#which disrespected her memory. imo | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

doll-elvis · 8 months

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Oh, I would love to delve into discourse about the Stanley family. I'm not really a fan of them either, but I have empathy for their side of things. And from everything I gathered, I think both they and Elvis would've been better off not knowing each other, lol.

warning: talk of addiction, abuse of prescription medication, and use of illegal recreational drugs

thank you so much for sending this in and oh my gosh I completely agree with you: “I think both they and Elvis would’ve been better off not knowing each other” truer words have never been spoken !!!

to be honest I didn’t have much empathy for the Stanleys boys until I read this quote below for the first time ⬇️

LAMAR FIKE: “In defense of the Stanley boys, it’s well to remember that they didn’t ask to be there. And Elvis was stuck with having stepbrothers, so he made the best of it. I’m very partial toward David because I raised him from the time he was three years old. Or I feel like I did. Those boys have had it hard. What you have to remember is that they were corrupted by Elvis Presley. All of them were. Absolutely. No doubt about it”

excerpt from “Elvis and the Memphis Mafia” by Alanna Nash

It by no means cancels out some of the things that they have said about Elvis, like David and his accusations about Elvis’ death, however it did make me realize that they truly had no choice in being stepbrothers to someone as famous as Elvis, they were quite literally the only people on Earth who could say they had that kind of relationship with him, and I imagine it was one that was difficult to manage

However… I hold absolutely no empathy for Dee 🤧

Dee has always been predatory in her actions imo, and I’m not surprised he never liked/trusted her. She first tried to hit on Elvis, who was of course not interested, and when that failed, she chose to go after his father, who was likely vulnerable and starved for female attention after Gladys' passing. Dee Stanley was still married while she and Vernon were dating in Germany, which was just a terrible situation to subject her three young sons too

LAMAR FIKE: “Vernon and I were having breakfast in the restaurant, and this blonde came up in a white coat. Vernon introduced himself and said Elvis had been called away. So she made her moves on Vernon. Boy, she stalked him like prize game”

MARTY LACKER: “Elvis didn’t like Dee from the start. He questioned her sincerity, you might say”

BILLY SMITH: “The “Dee thing” turned Elvis away from his daddy. Vernon had been seeing younger women, and it was too damn quick after Gladys’s death. Elvis resented the hell out of it”

excerpts from “Elvis and the Memphis Mafia” by Alanna Nash

And then, years after Elvis’ passing, Dee came forward with a new book about Elvis (one of several that she wrote for $$) that made accusations such as Gladys and Elvis were in a inc*stual relationship. What is possibly more disgusting than the baseless accusation itself is that Dee only used persons who had already passed away to corroborate her claim like Vernon Presley, Minnie Mae Presley, and Alberta who worked for the Presleys and was very close with Gladys and Elvis

So not only did she disrespect the memory of Gladys and Elvis, but she used people who were no longer alive as her sources because she knew they weren’t here to say otherwise…Whew that woman was unbelievably nasty and the fact that even her own sons wanted nothing to do with that book speaks volumes ⬇️

And like you mentioned, I truly believe that both Elvis and the Stanley boys would have been better off if their relationship ended in the 60s. It is so sad to see what their relationship devolved too (being dependent on one another for drugs) and how all four of them became victim to addiction ⬇️

Billy smith: “Later on, Elvis kept them around for one reason and one reason only. And I hate to say this, but it’s true. To get drugs for him. Ricky and David were on the street. And Elvis, in essence, put them there”

Marty Lacker: “Towards the end the Stanley boys were there for three reasons: One, to procure drugs for him. Two, they would listen to him. And three, Elvis would preach to them and think he was teaching them stuff”

excerpts from “Elvis and the Memphis Mafia” by Alanna Nash

It’s hard to accept but I don’t disagree with Lamar Fike saying that Elvis and his lifestyle more or less “corrupted” the Stanley boys. I can’t say that Elvis was fully to blame for everything they did but he was asking them to procure drugs, both prescription and illegal, and that in turn led to them having to take the fall for Elvis, even going as far as getting arrested in some cases ⬇️

excerpts from “Elvis and the Memphis Mafia” by Alanna Nash

And since they were procuring drugs for Elvis, they often indulged in the same kinds that Elvis was using and because of their shared addiction, they became very dependent on one another as almost everyone else in the group was against using “street drugs” like cocaine ⬇️

JOE ESPOSITO: “For a brief time, Elvis even dabbled in illegal hard drugs. One day, I discovered that despite his professed concern for his stepbrother’s drug habit, Elvis had sent Ricky to Nashville to buy cocaine. “I want to see you,” I told Ricky when he returned. I hustled him into a private corner of Graceland, “Give me that bottle,” I said. “I can’t,” he whined, “Elvis will be mad”

excerpt from “Good Rockin’ Tonight” by Joe Esposito

excerpt from “Elvis and the Memphis Mafia” by Alanna Nash

excerpt from “My brother Elvis” by David Stanley

excerpt from “Elvis: my brother” by Billy Stanley

Them being around each other was just a recipe for disaster in terms of their drug use, Elvis simply couldn’t keep up with them and his health suffered as a result. And so long as the Stanley boys worked for him, Elvis would have access to more prescriptions than what was actually prescribed to him, and I don’t believe that they would have ever told him no or tried to stop him as they suffered from addiction as well. So how could have Elvis gotten better when they were always there to get him what he wanted? Infact it was Ricky Stanley who gave Elvis his final pill packet the early morning of his passing

One of the biggest disasters Elvis’ dependency on them caused was the incident where Dave Hebler and Red West threatened to assault Ricky Stanley for supplying cocaine to Elvis. Dave and Red saw how Elvis was becoming more and more erratic because of it, and decided they had to go to the source to stop it

This incident ended up being one of the reasons that they got fired alongside Sonny West as they were trying to stop Elvis, who was in active addiction, from doing what he wanted which of course didn’t bode well ⬇️

MARTY LACKER: “When Ricky started bringing cocaine to Elvis in Vegas, the sparks started flying. He got it from some of the guys in the vocal group. I think they got it from some pusher in Nashville. And Red and Sonny found out about it, and they told Dave Hebler. Dave went to Ricky and said, “If you bring it to Elvis one more time, I’m going to break both your fuckin’ legs.” And Red went in and said the same thing to the guys in the vocal group. So what did Ricky do? He went back and told Elvis. The next day, Red tried to talk to Elvis about trying to get off pills. This was up in the suite. Red was sitting up at the bar. Elvis was at the bar, too, and somehow the conversation got on that. Red said, “Elvis, this stuff is really bad for you. I wish you’d stop doing it and go get cured. I can tell it’s really getting to you.” Elvis sat there, and he said, “Yeah, yeah. I know what you’re saying. But don’t worry about it.” He was real calm. Well, a few minutes later, Elvis went to bed. And “he said, “Yeah, yeah. I know what you’re saying. But don’t worry about it.” He was real calm. Well, a few minutes later, Elvis went to bed. And brooded about it all night long. When he got up the next afternoon, Elvis came out of that room screaming. He just went nuts. If I’m not mistaken, he pulled an AK–47 [automatic weapon] on Red and threatened to shoot him. Sonny was there, too, standing right next to him. Elvis screamed, “Goddamn, Red, mind your own fuckin’ business! Telling me how to run my life!”Everybody always says, “If you guys really cared about him, you could have done something about him.” These people have no idea what went on. They have no idea of how Elvis was”

excerpt from “Elvis and the Memphis Mafia” by Alanna Nash

This quote from Marty is why I try to have sympathy for everybody in Elvis’ group, they were put into an impossible situation as they either had to watch their friend suffer or try to put it a stop to it, which often led to Elvis having an outburst and threatening to fire them. Essentially they were damned if they did, and damned if they didn’t ⬇️

JOE ESPOSITO: “Even the the Memphis Mafia occasionally tried to intercept drug shipments from various doctors. One night Red West accidentally broke a delivery boy’s toe, he threatened to break the kid’s entire body if he didn’t quit delivering to Elvis, but Elvis heard about it. He called me, Red, and Sonny into his bedroom, “I need it,” Elvis finally said with a piteous look. If anyone pushed to hard Elvis’ stock response was “If you don’t like it, there’s the door! Get the hell out of here! I don’t need you!”. He was manipulating us and we let him. “God, I’m going to straighten out my life but I need this right now,” he would intone fervently, his blue eyes wide and sincere, and we believed him”

excerpt from “Good Rockin Tonight” by Joe Esposito

Addiction takes no prisoners and I think it’s important to remember that those who suffer from it are victims themselves. My heart breaks for Elvis, for the Stanley boys, and everyone who loved them during this time, it’s an impossibly difficult situation to deal with

To finish this I want to include a quote that really shows how addiction can destroy a person, and make them become someone they aren’t. I think Dave Hebler, who was fired alongside Red and Sonny West, captures it perfectly ⬇️

excerpt from “The Elvis Experience” by Dave Hebler

#elvis presley #elvisaaronpresley #elvis #elvis history #elvis asks #the stanleys #the memphis mafia

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foxes-that-run · 1 month

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I think this album is very much bait and switch. First of all she wants everyone to think that she and matty were a thing back in the day when in reality it wasn't the case because the haylor timeline which has enough proof of existence in 2014 doesn't match with this theory. Because she dated Calvin after that. So it'd mean they were dating in January for one month? Or just hooking up? Even if we believe that it doesn't make sense for all of the songs. But she blurred the line so no one can pinpoint anything. The 25 in Peter is another example. She makes it seem like she's talking about matty when they were dating/hooking up and he was 25. By saying that he said he'd grow up and find her but he was 25 she means he wasn't grow up which a normal 25 year old would be. And after almost a decade he hasn't grown up. But this theory is flawed too.

"You said you'd come and get me, but you were 25/ and the shelf life of those fantasies has expired" she's not talking about him growing up anymore, which imo means that he grew up and he was 25 when he said that he can come and get her now but by the time he was 25 her fantasies about him died because she was had a life with someone else that she loved and didn't wanna risk anything. This is my interpretation because the story of Peter only works if they actually dated then which even if it happened won't have this much emotional impact because she was clearly hung up on Harry.

The other thing is that all of the song has a hint of Joe whether people want to accept it or not. It's surprising that she didn't write many scathing songs about him but the silent anger and hurt is obvious in many songs. And yes many of the songs has more than one muse. Also she's writing about kim kardashian and the whole kardashian family and writing about jake and how he treated her while writing about the events of past few years so what makes people think she wouldn't write any songs about Harry? It's ridiculous, the way everyone is trying to erase or overlap haylor with matty is disgusting and disrespectful.

That being said i truly believe she was obsessed with matty for few weeks. She thought he was gonna stay because he was obviously into her for a long time and told her that sweet things i assume. She wasn't in right mind obviously so when she would come to her senses she would've broken it off with him anyway. But before that he left maybe because of the hate but he's immune to hate and she got more hate than him yet she was willing to stay. I don't know what the real reason is. But she sounds heartbroken in smallest man. So why would she say she's the happiest right after he left, if that's when he actually left!! And if he didn't leave then, then why would she play question, talk about happy memories and make it look like it's about matty. I wonder if he actually left or made to leave.

I think Joe matty Harry all of them hurt her expectations real bad. But she's channeling all the anger towards matty because it's easier to hate him for the small time they spent together and he promised things to her but didn't give, than to hate on someone who you've spent 6 years with and have many meaningful memories with. That goes for Harry too, she has way too much attachment with Harry and even tho he's hurt her, if he was actually involved in all of this, then it's not that irreparable but she's still mad. I think she doesn't want her fanbase to hate on Joe anymore and especially doesn't want that for Harry. Thats why all this blurred lines in the album

Thanks for a detailed ask, I think tolerate it is one of her most scathing songs and to me it’s about Joe.

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zippverschluss · 8 months

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ep 9 notes

haven't checked the tag yet, need to sort through / document my thoughts first.

i'm a bit... disappointed, i guess? but i think that's owed to my expectations. after a week of collective theorizing i was (not so) secretly hoping for a sauruman VS gandalf style face off and so what we got felt a bit... pedestrian?

so i guess the gardener did hurt him after all, just not the 'shears-in-your-body' kind of inury? i honestly thought he'd stick to stalking.

speaking of which, i'll be disappointed if it's really garden dude using nayeon and not the other way round. nayeon being skilled in black magic and just using / playing men left and right to reach her own various ends and satisfy her needs would have elevated the character immensely. feels a bit disrespectful tbh.

speaking of disrespect, i suspected as much, but still... how can they have the mother not know? like honestly? how can her asshole husband tell the woman his son just broke up with about the illness but not his wife? i reeeaaally want hj to hex him... like, make him step on a lego everyday of his life. or have shampoo get into his eyes. something like that.

back in ep. 3 when sy saw hj in the dress and just last episode, we focused on his right hand. same happend during the proposal scene in ep. 5 and yesterday in the hospital with nayeon. i guess that holds significance?

were sy and ny ever intimate with each other?

i liked how they filmed the nightmare hj had.

also, how ambigious jg still feels. though i'm leaning towards ally who hasn't realized yet that he missed his shot. (also, does jg know the mayor is dirty? the mayor is dirty, right? playing footsie with the haum ceo? is that why he poached sy? to take on the mayor? and if he doesn't know, doesn't that just really undercut his character?)

did garden dude hit sy with some magic to make him black out? did that magic bring back his past memories? i thought he remembered when he woke up in the hospital.

but then i really don't understand the artistic decision process behind the scene in front of the hospital. that scene made (makes) me think i must be mistaken? how can he remember loving / killing her 300 years ago and the first thing he asks about is the in house messenger? (yeah, i know, he wanted her to go back on her word...) but even if he wanted to not let on, where were the longing / pining / loving eyes from last episode? the whole thing just felt very bland and weird.

also, poor rowoon. they obvs. didn't find hospital pants long enoug for him.

also, pls. don't push sick / hospitalized people. you don't know what tubes / needles they have sticking in or out of them. drama writers, find other ways to initiate physical touch. (just as lazy as drunk alley dude in ep 2).

i cared about ma and go for the first time. that scene was funny. i don't appreciate that once again show insinuates that a man is needed to keep a home in order, but since ma is freshly divorced it is plausible. for a moment i thought he was gonna choke her out or pass out himself. lol

also, re the hug, 'what kind of man asks that beforehand?'. the kind that respects boundaries and gives you the chance to say no? uncool ma, uncool show.

i guess no tentative friendships at work, but passive-aggressiveness?

loved the fireworks and the traditional music. was my favourite part of the episode. that slapped. wished they would have kept that music for the romantic scene.

there's still the option that him wholeheartedly embracing his feelings for hj brought upon the past memories. in which case that must be one long-ass hug. still, i'd prefer that scenario over the hospital-dream one. embracing his feelings because he remembers cheapens it a bit imo. its prob. the latter though seeing how he asked his mom about past lives.

his parents' bickering is getting on my nerves.

this episode felt really disjointed. i understand the cuts / edits were to not reveal too much, but at this point i'm just really annoyed by it.

for that reason bridge scene didn't have the impact it prob. should have had since i wasn't really sure what was going on?

spell scene too short, dress not as strange / pretty. but loved the music. also, what spell did she use? seduction?

i liked the child actors surprisingly much. i liked it even more that already as a child she had shaman capabilities.

i know tall people fall in love too, but man those hugs looked uncomfortable.

there's many other thoughts in my head but lastly: i guess only him remembers the past out of the two of them. i don't like that. at all. after 8 episodes it finally felt like they were on somewhat even footing when it came to knowledge about magic, spells, curses.... having only him remember once again means he knows more and is the proactive one, whereas she is only reacting and being driven by him. (but, if only him remembers, how can we as an audience see the things that only she can know? being brought to the shaman as a child? her premunition of the bloody hand?)

on that note, i hope the next kiss is initiated by hj. would be nice to see her express her desires / feelings. 3 kisses in and it's always him planting one on her. reciprocity is hot!! gimme gimme gimme!

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capybaraonabicycle · 6 months

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Dragon's teeth🦷 and fire🔥

Thank you so much!! I will send you one, too, if that's alright <3

Still gonna talk about the cat fic because that's on my mind like every day right now.

Teeth: share a snippet that was difficult for you to nail down/required a lot of revisions.

Since I have not really done any proper editing yet, I can give you something I am not happy with yet? I might completely cut it from the work, actually, but it has changed already and probably will again. The main points are

I need to do a lot more research on dyspraxia because I want River to be a little supportive at least and not completely out of her depths like I am feeling

I should maybe not have Ryan talk about Yaz's love life behind her back? I know he's bound to be curious but I think he'd let her have her privacy and try not to get involved unless she asks him to. Idk I might keep it but make River bring her up instead? But like, I also don't think River would talk about Yaz to him behind her back and it could very quickly come off as objectifying - which she definitely isn't above but not with someone like Yaz who she genuinely cares about and who does not know her very well. Teasingly to her face? Maybe. But not behind her back.

"Mate, I'm just not sure I should be shooting a weapon" Ryan admitted. "Not that I don't want to, but - real life isn't GTA and I have not had proper weapons training - not like you or Yaz. And if you're actually going to shoot these aliens - I am not sure I can do that." There was a small pause, then River said: "The Doctor would be proud of you." "Yeah" Ryan said and Yaz could tell her was uncomfortable with the subject but secretly pleased. "Whatever." "I'll just fetch you some defensive weapons then" River decided. "To be safe. And you can be the one to apply the memory stick while Yaz and I distract them." "That means creeping around their station unseen" Ryan figured. "There were a bunch of ledges and ladders there." "I know" River's voice was more gentle than Yaz had heard it before. "But you can do this. You'll take it slow and if you stumble, you get up again. We'll give you plenty of time. Yaz is good in a fight, I can tell." "Thanks" Ryan said. He didn't sound completely convinced, but a tad reassured. For a while they were silent, the only sound their rummaging around, then he asked something that made Yaz's heart stop. "Do you fancy her? Yaz?" "Obviously" River answered. "I have not been subtle, darling." "Sorry if I originally assumed your taste in romantic partners was strange, being married to the Doctor and all" he deadpanned and she laughed loudly. "Be careful, kid, don't disrespect your dad." Ryan spluttered. "I don't think of the Doctor as my dad!" he insisted. "Oh, you do!" River said and Yaz had to bite her hand to muffle her snickering. "I've seen you two together. It's adorable!" "Whatever" Ryan huffed. "Why are you asking about Yaz?" River asked. "Want to give me the shovel talk? You should remember that you're talking to the most dangerous assassin of the 52nd century. I don't think you could threaten me if you tried." "I could hide the whiskey?" he offered. "And I was wrong" River claimed good-naturedly. "See? I know all your weaknesses" Ryan said. "No, but seriously, I'm not giving any shovel talks. I know that Yaz can look out for herself. I guess I was just curious, her being my best friend and all. Don't want her to get hurt. But like, she can make her own decisions, of course. I'm merely ready to hold you still so she can punch you when push comes to shove." "Noted" River said. "You're a good friend to her." "I try."

Mmmhya, Idk. I think there is ample reason for Yaz to eavesdrop on them and I like the opportunity to show them together a little. I like to think that they would be best friends immediately, seeing as how they spent so much time together when River was a cat. So to generally HAVE this scene is a good idea imo. But I'm really unsure about the execution.

Fire: share a snippet with some dialogue you’d like to show off.

To be fair, I am not entirely sure, Yaz would say 'no biggie'. So I might have to look for an alternative there. But I had so much fun writing that bit of dialogue:

"Great" Yaz muttered. "The Doctor's wife has kissed me. No biggie." "And she would do it again if you asked her to" River winked, pushing herself off the clothing rack and past Yaz, closer than would have been necessary. "Come on, darling, let's go save our wife, then!" "She isn't my wife" Yaz called, hurrying after her. River threw a glance over her shoulder, her eyes twinkling. "-yet." "Stop it" Yaz huffed. This was all giving her way more hope than was good for her. "Hah" River tipped her head back again, grinning at the ceiling. "Make me!" Yaz shook her head to herself. "And here I thought you were insufferable as a cat." "Oh, honey, you haven't seen the half of it yet!"

Just to clarify : Yaz loves Siren very much. The 'insufferable' refers to her aggressively shipping thasmin. Also, they haven't actually kissed. I mean, not like that. Really, for a shipping fic there have been precious few kisses so far. (but loads of platonic handholding and platonic (?) cuddling ❤️)

Hope you liked the snippets! Despite one of them being - let's say unfinished. But I am kinda thriving, having sent the Doctor away and giving Yaz and Ryan some time to get to know River before seeing them together. I think that was a good decision, for me personally mostly :)

#thank you so much for the ask!!#marvellouspinecone #Ryan x River is a great platonic ship and you can't convince me otherwise #I have actually written for them before once #They both immediately think the other is so cool <3 #At least that's what's happening in my mind #Plus River sees Ryan interacting with the Doctor and goes 'note to self: we've got a son now'#I'm still not that happy with the low ratio of Graham in this fic #I fear Graham fans will be disappointed 😕#But there's 5 main characters AND a TARDIS (who's also so much in the background I am so sorry TARDIS my love) it's hard to juggle

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seek--rest · 1 year

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Almost a year and a half later and the ending to NWH still pisses me off with how it disrespected MJ as a character. Peter’s relationship with MJ is supposed to be one of the most important and defining relationships of his life, but in the MCU she’s just a high school girlfriend he dated for a few months. And yeah, the choice to ‘break up’ with her and the way he did it is incredibly important and defining, but the relationship itself is going to become more and more inconsequential the more time passes. Which to be fair, is how most breakups tend to be. Except peter dated her so briefly that he’ll probably be entirely over her in less than a year. A few years MAX. Now, if they did the intelligent thing and make the home trilogy take place post-college and had Peter and MJ be a long term established relationship from the beginning that we saw develop and grow even further over the course of three movies, then Peter choosing to leave her after a memory wipe would actually mean something. But they didn’t. So she’s just a girl that Peter knew for a few years and dated for a few months and he’ll be completely over her by the next movie. If we ever get another movie. And as an MJ fan that just doesn’t sit right with me.

I think there’s an important shift here where I disagree with you on a fundamental thing.

Peter will not be forgetting MJ anytime soon.

MJ, on the other hand, already has.

I agree, it’s offensive how they treated MJ in the MCU trilogy. Full stop end of story. But I think the memory wipe— something I was adamantly against for MONTHS before NWH— only works because they have no relationship to speak of. A OMD ending for the sake of tearing them apart after years together makes it reductive, but there is no love story to tear apart. There is no connection that binds them in this way. Peter, who made this decision to step away, will not be forgetting MJ at all— if anything his feelings might be stronger because of it. He’ll still try and move forward, I would think because that’s what Peter Parker will always do but I do not agree that he’ll forget her.

MJ— who has no memory of Peter— has and imo, she will be the one who could easily discount her memories if/when she gets them back. It was SUCH a big pet peeve of mine to see fics written and PRAISED where it’s been five, ten years since the events of NWH and BOTH Peter and MJ never dated anyone else, never loved anyone else, always felt like they were missing something… only for the memories to return and for MJ to be still blindly devoted to Peter after a decade of living without him.

It is such a gross slap in the face from a fandom that claims to love MJ to make her so codependent, so simple minded and so shallow that she’s still desperately in love with a boy she dated for four months at most when she was seventeen that a DECADE later she completely ignores that time away (and worse, for the fics that made Peter all but stalk her, to IMMEDIATELY forgive him and then jump into bed with him). That to me is insulting to MJ’s character and I’ll forever think everyone who gobbled up those fics as people who didn’t give a shit about MJ as much as they claimed, they just wanted romantic fantasy that could be boiled down to misogynistic tropes.

I don’t have the most confidence in the MCU to treat MJ— and their eventual coming back together— right. But I do have hope, if only because they took concepts I openly despised as a possibility in NWH (May dying, the multiverse, the OMD ending) and made it work so well.

Lighting might not strike twice. But I can hope until I’m proven wrong.

Just as I can hope that if the writers are still scrolling through ao3, they are not so continually horrible to treat MJ just as badly as so much of fandom did.

#seek speaks #petermj #spideychelle #petermjane

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wiseatom · 10 months

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so I've been thinking about?? trying to write?? a botw byler au, and I was thinking about it before totk so I was thinking of it with the party as the champions, but then totk came out and the sages were there and more relevant and so I was like oh shit maybe this might need to change maybe I should ask other people would they prefer OVERWHELMING TRAGEDY AND ANGST or actual active plot contribution so I ran this poll lmao and realized while running it that I'm actually team angst but um. ok wait this is an unnecessarily long winded way of asking your opinion. you're a fic writer i admire and you like loz so which one do you think is better. angst or plot contribution

RUBBING MY LITTLE HANDS TOGETHER OK OKOKOK. I HAVE THOUGHTS AND ALSO FEELINGS!!

first of all i would eat up any loz au. i'm already panting and getting saliva all over this ask answer so sorry abt that. second of all i so aggressively agree w what you said abt the champions in that post you linked and i am so distraught and also upset that someone would ever disrespect them by calling them COWORKERS. third of all i'm going to make a case for both and you can either ask for further input or make a choice from that or ignore me completely 👍 i'm going to put this under a cut bc it is so long:

the thing about botw+the champions that is so just like. (gestures wildly with hands) to me is that you Know the champions but you also Don't. i know botw has received so much (undeserved imo) criticism from the way the story is told through the game -- namely, that it's optional -- but i have always said that i think it's very funny that the people who say this also praise the post-apocalyptic sandbox vibes in the same breath, as if that is not The Exact Reason botw's story is told the way it is, and a story being optional doesn't mean it's not important or impactful, BUT I DIGRESS. the thing w the champions that i love is that once upon a time, these friends meant everything to link, to the point where they literally died for him and zelda and their people and their collective shared kingdom, and he 1. also died and 2. got a second chance where they didn't. there's so much to explore from link's perspective, because he's the one who got the second chance, and then he woke up with no memory of it (a merciful spare from the grief), and then he had to relearn who all of them were, and why he loved them, and grow that love all over again, and then experience that grief in a very complicated way, because on one hand -- he doesn't fully remember everything, and so his grief might not be as impactful, but on the other, he remembers Enough to know that he loved them fiercely. very interesting to explore re: grief and guilt, bc both are very, very complicated! you then also have the juxtaposition of zelda and her guilt and her grief, because she remembers EVERYTHING, and her "failure" was the catalyst for an event so catastrophic it altered hyrule forever (i use failure loosely bc i do not think it was entirely her fault but i digress x2).

from a totk+sages perspective, Yes, you could say the sages have more personality, but that's literally bc we. actually have game time with them? that takes place in the present? lol. i think with the sages and their motivations it's broken down, for me, into three things, unranked: their people, their connection to link, and personal fulfillment. the fact that each of their regions and, essentially, their people, is being impacted by whatever phenomena is happening is enough of a motivation to make them want to be a sage. riju, sidon, and yunobo all have connections to link from the previous game, and tulin knows link well enough to have a baseline connection with him, so obviously that motivates them to want to help him and be a sage. and then there's the fact that they all, to varying degrees, need this for Themselves -- whether it be for glory or self actualization or reassurance or whatever you want to call it. i also like the idea of this being a Second Chance narrative in many regards, because it is a second chance for the imprisoning war but also a second chance for the champions, almost. to be able to rise up together and defeat a common enemy just like their ancestors were destined to do. i think there is also a desperation to totk that botw doesn't have bc botw the ending has already been decided, whereas with totk, you have a chance to save everyone -- especially zelda.

it really honestly depends on what kind of story you want to write. it depends on the messages you want conveyed and what you want byler's focus to be. for me, botw is a zelink getting together narrative (or, least, it sets up for them to -- link literally spends the entire game falling in love w zelda for the second time), whereas totk is an established relationship vibe. i think botw puts byler more center stage with the rest of the party taking more of a backseat role and totk does the opposite. i think it is maybe obvious on which of the 2 games i prefer from what i said but i say go with your gut and evaluate the takeaways you want from this fic. don't go for the angst just bc it's angst and don't go for the easy route just bc it's the easy route. think about what you want this fic to make people feel when they read it and i think the answer might come easily!!

i hope this was helpful literally at all. i would apologize for rambling but you did come into my ask box and ask me to talk about zelda and i think you knew you were going to get a ramble out of it

#asks

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mulderscully · 2 years

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Is the new doctor a 14th incarnation or is it the Ten who lives on the other Earth with Rose? And do we know if Rose is going to come back?

what happened is that 13 regenerated back into 10. like... technically the doctor has already regenerated 14 times (if you count the war doctor + tentoo it's actually 16) so there is no way i'm calling him 14, it's disrespectful to ncuti's doctor imo. i THINK what is gonna happen is that the doctor has some unfinished buisness that he needs to deal with before moving on which is why this happened and i HOPE that it's because he needs to find a way to give donna her memories back + say goodbye and then regenerate again into 14.

idk if tentoo and rose are coming back but if they do i'll be in contact from the grave. david tennant did say there are a lot more people in the specials than just him and catherine so 👀😵‍💫 but i don't wanna clown too hard and if billie had been on set idk how that wouldn't have broken containment lol

#reply #anonymous #dw spoilers #i guess??#dw

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elfyourmother · 2 years

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Ysayle with bunnies post made me wonder

What's her dynamic like with Urianger?

they’re lovers 🥰

when Ysayle was finishing her recovery in early SB it was at the Waking Sands and Urianger looked after her so they spent a lot of time together while the others were off in Gyr Abania and the Far East. He was the one who really began her instruction in arcanima, as a start, after Gisele suggested it to her.

ofc he was fascinated by what she pulled off with Shiva, and so he justified all the long talks with her under the excuse that her previous dealings with the Ascians and her method of summoning needed to be documented (I hc it was Igeyorhm who taught her how to do it, while Lahabrea taught Thordan; playing both sides of the war against each other). But he was fascinated by her, more than this, in what would motivate someone who was once an avowed enemy of the Scions to join their ranks. Urianger more than anything imo is deeply curious and always seeking to understand people and what makes them tick, which is something he very much has in common with Gisele.

For her part, Ysayle found him exceedingly kind and gentle, the opposite of the aloof sorcerer she assumed him to be at first glance. To the point that she was a little uncomfortable at first, because on some level she didn’t believe she deserved anyone’s kindness. And she obviously empathized a great deal with the burden that comes with carrying a secret, and dirtying your hands for the greater good even if others wouldn’t understand.

So they got to know each other, and started crushing a little on each other, but never spoke about it; Ysayle knew that Gisele was in love with him even before the Lakshmi incident and was afraid to risk her own fledgling relationship with Gisele. Plus there was also the guilt I mentioned,

And there was always a part of Urianger that held back a little with the women in his life, out of his own sense of guilt. He could compartmentalize his feelings for Thancred to a degree, because he was a man, but part of Urianger still grieved Moenbryda and worried about “moving on too quickly”, as if he would disrespect her memory and what they shared (they absolutely were lovers in Gisele’s canon). And similar to when he developed feelings for Haurchefant and Estinien, he also specifically feared complicating matters wrt Gisele’s relationships with them.

So it was kind of a slow burn metamours to lovers situation between Uri and Ysayle that really only began to resolve itself in ShB; the Sex Pollen Incident in Rak’tika was a major catalyst for that, because all the lingering feelings/attraction they’d both been repressing came blooming to the surface and they couldn’t ignore it anymore. Kind of a parallel to what happened between Gisele and Urianger following Lakshmi, only unlike then, Uri didn’t pull away out of guilt—Y’shtola wouldn’t let him. XD

EW was when it was really cemented though, Urianger getting closure as far as Moen and Ysayle becoming more at ease in general after time in Radz-at-Han really helped it a lot. It’s a very quiet and sort of lowkey relationship they have, nothing flashy. Quiet tea time at the Last Stand, that sort of thing. It’s really very sweet.

#puts out ask me about my rarepairs sign #this is a rarepair that I adore and don’t talk nearly enough about #sexyback augurelt #ice wife #i mean the elfpile and the scioncule have basically merged at this point #allycryz #ask bisho

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caatws · 1 year

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IMO making Gamora a ravager hurt her character. There's no arguing that when it comes to the audience only characters who are guardians are receiving much attention. Those are the characters whose arcs are being praised. When it comes to performances that's where the focus is, which is particularly sad because Zoe killed it in the film. As you brought up even merch is focused on the guardians. I notice James Gunn is focused on the guardians as well as Rocket's friends. His only real interest in ravagers has been Yondu and Kraglin both of whom he made guardians at some point. That says everything.

As a lead Gamora helped form the guardians. Her desire to do something good with her life influenced how things moved forward. She created the foundation the story has been built upon with the other OG guardians. That's not the equivalent of joining the ravagers from a narrative or audience perspective. It would be like killing Tony Stark in the same way she was and then bringing him back in Endgame as something other than an Avenger and saying it's the same. Fans would have called that disrespectful to who he was and what his character represented.

Gamora was demoted from female lead too. She was the first woc lead and on a popular team she formed no less. It feels wrong that it's all because her abuser did something terrible and she had everything messed up for her. Vol 3 diluted how much of a leading role she had before by only having Peter attribute any part of the guardians to her. It also downplayed she was abused and came very close to covering up her murder all together with the memory loss comments and none of the characters even mentioning what happened in IW. except Peter in his magic cliff rant that made is seem the whole incident was relatively benign instead the horrifying experience it actually was for Gamora. I don't want to come across as hating but I feel like if a novice writer/director had done this it would come under fire. Some stuff I can see getting a pass, but avoiding conversation about her murder, moving her out of a leading role she had from the start and not giving her much development or arc after everything/this being the last film, is a little too much to ignore.

i think this is definitely fair...like i'm not fully against gamora being a ravager in her new life, but that final shot of her with her "real family" at the end after she leaves the gotg hurts me so much every time it's like twisting the already existing 5-year-old knife in my gut further 😭 peter gatekeeping being a ravager from her was so real lmao like you're so right king thank you

and yeah it all would've been better if gamora was still The Female Lead(TM) but she wasn't even that anymore which just felt so strange coming off the heels of vol 1 and vol 2 in the imax marathon. like wot

but yeah i agree with you on all fronts here anon. they never would've done this to one of the white male leads in the avengers lol i mean, those guys got Funerals 😧😧😧 like they got Grieved 😧😧😧😧😧😧

#the gamora situation #ask

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silvermoon424 · 2 years

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it really pisses me off when people say Sayaka "died because of a boy." It's so disrespectful to her character and really misses what the show was going for.

SERIOUSLY!!! A lot of people really misinterpret Sayaka's character arc. I'll be the first to admit I was one of those people when I first watched Madoka Magica. I thought Sayaka was annoying and dismissed her because she "died over a crush." But after a while (and after I read some of the spinoffs/supplementary material) I started reexamining Sayaka's character and her story arc.

This is actually a great chance for me to air out some of my thoughts for an eventual in-depth Sayaka character analysis I want to write. That post will require more research though, this is just going off my memory of the series.

Anyway, these are the reasons (imo) why Sayaka fell into despair:

She felt like she was a monster or a "zombie" who lost her humanity because her soul had been ripped out of her body and put into a gem (and also she would fucking die if said gem was separated from her body)

She had a severe case of black and white thinking, along with an inability to cut herself any slack for any slip-ups (real or imagined). To Sayaka, magical girls were either infallible heroines of justice who showed no weakness or untrustworthy snakes who weren't worthy of being magical girls. Mami was the former, and Homura and Kyoko were the latter. Sayaka desperately tried to live up to the pedestal she had placed Mami on, but as she was only human she repeatedly fell short (and, of course, we know that Mami was hardly perfect either). The more Sayaka was unable to live up to this unattainable, perfect image of a magical girl, the deeper into despair she fell.

Going off on that last point, Sayaka starts to torment herself on the true motivation of her wish. Did she wish for Kyousuke's hand to be healed out of a selfless desire to see him happy, or because she secretly wanted him to be indebted to her and to be her boyfriend out of gratitude? Once again, Sayaka is incapable of cutting herself any slack for potentially not having the purest of motivations and that further drives her into despair.

As a rookie magical girl with little experience, Sayaka struggles with hunting even Familiars at times. iirc the creators of PMMM even stated somewhere that, out of the Holy Quintet, Sayaka is the weakest. Having trouble getting enough Grief Seeds to sustain herself and constantly risking her life is definitely a contributing factor to Sayaka's descent into despair.

And of course, I do think it would be disingenuous to completely discredit the role Hitomi confessing to Kyousuke had on Sayaka's psyche. I do think that it plays a small role overall (and the other factors here are much bigger), however.

Also, I want to point out something that happens in The Different Story, which is imo the best spinoff manga. It takes place in an alternate timeline where Sayaka contracted just in time to save Mami from Charlotte. The circumstances of Sayaka turning into a Witch are much different here.

***SPOILERS FOR THE DIFFERENT STORY***

In this manga, Sayaka is on the trajectory to become a Witch, but Mami (her partner) refuses to abandon her. When Sayaka says she'll throw away her ideals as a magical girl and live selfishly, Mami vows to do the same because she can't handle the thought of being abandoned again (after Kyoko left her the first time). Sayaka weeps with joy and thanks Mami... and then immediately turns into a Witch.

Why is this? It's because Sayaka feels intensely guilty for knocking Mami off of her pedestal. She is both deeply grateful that Mami wants to be with her and deeply guilty that she caused a "perfect" magical girl like Mami to abandon her ideals to stay with her. The guilt and despair win out and she turns into Oktavia.

So in one timeline at least, Sayaka becoming a Witch has nothing to do with Kyousuke. It's even more explicitly about failing to live up to her standards of being the ideal magical girl and, moreover, "corrupting" another ideal magical girl.

#pmmm #puella magi madoka magica #madoka magica #sayaka miki #analysis #mami tomoe

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shinidamachu · 3 years

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it was obvious that inuyasha would end up with kagome because kikyo is already dead, but the "tragic love song of destiny" filler episodes really make inukag look bad imo. In those episodes inuyasha went on boat dates with kikyo, gifted her his mother's rouge, kissed her, almost told her "i love you"... he did nothing like that with kagome in all the time they spent together 1/3

Okay, if you're briging up Tragic Love Song Of Destiny, which is a anime only filler, then I assume is fair game to bring up more anime only content as well? In this case, I have exciting news for you about Inuyasha doing nothing like kissing Kagome as he did with ᴋɪᴋʏᴏ:

He did not go on "official" dates with Kagome, but they did hang out alone a lot, in situations that were pretty much unofficial dates. They had impromptu picnics, they gazed at the stars together and they walked around Tokyo hand in hand (Kagome herself recognized the similarities with a real date).

And they didn't need to go on actual dates for at least half of the people they crossed paths with to think they were girlfriend and boyfriend.

It's also important to point out that Inuyasha and ᴋɪᴋʏᴏ went on these elaborated boat dates when everything was fine and dandy. They didn't have jewel shards to hunt or a maniac to stop.

And even so, people can go on dates and not be in love, the same way people can be in love and not go on dates.

I don't remember Inuyasha almost saying "I love you" to ᴋɪᴋʏᴏ, so I'll just take your word for it. But I do remember Inuyasha saying something even better about Kagome:

This was a moment of realization, not of his love for Kagome, because he already knows that, but of the fact that every step they took, every decision made, every detour they took in their entire lives happened so that they could meet and be together. ᴋɪᴋʏᴏ was the path and Kagome the destination.

And I don't mean to disrespect ᴋɪᴋʏᴏ's importance at all. The path is just as significant. The path teachs you lessons. The path can be beautiful, meaningful, a fond memory. But it is not why you take the first step.

And the fact Inuyasha doesn't say that to Kagome out loud proves that he's not saying that just to say it. He is not saying just to get points with her. He actually believes what he's saying with ever fiber of his being. And we believe him because their story backs this statement up. Inuyasha did tell Kagome he loves her, but it was through his actions.

Protecting her with his life, taking care of her when she's sick, spending quality time with her family, meeting her friends, putting his coat over her when she's cold or in danger, supporting her through her school exams, understanding that he wasn't the only important person in her life, locking her the other side of the well by fear she might get hurt, spending the majority of time glued to her hip, waiting three whole years for her to come back to him. The list goes on.

He might not have gifted Kagome with his mother's rouge, but he gave her much more: his body, heart and soul. No amount of official dates, physical gifts, big kisses and fancy words can measure up to that. If those are the only things Inuyasha and ᴋɪᴋʏᴏ's love is based on, it doesn't seem too deep to me. So I don't think TLSOD made Inukag look bad at all.

Now, I totally agree that it was obvious Inuyasha would end up with Kagome because ᴋɪᴋʏᴏ is already dead, but I'd go even further and say that Inuyasha would end up with Kagome even if ᴋɪᴋʏᴏ was brought back as a living, flesh and bones woman.

#Sidmailing #Inuyasha #Kagome #Inukag #Thank you for the ask #1 down 3 to go #Bear with me

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alirhi · 3 years

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okay. let's do this shit.

Guess what, bitches? Mama bear's back and angry all over again. Remember when I said I might dive into a ragepost about how Bucky's treated after completing the one about Loki? This is it. This is the post. Welcome to fucking Thunderdome.

I will actually try to keep it civil. No promises, but I'll try. and I will not be accepting "constructive criticism" about my rage. Just so we're clear.

Got it? Good. Let's dive in.

In case you don't want to read the whole thing (I know I get wordy) here's what this whole post will boil down to: BUCKY NEVER HAD A FUCKING CHOICE. NEVER. NOT ONCE IN HIS ENTIRE ADULT LIFE.

Now, quick reminder: I don't read comics. I know nothing about Bucky's comic canon, except what Sebastian liked to bring up as often as possible during TWS/CW promotions: at some point, Bucky boned Nat. XD Since Bucky only exists as a Marvel property, I won't be bitching about other source material being disrespected like I did with Loki. This is all MCU, my dudes. And honestly? That's enough, because though we don't see nearly enough of Bucky for my liking, we do manage to get a rich, deep backstory to him in the material we're given, partly thanks to better writing in the early days of the MCU, and partly thanks to Sebastian Stan's phenomenal acting. Unlike the writers of the Loki series, Seb knows how to show, not tell. And gods, what stories those eyes show...

Let's start with the army. In an old post illustrating what an absolute BAMF Bucky Barnes truly is, I mistakenly said he enlisted, and a kind soul educated me on the incredible attention to detail Marvel used to pay - in this case, Bucky's ID number. 32557038. As this kind, eagle-eyed soul pointed out to me, the first two digits of that number - 32 - signify that Bucky was drafted, specifically from the NY, NJ, DE area (that last part is rather obvious, as Bucky and Steve are from Brooklyn lol). Bucky didn't choose to go to war. He was drafted. He was forced to fight, or go to prison.

Bucky was born in 1917, which means - again, as someone pointed out to me a while back - he came of age during the Great Depression. As a child, he would likely have seen his parents living comfortably and able to shower each other and him and his sister with gifts and fun memories, and then POOF. Stock market crashes when he's only 12-years-old, and life becomes brutal and painful. He manages to have some fun with his best friend Steve, and spends his teens/early 20s chasing girls and keeping his stupid, stubborn, tiny friend from getting beaten to death.

Steve constantly has something to prove. He's absolutely got what my mom always called "little man's disease", and Bucky's just doing his best not to roll his eyes too much at this asthmatic chihuahua constantly trying to beat up Tibetan mastiffs. While Steve keeps lying on his enlistment forms (an actual crime) trying again and again to get into the army and prove what a badass he is (definitely not), Bucky's had enough trauma and upheaval in his life and he just wants his stupid friend to calm tf down and live. Enjoy the fact that he doesn't have to go to war and get his limbs blown off.

And then he gets fucking drafted. This sweet, resigned realist who knows exactly how dangerous the war really is, is forced to put on a uniform and go fight strangers alongside other strangers thousands of miles from everything he knows. And on his last night of freedom, when he just wants to hang out with his friend, see some cool gadgets, and dance with a pretty girl, his stupid angry chihuahua friend feels the need to lie and try to enlist again.

Okay. Gotta get back on track. Ragepost about mistreatment of Bucky, not how much Steve annoys me. Sorry. Anyway...

Bucky's drafted, accepts his shitty lot with a brave smile, and is shipped off to Europe, where he is captured by HYDRA and presumed by the Allies to be KIA. Instead, he's strapped down, tortured, and given the HYDRA version of the super serum against his will. Steve rescues him, and Bucky knows he can't leave his idiot friend to his own devices to get his head blown off, so he dives right back into the fray. And then he falls off a cliff, loses most of his left arm, and is declared dead...again. This one's pretty damn valid, though lol. Without the serum no one knew he'd been shot up with, there is no way he would have survived that fall.

Here is where Bucky's story gets truly heartbreaking: His autonomy, his ability to consent is stripped from him through electroshock torture/brainwashing. The trigger words are conditioned into him during this process, and boom. Ten words in Russian, and Bucky Barnes is gone. Even the confused, hurting shadow of him is gone, leaving only a perfectly obedient killing machine, with Bucky's pretty face. He's strong as all hell, though, so they can't keep him fully under their control for long, not without more torture, when the disorientation of being fucking frozen wears off on longer missions.

I cannot stress this point enough, guys: Bucky. Had. No. Choice. Not like the draft, where his choices (go and get shot at, refuse and go to jail, or dodge and run to Canada) just suck. No, he literally didn't have a choice. He had his ability to choose stripped from him. If that's too complex a concept to really sink in, try this: His brain was fucking raped. Repeatedly. For decades. Nothing the Winter Soldier ever did was Bucky's fault. Nothing. Ever. Not remotely, no matter how you fucking slice it. Bucky is not an assassin. I almost said "not a killer", but he was a soldier, and a sharpshooter. He definitely killed when he was himself, but that was in a war, not a series of assassinations.

So far, imo, so good. This is just a rundown of Bucky's pre-show backstory. I don't love what he had to suffer, but I do love how it was treated in the movies. People were afraid of him, but when they knew the whole situation, Steve, Nat, and Sam rallied behind him. Natasha had plenty of reason to want the Winter Soldier dead; he'd tried to kill her multiple times and almost succeeded. Sam had no reason to help Bucky at all; he didn't know him, didn't trust him, and again, TWS had tried to kill him. But he stood by Steve, and when Bucky showed the clear difference between himself and TWS, Sam stood by him, too, and fought alongside him.

And it's very realistic, imo, that Tony didn't give a single fuck that Bucky had no choice. He watched this man murder both of his parents on tape. If TWS had killed my dad and I saw proof of it, I'd try to kill Bucky, too. Grief wins out over logic. Most emotions usually do. And that's a very important point we're going to come back to in a few minutes.

Bucky was really only in like ten minutes at most of IW and Endgame, and for multiple reasons I hate those movies, so I'm just gonna skip them, kay? Kay. On to the main event!

Here's where I get pissed off. Even if I didn't have an unhealthy attachment to this character, or the depth of appreciation for his tragic backstory that I do, the lack of continuity between the movies and the show alone would still piss me off. It always does. Don't even get me started on Joss "Continuity? What continuity?" Whedon and his (iconic, but flawed) shows. Ahem. Back on track...

Let me just get one little thing out of the way real quick: I fucking LOVE The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. I love it. This show amazed me when I first watched it, and I still love it after many more viewings lol. I have only ever watched it all the way through without skipping over as much John Walker shit as possible the one time lol but I love how Sam and Bucky interact, and I fucking adore how Sam's arc was treated. I just wish they'd show the same care and attention to Bucky.

Because what they did to Bucky in this show is a fucking travesty. There was a tiny ray of hope in the pilot, when he called out Dr. Bitchface for being a terrible shrink. I thought that would be the start of him realizing he needed to find someone else and ignore the damaging shit that woman was telling him. But...nope. No such luck.

The show really had a strong start, I'll give it that. We see Bucky having nightmares of his time as TWS and struggling to hide how his traumatic memories are affecting him as he tries to live in the world again. He befriends the father of one of HYDRA's victims, which can't be good for Bucky (and we're shown it's definitely not when he sees the shrine in Yori's home to his late son) but it's sweet, how he's trying to connect and reach out to someone who's hurting and lonely.

They drop the ball a little with the whole... Bucky can hack a fucking car, but can't figure out Tinder thing. Had they just run with the fandom interpretation of the tiger photos line, that it shows that Bucky is bi and left it at that, I'd have been okay with it (and no, that is not because I ship Sam/Bucky. it's because Bucky is and always has been a certified nerd who loves technology and has consistently shown very little issue learning to use new gadgets). The outdated flip phone he handed his terrible court-mandated shrink was a burner; I liked that theory when I read it, especially since it's the only time we see him even holding a phone that old lol. This all could have fit the "Bucky is a sassy bisexual nerd" narrative and it'd be okay. Instead, the director was like "NOOOOOO that line was just to show how old he is and how he can't figure out all this newfangled technology!" Woman, you had him remotely driving someone else's vehicle with a tablet. That is NOT a man who can't figure out a damn smart phone!

But that's just a minor annoyance. What fills me with absolute rage is how everyone - not just the shitty therapist who lashes out at and purposely triggers her traumatized patients, but EVERYONE - Sam, Zemo, people who should fucking know better ALL treat him like he's a psychopath and a ticking time bomb. Like he chose to take the serum and he chose to kill for HYDRA, and he's just seen the error of his ways. *barf*

Bucky in the movies is established to be a victim, through and through. His guilt over what he was forced to do is natural, and that he sees himself as a monster makes sense... but that doesn't mean it's correct. The one and only thing I ever liked about Steve Rogers is at least he got it. He pointed out that none of it was Bucky's fault, he tried to show him that he was worth saving. That's the other reason I refuse to talk about Endgame. This post will get a WHOLE LOT LONGER and a lot fucking angrier if I open that door.

Zemo supposedly knows everything about HYDRA and super soldiers... So why does he treat Bucky like he's a corrupt serial killer? (this, for the record, is why I don't like Zemo) Why does he never point out that Bucky was given the serum against his will, or that his actions, when he had control of them, proved that he was never corrupted? Bucky never wanted to become superhuman. Bucky didn't even want to fucking fight!

Sam, despite constantly resisting the label, is shown very clearly to be Bucky's friend. By episode 3, he cares. He worries about how Bucky is getting lumped in with the other super soldiers in Zemo's speech... But he never really defends him. He says "what about Bucky?" but he doesn't point out that Bucky's a good man, he's fought so hard to help people, he does everything he can to avoid killing... And that fucking speech in episode 5. I was with him on "you gotta stop looking to other people to tell you who you are." I was like "YEAH! Tell him, Sam! Bucky, you're WORTH SAVING, boo! Your value does not hinge on someone else's opinion of you!" And then... Sam dropped the ball.

He not only continued the disturbing pattern of victim-blaming in this show, and in Marvel/Disney properties in general, but he gave really dangerously bad advice! No one in their right mind, mental health professional or no, would EVER tell a traumatized former assassin (whether he was responsible for his actions or not) to go confront his victims' families out of the blue with no warning and no one to mediate and keep things from going to shit. Yori already knew his son had been murdered because he was in the "wrong place, wrong time." How is it being "of service" to tell him you're the one who killed him?! Remember how I said Tony's reaction to learning the full truth about his parents' deaths was valid and would be an important point later? Hi! Welcome to later. THAT is the natural reaction to facing the man who murdered your loved one(s). And even if Yori didn't get angry and lash out, HOW IS IT "HELPING" HIM OR BRINGING HIM "CLOSURE" TO KNOW THAT HIS FRIEND KILLED HIS FUCKING SON?!?!?! This man befriended him, bonded with him, watched him grieve... And now he's learning this is the man who caused all his pain and heartache to begin with? That is so toxic and psycho I just... I can't even... UGH.

And then there's the equally toxic and damaging "deeply traumatized person just needed a stern talking to and a hug to be ALL BETTER AGAIN" ending. I loved seeing Bucky happy and socializing, but it was too soon, and it was unearned. And it sends a fucking awful message to people actually struggling with PTSD, and to their loved ones who don't know how to help them. Heaping more blame on them and then hugging it out is NOT helpful!

This show could have been damn near perfect with just two changes. That's all. Just two. 1) Someone, anyone, bringing up the reasons why Bucky was never a villain in his presence. Someone being in his corner and reminding him, like Steve did, that it wasn't his fault and he's not going to "snap". 2) More time devoted to Bucky's healing. Actual fucking healing, not the shit they tried to pass off as a magic fix-all. He can have his happy barbecue moment, just don't frame it as "everything's great now!" Healing isn't linear, and there will be both good days and bad. Some of the most fragile people in the world have the brightest smiles.

If we get a season 2, which this amazing show absolutely deserves, and they address this stuff, all will be forgiven in my book. Expanding on his story and his journey toward healing will help to reframe that "happily ever after" garbage as something more realistic. But as it stands now... Fuck Marvel.

#fan rant #ragepost #long post #bucky barnes #mcu #captain america #the first avenger #the winter soldier #civil war #tfatws #mcu spoilers #stop victim blaming #victim not villain #never a fucking villain #bucky deserved better #fuck marvel #fuck disney

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ooc-but-stylish · 3 years

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freezedive:

I think I said it in one of your other beautiful posts, but I thought I’d mention it again. All of the ridiculous cutscenes did give us a golden nugget of information on Luna that most of us who are brutally critical of her (like you and me), suspected all along: Luna openly admits to Gentiana that she doesn’t think she has anything to offer Noctis outside of being an oracle. And Gentiana makes it worse by speaking in fancy words by saying some bullshit about her being the oracle is her being human or something and that she is fulfilling her true calling and that is what Noctis needs? Idk but it reeked of emotional manipulation.

I hold little to no regard for Ravus because there’s evidence Luna was being brutally beaten right under his own nose while he was busy being the Emperor’s lapdog thinking it could maybe give him the power to save his sister? The man should have opened his eyes and defended her against the men that kept them jailed

I happened on this reply to roxainn’s post while trying to recapitulate all my other FFXV critical posts and reblogs on the way to making new ones.

Crawling back to find anything about this point, I find that it was posted 3 years ago. But at least I reblogged the reply to it.... and missed that it was literally @ ME. Goddamn did I slack.

But here’s my reply, 3 years late, which should elaborate on where I stand on this.

Yes, the flashback that gets triggered by a random creepy little girl in Tenebrae is about Luna and Gentiana. Somehow the little girl knew about that conversation even though she wasn’t there to witness it first-hand? Or maybe Noctis was imagining what the conversation would be like between Gentiana and Luna off of the vague suggestion from the girl, and it’s just him telling on himself that his imagination of Luna says all that? Otherwise the not-altogether-tinfoil-hat theory says it’s Gentiana in the form of a little girl, telling Noctis something that IMO should piss him off but just makes him sad and guilty because Luna loved him so much, don’t you see. She loved him so much that after wrapping her entire life around him, she’d just want to keep that going for the rest of their lives!

Gentiana opens the conversation with, “At first, the father had mourned the fate of his chosen son. Yet in Tenebrae, the two found solace. It was not the Oracle who assuaged their fears. But the girl…she holds…the true power.”

Then Luna replies, “I have little to offer a king, other than the voice afforded the Oracle. Nevertheless…” She turns to look at the wedding dress. “And—I’m afraid he might find this foolish… But…to be together with Noctis again, even if only for a short while… It…would mean the world to me. I do not seek to guide him, merely to stand beside him.”

The exchange is all types of fucky.

First off, she was twelve. What comfort could she have offered Regis and Noctis? What comfort was she capable of when Sylva was right there, an adult with experience of an Oracle and a personality thanks to a presumable full life not hampered by grooming of the gods?

Second, every other scene of Luna as a child is of her telling Noctis his duty, and that it was her duty to see it through. Did that assuage his fears-- the fears he didn’t have at the time since he never knew the entire meaning of his fate and was being told a saccharine, embellished version of it by Luna right there? Did that comfort Regis, knowing a little girl would also die to protect his son if the gods wanted it, but that she wouldn’t have the will to avert their fates whatsoever?

Third, even she thinks Noctis would think her desire to be with him is foolish. So... was she expecting that Noctis himself didn’t have feelings for her or want to spend time with her of his own volition for reasons outside of her job? She was looking forward to a marriage with no emotional security, where her desires are one-sided and unreciprocated, and the man she cares for think she’s worthless outside of her powers? She would’ve been willing to put herself through that, given a choice?

We know what we know and think what we think, but the fact that this was placed right in the vanilla game and no one thought that was wrong, and instead they doubled down on it in patches, is pathetic on their part.

Moreover, what does The Girl have, that was separate from The Princess and The Oracle? Every facet of her being wrapped around Noctis since age 4. She was nothing but her duty by the time Noctis met her; they had no scenes where they acted as children would. Even supplemental/promotional art for other XV media and related locales cement that. Little Luna serves Little Noctis pastries, she’s not seen eating with him. Luna teaches Noctis how to play piano, she’s not playing with him. Dawn of the Future came out with its own art, and Noctis is afforded the liberty to sit in a chair, and his son(?) sits on his lap, while Luna and her spitting image child(?) are both on their knees, looking up at the dudes.

In most of their art together, Luna and Noctis are either not meeting each other's gazes, she's bending or kneeling to him, or he's supposed to be holding her close but he hover-hands her, or there’s that one time where they took a selfie and the picture was of their Pocket Edition versions. They’re still not looking at each other in that one. And it’s not canon.

Anyway yeah, any conversation Gentiana has with Luna about Noctis is emotional manipulation on Gentiana’s part, but the writers manage just enough to make everyone involved seem creepy and reprehensible in their own way.

In DOTF, Luna has a death soliloquy that confirms she sunk into the water at the end of the game’s Chapter 9, but the soliloquy is about how she was prepared to die even at the age of 12, and she put on a smile and resolved to be strong for Noctis’s sake, so that he wouldn’t remember her having a look of despair. There’s a line there about how she would cry herself to sleep but Gentiana would wipe her tears. Gentiana does nothing else except allow her to cry and wipe her tears afterward, and makes no effort to save her from her fate or at least take her out of terrible situations so that she would cry fewer tears. But there is cut dialogue from the game, and used in the novel, where Gentiana revealed herself as Shiva when Luna was <16 (probably still 12 at the time), when she thought she was being held back from forming the covenants, so there’s that. And Luna still somehow ignored that this meant Shiva allowed Sylva to die, and thanked this useless goddess for her nonexistent generosity.

For whatever reason they had to add a passage where Luna superimposes the image of an eight-year-old Noctis onto the adult version-- quote, "the image of him as a child, burned into my eyelids, overlaps with his now-grown face"-- even though Noctis has canonically sent her photos of him as a teenager (15-16, around the time he met Prompto in high school, see: Brotherhood). Granted, that's a translation from Luna's voice actress reading an excerpt as if it were first person POV. The English version says she sees the child image first, then the adult version is superimposed. Then not much after that there's a passage where Noctis smiles as his child self and it was "that smile she loved that had been in her heart all these years, giving her strength, always and forever".

So she was groomed and turned into a shell since age 4, believes she has no value outside of her job and turned her grooming on a similarly vulnerable child, and her strongest image of him, the one she fell in love with and kept in her heart, is of the helpless boy that promised her the world without knowing the cost. The smile of the carefree boy that didn't know his journey would end with his soul annihilated. It couldn’t have been that hard to have her see an image of him as the 30 year old True King of Light that he would become. At least she'd sound a little less like a weirdo who continually places herself (and is placed by the narrative) as below him, unworthy of him, etc. but also has strong feelings and memories toward a goddamn child.

Re: Ravus: you already got a reply to that, but for real? Ravus was also shafted by the plot and beaten down by terrible, amateur writing. The narrative shits on him as if it’s written by a high schooler or otherwise emotionally arrested adult trying to push a Mary Sue Protagonist. The modus operandi for those stories is that everyone who disagrees with the protagonist in any way has to suffer tremendous humiliation including but not limited to death, because the Protagonist Is Just So Good And Perfect And Always Right.

Nothing Ravus does justifies his treatment in-game or in-fandom like he’s a one-note out-and-out villain who wanted nothing but to kill Noctis and disrespect his sister, to the point where his corpse is defiled multiple times in Chapter 13 and he’s twisted into a perversion of himself that begs to die.

Chapter 13 has Noctis land next to Ravus’s corpse and all his letters to Luna, and Noctis has piss all to say about it, either out loud or to anyone. He looks at the Sword of the Father, glances at Ravus, and without a word takes the Royal Arm and lets the Magitek arm-- still dripping, still gross-- fall onto Ravus’s body and doesn’t even move it.

He had no way of knowing beforehand that Ignis and Gladio knew of Ravus being killed. WE didn't even know they saw security footage until Ch13V2 was added in. Noctis happening on his late fiancée's dead bro sounds, I don’t fucking know, like something you’d want to tell everyone else about later. Along with the letters he wrote evidencing that he intended to return the Sword of the Father to Noctis!

An aside: The Letters from Ravus are just weird to behold; it isn't 100% clear whether Luna ever received all of those letters. She had to have received the first one, at least. But the idea that Ardyn intercepted even one other letter so that Luna never heard from her brother between Tenebrae and Altissia is farfetched. He shouldn’t be able to intercept those messages as if they were delivered conventionally. Luna has a pair of magic space-bending Shiba Inu that send letters instantly across continents. If she’s sparing their use to send Noctis one-liners and stickers but can’t afford that for Ravus to send her discrete updates on Noctis’s status, she’s a piece of shit.

They do meet in Tenebrae as Ravus wanted her to, and they have the conversation where he gets on her case about her “throwing [her] life away” for Noctis. So chances are higher that Ardyn only got a hold of all three letters after Luna received them and no sooner, but then he shouldn’t be tossing letters from Ravus at the dude’s body when it makes more sense for him to toss down letters to Ravus, since the writers wanted to make a point of Ardyn having a vicious streak. It makes way more sense for Ardyn to deprive Ravus of Luna’s writing, then insult him with them post-mortem, unless Ravus’s notes were really all he could acquire, meaning Luna never once wrote back to her brother.

The Doylist explanation is that the writing team sucks and couldn't be assed to think of anything for Luna to say because they didn't think of her at all. The Watsonian explanation is that Luna’s a piece of shit and that tracks with her in Kingsglaive watching her brother burn alive in response to the Ring, but ignoring him and running to Regis’s aid instead, but then the rest of the plot presents her as morally pure through her white clothing and “unconditional, self-abnegating love” for Noctis.

Back to the topic: I don’t know, maybe I’m being old fashioned, but Noctis should’ve given more of a shit that his dropping the Magitek Arm on Ravus’s body was probably what turned him into a mutated abomination begging to die, and he thought so little of Ravus that the dude isn’t even in the glimpse of "people who helped me get this far" in the Beyond. Ravus doesn’t even get a spot to wish Noctis and Luna well on their afterlife wedding, not that it makes any sense for any of them to have words to say since Noctis is already dead, no one was there with them, and none of the bros expressed any sign that they knew that Noctis was bound to get married after his sacrifice (he sure doesn’t mention it in the final campfire scene and that’d be a better place than any). But anyway, Regis is in the Beyond at Noctis’s side even though he never told Noctis a damn thing and still never spoke to him from within the Ring, but Ravus? Nah, he’s the real asshole somehow and doesn’t deserve any recognition whatsoever.

The only other characters I know of that have a remotely similar dynamic to Noctis, Luna, and Ravus (lovers, but the girl has a straight-edge protective brother working for the bad guys) is Nero, Kyrie, and Credo (see: Devil May Cry), but as much as I think the writing in that series is hokey as fuck, at least the writer(s) for DMCs 4 and 5 had enough sense to make the love story simple and based it from a line from Amagasaki City-- “I love you, so I love the city that you love.”-- and opted against portraying Credo as an outright villain because if Nero killed him, Kyrie would resent him for it even though she knew Credo was working for the same Order that threatened her life.

Shouldn’t Noctis care about the shit Luna cares about even if he has no personal investment in it or it’s inconvenient to him? Shouldn’t he care about Tenebrae and its prosperity? or about Ravus? Nah, it’s okay, Noctis doesn’t have to respect Luna’s love for her brother or her kingdom because for all intents and purposes, she doesn’t care for Ravus or for Tenebrae as much as she loves Noctis. Her love for Noctis and her looking forward to the wedding is what matters here.

The yaaaas queen vicious clapback from Kingsglaive!Luna about how Ravus is the Empire’s dog is especially rich coming from her when she’s fellating the gods all through the game even though Eos’s equivalent of The Holy Bible says the Hexatheon’s Revelations destroy cities and that undoubtedly means people are killed by the gods, and their summoner is complicit, because there’s no such thing as a perfect evacuation. See: "Revelations left great devastation in their wake, with entire cities being laid to ruin," noted in the Cosmogony long before the True King even exists.

Luna herself didn’t see a problem with this and helped in the effort, with no regard to the collateral damage she would cause with the summoning: bonus points for the part where Leviathan is hostile to humanity and threatens to eat every living being if Noctis fails! She had even less regard to the damage Niflheim would cause in their attempt to kill the gods even though she was first-hand witness to them sacking Insomnia. Waking and defeating Titan deprived Lestallum of the meteor they derived power from. Waking Leviathan destroyed Altissia. Luna’s refusal to leave Insomnia when told to by Regis led to her being used as bait and taking the whole of the Kingsglaive out of Insomnia in time for their Face Heel Turn and Insomnia being destroyed. Everything else leads to the eventual World of Ruin where people also die.

All because she killed herself prematurely from the covenants and didn’t hold back the longer nights as she promised to the public’s face and on her honor as Oracle she would do. Her dying words in Chapter 9 were her being completely satisfied with her fate because “[her] prayers were answered, [her] calling fulfilled”, even though the calling requires that she dies and she should’ve known better than anyone that her death, even if it was for Noctis’s ascension, would endanger the rest of the world for 10 years and helped the Starscourge spread. But instead of fighting for her own life to stem the plague for as long as possible, she let herself die under the belief that "Noct can handle this" to give him the chance to be the revered King of Light. She also didn’t make a single appearance on the world of the living in her spirit form during those ten years until Noctis needed help with a piddly imitation of the Magic Wall, only then does she come down in her ghost form with seemingly all of her power intact, and summons five of The Six as if Noctis can’t easily do it himself.

But Ravus is the lapdog? Luna’s the one with her “ends justify the means” behavior and what looks like general neglect for actual human beings.

Anyway, Ravus stabs Caligo in the back and kills him, and that move only makes sense in light of the idea that Caligo was manhandling Luna as seen in the Dawn trailer. Ravus was 16 when Tenebrae was overrun, and there’s no reason to believe he was magically immune to institutional abuse, so there’s a high chance that he was abused by the Empire too, held resentment of that, and waited for the time he’d be able to retaliate with no repercussions. Gentiana as a goddess is 1000000% more on the hook about letting Luna be beaten than Ravus is, since he saw his mother die in front of him while Regis ran away. Regis had the power of the Ring and could have used elemancy to put out that fire, or void magic to banish Glauca and his MT army, didn’t do that, but he totally spares enough magic during the treaty signing to toss around Thunder spells straight from his hand, cast barriers, and summon some Royal Arms straight at Iedolas, and that’s bad enough. Gentiana who’s been the Fleuret family attendant since Luna was born and also is Shiva who can freeze people with her fingertip had even less excuse to let that fire rage, to let Sylva die protecting her son, and to stand by and allow her ward(s) to get thrown around by some random Imperial soldier.

#freezedive #ffxv critical #ffxv criticism #lunafreya critical #gentiana critical #regis critical #lunafreya nox fleuret #ravus nox fleuret #regis lucis caelum #ravus deserved better #long read

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bakerolivias-archived · 2 years

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jtv for the ask meme

oh yes, i've been wanting to do jane the virgin for an ask game

my “FOREVER” pairing: VILLADERO i literally miss michael so much and imo he was her soulmate my “sometimes” pairing (if i’m in the mood): ummm......... jane/professor dude i guess? bc they were hot but that was v much doomed from the start, although it was v interesting to see jane explore her sexuality my “friends-with-benefits”: pairing: rafael/petra 100%, also jane/michael's cop friend my “adele” pairing (“WE COULD HAVE HAD IT AAAAAALL”): jane/teen wolf dude (adam i think) were actually so sweet and mature and good together and they def surprised me bc i had generally low expectations, but i think their breakup was also v organic for them because they both needed to pursue their own separate careers/ambitions. but also he def helped her have more fun so. my “hate sex” pairing: michael/rafael OBVIOUSLY, early seasons jane/petra, petra/chuck because i miss them, luisa/rose i guess my “working on it” pairing: uhhh......... idk my favorite threesome / poly ship: JANE/MICHAEL/RAFAEL WE COULD HAVE HAD IT ALL, also jane/petra/rafael bc hello they are the perfect ot3 parents? and petra/rafael/chuck but make it crack my platonic “their friendship is too precious to mess it up with romance” ship: hmm..... idk tbh. my “i love it but don’t want it to happen” pairing: i don't think i have one lol my “it started out crack but now it’s serious and i regret everything” pairing: petra/chuck, jane/petra, jane/hot professor dude my endgame pairing: JAFAEL AND VILLADERO AND JETRA AND PETRAMOS my “across time and space they will always find each other” pairing: VILLADERO AND JAFAEL TILL THE END my “settling for second choice” pairing: jafael, mainly bc show probs disrespected michael according to what i've heard from tumblr to make jafael happen, which is sad bc jafael can 100% stand on their own while still letting jane have happy and loving memories of michael? my “I don’t want to ship it but I do” pairing: i don't think i have one except maybe rafael/michael

#anonyous #anna's messages

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robron-til-the-end-of-time · 3 years

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I understand if you do not want to answer - but I would be very curious as to what you think the Sussex's have been lying about.

(Before anyone reads further, this isn’t going to be Meghan and Harry pleasant or positive.)

The problem is they’re either thick, have bad memories and can’t remember what they say from one month to the next, or lying. So, stuff that’s been caught on video clips in the last few years, rather than statements that can be misinterpreted, or more likely written for some PR person for them.

We’re only having one baby.

Meghan’s being confirmed into the church of England when she married Harry. Yeah, didn’t happen.

H and M “don’t read their own press” which is blatantly a lie with how often they sue the Daily Mail and others. Don’t get me wrong, I’d probably sue the DM too, because they’re trash, but it’s amazing how well they can keep up with their negative British press, in a different time zone, when they don’t read it. Supposedly.

Meghan was becoming a British citizen/spouse. She either hasn’t, or is currently breaking immigration law, because British spouses aren’t allowed to live outside of Britain for 90 days continuously in any calendar year. So she either didn’t change nationality as she said she would, or she’s breaking immigration law, and I know which one I’d favour.

We’re having our baby privately. Then giving an interview when Archie was under 3 hours old. Yeah, that’s what I’d do when wanting to avoid telling the worlds media I’ve had a baby...

We want to be financially independent, then complaining that the money tap’s been cut off. Also Diana left Harry a millionaire, so it’s very very untimely to be complaining about money RIGHT NOW in the economic outlook. Harry actually got left more money than William did, to take care of him as William’s the heir and Harry isn’t and was (barring disaster) never going to be.

“I’ve been a Princess.” Absolutely no knowledge of how the Royal Family works, because no babe, you haven’t. Marrying seventh in line to the throne doesn’t make you a princess.

“We don’t want Archie to have the title of Prince, because we want him to have a normal childhood.” Now complaining that he never got the title, when at the time the Queen was under pressure to give Archie the title they said they didn’t want.

Harry: “Flying for holidays only should be discouraged due to climate change and most people shouldn’t fly for pleasure.” The week before he took Meghan for a holiday. Which okay, not lying, but majorly hypocritical.

Not lies, but things that really grate on me.

On a royal tour Meghan visited a mosque without properly covering her hair, and having her arms out which imo was just so blatantly disrespectful, and was the first time she really started getting on my nerves. You can’t do that, it’s so crass.

When they were Royals, they did go through staff at a quite frankly ALARMING pace.

I also find Meghan and Harry both announcing a pregnancy at Eugenie’s wedding, and then their second pregnancy mere hours after Eugenie released the pictures of her newborn baby completely classless too. You don’t do that, it’s really bad.

I genuinely thought Meghan wanted to be part of the Royal family when she married Harry. I even ran a Meghan blog at one time and was massively supportive. I loved that she had her dress embroidered with the commonwealth flowers, because that was going to be where her married work took her, overseeing the Commonwealth because the Queen and Philip don’t fly anymore. I love that she had Charles give her away and I felt massively sorry for her in the week running up to her wedding with how much shit the press threw her way.

Many many issues do I have, and no, I’m not getting into long arguments over this from the anons I’m bound to get.

Maybe they’re not liars, maybe they’re incredibly thick people with terrible memories. Also, disliking Harry and Meghan, and thinking they’ve handled everything ABHORRENTLY does not mean I don’t believe the racism accusation (I’m just amazed it wasn’t Philip, because I’d bet money he’s the one Royal to say stuff politically incorrect), and nor does it mean that I disbelieve Meghan was suicidal. Also M and H have been completely trashed by the British media too (what baffles me is how they think having an interview like this will make that bashing ANY better.)

#long post #personal #anti meghan #but you never have to tag it as anti harry do you?#I think Harry's worse than her #but shouting at him never gets the same social media reaction does it?#remember the teenager who dressed up as Sadam hussien at a party?#yeah I don't think he's got his head screwed on right #royalty #politics

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