ramp. You turn and face him, taking note of how he’d removed the colourful belts, ropes, and other identifying markers of his outfit, leaving only his bodysuit and black jinbei. He looks deeply annoyed by this state of undress, so you wisely choose not to mention it.

“I mean, I’ve never seen it like this before,” you agree, gesturing to the skyline with a wide sweep of your arm. “Like, I’ve seen some of it from a certain, uh, distance? But seeing it in person… Wow. Just doesn't compare.”

Scaramouche says nothing as he finally comes to a stop beside you, arms crossed as he surveys the view. After a few seconds he snorts derisively. “Looks the same as it always does, to me.” He scoffs. “Come on, we don’t have all day.”

You let him drag you down the rest of the ramps until you both meet the pale bricks of the main road. You follow him as he leads you, presumably, to wherever the Traveler is staying. Your eyes wander aimlessly, taking in the sights.

Something tugs at the gem of your shirt and you stop walking, surprised. When you look down, you see a small child with dirt stains on their hands and knees, and a streak of dirt across their face. The child beams up at you, holding out their closed fist and shaking it at you.

“Oh, hello. What’s up?” You ask, crouching down beside them. You hear a noise of disgust from Scaramouche, which you wave off in favor of giving the child a smile. “Anything I can help you with, buddy?”

The child shakes their fist again and you finally get the message. You present your own open hand, palm upturned, and the child drops whatever they’re holding into it. They scamper off quickly before you can say anything, so instead you peer at the tiny object in your hand.

It’s a small stone, with a very simplified carving on it. It appears to be some writing, and an angular leaf shape. The marks are gibberish to you, but surely it has significance of some kind, so you pocket it and stand back up. You give Scaramouche an apologetic grin, to which he simply rolls his eyes and continues on.

The walk is, understandably, much longer physically than it is in-game, and you find yourself a little winded by the time you’re anywhere near the Grand Bazaar. You do eventually get to a building that you (very, very vaguely) recognize as the inn the Traveler and Paimon stayed at during the Sabzeruz Festival arc, and you huff a sigh of relief that the long stroll is finally over. Before you can even approach or knock, you’re bowled over by a flying white mess of limbs.

“Creator! You’re here!” Paimon squeals in your ear as she tackles you to the best of her ability, and you wince as she excitedly hugs whatever part of you she can reach. “I’m so glad that stupid mean puppet didn't kill you yet!”

Scaramouche makes an offended noise at that last remark and flips Paimon the bird.

“Yeah, here I am!” You laugh after untangling her from around your head and pat her head as the Traveler joins her, looking a little worse for wear. Their outfit is a little stained in places, and bears some signs of scorch marks at the edges.

“Good timing, we just got back from our morning commissions,” they say with a wave. “I didn’t think you’d be out and about so soon, is there anything you need help with?”

“We want your ingredients supplies.” Scaramouche blurts out, interrupting any of your attempts to phrase it in a nicer way.

“All of them?!” Paimon gasps, absolutely devastated. You quickly step in before Scara can say anything else.

“No no! Just a little bit,” you reassure the sprite, then address the rest of your request to the Traveler with an affable shrug. “If you have anything to spare we’d really appreciate it. We don’t exactly have a lot of food in my teapot yet. Or, uhh… Any food, at all.”

“Oh!” The traveler smacks their forehead with the heel of their palm. “I didn’t think of that, Your Grace, I’m so sorry!”

“You really don’t have to call me that,” You laugh awkwardly at the title and volume at which the Traveler said it, conscious of the curious glances your little group has attracted. All around you you begin to hear indistinct murmuring, and you frantically hope they’re not talking about you. “And, uh, don’t worry about it! It’s a bit short notice, I get it.”

“As long as you leave some for us, it’s no problem!” Paimon says as she recovers from her shock. The Traveler turns to her with a sly grin.

“As long as they leave some for you, you mean?” They tease, to which Paimon splutters in protest. The Traveler gently pokes her cheek while she throws her tantrum.

“Can we take this inside?” Scaramouche asks waspishly, stopping the pair’s bickering for a moment. “Or literally anywhere else? Maybe you two enjoy being ogled like zoo animals, but I personally don’t appreciate being eyed up by the unwashed masses.”

“How rude! You haven’t learned a single thing, have you?!” Paimon scolds, turning her wrath on the harbinger.

“Actually, I agree,” you give a halting laugh as you step closer to the building. More and more eyes are turning toward you. You give the crowd an awkward wave, and suddenly the murmurs turn into a clamor as people begin to understand your identity.

“Oh, whoops,” the Traveler says, grabbing both your hand and Scaramouche’s bicep. Paimon quickly gets the idea and grabs onto the sleeve of their outfit. “Time to go!”

-----

You spiral back into existence high above the streets of Sumeru, close to the Akademia front doors, having been forcefully teleported as a group with the Traveler. They set you down gently, while simultaneously dropping Scaramouche like a sack of potatoes.

“Ow! Hey, watch it!”

“Are you alright, Your Grace?”

Three pairs of eyes watch as you dust yourself off and give a cheerful thumbs up. “All good!” You announce. “Let’s talk groceries, shall we?”

In the end, the Traveler decides to give you and Scaramouche three bags of dry products—things like fruits and veggies, rice, sugar, coffee beans, and cured meat—and promises to stop by your teapot sometime later in the week to deliver cold foods and more fresh produce.

“I’m sure some of this probably isn’t what you’re used to in your world,” the Traveler says apologetically, giving you a wry smile. “If you have any questions about it, I’m sure you can ask Wanderer. He’s been enrolled in some cooking classes for the past few semesters, so he’ll know what he’s doing.”

“Hah! As if.” Scaramouche snatches the last bag of groceries out of their hands with a sneer. “That weakling is going to be out running errands for Buer’s every whim. Do you really expect him to be around long enough to cook adequately? I’ll handle this.”

The Traveler only raises a single eyebrow at the declaration, then shrugs. “Suit yourself,” they chuckle. “Just don’t poison the Creator, I guess.”

“Can the Creator even get sick?” Paimon asks, hovering around you and inspecting you closely enough to make you ticklish. “I’m not sure gods are supposed to be able to get sick, you know!”

“Well, we don’t want to find out!”

“It’s fine, a little food poisoning won’t kill me,” you reassure the three of them, knowing you’ll be having a rough go at it for the foreseeable future given what you know about Scaramouche’s current cooking skills.

“So, what? None of you have any faith in me?” Scaramouche frowns and crosses his arms as best as he can around his grocery bags.

The response comes from the three of you at the same time.

“No.”

#genshin sagau #genshin isekai #sagau #self aware genshin #genshin self aware au #sagau x reader #genshin scaramouche #sagau scaramouche #scaramouche x reader #seabird.txt #glitch in irminsul au

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winterkittenreads · 24 days

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Review: Dead Boy Detectives [Season 1]

Audience: 16+

Stars: 4.7/5

dear radish,

I LOVED this show. I felt so alive at the end of it. Go watch it!!!

Things I loved:

Found family

Tied to the Sandman universe but tells its own story in such a wonderful, engaging way

The way our titular dead boy detectives Edwin and Charles have been through the meat grinder, but still want to help others. The way they keep each other afloat omg. Precious.

A LOVE TRIANGLE THAT I ACTUALLY DON'T HATE OMG. I know who I'm rooting for though ;)

The way it doesn't shy away from depicting violence. Because the world IS brutal, even as there's pieces of light in it.

Crystal finding strength through the past women of her family. Loss of memories as a metaphor for how the slave trade stripped Black Americans of their history and identity (maybe). And the empowerment that comes with reconnecting with one's roots/lineage.

Pacing. Look, I admit it. I'm someone who often watches shows at 2x speed. Well buddy, this show moved so fast that I felt no such compulsion to speed it forward. Possibly because the show's creators needed to fit so much within just 8 episodes. But they pulled it off!

Niko's room is full of manga and anime posters, and I loved that for her.

Spoilers:

I HOPE NIKO COMES BACK IN SEASON 2 ARGHHHHHH.

WAS THE GUY IN THE FISH DESTRUCTION???

Night Nurse redemption arc I'm readyyyyyyy

CHARLES IS A BI-KING CHANGE MY MIND

#dead boy detectives #the sandman #edwin payne #charles rowland #edwin paine #crystal palace #niko #dead boy detectives netflix #film and media #show review #ghosts #esther finch #found family #tragic mick #monty the crow #cat king

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blackcatsnstrawberries · 4 months

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Post HOFAS Thoughts

Obviously everything below here is a spoiler, so read at your own risk.

This isn't going to be in any particular order, just as things pop into my head.

What I liked

How Bryce and the ACOTAR characters weren't buddy-buddy at all. It's was more realistic that both groups would be super hesitant of the other

Nesta's characterization- wonderful, stunning, powerful. This is the Nesta that ACOSF deserved and didn't get.

Bryce and Nesta's reluctant friendship, I loved that these two misunderstood women were able to create even just a minimum bond

Az and Nesta asking about the cell phone, amazing (BC)

Understanding the death mask and it's abilities more.

The information dump about Theia- I did not like how much of it there was to process BUT I loved how the characters saw the evil the Fae had brought with their colonization and did not try to bury that.

Bryce stealing TT, Az wasn't giving that up and it would be out of character for him to do so (unless he was giving it to his mate (🌷)

I kind of liked the Sassy Asteri (Verperous?)

Ruhn cracking jokes about two angels and a Fae walking into a dungeon- hilarious

Lidia's arc was interesting seeing as she has murdered and tortured people before she defected, but SJM was able to give her a redemption arc where people aren't forgiving her for that past, but seeing her for trying to make amends in the present/future. That is a hard arc to pull off.

Lidia nuzzling Ruhn before running off my god my heart

Hypaxia dumping Celestina (good), getting thrown out of her coven (bad) and THEN becoming the head of the HOFAS? Yas Queen! Slay!

Hunt working through his PTSD and Bryce giving him tough love about it, either you're with us or you're not. I know it's harsh but with what was going on it was realistic.

Ithan becoming prime

Sabine dying and being thrown into a sewer. TBH the sewers deserve better.

Hypaxia in general. No one in this series would be anywhere without her. I said what I said.

Tharion stepping up to marry Sathia (was that her name) More on this f*cker later

This one is weird: the torture chamber. SJM made that as messy as possible. She did not have to mention the poop and pee on the floor (these things happen during torture, but it's not exactly sexy for 3 characters to be rolling in it) so props to her I guess? Told you it's a weird one

Bryce and Ruhn taking down Fae Kings and making Avellen a Fae paradise WITH PEGASUS!!!!

The Princes of the Pit. I want them to have their own series omg.

LIDIA TORCHING POLLUX AND EVERYONE

Did I mentioned wanting more of the Princes of the Pit?

Bryce killing and Asteri by hand. Again, slay Queen.

Sahar coming in at the end and helping Hunt save Bryce

JESIBA! My girl sacrificing herself for her assistant (I laughed while crying)

Nesta and Ember's relationship

Bryce dismantling the Fae monarchy.

Ruhm calling Rhys something along the lines of "that High Lord dude." Yes. Excellent. More people need to do this.

Bryce and Hunt being endgame. Forever. Full stop.

What I didn't like

Bryce seemed to lose a few brain cells in this book...like opening the sarcophagus of an Asteri is dumb...

Bryce hearing Azriel when he was following her and Nesta- Cassian even said in ACOSF that unless Az wanted to be heard, you don't hear him.

Az using his power to try and bind the Asteri- bb no. They absorb that, did you also lose brain cells since ACOSF?

THARION YOU DUMB MF. This man pissed me off so much with all his bad choices one after another since the end of HOSAB.

Sigrid? Like...what was the point of her? Literally it was WE HAVE A NEW FENDYR ALPHA! Oh no I accidentally decapitated her....like what?

Ariadne was there and then not and then there. Ok?

Pollux.

Ithan's b plot, which I understand why it was there, really slowed down the pacing.

All the middle fingers? Why was everyone just flipping everyone else off all the time?

Also lines like this showed up a few times, "it could have been minutes, years really." When something was happening...like what?

I love me spicy scenes, they were awkwardly placed in this story.

RUHN AND LIDIA JUST LIKE NOT CARING THAT DEC AND FLYNN WERE MISSING?

What I think will happen next

SJM said we're getting more CC books, I am thinking they are going to focus more on other potential couples now that Bryce and Hunt's story has seemingly ended. And I swear if Bryce is pregnant in the next one...

I think a big all out war is coming (in ACOTAR) against the Asteri/Daglan somehow, and all characters from all three world with go to Prythian for a battle

Lidia is absolutely a decedent of Aelin and Rowan so that has to play out somehow.

Lidia's kids are going to become important- I am wondering about their bio dad because it's said he was a shifter, and this is me being all conspiracy theory but: What if their bio dad was a descendent of Fenrys? They are twins, one with fair hair (Fenrys) one with dark hair (Connall) and we don't know their abilities yet...it's a reach but I am calling it

Monarchy systems of government suck, democracy all the way, but uh here's to hoping SJM writes one in that works better than what most democratic countries have (looking at you USA)

The emo like Reaper that Hypaxia used to compare samples to, I am curious if he is going to turn into someone/something in later books. Just the whole scene seemed like he would become important later on. I don't know it's just a feeling.

As I have more time to process and marinate with this book I'll probably add more. In the end I'd give HOFAS a 3.5/5 it got bogged down quite a bit with exposition, characters just making dumb choice after dumb choice, and plot lines seemingly leading to nowhere. Bryce and Hunt remained a really strong FMC/MMC lead, my fav of all the series, the side characters were mostly interesting and kept everything going (looking at you Ithan) but all and all, I enjoyed the book!

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raethethey · 11 days

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i started watch 911 in like february? idk but its been two months since then and i have opinions. first, i love tommy. forever i will love tommy hes amazing. second even tho i did start watching it bc i like gay coded tv shows (read: hawaii five-o, spn, etc) and buddie was the only thing i saw from tumblr before watching the show, its just not it for me. i felt their chemistry in the series yes, but it felt very platonic to me. like soulmates yes but platonic soulmates. the whatta man song was hilarious tho. babytrapping buck was hilarious but at least he likes kids.

anyways now that tommy is here i can feel their chemistry. its written to have chemistry. theyre supposed to be together. every other ship besides henren was basically accidental. and now that tim is actually putting thought into how two characters will fit together, i am excited! i want to see buck feel safe and i want to see someone date him with all the crush-like advances involved. flowers, dinner and a movie, sweet kisses that dont lead to anything more. hand-holding during outings or family get togethers. i want to see it all

what i dont want to see is a cheating arc bc fans want a gay eddie with a big feelings realisation. he can be gay sure but that doesnt mean he has to be. if tim decides eddie is straight then his "comphet" behaviour can simply be catholic guilt and trauma and him not being ready for relationships simply bc he isnt ready. he hasnt worked through his trauma. he tried but they were all dead so he literally couldnt. and then they dont show him taking other steps after that to work through other traumas. he hasnt talked to buck about being shot or anyone really abt shannon dying. nothing! he stopped trying after finding out his army buddies all died. and he has had some conversations with chris abt shannon. but it doesnt feel like the situation is resolved or that hes come to peace with it.

cheating would not help in any way shape or form. not for buck since we've seen what one kiss would do to a relationship. not tommy bc buck has tried showing him hes ready for smth with him and cheating would just break that trust. not eddie bc again hed be rushing into things and then it would all come crashing down like always! and it would tear the 118 up if they found out. chris would be devastated. buck would be confused all over again and the fans who do like tommy would have their heart broken for him.

buck will not cheat on tommy for eddie to have his character arc pushed forward. eddie's character will grow in his own time at his own pace with guiding hands from bobby and ?the ghost of shannon? and who knows maybe marisol will stick around. maybe not. personally i like her as a character but not as eddies gf. but then my next question is why does eddie need a gf or partner in the first place? he has chris and i believe hes said before thats all he needs.

and for the love of all things good stop with the fucking fanwars. we've been over this. ship who you ship and walk away from what you dont like. dont leave hate mail bc someone has a different opinion than you. grow up, touch some grass, and drink some water

#911 abc #911 show #911 fox #911 speculation #eddie diaz #evan buck buckely #tommy kinard #911 on abc

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1doesnotsimplyhavejust1fandam · 1 month

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I desperately want oblivious!Buddie to play out for just a LITTLE longer so we get some “off-screen” gems. As in, absolutely bonkers events and quirks that we don’t currently know, but slowly find out before the boys figure THEM out. Such as Buddie grocery shopping together, Buck knowing Chris’ (AND Eddie’s) SSN, Chris having Buck’s phone number memorized because he didn’t have a phone when they first met and would call him on the house phone like for the Hildy prank, Chris has called Buck his dad to one of the firefam or Carla, Buck and Abuela have weekly phone calls now that she lives in Texas, Eddie is Buck’s POA (and vice versa), Eddie has a second pair of keys to Buck’s Jeep (Buck doesn’t for Eddie’s truck ONLY because Eddie is a passenger princess and if he’s not the one driving his truck then he just hands his keys off to Buck anyway), as early as late season 3 Christopher was drawing Buck into his family portraits (bonus points if it’s before the well happened), Buck has Christopher’s drawings on his loft fridge, Buck uses the family calendar on Eddie’s fridge too, Eddie specifically doesn’t buy certain foods because Buck has a food restriction that the Diazes do NOT also have (canon vegan Buck anyone?), Buck picks Christopher up from school enough to be known to both the teachers AND administration, they have a shared google calendar that Eddie hates (technophobe) but Buck updates regularly, there hasn’t been a week where Buck hasn’t stayed the night at least once at the Diazes since the lawsuit (yes, even through the divorce arc idc, let me live).

The whole “didn’t know they were dating” thing is becoming more and more appealing to me for Buddie with every passing minute, and I just think it would be funny if we got Hen or Maddie or even Christopher to call them out on little things like this that they do that they didn’t really think hard enough about to realize it was partner shit, not best friend shit. Plus, I know a lot of people want Buddie NOW because of Buck being canonically bi, but I’m still happy to wait a little longer if it means giving both characters the patience and care their stories deserve. ABC making them canon the very first season after the network switch WOULD be iconic, but given that I’ve been both ecstatic and nervous about Buddie after last Thursday’s episode, I think they should pace it. Give them both full realizations about their sexualities, a lil crisis about it for each too, maybe a different man or two before each other, the jealousy they’re BOTH now famous for, just a pinch more therapy about the shock of it all, and then somebody or something to knock their heads together and make them realize that their partner has been right there all along.

Honestly, I won’t lie and say that some of these aren’t based off of fics I’ve read, but they’re also so basic to Buddie that I couldn’t tell you specific fics, and I also definitely tried to come up with some that aren’t from fics in my memory, but claim them if you want lol, I don’t mind

#buddiepher #buddie #eddie diaz #christopher diaz #evan buckley #Buck is bi!!!#buckley diaz family #this is canon to me #oblivious buddie my BELOVED #oblivious buddie #Chris come get your dads #buddie is endgame #buddie is coming #911 abc #911 s7 #9 1 1 abc

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bobparkhurst · 2 months

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brief immediate mota finale thoughts

Literally every scene involving Rosie was gold. Not just because Nate Mann has consistently knocked it out of the park, but I think he's just had the most incredible arc. This whole series could have been about Rosie Rosenthal specifically and I think barely scratch the surface of how interesting and incredible this man was. Rosie's great character trait is his empathy and righteousness. There was a moment I found mildly chilling, which is where, after having witnessed the atrocities, Rosie gets a line that does step on that line where righteousness turns into zealotry and it's *understandable*, and it's a great counterpoint to Harry's worry about what the war has turned him into. Like, I feel that whole moment is quite ambiguous about where we all fall and tbh I adored it. The writing was great, the intimacy was great and Anthony Boyle and Nate Mann were just absolutely just showing us all how it's done. Both of those boys need accolades for this.

Buck/Bucky broke my heart over and over again. The return of the lucky deuce (that teary face)! Buck telling Bucky with his words that he was glad to have him there these years. Flying home. Austin Butler's face journey when he hears Bucky's voice over the radio. Same buddy, you should have seen me sitting here like CALLUM? I KNOW THOSE VOWELS. THAT'S CALLUM TURNER. You heard me the first time, Gale.

KENNY IN THE PLANE. LOVE THAT FOR ME. Raff Law's perfect little face of awe. I did actually like as well that he fixed up all these planes constantly as instruments of war, with every repair he made representative of danger, injury and death, and then he got to ride in one for the very first time and it's a mission of help. Ken has just been such a quiet joy of a presence throughout. I thought it was lovely to give him the moment with the kids at the end, listening to the radio too. This baby boy of the company was fully older brother. God. I think Ken Lemmons might be my favourite character of all. If I can ever get my hands on good quality vids, I'm making so many gifs. PLEASE GOD LET ME FIND THE BOOK ABOUT HIM.

I do think the Tuskegee airmen were short-changed, I was really hoping for some meatier stuff for them this episode. I understand why they weren't the focus - the focus is on exactly four characters - but I do think a few more scenes wouldn't have gone amiss. I adored the Jefferson/Cleven scene of last episode. Did love the quiet background Macon/DeMarco friendship though.

I mentioned Anthony Boyle earlier, but again, there was some fantastic Croz stuff here. His physicality has changed so much over the course of this show, it's so good.

There's no let up in the horror, but I think a really good blend of that and the catharsis and the celebration. MotA has suffered from pacing problems throughout, and a bit here too, but overall I thought it was balanced and the visual colour returning towards the end. Gorgeous.

If I was Gale Cleven's wife of 51 fucking years I'd be pissed as hell to not even be mentioned in his title card. Jesus Christ. It's fine to have that narrative in the show but I found it very disrespectful, like Marge was his one and only true love? There was room to acknowledge both loves.

#mota spoilers #i have many other thoughts but i also have to do some actual work today so #mota #masters of the air

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ranchthoughts · 1 year

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thoughts on genre, tropes, Bad Buddy, and My School President

and here she is! the full text all together, not split into the three parts previously posted here: part 1, part 2, part 3

I also go more in detail about a lot of the terms and concepts I use here (indexes, conventions, genres, intertextuality, etc) in this post here, in case you would like more context

[strap yourselves in, this is loooooong]

The BL “genre” has so many conventions - in narrative, characterization, themes, settings, iconography, filmic techniques, and of course, tropes.

Bad Buddy and MSP do not lack these genre conventions (both are stories about boys in love, both are set in schools which is very common in Thai BLs especially, both explore a budding relationship and other social and emotional problems of youth, both hit familiar plot beats like confessions and narrative/emotional climaxes, both utilize many editing and sound effect techniques seen in other BLs, and both deploy many BL tropes like cheek kisses, head pats, forced proximity, looming, etc.). However! Bad Buddy and MSP are atypical in their deployment of genre conventions, especially with regards to trope usage and pacing - they go against genre and trope expectations to subvert seme/uke roles and dynamics and they space their narrative beats differently than other shows. As a result, the shows feel familiar but also fresh to BL audiences.

Bad Buddy, MSP, and tropes

BL tropes index so much information to audiences familiar with the genre (e.g., the nature of the relationship between characters, the seme/uke dynamics, other social information, etc.). Bad Buddy and MSP take these familiar indexes, with their well established meanings, and mix them up, give them new contexts, and use what they normally tell us about the characters, social context, relationship dynamic, etc. to tell a new story.

There are SO many examples of this so I have decided to focus on two “subcategories” of tropes: the faen fatale and tropes which are strongly associated with seme/uke dynamics.

Faen Fatales

In most BLs, the faen fatale (thanks to AbsoluteBL for the term) is a character (male or female) whose sole purpose is to drive a wedge between the main pair, often serving as a catalyst for their relationship/confession, and who generally does not get much character development or identity of their own.

In Bad Buddy, Ink seems like a classic faen fatale: she is introduced as an old high school friend that Pat was interested in and Pran was jealous of because of that fact, and now in the present day of the show Pat pursues her again and Pran is once again jealous, especially since it seems Pat is succeeding (they get food together, they hang out a lot, Pat wears the bracelet Ink gave him in high school, etc.). Pran believes that Pat likes Ink and that they are well on their way to being together, if they aren’t together already. Pat even tells Pran he likes Ink. However, it becomes clear quite quickly that Ink is not a typical faen fatale. Her interactions with both boys feel platonic, she shows just as much interest in fostering a friendship with Pran, and when Pat uses Pa’s patented “Four Ways to Tell if Someone Likes You,” Ink fails in every category. She does act a a catalyst to Pat and Pran’s romantic relationship in some ways (e.g., Pat using Pa’s patented Four Ways he learned to assess Ink to realize his own feelings for Pran), and she does act as a barrier to their relationship as some of Pran’s hesitation post their ep.5 kiss comes from his understanding that Pat has a crush on Ink (though of course their family and friends present the main barrier). However, Ink has her own personality, interests, and crucially, her own romantic arc. She is a fully fleshed out character who never had anything but platonic feelings for either lead: ergo, a subversion of the faen fatale trope.

In MSP, there are a couple of potential faen fatales, but neither develop that way in the end. Sound is introduced as Tinn’s rival, and romance media logic would suggest he will fulfill a love rival role in the show, competing with Tinn for Gun’s affections (especially as Sound is interested in music like Gun and he joins Chinzilla). Even Tiw suggests Tinn should look out for Sound moving in on Gun. However, Sound never shows interest in Gun and quickly gets acclimated into the band, only briefly presenting a threat to Tinn and Gun’s relationship when Tiw witnesses them having a seemingly intimate moment but that is sorted by the end of the episode. Like Ink, Sound never has anything other than platonic feelings for either lead and ends up with his own romantic arc. The other possible faen fatale in MSP is Nook, though she is present so briefly. I think other shows would have stretched out her plot line more and had her fill more of a faen fatale role. As it stands in MSP: Gun sees her give a gift to Tinn and compliment him, he gets jealous and snaps at Tinn, and then the show/Tinn immediately reveal to us and to Gun that it was a case of mistaken identity (Yo was catfishing with Tinn’s picture). In a matter of minutes, Nook went from being a faen fatale set up to simply someone involved in another character’s arc, part of a problem that Tinn and Gun could work on together.

Neither Bad Buddy nor MSP have faen fatale characters, though there are characters that could, and indeed seem to be set up to, fill that role. Both shows subvert our expectations and BL tropes by having potential faen fatales be uninterested in either lead and possess more character development than most other examples of the trope (including their own, completely separate, romantic arcs). In the case of Ink, this also subverts typical BL handling of female characters, who tend to be few and far between and generally relegated to the under-developed role of faen fatale.

Seme/uke Tropes

Most BL shows can be read through a lens of seme/uke dynamics, which originated in yaoi. The seme is the “pursuer” character and the uke is the “pursued”. There are certain physical (height, skin colour, etc.), social (age, wealth, social capital, etc.), and personality (active vs. passive, extroverted vs. introverted, flirtier vs. shyer) markers which are typically associated with either the seme or the uke. For example, semes tend to be taller, wealthier, older, flirtier, tanner, more active, and have a higher social status, while ukes tend to be shorter, poorer, younger, shyer, paler, and have a lower social status. “Seme” and “uke” roles are also sometimes conflated with masculinity and femininity (semes are “masculine” and ukes are “feminine”) and sexual preferences (semes are dominant and tops and ukes are submissive and bottoms). There are also tropes associated with either the seme or the uke, like ukes typically give cheek kisses and semes forehead kisses.

Thus, things like height, age, wealth, personality, presumed sexual preference, and the role they take in tropes can index the character’s status as a seme or a uke, and in turn the character’s identity as a seme or uke in the narrative (pursuer vs. pursued) indexes a character’s personality, sexual preferences, etc., however unrealistic and simplistic that is in real life. In a BL, we would expect the seme (pursuer) and uke (pursued) characters to exhibit most, if not all, of the associated seme or uke traits and roles in tropes, though this is not always true (and some BLs have little to no seme/uke dynamics at all).

In terms of physical, social, and personality markers in Bad Buddy, Pat exhibits slightly more “seme” traits than Pran, like his larger size and more “rugged” and “typical” masculinity compared to Pran’s neatness. However, both Pat and Pran take the seme or uke role in tropes about the same amount of time, with Pran having several significant moments where he embodies the seme role (looming over Pat, licking his fingers, drying his hair, etc., not to mention the post-sex scene in ep.11) and Pat many significant moments where he embodies a uke or even “feminine” role (casting himself as the girlfriend at the bus stop, being clingy, pretending to be sick so Pran will give him a sponge bath, etc.). In fact, tropes often happen twice, with Pat and Pran taking turns in the seme and uke role (e.g., both take turns cleaning the other’s face, both cook for the other, both kiss the other’s cheek, etc.). Furthermore, and I’ve spoken about this before here: both Pran and Pat deliberately take on the seme role during their ep.7 Flirt-Off bet (”whoever falls in love first loses”). To win the bet, they have to be the pursuer (i.e., seme), and thus spend the episode taking it in turns to exhibit the seme role in tropes (Pat takes off his shirt multiple times, Pran looms over Pat, they wash each other’s faces, they take the seme roles with Ink and Wai at the noodle shop to make the other jealous, etc.), thus also spending the episode taking it in turns to fulfill the uke role in tropes. The fact that the seme and uke roles in Bad Buddy are so interchangeable and balanced (they sometimes ever play the narrative roles of pursuer and pursued at the same time) demonstrates the show’s upending of traditional seme/uke dichotomies.

In MSP, Tinn and Gun are pretty much the perfect seme and uke in terms of physical and social markers: Tinn is taller, wealthier, has a higher social status, and even has a female “faen fatale” (more typical for seme characters), while Gun is shorter, poorer, from a marginalized club at school, and has a male “faen fatale” (more typical for uke characters). Some one on Tumblr (and I cannot for the life of me find this post again) mentioned that Tinn is a little “feminine” coded when it comes to romance (he is the dreamer, the romantic, always imagining romantic situations), while Gun is more what we’d think of as “masculine” when it comes to romance (more brusque, less sappy), though I am not sure how applicable these types of divisions are to BL. In term of preference markers, there isn’t much sexual content to go off of, but MSP does mention the TinnGun vs GunTinn divide in ep.12, never coming down on either side, and one of the things the homophobic teacher says is that he thought Gun was more “masculine” so he is surprised to see him dating a boy. Overall, the show deliberately eschews and criticizes the association of top/bottom or masculine/feminine with the pair. Furthermore, Tin talks a lot about wanting to be Gun’s boyfriend, to belong to Gun - and as @cinna-bin points out here, for a genre that equates seme with dominance, the one who shows and has ownership of the other, it is pretty subversive to have the seme character in the narrative express a desire to be “owned”. Like Pat and Pran, Tinn and Gun are fairly egalitarian when it comes to which role they take in tropes (Tinn catches Gun when he falls, Gun touches Tinn’s chin constantly, they both kiss the other’s cheek). I’ve talked about this here too, but often Tinn will imagine a moment with himself in the seme role (e.g., wiping Gun’s face) that won’t come to fruition, but when it does happen in real life, the trope is reversed and Gun takes the seme role (e.g., when it happens in real life, Gun wipes Tinn’s mouth). In MSP, the deployment of tropes is more about natural moment and real life, and less adhering to strict role divisions. This back and forth feels more accurate, more high school - they both take it in turns to boldly initiate and then to be shy (all the aborted kiss chances, etc.).

Finally, I’d like to add that there are many moments in both Bad Buddy and MSP where the characters are aware of the romantic tropes and intentionally utilize them to further a romantic agenda. We aren’t exactly subverting tropes here, but we are playing with them deliberately and consciously in a way you don’t get in a lot of BLs so I thought it worth mentioning here. Most of these instances come in the Bad Buddy ep.7 Flirt-Off or from Tinn’s day dreams and include:

Pat employing the “drinking from a water bottle/pouring water on yourself” and “shirt off” tropes to try and get Pran hot and bothered in ep.7

Pran looming over Pat during the bet

Pat and Pran trying to make each other jealous by employing various classic tropes with Ink and Wai respectively while eating noodles (opening their water bottle, feeding them, wiping their mouth, etc.)

Pran symbolically losing the bet by wiping Pat’s mouth

Tinn imagining himself wiping Gun’s mouth

Tinn imagining a Ghost moment while cooking with Gun

Tinn making a joke about a “hot underwater kiss”

Pacing

Both MSP and Bad Buddy are also slightly unconventional when it comes to pacing. Both shows hit the standard BL narrative beats (falling for one another, confessions, first kiss, confirmation of relationship, conflict, beach eps, etc) but at unconventional timings, they utilize a lot of time skips, and they also condense plot lines which in other shows might have been much longer.

The Placement of Narrative Beats

I will focus on two of the main places where both Bad Buddy and MSP diverge from the usual BL placement of narrative beats. Firstly, the first kiss on both shows: while there is a lot of variety in the timing of first kisses for BL shows, Pat and Pran’s rooftop kiss at the beginning of ep.5 is perhaps a little earlier than usually, especially since the two do not truly confess or get together until the end of ep.7; and in MSP, their first kiss comes quite late, especially given the numerous near-kisses that happen throughout the latter half of the show. The first kiss for MSP coming in ep.12 is not unheard of for a low-heat BL and really makes sense given the tone and setting of the show (lighthearted, high school), but combined with the early confession of feelings (hinted at as early as ep.3, and fairly confirmed in ep.6) as well as those fake-out kisses makes it feel unusual.

Secondly, both shows eschew the typical ep.11 of doom structure of a BL, where ep.11 sees peak emotional angst and the narrative/plot climax, in favour of a ep.10 (and even ep.9 in Bad Buddy) of doom, an ep.11 denouement, and an ep.12 conclusion. Eps.9 and 10 in Bad Buddy are when Pat and Pran’s friends and parents, the two biggest barriers to their relationship, find out about them. Pat is shot, they learn the real story behind their parents feud, there are a lot of emotions, etc. In ep.10 of MSP, there is the finale of Hot Wave and Gun’s mother’s illness (culminating in her receiving surgery at the end of the episode). Neither show has the main couple break up in their eps. of doom, like is common in other BLs’ ep.11 of doom, though they do have their relationships tested. Ep.11 in both Bad Buddy and MSP are instead the denouement, a quieter, more introspective look at the emotions and plot event of the previous episode(s). Pat and Pran run away from their families for their “honeymoon” on the beach and come to terms with everything they’ve learned, and MSP focuses more on the aftermath of Hot Wave and the tensions and emotions among Chinzilla, though there is of course parts about Tinn and Gun’s relationship in the face of disappointment. The final ep. for both show is thus given a bit more breathing room than in other BLs - they don’t have to wrap up the emotions and plot lines of an ep.11 of doom AND conclude the series, and can instead focus on wrapping up the series and even introducing new ideas and a look into the future (there are timeskips in both ep.12s, Bad Buddy does their PatPran breakup fake out, and MSP explores homophobia).

Time Skips

While time skips aren’t unheard of in BLs, especially in the final episode, Bad Buddy and MSP’s usage of them interject a level of realism into the series that isn’t always seen. The time jump of 6 or so months at the beginning of ep.7 in Bad Buddy means the tension build of the Flirt-Off doesn’t happen over a matter of days or weeks but in fact months. Pat and Pran are stubborn, this won’t be resolved quickly, and it give time for the tension to realistically reach a breaking point. MSP features several time skips in ep.9, ep.10, and ep.12, stretching both the Hot Wave competition schedule and Tinn and Gun’s budding relationship over a much more realistic full school year, instead of pretending the competition and build up of tension or feelings could be happening over a span of weeks. Paradoxically, the fact that the shows use time skips instead of showing (either in full, in part, or in a montage) the parts they skip (the Flirt-Off, the weeks of Tinn and Gun coming closer together and Chinzilla practicing) connects to my next point: the shows aren’t afraid to speed things up sometimes. The use of time skips both slows down the narrative and emotional arcs over a longer period of time while also demonstrating that the shows feel confident in their narratives: there is no need to stretch story lines out over episodes and episodes.

Condensing Plot Lines

The most striking thing about Bad Buddy and MSP’s pacing is how fast they move through plot lines, especially compared to other shows. In Bad Buddy, the plot line where Pat and Pran are anonymously and unknowingly flirting with each other through gifts and notes left at each other’s doors could have been the plot line for most of a show, if not a whole show, but it is introduced and resolved within ep.2. Ink is introduced in ep.4 and seems to be a potential faen fatale, but by the end of ep.4 this seems somehow unlikely and by halfway through ep.5 it is confirmed that she won’t be. The Flirt-Off happens in large part off-screen, in the 6 months or so time skip between eps.6 and 7, and is shown to us and resolved in ep.7. Other shows could have spent episodes if not half the show exploring that plot line.

I've talked at length about the pacing of MSP here and a bit here - like Bad Buddy, MSP moves quickly through plot lines that might have spanned episodes or even a whole season in another show. By the end of the first episode, MSP establish that Tinn is soft and pining hard over Gun (instead of keeping up the premise that he is cold and out to get the music club), the finale of Hot Wave comes two episodes before the end, the plot lines around Gun’s mother’s health are resolved in about one episode (the conflict around Tinn keeping Gun’s mother’s illness from him is resolved in a couple of scenes, and she has surgery and is pronounced ok by the end of the episode), any jealousy plot line around Nook is resolved in two scenes, the conflict introduced by Sound joining the band is resolved in one episode, and so on. Pretty much every problem introduced at the beginning of an episode is resolved by the end.

Bad Buddy and MSP feel confident, like they know they have narrative material to spare and don’t need to stretch plot lines out with twists, miscommunication, and jealousy. Thus, they move through plot lines much more quickly than other shows would.

Both shows feel so fresh because of this - they keep things moving, they surprise us by resolving things faster than other shows would, they don’t linger in jealousy and miscommunication like many other shows do, they skip over parts that other shows might have lingered on for the biggest punch, and they break the patterns that us, the audience, have come to expect from BLs (like the ep.11 of doom). Even the progression of the relationships, which we know will be romantic and probably happy in the end (these are BLs after all) and conform vaguely to enemies-to-lovers and will-they-won’t-they conventions, stay fresh: Pat and Pran have kissed and all but confessed their feelings, but they now embark on a months long Flirt-Off bet that delays them actually getting together. We know Tinn has a crush on Gun from the end of the first ep. and we begin to see hints that Gun might like him back from ep.3 onwards, and at first the show seems like it is going to go the typical romcom route wherein Gun doesn’t realize Tinn’s crush is on him (especially with him offering to help Tinn flirt with his crush), but like I talked about in my post here, they don’t and instead have Gun know it is him Tinn has a crush on, he’s just uncertain and a bit scared. Bad Buddy and MSP are both quicker and slower than other shows: they move through plot lines without lingering, but they use time skips to create realistic long term development of the core relationships, allowing the characters to build tension, live in hesitancy, and in the case of Tinn and Gun, be realistically slow in the physical progression of their relationship.

Conclusions

Bad Buddy and MSP subvert audience expectations with regards to tropes and narratives - like their handling of the faen fatale trope (both shows give us characters that could be faen fatales, and probably would be in other shows, that do not fulfill the narrative role of a faen fatale and receive character development and arcs of their own unlike other faen fatales) and how they play with expectations surrounding seme/uke dynamics (those who embody the seme or uke role in tropes aren’t necessarily the ones who exhibit the most seme or uke physical, social or personality markers; tropes iterations are balanced and reciprocal). Both shows change up the usual BL timelines and expected pacing - they hit their peak narrative, emotional, and angst climaxes before the standard ep.11 peak, plot beats come quicker than in other shows, and story arcs that are usually dragged on in other shows are concluded more quickly. On the other hand, both shows are “slower” than other BLs in other ways, like their usage of time skips to create realistic progressions of the core relationships. As a result of these subversions of BL genre conventions, the shows are familiar but also fresh to BL audiences.

But what does this say about Bad Buddy and MSP, and the BL genre in general?

Firstly, these shows remind us again of the importance of intertextuality. Texts (and this includes television shows) are intertextual; they all refer to one another and cannot exist separately from other texts. BLs especially are very intertextual - they have so many shared elements (tropes, characters, locations, etc.) they always (deliberately or unintentionally) draw parallels to other BLs. We would never notice how Bad Buddy and MSP diverge from other BL shows if we did not by necessity/automatically think of all previous BLs while watching them. Furthermore, where and how Bad Buddy and MSP divert from genre conventions and previous examples of the genre demonstrates their relationship to the genre and underlines the messages the shows are trying to send. Bad Buddy and MSP subvert the particular genre expectations they do and in the way they do to make a point - by giving new meanings to familiar conventions and juxtaposing typical meanings of genre conventions with their own (either explicitly, or through the audience’s intertextual analyses) the shows ground themselves in a different world view than other BL shows and give a more nuanced and realistic look at human and queer experience.

For example, the way Bad Buddy and MSP move quickly through plot points (avoiding extended plot lines centering on jealousy or miscommunications) and the reciprocity of their trope usages (deliberately balancing the seme and uke dynamics of their lead pairs) is unusual in the world of BL. It serves to emphasize the reciprocal and egalitarian nature of the lead pairs’ relationships which we also see in their treatment of one another (communicating, understanding each other’s needs and taking turns acquiescing to make the other happy, e.g., ep.11 where Pran agrees to run away and stay on the honeymoon to make Pat happier and then Pat agrees to return home to make Pran happier, or Tinn and Gun being so supportive and understanding of one another’s dreams and physical boundaries, etc.). In this post @miscellar argues the lack of miscommunication as a plot device in Bad Buddy is inherently queer and that the show as a whole does away with heterosexual/heteronormative tropes. In their reciprocity, egalitarianism, and communication, Pat and Pran and Tinn and Gun eschew the standard power dynamics of BLs which come as a result of BL’s encoded seme/uke dynamics, which in turn come from heteronormative and misogynistic ideas in the het romance genre and beyond about men and women. Defying genre conventions in some ways (e.g., subverting tropes) strengthens and underlines how the shows defy genre conventions in other ways (queerer, more realistic stories; fairer treatment for women; less heteronormativity, etc.) - these smaller, more obvious subversions of genre conventions and expectations indicates to us, the audience, that we should be prepared for larger, more subtle and implicit shake ups of genre conventions and expectations, ones that might rewrite the BL genre code for the future.

By reflecting on what Bad Buddy and MSP change, we can understand and identify the standard BL world view and set of assumptions. For example, by weakening and subverting seme/uke dynamics and their associations with things like dominance/submission, masculinity/femininity, and top/bottom, Bad Buddy and MSP reject the heteronormative and misogynistic assumptions that underlie most BLs: that gay couples have a “man” and a “woman;” that the penetrated must be feminine, weaker, sex averse, etc. like women are in heterosexual relationships; that there is always an unbalance of power (social and/or sexual) in relationships. While these are “just” romance tropes, or you might say that it’s odd to be so absorbed by the dynamics between two characters (particularly when it come to analyzing seme vs. uke and top vs. bottom), in a world where these tropes and their execution, and the preferred sexual position of a character and what that says about their personality etc., are so tied to other things and issues like misogyny, homophobia, etc., refusing to engage and deliberately obscuring are pretty radical things that say a lot about the message and view point of the shows.

Bad Buddy and MSP feel more realistic than a lot of other BLs. This is not to say that shows have to be realistic to be good, or even that viewers/that I prefer realistic shows, but it is certainly something that strikes me when I think about Bad Buddy and MSP. The relationship progression is slower, there is less dwelling in miscommunications, they even have not entirely happy but hopeful endings (Pat and Pran are continuing to hide their relationship from their parents, but it seems they are coming around; Tinn and Gun face homophobia from people in their lives, but also receive support from their classmate and parents). And beyond being realistic to the “real world,” they also feel more realistic to the queer experience: queer relationships don’t usually have such strict relationship roles and power dynamics, adhere so strictly to heteronormative ideals, or exist in world without homophobia or disapproval. They are varied, often deliberately contrasting and rejecting hetero norms, and sometimes involve being scared to come out (even to accepting parents), facing homophobia, and living in a “glass closet” limbo.

Many people have talked about how Bad Buddy walked so MSP could run - Bad Buddy was more heavy handed and noticeably deliberate with its trope subversions, intentionally trying to correct problems that have existed in the BL genre since the beginning, and this allowed MSP coming later to be more subtle with their changes, working them even more seamlessly into the style and the tone of the show. After MSP, what will be next? Where is GMMTV, and BL as a whole (in Thailand and beyond) heading? I’m excited to find out.

Bibliography

@absolutebl, specifically these posts: 1 (faen fatales), 2 (seme/uke), 3 (seme/uke tropes), 4 (GMMTV correcting for its mistakes), and all their posts about BL tropes

Agha, Asif. 2003. “The social life of cultural value.” Language & Communication 23: 231-273.

Ahearn, Laura. M. 2012. Living Language: An Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology. Hoboken: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Bakhtin, Mikhail M. 1982. “Discourse in the Novel.” In The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays by M.M. Bakhtin, edited by Michael Holquist, translated by Caryl Emerson and Michael Holquist, 260- 422. Austin: University of Texas Press.

Chandler, Daniel. Semiotics for Beginners. http://visual-memory.co.uk/daniel//Documents/S4B/semiotic.html

Chandler, Daniel. Genre Theory. http://visual-memory.co.uk/daniel//Documents/intgenre/intgenre.html

@cinna-bin: https://cinna-bin.tumblr.com/post/704496825511641088/his-boyfriend-words-matter

Irvine, Judith T. 1996. “Shadow Conversations: The Indeterminacy of Participant Roles.” In Natural Histories of Discourse, edited by Michael Silverstein and Greg Urban, 131-159. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Laineste, Liisi, and Piret Voolaid. 2017. “Laughing Across Borders: Intertextuality of Internet Memes.” European Journal of Humour Research 4, no. 4: 26–49.

@miscellar: https://www.tumblr.com/miscellar/674021449476997120/here-are-a-few-things-off-the-top-of-my-head-1 AND edited to add this post, which is so crucial to understanding how intentional all this is when it comes to Bad Buddy: https://www.tumblr.com/miscellar/710442440997371904/hello-in-a-convo-we-were-having-about-qls-that

Proctor, Devin. 2020. "Intertextuality." In The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Mass Media and Society, edited by Debra L. Merskin, 849-50. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.

@ranchthoughts (myself): 1 (signs, symbols, icons, indexes, genre and BL), 2 (Bad Buddy and seme/uke tropes), 3 (MSP and imagination vs. reality), 4 (MSP being a good-natured show), 5 (MSP and narrative structure and pacing), 6 (Gun and knowing about Tinn’s crush); and everyone I referenced in those posts as well

Wiggins, Bradley E. 2019. The Discursive Power of Memes in Digital Culture: Ideology, Semiotics, and Intertextuality. London: Routledge.

#bb #bb meta #msp #msp meta #bl meta #ranch thoughts #bad buddy #my school president #this post is a monster... it's a full thesis basically #ppt thoughts

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lovecolibri · 2 years

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#911 #buddie #it is a fact we are getting less interaction with them #and it's also a fact that kr is not great at managing a show/pacing/story arcs #it's across the board not just with buddie i mean look at madney!#as a madney fan i'm irritated about the lack of them too!#people are allowed to be frustrated with the lack of scenes (and the false equivalence w/5a's 'distance' when they had multiple scenes)#let people feel their feelings like damn!#but also!! keep it to your blog and don't go sending asks to people trying to be positive #let them ALSO feel how they want #but for real we are somehow in a DROUGHT even though they are trying to focus on the mains #something is still missing #tim!!#come get your show tim!#implication is NOT ENOUGH we deserve content #kr stop making the audience do all the work challenge

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chromedome-sympathizer · 3 months

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Chromedome, for the send me a character ask? ;)

thank you rushing-waters!!!

(this is probably obvious but many spoilers incoming)

First impression

"wow, the artists really are pushing the proportions on these character designs, huh?" -my thoughts when reading for the first time

no seriously his waist is smaller than his head. why do you have a waist so small? for other bots to grab? (yes) (five husbands)

actually seriously tho mtmte was such an intricate fast-paced colorful blur on the first read that I didn't really notice him in particular until issues #14-#16 where I uh. started paying attention. for obvious reasons.

Impression now

whiny self-deprecating loser sadboy who I love with all my heart and soul

no on subsequent reads I definitely started liking him even more. the happiest scenes are when he's fully just some guy, like in the bar talking with swerve about nightmare fuel or trying to guess people from their transformation noises. he's also really good at his job!! (not just mnemosurgery, but forensics in general!) and sorry rodimus, but I would invite him along just for his dry wit.

Favorite moment

I thought for a long time about this one and I think there's just too many to choose from. but if I had to give one off the dome, (ha), maybe that little moment at the beginning of the time travel arc where he's talking to rewind and defending brainstorm. because yeah! he's his friend! and he likes to think he's good at reading people.

Idea for a story

hm. maybe a post canon / au situation where they're still on the lost light and he joins a dedicated forensics team. because I think it would be good for him to feel useful after giving up mnemosurgery

Unpopular opinion

maybe not unpopular. but his holomatter avatar would not look like that. maybe it's just the 2014-ness of it but it just rubs me the wrong way. I don't know exactly what itd be. maybe long blonde stoner hair. I'm thinking he's still masc. idk. he just needs to look pathetic. sadder

Favorite relationship

I could say rewind or brainstorm, but I'm gonna go the other direction. I'm gonna say rodimus. because rewind is right, he is an enabler. actually it's worse than that, since rodimus is not just enabling self destructive behavior but actively initiating it. ordering it, even, as much as anyone on the LL really needs to listen to his orders. (sorry roddy buddy.)

no but I think about this so much. because we remember a few times in canon where rodimus orders a crew member to shoot another. and it's often the same pattern: "shoot them!" "do I shoot to kill?" "yes!" "uh... are you sure??" "okay just incapacitate them." and in these cases rodimus is asking a crew member to harm (or kill) a crew member.

but with CD, rodimus is asking him to hurt himself for the betterment of the crew. usually for the reason that having the information in a dead or unconscious person's head might tilt the balance toward their survival. so in these times, when rodimus says "hurt somebody! (yourself)" there's nobody to say "are you sure?"

(granted, CD does usually say something like "this could kill me" but I don't count it because he's bent on self destruction and he's already got his needles out. I'm sure rodimus brushes it off as that "dry wit.")

Favorite headcanon

idk where this one came from. I think it's a pretty common fanon interpretation. but I love love love the idea that brainstorm made CD's needles. the drama. the angst. I live for it. it just makes sense too! they're both incredibly skilled in their fields and I think having them overlap in this way is incredibly satisfying. (heartbreaking. gut-wrenching.)

#thank you for the ask!#chromedome #mtmte #transformers #eh I'll tag some other people too since I talked about them #rodimus #brainstorm

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offdacabsav2 · 1 year

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Neon Sorrow

Vacuo may have been nothing but dust and orange hue, however, that didn’t stop its night clubs from pumping the bass past the witching hour.

Mostly young adults drowning their pain in bourbon, or tearing up the dance floor with their partners.

The cheering and blaring songs could be heard all the way from Shade Academy. Conveniently, the school itself engineered most of the establishment’s regulars.

Not Jaune, though.

While teams RWBY and RENO celebrated, he sat at the bar, studying his drink with an unreadable stare.

Another round of pulsing bass and flickering spotlights made him flinch, involuntarily recoiling and spilling the golden beverage.

His eyes narrowed.

The glass absorbed neon shades flashing and sweeping the club. An image of jaded, dull blue orbs stared back. He scowled at the other person stealing his features.

A group of men, laughing boisterously, chose their spots next to him.

He kept them in his peripheral before tossing down some change on the bar.

Beckoning him, a dark corner lay seductively, away and isolated.

He promptly stood and walked. A curious gaze followed.

Acting as a sort of phantom, he leaned back against the wall, arms crossed, shadows covering his face.

Glimpses of yellow, black, orange, red, brown, pink and green on the dance floor between shifting bodies.

Here, separated and alone, he felt comfortable and softly sighed in relief.

Occasionally, he observed the exit and how inviting the fresh chill of night seemed compared to the suffocating humidity of this hellscape.

It smelled like sweat, alcohol and drugs. An inner prisoner beat against his skull.

Why is he even here? Why should he stay? For his friends? To satisfy their constant worries of his wellbeing?

He wanted to tell them he was fine and receive nothing more, but they never quit.

His scroll rang in his pocket. Begrudgingly, he unearthed it, ignoring a legion of unread texts and unanswered calls.

Weiss: ‘Where are you?’

His gloved hand paused over the keyboard. Once more, he glanced at his friends sway in casual wear. Questionable, in Yang’s case.

Jaune: ‘Still here.’

His inhale of polluted oxygen was deep. It honestly hurt more than it should have.

Weiss: ‘But where?’

An alarm sounded. His heart hastened.

Nevertheless, he couldn’t bring himself to answer.

So he didn’t.

That’s when the ugliest familiarity stepped out of his negative thoughts and into real life.

?: “Is that my old buddy, Jaune?”

Now he definitely wanted to leave.

Flanking his right, another revolting expression.

Cardin: “You look different, man. Why are ya hidin’ in the corner? Not like you to be afraid of a dance.”

The Arc’s blood boiled. His signature restraint and calmness degraded.

Jaune: “Fuck. off.” He hissed.

Cardin grinned, feinting shock and hurt.

Russel: “Still an asshole, apparently.”

Jaune regarded him with an evil glare.

Cardin: “Woah, ok dude, uncalled for. I was just trying to make conversation. It’s been a long time. I can’t catch up with a fellow huntsman?”

Winchester puffed out his chest, displaying a white badge showcasing title and official status.

Jaune: “Not a big fan of you’re type of reunion.”

Cardin: “Oh, c’mon. A hug, maybe pat on the back?” He smirked, spreading his longs arms.

Jaune: “Looking for validation or attention?”

Cardin: “I’m looking for a good time… Arc.” He enunciated sharply.

Jaune: “I’m not, so get the hell out of the way.” He threatened as he barged into Cardin’s shoulder and paced to the door.

Wearing an expression of smugness, Cardin slowly turned.

Cardin: “I was gonna ask for your permission.”

Jaune: “What, you need help wiping your own ass?” He answered, stuck on the exit.

Cardin: “That’s good, that’s good. He’s a funny guy, funny guy. No, more like for a dance partner. You wouldn’t mind if I took Schnee for a ride, right?”

Jaune paused abruptly. Cardin’s enthusiasm billowed.

Cardin: “Hook a fellow up, yeah? I mean, she’s gorgeous. I’d really like to see her tear up the dance floor, if you catch my drift.”

He wished he hadn’t met their arrogant faces, but Winchester stoked a fire he wanted to stamp out.

Cardin: “See if she’s really as cold as people say she is.” He glanced beyond the knight.

Jaune caught his quick check. He looked up where a strip of metal revealed two figures stalking him.

Cardin: “I don’t know, always had a thing for long hair and heels. Kinda reminds me of a certain redhead, now that I think about it.”

It was at this point where Jaune’s fingers twitched, trying to wrap around a non-existent weapon.

Slowly, more bystanders stopped dancing and watched the escalating hostility. A crowd was forming.

Cardin: “Oh, my bad. Still a fresh wound, huh?”

Russel left Cardin’s side and approached. His shit-eating grin and lax sway ignited the fire in Jaune’s chest.

Russel: “Why don’t you let this one slide?”

The instant Russel’s hand rested on his shoulder, Jaune grabbed him, slammed his palm against his elbow, bending it unnaturally, and slugged the idiot across the face so hard, he crashed into the bar.

There was a sudden yell of surprise, gauging the hit in the crowd. Quickly, it turned to chants pouring oil on an inferno.

Jaune ducked the swing he knew was coming and flipped Sky over his back. Dove lunged with blurry speed. His fists flew fast, but Jaune broke his offensive with his forearms.

Dove’s leg launched at his mid-section. Jaune shifted, catching it and swept him off his remaining foot.

He prepared to hammer his fist upon his skull, but he was tackled.

Winchester and Arc rolled. However, the bully was ejected backwards as they tumbled.

Utilizing his momentum, Jaune shot to a defensive stance, intercepting Sky’s fist. He twisted the goon’s arm back, earning a cry of pain, and wrapped his hand around Sky’s face, violently slamming him through a table. Beer and splinters flew everywhere.

Affording no respite, Cardin and Dove attacked relentlessly. Jaune was pressed to the back foot, and retreated as he dodged and ducked.

Dove overextended, allowing the knight to side-step his attack and put a body in between him and Winchester.

He planted his fist into Dove’s ribs and knocked him cold with metal knuckles to the side of the brain.

He folded like a rag doll.

Cardin, with uncanny agility, rushed Jaune and grabbed him by the neck, lifting him high and slamming him against the bar.

The bully’s iron grip worked to crush Jaune’s jugular.

And as his vision faded and neon smeared over grey walls, he rocketed his knee upwards. Cardin howled from testicular trauma.

A swift one-two against Cardin’s temple, then a bone shattering blow to the stomach.

Unfortunately, Cardin’s aura only sparked. Jaune’s eyes widened.

The arrogant brute, ardently advertising shocking nimbleness, bashed Jaune with a backhand.

Stumbling from the raw weight behind the attack, Jaune dazed. Winchester grabbed his shoulders and planted his skull against the Arc’s temple.

Blood flowed free while he struggled to keep himself standing.

Barely, he avoided a fatal punch and the following series.

Jaune steadily backpedaled until the bar was no longer restraining his movements.

Missed opportunities piled on top of one another. Cardin roared in rage as Jaune expertly weaved in and out of his range.

Cardin: “You should’ve fucking died at Beacon!”

Right there and then…

He lost.

Seething anger clouded Cardin’s gaze. With 100% strength backing his swing, Jaune would surely die instantly or suffer a seizure so extreme he was bound to perish minutes later.

But, he dropped below him and spun. Cardin was off his feet and on the ground. Before he could register it, Jaune was there pummeling into him.

Each punch packed larger reserved energy than previous ones.

Eventually, the fight had been won, but Jaune kept going.

Bone crunched, blood coated his hands and face.

Flashing images played. Pyrrha between locker bars, Cinder’s infuriating smirk, Weiss dying on the floor, the feeling of his sword slipping past Penny’s flesh and into her heart, and the crushing, indomitable, unbearable loneliness of that damn fairytale.

Jaune wore rage well. Too well.

He couldn’t hear the bass or synths anymore. Same can’t be said for ear-splitting ringing.

A set of cold hands pulled on his shoulders. He whirled fast enough to induce tremendous whiplash…

…

Only to see horrified icy sapphires.

The world returned to him. No longer did the people cheer and yell. The dead silence led him to believe he’d hear the sound of lapping waves, or a sudden explosion of fire.

Weiss: “Jaune.”

What hurt most, was how she looked at him. Like… like he was some kind of demon.

The girl who picked him up after the Pleasers. The woman who shouldered his burden. The huntress he couldn’t stop thinking about; restless at night.

The only person who made him feel…

Wanted…

He tore from her gaze, examining the damage he had caused.

Cardin’s face was mangled. Nose cracked, forehead cut open, and jaw broken beyond repair. He was barely breathing.

Dove lay flat in a growing pool of blood.

Sky struggled to lift himself from the ground. Red poured from his mouth and nose.

Beyond the bar, two employees carried a screaming Russel. A bone protruded through his arm.

Weiss: “Jaune.” She muttered.

He darted to his feet, backing away. RENO watched in pure disbelief. RWBY mimicked that.

Weiss held out her arms, trying to calm him with a delicate voice.

Instead, he ran.

Blowing open the doors and into the night.

Indeed, the air was refreshing.

Weiss: “Jaune!”

Her calls grew distant.

Sirens drew closer.

#rwby volume 9 #jaune arc #weiss schnee #white knight #jaune arc x weiss schnee #weiss schnee x jaune arc #rwby whiteknight #jaune x weiss #wanted to write a bar fight for Jaune cause that would go hard

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