#so its interesting to see the circumstances where he chooses not to do so

[princess-of-the-corner]

Glad you liked the submission, as I have more on the Aware of Abuse AU!

I think it would be really interesting to reflect on how this situation would be kind of a drawn out grapple for Marinette. This is in no way salt and I think if it was written she'd both warrant having hear grievances hear, but also could definitely come off as a bit antagonistic, or at least wary.

(Exactly how hostile she defaulted to with Chloe tended to oscillate episode to episode so ya know how it be)

Marinette would have the easiest time getting close with Kagami. She has no history like with Chloe & no baggage, IE friendship with Chloe, like Adrien. Tomoe is not someone Marinette admires and its much easier to see abuse in the physicals side. While she'd struggle to see it more in the verbal or negligence side; or otherwise be able to rationalize the negative behaviors such as over protectiveness.

Meanwhile Adrien would be tied a lot closer to Chloe going into school as she'd be being less overtly antagonistic or vain. Plus, they'd have a much stronger "We need each other to keep from falling back into old patterns and to survive" mentality.

Plus Adrien would be a bit more overtly snarky and less respectful to authority or stuff like Gabriel's fashion shows. He still is very nice and super wants to be liked by everyone all the time, but it'd be a lot easier for her to see the negatives in his behavior.

Chloe meanwhile would probably rankle and outright frustrate her the most. Not just because she'd still be hard to get along with in general, or because she still is not against ignoring rules or disrespecting authority figures. But because...

No clue what your religious views may or may not be, but have you heard those talks of "Catholic guilt" and the idea of needing to suffer, do penance, ETC before one can be redeemed?

Marinette wouldn't strictly think or want that, but there would be a part of her that would sort of... Well resent that Chloe is seemingly just choosing to change and not even necessarily enough.

That is to say, Chloe might still rudely reject Sabrina's cookies out of hand but then instantly walk it back and have some.

But more in that she's suffered no defeat, she's not been taken from her previous luxurious circumstances, she hasn't seemingly lost anything and even more she'd not even be overtly contrite.

That is to say, Chloe wouldn't be doing stuff akin to the Lady Luck AU (Nothing against it, great fic!) where she'd frequently reflect on how much of a 'fuck up' she was. Or or say stuff like, "I know I was a bitch but I am trying to be better". Or feel guilt in the "I can't even be mad they assume the worst of me cos I probably would have done X."

She's just choosing to be different and on some level its deeply unsatisfying and even frustrating.

(Where is the arc, the climax, the catharsis!?)

Especially if some people roll with it or let her get away with it when she starts falling into old habits.

Marinette doesn't want Chloe to suffer or beg forgiveness or hate herself she doesn't. She just doesn't understand why now? Why at all? Why because of her friend? Why because of how she was treated and not how she treated others?

Why couldn't she care enough about hurting Marinette to change!?

That I think would be the lynch-pin and one that is, from Marinette's perspective, as well as others in and out of universe entirely sympathetic, she was hurt after all.

But in that same vain Chloe's an abused child lashing out due to trauma and taught such terrible lessons she sometimes couldn't process that she wasn't doing 'right'.

Marinette's been hurt, and that would need to be properly addressed. But it wouldn't need to happen in a self recriminating manner necessarily.

Not that I don't love those, self hating characters rife with issues are fun to explore. It is just that I think it'd be interesting to explore both, changing as a person, and a "Bad" victim getting help before they actually even start processing over much how others might warrant reoperations.

Does that make sense?

The story "restorative Justice" sort of dips into this from a different middle ground angle and most stuff by Generalluxun often have elements of it too.

Oh yeah no it's.

Marinette doesn't understand why Chloé is Like That™ in the first place, so she can't fathom her wanting to change.

From Mari's perspective, Chloé's life is pretty perfect. She's beautiful, she's rich. She can do whatever she wants whenever she wants and always gets her way through money or influence. She's always bragging about how she's so much better than everyone. Clearly her parents must adore her because they spoil her with gifts and never tell her 'no'. Any 'hardships' are just minor inconveniences that Chloé brought upon herself by being mean.

So why would Chloé choose to change? If it's not broke, don't fix it. Chloé's life is Perfect™, why would she do something to make it different?

It's not that she wants Chloé to suffer, or thinks that she /should/ suffer. She just doesn't understand why someone with a Perfect Life™ would change without going through some kind of suffering that forces introspection.

#aware au

[defyingthefates]

With the revelation that Orym had a feeling Laudna killing Bor'dor would give Delilah a foot in the door again, and let it happen even as Laudna turned to him as a lifeline to stop herself. And with the Expanse and its characters on the brain. I'm just thinking about how sometimes, even in the absence of evil necromantic soul parasites, the important question isn't "is mercy the morally correct choice?" it's "is revenge the right choice for us?" It's about self-preservation. About staying the person you want to be. The person you need to be to keep putting one foot in front of the other every day. The person you can look at in mirror every morning. It's about knowing your friend will be disproportionately burdened by that choice and chosing to intervene. Not even necessarily to stop the killing altogether, just to stop your friend from hurting themself in the process. ("You're not that guy" but "I am that guy." "It's not about [them]. It's about us." "It wasn't mercy. It was vanity. I didn't want to think of myself as someone who wanted vengeance.")

In that moment Laudna needed someone to step in for her. To take the weight off her shoulders. I don't think Laudna wants to be the kind of person who kills to satisfy feelings of revenge (even without the threat of an evil necromancer hiding in her soul). Imogen pulled her back from the brink before. But this time she wasn't there. And Orym, in her stead, let her fall. When he could have chosen to intervene. Ashton too, to an extent, although in the moment it was Orym that Laudna looked to for restraint. Either of them could have made the kill instead. That this also put Delilah back in the picture... well that just makes this situation all that much worse. How does it feel to know that your friends let you free-fall into the dark? How does it feel knowing you let your friend free-fall into the dark? Worse, how does it feel to know you gave them that final shove over the precipice?

#this is like if amos hadn't stopped prax from shooting the doctor and in doing so fucking gave marco inaros martian stealth nukes #on the average day i'd say laudna-imogen is closer to the prax-amos dynamic. they're not all that similar #launda's moral compass doesn't exactly point true north. and imogen is at amos' level of deeply fucked up pragmatism #but there is that aspect of one being the other's tether to what they perceive as 'goodness' #and imogen like amos has intervened to keep her tether from making self-harmful 'moral' violations #orym doesn't generally fill that roll for laudna but he's tried to be that for dorian and opal and imogen #so its interesting to see the circumstances where he chooses not to do so #when he considers harm to a friend... worth it? i guess? #i doubt this will sit easy with either of them #critical role #critical role spoilers #laudna #orym of the air ashari #4sd #4 sided dive #'imogen isn't at' whoops. but im too lazy to correct my tags. imogens fucked up but she ain't that fucked #amos is a different level and different type of messed up lmao

[billskeis]

Could you do something with bill and teen daughter reader? Nothing weird obviously just cute fluff you can do anything it’s just an idea I had. Maybe uncle tom tags along or something. If not that’s okay fanks luv 😘

ᡣ𐭩 bill w a teen daughter

headcannons down below!

now you may not be his biological kid, but that doesn’t mean the kaulitz twins will love you any less. if anything, they, especially your dad, bill, adore you so fucking much.

he would kill for you.

loves and i mean loves when you ask him to go shopping, that man will spoil you!! encourages you to buy matching outfits which you will feel a little embarrassed about, leading him to mope and pout. you eventually give in and he gets so excited again omg don’t ever say no to him.

when he finds you looking at his clothes back from when he was a teenager, he’ll cringe. he doesn’t like the style on him anymore, but on you?? oh babe, he’s ALLL for it!!

and it’s always a fashion show with him, he will always tell you “i wore it better,” and flip his hair, but will always affirm you after that you in fact wore it better.

whenever it’s your birthday, him and uncle tom will always make it a competition to see who can go all out in buying you presents, “she’ll like mine more,” “uh, i think the fuck not tom.”

sometimes will ask you to choose the next acrylic or nail design for him. essentially it is crucial and one of the bonding moments you two enjoy together because there is a shared passion and love for fashion, nails, and anything trending. whenever he posts his nails on instagram he will ALWAYS give credits to you for choosing the design.

be ready for random popups to your room to ask “does this outfit make me look good?”

sometimes there’s rehearsal with the band where you also get to see uncle georg and gustav. secretly while bill isn’t in the room, will tell you embarrassing stories about bill as a teenager like how he made out with his friend’s boyfriend or got super drunk he did a dumb dare, or even just the suuper vulgar and obscene things he did.

“dad, i heard you—” “WHAT THE HELL DID YOU TELL MY BABY!?!” as he covers your ears, georg and gustav giggling including you as he frantically questions the band members.

sometimes you’ll also practice with the band, you love to sing, so you find yourself going out to karaoke with bill, the night is always young when its just you and your dad.

but you find yourself geared towards the guitar more, and this is where you and tom immediately clicked upon first meeting. he loves how interested and passionate you are when it comes to the guitar and even gave you one of his own when he was a teenager!

spa. days. manicures. pedicures. massages. self-cafe all day everyday baby!!! these are also super essential when you’re feeling down and under the weather. bill just wants to make sure no matter what the circumstances, it’s always good to take a break and take care of yourself.

both bill and tom knew what to do when you got your period. although it made you extremely anxious, dad bill and uncle tom were here to the rescue! bill would tell tom to grab the essentials while bill comforted you, explaining how this is normal for a girl to go through this when becoming a woman.

tom comes back with the hygienic female products, but most importantly, ice cream, blankets, chips and chocolate, heating pads, and already has one of your favourite movies playing for you guys in the living room.

the three of you enjoy the solace in such events of life that are seemed to be bad. this becomes a monthly thing for you guys even when you’re not on it.

btw you guys all have matching pyjamas on these nights bc bill said so.

bill loves to bake and when you ask him if he wants help, you already know what the answer is. “okay hun, so this is what you wanna do…” “like this?” “exactly, WAIT TOO MUCH FLOUR—“

halloween. don’t even get bill started because when you guys participate in heidi’s halloween party he goes all out AND I MEAN ALL OUT!! you as his daughter are expected to as well of course. “dad, i look ridiculous..” “nonsense baby! we look smokin’ hot.” bill is sexy ariel while you’re flounder. “okay, I LOOK HOT!”

he’s sassy. and i mean super sassy.

will have to sass you and set you straight to right your wrongs, but is also super understanding and will hear you out before anything.

when you confess to bill about having a significant other, he visibly gasps, and fake faints. oh my god he’s done this for like the fifth time already. tom also pretends to stumble upon air after hearing this news. they would then begin to ramble about the birds and the bees and how you should always make sure to either stay protected or be abstinent.

eventually would ask really personal questions about them and you and how your relationship is.

somebody tell them to stfu because now they won’t stop teasing you and it gets even worse when you try to invite your s/o over. “sooo this is my ro—GET OUT OF THE HALLWAY!!” “shit! bill! i think she sees us!” “no kidding fuckface she’s yelling right at us! abort abort!”

anyways, you love them and they love you more.

#tokio hotel #tokio hotel fluff #bill kaulitz #bill kaulitz x reader #bill kaulitz x you #bill kaulitz fluff #tom kaulitz #tom kaulitz x reader #tom kaulitz fluff #fyp #2000s

[discotenny]

Someone you cant have

HELLLLLLLLLLLLLLO :D god its been so long for me to check ur blog and i have been meaning to send rq form last year but sadly i was to shy for that :,) im so happy ur still uploading and doing well 😭 but may i request a reverse part for "Someone you cant have" now with akechi ?

~anon

Goro Akechi x Reader ~ falling for their rivals significant other <Jealousy, mild reference of yandere!Akechi, mentions of murder, etc>

KABDKDBDK thank you for sending in a request!! Sorry to keep you waiting for part two after all this time lolol. Hope it was worth the wait <3 As always I tend to write using they/them pronouns for the reader insert unless requester specifies. Mentions of names will be y/n.

———

Something about you had captivated him from the first meeting.

A stranger who sat next to him on the train when there were tens of open seats. Who looked at him with eyes that begged for help from a creep following you around. Who whispered a promise of a warm meal once the whole debacle concluded. Who he willingly went into the streets of Shibuya with, against all his mind and stomach's better judgement.

"Thank you," you said to him with the most sincerity he's ever heard from a person. "I couldn't make it up to you enough. Where do you want to go? I’ll pay for everything.”

Sincerity... that's what it was.

You were so open and true to yourself it was almost frustrating. He chalked up your kindness at your first meeting as a one off instance brought about by unsavory circumstance. But even after, at your unexpected dinner for two- you were just so, so honest.

Honest in the way you expressed the troubles in your family life. The difficulty handling the troubles in your school. The troubles of romance you've found yourself in. You were charming. Funny. Interesting.

Which is why he didn’t mind exchanging phone numbers. It’s why he didn’t mind more dinners and more train rides. It’s why he didn’t push away the kindness you’d show him and the gifts you’d give him. It’s why he started reciprocating the acts.

And it’s why a funny feeling started to grow in the hole in his chest- fighting against the urge to put all of his attention into his mission. Interest- is what he called it.

Love, is what it really was.

When you mentioned a boyfriend he was disappointed. He of course saw it coming, after you’ve spent nights complaining over growing feelings and him giving you advice in turn. But Akechi was fine with the disappointment, and he was fine admiring you from nowhere closer than across a table. Akechi would be fine just admiring from a distance.

Coming soon, he’d complete his mission and he would never see you again. Akechi chooses to ignore the bitterness that comes along with that last idea.

The more the dinners and gifts and kindness occurred, the harder his fall was to ignore. His gifts started to get more and more romantic when viewed from a certain lens, his stares started to get more and more longing. But as noticeable as it was, Akechi couldn’t help himself. You, in all of your kindness, funniness, and all of your interest, were a brevity of light in his hell of a life.

-

One night, you show up to dinner and say you’ve got a surprise for him.

“Oh? What’s the occasion?” A butterfly flies around in his chest and he can’t help himself but smile. Sincerely, he smiles.

“I wanted to thank you, for all the advice and help you’ve given me these past few months,” you look into his eyes and it makes his heart flutter. “Let me go get him really quick.” You stand up so quickly and he doesn’t have any time to register what you just said. Akechi sighs as he watches you leave the restaurant.

You come back and Akechi has to physically hold himself back from lunging at Ren.

Ren, who you hold hands with. Ren, who’s smiling after you. Ren, who looks at him with surprise. Ren, you boyfriend.

“Akechi?” He says, eyes widening.

“Ren.” He replies, gripping the table underneath him.

Of course.

Of course

Of fucking course.

“Oh! I didn’t know you guys knew each other,” you clap your hands with a smile, seemingly not noticing the glares emanating from Akechi.

Ren’s arm finds itself on your waist and Akechi wants to scream. “Yeah, we’re friends,” Ren’s tone is casual as he smiles at you.

“Mmhm, you could say that,” Akechi forces out a smile so insincere you can’t help but question it.

“I didn’t know Akechi was the one buying you all those gifts, treasure,” Ren says.

“And I didn’t know Ren was this boyfriend of yours, y/n,” Akechi sneers.

“Ah, sorry I never mentioned names to you guys,” you chuckle, honest to a fault. Unaware of the smugness growing within your partner. Unaware of the heartbreak that falls upon your friend.

Ren goes onto explain that you wanted to introduce your ‘two favorite boys’ to each other after months of talking about one to the other. That this dinner, which was supposed to just be you and Akechi, was going to be intruded on by Ren. He says it all with a smile that makes Akechi want to throttle him.

What a lovely surprise, Akechi thinks.

He tries to keep his cool despite the anger clawing at his chest. Betrayal from you for not telling him that this piece of garbage was your boyfriend. Envy towards Ren for having yet another thing Akechi longed to have.

Dinner concludes quicker than you pictured as Ren has a curfew to abide by. He leaves the restaurant to wait outside, you wanting to talk to your friend.

“You seemed uncomfortable with tonight, I’m sorry if I pushed this on you Akechi…” one glance at you shows all the truth in your statement and Akechi hates it.

He hates that he’s let himself trust in your honesty, in your gifts, in your dinners, in your kindness- he hates your truth and he hates this clawing in his chest.

But what kind of friend would he be if he left you feeling so guilty? After all, you’d just run into his arms afterwards.

“I was just surprised, is all. I’m sorry that I made you upset,” Akechi smiles, insincere once again.

“Are you sure?” You look at him with the most curious eyes, “I’m sorry if I made things weird by introducing him, really.”

“Please, don’t worry about it,” Akechi attempts to console you by putting a hand on your shoulder. “I’m just happy you’re happy. After all this time of complaining, haha.”

Your hand meets his and squeezes it slightly. “Thanks Akechi, it really means a lot.”

He takes one more look at you, holding his hand and smiling so, so genuinely at him.

“Anytime, y/n,” He says.

You leave the restaurant with Ren and he sees him pull you tight as you walk away. He sees the way you stare at him, lovingly, in a way that you’ve never looked at him. He sees you go to intertwine your hands. He sees Ren hold your chin and bring your face closer. Akechi looks away.

Admiring a distance is bullshit if he’s just watching you be stolen away by him. Admiring from a distance would be fine if it was anyone other than him.

It’s just gonna be one more reason as to why he needs to plant a bullet in your boyfriend’s skull.

———

Ren's part, it kinda sucks because it was before my writers glow up ehehehhehehe

Hope you enjoyed it! I got so excited writing for my pookie Akechi that I ended up finishing this in an afternoon lolol. Also I ended up placing an order for persona merch because of this JFDSJJKFADSFJ. I just love my baby he's my forever boy &lt;3

Let me know how you guys think I characterized him!! I love my babby rsfwaeajfjrewo

#persona 5 royal #persona 5 #persona 5 x reader #persona 5 headcanons #persona 5 imagines #goro akechi #goro akechi x reader #akechi x reader #joker x reader #ren amamiya x reader #akira kurusu x reader #persona 5 royal x reader #persona 5 x reader headcanons #persona 5 x reader imagines

[marinetteplztakeabreak]

Im so in love with the narrative use of sentimonsters in ml???? And how it serves as a metaphor for parents who are Wrong??

You have Félix, who’s the most direct case of “parent thinks that having a child is like a little trophy and checkmark on the list and doesn’t want the child to actually be a person or exist or cause inconvenience.” His father literally didn’t see him as a person and based on the fact that he literally broke Félix’s miraculous he seemed to see Félix as either disposable or unbreakable. There was no sense that he needed to be loved or protected.

But then you also have Adrien, who Gabriel *theoretically* loves. I think Gabriel actually thinks that he loves Adrien as a person. But he has this idea that he can make Adrien happy through obedience alone. He thinks he can just order Adrien to be content or to have the same priorities as him. He calls Adrien melodramatic a few times even and it’s like???

Gabriel *theoretically* wants Adrien to be happy but it doesn’t cross his mind that it’s going to take more than him yelling “hey Adrien i order you to be calm and content.” And ordering Adrien to love the career Gabriel Chooses and love the girl Gabriel Chooses for him and the hobbies that Gabriel Chooses for him. And when that doesn’t work he decides that Adrien is just Beyond His Help and will be better only with his mom there.

And it’s like???? Very fun nuance with this idea of,,, you cannot yell or force someone into being happy,,, it doesn’t matter if you have their best interest in mind,,, if you never listen to what they actually want or see them as a human person then you’ll still be the villian in their story

And THEN!!!!! You have Kagami who’s a completely different case even though she starts with the same circumstance. Because Kagami IS treated like a person and has a good amount of autonomy. It’s just all Conditional. She can do whatever she wants with her life as long as its also exactly what her mother wants. And her mother doesn’t always explain why. And the thing with that is!!! It DOES work for a while!!!! She does trust her mother and actually talk to her about things. And she will defend her mother to the ends of the earth.

But all it takes is that One argument where kagami says “hey . please stop making me date adrien. i dont want to . its hurting me” and tomoe TAKES HER RING instead of listening. And its like. Thats IT.

It doesnt matter if you spent years making a foundation of trust in a relationship because Eventually your kid is Going to grow up and theyre Going to disagree with you on Something Eventually. Kagami was so ready to listen to whatever her mother had to say but her mom didn’t elaborate on anything she just basically said “okay if you wont listen without question you dont get to have autonomy” and of COURSE kagami’s gonna be like. Okay. Bye then.

And i just think it’s soooo cool how there’s these different Layers of “parents forgetting that their child is a person and not a tool for your own personal gain” and that ml shows how it can manifest in so many different ways and it shows that it messes ,up trust and relationships and then it also shows that the kids are all okay once they have love and support and someone who treats them as a person with autonomy

and theres this theme of “it is not too much to ask that you be treated like a human person . no matter how broken or how much of a disappointment you think you are. you are still in the right for demanding to be seen as a person.” And i just. I really love my senti kids i love them soooo much

this show really said “it doesnt matter what sacrifices your parents made for you, youll never be an object that they own” and i just,,, yessssss

#ml spoilers #ml s5 spoilers #senti kagami #senti adrien #senti felix #kagami tsurugi #felix fathom #adrien agreste #ml meta

[yall-hate-kids-tourney]

Round 4: Chara Dreemurr (Undertale) vs. Ken Amada (Persona 3)

Propaganda below the cut

Chara Dreemurr (?):

They were constantly blamed for killing all of monster kind in the no mercy route, despite players choosing to go that route. People ignored that they sacrificed themselves to attempt to free the monsters from the underground.

----

everyone wants to blame their own actions (genocide route) on chara, who is a literal child. i don’t know how to tell you this but you are the one playing the game. it’s about YOUR CHOICES. chara is there is punish you for that, you killed the only family that ever loved them! how could they not be upset at that! also if you don’t mind, here’s a good video essay on the subject 

Ken Amada (11):

y'all are all for "murder and revenge plots" until is a 10 y/o boy who watched his mother die and started to become conflicted after realizing his moms killer is a secretly kind traumatized teenager to the point where the 10 y/o boy attempts to kill himself by giving himself up to assassins.

bro he's 10.

----

ken amada is such an interesting character with the unfortunate circumstances of having little screentime and atlus deciding to ruin his reputation forever by giving him a romance choice in the fem protag route. ken is a child who lost his mother at NINE. nobody ever believed him when he said that she was murdered, and that he saw who killed her. hes miserable, and all everyone around him does is give him sympathy while hes suffering and was forced to grow up before even going into middle school. hes angry and determined to get revenge on the person who killed his mother, and he doesnt even see the own value in living anymore beyond getting that revenge. hes more mature than most of his peers, and is desperate to be seen as an adult.but at the same time, he is still a child who likes superhero shows.

----

OH GOD WHERE DO I START

First there's the normal "The fandom hates kids" complaints of "He's so whiny" "he's so annoying" "oh my god kid just SHUT UP" y'know, the typical fandom stuff that makes you wonder if these people have ever talked to a child in their life

Second, there's (spoilers)...

October 4th, and the ENTIRE FANDOM is calling this kid a murderer.

For context, the moment in question doesn't necessarily paint him in the best light but its still understandable. Your team is going on a mission while Ken and another character named Shinjiro are away. In an alleyway, they have a talk where it is revealed that on that night a year priar to the game, Kens mom was killed in that allleyway by Shinjiro's Persona (Which, by the Rules of the Game Lore, basically means By Shinjiro). Ken tried to tell the authorities, the authorities didn't believe him because Magic Reasons and the death was ruled an accident.

Of course Ken is Fucking Pissed and wants revenge

However, because of Talk, he ACTIVELY CALMS DOWN, and realises "Hey, I probably shouldn't kill someone. Despite them, y'know, killing my mom"

HOWEVER REVOLVER JESUS COMES IN AND RUINS EVERYTHING BY SHOOTING SHINJIRO. AND LIKE, IF YOU PLAY P3P YOU CAN /AVOID THE DEATH THING/

AND EVERYONE BLAMES /KEN/. AND ONLY KEN.

And third (yes, there's a THIRD) IS THE FUCKING FEMC ROMANCE THING. WHICH JUST...SHOULDN'T HAVE EXISTED IN THE FIRST PLACE. BUT NOW HE'S "SHOTA BAIT" BECAUSE WE HAVE TO BLAME THE CHILD FOR THE AUTHORITY FIGURE COMING ONTO THEM 😒

#yall hate kids tourney #round 4 #undertale #undertale spoilers #chara undertale #chara dreemurr #chara #persona #persona 3 #persona 3 fes #persona 3 portable #persona 3 reload #p3 #p3fes #p3p #p3reload #ken amada #amada ken #cw suicide #cw self sacrifice #cw child death #cw age gap #Youtube

[bestworstcase]

tangential to last rb (<- heroically resisting the impulse to ramble all over @sailorb00’s art post mrgdhej) ive always thought “maidens choose themselves” was an interesting turn of phrase for ozpin to use given 1. the inheritance rules as he and his proxies describe them and 2. the context of asking pyrrha to become the next fall maiden

specifically, can the presumptive heir say no?

i think “maidens choose themselves” does imply bidirectional agency: that is, a dying maiden may have an eligible candidate in mind, but that candidate too has a choice to accept the magic or not. will the magic cleave to an heir who rejects it?

in V3 team oz hypothesize that the partial magic of the fall maiden still attached to amber will seek its other half when it dies—unless they transfer amber’s aura into pyrrha. but then what happens is ozpin initiates the transfer and the aura+magic is actively combining with pyrrha’s aura when cinder kills amber, whereupon the magic reverses direction to reach cinder.

so we have this scenario where the dying maiden’s aura is being transferred into a new host and the magic, apparently, resists that artificial process. why? three possibilities:

it’s following the technical rule that it must go to whoever amber thought of last at the moment she died,

amber’s half broke away from her aura to rejoin cinder’s half, or

both cinder (the last person amber saw) and pyrrha (receiving amber’s aura) were available to inherit the magic, or at least amber’s piece of it, and the magic went to cinder because she actually wanted it whereas pyrrha felt duty-bound to accept it

and i think there is textual support for at least the possibility of number three, because in V7 what happens is: fria dies (marked by her eyes closing) but the transfer doesn’t begin until penny chooses to receive the magic and clasps fria’s hand. the aura that flows down fria’s arm doesn’t appear until penny is holding her hand! (and the scene gives quite a lot of attention to penny’s hesitance beforehand, underscoring that she makes a choice in this moment.)

and winter also makes a choice in that moment—there is a moment when she sees fria dying in penny’s arms and registers what’s about to happen, and rather than rush to trade places with penny (who is in fighting condition still, unlike winter!) winter instead focuses on cinder, which amounts to stepping back to leave the choice in fria’s hands.

then of course when the magic flows from penny to winter there’s a lot of emotional weight put on winter’s choice to accept it (“thank you for trusting me with this”/“you chose nothing; this was a gift”).

raven is a possible spanner in the works given how little we know of the circumstances and the open question of whether she wanted the spring maiden’s magic, but at a minimum raven must have mercy-killed her with the knowledge that doing so carried a significant possibility of probably gretchen bequeathing the magic to her, and certainly raven doesn’t hesitate to use it.

more importantly, every failed transfer we’ve seen thus far (grimm beetle, grimm arm, aura transfer) have one thing in common and that is an attempt to circumscribe the agency of the maidens themselves; and the situation with the grimm beetle is interesting because the grimm beetle does work. the magic doesn’t resist being split in half and cinder retains the half that she stole—whereas the magic does resist transfer into pyrrha.

in both scenarios amber was in distress and both the grimm siphoning and machine transfer seem to operate on the same principle of capturing the magic via aura, so… the difference between cinder (who wants this power badly) and pyrrha (who doesn’t want it but feels obligated to take it) is perhaps the key variable to explain the different behavior of the magic.

as always i wonder if those “convoluted and stupid rules” and the “random” heir if the dying maiden doesn’t have an eligible candidate in mind are maybe a lot less convoluted, stupid, or random than team oz believes. maidens don’t “choose their heirs,” maidens “choose themselves.”

(see also: cinder siphoned aura out of raven and penny without ripping away parts of the spring/winter maiden magic; cinder also spent all of V8 obsessively fixated on the winter maiden UNTIL salem gave her permission to go for it, whereupon she promptly snagged the relics and left the winter maiden on the table because her ongoing power struggle with salem is more important to her. cinder very badly wanted magic and now that she has it, her desire for more is merely a move in the deranged game she’s playing with salem and what she really wants is to WIN. this is why she’s not getting the summer maiden either.)

[ofbreathandflame]

The way rhysand recreates what happened utm is evidence he didnt actually hated that he was "forced" to assault Feyre (poor rhys). Rhysand stans looove to justify what he did UtM. They feel sorry for HIM, not for feyre, because they think he must have felt so bad ☹ If he feels so bad, then why recreate the same scenario? Sjm likes to fetishize abuse and paint it as a "necessary evil" later. I've read a post about how feyre calls herself in acomaf: the high lord's whore. Interesting. Its such a trigger for rhysand AND feyre (she burned the LoA when Beron called him that) and yet, this is how they portray her.

hi anon!

this. again - i think this is also dependent on how people are choosing to read this story. bc often i find that people who justify these scenes often rely soley on what the book argues at a certain point, rather than actually looking and analyzing how the characters actions reflect against previously established information.

what i mean: if the story argues that rhysand earnestly feels terrible for having to put feyre in that situation utm, then he wouldn't have agreed or offered the con scene. it just would not happen. remorse does not manifest in recreating the very situation that you say caused you distress or shame. its not being introspective.

and this is how we get into what im gonna dub 'toxic canon' (this is a BIG problem in the asoiaf fandom) - where people use canon in a way that isn't comprehensive. if the story says 'this person was forced to do this,' - despite there being no evidence to actually support that "canon" statement." or they use the canon in a way that isn't wholesome, meaning they chunk the canon and do not look at how information given compares against information established.

so the story established that rhys feels sorry for drugging, embarrassing, and sexually assaulting feyre - but the story also have rhys recreate that same environment - which he gets pleasure from. it pleases and arouses him to see feyre back in that position. that negates the feeling of shame - he can't say 'i was forced to do this and i would not do it again if not for the circumstances" and thennnnn have him do that very thing when presented with an actual choice. its looking at a narrow piece of canon and not how that piece of canon actually reflects against the story as a whole.

so we can pick out a quote that says - "rhysand always gives me a choice' but how well does that statement actually reflect the story as a whole? how true is that piece of 'canon' if it is weighed against the events of the story.

its also a conversation about the problems in the romance genre as a whole, where violence is used in a way deemed 'necessary' by the author to negate the severity of the actions. its victim blaming in nature. bc we have to question why is violence against women always a plot point in this story - and why do the stories always use the rhetoric of necessity to support and justify said violence.

and this is why i really never agree with those rabid 'feyre' stans (feysand) stans, because they always analyze the story just this way. they write with the underlying idea that sjm will always agree with them bc they recognize the bias in the writing. they write with the implicit understanding that even if the quotes they use aren't actually supported by the comprehensive events of the story, sjm agrees with them bc she loves feysand (cue the 'feysand is the center of the universe' or the 'why read the books if you hate them') bc you only say anti-intellectual things like that bc you know the story will never actually challenge the characters. or when you know the entire series is catering to them at every turn.

#anti sjm #anti rhysand #anti sjm: feyre archeron #anti feyre #anti acotar #anti feysand #anti acomaf

[2n2n]

ch. 111

the plot thickens and I am thrown all around the room as if in a hurricane... I really cannot predict Iro-sensei's plots!!!!!!

oh Amane, all of your efforts, your gestures.... what a desperate, helpless feeling

its the most predictable response Tsukasa would have, but it still hurts very very much.

he's reaaaally strange isn't he... he's like that....

oh Amane.... you're so reactive to perceived rejection and failure. You'll say the worst things, you'll think the worst things... you're sooo unstable, Amane!

What, you simply don't accept that your otouto would 'try to leave you'? I bet it's something like that. You "know he's fake" now because he "wouldn't do something like this to you"... that's my guess at your dumb little brain. Don't take him too seriously, okay, Tsutsu? Your brother just can't handle the sense of rejection of you choosing to die & leave him behind, or he can't handle that all his gestures and attempts to show his love fell so flat that you have no idea at all of his desperate love of you. Nooooo you have to be fake~~~ my real otouto would understand and he'd never leave me~~!!! I don't think you, Amane, understand how suicidal your real otouto was, and is, to this day! Would you believe it has less to do with disregarding you, and more to do with not believing in his own life's worth? No, you won't believe that, right... it's about you, instead! hahaha....

I'm glad I played AidaIro's Snow White game because... Estelio is THIS HURTFUL to Rasphard, and it's just out of a sense of being rejected!!! Estelio would kick his twin's goddamn corpse on the ground, let him wriggle and DIE in pain and AGONY if Estelio has the impression Rasphard wants nothing to do with him or isn't considering him ... LOL. Iro likes this kind of ... troubled, insecure, desperate, spiteful, needy person... you want the perfect brother, who loves you. You have that, but you can't understand the idea of someone choosing to leave you through death....

I wonder if Tsukasa started grabbing your jacket to move you to protect you.... meanwhile, Amane impulsively moved to protect his ~~~fake otouto, haha!

I wonder ... if Nene-chan has her memories because, she is magical etc, or if Akane actively made Teru do something to her to enable her to... stay as an aware asset, since he isn't completely sided with the Clockkeepers... maybe Akane is waiting to see what 'new future' comes to be, and seeding a few tricks to utilize if he doesn't agree or wishes to pull out? (I mean, if the Severance never happened, Aoi definitely would not be his girlfriend haha)...

The clockeeper's circumstance is interesting enough. Its very Aidairo-core. But not enough for me to talk about haha.

swag, I have been right the whole time! cool. yep!! of course. logical haha!! I can't be too proud of myself, it's been spelled out ...

that same old God~~ our Tsutsu!

the year before the murder, when the boys were 12... fuckin scary place to go to. What on Earth are you changing... the circumstances of the shinjuu?

if we're 'fixing' the 'problem', I wonder if that means we'll be going into the original timeline, where Amane would likely still be alive-- he'd just be an old man, and Nene-chan's teacher at Kamome. Wouldn't that be so funny and interesting? Lol. What would we all do if Amane was "Yugi-sensei" and like, old! It would be very AidaIro core AHAHAH ahhh the agegap fetish--! It's not enough to have Sumire x Hakubo and Yako x Misaki and Kako x Mirai and the entire Monstery Nursery AUs LOL you know, we need more ahahahaah (HanaNene is already technically biiig agegap! I would laugh if actually making Amane like 60 woke some people up flfjdklfdjk)

I'm just not sure... Amane could just be dead, I guess, and Tsukasa. Or he could be alive, and old. I have a vague theory that he must be a kaii because of, whatever he or Tsukasa had done together during the shinjuu... (maybe Amane was impulsed to eat some part of Tsukasa, maybe the God blessed Amane at the last second, etc etc)... it's hard to imagine Amane would be a school mystery-- Tsukasa is his yorishiro after all... and we don't quite know what circumstances make Sumire and Tsukasa into objects, if being sacrificed to the God had something essential to do with that...

Well, so interesting, I wonder if Nene-chan will have to go even further than she did in Picture Perfect-- in that arc, she had to choose to reject a seemingly perfect, but ultimately fabricated, world; even if it was 'nicer' than the 'real world'. Now, she might be shown a world fixed of its cracks-- it could even possibly be a world Amane never had to murder his brother, like she wanted before. Nene-chan is so often getting "what she asked for" in the wrong way, at the wrong time. She fell in love with "Hanako". Is the boy she fell in love with "here"? Is he in a form she can confess to?

Furthermore, she just bonded with Tsukasa, and has knowledge of the Red House... must be essential, to write that happening before this-- just before, even. Tsukasa even inspired her to need to free herself, even if Amane isn't there to save her.

Poor Nene-chan though-- so scary!!! What an awful situation to be in HAHAHA, flung around...

I have no idea what Mitsuba's situation will be, but Tsukasa is responsible for our "Mitsuba" to even be around. He wouldn't have even managed to become the ghost about the entryway without Tsukasa kaii-ifying him through his first, vague wish.

Well, it would be funny if these things were all true now:

-Amane is alive, but he's old lol -Aoi is not Akane's gf, and maybe that other timeline was the only goddamn way you could ever get her within reach lol -No Mitsuba To Speak Of lol

MUCH POSSIBLE, MUCH TO THINK ABOUT-- MAYBE I'M WRONG ABOUT IT ALL!!! Iro-sensei writes such interesting plot twists WOO ahahaha! I WONDER IF WE WILL INTERACT WITH 12 YEAR OLD TSUKASA AGAAAIN~~ pleaaase ~~

feeling more certain than ever that Tsukasa is The single most tragic member of this cast hahaha

#avvy's JSHK

[thedeviljudges]

Do you think Soo Hyun and Ga On would have lasted if she hadn't died? I wonder how Yo Han "dying" would have impacted him, since dying and escaping to Switzerland were always Yo Han's intentions in a scenario where Soo Hyun hadn't died.

this is a very interesting question!!!!! and of course, this is just me thinking through this and by no means do i necessarily think it would've gone this way bc there's 101 scenarios in which we could create here.

that said, i think gaon would try his best to make it work with soohyun, but i think it would ultimately ruin them. or at the very least, put them in a spot where they resent each other, especially gaon.

there is not a world where gaon could live without yohan in some capacity - we've seen this in the show with him trying to leave and also confessing how much yohan (and elijah) mean to him. that is still true imo regardless of whether soohyun died or not. with gaon thinking yohan died and even him realizing he hadn't, gaon cared for him enough either way.

but i do think he'd stay behind and make it work with soohyun because he ran back to her thinking that's what he wanted, but i also believe it'd be a lie. that kiss was awkward as hell - with both of them seemingly realizing that it wasn't what they thought it would be. but gaon's too loyal for his own good, and i think especially with the professor's betrayal, the hold that soohyun and him had over gaon, would eventually start to crumble.

soohyun also made it known how much she hated yohan, but gaon never got to that point. he distanced himself simply bc he didn't want to become a person he couldn't recognize under yohan's belief system, but that never stopped him from working with yohan in the end. gaon promised soohyun to trust yohan first to handle the disaster that was unfolding, and then they'd look into him more. and if that had actually come to fruition instead of gaon's betrayal, they still would've found the truth.

maybe that might've swayed soohyun into liking yohan, but it was clear in the beginning she felt yohan was taking gaon away from her and the "light."

i don't think gaon would have to choose between the two if she were alive, but i do think that gaon would eventually realize that he isn't happy under her thumb. as friends who see each other whenever they can, at least there's some amount of distance, but if you're talking about a relationship where you're expected to typically be closer than friends, i think that would eventually fracture gaon's world view (again esp bc professor wasn't there either) of her by being so suffocatingly close.

and this might seem like a stretch, but i could also fully see gaon becoming repressed with his sexuality and living that lie until he couldn't anymore.

i just don't see a world where soohyun and gaon could've ever worked out beyond friends because really, their personalities are so different, too. gaon's dealing with a lot of childhood trauma and a completely different outlook in life that soohyun never had to experience. and that's not to say two people with two diff backgrounds can't date - bc that would be silly otherwise - but we see soohyun remaining positive while gaon lives with a suicidal mindset when the briefest of events happens that fold his reality in two. and even if mental health wasn't there, it's still very clear that the injustices that gaon faced have shaped his worldview that the law and order put in place is integral to upholding a good society, but he's also not afraid to see its flaws and find a loop hole for a better outcome (ie. not going yohan's lengths, but i do believe he'd be a compassionate judge when needed but unforgiving in circumstances required).

#x #the devil judge

[bettsfic]

hi betts! thx for writing free ride, its one of my fav. i sent this bcz of your a/n at the end of chap 2: "I don't know where communist frat boy Sejanus or lowkey yandere Lucy Gray came from but they are here and they aren't leaving." im always afraid of characters running on their own when i try to write a fic. im afraid they wont be in character anymore if i let them be. so i try to be careful and meticulous, but instead it stops me from writing. have u ever tried to stop charas when they run on their own because they end up not in character? how do you do characterisation when you write a fic?

whenever i get an ask about how to stay IC, in my heart i'm wiping a cartoonish drop of sweat from my brow and stepping in front of a mountain of comments accusing me of OOC.

it's interesting to me that anxiety about writing OOC comes from a proprietary feeling toward existing characters. both our own proprietary feeling which grants us the interest in writing fanfic about them, but also the reader's proprietary feelings which lead them to go "he wouldn't fucking say that."

there's a paradox there, though. many of us write fic to be self-indulgent. self-indulgence means prioritizing the ideal. the ideal sometimes means taking characters away from their canon selves in order to fit the story we're writing.

my whole motivation for Free Ride is wanting to see how coriolanus would be different growing up in contemporary american capitalism. canonically, he's a tyrant. but we have no idea why or how, in canon, north america became panem. panem is not a free market economy; there's not even evidence coriolanus knows what capitalism is. controlling commerce is one of his greatest anxieties. the idea that the capitol could be once again cut off from necessary imports is what leads him to make virtually every decision he makes in both tbosas and thg. so i think he would detest the idea of a free market, but he would never be a socialist.

which is all to say, a lot of the fic i've written these past few years have been kind of "what if" character studies in lieu of writing meta. with that being the goal, i'm less concerned about the characterization of anyone else. suzanne collins set me up well with developing characters who have a strong voice; ultimately, when people say "he wouldn't fucking say that" i think they mean "he wouldn't fucking say that in that way." in the case of tbosas, with the film and book being so different in terms of characterization, i feel there's a bit of leniency anyway. i'm writing book coriolanus with movie lucy gray and sejanus.

also, i think part of the fun of fanfic is selling your characterization. "yandere lucy gray" is a kind of thesis statement and the fic, i hope, backs up that interpretation. sans fearing for her life, i think lucy gray would be a bored twentysomething who feels like a big fish in a little pond and is eager to indulge in the kind of intensity she craves. canonically, i think you can argue they bring out the worst in each other. consciously, i'd gone into this fic eager to see how coriolanus would develop in this particular circumstance. unconsciously, lucy gray and sejanus's voices developed on their own around the premise.

there have been a few situations where i wrote characters in the entirely wrong direction before catching myself. i think i had about 40k of Digging for Orchids written when i realized i'd written xie lian wrong. i imparted on him my own interpretation of a happy ending. i can't really wrap my head around ambition or the drive for fame, so initially he came to accept his fall from grace and moved on from acting. but i remembered that canonically he's a god and his story is about ascension. in a modern au, household name fame is what would make him happiest. so i had to go back a ways and write in a different direction so i could give him the ending he deserved, even if it's not something i would ever choose for myself.

which is all to say, it's important to acknowledge that what you want for your story and what is "right" (in this case, IC) may sometimes be at odds with each other. sometimes what you want is more important, because that's why you're writing in the first place. but sometimes you can have what you want and also stay IC. in the case of Free Ride, i could write you a paper on the choices i made about coriolanus's characterization. i have dozens of annotations in my copy of tbosas interpreting his canon behavior in a modern context. but my only support for communist frat boy sejanus is that i think it's very funny and also the movie totally mangled his character so i feel slightly more justified in making him who i need him to be for the story.

write the story you want to read. once it's written, you can go back and figure out if some piece of characterization isn't sitting right with you. in writing, all things can be fixed. and if you don't feel like fixing them, you don't have to. it's your story.

#writing advice #characterization #free ride #dfo

[dsudis]

Which Betokeneth Concorde (Dreamling dancing fluff)

I was scrolling through my blog yesterday looking for a fic prompt that would catch my fancy, and instead I ran across this video of people dancing in public and decided to write about Dream and Hob encountering something similar.

Title is from "East Coker" by TS Eliot:

On a summer midnight, you can hear the music Of the weak pipe and the little drum And see them dancing around the bonfire The association of man and woman In daunsinge, signifying matrimonie— A dignified and commodiois sacrament. Two and two, necessarye coniunction, Holding eche other by the hand or the arm Whiche betokeneth concorde.

Dream had been dimly aware that one of the many things he would have to face, as the price of courting Hob Gadling, was his own refusal to dance.

Dancing was one of the most traditional of courting activities, after all. He had never seen Hob dance, but Dream was certain that he would be as enthusiastic for that pastime as he was for nearly every other he had ever attempted.

(Hob had a fixed dislike of rowing, even in circumstances others typically found romantic. Dream was thoroughly charmed by Hob's insistence that he would not trust his life to so small an amount of wood between himself and any body of water, however shallow and placid it might be.)

Still, Dream had not expected the question of dancing to arise on this, their fifth date, while they were crossing the campus of the university where Hob taught en route to a small bookstore Hob thought Dream would like. It was broad daylight, a sunny morning during the summer holiday when the campus was mostly empty.

Dream was focusing intently on not peeking into Hob's very noisy daydreams regarding the bookshop and what kisses or touches might be permissible in the privacy of its winding shelves. It was difficult, when they were holding hands and Hob was so eager, but Dream did like to be surprised, even if Hob had blithely given permission for Dream to "peek" at will.

Dream did not actually notice the thing on the ground until Hob had stopped short a few yards from it; even then what he noticed was the abrupt disappearance of all those intriguing daydreams, replaced by Hob's sudden and consuming interest in something materially present. After another moment, Dream took in the faint sound of music being played from a small speaker somewhere nearby, and a ring of some sort on the ground, and the words DANCE HERE in chalk beside it.

Ah.

Hob looked over at him with an expression of pure joy illuminating his features. "Shall we dance?"

Dream swallowed hard. He had refused Hob nothing within his power since they had begun courting; he did not want to look at Hob's bright, eager face and say no now.

Still, he was what he was, and he could not be otherwise, even for Hob. "I... do not dance."

Hob's excited expression softened--not turning unhappy, but thoughtful.

Dream braced himself to be coaxed, perhaps gently teased. He could endure that, from Hob. And these were early days; even being enticed to something he could not consent to do would be better than Calliope's resigned disappointment in the waning days of their marriage.

But Hob, as he so often did, surprised Dream. His expression brightened again as he said, "I probably should not. For all the time I've had, it's not a skill I've cultivated to any effect."

Despite his words Hob looked toward the circle again, and Dream knew that he did not want to just pass it by. And if he did not mind, if he would give in to Dream's refusal so easily...

"You need not refrain for my sake," Dream said carefully. "If you do not mind dancing without me."

Hob tilted his head and tugged at his ear, a different smile playing at his mouth. "What if I dance with you, even if you don't dance with me?"

Dream tilted his head in turn. "I will not deny you my companionship only because you choose to dance."

"Well then, let's do this," Hob said, catching Dream's hand and tugging him along. Dream stopped short of the chalked words, and Hob kept hold of his hand as he stepped decisively into the circle--which somehow made the music play more loudly.

Dream made himself perfectly still, his arm fully extended and exactly parallel to the ground, only his fingers flexing--and only his fingers were within the edge of the dancing circle.

Hob squeezed those fingers, beaming again with even more excitement than when he had first sighted the invitation to dance. The music was modern, bright and quick, calling for a very modern and energetic sort of dancing, and Dream was not uninterested in seeing what Hob might do in that area; that sort of dancing was close enough to sex to push the boundaries of what they had done thus far in their courtship, and Dream knew that they were both waiting to see who would grow impatient first with taking it slow.

The right kind of dancing might settle that question very decisively.

Hob knew that too; there was a moment when his dark eyes looked even darker, when their usual warmth for Dream gave way to outright heat.

Then he folded forward just far enough to brush his lips against Dream's extended fingertips before letting go altogether. Keeping his eyes on Dream's he spread his arms wide and walked backward in tiny steps. Just before his heel would have crossed the border of the circle, he whirled in place, making his loose jacket flare out like a cape. He stomped and then clapped his hands sharply, a half-beat behind--neither on any discernible beat of the song.

By the time he faced Dream again he was struggling not to smile, mirth glowing in his eyes. Dream kept his own expression as stern and frozen as his body as Hob returned to him in tiny mincing steps that should have been a promenade across the width of a ballroom.

Just before he would have reached the near side of the circle, Hob converted one tiny step to a vertical hop and clapped, once again entirely off the beat of the music and the two motions out of sync with each other.

Dream could not help it. He laughed, throwing his head back and letting the rough-edged ugly sound pour out.

Hob started laughing in startled reaction, and an instant later his arms were around Dream. He whirled them both away from the circle in something that was not quite a dance step as he muffled his own laughter against Dream's shoulder. Dream hushed himself by pressing kisses to Hob's hair and his throat, wrapping his arms tightly around him. They were both nearly staggering already when they collided with a bench, and Hob more or less fell onto it, hauling Dream down approximately into his lap.

"Maybe," Hob said, still holding Dream tight against him despite the awkwardness of their entanglement. "Maybe you should desert me, the next time I get it into my head to dance. For your safety."

"I am made of sterner stuff than you," Dream said, elbowing Hob just enough to make his point. "And I was just thinking that we should go somewhere with a bit more space for you to show off your... moves."

Hob giggled at that, wonderfully absurd daydreams bursting forth from him of breaking out the half-remembered steps of a peasant's festival day dance in a crowded club. Dream had to kiss him for that, and kiss him, and kiss him again while taking full advantage of the way he was partially wedged between Hob's legs.

"I win," Hob gasped, his thighs tightening strongly around Dream. "I win, you--take me home, Dream, we can't do this on the quad."

Dream lingered to kiss him one more time, and then did as his lover bid him.

[This fic is also on Ao3!]

#fic #fluff #dreamling #the sandman #dancing #and also not dancing #each according to his inclination

[brujahinaskirt]

essay time! rdr2 spoilers under the cut

in order to understand why rdr2's unconventional storyline works as tragedy, we must first deeply understand that arthur morgan wanted to live. arthur didn't want poetic justice punishment wrested upon him. arthur didn't want to rest. arthur didn't want to die.

this seems like a small detail brought up just to drive in the sadness knife, but I have a point here about realism in tragedy, and how rdr2 carefully incorporates the messy randomness of life into satisfying fiction, something that is rarely done well.

look: no matter how realistic and often downright pessimistic he was about the likely fate of outlaws, and as much as he truly believed he did not deserve happiness, it's vital the audience understands that arthur fucking wanted to be happy. he did not eagerly embrace his death, romanticize it, or go quietly to his demise. arthur had hopes and wishes for his future, attainable ones! more than; he had plans for his life after the van der Linde gang, goddammit. and though he often writes/says that he knows he cannot escape the haunting memories of his past evildoing, and that he believes seeking forgiveness is a selfish exercise, his ultimate plan for himself was not to live in perpetual remorse and performative christian self-flagellation, to hell with what he deserved.

and then all of that is upended. death was not a satisfying final relief to him or a welcome release from a cruel world; it was the world's cruelest act of violence against him, the interruption of his hopes to one day become a better man living a better life. his diagnosis terrified and devastated him. he wanted to be there to help john and abigail build their family. he wanted to see jack grow up. he wanted to go to mary as he promised her he would. he wanted to see charles finally find a sense of place with the wapiti, a life that a truly good man like charles deserved. he wanted to help the girls save karen from her alcoholism. he wanted to see sadie start to rebuild a new life for herself.

in the end, arthur is able to face his fate with clear eyes, but he did not do so with ease and gratitude and peace. he did not get his slow denouement to heal and enjoy the time to naturally transform in disposition and nature into a "good man." he died with fear and sadness in his heart, for himself as well as others, and (if high-honor arthur) he died with contentment that he used his last days to make sure john's family had real hopes for their own happier future.

Sure, yes, definitely, this is a caring and brave choice to make. But arthur didn't choose to die -- he chose how to die -- and that's part of why I insist that arthur's "sacrifice" wasn't so much an act of great symbolism-loaded lofty-themed literary sacrifice as it was a simpler act of personal love. the world was cruel to arthur, and he was often cruel right back, until he made a deliberate choice to be kind -- at a moment where, to him, the world was at its very cruelest.

that distinction is to me what makes rdr2 an interesting tragedy rather than a maudlin exercise in grimdarkiness. arthur didn't, in fact, throw himself into the gears with the deliberate intention to seek redemption in death; redemption in death was forced upon him. he did not lay down his life for the sake of a self-congratulatory nobility in his martyrdom; he did not go gently, like a symbolic character does, selecting the poetic fate his narrative deserved.

and that's all bullshit anyway! life does not give a shit about what you deserve. and so it is in this story. Arthur Morgan was a deeply flawed man who did the best he could with the tragedy that his circumstances, his past choices, and the harsh randomness of the universe forced upon him. that's what life inevitably asks people, all of us, to do.

tl;dr: arthur's death was not a sacrifice and it was not his redemption. it was just his ending, as all our deaths will one day be. his redemption, his finally becoming a mythical "good man" (in his words), his (in sister calderón's words) "loving act" was not about his feelings or the intangible nature of his heart. arthur's redemption was the rushed but painfully earnest work he did to make the world into a fairer, kinder, less cruel place in whatever small ways he could before he went.

#arthur morgan #rdr2 spoilers #red dead redemption #redmeta

[yall-hate-kids-tourney]

Round 3: Mary (Ib) vs. Ken Amada (Persona 3)

Propaganda below the cut

Mary (~9):

A painting of a girl who was brought to life and wants to become a real girl and make friends :) like pinocchio but slightly more murderous. She can only become real if one of the two real people in her world dies first so she can take their place. In certain endings of the game, she chooses to kill the adult Garry so she and the child protagonist Ib can live together forever in the real world- which of course, means she's the most evil creature in existence and should literally be burned alive, according to the fandom.

Ken Amada (11):

y'all are all for "murder and revenge plots" until is a 10 y/o boy who watched his mother die and started to become conflicted after realizing his moms killer is a secretly kind traumatized teenager to the point where the 10 y/o boy attempts to kill himself by giving himself up to assassins.

bro he's 10.

----

ken amada is such an interesting character with the unfortunate circumstances of having little screentime and atlus deciding to ruin his reputation forever by giving him a romance choice in the fem protag route. ken is a child who lost his mother at NINE. nobody ever believed him when he said that she was murdered, and that he saw who killed her. hes miserable, and all everyone around him does is give him sympathy while hes suffering and was forced to grow up before even going into middle school. hes angry and determined to get revenge on the person who killed his mother, and he doesnt even see the own value in living anymore beyond getting that revenge. hes more mature than most of his peers, and is desperate to be seen as an adult.but at the same time, he is still a child who likes superhero shows.

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OH GOD WHERE DO I START

First there's the normal "The fandom hates kids" complaints of "He's so whiny" "he's so annoying" "oh my god kid just SHUT UP" y'know, the typical fandom stuff that makes you wonder if these people have ever talked to a child in their life

Second, there's (spoilers)...

October 4th, and the ENTIRE FANDOM is calling this kid a murderer.

For context, the moment in question doesn't necessarily paint him in the best light but its still understandable. Your team is going on a mission while Ken and another character named Shinjiro are away. In an alleyway, they have a talk where it is revealed that on that night a year priar to the game, Kens mom was killed in that allleyway by Shinjiro's Persona (Which, by the Rules of the Game Lore, basically means By Shinjiro). Ken tried to tell the authorities, the authorities didn't believe him because Magic Reasons and the death was ruled an accident.

Of course Ken is Fucking Pissed and wants revenge

However, because of Talk, he ACTIVELY CALMS DOWN, and realises "Hey, I probably shouldn't kill someone. Despite them, y'know, killing my mom"

HOWEVER REVOLVER JESUS COMES IN AND RUINS EVERYTHING BY SHOOTING SHINJIRO. AND LIKE, IF YOU PLAY P3P YOU CAN /AVOID THE DEATH THING/

AND EVERYONE BLAMES /KEN/. AND ONLY KEN.

And third (yes, there's a THIRD) IS THE FUCKING FEMC ROMANCE THING. WHICH JUST...SHOULDN'T HAVE EXISTED IN THE FIRST PLACE. BUT NOW HE'S "SHOTA BAIT" BECAUSE WE HAVE TO BLAME THE CHILD FOR THE AUTHORITY FIGURE COMING ONTO THEM 😒

#yall hate kids tourney #round 3 #ib #ib game #ib rpg #ib mary #mary ib #persona #persona 3 #persona 3 fes #persona 3 portable #persona 3 reload #p3 #p3fes #p3p #p3reload #ken amada #amada ken #cw age gap #cw suicide

[snickerdoodlles]

ellebeesknees replied to your post "choose violence ask game except its just me complaining about fic tropes..."

☕☕☕.

ooooh three bitchy opinions 👀 okay so, not really a trope but:

authors who are snide towards canon

this one is kinda hard for me to describe, but you know those fics that have a line that Makes A Statement about something in canon and the tone of it is just bitchy? or just any sort of vibe where the author clearly thinks they're Much Better than the actual show writer? sighs.

we've all had that phase in fandom where we hate read/watch something and then bitch about it online but my god am i glad to be over that bullshit. if you don't like it here, you don't have to be here! there's nothing making you stay! I've noticed the trend that if the author's a snide cunt about canon, they're inevitably going to be a snide cunt about some canon thing i do like, and i don't need that in my life. you can disagree with/change canon choices in a way that doesn't automatically put down anyone who does like what canon did, and you can't do that if you're going to be smug and superior about what you do or what you don't like. canon is a sandbox and if you're not here to have fun, please go to a different sandbox where you will have fun, it'll be much nicer for everyone.

spite fic

similarly: i have negative patience for spite fic. what's the fucking point of spite fic? if you only participate in spaces you don't like, you're never going to find the stuff you like or convince anyone in those spaces to change their minds, you're just going to piss everyone off as you trample on their toes. i'm a little steamed thinking about this because of the debacle of people trying to start fights in tags, but overall its just so childish and exhausting. again: why are you here if you aren't having fun!!

like i said above, there's a way to...hmm, dance? with stuff you don't like that still comes from a place of love. like, personally! i do not like Macau & Chay friendship! which is a different post, but fandom largely likes to smash the two of them together for some reason and i Don't Get It. so i avoid that tag, but i wrote interior design with the sort of playfully-antagonistic dynamic i would love to see more of between them. but like, my point was "hey, has anyone considered how funny this would be" and never at any point "the other way people write them is WRONG." because it isn't wrong, it's just not my cup of tea. i'm rambling, but tl;dr- anything tagged with "spite fic" or is spite fic in vibes has me rolling my eyes and scrolling by, no thanks.

fix-it fic

okay so like. i don't automatically click out of anything with this tag, but i'm very leery towards it. my joy in fandom is exploring all the "what-ifs" of canon and canon-divergence is such a fun playground, but i've gotten...really, really frustrated with the fix-it fic tag over the past few years. a lot of fix-its revolve around "what if x choice never happened" scenarios and very often the answer to that is "this significantly more boring y result happened instead" and meh. generally, i find it more interesting to work with things that happened in canon than to just banish them, so anything starting with the premise of just erasing something is a hard sell for me.

for example! after kinnporsche ep4 dropped and the spurt of ~fix-it~ fic that dropped so that either kp didnt fuck or it was fully consensual or whatever. it just...missed the entire point of why it was narratively important, or stripped Porsche of the agency he did have during that scene, or missed the point of how Kinn can't ignore the power imbalance between them. i'm not going to ramble more on the meta about it here, but it felt like a bunch of people clutching their pearls and more anxious about making some fictional guys ~unproblematic~ instead of digging into the story the writers were trying to tell. plus, KinnPorsche as a ship minus the power imbalance or the tension of their circumstances is a much more boring story to me, so my inclination is to just scroll by anything wanting to avoid it.

another example of fix-it fic i hated was after good omens s2 came out, a bunch of people rushed to write ~fix-it fic~ where Aziraphale didn't go to heaven or it turned out ~he was drugged all along~ or anything that didn't have Aziraphale and Crowley splitting at the end. even a lot of the literal story metas dropping at the time were theories on how Aziraphale wasn't actually leaving Crowley or he was literally being brainwashed/drugged into it somehow, and it was just like. hmm. the s2 end was the natural build-up of the story (all???? of s2 was them miscommunicating or trying to find their new purposes in the world???) (also: in all trilogies, the 2nd story ends on a cliffhanger, that's How You Write Trilogies) and like. blah, idk, i get how the natural instinct is to want some comfort food after the bombshell, but the good omens tag (on AO3 and even tumblr in many ways) was impossible for me post s2 because i was really excited about their divorce and all the ways to dig into that split, but everywhere i turned was about turning the wheel back to erase it. bleh.

anyways, overall, nothing wrong with fix-it fic, but it's usually easier to just assume anything with that tag is not a story i'm interested in reading.

...reading back and the tl;dr of this post is that i find it more fulfilling to play in a sandbox i like and take all canon choices in good faith to work with lol

[ send a ☕, get a bitchy* fic opinion ]

*personal opinion, I'm not going to be mean

#this wound up being a lot more about vibes than specific tropes oops #but yeah #canon can absolutely make dumbass decisions but i still think you find more interesting stories if you consider the implications or ways to #work with it versus outright banishing it #i care more about the story canon's trying to tell than the story fandom wants it to tell #.........okay now im officially veering into salt territory lol SHUSHING NOW 😂 #i still dont know how to tag these uhh #tea asks #???

[bengiyo]

Be My Favorite Ep 2 Stray Thoughts

Last week, I was completely unable to resist my anti-Krist bias in my reactions. I find that I am being rather harsh to his performance, particularly because I think the overall level of talent in my GMMTV BL experience has risen so much in the last six months. Still, I am curious where this show intends to go and will try to give is a solid three episodes to make its case.

We met Pawi, a 30-year old man trapped in a loneliness prison partially of his own making, who has spent over a decade resenting a guy because he approached the woman he liked from a distance. Through magic, Pawi has been transported back to the past and has an opportunity to change the events. He used that time to see his father once again, and then beef with the guy he’s mad at instead of maybe talking to the woman he’s been obsessed with. The only point I will give Pawi is that, even if he thinks this is a dream, he didn’t do anything weird to Pearmai.  Gawin is doing a solid job, so that’s holding my interest.

I like that GMMTV is incorporating English and Romanization of names into the credits more. It makes it easier for those of us in the West to track down other members of the crew and follow their work.

Fellas, is it gay to rest your head on another man’s crotch?

I do appreciate the show having Pisaeng push back on Kawi’s misanthropy. Kawi is correct that he has to deal with difficult circumstances, but I also agree that he has made his loneliness a self-fulfilling outcome.

These boys are too goddamn big for all these piggyback rides.

Gawin is so pretty, and he’s getting better at acting. I was enamored with him when he closed the trunk of the cab.

I’m such a SOTUS simp. I saw Kawi struggling to open this door and was immediately taken back to Arthtit accidentally slamming the door on Kongpob’s arm.

So, Pawi can choose when he goes back and forth by interacting with the snow globe. Interesting implications.

There’s something to be said about the idea that you take the first steps at friendship with someone and the potential that has to radically change your life. I think I’m a bit sad that Kawi has no memory of the 12 years of changes he’s experienced. He gets to fiddle with his life, but doesn’t get the ten years of new experiences.

I feel like I missed who Max was in the first episode, because I do not know his connection to Kawi at all.

I like Pisaeng. Adopt the prickly recluse as your friend and push him to strive for the thing she says he wants.

This is the second time Kawi has asked to borrow Pisaeng’s money. I’m buying into @ginnymoonbeam‘s analysis that Kawi is a lot like Rain (LITA), who is better served being spoiled by a handsome rich guy than trying to be a masculine ideal.

Pisaeng is doing the wingman thing really well.

Gawin is so tall.

Interesting way to include an episode 2 kiss. I’m not opposed!

Oh, I like the final scene where Pisaeng goes back for the plushie because he wants to make Kawi happy.

This show is legitimately intriguing. I think I’m going to stick around for a bit. I’m enjoying some of the ideas about how malleable the future is, and how important our connections to others are.

#be my favorite #thai bl #bl series #be my favorite meta #Ben watches