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atinystraynstay · 2 months

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Off Limits - Jeong Yunho

MINORS DO NOT INTERACT

Synopsis: Going to college for you was very serious. Nothing could stand in the way which meant often rejecting social events and saying no to anything to risk. That was until you met Yunho, someone you would risk it all for.

Pairing: College!Jeong Yunho x fem. reader

Genre: mutual pining, strangers to friends with benefits - MINORS DNI

Contains: mentions of celibacy, mentions of alcohol consumption, nudity, oral (f. receiving), fingering (f. receiving), dirty talk, slight begging, protected intercourse, characters losing their virginity, orgasm

Note: based on a request from @jonghoslvt ☆ no joke, I adore you and never thought you'd take up my offer. I really hope this doesn't disappoint because I literally fell in love with the idea the moment you hit my inbox

Word Count: 7.8k

"But y/n, it's not even a frat party," your best friend whined. "Yeah! We're too old for that anyways," your other friend chimed in.

You currently found yourself in a standoff. At first, you had situated yourself in your bed with your textbooks to have a quiet night in. Your friends, however, took it upon themselves to propose an alternative idea. One that you often rejected.

"Are you forgetting that we have midterms next week? I would like to start spring break stress-free."

Your entire life has been focused on going to college. If asked about your childhood, you would always recall how happy you were growing up. But you never overlooked the sacrifices your parents made for you. Going to college was never realistic or them, so they worked overtime I order to provide you with the opportunity to live a better life than they ever got a chance for. Their struggles were something you can never ignore, which made you want to work hard to make them proud.

And since getting to college, it was about doing well to be able to show them why their hard work was worth it. You also had a personal goal of being able to afford to repay them for everything.

To get to that point, that meant often saying no to social obligations so you could study. Your weekends often looked like you were crammed in the library. Or, if you needed human interaction, propping yourself at a coffee shop to mix in with the crowd.

Breaks were the opportunities to let loose and have a little bit of fun. Yet, your breaks often looked like doing work for internships. Now that senior year has arrived, you are also adding in time to scroll through LinkedIn and Indeed for potential job openings

"Y/n, I adore you, and what a little studious bookworm you are. However, it is senior year. We have less than 3 months to make stupid decisions before adult obligations. There is also the chance we might not be living even in the same state or country! Do you really want to live life only when we come to visit or you visit someone else?"

You never went to a frat party. You never had a random hookup. You always played things safe.

You couldn't help but let out a sigh as you gazed down at your lap where your textbook rested. She had a point. While you were very excited about being that true adult version of you, you weren't ready for the hard parts of it like no longer living with your best friends or really having little interaction.

"And I'll tell you what. We don't have to stay all night. If you get overwhelmed or are over it, we will come straight home and watch Love Is Blind."

You perked up at her compromise. When you looked up, hopeful eyes were staring back at you before you silently nodded. That was enough to send them into squeals and start to drag yourself out of bed.

What were you getting yourself into?

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Little did you know, across campus, a similar debate was going on.

"Guys, I really don't like house parties like that," Yunho huffed. "And how do you know if you've ever been?" Mingi challenged him.

Yunho couldn't help but narrow his eyes on his best friend. He had a point, but damn, did he hate it when he was right. Out of the two them, Mingi was the more social one. Before a party was finalized, Mingi was already receiving texts about the details so word could spread like wildfire.

On the other hand, Yunho often opted for quiet nights in. He would spend nights either gaming with Seonghwa or drinking at home with a few friends. What was the point in going to a house party when they already had beer in their apartment?

There was also a part that loved hearing Mingi's retelling of what went down. Yunho simply didn't like parties, the situations that could arise from consuming too much alcohol, and the morning recovery.

"You owe me!" "For what?!"' "I mean," Mingi began. "I am your best friend. I'm sure you owe me something!"

Yunho rolled his eyes but couldn't fight the smirk curling onto his lips. It amused him greatly the antics Mingi always tried getting into, and how he basically became a whimpering puppy for attention.

"What will you do for me if I go?" Yunho challenged. "I will literally never ask you to come out again if you absolutely hate it. Or I will do all the chores in the house for the next month."

That caught Yunho's attention instantly. He liked to consider himself a very clean man, never knowing who might step into their humble abode. However, Yunho still liked to maintain a welcoming household and seemed like he had things together. First impressions mattered the most to him. And it was no secret Mingi often dirtied up any clean space, no matter how recently Yunho finished cleaning.

"Wait? Are you being serious?"

With Mingi cleaning, that meant that Yunho could just spend time the way he wanted to - playing video games and chilling with his friends. Yunho definitely was a person who liked being around people, but he didn't like situations that could get messy quickly. Hence why there was a slight aversion to going to parties where things could go 0 to 100 too quickly.

At home, Yunho was in control. He was the mood maker who kept a warm, welcoming environment. That meant one that was clean and safe for everyone. An oasis from the chaos of university.

"I'm dead serious, Yunho." "Deal!"

Little to Yunho know just how overwhelming the atmosphere would be. Even though Yunho certainly liked making memories with his friends, he was almost intimidated. All around him were drinks being passed left and right, not even knowing what was in the drink but it made his noise scrunch up as all he could smell was cheap perfume and alcohol. It practically burned his nostrils.

"Relax, Yunho," Wooyoung laughed. "You are about to give away that you've never had pussy before."

Yunho's head snapped towards his younger friend, a look of shock on his face. "Do you ever not think with your dick?"

"Will you ever sleep with someone? Come on. You're in college. Make a bad decision." "I'm fine with sticking to this one," Yunho sighed.

It wasn't that Yunho didn't want to have sex. However, he knew just how special being intimate with someone is. What mattered to him was waiting for the person he felt like he could be that vulnerable with. Just finding a random person and doing it sounds disgusting. Not how he wanted his first time go.

Nobody has caught his attention yet.

"Oh ease up, Yunho. Woo just is looking out for you," Mingi laughed. "But if you do find someone, bedrooms are open upstairs.

I think I'm going to be sick.

"Well, to be the bearer of good news," Jongho called out. "It seems like Yunho has a pair of eyes on him."

What was he talking about?

Slowly, Yunho looked over his shoulder whereas his friends seemed to wipe their heads around. Way to be subtle. There was this pattern that always occurred where girls seemed to have taken an interest in Yunho, but he never reciprocated. He was just content with the way things were in his life - no drama, no mess.

His eyes widened slightly at the sight behind him. There's no way.

Yunho has seen you around campus before. The two of you have never had a class together, seeing as your respective programs were in two different buildings. Yet, there were always ways you two crossed paths. You were heavily involved on campus or often in the library studying. Yunho did frequent the library, but if there was no immediate open spot available, he would leave. He always thought you were cute, but the opportunity never presented itself where he could make a move.

He didn't quite think that asking someone, a complete stranger, out on a date in the library when they were obviously busy was romantic.

To be honest, he never saw you as a party girl. You were often studying out of your mountain of textbooks or typing like your life depended on it on your laptop. He adored that side of you. When your hair was pulled back and your glasses framed your face, highlighting your big eyes.

Tonight, you opted for a different look. You ditched your sweats for a short black skirt that had a small slit on the right side. You wore a white shirt but that was mostly hidden underneath the leather jacket you wore. Your hair was downing loose curls. Your makeup also looked like it was light, but he was drawn to your cherry red lipstick.

I wonder if it also tastes like cherries.

Yet, tonight, you seemed like you had no agenda. Your eyes did glance in his direction, followed by whispers and giggles from your friends. To say his interest was peaked is an understatement.

You were someone who caught his attention. And his friends seemed to notice.

"Hey y/n," Mingi called out.

Yunho's head immediately turned towards Mingi who wore a smirk on his face. He wouldn't.

But it was too late. Mingi was already halfway across the room to greet you and your friends. And Yunho was hot on his trails.

"See you finally are breaking out of the library to join the rest of us," he commented.

You rolled your eyes before greeting him with a hug. Of course, Mingi knew you. He knew everyone. How did you two meet though? You weren't an ex-girlfriend or else you would have been over to the dorms. And you had a face that was impossible to forget. Maybe Mingi got tutoring from you?

"Don't hold your breath, Mingi. I was offered an out if I want to take it," you warned.

Your voice was just as angelic as Yunho imagined it. You often studied alone, unless you were shoved into a group project by your professors. Hearing how you speak made his heart flutter.

"Well maybe I can offer a reason to stay?"

You tilted your head in confusion. Mingi nodded over his shoulder which caused you to instinctively look over.

Everything else froze the moment your eyes met. It was like a scene from a romantic movie where the lights highlight the dream girl, music fades out. Nothing else matters at the moment besides you.

"Y/n, I want you to meet my best friend, Jeong Yunho. Yunho, be nice. This is y/n."

I was brought back to reality by Mingi gently patting me on the shoulder and giving me a slight shove. Luckily, I was quick on my feet to prevent myself from stumbling into this girl and making a fool out of myself. The wouldn't be a great first impression.

By your body language, Yunho could tell that you were out of your element. But so was he. Your eyes bounced around as you noticed your friends and his had left the two of you alone.

"Why don't we head out of here? Maybe go to the kitchen? Away from the crowds?"

Your eyes instantly lit up at his offered. The sight of you feeling relieved made Yunho felt proud, but also served as a motivating factor to ensure you always felt that content especially around him.

With a hand on your lower back, Yunho escorted you two out of the main part of the house. His eyes flickered all around to see where there were less people. However, people were playing drinking games in the kitchen. He glanced down at the cup in your hand to see you still had something to drink. The stairs, on the other hand, were vacant.

"Come on, let's go upstairs. I've been wanting to get to know you, y/n," he confessed.

Instantly, you felt your cheeks heat up. You nodded before following Yunho's lead. Your friend groups watched almost in astonishment at how quickly things progressed. Mingi was the proudest, as he played cupid after all.

As the two of you descended up the stairs, you could hear the bass of the music from below but could not quite make out the words. The loud conversations faded out to where you could just hear the footsteps of you and Yunho. You swore though you could feel your racing, and you were nervous Yunho could hear it too.

He flashed you a warm smile as he began trying the doorknob on the first door he saw.

"Occupied!" Someone shouted from within. The two of you felt yourself get hot in the face.

Quickly, he maneuvered the two of you to the bedroom across the hallway. Luckily, the door was slightly cracked and lights were off. An indicator that it was unoccupied. And to confirm, Yunho stepped in first by gently pushing the door. He let out a sigh of relief as there was no one.

"Perfect. Now I can actually get to know you."

He wanted to know me? The girl who is always studying?

He stepped out of the doorway, his back against the bedroom door to allow you inside. You thanked him with a soft smile before stepping into the room. You did notice he closed the door but also left it unlocked. It honestly made you feel a bit safer just by his gentle gaze and consideration.

Whenever you've seen Yunho walking around campus, you've always taken note of his soft aura. Maybe that's why it was so easy to lean into the potential friendship with him.

You found yourself walking into the room, sitting on the edge of the bed. Your hands flattened out the skirt so it covered a bit more of your legs. Yunho joined you, keeping a bit of space but nothing too much. Just enough so you could speak one another but be respectful and mindful of your own personal space.

"I'm surprised to see you here tonight," Yunho commented, a smile still on his lips. "You just never seemed to be the party girl." "You know me already," you laughed. "I'm honestly not but my friends want to make lasting memories before graduation," you explained.

Yunho couldn't help but chuckle which caused you to raise an eyebrow. He quickly cleared his throat, a light hue coating his cheeks.

"Sorry, I'm not laughing at you, I promise. It just seems that our friends are in the same mindset since that's why I got dragged out of the apartment tonight." "I guess it isn't so bad now that I'm here with you."

You swore that Yunho's cheeks got darker. You also noticed how his smile widened to the point his eyes became hidden. He was just too adorable.

"So mystery girl knows who I am," he chuckled again.

God, his laugh was so infectious. I could just sit hear and listen to it all day.

"And I'm surprised my campus crush knows even who I am." "Oh? I'm your campus crush?" He smirked.

Now it was your turn to blush a bit. Damn, caught red-handed.

"Well yeah. I've seen you all over with Mingi or when you are trying to study in the library. Guess you could say I've always been curious."

Yunho's ego soared. He didn't come here to get lucky, but he was. He felt as if he had one the lottery.

"There's something else I've been curious about," he admitted.

Your upper body had turned towards him. The moonlight shining from the window made your eyes sparkle. It was as if you had the whole universe in your eyes. Your head was tilted slightly, a habit Yunho was quickly learning about you and equally adored.

One hand remained at a respectful spot in the space between the two of you. Yet, his right hand reached across to cup your cheek. His thumb caressed your cheek affectionately as your eyes widened slightly. Yet, your body felt relaxed underneath his touch.

He never wanted to take things too far, but a little kiss never hurts, right?

"Is it okay if I kiss you, y/n?" He whispered.

Your name coming from his lips sent butterflies in your stomach. "Yes," you whispered back.

He offered another gentle smile before he leaned in to press his lips against yours. His lips felt soft and gentle as he didn't want to pressure you to kiss him back. But you would be a mad person if you didn't. You matched his tempo, allowing him to lead the kiss.

Tiny electric shocks were sent throughout your body. You couldn't help but allow your arms to wrap around his neck, which gave him the green light to move his hand off the bed to your knee. His warm hand caressed your exposed skin.

"I like the feeling of your hands on me," you murmured against his lips.

Fuck, Yunho, you're in trouble. Your statement made his brain all fuzzy. Yet, he didn't want to get too ahead of himself. He was almost positive you meant innocence in your statement.

His hand moved from your knee to your hip where he lifted you with ease. You gasped softly, pulling back from the kiss. You never expected him to be so strong! Your mouth was slightly open as you were positioned on his lap.

"Fuck, I'm sorry," Yunho said. "Did I move too fast?"

You turned towards him and shock your head. Your heartbeat was felt throughout your whole body. If it was anyone else, you might have gone running out the door by how overwhelmingly intense the moment felt. With Yunho? All you wanted was to stay.

"No, this is perfect," you confessed. Your one hand stayed wrapped around his neck, your fingers running through your hair. "Is this okay? I mean, I've never done anything like this before. I don't just kiss cute boys who I barely now."

Yunho couldn't help but smile softly at your sentiment. You were too sweet. "Well, maybe we can become more than strangers?" His hand caressed your side affectionately, easing any nerves left in your body.

"I'd like that," you whispered.

You were about to go in to kiss Yunho again when the bedroom door busted open. You gasped as Yunho gently moved you off, shielding your body. The people who busted in just gasped before quickly closing the door behind them, muttering apologizes.

Way to kill the mood.

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That was three weeks ago. Yunho and you kept in good contact, especially now that Mingi prided himself in bringing two of his favorite people together. Even though you and Yunho were as far from being a couple as anything else. If anything, you two were beginning to deepen your friendship.

Yunho now had a reliable person to study, with who would keep him accountable for actually getting work done. And you had someone who made life fell less lonely.

And it was a bonus that each study session ended with a makeout session at your apartment. It was almost a ritual between the two of you. At the end of the night, Yunho would make sure you had eaten before walking him. You would then offer to come in for some water or coffee, depending on what else he had going on in the evening. Which were ultimately excuses to go to your bedroom.

Never before had you felt so safe with someone. Yunho looked after you, which honestly blew you away considering how new the friendship was. Yet, for Yunho, taking care of you was a duty. Even if you weren't official, he always wanted to make sure you knew someone was looking out for you.

That was as evident as ever when you two were behind closed doors. Light kisses led to light touches. His hands often wondered to your lower back, maybe underneath your shirt to cup your bra-covered breasts. Your hands would fall on his chest, sometimes down his abs towards where his belt was. Kisses on your lips led to neck kisses then to hickies which your roommates teased you relentlessly about.

Nothing more though. You had told Yunho that you were always anxious when it came to sex. You didn't want to jeopardize everything you worked for. And Yunho always respected that, especially since he was waiting for the right person. He didn't want to regret something so meaningful. And you respected that too.

Yet, you couldn't ignore your own urges anymore. There was something powerful between the two of you. You just weren't sure how to tell Yunho how you were feeling without scaring him off.

The past three weeks have been the time of your life. He made you feel warm and fuzzy, as if you were the main character in a Nicholas Spark's novel. And Yunho felt like he was on Cloud 9 with you. He never wanted to lose that feeling.

Buzz buzz

You were currently in the kitchen of your college apartment, slicing up an apple and peanut butter. A favorite study time snack of yours. Your eyes warned over to see Yunho's name flash on your phone which instantly brought a smile on your face.

"Oh! Y/n must be talking to Yunho," your roommate teased.

You rolled your eyes but couldn't fight the smile growing on your lips. Yeah, you were down bad for him.

"Hey pretty girl, what are you up to today?" "Not studying! I got everything done." "So you have time for me?"

Your smile grew wider at his text. You literally felt your heart flutter.

"Maybe.. is it worth it though?" "Oh darling, don't you worry. I'm going to make sure you feel on top of the world." "Where are we going?" "My place? 7pm?"

You glanced at the time at the top left corner of your phone. 5:41pm. Not much time to get ready.

"Anything I should bring over?" "Just yourself. It is all I need."

Lord have mercy.

Your snack was long forgotten as you ran up the stairs. The excitement about seeing Yunho, being alone with him drove you in ways academic achievement and goals accomplished never could.

You wear wearing a loose sweatshirt and a pair of leggings. Nothing too suggestive but also easy to remove. You never wanted to go in assuming any situation, but you couldn't help but be hopeful. Your roommates also noticed your change of perspective since Yunho came into your life. They liked seeing this side of you - the side where you were allowing yourself to enjoy life rather than focus on work and outcomes.

"Make sure you say hi to Yunho for us," your one roommate teased as you rushed to grab your wallet and keys. "Should we expect you tonight or tomorrow afternoon?"

Your cheeks were a bit red, not from embarrassment. There was not one ounce that was ashamed to be so scandalous with Yunho. Maybe it was because it was your little secret, the part of your that you were allowing to flourish for the first time, that was being exposed. While you weren't sure if you and Yunho would be anything more than friends, you were safe to say you were no longer strangers.

"I'll just text you guys when I'm heading home," you laughed, trying to ease your own nerves. Yet, you felt all the butterflies in your stomach which mad you jittery.

"Oh, no need. We have your location, y/n." "Creeps," you huffed. "Or just care about your well-being! But we also know Yunho will take care of that part."

I need to get out of here. Glancing at the clock, you saw it was 6:47pm. Yunho was just a 5 minute walk away from your apartment, so you were in no rush but any excuse to get to Yunho quickly.

"Hey, I'm heading over now :)" you texted him. "Can't wait to be with you."

You waved goodbye to your roommates who sounded off in encouraging cheers. You shook your head playfully before walking out the door to Yunho's apartment. With each step, your heartbeat is faster and louder. He had you wrapped around his finger and you didn't even know how to tell him.

"Hi pretty girl," Yunho said, answering the door. His height always left you breathless. You knew you were down bad when his height is something you adore. He was dressed in a grey sweatshirt with a yellow smiley face in the middle and black sweatpants.

Gently, he stepped out of the way to allow you to enter. You smiled appreciatively before walking in and slipped off your shoes. Mingi was in the kitchen, wiping down the countertop after dinner assumedly.

"Hey y/n. I'm about to head out!" He exchanged a look with Yunho, but you were too hyper-focused on Yunho's hand on your lower back. You could basically turn into Jell-o. "I'll see you around," he snickered.

"Bye Mingi," Yunho muttered. His demeanor softened when he turned towards you though, offering that gentle smile that makes you want to do anything he says. "Wanna go up to my room?"

You nodded before taking the lead. You've been all too familiar with the staircase that led up to Yunho's bedroom. Each time you walked in front of him, Yunho struggled. He surely had the best view in the world but wanted to do his absolute best to remain respectful.

Once you arrived in his room, you were a bit taken back. This wasn't the usual setup. You were much accustomed to the floor lamp being on, his laptop ready for a movie.

Tonight, the no lights were on. Instead, he had lit a few candles that were new additions to the top of his dresser. It created a glow in the room that was warm and welcoming. It also had a smell of vanilla and cashmere, two of your favorite scents. He was a good listener. Soft, sensual music was playing in the background from the speaker by his desk.

You stepped into the room but didn't go to the bed this time. You turned towards him, keeping a bit of distance but yearning to be close to him.

"What's all this for, Yunho?"

He loved the way his name sounded from your lips. It sent shivers down his spine. He smiled gently before taking a step closer, closing the door behind him. Once again, he didn't lock it right away. Yunho was the exception in a world of boys where he was a gentleman. He always offered you an out, always a way to leave if you so choose. Yunho never placed expectations on you. He followed your lead.

"Y/n," he began. One of his hands gently reached out for yours, fingers gently wrapping around your own but not quite holding it just yet. It was endearing. "You mean so much to me. I mean, I've always been mesmerized by you, but I never knew someone could have such a large impact until you came into my life. I've never wanted to open up to someone the way I open up to you."

Your eyes widened slightly, stepping even a bit closer to Yunho. Your mind was jumping to conclusions but you did everything to stay calm.

"There is just something special between us, angel," he whispered. His hand fully slipped into yours as the other gently moved to hold your hip, keeping you close. His touch was gentle yet firm, almost as if he was begging you to say but also allowing you to move if you desired. "You complete me in ways I never imagined. Both emotionally and mentally, and our physical connection is something I'd like to explore more."

Oh my god.

"I understand if maybe that's something you never wanted with me but-" "But just kiss me. Please."

His eyes now widened this time. You were biting your lip gently as you gazed up at him with your big doe eyes.

Come on, Yunho. Get it together.

No longer hesitating, he leaned in fully to press his lips against yours. His hand squeezed your hip affectionately. Unlike the other times he's kissed you, this was more passion. He had a certain level of assertiveness that made you melt. Your hands moved from holding his to resting on his chest and the other on his arm.

With ease, Yunho picked you up which caused you squeal. He pulled back from the kiss to look up at you. You noticed this time his gaze was a bit more seductive which made you feel all tingly.

"Oh darling, I'll get you squealing for another reason soon enough," he promised you.

Your legs wrapped around his waist. You knew he'd never let you fall, so your action was more to lure him in closer. His hands moved to hold your ass, giving a playful squeeze which indeed sent your squealing again. Even though the sensations were newer to you, it felt so good when it was Yunho touching you.

Gently, Yunho tossed you on his bed. Your sweatshirt moved a bit to expose your midriff. Your hair was sprawled out on his comforter. And with the glow from the candles, Yunho swore you looked angelic.

"You can say no at anytime, darling," he promised you. His voice was in a soft tone but firm. This was serious for him which made your heart swell.

"I trust you. This is new for me too, but I want to experience it with you."

At first, he remained standing at the foot of his bed. Just enough so he could slip his own sweatshirt over his head. You couldn't help but stare at his exposed chest. He was built so beautifully.

Yunho noticed which caused him to smirk. Not wanting to be apart from you any longer, his hands gently then moved to your exposed skin. "What do you crave first, darling? I want to make sure you're all wet for me."

His words caused your cheeks to warm up tremendously. Your brain was all fuzzy just coming to realize this was actually happening. You were about to have sex with Yunho, your campus crush. This felt just too good yet nothing extraordinary has happened yet.

"Could you eat me out? I've always wanted to know what it feels like," you confessed. "Your wish is my command, princess."

His hands moved from your hips to the waistband of your leggings. He glanced up at you once more to make sure you were comfortable and okay with proceeding. You couldn't help but giggle before running your hand through his hair comfortingly, giving him the nod he needed.

"So gorgeous, y/n, baby," he murmured. His lips kissed the exposed skin of your tummy before both of his hands began to move your legging dow your legs. "You look amazing in these leggings, but I'm so honored to be the one to take them off of you." His eyes then noticed the pink lace panties that you were wearing underneath. A tiny bow was in the front which made his mouth water.

You shivered as his hands gently began to tug off your panties. It was a bit chilly in the room for which Yunho smiled apologetically.

"I'll warm you up in no time, darling." "I have no doubt, baby. I know you always look out for me." "Always," Yunho vowed.

With your leggings and panties on the floor, Yunho crotched in front of you. His hands rested on your knees gently, thumbs caressing the outer part. He was a bit surprised how you opened them almost automatically for him, but he was overjoyed to know you wanted this just as much as him.

His cock twitched at the sight of how wet you already were, a slight glisten already noticeable. "My baby girl needs me, hmm?"

"I like when you speak to me like that," you confessed, letting out a shaky breath.

Yunho moved your one leg over his shoulder as the other rested on your thigh. He wanted to make sure you were comfortable. "What? You like knowing that I want you all to myself? That I want to be selfish?"

You were propped up on your elbows, gazing down at him. Your teeth were sunk into your lower lip in anticipation. All you could bring yourself was to nod in confirmation.

"Well, y/n, sweet girl. You are mine. You've been mine since the party, so don't doubt it again."

His tongue then licked a long strip along your pussy up to your clit. You let out a loud gasp, head tilting back. His hot breath hit your pussy causing you to shiver and spread your legs a bit wider, offering yourself completely to him. He hummed in satisfaction before letting the tip of his tongue circle your clit.

Your back arched slightly off his comforter. Your eyes fluttered shut as you let yourself immerse fully into the pleasure.

He loved the taste of you. So sweet. His tongue ventured up and down your pussy before sticking into your tight hole. You let out a soft moan. It was music to his ears, knowing that he was capable of making you feel so good.

His cock was hardening by the sounds you were making. Twitching and began for attention. Soon though, he would get the relief he's always fantasized about.

You were his main priority though. He wanted this to be just as special, as meaningful for you as it was for him.

He pulled back which made your head snap down. Yunho couldn't help the small pout that formed on your lips. "Don't worry, darlin'. I'm not going anywhere." His lips began to press kisses into your thighs as his one hand left your knee to gently trace along your pussy.

"Is it okay if I finger you, angel? Just want to make sure you're stretched out for me. Don't want to hurt you."

His speech was a bit slurred, almost as if he was drunk off the taste of you.

"Please. I want to feel all of you, want to feel of this for the first time with you."

Yunho leaned down to kiss your thighs. He moved his kisses towards your clit. He could imagine the feeling might be a bit uncomfortable for you at first, so he wanted to help ease you a bit.

When his lips met your clit, he kissed it delicately before wrapping his lips around it. He began sucking on it which had you moaning sweetly. He couldn't help but smile before sliding one finger into you. His eyes looked up at you to see your mouth slightly open. Yet, your body remained relaxed on his bed.

He moved his finger in and out of your pussy slowly. He let out a groan at the feeling of how warm, how wet you were. You just felt so inviting it sent him into a frenzy. He craved more that he was struggling to hold himself back but he knew all good things come with time. His cock was straining against his pants painfully.

"I'm going to add another, sweetheart, okay?" He murmured against you. The vibration of his voice against your pussy caused you to whimper out in euphoria as you still nodded your head.

"Can I hold your hand, baby?" you begged softly.

Instantly, his free hand left your thigh to rest against the comforter for you to hold. He didn't need to be told twice. Whether it was for reassurance or to feel close to him, he would do anything for you.

Slowly, he slipped another finger into you. This time, at the feeling of how full you were, your body tensed a bit. Yet, Yunho kept his fingers still inside of you. He didn't want to rush in as he kept his gaze on you. Feeling your fingers slip into his hand, he squeezed your hand reassuringly. And this time, you squeezed back. "Keep going. Please."

His fingers moved slowly. He couldn't help but stifle the moan from his lips as he wanted to suck on your clit a bit harder, to make sure you were still feeling good. When you started moaning again, he began to curl his fingers gently into your g-spot. That made you moan louder than before, an encouragement for Yunho to proceed.

He then began to spread his two fingers apart, stretching you out properly. Your eyes widened, your breathing becoming shaky and shallow.

"Speak to me, baby girl. How does this feel?" "S-so good, baby." "Tell me what you need." "You. Please." "How do you want me? You've already got me. Right here, angel." "I want you to fuck me."

His fingers stilled inside of you as he pulled back from your clit. He looked up at you as he knew there was no going back. He knew he wanted to continue, but he just wanted to make sure you weren't too caught up in the moment. He didn't want you regret such a vulnerable moment with him.

"Are you positive?" He asked in a gentle voice. "I've never been more sure of anything."

Slowly, his fingers slipped out of your pussy. You whimpered at the lose of contact but quickly moaned when you saw his fingers enter his mouth. He sucked on them gently, humming against his digits. You've never witnessed something so attractive before. Your cheeks were flushed at the sight too.

"So delicious, angel. Thank you for letting me have a taste."

Now standing fully at the end of his bed, his hands moved to undo his belt and unzip his pants. Your eyes widened when you saw the tent in his pants. You couldn't believe he got so turned on by tasting and touching you.

Seeing the effect you had over him made you feel powerful.

Noticing you were staring, he winked at you. "You are the only one with this effect over me. Only one I ever want." His belt clinked against the floor as his pants soon joined, exposing his grey boxers. He was so hot. Does he even know that? You were going to move up to offer to jerk him off or suck him but he stopped you before your upper body could even leave his bed.

Did you do something wrong? You frowned a bit as your eyes quickly landed on his. Was he regretting going this far with you?

"Tonight is all about you, sweetheart." "But I want to make this special for you too," you frowned. "You just being here is enough to make this special. I promise."

You were a bit hesitant, wanting to be insistent on making him feel good. But with the look in his eyes the lustful gaze, you knew it was not a topic up for debate. You settled back onto his comforter as he moved to grab a condom from his bedside table.

He was a man prepared for any scenario. Whether it be one of his friends needing a condom or when a moment like this finally presented itself.

His boxers soon joined the floor. His cock instantly slapped against his abs. You noticed the veins running around the sides and the angry red tip, begging for attention. You made a mental note that you just had to suck Jeong Yunho off.

He grabbed the gold wrapper to tear it open. His right hand grabbed the base of his cock to hold it still as his left hand skillfully slipped the latex on. It just made his cock glisten, make it more appealing.

Finally, Yunho joined you on the bed. His knees rested in between your legs to keep you spread for him. His one hand rested by your head as the other cupped your cheek. You felt his forehead press against yours but not once did he look away from you.

"I mean it when I say we can stop at any point, angel. Just say the word." "Yunho, you're too sweet to me but I need you."

You needed him. God, his eyes nearly rolled at the words you spoke.

He pressed his lips to yours for a moment. Even the room felt hot and heavy, he wanted to remind you just how important you were to him. You kissed him back for a moment until you felt his tip against your pussy. He kept his gaze on you, wanting to make sure you were okay with what happened.

"You ready?" "Yeah," you breathed out.

As slow as ever, Yunho pushed his tip into you. You bit you lip as you kept your eyes trained on him. It felt familiar, just like when his fingers entered you. You nodded slowly before he began to push more of himself into your pussy. His head nearly rolling back at the feeling of how warm and tight you were around him. "Fuck," he breathed out.

The sound of you letting out another whimper caused him to snap back to reality. He frowned when he noticed the tears in your eyes.

"Oh angel," he whispered. He didn't dare move another inch. This wasn't about his pleasure, this was about you. "What's wrong?" "It's just a lot," you confessed. Salty tears began to leave your eyes as you let out a shaky breath. "Do you want me to stop?" "No, no," you begged. "I just need a moment."

Yunho nodded understandingly. He began to press soft kisses along your cheeks, your nose - anything to distract you from the pressure and temporary pain. He wanted to kiss you fully but he noticed you were breathing in deeply, trying to collect yourself and he didn't want to be inconsiderate.

"Take your time," he whispered. His hand moved to wipe your tears. "I go when you say go. I stop when you say stop." You took in another deep breath, really being able to feel how deep he was as your puss instinctively gripped his cock. He bit his lip to not moan, not wanting to do something that pressured you to say go.

However, in the few seconds of regulating your breathing, the pain began to feel like pleasure. It felt good. It was an odd feeling for sure, but one you wanted to continue with.

"Yunho?" you called out gently.

He pulled back so he could look into your eyes. His lips were curled up into that signature soft smile.

"Keep going. Please."

His eyes were trained on yours, almost as if he was looking for any hesitation. Yet, when he didn't see any, he nodded his head gently.

Before continuing to slip himself into you, he offered his hand for you to hold again. He really was a gentleman. Your fingers instantly slipped into his and you gave him a reassuring squeeze. That's all Yunho needed to continue slipping into your pussy.

Your breathing hitched again, but you remembered to breathe through it. And while it was a bit uncomfortable, it wasn't as bad as when you two started. You moaned when he eventually filled you completely.

"You okay, darling?"

He kept still but you could feel all of him inside of you. You felt so close, so vulnerable with him. It was overwhelming in the best sense.

"Never been better," you breathed out.

Satisfied, he began to retreat his hips before thrusting into you. Your head rolled back against his pillows and he rolled his head back at the feeling. "God damn," he breathed out. "You feel so good, angel. All for me."

His thrusts were slow at first, at an even pace. He was treating you as if you were the most delicate thing in the world, something that needed to be fiercely looked after. And while you might have enjoyed the sentiment, you just needed him.

"Baby, go faster, please." "Fuck, are you sure? If you say yes, I might not be able to hold myself back anymore." "Let loose, baby boy." That's all he needed to hear. His hand planted firmly on the space by your head, his other hand still holding yours. However, his thrusts became quicker, became deeper. It was as if something primal took over him.

Your moans were louder as you felt all of him entirely with each threat. He was so big, so thick. He filled you up just so heavenly, in ways you couldn't describe besides perfection.

"That's it," you whined out. "Right there, baby." "God, I could die a happy man this way."

You couldn't help but giggle as you moved your free hand to rest on his shoulder. Your fingernails dug slightly into his skin which seemed to send him pounding deeper into you.

The sound of wet skin slapping made him nearly delirious. He never imagined this would be happening especially not with you. Yunho truly won the jackpot. He watched as your eyes rolled back, your cheeks a light pink color. Your lips were slightly parted as you moaned without any control.

"You're so gorgeous, y/n."

Your walls began to tighten around him, a fire-like feeling taking over your stomach. His jaw was clenched, almost as if he was concentrating. You were a bit curious but began to notice the veins protruding out of his forearms from how hard he was thrusting.

You began to put the dots together.

"Are you close, baby?" "So fucking close," he huffed out. "Are you?"

His eyes were practically glued on you. All to make sure you felt on top of the world. He loved knowing that you two were sharing this experience together. The grip you had on his shoulder further encouraged him to give you everything he had.

No room to hesitate or overthink. "Yeah," you whimpered.

Sweat was beginning to coat his skin. You early drooled at the sight of how delicious he looked. How did you get so lucky?

"Let go, y/n, baby. I'm right there with you."

With one particularly hard thrust, you lost it. You felt like you were being sent into another dimension but the intensity of your orgasm. Nothing could have prepared you for the feeling as you truly believed you saw stars. Your legs shook slightly as Yunho groaned loudly, spurting his hot cum into the condom.

The heavy breathing from the two of you filled the room. The world outside of his bedroom seemed so far away as you felt so consumed by Jeong Yunho. You wouldn't want it any other way.

His cock started to soften inside of you but you two couldn’t bring yourselves to move. Your arms moved to wrap around him softly as he laid gently on you, keeping you close.

There was no other place you wanted to be. I guess sometimes you do need to take a risk and do something that might seem like it is off-limits.

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a-little-revolution · 5 months

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hey, i know you've said previously that in order to write a Little character, you have to know the stereotypes of Little people. however, my internet delves have been so far fruitless. would you be able to tell me what some Little stereotypes are?

i ask because i'm writing a novel, and one of my main characters is a Little person with achondroplasia. I know the medical part of it just fine, but I am having less success for the other aspects.

His name's Mordechai Fernandez-Chavez, he plays soccer, is good at arguing, loves archaeology/anthropology, and he's learned to be loud and take up space because one thing I (think) I know is that Little people tend to be ignored (please tell me if that's wrong!), he's a Sephardi Orthodox Jew, he's Mexican-Argentinian-American, he collects rocks, and overall I've tried to put a lot of work into making him a person, not just a Little person. But I'm still afraid I haven't done enough.

help? :O

Hello! Some common stereotypes for little people to avoid are;

that we're overly angry or grumpy - which accumulates in the real world by dismissing the emotions of real LP

LPs are often used for physical comedy, particualrly in scenarios where our short stature is seen as cute or the butt of the joke

hypersexualization is a big one, that we're inherently promiscuous or kinky. On the other end of the coin, sex with little people is often seen as taboo.

that we're all miners, black smiths, etc. as seen in fantasy

that we have good luck or are somehow lucky - this one is less common, but some cultures still believe that touching little people will bring you good luck, which is something I've encountered

#psa #faq #dwarfism #little people #dwarfism awareness #disability #asks #disabled #dwarfism in media

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adickaboutspoons · 7 months

Text

I object to the term "whim"

In episodes 4 and 5 of the second season, there's a lot of throwing around of the word "whim." Ed and Stede both argue that they were just a whim to the other, Stede concludes they they are both "whim-prone" and that whim-prone people shouldn't run off to China together, and Ed cites their "whim-prone"ness as a reason to take things slow as they start to rebuild their relationship.

And I know we all like to joke about U-Haul failboats in love, but they aren't whim-prone. That's not what's going on here.

The first time on the show that we hear the word "whim" is in s1e4, when Izzy says "For years, I've followed your every whim, I've managed your increasingly erratic moods, I've massaged this crew when they were worried about your judgment." But from what we see of Izzy's interactions with the crew, he's not a massager, he's a sledgehammer, and the crew respect Blackbeard a hell of a lot more than they respect Izzy. Ed's moods don't read as "erratic" at all if you pay attention to what he's responding to; he's an emotional guy, for sure, but mostly even-keeled until highly provoked. And as for "following [his] every whim," Izzy can barely follow orders as given - committing insubordination at least twice that we see; not telling Stede that it was Blackbeard that wanted to meet him in s1e3, and flat-out ignoring Ed's "we're not doing this" in s1e6 when he challenges Stede to the duel. So I don't see Izzy as a reliable narrator when he suggests Ed is "whim-prone" - it might look like that to him because he doesn't try to understand Ed on his own terms, but it is v. much a construction that Izzy is imposing on Ed; not an objective character trait Ed possesses. After all, you don't get a reputation for being "history's most brilliant tactician" if you're not, at the heart of it all, a planner.

Stede is also a planner. Mary accuses Stede of abandoning his family on a whim, but that's also inaccurate. Thanks to all the hard work @nicnacsnonsense did in her marvelous 1st season timeline video, we know that SIX MONTHS elapsed between Stede proposing with his model boat that they go to sea at the anniversary debacle and the night of Mary's apology when Stede had already committed to actually leaving. That's not a whim - that's plenty of time for serious deliberation. It LOOKED like a whim from the outside because of their disastrous communication failures, but that doesn't make it true. Unabandoning his family was not a whim either - Chauncy was the catalyst, but only because he created a high-pressure situation that validated all of the insecurities we'd seen Stede struggling with all season; guilt over abandoning his family, and his crater-bottom self-esteem that the people he loved were better off without him. Even in season 2, we see more of this long-game behavior, where Stede takes his drudge job in towels and elevates it by applying scent; a move that LOOKS whim-prone from the outside, but primes him for success when it comes time to escape, because it means he knows the guards are used to deeply inhaling the scent of the fresh towels he gives them, and is thus he is able to trick them into chloroforming themselves.

There are times in the 1st season where it might LOOK like they are being whim-prone, but for the most part, those things are mostly time-critical circumstances . The impulsive decision to go to the French Party Boat? The invitation was for that night, so it's not like another opportunity like that was just going to come along. Stede's impromptu Fuckery? He'd JUST been introduced to the concept that morning, and the ships on which he wanted to try it out were three days away. If you'll recall, Ed actually tries to talk him out of going through with it with such a short turn-around time, and likely would have succeeded if Izzy hadn't interveined to further his "Kill Stede Now" agenda. The Treasure hunt? Stede was anxiously scrabbling for ANYTHING to keep Ed's attention (AFTER he confirmed there were no oranges for sale, not even for ready money) because Ed said that his plans for the day included "planning for the next adventure" and leaving. Act of Grace? Signing away ten years of your life for a man you've known for a month IS a lot, but the alternative was letting Stede be executed. Running away together? I'll give you that China was quite the absurd swing, but they WERE in jail for all intents and purposes - no sense staying longer than absolutely necessary, and there theoretically could have been time for re-working the plan once they were just away had circumstances not arisen.

So while I think it's fair to call the boys whimsical with their love of dress-up and lovely perfumed things and theatrics and tasty sugary treats, I wouldn't say whim-prone is an accurate descriptor (and the fact that they are accepting that it is makes my heart crack wide open for them, because it's evidence that they're still both uncritically absorbing the labels applied to them by people who don't really understand them at all), nor the problem they need to address.

Their real problem is actually the exact opposite of flitting from whim to whim; that, once they've committed to something, they are all in, 100% ride-or-die. It's why Ed resigned himself to going down with the ship when it turned out he'd miscalculated the date instead of trying any evasive maneuvers with the fog to give them cover. It's why, when Stede didn't show at the docks, Ed went full pillow fort until Lucius was able to talk him around into life going on without Stede. It's why Stede threw himself into trying to be all the things he thought he'd failed to be as a husband and father when he came back to his family, and was committed to staying, even though it was making him miserable, until Mary tried to murder him.

Ultimately, the solution for both these conditions is the same - slowing down. But it's not a matter of making sure this is serious and not just a whim for either of them; it's a matter of taking the time to understand exactly what it is that you're committing to. So I object to the term "whim."

#ofmd #our flag means death #ofmd s2 spoilers #ofmd s2e4 #ofmd s2e5 #my modest contribution to fandom

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rawliverandgoronspice · 11 months

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Okay so this has been on my mind for awhile and I wanted to get my thoughts out there. Regarding the topic of Rauru and Ganons relationship, I feel like rauru has kinda been bashed? people seem think that rauru in memory 6 (I believe) had a bit of a god complex, and that he was disrespectful. I feel as if rauru kinda had a right to act the way he did.

Rauru had wanted to become Allie’s with the gerudo. Not necessarily because he wants them to serve him but more for resources. Or more likely knowing Ganon he was attacking hyrule. The reason why I suspect this is because during the molduga incident rauru and Sonia seem to be very familiar with theses types of attacks. So it’s likely Ganon had ordered monster attacks on them before. Likely the attacks were getting to much for rauru and Sonia to handle; on top of establishing hyrule, rauru sent out messages for Ganon to join the kingdom in order to stop the attacks. Or another reasoning is that the gerudo were likely suffering. Ganon has been shown to not always prioritize his people. And knowing from past games the gerudo desert doesn’t have much resources. We can kinda see this in Totk they seem to only have hydromelon and voltfruit (I highly doubt that the gerudo had men at the time bringing them food from hyrules fields). If you’ve talked to rauru on the sky islands you’ll know that rauru is actually a very sweet and sympathetic guy, so I believe this could be a possibility.

Moving forward to raurus attitude during their meeting.Now rauru wasn’t exactly the nicest during the meeting, but I don’t really blame him. Rauru probably annoyed that ganon has been ignoring his letters and putting his people in danger. Also Ganon was very sketchy during that entire meeting and was rude in his tone.

Why did Ganon bow? Ganon and rauru are not equal, yes they are both kings but rauru has massive amounts of power and has a much larger land mass. (and zonia are kinda gods) but I don’t think the reasoning for Ganon bowing is because he less than or non equal to rauru. More like he was apologizing and giving rauru respect for the countless times he’s ignored him or tried to kill him.

More of raurus tone in the meeting Again I think he was really fed up with Ganon and rauru seems very non confrontational (he apologizes in the sky islands that the constructs attack link, and ask link not to be angry because they can’t understand) rauru likely wanted it to get into ganons mind not to attack the kingdom again because rauru had a lot of Allie’s and power and will attack Ganon if he pulls a stunt.

Ganon vs the gerudo. This part is a little off topic but, lots believe rauru is low key kinda racist towards the gerudo. But if this was true why was gerudo sage working with rauru? I don’t think that the way rauru acts is how he acts to all gerudo. The sage of lighting very obviously doesn’t like Ganon. The reasoning could be my first point. And later on after the imprisoning war the gerudo still stuck with hyrules side.

That’s all I have for right now, sorry if it’s all jumbled up I tried to make it coherent. Anyways I appreciate you for reading this :3

-🔺

Hi, thanks for the lengthy ask!! I'm sorry for the lengthy answer this beckoned, but I think this conversation is pretty important --even beyond Zelda and this specific case. We're talking themes and tropes and framing!!!!

I will try to reply to all of this in a way that kind of threads through several layers of why people have been bashing Rauru, me included. I will try my best to explain why I dislike this character, and try to parse out why I am this miffed by Tears of the Kingdom's storyline overall.

The long story short is: I don't dislike Rauru as a person (I mean, I also would tbh), I dislike him because of what he represents.

I think the waters did muddy a little in the "discourse" recently, and it's a good thing to take a step back and re-explain where I'm coming from (me personally, not going to speak for anyone but me here).

Also, before jumping in: this is not a condamnation on anyone who enjoys this story or these characters, nothing is unproblematic, it's fine, everybody does what they want, all of the things. I like the game and I keep playing the game in spite of being harshly critical of the ideas pushed forward. Also: it's fine to digest this and come back later (or not at all) if that feels like a lot, or if some of these ideas don't immediately click. But it's also partially why I think it's important: this game is aimed at a young audience, and one who might not have all of the keys to decipher what's going on, which is why I think it's quite irresponsible (which is the charitable interpretation) on Nintendo's part.

Anyway. Too many words underneath the cut.

The Story

So, first of all, I want to say that I believe you completely and fully read the situation as Nintendo intended it to be read. This is the text of the game (aka, the story taken at face value). You picked up on every single safeguard put into place to have Rauru and Sonia act in the most justifiable way possible, and have Ganondorf, on the other hand, act as a duplicitous, power-hungry and downright insane as they could have made him. In the reality of their universe, and only taking into account what is given to us through the narrative, trusting it comes from a neutral place and isn't influenced by anything, everything you said is 100% correct.

Rauru and Sonia WERE acting in self-defense, and were even kind not to turn their incommensurable power against the invading army.

The kingdom Rauru built as a demigod IS a paradise and they WERE very generous to invite neighboring nations to bask in their wealth and its technological and natural blessings (and the results of their extensive mining and why are there killer robots everywhere if this world was such a peaceful paradise uhh let's not ponder about this too much). That Ganondorf was too prideful and envious to accept IS a sin that rests solely with him.

Rauru IS a brave hero that sacrificed himself to seal the invader that killed his beloved wife.

Every single Sage IS extraordinarily devoted to protect both Rauru's lineage and their own lands, and gleefully pass down that duty to their ancestors --all thanks to Zelda, heir of that blessed royal line who returned to the past and made them promise to fight alongside Link to seal the Evil once more.

The gerudo WERE (apparently) oppressed, as they decided to fight under Rauru's authority freely (so against their own chief??) and, also, must make amends for having put Ganondorf in this world in the first place? ( I think we are already starting to see some contradictions --were you always victims or did you start this conflict in the first place? what is your place in all of this? why don't we ever get to know?)

This IS the story of Tears of the Kingdom. A story of a great sacrifice that happened in the golden mythical past (confirmed as unquestionable truth through the archeology motif), done by benevolent godly figures of royal blood and immense power they would never abuse, giving their everything to bring Light into a broken world corrupted by the degeneracy of Evil, echoed by the devotion of nations who swore fealty to that divine being and must now renew their vow in the present to defend their lands and Hyrule at any cost. Also, the impossible and magnificient suffering of the princess, whose tears lead to a trail of truth into the very land, informs the current population about why they're fighting now; she's at once a hero of the past and a martyr in the present, completely incapable of acting on her own, carrying with her the blade that will slay the crushing and violent sway of Evil for good and bring eternal peace into the land (Evil who uses her own appearance to cause chaos and violence against her own people --the blasphemy!!). The title of the game reflects this too: the Tears of the Kingdom are hers. Zelda is the kingdom here, and her pain/the pain of that mythical past is what is centered.

Also Ganondorf IS green so it's not racist okay let's stop right here and unpack all of this mess, because BOY oh boy oh boy oh boy.

oh boy.

The History

Now comes the time to point out the obvious, but that bears being repeated: this is a fictional story. It's a story crafted by a very powerful game company set in Japan. It's a story crafted by a huge number of people, who debated for years how to best tell it, why, and what for. Every single choice made in the narrative is purposeful, has been weighted against other options, and was picked over what could have been virtually anything else. Again, I want to state that I don't know if any single person took these decisions, probably not entirely, and it's even possible Nintendo didn't realize (I doubt it heavily tbh, but I'm sure there are people in the team that didn't get it or didn't see the issue), but a certain kind of story was crafted in the end, and it's the one we got.

One word that has been tossed around a lot as far as TotK's story goes is ✨ imperialism ✨, and I want to pause and take a second to analyse exactly what we mean by that and why I think it's painfully relevant here (and, honestly, I think another word would be very very relevant here also, but it's the kind of word you keep for after you're done with your argumentation not to scare off the unconvinced audience --but, to anyone who reads and might have picked it up already, yeah.)

In our real world of Earth 2023™, we have seen quite the number of extraordinarily powerful nations becoming gradually larger, engulfing neighbors, breaking apart, and leaving the buds of new future empires behind them. Hell, there's a number of them existing right now, even if they don't call themselves empires and don't have literal emperors at their head anymore (though Japan does, and it is important here). Of course, no nation, especially nations striving for expansion, worldwide legitimacy in culture and power, and their own understanding of "greatness", would ever call themselves anything but enlightened and justified. After all, the Roman Empire brings aqueducts and infrastructure to the lands they conquer, China unifies disparaging regions struggling under constant barbaric attacks, France and Spain converts local populations of the "New World" and save their souls from eternal damnation (wow thanks guysss), the British Empire brings industrial revolution uhhh everywhere please don't ask what was the cost, Africa sure loves everybody ripping their culture and lands apart and were so super glad to receive whatever "civilization" is supposed to mean when their literal people were being pillaged away to keep on building said empires using their blood as mortar, the URSS protects neighboring nations from the Evil Capital/West, fascists want to purge the world of anything they consider impure, the US brings freedom to the world and the whole world is grateful forever!!!

Everyone always has an excuse, and everyone is always kind of semi-mandated by God (in the largest possible sense; divine responsibility would perhaps be more appropriate, it's kind of the idea that with great power comes responsibility, while defining what responsibility means and inflicting their conclusions to conquered lands to squeeze even more value out of them) to do whatever the hell they want to others, claim their lands, their bodies, their minds, their culture --and demand gratefulness on top of it all to avoid having to feel bad.

There is a large body of fictional works that are dedicated to boister the image of the Empire. Every single empire has a number of them; their goal is often to mythologize, in some form or another, the story of their expansion. It often flattens every nuance, paints the actions of the empire as the natural order of the world and its opposition as morally malignant, their leaders are charismatic, benevolent, powerful and self-sacrificial. Often, it invokes previous empires to cast the current one as inheriting a grace that was tragically lost and must be restored through war, hard work, and healthy natality --I'll dip into the forbidden comparaison but Nazi Germany loved its greek myths of Sparta and Athens (and modern day fascists still do), or the Napoleon Wars so they could retell the story of their own empire by invoking a legacy of moral diligence and ethnical greatness being restored. But the pattern is often very similar: we used to be Great, a tragic event due to both external invasion and internal corruption precipitated our golden age into chaos and degeneracy, and now we must fight off current day corruption to restore the Glory of the old times we lost --all of this under the benevolent gaze of our leaders, whose mission is a direct or indirect intervention of divinity into mortal lives. It is righteous and glorious to fight/die for the nation (and its leaders) and protect it from the uncivilized, who are inhuman and exist solely to trick us, corrupt us, attack us and assimilate/destroy us.

Are we starting to notice some similarities here :) :) :)

The Narrative

There's two conversations running in parallel here.

The first one is the least important in my opinion, even though it's the one we tend to focus on a lot as theorists/enthusiasts/enjoyers of media: is Rauru oppressing the gerudos, and does that inform Ganondorf's actions?

Honestly? Textually? Probably not.

There are arguments to be made (and that deserve to be made) about the insane power imbalance, there are a lot of suspicious aspects that deserve to be picked apart like the address and deference of Ganondorf towards Rauru, the whole mining thing that I don't see being discussed much but could be a huge part of it --there are ancient mines in the gerudo region after all; since when? what's the history here?-- the strange masks the Sages are to wear when Zelda, as a direct descendant, isn't wearing any, etc etc. Lots of other posts have been made about the million tiny red flags that litter the game, but I think that if we take the game at face value, they barely matter. I would love them to have been placed with intent (and they maybe were as a desperate attempt by an employee trying to inject grayness back in the equation and if that's the case I SEE YOU random gamedev and I love you and you did the best you could <3), but to me that's more a case of wishful fan thinking (including mine tbh) that any concrete argument that the story is secretely about Rauru being imperialist and this costing him everything. There are some hints of a more nuanced world (the Horned God, the Bargainers, that some NPCs are invested in monsters are creatures worthy of study and awe --tho almost all of them ridiculed in some form), but these demand that you go out of your way to collect them and make the connection yourself. Can this even qualify as subtext? As in: the story under the story? As much as I wish this was the case, I don't think so. We can't make the case that it's a simple story for children that isn't trying to say anything grand while also demanding people to make insane mental gymnastics on their own, without any help on the game's part, for it not to be a blatant endorsement of imperialist thinking.

(especially not the kind of game that repeats 3 different times back to back that Sidon didn't talk to Yona because he was afraid to lose her like he lost Mipha --honestly what's up with this writing I don't get it, BotW didn't act like its players' brain was this unplugged, ANYWAY)

The story is about Ganondorf being duplicitous and monstrous and destroying the beautiful kingdom of the past, and us preserving our modern day kingdom from its corrupting influence by recruiting allies and friends in that fight. We are given a plethora of situations that paint him as inhumanely cruel and chaotic, and none that breath even the suggestion of a critique towards our heroes. He's evil: we must stop him.

Now comes the second conversation, and one I think is more important: is this entire storyline built off imperialist tropes that were created to oppress and exploit marginalized populations in real life while justifying the violence inflincted upon them?

In my opinion, yes. Undeniably so.

I am not so much invested in Rauru being racist towards Ganondorf; I am invested in the real life Nintendo videogame being racist towards the idea that Ganondorf represents: the scary foreigner that will lead to the fall of civilization if we let him in.

(and perhaps this was Rauru's hubris all along: to believe he could let a scary (male) foreigner in and then trust him to remain docile.... a little too much. And then he reaped what he sowed.

checkmate liberal.

This makes an uncomfortable amount of sense and I kinda hate having made the connection tbh)

This is especially true when it's the second time around that this exact storyline is represented, and I believe it to be much more insidious this time around --because now, gerudos are our friendssss and feel great shame and personal responsibility towards that aspect of them that once rebelled. Meanwhile in OoT, a majority of them were onboard with Ganondorf as their leader and explicitely did not want to be assimilated in the kindgom (Nabooru being specifically painted as one of the exceptions). I go more in depth about all of this in this pre-TotK post about gerudo culture. We had plenty of conversations about orientalism and islamophobic representation in videogames since; it was A Thing at the time, the turn of the century was particularly egregious in that regard. But It's not 1998 anymore, and I personally believe it's pretty inexcusable to rethread that same ground beat by beat without batting an eye at any of its implications (especially since they have done better since; even Twilight Princess, who gave him very little grace overall, dared to criticize hylians through Midna, Zelda and even Zant --and Wind Waker towed the line rather beautifully between the part of him that was human and the part that was monstrous, and the tragedy of these two cancelling each other out constantly). I was expecting much, much better than what we got --I didn't even dare to imagine they would just double-down on that aspect and make a worse version of Ocarina of Time to reintroduce the character.

This is also partially why I'm so uncomfortable with the green skin situation: can you imagine how this scene would have felt like, with the single brown-skinned guy having a central role in the game kneeling in front of a white old man with a droopy mustache (which was Rauru's first iteration in the series, and the one I always keep in mind when having these conversations) and his blonde wife, and Zelda being "hmmm he's evil for sure"? And then he 100% is, with no justification or reason beyond an urge to consume the entire world --even this, which is not uninteresting, remaining completely unexplored in a 150+ hour open-world game that decided to focus on everything under the sun EXCEPT Ganondorf's motivations and his relationship to his own people? Can you imagine how obvious of a racist caricature Ganondorf would have been just by keeping his skin a normal brown (not to pretend he's not already super coded as Foreign in every possible way)? The man is intimidating, uncomfortable to be around, he's greedy and power-hungry, he's insane, he comes for our lands and our women and oppresses his own and also corrupts everything through either infiltration or literal disease. Also he's uhhh the Devil, for good measure.

As much as we can rationalize and embrace these parts of who he is as fans, there's no ignoring how icky this entire situation really is.

So, to tie everything together.

There are three readings of this game competing in my head.

The first one is: the textual interpretation. Rauru is self-sacrificial and a victim, Zelda is deeply brave and an icon of the empire's longevity and deep-rooted history, Ganondorf is utterly inhuman and must be destroyed at all costs. What the game says it is --and what it is.

The second one is: the critical interpretation. That this story sounds awfully convenient for the prosperity of the Empire (here the empire being Hyrule), paints Zelda, the current leader, in a weird fanficky way by literally sending her back to the past with her super cool ancestors and allowing a military victory in the present while also being a martyr to the cause and being much more of a symbol than a person, and nobody even bats a fucking eye in the direction that Hyrule might have been questionable in any way --everyone is so happy to be a vassal, see? Let's not unpack why the king of the zoras prefered hiding himself than facing the consequences of what would happen if Zelda really did attack him out of the blue (this plot point is insane, but its potential is too good so therefore it's illegal and immediately dropped). Let's not unpack the absolute insane amount of abuse false Zelda gets away with by virtue of acting as the princess of a sacred bloodline (but she's nice, right? because that's how you want to make a sure a ruler won't hurt you: praying they will be nice). There are enough red flags to doubt this world, its reality, the complexity of these people's inner lives. The rejection of the notion that any sort of flaw or problem could exist within the system makes it borderline dystopian in my opinion (especially when compared with BotW's Hyrule, which had problems who led to its own downfall and were the fault of nobody but their own actions as Ganon is portrayed more as a natural event than an actual, malicious person), and this is the first reason why I don't like Rauru: the entire world revolves around this goat-kangaroo-furry man's chiseled navel. Everyone is, quite literally, a faceless tool in the glorious and tragic story of his lost empire (or they're women here to become sacrificial objects serving the fights of men; or they're Ganondorf, who's a non-person and an antagonistic object lacking any interiority or humanity, and the narrative being completely uninterested in that), and only his bloodline and his vision for the future really matters. Not that Rauru thinks like this --but the game does. And so, it's hard for me not to see him as either the most narcissistic person ever if we accept him as the narrator of this story, or a flat propaganda machine built for an even greater cause (Hyrule, the Empire).

And then, the third one: that Nintendo would put out a game that is so deeply embedded in imperialist and orientalist language and tropes, so invested in its traditional and patriarchal values, so uncurious about the Other and so critical of it while refusing to look inward, is not neutral (yes even if the game is super fun and has other great qualities, I do believe this game is a monumental achievement in game/level design and in optimization/tech art while also being a trainwreck in quest and narrative design). This rethoric is not neutral, especially when addressed at the West at large --especially right now, with such a global uptick in traditionalist values overall, and Japan not exactly being spared. I won't pretend to be knowledgeable enough about Japanese history and culture to pick up all the little nuances of what is going on here, but I know enough to recognize that such stories do play out a certain understanding of this country's history, its fears and its difficulties to reconcile with its own (very recent) past as a colonialist empire --both the terrors it unleashed on others and the terrors that were unleashed upon it as it was dismantled. Instead of exploring that subject, every potential for nuance and conversation and self-criticism is slammed shut immediately, often at the cost of their own characters and the depth of their quest design/writing. The unearthed past agrees with its current understanding of itself; there is nothing discovered that leads to being questioned and reconsidered. Everything wrong is the fault of a single, corrupting entity that can be identified as Foreign and Other. There is a literal Heaven (zonai and civilized, Rauru's) and Hell (monstrous and corroding, Ganon's). None of this is neutral. Especially when infused in a game targeted for a young audience lacking context.

So I hope this very verbose answer helped a little to parse out what is being criticized at which level! Thank you for giving your thoughts, and I hope mine were clarifying to a degree.

I understand it can get a little confusing; but a lot of the urge not to take this scene at face value is born from the knowledge that nothing is ever that simple in real life, that these sort of self-serving narratives often hide horrific amounts of systemic harm underneath its perfectly curated presentation, and that, well. Some Zelda fans, especially the older generations that were invested in these characters and their re-imagining, expected Nintendo to be less..... like this.

And the wake-up call stings a little more than we would have liked.

(again obligatory disclaimer that I'm not saying TotK is Bad or should be Cancelled or that you're Bad for liking it --but it's still important to explicitly talk about how themes like these are being utterly glossed over when I don't think they would have been if they'd come out of a new IP, and not with the huge nostalgia cloud that envelops The Legend of Zelda and has people being extremely uncomfortable at criticizing the ideas the series can sometimes champion --though the series never veered in that direction nearly as hard before in my opinion)

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nanomooselet · 4 months

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Episode Ten: Humanity

Toot toot! Emotional pain train leaving the station. No stops between here and the season finale.

I left off Meryl's kidnapping last ep because it feels more appropriate to discuss it here, because here's where we learn it wasn't actually part of the plan. Knives didn't order Zazie to abduct Meryl so she could be used as bait for Vash - Vash was already on his way. He's fully committed to confronting Knives over the Plants even though he'd really rather not. I don't blame him. I, too, would rather be anywhere but on the same planet as his brother, and I'm not the one who lost a limb to the fucker.

(...Sorry, Vash. I'm glad somebody loves him, but your brother is an asshole.)

Zazie is not loyal to Knives. Perhaps, confident in his superiority, Knives assumed that he could rely on a non-human collective entity, but Zazie isn't here to work for him. Zazie's just here for a good time! And incidentally to decide who to entrust with the fate of the world in whatever struggle ensues. Having already gone on at length about Zazie, I'll go with another thought: why did the weird bug do this, and why Meryl?

My initial, biased reaction would be not to trust Knives as far as I could throw the combined mass of the entire universe - regardless of what points he makes or doesn't make, he's not open to compromise with anyone. With Knives, you do it his way, you're forced to submit to his way, or it's a million knives for you. But I'm not Zazie.

Knives would probably be pretty appealing to open an alliance with purely on the strength that unlike humans, he doesn't eat - so he's not out there hunting and eating Worms. And if what he said about Earth is the truth, there's every chance we won't learn, using up No Man's Land as well. I won't defend us as a species on those grounds: yes, we're prone to forming power structures where a few on top benefit by hollowing out the rest. With our short lives experience is lost upon death, so it takes us time to learn or change.

Nevertheless there's one line Zazie has that ended any inclination I had towards thinking Knives is just morally outraged about the use of Plants in general: Meryl asks if the collection of red Plants is going to be used in a Last Run, and Zazie says something like, "It's better than letting them go to waste." If there's some way to read that which isn't "Knives will initiate the Last Run as long as the resultant energy surge benefits him and not humans," I can't find it. So my feeling is that Zazie is starting to detect the contradictions and logical errors in Knives's arguments, and noticing that despite his noble declarations he's not really interested in defending the rest of the universe. Knives really only cares about one thing.

So, says Zazie to Meryl, what do you think? Is Knives right? Will you chew up all the Plants, and our planet, and find another world to consume? Would we better off if you all came to an end right here?

So why Meryl? Why not one of the others? It can't be Vash; apart from the fact that he's not human, there's another reason (more on that for the finale). Wolfwood is too enmeshed in the Eye of Michael's bullshit to be trusted as an unbiased source and doesn't really like Zazie either. Same's true for any of the other individuals working for Knives. Roberto might work, but he's got a pretty rigid mindset - demonstrated by the fact that he fires on Zazie, taking them to be hostile. The people of Home are too secluded. Anyone else isn't in the position of having recently witnessed the contrast between life in the cities and on the edges of what passes for civilisation

Meryl, however, also has one thing arguably no other character on this show but Knives has.

Agency.

(With a couple of exceptions. Again, for the finale.)

Sounds odd, doesn't it? She's so tiny. She's not armed. No superpowers. Half the time she has to be hauled out of danger before she gets her dumb ass killed. She's ignorant of the world, naïve, even a little bit of a priss. All in all pretty silly. But she still has agency, because agency isn't just the capacity to commit violence or to be taken seriously; it's the ability to take action. It's the power to choose your course. Meryl was initially just pursuing the story for Bernadelli News, but every single one of the choices she made took her further away from that course. She was the one who chose to let Vash down when he was hanging in the desert, then because she was thirsty he led her to the diner. She misdirected the July police while she was at it, then lassoed Vash herself - laying a claim. At the diner she noticed the water was cloudy, so Rosa asked Vash to fix the water Plant. Then her outrage at (but fear of) the July police spurred Roberto into convincing them to duel. It was Meryl who wanted so badly to help Vash that Rosa gave her the bullet. Meryl came up with the plan to take down E.G. It was Meryl who tried and failed to help Tonis as Jeneora Rock fell. It's Meryl who drives the car, Meryl who damn near flattens Wolfwood, Meryl who nearly runs into the Worm that Monev killed and drew them to Rollo's village. Roberto keeps trying to convince her to just leave, to be safe, but over and over and over, Meryl is the one who demands that they stay.

And having observed them from the very start, Zazie has taken notice. And Zazie is intrigued. So Meryl's the one who gets to know the truth.

Unfortunately that means also learning truths you'd rather not learn, such as what this piece of shit's been up to.

I don't have much to say about Dr. Conrad, except that while I'm actually a little sceptical over whether he participated in [redacted], if your plan has, as step one, "Abduct poor and disabled children because otherwise they'll live purposeless lives," find a better plan.

And here's the other thing about having agency.

It means the consequences are yours to bear.

What's great about Roberto, though, is that despite being blatantly doomed to die from the moment he stepped into the show, he still had a character arc. He went from grumbling over Meryl's principles to making his own moral stand (which I just typed as Meryl stand, appropriately enough) by cutting right through Conrad's delusions and telling him exactly what he really is. At the heart of this evil, Roberto de Niro had no interest in excuses or garbage about the big picture. Conrad kidnapped and tortured children. He doesn't get to claim the moral high ground.

And with that, Roberto bows out with astonishing grace: absolving Meryl for his death, telling her this wasn't her fault and joking to the last. And along with her signature derringer, as Wolfwood guides Vash to the point of no return (still trying to justify himself, but also to push Vash to make the choice Wolfwood knows Vash would never make with his brother) Roberto gives Meryl one final gift. She still has a choice. She can run, if she wants. But she won't.

Also, Knives is still a fucking drama queen, if we needed the reminder.

#trigun stampede #trigun meta #tristampparty #i can't believe it all gets more painful from here #tw blood #meta: tristampparty episodes #hopefully this is sufficiently lesbian about meryl stryfe #but i can be more lesbian about her #if anyone needs me to

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pascaloverx · 3 months

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Hit The Road

Chapter Fourteen (FINAL)

previous chapter

Summary: You are a hunter of supernatural beings who is forced to experience a new reality: being a vampire. The only thing stronger than your thirst for blood is your thirst for revenge.

Author's note: the characters mentioned here were created by Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec, based on the book series of the same name by author L. J. Smith. They don't belong to me. That said, this fanfic will be short. This fanfic may address scenes of violence, inappropriate language and adult content. Minors should not interact with this story. Also some information here is not in the order of the series or the same way it happened in the tv series.

Your plan didn't work out. Damn it! Stefan broke down the door amid your screams of pain and grabbed you, throwing you to the ground. Strangely, him throwing you to the ground might have hurt more than being burned in the sun. You don't remember much after that. You can imagine the Salvatores being furious because you tried to end your vampire life. You're almost certain that you're tied to a chair. You try to move your hands and feet but can't. Your eyes slowly open, revealing Damon's room, and then you realize that you are indeed trapped. Damon comes out of the bathroom half-naked, with only a towel wrapped around his waist and his hair wet. You look at him, furious. But you notice that even though you're angry, you don't want to kill him.

"What did you do to me, Salvatore?" You almost shout as you watch him dry his hair with another towel. He's ignoring you, undoubtedly. He takes off the towel from his waist, revealing his naked body, and then slowly starts to put on some clothes.

"You know, you've always been one of the smartest people I know. But trying to kill yourself while a group of people who care about you is trying to find a solution to your problem was the stupidest thing I've ever seen." Damon's tone of voice is sharp; he seems genuinely bothered by the direction this story would have taken if Stefan hadn't stopped you.

"Fuck off, darling, I wanted to die. Not because the idea of a slow and painful death makes me happy, but because dying would prevent me from hurting you." You respond rudely, still trying to get out of the chair where you're tied up. Damon smiles, watching you struggle to untie yourself.

"You won't get out of there without my help, my love. That's because humans hardly ever manage to get out of places on their own. And yes, I called you human. In fact, while you were trying to kill yourself, I was able to track down your ex-best friend Dimitri. He had a cure for vampirism with him. And let's say he was happy to hand it over to save you." Damon's tone becomes almost too dark as he speaks the last part. He definitely killed Dimitri. I can't say it terrifies me, but I think Dimitri sought Damon's wrath.

"You turned me human and killed Dimitri? Wow, it's shocking the amount of things you can do." You speak, facing Damon, almost as a challenge, even though you know you should be grateful for him stopping you from dying or killing other vampires.

"I wouldn't have killed your hunter friend if he hadn't refused to free you from that damn spell. One thing led to another. But at the end of the day, everyone got what they deserved." Damon speaks as he approaches you. He crouches down on the floor, facing you. His blue eyes seem darker, and his expression looks tired.

"We're back to square one, aren't we? You're a cruel vampire, and I'm a human. What now? I age while you remain immortal, watching me slowly die in front of you? Then when all this is over, you go back to Elena and live a vampire life with her?" As you speak, you feel like you're venting to Damon but at the same time complaining.

"We both have at least a few more years before you start worrying about age and dying. I gave you back your human life so you could enjoy it a little longer. But when you want immortality back, just like your vampire boyfriends." Damon unties you, touching your hand lightly to your cheek, wiping away the tears you were shedding without even noticing.

"Did you hear about my idea for everyone to date each other at the same time? Seems like almost dying left my mind clear." You speak, smiling softly, trying not to appear confused by the changes in your life.

"I want you to know that I made a choice too. I chose to stand by the idiotic woman who married me in a cabin because neither of us knew what we wanted." Damon kissed both of your hands gently, then gave you a peck on the lips.

"What a lovely way to make me feel bad. But I won't backtrack, I love you and your brother. Individually but significantly." You pull Damon's face closer to yours, giving him a longer kiss.

"I have to go get more blood bags from the hospital. I think you have a visitor speaking of that, see you later." Damon kisses your cheek and leaves the room almost immediately. You get up from the chair and glance around Damon's room.

"Stefan, I'm no longer a vampire, but I know you're there." You say as you lean against Damon's bed, relaxing your sore back. Being human is too painful.

"I thought it would be weird to come here, to my brother's room, to see you." Stefan says, entering the room with a smile on his face.

"It's not strange. I guess now we all agree that we're okay with the fact that I..." You almost finish the sentence but are interrupted by a strong and sincere hug from Stefan, who crouched down in front of you.

"I hate you, you know?" Stefan says, kissing your cheek, as if he wanted to savor every detail of you. You then give him a gentle kiss on the forehead and sigh.

"Thank you for saving my life. But next time you knock me down, I'm gonna punch you." You say as you hug him gently, running your fingers through his hair. And so your life as a vampire took a pause so that your life as a human could return, alongside the Salvatore brothers. Damon made a deal with you that when you're ready to be a vampire again, he'll turn you. Obviously, Stefan thinks you're better off as a human. For now, you continue in this romantic confusion where you date Damon sometimes, Stefan other times, taking life one day at a time.

The End...

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antianakin · 5 months

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I honestly think deep down Shin wants to be a Jedi. She has the Padawan braid. She's asking questions about the Order. Baylan in his own quest for power or whatever else he's looking for in bringing back the Empire that murdered millions is not even giving her the true choice to be a Jedi or knock off Sith. I do want to know how she ended up his apprentice but I truly think once you Fall at all you're unable to be a true mentor, you just see the apprentice as a tool.

Wild to me possibly the only (not Master Huyang) character who's never met a real Jedi or been part of the order actually is interested in it. Tbh I want more of Reva and her breaking free from the Inquisitors and wouldn't mind Shin getting her own freedom arc as well. (We're back to Please Bring Reva Back)

I'm not sure I'd personally go so far as to say she WANTS to be a Jedi so much as that Shin is perhaps very CURIOUS about it. It's unclear just how much Baylan has actually shared with her about what being a Jedi was even like, what it would've meant, the kind of things they did, etc. And she seems young enough that she'd have grown up in a time when the Jedi were already destroyed and knowledge about them and their existence was being stamped out so much that it nearly reduced them to the stuff of legends. I don't think Shin knows enough about what the Jedi ARE in order to want to be one. She knows Baylan used to be one and that they are now gone, yes, and is clearly curious about what that means for Baylan and for her and their relationship, but I think that's likely about as far as it goes. And, ironically, that ignorance is potentially what allows her to be less negative about the Jedi than anybody else. She didn't know them well enough to create her own opinion, she can't be disappointed in them the way Baylan and Ahsoka seem to be, and isn't exposed to Huyang discussing "Jedi protocols" the way Sabine is. So instead of being disappointed or annoyed by anything Jedi, she's just... neutrally curious about it.

Baylan and Shin's dynamic had the potential to be really interesting, to really work as a foil for Anakin and Ahsoka (or a parallel, perhaps more accurately), and it just... never quite got there. There wasn't enough focus on who they were as people or what got them to where they are now and what either of them even wants out of life and this relationship. It could've been really interesting to look at another relationship where the mentor seems in control and like he's got good intentions but has also fallen to a desire for power and taken advantage of this child he's taken on as an apprentice and the impact this actually has on the apprentice in the long-term. But doing that would've required recognizing that Anakin wasn't actually always a good person, that Anakin was perhaps NOT actually that good of a master to Ahsoka, and that Anakin having already begun his descent into darkness when he took on Ahsoka has had long-term negative impacts on her. And this show was unwilling to do any of that. So there's really no way to make any kind of meaningful parallel with Baylan and Shin, which is too bad.

I definitely think that Shin asking about the Jedi and being abandoned by Baylan has potentially laid the beginnings of a "redemption arc" for her, but whether it'll actually be done at all well is very very questionable. I don't think they laid anywhere NEAR enough groundwork for their characters to make me give a shit about Shin being redeemed or to understand why she'd even WANT to put in that kind of work. I have no idea what Shin wants aside from a very generic idea of "power" which she seems to be bouncing around trying to find (training with Baylan, fighting for Thrawn, taking over the bandits). We'll see where that goes, I guess.

But Reva had INCREDIBLE set-up to continue following her journey. Reva basically HAD a "redemption arc" of sorts in the Kenobi show where we see some of the bad things she's done, we find out exactly why she did those things, we see her reach her goal and FAIL, and then we see her struggle through the aftermath of that failure until she makes the choice to stop and do better. There is so much beautiful set-up for Reva to go places from here, to see Reva not just find freedom, but to see Reva truly reclaim her identity as a JEDI. I'd LOVE to see Reva figure out how to be a Jedi again despite how little training she actually got. The only other character with as little training as Reva so far has been Grogu and Grogu chose to LEAVE the Jedi life behind in favor of being a Mandalorian. Kanan and Cal were both padawans already, but Reva? Reva was still an initiate, we don't even know if she ever had a gathering to make her own lightsaber. There's SO MUCH left open to explore with her and, with the right showrunner, such a beautiful story to tell about what it means to be a Jedi under these specific circumstances and how being a Jedi can save you from your own darkness.

I'd take a Reva follow-up story over a single more moment of Shin ANY DAY.

#star wars #shin hati #reva sevander #baylan skoll #jedi #shin hati critical #shin critical #pro jedi

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hotteoki · 10 months

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the ex factor (c.b.g.)

pairing: choi beomgyu x fem!reader

genre: angst?, fluff, exes-to-lovers

wc: 1.2k

cw: /

notes: i had this idea a while ago and i thought i was so clever for the title i still think i am ngl 🤭

part one (can be read as a stand alone)

for @rgyui and @iwaplant here's a part 2! probably not what you expected tho...

🗣️welcome to your weekly dose of the ‘ex factor’! tonight, we’ve invited a freshly broken up couple, only an astonishing two months ago! as per usual, we will offer a series of questions and you, our dear viewers, will vote whether they should get back together… or stay apart for good?

(a pause as the intro rolls in)

🗣️the two will be placed into different rooms, unable to hear each other. however, they’ll be asked the same series of questions. will they have similar answers? or completely different? stay tuned to find out!

(the screen cuts to beomgyu)

🗣️how long did your relationship last?

beomgyu: two years, or, well, almost two years. one year and eleven months to be exact.

(the screen cuts to you, and it flickers continuously between the two of you)

you: one year and eleven months, so, two years, basically.

🗣️and what was the reason for your untimely ending?

beomgyu: it wasn't, like, one argument or one thing that broke us apart. it was more of a build-up, i guess you could say? it was a kind of silent, mutual agreement or something. yeah, something like that.

you: there was a kind of tension, or something, in between us a month before we broke up. i'm not sure why there was, i don't think he does either, to be honest. it just, kind of happened. i think we're both still confused about the whole thing, i mean, we just stopped being as clingy towards each other out of nowhere, we just kind of... drifted.

🗣️how did you meet?

beomgyu: it was at this local coffee shop i used to work at. she ordered a caramel macchiato, and i stuck a post-it note with the lyrics to bts' song 'coffee' onto it, it was kind of stupid, now that i look back, but hey, she came back to the cafe the next day. i was surprised she liked my post-it note idea, to be honest.

you: we met at a cafe where he used to work at, and i ordered the first drink that came to mind, and when i went to receive it, the other barista told me i should visit the cafe again the next day. i thought he was joking until i saw a post-it note stuck onto the cup with lyrics from the bts song and a pick up line underneath it.

🗣️what were your first impressions of each other?

beomgyu: the first thing i noticed about her was that she was extremely cute. then i realised that it was her first time ordering coffee, so i started flirting with her, which is very unlike me, but i guess past me agreed that we would do anything for her. (he laughs)

you: he was very flirty. now looking back, it was very out of character for him. then again, we were younger then, so i guess he was a bit different. but i was also thinking about how cute he was. he was probably my first ever crush, to be honest.

🗣️what do you think lacked in your relationship to cause its ending?

beomgyu: i think there was a lack of communication. it was obvious to anyone and everyone that we loved each other so, so much, but at the end of the day, it was hard for both of us to be vocal about our problems, so we just started ignoring each other, and eventually we agreed to break up.

you: the fact that we weren't used to talking about our problems. we were both comfortable with each other, but not in the way where we'd talk about what was bothering us or making us upset. we'd just let it simmer out on its own, and that ruined the perfect image of our relationship, i think.

🗣️what was your favourite memory in your relationship?

beomgyu: when she tried to make me coffee. she walked me to the cafe when i still worked there before it opened, and opening hours wasn’t until, like, an hour later, so i asked her if she wanted to try making coffee. (he pauses) yeah, it was absolute shit. but her smile was so gorgeous it made the food poisoning worth it.

you: probably that time we went to this carnival nearby and he got me a teddy bear just so i could name it after him. (you laugh) he ended up getting all jealous over the attention the bear was getting, and the poor thing got put in 'time out', which meant giving it to our friend's hedgehog.

🗣️is there anything you regret about your relationship? whether it be something you did to each other, or something you didn't do?

beomgyu: i didn't give her enough of my time. like yeah, i was dedicated to the relationship and i loved her even more than myself, but i knew, even back then, that i wasn't spending enough time on her, but i never bothered to do anything about it, so i guess that's something i regret and didn't do. that's probably why i haven't texted her anymore after our breakup. i know my work has crazy schedules and that's not going to go away anytime soon. i can't.. (he sighs) i can't give her what she deserves.

you: i think i was a bit too demanding at times. i hate this thing about me, but sometimes i get a bit too bossy without meaning to. like, i have this perfect image of a relationship, and when the person i'm with doesn't meet that standard, i kind of push that belief on them, if you get me. i don't know if it's because of him, or me, or anything, but it happened with all my past relationships as well. i'm not even sure if i know what love is, i just keep picturing a perfect relationship and every time, they're all the same scenarios, just with a different face. i don't know if it's love i'm looking for, or just comfort. it's too much for me to bear, let alone him.

🗣️what did you love most about each other?

beomgyu: the way she has this ability to always bring out the best in me. i know it sounds really typical but it's true. she's one of the biggest reasons why i'm still going. she got me through such a difficult part of my life and i'm so, so grateful for that. every day is a reminder that she was the one who encouraged me to keep going. everything i do is for her.

you: his presence. i can't seem to put it to words, but he's my walking definition of 'home'. he's my home. even though we've broken up, even though we haven't seen each other in months, i still consider him my comfort zone, because that's what he is to me. he reminds me of the warmth of your cozy bedroom after spending a day out in freezing cold. yeah, that's how i'd describe him.

(the screen cuts back to the host momentarily)

🗣️and now, for the question our audience has been dying for us to ask!

(screen cuts to beomgyu again)

🗣️if given the chance, would you start your relationship again?

(the audio is muted)

🗣️(there is a pause, and a disappointed expression) i see...

🗣️well! dear audience, be sure to put in your votes on whether they should try again or not! and tune in next week again to see the guests' answers! this has been 'the ex factor', and we'll see you soon!

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fandoomrants · 2 months

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if they're selling the series on being faithful to the books, the most we can aspire to is some cute scenes between them. i doubt they're gonna make canon a ship that's kinda niche (it's big in the marauders part of the fandom, but it's not as common to see it in golden era fanfics, for example). and to be fair, it's really not as canon as the fandom hypes it up to be haha there aren't THAT many intense scenes between them

I mean, when I say "make them canon" is like, hint there was something, once. I totally don't have high hopes for it but nowadays it's more accepted to have queer characters in media than it was when the books and movies came out. For example, there are some rumours going around that JKR made Tonks and Remus canon just so people would stop shipping him with Sirius and I don't quite believe it but on the other hand, I can see it. It wasn't so accepted and widespread to have queer characters. However, I can also see how it can work for them to had been something at some point too, I'll explain more later.

Also, I made a post a while ago saying that I believe Wolfstar is so popular because we've seen these two interact more and as adults too and maybe they wouldn't have been that popular if we had seen their whole story playing out from the beginning because there would have been other characters and dynamics around but at the same time, as far as we are aware, we don't know about any of them being with anyone while they were still younger so one can imagine.

I know it's popular mainly in the marauders fandom but now if we go by canon, I believe that if they were a thing, it was back then. Like, before Sirius went to Azkaban and all that. Otherwise I can see it only in some aus where everyone lives or sth, or basically Sirius doesn't go to prison. Or generally, aus that are set in another universe where none of this happens. And it's just the whole thing of them not seeing each other for 12 years, also Remus thinking Sirius betrayed James and Lily. And, of course, the fact he gets married to Tonks later. And even without the last, I feel like they would have already be too estranged to actually have something as adults. Even if they could have, unfortunately someone dies.

But at the same time, as I said, we have literally nothing to prove that any of them was with anyone else, we know lots of girls liked Sirius but he ignored them and there's this thing in his room where he had posters of Muggle girls on his walls and Remus gets married but the whole relationship between him and Tonks happens wayyy later (obvious reasons here) so these don't mean anything. As far as we're informed, they weren't dating anyone and people don't have to be strictly only straight or only gay for it to be impossible to marry someone but be with someone from another gender as well at some point in your life.

As for the scenes between them, tbh, I reread PoA and their reunion is kinda hilarious as they're both drama queens and act confusing while explaining what's going on, also they literally hug 0.2 seconds after seeing each other for the first time in 12 years and somewhat make this immediate impression that they're very close. In the movie they somewhat made it even more hilarious as Hermione says something like "You and him" while pointing at them and it landed as an even more queer accusation. And I know this doesn't truly prove anything and especially the movie moment won't have any influence on the series but in both cases the scene gives the vibe of closeness between them.

So, yeah, I'll finish this essay with the conclusion that while we have nothing that really indicates them as canon, we also don't have any proof that they weren't either and I'm pretty sure that the fact they're so shipped to the extend of people believing that the author made one marry in order to cancel the ship is just showing that lots of people could see that there might be something. And if they make this something a fact, I think it'll be taken okay by the public, even if they don't ship them. As long as it's not something that'll actually break canon later.

Oh, and just to add this too, the reason why I said in the first place that I'd be happy if they make them canon is because lately in some adaptations of other books, some ships are made canon because they make sense. And here I think they can also make sense, as a thing from the past. So that's my reasoning. It can't work with other popular ships as the characters are canonly with other people and it won't work for them as adults because it'll break other canon events but while they were young(er)... We just don't have a reason against.

Anyways, thanks for the ask!

#hp meta #ask #wolfstar #sirius black #remus lupin #remus x sirius

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leonawriter · 1 month

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I'm sure I've said this before some time in the past, but- there's certain ships that since they have no foundation in canon and one or more of the two are already canonically attracted in a monogamous way to someone else... I tend not to feel any sense of attachment to the fandom portrayal of them, because usually (not always! just often enough that it sticks in my head) the impression I get is that fanon erases the pre-existing attraction one or either of them has, in order to make things more... simple. Or something. So I see that, and I lose interest.

But the thing is, if the fanworks I see accept and address the fact that one or more of the people in the ship used to be attracted to/in love with someone else? I'd be WAY more likely to get on board the ship!

It does several things for me.

One: It doesn't disregard canon in a way that makes me feel like certain things are being retconned purely for the fan-preferred/author's ship. Often I'm a fan of how things actually go in the canon, or I just use it as a base point of reference, so if something's been thrown out and it feels arbitrary... that's off-putting.

Two: it keeps their core personality traits intact. This might sound weird, but it's a fact that who we are changes depending on who we're most interested in at any given time. If a character has been seen crushing on someone so badly that they base parts of their own personality on matching someone else, that's not something you can or should easily ignore, given how big of an effect that is. And when it comes to relationships, you'll notice that the vibes they give off shift how the characters act and are written/portrayed. Some pairings with one character have them be soft, while others have them sharper.

Three: I enjoy seeing characters go "I used to like [x], those feelings were real, but [I moved on]/[they don't like me back, so I had to move on] and now I've started to like someone else." I like to see that sense of progression. Especially if the canon has them all as teens, it's more realistic to have not all of them create their livelong commitments in the course of one year when they're 16! Some, sure, it's fun - but not all. Let them make mistakes, break up, move on, find someone else.

Four: It... honestly adds nuance and depth to the characters - both in a pairing - if they're shown moving on, and/or attracted to someone who either still has feelings for another person, or who's moved on. Give them a bit of time. A bit more maturity. As said above, not everyone finds true love at 16 or so. Having that happen is simple, it's cute, and it's kind of like a fairy tale - but there are other ways to have it work out without making it love at first sight.

But really. How do they feel about this? How does the first person feel about how long they've had someone feel that way about them? Is there a dance of "the last time we knew each other you were still tagging after [other person], are you available now?" or is it more "I want to attempt asking them out, but I'm too nervous in case it's not wanted" when at this point, it'd be welcomed?

Have Character A be there for Character B when they've realised they'll never be with C!

Maybe they even just see each other as "just friends" for the longest time, until someone goes "doesn't your idea of a perfect partner sound like [A]?" and it's the first time they've thought of that.

And in the case of both of them having previously been attracted to the same person (no matter how much or how little), there's the evergreen "oh fun, we can roast [C] together now!"

So like... so many of those ships aren't even bad. I just wish I could see them having gone through a progression from "where they're at in canon" to "where they're at crushing on someone other than their canonical crush/love interest" more, y'know? Even if it's just handwaved as having happened in the past!

#Leona says a thing #writing stuff #fandom stuff #there are specific pairings I have in mind here but I'm not naming names or characters

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hyerinrose · 1 year

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Hello, I'm kinda new to your blog but just wanted to say that I love your work! I love all of your yan characters (Though if I had to pick a favorite it would probably be the fictional character yan. My favorite book is Inkheart for a reason >_<) If you've read Inkheart or watched the movie, what do you think about a scenario where the reader has a similar gift to bring fictional characters into their world. Maybe they read some strange dialog that popped up while they were playing the game and then *bam* he's aliveee. Feel free to ignore this if it doesn't make sense 😅

Tysm!! I haven't watch or read inkheart but i do get what you're trying to convey :D at least i hope i do T-T

Read Zen/ Yandere Fictional Character here!

T/W : Dimension breaking(?)

•┈••✦ 🎀✦••┈•💌•┈••✦ 🎀 ✦••┈•

You were gifted, though not in a way that many assumed. Your gift comes in a form of being able to bring characters out of their books.

When you had first discovered this talent of yours, you were of the age of 7. While reading a book that your parents had given you to practice your reading skill, the character in the page suddenly come to life.

Terrified by it, you slammed the book shut and only opening it back after you had calmed down. Thankfully, the character were back in their place and not squashed by the page like you thought they would.

From then on you had rarely ever read aloud, fearing it happening again and having no clue how to explain yourself. It was especially hellish for you in school but you somehow manage to get by without reading aloud in class.

🎀Present time🎀

"Aghhhh! This game is so stingy with gems! How else am I supposed to buy more Melted Sundae for Zen??" You yelled out angrily while furiously scratching your head.

Exiting from the item catalogue, you were greeted with Zen's model facing you. The two of you were on a date of sort, this part being important as you have to level his love meter in order to not get a bad ending like you in your last playthrough.

However, with the lack of his favourite items in your inventory, your chances of getting a good ending were slim.

"Guess I'll just have to use my rizz to get that ending I wanted!" Smirking to yourself as you jump into a dialogue with Zen, their purple orbs lighten up uncharacteristically.

"Hello, [MC]! Where had you been? I missed you lots.." Zen said while pouting their lips which made you raised your eyebrows.

'That's weird.. my character should be there with him but he's saying that I've gone somewhere, huh'

You shook your head, dismissing the odd dialogue. 'Must've been a new update to immerse the players' you foolishly thought. You then tap the screen for the next part of dialogue to appear.

"Anyways, I'm glad that you're here now. Though.. I wish I am there with you when we spend time together" Their face fell as they begun twirling their white hair subconsciously.

Textbox appears as the game present the choices for you to choose. Strangely, none of them were the ones you remembered from your last playthrough.

Chose : 💌What do you mean? We're on a date aren't we?

You picked it as it felt like the right one and you had trusted your rizz to guide you towards a good ending.

Zen however frowned and looked at the screen, which surprised you. His love meter dropped to 0 and you regretted your choice immediately.

"No, I meant being with you as in physically being there. There with you, [Name]" The screen begun glitching along with Zen's model.

"What the fuckkk..?" Was all you could say as confusion consumed you.

Is this one of those games that had access to the user account to find their real name? Because if it weren't the case you would be shitting bricks by now.

"Don't yo-ou want t-to be with m-me, [N-name]?" Zen's voice comes out corrupted as the game continues glitching.

Another textbox appears and you were greeted with another strange choices. You decided to read the choices aloud while clicking it.

Chose : 💌Yes, I feel the same way!

Your screen then went black for a second before you were blinded by a white light. You shielded your eye with your arm, however you felt someone grabbing it causing your eyes to snap open.

There, Zen in all of their glory was crawling out of your screen. His grip on your arm tightened as a lovesick smile spread across their lips.

"Finally.. I can feel you, touch you, breath you in, [Name]! Oh I love you so much it hurts! Let's be together forever now"

•┈••✦ 🎀✦••┈•💌•┈••✦ 🎀 ✦••┈•

Reblogs and notes are appreciated! - Ai

#yandere x reader #tw: yandere #yandere oc #yandere #yandere imagines #yandere x darling #yandere x you #yandere x y/n #gender neutral reader #yandere male #Zen my Oc

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e-adlirez · 5 months

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Dancing Shadows was wild like they really tried to convince us that a self trained ballerina was better than professionally trained ones lmao

Like that's not how ballet works sweetie😭

DON'T SLANDER CARLOTTA LIKE THAT SHE WAS AMAZING /J

Yeah that's fair, Dancing Shadows does have a cliche plot and it's not very realistic with Carlotta's backstory/development, but you can't deny, the book does earn its place as a golden age book :]

At least in my opinion anyway, the girls' brains were showcased like hell in that book and you love to see it. Also aesthetic, you can't deny the aesthetic

On Carlotta tho, yeah her character in general is probably by far the least realistic part of the book, but even then the focus was more on the judges trying to sabo the competition than Carlotta herself. Being real, her skill in ballet probably would've been more like uh

Okay if we're gonna go with the lore here, she is a self-taught ballerina whose skill allowed her to qualify for this mega-prestigious dance competition, so her skill would be (compared to everyone else in the competition) mid at best? I think? If we disregard everyone being like "beautiful, amazing, prodigy", she'd probably be mid in the competition. Don't get me wrong, that'd probably be a "WHAT" kinda skill level for someone in her situation, but uh yeah with Mice for Dance sabo-ing, girlie probably won't make it past first round, especially if the MfD judges were rig-y enough that only Colette and Violet, both classically trained students, made it among the Thea Sisters in the preliminary rounds, which, funny enough, was what would've happened in the book haha. Rousetti's vote really did carry her huh

Okay ramble over, main thing I liked about the book was the emphasis on the message of "it's not about if you went to a bougie-ass school, it's about if you genuinely care for the art and put effort into it". And the girls big-braining the crap outa getting the MfD judges and competitors exposed for their shenanigans. The switcheroo was a clever one change my mind

Also the theme of where the line where artistic legitimacy is drawn. The book has these debates peppered around about whether or not it truly matters what your background of education is in ballet in order for it to be legitimate ballet, highlighted especially in Vasily and Pyotr's debate, where Vasily believes that ballet should be open to influences from around the world, while Pyotr believes that authentic ballet only exists in the traditions taught in Russian dance schools. It's kind of a debate that happens in all forms of art in some flavor, and in the book, neither Vasily nor Pyotr are proven right or wrong, if that makes sense. Even when Carlotta makes it big, she's still kind of a point in Pyotr's favor, since she's a ballet nerd who studied as much as she could about the tradition and the art in general despite being a self-taught dancer who watched ballerinas dance from backstage and then copied their movements in front of a mirror to the best of her ability. So seeing where artists fall in that spectrum of the debate is something I find interesting (when ignorant idiots aren’t the ones debating).

Edit: I only realized that I didn’t finish the thought last night, how did I only notice it now, I dunno you tell me

#thea stilton #thea sisters #questions with e #ramble #fr tho carlotta with ballet for you is pam with drums for me #woman in mouseford book 7 was like “i remember making drumsets out of pots and pans as a kid”#“that means I can play drums at performance quality right?”#and I was like NO #NOOOOO #BESTIE YOU'RE NOT GONNA HAVE THE BODY COORDINATION TO CARRY A BEAT AND DO FILL-INS AT CONCERT QUALITY FIRST TRY #speaking as a drummer student btw #WOMAN REALLY THOUGHT SHE COULD PRODIGY HER WAY THROUGH THE DRUMS WHICH NAAAHHH BRUH #NAAAAHHHH #IT TOOK ME A YEAR OF PRACTICE EVERY OTHER WEEK JUST TO GET TO HALFWAY DECENT #wanna bet that the concert the girls just had pam knee jerk her way through the kickbass and the tune was steady enough that she #got away with it anyway

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marvel-ousmondays · 2 months

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The Avengers (Avengers Assemble)

So it took me a week to finish watching The Avengers.

It wasn't the movie's fault. It's a great film, especially if you are into the action-packed, fighting scenes. The dynamic between characters is great, and it has one of (if not my absolute) favorite quotes of the series.

But it is 2 hours and 23 minutes long and I had a weird week in terms of work, plus I wasn't actually feeling like watching a bunch of fight scenes. So it took a hot minute. Also, I had just finished season 2 of Loki not that long ago and going back to really bad Loki was a bit hard. He has few if any redeemable qualities in this one.

I'm not going to attempt a standard review given my less than standard watching procedure. I'm just going to call out things I liked.

Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow will forever be flipping incredible. In the Battle of New York where she's jumping on the flying Chitari and such- epic. But also her clear care for Barton and her emotional manipulation of both the criminals at the beginning and Loki later on- chef's kiss. I'm so glad she's the one to close the portal.

(Quick side note/small spoiler- there's a fan theory going around that her "feelings" for Banner in Ultron are all fake, just a method of control. I call bullshit. She is clearly fascinated by him throughout this film. If anyone's feelings are fake, it'd be Banner's, but Mark Ruffalo is too genuine for us to ever know.)

Erik Selvig and Barton both under Loki's control and then when they come out of it did incredible jobs. I particularly like the writing of Selvig under Loki's control- the science fascination unbridled, versus any actual desire for power. I think this hits the Tesseract's power and Loki's manipulation abilities dead on- they don't project what Loki would assume others would want onto them- they magnify the worst parts of anyone's desires and abilities. Barton is a master strategist and Selvig wants to understand every aspect of the cosmos. Generally these are traits they've put to good use. But under Loki, they're manipulated into awful acts.

Samuel L. Jackson's line "I recognize the council has made a decision, but as it is a stupid-ass decision, I've elected to ignore it" could be emblazoned on my tombstone and I'd be happy. The delivery was pitch perfect and always makes me laugh, while also being deadly serious.

Coulson- Clark Gregg's best role by far and the small amount of fanboying here just humanized his normally very stoic disposition so well. So glad they did opt to bring him back and in style.

I'm a huge Mark Ruffalo fan, both as an actor and just as a human being. It was incredibly difficult to come in after Edward Norton to fill this role but he nailed it. The moment when he tells about how he tried to commit suicide and the Hulk spat the bullet back out breaks my heart every time. There's obviously a lot of parable here about learning how to channel your anger. I personally think anger has gotten a bad rap, especially among women and activists. Righteous anger, as Starfire might say (yes, I know, I'm daring to mix DC and Marvel again, fight me later), is a powerful motivator. Anger can fuel us to change that which needs changing, but it has to be directed. Hulk shows that well enough. But I also appreciate the slow realization by Banner throughout the film that the Hulk is less crazed, destructive monster and more protector. We're not *there* just yet by the end, there's still some concern, but he's beginning that process of acceptance and understanding.

Captain America is mostly well written here, particularly in demonstrating he doesn't just follow the U.S. or orders blindly any more. He still sees himself as a soldier, but when Tony and Bruce alert him to the smell of fish in the air, he goes looking for answers. This is key character development for him as there was a time where he would have considered himself more bound to higher-ranking officials. However, I would wager Marvel regrets the one "God" comment they made in there as it doesn't really fit him overall.

Stark and Thor perform well, I just don't have a lot of commentary for either. Their rivalry is solid, though the idea that Thor would leave his brother unattended, even in remote mountains, seems unlikely.

I will also argue for more women sooner but that ship has sailed. I had forgotten about Thanos in the post- credits scene, so that was a good addition.

Note for me

Directed by: Joss Whedon

#marvel #marvel mcu #mcu

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bookwyrminspiration · 11 months

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the only part about legacy i liked is the scene where bronte is heavily implied to want sophie to become a councillor. other than that the entire experience was MISERABLE that book was. not fun

Correct! Bronte has been an absolute gem this book, between his you should become a councillor/not distract yourself with romance hints and saying he'd be proud if she was his daughter, he's the lone firefly keeping me light in this pitch black hell.

I will say I've also enjoyed Stina; she's not my favorite, but I can really appreciate her development and place in the story here--which makes it even more unfortunate when she gets undeveloped in Stellarlune for the sake of drama. Oh and Tam! He's been a delight, though unfortunately he is currently kidnapped so we're not seeing a lot of him.

Aside from that...I don't think there's anything else I'm enjoying. Smeyer once said that the further you get into a story, the more the possibilities of what it could be narrows into what it is, and the more people you lose who were attached to other possibilities that didn't come to fruition (paraphrased). Which I think might be happened here for me a little.

Because there is just so much talk about matchmaking and finding her parents and how she deserves this etc. etc. And about how difficult its turning out to be to be in a relationship. It's such a central part to the book and I simply do not give a shit! Both about how much its being focused on and how the characters are acting/being written. Yeah, Sophie, I'm sorry you're having relationship troubles, but you literally acknowledged what the mature, reasonable way to proceed was and then didn't do it. Twice. I'm not sympathetic to that

Also the way both Biana and Sophie are like..."would Fitz wait?" in terms of matchmaking when he has canonically said! twice!! that he would go at her pace, however long she needed. Like. Tell me you're being unfair to him and the issue is being forced without telling me you're being unfair to him and the issue is being forced. The whole book is just so unfair to Fitz. He's characterized and attentive and willing to go slow, even though matchmaking is important to him, and then the narrative turns around and makes a bio parent search necessary in connection to him? Rude. He's consistently trying to communicate and be supportive and Sophie's just doubting him and not returning the effort!! So I'm really not sympathetic to her plight. No, Fitz isn't perfect, but I'm upset about all this more

And when Sophie said she was getting really bad at juggling everything she was very very right. Her priorities are all out of order and she keeps ignoring other people, and I understand she's a busy person who deserves a break. But she's letting everything else slack for matchmaking? I cannot find it in me to care.

Listen. I know. I know that Sophie's only ever wanted to be normal and she hoped that's what matchmaking would be for her, one part of her life that was normal. It's just not a sentiment I resonate with so it doesn't really add to the book for me. It was important to her, I get it, and I'm sorry she doesn't get to be normal like she wants. But there are people relying on her, responsibilities she has agreed to and is failing to deliver on--which also brings me to Team Valiant and all that. They're reaching a stage where they're like "we need to work alongside the council, the black swan has always wanted to work with them" and maybe this is because I grew up with a shit government, but whenever I read that I roll my eyes. because like. fuck the council. they have total control and have consistently fucked up in the past, and overestimate their importance as naturally chosen to lead this world, while also wanting us to sympathize with the burden. it is under the council and their choices that these problems have come to pass, so if it were me I don't know if I'd make the same choices as the characters. and I don't think working alongside the council would've ever been my goal. like hooray if they want to do something that benefits our goals to fix everything in the end, I won't stop them, but also. that doesn't make them wonderful and reliable and mean we shouldn't continue to critique and fix things outside of them. like marx said

I think I could stand it more if there was a balance between all her matchmaking/parentage woes and everything else going on in the series, but it just feels overwhelming. And I really don't care. And I don't like how it's being explored and written. So this book has been very painful to read through.

This isn't everything, but its some of it. Fortunately I do quite like unlocked, so I'll have a brief reprieve of enjoyment before I dive into Stellarlune :)

#kotlc #quil's queries #commonghost #i'm not liking how sophie x fitz are being written (NOT because i'm against their relationship. i'm quite neutral on it)#and I didn't like how sophie x keefe were in stellarlune #maybe I just don't like how shannon writes relationships #and as they become more prevalent I like those books less #anyway. not liking this era sophie #loser girl era but in a you're genuinely not being the best person rn not in a silly loser girl way #and like. yeah I know that can add intrigue and characters don't have to be perfect!#that's just. not the kinda story shannon seems to be trying to tell? and sophie's just struggling #and I'm sorry you're struggling but also some of this is very much something you could solve and you're choosing not to #i know I'm being a little unfair but like. book situation is fake my feelings are real #and my feelings are: annoyed

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woodswolf · 2 years

Text

really really long thoughts on aini and how it could've been made WAY better if they just changed a few little things with regards to its "background canon" i.e. from ai 1. full spoilers for ai 1 and aini, minor (ending) spoilers for the zero escape series.

the worst part of aini is really just that uchikoshi really wrote the most compelling emotional found family drama plotline EVER that's as close to perfectly executed as it's possible for anything to be and SO much better than everything else around it and then said "actually that was an offshoot timeline and didn't technically happen! this much more underwhelming series of events (but where the characters figure out Exactly What Went Down) is what Really happened."

its like... yes in Any Other Case with Any Other Series this would be pretty obviously the only option. zero escape for instance couldn't continue from anything but the true ending for each game because that series presents itself as brute-forcing meta progress in order to unlock the full truth. like, if you take any "ending" in zero escape, you're still not getting the full story? e.g. dio end in vlr still isn't THE END in bold font with a period at the end bc they still have to actually figure out how to get everyone out with their lives, which can't happen without forcing all of the progress in the morphogenetic field by getting all the endings. even if they WANTED to it wouldn't make sense to make a sequel to dio end - most of the cast would be dead or dying and they're Still trapped so its just. yeah. it just wouldn't really work. the only exceptions of endings they could make sequels to are like, the safe ending in 999 (bc SOME of the cast survives to theoretically escape - there's a really cool fic series that explores this (part 1 / part 2) by spacedaydreamer on ao3), ztd's true end, and ztd's pre-vlr end (which they kinda literally did make a "sequel" to lmao). nothing else would really work due to the setup constraints.

but aitsf as a series is fundamentally Built Different and in that sense it's very very smart. the fact that it's built up like a serial with each game focused around a single case unrelated to any others means that it's very modular - you could reasonably make a sequel to ai 1 that's set after ANY of the endings (minus like, annihilation, where basically the entire cast is dead, and iris ending bc thats the only other end where a (likeable) character from the first game explicitly dies) because there aren't any pressing constraints on chronology that couldn't be overlooked or brushed aside for the sake of keeping it modular. like, saito is DEFINITELY still alive and running around killing people after ota's ending, which would naturally lead to it becoming annihilation... 2!!! if we got to see that actually play out - but that happens off-screen, so we could just Ignore It Tm and have the gang move on to the next case after the new cyclops killer "mysteriously disappeared" or whatever. same thing for iris - she could just eventually wake up as her normal self because we're never explicitly told that so sejima is in iris's body after ota's ending. just ignore it in favor of preserving a good character! aitsf isn't like zero escape where a potential plot hole like this could ruin the whole series - capitalize on that to carefully pick and choose the best elements of each game to make permanent "background canon". it doesn't HAVE to make COMPLETE sense or fit together EXACTLY - just cherrypick the best and most memorable moments that you want to keep as core canon.

which is the biggest problem with aini being set after ai 1's resolution route - nothing of what happens in it is really built on. and yeah, it makes sense - everyone who got the most development in ai 1's resolution route (i.e. date, iris, hitomi) is reduced to more side character status here - but i don't care about things making sense as much as them being good. and ai 1's resolution route is... fine. it's fine! but the writing quality on the right half of ai 1's flowchart is Not As Good compared to the left half and it really shows on repeat playthroughs. (the feels-like-it's-two-hours-long recap of falco's entire backstory is really shit to have to sit through when you already know all of it - and that's only ONE of the problems with the resolution ending, there are WAY MORE.) there are only like three things that are explicitly carried over from the resolution ending:

iris being Definitely Alive and Still Herself (which like, yeah, this is the only ending where that happens, but ota's and mizuki's endings still have her body being alive, and with the "just make it a plot hole" scheme that i outlined earlier they could literally just Ignore That and have her still be alive. AND they could give her a cool AIball that she could be soooooo normal about on her twitch streams like this is literally perfect ok)

so sejima being Definitely Alive and Still Himself (for all of the TWO scenes he's relevant for like wow good job. DEFINITELY couldn't have filled his role with a new sleazy politician character instead no sir )

datomi real (which like, Yes resolution is the only ending where this is Really set up, but it honestly could've happened after any ending (except annihilation bc hitomi's obviously dead RIP). those two took one (1) look at each other, shot the Autism Beams into each other's eyes, and then fell in love (as you do). it was just kinda Bound To Happen Anyway, the only difference would be how much they know about how date was falco yadda yadda and honestly imo i liked the idea of datomi better before i knew date was falco but this post isn't about that)

that's... really not a lot? and considering that all of this has to do with characters that are reduced to like, background status at best if even that (iirc hitomi LITERALLY only shows up for three scenes, one of which is over in like 30 seconds; iris's appearance count is in the very low double digits at best; and date is still important but only when NEITHER of those characters are in the room) it just. aini being set after ai 1's resolution ending doesn't really Add anything, and i would further argue that it's actually actively bad compared to the other and most obvious option!

let's stop kidding ourselves; you all knew when you clicked in here that i was going to talk about this, the only reason i started writing this is because i wanted to talk about this, and everyone is tired of ignoring the elephant in the room. so let's stop beating around the bush: aini is made actively worse by not being set after ai 1's mizuki ending, and almost everything about the game comes off like the whole development team knew this and still chose not to go through with it.

where to START with how fucked this is, honestly - though i guess the best place is probably the beginning for multiple reasons. if you didn't know about this already (because you're an epic gamer who managed to avoid all of the evil Ryukis during the parts of the first psync where they're chasing you - i only got hit by the last set on my first playthrough), now's a good time for you to go replay the first psync in aini and see what happens when you hit all of the ryukis instead of avoiding them.

through ryuki's repeated reverse psyncs, we get to see that, on some level, mizuki still remembers the events of her ending from ai 1. the "do you know the culprit" room is straight-up the setup from PSYNCIN' IN THE CAPTaiN, down to the bowl of soup and adorabbit cursing mizuki forever, with various memorable imagery from PSYNCIN' IN THE PaiN scattered about the room. and from there, getting caught by the Ryuki chases gives us four "scenes":

the merry go round column's door

the left birdcage from PSYNCIN' IN THE PaiN with the picture taped back together

adorabbit dangling from balloons

the setup from the end of PSYNCIN' IN THE CAPTaiN with date vs shoko and renju, with the models replaced by the neon "anonymous person" figures

this is obviously the events that happened during mizuki's ending in chronological order - mizuki hides in the column, date and aiba help her in the psync, mizuki thinks about all that date's done for her (shown abstractly through adorabbit), and finally the ending of PSYNCIN' IN THE CAPTaiN.

this is like, really good. it's exactly the kind of throwback reference that works with or without knowledge of the first game and still has an effect. for players that haven't played ai 1 it's "damn, what does all of THIS mean and why is one of the main characters thinking about it? i wonder if there's a bit of background material where i could learn more!", and for players that have played ai 1 it's like "aww, mizuki remembers all that happened in her ending on some level, that's sweet <3".

but it's like. do you see the problem with this. i SHOULD just be able to say something like, "oh, that's a convenient throwback/recap!" or "it must've affected her real bad for it to be the first thing that her somnium calls up even after literal years :(" but i don't get to say any of that. instead, we as the audience are left to wonder how she even remembers any of this FOR it to be in her somnium because none of it even happened in this timeline!

and like, yeah, aini's whole point is all the meta shit, or at least it is significantly more so than it was in ai 1. theoretically it could make sense that mizuki remembers everything she was present for in ai 1 whether it technically happened in this timeline or not because we're the "frayer" and she's one of the "frayer characters" (though ryuki fulfills his role as a "frayer character" slightly better than mizuki does because he's so fucked up with the meta levels) and therefore knows a bit more than she realistically should, the same way date did a few times in ai 1. but something being "theoretically possible due to meta shit" is nowhere near as compelling as "this actually happened to you over half a decade ago, and you're still not really normal about it because you CAN'T be normal about it because it kinda-sorta-maybe messed with your mental state just a little bit because it was a really important part of your development as a person that ultimately ended in tragedy (i.e. date's "death" in the cathedral) despite your own best efforts (i.e. PSYNCIN' IN THE CAPTaiN)". one of these explanations is not like the other in that it positions mizuki's character on much stronger footing that could be further built up on her side.

now we go from the part where this changes from passively bad to actively bad, which is basically right at the end of the game. mizuki day 5: they all find the corpse in the freezer, and then mizuki sees date and gets to talk to him for the first time in 6 years... and this is what happens:

i hate this SO MUCH because it was SO CLOSE to being good. and literally ALL it needs to be good is to be set after the mizuki ending (with minor rewrites to match).

now maybe this doesn't FEEL that bad. but think about This version instead (changes in green):

Date: What? Do you have more insults to hurl at me after missing six years of your life? Mizuki: No, it's not that... Bibi: Maybe she just wanted to hear you say... Bibi: "Mizuki, you've grown so much," or something emotional like that... Mizuki: No, not that either... Date: Ah, right. For you, it's been six years. Date: For me, it's different. Date: I've been back for four days, dressed like this. I've been watching you guys the whole time. Date: So I don't really have anything sappy to say... Mizuki: I told you, it's not that! Mizuki: You already know what I want. Date: ... Date: All right, okay. Date: Let me try this again. Date: Mizuki... Date: ... Date: I'm home... Mizuki: ... Mizuki: Welcome back, Date... Mizuki: But I had something else I wanted to say, too. Date: ...? Mizuki: I threw away all your porno mags. Date: Nooooooo!!!

just LOOK at how this already reads so much stronger. it gives mizuki so much more emotional strength - exactly the kind of emotional strength that she had in the mizuki ending, because she's already had all of this development before. the last change is rather subtle and hard to convey through text alone, as it'd be much more through the facial expression and voice direction, but that line would be much better if it was read as "shit-eating-grin-but-also-trying-not-to-cry" emotion instead of kinda timid and almost tense like how it actually is in the game.

this conversation just plainly and succinctly reveals everything fundamentally wrong with setting aini after ai 1's resolution route instead of mizuki's ending. the way that mizuki just doesn't have the words for what she wants from date, the way that aiba has to call her out on what she wants and then mizuki is just... shocked?

which really just brings everything around to the core reason that aini is made so much worse by not being set after the mizuki ending: mizuki doesn't have the character development that she got during her ending and it makes her character a lot weaker overall. and, because of the way things have been set up, she can never get that development again unless it's off-screen.

which is really sad! like, SO much of what everyone liked about her in ai 1 was specifically the development she and date got during her ending, and she's the protagonist of this game so you'd think that they'd let her keep that good development! but mizuki gets shafted for the entirety of ai 1's resolution route, and as a result she and date never really had those moments where they CHOOSE to be family. which just... really flattens her character. and it affects WAY more than just this scene.

now's about the time where i say how i would rewrite aini to fix all of this, and honestly, very little would have to actually change in a meta sense - it's just the smallest tweaks and rewrites of single lines in a few places. the way id have it play out would be like this:

on mizuki's side, on the days where we're playing as mizuki instead of bibi, mizuki would be more openly Not Happy that date "died" six years ago in the cathedral and coping pretty poorly. like she's not weeping over him in every conversation, just every so often when he gets brought up she just kinda Stops Talking or gets teary. the general impression should be that this was a really deep wound (which like, after everything that happened in the mizuki ending and then date ACTUALLY DIES? YEAH NO FUCKING KIDDING) and that she'd only just started to heal only for it to be violently ripped open again with the return of the HB case. aiba should be acting as mizuki's crutch and parent figure - and it should clearly help, because mizuki and aiba actually know each other and are family in the mizuki end instead of never even being introduced in the resolution route.

meanwhile, on the days we're playing as bibi: bibi obviously isn't torn up about date's "death", both because it hasn't happened yet and also because bibi and date barely even know each other - so of course bibi doesn't want nor need aiba's comfort about this. aiba and bibi will seem slightly more distant as a result, because they barely know each other, either. until the reveal of the chronology twist, the player will think that this is just one of the days where mizuki is coping better with what happened and trying to focus on the investigation - and it can simultaneously be another hint toward that chronology twist, and make the "mandela effect in real time" that happens on mizuki day 4 stand out even more as "wait, there's obviously something wrong here".

barely anything else would have to actually change. and what do we get out of this? well - a lot.

for one, the "spoiler toggle" is no longer necessary at all, or is barely necessary. the characters barely know anything of the truth in the mizuki ending. date is still in saito's body and he doesn't even know saito's name, he doesn't remember anything about falco, he didn't discover the body-swapping secret. and considering that absolutely zero of that matters in aini anyway and it more often causes problems (like with date's "mask" - like, yes, the implicit confirmation that date experienced MEGA dysmorphia after ai 1's resolution route was good because i'd called that back in 2019, but it's not ever brought up nor touched on again and could be written out without anything changing), setting aini after the mizuki ending just removes a lot of the clumsiness around this and makes everything... smoother.

the only thing that's slightly off about this would be that, obviously, iris is technically already dead in the mizuki ending in ai 1. but, as i said earlier, this is such an obvious and acceptable handwave that i would be mad if that was the reason they chose to set aini after the resolution route. aini already does other handwaves like this, such as everything around mizuki being adopted by shoko and renju, and this would be a handwave for a worthy cause! iris is such a good character, and because they never figure out the body swapping twist in the mizuki end, it's very easy to handwave that she's Still Definitely Herself Tm and keep a really good character. worst case scenario you can stick something in the appendix like "technically iris would already be dead in the mizuki ending but SHUT UP!!! this is an offshoot timeline where the mizuki ending happened but she's still alive just enjoy the story <3".

(and like. iris having an AIball after she loses her eye in the mizuki ending would be SO funny. she wouldn't even be a psyncer she'd just beg pewter for one and pewter would be like "Fine. Ok Fine." it'd be pink with a rainbow segment and its eyeball form would look like a TBH and it'd play multiplayer shovelforge and/or kusemon and/or towerday (fortnite) doubles with her. LITERAL comedy gold potential here.)

i could write a lot more about how this would specifically improve things, but i think this just about sums up most of my thoughts in general. tl;dr aini's main plot could be so much better if they set it after ai 1's mizuki ending, though it still wouldn't be a perfect game bc the side routes minus shoma and komeji's have Other problems that this wouldn't fix. aini is also still overall better than ai 1 imo because it just builds and earns its climax better than ai 1 does. in ai 1 you can get the best ending in the first 8 hours and have everything else be all downhill from there, but aini just always gets bigger and better and its resolution route actually earns everything it does. both games still have problems though, and i think 999 is still overall a better game than either of them even if i like ai's characters a lot more. so yea!

(also someone PLEASE draw iris being soooooooooooooo normal with her AIball this needs to exist so bad)

#aitsf #aini #nirvanai #aitsf spoilers #aini spoilers #zero escape spoilers #i started writing immediately after i reblogged that mizuki end post yesterday RIP #my posts #date mizuki #mizuki date #okiura mizuki #mizuki okiura #this is ok to reblog btw #also fixed some of the formatting on pc

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