#think about the non-US fan who didn’t even get the opportunity to go to Target and buy it | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

5hinee4ever · 5 months

Text

Hi guys, it’s me again.

I’m the person who made the “if you don’t support this respect Taemin thing you don’t care about Jonghyun” post last week.

I’ve since deleted the post because I thought it was really harsh and unnecessary and I was using words to get people to see my point, but I was angry.

What I wanted people to take away from that post is that Jonghyun would want us to challenge the K-pop industry and not be complacent with it, and saying “Taemin won’t be promoted because that’s just how the industry is” is complacency, and that if Jonghyun was here he would likely vouch for Taemin to get his year end stage, although I don’t know if the outcome would be any different. Guilty may not even exist. Things would be different if he was here but he isn’t.

It’s more about the fact that some non-Shawols took what happened and made it tragedy p0rn which is 100% not ok. However I see a lot of Shawols in defense to this spreading toxic positivity and almost shutting down people when they say they miss him or whatever, and most people only want to focus on cute and funny moments or his talent and not difficult topics.

We KNOW Taemin has struggles with anxiety and depression whether or not he wants to tell us this. The Taemin hashtags came out a day after I saw Holland’s post about wanting to leave the industry and I was just thinking about how closed-minded, homophobic, and static it is. I don’t know whether or not Taemin is queer himself, but he is definitely the target of some anti-queer ideologies because of how he dresses and presents.

I also genuinely believe that SM doesn’t promote his more “challenging” comebacks like “Guilty” because they don’t want to own up to their own mistakes in how they they failed to protect their young idols from harassment. There are many variety show clips of an underage Taemin being jokingly flirted with or hit on by older men and Jonghyun was the only one who seemed to try to do something. I am NOT saying the others didn’t care, I’m sure they were in an awkward position and didn’t know what to say. Key was laughing awkwardly in some of the clips I don’t think he found it funny, he was just trying to ease social tension or it was a nervous laugh. But I guess my point is a lot of people would be afraid to say something to put their careers at risk but Jonghyun gave the guy a warning.

I guess my point was that that we shouldn’t only remember Jonghyun as an amazing singer and artist and a sweet and funny person but also an activist, and one of the only people in the industry at the time to talk about mental health, LGBTQ, and women’s’ issues. But in addition to all that he was also Taemin’s biggest fan and would 100 vouch for him to have better opportunities in a case like this. I felt that saying Taemin won’t get promoted on these shows and we shouldn’t trend hashtags was disrespectful to both Taemin and Jonghyun.

But saying that “you don’t care about Jonghyun” is wrong. Some of you don’t, some of you who aren’t Shawols and don’t get it, and some of you who claim to be Shawols but miss the damn point all the time, or they only care about keeping an image intact. But I can’t say that everyone who disagrees with my way of helping Taemin is unsupportive or doesn’t care. I know hashtags and screaming into the void can come off as pointless or stupid. But I am autistic and have a very strong internal sense of justice, and I got angry and tried to keep spreading the tags to try to help. It didn’t matter because at that point all shows were scheduled. I also feel so helpless in the general state of the world, going on with my life when people are killed in wars and famine and how society feels like it is crumbling. I took hold of something I thought I could have some sway over and did it.

I want to make a formal apology to anyone I hurt with my words. There is no excuse for saying what I said, even if it may apply to some people, it may also reach others who were hurt.

Taemin just posted on Bubble that Yeonjun “relieved him of his sorrow” according to Google Translate, and someone in my group chat translated it to say basically that Yeonjun fulfilled his desire. So I think we can say Taemin is satisfied with Yeonjun’s performance despite him still probably preferring to do it himself. As a Moa, SHINee and TXT have a lot of mutual respect for each other and this is not the first time I’ve seen our fandoms going head to head, like with the light stick thing back in 2020, which was quite frankly stupid. I’m sure Taemin would have preferred to perform himself but he seems satisfied with Yeonjun’s performance and what’s done is done.

I now want to ask you to PLEASE not harass Yeonjun or Kiss of Life for the performance. If you want to get angry at anyone, you can get angry at SM or Golden Disc, but my “conspiracy” about his promotions isn’t even confirmed. It could be a simple business thing where they got fourth gen idols to get more views. The ship on this has sailed, and I’m seeing people still pissed and trying to trend the hashtags.

You should want him to get better promos and you should want the industry to face some of its glaring issues, like debuting such young minors, which Taemin addressed his own experience in Guilty…SM doesn’t want to talk about Taemin or Krystal or Sulli and the fact that Min Hee Jin is still in the industry says a LOT, it’s not only an SM problem but industry-wide.

But this particular issue is over, and we don’t need to discuss it anymore and start fights about it, since Taemin himself said he was satisfied with Yeonjun’s performance.

I want to add one additional note to the people who said that we were infantilize Taemin or treating him as helpless with these hashtags. I respectfully disagree, and believe that Taemin has and will continue to achieve a lot on his own, but having a strong support network is good for adults too, and fans should help artists achieve their goals especially when they are subverting industry norms. Adults also need strong support networks for their mental health, and I’m sure Jonghyun would vouch for that as well, but that doesn’t excuse my wording. All I wanted to do was be a supportive fan but I ended up attacking others. I feel like I need to apologize to Jonghyun too for using him like this.

So my main takeaways are:

1) we should remember ALL aspects of Jonghyun’s life and not ignore his activism or his support of Taemin and we should honor his memory by supporting positive change in the industry and

2) this specific Taemin issue is over, and harassing others over it who disagree with you is not okay, as well as harassing the idols who did the cover.

I just want to say that I will still have the petition for a world tour in my pinned post, and I want to get as many signatures as possible to show Taemin how much support he has and hopefully have it get back to SM as well for them to see the demand. This is one constructive thing we can do for the future. Also I don’t usually say this, but stream stream stream. I don’t support streaming culture on the whole, but Guilty MV really needs it and the song is so good I’m playing it on repeat anyway.

Again, I’m sorry if I hurt anyone, and I thank you for your patience.

-Riah

#jonghyun #lee taemin #shinee #taemin #sm respect taemin #give taemin a world tour #taemin shinee #kim jonghyun #apology #clarification #respect taemin #guilty year end stage

2 notes · View notes

miraculouscontent · 3 years

Text

Alright, so apparently certain love square shippers felt the need to go into the Lukanette tag to celebrate/mock that Lukanette is “over” (Marinette broke up with him to keep him safe but go off I guess) and that officially crosses all my lines of not dealing with the fandom’s garbage.

The sheer pettiness is astounding to me, to take joy in the end of what was a lot of people’s comfort ship (people don’t choose comfort ships, by the way) because of “toxic Luka/Lukanette stans,” essentially lumping chunks of the fandom together and letting the opinion of those fans shape their own opinion on a character/ship. The sheer sensitivity on display to have so much spite and disdain for a ship that appeared in less than 10% of all episodes in the show. The sheer vindictiveness to feel smug and self-righteous while also being panicked over a non-endgame ship that’s as temporary as their claim of positivity and condemning of salt until they’re presented with something they don’t like.

Goliath really be beating up on David over here because he's bigger and thinks his opinion is more valid. For the record, no, opinions are not more valid due to shipping an endgame ship or presenting oneself as a beacon of positivity.

And it just goes to show how ship-blind these people are, to care about nothing more than the fact that Lukanette has broken up. I’m not exaggerating when I say that I’ve seen people who openly admit to caring more about the love square’s security than Marinette’s happiness, which is just part of the issue here.

These people did not care how Lukanette broke up, only that it happened. Marinette’s crush backpedaling (because of the show feeling the need to cater to these exact people, who are so worried about their obviously endgame ship being “in danger”) and Marinette ending the episode in literal tears because she wanted to date Luka but couldn’t are both things that didn’t matter to them because it’s all about their ship in the end. Marinette’s life has been made more and more miserable due to her crush on Adrien while straining her relationships with various characters (see: Alya’s claim of jealousy as a reason for why Marinette “must be lying” about Lila), but so long as these people feel secure in their endgame ship, that’s all that matters.

They didn’t care if it was a clean break where both sides came out satisfied (or at least content). If anything, they wanted Lukanette to end as shoddily/dirtily as possible with zero care into how it affected Marinette, whether because they just don’t like the ship or because they actively desire for the suffering of the people who found comfort/happiness in the ship. Adrien had literally nothing to do with the break-up itself and him being mentioned served nothing for the story, but it’ll be completely overlooked or outright praised because god forbid Marinette spend an episode not talking about Adrien since that would imply that her life doesn’t revolve around him and that would be an apparent detriment to the love square.

By the way, newsflash: Luka was not an obstacle to the love square. He sent Marinette away in “Frozer” to go talk to Adrien. He told her that there was no pressure and that he’d be happy for her no matter what. Had Luka not existed, the love square would still be as stagnant as it is now, and it’s pathetic to complain about Marinette liking/dating another boy when she’s not only allowed to do so, but when “Oblivio” and “Chat Blanc” both exist as little more than tools to hold the supposedly “starved” love square shippers over.

These are the same people who will say they dislike/hate Luka, then do a 180 and claim that they “just feel so bad for him” and how he “deserves better than Marinette” (the sudden sympathy of which conveniently serves to hate on a ship that interferes with their own, further proven by equally convenient and appreciation/liking of Luka when he’s not a “threat” to the love square) while simultaneously shipping her with their sunshine boy because Ladybug is who Adrien wants and what Adrien wants is what matters.

These are the same people who will say that Luka is unnecessary and unneeded, then use him as a prop and stepping stone for love square fanfics and fanart, or suggest that Kagami is fine because she makes Adrien feel good about himself (when Luka does the same for Marinette but sure).

These are the same people who say that “Marinette can’t date Luka because she’s busy with hero stuff” while making fics about the love square getting together mid-”hero stuff” and then giving complete radio silence during “Chat Blanc” outside of how good they thought the episode was.

These are the same people who will tell others not to denounce Adrien for “a few mistakes” and then preemptively denounce Luka’s behavior based on a written synopsis for an episode that hadn’t even come out yet (and also after complaining that Luka was “too perfect,” I might add).

These are the same people who will say that Luka/Lukanette makes them feel “uncomfortable” (usually without offering any tangible reasons or being vague about Luka giving off “bad vibes” when he’s done nothing less than support and respect Marinette's agency) while the show’s endgame ship features the “m’lady” hand kissing Chat Noir who Ladybug has pulled away from multiple times yet he keeps persisting (which is apparently considered okay because Adrien is Chat Noir as if that discredits her discomfort/disdain for the gestures).

These are the same people who will say that Luka is “barely there” or “hardly exists” and then complain about how much screentime is dedicated to Lukanette, the utter greed on display going right over their heads when they have the actual endgame ship.

These are the same people who will absolutely reach for anything about Luka to complain about (again, after saying that he’s “too perfect,” then claiming he “tricked” Marinette into kissing him, claiming that he tried to force her into telling him her secret, or criticizing him for teasing her for her stuttering despite him immediately apologizing) and then either defend or turn a blind eye to Chat Noir (who tried to kiss her mid-battle instead of helping, made Ladybug feel bad for keeping secrets that weren’t hers to tell plus threatening his kwami that he’d quit if he didn’t get let in on said secrets, and mocked her instead of apologizing when she told him to stop calling her by a nickname she doesn’t like and has told him before to stop calling her) at every opportunity.

These are the same people who will say that Lukanette is “forced,” then proceed to ship Luka (regardless of if they like him or not) with literally anyone else for the sake of taking him out of the romance equation (because he has to be taken out via already dating as they couldn’t come up with a legitimate reason for Marinette to not want him otherwise), and the only requirement for this person he’s shipped with is that they breathe and aren’t Marinette.

These are the same people who act bothered by Marinette “””treating Luka poorly””” because of her crush on Adrien (by the by, Adrien’s crush on Ladybug has hurt Kagami as well), inadvertently admitting that Marinette’s crush is a problem, then continue shipping her with Adrien in its canon form anyway.

These are the same people who will say that they hate salt fics (specifically ones that target Adrien) and how they “bash characters,” then write fanfics or draw fanart that intentionally make Luka out of character for the sake of having him look bad or giving Marinette an excuse to run to Adrien (because Luka apparently needs to be made worse so that Adrien can look good instead of Adrien being able to stand on his own merits as a good love interest for Marinette).

These are the same people who will slam Luka when he’s Marinette’s support, then go off and ship him with other characters so that he can support them instead (fun fact that this is usually either Adrien - thus leaving Marinette completely alone and miserable when Luka canonically likes her - or characters that Marinette is actively against, such as Chloe or Lila).

These are the same people who will complain about how salty the fandom is (even when the salt is for catharsis/getting out anger from an episode in a productive way) and then laugh when a simple side ship ends because they’ve been letting said ship live rent free in their heads and couldn’t stop anticipating the episode that declares them “over.”

These are the same people who tell or suggest that people should “just leave” if they don’t like the main ship, unapologetically implying that the main ship is either all the show is about, all that they personally care about (bringing us right back to that little “not caring how torn apart Marinette is about the break-up” thing), or that people aren’t allowed to watch/like the show for other reasons (like Marinette herself, the miraculouses, other characters who may appear intermittently but nevertheless bring them joy to see, etcetera).

These are the same people who get on other people’s case for being spiteful while they themselves ride their high horse into the sunset, playing victim when people call them out for intentionally provoking others or purposefully mistagging to avoid people’s blacklist (tagging is not for the comfort of the tagger so they can “””avoid the toxic stans,””” for the record; it’s for the comfort of the people who don’t want to see that content).

And these are the same people who will go on and on about the toxicity of the stans who ship something they don’t like and then either ignore or downplay the stans who ship what they do like because they personally don’t have to experience it. This isn’t even about ship wars, it’s about the hypocrisy and lack of self-awareness.

I don’t want to hear it. I don’t want to hear about how cruel the Luka fans or Lukanette shippers are when these people are celebrating Marinette’s misery because it means the end of a ship that they don’t like and certain people find comfort in. I don’t want to hear about people cross-tagging/mistagging when the Luka/Lukanette tag has been flooded with people who talk trash about the ship without any additional tags to filter it away, getting so bad to the point where some Luka/Lukanette fans had to find workarounds and/or avoid the tag entirely. I don’t want to hear about how certain shippers are worse because [x] [y] [z] when everyone has different experiences, showing a severe case of close-mindedness or at least ignorance on these people’s parts.

And, with how this season is heading, if something bad happens to the love square by the end of Season 4, I most definitely do not want to hear these same people decry the people who will do the exact thing that they’re doing now.

#category: salt #category: fandom #category: long post #((Mind you--this doesn't apply ONLY to the people who cross-tagged to ''celebrate'' Lukanette ending or mock Luka/Lukanette))#((so... if the shoe fits.))#((I literally don't care if people want to salt.))#((I think the whole situation is gross but like--whatever.))#((But we shouldn't be forced to deal with it because salty clowns want to make sure the people they're salty over see it.))#((And I don't want to hear ''oh it'd be different if people cheered the love square getting a wedge driven in it because it's endgame!''))#((as if mockery is okay if done by endgame shippers.))

326 notes · View notes

bullshittierlists · 3 years

Photo

MAJOR SPOILERS FOR DANGANRONPA V3 (and probably the other games, too, just to be safe)

So, just as a heads up, I made this list a few months ago, I think in the middle of chapter 4. I was going to update it, but I realized that any feelings I had were just made stronger and the list was still relatively accurate. Here are my thoughts:

I see no god up here other than me

Kirumi Tojo - As you may know about me, I can typically tell who my favorite characters are going to be before I indulge myself in a series. This has especially rung true throughout Danganronpa, I was able to correctly guess Taka and Gundham as my respective favorites before actually seeing them in action. Let me tell you that Kirumi surprised me. I originally guessed K1-B0 as my favorite and while he’s still up there, he is nowhere near Kirumi. I realized she was my favorite the moment chapter 2 ended. Not only were her execution and plan wonderful and brilliantly done, her last-ditch plea to convince everyone to let her live sold her for me. Not only did this plea make sense, it almost worked and I kinda wish it would’ve. Her motive was almost completely selfless and she worked damn hard to escape. Her execution was the only time I cried during this game because I wanted so badly for her to escape, but I knew that all of her efforts were futile. I know her biggest criticism is that her plan from hiding Ryoma’s body was completely unnecessary, but I like to believe she was just nervous and overthought the whole thing. I mean, this had to go perfectly in order for her to save her country, of course she’s going to add a few too many steps.

Miu Iruma - Okay, I know this is going to sound fake, but I actually really love the dichotomy of her character. The way that she acts so self-righteous but is actually quite self-conscious really stood out to me. Of course she’s funny and hot, too, but I feel it’s important to really appreciate the way her character was written. It amazes me that she was written to be the least likable character in the entire series and still ended up being one of my favorites.

You’re the best

K1-B0 - Yes, I type out his name every time. As I already mentioned, he was my original guess for favorite character, but it obviously didn’t work out that way. He stayed in his position of first for a while, but I always knew it wasn’t meant to last, I just didn’t know which character would take his place. Even besides my doubts, I still love K1-B0, I just wish more could’ve been done with him in the earlier chapters. There are several opportunities for him to be a really funny character and have good interactions with Kokichi and Miu, but he just comes off as annoying. I feel like he only really started to be utilized after Miu died with Monotaro and I really enjoyed their dynamic, I just wish we could’ve had some of this side of K1-B0 before this point.

Kokichi Oma - This spot probably isn’t as subjective as I’d like it to be. Every time Kokichi was on screen, I would get visibly annoyed, but I knew I was in for a treat figuring out his deeper intents behind what he’s saying. The only reason I really like Kokichi at all is because he’s fun to analyze. It gets boring to analyze Nagito because his motivation is pretty much just a mix of “hope” and “he’s crazy.” Kokichi’s character trait of lying makes it so fun to individually analyze each of his lines to figure out whether he’s telling the truth and why or why not. Other than that, I guess he has some funny dialogue with Miu sometimes.

Gonta Gokuhara - I really don’t know. I know this is way too early to be unsure about characters, but I just know I couldn’t put him any lower, but I also couldn’t put him any higher. He’s just such a sweetheart, but that’s about where the substance ends. I adored every time he was on my screen, but everything that would’ve been fun to analyze about him just leads back to Kokichi. I still really enjoy his presence, though. I’d like a big Gonta hug.

Kaede Akamatsu - I’ll just say it, I think she would’ve made for a better protagonist. I’ll talk about this later, but Shuichi’s character development doesn’t really feel like it goes anywhere and the twist doesn’t feel worth it because of that. I think the twist should still have been incorporated, but with the roles reversed. Either way, we got what we got, and what we got was tears from Clair de Lune. But seriously, she really is a great pianist. I’ve been trying to learn the piece for ages and it’s still too complicated for me. I mean, it’s in 9/8 for God’s sake. Good for her, regardless.

Tenko Chabashira - Tenko’s a weird case. I didn’t actually care for her that much until quite literally a few lines before she died. Fun fact: I spoiled this entire series for myself before I ended up playing it and I’m still mad at myself. This meant that I was just waiting for all of the deaths to happen, especially Tenko’s. I was fully aware that every line could be her last during the seance, but I wasn’t aware that she would pull on my heart strings before she went. When she tells Himiko that she’ll do the seance in her place so she can talk to Angie, I literally almost started crying. Before this, Tenko was just kind of annoying, but not too bad, but this moment really solidified her spot for me. She really just wanted to help Himiko and I wish she had chosen a better target for her affections.

Hey, I think you’re pretty cool, I like you a lot

Shuichi Saihara - Time to elaborate on what I said for Kaede. I actually really enjoyed Shuichi’s character development throughout the first three chapters. Before coming to Hope’s Peak, he was afraid to hurt people with his detective skills. Kaede notices this and helps him through it, passing the reins to Kaito once she passes. Shuichi convicts Kaede and later Kirumi, much to everyone’s detriment, but they’re all okay with it (Nobody was really super sad about Korekiyo to begin with, lol). Then, starting in chapter 4, everyone just kinda flips on him. Shuichi + the rest of the gang - Kokichi all believe that Gonta is innocent and Shuichi tries to prove this. Instead of supporting him, everyone (especially Kaito) tries to... stop him??? from proving it??? They’re all just in agreement that it wasn’t Gonta, but don’t want to proceed with the investigation to figure out who it was instead. It’s really frustrating and made my overall experience much less enjoyable. This is bumped up a few notches in chapter 5 with Maki. I understand that she was part of the whole case, but that doesn’t make it any less annoying that she won’t let me prove Kaito was the victim. It just feels like the character development was all for nothing and every student feels like a human obstacle (except K1-B0, of course). Still relatable and emo, though.

Rantaro Amami - I would make the joke everyone expects, but I’m on my laptop and I don’t know how to get to the emoji keyboard.

Ryoma Hoshi - I genuinely don’t have anything to say about Ryoma. He’s my halfway point because I don’t have anything particularly for him and I don’t have anything particularly against him, either. Go off, funky little cat man.

Kaito Momota - He got on my nerves in chapter 4, but he was a genuinely sweet character that I really enjoyed talking to. Any time he would talk about the stars, I would swoon because he’s just such a natural romantic. Not really my type, though. Very average.

Monophanie - Legally you can’t ask me why the monokubs are where they are. She’s voiced by Natalie Hoover (Sonia) and I guess that’s my only reasoning.

Monotaro - I really just liked his interactions with K1-B0 in chapter 4. Other than that, I greatly disliked his and Monophanie’s presence in Gonta’s execution. 0/10 worst use for monokubs.

Monodam - A nice, non-distracting addition to Korekiyo’s execution. But he had so much potential and just threw it all away. Apparently I’m a basketball dad from a high school movie now.

I remember you

Angie Yonaga - Many times, I’ve found myself asking who I ship from the series and this love triangle comes to mind. Of Angie, Himiko, and Tenko... I only really like Tenko. I don’t hate Angie’s cult stuff as much as everyone else seems to, but she didn’t have nearly enough of a presence for me to latch onto outside of the cult stuff, which was funny, I will admit.

Maki Harukawa - I was so excited the whole game for her to get cool. I knew she was going to get cool, I just didn’t know when or how. But then, it was chapter 5 already and she hadn’t gotten cool in my eyes yet. I was really meh on her by that chapter anyway, but her being annoying really knocked her down a few pegs. She got a couple extra points for surprising me during the case, but not enough to bump her up any spots.

Himiko Yumeno - I was rooting for her to be crushed under the rock at the end. She was fine before chapter 3, but then they tried to develop her with the Akane treatment and it didn’t work for me at all. She just got on my nerves during the third trial and continued to contribute nothing throughout the rest of the game. During chapter 5 and 6, it’s like the writers just completely forgot that she was there. This would’ve been fine if they weren’t the last couple of chapters and she was one of about 6 people left alive. She had a role to play and didn’t play it in the slightest. The most she was utilized after chapter 3 was as Miu’s replacement post-chapter 5. Someone needed to fill the dirty jokes quota and I guess Himiko was chosen. #GiveTenkoABetterLoveInterest2021

Monosuke - The only thing I remember him doing throughout the entire game was distract me from Kirumi’s exectuion. Not a fan.

You are the worst. Literal scum. Leave this planet and never return

Korekiyo Shinguji - Okay, listen. He’s not that bad. His design is actually one of the best, in my opinion and I love his dedication to his craft. However, he just creeps me out whenever he’s on screen and I’d prefer not to be around him. It’s not even the sister thing, I honestly think that’s funny and a nice change of pace, but his overall demeanor is creepy. Not to mention he’s played by Todd Haberkorn and he’s been in one too many roles recently. Hopefully I’ll get over it, but as for now, that loses him points.

Tsumugi Shirogane - I know, not exactly an unpopular opinion. She’s just annoying and downright pisses me off a lot of the time with her “plain” shtick. I already knew she was going to be the mastermind, so most of the game was just me waiting for her to reveal it. I swear, I almost couldn’t take it every time she said something like, “What if there isn’t a mastermind?” “What?? There’s a mastermind????” Just stfu Tsumugi. You all are lucky I don’t have the energy to talk about 3-6 right now.

Monokid - Hate the tongue sprite, that’s literally the only reason he’s down here. He’s also kind of annoying, but made the best addition to an execution out of all of the monokubs. His death was one of the few things that surprised me in this game and it was a welcome twist. I was sick of him by this point, but was still incredibly shocked when he was pushed into the execution. Then, his severed head rolls out to all of the students looking on in shock at Kaede’s death. Masterful. Still hate the tongue sprite.

There we go. Definitely my least favorite cast out of the whole series, but it’s still fun to love on and hate on a lot of the characters, as per usual. There are just a few too many in the middle tier (metaphorically speaking) that are either uninteresting or just don’t get their time to shine. Maybe they’ll eventually grow on me more, but I doubt it.

26 notes · View notes

thirdhandidiot · 3 years

Text

Yes I’m here to offer domestic dialucibarb. No I havnt gotten any further on the Young Dialuci au. What you gonna do?

This is just 1.9k of unapologetic soft idiots in love

•The three of them are like your typical old married couple, except with wings and horns and oh dear, they’re arguing over who has to get up to make more tea

•Barb and Lucifer lovingly bicker a LOT, much to Diavolo’s amusement. It will be over the most trivial things that neither of them really care about either, they just enjoy trying to one up eachother verbally. Lucifer once threatened to throw Barbatos out a window, absolutely not meaning it, but Barb taunted him, telling him he probably couldn’t even pick him up, he’s so skinny and all he ever does is paper work and there’s no way he’d ever hurt him, never mind have the physical strength required. Lucifer absolutely decides he’s going to take it personally and lunges, picking Barbatos clean off the floor, bridal style, triumphant smirk lighting up his face, only to immediately realise that Barb has wrapped his arms around his neck to make sure he doesn’t fall. They’re both immediately far too flustered to do anything after that, just staring at eachother in shock, remaining there for what feels like hours until Diavolo walks in and coos at them, taking hundreds of pictures whilst the pair get impossibly more red. The image ends up Diavolo’s Home Screen, and don’t be fooled, he treasures all images of his boyfriends, especially together, but this one, he thinks, will always be a favourite

•They’re all sappy in their own ways, but mostly Diavolo, he is shameless. He will talk about ‘his darling boyfriends’ at any given opportunity, and more. Whilst it’s rather sweet to see him so passionate and so happy in love, it gets rather inconvenient in meetings when everyone just wants to go home. The brothers are particularly upset by this as whilst the gossip about Lucifers love life was fun at first, they’re rather bored of hearing how cute Lucifer is he wakes up, and they’re still a little scared of what Barbatos might do if they end up hearing too much. And that’s not all, Dia loves tropey dates that he read about in books and imagined going on with the two of them before they got together, his favourite being picnics, which he adores. He and Barbatos will spend hours in the kitchen preparing a sweet lunch date for Lucifer (by which Barb does all the preparations and Diavolo provides ‘moral support’ in the form of kisses and trying to steal bits of food only to get caught everytime and punished with more kisses- needles to say this is not an effective punishment to persuade him to stop)

•Barbatos relaxes a lot more when he’s off the clock, even having gently bullied Diavolo into making HIM tea, even if it’s not as good, after all, he’s been working all day and he’s tired. When they first got together he always felt guilty asking anything of Diavolo, feeling that it was an imbalance to their dynamic, but he quickly comes to see that Diavolo loves the chance to try to do things for him, even if they aren’t nearly as efficient or well done. Diavolo just wants to look after his boys like they do him and this usually comes in the form of serving them cute biscuits he found and hid until that moment just to see them smile

•Lucifer gets stressed easily and puts up a near flawless front of professionalism and dedication to his work, however Barb has spent decades doing the same and is always the first to tell when Luci needs to take a break. Whilst Barb has strict ‘off the clock‘ hours, Lucifer has tried to bring paper work to bed multiple times, frustrating the other two to no end. Despite that, Lucifer has gotten a lot better at taking care of himself ever since he realised how happy it made his partners, and it’s not like he minds spending more time with them, infact subtly asking lucifer if he wants couch cuddles is the fastest way to get him to leave his work, the man is tired and desperately craves affection, not that he likes to admit it, but they all know

•Barbatos has a strange fondness for human conspiracy documentaries, and Diavolo is prone to believing an awful lot of them. Barb loves to tell Diavolo that they’re real, convincing him that ‘Yes all birds are spies darling, is that not common knowledge?‘ or ‘The human realm has underground lizard people, didn’t you know love? The do all of Earth’s admin work, someone has to‘ This leads to an awful lot of misunderstandings that usually Lucifer clears up. He pretends to be annoyed but when he walks into the front room to see his Barb lying on top of Diavolo, enthusiastically telling him that there’s aliens in Area 51 whilst Diavolo stares back, mouth open in shock, he doesn’t stop them, just presses a kiss to each of their foreheads and goes to make hot chocolates for everyone and brings blankets back with him, making a note of whatever it is that Dia is about to believe so that he can make sure that damage control can be done ahead of time. (He finds it cute when Diavolo tries to tell his brothers about it, Mammon falling hook line and sinker for each one. The others are more sceptical until Diavolo says that Barbatos told him, at which point they just end up confused, surely Barbatos wouldn’t lie to Lord Diavolo? (He would if it was funny))

•When Lucifer moved out, Levi sent him an old console under the guise that it was for Diavolo, who had expressed an interest in learning to play various games. Dia absolutely loves it, and lucifer really is very competitive.. the two of them can be found trying to distract the other whilst playing mariokart, resorting to pushing, biting and even a few instances of manifesting wings to try block the others view of the screen. As soon as one of them has as good as lost they’ll switch to just making the others game as hard as possible. There’s nothing raunchy about the wrestling match that breaks out as a result, Barb has decided it’s a good form of physical therapy for them both and just records them. He has a file of ‚blackmail‘ that they all know he will never use, it’s mostly just a folder of cute but embarrassing pictures and videos of Luci and Diavolo. (Diavolo has Barb send him everything, he loves to watch it back)

•None of them are particularly ‘flamboyant‘ although Diavolos love for human world festivals has landed them at various pride festivals before. Lucifer was mostly confused seeing as sexuality isn’t an issue in the Devildom, neither is ‘polyamory’, a concept he’d never spared much thought to. Diavolo is delighted to see Humans celebrating love and feeds off the positivity (he also gets hit on a lot, but after spending just ten seconds with him it’s obvious he’s already madly in love and that there’s no separating him from the slightly alarmed looking men loitering behind him that he proudly calls his boyfriends). Barbatos is constantly trying not to get lost, it’s busy and he ends up having to hold on to someone at all times. It’s not his fault, he can’t use magic here and there’s no other way to combat the crowds, Lucifer stop smirking he isn’t short it’s just that you’re both bloody giants, Lucifer you’re encouraging Diavolo, p l e a s e. Dia loves it though because it gives him an excuse to cling to his boyfriends all day and people will randomly tell him how lucky he is, he absolutely agrees

•Both Barbatos and Lucifer have threatened Diavolo with bodily harm at some point after they’ve been woken up by one of his stray limbs in the night. The two of them sleep quite comfortably next to eachother, occasionally with an arm or leg over the other, but no matter how Diavolo falls asleep he ends up in a dreadfully confusing position that no one really wants to question. Unfortunately he also tends to gravitate towards the heat of the others too, making them easy targets Diavolo’s heavy limbs. He’s always sure to apologise when he finds out in the morning, even if he finds their grumpy faces quite amusing. He won’t laugh out loud though because one time Barb was so disgruntled when he woke up that he bit the hand that was smothering his face and Diavolo ended up having to have his hand bandaged in the middle of the night. Needless to say that Lucifer was both confused and concerned when he woke up (and a little proud, he’s extra nice to Barbatos all day, who feels a little guilty about it, even if Diavolo was ok)

•Diavolo and Barb will wind lucifer up deliberately, and whilst he is entirely aware what’s happening, he indulges them. Diavolo will convince the brothers to try some kind of scheme that they wouldn’t be able to pull off without him, but makes sure it’s never taken too far, and Barbatos will egg Lucifer on as soon as he finds out about whatever minor inconvenience has befallen him. He won’t admit it, but it makes Lucifer incredibly happy to see his brothers take such a shine to his partners, and whilst he wishes they’d have a little more trust in Barbatos, Barb assures him that he isn’t upset and that it can be used to spook the brothers a little. There will be weekly ‚family meals‘ which always seem a great idea before hand, he somewhat misses living with his brothers after all, but always result in him going home with a headache. He’s grown used to the loving and (mostly) calm presence of his beloved, so seeing his brothers hurling both insults and occasionally food or assorted table wear at eachother, has a tendency to infuriate him. (He hasn’t realised that they act up more when he’s there)

•Dia Is obsessed with matching couples things and is constantly trying to find things for the three of them, but due to lower supply, they end up being so much tackier and non sensical. Barbatos genuinely despises them, but opts to say nothing because of how happy Diavolo is. Lucifer knows this and whilst he isn’t exactly a fan either, he indulges Dia just to tease Barb. (They do all have matching keychains tho, with different charms. Diavolos has a little teacup and a feather, Lucifers has a crown and a cake and Barbatos‘ has a pickle and a peacock. He was the one who got them to make up for all the hideous ideas Diavolo had, and delighted in seeing Diavolos pouty face when he realised what Barb had chosen. He did end up also adding a golden heart tho, somewhat pacifying Diavolo)

•Whilst it’s usually Diavolo who initiates longer cuddles, Barb likes to wrap his arms around his lovers from behind, pressing his forehead into their shoulder blades. He finds is comforting to be so close whilst allowing the other to continue with whatever they were doing before. Before leaving he will stretch to place a kiss on the back of their neck, a silent reminder of his love. Most of the time Barbatos is very quiet, opting to watch, and it’s only when he’s relaxed that he becomes chatty. Both Luci and Dia recognise this and can’t help but feel special whenever Barbatos is particularly talkative, and Barb is grateful that they don’t ask questions and love him for who he is

•Lucifer absolutely initiates the most ‚traditional‘ kisses, he’s proud of his partners and wants everyone to know that they’re his. He’s also a bit of a traditional romanticist when given the chance, leaving bouquets of various flowers, with the meanings for each attached on a handwritten card, a line of poetry and an elaborate signature. If he ever gets given flowers back he melts a little and keeps them on his desk as long as possible, before pressing the best looking ones. He has notebooks just filled with pressed flowers that he treasures. He doesn’t know that Diavolo and Barbatos both know about the notebooks and is convinced he’s slick

•Some nights the three of them will get drunk together and spend hours giggling and pressing kisses to eachothers faces and feeding them fancy chocolates. They half lay half sit on a slightly too small couch that they never replace for a more suitably sized one. Diavolo will slowly reach across to brush Lucifers fringe out of his eyes before gently caressing his face and pulling him in for a long slow kiss that tastes of expensive demonus and the orange sweets that Diavolo keeps on his desk. Barbatos is more than content to sit and watch his two gorgeous boyfriends kiss for a few minutes before they both turn their attention to him and decorate his face with kisses, across his cheeks and forehead, straying down to his chin and up to his eyelids, trying to convey all their love for eachother in adoring looks and heads pressed into necks

@softrealism Thankyou for inspiring me to post xx

#hmmm i really enjoyed writing these #if anyone wants to talk about them please #they are very gorgeous to me #do you ever look at something you wrote and realise damn// wish that was me ;0;#i had to log in on a computer to make this palatable #please acknowledge my sacrifice #obey me #obey me shall we date #obey me headcanons #obey me! lucifer #obey me! diavolo #obey me! barbatos #dialuci #dialucibarb #i am literally fucking exhausted ive been tryna finish off work and its my brothers birthday tomorrow and my best friends in three days.#when the boys ask if you wanna play minecraft with thyem and you say yes cause you miss them and want to give them attention but you are #about five minutes from passing out on the keyboard #and i need to call my family and GOD DAMMIT ITS ANOTHER GRANDMAS BIRTHDAY IN TWO DAYS #this post was the clam before the storm #if im MIA the next few days im not dead im sleeping #34 hours and counting #i cant even remember how to tag #THI #diavolo x lucifer #probably #diavolo x barbatos #diabarb #im making these up please end my misery xx #hhhh that said clam. im not fixing it. ps if u find typos pls scream at me to fix them #im going to sleep goodby

83 notes · View notes

blockgamepirate · 3 years

Note

So what are your thoughts on the Syndicate? I'm personally psyched for Techno to do some anarchist things other than "blow shit up," though his goals still seem very destruction-based. I'm also nervous about the potential for Dream to somehow use this to his advantage. ( - quicksandblock)

I’m sure the plot will SOMEHOW end up ruining things no matter what. :p They need their conflict, after all. For the audience retention. Hopefully it’ll be an interesting kind of conflict, though. I feel like the betrayal thing is kind of overplayed at this point but there’s plenty of other stuff that could happen. Possibly with Dream, like you said. And this also allows Techno’s character to be more proactive rather than reactive.

But yeah I’m genuinely excited, this is actually starting to sound a lot more like the kind of anarchism that I’d recognise. I liked the retirement arc fine because it was nice and chill, but honestly this is much better because they’re actively doing shit. And not gonna lie, I wasn’t a huge fan of the pacifism thing, it was just jumping right to the other extreme from all-violence to... not even just non-violence but in fact not doing anything at all really? Like all he did was talk to Lannan and Vik for a bit and hang out with Phil. It really was just retirement. Fair enough for his character, even if it was a bit sudden, I mean everybody has burnouts and needs to take breaks or even to retire from the movement entirely and that’s 100% valid, but it’s not really any better for achieving liberation, you know.

I mean I liked that he was putting more thought into the ideology and demonstrating some of it by just chilling out with the villagers and whatnot, but that’s not the anarchist content I signed up for :p (I don’t even really mean violence necessarily but some action of some sort. My favourite bits were him sneaking into L’Manberg.)

And then he kinda jumped right back to all-violence with the revenge arc. Not entirely, I mean there were the posters, there were attempts to recruit Tommy which involved some actually reasonable arguments in my opinion, there was some effort put into maintaining the anarchist thing at least nominally, but overall the goal was just to destroy L’Manberg and cause massive amounts of destruction. Which is honestly just not the best tactic for overthrowing the government, it’s really not. I mean it WORKED but I still think it was mostly incidental, since the country was already falling apart from the inside. Obviously it helped that the whole thing blew up, but without the internal conflicts, it would have just been rebuilt again and all he would have accomplished would have been revenge and cementing his own reputation as a violent monster. I realise that the revenge part was intentional and probably wouldn’t have been as satisfying if it didn’t involve all that destruction, but ideologically and tactically? Not great. Which Techno’s character himself seems to be conscious of to be fair!

I’m hoping the Syndicate is going to be more of a reasonable midpoint? It sounds like it so far. It’s a revolutionary secret society so clearly they’re committed to getting results and it’s very likely that there will be some violence or at least hostility involved, because usually governments don’t just go away by asking nicely, it’s just not a goal that you should expect to achieve through peaceful means. But at the same time there seems to be more of a focus on the ideals and recruitment, actually convincing people. And just the fact that they’re creating an actual anarchist group is just very nice. I like it, it’s actual anarchist organising! And honestly, the underground resistance thing is one of my favourite tropes, that’s what really sold me on Dream SMP in the first place; the Pogtopia arc. It wasn’t perfect but I was hooked anyway. And Phil and Techno’s friendship just makes it so much better already, as does the fact that the Syndicate is actually open and clear about its own goals and aiming to recruit people who agree with those goals. And the fact that it’s actually anarchist makes it automatically better, obviously.

Also, as much as I’m amused by Techno’s awkward attempt at recruiting Niki, that’s just so relatable. These things never really go smoothly. And I’ve been there, trying to get something started with very little personal experience and massive social anxiety issues lol. (I mean I haven’t tried starting an actual revolutionary society, overthrowing an actual government is a bit too stressful for me and it’s not really an opportune moment for it right now where I live, but I may or may not have been involved in some direct action kind of stuff. Definitely nothing illegal, of course...) But like, the thing you really need to have a handle on is proper security culture so you don’t get everybody in trouble, other than that it’s okay to fuck up some things or just be awkward. And I’d say Techno is probably paranoid enough for the security culture bit, I think we can check that one off.

And I mean the talk with Niki didn’t even go that badly, probably. I still need to go check her side, I was watching her up until Techno went live but I didn’t get her reaction afterwards.

I feel like Techno is still a bit hazy on the theory but he has the spirit? I guess? And I mean to me that counts more than being super well read but only using it to whine about other people doing anarchism wrong. Not that there aren’t some warranted criticisms re: Techno’s character... Mostly I’m hoping he’ll chill with the torture and kidnapping and stabbing random bystanders? Might be too much to ask, he really seems to like buillying people, but I’m hoping. He could bully Eret, they’re a king after all. Eret’s schedule is just kind of unfortunate I guess. Doesn’t line up well with Techno’s streams. Or if Techno figures out that Sam is the prison warden, that’s also a valid target. Prison guards are definitely enemies of freedom, it’s literally in their job description. Plus Sam stole his horses and tried to kill him that one time.

Then again landlords are definitely enemies of anarchists too and apparently Techno is a landlord to Ranboo now so hmmmmm...

TL;DR: I really like the direction Techno’s new arc is going, I think aside from the random encounters with gods and mystical portals it’s a much more realistic representation of anarchists and anarchism (not that anarchism is mutually exclusive with mystical portals or anything but... ykwim), and it’s a promising start for a new storyline plotwise too.

#asks #quicksandblock #technoblade #dream smp #sorry this got way more rambly than i thought #long post

53 notes · View notes

akkalafuru · 3 years

Text

Let’s talk about today.

Today I was involved in drama. Yes. I know. Surprisingly, that’s not a common thing in my life (at least not that I’m aware of—unless I’m the subject matter of a conversation that I never heard of or participated in. Does that count?) All this situation made me reflect a little bit on how I've been approached in today's discussion and I think it deserves to be addressed.

I honestly don't even know where to start... Anyway.

Yes. I agree that harassments, bullying, threats to an author are absolutely inexcusable and unjustifiable. It many countries they're considered a crime and the offender must deal with legal consequences. So Yes! It’s wrong and not supported by me. PERIOD.

It is also true the fact that authors should get criticisms/audience feedback in order to sense where their next steps should be, especially in a serialized franchise (which yeah, it can be a curse but also an opportunity). Even if your favorite author may not change their story main plot, it's quite naive to believe they wouldn't consider the audience response at all; like never ever.

With that out of the way, the story is that someone wanted to call me out because I replied to Suetsugu's post telling I was upset because of her tweet. Other fans weren't happy either, but I was the only one who mentioned "taichihaya", so I guess i became an easy target. (Also, it's worth comment that the fan-police scrutiny is much harsher and aggressive when it comes to Taichi fans and taichihaya shippers. That’s a fact.)

My post was not positive, but it can't be considered offensive either. And of course, the same way I was able to express my opinion, others have the same right to do so. I don't think, though, that singling me out, comparing me to actual harassers and bullies, and insulting me, are smart ways to address my or any other situation. The level of response I got was disproportional and extremely rude.

I was also accused of being a repeating offender and infamous for doing that, which puzzled me. I'm curious to know the sources and past proofs because those are very serious accusations. I honestly haven't been aware of this kind of behavior of mine, but if they're true, I need to understand what's going on so I can work on that on myself. As an advice, though, making plain false or baseless accusations only weakens one’s argument, so when accusing someone, they better be true.

And with this out of the way, I want to address some other points that I cannot let go of.

I understand that we're all behind screens. All we see are profile pictures, nicknames and a bunch of text. But behind each account ( I’m not counting bots and fakes here) there's a person with actual feelings and their own circumstances. Unfortunately, the internet allows for the dehumanization of the "others", resulting in situations where the lack of respect is too evident.

Going back to the drama part, as soon as I started the conversation, I was said "if you can't see your mistake, I won't waste my time with you" and then I was blocked after a couple of exchanges. What's the reason of calling someone out if they want to immediately cut off the communication? If this person was face to face to me, would they talk to me like that? If I am that waste of a time, why summon me to this situation to begin with?

The words used were very rude and if I was in a vulnerable mental state, I would definitely take them more than personally and start questioning my self-worth. That’s a personal attack and a very destructive one. If anyone receives a response like that, please (PLEASE!) understand that it’s not about you! That’s a defense mechanism people use to mask their own weak arguments! Not only that, it also sounds entitled af.

I also understand that many people want to take action and show service for their causes and beliefs, and I'm very admired by that pro-activeness. There's definitely value when it comes to bringing change in the world to move our society to a better path. However, the ability to discern the actual threat/harm and make a proper judgement are as important as acting on it. That’s why actions should be taken with purpose and reason after proper evaluation and reflection about a situation.

In theory, it’s easy to tell the difference between what’s right or wrong as we get a lot of black-and-white examples; in reality, there are a lot more grays than one expects. This person was absolutely convinced they were right, and that’s fine. Again... it’s their right to believe so. It’s a shame they weren’t open for dialogue and basically treated me as the unredeemable, unforgivable perpetrator for something I didn’t do (?), throwing unfounded accusations after accusations at me; in addition to pointing fingers exclusively at me because I mentioned my preference, which seems to offend them.

At the end of the day, I believe that I at least have the right to express my take on this mess and my view on this person. I thought their judgement was poor and their action was extremely offensive. They lacked maturity, reason and critical sense. This situation was embarrassing, humiliating and completely unnecessary. Calling someone out just for the sake of calling them out without expecting or foreseeing a counter-argument is naive, plain stupid and immature. Giving a “last” word before blocking someone doesn’t automatically grant any victories to any arguments. So... I’m sorry if your attempt to “own” me failed.

I don’t care if people are frustrated or has a lot of time in their hands, but if it’s the latter, at least go find something useful to do instead of wasting everyone’s time by trying to give hot takes online in exchange of likes. All these attempts to make justice with your own hands—by exposing others and bringing them involuntarily to your mess—feels like you’re massaging your own ego, especially if you’re not open to communicate, nor educate, nor talk about this in a non-confrontational and rational manner. I was gonna mention cancel culture and online lynching (maybe online inquisition! that sounds pretty fitting!), but let’s not go there.

I know that I should’ve let that go and not incite drama. However, I had to stop someone from trying to look good in front of their friends (tell more me about virtue-signaling. Ok let’s not go there.) at my expense by exploiting a situation that barely applies to their argument. The more they get away with it, the more they believe it’s right to repeat the same action. The more we become silent, the more they step on us.

Lastly, I don’t want to accuse this person for targeting specifically me for petty reasons. I want to quote this, though: “tell me who your friends are and I will tell who you are.”

There’s a reason why this saying exists. Let’s leave at that.

Cheers!

7 notes · View notes

duhragonball · 3 years

Text

Hellsing Liveblog Chapters 25-27

This is the first leg of the “D” arc. I had originally planned on trying to do the whole thing in one post, but it’s pretty long and meanders in places, so instead I’m going to break it up, starting with the part that wraps up volume 4 of the collected editions.

Much of these first three chapters just showcases Millennium preparing to depart their secret headquarters in Brazil. They have three blimps, maybe more. We already saw the Graf Zeppelin III, but there’s also a Graf Zeppelin II and a Hindenberg II. Also, the Major refers to all of this as “Operation Sea Lion 2″. The original “Operation Sea Lion” was Nazi Germany’s plan to invade the U.K. during World War II. It was never enacted, however, because the Germans couldn’t establish air and naval superiority over the British. Basically, the Major is declaring that he has finally achieved what Hilter could not, thanks to his “Last Battalion” of 1000 vampire soldiers.

The bridge of his flagship (flagblimp) has this big comfy chair on a robot arm, and a panoramic world map. The arrows on the map point in all sorts of nutty directions, including the United States and other European nations. I could have sworn I had heard some mention in Hellsing Ultimate of Millennium sending forces to the U.S., but the international angle was never mentioned again, and I assumed that I must have imagined it. In any event, the Major made it clear that his target is Alucard specifically, so it doesn’t make a lot of sense to invade places where Alucard is not.

The Major prepares to take his seat only to find Warrant Officer Schrödinger sitting in his chair. Remember, Schrödinger inexplicably teleported himself to London to address Hellsing and Iscariot, and then he got shot and killed for his trouble. But now he’s back, alive and well. He mocks the Major for being to slow, and the Doctor scolds him for his insolence, but the Major orders Doc to back off. This is a running gag throughout the rest of the series. The Doctor keeps trying to chastise Schrödinger, but the Major lets him do whatever the boy wants, almost like he’s some favorite pet.

Meanwhile, an unidentified helicopter tries to land on a British carrier, the H.M.S. Eagle. The Captain orders his crew to open fire, but the first officer suddenly does this:

So yeah, the first officer is a vampire now, and he’s sold out Queen and Country for Millennium. He and a handful of vampire crewmen kill the rest of the crew and turn them all into ghouls, allowing the helicopter to land, making way for...

This lady, Lieutenant Rip Van Winkle. I should point out that in the pages leading up to her boarding the Eagle, she was singing Engelandlied, a German war anthem from World War I. She’s nutty, is the idea.

So, I’m gonna go ahead and put forth my fan theory that all the bad guys we dealt with prior to Rip were just patsies for Millennium, and not actual members in their own right. This includes Tubalcain “Dandyman” Alahambra, because, for all his powers, no one ever said his rank, leading me to think he didn’t have one. Same with the Valentine Brothers and any of the vampires Alucard and Seras were sent to fight during the first dozen or so chapters of this manga. Millennium may have turned them into vampires, and in some cases they even let them in on Millennium’s inner workings, but they were never more than cannon fodder. Jan seemed to understand this, although Luke and Dandyman seemed to believe they were genuinely created to represent the new pinnacle of vampiric power. Even the Doctor thought Dandyman had a strong chance of beating Alucard, but in the end they were just experiments meant to test Alucard’s mettle.

And, really, the rest of Millennium is not much different, except Rip and the others actually know why they’re being sacrificed, even if they don’t necessarily understand how or when.

Meanwhile, Seras still won’t drink blood, and she keeps trying to eat regular food instead, even though she struggles to swallow every bite. I’ve never been very clear on whether vampires in Hellsing can eat non-blood food or not. Seras is doing it, albeit painfully, but I don’t think she really gains anything from it, except whatever coping mechanism this is supposed to serve.

So in walks Sir Integra, who dumps a bag of medical blood on her table. Seras never really answers Integra’s question, but she already told Walter, and it’s not much of an answer. The heart of the matter is this: Seras really doesn’t want to be a vampire. Or, maybe, more accurately, she doesn’t want to stop being human. The trouble is that she already lost that battle way back in Chapter 1.

In many ways, Seras has accepted her fate. She works for Hellsing, recognizes Alucard as her vampire master, and so on. I think she understands that this is the only life she can have now, and her will to live is strong enough that she appreciates what Alucard and Integra have done for her. At her core, Seras is a public servant, and fighting monsters for Hellsing is not so different from fighting crime as a policewoman. I think she sees her current condition as a means to that end. She doesn’t crave power like the evil vampires we’ve seen thus far. Seras views her abilities as a means to an end. Alucard biting her gave her a way to stay alive and continue fighting the good fight.

However, she doesn’t want the baggage that goes along with that. She wants to retain as much of her humanity as she can, and drinking blood is the one thing that she has some control over, or so she believes.

But Integra’s far too practical for that dilemma. Alucard was willing to respect Seras’ relucatance, but she needs her troops on their toes and ready for action. So she takes a knife and cuts open her finger, and then orders Seras to lick the blood off. This is... disturbingly sexual, and one of a number of scenes that reminds me that Hirano Kouta had done a lot of, er, adult comics before Hellsing. I think he did a lot of uniform fetishy stuff too, which is why Seras and Schrödinger’s uniforms look so similar to each other. Both are meant to resemble German WWII gear. I’m willing to grant some leeway here, because there’s probably only so many ways to do a finger-licking scene like this without sexualizing it a little, but the last bit with the saliva trail is just revolting.

So, what’s bugged me for a long time was that if Seras drank (a little) of Integra’s blood here, why did this subplot not get paid off until much later in the story? She drank blood, didn’t she? Well, yeah, but Integra ordered her to do it, so it doesn’t count. This came up a couple of times earlier in the story, when Walter and Al mentioned that she wouldn’t drink blood willingly. It’s not just an ethical issue for Seras, or she’d simply chow down on the medical blood. I guess Integra could force feed her every night, but that wouldn’t solve anything. This is about Seras accepting her transformation as a fait accompli. I think this is why she very nearly drank Alucard’s blood back in Northern Ireland, when it sure looked like there was no other way for her to survive. But if she’s just sitting there with no one making her do it, and no urgent need to do it, she’ll refuse every time.

I think Hellsing uses the premise that a vampire has to do more than just bite a human to turn them into a vampire. That is, Alucard had to put his own blood in Seras’ body to complete that transformation. I think that’s how it worked in the Dracula novel, and Seras herself mentions it in the Gonzoverse anime. But that wouldn’t count either, because it’s part of the change itself. The idea is for the new vampire to partake in blood-drinking by choice, and until that happens, they won’t get all the cool powers.

One other thing, Integra takes this opportunity to mention that she’s a virgin, which is a weird flex for this situation, but okay. In Hellsing, that means Integra could become a vampire herself, but not if Seras bites her, because it has to be a vampire of the opposite sex. In any case, Tegs warns Seras not to bite down during this creepy finger-licking KFC-hentai thing.

Back in the damn ocean, Lt. Rip van Winkle is welcomed aboard by the traitorous crew of the Eagle. She asks them how it feels to be a vampire, and causally reminds them of their treachery. Then she gives them new orders, which are to die by her magic gun, which fires a bullet that can turn around in midair.

And so the First Officer and his lackeys learn the same lesson as the Brazillians working for the Dandyman, and the Dandyman himself, and the Valentine Brothers and whoever else. Millennium might turn you into a vampire, but that hardly means that you’ll live forever. Millennium always demands treason as payment for their help, and it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that they might betray you sooner or later.

Besides, Rip doesn’t need the British crew, because she has her own henchman on board her chopper. While she waits for them to wake up, she paints a swastika on the deck, just to make it clear that they’ve taken control of the Eagle, which she renames the Adler. That’s German for “Eagle”, you see.

Back on his blimp, the Major cuts this twenty-minute promo which basically amounts to “I love war, we have no particular agenda except to wage endless war for the fun of it.” Back in England, Alucard is eagerly awaiting their arrival.

#2021hellsingliveblog #hellsing #alucard #seras victoria #sir integra hellsing #the major #lt rip van winkle #the doctor #warrant officer shrodinger #enrico maxwell #... is not actually in this story #they just put him on the title page for some reason

19 notes · View notes

nejiten-lives-on · 4 years

Text

What Girls talk about//Nejiten fanfic

day 1 for nejiten month (sfw)

- by me :) @nejiten-lives-on

It didn't take the byakugan itself to tell that Tenten had liked Neji Hyuga.

At this point Tenten was losing all hope, for the past few months she had countless tries to catch Neji's eye. Unfortunately for her, all her attempts to get Neji to notice her failed miserably. Neji had the eyes of an eagle but yet failed to see Tenten in the way she wanted him to. (Or so she thought)

It was a girls day out, & Tenten couldn't wait to have a relaxing day. Hinata, Sakura, Ino, Tenten, & Temari (surprisingly) were all at a Boba shop together. Later on they would go to the Hyuga compound to enjoy a movie together. Then Ino said

"Hey guys, that guy over there is kinda cute, one of you guys should go talk to him."

Sakura growled "Why don't you go talk to him Ino-pig?"

"Because I've been trying to get with your new teammate billboard brow." Ino fired back.

"You must be really good with the guys since you get a new one almost every month or so Ino" Temari chuckled.

"What can I say, a pretty girl like me can't stay single for too long, but I think this time with Sai it's going to be different." Tenten noticed Ino quirky suppressed the urge to blush & chuckled a little.

"Tenten what are you laughing about." Ino said.

"Uh, nothing just thought of something."

"Or maybe someone." Temari smirked.

Ino & Sakura started giggling & she knew this wouldn't be as relaxing as she thought. As Shikamaru would put this, this would be troublesome.

"Tenten how about you try to talk with the guy over there?" Sakura said.

"Im good." Tenten shot back quickly.

"Ooh so you do have someone else in mind." Ino chuckled.

To her left side Hinata was just sitting quietly hoping the teasing wouldn't go to her next.

"I wonder who it is." Sakura sarcastically.

"I think its kind of obvious, lucky for her we're going to get to see him when we go Hinata's house later on." Ino said with a wide smirk.

Tenten quickly suppressed the urge to blush but failed.

"Could you guys not, I don't like that cold-hearted, possessive, ice cube of a human."

"Sorry Hinata." Tenten quickly added

"Its fine." Hinata said with a smile

Hinata was so sweet, unlike her cousin. Tenten thought. Who was sometimes sweet but for the most part prideful & self absorbed, but with a face like Nejis' who could really complain.

"Look she's probably thinking about it right now." Sakura said to Ino.

"You guys need to stop with the teasing." Temari said.

"Thank you Temari." Tenten said with an eye roll

"And you Tenten need to Neji how you feel." Temari said.

"Wow was it really that obvious that I got the hots for Hyuga.." Tenten Said.

"Yea it totally is." Ino said.

"To everyone but him." Tenten said with an eye roll.

Sakura & Ino began to chuckle again.

"What are you guys laughing at now?" Tenten said with a bit of annoyance in her tone.

"Well isn't it obvious that Neji likes you back?" Ino said.

"Uh no, cause he doesn't. He probably doesn't even consider me a girl." Tenten said.

"You guys are both oblivious to each other's feelings for one another" Temari said.

"I just think-, no I know that Neji’s feelings towards me don't go any further than to being his teammate & friend." Tenten said.

"if anything the most he considers me as is a training dummy." Tenten said with a half chuckle built in with a tone of annoyance.

"Well let's test your theory when we go to Hinata's house." Ino said.

"Speaking of Hinata.." Ino looked to the shy girl to her left "You & Kiba, anything going on between you two?" Ino asked with a smirk.

Hinata's face became crimson & she started drinking her Boba in hopes Ino would stop targeting her. Sadly Its didn't work.

Poor Hinata, Tenten thought.

As they were walking to Hinata's house a conversation sparked up.

"Hey Temari." Tenten said

"Yea Ten?"

"Who initiated the first move, you or Shikamaru?"

"Well surprisingly Shika did, told him some time too." Temari said with a light chuckle.

"But I mean it was worth the wait."

"Why Tenten do you ask, want Neji to make some moves on you?" Ino said teasingly.

Tenten rolled her eyes "Even if I did, Neji has way too much pride in him to even think of doing that."

"Okay so doesn't that mean that you have to be the one to make the first move?" Sakura said.

"I mean when you put it that way.. but Neji probably wouldn't want someone as simple & bland as me anyway." Tenten said with a sad tone.

"Aww Tenten don't feel that way, you are so beautiful." Temari said

"Hai, you really are Tenten." Hinata added.

"Yea for sure & you have a really nice figure whether Neji can see it or not." Sakura said

"Trust me I bet he has noticed, who knows if he may have used his byakugan on you for other non-training purposes." Ino said with a wide grin.

"Ino stop!" Tenten said with a crimson face.

I guess all that talking was useful, they got to the Hyuga compound really fast.

At the compound the girls said their greetings to Hiashi & went to Hinata's room first.

"Wow, your room is huge Hinata."

"You say that everytime Ino." Sakura said

"Because its true." Ino said with hands on her hips.

Temari didn't plan on staying for long but the rest of the girls insisted on a sleepover.

After they had their fun Temari had left but before she left she reminded Tenten to try to make a move on Neji.

"Oh yea I almost forgot." Ino said with a smirk.

"So how do you plan on making your first move on Neji?" "Maybe going into his room & seducing him." Ino said with a wide smirk.

Sakura started laughing "This will be fun."

Next thing you know Tenten was being dragged by a group of chuckling girls running the halls of the Hyuga. Even Hinata seemed to be enjoying this. They were going to the side branch families part of the compound.

They knocked on Neji's door & ran, leaving a confused Tenten in shorts & a loose pajama top outside of Neji's room.

Neji came outside & was surprised Tenten was there, especially in that attire.

"Did you want to go training at this hour, If so I wouldn't mind but is a little late don't you thi-."

"No!" Tenten said quickly "Today me & the girls were just hanging out & I guess we're ending the night with a stay at Hinata's house... which is also your house." Tenten began to ramble.

"And as you can see they kind of just knocked on your door & left me here." Tenten said rubbing the back of her neck in embarrassment. "Surprise I guess."

"Well I suppose it isn't such a bad surprise." Neji said.

"Neji your flirting attempts are lame." Ino said at the corner of the hall with the rest if the girls head peeking around.

"You guys were here the whole time?!?" Tenten yelled

"Not anymore bye." Ino shot back & ran back to the main house with the Pink & Blue haired girls.

"Well unless you plan on chasing them back to the main branch you're welcome into my room."

Tenten walked in, nothing new it was the same room she would be in almost every other day when she came to pick him up for afternoon training.

She sat herself on his bed while he was right besides her.

Neji was a little closer than usual, not that she minded.

"I'm sorry did I disturb you, If you want I can go back to the-."

"No!" She could feel Neji stiffened "Ahem, no you were not disrupting me at all."

"Oh okay." Tenten said

They stayed in silence for a while but really for the two it was nothing new, but Tenten noticed that there was some kind of tension in the air.

"So what did you do today?" Tenten said to break the silence

"Nothing much, the boys & I just went out to BBQ together."

"I bet it was Choji's idea." Tenten chuckled

"Yea, not surprising but we were all getting tired of going out for ramen ever outing." Neji said.

"What do you guys even talk about when you meet up?" Tenten asked, maybe this would give her the opportunity to see what kind of girl was ideal for Neji.

"Nothing much just Naruto's crazy stories, missions, games, & girls." Neji said regretting the last part knowing Tenten would ask a storm of questions. Neji then spoke before giving Tenten the opportunity to talk.

"What do you girls talk about?"

"Uhh, basically the same thing I guess Ino's crazy boy stories, missions, our teams, & boys. Oh and a lot if teasing, well at least on me & Hinata's end." Tenten said with a bit of annoyance.

Neji lightly chuckled, it was a rare sight but Tenten always enjoyed seeing it.

"So what kind of boys do you talk about?" Neji asked.

"Don't worry only cute ones come up in our conversations." Tenten laughed

"Wow so then I suppose you guys must talk about me a lot then." Neji smirked

Neji & his pride, it was unbeatable. Tenten thought to herself.

"Okay whatever pretty boy don't get all cocky." Tenten said, stopping herself from rolling her eyes.

"Hm, so you admit that I'm pretty." Neji said smirking at Tenten

"Is it not obvious Hyuga, or do you want 100 more of your fangirls to stalk you during our training sessions." Tenten said sarcastically.

"I mean I'm sure they are just afraid that their beloved Hyuga might be taken away by a pretty girl." Neji stated

"And what does that mean exactly?" Tenten questioned

"It means.." Neji stared deep into her eyes "That I think you're very beautiful Tenten."

Tenten just looked back at with shock. It wasn't like Neji to be so straightforward with his feelings, usually a "Hn." was enough for her but for Neji to be this talkative for this long was rare. Was she in some kind if genjutsu?

"And I don't know if you are unaware but you have some fans as well, but I usually deal with them."

"What are you getting at Hyuga?" Tenten asked regrettably

"I'm saying that I like you Tenten."

Neji Hyuga, the ice block of the leaf himself actually has feelings? And even more shocking they were for me? Tenten thought.

Tenten was not about to let her emotions overcome her, although it was too late to suppress her blush (she was sure she was a darker shade of red than Hinata has ever been) She got herself together & said.

"I like you too, Hyuga."

At this point their faces were mere inches apart & they was heavy tension in the air.

Neji being the gentleman that he is politely asked "May I..?"

Tenten nodded

Neji grabbed Tenten's waist & lended in.

Slowly she could feel Neji's breath near her face & immediately started blushing. Then his lips touched hers & were met by a tender kiss. Neji's lips were soft & gentle. They were going slow, not that Tenten didn't mind the only thing on her mind was Neji Hyuga & his soft lips.

After a gasp for air Neji didn't hesitate to lean in for another soft & tender kiss. This one was filled with passion & hunger. Tenten gasp which gave Neji the opportunity to slip in his tongue & have power over her mouth. It was a deep & compassionate kiss.

After their 'make out session' They looked at each other briefly & chuckled. Tenten could feel her cheeks getting red & surprisingly Neji's cheeks were lightly tinted as well.

"Well I guess it's getting a bit late, I think I'll head back to the main branch compound."

"You know, you could always stay in my room for the night." Neji said with a smirk

Tenten blushed & threw a pillow at him. "Hyuga don't get too ahead of yourself."

"Hn"

"I see the old Neji is back, tell him I had fun & I might want to do it again." Tenten said smiling lightly

"Will do, I'm sure next time will be enjoyable."

Tenten exited his room & went straight to Hinata's room. Needless to say the screams of teenage girls were heard from all around the compound.

I guess the day did end up being relaxing, Tenten thought with a smile.

#neji hyuga #neji #nejiten #neji x tenten #tenten #tenten x neji #anime #fanfiction #fanfic #nejitenmonth2020 #nejitenmonth #idk if this is bad but lol

82 notes · View notes

fuckyeahharryhart · 3 years

Text

PART 2 HARRY HART FAN FICTION Because they better give him a good story for the last Kingsman. In case they don’t, I wrote something myself.

PART 2

FAN FIC

KINGSMAN III: REDACTED

MULTI PART SERIES:(My version of Kingsman 3)

Harry Hart x Original Character

Warnings: Reference to violence

Word Count: 5,900

OVERVIEW: After the events of Kingsman, The Golden Circle, Harry, Eggsy and the rest of the survivors rebuild their agency to it’s former level of integrity. A new player arrives unexpectedly, carrying memories of the past that will change the future of Kingsman.

CHAPTER SUMMARY: Harry and Eggsy try to discover who this new players is, how they were at the right place and the right time, and what they know about kingsman. A marksman of that caliber isn't someone to take lightly.

------

Bloody hell. Harry's hand was still stinging with heated pain from having his key fob, of all bloody things, shot out of hand. His knee was out of sorts from dropping, face down, to the pavement. Hearing gunshots ring out from, not one, but two different directions did not improve his mood or his state of mind. Continuing to roll as he hit the ground, he switched to his side so he could draw his weapon. But first, he turned toward the direction of the original fire. That was the shooter who caught his interest. A marksman with the precision to shoot a key fob from that distance, within centimetres of his hand without (well without significant) injury was someone not to underestimate. He could make a shot like that. He had plenty of times at the Kingsman shooting range. But that was aiming at a non-moving target in a controlled environment, under the best of circumstances. The only other time he fired a shot that exacting was in Cambodia. While wrestling a certain Agent Whiskey for control of a firearm, he was able to free Eggsy from a lasso looped around his neck by shooting clean through the rope. He assumed landing that shot was 1/4 luck, 1/4 technique and 1/2 his sheer force of will.

Very few marksman possessed the natural talent, training and skill to land that shot. Even less in London proper and he was almost certain that all of those individuals even close to that level, were under Kingsman’s employ.

Under the cover of shadows and partially hidden by a gate column, he spotted the shooter. At the same time, the shooter spotted him and they made split second eye contact. Obviously, the shooter did not want to be witnessed judging from the displeased look that he had noted. But rather than ducking out of view, they kept their stance, provided cover fire until the area was cleared and the threat was gone. And then, without a moments hesitation, the person holstered their weapon and turned abruptly in the opposite direction and began to walk off with long, measured steps. He and Eggsy dusted themselves, gestured to the other, nodded and made off in opposite directions in the attempt to cut the person off at the path. As he smoothed down his suit and adjusted his cuffs, he was quite certain that he was never going to enjoy a peaceful evening again.

——

She didn’t waste valuable seconds checking her phone, grateful that she took the extra time to map her locations in her head. Quickly referring to her orientation, she saw three viable options. Directly in front of her was the Royal Academy. Though it was vast and beautiful and filled with courtyards and eaves, arches, doorways, ideal to drop a tail, it was also closed and quiet. There was no crowd to get lost in. A single person moving in that space would surely be noticed.

She weighed her two other options against each other. Both were about equal in distance. No more than a 10 min walk in either direction. To her right was Mayfair. Situated in the heart of the city, it was one of the most expensive and exclusive areas of London with swanky five-star hotels, shops, restaurants, bars and pubs. Bond Street was sure to be packed with people enjoying the nightlife. Perhaps in another lifetime she could enjoy an evening out in such a place. Not at the moment.

On the plus side, the streets were more random, intersecting at odd places, without the usual grid format. That gave her more exit options. They would less likely follow the same path. Downside, as much as she would enjoy an elegant evening out, she was not appropriately attired. Of course, there would be the usual strong of tourists and visitors that would be similarly inappropriately attired. Even though she would blend in with part of the crowd, she didn’t want to stand out in anyway. Plus, if she needed to tuck into a shop or a restaurant, she wanted to blend with the locals and not the tourists. And she wasn’t going to do that with her nondescript outfit. Or, she would find herself in a situation where someone would ask to take her jacket. She would have to politely refuse because of her shoulder holster and her gun. They would insist. Then it would become an uncomfortable situation for everyone involved. Awkward and uncomfortable would be hard NOT to notice.

A ten minute walk to her left would drop her in ever trendy Soho. A little louder, a little more rowdy and relaxed, Soho was more happy hour than cocktail hour. The way there would have more traffic, both car and pedestrian, but it was also more direct and brightly lit. More importantly, she would be able to blend with the locals, not just the tourists. Maybe even slip into a pub or bar for the glass of wine she so desperately could use. There would be more viable places to manuever, evade, and find cover. More opportunity to lose a tail. And less likely for a messy confrontation.

Though she didn’t stick around long enough, she was fairly certain that the two men were following her. She kept in mind that they were trained with the same skills and likely had the same natural talent and instincts as she did. Part of her plan was to move slightly against instinct, find the ideal move and then, proceed with something slightly different. But they had to be thinking the same thing.

Shit. The shooters might still be in the area. Depending on whether or not they had backup, if this was an isolated threat on a personal level or if was on an organisational level, she couldn’t be sure that the coast was clear in that direction. When in doubt, take precaution. There were too many unknowns, too many unanswered questions and her preference was to get away without further contact. Since she couldn’t do it clean, she wanted to avoid any additional messiness.

Typical, she thought, making her way through the last of the shoppers and the first of the evening revellers. At the moment she was making progress and feeling more in control of her circumstances, some prick with a gun comes in and has to spray bullets over all the blocks that she spent the last month building. With care and precision, she arranged and rearranged, stacking and re-stacking, until she had created a platform where she could make her move. All her variables were in place. She calculated the possible outcomes and was so close to having a plan. There was some satisfaction, knowing that she had put an equal damper on their scheme, but when success of their plan meant the death of two people, and her plans would only work if those two people were alive, It didn’t leave her much of a choice.

Evasion was as much about mindset as it was movement. She took a mental pause, reset her outlook. Plans only fail if you allowed them to fail. Plans change and hers just did. Focus on clearing out first and then she could regroup and consider her options. If she let her frustrations distract her, she would end up missing details and she had not come this far to make bad decisions. Even in the smallest circumstances, she learned how to turn off emotions, cutting off thoughts and inconvenient emotions. Unfortunately, it was usually the thoughts about the situation she was in, that caused troubling emotions, such as her frustration at the turn of events. But if she walled off those thoughts for the time being, she would be more likely to operate with logic and clarity.

To her advantage, she had a head start, she knew the situation she was dealing with, two known variables on her tail, one unknown threat that could possibly be armed and still in the area. Likely, all three of them knew the area so there was no upper hand in that case. Two would be on foot, probably split to cover more area. It was to her disadvantage that there were two of them, but would be easier to confront them individually if it came to that.

She assumed that they also saw her as a threat. Regardless whether or not her actions had saved their lives, she was still an unknown, an armed and dangerous, one at that. She had to expect hostility, possibly aggression if confronted. It was a situation she would prefer to avoid.

Her steps were light and relaxed. She paced herself neither too fast, nor too slow. Rushing would call attention. She avoided looking around overtly, but she used her periphery to scan the people and places around her. On the plus side, two handsome men in Saville Row bespoke would definitely turn heads. Especially the tall one, who stood inches over the average person. They couldn’t take off their suit coats either. Not with their own weapons and shoulder holsters.

She took a quick left off the main road. A few blocks over and then she could make another turn toward Soho and break up the straight line she was currently traveling. Maybe stop in Central for a quick diversion. Stay on the move. Be aware of her surroundings. Those were her two priorities. Casually checking her 360 along the way by using any reflections she saw, footsteps, noises she heard, neck stretching every few steps to check blind spots. And for a little while, she did just fine.

That is, until she found herself caught in a standing rear choke hold. Fuck.

———

Wherever the hell this person had materialised from, Harry thought, these were not the customs of a novice agent. From weaponry, tactics and evasion, their actions were one hundred percent on point. They should be only a suggestion in the wind by now. The single reason he was able to catch them unaware was because of new Kingsman tech. Just developed, airborne nano GPS trackers. Designed to mark a large group of targets from a distance, they were tiny particles, almost invisible by the naked eye. Programmed to navigate toward the wavelengths of infrared radiation emitted by the human body, specifically at the signature of 12 micron. Best for outdoor use, or in large open spaces, these capsules were broken and released into the air where the prevailing wind would transport the nano GPS transmitters and attach to the nearest known radiation signature. The tracking range could vary depending on the windspeed, air density and how many capsules were released. They were handy to track large crowd movement, not typically used to track a single person. But it was all he had on hand. Since the street was empty at the time, they had a good chance that some GPS attached. Using the process of elimination to rule out unintentional attachments, they could isolated the movement they were looking for. They were looking for someone who moved like a spy.

This person, whoever they were, made all of the decisions that he would have and then added some surprise evasion tactics that he wouldn’t have thought of. They surely would have gotten away if not for the trackers. It wasn’t absolutely necessary that they locate the person. But they were an unknown entity. He wasn’t sure if they were an adversary, an ally, or a neutral player. Neutral players were not known for being experts at tradecraft. That left adversary or ally. With the events of the past two years and the most recent destruction of Kingsman by the Golden Circle, unanswered questions usually returned on their own, carrying an unfavourable answer. Granted, the person saved their lives, but they already knew too much of Kingsman. Knew of threats of which Kingsman was not aware. So when chance invited him to make a move, to quietly sneak behind the person at the last second, he took it.

——

This is not why I spent four weeks planning, she fumed silently. Her mood was grim. Of course it would be at this exact moment that she registered the slightest contact from behind, like a passing breeze brushing against her. But she knew displaced air when she felt it. Based on her position, facing forward, added to the position he was in, directly behind her, also facing forward, that would have to equal a rear standing choke hold. Instantly, she countered, dropping her chin to her chest like it belonged there, denying him the chance to press his forearm against the front of her neck. A chokehold had two purposes, either to crush the windpipe, resulting in death. Not the outcome she was looking for. Or, to cut off blood to the brain via the carotid artery, leaving her unconscious. Which wasn’t much of a consolation prize. Either way, she had just about 12 seconds to act. Since both options were less than desirable, she shielded her throat as best she could and waited for the window were she could counter like a small, but fierce animal.

The strength of his grip said that he wasn’t going for either option, but told her he using the hold as a restraint. So, she had that going for her, she thought darkly. Yet, he still had the capacity to follow through on either option. There was no give to his grip. Twisting out of the hold was not an option without more leeway. Not one to be held in a vulnerable position, her goal was to escape. Several ways presented themselves, few of which incorporated an unrestrained elbow or kick to the groin. Her aim was not to incapacitate, regardless of how satisfying that may be, but to extricate herself.

Based on sheer size and strength, she was highly disadvantaged. But, as a woman in the field, only relying on your strength, you’d get beaten every time. Women didn’t have to fight harder. They had to fight smarter. Not only did she have to use her size and weight to her advantage, she had to use his size and strength against him. With the obvious discrepancy in height, not that she was short. Five foot nine made her taller than average, but at 6’ 2”, he was also taller than average. Her best option? Leverage. Literally. Use him as lever. It was the move where he would be at a disadvantage and she would have the clear advantage. There was some consolation to be found, knowing they were also expert spies, but not enough to spare herself the embarrassment of being caught. Summoning her nerve, one deep inhalation, she thought, and she would be ready.

He smells nice.

The thought landed without warning. It didn’t merely land. It hit her. It hit her hard and with feeling. Her concentration stuttered. It was the scent of wood, leather, spices and a hint of something warm, rich and slightly sweet, like a velvety dark chocolate. And then there was a breath of something unexpected. A note she couldn’t identify. It was him, she realised. That was his smell. It was a good smell. A masculine smell. She was suddenly aware of his wool suit against her chin. She noticed the pinstripes against a navy as dark as the sky. The crisp white of his French shirt cuffs and the gold of his cufflinks that held them in place.

Her senses were wide open. They always were on hyperdrive when she was out in the field. That was expected. She relied on them to send her signs that she didn’t have the time to look for. But now, they were receiving all the wrong signals and sending all the wrong messages. Intensely. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the shadow of his hand. His large, wide palm was warm on the back of her neck. By pressing her neck forward and down, it was this hand that locked the chokehold in place.

What the hell? she thought. She felt the strength of his forearms underneath her own palms. Her hands were gripping him so tightly she could feel the cords of muscle through his sleeve. Suddenly, her body became all too aware of his own. The sensation of him, the entire length of his body against hers, awakened her own. He wasn’t just standing behind her, he was bearing the whole of his body into hers. Thus, she was counter balancing with equal force. Generating heat and pressure between them. Realising how close, how intimate, how physical, literally, their contact was at that moment, overwhelmed her reason, her logic, her objectivity. And most of all, she was aware of the man behind her. Not as a target, or a mark, or a tail or a problem to be solved. It was him. It was Harry Hart.

He must have sensed a slight shift in her energy because once that random, startling thought struck home, she didn’t dare move until she knew where it was heading and what she was going to do with it. She probably stopped breathing. Maybe that’s what he noticed because all of a sudden she felt dizzy and lightheaded. Maybe he was holding her a little tighter than she thought. He must have noticed a change because just as suddenly, his grip loosed by a fraction, not enough to escape, but enough to jar her back to the present. He was confusing her and she was angry at being confused.

She was on pause and someone had just hit the reset button. Instantly, she made her next move and she went into action fully committed. There was no hesitation in a move like this. To her advantage, their height difference meant that he had to lean down slightly to get his forearm around her neck, which shifted his center of gravity slightly forward. With his tight grip, she pushed against it, creating the energy of opposing forces to gain momentum. With her neck guarded by her chin, she quickly dropped down to one knee, gripped tightly onto his wrists and forearms, leaned back into him to get the tiniest bit of additional momentum, and then bent forward as sharply as she could from her waist, throwing the full force of her weight into the move and tucking in as tight as possible. Sure enough, with his weight already off center, using her body as a fulcrum, a pivot point, and using his height as a lever, she forced him to tumble over her head.

Normally, after a move such as this, that put her at a tactically advantageous position, she would either evade or go in for an attack move and neutralise the threat. This was not the way she wanted to introduce herself to these two men, but it looked like fate wasn’t giving her any options. She was not prepared for this situation. She didn’t have claim over the next move. It could be either of theirs. Brushing her hair away from her eyes, she cursed herself for not having a hair tie, of all things. She paused for a moment. Her cap got knocked off during her manoeuvre. Wonderful, all these identifiers, now facial features, and the damn hair. She should handover her passport and smartphone and just get it over with. How did this evening turn so sideways?

She took a mental pause. Footsteps. His colleague. Who didn’t know what he was walking into. She quite certain it did not look like afternoon tea.

When she heard the brushing noise of a weapon being pulled out of its holster she went back on high alert. They had most definitely past the “direct contact” portion of the evening. As much as she did not want to do them harm, she was more than willing to talk, she equally, did not want to be on the interrogation end of a gun. She had another split second to decide her course of action. Two was much more complicated.

All three of them knew the rules of weaponry in the field and in engagement. Never pull a gun in a circumstance you’re not willing to use it. Never aim at a target you’re not willing to shoot. It wouldn’t have been her first choice, but when she had a lethal weapon aimed in her direction, it left her with few options.

She never had an opportunity to use it before, but it was ideal for this circumstance and what she had planned. She palmed her carbonfiber graphene tactical knife, short, less than 5”in length, from its discreet sleeve at her hip. It’s description stated, “A device for specific close quarters combat manoeuvres in very focused special circumstance scenarios with high impact.” This circumstance would fall under that category, she thought.

The upper hand was all she needed to gain, to have a moment where they would be forced to listen to her. Grace, eloquence… She tossed those out the proverbial window. Her words would have the hardest strike. The most impact. Not her knife, not her gun, not any weapon. Now was not the time for finesse. Once again, she had to turn shitty odds in her favours before the man she just flipped could reorient himself. She wanted to be sorry that it had come to this, but she was just making her counter move. It didn’t matter if it was personal or not. This part, at least for her, was the business aspect of her work. Similar to negotiating a deal, but using weapons and lives as bargaining points.

The knife firmly in her grip, she raised the blade and held its lethal edge against his carotid artery with enough pressure to be VERY uncomfortable, and almost, but not break skin. He was smart and followed the direction guided by pressure of her blade hand and rose with her to a standing position. She stood behind him, angled slightly toward one side. He knew that any counter move on his part, which there were many he could take, and in this case his strength and mass would be at his advantage. She was in a very vulnerable physical position and he could take her down easily. If it weren’t for the knife at the side of his neck. The blade was very small, very light and most of all, it was very, very sharp and designed for close, personal combat. Easy to handle, low pressure point. Which meant, whether or not his move disabled her he would, no doubt, be pulling away with nothing less than a very serious neck wound.

“Stop.” she called out firmly. “Gun down on the ground.”

The man who was under her knife, indicated, Do what she says.

He placed his gun on the ground and stood with his hands in the air.

She knew he was weighing his options, just as she did her own.

Her voice was clear and just loud enough so he could hear her where he stood.

Seriously, like this was what she needed. Did they really have to go through all this fuss? Spies could be exhausting.

“I know what you’re thinking.”

She kept her voice conversational. Of no consequence or concern and certainly not threatening.

“Do you have enough time to disarm me and get help for your friend, Harry, before he bleeds out?”

She felt the slightest flinch when he heard the sound of his name. Not Arthur or Galahad. His given name.

“You’re quite fast, Eggsy, but not that fast.”

Now Eggsy’s turn as his eyes narrowed both suspicious and surprised. Not Galahad. Not even Gary, but Eggsy.

Ok, making progress, she thought. She had just shown her first card. She knew exactly who they were. Not just their code names. Their real ones.

To drive her point home. “Just the tiniest amount of pressure on his carotid artery, thats all I need. 68 seconds until he loses consciousness. My knife, which you probably can’t see from where you are standing, but he can certainly feel,” she nodded her head toward Harry, “is designed to pierce fast and deep. If I had a regular blade, he might come out clean, but not with this one. Please, sincerely, think twice, for his sake, about making any sudden movements.”

Good. Neither of them made an attempt to move. Not even a twinge. She continued. She didn’t know how long the odds would be in her favour. At this point, she was playing fast and loose. Something she rarely did and she was not used to. One of her biggest strengths was her ability to prepare. This was not a scenario that she had imagined.

“I know either of you could disable me, but not without me doing a fair amount of damage first.”

It wouldn’t be her first choice to do harm, but she was in no mood for additional fuckery and she wanted to make it abundantly clear that, though she was no match for them in terms of brute strength, she had plenty of ways to dominate a fight using strategy. She wasn’t stronger, but she could be smarter. She wasn’t above shedding blood to prove that she was not to be underestimated.

“I didn’t start this fight, but I’m more than happy to finish it.”

She added, “You see how well trained I am. You should be asking yourself why i haven’t killed him, or either of you, already.”

Did they really have to be so obstinate? Obstreperous. Truculent? They should have been asking themselves that question after she took the first shot. They could very easily be dead right now if it were not for her. She needed to prove to them she was not a threat to their lives. Against all of her training, she laid her second card down.

“And ask yourself,” she repeated. “perhaps why, then, I would let him go.”

Very carefully, very slowly, and very deliberately, she softened the pressure against his neck until the blade was no longer making contact. She continued to draw it far away from him, far enough to clear so not to do any damage, before she began to lower it. She took a few steps back, hands up, the knife still visible in her right, but with a carry hold, not an active grip.

Imagine her surprise when Harry turned on her, twisted her wrist until she had to drop the knife. Not without force. She resisted the split second she saw what was happening. She knew in this case, she didn’t have an immediate out, but that didn’t mean she had to make it easy for him. Rather than conserving her energy, she fought him and fought him with force, until she saw his face grimace with the effort.

Good, she thought.

She made some pretty satisfying contact before he was able to push her all the way back against the red brick warehouse. The wall gave her less room to maneuver. She landed one last, very satisfying kick to his shin. It wasn’t a fancy move. There was no technique involved. She just put all her grit behind that single kick and the connection she made was very gratifying, despite her situation. She hoped it left huge bruise to remember her by. It was obviously painful and hurt him enough that he shoved her away fairly hard. The back of her head knocked into the bricks with a force that she wouldn’t have considered gentlemanly.

Well, she did have a knife to his carotid just a few moments ago, she countered. She supposed turn about was fair play. This time, he was able to get his forearm across her throat and braced his right wrist with the circle of his left hand. Standing arm bar hold. She had no counter this time, seeing since Eggsy had his gun again and it being much harder to escape a bullet than a choke hold. So, that move did not have the impact that she thought it would.

She knew they had to have this conversation, but she was pissed. At them, but she admitted, begrudgingly, that she was mostly pissed at herself for letting her guard down. To be fair, they really had no idea who she was. And until they did, she would remain a threat. But she still had one more card. She was just waiting for the chance to use it.

——

What the bloody fuck had just happened? Harry Hart was not one to get caught off guard. But he was miffed that it happened this evening. Not only once, but three bloody times, and he had just quite enough of whatever fuckery was happening around him. First, the key fob, then the chokehold, then the bloody knife. Well, my dear, he thought, two can play this game. He wasn’t above fighting dirty. Sometimes the situation insisted on it. It seemed as if this was one of those times.

As soon as she let down her guard sufficiently enough for him to act, he twisted her arm, forcing her to drop the knife. But she wasn’t making things easier for him, or for herself, for that matter. Even though he clearly had the upper hand, she fought him the entire time. She, too, apparently wasn’t above a little dirty dealing when she landed a kick to his shin. A very hard, directed kick, not meant to disable, not in an attempt to escape, a kick just purely meant to cause him pain. A bit more than cheeky. He finally pushed her, maybe just a tad harder than he anticipated, until her head knocked back and hit the warehouse wall behind her. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Eggsy had taken the opportunity to retrieve his gun and provide cover. Her eyes quickly darted in the same direction, confirmed the same thing that he saw and then stared at him furiously. Whether the fury was directed toward him or to her change in circumstance, most likely both, he could not be certain.

Making sure his arm bar would prevent any further roughhousing, Harry spoke, adopting almost the same conversational tone as she had. She wasn’t sure if he was matching her tone to respect her or mock her. This time she felt free to show as much aggression as she felt like. There was no consequence at this point. She tossed her damn hair out of her face.

——

As she flipped her hair to the side, Harry, by instinct, began to document her features so, if needed, he could provide a detailed description of her should it ever become necessary. Tall, 5’ 8 1/2 - 9. Slim build, but athletic, lean muscular rather than simply thin. Age was hard to determine, she looked both very young, but her eyes, they were both wise and melancholy. A look that only came with time and experience. Her eyes seemed to say that they had already seen too much. She was anywhere from mid twenties to mid thirties. He noticed that her eyes were grey. Grey, and they had a slight almond shape to them. Tilted just enough to give her an air of mystery. Dark lashes, dark hair and much of it. Long. Wavy. It was shiny and looked very soft. Dusky fair skin with just an undertone of warm olive. Cheeks pink, with displeasure, he thought, or embarrassment, certainly not because she was flattered by the attention. Her mouth was small and delicate, her lips pressed together in a firm line. Also pink. She was quite becoming. Beautiful even. He tried to determine her ethnicity, but found himself unable to place her exotic, yet subtle, delicate features.

Harry caught himself. He wasn’t just documenting her features. It wasn’t bloody like him.These were not the most appropriate thoughts for the moment.

She noticed him noticing her. She didn’t know what he was noticing, so she grew even more frustrated. She obviously didn’t care about keeping her expressions to herself any longer. It was quite loud and clear what she was thinking. It was written all over her face.

He came back to his words. In his calm, deep voice, he asked her three simple questions.

“Who are you? Who do you work for, and why did you shoot at us?”

A firm set to her jaw and with equal composure, she answered his questions without hesitation, but in her own order.

“I” she emphasised, “didn’t shoot at you.” she added under her breath, “I was aiming for your key fob.”

“I work for no one.” She halted, her eyes pulling their full attention to hers.

She laid down her last card.

“My name is Gwendolyn Mycroft.” she took a meaningful pause. “My father saved your lives.”

Glancing between the two of them, she saw that, as she intended, she had hit home. She added.

‘So, I suggest you release me, and let us go to a place where we can discuss this in a more civilised manner.”

She saw that both of the men were in a state of shock. She could understand. The evening hadn’t gone the way she expected either. She waited for a response that was something other than a blank stare.

“Do you like scotch?” Eggsy asked.

Well, that was a good of a start as any.

-----

If you made it this far, Thanks for reading!! Comments, questions, likes are always appreciated. Always feel free to reblog.

11 notes · View notes

oldadastra · 4 years

Text

Letter to Lucasfilm

So, I’ve written a letter to Lucasfilm. It could be better, but this is what came out this afternoon. I hope others who are writing will share what they are putting into the mail. I was trying to be concise, but it still ran to several pages. Find it in its entirety below the cut:

***

Lucasfilm, Ltd. Attn: Fan Mail PO Box 29901 San Francisco, CA 94129-0901

December 30, 2019

Lucasfilm/Disney:

I am writing to express my anger, shock, disappointment and deep sadness with the final installment of the Star Wars saga, Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker.

I was ten in 1977 when the original film was released and have loved Star Wars ever since. I was thrilled by the reopening of the saga in The Force Awakens, and delighted by the excellent script, rich visual storytelling, nuanced character development, and thematic direction of Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi.

Disney took on a sacred trust when it acquired Lucasfilm. Star Wars is deeply important to many people, and if you couldn’t do justice to the characters and themes of the saga, I’d argue that you had no business being involved in these stories. There is so much Disney/Lucasfilm got wrong in Rise of Skywalker, I’m struggling to gather my thoughts or express them coherently, but here goes:

Ben Solo. You created the most compelling character in the new trilogy by destroying the happy ending of the original trilogy. I was willing to go along on the ride Abrams and Kasdan began in The Force Awakens, because the fate of Ben Solo felt like it mattered. The questions raised in the new films: the nature of good and evil, the degree to which one’s family legacy defines a person, whether a one can atone for past sins; all of it felt alive and urgent in the person of Ben, a character I loved like one of my own children from the moment we so traumatically met him in The Force Awakens. His story was the beating heart of the new trilogy. His story is the one that mattered. His life was the one to be saved.

Ben solo was never an exposition device, cool villain, or disposable baddie to me. He was Han and Leia’s only child; loved, targeted, broken, lost.

The Rise of Skywalker redeems Ben Solo in the final act of the film, only to destroy him. Was it always your plan to kill the last Skywalker in the final installment of this story, to render the overarching message of all nine films as tragedy? If so, I wish I’d known this was your intent; I would never have engaged with these stories and made an emotional investment in them. If tragedy was your goal, that was certainly your choice to make, but I’d argue that you owed it to the audience and the cast to do a better job of it.

For example: You give us evidence that Han and Leia’s child was targeted by evil old men from before his birth. It’s a disturbingly explicit allegory of grooming and child abuse.

You give Ben Solo a backstory which implies he is guilty of vile, Anakin-style crimes against other young people, coding him as a school shooter, and then chose to exonerate him of this crime in a comic book, where the general audience will never know he was innocent. It’s a form of character assassination.

You consigned Ben Solo to the darkness for almost the entirety of three films, then denied him his voice in the final acts of his own story. “Ow?” The only words the redeemed Ben Solo will ever speak. Apalling.

You brought back Palpatine for this film (arguably rendering the message of the first six films meaningless), identified the Emperor as Ben’s tormentor all along, then denied Ben the opportunity to fight his enemy in the final act of the film. Rise of Skywalker literally throws Ben Solo into a pit, and forces him to climb out alone and unaided while Rey is whispered to by “all the jedi,” offering her words of encouragement. It’s grotesque.

I’m getting lost in rage and sadness again here, so let me just say that even if you inexplicably didn’t care about the last Skywalker in the Skywalker saga, you have done a grave disservice to Adam Driver in your treatment of his character in this these films. Perhaps you’ve heard of Driver’s non-profit organization, Arts in the Armed Forces? He’s deeply committed to the importance of stories as a way to make meaning out of the inexpressible. Did he really sign on to this project thinking that the final message of his character would be to say that even if you are able to come back from the darkness, your final act must be to die? That imperfect children don’t deserve compassion, forgiveness, life? You owe Mr. Driver an apology, but you can never really atone for what you’ve done to him.

You ended a nine-film, forty-two year saga with all the Skywalkers dead, and a Palpatine the last one standing. You spent three films tormenting Han and Leia’s child, only to kill him in the final act. What you did to Ben Solo (and frankly to us, who loved him) feels more like a horror story than anything else. In my dreams, I walk right into your offices and flip over tables.

There’s a lot more I could accuse Rise of Skywalker of bungling, but I assume you are hearing this feedback from others besides me, so I will summarize:

Rey Palpatine. Was is all about the midiclorians after all? By making her Palpatine’s granddaughter, you deny Rey everything that made her special; you deny her agency, and you negate the beautiful message I thought you were trying to communicate in the first two films with Rey Nobody: that the force belongs to us all, and that anyone can be a hero

The erasure of Rose Tico. It’s difficult to interpret this as anything but a capitulation to a loud, racist, and misogynist element of the fandom. It’s a very bad look, Disney. Please pay attention to the message you are sending.

Character development in general and a truly horrible ending: Rey goes back into her child-like costume, Ben Solo spent much of the film forced back into his stupid mask. Ben disappears at the end with no one to mourn him. Rey ends the film alone in a desert wasteland.

Rise of Skywalker is the most bleak, hopeless, and depressing Star Wars film ever made. As days go by, it’s becoming clear that it was also poorly written and edited. These stories matter to us, and we pay close attention to them. Disrespect us at your peril.

I don’t expect anyone will ever read this missive, or care at all about what an old shepherd on a mountainside thought about the execution of your multi-billion dollar movies. This is a personal exercise in catharsis as much as anything.

But here are a few notes in a language you might understand. I made some quick calculations about how much money I’ve spent on Star Wars over the past four years, and I’m sharing that with you now.

Movie tickets: I’m one of those people who sees movies I love more than once (I saw Empire Strikes Back eighty-one times in the theater!). I saw The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi at least ten times each. I’m not counting the cost of tickets for my extended family, whom I brought along to a number of screenings, or tickets for birthday party guests we treated to these movies. My teenaged daughter came along for all the screenings I am including, so I calculate I spent about $360 on tickets. We also bought tickets to Rogue One and Solo, so it was actually more, but you get the idea.

Books, tie-ins, DVDs, merchandise: I invested in The Art of the Force Awakens and The Art of the Last Jedi books, as well as at least one SW Visual Dictionary. I bought DVDs of the films of course, and CDs of John Williams’ beautiful scores. I bought and read a number of books; Boodline and the Leia novel, The Force Awakens novelization and Junior novelization, Aftermath, and a couple others whose titles escape me. At least seven action figures. Toy light sabers for me and my daughter. Posters. T Shirts. I know I’m not remembering everything, but it adds up to an expenditure of at least $347 in books and other Star Wars merchandise.

Star Wars Celebration: I splurged on passes for my daughter and I to attend Star Wars Celebration in Chicago this past spring. It cost me about $400, and a last-minute family emergency meant we were unable to attend, but the tickets were non-refundable, so it was money I spent on Star Wars nonetheless.

Total: $1,107

A laughably small amount to you guys, I’m sure. Perhaps a contrast is useful:

Total amount I have spent (tickets for my daughter and I on opening night) on Rise of Skywalker: $22.

Total amount I plan to spend on Disney Lucasfilm merchandise in the future: $0

I invested quite a lot of my time in Star Wars over the past four years. I’ve written thousands of words in essays, appreciations and analyses (mostly on Tumblr), where I amassed a modest following of just over a thousand people. I’m sure I occasionally bored my friends and family by going on and on about Star Wars. This kind of ‘work’ has no dollar value of course. I will say that it was great fun while it lasted, though I feel foolish in retrospect, remembering all the times I came to your defense, arguing that the saga was in good hands, that you had a plan; that you were going to tell a good story.

Sadly, I don’t think you can fix the damage you’ve done to the Galaxy Far Far Away with The Rise of Skywalker. You made this film, made your choices, and put it out into the world. I have no control over where you go from here, but as a person who has loved Star Wars since I was a child, I beg you to take some time to reflect before making another Star Wars film.

You’ve broken so many hearts. Mine was one.

Andrea ____

...my full name and address, blah blah, I live in Vermont

#letters to lucasfilm #Lucasfilm #tros #reylo #ben solo #tros grief #hit them in the wallet #disney lucasfilm

278 notes · View notes

littlelambdrgnfly · 3 years

Note

Hello. I’ve been a follower and a fan of yours for quite some time now, and I’ve grown to like you a lot too! But I’ve noticed that you have a pattern of making black peoples issues about yourself. This is constructive criticism so please don’t get mad at me. Like when you took zachs post talking about the racism he experienced and used that as an opportunity to try and expose the bad relationship you had with him.

And I’m not sure if your last post was about him or another user, but I found it strange how you still made it about you. People should not send hate anons or racist hate because it is bad, yes? Not because it’s something you dislike. I don’t know if it’s about zach or another user (who I remember seeing them get at hate anon about him) but I don’t think it had anything to do with you. Please think about what I’m saying before you go off on me. Take care love.

Hi, thanks for taking the time to write this out and choose non-confrontational language, I do appreciate it. I am aware of white peoples’ tendency to make POC issues about themselves, and I never wanted to be one of them, but that’s what I ended up doing a couple of months ago when I made that vague post about Zach. I regret it, I truly do, because I’ve never wanted to take away from anyone’s struggles with my own bullshit. It was a petty mistake, and I’m sorry for it. If I came off that way again in my last post, I apologize, it wasn’t my intention, I thought that I was clear that I thought sending hate was bad no matter what. If it seemed like it was all about me, it might be because I have no idea what the message in question involved, but the person who received it (not Zach, just making that clear) assumed that I was the one who sent it and held nothing back in telling me what they thought of me. I know it can’t compare with constant racist abuse, but what they said cut me deep. I’ve really tried my best not to talk about Zach here anymore or spread any discontent, I’m trying to move on with my life, but I received a message last week I didn’t answer that made me think that the hate anon could have come from one of you, and it made me so mad not only was I getting the backlash for it, but the idea that one of you thought it was a good plan to “support” me by being a racist asshole. No matter how much I disagree with someone, I’m never going to target their race or gender/sexual identity or religion or appearance, or any of that, and I had hoped you all shared the same values as me. I’m on the Internet enough to know that if a creator is having drama with someone else that their fans have a tendency to barrage the other party with hate, and I was livid at the thought of any of you being cruel like that, especially if it was fucking racist. Sending hate, especially bigoted hate, is ALWAYS bad, so I guess I tried to really make it hit home that it’s still bad even if you think you’re doing it for a good reason. I can’t influence anybody else on the Internet to do good things (or at least not to do bad things), but I thought if anyone listens to me, it would be you guys. I’m really not trying to play the victim, or make this all about myself, and that’s why I’ve tried to limit talking about this. I hope all of this makes sense, and doesn’t come off as me trying to shift blame off of myself, or result in any more hate or shitty feelings.

3 notes · View notes

mikauzoran · 4 years

Text

Marichat: Serendipity: Fifty Marichat and Adrienette Kisses: Kiss Thirteen

On AO3: Serendipity: Fifty Marichat and Adrienette Kisses: ...discreetly.

Chat Noir landed on Marinette’s balcony at exactly one o’clock, just as Alya and Marinette finished setting up the recording equipment.

“Mademoiselle Césaire,” he greeted cordially, giving Alya a polite, if not somewhat over-the-top, bow.

Alya bowed back playfully. “Chat Noir! Thank you so much for coming. My followers are all really excited for this.”

“Not at all,” he assured, waving away her thanks. “It’s my pleasure. Really.”

Alya gestured toward Marinette. “You remember my friend, M—”

“—Marinette,” Chat trilled with delight (as if he hadn’t just seen her the previous evening…or the one before that and the one before that), sweeping into a low bow fit for nobility.

On his way back up, he snatched her hand and brought it to his lips. “It’s always such a treat to see you.”

“You too!” Marinette laughed nervously. “Not that we see each other often or anything!”

“Of course,” Chat corroborated without missing a beat, charming smile never faltering. “And that just makes each meeting more precious.”

“Not that there have been many meetings,” Marinette added for Alya’s benefit, turning to her friend to assure, “I mean, we hardly know each other. It’s not like we’re friends or anything.” She chuckled in an “isn’t the very idea of me being friends with a superhero ridiculous?” manner.

Alya’s brow furrowed, a suspicious eyebrow slowly starting to make its way up the journalist’s forehead. “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”

“What?!” Marinette choked, beginning to wave her arms wildly. “No! It’s not like that at all. I—”

Chat put out an arm and stepped between Marinette and Alya. “—If you’ll pardon me for interrupting, I can explain.”

“There’s nothing to explain,” Marinette squeaked, shooting her boyfriend a dirty look.

Alya grinned widely, ignoring her friend and focusing on the superhero. “You’re pardoned. Do go on.”

“Marinette is afraid that you’re going to discover that she and I are acquaintances and be mad that she didn’t tell you,” he fibbed fluently.

Alya looked at Marinette (who covered her face with her hands and groaned) and then back at Chat Noir, her eyebrow inching up to new heights. “Acquaintances?”

Chat shrugged nonchalantly, playing it off as no big deal. “I was out one night and spotted her on her balcony. I recognized her from some of the akuma attacks, so I went over to say hi, and she gave me some leftover pastries.”

Alya’s intrigued expression became a knowing smile. “And you kept coming back to see if you’d get free snacks again.”

“Guilty,” Chat sighed theatrically, tail and ears wilting before quickly bouncing back. “Marinette’s winning personality didn’t hurt matters either.”

“I’ll bet,” Alya snorted. “How about the fact that she’s not too hard on the eyes?”

Chat held up his hands in surrender. “No comment,” he replied, but his roguish smirk spoke volumes.

“The point is,” Marinette broke in, “I didn’t say anything, Alya, because we decided it was too dangerous for anyone to know I was sort of friends with a superhero, so you can’t tell anyone.”

“Yeah.” Chat nodded, backing her up. “I couldn’t live with myself if Papillon started targeting Marinette and her family to get at me, so I’d appreciate it if you kept our acquaintanceship under wraps, okay?”

Alya mimed zipping her lips. “No worries, guys. No one is going to hear about this from me,” she promised.

Chat gave her a grateful smile while Marinette heaved a gigantic sigh of relief.

“Okay.” Alya clapped her hands, getting them back on track. “Let me just run down to get my notes, and we’ll be all set to get started.”

They watched the aspiring reporter disappear through the skylight back down into Marinette’s room, and then Chat turned a concerned eye on his girlfriend.

“Hey, Princess,” he whispered, reaching out to run a knuckle down her arm. “You okay?”

Marinette shook her head, sinking back against the balcony railing with a sigh. “I’ve been dreading this interview all week. I wish you hadn’t agreed to it.”

“My Love, I’m a celebrity. This kind of thing comes with the territory,” he gently explained. “People’s safety sometimes depends on them knowing that they can trust me, so this kind of marketing thing is important. They’ve seen me destroy national monuments with a single touch, Marinette,” he stressed, running his knuckle back up and down her arm. “They need to be absolutely certain of who I am and what I would or would not do with that kind of power. Publicity events like this are opportunities for them to see who I am as a person and get to know me, see that I’m just a normal guy.”

“Oh,” Marinette breathed, all words feeling inadequate.

She had never stopped to think that her partner’s power of destruction could be something Parisians might worry about. Now that he mentioned it, it seemed rather obvious given that Papillon and Mayura used their Miraculouses for evil.

“I know you’re worried about Princess’s identity being exposed,” he acknowledged, “but that’s not going to happen, okay?” He ducked his head so that he was peering up at her, giving her his most reassuring smile. “I will always protect you.”

“My hero,” she chuckled softly, forcing herself to take a deep breath and calm down.

“Don’t worry,” he whispered with a wink. “I promise I’ll be discreet.”

Before she could protest, he surged forward for a quick kiss, pulling back just as Alya pushed the skylight open to rejoin them on the balcony.

“Okay. Let’s get this interview on the road,” Alya announced, not seeming to notice anything amiss as she pulled herself back up.

Marinette was certain her face was fuchsia, but that had been the shade of Marinette’s skin throughout the first year of Alya and Marinette’s friendship due to all the blushing about Adrien, so Marinette guessed that it wasn’t unusual that the florid state of her skin now hadn’t registered on Alya’s radar.

The majority of the interview went fairly well. Alya asked normal, non-identity-revealing questions like Chat’s favourite colour, favourite school subject, favourite musician, and dream pet.

It turned out that Chat Noir was a dog person. He wanted three: a medium-size dog for normalcy’s sake, a gigantic dog so big that his future children could ride on its back, and a tiny dog so small that he had to worry about the giant dog eating it.

Alya got a kick out of that, but Marinette was too busy thinking about dog names and what her children with Chat Noir would look like. It turned out that they looked remarkably similar to the future children she had imagined having with Adrien.

Marinette’s favourite response was when Alya asked about Chat Noir’s favourite food.

“I actually have a friend whose mother is from Martinique,” he remarked, piquing Alya’s interest.

“My family originally came from Martinique!” she replied in delight.

“Oh, yeah?” he chuckled. “What a crazy coincidence! Well, my friend’s mom makes this amazing Colombo de Martinique, and I’m pretty sure it’s my favourite dish ever.”

Chat turned to the camera and explained for the viewers, “It’s a curry dish. Usually it’s made with lamb or chicken, but my friend’s mom makes a version with fish that I’m crazy about.”

Marinette made a mental note to brush up on her Colombo de Martinique cooking skills. Two years prior, after learning that Adrien loved Alya’s mom’s fish curry, Marinette had learned to make it, but ever since she’d given up on elaborate schemes to confess her love to Adrien, she hadn’t made the dish.

Perhaps she could trot out the recipe the next time Chat ate dinner with her family.

Marinette’s thoughts were quickly interrupted as Alya moved on to more personal questions.

“So, Chat Noir, all of Paris is dying to know about this mysterious ‘Princess’ you’ve been spotted with this past month. Can you shed any light on the situation for your fans?” Alya prompted, leaning in slightly, ready to pounce on the smallest clue.

Marinette tensed, a parade of nightmare scenarios zipping through her mind.

Chat didn’t seem phased at all as he agreed affably. “Sure.”

He turned to the camera and looked straight at the viewers. “First and foremost, I want to be clear with you guys: my girlfriend is a private citizen, and I expect you all to respect her privacy. Do not try to discover her identity. I’m not sure how far Papillon is willing to go, if he understands that love is sacred and some lines shouldn’t be crossed, but he may start targeting Princess and the people she cares about in order to get to me if her identity is discovered, so I’m asking you all to take this very seriously, okay? I love her, and I’m not going to be able to do my best to protect all of you if the woman I love is in danger. We need to work together on this, all right? For the safety of all of Paris.”

Chat looked back to Alya to find her subconsciously nodding. He smiled. “So. With the understanding that Princess’s identity and personal life are off the table, what specific questions do you have for me?”

Marinette relaxed a bit after that.

Chat Noir could be a bit of a rash goofball at times, but he had grown and matured over the past three years. She should have trusted that her boyfriend knew what he was doing. She should have trusted that he would never let anything happen to her.

Hadn’t he proven himself over and over again with every akuma he’d given his life to protect her from?

She should have known that her partner had her back.

Once secure in that knowledge, the anxiety faded, and Marinette was able to enjoy listening to Chat talk about how Princess had been the one to ask him out, even though they had kind of mutually affirmed their feelings for one another at that point. No, she did not know his identity. No, he was not afraid of her only dating him because he was a superhero because they had been friends for a while before they’d begun dating. Yes, Chat Noir did make friends with civilians he regularly ran into on his nights out.

Marinette was a little thrown when Chat Noir gave shoutouts to “Orpheus”, “Pretty Boy”, and “Kunoichi”. Apparently, he really did have more friends whom he visited regularly as Chat Noir besides Marinette. She was fairly certain that “Pretty Boy” was Adrien, but she couldn’t even begin to guess at the other two, and that bothered her somewhat.

There was so much she didn’t know—couldn’t know—about her own boyfriend.

Marinette zoned back in just as Chat Noir was finishing up his comments about how amazing Princess was, how kind and smart and fun and thoughtful, how in love with her he was.

She made a mental note to watch the footage again and maybe save a copy of that portion to listen to when she was feeling down about herself.

She wondered if he would still say those things if he knew about her affair with Adrien, but…at least it sounded like she was doing some things right. He felt loved and appreciated, and that was important. She just had to keep making up for her shortcomings by making him feel truly loved.

“How was that?” Chat snickered as he helped to disassemble the lighting equipment, keeping an ear open for Alya’s return. “Not as bad as you’d feared, was it?”

Marinette shook her head as she wound up the extension cord. “No. You were right,” she admitted. “That…went really well. I’m sorry for not trusting in you, Minou. I should have known better.”

“No worries.” Chat easily shrugged it off. “Now you won’t be so nervous next time, so it’s all good. It turned out for the best.”

“How can you always be so optimistic?” she chuckled, shaking her head even as she smiled affectionately.

“I have good things in my life,” he informed with a broad smile. “It’s easy to be optimistic when you feel so blessed.”

“Oh, Minou,” she sighed, her own lips stretching even wider until he captured them in a kiss.

“Could one of you bring down the boom mic next?” Alya called up to them.

Chat Noir pulled away from Marinette just long enough to respond, “On it!” before diving in to steal yet another kiss.

#Marichat #Adrinette #Adrienette #Miraculous Ladybug #Miraculous Ladybug Fanfiction #Chat Noir #Marinette Dupain-Cheng #Alya Césaire #Adrien Agreste #Kissing #Writing Prompt #Mikau's Writings #Serendipity: Fifty Marichat and Adrienette Kisses

16 notes · View notes

darkpoisonouslove · 4 years

Text

“The Destiny of Bloom” Thoughts

I decided to watch the Winx specials because I have never done that before and I got curious as to how different they are from the episodes (because they are kinda recaps of the first two seasons from what I gathered.)

- This one is over forty minutes? I thought they would be 20-minute long. Okay, let’s do this!

- Why is everything so pink in that shot of Gardenia? It has never looked pinker, ever.

- Oh, no! They replaced Bloom’s crop top and bell bottoms with her season 3 outfit. Why would you do that? It completely changes the feel of the whole thing.

- I don’t like the fact that Vanessa is not supportive about Bloom’s interest in fairies. I think she said something similar in the original season 1 but it didn’t come off this way. And that whole interaction with Mike and Vanessa also feels different. There is more edge to it and it comes off as if they are a dysfunctional family instead of a loving one that just has some issues to fix. The changes are subtle but they amount to a very different end result and I am not a fan of it.

- And that continues with the bike thing. In the original Bloom expected a scooter but got a bike. In this one it is bike instead of a car which just ups the disappointment and makes for a bigger divide between her and her parents. It has been about two minutes and I already don’t like where this is going. Also, the whole aesthetic is off when Bloom is riding the bike in that outfit.

- What is wrong with Stella’s scepter? It is so much uglier than the original one. They didn’t have to go and change everything! Especially the things that were working.

- Is it me or does Knut look more vicious? Also, I can’t remember if he originally had a hold of Stella’s scepter before Bloom appeared. I sure as hell know that the Dragon Fire never showed up like that before the season finale, though. But that change I can understand. If they’re trying to recap half of season 1 in 40 minutes, they will have to speed it up.

- Stella passing out was kind of out of nowhere here. She looked just fine and then the next second, boom! She just fainted. It would’ve been better to just stick to the original and have her use all her power to chase Knut and the remaining goblins (were they?) away.

- Wow, the Trix really remind of the Ancestral Witches in that scene where you can only see their eyes. I like that!

- What have they done with Stella’s hairdo? Why does she have those extra strands of hair at both sides of her face. It looks weird.

- Mike (and Vanessa)’s disbelief here was stretched out past what was in season 1 and it just doesn’t make sense since Mike saw the magical shield around baby Bloom when he first found her. Unless there’s no time for that and they’ll just leave it out but still. This keeps making Mike and Vanessa less supportive of Bloom than they actually are.

- How is the troll tracking them without a piece of Bloom’s bell bottoms? They should have kept the original outfits!

- Stella being impressed with Bloom’s drawings is the perfect place for me to mention that thought I had the other day. We know Bloom can draw and Stella certainly can as well since she wants to be a fashion designer so I was thinking of how cool it would be if they’d shown them drawing together. It would’ve helped further showcase their friendship and I think it is such a missed opportunity.

- Stella just mixed differently colored crayons to make a shade of pink and I love that. I bet she just messes around with shades and colors all the time.

- I guess Mike will have to believe in magic now that a troll attacked his home.

- Ouch! Stella just got thrown out the window? Why aren’t there any rips in her dress and scratches on her skin? Because she should certainly have those after crashing through a glass and having that rough landing.

- The troll also looks more menacing than it did originally. (I just now realized that the scene with Mitzi was cut from this special. Not that I am complaining. I am doing just fine without Mitzi.)

- XD Riven with his overconfidence in himself. At least they are nailing his character.

- They dropped Sky and Brandon’s identity swap? Wow! I am shocked. Or rather what could be described as pleasantly shocked and hopeful that that means the whole drama with Diaspro will not be in any of these either.

- I don’t understand why Mike refused to have all that damage to their home magically fixed. Forget time and effort, fixing it “the traditional way” looks like it will cost a bit. And I doubt they had “attacks of goblins, a troll and an ogre” on their budget.

- Why is there a barrier that keeps non-magical creatures out of Alfea when magical creatures are surely more dangerous? I know that was in the original as well but it was stupid back then and it is stupid now. It does confirm my headcanon that Kiko is magical, though, since he has no problem going through the barrier.

- Okay, Mike and Vanessa are being supportive now. That’s better.

- What happened? Did Stella call Faragonda or something? How does she know Bloom otherwise? Don’t get me wrong, I am glad there won’t be the whole “pretending Bloom is another girl” thing but this is kinda suspicious and it will keep being so until they explain how Faragonda knows about Bloom.

- Magix world? That means just Magix, right? For a moment there I thought they were trying to say there were only three schools in the whole magical dimension but that doesn’t make sense. Also, “scary old miss Griffin”? Both Saladin and Faragonda look older than Griffin. Why would you say it like that? But at least there wasn’t the whole implication of “the witches might maim you but we ain’t gonna do shit about it” that angered me so much in the original. And, “some of those witches are really mean.” I like that. It means that not all witches are like that.

- Bloom apologized for stepping on Flora’s plant and Flora was like “No, don’t be sorry”? What have you done to Flora?! She would never imply “be less careful with the plants”. And I was just starting to like this despite the aesthetic being off.

- And we keep following into the bad changes. I always loved the fact that Magix had pizza and pizza was a universal thing but here the girls don’t seem to know what pizza is. That is so sad. There should always be pizza everywhere.

- Darcy’s powers look so cool! I think there is a slight difference to how they’re animated but they always look cool! Her voice is kinda grating on my nerves, however.

- Why did the Trix all just refer to themselves in the third person? I know why - to introduce who they are. But it just sounded so cringy. Wasn’t there a better way to do that? Like, maybe them calling out each other’s names instead of their own? It would’ve been pretty easy to figure out who is who considering their powers even if you haven’t watched the show.

- Magic Charmix? Say what now? And I really don’t like the change in the transformation sequences. The original ones looked so much better. These look like they’re borrowing from the Believix sequences, I think (and I never really liked those). Please, bring back Musa’s original transformation sequence with the disco elements! It was so much cooler than this one! At least, Tecna’s isn’t so bad.

- I liked the original way of them deciding the name. You know, when Bloom had a logo made before she suggested it. That was a cool detail. Also, Musa’s short hair is totally giving me whiplash combined with her s3 outfit. These are not supposed to go together, please!

- I hate how they tried to segue right into episode 7 without any of the things in between. It looks like Griselda is targeting them for no reason and I don’t like it. There were some wrong things with how she proceeded in season 1 as well but this is much, much worse. Although, it’s good to see Winx have fun together.

- I prefer Whisperian Crystals to Vacuums, thanks.

- Darcy said Riven has the same level of negative energy as them? Wow. It would’ve been interesting if he’d had magic. He might have been just as powerful as the Trix.

- Well, they took the monster down... and destroyed half the school in the process.

- There is not much to comment on this whole arc, except that it doesn’t make sense when we haven’t seen why their powers were taken. And the vague explanation they tried to give was not working. This time at least they mentioned that it was forbidden to go in Faragonda’s office when she’s not there (because they somehow missed that in 1x07).

- Oh, at least the dreams look different. And they are finally introducing Daphne. I like the aesthetic of this dream. But damn, we already reached the Magical Reality Chamber part? Wait, Bloom’s powers haven’t come in yet? So they’re gonna use the MRC to have them awakening then and that’s how the Trix will learn about the Dragon Fire.

- And Palladium looks like his s2-onwards self. Not to mention that Domino wasn’t supposed to be the simulation, was it? I think in the original it was a place that they didn’t want any of the students to end up during a simulation. But I guess they had to introduce it somehow and this was the most logical way. Plus, it could have something to do with her powers awakening while she is in her own planet. Edit: At first I couldn't tell why the fact that they were calling the Magical Reality Chamber a simulator was bugging me but now I got it. Simulator implies that what is happening is not real but in s1 Palladium warned them to be careful in the MRC because if they get hurt, it will hurt. Aka that's why it's a Magical Reality Chamber. It's real.

- Yeah, the Trix somehow magically deduced that it was Bloom they were looking for and they also knew at what precise moment she would be in the simulation. That... just doesn’t make any sense. (And I hate the voice over that just informs us about the time and place which we can very clearly see.)

- Didn’t she say her magic hadn’t come in yet? Because she is using it now and she doesn’t look like it is happening for the first time.

- Thank god, everyone can see that the Trix are inside! In the original they were there but no one seemed to notice which always bugged me because it was obvious that Bloom wasn’t alone and yet, somehow, that fact seemed to escape everyone who was watching. They have fixed it here!

- “Junior fairy”? That is supposed to be “freshman”. Unless they changed it to junior because the special that deals with season 2 will be the “senior” stuff and then there are no more specials.

- Darcy’s magic looked a lot like Musa’s sound waves there.

- Bloom dived in the lava for Kiko? Wow! I actually feel... bad for her but I also like that she was ready to do that for Kiko. Weren’t the Trix just pushing her to make her use her powers, though?

- Well, she transformed. I think that out of all the transformations they have fucked hers up the most. Her Winx transformation was so amazing and this one isn’t even anywhere close to that. Why was any of that necessary?

- Why did the Trix end up in an auditorium in CT when they started out in their room? They should have gone back there!

- It is really cute that all the other fairies were so happy for Bloom and her newly found winx, though! I liked that!

This had an overall plot that continued throughout the whole episode and it generally managed most of the important elements of the story. There were a couple of things that didn’t make sense thanks to the way more than 10 episodes were compressed in 40 minutes but there weren’t any major mishaps. The ongoing plot made enough sense and carried well enough throughout the whole thing. And it would probably stand even better on its own if not being compared to the original way of doing things in season 1. Considering the time constraints, I’d say this works surprisingly well. I am only uncertain as to what was the idea of these specials but that does not weigh down on the quality of this one. It was pretty good, all in all.

#winx club #winx bloom #winx stella #winx flora #winx musa #winx tecna #trix #winx icy #winx darcy #winx stormy #winx knut #winx specialists #winx specials #the destiny of bloom #thoughts #review

14 notes · View notes

bigskydreaming · 4 years

Note

When you settle down, take a look at Teen Titans and the new solicit for Tec.

Did you mean a solicit for Dec? Cuz I looked and didn’t see one out yet but don’t know what else you might mean by Tec....

As far as what’s going on in Teen Titans, I’m guessing you mean Damian going after KGBeast to kill him in revenge for shooting Dick. I’m.....not a fan.

Like....I do like that they’re finally having SOMEBODY seem to give a damn about what happened to him, of course, but honestly, a year after the fact, it feels more like just an excuse to give Damian another target.

And I’m super not a fan of them regressing to acting like Damian’s entire personality is just “Will I do the murder today? Y/N.”

This is kinda what I was talking about the other day when I mentioned why I wasn’t really a fan of anything they were doing with the Batfam, because they’ve had Damian on this path for awhile now, and the problem is....

They already did this story.

This was his ORIGIN story.

And then he evolved, his character ALREADY developed PAST this.

I understand the idea of backsliding or having a character regress due to extreme circumstances or new tragedy or trauma, but honestly? This isn’t that, IMO. Its more just indicative of them not being able to think of anything else to do with Damian, because DC, like a lot of fans, seem fixated on the idea that each Robin needs to be their own distinct archetype easily summed up in one word. “Cheerful Robin,” “Angry Robin,” “Intellectual Robin,” “Will Stab You With Both Words and Knives Robin.”

Like....yawn.

Its no wonder they keep running into problems thinking of what to do with these characters when they like, INVENT these boxes to confine these four specific characters in and limit the ways or directions they’re even allowed to be taken, because they’re so afraid of overlapping or whatever.....even though that SHOULD be their narrative strength! They’re brothers! They all bear or bore the same mantle! They don’t NEED to have their own one-word niche to be distinct, they just need to each be well-developed characters in their own right, and who CARES if they overlap in some areas. It absolutely makes sense that they WOULD, that there would be commonalities in traits and experiences that led to each of them ending up a Robin and part of the Wayne family, and like....

Highlander has been off the air for thirty years and most people won’t even get that reference, that’s how low-impact we’re talking, so enough with the “There Can Only Be One” approach to characters. Having common ground is not like.....character Kryptonite.

So I’m just....super unimpressed with them taking Damian in this direction yet again, as though his entire narrative arc is forever destined to be a closed loop, with him just sliding back and forth between “Murder Time? Yes!” and “Murder Time? No!”

And even though its like, nice in one sense to have someone trying to avenge Dick, and having it be Damian with respect to how close a bond they have.....I’m not actually in favor of sacrificing another character’s stories just to make that happen. Especially when it doesn’t even have to happen at all. But honestly, like I mentioned at the top....given the extreme gap between the start of the Ric Grayson arc and this, I don’t actually believe this really has anything to do with them wanting to build off of or do anything new in regards to Damian’s feelings about his brother, like....it really just feels like an excuse to put another warm body in the way of Damian and his bungee jump back into this latest Dark Dami arc.

Also its just, bottom line....not realistic given their ACTUAL stories to date, IMO? Because Dick is literally the character who got Damian to see the value in life in the first place, and in addition, the first character who got Damian to see that his life didn’t have to follow a pre-charted course, that he could CHOOSE who and what he wanted to be. That, more than anything else, is why Damian loves his brother so fiercely, I feel - because of the fact that Dick was the first person in Damian’s life to look at him and just see a PERSON rather than what they already expected to see before they looked at him.

And so its not even that I don’t think Damian would ever try and kill KGBeast because he believes Dick wouldn’t want anyone killing in his name, its that Damian more than anyone else would know how much Dick would never want HIM to kill someone and claim he was doing it for his older brother....because of how much it meant to BOTH of them that it was because of their bond, their partnership, their brotherhood, that Damian became a hero instead of staying an assassin at all....that Damian found another path for himself, because before Dick, he didn’t even know to LOOK for one, or imagine that it was even a real possibility.

Dick introduced Damian to opportunities. To options. To having more directions he could go from any given situation beyond just the one that would end with more dead bodies.

And I can’t imagine Damian ever being so willful as to repay that with the same one choice, one direction, that Dick once helped him find alternatives to in the first place.

Nah, if they actually wanted to do something with Damian’s feelings about what happened to Dick? They should have written a story where Damian goes to Bludhaven to confront these strangers wearing his brother’s costumes and using his name. Damian has always held mantles and legacies in high regard, moreso than just about any other character I would argue.....and its always been portrayed as being hugely impactful on him, the fact that Dick actually made Damian Robin himself.

And added in that Damian likely knows how much Dick values his own mantles himself, how much OF himself he puts into them.....Damian would LOATHE these ‘pretenders’ from the moment he learned of them, IMO.

Like, remember when Damian went around trying to challenge each of his brothers or take something from them to prove he was the ‘worthiest’ Robin?

Imagine how powerful it could’ve been to have a story arc where Damian similarly challenged each of these new Nightwings from the shadows, setting up ‘tests’ that were intended to prove their unworthiness to claim his brother’s mantle, expose them as the frauds he would likely view them as.

Because that would be a direct callback to that previous story where he did something similar.....but it would show how far he’s come, even though he’s still very hot-tempered and prideful and etc.....because the juxtaposition of the two stories would highlight the fact that THIS time, Damian wouldn’t be doing this for himself, but for someone else, someone he values as much as he once valued his own prestige. And more than that, he’d do it according to standards or methods he knows Dick would be okay with, like, nothing lethal like he would have in the past, but stuff that was intended to make Damian’s point but not be anything that would make Dick feel guilty about having done in his name, once his memories return.

And then, just imagine his reaction too when he finally comes face to face with Ric, who seems to be HELPING these pretenders, and like....think about how much that would force him to confront and work through in regards to how he feels about Dick’s current state of existence/non-existence and his fears he’ll never get the man he views as his actual brother back.

Like, I could see him attacking Ric himself, furious that he thinks he even has the ‘right’ to give tacit permission or endorsement of these amateurs, because Ric ISN’T his brother, he’s no more the real Nightwing than any of these, and thus allowing them the use of his name and mantle isn’t a choice that’s actually Ric’s to make, in Damian’s eyes.

But then as they fight and Ric calls upon the muscle memory that’s ingrained into him still, and they start to fall into familiar rhythms and its more a spar than an actual fight, one that BOTH of them are startled by how....right it feels, like, that more than anything IMO would be what has Damian start realizing there’s more of his brother in this ‘Ric’ identity than he’d previously realized, and that deep down they are still inherently the same person, he still KNOWS this man, he just....needs to get to know him again.

And then there’d still be the matter of the other Nightwings, but now Damian’s reaction or attitude towards them and Ric would likely be one of confusion, like trying to understand WHY Ric would allow this instead of stopping it....because with the realization Damian has that the brother he knows is still somewhere in this man in front of him would come the baffling contradiction that he’s seemingly fine with something Damian KNOWS he would never normally be okay with.

And maybe it ends with the realization, the awareness in both brothers that things AREN’T normal, there’s nothing normal about this situation so the old rules and the preconceptions have to go out the window. Maybe Ric explains he can’t be who everyone wants him to be when he doesn’t even know for himself who and what he wants to be, what that even looks like...and thus maybe its okay that none of these other Nightwings are like him, like he’d been as Nightwing.

Maybe that’s even part of the point for Ric, that by watching and interacting with four different versions of the him everyone claims he used to be, Ric can start to at least figure out what he’s NOT, what doesn’t feel or look right, and from there maybe have a better chance of heading in the right direction, the one that will take him some place where he actually feels like he fits in his own skin again, like he can look in a mirror and recognize the person staring back at him as at least BEING him, whether that’s Dick or Ric or some amalgamation in between.

THAT story would feel like something Damian might ACTUALLY do, and be productive and work towards the betterment of both brothers’ characterizations.....

But nah. Let’s have Damian go chop off some heads on a regressive revenge road trip because that’s all he knows how to do, apparently, that’s his default setting and always will be because how else will people recognize that he’s the “Bad Robin,” he’s the “’My Middle Name is Violence and My First Name is Actually Excessive’ Robin.”

That’s much better.

18 notes · View notes

ariainstars · 4 years

Text

Sorry, But I Don’t Support Minorities (Any More)

For a start: I will not use inclusive language in this text. (I usually don’t, only in this case I want to make sure it’s known from the start.)

Secondly, if you identify as trans or non-binary and / or are a huge Harry Potter fan, I am warning you: don’t read this.

If you do want to hear me out, be respectful in your comments or hold them back altogether. I won’t tolerate bullying merely because I am expressing my own opinion. Though the topic touches a sore spot in me, too, I will be as objective as I can.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I am not and never was a fan of J.K. Rowling and her works. I found the Harry Potter hype strongly exaggerated, the books mildly unoriginal and biased, the films ok until they became so overloaded with derivation from other sources (dragons, elves, magic wands, brooms, unicorns, centaurs, phoenixes, basilisks, flying horses - stories like Star Trek or Star Wars at least have their own world-building) and later so dark that they were no fun anymore. In my opinion an average writer was lucky because she tapped into a trend and was at the right place and right time with her stories. I daresay years from now many fans will wonder why they liked these stories so much and realize that they just jumped on a train, having been too young and naïve to question it.

I don’t own any of Rowling’s books or DVDs or merchandise and I never have been part of the fandom. So, I come from a different corner when I say that I have my own attitude about the current shitstorm regarding J.K. Rowling now being coded as “transphobic”. This is due to personal reasons of my own.

1. The Discussion Can Add Confusion

Rowling stated that in her youth she had problems with her own identity due to her father having wanted her to be a boy. I can understand that because I went through a long period in my late teens and early twens where I had difficulties identifying with the sex I was born with. At times I also felt physically attracted to females. In my case, it turned out to merely be a phase: I am an average cis woman. I can understand that for some people, such doubts may turn out to be more than a phase. But I know what Rowling refers to because I have been there. And I am grateful that there was no gender discussion when I was young because it would have confused me even more than I actually was, and I already had more than enough other problems. I was and I am a “common” woman, but there was a time in my life when I did not like it very much. That time was bad enough, combined as it was with other aspects in my life I had to come to terms with, which at times almost drove me to despair to the point where I contemplated suicide. So, I am glad that in my time being gay / straight / trans / cis / non-binary or other was not such an issue, at least not where I grew up. With my confusion and disorientation, well-meaning people might have taken the opportunity to encourage me to “embrace my lesbianism / trans identity”, when in truth I am neither. I was discouraged, from many sides, to liking myself, and that self-loathing took many forms.

I am extremely cautious when it comes to gender identification because I know that finding one’s way in life under difficult circumstances can take years and years and end in a very different place from where it started, well beyond adolescence. In my case, for a long time I thought I was “not really female” because I love my independence and never wished for children: this is not due to some masculine trait inside of me but to my growing up with a disturbed mother who strongly invaded my life and mind and did everything that was in her power to trap me. I suspected that something was wrong with her since my early teens, but I found out the truth only about twenty years later. I had to accept her the way she is and put distance between us.

Then there were my peers: where and when I grew up it was trendy to be (or appear) as tomboyish and easy-going as possible because this was seen as a sign of a “strong, modern, emancipated female”: fie on you if you wore your hair a little longer, liked clothes or only had to much as a flower-pattern on your notebook. Again: I simply had to get away. For many years I had been led to believe that my too “female” or “masculine” traits were a problem, when the actual problem was not mine. And if this happened to me, I daresay there may be many others in similar situations; which is something that who supports and encourages trans people usually does not consider. People who are confused about their sexuality without actually being trans need understanding as well.

2. What About Us?

As a native Italian, I cringe when I only think e.g. of Lady and the Tramp’s silly “Bella notte” scene or films like Good Fellas or of The Godfather trilogy, cultural phenomena that did a lot to cement the general audience’s idea of how Italians are like. Not to our advantage. - No, “bella notte” is not correct Italian. No, we don’t play the mandolin, it’s an outmoded instrument that you are more likely to find in a museum. And no, spaghetti with meatballs are not Italian food!

Following the 2009 economic crises many countries in the European Community applied for financial “umbrellas”; Italy didn’t, it paid into those funds. Italy was the first Western country who went into lockdown as the Covid-19 crisis struck. The country functioned, though under huge restrictions and security measures. In both cases, other countries’ reactions in and outside Europe were like: “Typical - Italians are too lazy to work!” When it came to negotiating an economic pact to help Europe start again, the countries who had said this the loudest held their purse-strings tight - after having locked down too late and hidden the truth about the casualties in their own countries. Convenient.

Italians are generally often seen as silly and not trustworthy. And nobody talks about how demeaning and disrespectful, and on the long run damaging, it is to portray us in such a stereotyped way which at best is good for a laugh. The prejudices stick, and they have destroyed or turned into a living hell many existences.

There are huge now discussions about banning films like e.g. Gone With the Wind due to its “clichéd portrayal of Blacks”. Nobody talks about abolishing The Godfather or other films of that kind although they contribute to the stigma that Italians are either all in league with the mafia, or easy-going, silly folks who sing and drink wine all day and have no idea of what hard work means. Most Italians have too much personal pride to victimize themselves and bo-hoo “the rest of the world just won’t understand us”. They love their country but that does not make them not blind to its shortcomings. I hope they stay that way. In any case, I intend to.

3. The Actual Problem: Bullying

I can sympathize with anyone who comes out as trans because I know what it’s like to be bullied. I was bullied myself for many years due to my Italian origin as well as my upbringing while I had to live among persons who were on a lower social level than I. I was e.g. accused of being stuck-up and “inhibited”. I know now that the female bullies were envious of my self-esteem and insinuating that I was missing “fun”; while the males were counting on another girl being at any guy’s disposal for free and were angry when I didn’t let them have their way with me.

The actual problem with any kind of intolerance and discrimination is bullying. Whatever form it takes, bullying is or ought to be unacceptable. Bullies will be bullies, they do not care who they harass and why: if they e.g. can be convinced to leave trans people alone, they will vent their frustrations and build up their self-image by bullying people who are fat or black or whatever. Except trans people won’t be there to witness that (unless by coincidence they are both trans and fat / black etc.)

We live in a world that gives a great deal of importance on competitiveness; as a result, even in families, schools and other institutions that ought to educate children and youngsters to be respectful towards themselves and others, bullying is often not seen as such, or simply downplayed as “assertiveness”. Bullies do not want to hear reasonable argumentation and learn to be sympathetic: they want to show off their power, provoke an emotional reaction from their victims to see how far they can go, and gloat when they can hurt them. They will not change their minds and they will never be trustworthy, no matter how many discussions about your particular situation you have with them.

To bullies, the world is a jungle where only the strongest have the right to survive; any attempt to make them rethink their attitude will only make them laugh at their victims’ alleged stupidity (because that’s what a humane, respectful attitude is to them) even more. The only language they understand is violence. If you are bullied, protect and, if you can, defend yourself; never try to discuss. Minorities were silent and subdued for such a long time with good reason: because they knew that the more they held their heads up and did not hide what made them different, the more targets they offered for bullies. No one ought to go in hiding because he is queer or black or Jewish etc., but sometimes it’s unavoidable simply for self-protection. I am almost fifty years old and I have never witnessed a nasty person changing for the better. If anything, they became worse, because every time they got away, they felt more superior than before.

Particularly sly bullies will make their victims believe that they have changed, maybe even pulling off the role “I’m a victim myself”. Please, please, whether you belong to a group of minorities or not: don’t listen to them. Ever. Maybe they once were victims, but it turned them into arseholes, and now they are sunk too far in their own filth to care. Compassion is a good thing, but it should never go as far as to delude yourself, endure abuse and sympathize until you become an object for compassion yourself.

For instance, I like wearing dresses, cooking and sewing and looking after my household. Fifty years ago, that would have made me a pattern housewife; nowadays, feminists would either want to strangle me or at least have a good laugh at my expense. This just goes to show how short-sighted any kind of prejudice and bullying is. Any human being ought to follow its own nature with a healthy self-esteem, and esteem others as well. But with our today’s view of the world we are supposed to be not altruistic and respectful but “strong” so that “we will make our way in life” (i.e. feed capitalism in any way we can); and nothing can make you feel “strong” more easily than finding someone who is allegedly weaker and pick on him. We are expected to be “winners”, and the first thing winners need are “losers” to serve them as a foil. The pool from which to choose is large.

4. Who Is Subject to Intolerance Can’t Be Intolerant… Really?

For many years of my life, I always found myself a supporter of someone who was ostracized for one reason or another.

A woman who had left her husband. (It was the early Eighties.) A gay man. A girl who had been harassed by being called ugly. A woman who had been abused sexually by a family member. A woman from East Germany (I live in the West and there are lots of prejudices.)

For the record: these persons were of different age, origin, upbringing, social status, intellectual level and character, and they did not know one another.

I knew and supported them for years, listening, loyal, supportive, interested in their problems and personal development. I never attacked or criticized them. And each and every one of them sooner or later accused me of “not understanding them” and “being prejudiced towards them”. In the case of the abused woman this was particularly unfair because I have been abused myself in my family, though psychically and not sexually. The divorced woman, my own mother, viciously accused me of lying and being in league with her ex-husband after I had been loyal only to her for entire decades.

It appears these people only were my “friends” as long as I told them what they wanted to hear. When I suffered, I was put off with “pull yourself together”. Like I had no problems, because the only people in the world having problems were them. Thank you very much. So, I was supposed to accept their growing insolence due to their being such poor victims, while from their point of view I deserved neither understanding nor respect.

Only recently, in the aftermath of the riots caused by the killing of George Floyd, I posted a comment on a video on youtube… guess what. I was immediately attacked by a black woman saying that my “stupid remark” just went to prove how a white person would never understand “things like these”. She had not even read my post carefully enough to understand what I actually wanted to say, she simply felt entitled to offend me.

I do not say that I dislike trans people or that they are bad, I’m sure there are as many good or bad people among them as anywhere. If someone says e.g. that though born with male organs they identify as female that is their very own affair. I must not like it or understand it. Tolerance means leaving other people alone to do as they please. Any person is “bad” only the moment they behave badly towards others; being different from the mainstream does not count.

But when I have to watch and read people nowadays defending trans or gays or blacks or some other minority, believing to be being open-minded or particularly noble and heroic by supporting them, all I can say is that I have been there and it did me no good. I won’t get caught up in another wave of “minority tolerance”: in my experience, it’s a waste of time. Many of those who now proudly burn their Harry Potter books and proclaim that they will no longer support the author, respectively that they “love Harry Potter but love trans people more” will make the experiences I made. Except they most probably won’t talk about that, because these experiences are so humiliating.

Minorities of any kind do not want to be supported, understood and defended by people who are not in their shoes: it hurts their personal pride. Which I can understand, although it’s a lame excuse for being mean to the very persons whom they expect help and support from. They will tend to envy the ones who do not have their problems due to being white / straight / cis etc., and consequently turn a blind eye to the fact that these can have huge problems of their own. Many of them expect their supporters not only to understand them but to support them enthusiastically at every turn, and if these don’t, (or if there is the slightest reason for them to assume that they don’t) these “victims” will feel entitled to be offended and become vicious aggressors, with a whole fan club behind them protecting their backs and convinced of promoting a honorable cause.

I am fed up with being tolerant. It seems you can hardly do anything anymore without offending someone: watching Disney movies or old classics, wearing a pink dress, calling a woman a woman instead of woman / trans / cis / non-binary etc. There is always someone who will point to these things saying why they’re not right.

I’m sorry but clichés, prejudices and stereotypes can’t be totally avoided: the human brain is not wired to know all facts about everything and everyone. What you can do is teach children and adolescents to be respectful towards everybody, even if they don’t like a particular person or group. Nobody has the right to force you to like everybody and to agree with every life style. But it seems the world has become full of people who seem to have nothing better to do but feel personally offended at the drop of a hat and make a fuss about how hurt their feelings are. Helping someone out who is in a difficult situation is not the same as catering to the keyed-up hysterics of some entitled brat. Seeing the difference between these two can be quite difficult because the latter often show their true face only after years and years, when they realize that for some reason or other, they can no longer squeeze you out for their personal benefit giving nothing back.

Who follows my account is aware that I did not like The Rise of Skywalker. Heaven knows I wrote enough about it. But I did not and will not harass the studios twittering, mailing, making youtube videos etc. ranting and raving about what rubbish it supposedly is for years, like the haters of The Last Jedi. Listening to them, one would think their whole reason for living had been destroyed on purpose. We most probably largely have to thank them for the Episode IX disaster, the flattest and most uninteresting Star Wars film ever made; not to mention the harassment the actress Kelly Marie Tran was subject to. Anyone has the right to dislike the development the authors chose for the saga, but for heaven’s sake: after all, it’s just a movie. If such a relatively insignificant thing can be hyped up like this, I don’t want to know what’s in store coming from people who feel offended for much more personal reasons, like race or gender.

Tolerance cannot be one-sided; it cannot mean that whatever one side wants does not have to be reasonable or useful, but they are entitled to scream and yell until the other side gives in. (If for no other reason than to satisfy them so they will finally shut it.)

Conclusions (I did warn you…)

I. Hogwarts is not my world

Hogwarts is supposed to sound like a dream come true, but I never liked the idea of a “school” where pupils, who are still children and adolescents, are taught spells and engaged in games and tournaments where they have to risk life and limb. These facts are commonly overlooked, I guess, because “the heroes” usually don’t get hurt. The heroes overcome their traumata but do not get wiser from them, on the contrary: their suffering is supposed to make them seem nobler so that we will root for them more. Harry loses his parents before he could get to know them; his adoptive family mistreats him, but he doesn’t care about them; Cedric dies in his stead, but they were not close friends; Dumbledore dies when Harry was getting too old for a father figure; Snape dies, but Harry never liked him either. The list could go on. Harry always remains an innocent; he never gets to look into a metaphorical mirror where he has to see all of the bad that is inside of him, his darker sides are always projected and personified by someone else. (When he does look into a metaphorical mirror in the first book and movie, he finds out that the Philosopher’s stone is, magically, in his pocket. How convenient.)

I can’t invest emotionally in a fictional character who stands out before having earned or deserved it. Harry is like a Chosen One who skips the hero’s journey: from an abusive household, he is catapulted into a whole new world made of mystery and wonder, where he immediately is singled out, admired before he lifts a finger, unexplainably lucky, awed due to his heritage, envied by who is not as special as he. Harry remains untainted by own sins because other people do the dirty work for him; which seems ok because they are, for one reason or another, uncool - Dumbledore = old, Ron = weak / foolish, Hermione / Snape = unpleasant, his parents = dead, and so on. Yes, Harry sometimes makes mischief, but people usually cut him slack because of his past as an abused child, his parent’s tragic death, and his undefinable power that makes him resist the Evil One. The Dursleys, Snape and Draco don’t tolerate him, which is why they are coded as villains or at least very disagreeable characters. How do you recognize a villain in these stories? Simple, he’s being mean to Harry. Everybody else gives him special treatment because you don’t want to upset the person whom you expect to defeat the ultimate villain. I always found his character bland and uninteresting. We e.g. learned why Snape was so lonely and bitter, but not why Harry was so “good” although he had grown up unloved, in an abusive household, until he was eleven.

For decades now Harry Potter fandoms and clubs gather all over the world proudly proclaiming that they are something really special and not like “them Muggles”. No wonder these stories are so popular with who feels misunderstood and downtrodden. Wouldn’t it be nice to be born with capacities ordinary people can’t even dream of? When maybe you’re just a common person, shocking thought. Nowadays, if you want to be someone outstanding, make it up in your mind and it automatically becomes true. And if you identify with the protagonist, you get to be a hero before you did anything special into the bargain. Harry is a victim of other person’s sins and / or blunders and his story is about unfolding the details of his victimhood and correcting them so he gets his happy ending. We are supposed to sympathize with this: well, I can’t. Victimhood and alleged inborn virtue are insufficient to make a protagonist “overcome his trials” and emerge triumphantly over his sidekicks or enemies, without any real loss on his side, while they get killed or, at best, ridiculed. And I will not pick up the part of that sidekick any more.

II. Feminism Is Not My World

While I am an advocate for women’s independence, I do not identify as a feminist. I have an independent nature: that does not mean I am or should be ashamed of being a lady. This where we live is the era of the tomboys, of the feisty, cool, tough females. And often they don’t just go their own way but feel entitled to scorn women who do have their own job and live with a man who respects them, but also like the color pink, pretty clothes, flowers, romantic stories and everything else the new wave feminism likes to dismiss as “brainwashing”. Today you can hardly let your daughter watch a Disney movie without being accused of undermining her identity with false ideas about womanhood because, oh wonder, it seems a “real woman” must think and act like a badass guy.

Louder for the feminists in the back: you can actually look and behave in a way that is coded as “female” and be intelligent, independent and self-respecting. Women who went their own way have existed in every age and culture, often making great achievements and changing the world around them; they were intelligent, compassionate and took matters into their own hands. They did not proclaim that they unfairly were victims of men: they knew how to make men respect them. Being a woman is not a stereotype thrust upon you, it’s natural. If someone rejects qualities that are identified as “female”, it’s their very own affair. If I wanted to return the offense, I might as easily say that “feminists” and “empowered females” are just too smug to do the dishes.

III. Trans, cis, binary etc. is not my world

For millennia, people had to accept the sex they were born with. Now you can have surgery and take hormones to get rid of a problem which you can’t solve on your own. Sorry, but I can’t get my head around it: to me the gender diversity discussion is unnatural. Good and right things are always the same, they cannot change with time and “scientifical / medical progress”. Tomboyish females and same-sex lovers are as old as the world, but it’s only a few decades since you can surgically have your sex changed if you feel uncomfortable with it, and even less time since you can claim the right to be both male and female or not to choose any sex at all. Excuse me, what’s behind it? Fear of missing out? I know, nowadays we are supposed to “change the stars”, but excuse me, it’s not possible. Rowling did not change the stars: as I wrote above, she got lucky.

I can say from own experience that for healthy growth a person needs limits. It is not “tolerant”, in my opinion, to say that one can be male or female or binary or none of that, all by choice. If I raise a child calling it a boy because he was born with male organs, or by Catholic standards because I am a Catholic myself, I believe no one has the right to say that I am intruding into its personality. I would be intolerant if said child would later come out to me e.g. as trans or atheist and I would dismiss its identification and opinion as a matter of principle, or disown it altogether. Rejecting rules and values is like pretending that it is wrong to be e.g. female, or straight, or that Catholic values are rubbish. None of that is true. It is true that a trans or gay or atheist or Buddhist etc. is not automatically an immoral or inferior person.

I can accept other people’s choices about their gender identification; that doesn’t mean I must like or support their mindset. It doesn’t automatically make me “transphobic”. If it is intrusive or intolerant to say that someone is male because he was born with male organs, what will come next? Will “normal” females no longer be entitled to protect their most intimate privacy because any guy can share our private space, like a public toilet or dress room, claiming he’s a woman (and he might well not be trans, but a lying voyeur?) Will we no longer give our children male or female names? Not teach them any values? No longer send them to kindergarten, to school, maybe not even feed or clothe them or furnish their nurseries according to our own judgement, because the poor babies can’t choose by themselves yet?

We all did not choose to be born in the first place.

If you want to protect your children from suffering, don’t have them: suffering is a part of life. Trans is not my world. I don’t want to destroy it or to behave rudely towards it; I simply do not want to have part in it. I want people to care for me, and to do so because I am me, not because I come out with this or another sexual orientation or make myself an advocate for people who belong to this or another minority.

All of the above is why I will not jump on the current “I defend minorities” respectively “I defend downtrodden victims” train. The good part is that I don’t have any Harry Potter book or merchandise I could burn anyway. 😊

Anyone who is uncomfortable with my point of view can unfollow me. Bullies will be blocked and reported without further ado. Greetings from a notorious Muggle.

#minorities #jk rowling #trans #harry potter #disney #gone with the wind #the godfather #goodfellas #feminism #prejudices #bullying #read more

10 notes · View notes