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4me2knowandyou2wonder · 6 months

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As a fandom we have come to the conclusion that Graves has mommy issues. This got me thinking… So hi i'm here to talk about some of the southern parenting I’ve seen in the form of Graves’ mother head canons. Welcome!! (or at least I tried to do that jury is still out lol)

This post is dedicated to @captain-mj ! and is based on This poll where, we can all agree, the answer is Graves! LMAO

now, onto Mrs. Graves:

Phil's Mother is seen in her community as a kind and strong willed woman. People might describe her as ‘a joy to talk to,’ ‘always ready to offer a helping hand,’ and ‘a strong leader’ but there are also people in her community that refuse to describe her at all. ‘Oh do you know Mrs. Graves?’ these people may be asked. ‘We're not close,’ these people will reply, letting their tone carry the end of a topic.

This is because, to those who meet her in passing, she’s a wide smile, a southern drawl and sugary attitude—What they don’t see is this is all done because she is using kindness and charisma to craft a careful social narrative that is designed to keep criticism at bay, and people complacent. (Have you ever noticed that humans are more willing to let people who we consider ‘good’ get away with hurting others?) Mrs. Graves cannot handle anyone challenging her authority, and she is constantly fighting to make sure no one may question her.

To those who spend more time with her, her personality becomes much more clear. She’s the woman who won’t hesitate to tell the farm hand what they’d done so wrong, the woman who will demand hard work and harder hours, the woman who is seemingly blind to the struggles of anyone who she deems under her. (Which is everyone except the people who will grant her social power btw.)

Those who are unlucky enough to get closer to her have seen even more of the cracks in her mask. Mrs. Graves holds her power over the others heads, she will claim she deserves privileges beyond a reasonable expectation, she often uses the lord’s word as justification for unjustified opinions, and (in some cheap version of making herself look Better) Mrs. Graves complains about those she deems ‘under her social level’ to ‘peers.’

The largest crack in that ceramic smile, however—the one that reveals the raw flesh beneath—is how she treats her son.

Her “mini me.”

Mrs. Graves enacted strict control over all activities Phil did. Privacy was a luxury not a right, and it was a luxury he didn’t have. “You shouldn’t have anything to hide,” was a common phrase uttered. Phil had limited and monitored access to any ideas outside of the christian ideals his mother wanted for him. Phil went to christian school, and any friends he was allowed to hang out with outside school hours were either from his church or approved by his mother. Phil didn’t fight this. He was a kid, this was his mother. She said she knew what was right for him, so she knew what was right for him. He liked it when his mother thought of him as a good son and letting her approve of all his friends would make her think that.

Mrs. Graves used her husband’s authority for her own gain, using the “man of the house” as a tool to inflict her will. Mr. Graves’ parents did have a hand in his matrimony :/. They found him a nice christian woman for their good (read: bitter and emotionally closed) christian son. Mr. Graves shares the same perspective of gender roles as his wife…

Actually I need to stop talking about Phil’s father, this is a post about mommy issues.

Point is, if Phil did something wrong in Mrs. Graves eyes she would threaten Phil with his father’s wrath. And if Phil did something wrong in his father’s eyes his father would rage on his own. Phil hated disappointing his mother, but he feared making his father mad.

Phil’s mother of course forced him into community activities as much as she could, church groups, 4H, anything that had a community where her boy could make her look good. She would make him participate and do the best work he could even if he hated it, he had to win every paper boat race, every mini science fair. Sometimes she would do the work for him to make sure it was done ‘right.’ Mrs. Graves would berate Phil if he ever did anything that might make her look like a “bad parent” (Like losing the boat race … Ma’am please…)

Mrs. Graves also believes emotions are a weakness especially from women and believes emotions are simply not allowed for men either. Any Big feelings Phil showed as a kid were frowned upon and chastised. He was made to feel pathetic for fear, sadness, and even anger.

Mrs. Graves is unafraid to use humiliation to punish her son, she will happily drag him aside and chew him out in front of his friends. Sometimes it's a show for Mrs. Graves' friends, other times no one is around and she is just angry at something he did.

As an example of how Mrs. Graves handled parenting, A kid on the playground once shoved Phil to the ground and stole the toy dino he was playing with. Phil wanted to cry, but “Buck up” was one of his mother’s favorite phrases, and Phil hated to be told to Buck Up so instead he got angry. He rips the dino out of the other kid's hand and yells at the other kid that he hates them. I’ll spare you a whole play by play about what happened and give you the footnotes:

-Phil gets his toy back, but his anger didn’t go unnoticed by his mother

-His mother realizes that the other Kid’s mother has now seen Phil act up and can’t handle the perceived judgment.

-everything Phil does she takes as a direct reflection on HER so she is blinded by this hit to her ego

-she now must prove to the other mother that she is a Good Mom who has her kid Under Control

-She yells at Phil, grabs his ear, forces him to apologize and gives the dino back to the other kid (it's Phil’s toy) she tells him they’re going home.

-the other kid has realized their own mistake and quietly gives Phil back his toy.

-Mrs. Graves doesn’t realize Phil has the dino back until they’re in the car.

-She grabs the dino, breaks it and throws it out the car window

wow… That hurt to write

Anyway~

It wasn’t always bad, When Phil did something good he was showered in praise and affection. If he was cute for a picture, If he complimented his mother in front of her friends, or won a school competition (remember this reflects well on her), that's when life was good. She’d get all sweet, maybe they’d get ice cream later, or maybe she’d even tell him that she loves him.

I hope you’re picking up what I'm putting down: that Love was inherently conditional for Phil.

But you see, Phil has known no other type. He never knew unconditional love, this was just how life was. As long as he worshiped his mother, sung her praises, was successful, was good and listened to what she asked, he was loved. As a long-term consequence of this Phil is always looking for praise and reassurance, he has deep rooted self worth issues that he can’t see.

Phil’s mom has always been described to him as powerful, a woman to respect, (no one is going to insult someone's mother to their face. Though they probably should have, because now…) Phil has internalized these ideas, and he can’t see how flawed his mother truly is. Phil has idolized his mother, becoming blind to her faults in some twisted compensation for all the pain she has caused him. (Phil is the type of person to say “sometimes I just needed a good slap” and MEAN IT.)

His worship of his mother was of course more extreme when he was a naive child. So during his tween and teen years when he was a bit more of his own person ‘all the sudden’ a rift definitely started to develop between him and his mother.

Phil’s mother has always made jokes about never wanting Phil to grow up, never wanting him to stop being her little boy. Once he was grown they just shifted to wishing he never had. Sometimes when she’s feeling affectionate towards her son, (normally after being particularly doted on by her adult child,) she’ll say ‘You’ll always be a little kid to me.’ Phil thinks its praise, thinks its love. He can’t see how toxic the narrative is. She’s expressing love for the young kid who worshiped her, and denouncing the teen or adult that is his own person in front of her. ‘I wish you were still that little kid, I wish you’d never gotten bigger.’ These are words that hurt, but cut in a way that isn’t felt on the surface.

(sorry, the timeline ran away from me. We’re going back to roughly Phil’s teen years again, weeee!)

Speaking of hurt that isn’t felt on the surface! While corporal punishment wasn’t uncommon in the Graves’ household,

(sometimes in the classical sense when he was younger, but also as a teen in the sense of off-handed corporal corrections, like the quick hards knocks over the head if he talks back, the swift yank of taking something from his hands, and kick in the shin under the table if he talked too much to guests about something that interested him.)

There was also an undercurrent of causal aggressive physicality that Graves hasn’t identified as abusive to this day, because, well, these family interactions that were always spoken of positively. Why should reality be any different? These are all just loving family play? Right?

The dig of nails into his side to jumpscare him around the kitchen counter, (only to be laughed out when he yelped). The trick that got him to picking up something hot when he should’ve ‘known better.’ The throw his favorite canned cranberry sauce into his shoulder hard, as a ‘gift’

Graves got mad at that one at first, telling his mother to not throw hard cans at him, as duh, it hurt?? She chewed him out for 15 minutes about how she’d done something nice and gotten him something he liked and his ungrateful ass was so selfish that he couldn’t even say thank you“Th-”“Do not interrupt me!”

She ‘didn’t hurt him’ and ‘he was being dramatic,’ ‘a real man could handle a light hit to the shoulder!’

Graves tried to show her the already forming bruise. She offered to give him a real one.

That was her joking with him… right?

These are the interactions that Phil would never see as trauma inducing. These are positive memories starring playful family rough housing.

He doesn’t give a second thought to why he remembers each one vividly.

Okay, almost done!! Adult years!

Once he was 18, Phil left to join the army and Serve His Country as the Good American he was, but even out from under her rein Mrs. Graves’ influence can be felt.

Mrs. Graves always demanded respect, and like a good southern boy, Phil has always given it to her. Even now as an adult Phil loves his mother and tells everyone he couldn’t ask for a better mom. (He really could…) He has disregarded his own emotional well being in a desperate attempt to be a good son, and can’t even see it.

I mean, of course he did. Taking care of his mental well-being was frowned upon. If he wasn’t pushing himself to perform for his mother he wasn’t being a good son. But now the last time Graves cried was at 15 years old, and he’ll need to do a lot of healing before he’s able to again.

When he visits his mother she without fail tells him he doesn’t come home enough. All mothers think their kids should come home more, but Mrs. Graves makes it sound like a personal affront. When he’s home the light bullying hasn’t stopped. He can’t do much without being chastised. Even when he does something she can’t criticize like taking care of himself she can often find a way to make a remark. (like putting on sunscreen? ‘Scared of a little son, don’t want a thick skin?’)

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darlin-djarin · 1 year

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Its during season 2 when Din and Boba ask for Bo Katans help to rescue Grogu. She spends most of the scene being quite racist towards Boba Fett specifically targeting him because he is a clone.

Saying he's a disgrace to his armour, that he shouldnt be considered a Mandalorian, and calls his father "his donor" and says shes heard his voice thousands of times and thats why shes being hateful about his existence.

Its very uncomfortable to watch because shes white, being racist to a character played by a Maori man. But his helmet is on during he scene to make it look less racist.

Maybe its because im indigenous too, but the racism in that scene stood out a lot and it upsets me the show refuses to acknowledge it. (Id recommend a scene rewatch its really jarring to see compared to how they portray her this season)

oh oh my god

thank you for telling me, that scene went right past me. bo-katan’s racism is so… yikes. i know there’s general racism towards clones by a lot of people but the fact that bo-katan outwardly expressed it right to BOBA FETT’S FACE.

honestly tcw bo-katan seemed much more likeable just because her hatred and rage made her an interesting character. no hate to katee but live action bo-katan is so dulled down and her getting a THIRD CHANCE at the darksaber is getting so fucking boring like. just bc she’s a woman doesn’t erase her blatant racism and terrorism. ik it’s fun to joke about “god forbid women do anything” but like real talk here, bo-katan (in the live action at least) is getting more and more unlikeable. i don’t want to see any more of her. i’ve seen a lot of people saying that they hope she dies and frankly it’d do her better if she did. make her go out doing something honorable in parallel to her horrible past.

handing the show to bo-katan is such an awful take. i try to avoid controversy in the fandom but giving the “princess” role to a white woman who’s very much racist and has also expressed her hatred towards followers of the creed (calling din’s covert a cult when miss maam was literally part of the death watch) is so UGHH. like i love women but get this clown out of here. i tried liking her, i did. i actually really liked her in the clone wars and her characterization there was so interesting but putting her into the live action and doing her dirty just feels so wrong.

i’m sorry that scene was so jarring for you. i’m indigenous as well so i understand how you must feel about it. i’ll probably rewatch it soon just to remember what happened.

taking away the spotlight from a man of color just to give it to a racist white woman who’s lost the ONE thing giving her importance twice and then giving it back to her for a third time is just. like respectfully, i don’t think ANYONE wanted to see that. and people who are like “it’s good that din gets to be a side character! bo-katan deserves to be the princess she is!” are literally lying to themselves. favroni is systematically giving us bad content so our standards are lowered and we celebrate the smallest things even if they’re terrible. bo-katan being a princess is a boring idea and taking away din’s development into WHY he doesn’t want the saber is just bad storytelling.

i have so much more to talk about but i just KNOW people are gonna get mad 💀 sorry to hate on your fav but she is a racist white woman who plays no importance unless she has an object that she’s lost 2 times before.

#star wars #the mandalorian #bo katan kryze #the clone wars #boba fett #din djarin #oil.

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bootlegfrank · 4 months

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It tickles me when people get mad about Martin/Malcolm like "ew how could you see that" have you see the pilot? The scene where they are so close and the chain tugs? Have you seen the flashback where Malcolm is talking about his college essay and they're flirting like actually flirting in the most disturbing way? like my brother in Christ I didn't make Michael Sheen act like he wants to fuck his actor-son at all times and Malcolm's actor looks like he expects to get fucked by him at all times, I didnt write Martin undercover introducing Malcolm as "this is my boyfriend" in the finale , I didn't write Vivian looking at Martin look at Malcolm tied up on a table and say "I want that. I want what he has." what does that MEAN that haunts me to this day they had some fucked up shit going on

DUDE I know right! Like, I get it if people tell me to slit my own wrists over fictionally shipping two real brothers, that's fair I suppose, I can understand why that creeps you out, but FICTIONAL INCEST, two FICTIONAL CHARACTERS, let me have that! Genuinely no one can watch Prodigal Son and miss the incest, that's just not possible. Calling it "seeing your father" instead of fucking visiting like normal people, the constant "my boy" at Malcolm, that fucking scene with the college essay oh my god. Oh my god I had to pause the show then, when Malcolm's eyes were flashing about the room calculating every way he could kill his dad, the casual way Martin describes how he could kill Malcolm even with his hands tied, the sexual tension in that is SO extreme. Michael Sheen is on our side babey, that man is fully in touch with any fandom he comes into contact with. That man fully intentionally played Martin like that, you can't tell me otherwise. And Tom, he had to have known what he was doing, looking at his actor-dad like that all the time. The finale is so. Just so amazing. The way Martin has absolutely no boundaries with Malcolm, introducing him as his partner, picking out girl names for the both of them. "You're calling me to say you're watching porn?!" "No! ....I didn't have a creditcard, so! (...)"; Martin: "Watcha thinking about?" Malcolm: "You. Always you."; "I realise you've changed, okay? I get it. But right now, I need you to hurt this person. Please. I'm asking as your son."; "I was right. We are the same" those are NOT normal dialogue lines, that's not shit you say to your dad or to your son, the incest of it all oh man. And Vivian, oh my god Vivian. I didn't really care for her but she did so good for us incest-lovers, she brought out everything in Martin and Malcolm that they needed, the rage coming from Martin at Malcolm getting hurt by her, the desperation, and of course her saying she wants to be what Malcolm is to Martin like she also hadn't been fucking Martin, like you can't be his son and his lover if you think he's normal about his son. This show is incest central and I can't believe people are refusing to see it.

#this got really long ahahaha i have a lot to say about these two #i actually have even more to say especially abt when malcolm was a kid but i figured this post is long enough #martin whitly #malcolm bright #whitlycest #prodigal son #prodigal son fox #asks

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comshipbracket · 9 months

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Antis DNI

Propaganda for both ships provided under the cut

Hayniss (Age Gap - Ages not provided)

"These two are kindred spirits. They both survived the games using their wits and then cope with the aftermath using their hardened hearts.

This ship is tragic because not only is it questionable to society due to the age gap and dynamics, but they also could never be together because Katniss is forced into a fabricated relationship with another victor of the games, Peeta, for the sake of preserving the Capitol's image in allowing the two of them to survive the games.

You see, Peeta and Katniss have to portray their refusal to kill each other as an act of love rather than the act of defiance it really was. Meanwhile, Haymitch, as Katniss' (and Peeta's) mentor, has to be one of ones orchestrating said romance behind the scenes as part of what is essentially her PR team.

Haymitch has to instruct Katniss, this cold hearted and brash girl who warmed his soul and reminded him of who the real enemy is, on how exactly to convince others she's in love with someone who isn't him. I think this is all also poetic and tragic in a sense, as she's the first tribute he really tried to help win the games in a long time. He sees himself in her, he's protective of her, and you can't tell me he doesn't love her."

SeymourxTwoey Propaganda (Species Difference, Abusive Dynamic)

"Twoey is the least interesting part of the movie in canon for me, but I find him much more interesting when I think of him/write him as simultaneously being a voice in Seymour's head, a physical manifestation of his intrusive thoughts/mental health struggles, and an independently alive/conscious, mute alien plant. This way of conceptualizing him is weird and contradictory by design, partially because it makes him and his dynamic with Seymour interesting and complicated and partially because it raises questions as to where he ends and Seymour begins and just generally adds a lot of weight and edge to Seymour's self doubt/loathing, which is his fatal flaw in my rewrite where one of the changes is that Seymour is a tragic Shakespearean hero. Most of my specific thoughts on this ship don't make sense without the context of my rewrite, but I like the ideas of Seymour literally getting screwed by the physical manifestation of his mental health issues (which he is consenting to due to his drive to torture himself/self hatred manifesting in this case as psuedo-sexual attraction towards a being that is manipulating/abusing him, has the potential to cause him great physical harm/pain, and is named after/heavily associated with his crush), having a sexual relationship with a being that he has a sort-of father-son dynamic with when he himself was abused by his sort-of father, and 'accusing' (in quotes because he isn't actually mad at her and doesn't think she did anything morally wrong, he also doesn't communicate with her about this because he's terrible at communicating with her) Audrey of seeking out abusive guys when he is literally doing that. Technically the version of Seymour x Audrey in my rewrite is extremely comship as well, but it's not in canon, and Seymour x Twoey is also fun, so I'm submitting it even though the Little Shop fandom has like five people in it and most of them don't even like Seymour x Twoey."

#comshipbracket #antis dni #antis do not interact #comship #comship safe #proship safe #comship bracket #comshipbracket round 1 #Hayniss #The Hunger Games #Haymitch Abernathy #Katniss Everdeen #SeymourxTwoey #Little Shop of Horrors #Seymour Krelborn #Audrey II

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svt-yexi · 2 years

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Hip Hop Team

SEUNGCHEOL + YEXI = CHEOLI

He is very protective of Yexi especially when it comes to the company

Is basically a father figure for her

She calls his parents Eomma and Appa

Will sometimes call her Choi Yexi

They fight and bicker like real siblings

Yexi always becomes emotional when he gets mad at her because she never wants to disappoint him

Sets the bar on how a man should treat her

If a boyfriend doesn't pass the Coups test he's gone

Iconic Moment: When Seungcheol teased her mercilessly and she called his mom.

"Eomma! Oppa won't stop being mean!"

"Ya! Choi Yexi, you snitch!"

WONWOO + YEXI = YEWON

Roommate #1

Is immune to her charms when she wants something after already being told no

Became really close after both had to sleep in the living room at the previous dorm due to a lot of late night talks

Knows her deepest insecurities and always makes sure she doesn't get trapped in her head by over thinking

Will sometimes chill in his room when he's playing video games

He tried to teach her how to play games but no matter how much he tried she sucks at it

Will sometimes do live commentary while he's on mic when playing games until he kicks her out

Recommends books to her to try and help her get better at reading Hangul

Iconic Moment: Yexi was sitting in his room watching him play games. He ended up making a mistake that cost the team he was playing with their win. She heard someone say something derogatory about Wonwoo in Chinese so she took the headset off his head and started yelling back at the dude in Chinese. Wonwoo still doesn't know what she said and she refuses to tell him. All he knows is that the dude apologized privately off the game.

MINGYU + YEXI = MINGI

Roommate #2

She can do no wrong in his eyes

He's whipped for her and he's not afraid to admit it

If you find one the other is probably not far away

It's always a battle between them on who pays the bill when they go out to eat

Is the top ship within the fandom

Has had dating rumors between the two of them since pre-debut

Gives her piggy back rides like they're going out of style

These two have gotten lectured many times over their skinship in public but they're so used to being like that with each other they always forget, hence the dating rumors.

Iconic Moment: The day Mingyu turned 20 and was able to drink he immediately sought out Yexi. Even though she is younger he wanted her to be the first person he drank with. So Mingyu and Yexi were each others first legal drinks since Yexi turned around and did the same thing for her 20th birthday. None of the other members know about it.

VERNON + YEXI = VEXI

Has a soft spot for him and has a hard time telling him no

When each needs silence but don't wanna be alone they'll seek each other out and just lay beside each other on their phones

He brings out her quirky side

Loves his reaction when she does something that shocks him

Walking Meme Team

Has tried to fix his fashion sense but he's gonna do what he do and she's accepted that

Her go to date when she's craving some American food

He doesn't take well when there are rumors about her even though he doesn't outwardly say something it really bothers him and he wants so badly to make it better

Making her smile at least once is his daily goal

Iconic Moment: Once a year the two will get together for a live titled 'English Hours' which the two started after realizing that a lot of Carats were missing out on stories due to language barriers. So they decided to create an all English live once a year and spend some one on one time with international fans.

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danwhobrowses · 1 year

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One Piece Chapter 1072 - Initial Thoughts

The long wait is over, after 2 and a half weeks of no One Piece chapters thanks to SJ's new year break we are back for some more goodness. 2022 left behind a lot of big moments, but with 2023 furthering the 'final saga' you're sure to notice some twists on the way.

So let's see what 2023 Oda has to offer

Spoilers for the Chapter, Support the Official Release too

So the 'peaceful scientist group' MADS start immediately by trying to mass produce weapons, where did it all go wrong huh?

The more I think about it too the more I wonder if Caesar's fruit is awakened? He has the god scarf thing (looked it up, it's called a Hagoromo) and we've never seen a confirmed awakened Logia

Still mad that Judge doesn't have the twirly brows, there's some twirl but not enough to explain his kids, but he, Caesar and Queen all do seem interested with the Devil Fruit Caesar's holding

Also Queen wasn't lying about him being too popular if he got thinner, already seen social media thirst for him, guess he has to join the Moria club of 'Ugly villains who fandom found handsome when they were younger'

It seems the cover story is again bleeding into the main chapter, as the narration suggests that MADS created a human, dunno how that leads into world peace though

Kid Bonney is on the ground hurt, at first you'd think paired with the narration that it's in the past but she's still in Vega clothes and has the pipe

Old man Vegapunk also took the bait far too easily, but it does show that he cares

Oda now gets a chance to show some creativity with Bonney's powers, she adjusts her body to an 'distorted' timeline where she's buffed up, then she turns Vegapunk into a kid with an attack which causes Vegapunk's 'age pieces' to fall out of him

Interesting word choices there, 'my abilities don't permanently affect living things', does that mean inorganic stuff is affected? Does this also mean she can't send someone to a death or unalive age?

Bonney is asking for Vegapunk's reason, but he refuses to tell since it'd hurt her and because he promised Kuma, all paralleled by Kuma himself climbing the Red Line and being shot down by the guards

Of course Bonney is reluctant to accept that as is, she gets even more angry that Vegapunk said that Kuma chose to give away his humanity, I mean she is his daughter she wouldn't want to comprehend that her father chose to not be with her

Bonney though hears a sound and it turns out to be one of Kuma's paw pads floating

In Flashback we see Vegapunk explaining how Kuma's powers work, specifically how he was able to bring out Luffy's pain, turns out he transmitted the nerve signals for pain and fatigue into radio waves

Young Kuma also has chad energy, even if he has the little bear ears (wonder if it's a headset or his hair curling because he didn't have it in Bonney's flashback), it seems he was interested in the concept of a soul, and the findings of a 'west blue scientist', wonder if that'll be elaborated on

Since Kuma's powers can transmit pain, Vegapunk asks whether he could do the same for memories, since it's the same in that it's nerve signals being transmitted

In the present Lil' Vegapunk tries to warn Bonney off the Paw by saying it's 'pain' and too much for her to handle, but Bonney knows her father's powers, she knows it's memories

The lab group assess the situation of last chapter, Usopp confident Zoro won't lose to Kaku

However, Shaka notes that the numbers advantage may be too much, since the Seraphim have also shown up

Turns out they took their own initiative too, which means that CP0 are in the dark about this too

But this can bode well for Vegapunk, since they have the higher chain of command, all they need to do is physically deliver an order to them

Edison decides to go, with Lilith quickly following because she's desperate to throw down

Sanji's sly comment about Zoro dying before reaching the One Piece though prompts Nami to tell him to go with, which he obliges as if he's a seraphim, 'Sanjiphim' and 'Swirlyphim' are pun names used as Franky comes with, but I'd have gone with Serasimp

Jacket's off for Brook I guess that does mean he's serious

But Kaku has also awakened, not that it concerns Zoro at all

I gotta smirk because a bunch of anti-Zoro people on Social Media started sharing a fanart that Zoro would lose to an Awakened Kaku, and yet Zoro's not even going all out and he still smacks Kaku to the floor

Lucci with the tactics though, instead of attacking Vegapunk directly, he orders the Seraphim to destroy the Labophase (though doesn't destroying Punk Records also destroy all the sensitive equipment they were told not to destroy?)

They do oblige at destroying the lab at least, which will likely prompt more scattering from the Straw Hats and the Punks

As Kaku reprimands Lucci though, Stussy bites him and he's out cold!

STUSSY WAS SUSSY!

She got demon wings and drank blood I'm guessing girl has a vampire fruit

But that's not all, she's a clone! MADS' first successful clone!

Also says she's a Rocks Pirate crewmate, 'Clone of Miss Buckingham Stussy', but does that mean the clone was a Rocks member or that she's a clone of the Rocks member? EDIT: Better scanlations make it clearer that Miss Buckingham Stussy was the Rocks Pirate member and MADS cloned her

I guess now we will need to entertain that Weevil may indeed be Whitebeard's son, since Buckin could be short for Buckingham, plus why would MADS decide to clone Rocks pirates? That ain't peaceful

But since she KO'd Kaku she also sets sights on Lucci too!

Okay that was a great twist.

For one it's great because Stussy was often established as a deceiver already; she works in the Underworld and CP0, she suggested that the Straw Hats planned to assassinate Big Mom via the Tamatebako but she also threatens the media. We establish in this arc though that she knows a lot about Egghead, which prompted suggestions that she was from MADS or an experiment, the cover page last chapter also showed someone who kinda looked like her from the back too. And we ended up getting it all in one plus Oda going 'I see your Shakky was a Rocks member theory and I debunk it so you don't think about Stussy'

But it's also a great twist in how the chapter began, the opening narration paired with Bonney makes you unconsciously think that perhaps Bonney is the creation, and not Stussy, so it's a nice little misdirect there too.

This chapter had a lot going for it, much of it involving Kuma. I wonder does Kuma's memories all sit there and that's how he lost his humanity? Was Kuma effectively able to remove his 'soul'? And if so that means it could be put back right? So long as Bonney didn't internalize it all. Seeing more of Bonney's power was fun too, always like to see when Oda gets creative with stuff.

Surprisingly too, we didn't get a since panel of Luffy this whole chapter, nor Robin, Chopper and Jinbe. Though it was about time we got more Zoro and Brook. Brook is defending the ship but with Kaku KO'd I wonder what this means? Is Stussy on our side or just on her own side? Was she the one Vegapunk called for help or was it another person? How does this affect the numbers game too? I would guess Kaku will awaken eventually but it is starting to feel like Lucci vs Everyone until Kizaru shows up, then it's likely 3 plus 4 Seraphim and maybe the G-14 (plus potentially Tashigi for a small while, I don't expect her to fight against the Straw Hats once she learns that CP0 intend to kill Vegapunk - the only one capable of saving the Punk Hazard kids) vs 10 Straw Hats, 6 Vegapunks, Bonney, Stussy and potentially 1 other, something has to balance out a bit more. The lab breaking apart to split everyone may aid in that, since the Seraphim are strong enough to require tag teaming for some crew members, but it's still in need of balancing out. Plus I'm gonna be mad if Lilith doesn't get to go guns blazing, though I do kinda expect Sanji to protect her from harm, I know we are all however worried about him encountering S-Snake...

Edison is still sus to me too, last chapter he was in his own space but now suddenly he's 'take charge'? With Franky going with I wonder if we're setting the stage for him, like Chopper was by Hogback in Thriller Bark, being let down by his hero.

None of last chapter was really answered, but such is the way with One Piece though; to get 1 answer you must receive 10 new questions minimum, but Oda sure did pack a lot on his first chapter back

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imakemywings · 6 months

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Hello! As a self-described Sindar stan, I was wondering if you have any thoughts on Thingol’s decision to demand a Silmaril from Beren? I agree that Thingol is often more maligned by the fandom than he deserves, but this is the one action of his I simply can’t get over. Not only is he basically sentencing Beren to death, and treating his own daughter like an object to be bartered for, but also… diplomatically, it’s an OUTRAGEOUSLY stupid move imo. Yes, Thingol has absolutely no reason to play nice with the Fëanorians considering the Kinslaying at Alqualondë; but even so, what a breathtakingly insulting slap in the face, to demand one of the jewels their father made and their grandfather was murdered for as some kind of fucked-up bride-price!

Although his later refusal to give the Fëanorians the Silmaril is understandable at least, given how C&C treated Lúthien, I still think this initial move of Thingol’s was SO stupid and unnecessarily aggressive. Genuinely intrigued whether you have any defence you can make for it, because it baffles me. (And I hope this ask doesn’t come across as mean or aggressive, it wasn’t meant that way at all! ❤️)

Not aggressive at all! I'm not going to argue it was a great move (nor will I ever try to argue Thingol never fucked up, because he definitely did, and his pride gets the better of him on several occasions).

However, unfortunately, bride-prices were very much a thing in ages gone by, and Thingol is not the only father in Tolkien's work to demand one--most notably, Elrond puts the price of Arwen's hand on Aragorn reclaiming the crown of Gondor, something that must have felt like an impossible task when it was given. So I would, with effort, set aside our modern discomfort with the very notion of bride-prices and dowries, which were at one time normal and expected, to focus on the content of that demand.

Truthfully, I don't think Thingol ever expected to get the Silmaril. He gave Beren a task which he believed was impossible, so that Beren would either give up, or die trying. In that sense, I don't think it was ever really about the symbol, but to give Beren was was so obviously a task he could never succeed at, so that Beren would understand that Thingol would never approve of his desire for Luthien, nor consent to their marriage. It wasn't Thingol's way of trying to get his hands on a Silmaril--it was his way of telling Beren to fuck off.

I don't think he cared at that point if Beren died in the effort. The language both in Silm proper and in Lay of Leithian suggests Thingol and many others in Doriath thought Luthien was under some temporary madness, and Thingol believed Beren was taking advantage of her. He was totally wrong about that, but briefly you can imagine how you would feel if some rando mortal wandering around the woods was trying to take advantage of your daughter. If he had listened to Luthien, he might have seen the truth, but unfortunately he chose to act on his first take on the situation and brush off Luthien's defense.

There's also the fact that he loves his daughter, and by accepting her marriage to a mortal, he is necessarily accepting the very significant chance that his immortal child will die because of this. Elves can and do die of grief, and even if Luthien had not become mortal, Beren's eventual inevitable death might have been her end as well. It was undoubtedly selfish of him to put his own interest in keeping Luthien around over Luthien's expressed desires, but you can perhaps see how as a parent, he panicked and tried to put a nix on the whole thing. He believed he was doing the right thing by separating her from Beren, but he would've realized that was a mistake if he had genuinely listened to what she had to say (also, he might have seen that her and Beren's relationship is very similar to his and Melian's).

But Thingol's downfall repeatedly is that he lets his pride and his temper get the better of him and he refuses to listen to those around him (Luthien, Melian, etc.) When he later calms down and realizes he's made a mistake, he usually does a mea culpa and changes his opinion, but at that point, there's usually been some damage.

We see this with Beren and Luthien--when they return, Thingol changes his view on Beren and on their relationship, and even seats Beren at the left hand of the king. Furthermore, when they go out hunting Carcaroth, Thingol's primary concern is for Beren's safety, knowing now what he means to Luthien. Additionally, his view on Men in general warms quite a bit, to the point where he takes Turin in as his foster-son--the only time an Elf lord ever fosters a mortal. However, that doesn't change that Beren and Luthien put themselves in enormous danger trying to accomplish the task Thingol had set for them, and if Luthien had died trying to get that Silmaril, I don't see how Thingol could have ever forgiven himself for it (and if Beren had died and not been saved, I'm not sure Luthien would have forgiven him either).

So yeah, I don't think the Feanorians played into Thingol's request even the slightest bit; this was about him and Beren and Luthien. But yes, once he had it, the Feanorians really gave him no reason to want to hand it over, given what they did to his daughter (and the fact that Maedhros, leader of the Feanorians, never punishes or reprimands Celegorm and Curufin for their actions, which amounts to tacit approval).

In short: Yeah it was a bad move, but more because it shows how little he was listening to Luthien and how little he understood her relationship with Beren, rather than simply because it was a bride-price or because it was a Silmaril.

#asks #anonymous

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reyofluke-ocs · 1 year

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Tell! Me! All about Sigrid!! I am utterly curious!!

Hope you're doing well!!

Hello! I am doing pretty well; I hope you are also doing alright!

SIGRID!!! I love her so much and really want to do more with her, but I know my OCs vary from well-known fandoms to obscure fandoms to purely self-indulgent rewrites of canon so honestly I don't blame people for running away from my blog at the first chance they get, haha. She is a MCU/Moon Knight OC and the daughter of Loki and Sigyn, if her last name (Lokidottir) wasn't enough indicator. She is also in a poly ship with Marc, Steve, and Layla, and possibly maybe Jake later on I'm not 100% sure. She survives the attack on the ship and witnesses Loki's death, which causes her to eventually flee New Asgard to explore Midgard like she'd always wanted to but never got a chance to. Total daddy's girl, especially because I'm imagining Sigyn died quite awhile before the events of Thor 1 (since to my memory she has never shown up or even been mentioned in any MCU film to date though in mythology she was married to Loki), and as a result Loki became very.... protective of her. Others may see Loki as evil and nothing more than a trickster, but she knows there's good in her father.

She ends up taking a position at the British Museum of History as an expert in Norse Mythology where she befriends Steven, as they both don't fit in and really have no other friends. She basically involves herself in the whole Harrow-Amit thing by staying after dark to follow Steven around because she can tell Harrow is more than he seems and has an interest in her friend. Which is how she meets Marc and learns about Moon Knight, Khonshu, etc.

Her and Khonshu do NOT get along for like 95% of the show arc - he doesn't trust her because she's a 'godling', specifically of Loki, and therefore a trickster like her father. They reluctantly start to get along after he realizes she stubbornly refuses to leave Marc, Steven, and Layla.

Layla initially wasn't sure what to make of this Asgardian that is best friends with her husband's alter but can't help but befriend Sigrid because of how curious she is. It also doesn't help that Sigrid is capable of holding her own in a fight, despite how naive she first appears with her fascination with everything Midgard.

She does use magic, which is appears green like her fathers, and also uses twin daggers like her father. Those are her main weapons, but she also inherited Loki's ability to shape-shift. Rather than being able to shape-shift into anyone or anything, Sigrid is primarily only able to shape-shift into a raven and, I'm thinking, a snake and maybe a wolf. She prefers her raven form out of those three though.

Her flat is kind of terrifying at first glance, because she has little religious shrines - one to her Uncle Thor, one to her father, and one to her mother - and while only really Thor's is received, having one for her parents is one of the ways she honors them.

Also I chose Daisy Ridley for her FC because I love her and adored the chemistry between Daisy and Oscar in the sequels-I-pretend-doesn't-exist and love Marc x Layla x Steven as an OT3 from the show (my social work background is telling me my preference for OT3+ is probably something i should examine further but uh that's not happening anytime soon if I can help it) and wanted to connect Moon Knight to the larger MCU so Sigrid was born.

I'll probably reblog this post at a later date with other facts (or might just make a separate post info-dumping on her)

ALSO I'M SO MAD AT MYSELF I DIDN'T SAVE THE SECOND GIF IN A BASE BEFORE ADDING THE COLORING SO I HAVE A GIF I LOVE WITH A COLORING I DESPISE NOW AHHHHH AND I REALLY DON'T WANT TO GO THROUGH THE HOURS TO REMAKE A SHITTY REMAKE OF IT KILL MEEE.

#answered #oc: sigrid lokidottir #fic: gods & monsters #ship: sigrid x steven x marc x layla #raven tag

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bluethepineapple · 2 years

Note

HP salty asks: 6, 17, 22

6) Has fandom ever made you enjoy a pairing you previously hated?*

Not fandom per se, but conversations with fandom friends had certainly made me enjoy Romione more. We've had great discussions that challenged my view of the relationship and pushed me to re-evaluate my assessment of the ship. Said discussions pushed me to handle the ship more fairly and even find the moments and readings that helped me enjoy them more.

While I didn't exactly hate it, I did find Hinny to be boring and underdeveloped in canon. Blvnk's Post-War Hinny art made me more appreciative of the ship though. I love the way she draws Ginny's playfulness and the way her Harry responds to that - mostly reserved but happy and playful as well. Her handling of body language is also so masterful and I love it a lot.

The dramione fandom too made me appreciate dramione more. There are several dramione authors who write Hermione in a way I really love and mesh so well with the way I characterize her. I especially enjoy isthisselfcare's work for her very competent, driven, ruthless, but self-destructive Hermione; and inadaze22's for the really flawed Hermione characterizations but still handled with so much compassion and nuance. I've also had several great discussions on Hermione's characterization with dramione people. So far it's such a chill fandom to be in even if it's not my ship.

17) Instead of XYZ happening, I would have made ABC happen…

I would have leaned more into tragic romione.

My favorite part of the ship is the way Ron persistently offers Hermione protection and comfort no matter how many times she rejects it, especially in DH. He tells Harry to back off after the whole Lupin debacle, he tries to comfort her while she was telling her parents' story, he even tries to stop her at "Mudblood and proud of it" and so many others. He wants so badly to keep her safe and protect her.

And while Hermione appreciates it, she never takes the out he is offering you know? She puts herself between him and Harry. She continues to use her parents' story to convince Harry to let them come. She ignores him and calls herself a mudblood anyway. A lot of DH is all about Hermione self-destructing and the stripping herself of her identity to fight for the greater good.

I think a final rejection of Ron - he who is so deeply associated with home (eg. food, the Burrow, gifts etc.), who makes her his first priority, who tried his hardest to protect her and care for her - it would feel like such a damning nail in the coffin of this arc, and it's an idea I love so much.

22) Popular character you hate?

I don't exactly hate her, but I really dislike the way Luna is used as a bludgeon against Hermione. I hate the way the fandom uses her as the paragon of open-mindedness when she has exactly one source for her information (her father) and boy does she get mad when people question him. A whole lot of people ignore the fact that a lot of the Quibblers' claims are just factually wrong (eg. Stubby Boardman), and Luna refusing to think critically about the criticisms of the people around her is close-mindedness.

If there is a trait Luna exemplifies, it is faith both at its best and at its worst. And I think she would be infinitely more interesting if people leaned onto that trait instead of using her to bludgeon Hermione for... not believing in conspiracy theories and wanting evidence for absurd claims.

#ask game

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kilgatehq · 2 years

Text

CHARACTER INFORMATION

character name: stanley uris

character fandom: it

character faceclaim: austin abrams

character age & dob: 20, july 13th 1971

character biography:

stanley uris was born and raised in derry, maine. he grew up as one of the only jewish kids in town and this quickly proved to be bad for him. people are going to be horrible no matter where you are, but it’s worse when you’re one of the only people to get a specific kind of bullying. even his friends would joke about it in ways that made him mad. he grew up very religious, with his father being a rabbi at the nearest synagogue. despite the fact that his parents put pressure on him, he has a close relationship with both of his parents.

growing up he became friends with bill denbrough, ben hanscom, richie tozier, eddie kaspbrak, mike hanlon, and beverly marsh. he used to only hang out with bill, richie, and eddie and joined the losers’ club around the same time richie did. things were good and he was a mostly happy kid; stan had always struggled with anxiety and was diagnosed with ocd at a young age. then kids started going missing, including his friend’s little brother. that summer became the worst of his life.

when he first encountered it, stan thought it was a dream. he didn’t even tell anyone about it untli he helped beverly clean up the blood-stained rags from her own encounter with it. for stan it happened while he was bird watching in the same park the standpipe was in. when he looked to the standpipe he saw it floating. then he heard the door open again and went to investigate it. once inside he started climbing the stairs and heard footsteps behind him and then saw shadows above him. the door behind him slammed shut and voice began to call out to him, claimimg that they were “the dead ones.” later he finds out that the dead ones were the children that had drowned there. while reaching for his bird book, he began to chant as many names of birds as he could remember, trying to calm himself down. it resulted in the door opening as he chanted more, finally allowing him to go outside. when he turned his back he saw a hand without fingerprints beckoning him to come towards them.

after defeating it and escaping the sewers, stan leaves the group to grab a coke bottle. he breaks it on a rock and uses the shard of glass to cut all of their palms. the losers’ club makes a blood oath together, with bill insisting that they make a pact that they would all return to derry one day and defeat it once and for all.

as he got older he forgot everything that had happened. it’s for the best, really, because that was horribly traumatising for him. in the back of his mind, however, he always knew that he needed to get out of derry. he managed to get stellar grades, and while applying for colleges, he received a scholarship to new york university. though he was anxious about being so far from home he was happy to get out of derry.

within weeks of moving into his dorm at nyu stan met a woman named patty. they became close quick and after only a week he had asked her out. they started dating then, though stan was afraid to label it at first. it took him a couple months to confirm to her that they were, in fact, boyfriend and girlfriend.. stan is head over heels in love with her. his family isn’t super thrilled with her but that doesn’t matter to him. all that matters is that they love each other.

on june 2nd of this year stan proposed to patty by putting the ring in a daisy and giving it to her. he doesn’t care that he knows his parents – and her parents – won’t be happy with the propsal. he gets to marry her and be happy.

explanation of what has drawn them/why they are heading to kilgate:

at least being happy was his plan. until he gets a call from mike hanlon and he starts to remember things he’s been burying for years. it is back, with the cycle restarting earlier than expected. he agrees to come back to derry but refuses to go alone, bringing his fiancee with him. while there they learn that things have spread outside of derry and to a small town in indiana called kilgate. so now stan, his fiancee, and the other losers are heading to kilgate to figure out what to do next.

any important canon divergences to note: none

OOC INFORMATION

mun name/alias: smam

mun age: 27

timezone: pst

pronouns: she/they

#stanley uris app #accepted

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teddy-yandere · 2 years

Note

Hi, you write very well. I love your writing so much. Could you make yandere giyuu, rengoku, kokushibou and muichiro worried about your darling who doesn't fight back, doesn't feed for days and never speaks to them since her capture?. If yes, that's fine.

- Compliant -

⚠️WARNING⚠️ will contain dark themes

Characters = Giyuu , Rengoku , Kokushibou , Muichiro

A/N = Feel free to request any characters you want. I write for many different fandoms , all you have to do is scroll to the bottom of this post and pick what fandom and character you want me to write for and send me a request. My inbox is always open so feel free to chat with me!! <3

* .:｡✧*ﾟﾟ･ ✧.｡. * * .:｡✧*ﾟﾟ･ ✧.｡. * . *.:｡✧ *ﾟﾟ･ ✧.｡. *.

Giyuu

• Giyuu knows that you would probably go into shock after he kidnapped you. He expected it to only last a couple of days. He tried his best not to worry about it , but the longer you go without talking or eating , the more concerned he starts to get.

• He will force you to eat after the second day. He tried to be gentle with you , but when you didn’t open your mouth , he had to force it open to allow you to eat or drink water.

• Tomioka will try is absolute best to get you more comfortable with him. He knows that this is not a easy thing.

• He was very surprised when you didn’t fight when he tried to cuddle you one night. You just let him cuddle you on the bed.

• Eventually, Giyuu will get mad at you for not reacting to anything he does. He will get desperate and start to threaten you and your family . If that doesn’t work , then he will give you more freedom around his estate.

Rengoku

• Just like Giyuu , Rengoku would be extremely worried for you. He will force you to eat on the first day.

• When he told you to come cuddle him , he was surprised when you came to him right away. He does get worried that you dont even try to fight back to him.

• He feels bad because he doesn’t want you to feel like a slave. He will constantly ask you questions about how you are feeling and stuff , even if you don’t answer him.

• Rengoku would definitely ask his father , and little brother what he should do. He might decide to bring his little brother over to estate , to get you to open up a little more.

• As I have said before , he does not tolerate you starving yourself to death , so he can be a little rough when feeding you.

Kokushibou

• Don’t play this game with him. He wants a partner , not a puppet.

• He will force you to eat. Because he is a demon , he will probably scare you into talking to him.

• He likes that you don’t fight back , but sometimes he wishes you had a little more spirit.

• He definitely would cuddle you to sleep tho. He has to take advantage of the fact that you don’t fight back ( or even talk back ) . Snuggle you to death

• I don’t know what else to add.. he doesn’t play this game

Muichiro

• It will take him longer than the others to realize what is going on.

• He did not know what to expect when he first took you , so at first he thought that it was normal that you would not talk to him. What did catch his attention, was when you started to refuse to eat.

• He won’t force you to eat , but he will always leave a small snack near you .

• Like all of the others , he will use you as a personal teddy bear , because you don’t fight back

* .:｡✧*ﾟﾟ･ ✧.｡. * * .:｡✧*ﾟﾟ･ ✧.｡. * . *.:｡✧ *ﾟﾟ･ ✧.｡. *.

Thanks for reading Darling !! <3

Feel free to request any character you want. I write for all genders. If you don’t tell me what gender you want then I will just make it gender nuetural. I write for many different fandoms such as:

• Demon Slayer

• Haikyuu

• Attack on Titan

• My Hero Academia

• Death Note

• Jujitsu Kaisan

Have a nice Day / Night ~

#yandere demon slayer #anime #yandere giyuu headcanons #yandere giyuu #yandere tomioka #yandere Tomioka Headcanons #yandere rengoku #yandere rengoko headcanons #yandere Kyujuro #yandere kokushibou headcanons #yandere kokushibou x reader #yandere kokushibou #yandere muichiro headcanons #yandere muichiro #yandere Tokio #teddy yandere

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mirkwoodshewolf · 3 years

Text

Panther Princess; T’Challa x child reader

*Author’s note*

Well this was a LONG time in the making, not only cause of motivation and time schedule wise but I wanted to make sure I GOT THIS FIC RIGHT since this is my first time writing for T'Challa since Chadwick's death last year (MAY HE RIP OUR KING!!!). Hope you guys enjoy this, and I’ve decided that after a few Wattpad requests I’ll open requests up here on Tumblr but there will be some MAJOR adjustments to what fandoms I’ll do. For now just be patient with me and eventually I will open requests here on Tumblr, I just don’t want to be overwhelmed.

Warnings: Malnourishment. abuse, terrorists involved (no action but just the word), some fluff.

Taglist:

@plethora-of-things

@waddles03

@psychosupernatural

@ixchel-9275

@soy-guey

@queen-paladin

@jd-johndeacon-or-jackdaniels

______________________________________________________________

It was in the dead of night when T’Challa received word about some smugglers were traveling with some stolen Vibranium, and word has it that they were working for Klaue. Even though he had been dead, Klaue’s business was still running and forging deals with terrorists groups and anti-government parties.

Him and Okoye were flying over towards the drop-off point where the dealers were gonna be exchanging their latest steal of Vibranium.

“The dealers that Klaus’ second Lt. Rosko Lannister is selling the Vibranium to come from an Iranian terrorist group.”

“As usual we will let them make their business transaction before taking any further action. After dealing with the terrorist group and Lannister is ours, he will be put under the same crimes as we would’ve given Klaue.” T’Challa told Okoye. She nodded as the jet continued to fly towards their destination.

It was just before sunset when at an old, abandoned warehouse Rosko Lannister and some of Klaue’s old men waited for their clients to arrive. Soon enough driving in the black SUV’s and Honda trucks, the Iranian terrorist group came out of their cars. Most of them were soldiers holding their AK-47’s close to their chest while out of the head van, 3 men dressed in full 3 piece suits exited the car.

They looked exactly alike for these three men were actually brothers. Two of them were twins and the other was a year younger than his older twin brothers. Hasim, Sami, and Achmed Israeli were the three leaders of the biggest terrorist group in the world. There was even record shown that they made deals with HYDRA back in the day. Mostly smuggled weapons and potential serums for super soldiers.

After the fall back in 2014 when both SHIELD and HYDRA were exposed, the brothers decided to go underground and disappear under the radar. The US and European governments have been trying to find them ever since but they are too clever and can easily cover their tracks both physically and wirelessly.

“The Israeli brothers. I can’t tell you how honored I am to be doing business with you.” Rosko praised.

“We didn’t come for praises. We came for the Vibranium. Do you have it?” the oldest twin brother Sami demanded.

“Getting down to business. That was one thing my former associate Klaue always appreciated. God rest his soul.” Rosko kissed his finger before raising them upward. “Nah I’m just kidding he was an arsehole, I’m actually glad he’s dead.” He changed his tune.

“The Vibranium. Do you have it or not!?” demanded the younger twin Hasim.

“Patience Hasim. Let the white man talk.” Sami eased his brother. Rosko turned to one of his guys and nodded. His left hand man let out a whistle and soon two men come carrying in a large box that was filled with the stolen Vibranium that Klaue had stowed away for himself.

The men set it down before the brothers and Achmed opened the case up to reveal the Vibranium they were looking for. A small smirk came across Sami’s face and he said.

“Excellent. The most powerful material in the universe.”

“It did come at personal cost from Klaue, better him than me. It’s worth billions. Hope you also kept your end of the deal. This transaction is only fair if both parties agree.” Hasim smirked cunningly and turned to his general.

He nodded and exclaimed in Muslim and before Rosko even knew it. Every single one of his men was shot dead by the Israeli brother’s soldiers, leaving only him alive.

Every gun was now turned on him and Rosko had no choice but to raise his hands slowly.

“True. But when dealing with terrorists you should’ve also realized that there is a price to pay. Especially if you’ve been followed.” Sami said. At this point Rosko was confused.

“What-what-what are you talking about?”

“I’ve been in this game for a long time Mr. Lannister, I’ve seen everything and heard it all. Superheroes, aliens, psychotic androids, even real life wizards. So don’t think for a second that your actions hasn’t risen suspicion to the one who rules the very place where you got this Vibranium from.” Sami closed the case and patted it before his brother Achmed took it and had it put in the truck.

“King T’Challa has no idea of this Vibranium that was stashed away. He’s recovered the traces of Vibranium that Klaue kept public. There’s no way he could know about this.”

“Clearly Klaue had a better game face than you Mr. Lannister. For he wouldn’t have revealed such an important fact to me.” At that moment Rosko knew he had been played by the brothers. Before he knew it, a bullet went straight into his head and he died right there.

“Surround the area. We don’t leave till the King is dead.” Ordered Achmed to his security team. The soldiers exclaimed Arabic commands as they surrounded the warehouse with their guns outward and ready to fire.

One guard in particular heard something move behind him and he quickly turned and fired three shots but didn’t hit anything but some old crates. His paranoia was getting the best of him and that’s what gave him away. He was suddenly grabbed by the back of his robes and lifted up and beaten till he collapsed to the floor unconscious.

2 more guards heard what was going on and went to check on their fallen soldier when a flash of a figure ran behind them. They quickly turned and fired their guns when suddenly T’Challa came down behind them, quickly disarmed them and knocked them unconscious.

As more of the brother’s security came in and they open fired on T’Challa, he merely walked towards the security before sprinting forward and disarming the rest of them. His claws tearing their guns apart, and using his quick ‘cat-like’ agility, he managed to take down the entire fleet.

“Israeli brothers!” he cried out. It was then Sami came out and T’Challa revealed his face to the eldest brother.

“King T’Challa. I must say it is an honor to be in your presence.” Sami mocked.

“Did you really believe we would be unaware of this trade?”

“On the contrary, I expected this all along. It was that witless white monkey Rosko who didn’t expect to see you. But never fear, he’s out of both of our hands.” Sami said nonchalantly as he looked down at his nails.

“If you surrender the stolen Vibranium to me, we can resolve this peacefully. But refuse, and you’ll face justice of Wakanda in Rosko Lannister’s stand. You and your brothers.”

“See my brothers and I made a pact. If we can’t escape the system, we’d be—how you say, judge jury and executioner to ourselves. And rather than rot in a cell separated, we shall join together in a blaze of glory. And we’re not afraid to take you with us, suffering the same fate as your own father did.” Sami raised his arms out like he was flying and waiting for a fiery explosion to happen.

But nothing came.

He opened his eyes to reveal that nothing had happened. It was then coming into the open space were Ayo and Okoye who had Sami’s younger brothers. Both men were bruised and battered up pretty badly. The two Dora Milaje members dropped his brothers down at his feet like trash and T’Challa said.

“I told you. This could’ve been resolved peacefully. But you forced our hand, especially when you had planned to blow up the place with all of us inside.” Sami growled but nonetheless raised his hands in surrender.

As the Dora Milaje were detaining the three brothers, T’Challa retrieved the stolen Vibranium when he heard something nearby. It sounded like chains, they had defeated all of the security, Rosko and his men were all shot by the Israeli brother’s defense, and the brothers were all detained so who else was here?

“My King?” Okoye asked.

“Stay here Okoye, I want to check something out.” He told his general of the Dora Milaje.

“My king, it could be another threat we do not yet know about. Let me come with you.”

“I’m not defenseless Okoye. Now you and Ayo just put the men on the ship and let me handle this. It could be some animal or the chains fell down off of something.” Okoye nodded to her king and soon T’Challa headed deeper into the warehouse.

As he explored every bit of it, he soon noticed that there appeared to be a hidden door within the walls that was very faintly cracked open. He opened the door and could hear the sound of the chains getting louder and louder.

It was almost like they were—pacing? They kept a constant rhythm as they would move about, in a circle pattern or something close to it. T’Challa slowly walked towards the direction of the chains and soon found what appeared to be a cage. A glass cage but it was inside that surprised the Wakandan King.

Inside the glass was a child. She appeared to be around the ages of 8-11 years old. Her hair was extremely long and madded like a lion’s mane. She looked malnourished so much so that you could almost see her bones. But for being malnourished, how could she have the energy to pace so frantically like she was now? He also noticed that there around her neck, wrists and ankles were chains keeping her inside.

T’Challa slowly walked out of the shadows and into the light where the child would be able to see him. She stopped her pacing and just stared at him curiously. T’Challa disengaged his full Black Panther suit so that he was in his normal clothes.

“I am not here to hurt you.” He gently told the child. The child slightly tilted their head like a lost puppy. “My name is T’Challa, what’s yours?” T’Challa slowly and slowly got closer and closer to her cage as he spoke in that soft voice of his. When she didn’t answer him he assured you, “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to. I just want to be sure you’re okay.”

Suddenly in the blink of an eye, her (e/c) soon turned to a deep cat eye yellow. Her body shifted into a fairly young but still decent size panther and she lashed out at the cage, knocking T’Challa off his feet in slight fear. The child now standing before him as a full panther clawed and roared at the cage furiously.

“My King!” Ayo’s voice spoke in Xhosa and soon her and Okoye came in and when they saw the panther, they lifted up their spears in defense.

“Stand down!” T’Challa commanded them.

“But my king—this animal is feral. It was going to kill you.” Okoye reasoned with him but T’Challa told her.

“She is a human child. She shifted into this panther before my eyes. Look.” Soon enough the panther shrunk down and soon turned back into the young girl who was still pacing back and forth in her cage.

“What sorcery is this?” asked Ayo.

“Not magic. Science. Look closer at her arms.” T’Challa said. At the section of the arm on the other side of the elbow, they noticed dozens of needle injection scars.

“This child was experimented on.” Okoye said grimly with a horrified expression.

“What do we do my King?” asked Ayo. T’Challa looked at the child who was growling and trying to act scary even though she was no longer a panther anymore.

“We take her to Shuri. Maybe she can shed more light on the matter. Get her to the ship. But approach her cautiously. Don’t make any sudden movements.” Ayo and Okoye bowed their heads to their king and walked towards the cage.

The girl would hit her skeletal body up against the cage trying to rattle it and actually roared out a panther’s real roar, her teeth slowly growing into the large infamous canines of a real big cat. Okoye and Ayo then placed a hover bead on each end of the cage and soon the cage levitated just a few feet off the ground.

The little girl roared and began clawing at the glass but it hardly did anything as she was now being guided towards the ship.

When they reached Wakanda after dealing with the brothers, Shuri in her lab was going over the girl’s intel scan that she made of the girl from her cage with her kimoyo beads.

“So what is it you can find Shuri?” T’Challa said as he entered his sister’s lab.

“This may come as a surprise to you brother. But—she has no birth record at all. I’ve contacted some of my people in various places around the world to see if there has been any missing child and all of them have said no. My theory is that she may have been created from a test tube to look like this.”

“Any idea who could’ve made her?”

“The same organization that made the White Wolf into the Winter Soldier.”

“Hydra.” T’Challa said gravely. Shuri nodded.

“I hacked into their old files and it only confirms my theory. Seems like they wanted to create their own Cat-god or something.”

“Any records on what her powers are? She can shift into a panther but can she also shift into anything else?”

“I’m still digging through the files, there’s a lot of files that came to creating her. It’ll take time brother.” T’Challa nodded in understandment.

“Keep me updated.”

“Yes brother.” T’Challa walked away but he turned back towards the young girl and saw that she had briefly stopped her pacing to look at him once again.

A week later after finding the child, Shuri managed to dig up that HYDRA’s plan for the Child was for her to become their Agent Battle Cat. The ability to shift into a panther. She also has enhanced agility, speed, and strength.

However when HYDRA fell back in 2014, they were forced to abandon the project and she had been left alone in that warehouse ever since. Thinking about the enhancing experiments she must’ve been forced to endure or whatever genes they gave her, it allowed her to survive even being chained up in a cage for years on end until she felt like she needed to give up.

While being kept under his sister’s supervision, T’Challa also made it apparent to try and communicate with the Child, just to see if she could either understand or (in a rare case) speak in any language. The first time he had tried to talk to her well—let’s just say she ended up with broken nails and chipped teeth after trying to take a bite of T’Challa’s forearm when he activated his suit to protect his arm from her attack.

He had finally finished his royal civic duties for the day when he decided to try and talk to the Child again.

“You sure it’s a good idea brother? You did cause her to lose her nails and chipped some of her teeth.”

“I learned my lesson last time. But you weren’t there before that happened. She had actually dropped her guard and almost looked like she wanted to communicate with me. I think I’m getting through to her.”

“Okay brother. But if she attacks you again, I doubt that’ll sit well with Mother as well as Okoye and Ayo.”

“I will handle mama and the Dora Milaje. For now see to it that no one disturbs us.” Shuri nodded and told her workers to go home for now, leaving T’Challa and the Child alone.

T’Challa slowly approached her cage to see her lying down on her side licking her broken nails. Some of them had broken off by the top, while the rest had the entire nail broken leaving a bloody mess in it’s wake. She was currently licking her blood stained fingertips when she caught T’Challa’s scent.

She growled and hissed angrily at him, her canine fangs extended out and her eyes shifted into the cold, yellow panther eyes.

“Steady, steady. I’m not here to hurt you.” T’Challa sat down a few feet away from the cage and continued, “I am sorry for what happened to you. I was only protecting myself from getting hurt. It was my fault for overstepping my boundaries.” Her hissing ceased and she closed her mouth hiding her fangs but she would occasionally growl lowly, her tail coming out and twitching anxiously.

They sat there in silence for a couple of minutes when T’Challa said to her.

“You know, I’ve been thinking of a name for you. You know something to call you. I’m betting the men who created you never really gave you a real human name. What do you think about—Ariana?” the Child hissed. T’Challa chuckled, “Didn’t think so. Shuri said you might like it but now I can prove to her that I was right. Now for the real options, what about…….Nala?” the child tilted her head confused. “No? What about…..Diana?” she looked down and went back to licking her fingertips. “That won’t really help them heal. Sure it’ll clot the blood but it’s not that good for saliva to heal a wound like that.”

She looked up at T’Challa and growled lowly.

“I’m just trying to help. We have the medicine that’ll help you. I won’t lie it might sting for a brief second but it’ll help. Will you trust me with healing you, please?” the child looked between him and her fingers before slowly extending her arms out and she briefly nodded.

T’Challa then got some antiseptic and band-aids. He opened up a small section of the cage, just enough for her arms to come out.

“Thank you for your trust.” He then began to doctor her fingertips. She let out some painful roars on the stubbed fingertips that no longer had a nail anymore but at least this time she didn’t try to attack him like last time. He soothed her with calming phrases like ‘it’s okay. It’s won’t last long.’ And ‘Just relax, it’s almost over.’ After bandaging up her left pinkie finger he told her, “There, I’m done (Y/n).”

At hearing that name, she looked up at T’Challa curiously. Her tail perked up and the tip curled inward. T’Challa looked at her to see her tail fall limp to the cage floor. “(Y/n)?” her tail lifted up again and her head tilted curiously. “So you like that name eh?” She looked at T’Challa and her nose twitched as she was trying to sniff him through the glass.

Taking a risk, he slowly reached his hand into the cage once more like before. However this time he kept his hand in a downward position, so that his hand formed the shape of another cat’s nose. The Child slowly crept towards his hand and gave it a sniff, when she saw that he wasn’t moving his hand, she rubbed her head against his hand for a brief second before nuzzling underneath his palm so that it sat on top of her head.

He gently began scratching her scalp which caused her to let out soft comforting purrs. T’Challa smiled warmly and continued to gently give the child—well (Y/n) some more scritches and pets.

“Don’t you worry (Y/n). I promise I won’t allow anyone else to harm you in any shape or form.”

The next couple of months after getting her body weight back to normal and healing any other wounds she had maintained, T’Challa allowed (Y/n) to venture outside the palace with him. Thinking the city itself was too much for her right now, he decided to take her out to the Border tribe so that she could see the outside world for the first time in her life.

Needless to say she was overwhelmed but she was happy to feel the grass beneath her feet, see the beautiful landscape, and hear all the sounds of the outside world from the animal calls to some of the Border tribe members talking with each other.

“Seems she’s getting along well.” Okoye observed (Y/n) who was cautiously watching the rhinos from their pins.

“Slowly but surely she is. Walking on two feet is still a bit of a challenge but she’ll get there eventually.” T’Challa told her.

“At least she’s learned to not attack you.”

“It was one time Okoye, be nice.”

“As your General it is my duty—”

“I understand your duty General. But you must also know that there will be times you can’t protect me. And this attack was very minor compared to the fights I’ve been in before.” It was then T’Challa saw (Y/n) now focusing her attention on some birds that had just landed a few feet away from the rhino pins. Her panther instincts kicked in as she got into pouncing position, her pupils were fully blown and her shoulder blades flexed over one another as her butt raised higher and higher in the air.

Finally she raced forward and the birds immediately took off flying. She leaped well over 7ft in the air and managed to capture a bird in her claws and delivered a fatal bite. She then raced over to T’Challa and presented him the dead bird.

She placed it on the ground before his feet and backed away before tilting her head with a happy smile on her face.

“Seems she has a gift for you my King.” Okoye said. T’Challa grimaced at the gift but he quickly smiled down at her and knelt down in front of her.

“I appreciate the gift (Y/n). But—we cannot keep this bird kept within a cage. Like how I freed you, we must also allow this bird to move onto the next life.” He dug into the earth for a small shallow grave, just big enough for the bird and he placed the bird into the makeshift grave. He buried it under the earth and he sent a brief prayer to Bast in Wakandan. “Right, now let’s head back to the palace. I have a meeting with M’Baku about reforging our alliance and allowing the Jabari tribe into the council.”

Okoye and T’Challa walked ahead when they heard something behind them. At first they thought it was one of the goats but it sounded to hoarse to be one of them. They slowly turned around and saw (Y/n) with a hand over the grave of the bird and she was saying.

“Ba……Ba.”

“Is she……?” Okoye started.

“Ba.” (Y/n) was trying to talk! She was trying to say the Cat goddess Bast’s name. She managed to get out the first constant and vowel but she couldn’t figure out how to do her S and T.

“Her first time talking. She’s trying to say Bast’s name.” T’Challa knelt down and he asked her, “(Y/n), are you trying to give a prayer to Bast?”

“Ba!” she exclaimed again. T’Challa was overjoyed on the inside that the girl he had decided to take under his wing and raise was finally trying to talk. Many of the tutors he and Shuri had growing up had given up saying that she was incapable of speaking because all she did was just hiss and growl as well as throw things at them before laughing like a deranged hyena.

“Here I’ll help you say her name.” he adjusted himself so that he sat down and he placed his hand right next to hers and he said slowly so that she could see how his lips did it. “Say Bast.”

“Ba.”

“Bast.”

“Ba.” T’Challa shook his head.

“Watch me carefully. Bast.” He enunciated the t at the end. (Y/n) growled lowly before taking a deep inhale and finally exclaiming.

“BAST!”

“Yes. Yes that’s it! You did it (Y/n) great job!” at seeing T’Challa’s excitement, (Y/n) began to repeat Bast’s name gleefully as she pranced around.

“A little cocky there isn’t she?” Okoye muttered.

“Let her have this moment Okoye. Besides probably hunting and killing, this is her first real big achievement. A normal milestone.”

“I suppose so.” She agreed. Even though she might not have wanted to admit it, she thought it was adorable how little (Y/n) was finally able to speak a human language and become so happy with herself that she would prance around like a yearling antelope.

Over the next couple of years, (Y/n) continued to not only advance in her human speaking skills, but she now began to show signs of aging. She went from that small child to now almost a young adult woman in just 2 years since finding her. Seemed with the animal enhancement, it also increased her human aging with each time she grew stronger and tougher.

T’Challa continued to raise her as his own and pretty soon all of Wakanda looked at her as their young Princess. Shuri loved hanging out with (Y/n) and teaching her everything there was to know about science and technology. She even took her as an apprentice in her lab. Okoye eventually came around and soon saw (Y/n) as a member of the royal family and took it upon herself to train her like a Dora Milaje so that she could defend herself without the need of her animal powers.

For she was the Panther Princess.

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fannish-karmiya · 3 years

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Is Wei Wuxian's Cultivation Actually Harmful to Him?

Throughout Wei Wuxian’s first life, he frequently argues with Lan Wangji over his cultivation. Lan Wangji believes that his cultivation will harm him and eventually destroy him, while Wei Wuxian insists that he has everything under control. Many readers take Lan Wangji’s warnings at face value, leading to the common fandom perception that demonic cultivation (more accurately, the ghost path) is inherently harmful to Wei Wuxian and that he should indeed give it up.

But does the text actually back that up, when we examine Wei Wuxian’s use of his cultivation? While Wei Wuxian does experience a few losses of control, I would argue that they are far more due to circumstances than anything else, and not a sign that the cultivating with resentful energy is inherently harmful to a cultivator’s body or that loss of control is an inevitable conclusion.

Preconceptions

Lan Wangji is the character who most often tries to tell Wei Wuxian that his cultivation is harmful. Immediately when Wei Wuxian returns from the Burial Mounds and meets Jiang Cheng and Lan Wangji again while torturing Wen Chao, Lan Wangji expresses concern:

One against two, Lan WangJi still refused to back off. He gazed at Wei WuXian, “Wei Ying, for cultivating an evil path you would eventually have to pay. Throughout time, there has not been a single exception.”

Wei WuXian, “I can pay.”

Seeing how unconcerned he seemed to be, Lan WangJi lowered his voice, “The path would not only damage your body, but your heart as well.”

(Chapter 62, Exiled Rebels translation)

Now, Wei Wuxian’s path (guidao, the ghost path) is brand new. He invented it, being the first person to ever successfully cultivate using yuanqi, or the resentful energy of dead humans. So why does Lan Wangji speak so assuredly of the harm it can cause?

The term ‘cultivating an evil path’ is telling. Wei Wuxian’s cultivation is a new path, but there are other dark paths of cultivation which exist. The Nie sect’s sabres are an example; they absorb the killing intent and evil energy of the yao and guai they kill, and over time their sabres become more and more powerful but also lead the wielder closer and closer to an inevitable qi deviation.

Of course, Lan Wangji is not aware of the Nie sect’s technique, which is a strictly kept secret, at this point. Nie Mingjue only seems to have told Lan Xichen and Jin Guangyao because they were his sworn brothers. But there are surely other paths like this which are publicly known.

We know about other dark rituals which are not part of Wei Wuxian’s ghost path, after all, and ‘backlash’ is a frequent risk, either due to making the user vulnerable or failing to fulfil the contract one agreed to.

The body sacrificing ritual which Mo Xuanyu uses, for example, will cause backlash if you fail to keep up your end of the deal.

It was an ancient, forbidden technique. Compared to an array, it resembled a curse more. The caster of the array injures themselves by creating incisions on their body, and draws the array and writes the incantations using their own blood, finishing by sitting in the center of the array. They can then summon an extremely villainous ghoul and ask for it to complete their wish. The price to pay was to offer their body to the evil spirit, with their own soul returning back to Earth.

This was the forbidden technique opposite to stealing another’s body—offering one’s body.

[...]

The difficult part was that, as soon as the evil spirit has taken over the body of the caster, the contract is sealed by default. The evil spirit must grant their wish, or else the curse will cause a backlash. The spirit in possession of the body will be completely annihilated, never to be born again!

(Chapter 2, Exiled Rebels translation)

Interestingly, the harm here is to the ‘evil spirit’ if they fail to keep up their end of the contract. Well, also the caster who gives up his or her life in exchange. At any rate, this sort of thing seems to be a frequent risk of dark cultivation techniques. The paperman technique is also quite risky:

The good thing was that Wei WuXian had once learnt a certain technique of the dark arts—the paper metamorphosis.

Although it was indeed useful, it had a number of restrictions as well. Not only was the time strictly limited, the paperman must also return as it were, after it had been released. There mustn’t even be a single scratch on it. If, on its way, it was torn apart or broken in any way, the soul would receive the same degree of harm—from a year of unconsciousness to a whole lifetime of lunacy. Thus, one must be extremely careful.

(Chapter 47, Exiled Rebels translation)

This seems to be a frequent concern with any dark technique, which probably is what led Lan Wangji to believe that Wei Wuxian’s new path would be similarly dangerous. It’s also very worth noting that he grew up in Gusu Lan, which is known for being even more judgmental towards dark cultivation than other sects.

He immediately seemed to realize, “Oh. I forgot. Your uncle Lan QiRen hates crooked people like me. You’re his proudest disciple, so of course you’re the same as him, haha. I refuse.”

Jiang Cheng stared at Lan WangJi, cautious, “Second Young Master Lan, all of us understand the Lan Sect’s ways.

[...]

Wei WuXian had been angered as well, “Lan WangJi! Do you really have to make this difficult at such a point in time? You want me to go to the Cloud Recesses for the GusuLan Sect’s confinement punishment? Who do you think you are, what do you think the GusuLan Sect is?! You really think that I won’t resist?!”

(Chapter 62, Exiled Rebels translation)

While many people speak negatively of Wei Wuxian’s cultivation path, Lan Qiren is particularly virulent when Wei Wuxian first proposes the theory as a teen:

Everyone in the room was stunned. Lan QiRen sprang to his feet, “The essence of exorcising demons and annihilating ghosts is to liberate! You do not study the methods of liberation, and even think about increasing their energy of resentment! You reverse the natural order, and ignore ethics and morality!”

[...]

Another book came flying from Lan QiRen. He spoke harshly, “Then, let me ask you again! How do you make sure that the resentful energy only listens to you and does not harm others?”

Wei WuXian ducked while speaking, “I haven’t thought of it yet!”

Lan QiRen raged, “If you thought of it, the cultivation world would not allow your existence! Get out!”

(Chapter 14, Exiled Rebels translation)

Due to their father’s seclusion and their mother’s imprisonment, Lan Wangji and his brother were raised by Lan Qiren. With his uncle having such a black and white view of such matters, it’s understandable that Lan Wangji would absorb that and struggle to reconcile the Wei Wuxian he knows and loves with the man who is cultivating an ‘evil’ path.

With his own sect and family so negatively inclined towards Wei Wuxian’s cultivation, I think Lan Wangji was primed to see every behaviour of Wei Wuxian’s through this lens. Similarly, the audience hears the younger Lan Wangji repeat these warnings so many times that I think many readers wind up believing him, too.

Confirmation Bias

However, I think much of this is actually a case of confirmation bias. Lan Wangji is predisposed to see Wei Wuxian’s cultivation as harmful, and is actively looking for signs that it is; he winds up correlating all sorts of things to Wei Wuxian’s cultivation as a result.

He does so when he visits Wei Wuxian in Yunmeng:

Lan WangJi, “Last time, during the hunt on Phoenix Mountain, have you noticed certain signs?”

Wei WuXian, “What signs?”

Lan WangJi, “The loss of control.”

Wei WuXian, “You mean me almost getting into a fight with Jin ZiXuan? I think you got something wrong. I want to fight with Jin ZiXuan whenever I see him.”

(Chapter 71, Exiled Rebels translation)

Which is true! Wei Wuxian and Jin Zixuan just do not get on at all. And if we go back to Phoenix Mountain, it’s clear that this was a perfectly ordinary fight:

However, Jiang YanLi didn’t turn around. Jin ZiXuan was even more enraged. He caught up to her in just three strides and was about to grab her hand when a shadow suddenly flashed before his eyes. Before he could see who it was, he received a blow on his chest. Jin ZiXuan swung his sword across and backed away.

When he finally could see, he raged, “Wei WuXian, why is it you again?!”

Wei WuXian blocked Jiang YanLi behind him, raging as well, “I haven’t fucking said it yet—why is it you again?!”

Jin ZiXuan, “Attacking because of nothing have you gone mad?!”

Wei WuXian struck with his palm, “That’s exactly what I’m doing! What do you mean because of nothing? What are you doing trying to grab my shijie just because of how ashamed you are?!”

Jin ZiXuan dodged to the side and returned to him a sword attack, “If I don’t grab her should I let her walk randomly around the mountain alone?!”

(Chapter 70, Exiled Rebels translation)

Jin Zixuan is described as being ‘enraged’ and tries to grab Jiang Yanli. He’s clearly being very hotheaded here himself. What brother wouldn’t be enraged after this, especially given Jin Zixuan’s pattern of speaking of Jiang Yanli derisively?

Earlier, Lan Wangji had forcibly kissed Wei Wuxian while he was blindfolded, and yet he didn’t display any loss of control or temper problems then.

(I also think this ties into how people tend to judge Wei Wuxian more harshly due to his lower social class; he’s often no more brash and arrogant than his peers, but because he’s the son of a servant only he is judged for it. Look at Jin Zixuan pulling his sword on a man who no longer carries a sword! He isn’t criticised for that. But I digress.)

Lan Wangji also believes that Wei Wuxian’s cultivation is doing him spiritual harm, using evidence such as Wei Wuxian’s unwillingness to carry his sword or receive spiritual energy to help him heal:

Suddenly, he felt an itch at his throat. Blood began to rise up his chest. Trying to restrain it, Wei WuXian coughed a couple of times. Seeing that Lan WangJi was going to grab his hand again, Wei WuXian dodged, “What are you doing?”

Lan WangJi, “Your injuries.”

Wei WuXian, “No need. Why use spiritual energy for such a small wound? It’ll get better after some sitting around.”

Lan WangJi didn’t waste any words with him, grabbing for his hand again. At this point, two people came from outside of the cave. Wen Qing’s voice sounded, “Get better after some sitting around? Did you think I’m dead?”

(Chapter 75, Exiled Rebels translation)

He observes this back when he visited the Burial Mounds in the day, and many years later tells Wen Ning that this was the conclusion he drew:

Wen Ning turned around. He couldn’t help but ask, “Young Master Lan, you don’t seem too surprised about this. Did you… Did you know about this as well?”

“…” Lan WangJi managed, “I only knew that his spiritual powers were somehow impaired.”

But to think this was the truth.

(Chapter 89, Exiled Rebels translation)

Working with incomplete information (since he doesn’t know that Wei Wuxian has no golden core, he instead assumes that he is being harmed spiritually by his cultivation) and a pre-existing bias against demonic cultivation, Lan Wangji viewed Wei Wuxian as someone who was bound to lose control at some point, and everything became evidence to prove what he already believed.

Loss of Control

However, I think it’s arguable that the instances where Wei Wuxian loses control are not an inevitability of his cultivation path. Instead, they occur in extremely dangerous combat situations where Wei Wuxian has no allies and is being besieged by hundreds or thousands of enemies.

I want to go over three instances where things go sideways for Wei Wuxian with his cultivation in his first life: Wen Ning’s awakening, the ambush at Qiongqi Path, and the battle at Nightless City.

Now, I wouldn’t even describe Wen Ning’s revival as a loss of control. Wei Wuxian had spent months trying to revive Wen Ning, and in the end he wound up waking up while Wei Wuxian was down in Yiling, not at the Burial Mounds to keep the situation under control. It’s like an unwatched pot boiling over.

Wei WuXian, “Didn’t I say not to touch the talismans on him?!”

Wen Qing didn’t even have the spare seconds to be surprised that Lan WangJi was here. She answered, “Nobody touched them! Not a single person went into the Cave! He tore them off on his own when he suddenly went on a rampage. Not only the ones on himself, he destroyed the restriction seals at the blood pool and the Cave as well! All of the fierce corpses in the blood pool got out. Wei WuXian, go save Granny and the others. They won’t be able to hold up much longer!!!”

(Chapter 75, Exiled Rebels translation)

Honestly, it’s hard to know based on this what caused Wen Ning to wake up or to return to consciousness. My suspicion is that Wei Wuxian’s efforts had worked, and he woke up with a lot of excess resentful energy he needed to work off; hence going to beat up all the other fierce corpses in the Blood Pool.

After this, Wei Wuxian takes measures to ensure that Wen Ning doesn’t lose consciousness again. For the next year until the ambush at Qiongqi Path, there are absolutely no incidents, and Wen Ning and Wei Wuxian go on night hunts together frequently.

Things only go wrong during the ambush.

Wei WuXian laughed coldly, “You’re seeking your own death!”

As he finished, Wen Ning raised his hand and tore off the red string that hung a talisman at his neck.

After the string snapped, his body wavered, and the muscles on his face began to twist. Marks that resembled black cracks crawled up his neck to his cheeks. He suddenly lifted his head, letting out a long, inhuman roar!

(Chapter 76, Exiled Rebels translation)

So Wen Ning wears a talisman which presumably suppresses his resentful energy, and which he must remove in order to fight at full strength. After Jin Zixuan shows up and completely fails to de-escalate the situation at all, Wen Ning kills him:

Wei WuXian was suppressing a blazing flame of hatred. His voice was cold, “Jin ZiXuan, move away right now. I won’t touch you, but you’re not going to provoke me either.”

Seeing that he still refused to yield, Jin ZiXuan suddenly lunged forward, as if trying to hold him down, “Why can’t you just back off for once?! A-Li is still…”

Just as he reached toward Wei WuXian, he heard a strange, heavy noise.

The noise was almost a bit too near. Jin ZiXuan paused in surprise. He looked down and finally saw the hand that pierced his chest.

(Chapter 76, Exiled Rebels translation)

It’s pretty clear that Wen Ning saw Jin Zixuan lunging towards Wei Wuxian and interpreted him as a threat. As objective observers, we can see that this is actually quite understandable, if tragic, and realistically could have happened similarly in a mundane setting with no magic. But Wei Wuxian of course would start to feel doubt when something so terrible happens:

He was clearly controlling Wen Ning properly.

Even though he activated Wen Ning’s rampage mode, he should still be able to control him.

He’d clearly always been able to control him perfectly.

He didn’t want to kill Jin ZiXuan at all.

He never had the intention to kill Jin ZiXuan at all! It was just that moment. He didn’t know why, but all of a sudden he wasn’t able to control it… He had suddenly lost control!

(Chapter 76, Exiled Rebels translation)

Wei Wuxian had always been able to control Wen Ning perfectly before. Honestly, it’s not a surprise that his control was looser in a situation like this; he’s in the midst of an ambush where 300 people are trying to kill him! Realistically, Jin Zixuan bears some responsibility in his own death, too. When you’re trying to negotiate a ceasefire, you don’t fail to give the target of the attack any assurance of his safety and then lunge for him threateningly! Of course Wen Ning saw him as a threat and acted to defend Wei Wuxian.

Later, Wei Wuxian observes that during his ‘rampage’ state, Wen Ning draws his guidance from Wei Wuxian’s impressions of people:

Listening to him stutter as he apologized over and over again, all of a sudden, Wei WuXian felt extremely ridiculous.

It wasn’t Wen Ning’s fault at all.

It was his own fault.

When on a rampage, Wen Ning was nothing more than a weapon. The person who created the weapon was him. The things it listens to were his orders as well.

At that time, with all the tension and the killing intent on top of how Wei WuXian had never hesitated to show enmity toward Jin ZiXuan in front of Wen Ning, when he was unconscious, Wen Ning recognized Jin ZiXuan as an ‘enemy’ when he attacked, carrying out the order of ‘exterminate’ without a second thought.

(Chapter 76, Exiled Rebels translation)

I actually think that if Wen Ning had killed, say, Jin Zixun, Wei Wuxian would simply have seen it as a case of self-defence and accepted it as that. It’s the fact that Jin Zixuan is the husband of his foster sister (and the one person there he didn’t actually want dead) which turns this into such a tragedy.

The intensely stressful situation in the aftermath of Jin Zixuan’s death is the only time we ever see Wei Wuxian express doubt in his own abilities or regret choosing the ghost path:

With the child’s cries coming to his ears from afar and the scared siblings who were at a complete loss as to what to do in his eyes, Wei WuXian felt his heart sink lower into darkness. He asked himself, Just why have I been locking myself up on Burial Mound all these years? Why do I have to go through all this? Why did I choose to walk this path in the beginning? Why did I make myself like this? What do others see me as? Just what have I gained? Have I gone mad? Have I gone mad? Have I gone mad?!

If only he didn’t choose this path in the beginning.

(Chapter 76, Exiled Rebels translation)

I think that during this period, Wei Wuxian was under an immense amount of stress. He was the sole protector of 50 people who the world wanted dead, and he had to be strong and confident for them at all times. Only during his initial panic after Jin Zixuan’s death does that confident front break down and show us just how much the stress must have been wearing on him:

As he thought and thought about it, Wei WuXian suddenly broke into tears.

His voice was submerged in a deep helplessness, “… Can someone tell me… what I’m supposed to do now?”

(Chapter 76, Exiled Rebels translation)

I honestly think that if Wei Wuxian had had someone to lean on and share responsibility with during this time, it would have helped him so much.

In the past, there were only others who asked him what to do. Now, though, he was the one asking others what he should do, and nobody was able to give him an answer.

[...]

Wei WuXian raged, “You can shut the fuck up! It’s already pandemonium the way things are right now! You two can stop adding more trouble onto my platter. Give yourselves in my ass. Did I tell you to do this? Take it out!”

(Chapter 77, Exiled Rebels translation)

Later on, at Nightless City, Wei Wuxian’s loss of control is directly tied by the narrator to his worsening mental state:

The more Wei WuXian panicked, the less control he had. The corpse ignored his command and instead lifted the sword in its hand, slashing it down at Jiang YanLi!

Wei WuXian had lost it, dashing as he shouted, “Stop it, stop it, right now, stop it!”

(Chapter 78, Exiled Rebels translation)

He manages to calm himself down and get back under control:

Jiang YanLi sighed, “A-Xian, you… you should stop first. Don’t, don’t…”

Wei WuXian hurried, “Yes, I’ll stop.”

He took up Chenqing, placed it by his lips, and began to play. He only managed to steady his mind with great effort. This time, the corpses finally stopped ignoring his commands. One after another, strange gurgles echoed in their throats as if they were complaining. Slowly, they bent down.

(Chapter 78, Exiled Rebels translation)

Only when Jiang Yanli is killed by a cultivator aiming for Wei Wuxian does he decide, in his grief and rage, to put the Yinhufu together again:

Yet, no matter the criticism, the blame, Wei WuXian could no longer hear any of them. As if governed by another soul, he reached out and took two objects from within his sleeves. Before everyone’s eyes, he put them together. One half on top and the other below, the two objects snapped into one, letting out a resonating clang.

Wei WuXian placed it on his palm and raised it high into the air.

It was the Stygian Tiger Seal!

(Chapter 78, Exiled Rebels translation)

We know that after the Bloodbath of Nightless City, as this battle comes to be known, Lan Wangji takes Wei Wuxian back to Yiling. However, Wei Wuxian is in a very poor mental state (most likely due to stress, exhaustion, and trauma), and only regains awareness a few days later at the Burial Mounds.

This is when he decides that the Yinhufu is a weapon which he should never have created, and determines to destroy it.

After using it for the second time, he finally decided to destroy one half of the seal. Before he could completely destroy the other half, the siege at Luanzang Hill happened, and it had since then been beyond his capabilities.

(Chapter 30, Exiled Rebels translation)

So Wei Wuxian was actually able to successfully destroy one half of the seal, and start work on the second, in the three months between Nightless City and the First Siege.

Toward his own creation, Wei WuXian was confident to say that even if the sect that got hold of it, made a temple for it, and offered it incense every single day, the remaining half of the Tiger Seal was just a piece of scrap iron. However, Lan WangJi told him something shocking—it appeared that Xue Yang could rebuild the other half of the seal!

Although Xue Yang was young, he was also quite clever, a bizarre eccentric. The LanlingJin Sect discovered that he could use the remaining half of the seal to roughly piece together the other half. Even though the recreated version wasn’t as powerful and couldn’t be used for as long, it could already result in terrible catastrophes.

(Chapter 30, Exiled Rebels translation)

I gather that the first half, he completely neutralised. The second half had not been fully drained of power when the First Siege happened. We never see the First Siege, but I think we can hazard a guess that once the Wens were massacred, Wei Wuxian knew that it was all over, and decided to destroy the second half of the Yinhufu so that no one there could get their hands on it. It is likely the backlash from improperly destroying/neutralising the Yinhufu which led to his corpses turning on him and ripping him apart.

Wei Wuxian does confirm that some sort of backlash killed him:

Wen Ning whispered, “Sect Leader Jiang, Jiang Cheng, brought a siege upon the Burial Mounds. And he killed you.”

Wei WuXian, “I’ll have to clarify this one. He didn’t kill me. I died from a backfire.”

(Chapter 43, Exiled Rebels translation)

“That’s merely hearsay. Although Jiang Cheng was one of the main forces, he did not give Wei WuXian the final blow. Because he cultivates the Demon Path, Wei WuXian’s powers had backfired and he was ripped to pieces.”

“Hahahaha… That’s karma! The ghost soldiers that he created are like unleashed dogs, biting everyone that they come across. It serves him right to be chewed to death!”

(Chapter 1, Exiled Rebels translation)

While the vast majority of information in the prologue is revealed later to be lies, Wei Wuxian does confirm this. Strictly, the ‘ghost soldiers’ were probably his fierce corpses. ‘Ghost’ or ‘Gui’ is used in Modao Zushi’s magic system as a catch-all phrase for dead humans, whether they’re actual ghosts (incorporeal spirits) or reanimated corpses. We know that Wei Wuxian was using huge numbers of fierce corpses to act as guards at the entrance to the Burial Mounds and protect the Wens, after all.

Wei Wuxian’s Second Life

So the risk of backlash is confirmed as a threat when using guidao and other dark cultivation techniques. However, it seems that they either have a clear contract which has to be fulfilled (like in the body sacrifice ritual), or a clearly defined risk which can be mitigated or prevented entirely through careful use.

It’s notable that Wei Wuxian is in control of his cultivation far more often than not, and in his second life we see absolutely no losses of control from him. This is probably down to a few things, one of them being greater experience. He also is no longer working alone; Lan Wangji is nearly always at his side or very nearby, which removes the intense stress of trying to fight against the entire world alone.

Honestly, I can’t even pull up any instances of Wei Wuxian struggling to control his cultivation in his second life or being even mildly harmed by it; there are absolutely none. We only ever see him dealing with mundane exhaustion, stress, and physical injuries.

He recovers very quickly from performing Empathy with Nie Mingjue:

Hearing this, Wei WuXian instantly pulled himself out!

He was still the thin paperman, stuck to the helmet that sealed Nie MingJue’s head. He had tugged loose the knot that tied the iron shells over Nie MingJue’s eyes, revealing a bloodshot eye, opened wide with anger.

[...]

There wasn’t much time left. He must return to his corporal body immediately!

Paperman WuXian flapped his sleeves, flying out as though he were a butterfly.

[...]

A while later, once his soul had returned successfully, Wei WuXian immediately took a deep breath. He raised his head, opened his eyes, and suddenly stood up. Yet, having not expected his body to still be disoriented, he felt dizzy and leaned forward. Seeing this, Lan WangJi caught him in his arms. Wei WuXian lifted his head once more, and the top of his head collided with Lan WangJi’s chin. With a thud, both of them grunted in pain. Wei WuXian rubbed his head with one hand and felt Lan WangJi’s chin with the other, “Ugh! I’m sorry. Lan Zhan, you alright?”

His chin having been stroked a couple of times, Lan WangJi lightly took Wei WuXian’s hand away before shaking his head. Wei WuXian tugged him, “Let’s go!”

(Chapter 50, Exiled Rebels translation)

After this, he is stabbed by Jin Ling and winds up spending four days unconscious in Cloud Recesses. I’ve seen it suggested that his short bout of hallucinating after he wakes up is due to harm from his cultivation, but I firmly disagree. He’d been unconscious for four days after being stabbed!

He immediately let go, almost wanting to roll away. His movement was so large that it hurt the wound at his stomach. He exclaimed an ‘ah’ as he scrunched his brows, finally remembering that he was still injured. Amid the stars before his eyes, Jing Ling, Jiang Cheng, Jiang YanLi, Jiang FengMian, Madam Yu… Many faces spun around in a large circle.

[...]

Only having ensured that his injuries were indeed fine did Lan WangJi finally let him go, “Four days.”

Jin Ling’s sword stabbed right through. The wound hadn’t been shallow at all. How it healed within four days without even leaving a scar behind meant that high level medicine of the GusuLan Sect had to have been necessary. Wei WuXian thanked him, mocking himself along the way, “I’ve reincarnated but somehow I’ve become even weaker. I couldn’t keep going after just a single stab.”

(Chapter 63, Exiled Rebels translation)

After being a bit muddled upon first waking up, he’s fine. He was also dreaming about his past while unconscious, which is why he’s described as seeing all these faces ‘amid the stars before his eyes’. The flashbacks in Refinement and Poisons-Evil are both framed as Wei Wuxian sleeping and dreaming about the past, and he’s thinking about them as a result; he’s not portrayed as actually hallucinating and thinking they’re really there.

Wei Wuxian is very drained by the events of the Second Siege and faints twice afterwards. However, it’s worth noting that during the Second Siege, he didn’t really use resentful energy (he couldn’t, as all the corpses there were under the control of the Yinhufu); he used talismans, which only require a small amount of spiritual energy.

Wei Wuxian even specifically states that Mo Xuanyu’s body is very weak, refusing to use Suibian before the Second Siege:

He wore it by his waist and didn’t seem like he was going to use it. Seeing how Lan WangJi looked at him, he fiddled with his hair and explained, “I haven’t used a sword in so many years. I’m not used to it.” As he spoke, he sighed again, “Alright. The real reason is that my current body is low in spiritual energy. Even if there’s a high level sword, it won’t be able to make the best use of it. And so, it’ll be up to HanGuang-Jun to protect the delicate man that I am.”

(Chapter 68, Exiled Rebels translation)

Wei Wuxian collapses due to exhaustion on the boat ride to Lotus Pier:

OuYang ZiZhen, “HanGuang-Jun, why did Senior Wei collapse?”

Lan WangJi, “Fatigue.”

Lan JingYi was amazed, “I thought that Senior Wei would never get tired!”

(Chapter 84, Exiled Rebels translation)

He collapses again during the fight at the Jiang ancestral hall:

Lan WangJi, “Wei Ying?!” His low voice rang within Wei WuXian’s ears, echoing endlessly.

Wei WuXian was starting doubt if something happened to his ears, “What’s wrong?”

He felt something streak down his face, but reached up only to retrieve a handful of scarlet. Accompanied by throbs of dizziness, blood continued to drip down his nose and his mouth, onto the ground.

[...]

Having come to the conclusion that Wei WuXian was only in a temporary state of unconsciousness due to extreme fatigue and anger, Lan WangJi finally tore his gaze away.

(Chapter 88, Exiled Rebels translation)

When he wakes up in Chapter 90, he feels unwell but recovers fairly quickly:

For a long while, he couldn’t figure out what was happening. Only when he saw the splatters of blood on Lan WangJi’s left sleeve, like a string of plum blossoms resting on snow, did he finally recall what happened before he passed out from anger. His expression twisted at once as he suddenly sat upright. Lan WangJi went to help him, but the ringing in Wei WuXian’s ears hadn’t stopped yet.

[...]

Lan WangJi knew that he wasn’t feeling well. Silent, he didn’t ask anything. He lay one hand on his back, sending him a warm thread of spiritual energy.

[...]

Looking around, Wei WuXian suddenly exclaimed, “I’m hungry.”

Lan WangJi looked up. Of course, Wei WuXian wasn’t hungry at all. He had just eaten three pies at the vendor in front of Lotus Pier’s gates. Lan WangJi only ate one, however, and it was the only thing he’d eaten in the past two days. The matter was on Wei WuXian’s mind.

(Chapter 90, Exiled Rebels translation)

The narrative again directly links it to exhaustion, not to anything more ominous than that:

In the fight at Burial Mound, Wei WuXian exerted too much energy and stamina. Both his mind and his body were strained for too long. A few hours earlier, Jiang Cheng angered him so much that he almost bled from his qiqiao.

He only recovered after a long time of rest. Although he didn’t feel too bad right now, if there was something he missed and he pushed himself all the way to Lanling, it was hard to tell whether or not an accident would happen at a critical moment. On top of that, he wasn’t the only one straining his mind and body in the past few days. Lan WangJi didn’t rest for a second either.

(Chapter 91, Exiled Rebels translation)

As said, there simply isn’t any proof, based on Wei Wuxian’s second life, that his cultivation is doing him harm, nor does he ever lose control of it.

This definitely indicates to me that Wei Wuxian’s losses of control in his first life were related to the circumstances and not an inevitable risk of his cultivation path.

In Conclusion

I actually suspect that Lan Wangji himself came to the same conclusion; he only ever gently warns Wei Wuxian to be careful when using dark techniques during his second life:

Lan WangJi let the paperman wriggle on his ribbon for some time. Just as he reached out to take it down, the paperman slid its way down as fast as it could. No matter intentionally or not, it bumped its head once against his lips.

Lan WangJi’s movements paused for a moment. Using two of his fingers, he finally caught it, “Do not fool around.”

Softly, the paperman rolled its body over his slender finger.

Lan WangJi, “You must be careful.”

The paperman nodded and flapped its wings. Clinging flat onto the ground, it climbed through the door slit and snuck out of the guest room.

(Chapter 47, Exiled Rebels translation)

He still does have some level of distaste for Wei Wuxian’s cultivation path, I would argue, due to the way he instantly latches onto the idea that Wei Wuxian would never have turned to the ghost path if not for his lost golden core:

“…” Lan WangJi managed, “I only knew that his spiritual powers were somehow impaired.”

But to think this was the truth.

Wen Ning, “If not because of this…”

If not because there really wasn’t a second path to walk on.

(Chapter 89, Exiled Rebels translation)

But the discussion of Wei Wuxian’s feelings on his cultivation is one for another day.

At any rate, I doubt that Lan Wangji is only holding back his feelings on the ghost path due to wanting to avoid any more fights with Wei Wuxian. After all, he spent 13 years mourning him. If he still believed that Wei Wuxian’s cultivation was going to eventually kill him, I doubt he would accept it so much more readily now.

I think the lesson he learnt, after looking back and thinking on the past a great deal, was indeed that Wei Wuxian would not have suffered such losses of control if he had had anyone to rely on in his past life. So now Lan Wangji always stands by his side and ensures that he will never reach such a state of desperation again.

#meta #mdzs #mdzs meta #demonic cultivation #fandom essay

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magalidragon · 2 years

Text

📰 👓 🪐 | otherworldly | ❄️ ✨ ❤️ | a Jonerys Superman AU

HAPPY BIRTHDAY @nlights37 ! 🥳

I hope you enjoy this humble gift, a Clark/Lois AU for Jonerys. I’m not sure if it is remotely close so apologies but hope you like it! You’re honestly one of the few reasons I kept up with this fandom when it went to shit last year and our random conversations about anything and everything always make me laugh. I am not future you or past you but part of the Hive Mind 😂 Have another fun trip round the yellow sun my friend!

Thank you @youwerenevermine for the header! GORGEOUS as always! For her other PERFECT moodboard see HERE.

So you admit it?" Her eyebrows arched, eyes wide. She stepped closer again. "You're not.....normal."

"No. Then again neither are you. what is normal?"

Her eyes slammed shut and she shouted. ""Stop it! Just...just stop!" Her thumb flicked the safety off the gun and she reached up, loading a round into the chamber. He took the opportunity to walk to her and she shook her head furiously. "Don't come near me. Don't!"

"Dany." It was the voice he used when they were alone, when he told her how much he loved her, and she was sleepy and soft in his arms. Low, rumbling, he offered his hand, whispering, "Give me the gun."

Confusion, rage, and pain took over her face, twisting and rippling through her porcelain features. He thought he had her, thought she would at least put the gun down and they could speak, he could tell her. It wasn't going to be easy. No doubt her rational mind would refuse and place up the blocks to make sense of things. That he was a freak, that he was some sort of experiment, and that maybe she was in fact mad. It broke his heart that she had thought that about herself, because he knew how much pain that term caused her, having to see her father and brother branded that because of mental illness.

She wasn't mad; she was bloody intelligent and he was a fool to hide from her for so long.

He thought he had her, thought she would put the gun down, and he could calmly explain.

In a flash, before he even noticed-- shame on him-- the gun flew up and her index finger pulled back, depressing the trigger, the bullet in the chamber propelled forward, piercing the air and crossing the space between them in the span of seconds.

To him, it was long, watching it, knowing he could stop it, but he didn't. He remained standing, hands lifting up to take the gun from her immediately, at the same time the bullet hit him square in the chest, above his heart.

And bounced off, leaving only a small tear in his shirt.

It rolled on the floor a few times, before stopping at the coffee table leg. The bullet was obliterated, smashed into a tiny fragment from the resistance from his chest. He knelt, lifting it up and threw it aside, where it clinked off something in the kitchen from the force of his movement. He ripped the gun in half, the pieces dropping to his feet.

Dany's eyes were huge, shocked by her own actions as much as his. Her lips parted, gasping, and he roared, hands flying up. "What were you fucking thinking!? You could have killed me!"

She gaped, for a moment, before her composure returned, her smile curving, smirking. "Well it didn't, did it!?"

#jonerys #jonerys au #my fics #Erika’s gorgeous moodboards #Superman au #happy birthday lights i hate you because you made me do this but i love you because you made me do this lol

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thecarnivorousmuffinmeta · 3 years

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Hey! I love your meta’s, a little while ago you talked about The Order of the Phoenix as an organization could you talk about the Death Eaters?

The post anon is referencing.

TL;DR the Order is incompetently hilarious and Dumbledore is a man who trusts no one.

Oh, the Death Eaters, what to say about the Death Eaters...

In a World Without Voldemort, They'd Probably Be Arsonists

One of the things JKR implies in the series, and something fandom seems to take for granted, is that Tom Riddle is the ultimate corrupting influence.

Were it not for him, the Wizarding World would be a much better place, and people like Bellatrix LeStrange would be productive members of society.

As soon as he is killed, even, by Harry, the good guys win, their problems all presumably solved, and Harry tells his son Albus Severus that it's totally fine if he's put into Slytherin.

I don't believe that though.

To me, it's not so much that Tom Riddle corrupted these people, but that he gave them an organized cause. The people themselves, oh, they were itching for a fight.

In a world without Tom I think they'd be a loosely, poorly organized, group (probably with Bellatrix as the ring leader) where they commit acts of domestic terrorism probably involving burning offensive shops to the ground or attacking muggleborns, halfbloods, and blood traitors.

Voldemort, to me, is designed to pander to them (and not the other way around).

The Death Eaters' Beginnings

So, first off, I think Tom's goals are not what he says they are. What he represents to his followers is exactly what they want to hear, wrapped in a grandiose theatric bow that they just love.

But how did this all start?

First, I don't believe in the Knights of Walpurgis. Instead I think Tom came relatively out of nowhere in the 70's uses parseltongue to prove his heritage as the Heir of Slytherin and thus of purer blood than any of them.

He throws these exciting rallies/parties that the rebellious, angsty, teenage heirs all go to. There he says everything they wanted to hear in the most eloquent manner they've ever heard, promises them the action that their fathers have never delivered, promises them a role in the glorious revolution and a place in history, and probably offers them mounds of cocaine.

All the Death Eaters we see, or the core of them, appear to be in this age range where they'd be in Hogwarts or just out of it when Voldemort came knocking. I can imagine they're all whipped up with excitement, YEAH LET'S BLOW UP THE MUDBLOODS and for some that's great, for others... things don't go the way they expected.

October 31, 1981: It All Falls Apart

Regulus famously steals Tom's horcrux. I imagine it wasn't so much that he learned the error of his ways but that he saw what Tom Riddle was really after: the destruction of his very society.

Lucius is riding high until October 31, 1981 and he sees the complete destruction of the entire Black family. Lucius' priorities greatly shift and as he grows older he prays Voldemort never returns. Unfortunately, Tom does, and he charges interest.

Bellatrix absolutely loses her mind, refuses to accept reality, and tries to torture the Longbottoms for information they do not possess. She is imprisoned in Azkaban and never truly recovers from this.

Snape ends up the cause of death for Lily Evans and must forever live with the guilt and be tied to her prophesied son. He also becomes Dumbledore's lackey forever, which ultimately gets him killed.

Point being, no one's having a good time. Some because they figure out being a Death Eater wasn't all it was cracked up to be, and others because they had the Voldemort rug pulled out from under their feet when Tom Riddle disappears.

Pettigrew flees and lives as the Weasley rat for nearly fifteen years.

They're left making a mad scramble as they try to pick up the pieces of their lives.

Canon Catches Up

More than ten years go by and then suddenly, in a muggle graveyard, the surviving Death Eaters discover that they are bound to Voldemort for the rest of their lives.

Death cannot stop this man and he has branded them: there's no escape.

Some are still enthusiastic supporters of the cause: Bellatrix is vindicated that her lord has returned, he rescues her from hell on earth, and everything's finally coming up Bella. Barty is similar in actively working for Voldemort's resurrection.

Lucius, meanwhile, lives in constant terror. Karkaroff desperately flees the country and hopes Tom will not find him. Snape, is in fact, Dumbledore's agent. Pettigrew only returned in utter desperation and has now cut off his own hand.

They're not the young men they were, some of them have families, to some of the past ten years have been utterly miserable. They have to watch as their children make the same damn mistakes they did, be sucked into this same hell hole, and there's nothing they can do about it.

There is a notable reluctance for the cause, and yet, they have to try with the same vigor or this madman will kill them all.

And it's all worthless anyway: come 1998, Voldemort dies again (perhaps for real this time, who knows, Harry Potter seems to think so for whatever reason) and then they are imprisoned for their acts as Death Eaters.

And they just laugh, because how badly Lucius wishes he could go back in time and tell his eighteen-year-old self, "YOU DUMB FUCK, LEAVE NOW!"

But Do They Learn Anything?

No.

Just because we see some of them regret being Death Eaters doesn't mean they regret their beliefs. Their beliefs were fine, even blowing up people here and there, a bit gauche but fine.

But maybe following Voldemort blindly was a bad idea.

Are They More Competent Than the Order?

No.

Tom Riddle is terrifyingly competent in that he infiltrates the government with ease, has spies everywhere, and all but proclaims himself minister one day and nobody blinks.

He gains the full support of most of the wizarding world's wealthiest and prestigious families.

But he doesn't actually give these people anything to do. Because there's nothing for them to do, with them, Tom's won. He owns the Wizengamot, the Ministry, everything.

There's no need to fight. It's over, there never was a war. Society is primed to accept Tom Riddle as their ruler.

However, the likes of Bellatrix LeStrange thinks there's a glorious war on, so "uh, go out and blow up a few muggles, have fun." And the young Death Eaters (and the older ones), think they've committed this great, daring, brave, and very important act.

Tom only seems to hand out real assignments when in desperate straits or else when being particularly vindictive.

Lucius, after messing up with the diary, is told to retrieve a prophecy he is not allowed to touch in a department of the ministry he should have no access to. If he fails: Tom kills his entire family. When Lucius does fail, Tom assigns his son to assassinate an already dying Dumbledore. These aren't real tasks, though they do have the appearance of one, and consequences for failure.

Barty, Tom is forced to rely on, as he is trapped in this dying infant's body. And better Barty, someone who is truly loyal and seems fairly clever, than Peter Pettigrew who is a miserable scum bag who'd sell his grandmother for a bar of soap.

Barty, of course, fucks this up. Rather than just kidnap Harry Potter at any of the many easy points this could be done (Hogsmeade trip, lure Harry out to Hogsmeade with super secret serial information about Voldemort/Snape being a Death Eater, etc.), Barty is determined to make use of the Triwizard Tournament to destroy his father's legacy.

This means rather than a few weeks, it takes months to kidnap Harry, and even then they bring along an extra boy who then gets killed and provides some evidence that Tom Riddle has in fact returned. (Somebody murdered Cedric). It takes months and Barty actively ensuring Harry makes it through the tournament and does well, leaving open the possibility that he might get caught helping Harry cheat at any moment. And of course, Barty has to pretend to be Madeye Moody for months, keeping his man locked and drugged in his trunk.

Thankfully, Moody's such a paranoid wreck, no one even notices.

Quirrell, Tom is forced to rely on. Quirrell fucks up, though admittedly not as badly as Barty. Quirrell fails to steal the stone when it's in transit/in Gringotts. He fails to murder Harry Potter, an eleven year old boy in the world's most dangerous school. He rouses Snape's suspicion almost immediately. Then of course he doesn't get the stone. He at least gets to the room with the stone and nearly overpowers Harry and gets it had he not been mysteriously lit on fire by the power of love/Lily Evans.

The only one Tom ever really relies on by choice is Snape. Snape is charged with spying on Dumbledore and later running Hogwarts (which he fucks up).

There is only one competent man in Britain: Severus Snape. Which is, of course, why he's a double agent that Dumbledore and Tom both extensively rely on despite his being a double agent.

There's no one else.

Tom Riddle doesn't make use of the Death Eaters but given they prove themselves enthusiastically incompetent at every turn I don't blame him. Just pretend to give them something to do and hope it makes them feel important.

That's all I've got in general, you want anything else you'll have to ask for something more specific.

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