#I love drawing pointy hat man

[cashmerecrow]

Play Blasphemous II you heathens.

#now with bigger hat! #I love drawing pointy hat man #may the miracle bless thee with many tears of atonement #art #illustration #sketch #doodle #blasphemous #blasphemous 2 #the penitent one #blasphemous fanart #digital art #medieval #armor #knight #gothic #video games #no stealing you fools. at least ask for permission

[sundrop-writes]

Careful - Chapter Four

(Dad)Spencer Reid x (Mom)Fem!Reader

Chapter Four: Last Hope

It’s just a spark but it’s enough to keep me going.

Summary:

The entire axis of your world is shifting.

Spencer is not the man you left alone all those years ago, and you don't know how to react to him being such a perfect, caring father. You also don't know how to react to the potential that you could be killed by someone who has already gutted five other women.

Luckily, Spencer is there to protect you. Another thing you don't fully know how to react to - but somehow, you just go with it.

Dad!Spencer Reid x Mom!Fem!Reader. Exes to Lovers. (Slight) Fluff and Angst.

Word Count: 8,800

Criminal Minds Masterlist | AO3 Link | Series Masterlist

Detailed warnings and author's notes below.

Warnings: Again, basic warnings for a Criminal Minds episode - mentions of murder/killing, the reader character is the next target of a serial killer; mentions of the reader wearing a sexy Halloween costume (during a flashback); mentions of gender roles - the reader doesn’t raise Sebastian with strict gender roles (and Spencer appreciates this); mentions of the reader giving birth (not graphic descriptions); some emotional tension between Spencer and the reader; angst because Spencer is upset about missing out on so much of Sebastian’s life; passing mention of abortion; the reader is threatened (in a graphic way) and called whore in a derogatory manner by the UnSub; Spencer is also threatened in a very graphic way by the UnSub; specific threats of stabbing and rape (toward the reader); passing mention of poop (because come on, this is a little kid, and kids talk about their poop a lot); I believe that’s it for this chapter.

A/N: So, this chapter starts off with a flashback rather than ending with one, because flashbacks are important to how information is revealed to the audience, and I think it works here. Idk what else to say about this chapter - I think it's a nice transition into the climax. I hope you guys enjoy it!!

...

Halloween. It was always a time when Spencer thrived the most - and he thrived even more when spending it with you. 

It was your second Halloween together as a couple, and Spencer loved that you enjoyed celebrating the holiday just as much as he did. You loved dressing up, you loved all of the spooky lore behind Halloween. And of course, you loved listening to all of the real life facts he had to tell you about Halloween’s history, and things like vampires, werewolves, zombies, and all of the Halloween traditions and how they evolved over time. 

You didn’t think before that learning about the origins of Halloween could make it even more fun, but Spencer somehow made it into the most exciting educational documentary of your life. 

This year, you had invited him to a house party that one of your work friends was hosting. It would be some light drinking, finger food, dancing to cheesy Halloween songs, and most likely sitting around and talking while roasting marshmallows around your friend’s backyard fire pit. It wouldn’t be anything big, but you expected it to be a really fun night. 

You showed up to Spencer’s place wearing a straight off the rack, generic ‘sexy witch’ costume. It consisted of a very wide brimmed pointy hat, dark make-up, and a tight corset drawing attention to your curves, as well as a short tulle skirt, flared sleeves, and black fishnets and black boots to top off the look. He found you irresistible and almost wanted to stay at home. But he was looking forward to the party; he was excited to meet your friends and he knew that the occasion meant a lot to you. 

He told you that he was planning on going as a young Ernest Hemmingway, and as much as you adored it, because it was a very Spencer thing to do - you knew that it was very unlikely that anybody else at the party would be able to identify his costume on sight, and that would probably disappoint him. He would be standing proudly, asking people to guess who he was, and they would come up blank because they weren’t in the same mindset as him. 

So you advised him of this, and encouraged him to steer his costume in a different direction. (And Spencer - trusting any advice you gave, simply let you lead him.) 

You took the late 1800s style clothing he had picked out for the occasion, and some of the makeup you had brought in your bag for potential touch-ups - and you convinced him to let you dress him up as a sexy vampire who had been turned in the late 1800s. 

You did his makeup - with some dark eyeliner, that he winced at the entire time, some dark eyeshadow, and some red lipstick smudged around his mouth to appear as though it were blood he had just siphoned from his latest victim. And the entire time you worked, he came up with an elaborate name and backstory for his vampire character. You delighted in listening to him tell you all about Frederic Henry - named after a Hemmingway character. A man who was shot in the military and assumed dead, but who was saved in the trenches of World War I by a vampire’s bite, and then lived on. 

You encouraged him to wear his shirt unbuttoned quite a bit, creating a deep V down to his chest that he wouldn’t have worn any other time. Thinking about his story, you even used the eyeliner to create the scar of a bullet wound on his chest, slightly hidden by his shirt - something to hint at Frederic’s tragic past. 

(Both you and Spencer got way too into it, but you were having fun.) 

You were running a bit late by the time you left Spencer’s apartment, but it was a casual house party, and you knew that nobody was going to call you out for being ‘late’. 

You parked a few blocks away, not wanting to drive through the neighborhood with so many kids out and about on foot. It was still early in the evening, and many kids were still out, knocking on doors, getting their candy. 

“They’re so cute, aren’t they?” You remarked as the two of you walked down the sidewalk, hand in hand with Spencer as you made your way toward the party among a sea of Trick or Treaters. 

“Kids in costumes? Or just kids in general?” Spencer replied with a chuckle, trying to clarify what you had said. 

(There was a hopeful edge in his voice, a daring longing in his eyes as he looked at the parents helping their children from house to house. Something deep inside of him that hoped the two of you could have your place here a few years from now.) 

“Kids in general are cute.” You shrugged. “But kids in their little costumes are so much cuter.” 

Spencer’s insides fluttered - seeing you light up with joy just talking about children, knowing that it might be in your future. Knowing that it might be a part of his future with you. 

“If we had a baby, would you wanna dress him up for Halloween?” Spencer asked. 

You wanted to fixate on the ‘if’ - to tell him that you thought it was something more certain in your future, with the way things were going. That you thought he would make an amazing father. That you wanted it to be a ‘when’. 

Instead, you chose a different part of his statement to pick at. 

“You sound awfully certain that our kid would be a boy.” You chuckled. “Please don’t tell me you’re one of those guys who would be disappointed by having a girl.” 

That would be a dealbreaker for you. As amazing as Spencer was - he had to be just as good of a father to a daughter as he would be to a son in order to stay in the picture. 

“Goodness, no.” Spencer replied, shaking his head. 

He held back. He didn’t tell you that he had spent far too much time - hours on the plane rides back home, nights when he couldn’t sleep - thinking about his future with you. He imagined three kids. An oldest boy, and two girls, about a year or two apart each. A golden retriever, a house - he had even picked out which district he wanted to live in based on schools in the area and lowest crime rates. 

He knew it was stupid, but he had already been squirreling away money for a downpayment on that house. When you were ready, he wanted to be able to give you everything you could ever ask for. He had way too much time to fantasize, and he didn’t want to admit that to you now. 

“Just - it slipped out.” He chuckled. “I would be thrilled if we had a little girl. But - I pictured us having a boy.” 

In his mind’s eye, his daughter was so much like you. And if that came to pass, then he would be the luckiest man on earth. 

“You did?” You grinned at him, a distinct light in your eye. 

Spencer found his chest untightening as he breathed in relief. 

“Well, if he’s half as cute as you,” You said, moving a hand over to pinch one of his cheeks, which made him smile and let out a huff, half forming into a laugh. “Then I definitely wanna dress him up in a Halloween costume. Especially while he’s still little and cute and can’t argue about what I wanna dress him up as. Before he starts talking and wants to be that fuzzy guy from Star Wars.” 

“You mean Chewbacca?” Spencer asked, wondering which one you were talking about. 

“Yeah!” You said. “The big ugly one. The little teddy bear guys are cute, but the big one is kind of creepy.” 

“We had an all-day Star Wars marathon, and you didn’t tell me that you thought Chewbacca was creepy?” Spencer chuckled, his mind now distancing from the subject of the two of you having kids. 

“Yeah, because you were there to protect me!” You replied, your voice still filled with lightness and laughter. “And I didn’t even really realize it until after. I had this weird nightmare-” 

“You had nightmares about Chewbacca?” 

“One nightmare! It was only one!” 

The subject of children was forgotten, then. 

Your laughter echoed off into the night, and you didn’t think much of the conversation. 

Spencer remarked on it as a precious memory - as a sign that his savings account was an insurance policy for his future, not a fool’s errand. After the break-up, he thought about it over and over - he wondered where he had gone so wrong, how he had lost you. If you had felt so secure in your future together - how had he lost you?

… 

Spencer wasn’t sure how it was possible, but he was growing more and more love for Sebastian with each passing moment. 

After he got off the phone with Derek, he went back into the house to be mobbed by Sebastian. Having the boy run into his arms with so much excitement - it made him feel more heroic than anything he had done with the BAU for the past years of his life. So often, when he carted off a killer to jail or when he saw a victim returned to the arms of their family, he couldn’t feel the relief or the calm that JJ or Gideon spoke of. He just felt so empty. 

But having Sebastian hug him tight and ramble in his ear with excitement about all his plans for their afternoon - it made his chest swell with a grand importance that he had only gotten a taste of when he was with you. When he was making you happy. It felt like a moment that his whole life was leading up to. 

You asked Spencer if it was okay for you to go back to your office and get some work done while he occupied Sebastian, and he could think of nothing he wanted more - except maybe for you to join him, and to spend some true quality time with him and his son. But he hoped that would come later. And this in itself was progress - you trusting him to play with Sebastian, to spend time alone with him while you got your work done. 

Sebastian showed Spencer every single one of his toy dinosaurs, and they played with those for quite a while. They also had a tea party with some large bears and dolls present - and Spencer was delighted by the fact that you didn’t buy him gender specific toys. Knowing that this opened up different areas of play and imagination, and allowed for his development to be nurtured by gentleness and caring that young boys didn’t often get in a society so rigid about gender roles. 

Spencer really couldn’t imagine a better boy. You had raised such a beautiful, smart son. Someone who was polite, so caring, and gentle. 

Spencer was practically swollen with love, overwhelmed at getting to spend time with his son. 

His heart felt as though it might burst out of his chest and he knew that he looked fitful, actively holding back overwhelmed tears while Sebastian poured the imaginary tea for each member sitting around the small plastic table and they clinked their tiny plastic cups together in a toast. 

Then, Sebastian wanted to show Spencer a favorite movie of his. He rushed downstairs to put it on the TV, and as he was picking it out among the DVDs, he became distracted by something at the top of the shelf beside the TV. 

“My Halloween basket!” Sebastian said, pointing to an orange basket at the top of the shelf - one that did appear as though it was for Halloween, with a jack-o-lantern’s face painted on the front of it. 

“Mommy says treats are for after dinner. But… can we have one now?” The boy looked hopefully toward Spencer, knowing that he would be able to reach the basket and bring it down toward him. 

Spencer didn’t want to undermine your rules. You had done so well raising Sebastian this far, so you were clearly doing everything right. 

He crouched down to the boy’s level. 

“We should go ask your Mommy if it’s okay to have one.” He told Sebastian, who nodded, and then ran off toward your office with that thunderous urgency in his steps. 

He heard a distant ‘Mommy!’ - and a bang that could have been Sebastian’s version of a knock or him downright smacking the office door until it opened. But then he heard your voice murmuring and what must have been a frustrated sigh. 

Spencer felt slightly bad that he had sent Sebastian to interrupt your work, especially over something so small. But he didn’t want to lose progress with you and have you reaming him out for giving your son sugar without your permission. 

You soon came into the room and went straight for the candy bucket, lifting it off the shelf and bringing it down to Sebastian’s level so that he could choose one. 

“I know it seems cruel. But I didn’t want him eating it all on Halloween and puking, so he’s allowed to have one a day, usually as a treat after dinner.” You explained, clearly wanted to lay out your reasoning for Spencer. 

“No, no, it’s not cruel.” Spencer replied quickly. “It’s a good idea. Regulating his intake of sugar while not completely restricting it as something sacred or off-limits. It’s a good call.” 

Sebastian picked out a small packet of M&Ms, and then you went to lift the bucket away, and he spoke up. 

“Can I pick one for my friend Spencer, too?” He asked. 

“Yeah, go ahead.” You nodded, and then you added on: “Spencer’s favorite is Snickers.”

Of course, Spencer was floored that you remembered this. 

Sebastian picked out a mini Snickers and then excitedly thrust it in Spencer’s direction. 

“Aw, thanks buddy!” Spencer said, eagerly taking it with a grin, even reaching out to give him a high five while he smiled up at Spencer in return. 

(He was too busy looking at Sebastian with those stars in his eyes to notice the way you were watching the pair - watching all of your dreams unfold before you with an odd mixture of bitterness and affection swelling up inside of you.) 

Sebastian moved on to picking out the movie and you went to walk out of the room again, seemingly to get back to work, but Spencer stopped you. Something else was on his mind. 

“Y/N.” He called your name gently, and you turned back to him, your arms crossed stiffly. 

He was just glad that you didn’t seem so angry at him using your name this time. 

“Do - do you have any pictures of Sebastian in his Halloween costume?” He asked meekly, afraid that you would stamp out this request with more anger and defensiveness. 

“Why?” You gaped, seeming very confused that he would even ask this. 

“I - I just wanted to see.” Spencer replied. 

‘Because I missed out on so much of him.’ He hesitated to say. ‘I know it’s impossible, but I want those years back.’ 

The deep sadness lingering in Spencer’s eyes caused your stomach to clench. 

He had really changed. This wasn’t the same man who had been standing in the apartment that night. This wasn’t the same person who had been so callous and stubborn - the same person that you felt you needed to protect your unborn child from. 

Maybe this was the man you had fallen in love with, somehow rescued from the clutches of that person you didn’t know who had mocked you while wearing Spencer’s face. 

“Gimme a minute.” You told him. And then you leaned in close before you whispered something else. “And you should let him see you eat the Snickers, otherwise he’s gonna be insulted.” 

Spencer smiled at this. 

Sebastian waved him over then, and he asked which DVD Spencer would rather watch. Spencer ate the Snickers and thanked Sebastian for sharing his treats once again while the boy went through a very detailed explanation of the plot of the films so Spencer would have an informed choice. And then Spencer picked, and Sebastian moved to put the movie into the DVD player. 

This was when you came back with a thick envelope filled with pictures and handed them over to Spencer. 

“I had these printed a while ago.” You explained. “I was planning on making a scrapbook for my mom, for mother’s day. It’s… basically every important moment in Sebastian’s life.” 

“That’s my baby picture!” Sebastian said excitedly, looking over at the pictures in Spencer’s lap. “That’s when I was a baby, after I was born. I was one day old. Mommy said that everyone used to be one day old at some point, but that just sounds weird!”

Spencer’s throat clenched up with tears, and this clashed with the laughter he experienced from Sebastian’s comments. 

But as he looked through the pictures, he had a much harder time holding back his tears. 

Seeing all of the pictures, all of those moments - it slowly broke him. 

The first picture was one of Sebastian wrapped in a very clinical swaddling blanket when he was still so new and wrinkly, only hours after his birth. Spencer could imagine how small Sebastian would have been in his arms. The tiny little newborn sounds he would have made. Spencer wished that he could have held your hand through the birth, that he could have been there with both of you in the hospital during those first few days of his life. 

Then, a picture of you holding Sebastian in his nursery when you had brought him home from the hospital - a photo that was most likely taken by your mom. You had such a big, bright smile on your face. You looked so perfect with him in your arms. You were such a good mother. 

There were pictures of him when he was more alert - his big, curious eyes looking at the world for the first time; what appeared to be his first picnic out at the park when he was laying on his back on a soft blanket, taking in the world for the first time. Spencer could imagine how sweet his baby laughter would be - what it would have been like blowing raspberries on his soft belly and kissing you under the warm sun. 

He continued flipping through the photos - another one of what must have been his first Halloween. He was dressed up as a chubby round Jack-o-Lantern with his little fist in his mouth, drooling around it while your mother held him for the picture. 

And then - pictures of him walking experimentally while you held him by both of his hands; him sitting in front of a Christmas tree, opening an exciting Christmas toy that made him beam with a big smile. 

Pictures of important memories all throughout his life, all the way up until recently. This past Halloween, he had dressed up as Luke Skywalker. 

He liked Star Wars. 

“Um, can I use your bathroom?” Spencer choked out. 

He knew that he was crying very blatantly now. 

His chest was caving in as all of it truly hit him - how much of his son’s life he had missed. He didn’t wait for you to direct him because he knew that he had passed the bathroom coming down the hall. He abandoned the photos in the middle of the coffee table, haste to escape.  

Sebastian looked at him with sad eyes as he stormed out of the room. 

“Why is my friend Spencer sad?” He asked in a small voice, looking up at you. “He doesn’t like my pictures?” 

“No, honey, your pictures are beautiful.” You assured him, kneeling down by the table and gathering up the pictures. “It’s complicated…” You let out a huff, not knowing how to explain it to him. Not even knowing where to start. “It’s grown-up stuff, okay? Just - just watch your movie.” 

You stacked the photos back into the envelope, and you hoped that Sebastian wouldn’t follow you as you raced down the hall toward Spencer. You weren’t surprised to find the bathroom door closed. 

“Spence,” You called out his name as you knocked gently on the bathroom door. 

That gutted him even more. Spence. 

Another harsh reminder of the life he had lost. 

“I’m sorry.” He called back, his voice audibly drenched in tears. 

Your throat tightened up. 

This began to shift your entire axis. The man you had left standing alone that night - you thought he was a man who would have never cared about your son. Someone who would have asked you to get an abortion or distanced himself from the pregnancy as much as possible. 

But this man - this felt like the Spencer you knew, the one you fell in love with. 

He cared so much. 

This was someone who could fit into your life, someone who could help raise your son. 

And tugging right at your heart, something you wanted to deny - this was a man you wanted to be your husband, as well as the father of your child. 

“Spencer, please-” 

Spencer opened the door then, and upon instinct, you drew back, wrapping your arms tightly around yourself. Unconsciously, you were protecting yourself. 

“I’m sorry.” He apologized again. “Did I scare him? I didn’t mean to.” He asked, looking behind your shoulder as if waiting for Sebastian to appear. 

There it was again - prioritizing your son above all else. Worry for him. 

Something you wouldn’t have expected. Something that forced you to shift your whole perspective. 

“He’s fine.” You told him. “He - he probably just wants you to watch the movie with him.” You said, entirely honest, motioning toward the living room - where the sound of Sebastian’s cartoon movie could be heard playing from the television. 

“I’ll be out in a minute.” Spencer noted, reaching for some toilet paper to wipe his eyes with. 

You squeezed your hands tighter around your arms, resisting the urge to reach out and touch him. You wanted to wipe those tears away yourself. Spencer’s keen eye went right to this movement, and you felt so caught. 

“I should go start dinner.” You said, eager for an excuse to escape the situation. 

You whisked down the hall before Spencer could say anything else, and before his mind could linger too much on it - on you - his phone rang again. 

It was a number he didn’t recognize, but he had to guess that it was one of the phones from the local police station - someone from the team calling with an update about the case. 

“Reid here.” He answered, deeply hoping that he didn’t sound too tearful over the phone. 

“Do you like pretending, Doctor Reid?” 

That certainly wasn’t a voice he recognized. 

“Excuse me?” Spencer squeaked back, having no clue what this meant. 

“Do you like playing house, Doctor Reid?” 

The person on the other end posed a slightly different question. The voice was sharp and certain, completely devoid of genuine emotion. It caused a chill down Spencer’s spine, and he knew, somehow- 

The UnSub had gotten a hold of his phone number, and felt the need to taunt him by getting in contact with him. 

“Unlike you, I’m not playing.” Spencer growled in return, already having the profile in his pocket. “I don’t need to play house to fulfill some God complex. I fully intend to spend the rest of my life being there for my son, raising him. And as long as I am here, in this house, no harm will come to my son or the woman who raised him.” 

“Hmm…” The man seemed entirely bored with Spencer’s words. “The woman who raised him. Such a funny way to talk about that whore you supposedly once loved. But she did such a good job raising the boy, didn’t she? Seems like she didn’t even need you in the picture, did she? Such a sweet little thing… anybody could just waltz right into that house, slit her throat and take him. He’s smart enough to do well on his own now.” 

Spencer knew that it was a tactic intended to get to him, and he shouldn’t have let it emotionally affect him as much as it did - but fuck, it got to him. 

“Don’t talk about her that way.” He growled into the phone. “Don’t talk about them, that way, I swear to god, I’ll-” 

“You’ll do what, Doctor Reid?” The man cut him off, clearly mocking him. Clearly in disbelief that Spencer could ever truly be violent in response to his family being threatened. 

Spencer choked on a breath, trying to compose himself. 

“Now, now. Simmer now.” The man cooed, still mocking, entirely condescending. “And don’t you worry, Doctor. Every whore gets her time to be an angel. I’m sure that she’s going to look so beautiful when she’s moaning and writhing in pain while my knife plunges into her guts. Don’t worry, Daddy - I’ll treat her as gently as I can.” 

Spencer sucked in a breath, preparing to yell at the man, but then - the line went dead with a sharp ‘click’. Spencer pulled back his phone and looked at the display - he memorized the number so that he could give it to Garcia later, and then, he called JJ. 

“Reid, hey.” 

She sounded worried. 

Any rage pumping through him that the unknown man had triggered in him melted away, and he immediately wondered why JJ had taken on that sad, sullen tone. 

Before he could ask, she spoke up again. 

“We… were just wondering if we should call you.” 

“What’s wrong?” He asked. 

“The UnSub knows you’re in the house.” She announced, ripping the band-aid off all at once. 

Spencer wondered again how this was possible. But he figured that it was better to exchange information and let the questions naturally arise than to ask the questions himself. 

“Yeah, he just called me.” He told JJ. “Clearly with the intention to antagonize me.” 

“Wait, hold on.” JJ sighed. In the police station, she walked into the conference room where the team was working and put her phone on speaker for the room before she spoke to Spencer again. “Tell them what you just told me.” 

“Someone who I can only assume was the UnSub just called me.” Spencer explained. “It was very clear that he was trying to antagonize me. He - he seemed jealous that I’m here - that I’m trying to take his place as father in the household before he could get here.” 

“What makes you say that?” Hotch asked. 

“He claimed that I was ‘playing pretend’. He called me Daddy. He mocked my love for Y/N, and taunted me with the idea of him… potentially killing her.” Spencer found those last words particularly difficult to speak, but he knew that the team needed all the information at hand. 

“Let me guess, he called you from a blocked number?” Prentiss wondered aloud. 

“No, actually.” Spencer replied. “Do you have a pen? I can give you the number and you can have Garcia run it.” 

“Fire away.” Prentiss replied. 

“503-202-1052.” Spencer told her. 

“I’ll call Garcia now.” She said - on the other end, getting up from the table to call Garcia on her cell. 

“JJ said you guys have something too?” Spencer asked, still wondering what JJ had meant. 

“The scumbag sent us a letter.” Morgan answered. “The envelope was full of pictures. A bunch of pictures of your girl and the kid from weeks back - them at the park, at restaurants, at the grocery store. He’s way farther ahead in his timeline than we thought he was.” 

“Yeah, and there’s… something else.” Rossi sighed. “He also included pictures of you and JJ standing on the porch when you arrived at the house. And one of you coming back to the house later, by yourself. In one of them… he crossed your eyes out with a red marker. It’s clear that he sees you as competition. A clear threat to his fantasy.” 

“But - how does he know that I’m Sebastian’s real father?” Spencer wondered aloud. 

“Perhaps he only sees you as competition because you’re another male encroaching on his territory. Because you’ve spent prolonged time at the house, seemingly to protect her and the child.” Hotch theorized. 

“No…” Spencer said, putting the pieces together in his. “On the call, he said: ‘Such a funny way to talk about that whore you supposedly once loved.’” Spencer repeated it perfectly from memory, feeling a pang in his chest at calling you a ‘whore’, even if it wasn’t his own wording. “It was like he knew that me and Y/N dated before and broke up. Like he knows that Sebastian is a result of our previous relationship.” 

“That is… strange.” Rossi remarked. “Do you think that Y/N might have mentioned your relationship to a friend, or a neighbor? Maybe… she might have confided in somebody?” 

“It’s possible.” Spencer sighed. “But since she’s moved here, she’s surrounded herself with women. A female babysitter, fellow moms as her friend group.” It was something he had noticed in the more recent photos of Sebastian. “Our UnSub is a man - I don’t see her divulging those types of things to him, even if she didn’t know he was a potential threat.” 

“Well either way, he knows. And he’s pissed off.” Morgan sighed. “I mean, the wording of this letter… it makes sense why he seems so hostile toward Reid. It’s not just anger toward a random man who’s encroaching on his territory - it’s a personal rage towards someone he feels could actually ruin his chances with Y/N if he’s built up this fantasy of having her in his mind over these weeks.” 

Morgan picked up the letter and read some lines from it. “‘I will stab him in the spine, paralyzing him and forcing him to watch as I rape that whore - I will take her as my own while he pleads for mercy. I will show him what happens when weak men abandon their obligations. If Daddy wants to play, I’ll play too.’” 

“Is that really what he thinks?” Spencer huffed, unable to hold back his emotions. “That I abandoned my obligations? Does he really think that-?” 

“Reid.” Hotch said firmly, cutting off Spencer’s ranting. “Stay calm. What we really need to ask ourselves now is: how does he know so much about you? How does he know so much about your past that even we didn’t know?” 

He added this on - seemingly taking offense to the fact that most of the team didn’t know that Spencer had a serious girlfriend in the past. A relationship that had resulted in a child. 

Just then, Emily came back into the room. 

“Garcia said the phone number goes to a public library on the other side of town.” She announced. 

“Morgan, you and Prentiss go to the library - see if anyone there saw the UnSub or if they have any potential security footage of him.” Hotch ordered. 

“Reid, see if you can convince Y/N to come into protective custody.” Hotch added on, turning his attention to the man on the phone. “With the UnSub being further along in his timeline than we thought, and seemingly being provoked by your presence, we really need to protect her and her child. Stress that fact to her. We need to keep a close eye on her until we can find a viable suspect.” 

“Yes, of course.” Spencer replied, before ending the call. 

Spencer splashed some cold water on his face, truly trying to pull himself together before he exited the bathroom. 

It truly hit him, then. 

This day wasn’t about some soft, sappy reunion with you and his son. This day was about the fact that you had been targeted by a dangerous, deranged killer. And he needed to do everything in his power to protect you from that horrible man. 

A fresh, vicious wave of determination went through him - if he had to tear out the man’s throat with his teeth, then he would. He wasn’t going to let even the tiniest amount of harm come to you or his boy. Not today, not tomorrow, not ever. 

He put on a smile, not wanting to potentially scare Sebastian with a frown or his trembling fear over what might happen. He tried his hardest to push all of it out of his mind for now as he walked down the hallway and back into the living room - where a musical cartoonish number was in full swing on the TV. 

“You were in the bathroom for a long time!” Sebastian commented brightly. “Did you have to go poop?” 

Spencer let out a laugh at this. This almost instantly lifted his mood - the fact that such a young kid didn’t have the sense of embarrassment or social constructs in order to know that it wasn’t really routine to ask someone what they had been doing in the bathroom. He easily found humor in Sebastian’s bluntness. 

“Seb, what did we say about asking people about their poop?” You called out from the kitchen, clearly having heard the conversation. 

(So this was a habit of his?) 

“Sorry!” Sebastian called back. Sebastian then turned back to Spencer. “Your poop is only your business. Unless you have to tell the doctor about your poops.” He assured Spencer, clearly repeating something that his mother had told him. 

Spencer nodded. “It’s all good, bud.” He said, smiling at Sebastian. “I’m gonna go talk to your mom, okay?” 

“Are you gonna watch the movie with me?” Sebastian asked. 

“I promise, I’ll watch whatever you want to later.” Spencer replied. 

He made it a promise because he wanted to hold himself to it - he wanted to spend lots of days watching films with his son. And playing games, and teaching him things. He promised himself that there would be lots of time to do these things with Sebastian in the future because nobody would interrupt that for him. 

But for now, he had to convince you to agree to protective custody so that the three of you could have the safety and security of a future together. 

Sebastian seemed content with this answer and turned back to the TV, and Spencer ventured into the kitchen, where you were preparing dinner. 

“Hey, Spence.” You greeted him gently. “I’m assuming that you’re staying for dinner? It’s nothing fancy, just some pasta with cream sauce, and chicken and broccoli.” You explained, gesturing around to the many items you had surrounding you - a pot of boiling water, and cutting boards with different vegetables, and one sequestered off in the corner with cut-up chicken pieces waiting to be put in a frying pan that was still heating up. 

“Sounds good.” He easily agreed. “After dinner, we need to pack a bag for Sebastian, and you need to get some stuff together so that we can get you guys into protective custody.” He said, posing it more like a gentle suggestion than a question that you could say no to. 

He truly hoped that he wouldn’t have to go into the graphic details as to why you needed the protection - why it was more urgent now. He hoped that he wouldn’t have to resort to telling you about the man who had threatened to go poking around in your insides with a knife while making him watch. 

Not surprisingly, you completely ignored what Spencer said. 

“Unless you prefer Turtle Mac n Cheese?” You said, instantly deflecting away from the topic, holding up a box of mac n cheese that had some cartoonish characters on it. They were green and looked vaguely like anthropomorphic turtles. Spencer guessed that this was what you were making for Sebastian’s dinner - most likely along with having him eat some broccoli, because you seemed determined for him to at least somewhat eat healthy. “I think that cartoon shapes really give it that extra gourmet flare.” 

“Stop that.” Spencer demanded gently, taking the box out of your hands and placing it somewhere else on the counter. You frowned at him. “Stop acting like what’s happening isn’t a big deal. If you’re doing this because you’re frightened-” 

“I’m not frightened.” You said, cutting him off. “I just don’t think that the FBI needs to be wasting resources on me when there’s people out there who are actually in danger. Or people who have dead loved ones who need answers.” 

“Exactly.” Spencer pressed. He lowered his voice before he spoke his next words, though he knew it was unlikely that Sebastian would hear him over the movie playing on the TV. 

“The man who sent you those flowers has already killed five other women.” He stressed, pointing behind you, toward the vase with the white carnations in it. He was surprised that you hadn’t thrown the flowers away after what he and JJ had told you. “Five women’s families are waiting for answers about who killed them. And you could be helping us-” 

“I can’t help you, though.” You shrugged. “There are no men in my life. There’s nobody Spencer. There hasn’t been since I broke up with you.” You snapped, giving him a harsh glare - as though you resented him for ruining you, tainting your heart and leaving you broken. 

The realization shattered him a bit more. All this time, he had been worried that you had moved on, that you were living a better life without him. But you had been just as lonely as he was - aside from the company of a small child that reminded you more and more of Spencer every single day. 

Spencer took a breath, trying to focus. 

“Just come into protection.” He pressed. “The FBI will take you to a safehouse, and-” 

“A safehouse?” You scoffed. “How is that any safer than the house we’re currently standing in? Does it have bulletproof windows and a steel reinforced door? Or - or is it just a regular house with regular windows, and regular walls, and a regular door? Just like my house?” You chuckled sarcastically, moving to grab the cutting board with the chicken, shoving it into the now heated pan with the back of your knife. 

Spencer’s nerves were grated on by your sarcasm. 

“Dammit, Y/N!” He shouted, much louder than he intended to. “Can’t you see that I’m just trying to protect you?” 

“Yeah, and where the hell was that attitude four years ago when I begged you to-” You swiftly cut yourself off, the words dying off in your throat, not wanting to rip open old wounds. 

You tossed the items back onto the counter with a crash, only causing more tension in the air. You took in a sharp breath - suddenly, standing in front of the stove, you felt too hot. 

You reached for the edge of your hoodie without thinking, and peeled it up over your head. You were wearing a thin camisole underneath, but surprisingly, your black bra being so visible through the thin white fabric wasn’t the thing that caught Spencer’s eyes as more and more of you was revealed. 

There it was. 

The four-pointed star necklace that he had given to you on your birthday was sitting in the middle of your chest, right where it belonged, glaring at Spencer, taunting him. 

It became apparent to him in seconds that you had been wearing it all day. You had answered the door earlier that day wearing that pale blue hoodie, having no clue that Spencer would be on the other side. You had no reason to impress him, quite angered that he was even there in the first place, actually. So you had been wearing it under your hoodie since before then - since the beginning of the day, likely. 

You had been holding it close to your chest as something precious - hiding it under your clothes as a secret, just for yourself. 

If there was a single shred of doubt in Spencer’s mind that he had loved you more, that he had missed you more since the break-up, it was gone now. You hadn’t dated other men, and you had silently carried that symbol of him, as if unconsciously beaconing him back to you. 

When you finally got the fabric off your head, you instantly noticed him gaped-jawed and staring at your chest. You wouldn’t have called him a pervert, because before you even glanced down to confirm that you had the necklace on - you knew. A terrible guilt struck through your gut, like you had been caught stealing something, and you froze up on the spot. 

You and Spencer locked eyes for a moment, and his hands quivered with the terrible need to reach out and touch you - though in that moment, standing just across the kitchen from you, he felt a thousand miles away. He had a terrible need to hold you, yet he had never felt more distant from you. He had never felt more prohibited from touching you since the moment you had first grabbed his hand on that very first date. 

How long had you wanted him back and said nothing? How many days had you woken up thinking about him, knowingly raised his son alone, and made no effort to contact him? 

“I - I have to go change my clothes.” You said, your voice so utterly small. “Can you watch the stove?” 

You didn’t wait for a reply before you turned and whisked off again, clearly too eager to escape the tension. 

Spencer busied himself with watching over the food - stirring here and there, and starting the cartoon turtle mac and cheese based on its boxed instructions - trying desperately not to think about what all this meant. 

When you came back, you were wearing a simple, light tee shirt. And it was easy to see that you had taken off the necklace and put it away somewhere. 

… 

Having Spencer there for dinner felt like role-playing as a family. 

With Sebastian in his usual seat behind the dinosaur placemat, sitting between the two of you - it felt like something out of a strange, distant dream. He kept looking to Spencer for encouragement when he ate his broccoli and didn’t spill his juice, and Spencer stared at you across the table, having that constant fond look in his eye whenever he turned back to Sebastian or talked to him in that sweet, soothing voice. 

Spencer also watched you, and tried to make it seem subtle. You noticed his eyes drifting over to your plate, ensuring that you were eating, as he had done many times before. You wanted to make another snarky comment about him pretending to care, but you kept your mouth shut. 

It felt so shallow, and plastic, with the supposed threat hanging over your head; knowing that the only reason Spencer was there in the first place was because he believed that you were in danger. 

Yet, it felt like something you had been doing all your life. It felt like just another night. Like Spencer had come home from work to this a thousand times; like you would get up and do the dishes and kiss him and then bring him to your bed for the night. It felt like that’s how things should be. 

You really weren’t sure if you loved it or hated it. 

You were nearly finished with your food and Spencer’s dinner was half-done, food getting cold on his plate while he encouraged Sebastian to finish up - when there was a knock on the door. 

You expected it to be JJ again, pressing you about the protective custody thing. You let out a harsh sigh when Sebastian quickly wormed out of his chair and raced toward the door - eager to answer it himself. 

“Seb!” You called after him. “What have I told you about answering the door when Mommy isn’t there?” 

You raced after him and uncomfortably grabbed him up with a gut full of food, Spencer trailing behind you awkwardly. 

“You’re here now!” Sebastian argued, laughter in his voice. 

“Here, go with your-” 

You abruptly cut yourself off, stopping yourself from saying ‘go with your dad’. 

“Go back to the table with Spencer.” You told him, turning him around and directing him toward the man. You couldn’t bear to look him in the eyes, knowing that he could predict exactly what that verbal near-slip was. “I will answer the door.” 

“Come on, bud.” Spencer encouraged him. “If you finish up all your dinner, we can have a treat later,” 

He hated to promise something you hadn’t permissed, but he knew that you needed the distraction right now. 

You unlocked the door and opened it, fully expecting JJ to be standing there patiently (likely having heard that entire exchange from behind the door). You were surprised when nobody was there, and instead, your eyes drifted downwards to a large brown envelope sitting on the step. 

It didn’t seem to have any kind of shipping label on it - just your first name written on the front in bright red ink. It made you startlingly curious, at the same time, caused a tight knot to form in your gut. You picked it up, bringing it inside before you closed the door and locked it again. 

You brought it back to the kitchen and placed it on the kitchen island, and of course, this caught Spencer’s attention where he could see you from his place at the table. 

“Y/N, what is that?” He asked, unable to mask the frantic worry popping up in his voice. 

“I don’t know.” You said, feeling slightly haunted by it yourself. 

You moved to open the envelope, and before Spencer could stop you, something echoing in the back of his mind - chirps about potential poison or even a bomb - you had ripped it open and spilled the contents onto the counter. 

Your insides quaked when you saw what it was. 

Spencer rushed over to look at the items with you, and naturally, this drew Sebastian’s attention as well. 

“What is it, Mommy?” He asked, marching over and trying to get a peek over the edge of the counter, but not yet tall enough to see - which you were thankful for. 

“Did you finish all your dinner?” You asked, leaning over to look at him. 

“I did!” He said proudly, nodding. 

“Okay, then, why don’t you go into the pantry and pick a cookie?” You said, hoping that your sudden flood of worry and fear didn’t quake through your voice as you forced a smile for him. 

“Okay!” He cheered brightly. 

He ran off to the large cupboard beside the kitchen table, eager to pick between the varieties of cookies that you had there. 

(Again, he was smart - but easily distracted. That you were thankful for.) 

“Y/N-” Spencer gasped when he saw the items that had come out of the envelope. 

“I don’t wanna hear it.” You said, your voice now quivering with tears you found yourself unable to hold back. “I don’t wanna hear about how you were right.” 

You stared down at the items in horror. 

It was several photos of you; very voyeuristic shots of you going about your daily life. Several of them including Sebastian when you had been doing perfectly innocent things - going shopping, playing at the park. Even pictures of the two of you playing in your own backyard. A view of you getting dressed through your bedroom window. 

One of the photos - a photo of nothing more than the front door to your home - had a message scribbled across it in bright red marker. 

‘Daddy misses you. Be home soon. xoxo’  

“That’s not what I was going to say.” Spencer sighed. 

He saw how horribly you were shaking - he saw the tears brimming your eyes. This time, he truly couldn’t help himself. He stepped around the counter, and upon instinct, he swept you into a tight hug. 

Unconsciously, he caged you away from any potential danger with his arms around your shoulders - holding you like he would have when you had a nightmare or when you shied away from men you considered ‘creepy’ on the subway. Your arms wrapped tightly around his waist, your fingers digging into his back for comfort, clinging to him like you would have clung to a life raft at sea. 

You broke into sobs, the sound muffled by his chest, and Spencer’s own heart stung - knowing that the true depth of the danger had finally hit you. 

“It’s okay.” He told you. “It’s gonna be okay.” 

He rubbed a flat palm across your back, hoping to comfort you in some way, even though he knew that the terror of the whole situation was mounting - and it was a horrible thing to face. 

“Spencer-” You sobbed out, unsure what you even wanted to say. 

“I’m going to make sure it’s okay.” He said firmly. “You know I won’t let anyone hurt you, right?” 

It wasn’t even a question in your mind. The two of you had your problems back in the day, but you knew that Spencer would never let any harm come to you. 

You clung tighter to him, savoring the moments while Sebastian was still distracted - likely sneaking more than the singular cookie you had allotted him to have, not that you cared in the slightest right now. 

If there was anything else on your mind aside from the potentially crippling fear as the realization truly hit you, any room past the fact that you had been stalked and secretly surveilled by a murderer for weeks now; then you might have considered the fact that when you had woken up this morning, you never would have never thought that Spencer Reid, of all people, would be such a comforting touch to you. 

Oh, how things change. 

…

Spencer was hesitant to let you go from the hug. 

But he had to call the team, because this was an important break in the case. And he had to see what kinds of arrangements they could make for you - if they could find a safehouse for you on such short notice, or if he would be taking you to the field office or the police station. 

You cleaned the cookie crumbs off Sebastian and took him to the living room, trying to maintain some sense of calm while you turned on a random cartoon show on cable. He got out a puzzle and you helped him with it while Spencer stepped into the other room and dialed Morgan’s number. 

“Hey, Reid.” Morgan greeted him. “How’s married life treating you?” 

“Not funny.” Spencer replied, his voice short and frustrated. “The UnSub just delivered another package here. More photos. And a message. ‘Be home soon’. It’s pretty clear that he’s planning on making his move soon.” 

“Woah.” Morgan replied. “Well, if Y/N didn’t want protective custody before, then I’m assuming that scared her into complying.” 

“Yeah.” Reid agreed. “Where should I bring her?” 

“Hold on.” 

There were some voices clustered on the other end, and then, the next person to speak on the phone was Hotch. 

“Reid… you’re not going to like what I have to say.” 

“What is it?” Spencer prodded. 

“Morgan and Prentiss got nothing at the library. So far, the only thing we’ve got on this UnSub is the fact that Y/N is likely his next victim, and he doesn’t seem eager to break pattern just because you’re in the house.” 

Spencer didn’t like where this was going. 

“You’re not insisting-?” He asked, and Hotch filled in the blank for him. 

“Our only chance to catch him could be… catching him in the act. We could tie him to the other crimes if we catch him breaking into the house-” 

“The house that my son is currently in.” Spencer huffed. 

“We could bring the boy into protective custody. And leave Y/N there. We know that he never hurts the children, that’s not part of his MO.” Hotch offered meekly. 

“But he gets some kind of catharsis from playing house.” Spencer replied. “If we move Sebastian, that might cause him to break pattern, and he could just move onto another victim.” 

Then, something else occurred to Spencer. 

“Also, we don’t know how he’s surveilling us.” He added on. “If he sees where we’re moving Sebastian, he might go after him.” 

He considered that another woman - someone completely unsuspecting, someone unprepared, someone innocent with no way to defend herself - would be killed if Spencer made the wrong choice. It could be more than one woman if the UnSub got away and simply continued his patterns uninterrupted. 

This was more controlled. The UnSub seemed determined to confront Spencer. 

Spencer felt that was a confrontation he could win. 

“We can have unmarked cars posted on every block. And the minute he breaches the house, you call it in. He won’t get anywhere near them.” 

Spencer hated that it was their only choice. 

“Okay.”

...

Keep reading here: Chapter Five - Brick By Boring Brick

#sundrop writes #criminal minds fanfiction #criminal minds #criminal minds fic #spencer reid x reader #dad!spencer reid #spencer reid imagine #spencer reid fanfiction #spencer reid #spencer reid x y/n #spencer reid x you

[the-colourful-witch]

🍬Professor Dumbledore🍬

Believe it or not, this one took a long time to make (whaaaaat, it's only been like twenty days since Madam Pomfrey came online! That's nothing... > note the sarcasm here). I know, it took a while to figure out how I wanted Dumbledore to look. I had a good idea of the 'vibe' I wanted him to portray. It was the costume I struggled with. Drawing long robes and making them look somewhat personal/fashionable isn't the easiest thing to do. He is a very respected man and I wanted him to look responsible. However, he's also described as somewhat mad... so he needed to have something 'cooky' as well. You see my dilemma. I ended up with something of a formula: he wears long robes, like Gandalf, but the robes are very sophisticated. There are patterns, colours, embroidery and jewels. The robes are tied with fancy rope or a belt. Not to mention he wears a pointy hat because he's a stereotypical old wizard :)

Dumbledore has always been a fascinating character to me. Very duplicitous. He tells the truth but withholds it too. He lies, but we’re unsure if it’s for the benefit of someone else or himself. He protects Harry but puts him in danger as well. I’ve never really agreed with the idea of him being a father figure. He’s not parental. Dumbledore is a scholar, first and foremost. He craves knowledge and would sooner watch events unfold if it means gaining wisdom from it.

That’s what makes Dumbledore so complicated, yet fascinating.

Now, a few final words. Something I DO NOT understand about the Fantastic Beasts films.. WHO decided it was a good idea to put Dumbledore in these gentlemanly muggle clothes when he was teaching at Hogwarts, when we fully know that he was born and raised a WIZARD, teaches at a MAGIC school with ✨MAGICAL ✨MAGIC AND MAGIC. ✨🔮⚡️ It does not explain how he evolved to 'long bearded' 'half-moon glasses ' 'purple robes' Headmaster Dumbledore at a later age🧐 I love most of the costumes from Fantastic Beasts, but this I simply cannot condone 🙄

#illustration #harrypotteruniverse #illustrator #hogwarts #characterdesign #characterart #harrypotterart #harrypotterdesign #characterdesignsheets #gryffindor #albus dumbledore #dumbledore #professor dumbledore #professorsathogwarts #hogwartsprofessor #hogwartsuniform #hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry #hogwartshouses #wizardingworldillustration #wizarding world #wizarding world of harry potter #wizards #harrypotter

[where-does-the-heart-lie]

Can we have a deeper analysis in Sabo's shape language study please? It's amazing how you make him give different vibes with just his hair and I like to understand how does that work.

Oh. I'm SO glad you asked.

(The Post In Question)

Okay so this isnt the first post ive made about shape language,

Here are the others:

ASL Shapes Strawhats Shapes

i'm just gonna copy and paste the definition i have for shape language from those posts here so i dont have to write it all again.

Shape language is defined as “a concept used in art and animation to communicate meaning based on shapes we are familiar with” (source). This concept uses circles, triangles, and squares to convey an idea of the “personality” of the design without using any words.

In designs, using circles and rounded edges in your silhouette and detailing gives the design a soft and squishy look. They tend to be harmless, approachable, or changeable.

Designs using squares gives the design a solid, sturdy, and strong look. They are supportive, reliable, and inflexible

Lastly, triangle designs are sharp and directional. They are dynamic, dangerous, and unpredictable.

That's base level but here's more in depth description of each design for ya:

this one is up first!

You may notice how in this design, his hair isnt in large clumps like the others are. His hair falls delicately and waves gently with little to no hard angles.

In this design, i was trying to convey the idea of "he wasnt born to fight, but he's molded himself into someone who will." I tried to depict that by making his hair all light and feathery, his facial features soft and rounded, but also showing how he's modified his body in a pointy and aggressive way.

I didn't want to only go hard edges with the piercings though because much like he's strayed from his mold of being delicate, he's also strayed from his mold of being a cruel noble. so some of his piercings are rings, AKA: Circles.

You may also notice the different in how I've drawn the collars of these guys. the collar of this Babo's black coat falls softly, and its' arc is rounded. The shoulders don't have any padding and it rounds at the corner.

This Man Is Round.

Next up is this Freak

This is supposed to be Triangle Him.

His hair is in larger, hard angled clumps. Indicating that he probably cut his hair himself. He did... greattt. I already headcannon him as someone who cuts his own hair, but i dont think this one ever gets any better at it.

The hard angles on his teeth, his scar, his jaw, his collar, that line i forgot to erase on the left, and his coat all give indication that this guy is Dangerous and you probably shouldnt mess with him.

I didn't have any real deeper meaning to this version, I just wanted to make him look as opposing as I could. this guy is "what you see is pretty much what you get."

Even though he doesn't have a lot of deeper meaning, I think this one is my favorite of the designs. I really love these colors on him and his hair was really fun to draw. I think I wanna draw him again at some point. I think this version of him would be very funny paired with Koala. I'm chuckling thinking about it:

Koala and her Armed and On Fire kindergartener

And lastly this guy

Sabo's base design is very rectangle coded. From his Hat, to his face shape, to his coat. So this version was very easy to make as I didn't actually need to change that much!

I think maybe I could've made his design a little more complex? But also I think there is a beauty in simplicity for this one. He looks straightforward, reliable, and kind. He seems like the kind of guy who gets his hands dirty, not because he likes doing it, but because he does what he must for the greater good.

I really love his hazel eyes, too. I think it brings a nice warmth to his design that is really nice.

Additional comments:

I love talking about this stuff. I love designing. I love art. I love drawing so much it's so fun

Everytime I get to sit down and make some funky doodles my brain feels like 🧠🤸🧘🧜🧚🙋‍♀️🙋‍♀️🧚💃💃💃💃💃💃

If you got this far thanks for reading :)

I usually have a description for my designs and my choices and stuff and I forgot to do one for this post, it makes me happy to see that it was missed :)

#ask reply #@naniguini #shape language

[larmegliamori]

Imagine asking to ask your followers what do draw and then picking the less voted option first.

Anyway here's my design for the one and only Magnifico Giganticus ✨

(Some design choices and symbolism rant under the cut, feel free to skip)

Ahhh, Magnifico, Magnifico... What can I say? He may not be my specific cup of tea, but I can definitely see where the appeal comes from.

If anything, I can thank Asimov for making him so distinguished in Foundation and Empire because I started drawing with a clear idea in my mind: make him as jester-y as possible.

I tried various outfits on him but all the trousers option didn't seem right on him, so I stuck with a pre-modern-like vest with added collar, belt, undervest and stockings. And, just in case you're wondering: yes, he's meant to have pointy shoes too.

This obviously meant a split design, which fits him like a glove: sure, he's the man who upset the Universe and broke the Seldon plan, he's a mutant wuth powers unheard of, he has ruled to Galaxy for as much as he could... but he's also a reject, someone with a frail body and that, after all, wanted nothing more than to be loved genuinely (and I guess that it doesn't necessarily romantic love... more like charity, iykyk).

This is also reflected in the sun/moon dichotomy I've tried to incorporate in his clothes: namely, the sun on his hat and the hem of his vest, but also the moon-shaped collar and the star pattern on the blue fabric (because after all we're in a Galaxy).

Also thanks to @the-l-spacer for pointing out he has a symbol -a planet being split in two by lightning- that I added at the end of his hat. It fits him but not the goal of his plan: guess graphic design isn't his passion (cit.).

Physically speaking, I guess I leaned more on his *sad* aspects: I really wanted him to look frail, hence I've tried to make his as thin as possible and gave him a long face to match his long nose, plus I gave him downturned eyes to make him look even more sad.

As for the short hair, I admit I just vibe with it more.

Last but not least, the yellow rose he's holding represents Bayta and the platonic feelings she had for him.

If you made it this far, congrats! I hope you liked the drawing, and if so remember to like and reblog and subscri-[BLASTER SHOT]

#come get your magnificunt everyone #and yes dors is coming too please bear with me #isaac asimov #foundation series #magnifico giganticus #the mule #fla does art

[meeeeeeeep78]

wow hi i’m alive

Starting a doodle page of sorts, mostly inspired by fontaine, so i started with some headshots to warm up, and just get the colours to use for everyone all together for easy access. except then this ended up taking the whole night and the rest of the page is blank, but that’s fine

general rambling/personal thoughts on how these turned out under the cut

man i’m so glad i redid the wonder siblings once i was warmed up i did them so dirty the first time around. i definitely shortened lynette’s bow on the second pass, but i think it’s alright. i also actually think the shape of lyney’s hair is bette in the first go, but that’s about it. i love drawing genshin characters because there’s always little details you’d (or i’d, at least) never notice unless you do like for FREMINETS HAT IS A LKTTLE PENGUIN.

i think neuvillette ended up the best, which is kinda funny bc when i do little headshots like these i don’t do noses (as you can see), but his face was just so long and pointy (bro could cut rocks with that chin) i had to add one

on the completely opposite other hand,i made furinas head way to short and she looks very squishable which actually isn’t a bad thing i don’t think but it’s kinda funny. things i noticed while figuring out how to draw her include: girl. how many layers of hair do you need?? i also admittedly used one of the old model leaks as ref since i couldn’t find any shots from the archon quest of her sides/back (granted, i didn’t really search that much)

navias hat was SO FUN and i’m a sucker for comedicly large curls so that was great. i am worried that the low opacity bits i added to indicate her heavier makeup just kinda make her face look blurry unless you’re zoomed in/are too faint, but idk man no harm no foul

rip clorinde, i tried but just couldn’t do her justice (hah)

i was gonna do a bonus arlechino (i can’t spell it right,, like,,, ever.) even though she technically hasn’t shown up yet but then i realized it was 3am

#genshin impact #genshin #genshin impact fanart #fontaine #art #my art #neuvillette #furina #focalors #lyney and lynette #lyney #genshin lyney #lynette #genshin lynette #freminet #genshin freminet #neuvilette #furina genshin #focalors genshin impact #neuvilette genshin #navia #navia genshin #meep draws sometimes

[haoxiaoba]

紫色.

(pt. 1)

pairing: minghao x gn!reader, side character!mingyu genre: fluff; idol-fan au words: 1.9k a/n: thank you chau & ina for helping & proofreading this for me! i’d also like to dedicate this to all the carats (esp. 8stars) and our idol-fan fantasies <3

“i’m wonderstruck, blushing all the way home. i’ll spend forever wondering if you knew, i was enchanted to meet you.”

— loving hao is purple.

how the night started was kind of a blur to you since you had quite a busy day previously. the stress and pent-up fatigue from your hectic work life were pushing you to the edge. you knew you had to get outside for a walk to let your mind relax even if it was at 1am. with your earbuds blasting the comfort songs of your favorite group, seventeen, you let your legs wander off around the park near your neighborhood. your mind was not focusing on what was around you, but rather the fantasy life you were drawing in your head as you got lost in the music. that was when you bumped against two male strangers, or at least that was what your mind initially thought. the impact was not too strong, but since you were not focusing, it did make you fall down on the pavement. you verbally yelped as your bottom made contact with the ground. to add to the bad luck, as if you did not already have enough from that day, you landed right on a puddle of muddy rainwater from the storm that was happening earlier in the day.

“miss, are you okay? we’re so sorry about that!” you heard one of the strangers ask over the tune of hai cheng’s final notes blasting in your ears. his voice was warm, comforting, laced with a slight accent, and strangely familiar. you had heard this voice before, but your mind could not recognize it right away. it all clicked when you looked up and made eye contact with the owner of the voice. xu minghao — the man you had yearned to meet one day in person, were planning to watch him perform at the group’s concert the very next night, and were listening to through your earbuds — was in front of you. suddenly, everything was frozen in place. the only things that were in motion were your pounding heart and the soothing tones of seventeen singing the next song on your playlist, lean on me, in your ears.

he was almost kneeling in front of you with his hands tucked into the front pocket of his black, oversized windbreaker. behind him was kim mingyu, his same-age best friend in the same group. he was hovering over minghao in almost a similar stance. it was kind of overwhelming for you, to say the very least, to see the idols of your dreams right in front of your eyes with no one else in sight. ‘and in all the possible situations i could have met them in, this has to be it…’ you sighed internally.

“oh-h i’m sorry about that, and yes, i’m okay…” you shakily and awkwardly said as you tried to push yourself off the ground. the attempt kind of failed as you made a slight slip. luckily, two sets of hands caught you right in time and helped you to stand up back up on your feet. your heart made a jump inside your chest as their hands made contact with your arms. you nervously kept your eyes to the ground through the entire process in an attempt to calm down your racing heart.

“thank you so much for your help!” you spoke and uncomfortably shifted your legs to get used to the wet stain that was prevalent on your beige work pants while your hands fumbled to remove your earbuds. your eyes naturally moved to minghao’s as you were voicing out your thankfulness for them. his concerned gaze towards you and his strong aura were a little hard for your heart to bear, but you could not help but to get lost in his hazy dark brown eyes that were slightly covered by the shadow of his black bucket hat. you had to take a second to zoom out and absorb all the tiny details you could find on him; from the prettiest shade of pink of his puckering lips, his sharp and pointy elf ears, to the way his chin was tucked inside the neck of his windbreaker, or how soft his bare skin looked. these little things about him made you melt a little inside. to say you were infatuated by the looks of him was surely an understatement.

you almost forgot about how uncomfortable the wet stain on your bottom felt and the existence of mingyu until he picked up your phone that was laying on the dry area of the pavement. right at that time, a text came in to your phone and you saw both of them take a quick glance of your screen, where lean on me’s album art and a photo of minghao as your lockscreen were on display, from the corner of your eyes.

“are you a fan of seventeen?” mingyu asked as he handed you back your phone. a rose-tinted blush slowly crept up your cheeks since your identity as a fan was now exposed to them. “thank you, and yes, i am a carat!” you muttered with a smile as you took back your phone before continuing slowly, “i had quite a bad day today, and your songs made me feel a lot better…thank you so much for that, too!”

“thank you for listening to us! it’s really late now, though. you should head home soon!” mingyu flashed a grin as he shoved his hands in the front pockets of his blue denim jeans. you bowed your head lightly and put on a small smile as you turned your body to give them space to continue their walk, “i’m sorry about bumping into you both earlier. please continue with your way!” as you turned, you tried to pull the end of your blouse as an effort to hide the wet stain from their view.

what you did not know was minghao’s eyes were set on you the entire time. he noticed how you were uncomfortable with the wet stain and wondered if you were hurt by the fall you had earlier. he, somehow, found you adorable. not that he did not think any of his fans were not pretty or cute, but there was something about you that stirred something in him, and he could not put a finger on what it was. before his mind could take him any further, he took off his windbreaker and motioned for you to take it with a soft smile, “you can use my jacket to cover your stain, and let us call you a ride back to your home! it’s quite dangerous for you to walk out here late at night by yourself.”

you could feel your heart race faster from his gesture, and as you were about to deny his offer, he put his windbreaker directly into your palm. at one point, you could feel a slight touch of his palm against the tips of your fingers, and it created large waves of emotions inside of you. you silently thanked the park for having only dim light at this hour because you knew your heart would combust from all the things that he was doing if this was to happen during daylight.

before you could say anything, minghao took out his phone and quickly typed on the screen for about a second. within that second, all you could do was look at him longingly. maybe the universe sensed that you had enough of a bad day and decided to send you a little gift because a small wind came on out of the blue and blew a fallen leaf onto the top of his head as he was typing. your hand and body decided on their own and moved closer towards him to remove the leaf. as your hand was about to reach for the leaf, he looked up, “would you mind typing in your address-“

the sudden actions from you and him made you both freeze in place. you silently cursed yourself for moving in too close because now your faces were only inches away from each other. you did not dare to move and neither did he. in that moment, it felt as if it was just you and him existing in this world. it did not help that your heart was beating much louder than what you were used to and you silently hoped that he could not hear it.

you also took notice of how his eyes broke contact with yours and moved down towards your lips. it caused you to unconsciously bite on your lower lip out of nervousness. this action, however, made something inside of minghao flipped. he was so close to diving down and placing a peck on those rosy lips of yours. he could feel his body slowly leaning in closer, but before he could do what he hoped to do, mingyu broke the silence with a light cough.

the cough made you draw back to reality and you quickly removed the leaf from minghao’s hair before taking a step back. “sorry about that, i just wanted to remove the leaf that was on your hair! my house isn’t too far away from this park either, so i’ll be home in no time. thank you for the offer! i appreciate it a lot.”

you were about to give minghao back his windbreaker before he spoke up, “i’m glad your house isn’t too far from here, but please use the jacket! i’m not taking it back.” perhaps it was his persistence or the way he looked at you almost adoringly with those beautiful eyes of his, but it made you feel warm inside nevertheless. you swiftly put on his windbreaker and gave them a polite bow, “thank you so much for helping me tonight! i hope you will get back safely…and i’ll see you tomorrow!” you finished the last part quickly before rushing away to hide your (very) evident blush.

you were almost speed walking out of the park, but as you were about to leave their sight, you heard minghao’s voice calling you, “w-what’s your name? we forgot to ask you that!”

“it’s y/n!” you turned back with the brightest smile before continuing your way back to your place.

when you entered your apartment, you almost fell on your knees from all the tension and nervousness that you felt from the interaction you had just now. you let out a shaky sigh as you changed out of your soiled clothes. your heart was still not calming down and you had the hardest time breathing normally. you were not too worried about that though because your mind was fixated on the thought of minghao and how close the both of you were at one point that it almost felt like you were about to kiss.

you took his windbreaker out to your sofa with you, and as you were sinking into the comfort of the cushion, you let yourself bathe in the lingering scent of minghao on the piece of clothing he left you with. your thoughts drifted off to dissect the entire interaction you had earlier. all the what if’s started popping up: maybe you should not have came too close; maybe you should have interacted with the both of them instead of just minghao; maybe you should have focused more on where you were going, so you would not embarrass yourself in front of him like that; and maybe you should have stayed longer just so you could enjoy his presence more. though, at the end of the day, you knew deep down that if you carried out these what if’s, you would not be able to experience this interaction as wholeheartedly as it was.

and if you were to get another chance to see him in person again,

even amongst a sea of people, 

all you could ever see is him, xu minghao.

[pt. 2: 红色 (red) - coming soon]

#seventeen #svt minghao #xu minghao #minghao #the8 #seventeen x reader #seventeen fic #seventeen fluff #seventeen scenarios #the8 x reader #the8 imagines #the8 scenarios #minghao x reader #minghao fluff #minghao imagine #minghao scenarios #haoxiaoba writes

[strawby-fields]

6 7 and 8!!!!! teeheee

6. I like to draw characters from above in doodles bc it looks silly. Actually trying to seriously draw it? Kind of painful.

7. Euuurrrrmmmm. Man. So many random artists I’ve seen online, I guess? Insert the artists I’m following… my lovely mutuals and friends… Etc etc. currently the art of witch hat atelier has been a neat inspo, though!

8. Tastes like orange soda, according to someone who commented on my art once. I like to keep it silly and fun, if a little pointy :]

#doodles #asks

[rye-kin]

May I ask how you designed your scrungly Hyde? Did he come to you in a dream or was there a long complicated process? (Both are very understandable and valid lol) any particular traits you enjoy the most? 👀

God, I would love to make a chart and run through of my entire design for him because it goes back a lot… in short he is a pointer version of my Jekyll design but I don’t necessarily know where each piece is from. I can pinpoint a few (pulled from older male characters in feature films and later manipulated for either design) but likeee…. Idk. Especially with this new one. I have a concept for him-that I believe I’ve stated before- that the more “evil” he is the more shadow covers his body/face. I wanted him to always be a little (mildly) book accurate- then again I don’t really know what’s going on with him now? Is that his hair or is it shadow fur?? Who knows…

I remember in his earlier stages too: I thought it would be cool to give him horns or animal ears using his hair??So that’s part of the reason for that pointy fanned out design (it just got very toned down…) animalistic features also account for his eyes and fangs…NO ONE ASK WHY HES PURPLE/ BLUE… jk it’s to make him look pale and because while coloring I didn’t think anything looked good and then I realized blue looked decent and he’s just so grossly pale he comes off that way <3!

Top hat and coat are just for iconic or recognizable elements… and he’s thin with broad shoulders because that’s just how I interpreted him in the book…and when I’m lazy or feeling it I’ll draw him engulfed in a coat to big for him because I love the silhouette. Spiky hands because he’s evil…

I do know I’ve been looking for the exact origin of the shadow design because I found it strange that I couldn’t pinpoint it, and it came to me on a March afternoon. Tragic… however, other people seem to know where his design elements originate from better than me so please go off if you’d like??

Idk. I’ve started watching older CN cartoons this year and noticed he evokes lots of those vibes so for NOW I feel myself putting more of those in his design, though they still aren’t the origins… he looks a bit like aku from samurai Jack lol? Does anyone else see it help… I’ve never seen samurai Jack though- idk if my point is getting across but I guess my answer to your questions is: I just drew him like that cause I thought it was cool, and solved the issue of showing his face as a man who is unpleasant and indescribable.

P.S. he has sick side burns as of now and pointy ears which you cannot see…Faves of his design are his spiky hands and his figure HAA best to draw….

Sorry for rambling and thank you for the fun ass question!!!

#ronnie chats #jekyll and hyde #??? #sure…

[deantvlove2018]

DEAN TV LOVE VII: EPISODE 9: 10TH OF MARCH 2023

Hello and welcome to episode 9 of Dean Tv love 7, on the 10th of March 2023. 36 episodes left in the 7th season of the Dean Tv love series, as I check calculator on my phone. We are joining Alec, Kaden and Zara at the Dean Tv exhibition in London. The title sequence starts off with the guy on the tube going to the Dean Tv love section. To activate the Dean Tv guru on the screen, along with the Dean Tv love logo with seven appearing with green letters. Everyone cheered and the 3 presenters walked out of the train. “Hello and this is episode 9 of Dean Tv love 7” said Alec. “Yes and here we are at the exhibition once again” said Kaden. “Episode 9 already, this is fast” said Zara. “Yes indeed and Dean is here too” said Alec. Dean joins the 3. “Yes I am here to tell you that the title for this episode is the 10th of March” said Dean. The guru appeared on the screen. “Yes you are right, anyway the post qaurandean era is still going” said the guru. “It has been going on since August 2022, the next era will be in 2024” said Dean. “What era is that Dean?” Asked Kaden. “Well I don’t know but we have to wait till January 2024” said Dean. “Yeah but anyway let’s watch this episode” said Alec. So they started to watch the episode. The episode takes place inside the Dean Tv mansion. Dean is very pleased that the Tv series Dean crystal has got a lot of viewers in the other universe. In the Dean Tv universe the viewers are about 19.08 millions viewers. “The same numbers like Black scissors the z generation” said Dean. Louise looked at Dean. “You’re still going on with the numbers again?” She asked. “Yes because everyone who watches Dean Tv have been tuned in everyday” said Dean. “Similar to the other shows on Dean Tv” said Louise. “Yes by showing the ratings online” said Dean. Calla steps in. “I’ve heard that Olivia dreamt that she was on the show helping Janet to fend off the Dean wood people on social media” she said. “Yes we read it before” said Louise. “She said that her favourite character is Janet the main character” said Calla. “I like the mums” said Louise. “I knew you were going to say that” said Dean. “Must be the leader who wears   a red dress” said Louise. “A red dress and a hat” said Dean. “She is a mum in real life by the way” said Dean. “I know” said Louise. Till one day Calla give Dean another issue of the Dean Tv love magazine, the front cover has the character from Dean crystal Josie, the girl with the blue hair. “She on the front cover?” Asked Dean. “Yes she is” said Calla. “Did anyone told you about it?” Asked Louise. “No but I like it” said Dean. Dean reads it, the story focuses on Josie eleven year old self living in a house with her mum. Josie is drawing creatures that exists in the Dean forest. Like dragons etc. Josie went outside in the dean forest with her pet fox, exploring until Josie sees a man running in the forest. A man with pointy ears, it is a Voo-Voo man. “Hey!” Went Josie. The man looked at her and said hi as he kept on running. Josie is very confused about the guy about why the guy is he running. Then one day Josie heard music. She followed the music, it’s the crystal master and his band are playing music. Performing in front of all the beings of Dean forest. Josie sees everyone dancing, they all seemed to like the music. Then the ground started to shake, the music woken up the giant. Everyone were frightened to see the giant, the giant is angry so Josie started drawing the giant so quickly. While Janet put the giant to sleep. “Cool” thought Josie. Josie returned back to her home to tell her mum about it. “That’s nice dear” she said. Dean finished reading the comic. “This comic was written by one of the Dean Tv formers” said Dean. “The formers?” Asked Louise. “Yeah the ones who used to presenters of Dean Tv” said Dean. “Oh them” said Louise. The episode ends, everyone cheered. “Well that is episode 9 everyone, next week episode 10” said Dean. “Nice episode, entering Dean forest again” said Zara. The guru appeared, he agreed about it. “Tune in next week everyone bye” said Alec. They all waved at the camera. The end credits with the theme music. The tube train moves on the track.

End of episode 9

1:25:21.84

#dean tv love 7

[aforrestofstuff]

All according to plan.

Anyways, here the Chapter 155 Expert Review Super Bonanza Spectacular: Now 50% Off!

I’m really tired and I’m getting pretty bad at doing these so this is gonna be quick because the newest chapter got delayed 2 weeks! Boy Murata sure is lazy! (This is sarcasm please don’t kill me).

Enjoy! You have no choice :)

Flashy Flash Ass Shot Number 37 (this month).

Within the year 2022, Murata is just gonna start drawing his dick outline through the suit huh. Maybe even give him pointy tinfoil hat nipples like Fubuki since we’re already like 80% there.

I think this King panel is cute. He’s so happy :) but I also think it’s really funny that he’s just screaming at the top of his lungs as is shown with not one, not two, but THREE exclamation points. When was the last time you saw a grown ass white man lean forward, open his mouth all the way, and scream. When was the last time anyone heard that with their real life human ears. Everyone on that battlefield is looking over their shoulder and questioning whether or not they’d get their shit kicked in if they told him to shut up.

Also, he’s doing this at the sight of Saitama coming back from the shadow realm (with Mike Wazowski and the juiciest little piece of ass on the planet [Flashy]). Homosexual behavior. See that blush? Murata might as well draw him getting a full boner. (This is also sarcasm please don’t kill me)

I don’t know why I think this is so funny like he’s got NO ARMS OR LEGS 😭😭 HES BARELY ALIVE DUDE STOP TOUCHING HIS HEART HOLY SHIT.

“Bro, your heart got stronger because of the battle bro.”

“No, bro. My heart got stronger because of you.”

“Bro…”

“Bro…”

I love these two shits so much. Look at Genos’ over-dramatic puppy stare. It’s like he’s front row at a Beyoncé concert.

Everyone talks about King’s plot armor but what about Saitama? More specifically, the plot armor his teacher relationship to Genos has. Fucker doesn’t do anything and it’s like the most amazing shit to Robocop over here. I think it’s hilarious. I wouldn’t mind if they continued it until the end of the series because it’s such a good running bit, and when it’s not being used as a funny bit, it’s being used as a sentimental one. Saitama doesn’t even have to try. He’s just that inspiring.

I mean, for most guys, when you work out every day for 3 years straight to such extremes, people just say you have depression. Which is also true for Saitama, but he got powers and— I forgot my point.

Drinking a gallon of GFuel every day has crippled King’s kidneys and he now pees out stones the size of the Crown Jewels.

This is hilarious. “I’m glad you made it Mr. Saitama, yeah!” Okay Pokémon dialogue. I know shit gets lost in translation and that makes some of the dialogue seem ham-fisted, but I like the idea of King unironically saying Mr. Saitama while the S-Class is around just to seem more put-together and professional. He’s like thirty, right? But he’s a bigass nerd loser (with kidney stones), it just seems like the kind of thing he would do. It’s either that or him calling everyone bro.

I’m not reading all that. Good for you, or sorry that happened.

Me at age 15, dungeon master to my friend’s shitty dnd circle and trying to come up with a cool name to the magic system I made up like ten minutes prior.

It is funny imagining him during his dojo-busting days or whatever. I imagine the teachers would talk to each other like “oh be careful! Garou fucked my shit up so make sure you’re super cautious.” and then the other guy would be like “nonsense! My disciples are super talented and shit. We’ll fuck him up!” And then their disciples actually suck and they get their shit pushed in. Repeat 30x

Now, I know this means jack shit coming from a dumbfuck but a big part of being intelligent is your capacity to learn! Garou absorbs shit like a sponge at 90mph! He’s a genius, but we already knew that. It’s just funny that he’s dumb and smart at the same time, which is inherent when you’re 18 and haven’t been to school in like 8 years and also 18. He’s 18 and he’s dumb. Did I say that? He’s stupid. Fuck him. I’m gonna hit him with my car. Deflect this Nissan Altima 2020, dumbass.

Garou is a dirty hypocrite and that’s good! — Words you never thought I would say.

At first I got annoyed at this but now I think it’s pretty cool (if done on purpose).

“You’re a hero, yet you sucker punch me like that?” Sir can we rewind to when you beat Mumen Rider, who was defenseless at the time (and ALSO took a punch for you), to the brink of death? Could we also rewind to that time you literally walked up to Golden Ball while he was off duty and committing the crime of—checks notes—getting a drink, and decided fuck him up for no reason?

Also, going to him getting upset at being ganged up on by the heroes at the shed fight: would you or would you not also round up your homies if you knew some bigass shit was beating the hell out of your coworkers for no reason? I’m not saying it’s the right thing to do, or that I condone it, but I understand, man! This was after Garou took out TWO S-Class heroes, they knew he’d be hard to get, and that’s his fault for knocking people’s shit around in the first place! Consequences of your actions, bitch!

And he was disgusted with their behavior because the heroes were doing it for themselves and not public safety (or just… general pursuit of justice I guess?), which is probably true, but like… do they need to do it for public safety? He obviously wasn’t hurting civilians. The heroes acted out of self-defense, because they had in their minds that any one of them could be next if they hadn’t at least tried to snuff him out. Garou KNEW he had the upper hand even while fevered, and he used their own weapons against them, and their own bodies against them.

So him saying that to Flashy Flash after all he’s done—after attacking and traumatizing and injuring innocent people while he knew he had the advantage MULTIPLE times, is ironic. He’s a hypocrite. And I think that’s cool, because it’s a very human trait to have.

Even Saitama is kinda guilty of it. He gave the credit of killing the Deep Sea King to the other heroes, and then later on complains that he gets no recognition or credit for the work he does. People often say one thing and then do another, and that’s a cool thing that characters need to do more.

(You could argue that Garou is a monster so the same standards of “heroism” don’t apply, but he’s still a hypocrite! Berating others for doing the same shit you’re doing/have done is literally the definition of it lmao. His whole arc is him turning into the very thing he despises: a bully. Still love him tho! He’s a cool character.)

There are many benefits to being a marine biologist.

Evil Natural Ocean blinking once just cost the taxpayers 5.7 trillion dollars and that is NOT an exaggeration.

I really love this panel. I can tell Murata likes drawing jets and military shit because he always goes all-out. That’s all I have to say about it, I just wanted to make everyone look at it again :)

In conclusion: character flaws are good. I’m pretty sure the country OPM takes place in is bankrupt. Genos is one Death Grips track away from dying. King is going through kidney failure right the fuck now. And most importantly: lots of cardio gets you a fat ass, evidently. Happy new year, everyone. Thanks for reading.

#one punch man #opm #garou #flashy flash #manga spoilers #meme #Saitama #Genos #meta #king #Silverfang

[helloemptyset]

[ image: a drawing of jevil from deltarune, but with a vaguely Y2K aesthetic. his hat sits around the entire back of his head, with a broken shape separating the two pointy sides with bells on the ends. he has an asymmetrical jacket with a stylized black everyman printed on one side, with velcro straps around the wrists and fingerless gloves. he has a plain black bodysuit under his jacket that ends above his knees, and he's wearing green and black heeled boots with bells on the sides. the bells on his hat and his shoes have x's through them. he has glitter on his face, and a very big, goofy smile. there is a stylized mystery man/gaster head in the background, an x drawn through his round eye. all of his clothing colors are muted but shiny.]

i love how everyone's drawing deltarune characters in 'cyber' outfits and i wanted to play with that

[ image: a transparent, stylized mystery man/gaster head, with a thick black outline and an x drawn through his round eye. the drawing has been pulled into a strange diagonal perspective. ]

#jevil #jevil deltarune #deltarune #w d gaster #deltarune spoilers

[the-author-dragon]

In which I finally got around to writing a oneshot for this scenario I wrote a while back!

Scaramouche and (Y/N) are Harbingers at a gala, and the two of them hate each other with a passion. However, they need to pretend they at least tolerate each other for the night. In a particularly angering argument, the two of them get back at each other in a most unconventional way...

Warnings: None. What, what did you expect from me?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Y/N) looked around the dance floor, looking for a specific someone. It was the night of a famous gala in Liyue, but (Y/N) was not here for the party or even for the man she was looking for.

"May I have this dance?" She turned her head, spotting the someone. His smile was fake, but (Y/N) almost believed it was real. He was good at things like that. His hand was outstretched, making her almost forget he didn't want to be here.

'Of course," (Y/N) said politely, taking his hand and pretended she didn't hate it. Scaramouche wasn't wearing his hat. It was an unusual sight, but it was necessary to blend in. They were on a mission sent by the Tsaritza, and neither Harbinger hated each other enough to disobey the goddess. Therefore, they had to grit their teeth and pretend they cared. Scaramouche was a talented dancer, (Y/N) noticed as they twirled along the dance floor. She, on the other hand, could usually manage nothing more than a box step.

"Why are you leading? You've stepped on my toes three times!" Scaramouche hissed.

"Oh, what a shame," (Y/N) hissed back, her voice dripping with mock regret, following it up by stomping on his toes with a fairly strong stomp.

"Ow! What the- quit it!"

"Make me," (Y/N) snapped. "I'm not listening to a word you say."

"How dare-"

"Oh love, don't you hate it when someone doesn't do everything you say?" (Y/N) hissed with a smile on her face. Scaramouche held her hand gently, his other hand on her waist just the same, but unless you looked closely you wouldn't see the two of them bickering. They had gotten used to this, the art of hiding their bickering.

"Why you-" Scaramouche punctuated his unfinished sentence with a grumble of frustration and tightening his grip around her hand. They twirled around the dance floor, Scaramouche grinned, and for a moment, she felt suddenly very nervous. Unless it was a facade or he was genuinely pleased with something he had done, Scaramouche always had a scowl on his face. His smiles were usually accompanied by some kind of carnage and misery.

"What are you up to?"

Scaramouche’s grin widened and sharpened. (Y/N) almost shivered. It was like looking at a bobcat. “Aw, it’s nothing too crazy,” he hissed, dropping (Y/N)’s hand, his arm snaking around her back. They were now standing close, way too close for comfort. (Y/N) resisted the urge to break away from him, as causing a scuffle or a commotion would draw attention to them and ruin the plan. He leaned over to her ear, the pointy grin remaining. “You’ve made a fatal mistake, number five,” he whispered, referencing her place in the Harbingers.

“Bold of you to assume I’d regret it.”

“You will. I’ll make sure of it.”

“I’d like to see you try.”

Scaramouche was silent, and a second later he leaned forward and pressed a kiss to the side of her neck. (Y/N), thoroughly startled by the action, shoved him away, forgetting the mission entirely. “Oh? Didn’t like that, did we?”

“What the heck?” (Y/N) scrubbed at the place Scaramouche had kissed, ignoring the butterflies in her stomach. She grabbed the collar of his shirt, practically dragging him to an indented part of the wall where they were about as hidden as you could get in the big ballroom. “What are you trying to pull?” She snapped, pulling him close to her and trying to stay as quiet as possible.

“I said I’d make you regret it,” Scaramouche said, appearing to be incredibly pleased with himself. “Are you gonna apologize for your ever so fatal mistake?” He asked, leaning in, the tip of his nose just barely brushing hers.

“You think I regret anything?” (Y/N) pulled him in closer. She could feel his breath on her lips. “If you think this is funny, what if I returned the favor?”

“You’re a coward. You wouldn’t even try.”

“Try me,” she hissed, yanking him forward and pressing her lips to his. Her heart skipped and Scaramouche wrapped his arms around her waist. Scaramouche smiled against her lips, and it dawned on her that this was what he’d wanted, and she had fallen right into it. She broke away, pushing his arms away, and wanting to be as far from him as possible. She had fallen for a stupid trick.

“Oh really? Already deciding against returning the favor?” Scaramouche walked closer to her, flashing his characteristic smirk that was usually accompanied by someone else’s pain. (Y/N) activated her vision, the element crackling across her fingertips.

“If you so much as take another step towards me, I’ll send you back home in bits,” (Y/N) hissed.

“You can try.”

“You know full well I can.” (Y/N) flicked a burst of her vision’s power at Scaramouche, an attack that he just barely dodged. She threw more of her element at Scaramouche before activating her delusion and attacking with that. The purple-haired boy had been knocked to the ground. (Y/N) scoffed. “And I thought you would fight back.” She started to walk away, her dress swishing as she did. She wandered the party for the rest of the night, and once she had received word that the mission was complete, she left and climbed into the carriage she had arrived in. (Y/N) leaned back in the seat, sighing in relief. Her relief was short-lived as the carriage door opened again and Scaramouche climbed in. “Get out,” she snapped, shoving him out of the vehicle. “You can find your own way back to the Tsaritza’s palace. I’m not spending time with you again. It was hard enough getting here with you next to me.”

“How heartless of you, (Y/N),” Scaramouche said with mock hurt in his voice. “You know, the Tsaritza would find it quite interesting that you were the reason I didn’t show up on time.”

“She would hold you accountable, Scaramouche,” (Y/N) replied blithely. “I’m sure you can find someone to take you there.” She stayed turned away from him, hoping that looking away would keep her from getting flustered, that looking away would keep her from remembering how it felt to be so close to him, to have kissed him in her rush of fury, to have his lips against hers and the fireworks going off in her chest once he had kissed her neck.

“Shall we pick up where we left off?” Scaramouche raised an eyebrow, half smirking as he hopped back into the carriage and shut the door behind him.

“No.” She looked out the window.

“Pity, I’d quite enjoyed it. Didn’t really expect to like kissing you of all people, being as insufferable as you are.”

“You’re impossible,” (Y/N) sighed, shaking her head. “And quite annoying. You never know when to shut up.”

“I’m well aware.”

“Then maybe you should take a hint and quit talking.”

Scaramouche laughed, something she wasn’t used to hearing. "That's a bold and stupid move," he said, scooting over next to her and resting a hand on her shoulder, a smirk on his face.

"You absolute-" (Y/N) shook her head and sighed. "Are you going to kiss me or not? Do I have to do it for you?"

"What was that?"

"You're ever so obvious about it. You're not exactly hiding anything. Do you always suck at hiding your emotions?"

"Why you-" Scaramouche's smirk switched to anger.

"Will you or will you not?"

"You don't say," Scaramouche chuckled before pulling her into a rough kiss. (Y/N) leaned into the touch, ignoring the flutters in her stomach. Her hand snaked around the back of his neck and pulled him closer. Scaramouche smirked against her lips, (Y/N) slowly running her fingers through his hair. Scaramouche was practically in her lap with how close he had moved to her. His hands wandered to her waist, tracing up and down her body. (Y/N) squeaked in surprise at the sensation, leaving Scaramouche laughing, just barely breaking away as chuckles filtered past his lips. (Y/N) grabbed the collar of his shirt, a rush of anger just barely overwhelming the butterflies.

"You cheeky little-"

"All's fair in love and war, number five," Scaramouche hissed, yelping in pain when (Y/N) kicked him in the shin. He paused, his carnage-associated smile stretching across his face. "You'll pay for that," he murmured, his pointy smile just millimeters away from her bitter scowl.

"What are you waiting for?" (Y/N) hissed back. "Go ahead and try."

Scaramouche leaned forward just barely, just enough to press his lips to the corner of hers, then to the base of her jaw, then just barely biting at the side of her neck. (Y/N) shivered, hardly used to the sensation. Every bit of her instincts told her to shove him away, maybe invest in a fresh set of armor. She remembered being taught as a young child how to fight and how to defend against an enemy attack, the things that should be guarded against the most, the places an enemy could kill you the easiest. It almost scared her how little she wanted to listen to her training right now, as someone who could most definitely be considered an enemy pressed his teeth to her throat.

She could remember the mantra now.

Weak spot number one: The throat. Carries the airway and blood vessels to the brain. Avoid cuts. Keep away from the enemy.

She pursed her lips and ignored the gut instinct to fight, humming in response to Scaramouche's kisses and nips at her neck. He could easily fatally injure her right now, if he wanted. However, he didn't. Whatever the reason, her heart was skipping like a scratched-up record.

Weak spot number two: The head. Susceptible to concussions. Protects the brain. Avoid hitting it at all costs. Keep away from the enemy. (Y/N) gently placed her hand at the side of Scaramouche's head to soothe her anxieties, disguising it as running her fingers through his hair. If he tried anything, she could shove his head into the door of the carriage.

Weak spot number three, (Y/N) recited silently to herself. The stomach. High density of blood vessels, soft tissue, and vital organs, she remembered as Scaramouche's hand traced from her shoulder to her waist, his other hand cupping her cheek. His kisses had returned to her lips, as sharp and rough as a snakebite. Somewhere in her mind that was quickly going blank, she remembered the rest of the mantra.

Large weak spot. Avoid getting hit. Avoid getting cut.

Keep away from the enemy.

Scaramouche's hand rested on her stomach, tracing the edges of the plates of armor integrated into her dress. The carriage started moving, the sudden jolt knocking Scaramouche away from her. He grumbled in frustration, even though the jolt hadn't moved him far. His cheeks were bright red and the tips of his ears were the same. (Y/N) rubbed her neck, which was a bit sore. His hair, which had been perfectly combed, had been all messed up. (Y/N) laughed a little bit at the sight.

"What?" Scaramouche snapped. "Is something funny?" It was strange how quickly he could relapse into his angry habits.

(Y/N) shook her head, trying to clear the traces of euphoria from her system and shake the fog from her mind. "Oh, nothing. You just look pretty stupid right now."

"Why you-" He was cut off by (Y/N) grabbing the collar of his shirt and pulling him into another kiss.

Later, when the carriage took a stop to feed the horses, the driver knocked on the door. "Rosaura," the driver shouted, calling (Y/N) by the name she had been given as a member of the Harbingers. "Lady Rosaura, if you please, we are taking a stop to feed the horses. If you so wish to stretch get out of the carriage now!" The driver had been having a bad day to say the least, and his frustration leaked into his voice.

"Is that how you speak to a Harbinger?" (Y/N) asked, opening the door forcefully and incidentally knocking it into his face. She hopped out of the carriage and smoothed out her dress, starting to fix her hair. Scaramouche exited the vehicle just after her, his hair messed up as much as (Y/N)'s. He cleared his throat and slipped on his hat, a pleased smirk on his face. (Y/N) swatted his chest. "Wipe that grin off your face, you look like a hyena."

"No," Scaramouche snorted.

"Oh? Do you want me to shut you up again?"

"If this is your way of getting me to shut up, you're doing it wrong."

And so the break went, with the carriage driver's assistant wondering where the carriage driver had gone, and had decided to feed the horses without him, and the carriage driver deciding to give up and rest in the dirt for a while where he had been knocked over, because this job is too darn hard sometimes.

#scaramouche x reader #scaramouche #genshin impact #This took too long to make

[submissivestarshine]

The Daycare Attendants!

(My versions :3)

•Designs of Moon and Sun remain the same as most ones you’d find, just clean Sun up a bit and same with Moon cause they dusty-

•Eclipse can be any design you’ve seen! It’s not specified, I like all the designs people came up with!(ALTHOUGH- I do rlly like the idea of him having 4 arms cause he’s sorta an amalgamation of Sun and Moon so I’ll keep that….also he’d have 2 peepees I’m sorry-)

Facts about all 3:

-Pansexual

-7 feet tall

-clingy

-can’t open their mouths usually, so it is stuck in that smile, but they are very expressive with their eyes. (Eclipse might be able to open his mouth but it’s not graceful- also inside it’s just wet and dark and he has a weird big pointy tongue)

-he/they/it pronouns [Eclipse prefers it/they, Sun prefers he/they, and Moon prefers he/they as well!]

-they all don’t rlly like themselves :,<

-abandonment issues and past traumas

-all gone through some forms of trauma or abuse

-all innocent, any aggressiveness shown from them are because of the corruption by glitchtrap, Vanny, or just because they got issues man,, they ain’t treated right

-tHey all deserve better :<

-all are INCREDIBLY strong, all 3 being able to punch through a play structure wall (made of thick plastic- not stone or anything-) if they wanted to, but most of them don’t usually do that

🌞 ! Sun !🌞

( artist unknown, credit to them ^^)

-OCD and mild anxiety :,)

-Possibly a bit of ADHD or Dyslexia? (He’s more just frantic than anything, but he does also have to pay attention to a lot of things at once all day long-)

-A bit clumsy, which really doesn’t help with his OCD

-Gets flustered easily which usually triggers his clumsiness

-A bit twitchy and fidgets a lot, does play with his fingers while talking

-VERY harsh on himself, bullies himself when he makes a mistake

-Common phrases said (that you’ll find in my OneShots!) : “oh my..” “hello friend!” “C-clean up clean up!” “Oh no-nno!!” “Oh goodness” “I-I’m sorry!”

-Nicknames he uses for you: friend, little one, Starshine, Sunflower

-Nicknames for him: Sunny, Sundrop, Sunshine

-Has a nearly constant stutter

-Occasionally picks the paint off his fingers (sometimes that will be to an extent of it being a self harm type thing so that’ll be specified in the beginning of the OneShots- otherwise it’s just a general anxiety thing) also: it’s applied paint to the animatronic- not paint he got on him from finger painting with the kids again or smth-

-Likes: kids, drawings, hugs-lots and lots of hugs, physical affection, glitter glue, slime (although he’s not supposed to play with slime since it easily gets into his wires and gets them all sticky)

-Dislikes: rulebreakers, a mess, things being unorganized, teenagers but he’d reluctantly agree to give them another chance (last one said something inappropriate at the daycare and called him “creepy” not only by looks but for being so interested in children-) still they mean to him >:(

-Interests (sexually): HUGE praise kink, (loves being called a good boy) always submissive, usually a bottom boy, likes pet names, a bit of a mommy/daddy kink? More so with mommy, and he doesn’t care if his “mommy” is the one peggin’ him, if u know what I mean ;) unsure of other kinks but trusts you enough to try them out :,33

🌚 ~ Moon ~ 🌚

( Art by cinnamonsly/cinnamonsly22 )

Depression, PTSD and anxiety, occasional Hallucinations

Also gets flustered easily, but instead of becoming a sputtering mess like Sun, he just groans and hides his blushing face in his hat :,)

Common phrases said (that you’ll find in my OneShots!) : “NiGhtY nigHtt~” “uGh, cLeAn uP cLeAn uP!!” “NaUghtyyy~” “nAuGhtYy bOyy~” “t-tiMe oUt”

Nicknames they use for you: (little) Starlight, little one, Moonbite, Dear

Nicknames for them: Moony, Moondrop, Moonshine,

Likes: naptimes, lullabies, cuddles, being gentle,

Dislikes: bright lights, flashing lights, loud sudden noises, being disrupted during nap time, naughty children, Vanny, Glitchtrap, himself,

Interests (sexually): usually a bottom, usually submissive, but occasionally likes to punish you too ;) so he’s a switch,, also has a praise kink, but does enjoy punishment. Nothing too bad, he enjoys spanking, overstimulation and not being able to cum until you say so- of course, only if he’s been a naughty boy ;3

Loves aftercare, and loves taking care of you❤️

🌗 Eclipse 🌗

( Art by @shandzii )

Hallucinations, GlitchTourettes (don’t really gotta explain that one but occasionally his interrupted by a sudden tic-twitching movement or just an outright glitch)

The most mentally unstable out of all of them

Stims a LOT

Glitches a lot too

Doesn’t talk much to people, and takes a while to trust you

Obsessive behaviour when he spends enough time with someone

Gets jealous of people getting the attention of people they like (all of them feel this way but Eclipse expresses it outwardly the most-)

Usually straight up hostile to everyone, whereas Sun is always nice and Moon only punishes when he’s been taking control of and when a child misbehaves/someone who isn’t supposed to be there breaks in

Has a short temper

Common phrases said (that you’ll find in my OneShots!): “m-miNE…” “c-clEaN…U-uP..!” “m-mY hUmAn..m-miNE!”

Nicknames they use for you: Sunspot, the little one, human, little human, (little) Starfire

Nicknames for them: Clip/Clipsy

Likes: puppets and puppetry, stim toys, music,

Dislikes: loud noises, meeting someone new, children, rabbits,

Interests (sexually): enjoys giving praise, obsession play/gets off on owning Y/N(making them theirs- yknow what I mean-) roughplay, likes to experiment with different kinks (although some he just doesn’t like) usually tops, isn’t very comfortable being submissive or a bottom because he doesn’t like giving others control, especially in venerable situations like this, but maybe if he trusts you enough…

#fnaf eclipse #fnaf moon #fnaf #fnaf sun #fnaf daycare attendant #daycare attendant #fnaf fandom #fnaf au #fivenightsatfreddyssecuritybreach #sun fanart #sun and moon #moon fanart #eclipse fanart #fnaf fanfic #fanfic #fnaf security breach #superstar daycare

[littlemisspascal]

Pedro Pascal Characters as Element Benders

This has probably been done before, but I watched an episode of ATLA earlier and thought wow, I wonder what Pedro’s characters would be and thus this was written in about 15 minutes. It’s probably not very good cuz it’s so rushed, but read on if you want to see my headcanons for the boys.

Also if anyone out there wants to come up with their own versions, I’d love to see what you imagine ❤

Javier - firebender, definitely. I mean, the guy smokes more than any other character I’ve seen on tv and I love the mental image of him lighting a cigarette using his own hands. His anger, too, at the corruption of the government I imagine as a fire constantly burning away inside of him, making his skin warm to the touch and his snappy retorts scorch the ears of anyone who gets on his bad side.

Max -- waterbender only because he’d totally master bloodbending through it. He’s a vampire so of course blood has to factor in somewhere. His bending skills in combination with his hypnotism ability means he’d essentially be the most dangerous predator in the whole office building, inflating his arrogance beyond measure in the process.

Whiskey - waterbender because if Katara can use a water whip then Whiskey would definitely make use of one too. Enemies would think he carries a flask full of alcohol, but it’s really full of H2O ready to unleash upon them as a powerful wave. 

Pero - I really feel like he’d be an earthbender. I just picture him grumpily stomping the ground whenever William pisses him off (which is often) and sending a wall of rock directly at the Irish man’s face. Or if he gets really stubborn then he’ll just build himself a little rock fortress to block out the rest of the world and give him a minute of solace so he can pretend aliens don’t exist.

Oberyn - firebender, no questions asked. I mean, I don’t know much about GOT but I know Oberyn constantly wears a yellow robe with suns on it, plus I’ve seen a lot of interviews where Pedro talks about the prince’s passionate personality makes him impulsive. All those characteristics to me scream firebender and wouldn’t it have been awesome if during his final fight he actually breathed fire?!

Marcus P - this sweetheart is totally an airbender. He just seems like such a tenderhearted man and wants to help anyone in need whether that be sending them a cool breeze in the middle of a hot summer day or helping get a child’s kite down from a tree with one well-aimed current. Aesthetically I imagine his hair always looking fluffy and windblown, making his lover want to run their hands through his hair all hours of the day and he’d love every second of it.

Maxwell - earthbender. It’s canon he has a passion for gemology and an interest in oil and I mean, he literally becomes the dreamstone (sorry, spoilers) so in my mind it stands to reason he’d be a pretty good earthbender. Another spoiler (sorry) from the movie is that scene where the giant wall rises out of nowhere and blocks off the city? Imagine Maxwell doing it because that rich oil man pissed him off with his condescending personality. Everyone would know to never make a joke out of Maxwell Lord ever again.

Marcus M - airbender. I mean, the movie doesn’t really show what Marcus’ powers are precisely other than apparently he’s got a pair of katanas, so I think it’d be cool if instead of just having a really strong bond with a pair of weapons, he bends air to send them flying into his hands. Also that scene where he leaps at the alien and gets captured? It was a super high jump so I could totally see him using his airbending to help give him a boost. (I got nothing in this headcanon to explain why he uses the little droid to fly around though, so let’s just pretend that doesn’t exist).

Ezra - of course he’s an earthbender. Just like Maxwell, it’s canon this guy has a passion for digging stuff out of the ground and becoming rich off of it. I imagine it’d be a little hard for him to relearn how to bend with only one arm after the events of the movie, but maybe he could use his feet like Toph does and master a form of bending unlike any other seen before. He would also use his massive vocabulary and honey-sweet tongue to confuse/charm competing prospectors right before he makes the ground disappear beneath them. 

Din - I thought long and hard about this one and I kept coming back to earthbending only because the Mandalorians would teach him to learn metalbending through it. He would use it to get dents out of his armor as well as fix his beloved Razor Crest, but without a doubt the most important thing he’d use his bending for would be to play catch with Grogu and the little metal ball. The cuteness would kill all of us. 

Frankie - I see him as an airbender. He’s a pilot at heart, loves to soar above the earth through the clouds. When he was a kid, he definitely had one of those gliders like Aang does in the show and showed off to Santi just how high he could fly (I totally believe him and Santi were childhood friends, you can’t change my mind). There is nothing he loves more than the breeze ruffling his hair and occasionally using his airbending against the boys when they’re misbehaving by sending their hats flying off their heads. 

Dave - this murder-loving suburban dad is a firebender. He’s the type to burn at a low simmer, deceiving those around him by thinking he’s calm and collected, but he’ll burn you to ash the second you tick him off or get in the way of his plans. It also would explain why he lost so badly at the end of the movie because the torrential rain would weaken even the strongest of firebenders. 

Permanent Taglist: @promiscuoussatan​, @vintagesaph​, @sylphene​, @over300books​, @aerynwrites​, @softly-sad​, @chibi-yuki​, @theocatkov​, @oh-no-a-whovian​, @freeshavocadoooo​, @you-and-i-deserve-the-world​, @randomness501​, @lin-djarin​, @happiestsparkleofall​, @gallowsjoker​, @rogertaylorsfalsettogivesmehives​, @captain-jebi​, @absurdthirst​, @coaaster​, @leilei-draws​, @melobee​, @stilllivindue2spite​, @pointy-sharp​, @artsymaddie​, @disgruntledspacedad​

#Pedro Pascal #avatar the last airbender #pedro pascal character fanfiction #headcanon #pedro pascal character headcanon #Din Djarin #oberyn martell #dave york #frankie morales #Marcus Pike #marcus moreno #Javier peña #Agent Whiskey #Max Phillips #maxwell lord #pero tovar #Ezra #ezra prospect #my fic #my headcanons

[aboveallarescuer]

Transcripts of D&D’s Inside the Episode segments talking about Dany

This is a post with transcripts of all the Inside the Episode videos where show!Dany’s character and storyline are discussed by D&D.

We’ve already had enough of these two hacks, I know, but:

I still think discussions about the show can be productive, especially when similarities and differences between the book characters and show characters are explored. Comparing and contrasting book!Dany with show!Dany certainly brings to light interesting aspects that I may not have considered otherwise and enriches my understanding and appreciation of both of them (especially the former) in a similar way that comparing and contrasting book!Dany with book!Jon, book!Cersei and all the other book characters does.

I had already written transcripts of most of these Inside the Episode features for a while to comment on them in my books vs show reviews. However, since I’m no longer sure if I have enough energy and motivation to continue writing the reviews, I decided to finish writing the transcripts that were missing and to post them already. Maybe this can help people find more evidence that show!Dany’s ending was retconned at the last minute (which is what I firmly believe was the case).

Anyway, y’all know the drill... Expect a lot of mischaracterizations, inconsistencies, double standards, sexist remarks and implications and so on. Never accept what they say uncritically.

1.1: Winter is Coming

BENIOFF: Daenerys Targaryen, her nickname is Dany, basically went into exile from her homeland when she was so small she doesn't even remember it. She is the youngest child of the Mad King, Aerys Targaryen.

WEISS: She's never known her father, she's never known her family, she's never known her homeland, the only thing she's ever known has been her brother. She's been raised by her brother Viserys and Viserys has had his eyes on one thing and one thing only, and that is on regaining the throne that was taken from his father.

BENIOFF: She's had no stability in her life, the only constant has been this brother Viserys, so even though he is a cruel and sadistic older brother and even though he is really quite abusive to her, it's all she knows and she's been forced to - if not trust him, at least to follow his wishes, because not doing so would just lead to more abuse.

TIM VAN PATTEN: Like a lot of characters in the show, she is looking for an identity and a larger purpose in life. I think there's something deep inside her that's asleep, that's there, that she acknowledges and you see her start to acknowledge it, certainly, when she's thrown in with a Dothraki and she's presented with the dragon eggs. You could see this thought process starting, but there is something larger out there that I'm supposed to be a part of. I think she's on board for going back to the kingdom and to finding out about her culture and to having a home.

1.3: Lord Snow

BENIOFF: One of Dany's characteristics that comes to be incredibly important as the story progresses is her hatred of slavery, and I think part of the reason why she has great sympathy for the slaves is that she's grown up in a situation where she's had no power, she's basically been forced to follow the whims of her brother her entire life. Dany has a great deal of sympathy for those who are in difficult circumstances, for those who are the weak and the oppressed, and I think it comes to be one of the most compelling things about her as a character.

WEISS: She's been propriety for all intents and purposes, she's been her brother's slave and so I think she has an affinity for those people and she can actually look at these people and start to think about what their lives likely feel, the empathy with them that is natural to somebody who's sort of a slave herself and I think that she really kind of starts to realize that being somebody ese's property is no good and starts to show the beginnings of the impulse towards freedom that end up playing a much bigger role in her life and in the lives of the people around her as her story progresses.

1.4: Cripples, Bastards and Broken Things

WEISS: Daenerys lashes out at her brother - it's just something that's been building up inside her probably for years and years as long as she remembers.

BENIOFF: She comes to realize that he is a fool, he thinks he's going to go back and reconquer the Seven Kingdoms, he can't conquer anything, he can't even beat her in the fight. She comes to believe that she's heir to the Iron Throne, she sees within herself the power that she wasn't even aware existed.

1.6: A Golden Crown

WEISS: Daenerys comes into the Dothraki horde as an outsider and a lot of her story up to this point has been her finding her place in that world.

DANIEL MINAHAN: Eating this stallion's heart becomes a symbol that she's actually carrying the person who's gonna be the savior of that Dothraki people.

WEISS: This is really the place where, in front of the tribe, she becomes one of them. She disconnects from her brother and her brother sees that and that, in turn, pushes him over the edge. Any importance and love or respect that she draws from these people is respect that he's not gonna be getting, so he's alone.

BENIOFF: After he threatens her unborn child and puts the sword point on her pregnant belly, from that point on, he's dead to her, I mean, quite literally dead to her.

WEISS: When Viserys gets his golden crown, you can see in her face that it doesn't mean anything to her.

BENIOFF: She doesn't look like a little girl anymore.

 1.9: Baelor

BENIOFF: Dany's high point with the horde is probably when she eats the stallion's heart and they're really behind their queen and then she starts doing things that they frown upon. For instance, when Drogo gets sick, people start to blame her, because she had this sorceress treat him and, you know, blood magic is very magic against the Dothraki code.

WEISS: Magic is pushed to the periphery of this world and, literally, it's way across the narrow sea in the east and it's way north of the Wall and also, it's very peripheral to people's daily lives. This isn't a world where a wizard shows up with a big pointy hat and a staff and creates all sorts of magical displays. This is a world that is more like our own world in terms of the role that the supernatural has in it, but Mirri is a source of actual magic.

1.10: Fire and Blood

BENIOFF: Mirri Maz Duur is a priestess of the lamb people and she sees a chance to get revenge, not only to avenge her people, but also to prevent this guy from doing it again to other people. From her point of view, it's completely just what she does.

WEISS: She has a pretty good point... I mean, these people did come in, completely rape, pillage and murder her entire village.

BENIOFF: Of course, from Daenerys's point of view, this woman betrayed her. She put her trust in this woman after showing her kindness and now the woman has turned around and betrayed that kindness and, again, it's a theme throughout the story that no good deed goes unpunished.

WEISS: We have people doing terrible things to people that you love and yet, if you were in their shoes and you knew what they know, you would probably do the same thing. Everybody is doing what they're doing for reasons that are grounded in the real human psychology and not in the fact that they're wearing a white hat or that they're wearing the black hat. Daenerys has an understanding that she has to give herself over to something larger than herself without knowing exactly what's going to happen, but she knows that, when she walks into that pyre, she's not going to burn up. Never in her mind is it an act of suicide, even though, in the minds of everybody around her, that's, of course, what it looks like.

BENIOFF: It's the crucial climax and Daenerys is standing there in the pyre and she's become the mother of dragons and the woman you would follow to the ends of the world because that's what those remaining followers are going to do.

WEISS: Dragons in this world are the ultimate source of power and, in a world where authority is directly derived from power, they're the ultimate source of authority and the people who had dragons were the people who shaped the world.

BENIOFF: Dragons are magical, but they're also supposed to be, in this world, real creatures and so, we're looking at bats and pterodactyls and other kind of great flying creatures like that for inspiration and always wanting them to look real, we don't want them to just look like magical creatures that have just popped up.

WEISS: If they survive to maturity and they grow to the size of school buses or however large they end up getting, as their mother, she becomes a very different person than the frightened little girl we saw being sold off to a barbarian in the first episode.

2.6: The Old Gods and the New

WEISS: This whole season is really the season where Dany learns the lesson of self-reliance, she's never, it's a very painful lesson for her to learn, I mean, she's lost all her people, she's lost her husband, she's lost her bloodriders. The temptation for her has always been to lean on someone else, a man of one kind or another. So, I think for her, what she's learning in this episode, especially, is that she can't trust in other people, ultimately, she ends up in a place where she needs to do things for herself and she needs to do things that nobody in the world could possibly do, except her.

BENIOFF: Dany is so defined by her dragons, they're so much a part of her identity at this point, they define her so much that when they're taken from her, it's almost like she reverts to the pre-dragon Daenerys, you know, everyone is a bit defined by who they were when they were an adolescent, you know, no matter how old you get, no matter how powerful you get, and Daenerys was a scared, timid, abused adolescent and I think when her dragons are taken for her, all those feelings, all those memories and emotions are triggered and come back and all the confidence that she's won over the last several months, it's as if that just evaporates and she's back to being a really frightened little girl.

2.10: Valar Morghulis

BENIOFF: I think there's a real, fairly radical change in Daenerys that happens over the course of the last couple episodes of the season, which is... For most of this season, she's been looking for help from others, you know, and asking for help and, by the end of the season, she realizes that she has to do it herself, she's got to help herself and that she's, she can't ask others to give her power, she's got to take it and that she can't rely on anyone else, really. You know, Daenerys Targaryen is not in a position where she can inherit the Iron Throne, the only way she's going to take the Iron Throne and take back the Seven Kingdoms is to conquer them and she's starting to learn what that means, I don't think she really knew before, even when she's asking Khal Drogo to conquer them for her, I don't think she really knew what that meant and she's starting to and it's gonna mean warfare, it's gonna mean slaughter, it's gonna mean a lot of people dying because that's, you know, the only way to conquer anything is through destruction and, I think by the end of the second season, you're seeing her really start to come into her own as the Mother of Dragons and the last of the Targaryens.

3.1: Valar Dohaeris

BENIOFF: For a great leader who is doing something unpopular for a certain segment, whether it's the Warlocks or the slave masters or whatnot, she's creating a lot of enemies, and powerful enemies, and those people are going to try to stop her regardless of how powerful she becomes, and it's something she's actually, in a weird way, used to, because she grew up running from assassins with her brother, you know, from the time, from the earliest time she can remember, she was being spirited from one city to another one step ahead of Robert Baratheon and the assassins, because there were so many people who wanted to destroy the Targaryen family and make King Robert happy and now there are thousands out there for all sorts of different reasons because she's made even more enemies, but, I think in her mind this is just the price you pay for being Daenerys Targaryen, for being the last of the Targaryens, and it's not going to stop her.

Anatomy of a Scene: Daenerys Meets the Unsullied

WEISS: Dany spent the first two seasons of the show leaning on men - her brother, Drogo, Jorah Mormont, Xaro Xhoan Daxos. She came out of season two realizing that the only person that she can completely trust is herself.

BENIOFF: Dany has her lovable side, but she is also ruthless, and she is also fiercely ambitious. What she wants, more than anything, is to return home and to reclaim her birthright.

CLARKE: She needs the manpower to go back and conquer the Iron Throne and to be able to right the wrongs that she sees going on around her.

MINAHAN: She's been brought to Astapor, where she's reluctantly going to meet with slave traders. Her quest in this is to build an army without taking slaves.

Comments from Charlie Somers (location manager) and Christina Moore (supervising art director) that don't have anything to do with the storyline

BENIOFF: The Unsullied were kidnapped as babies from their home countries and brought to Astapor and trained in the ways of the spear and castrated.

EMMANUEL: They won't do anything without the command to do so first.

Comment from Tommy Dunne (weapons master) that doesn't have anything to do with the storyline

CLARKE: She's being introduced to the Unsullied by Kraznys, the slave master in control of them.

EMMANUEL: Kraznys is being quite insulting to Daenerys. And Missandei very cleverly smoothes out her translation, just her initiative doing that shows her intelligence.

CLARKE: Dany sees a lot of herself in her and can kind of see that it's a young girl who's capable of much more than the position she's in. She's his No 1 slave. If you were in the UN, she would be the translator for everyone.

WEISS: Kraznys speaks a version of Valyrian that's been bastardized and mixed with other local languages.

Comment from Majella Hurley (dialect coach) that doesn't have anything to do with the storyline

CLARKE: She's struggling with the moral aspect of the way that these cities are run. And it's something she's been grappling with because they are an army of slaves, which she fundamentally has moral issues with due to the fact that she herself was a slave.

WEISS: The only way she can make the world a better place is to become the biggest slaveowner in the world.

BENIOFF: She's put into a difficult position, and she's got her advisors whispering in her ears.

GLEN: Jorah encourages her to get over her moral scrupules, with taking an army that were duty-bound to follow whatever leader it was, and that could change in an instant.

BENIOFF: Idealism is wonderful, but it's not gonna happen if you're idealistic, you gotta be a realist. She feels like she has this almost divine mission and nothing is gonna prevent her from achieving it.

WEISS: What she wants to do isn't just conquest for the sake of conquest, but it's really conquest for the sake of making the world a better place, and she's a revolutionary in that sense.

BENIOFF: For Daenerys to win, ultimately, she's gonna have to be just as ruthless as the others, and maybe even moreso.

3.3: Walk of Punishment

BENIOFF: Dany has her lovable side, but she is also ruthless, and she is also fiercely ambitious and, funnily, like a Littlefinger style ambition where she's trying to climb this, you know, the social ladder. It's almost like a Joan of Arc kind of ambition where she feels like she has this almost divine mission and nothing's going to prevent her from achieving it, and that might mean sacrificing those who are closest to her.

WEISS: Giving away one of the dragons seems like a completely insane thing to do, especially the biggest one. I mean, we know that, historically, the biggest dragons were those bigger than school buses and they were weapons of mass destruction and able to lay cities to waste in minutes, and no matter how big or effective your army of 8,000 soldiers is. Taking even a small city is going to be a kind of a dangerous prospect for them, and the idea that she's going to give away what they see is her real future for a chance at a small army now seems insane to them.

3.4: And Now His Watch is Ended

WEISS: We never really got this, a sense of her capacity for cruelty. She's surrounded by people who are terrible people, but haven't done anything to her personally, and it's interesting to me that, as the sphere of her empathy widens, the sphere of her cruelty widens as well.

BENIOFF: I think she becomes harder to dismiss, you know, for a long time people have been saying, even if she was alive, you know, really, the only threat she poses is her name, she's a Targaryen, great, but she's a little girl in the edge of the world, so she's starting to knock on people's doors a little bit.

WEISS: All at once she becomes a major force to be reckoned with, she spent a lot of time kind of banging her fists on the doors and declaring that she was owed the Iron Throne by right, but now she's stepped in her own as a conqueror.

BENIOFF: Dany is becoming more and more viable as a threat, you know, both, you know, in attaining an army and because she's the mother of these three dragons who are only gonna get more and more fearsome.

3.7: The Bear and the Maiden Fair

WEISS: Daenerys is coming into her own in a powerful way in the season. She's always been very negatively predisposed towards slavery because she knows what it feels like to be property, I mean, she was a very fancy slave for all intents and purposes, she was somebody who was sold to another man, taken against her will and I think that her feelings about slavery have started to really inform her reasons for wanting the Iron Throne, it's finally started to occur to her that, if I want to take on this responsibility, it's almost - it's incumbent upon me to do something with it, and she sees this great wrong, probably the greatest possible wrong surrounding her, and she's decided that she's not just going to take back the Iron Throne because it's her right, she's gonna take back the Iron Throne because she is the person to make the world a better place than it is. She is going to not just take it, she's gonna use it for something greater than herself.

 3.10: Mhysa

BENIOFF: We see her get an army in episode four, and here in the finale you see her get her people, really, because she's got, she has her Dothraki followers that don't number very many, and she's got the people she's freed from the other cities, but now she is, it's not just - it's something even more, something almost even more religious about it than just a queen, I mean, she's the mother of these people.

WEISS: And it creates a whole new dynamic between her and the people that she's fighting for that she's gonna have to deal with in the future.

BENIOFF: The way they treat her, the way they lift her up and she is...  something that has its... A revelation from a prophecy and that glorious destiny is coming true.

WEISS: Here it seemed like it was really important to let us know just how many people were counting on her to see the full extent of, mostly, the full extent of her army and the tens of thousands of people who flooded out of these gates to pay tribute to her. And then, keeping the dragons in play because they're always such an important part of her identity, we just want to tie all of that together in one great shot.

4.5: First of His Name

WEISS: This scene shows Dany learning a lesson that all revolutionaries learn at one point or another, which is that conquering in many ways is a whole lot easier than ruling.

BENIOFF: This is the pivotal moment for Daenerys because, for so long, her sole goal was getting back to Westeros, conquering Westeros and sitting on the Iron Throne and becoming the queen that she believes she has every right to be, now she has the opportunity.

WEISS: She is driven by a kind of a deep empathy, a much deeper empathy than probably anybody else in the show. It's something that makes her as charismatic as she is to people, because they get a sense of that sincerity of it. Her empathy allows her to look at the people of Westeros and say, why the hell would they follow me if I haven't proven myself through my actions to be somebody worth following, why would they let me rule if I hadn't proven myself to be somebody who has ruled well somewhere else?

4.7: Mockingbird

WEISS: In season one, Dany's sexuality was central to her transformation from basically a piece of propriety into a full-fledged human being and with Drogo the first thing that she took charge of was the only thing that was available to her at the time, which was her own body, and she came into her own as an adult, really, amongst the Dothraki, who were not shy about their bodies in any way. That Dany is not really cut out to be a virgin queen and Daario is a bad boy who seems like a good idea to her at this moment, and she takes her prerogatives as a powerful person as powerful people sometimes do, and yet he's made himself more than available. She didn't ever expect Jorah to find out, she loves Jorah in her own way, she makes it very clear to him that he's far more important to her means, far more to her than a person like Daario ever could, just not in the way that Jorah might like.

BENIOFF: He's been in love with Dany from pretty much her wedding day and now he sees this young upstart, who just entered her life relatively recently, come into his world and sweep her off her feet. I think he's both incredibly jealous and also a little bit angry at Dany that she would fall for a man who he considers so unworthy of her.

4.8: The Mountain and the Viper

WEISS: It's hard to keep a thing like that covered up forever, especially when your enemies are so invested in putting a wedge between you, I mean, they are a good team, they compliment each other nicely in lots of ways that are really troublesome to the Lannisters especially, so it shouldn't be a surprise, I think it's just one of those things that, in hindsight, he probably should've told her a long time ago, and it's more the fact that he kept it from her than the fact that he did it, which seals his fate. I think, from Dany's perspective, this is the most earth-shattering thing that could possibly happen to her. He's her rock and her anchor, the way in which he stops her from flying off into potentially dangerous directions, and when someone that important to you, that central to you, is shown to be not just a liar, but when their entire relationship to you is shown to be based upon a lie, I think it poisons every corner of her world with doubt and mistrust. From his perspective, he may have started as an informer, but she is his whole reason for being, at this point, I mean, he's completely given up on his desire to return to Westeros in any way except by her side. His home now is wherever she happens to be, so this is really like being expelled from the Garden for him, this is the worst thing that could happen to either of them. For her, it's her child; when Viserys put her child in danger and pointed the sword at her stomach, you saw some switch flipping her, you saw something change and she watched him die without blinking an eye, even though he was her family and the other family she had ever known, and when she realizes that Jorah was also responsible for putting that child in danger, I think that's what closes the door on him forever.

4.10: The Children

WEISS: Ruling is about maintaining order and creating an environment for your people that is safe and her dragons, which were such an asset for scaring the shit out of everybody and making people throw down their shores and run in the other direction when she would come knocking as a conqueror, they're becoming a liability that she can't afford anymore. It's one thing to be killing people's goats and you can pay off a goat herder for his goats, you can't pay off a goat herder for his children. So, she realizes that she has to put the interests of her people ahead of her dragons, who are the only real children she's ever going to have.

5.2: The House of Black and White

BENIOFF: There always seemed to be this sense of "manifest destiny" with Dany and that she was going to take what was hers with fire and blood, and she has, but there's a difference between taking and keeping and there's a difference between conquering and ruling and she's finding out that the latter is much more complicated. It's impossible to rule over a city as large as Meereen without infuriating certain people.

WEISS: Dany is trying her very best to do the right thing, to be a good ruler, and sometimes, within the context of this world, being a good ruler means doing things like executing Mossador, it's about laying down a justice that's blind and impartial and applying it evenly to everybody, former master or former slave.

BENIOFF: And, in this case, with Mossador, it's very complicated for her because she has a great deal of affection for this young man who was a slave until she came and that's the reason he was selected to represent the free people on her council and he's been a strong ally of hers and yet he disobeyed her and so, from her mind, she's making a very hard-headed but fair decision, and in the minds of the freedmen and freedwomen watching this execution, she's turning on them and she's executing one of her children, one of the people who called her a mhysa.

WEISS: When she steps up and actually does that, of course, she finds that she doesn't win any friends for her blind justice and her commitment to the law that she alienates her supporters and the people who hated her hate her as much as they did before, so it's one of those things where doing the right thing doesn't have any immediate rewards associated with it, it just leads to a riot that almost gets her head caved in with a bunch of rocks.

5.6: Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken

(Dany doesn't appear in this episode; D&D discuss events from episode 5.5 here.)

BENIOFF: Looking at Dany in Meereen, she's facing a real tricky dilemma so far in that she's trying to create stability in the city where she's a foreigner, she's an outside power who's coming with a foreign army and she seizes power and about half the city hates her, so the way she's trying to stem the civil war is in part by police action and in part by marrying the head of an ancient family and creating an alliance with those old families and actually trying to bring them onto her side by marrying Hizdahr.

WEISS: She doesn't like Hizdahr, she doesn't trust Hizdahr, but she has enough wisdom to understand that she's not going to get this done by smashing heads alone, she's going to need to create ties to this world that she wants to be a part of and to rule, and she understands that marriage is the way to do that.

5.7: The Gift

BENIOFF: I think Dany is still not quite at that cynical level yet, she still believes that there's a higher purpose that she's there for, it's not just about power, it's about using that power to make humanity better.

WEISS: If somebody is telling you that one of those horrible things that's all the more horrible because you suspect that it's true, and she's an idealist who desperately wants to believe that that's not the case, but, in their relationship, Daario is one of the only people - the only person around her now - who tells her all the things she doesn't want to hear.

BENIOFF: So she's not yet convinced that she needs to be a butcher. At the same time, she realizes that, the longer the season goes on, that she has to be ruthless sometimes in order to maintain security, in order to keep herself in power, so that means some bastards are going to get sacrificed to her dragons, then so be it.

5.8: Hardhome

WEISS: Over the course of their conversation, the similarities in their experiences start to come to the fore, maybe the similarities in their worldview start to come to the fore.

BENIOFF: Tyrion has a lot of empathy for another orphan out there who had another terrible father, y'know, it certainly links that bond them. He realizes maybe Varys was right about her that she's the last chance for Westeros and this is someone who could cross the Narrow Sea and not only bring me back into power, because Tyrion still has his own ambitions, but create a better world for the people over there because, depite everything, despite his occasional cynicism and his lack of sentimentality, Tyrion is one of the few players in this game who believes that it's possible to make things a little bit better for people.

WEISS: Dany talks a good game and she's very charismatic and she's a very impressive young woman, but he's heard lots of people say lots of pretty words over the course of his life and he's seen how those plans go awry when they meet with reality. Like revolutionaries in our own world, she has every intention to change things, even if that means knocking everything down to do it.

5.9: The Dance of Dragons

BENIOFF: Even before we put it in the paper, I remember reading this scene in the book and saying "holy shit" and actually I remember emailing George right after I read the scene, even before I finished the book just after reading the scene and saying: "that's one of the best scenes in any of your books and I have no idea how we're going to do it". This seems like a big scene for a feature movie, let alone a TV show.

WEISS: It's one of the most powerful and seamless allusions we've ever created on the show; we've never had anything remotely like this before.

BENIOFF: Dany could stop this at any moment, as Tyrion says at the moment when it looks like Jorah is going to die, and she can, she's the queen, she can stop anything, right, and she doesn't, because, even if she is the queen, she is, as she says earlier, if I don't keep my word, why would anyone trust me? And she's exiled him from the city twice now, he's come back twice, so, from her perspective, she's not gonna step in and protect him, I mean, he's not worthy of her protection; but, at the same time, as tough as she is, she's watching this man that she's had great affection for for so long and it looks like she might lose him, it looks like he really might die, so there's just this witches' brew of conflicting emotions in Dany's head and Jorah, I think, is really hoping for her to stop and you know, at certain points, like, look what I'm willing to do to get back to you.

WEISS: The look he gives her in that moment, you can just feel how intensely it just digs into her and how it says volumes to her across that dusty arena without ever speaking a word.

WEISS: [the Sons' attack on the arena] It's one of my favorite moments in the scene and the season and in this series, that moment where she realizes this is over and she resigns herself to that faith.

BENIOFF: This isn't the way she saw it happening, it's not the way she wants it to end, but if it's going to happen, she doesn't want to die screaming, she doesn't to die in terror, she wants to have a moment of peace before it's over and then, at that moment, when all seems lost, Drogon comes. There seems to be a connection between them, it's been talked about before on the show and in the books, there's this very deep connection between the Targaryens and their dragons, and certainly that's true with Dany and Drogon, it's more than just a pet of hers, they are in a real sense for her her adopted children and so this is just evidence of Drogon's ability to sense when his mother is in great peril. Jorah has this conversation with Tyrion halfway through the season where he says, I used to be cynical like you, but then I saw this girl step out of the fire with three baby dragons and, if you've ever heard baby dragons singing, it's hard to be cynical after that, and it's the same thing happening here for Tyrion, it's hard to be cynical after watching this young queen fly off on a dragon and it's very hard not to believe that she really is the chosen one.

WEISS: I think at that point it's pretty hard for Tyrion to keep a grip on his cynicism. His expression watching her fly away completely captured what we wanted to capture in the moment, which is he's never seen a girl like this before.

5.10: Mother’s Mercy

WEISS: Daenerys is stuck on this beautiful, but isolated, plateau without any food and a dragon that mostly wants to sleep and get better, so she's got to find her on way, which is fine, except she encounters a group of people she probably didn't expect to encounter again anytime soon. When she sees the Dothraki, she knows what that means, and her relationship with Drogo was one thing, but Drogo is gone and she knows, in a way, that he was sort of an anomaly. She drops the ring because she's smart; that ring is the breadcrumb that's gonna point in the direction that she's being taken and somebody down the line hopefully who means her less harm than the Dothraki will notice.

6.1: The Red Woman

WEISS: Tyrion is very much in the situation along with Varys where they're sitting on a volatile powder keg of a society.

BENIOFF: The enemies of Daenerys see a city ripe to be overthrown and it's going to test Tyrion's political skills, his diplomatic skills, all of his experience.

WEISS: He's optimistic in a strange way for him, he's not generally an optimistic person, but I think he feels inspired for the first time and he feels equal to the challenge that's facing him when it comes to Meereen.

6.3: Oathbreaker

WEISS: I think when Dany returns to Vaes Dothrak it's obviously with a certain sense of dread, because she knows that these widows of the former khals are not likely to welcome her with open arms, it's not like a "long-lost sister, where have you been?", it's "here's a funny-looking, white-haired girl who has put herself on a record as thinking she's all that" and stringing a bunch of highfalutin titles after her name. But the High Priestess of the Dosh Khaleen is not coming at it from the perspective of somebody who's looking to punish this young person with inflated ideas of her own greatness, I think she remembers what it was like to think that a glorious destiny awaited her and to find out that that wasn't the case. I think the High Priestess has a certain amount of empathy with Dany's position, which you see in the way that she relates to her, which is stern, but not quite as awful as anybody might have expected it to be.

6.4: Book of the Stranger

BENIOFF: The historical examples that we looked to in writing these scenes was, oddly, that was Abraham Lincoln, because Lincoln was trying desperately to stave off a civil war between the North and the South and he wasn't ready to get rid of slavery quite as quickly as people think. I mean, he was trying to talk to the southerners and work out some kind of compromise at first and, you know, with Tyrion it's, as he says to Grey Worm and Missandei, slavery is an evil, war is an evil, and I can't have both at once, so what's the solution here? The whole point of diplomacy is compromise. He's proposed compromise, which he thinks of as a good idea, is incredibly offensive to Missandei and Grey Worm, who were slaves and, you know, from their point of view, you don't make a compromise with slavers because that's making a deal with the devil, so they're entering into these negotiations with slavers with deep skepticism, but Daenerys did choose this man to advise her, so if he's saying there's a chance, they're willing to try it, but with great suspicions.

BENIOFF: One of the things that was interesting for us was, you know, seeing how Dany can be strong when she is not in a position of power, you know, all the khals of all the gathered khalasars were within the temple of the Dosh Khaleen and Dany, an unarmed little woman, killed them all, by herself. You know, she didn't have a dragon flying and doing it, it was all Dany.

WEISS: The end of episode 604 definitely meant consciously to echo the end of episode 110. It's Dany stepping out of a flame to great effect; this time it was just on a much, much larger scale.

BENIOFF: Rebirth is clearly a theme this season, whether it's Jon Snow or Dany emerging again from the fires. When she did it the first time, only, you know, a few score people witnessed this miracle of Daenerys Targaryen emerging unscathed from the flames. Now it's the Dothraki as a people who witnessed this.

WEISS: The act of stepping out of that burning temple, in which all the Dothraki power structure had just perished, pretty much makes her the queen of the Dothraki in one fell swoop.

BENIOFF: And, of course, it's hard not to be impressed when you see her emerging from the fires unscathed. It's like a god being reborn, and that's why they all bow to her.

6.6: Blood of my Blood

BENIOFF: Daenerys talks about the dragons being her children and that the dragons are the only children she'll have. Of her three children, she's always been closest to Drogon, and they clearly have some kind of connection that goes beyond words and she just senses that he's out there in the scene. One of our favorite moments from season one was watching Khal Drogo deliver a speech to his gathered khalasar. That speech lingered in Daenerys's mind and she's echoing almost the exact same language when she's talking to the Dothraki now. So she's basically telling them the promise that one of the great khals had made years before and saying now's the time to live up to that promise and to fulfill it. It's something that's been set up for quite a long time and now we're seeing it come to pass.

6.9: Battle of the Bastards

WEISS: Daenerys, when she comes back to that situation, she has no idea what to expect, she doesn't know what's happened in Meereen. In a way, you feel for Tyrion because she left him with a terrible situation; the city was under siege from within and without and he really did, for so long, an excellent job of making things better there and, unfortunately, what she comes back to find is exactly what she would have expected to find when she left, and the fact that she has a city at all still is due to him.

BENIOFF: I think Dany's been becoming a Targaryen ever since the end of season one.

WEISS: She's not her father and she's not insane and she's not a sadist, but there's a Targaryen ruthlessness that comes with even the good Targaryens.

BENIOFF: If you're one of the lords of Westeros or one of her potential opponents in the wars to come and you get word of what happened here in Meereen, you have to be pretty nervous because this is an unprecedented threat, you got a woman who's somehow formed an alliance where she's got a Dothraki horde, a legion of Unsullied, she's got the mercenary army of the Second Sons and she's got three dragons who are now pretty close to full-grown, so if she can make it all the way across the Narrow Sea and get to Westeros, who's gonna stand in her way?

6.10: The Winds of Winter

WEISS: Tyrion had a very steep slope to climb to win Dany's trust. His family played an integral part in nearly exterminating her family, but, at this point, especially given the hand he was dealt with Meereen after she left, he's earned her trust. One of the few people in this world at this point who's willing to speak the truth to her face.

BENIOFF: Mainly, he's proven himself to be very loyal, you know, she's gone for most of the season, but he didn't abandon her, he didn't go off looking for the next person to rule him, he was clearly trying to serve her interest while she was gone. Dany's not gonna do anything she doesn't want to do, she's not gonna take anyone's advice if it seems against her interests and so, when he recommends that she cut ties with Daario, she does it because she thinks he's right. The truth is, Tyrion's logic makes a lot of sense to her, you know, he's not gonna be a help for her when she gets to Westeros, she comes over there unencumbered and, as a queen without a king, that could be really useful in the future. You know, Tyrion has become a very capable adviser in a relatively short time, she clearly respects his intelligence and she now respects his loyalty. I think, especially given that she knows where they're heading, they're going back to Westeros, most of the people on her team have never been there, but Tyrion spent his whole life there, served as Hand of the King before, defended King's Landing during an attack, he knows these families, the ruling family, better than anyone, he certainly knows Cersei better than anyone, so, as long as she can trust him, which she does, he's the perfect adviser for her in this war for Westeros. He's the perfect Hand to the Queen and that's why she names him such.

WEISS: That shot of Dany's fleet with all of her newly arrayed allies making its way out of the Slaver's Bay towards the Narrow Sea and home, it's probably the biggest thing that's happened on the show thus far, it's the thing we've been waiting for since the pilot episode of the first season. The person she is now is very, very different from the person she was then. It hasn't been a smooth road, feels like she has earned it at this point.

BENIOFF: It's the shot that we're gonna leave everyone with.

WEISS: It was a real thrill to see her on the bow of that ship, with Tyrion by her side heading west. The ruthlessness that comes with even the good Targaryens, I mean, these are the people who came over from across the narrow sea and conquered the known world. It'll be very interesting to see how that plays out going forward.

7.1: Dragonstone

BENIOFF: For [Cersei] now at this point, it's about survival, and the way to survive is to defeat her enemy. She will do whatever she has to do to win, she'll blow up the sept if that will allow her to win, even if that means killing hundreds, probably thousands of innocent people. She's capable of anything, unlike Dany, who is constrained a little bit by her morality and her fear of hurting innocents. For those of us who have been with the story from the beginning and really followed Dany's journey, coming home is such a massive, game-changer on so many levels, and we just wanted to see that.

WEISS: There is so much weight on that arrival that we felt that a bunch of dialogue was completely unnecessary, it would only step on the emotion of the moment.

BENIOFF: Everyone is giving her a little bit of distance; Tyrion, who is usually the most loquacious of people, he's not talking because he wants her to experience it and, at one point, Grey Worm is about to walk up alongside Dany to guard her and Missandei holds him back because she wants Dany to experience it on her own. And then she has that time and she's ready to begin.

7.2: Stormborn

WEISS: I don't think they're that many situations in film or television where you see four women sitting around a table discussing power and strategy and war. We didn't really plan it that way, but once it landed on that we knew that these things had to be discussed, we knew the plan to take Casterly Rock had to be put out there. I think it's a scene that, had it been the exact same information, situation being put forward by a bunch of old grizzled guys with gray beards, it would have been a lot less interesting to have it be Emilia at one end of the table and Diana at the other end of the table. To me, that just is such a breath of fresh air, and made writing it a lot more fun. The end, after all has been said and done, then Olenna sits her down and tells her to ignore all of that.

Show!Olenna: You're a dragon. Be a dragon.

WEISS: When Diana tells you to do that you start to... go outside the scene and wonder if that applies to every aspect of your life and not just the scene you happen to be shooting.

7.3: The Queen’s Justice

WEISS: The spine of the episode is about their meeting. It was an exciting, thrilling thing to watch happening even as we were shooting it. Once we realized that we're kind of getting a charge out of just seeing this happen on a set, which is a notoriously boring place, we had a sense that it would carry over to the finished version of the scene.

BENIOFF: That audience chamber was built by Aegon Targaryen to intimidate anyone who came there.

WEISS: He doesn't have much insight into what she's gone through. So, I think he sees a rich girl with a fancy name sitting in a big chair with a fancy dress on, proclaiming herself the queen of the world. So, I don't think he's looking upon her with as much respect as she has come to take as her due.

BENIOFF: He's a very strong-willed person. He didn't come down there to bend the knee. He didn't come down there to join her in her fight against Cersei. None of that matters at this point, though. All that matters is... fighting the dead.

WEISS: She looks at him, and she thinks this is some unwashed barbarian from the North and a bastard. His name is Jon Snow, yet he's calling himself king. If she knew what he'd seen, she'd be looking very, very differently... at what he's telling her, but at this moment in time, she only sees somebody who's trying to carve up her piece of her kingdom for himself. And if what this guy is saying is true, then it really is an issue, and she has... her own very serious issues to deal with in the shape of the woman who's now sitting on the throne.

7.4: The Spoils of War

BENIOFF: There's tension on two sides. One is the political, where Jon Snow has his own very specific purpose here on Dragonstone, and that's to get the Dragonglass and, if possible, to convince Dany to fight with him. And Dany has her own very specific purpose, which is to get Jon to bend the knee. There's conflict, and it's conflict between powerful people. And then to make it all even more complicated, they're starting to be attracted to each other. And so much of it is not from dialogue or anything we wrote, it's just the two of them in a small space standing near each other, and us just watching that and feeling the heat of that.

WEISS: She had a nicely triumphant return to Dragonstone, which nobody contested or got in the way of. From that point on, she's lost two of her principle allies, she's lost a lot of her fleet. She's in a position where if she doesn't step up soon and come up with a big win for her side, she's gonna lose this fight before it even begins. I think she really feels the pressure of her situation more than she ever has before. This is the fight she's been waiting for her whole life.

BENIOFF: I think there are several stories interplaying here. Part of it is that Dany's finally cutting loose. The whole first part of the season, she's been frustrated. In following Tyrion's counsel, she's been fighting with one hand behind her back, and so she hasn't really unleashed the Dothraki horde. She hasn't really set the dragons into combat yet.

WEISS: With the loot train battle, one of the things that's most exciting about it for us... This is the first time we've ever had two sets of main characters on opposite sides of the battlefield. And it's impossible to really want any one of them to win, and impossible to want any one of them to lose.

WEISS: This dragon flies up. That makes it a totally different situation. It's almost like, "What if somebody had an F-16 that they brought to a medieval battle?" You start to scrap the history of it a bit, and just think about how would those things interact with each other in a way that's exciting and believable to the extent that dragons are believable?

BENIOFF: Qyburn realized that the dragons were vulnerable. They might be fearsome beasts, but they are mortal and they can be hurt, and they can be killed. We see the scorpion come into play, manned by Bronn. And we see Drogon wounded. Things turn out okay for them, but I think it also changes the calculation a little bit, because now they know these weapons are on the board. This ongoing war with Cersei is entering into a dangerous territory.

WEISS: Jaime's charge at Daenerys is a hard thing to top for me in that sequence, only because when you have a principle character trying to murder another principle character, that doesn't happen all that often.

7.5: Eastwatch

BENIOFF: One of the things that Dany has found immensely frustrating in the beginnings of this war against Cersei is that she is being asked to fight on a certain moral standard and... Cersei isn't. Because of that, Cersei has an advantage over her. The more ruthless opponent will often win. I wouldn't say she's acting like the Mad King because it's rational. She's given them a choice and they choose not to bend the knee to her and she accepts that choice and she does exactly what she told them she would do. And from her standpoint, she's not acting insane in any way. She's just being tough, which is what she needs to be to win. That's one perspective. Tyrion has a different perspective and hopefully people watching will have their own and they'll decide for themselves whether they think what she did was just or immoral.

7.6: Beyond the Wall

BENIOFF: At a certain point, they're just fighting for their survival. Once they retreat all the way to the middle of the lake, there's nowhere farther to run. She's always been willing to risk her life to do what she thinks is right. And in terms of going North to rescue them, a number of people up there have different claims on her heart. And Jorah's been by her side from the beginning, and he saved her life so many times, I think she would feel as if it was a betrayal if she didn't at least try to save him. And then of course, there's Jon Snow. You definitely get the sense that he's become quite important to her in a pretty short amount of time. He sees that they're all gonna die if the dragon doesn't take off. The rational decision at that point is, "You guys go to safety, and I'll try to keep them off you as long as I can." He's the guy who jumps on the grenade to save the rest of the platoon. That's always been Jon.

WEISS: I think that when she sees him return on the back of Coldhand's horse, that's a big moment for her in terms of the way she feels about him.

BENIOFF: I don't think either one of them really knew exactly how powerful their feelings were towards each other until these moments. Just the notion of falling for someone, that involves weakness. It's not something a queen does. But she feels that happening, and he feels it happening for her. I think both of them are on, kinda, unfamiliar ground. And especially because it's with an equal. It's kind of hard for her at that point, I think not to look at this guy, and realize this is not like the other boys.

WEISS: What was fun about the sequence, you know, awful way to us is that up until the end, it's very close to one of those battles where all the good guys get out the other side, and, more or less, scot-free. But we knew that killing the dragon was gonna have a tremendous emotional impact, 'cause over the seasons and seasons of the show it's really been emphasized what they are to Dany. We knew that the Night King would see and seize this opportunity. I'd like to think that when the dragon dies, that it's kind of a one-two punch, 'cause on the one hand, you've just seen the horror of one of these three amazing beings like this in the world going under the water and not coming up again, and processing that. Then you're processing something that's even worse, which is when it comes back out from under the water again, and we see in the last shot of the episode, what it becomes.

7.7: The Dragon and the Wolf

BENIOFF: Jon's not Jon Sand. He's actually, as Bran finally overhears from Lyanna, Aegon Targaryen. And that means he's the rightful heir to the Iron Throne. That changes everything.

WEISS: I would say the challenge with this sequence was finding a way to present information that at least a good portion of the audience already had in a way that was dramatic and exciting, also had a new element to it. Part of the answer as to how to go about doing that was in the montage, inter-cut nature of it. It was about making it clear that this was almost like an information bomb that Jon was heading towards.

Show!Bran: Robert's rebellion was built on a lie.

WEISS: The only way to really emphasize that was to tie those two worlds together cinematically, and to have Bran actually narrating these facts over the footage of Jon and of Dany.

Show!Bran: He's the heir to the Iron Throne.

WEISS: Just as we're seeing these two people come together, we're hearing the information that will inevitably, if not tear them apart, at least cause real problems in their relationship. And she's his aunt.

BENIOFF: It complicates everything on a political level, on a personal level, and it just makes everything that could have been so neat and kind of perfect for Jon and Dany, and it really muddies the waters.

Show!Bran: We need to tell him.

BENIOFF: We tried to contrast the various season endings so that they don't feel too similar. So last season we had a pretty triumphant ending with Dany finally sailing west towards Westeros. This one is definitely much more horrific.

8.1: Winterfell

BENIOFF: It's a whole new procession, and so instead of Robert arriving with Queen Cersei and Jamie Lannister and The Hound, it's Daenerys coming with Jon Snow. I don't think the North is the most welcoming place to outsiders. Dany's smart. She senses that distrust, and she's... gonna make the best of a bad situation, but that doesn't mean that she likes it or she's happy.

WEISS: When you're doing something good for people, and you get met with what Sansa gives her when they meet in the courtyard, it's understandable that she would be upset.

WEISS: I think that if Tyrion were to have shown up on his own to Winterfell, he would've gotten a much different reception from Sansa than he did coming as the Hand of the Queen, Daenerys Targaryen.

BENIOFF: No one's ever ridden a dragon except for Dany. Only Targaryens can ride dragons, and that should be a sign for Jon. Jon's not always the quickest on the uptake, but eventually gets there.

WEISS: We wanted to kind of re-anchor their relationship. It seemed important for it to involve the dragons, since the dragons play such an important role.

BENIOFF: It's a major thing for her when she sees they have some kind of connection to him, they allow him to be around them. And when he flies up with her and shows her where he used to hunt as a kid, I think she falls even farther in love with him.

WEISS: Seeing Jon and Dany on the dragons together, it's a Jon and Dany moment, but it also seeds in the idea that these creatures will accept Jon Snow as one of their riders.

BENIOFF: One of the challenges, but also one of the exciting things about this episode, this whole season, is bringing together characters who have never met. Sam has long been one of the more important characters in the story. But he's never seen Queen Daenerys, and yet they're connected by various threads. The obvious one, which we know from the beginning of the scene, is Jorah. Sam saved him, and so Jorah owes him this great debt. What none of them realize until midway through this scene is that they have another, horrible connection.

WEISS: There are all these things that you know about those characters that the other characters don't know. And some of them are very important. Dany murdered Samwell's father and brother.

BENIOFF: That's a really complicated thing for Sam because he had a really fraught relationship with his father. Yet Sam's older brother was not a bad person, and died, really, quite bravely, standing by his father's side.

WEISS: John Bradley did an excellent job. The difference between the way he takes the news of his father's death and the way he takes the news of his brother's death, it was a subtle thing that he does with very few words. It's the kind of thing that he could find out in a number of different ways, but it seemed like a very ineffective preamble and way into that later moment.

WEISS: The fact that Jon's real parents were who Jon's real parents were is not news to us at this point, but what we don't know is the way that Jon is going to take this. How's the explosion gonna look?

BENIOFF: Sam, as a brother of the Night's Watch, and Jon are more brothers than Bran and Jon ever really were. He knows it's gonna hurt Jon and it's going to shatter his whole worldview. For all they know, the Army of the Dead could attack the next day, and someone has to tell Jon before that.

WEISS: He's being told something that he both knows is true and can't handle. So he tries to throw things in front of it to prevent him from having to deal with the-- the truth of what he's being told. The thing he throws in front of it here is the fact that it means his father was lying to him his whole life. The truth that Samwell tells Jon is probably the most incendiary fact in the entire world of the show. We chose to play the whole thing on Jon's face because, as great a job as John Bradley is doing presenting this information, he's really just presenting information we know already.

8.2: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

WEISS: When Jaime shows up to Winterfell, it's very difficult for almost anybody to know how to feel about it. On the one hand, Dany looks at him as the person who murdered her father, and even if she has come to terms with who her father was and what her father really was, it probably doesn't entirely erase the sting of her father's murderer showing up on her doorstep.

BENIOFF: Tyrion has made a number of mistakes now, and Dany's really at the end of her patience. Because she has a lot of fondness and respect for Tyrion, but many of his plans have really gone awry. And now Jaime Lannister's here, but not with the Lannister army. Tyrion can't really fight back because he knows she's right. I mean, he really did make a grievous mistake. If Tyrion has a flaw, he's a very clever man, but sometimes clever people overestimate their own cleverness.

BENIOFF: Dany comes to Sansa with a bit of an olive branch, trying to find a way inside that kind of cool exterior that Sansa presents. And one commonality between them is they both love Jon. Dany's his lover and Sansa's his sister. It's very much coming at it from the point of view of a monarch trying to make peace with her subject, and Sansa's not quite willing to accept Dany as her monarch yet. She's suspicious of people for a reason. She's had too many hard experiences not to be suspicious of people. And she sees Dany as possibly a tyrant, as somebody who has a lot of power and is seeking to get even more.

8.3: The Long Night

WEISS: We wanted our characters to feel, like, that this-- maybe this is all gonna work out, maybe things are all gonna be okay. We've seen how devastating a Dothraki charge can be just with their regular swords, and now when they're galloping into combat with, uh, flaming arakhs, it's-- it's-- Uh... What could possibly stand against that?

BENIOFF: What they see is just the end of the Dothraki, essentially.

WEISS: They have a plan, and it's important to wait for the Night King to reveal himself, and then have two dragons against one dragon, and a really good chance of-- of defeating him. One thing that they couldn't have foreseen was Dany's reaction to seeing the Dothraki decimated. Jon is the person who wants to stick to the plan, but the Dothraki are not Jon's; they're not loyal to Jon, they're loyal to Dany, and I think that Dany can't bring herself to just watch them die, and so the plan starts to fall apart the second she gets on her dragon, so he does too, and then we take it from there.

BENIOFF: We knew this episode was gonna be almost entirely battle, and that can get really boring really quickly. You can watch it for a certain number of minutes before the effect starts to dampen. Part of it was making sure that we really stayed focused on the characters, and so whether it's Arya's storyline, or Sansa and Tyrion down the crypt, or Jon Snow and Dany up on the dragons. Kinda like all these separate little battles within the... within the greater battle.

BENIOFF: I mean, we talked about various endings for Jorah for a long time, but, you know, you think about Jorah, from the very first time we met him, he was with Dany, and from that time, he's been mostly by her side. Part of Jorah's tragedy is that he was in love with a woman who couldn't love him back, but he's accepted that for quite a long time, at the same time he was going to fight for her as long as he could and as well as he could.

WEISS: There'd never been a moment where she more needed someone to fight to protect her than this moment. And if he could've chosen a way to die, this is how he would've chosen to die. So, it was something we thought would be powerful to give him.

8.4: The Last of the Starks

WEISS: Dany kind of structures the feast scene, in a way. I mean, she's really the person whose emotions and choices are guiding the scene.

BENIOFF: And things start to shift a little bit when Daenerys calls for Gendry and-- and names him the new Lord of Storm's End.

WEISS: It's almost like, as the queen, she's giving people... permission to-- to celebrate what they've done.

BENIOFF:  Things start to relax a little bit, and these people did survive and they-- they won, and they emerged victorious. And so what started as a very funereal scene gradually starts to shift into more of a party atmosphere as people get drunker and drunker. That shift does not happen with Daenerys; she's scarred by the events that just took place, but she's also very much thinking about... what Jon Snow told her, and she's really shaken when she sees everyone celebrating with him, and talking about what a mad man and what a king he is for getting on a dragon.

WEISS:  He has love and respect from these people that, even with the gesture that she just made, she can't ever equal.

BENIOFF: She realizes that his true identity is a real threat to her if it comes out. So, she's in a fairly dark place and while other people are starting to try to celebrate their survival and their victory, Dany's not in a celebratory mood.

WEISS: After the feast, she comes to talk to him and... with the intention of-- of... of making this all work out, and of bringing things back to the way they were before.

BENIOFF: There's a moment when they're kissing, and-- and it seems like things are kind of getting back to where they were, but... it's almost as if he remembers all of a sudden what she really is. It's tense for him. For her, she grew up hearing all these stories about how their ancestors who were related to each other were also lovers, and it doesn't seem that strange to her.  For him, it is a strange thing.

WEISS: Once Dany introduces the idea that everything can be as it was if... Jon... keeps this secret buttoned down and tells no one, she's introducing a conflict that plays forward.

BENIOFF:  From his standpoint, he's already declared his loyalty to her. He's promised her and he's a man of his word. But he's also, you know, a family man, and so, the idea that he wouldn't tell Sansa and Arya about his true identity, it just seems very wrong to him.

BENIOFF: He thinks he can have it both ways; that he can tell Arya and Sansa the truth about who he really is, and he can maintain his loyalty to Dany and everyone's gonna learn to live together.

WEISS: One thing everybody who... comes into contact with this information seems to understand is how incendiary the information is. Sansa's left with a very difficult decision, 'cause she promises Jon that she won't tell anyone, and yet when she's sitting up there on that wall with Tyrion, she knows... what will happen if she gives Tyrion this information. She's a student of Littlefinger, and she knows how information travels, and she can think many steps ahead into the game, the way Littlefinger did, and know that if she tells Tyrion, it's almost impossible for Tyrion not to tell Varys, and if you tell-- I think these are all things that have been occurring to Sansa between the time we see her get that information and the time she passes the message on.

BENIOFF: Part of the story here is that while we've been concentrating on Winterfell and the fight against the army of the dead, Dany's other enemies have not been just sitting still; they've been planning for-- for the final battle. We saw in season seven that Qyburn had invented this giant dragon-killing scorpion and it didn't quite work. Qyburn went back to the drawing board and he made even larger, more powerful scorpions. Dozens of them are now lining the walls of King's Landing, and dozens more are mounted on the decks of the Iron Fleet. While Dany kind of forgot about the Iron fleet and Euron's forces, they certainly haven't forgotten about her, and they're just waiting for her to come back. By this point, they would have gotten news that her army's emerged victorious and were gonna head south, and so they're just waiting in ambush for her return.

WEISS: In some ways, the most important thing that happens... to Daenerys in four, is the death of her second dragon. Now she's got one dragon, and that dragon presumably is just as vulnerable... as Rhaegal was. So, there's this-- the mourning of a child, which is very real to her, and then their best friend is taken. Dany knows that once Cersei has Missandei that she's not going to see Missandei alive again.

BENIOFF: This is a moment for Cersei where she has a chance to... maybe to flee and get away if she surrenders, but that's-- I think anyone who knows Cersei knows she's not gonna make that choice. Her feeling is, "If I give up the throne, I'm dead, and so, my only chance now is to win." And that's what she says to Ned Stark in season one. Dany is this young queen coming to try to usurp her, and Cersei's not gonna give up the throne that easily. She's captured an enemy, and this is how Cersei deals with enemies. Tyrion's perspective is-- is, you know, while we have these various wars for supremacy and everything, let's not forget about the people who are gonna suffer the most from it. He can envision what will happen to King's Landing if these two armies clash and dragons are involved, and it's an obvious catastrophe. She feels like the odds are actually pretty good on-- on-- for her at this point, and she's willing to roll the dice. I think for Cersei, the only good prisoner is a dead prisoner.

WEISS: She's really back... where she was... at the very beginning. Emotionally, she's alone in the world, and she can't really trust anybody.

BENIOFF: People have underestimated Dany's strength many times before, and-- and... no one's really done very well underestimating her strengths.

WEISS: Unlike them, she's extremely powerful, and unlike them, she's filled with a rage that's aimed at one person specifically.

BENIOFF: I think what's probably echoing in Dany's head in those final moments would be Missandei's final words. Dracarys is clearly meant for Dany. Missandei knows that her life is over, and she is saying, you know, "Light them up."

8.5: The Bells

BENIOFF: Dany's an incredibly strong person, she's also someone who has had really close friendships and close advisors for her entire run of the show. You look at these people who have been closest to her for such a long time, and almost of them have either turned on her or died, and she's very much alone. And that's a dangerous thing for someone who's got so much power, to feel that isolated. So at the very time when she needs guidance and those kind of close friendships and advice the most, everyone's gone.

WEISS: I think that Varys knew that it was unlikely that he would survive the attempt to overthrow Dany in favor of Jon. And he also knew that he ethically, in his mind, had no choice but to... try to do that anyway. I think that Tyrion is saying goodbye to his best friend in the world outside of his brother. And the amount of guilt that he feels over being the cause for his best friend's imminent death, it's hard to really get your head around.

BENIOFF: Jon Snow is someone that she's fallen in love with. And as far as she's concerned, by this point, Jon has betrayed her by telling people about his true identity, and also the fact he's unable to return her affections at this point.

WEISS: I think that when she says, "Let it be fear," she's resigning herself to the fact that she may have to get things done in a way that isn't pleasant. And she may have to get things done in a way that is horrible for lots of people.

BENIOFF: She chose violence. A Targaryen choosing violence is a pretty terrifying thing.

BENIOFF: Even when you look back to season one, when Khal Drogo gives the golden crown to Viserys, and her reaction of watching her brother's head melted off ...and he was a terrible brother, you know, so I don't think anyone out there was-- was crying when Viserys died, but... there is something kind of chilling about the way that Dany has responded to the death of her enemies. And if circumstances had been different, I don't think this side of Dany ever would've come out. If Cersei hadn't betrayed her, if Cersei hadn't executed Missandei, if Jon hadn't told her the truth. Like, if all of these things had happened in any different way, then I don't think we'd be seeing this side of Daenerys Targaryen.

WEISS: I don't think she decided ahead of time that she was... going to do what she did. And then she sees the Red Keep, which is, to her, the home that her family built when they first came over to this country 300 years ago. It's in that moment, on the walls of King's Landing, where she's looking at that symbol of everything that was taken from her, when she makes the decision to-- to make this personal. We wanted her to be just death from above, as seen from the perspective of the people who are on the business end of that dragon. In most large stories like this, it seems like there's a tendency to focus on the heroic figures and not pay much attention to the people who may be suffering the repercussions of the decisions made by those heroic people, and we-- we really wanted to keep our perspective and our-- our sympathies on the ground at this moment 'cause those are the people who are really paying the price for the decisions that she's making.

WEISS: I think that Jon is also in a kind of denial. At first, the siege is a war, soldiers killing soldiers. That's what war is. I think Jon is someone who's always been a very good soldier, who has never enjoyed being a soldier. He's been trained as a fighter from the time he was a little boy, and he's quite good at it, he's quite good at leading men into battle, and he also hates it. I think, for him, it all starts out seeming like it's gonna work out, and then it turns into a nightmare.

WEISS: When she takes off and starts burning the city, the Unsullied on the ground and the Northmen on the ground, take that as their cue that it's a moral free-for-all. The good guys are behaving like the bad guys, and the bad guys in this shot are the ones who are doing all of these horrific things around him, who are his own men. The moral lines that he's drawn, for himself, in his own life, can't be maintained for everyone in all situations.

WEISS: Feels like you needed a perspective to carry you through this horror. Like you need a Virgil to take you through the hell that Dany's building.

BENIOFF: The reason we decided to follow Arya out of King's Landing and to see the fall of King's Landing through her eyes is... something that we talked about with an earlier episode. You just care a lot more when you're with a character that you care about. So if we saw a lot of extras running around on fire and buildings falling apart, it might've been visually interesting, but it wouldn't have had much of an emotional impact. But when you're there on the ground with Arya, who's one of the people we care the most about, then everything takes on that much more of an edge.

WEISS: We knew that the Hound would be convincing her to part ways with him and to not go to her death. And once she decides she needs to get out of the city, well, she's in-- she's in the worst possible place you can be. So she's gotta get from that central point all the way outside the walls of the city. It's the longest, hardest journey anybody has to make in the entire episode.

8.6: The Iron Throne

WEISS: Dany has been above it all, literally, throughout this entire battle, she's fought the whole thing from the air, so, when she's in the plaza, all she's seeing is her own army's triumph in the city that she came to conquer for all the best reasons, and I think the idea of spreading her brand of revolution around the entire world is a very attractive idea to her at this moment in her mind, it's a very ethical idea because she's not seeing the cost the way Jon and the way Tyrion have seen the cost.

BENIOFF: What's interesting about it is that she's been making similar kinds of speeches for a long time and we've always been rooting for her and this is kind of a natural outcome of that philosophy and that willingness to go forth and conquer all your enemies and it's just not quite as fun anymore. 

WEISS: I think the final scene between Jon and Daenerys is something we came up with sometime, in the midst of the third season of the show? The broad strokes of it anyway. But there was a tremendous amount of pressure to get it right because we know this is not a scene that is giving people what they want.

BENIOFF: We got there and were like, oh my God this is gonna be so emotional and then it was realizing that we actually had to do so much work to get all those shots that we needed.

WEISS: There’s this discussion through the whole show of whether or not Daenerys is like her father, who was insane. Throughout the whole conversation they have, she maintains, like, a reasonable approach to the thing that she’s done and there are only a few places where something peaks out that tells him what’s really coming.

WEISS: The big question in people’s minds seem to be who’s going to end up on the Iron Throne. One of the things we decided about the same time we decided what would happen in the scene is that the throne would not survive, that the thing that everybody wanted, the thing that caused everybody to be so horrible to each other to everybody else over the course of the past eight seasons was going to melt away. The dragon flying away with Dany’s lifeless body, that’s the climax of the show.

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