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givehimthemedicine · 1 year

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Big Analysis Part 2

Powers and Blood

[ Part 1 ]

I have a theory to tell you about Henry that's going to make a LOT of other things click. this post is less neatly segmented by topic and more of a swift erratic drop into insanity so buckle up. Long asf but I promise at least the first/main part is worth it.

warning: very high chance this post contains actual spoilers for major reveals in Stranger Things 5. I'll be tagging subsequent discussion of my main theory here with #st spoilers just in case.

after I establish that, I'll speculate about a variety of subtopics including:

Max waking up

[redacted] has powers

Why Henry wanted El to join him

How Will did the lights

What Will's spidey sense is

Henry's original interest in Will

What I think happened that night in 1959

Let's start with this 4x8 Brenner line: "when One kills, he doesn't simply kill. He consumes. He takes everything from his victims. Everything they are and everything they ever will be. Their memories, their abilities."

Brenner literally just saw crime scene photos of Henry's victims like the rest of us. where is he getting that intel? why would he know that?

"are you forgetting that Brenner saw surveillance of Henry killing all the kids so he knows how his killings worked?"

well sure, Brenner had plenty of footage of it, but what visible indication is there about Henry's murder method that he's "taking abilities" from anyone, unless maybe you could see somehow on the tapes that each murder got easier? his nose didn't even appear to bleed a little bit until the very end.

at the time of the massacre, Henry's only two victims that Brenner would already have the full explanation about were Virginia and Alice, because Brenner spent a while with Henry in the lab and probably forced him to tell all about it. So, taking their memories, alright sure, but what do you mean ABILITIES? did Henry suddenly like, get really good at knitting the moment he killed his mom?

Virginia definitely had powers.

the only way Brenner could be so sure Henry gained all the dead numbers' powers was if he already knew that Henry gained powers from Virginia and Alice in the first place.

Virginia having powers is how she "somehow knew" it was Henry giving them visions. she's where Henry inherited his abilities from in the first place.

just like El got hers from her mom. the powers really are maternally inherited.

MKUltra didn't give Terry Ives powers, it just activated the potential she already had. you can have latent powers and not even know.

anyway, Victor Creel must not have known about his wife's powers any more than he knew about Henry's, which is why he stayed blaming demons.

so Henry kills Virginia, and as he wipes his nose, his narration literally says that he grew more powerful. Henry killed Virginia not only to evade her plans to institutionalize him, but he absorbed her powers.

then Alice. little Alice is too young to have many atrocities under her belt - her only crime is being Virginia Creel's child. I don't know if Henry has much personal resentment toward her, but either way, she inherited those powers just the same as him, and he killed her for them.

It's why he "grows stronger and more powerful" with each kill - it's not just that the mere act of killing any old victim makes his powers stronger - it's that his whole thing is absorbing people. when he kills people who have powers, he adds their powers to his.

eventually Henry does the lab massacre, killing all the guards and orderlies and kids. his backstory would so strongly seem to lead him to be sympathetic to the lab kids, to kill their captors and free them - but to Henry they were just sixteen little power vessels.

moving right along: remember how we all went "oHH" when we found out baby El learned how to do the neck-snap and throwing-guards-into-walls moves from Henry? yeah, that certainly was how he killed those guys!

hey, wouldn't it be fun if we think about how exactly he killed everybody we've seen him kill?

Henry's Murder List

if we try on this idea about Virginia and Alice... would you say it helps a little bit of a pattern emerge?

everyone Henry kills Like That has powers.

everyone.

All of the cursed four have powers. Max has powers.

It's what he means when he calls Max weak in the same breath as calling her brave. he's talking about her powers.

and apparently Billy had powers as well. not through Susan but his own mother, coincidentally. "all the rest of them" we assumed meant Chrissy Fred and Patrick but actually means ALL the rest. all the kids, Virginia, Alice.

oh, is old givehimthemedicine just a reaching delusional Max fan who wants her to have powers? he's just talking about emotional weakness? because she's depressed and Henry "feeds on the weak"?

look in what context the words weakness and strength keep getting used in the lab. it's not emotional or physical. it's about powers.

hmm ok so you're able to write off the lights going blinky because that's a common occurrence for you? at the place where you and your mother live?

I know another kid who used to have electrical problems at his house. it'd be funny if you and he had any other paralle-

MAX MAYFIELD I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE :) :) :)

I don't think we know anything about Patrick or Fred's mothers, but here's a hint about the Cunningham family. Chrissy's mom also feels Henry but attributes it to a demon, like Victor Creel.

gates do indeed open by Henry making a "powerful psychic connection" but Dustin doesn't realize how accurate his wording is - the victims have powers too. Chrissy's major visions both feature her mother screaming at her to "open the door."

doors are what Henry calls gates. he's connecting his powers with Chrissy's to open a gate.

all this time I took this line to mean that El has the specific skill of opening gates, like how Kali has her own unique skill. actually it probably just means Henry wanted El's strength. like, her amount of power.

which brings me to El.

why Henry's favoritism towards Eleven when she was the weakest kid at the lab? was it just because she was the most empathetic of the kids, and he knew she'd offer to help remove the soteria if he was nice to her?

Henry wanted El at full strength because he had plans for her powers. and if any of those other lab kids were weak he would've coached them too, fattening them up for the kill (Hopper/demogorgon/last supper parallel).

so if Henry went to the trouble of coaching El to bring out her strength instead of just killing her when she was weak, that establishes that he gains more strength from killing actively, strongly powered people, and probably only very little from killing latent or weak people like Alice, Chrissy, etc. maybe barely even enough to be worth the hassle of killing them.

right?

no, see. that's why he Vecnas them.

VECNA-ING ISN'T JUST KILLING, IT'S ACTIVATING THEIR POWERS AND THEN MAKING THEM USE THEM REALLY REALLY REALLY HARD. SO HARD THEY DIE. SO HE CAN TAKE THEM.

he's giving the '86 victims traumatic visions and nightmares about the things that he knows causes them the most pain - to make them experience extreme negative emotion, to activate their powers. just like he did by coaching Eleven to harness sad/angry memories. they get nosebleeds, the classic power-use symptom, because of their powers being stirred.

and when he kills them, he's literally power-surging them. think of the way El bleeds worse and feels more drained the harder she uses her powers - except he doesn't stop when they pass out. he forces all the power he can possibly get out of them, past their breaking point, until their bodies literally shatter. this creates a gate, and he also absorbs their maximum powers when they die. maybe like all the powers they would ever have been able to generate, total ("everything they are and everything they ever will be"), all at once.

THAT'S WHAT THE GLOWING LIGHT BULBS THING IS, BOTH SYMBOLICALLY AND LITERALLY. A MASSIVE AMOUNT OF ENERGY BEING CREATED.

that's why the flashlight-shattering surge when Henry kills Patrick. Henry isn't just "making a powerful psychic connection" with random teens - so what? what would that do? - he's making a connection and forcing them to generate extreme levels of power.

that's what causes the huge electricity surge when El closes the gate - she's using her rage montage to generate huge amounts of power, the most we've ever seen her do - AND USING HER POWERS REALLY REALLY HARD MADE HER NOT JUST BLEED WORSE THAN USUAL BUT LEVITATE.

what if Henry didn't levitate Max Chrissy Fred or Patrick. what if their own powers did that?

so Henry probably got even more power out of each '86 victim than El demonstrated when closing the mothergate (because El didn't die).

now realize: Max got power-surged... but Henry got interrupted before he could complete the ritual. she died, yeah, but of a heart attack from the trauma, not as part of the ritual itself.

I don't think Henry had actually taken Max's powers yet.

which means....

I SEE A PATH CLEAR TO MAX HAVING ACTIVE POWERS IN SEASON 5.

and if Max wakes up with amnesia and her powers lost, which is entirely likely given the pattern - don't worry about it. Max has her own NINA: all those letters she wrote. if needbe, El now knows exactly how to train Max back into power, except this time by harnessing love instead of darkness.

now, back to the light bulb thing - when else do we see it?

in the shed when Will gets taken.

Will has powers too. but you knew that :)

Will's made the light bulb in the shed glow with intense emotion too - fear. the bulb didn't burst because he didn't die.

and if the powers are maternally inherited, Joyce has them too. and Jonathan.

this could be Joyce lightbulbing, but I don't think she's experiencing a psychic connection with Henry at this moment, so it might actually be Will again, afraid for Joyce.

while we're on the subject:

Who led Holly and Joyce to Will's room with the lights?

in both the Joyce and Holly scenes, the lights blink their way calmly down the hallway. the way they behave just feels like a gentle, friendly presence - just like they do as a result of Hopper and Joyce walking down the hallway in the UD. it feels human.

but I'm not so sure it's Will. even if we say he was just walking to his room the first time and accidentally led Joyce to danger, he probably would be careful not to do exactly the same thing to Holly.

maybe the calm-blinking is not a result of a friendly or human entity, but of a human with powers.

maybe that was Henry walking down the hallway. Henry blinking the lights, Henry playing the stereo.

Joyce goes back into the house after running away, because that song is a personal thing for Will. but that kind of stereo is battery operated and can't play unless the play button is pressed, which requires the presser to either have telekinesis or physically step in for a sec through a portal. if Will could come through a portal the show would be over, and I don't think his powers are strong enough to push a button telekinetically yet even if he wanted to. but most importantly, he wouldn't want to. the demogorgon was definitely right there, and I refuse to believe Will would lure Joyce back into the same dangerous situation she had just fled. being that Henry can read memories, he would be perfectly aware of the personal significance of Should I Stay Or Should I Go and wouldn't hesitate to use it to deceive Joyce. so why didn't she get got when she went back in there? idk, maybe Will created a diversion or something.

I'm also sure it was Henry mesmerizing Holly with that circle of lights, extremely similar to the light-circle game at the Lab he probably got really good at before Brenner put in the soteria. Will can't do this:

regardless, Holly was lured in there specifically, and the demogorgon almost yoinked her.

so Joyce and Holly were both targeted in season 1, and both when they were alone.

Will was alone, Barb was alone, there were apparently no witnesses to the other four yoinkings, so they were alone. the demogorgon doesn't usually like to appear in front of anybody except those it intends to take.

and can I remind you that every time the demogorgon came into the house to attack Jonathan, it didn't injure him at all. it just knocked him down and drooled on him a bit. it wasn't trying to kill. and can I remind you that Nancy was also there.

the Byers and Wheeler families both have powers.

dream or telepathy...

cruel coincidence or ESP....

if both Byers and Wheelers have powers, why wouldn't the demogorgon burst in while the casserole is cooking and yoink Joyce, Karen, and Holly all together? because then the show leaves us the deniability of "oh well it was after Joyce; Karen and Holly just happened to be there". same as "oh well it was after Jonathan, Nancy just happened to be there". showing us an isolated attempt on Holly makes it clear that Wheeler blood is a target.

Henry keeps targeting entire families except for the fathers.

because he's killing everyone with powers, and he knows the powers are maternally inherited.

Virginia and Alice but not Victor.

all the numbers and not Papa (he's not their father literally but he doesn't have powers and it works as a parallel).

Will, Joyce and Jonathan but not Lonnie. that's why Lonnie coming back was even a plot point - to show him being available for a demogorgon attack yet being the only Byers never to have an encounter with it, and not even believe in it.

Nancy's vision of something terrible happening to Karen, Holly, and Mike, but no mention of Ted.

How did Will do the lights?

Will didn't glow the shed bulb or his bedroom bulb on purpose.

his first intentional show of powers (that we saw):

the imagery of Will's flicker is exactly the same of baby El using her weak powers to flicker a single bulb in the light circle:

"but wait, why are you calling the lightbulb flicker evidence of Will having powers? we see non-powered people affecting light bulbs by touching them in the Upside Down, like the chandelier scene in 4x7."

correct, but. look at the Nancy Steve Robin Eddie contacting the kids through the chandelier lights scene. it glows in the RU when they all touch it, right? so they ALL have powers too? no.

any lights glow when any regular people touch them in the UD. touch them.

but only people with powers can make lights glow without actually touching them. Will can't be touching that light bulb in his bedroom for Joyce because it isn't even there in the UD. he can only be touching the empty glowy space where it is, like Nancy touching the lite brite.

btw notice how all four teens touch that chandelier but NOBODY EXCEPT NANCY ever touches the unplugged lite brite? sus. assuming the other three don't have powers, I suspect it might not have worked for them.

Hopper and Joyce walking down the hall - they didn't touch those Christmas lights. those weren't even there yet in the UD. that's not just human proximity turning them on - that's Joyce specifically.

Will could only have done most of the lights stuff by having powers. some of those Christmas lights blinked too quickly for him to have touched each bulb physically, besides the fact that he was a little guy, not tall enough to reach them. he didn't have to actually touch them, and again he couldn't have anyway because they weren't there yet on Nov 6. he's not strong, but he's activated enough to use his powers consciously now that he's been lightbulb-glowingly scared at least a couple times.

but that's only half the Will-lights question. that still doesn't tell us how he knew they were there in the first place.

Will in the UD has to be seeing glowy areas where the lights are, like how the teens saw the lights when they aimed flashlights at them.

failing Will having a flashlight with him the whole time (boring! spin again), I have three ideas:

theory one: Will's "true sight" enables him to see glimpses of the RU from the UD as well as vice versa and he did in fact see the alphabet without the aid of a light source.

theory two: Joyce has candles lit in the first blinky Christmas lights scene, and again near the alphabet. I wonder if firelight could somehow transcend dimensions.

theory three, which I like best: is it possible that the lights thing works both ways - that Joyce's presence in the RU made the Christmas light spots glow enough in the UD that Will noticed them?

the lite brite scene, as I understand it, doesn't conflict with this idea. it didn't glow in the UD because Dustin, Lucas and Erica were on the other end of it, and I have no specific suspicions that any of them have powers. if any one of them had powers, the lite brite might have glowed in the UD even without the flashlight beam. and then only Nancy touched it in the UD and made it glow in the RU. if I'm right about who has powers and who doesn't, that checks out.

what about the 1x8 scene where Joyce and Jonathan sense each other in the house? if this theory is correct, Jonathan (if not also Nancy) should be causing glowy spots along the ceiling in the UD. but the UD shots are all framed low, maybe intentionally avoiding giving us a good look toward the ceiling, and we would need a good look because these glowy spots would probably be quite subtle. so while this scene does nothing to confirm, I don't think it denies either.

Will would not have seen the alphabet painted on the wall, but if he noticed 26 glowing spots while hearing his mom say things like "talk to me!" he could maybe figure out what was going on, and maybe filled in his own alphabet.

the only hiccup is these two light bulbs I circled. because these would put 28 glowing spots on the wall and how would Will know that Joyce started with "I" on the next line instead of the top right bulb, and then the rest of the alphabet would be thrown off, doubly so at "Q". although if Will is able to make individual bulbs glow selectively just by his intent, maybe Joyce is too, and only the alphabet ones are glowing in the UD.

not perfect, but that's my best try for now, because it would also explain the bedroom light bulb.

What about the rest of the yoinked and flayed?

In season 1, a total of six people got yoinked to the UD by the demogorgon. Will, Barb, and four other randos. did they all have powers too?

well, Barb's nose was bleeding:

(Mrs. Holland I'm onto you too)

and if 2/6 had powers then there's certainly a case for the rest, but that's not a hill I care to die on. like, the elevator guy could've been a convenience yoink, just because he was right there where the demogorgon entered the lab. we know even less about the other victims. I could go either way about it.

as for the flayed, the only family relationship we know about is the Holloways, and since the dad was flayed too that doesn't perfectly follow the not-the-dad pattern (although flayings =/= Vecna'ings and I guess there's no rule preventing Tom Holloway from having his own powers from his own mother).

I'm definitely thinking Billy had powers based on that one Henry line to Max, but I don't think I have an objection to the idea of most of the flayed just being meat. although the flaying process (the tentacle in the mouth) could definitely be a means of both uploading possession and downloading powers. if that's the case, like 1/3 of Hawkins has powers I guess.

so was Nancy's theory about blood attracting the demogorgon right?

Nancy and Jonathan attracted the demogorgon by cutting their hands. Barb bled in the pool. Will wasn't bleeding, but he didn't need to be because I think Henry already knew about him some other way.

that deer was bleeding, Nancy said it had been hit by a car. was that to throw us off, to make us think the demogorgon is just attracted to blood in general? although who's to say it isn't. but it was eating the deer. it didn't yoink Will or Barb (who I think both had powers) to eat.

maybe the demogorgon could smell blood like other predators, but it could also tell regular blood from powers blood, and Henry didn't allow it to eat anyone with powers because he had more important uses for them.

so then if it's literally sniffing out who has powers as it goes along, how did it know about the Wheelers? it tries to yoink Holly episodes before Nancy cuts her hand. I would love to offer you a different explanation than that Karen was there too, and... I can think of a reason an adult woman could be bleeding. do I like it, no, is it possible, I guess.

so what is Henry's original interest in Will?

what if I'm not totally off base about rainbowshipgate? what if the lab, as of 1979, is already watching Will. as a member of staff, Henry could have access to their intel on potential new kids. that way at the time El banishes him to the UD, he already knows about Will. so when he finally gets back into the RU, he makes a beeline for Will.

is it possible that, when he first goes after Will, all Henry wants with Will is his powers like all the rest?

if so, why doesn't he just Vecna him? there has to be a reason he didn't want him dead quite yet. maybe these days Henry is working in partnership with the hive, and while Henry's goal was to harvest Will's powers, the hive also had the goal of spawning some new demogorgons, which requires live host bodies. the yoinked were all handled in ways that served both of those goals.

was Will even meant to survive?

This is gross but, let's talk about that vine in Will's mouth

I FINALLY just got the purpose of this weird ass shot of the alive/dead raccoon in the tunnels. I have never understood what this was supposed to be. It must be dead - it's partly skeletonized - and yet it looks like it's breathing. I never even saw this until I brightened it and slowed it down just now, but: when Hopper nudges it with his foot, vines burst out of the carcass, and the breathing stops.

I'm frankly still not even sure wtf I'm seeing here but it made me realize that the vine in Will's mouth is not just to deposit the slug, but to give him oxygen.

everyone else probably got this years ago but for the benefit of anyone else as slow as me, Hopper's Sara flashback is not merely a visual association, but a very literal one. although the slugging is ultimately a fatal process, Will is intubated and the vine is keeping him alive for the duration.

this is why the language around Will's slug is always "coughing up" and not vomiting. the vine and slug were never in his digestive tract, they were down his trachea. the vine has to be both an ovipositor and a breathing tube. I hate this subject. it seals off the airway, preventing the host from inhaling the UD's toxic spores, because if the host dies too soon it won't be any good for incubating the slug.

when the slug is ready, the vine must retract (so the slug can get out) and without supplemental oxygen, the host (if not already dead like the raccoon) immediately finishes dying of exposure. this must be what happened to Barb and the others. then the slug grows up and in a few days starts eating the host's body, which is why that other dead guy near Barb is a skeleton already.

I've been going crazy trying to figure out why, if Henry has some grand plans for Will right from the beginning, he would use him as a common demogorgon incubator, with no provision appearing to be made for his survival. (I guess Henry could've restarted his heart like El did Max afterwards, but eh). I haven't thought of an answer yet besides: maybe, at this point in time, he didn't?

maybe his original intent was to activate Will, take his powers, repurpose him for incubation, and leave him to die? and then after Will surprises him by making it back to the RU with semi-awakened abilities, Henry realizes he's become a unique asset? (this is a whole other avenue of thought I need to work out more)

so anyway, how could Henry have harvested Will's powers without killing him yet?

there's only one, one-off way we've ever seen Henry steal someone else's powers nonfatally, without Vecna'ing them, and that's El.

when the meat flayer bites El, a chunk of it burrows into her leg and absorbs a little of her blood. if the powers are genetic, they're in the blood, literally. El uses her powers for the last time to tear it out of her leg, and later, when the whole meat flayer arrives at the mall, it stops and bends down to that little chunk and absorbs it. in doing so, it absorbed her powers.

Henry getting her powers, sure fine, but where I'm still unclear is why this is a zero-sum thing and El lost her powers, because it's not like she lost all of her blood. (also does this mean that in the ST universe if you get a blood transfusion you might end up with superpowers?) there's something I'm still missing here, especially with that shot of the blood puddle sizzling on the floor of the grocery store.

anyway, we know Will used his powers in the UD in order to do the lights. and what happens when you use your powers? your nose bleeds. this is one way Henry could get a little of Will's blood without leaving a mark on him so the audience won't guess.

Will must also get amnesia from "dying", thus losing his active powers like baby El. or else it'd be hilarious if he's had powers and known all the answers all this time and hasn't mentioned it.

What is Will's spidey sense?

if Henry doesn't count on Will surviving his slugging, I don't see any motive for him putting soteria or equivalent into his neck before leaving him in the library.

as much as I like the soteria idea, I'm honestly not sure the simplest explanation doesn't cover it - that Will's spidey sense is just fear.

when Will's neck tingled when he was possessed, it was because the Mind Flayer (Henry) was afraid. they told us that very plainly with Mr. Clarke's dialogue.

when normal Will's neck tingles, it's because Will is triggered and rightfully terrified some UD shit is happening again. he describes it to others as feeling frozen with fear, cold, like dropping on a roller coaster. he also mentions feeling like he "can't breathe or talk or do anything" - sounds rather like symptoms of having a vine down your trachea, even if you don't know that's why.

but how does he know to be afraid?

I'm thinking that once Henry makes a connection with you, there's always a scar of that connection there, like how gates leave scars - the connection is basically opening a gate between minds. (remember Henry got Max and El from Max's mind into his by literally hurling/carrying them through that stained glass doorway. Victor breaks down that same door and stumbles into the war vision. doors being gates.)

provided there's a UD/RU gate open, Will can sense when Henry is near as a result of that residual connection, but intense fear may be enough to explain the actual reaction on his neck imo. he may not remember exactly what happened to him in the UD but frankly it'd be super weird if he didn't have colossal anxiety at the slightest hint it could be happening again.

Max is the only other person who's had Henry make a connection with her and lived, so if I'm on the right track, she should also wake up with a spidey sense.

Why Henry originally wanted El to join him

maybe opening gates is a 2 player game no matter how strong you are. if Henry killed every other powers person in the world, he wouldn't be able to open gates because he'd have no one to connect with. he had just coached El into becoming the most powerful kid in the lab, and that combined with their "alliance" put her in an ideal position to be his partner in crime.

maybe the thing about her being "superior" and shaping the world with him was just a lie to gain her cooperation? maybe, but the fact that he brought it up again in 4x9, years later and with nothing to gain, makes me feel like he kinda meant it.

this does very little to reassure me that Henry won't turn out to be El's biological father. he would've been 23-24 at the time Terry was involved with MKUltra, and having both parents involved with lab experimentation would align flawlessly with El's very Firestarter-esque origin story. if Brenner didn't actually orchestrate it, I certainly can't see him frowning on it either if he knew, as I'm sure he would be thrilled at the chance to study a double-powered kid (assuming he didn't already know it was only a maternal thing back then). although I suppose Henry and Terry could also have had a thing without Brenner knowing. I will be thrilled to be proven wrong about this entire paragraph.

Henry's "join me" to Fred and Max was more figurative I guess, in the sense that they'd be joining him in his mind once he absorbed them. I was gonna say maybe he figures one of these depressed bastards hates the world enough to be his player 2, but he didn't really give them a sales pitch or opportunity to agree/disagree before killing them. I do find it interesting he never said "join me" to Chrissy, and we don't know if he said anything to Patrick.

What happened that night in 1959.

the night Henry kills Virginia, the radio turns on to Dream A Little Dream Of Me, which is like Victor's Running Up That Hill, and serves to free him from his vision.

my question is: if Henry wanted to torment Victor, why would he turn on a song that would help him?

he didn't.

Virginia turned on the radio.

oh yeah, forgot to mention! Virginia's powers were active. not all of the weird stuff going on in the Creel House is Henry. in fact it's probably not Henry who started it. the lights flickering while Henry draws with crayons - pretty sure that's Virginia pulling a stunt somewhere in the house.

here are both POVs of the murder for you to refer to.

the radio turns on directly onto DALDOM (hm I don't love that acronym).

Virginia and Victor look at each other in a way that's easy to interpret as two people weirded out about the radio turning on by itself. but Virginia has a weird, almost pleading look. I believe she's just acting confused when she's really the one doing this.

Victor has no idea she has powers. he figures this is demon hijinks and that his wife is just as baffled about it as he is, and she's letting him think so.

just before Victor touches the radio, it starts tuning through different channels. and then the lights go crazy.

the knob starting to channel surf - I think that's Henry changing the channel away from DALDOM. how does Henry know about the RUTH effect? maybe Virginia knows - either from her own experience or Brenner told her - and Henry read her mind. anyway, Henry doesn't want that song playing.

but with the radio trick, Virginia tips her hand. if Henry wasn't already sure she had powers, he is now. (Henry's reaction to the radio is a major difference between the POVs - look at his for this part) he looks at the radio. he looks to his mother. and that is the moment he says that Virginia "left him no choice but to act."

what about this moment during a calm family dinner would necessitate Henry immediately killing his mother?

why would Virginia turn on the radio in front of Henry, knowingly blowing her secret?

it makes me feel like, within a few more seconds, it wouldn't matter to Virginia what Henry knew. it makes me think of the story Henry feeds baby El about how she needs to escape today because they're going to kill her. ingredients of that lie come from his own past.

what if Virginia planned to "kill him" that night - that is, fake his death so she could hand him over to Brenner in exchange for compensation (like she definitely killed that great uncle for his money I'm telling you). all she would have to do is incapacitate Henry and then call in Dr. Brenner under the guise of helping him, and Brenner takes care of the rest. He'd put on his usual fake death routine, perhaps even providing a fake body, same as with Will. (and ultimately this IS what happened because Henry pushed too hard - Victor is satisfied that Henry died)

all Virginia has to do is act scared, and blame for Henry's bizarre "death" would fall in easily with the claims of demonic activity that Victor has already so well established around town (the demon actually being Virginia, who's been doing spooky shit in front of Victor to make him think the house is haunted, establishing the cover well in advance of Henry's planned "death").

but Virginia doesn't know the extent of Henry's abilities. she knows he's been messing with their heads, but maybe she doesn't know about the telekinesis and electricity stuff - which is why she looks genuinely confused when the lights go blinky, because she knows she's not doing that. and then she turns back around with a brief look of oh shit before she zooms up to the ceiling.

congratulations Virginia, you played yourself.

but again, why did she turn on DALDOM? if the plan was for Virginia to do something to Henry, what did Victor need protection for? or was that her special song, too? Their Song <3?

Virginia probably figured that the second Henry realized something was going on, he would put everybody in a trance to stop them. maybe she figured if the protective song was already playing, whatever Henry tried wouldn't work. but she didn't know Henry could change the channel. whoops!

Dream A Little Dream Of Me

here's the part I've been over and over and can't figure out a good explanation for. Henry changes the channel on the radio to stop DALDOM. so then how does hearing that song playing save Victor from his war vision a minute later?

after Henry changes the channel, even while the dial is still moving around, the song persists quietly in the background throughout Virginia's death and Victor's attempts to break down the door. it stops when he enters his war vision, but a minute into that, he takes notice of it again, which is what pulls him back. yet as soon as he comes out of his vision, back into reality where the song SHOULD still be audible if it was really playing, the house is silent.

there is definitely some kind of third party bullshit going on here but I'm stumped.

I don't think I can blame Alice. her powers weren't active - she had to be given nightmares to stir them, same as the cursed four, and I don't even think a little kid is probably in on a family murder plot to begin with. and like, I kinda doubt she Vecna'd herself.

is Virginia not really dead? she looked pretty dead, unless that whole evening was one huge trance Virginia gave the entire family. but Henry's narration so clearly says he intended to kill Virginia and Alice and frame his father, and that he gained powers from killing his mother specifically, so I really kinda don't think it's that. even if Virginia could give him a vision of himself killing her and Alice, I don't think she has the power to also make him believe he planned all that and was pleased with the results. otherwise his recounting should have been more like "I don't know what came over me, but I killed my family and when I realized what I had done I passed out from shock!"

assuming there isn't an extra player lurking around the scene who we don't know about, I'm going to take one stab at it that's absolutely loony.

Victor has to be hearing that song from somewhere other than the radio. and we're hearing it all dreamy and quiet, not like it sounded when it was really on the radio. what if this is perception or time travel shenanigans? what if, somehow, our gang is on the scene - in Victor's mind, or in the Upside Down or some such unseen way - and THEY are playing DALDOM for him, to make sure the timeline unfolds right. because I'm pretty sure I do not hear DALDOM in Henry's version of the scene any time after he changes the channel. that's only something that's going on in Victor's perception.

idk. that's pretty wack and I hope we aren't going full time travel, but I got nothin else right now.

I am suspicious of that scene of Henry turning back the clock though, because we really never saw what results that yielded, if it was supposed to be anything but symbolic. but again Henry has no reason to want to play DALDOM via some time alteration shenanigans when he's the one who didn't want it playing in the first place. maybe if El/Max/Will/Mike/Nancy messes with that particular clock it could affect the timeline..?? I have no idea.

Why aren't all the victims' jaws broken?

@bugsbenefit here comes the part for you

I've seen a couple people question why Alice Creel is the only victim whose jaw isn't broken. she isn't, not when you consider the full list of victims. the majority of the dead lab kids are positioned in such a way that we don't see their faces, but the few whose faces we do see, their mouths are closed like Alice.

jaw breaking is pretty rare: only Virginia, Chrissy, Patrick and Fred.

Virginia is obviously an adult. Chrissy, Patrick and Fred could be 18. Two was the only lab kid who was likely 18 (if he was lab-born immediately after the program started in 1959, he could be up to 19) but the shot of his death is blocked so that his head falls out of view. (if you go frame by frame you can see that his jaw isn't broken, although the shot in question is of a stunt double, so I don't think we're supposed to take real notice).

Max is only 15 and her jaw is spared. it's an age thing.

but this may be less "Henry has a rule about not breaking kids' jaws" and more "the network has a rule about how gruesome you can get with minor actors" although I mean, is the jaw thing really worse than the eyeball thing, idk.

Tristan Spohn (Two), Grace Van Dien (Chrissy) and Logan Riley Bruner (Fred) were 18+ during filming. Myles Truitt (Patrick) is only a couple months older than Sadie Sink and it's possible that he was just barely 18 while filming his scenes while Sadie was still 17 during hers. I think that's probably the more likely explanation tbh.

if anyone can think of an in-universe reason for this, please jump in!

Some misc final thoughts

now it makes sense why Henry makes killing El's friends a distinct step from killing everyone. he means her friends who have powers. he wants to harvest their powers, but El is too strong a protection over them, and he can't get at them until she's out of the way.

still totally possible it's just artistic license, but every instance I can think of of lights selectively working in the Upside Down could be explained by the proximity of one of the people I think has powers. then again, the range really seems to vary, and I can't think of any UD scenes we've ever seen where nobody with powers was present.

there's sooo much imagery of power-people and opening doors (gates). this isn't even all of them, I just got tired of screenshotting.

could Steve have powers too?

he gets an "open the door" of his very own, and the demogorgon appearing in front of him says maybe so. I could go either way on the Russian elevator scene in which they're all talking about opening the elevator door, and both Steve and Dustin press the DOOR OPEN button and nothing happens. I'm not sure about Steve but I am squinting at him suspiciously.

jancy, byler, and elmax nations, congrats on shipping literal power couples. technically milkvans too but 🦴

I am curious why Mike has never really been singled out for monster attack like his sisters have.

Mike-gets-Vecna'd truthers... if the gang can break his trance at the right moment, that would be a very efficient way to activate not just Mike himself, but Will too, because he already has a residual psychic connection open and the sight of Mike getting Vecna'd would surely trigger such strong terror in him.

me @ mike: honey you got a big storm comin.

this concludes part 2 and now I'm off to let my mind reel with the everybody-has-powers fic possibilities

#givehimthemedicine analysis #henry creel #virginia creel #will byers #max mayfield #st theory #mine #givehimthemedicine big analysis #st5 spoilers #how the upside down works #st spoilers #analysis

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teecupangel · 7 months

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I keep thinking about Desmond, our fave isekai protag, getting dropped into baldur’s gate 3. Only, per one of my favorite isekai tropes, as a no-name NPC. As one of the Sharess’s Caress escorts? As one of Astarion’s spawn?? Basically him just being Tired Of This Shit and trying to avoid the plot but of course that’s not going to work lol. I haven’t even decided if he would be a romantic interest for the MC or a companion or anyone, or what his class would be. But ugh his isekai potential too strong.

His isekai potential is too strong.

If we want Desmond tired of everything and just want to avoid the plot, I personally would put him somewhere safe-ish? Desmond is the type of person who wouldn’t turn a blind eye to atrocities if it smacked him on the forehead so the best way to ensure that he stays away from whatever plot is happening is by making him an NPC in a more or less stable area where he would feel like other more knowledgeable and experienced with all these ‘dungeons and dragons’ (they have magic, holy shit) got this. That would point us to someone in Baldur’s Gate before Act 3. This way, Desmond would have his peace and quiet until the party starts doing their thing and Desmond stop being able to turn a blind eye on everything and he’s ‘forced’ to assist this party of… well… interesting people

As for his class, well, you can go for the class I’m going for with my playthrough of BG3 as Desmond. I made him multiclass Rogue (Thief) and Ranger (Gloomstalker), with a little bit of Bard (College of Swords), specifically:

Rogue Lv 4 – Thief (because Thief’s skills are more all rounders than Assassin’s)

Ranger Lv 5 – Gloomstalker (more stealth options, Dread Ambusher is our Assassin skill lite and lv5 has extra attack XD)

Bard Lv 3 – College of Sword, more on the side of Desmond being good in being seen as ‘non threatening’ but his spell list is more on the side of support than actual damage.

If you want to keep him in one class only, making him a Thief (Assassin) would make the most sense with the hidden blade being more or less his one shot kill weapon, although in terms of gameplay that’s kinda like making him a “best in first round only” kind of deal. The multiclass above is the ‘compromise’ I made to have Desmond be more or less in line with his setup in Assassin’s Creed.

Of course, if you want to have fun and make Desmond suffer (affectionately), you can make him a Warlock with a pact with an unknown Great Old One. This would add a layer of mystery to who had ‘helped’ Desmond be pushed into Faerun and we can hint that the Great Old One is:

Isn’t actually a Great Old One but one of the gods but Desmond’s otherworldly-ness and his lack of ‘worshipping’ stopped him from being a Paladin or a Cleric and pushed him into Warlock territory

Is one of the Isus from his world that had escaped into Faerun (or somewhere close by) but, since that Isu is a deity from their world, the Isu is counted as one of the Great Old Ones (which sounds a lot like “Those Who Came Before”)

Desmond’s patron isn’t one entity but a legion, using some kind of system to support or affectionately bully him at times if and only if the legion reaches a majority vote. Desmond technically has multiple access to ‘Wish’ but it’s more of him asking help from the legion and hoping many of them would give him what he wants. … and, yes, I am basing the legion on the whole “Desmond’s patron is us” idea I have XD

Even if Desmond isn’t a magic class, I think he’d have a few scrolls with him, mostly support spells like Invisibility, Fly and even Enhance Leap (also Speak with Dead and Speak with Animal) with a few attack spells that he uses as distraction most of the time

Sidebar: I’m not sure if you mean Astarion’s spawn as in we’re setting this after BG3 with Astarion having ascended and making Desmond his spawn or if you meant Desmond is a fellow Cazador spawn, either way, we’ll have to find a way for Desmond to escape his sire’s thrall if that’s the case. The easiest would be Desmond getting a tadpole in his brain like Astarion but that does mean that… well… if his sire was Astarion, this will lead to Desmond wanting to kill Astarion because he sees being put in his thrall as something horrible as it makes him lose control over himself even if Astarion was to be… ‘kind’ to him. If it was Cazador though, then that means Desmond will want to kill Cazador (and maybe Astarion and the party helped him during the whole… Cazador ‘sidequest’) and that would be his reason for being unable to keep himself from the plot.

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monty-glasses-roxy · 1 year

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💜

Monty and Chica

💜 (Purple heart) for a dealers choice!

Ooooo now there's loads of possibilities for these two. Chaotic siblings is a really fun one but they could also be those two friends that great each other like "GUUUURRRLLL HOW YOU DOOIN???" And romantically? Very cute! And if they hate each other? Pfft lmao Chica would kick his ass sorry Monty lovers but you don't fucking mess with an angry chicken and he's a softy anyway. I'll do a bit of all of them for fun.

First? Friends! These two are such goofballs I swear. They hang out in the water at Gator Golf a lot and are constantly getting knocked off high places with brooms by the staff. One of them shows up with a tub of glitter and now they're trying to cover the walls in it to make them shine. They're A class mess makers but with all their experience having to clean up said messes, that also makes them the best cleaners out of the Glamrocks. Monty is Chica's favourite cooking companion and they've had many a competition on who can bake the best cake. They probably have an insane amount of injokes and I can see the pair of them liking to people watch and then talk about the different people they've seen later on while they're chillin' in the water.

For their sibling dynamic? It's very much the same except you now have the pair of them rattling off dinosaur facts every two seconds. Did you know chickens are closely related to dinosaurs too? Now you do! These two are experts on the subject! As both siblings, friends or romantic partners, Chica would kill for him though. She's just the kind of person to commit atrocities for people she cares about and Monty... isn't exactly aware but he will gladly joke about it with her. He'll threaten the shit out of anyone she partners up with too, they're both generally just really cool. Besties till the end!

As romantic partners the dynamic doesn't change that much. You just have more variation in the physical affection they give each other. If these two are a thing they're the most lovestruck fools you've ever seen in your life. They'll be sat there, with their friends, zoning out, staring into space thinking about them all the damn time. I'm talking heart shaped eyes levels of affection. How would they get together? Chica would be making the first move because Monty would be so damn shy about it. It would also be pretty funny if Roxy was getting Monty gushing about Chica every time they hang out together and then Chica gushing about Monty every time they hang out and she's just sat in the middle expected to be both of their wingman's at the same time. Actually you know what? Everyone is their fucking wingmen. They have an army of wingmen. But the wingmen aren't aware of their fellow wingmen so they keep trying to set them up on their own and they keep messing each other up until they figure it out and plan one big thing to get them together. Chica still the first to say anything though. She's very much a 'do or die' kinda gal and he's very much too nervous about rejection for this. They get together and there is a Plex wide party with a banner that reads "FUCKING FINALLY" and they think it's hilarious.

Now, to go in the complete opposite direction... what if they fucking hate each other? Well that's a pain for everyone else because neither of them will ever let up on the passive aggressive comments. Not for one single moment. However, if they call a truce for even one hour, it's going to be for someone else's benefit. Roxy in tears and they're the only ones around? Call a truce. Bonnie is broken down and they need to act fast to make sure he's not too damaged for repairs? Call a truce. Missing child or a suspected kidnapper in the Plex? Call a truce. The thing is though, they both have similar senses of humour so sometimes one will do something stupid or silly and the other one will get really mad about because now they can't do it. Oh lord the competition between them would be insane. I don't think they'd ever come to blows or anything, but if they did it would uh... probably start really scary and dangerous and devolve into pathetic slap fighting.

No matter what, they could both have a really fun dynamic! I can see them both just wandering into each other's rooms unannounced and dramatically flopping on top of the other one to talk about their day and to gossip the night away. I can also see them taking their aggression out on each other in Fazerblast and this either making them both the worst players in existence or the best players ever. They're a really cool pair!

#montgomery gator #glamrock chica #monty x chica #chica x monty #fnaf security breach #valentines game answer #pop rox answers #/chill

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nebulouscoffee · 1 year

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bashir garak or ezri

Oooh great picks! I shall answer for all three😊

Julian

one aspect about them i love

That whole backstory with Kukalaka is SO endearing honestly; it really just gets to the heart of who he is, even by itself- but when paired with the whole 'Jules' reveal, it takes on a whole new poignancy

one aspect i wish more people understood about them

I've seen Julian described as naive a lot, usually because he "assumes the best of people"- and I'm not saying that isn't a valid read, but it just feels very incomplete to me! Yes he's childish sometimes, but he's not a baby lol- he's just strongly, strongly driven by the belief that people can always become better. We see him get VERY angry and snarky and (fearlessly) combative with people he believes are in the wrong; people who don't show any flexibility in their perspectives. But the moment a person shows any sort of inclination towards growth or evolution? He puts everything aside and believes in them. To me, this is not naivety- this is courage; even if (especially if!) he may get it wrong sometimes. DS9 (like the real world) is full of people who'll insist that wrongdoers will never change and only deserve to be punished for their mistakes- and imo, Julian makes a fascinating, refreshing, and essential foil to this. (On a more specific note- he does NOT hang out with Garak because he doesn't fully understand the atrocities Garak committed!! Not beyond 'The Wire', anyway. He literally heard (and at the time, fully believed) multiple stories involving Garak being 1. a Gul during the Occupation, 2. a mass murderer (with victims both Cardassian and Bajoran), and 3. an interrogator of literal children. If not the exact details, he certainly knows the magnitude of Garak's crimes- he just chooses to go to great lengths to save his life anyway. This says something way more interesting about him, I think- about his inclination to believe in anyone he thinks would grow better if given the chance, and his willingness to be the one giving them that chance. Which, incidentally, is also why I struggle to see him cutting off his parents, though I do understand why people find value in reading & writing stories like that)

one (or more) headcanon(s) i have about this character

He is a polyglot, but this is one skill he very much keeps to himself. The reasons why are complicated, and linked with how his ideas of home and family and lineage and history and Earth and connection and talking and talkative-ness and "skill" are all somewhat tainted by the discovery of what his parents did to him

one character i love seeing them interact with

SO many options, but let's talk about Jadzia- I love how they moved past the initial awkwardness of Julian's crush on her into this deep, supportive, fun (!!!) and extremely loving bond. There's a lot they have in common (Extreme Imposter Syndrome Buddies :D) which means they always know when the other needs a good pep talk, and it's adorable. I love how they have no boundaries sometimes (Jadzia buying him porn will always be funny), I love that they're in cahoots, I love that they make each other laugh- they care about each other so much!! I honestly think it was one of the best-written friendship arcs between a male and female character on Trek, which is why I'm always so *sighs deeply* about Julian's feelings for Jadzia being dredged up again in- ///cuts myself off because you've heard this rant before from everyone and their moogie haven't you///

one character i wish they would interact with/interact with more

Fascinating conversations Julian Bashir and Kira Nerys could've had (my beloved): long-term health issues in Bajoran mining victims & Resistance fighters; nature vs nurture and their "dangerous" Augment/Mirror selves; Sisko as Commanding Officer vs Sisko as Emissary; nerding out over Bajoran music; why must Jadzia Dax be so beautiful; complicated connections with cultural roots; Kirayoshi & postnatal care; the concept of "forgiveness"; revisiting that "frontier medicine" scene to highlight how much they've both changed; Kira offering a kinder approach to "Jules Bashir died in that hospital" through the concept of a pagh

one (or more) headcanon(s) i have that involve them and one other character

He never, ever let the whole Jem'Hadar thing go. In fact, he actually set up this secret rehabilitation centre in Goran'Agar's name after the war, which now provides intensive care for all the Jem'Hadar and Vorta left behind in the AQ. He told me himself :)

Garak

one aspect about them i love

It's been years since my first watch, but I'll never forget how excited I got every single time I saw "Special Guest Star Andrew Robinson" in the credits lol. You just know you're in for a great one; he's such a fantastic and scene-stealing character!

one aspect i wish more people understood about them

I just feel like, for a character whose most famous line is "They're all true, [especially the lies]", there is WAYYY too much discourse about him that approaches him from extremes? And it always misses the point imo. Garak was a spy, assassin, interrogator and torturer for the Cardassian government, who participated in (or at the very least, aided) a colonial and genocidal occupation, and expresses supremacist, xenophobic and fascist beliefs for the majority of the series. Erasing any of this is would be erasing not just who he was, but who he is. But the lack of imagination re how to move forward with him if we are engaging with such themes is equally, if not more, frustrating to me. Sure, a lot of the cutesy art and fanfics can have him behaving overly sincere and out of character- but the counter response is always "how dare you woobify this racist war criminal he's violent and dangerous and bigoted and therefore he would NOT do or say or feel any of that!!!", and- okay, so is the idea of him designing and sewing dresses out of character, then...? Is the image of him debating books over lunch with a bib tucked in too woobified? Is the notion of him trying to set up a fellow (Bajoran!!) business owner on a date too fanfic-ey? Because guess what- that's literally how he behaves on the show! Garak is a self-aware self-woobifier, that's literally the whole point, he's "just a plain simple tailor" wink, wink- and without at least some element of that comical mundanity, that sort of absurdist domesticity, the character just isn't recognisable imo. Garak is the con artist who fell for his own con; he's spent so long playing various roles that he now over-performs everything and has no idea where the performance ends and the genuine begins, literally what makes his character work is that you're looking at this war criminal just doing benign stuff like sampling drinks or watching a tennis match or gifting his friend chocolates and wondering just WHAT is going on inside his head- and, "he did horrible things and therefore must be incapable of any form of sincerity or affection or regret and the perception of any of those things is woobification" is such a reductive (and boring!) approach to him imo. I don't mean any of this as apologia; there are many, many ways in which a person can be bigoted and cruel, and Garak is those things- I just feel like people often misrepresent the manner in which he is those things (usually by making him unfunny and weirdly macho, which I just cannot understand at all😂)

TL;DR- Garak the poor sad misunderstood baby who never enjoyed any of the bad things he did and only thinks about Julian Bashir 24/7 is out of character, sure- but Garak the violent emotionless villain who treats all Bajorans abusively 24/7 and will never ever grow or change is... just as divorced from canon imo (imo!! Emphasis on "o"!!)

one (or more) headcanon(s) i have about this character

Garak himself doesn't always fully remember the details of his past; he has this very Cardassian ability to specifically delete anything he wants to from his memory, and he's better at it than most (though, still not always successful). Only thing Garak regularly tops is the List Of People Garak Lies To basically

one character i love seeing them interact with

Well, apart from the obvious- I think every scene between him and Odo in IC/TDIC is incredibly immersive and top tier! The actors are SO good together, and the only reason Odo isn't in the next category is I actually think it's perfectly in character for both of them to just never bring up the whole torture thing ever again

one character i wish they would interact with/interact with more

KIRAAAAA but tbh, I'm more interested in their post-canon dynamic than anything, so instead I'll go with Sisko! Every time these two are on screen together, amazing. The effortless back and forth. The intellectual battling. The subtly flirty line deliveries(!!!) The palpable shifts in the power dynamic. The oddly respectful snarking. Again, the way these two actors are SO GOOD

one (or more) headcanon(s) i have that involve them and one other character

Some may claim that Garak hates the more outlandish civilian outfits that Jake and Julian wear. I say he made them

Ezri

one aspect about them i love

The sheer impact of actually getting to spend a whole season with the next Dax (after years of only hearing about Curzon) just cannot be overstated imo. Like, we the audience got to experience firsthand what it was like for Benjamin to first see Jadzia walk out of that shuttle; for Jadzia to wake up one day and find herself the newest link in a long-revered chain- we actually saw the new host struggling to adjust, reconciling all those lifetimes of memories all over again, rekindling and redefining Dax's old relationships (the relationship with the audience very much included!)- and then on top of that, the new host wasn't even trained to take on the symbiont?? What an incredible character premise! I was obsessed from the moment she said "Hello Benjamin it's me Dax"

one aspect i wish more people understood about them

Ezri is Jadzia's successor; not Jadzia's replacement. She cannot replace Jadzia- that's literally the entire point of her arc, that she should stop trying! She's a fascinating character in her own right, and also extremely interesting to think about and discuss independent of whom she will end up/should've ended up with

one (or more) headcanon(s) i have about this character

Ezri Tigan was not "anxious" in a rambly nervous way like Ezri Dax, but more hyper-competent and "I'm always unhappy because everything I do HAS to be perfect so I'm never satisfied and I hate myself" (which was definitely how she was trained to think by her mother). For this reason, joining with Dax actually ends up being good for her in the long run! Nothing drives an oppressive voice out of your head quite like suddenly having eight other voices in there lol

one character i love seeing them interact with

I know some people don't like her and Worf mistakenly thinking they're in love and hooking up and then realising they work better as friends, but I actually think it's very understandable for both of them, and the friendship they form afterwards is so wholesome. That scene where he asks for her advice and she just calls out corruption in the Klingon empire is one of my favourite Ezri scenes ever :D

one character i wish they would interact with/interact with more

It is my firm belief that Sisko and Ezri's S7 arcs should have revolved around each other. Ben's journey at this point is so tied up in his ever-growing disconnect from linear time and corporeality, and imo nothing grounds this better than his three-lifetime bond with Dax! He should have talked about the Prophets and Benny Russell and the whole concept of destiny with his favourite old worm. It also would've been revelatory for Ezri, who herself is trying to adjust to the non-linearity (300 years of memories she can't easily get in order) and non-corporeality (whose body IS this anyway???) of being Dax

one (or more) headcanon(s) i have that involve them and one other character

I know we all have our theories as to why and how and when exactly she and Julian break up, and while I do enjoy the drama sometimes, I still fundamentally feel like it would be short and amicable and they'd remain close friends for life. Or maybe I'm just a big sap hehe

#ask game #cw torture mention #thank you so much for this opportunity to ramble! :)#just wanna clarify- I wasn't saying g@rak's former career & (lack of) morals CAN'T be a point of contention between him and bash1r #I just don't think jul1an would hold his /past/ deeds over him #but if he speaks in *defense* of those past deeds? that could definitely raise some issues (esp if they're together in this scenario)#also there's plenty of messed up things g@rak does in the show's PRESENT to choose from! torturing 0do/trying to murder the founders/or #even that one bajoran conference- jul1an would find these actions indefensible imo (and I have read some good fics exploring this)#ITPM is... interesting because I actually don't think late s6 bash!r would condemn him for it very much #I mean even s!sko seemed more pissed about the fact that he'd been tricked into murdering the guy than the fact that the guy was murdered #(and his anger quickly dissipated once he realised he hadn't been AS tricked as he was telling himself he was)#bottom line is g@rak as War Criminal & Cardassian Oppressor IS interesting to explore! I just don't think it would (or should) negate #the possibility of growth or change (which he does undergo on the show) and definitely not a relationship with jul1an #who in canon doesn't really seem to consider g@rak's past (or even present) a deal breaker #(not attacking anyone PLEASE don't start Discourse about this thank you!!!)

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watatsumiis · 1 year

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Interesting event nyehehe~ when I read what you wrote for leftdestiny-post my immediate thought was actually "i hope you get more followers" cuz I would've been stuck with that prompt lmao– if you still take requests, may this gremlin humbly ask for Dainsleif and number 42?

(42 is the meaning of life, and he's my meaning of life– /hj)

Thank you so much for your kind words qwq it really does mean the world to me. This event has thrown some interesting combinations at me that I’ve really had to sit and think about to get them working. It’s been a really fun exercise (if a little draining)

I’ll be honest, I’m not all that familiar with Dainsleif (I don’t think I’ve really written anything for him at all askjdhkjfs). He as a character fascinates me but I worry that I might not be able to do him justice. Here’s hoping though.

I’m gonna make this an x reader thing because that’s what my brain juice is giving power for right now.

Content: Gender neutral reader (referred to as ‘you’), uhh yeah I dunno just some mushy type fluff. Minor warning for what could be seen as obsessive behaviour? I dunno

There is nothing left for me to do,

Of course, that may not be the entire truth. There are plenty of tasks for him to complete, loose ends that need tying up, entire continents for him to monitor.

Dainsleif is alone. He has been for a long, long time. Surrounded by nothing but madmen and people who simply aren’t capable of keeping up with him.

You’re so perfect, I’m so worthless

Until you, that is. Bright and intelligent, a smart quip always on the tip of your tongue for anything he may decide to say.

He quickly came to consider you a ray of sunshine, to be treasured and protected at any and all costs.

I have seen the light

Something bright and gorgeous, in the presence of someone who had grown up in an underground realm, untouched by natural light,

And it’s so beautiful that I can’t even cry,

It almost hurts him to be near you, basking in your warmth as one who has seen and committed so many atrocities, yet he can’t stop himself from approaching time and time again, like a moth to flame.

He wishes for nothing more than to protect you, to make sure that nothing bad may befall you, even if that may mean delaying his own tasks.

Please don't repost, steal, copy or otherwise plagarise my writing! This includes posting translations to other sites (without credit + permission).

#i. am not happy with how this piece turned out Oh No im so sorry #my writing #dainsleif #dainsleif x reader #genshin x reader #200 follower event #frisbees this out into the void and scampers away

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pat-the-togorian · 1 year

Text

Pat's Angstpril Day 19: Breaking Down

The affectionately-named Milk Battalion had just come off of their biggest bust yet. Thousands of enslaved souls were set free, many of them receiving immediate care from the Clone medics aboard the Gruyere even as the crew set out to celebrate. Pat’s ship, the Beholden, and his own actions on the ground, had brought about the traffickers’ capture. All night, he soaked up commendations from the officers and the Clones. Aheka and Sinvulkt looked so proud.

He flashed his trademark grin until his jaw hurt, sipped the drinks they bought for him, and altogether, did his best impression of himself all night. But unlike the big-wigs and the adoring public, he had been in the trenches, with Clones shot out from right beside him. He was in the blocks of cells and the webs of chains, slicing the bonds off the emaciated bodies of the underworld’s worst victims. He saw their wounds and scars up close. Too close.

Some days, it all got to be too much for Pat.

People enthusiastically pointed out, thanked, and praised Pat all night. He was honestly thrilled that he was recognized for doing something great. At the same time, though, he grew more and more anxious and queasy. Why could this be celebrated when it couldn’t take place without suffering? Surely they don’t know what I had to see… I just want to be with my pack right now…

Eventually, the four weary warriors stepped away from it all, the merry buzz of the party carrying them back to their quarters. Pat tried to just keep walking, make it to his room before dropping his facade, but it was no good. Rema, Sinvulkt and Aheka noticed immediately as they looked at him more closely.

“Pat, what’s wrong?” Rema asked, spotting the signs of distress rapidly. Aheka and Sinvulkt stopped cold, also looking at him with concern. He gave a heartbroken smile.

“You saw things down there, didn’t you,” Rema murmured.

Pat’s eyes welled up. I’m ruining this night for everyone, his mind wailed.

Sinvulkt acted first, rushing to wrap her wings around his shaking form and gently letting him down as he fell to his haunches, sobbing.

Aheka placed her hands on his shoulders, being careful never to touch his neck. “You can talk to us,” she assured. “About whatever you saw down there.”

“N-no… I’m okay,” he pleaded. “Please… keep having fun and don’t lose sleep over me…”

Each of them looked outraged at the suggestion that they should leave him alone with everything he’d seen. “We aren’t going anywhere,” they all asserted.

“I-I don’t deserve this! I deserve to be a slave myself! It should have been me… oh, now I sound so ungrateful…” he curled even tighter, writhing with humiliation and grief.

“Easy, Pat, let’s all breathe together, okay?” Aheka urged everyone to join in and they walked Pat’s breaths back to normal.

“I-I-I couldn’t save everyone… I can’t bear what I saw… I’m such a disgrace…” he hiccuped through the words. At least he was breathing. The three looked ready to go to war against Pat’s feelings.

“We’ve all seen the horrors of war, Pat,” Aheka reassured him. “And we’re all here for you.”

“I’m supposed to be happy…” he whispered, brokenly. Sinvulkt’s wings tightened protectively around him.

“Talk to us, my Padawan,” she whispered. “Don’t hesitate.”

“All of the captives were… in such bad shape,” he choked out. “We took out the guards but before we could stop all of them they started to shoot people… one after another…”

He couldn’t stop a sob from tearing out of his throat.

“A-a-and… I was trying to pull this girl… out from under a huge pile of chains… d-d-died in my arms…”

Aheka looked heartbroken, though unsurprised, that one of her children had to witness such atrocity. Sinvulkt looked like she’d never let Pat leave the safety of her wings. Rema clamped down on her own flashbacks to keep on rhythmically stroking the top of Pat’s head.

“It hurts,” he finally whispered.

No one disagreed.

Eventually, Aheka stood, gradually letting the others help Pat stand up. The three were bone-tired, but Pat’s eyes looked like they’d be open until the end of time. “You know where to take him,” she whispered to Sinvulkt and Rema, herself sneaking away to Pat’s room to grab his favorite blanket.

The next morning, any other Jedi walking through the common room would have stumbled upon quite the sight. Aheka’s outstretched arms and Sinvulkt’s wings curled around Rema and Pat, who’d both fallen asleep curled around the other. The former two had been awake for hours, but would do anything not to wake their sleeping charges.

Whenever it got to be too much, they deserved every moment of comfort they could provide.

#angstpril2023 #starwars #fanfiction #day19 #taaoej #the amazing adventures of excentrics jedi #angst #whump

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girlstalkmichael · 2 years

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Just finished new gossip girl and here's my thoughts:

all the characters were unlikeable to me except max and i thought it was just me but after a deep dive on youtube it turns out almost everyone feels the same way

the characters were bland and boring and i tried so hard to get invested in these characters and their storylines but it was torture

i hated some of max storylines especially the teacher thing and the the relationship with audrey and Aki thing but atleast he feels like a third dimensional character and have some depth to some extent in this show which can't be said about many charactes plus Thomas Doherty's acting is great

julien does not give the it girl vibes and charisma at all and in general it did not make much sense for her to be the it girl in the new York private school rich kids community like i it made sense for someone like blair and serena in the og to be in that position hell even Monet would fit more than her

also obi does not give the vibe that he's the prince of new York like the show likes to say

in general the casting is so off except Thomas

none of the characters have any distinct or unique personalities like the writers just copy pasted all the characters' perosnalities except maybe Max to some extent and in the og that was not the case at all from the first episode their personalities were shown maybe the only one who was a bit bland was nate but even him had redeeming qualities

The teachers being gossip girl make no sense at all either they make them actual villains of the show or make gossip girl a student because trying to make them heros is just so weird and inappropriate since they are litteraly teachers who are bullying their teen students

The writing is just terrible and that reflect on the plots and the characters drastically

the fact that the teachers revived gossip girl just to teach the students a lesson and to make them better people makes no sense since gossip girl never ever made anyone change for the better

the show was trying so hard to be woke and politically correct that they did not allow anyone to be complex characters, villains or anti heros and just wanted the viewer to root for everyone that ever set foot in that show

julien for some reason doesn't know how to control her minions and i thought they were the sort of minions like the ones with blair in the og but they just keep doing things behind her back and julien listens to them so easily like some times it feels like she is their minion in a way if you get me and julien in some point in the show acts like they were her bffs even though they've never showed that they care about her at all and she just needs to ditch them

the show didn't even try to make the viewer understand why all the group would be friends when they barely have anything in common and the group just feels awkward and just don't have any chemistry together

all the ships in the show were meh at best

The fact that there was so many poc being from really really high social class doesn't feel realistic to me and i know it's good to have representation in the media I'm a middle eastern muslim myself and i would be part of the minorities if i was living in the us so i understand the importance of representation

the acting wasn't great either except Thomas really gave it his all and I've seen some of them in other shows and their acting was fine there so it could be a product of bad writing or directing for some of them

and what's sad about this show is there was potential for it to be great

i hope they fire the writers who wrote the atrocity that is s1 since for some reason hbo decided to renew it

I enjoyed milo surprisingly and i know that georgina is going to be in s2 so i will watch s2 just for her and i hope that somehow the show can get better

I talked so much & thanks for anyone who read all that

Anyway i don't what other shows I'm gonna do this with next but i did have fun doing the gossip girl ones

#gossip girl 2021 #gossip girl reboot #gossip girl #hbo #hbo max #thomas doherty #max #julien calloway #obi #otto #Ali #audrey hope

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2n2n · 2 years

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the Sumire/Hakubo arc really has me so enraptured... when the name drop happened I was so :(______) HAKUBO?!?!?! (it means ‘twilight’ or ‘dusk’!)... SUCH A BEAUTIFUL NAME.... such an elegant, pretty, yet dreary name, it conveys him perfectly!!! Sumire’s name meaning ‘violet’.... their names are gorgeous!! I wish I knew how and when he got his name..... did Sumire nickname him that...? Did the original Minamoto who killed his people name him that....?

When ch. 93 came out, I was making smoothies for myself and my spouse in the kitchen....... he was pointing his phone at me as I was working the blender and such, and were were hollering and flexing and dancing around in the kitchen.....I thought they maybe would just get a quick finish, I didn’t think they’d get so much more time, and, they may get even more... that even the relatively ‘side’ characters, who I didn’t begin reading this manga for, can make me feel this, is so cool and fun.... ! It’s so rare for a shounen to have so many interesting relationships.... this manga is more romance-focused than it is fighting-focused. It’s a very lovely balance, really. action sequences get exhausting...... having so much somber and heartbreaking history conveyed between them is so nice.... and there could be no better 2 characters to walk us through the history and lived reality of both humans and kaii in this world’s history.... a defective, passive oni who does as he’s told.... made to commit atrocities by humans... and a human girl who is nothing but a commodity to her own people.....

these... bottom rungs of society..... these complete and utter, outcasts, dregs, seen as less than anything, given no rights, no freedom, no opportunities, trapped in their duties, obligations, not meant to be anything but fodder for those around them.... convenient bodies to make carry out their wishes..... abused beings....

I reread all of their chapters so often.... I didn’t expect to become so attached... it really hurts my heart... I like the balance of this passive Kaii, and this naturally violent and destructive little human girl... natures that are opposite to how kaii and humans are stereotyped... it’s meant to make you rethink how you characterize kaii... question if the perpetuation of suffering is truly something to blame kaii for, as the Minamoto clan’s propaganda insists.... or if their violent subjugation is to blame for as much vile acts as any kaii’s supposed drop-of-a-hat violence....

TT___TT Hakubo.....

#avvy's JSHK

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variantia · 2 years

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BELLUM. we’re in our feelings today, so I offer you some more parallels / foils between Venti and Lo

Lo is clearly flying by the seat of her pants with her powers. and it’s one of the key things I’ve noticed that she struggles to find anyone else like her, and that fact eats at her, because it’s lonely, and it would be SO much better with someone to guide her. Venti never had any kind of mentor either. people who tried to support him, some of them knowing the full story and some of them not, sure. but someone who taught him how to use his powers, how to manage his grief at watching people come and go and live and die, any kind of moral code ? nope. his powers aren’t as big an issue, because he began life as a wind spirit, so, he’s familiar with that. but instead of managing his grief or actually healing, he turned to alcohol to dull the pain ; dull it, instead of grow with it. instead of learning morals, he followed Celestia’s orders until such a time as something inside him SNAPPED at all the atrocities they were ordering him and the other Archons to commit, and he formed morals of his own. but nobody ever taught him things like ‘stealing is wrong’ or the nuances of any kind of morality, because apparently the “big gods” seem to believe that they and the lesser gods are above morals. everything Venti learned, he learned on his own, and his life is INCREDIBLY lonely despite having so many people he cares for and who care for him.

they’re both creative types, and their passions are also their livelihoods ! music is absolutely one of the few things that has helped Venti through the years. not only does he like to compose his own, his job is to play music to request, so he loves playing all different types of songs as well. seems like Lo is much the same with her dressmaking, enjoying to make things for herself while also having fun and being proud of what she does for others.

PROTECTIVE AS HELL. we’ve already seen what Lo is like when it comes to anyone trying to hurt the Dreemurr kids. Venti is the same way when it comes to his friends and the people of Mondstadt. you try to hurt any of the people either of these two care about, you might as well kiss the grass, pick a god, and pray.

when Lo gets scared or stressed or upset or (insert big intense emotion), she retreats to her castle. nobody can hurt her there ! ... but she’s also kind of isolated. when Venti gets scared or stressed or upset or (insert big intense emotion), he reverts to tiny little wind spirit form. nobody can hurt him because he’s incorporeal ! ... but he also can’t be held or kissed or physically comforted.

perpetually single, or at the very least, have trouble forming connections with other people their own age. in Lo’s case, it’s not for lack of trying. in Venti’s case, it’s very much self-imposed. when a person has lived for as long as he has, they start to realize how painful it is to watch people come and go and live and die and here I am, here I STILL AM, I haven’t changed, everyone else is leaving, and they took a piece of me with them. he has casual lovers and avoids anyone who tries to get serious in ANY sense, romantic or platonic. both because he doesn’t know that his presence is ‘good’ for anyone, and because he’s TERRIFIED of hurting when they inevitably die and he’s left without them. again. it happened too many times, and he’s finally ‘learned his lesson’ the hard way that if he doesn’t want to miss them, then he can’t have anything but shallow relationships with people. Lo at least knows the value of connection with other people, while Venti fails to fully realize that the pain he’d feel at missing someone who dies is normal and healthy and part of what makes deep relationships worth having because it means he truly loved them, and love is important.

there are probably more things but I’m crying too much as it is sO-

#grief tw #alcoholism tw #is that a fucking gremlin ?? ( OOC. )#(( me ringing the cowbell to summon Esme home for dinner : YOU BETTER COME EAT THIS FOOD AND CRY WITH ME !!!!! ))

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keikakudori · 2 years

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🔥 gimme the deets about aizen sousuke. gimme the unpopular opinions you have abt him. let's go --

Send me a “ 🔥 “ for an unpopular opinion.

let's see here--

i SUPPOSE that the biggest one would be the fact that i violently disagree with the widely accepted fanon that aizen is insane. i have genuinely seen people make that claim that what he did was insane. by that logic, urahara kisuke is also insane. now i'm not saying aizen isn't crazy at all ( especially not after Muken; good god the research i've done--- ) but. i've kind of always hated it when people make that claim about aizen. like it feels like people want to give him an out in regards to what he's done. an excuse that makes him more acceptable for his actions and work with the hogyoku. personally, i find him more terrifying when i look at him having a very coldly logical sense to everything he's done and a clarity of self-awareness that he knows he's a hypocrite in many ways, but it's also very much about motives. because, let's be really honest here -- the seireitei has had many dissidents in its time. aizen, gin, and kaname are not the first ones to break from the seireitei and its system but they are pretty prominent. now, i don't treat filler arcs as canon whatsoever they are not canon to me but i would say it's mighty interesting that filler villains have also been vastly disgruntled with the seireitei as well. aizen is more terrifying, to me, if i look at him and go "he did all of this with a calm logical frame of mind" because a lot of the atrocities in human history have been done by ... well, regular people. we have extensive records of some pretty batshit rulers ( nero and calligula, anyone? ) throughout history and aizen doesn't fit into that mold. please, accept that he did this all with logic. i mean, wanting to make a hogyoku tells me a few things about kisuke too. like - did he have the same thoughts that aizen did? of breaking barriers? god. it's so messy. and oh yeah the fact that a lot of people are ready to discount how important gin was to aizen. gin calls out aizen, more than once in the goddamn series canon, on his behavior. aizen responds to gin calling him out. gin has so much influence on aizen it's not even funny. it's just there. and -- i don't know. i try not to pay attention to the things other people say about aizen if i can help it sdofhgg. like the kids are having fun i don't need to be the grumpy old man but boy howdy it's so easy to be the grumpy old man and want to snatch my muse's name out of their mouths. i just. UGH. there's probably a lot of stuff but the biggest one i have see is that aizen is an uncaring narcissistic monster and like. no. i WISH kubo would give me more than just a couple pages from ichigo's own view on him but on the flip side i am so glad he hasn't because i know anything that kubo would come up with would just piss me off. so i suppose basically i'm just "have some thinking like think about it he didn't just wake up one day and come to the thought of how he wanted to overthrow the soul king that kind of thing takes years to happen what the hell was it---" in the end i suppose. i'm just very passionate about this bastard which means i'm ready to throw hands about him on a regular basis. what gave him the RIGHT TO TAKE CONTROL OF MY BRAIN LIKE THIS--- am i projecting? maybe i am. he's just a blorbo but he's my blorbo.

#godkilller #is this even coherent i have no idea right now

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intern-seraph · 9 months

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these are a lot since i like the question list from here 😆

3, 13, 35, 39, 56, 64✨✨✨

Get to know your fic writer!

this is a long one so check out the answers beeeelow the cut

3. Describe the creative process of writing a chapter/fic

no outlines we die like men (i have outlines for a fic or two but honestly i just go on vibes); i tend to jump around from scene to scene and go back to write the bits that bridge the gaps+edit for continuity

13. what’s a common writing tip that you almost always follow?

i avoid using epithets as often as possible ("the blonde", "the taller man", etc.). it's a habit that many ppl including myself consider a very telling trait of something being a fic, and sometimes... it can get a little ridiculous. names are easy to use and consistent. if i do use epithets, i try to use only one or MAYBE two and keep them consistent to one character (so, for example, Malleus in the upcoming accidental marriage fic is referred to solely as "the stranger" by the reader until they decide to call him "Hornton"). it helps maintain clarity (and makes the work feel more "polished" imo)

35. What is one essential thing to remember when writing a villain?

you don't have to redeem them for them to be fun and likeable. they don't have to commit atrocities, and if they do commit atrocities... i mean... they're a villain. that's what a bad guy does. bad things. but that doesn't mean they can't also be kind at times. people are multifaceted and i am a villainfucker who wants cuddles god damn it

39. Share a snippet from a WIP

“How about I do stretches? Maybe I’ll even start a prison workout routine!” You roll onto your side and prop your head up with your arm. While you’re grinning, Vanrouge looks like he wants to vomit. “You could even spot me! Wouldn’t that be fun?”

“I think I’d prefer the staring.”

“See, if you keep shooting down my ideas for entertainment, I’ll have nothing left to do except stare at you. Throw me a bone here!”

He rolls his eyes. Jabbing a finger at you through the cell bars, he says, “You’re just trying to torment me now that I’m not allowed to kill you.”

“Yup! Wow, you catch on fast.” You give him your most obnoxious smile. Somehow, Vanrouge manages to look even more pissed off. It’s honestly a little remarkable. “Maybe if I had something else to do, you’d get some peace.”

“Tch.” Vanrouge turns his back to you and goes back to leaning on the bars. “Nice try.”

56. What’s something about your writing that you pride yourself on?

characterization :) i've been told before that i'm good at accurately portraying canon characters. i also pride myself on my grammar and spelling because i'm a fucking nerd <3

64. Something you love to see in smut.

squishy thighs squishy tummy body hair etc on women. gimme stretch marks that're seen as streaks of luminous paint on a beautiful canvas. moments of levity that break the tension or are reflected upon fondly in the afterglow. i like the it

#rayroseu #seraph speaks #ask

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hisuianspringfestival · 2 years

Photo

@fairymint, your score is here!

AESTHETIC MASTERY: 21/30

"A delightful little show, just the way I enjoy things,” Cynthia says, folding her hands together on her desk. “The move effects were simple, yet not understated, the dancing and the fighting were both quite pleasing to the eye, and everything was wrapped up in a beautiful, neat little bow at the end. While I would have appreciated you filling out the music with more visuals, and while the Pokémon brought in by the space-time distortion was an unfortunate distraction that you did not seem to adequately deal with, the way your Pokémon acted out the lyrics of the original song was quite adorable to watch. You’ve done well for a first Contest, Felix. Give yourself a round of applause~!”

TECHNICAL MASTERY: 20/30

"Your technical skills could use some improvement,” Nadeska comments, “but you should applaud yourself on having a solid foundation and demonstrating knowledge of what techniques are appropriate to use for the music. Your Pokémon displayed a variety of skills, whether dancing, showing off their moves, or engaging in a mock battle. I would have liked to see more intricate techniques that would have allowed me to give you a higher score, but keep your head up--you did a fine job as it is. Give your Pokémon a treat tonight. They deserve it.”

INDIVIDUALIST MASTERY: 8/30

"My, my, Cynthia and Nadeska are being quite generous with you today, aren’t they?” Do not trust the way he smiles. “Unfortunately for you, I’m feeling rather stingy, so let me take break down all the ways in which that Appeal was a complete and utter failure. For starters, you barely used any moves. How can you create original, standout visuals if you don’t use any moves and move combinations? Aren’t move combinations the entire reason why Contests are so much more fun than battling? If you’re not using move combos, barely even using moves at all, there’s no point in showing up, my friend! Then, let’s look at the fact that your Appeal wasn’t even three minutes long. At least Jack managed to stretch his atrocity for more than four minutes--although, given how terrible it was, I should probably be holding that against him. A shame you’re not half as dedicated to Contests as you are for kissing the hem of Arceus’ robes, isn’t that right, little boy?” A simpering, sickly-sweet smirk.

“And then, the cliché and frankly not at all compelling story. Fall in love, get together, break apart, make up--I’ve seen that so many times both onstage and off that to say I’m not impressed by such a tale would be putting it far too mildly. As a result, you get a five from me, and even then, my friend, I think that’s generous--”

“Father, you’re being far too harsh again,” Cynthia insists.

“Well, you asked me to judge. What’s the point of having me judge if I can’t score however I want?” Volo snaps.

“If you can judge, I can also give critique,” his daughter fires back.

“You know what? Since you’re so insistent on me giving ‘better’ scores to people, I’ll just take every single score that I think these people actually deserve, and add three points to make you feel happier. That will make Felix’s score an eight. Is that okay with you?”

Cynthia huffs. Well, it’s better than nothing…

BONUSES

"You receive +5 for using a Hisuian Pokémon, and +5 for using a Pokémon’s Ability. This brings your total to…”

TOTAL: 59 POINTS

#fairymint #hsf2k22judging

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makeste · 3 years

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BnHA Chapter 316: We've Had One, Yes, But What About Second Explosion

Previously on BnHA: Deku was all “[powers up like whoa because it’s time to end the fight]”, and he saved Overhaul from getting not-shot, and then smashed up Nagant’s arm with the power of his new rechargeable super knees. Nagant was all “yoooo this kid is crazy strong whaaaat, it’s like he’s some kind of protagonist or something.” Deku was all “I AM A PROTAGONIST, ACTUALLY, DO YOU WANT TO JOIN FORCES AND FIGHT BAD GUYS WITH ME?” Nagant was all “ah shit why the hell no -- ” and then AFO was all “SURPRISE” and everyone was all “?!?!?!” and AFO was all “TIME TO EXPLODE NOW” and made Nagant explode because he’s an absolute fucking dick. And then Hawks showed up, because Horikoshi just wanted to stuff as many plot points as humanly possible into a single chapter I guess.

Today on BnHA: Hawks is all “good job giving motivational shounen redemption speeches Deku but I’ll take it from here” and screams very earnestly right in Nagant’s face until she finally wakes up. Nagant is all “oh hey it’s my successor, you seem surprisingly unfucked-up from your own HPSC tenure, how did you manage that?” Hawks is all “fandom is going to love hearing this one, but basically it’s because I’m very upbeat and also I had the world’s best role model Endeavor to look up to,” and I swear this man stirs the pot on purpose, but damn it I still love him so damn much. Overhaul is all “HELLO AGAIN, JUST A REMINDER THAT, THE BOSS!!” and Deku is all “MAYBE TAKE TWO SECONDS TO REFLECT ON HOW YOU TORTURED A LITTLE GIRL,” which, thank you, lol. Nagant is all “btw AFO’s hiding in a house in the woods”, and so Deku and the gang go to the house in the woods. Video recording!AFO is all “hi I’m AFO welcome to Jackass” and blows up the house. Sometimes I wonder if this manga is just a weird dream.

I am once again reading the Bean version because I think it was actually the best out of all three translations last week. and that is surprisingly including Viz’s. “faux” is not nearly as entertaining as “knockoff”, and also I have literally no idea why Caleb thought Deku was saying the Third’s lines lol

oh hey, Endeavor’s here too! not that you’d ever be able to tell from this first panel lmao

glad you received All Might’s call, mysterious unidentified glowing smudge

oh snap he says he’s weaker in the rain. is that why AFO told Nagant to attack then?? except that as we discussed the other day, I believe that AFO fully intended for Nagant to lose the fight, so him giving her info that would give her an advantage doesn’t really fit in with that. maybe he wanted Deku to be separated from Endeavor and the rest for maximum angst, though

btw Deku’s eyes are unsurprisingly back to the new normal here

alas, the angst continues. I say, pretending like I’m not totally eating it up each and every week and writing essay after essay about it lol

anyway so apparently Hawks can’t actually fly lmao. he was just yeeting himself with style

for some reason this is the funniest fucking thing I’ve ever seen omfg. wave to Hawks, kids! say “bye, Hawks!”

j/k of course Deku is catching them. -- except???

wow so he was just running on fumes there at the end. well, good to know there is actually a limit to his shenanigans, particularly regarding this new “knockoff” 100% OFA. it will definitely not alleviate any of the discourse, but it’s good for my own peace of mind because it’s solid confirmation that he still needs his pals in order to win this thing

anyway, but on to the rest of this conversation, which is basically Deku deducing what we all deduced last week -- AFO implanted some sort of trap into Nagant when he gave her Air Walk. though I’d still like to get the actual details from AFO and/or Horikoshi, because this was particularly wild even by quirk standards lol

omgggggg

she still has a face after all!! so it’s confirmed, Horikoshi has no idea what “blowing up” actually means. we might have guessed, based on what happened to Toga in the MVA arc, and also based on everything Katsuki does ever, but shhh

so now Hawks is all “NAGANT PLEASE WAKE UP, IF I SHOUT MY NAME AT YOU WILL THAT DO THE TRICK”

this is actually kind of touching though because even though we all know (or most of us acknowledge at any rate) that Hawks is a pretty caring person, it’s rare to see him actually panic over someone’s welfare like this

oh shit Horikoshi is really doubling down on it

I wonder how much Hawks knew about what really happened between Nagant and the HPSC. regardless, he probably sees her as a kindred spirit of sorts, and I’m more than happy for Deku to pass the redemption torch onto him now that he’s on the scene. like no offense Deku but they actually know each other and stuff lol

DAMMIT NAGANT CAN’T YOU SEE HOW LOUD HE IS YELLING

apparently being freed from his HPSC shackles has finally given Hawks the space to embrace his own inner shounen protagonist. is there anything more shounen than trying to motivationally scream someone awake when they’re lying in your arms inches from death?? 100% guaranteed to work

!!! IS THIS NAGANT’S POV OMG

SO SHE IS ALIVE. THANK GOD. Horikoshi doesn’t want to meet with my emotional distress lawyer today after all

love how she’s all “just gonna stir up the weekly Hawks Discourse pot here by implying that he probably committed a lot of Atrocities just like I did, so now people can get all hopped up about that, even though there’s no evidence he’s ever killed anyone aside from that one horrible ‘damned-if-you-do...’ situation with Twice.” no one asked for your provocative speculation young lady!! trust me Nagant, our rabbles don’t need the rousing lol

but nice save there with the “so how are your eyes so untainted” well you see it’s because even when he was following the HPSC’s orders he always went to great lengths never to go against his own moral compass. which just to be clear was incredibly difficult, and led to a ton of pain and suffering on his part, because the life of a spy is basically just one impossible situation after another. but in spite of that he never stopped trying to do his best to help people. I don’t really know where this tangent came from or is leading to, lol, but anyway p.s.a. I love Hawks a lot and he’s a good kid dammit

oh shit??!?

how is the League always able to swing all these fancy forest mansions. where do they find them. how many do they have

so Deku’s dropping them -- very roughly, not sure if he was reacting to finally getting AFO’s location, or if his energy really is giving out -- and now Nagant’s saying that AFO hired other villains as well. well of course he did. gotta keep chipping away at OFA’s ninth successor little by little

now Nagant is asking Hawks how he’s able to keep making “that” face. I assume she’s again talking about the fact that he somehow didn’t let the HPSC wear down his spirit

oh my god???

thanks for stuffing this chapter to the brim with good nutritional Hawks Feels, Horikoshi. what a good. he just keeps on trudging forward undeterred no matter what bullshit comes his way. what a steadfast little guy. I WILL PROTECT YOU FROM DISCOURSE MY SWEET SUNSHINE

lmaoooo

“SPOTTED THIS DUDE JUST CHILLING OUT THERE ON THE ROOF WITH NO ARMS, SEEMED PRETTY SUS” good job Endeavor

anyway so you don’t really need me to tell you that Overhaul is immediately starting in with the “BUT THE BOSS WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO TAKE ME TO THE BOSS YOU PROMISED YOU WOULD TAKE ME TO THE BOSS” stuff again. but I will go ahead and tell you anyway. so yeah. he’s doing that

OMG YOU GUYS LOOK AT DEKU’S “of all the fucking assholes to just randomly drop in on my life once again why did it have to be you” FACE THOUGH, OMG

fun fact, if you go back to chapters 124 through 160, there was an entire story arc where Overhaul imprisoned and tortured a little girl. yeah, I know!! suuuuuuuuper evil. anyways just an interesting little anecdote for you all that’s somewhat relevant to the current situation

OMG, YES. FUCK YES, DEKU

THEN WHAT ABOUT SPARING ONE FOR HER!!! YES!!! EXACTLY!!! JESUS FUCKING CHRIST, SOMEONE GETS IT

HERE’S THE PANEL OF DEKU SAYING THE EXACT SAME THING I’M SAYING LOL

(ETA: so apparently there’s some discourse about this because some people are interpreting this as Deku saying “you should apologize to Eri”, which would obviously be a terrible idea even if Overhaul actually wanted to do that, because Eri shouldn’t ever have to see him again. however I just want to point out that there is a HUGE difference between saying “it would be nice if you could direct that feeling of regret/being sorry towards Eri as well”, vs saying “you should also apologize to her.” all Deku is doing is rightfully pointing out that Overhaul has hurt way more people than just his boss, and if he really is remorseful, then he should extend those feelings of remorse to Eri and the rest as well. it’s not a directive to take any specific action, and I’m 1000% sure no one at U.A. would let Overhaul within 100 miles of Eri ever again.

tl;dr “try feeling remorse sometime” =/= “do you want me to fly you over to U.A. right now to surprise the little girl you traumatized”, lol.)

[slings an arm around Deku’s shoulders] you’re a good kid. I like you. I don’t know if I tell you that enough, but it’s true

meanwhile here is Overhaul’s “spare... a thought... for Eri...???????” face sigh

the struggle is real y’all

(ETA: and that’s... the last we ever saw of Overhaul, I guess? well all right then. I assume Deku will make good on his promise, so we know he’ll get that little bit of closure before going back to jail or whatever, and I confess I’m more than fine with leaving the rest of it open-ended, especially given his character’s history. I think this was pretty generous all things considered.)

lmao holy shit

All Might what did you do to those tiki torch guys?? did you thrash them. did you give ‘em those hands. did you deliver their own asses to them complete with a sticker reminding them Amazon Prime Day is on June 21. we missed out goddammit

so Endeavor, who wasn’t the one he was asking, is telling him that they captured (well let’s be real, Deku captured, give the credit where it’s due) Nagant and Overhaul. and so I guess they’re going to take Nagant to the ER now

fire is no one’s weakness

-- oh my GOD I scrolled down and audibly gasped

[is politely but firmly approached and asked to remove my arm from Deku’s shoulder by the physical manifestation of all this Dekuangst] “we’re sorry, he’s not allowed to have visitors right now” oh shit, my bad. [goes to stand behind a police barricade]

lmao what. did you run out of room on the previous page

what an exaggerated fade to black lmao

-- AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

I actually can’t see what he’s reacting to so maybe I’m just seriously jumping the gun here lol, but THE HELL WITH IT. the next panel appears to be a cut to Haibori Forest, so I’m just gonna go ahead and declare that Deku ran off on his own all wounded to go have more Dekuangst, just like I manifested. now go call Katsuki goddammit

[scrolls three more inches down] oh

yeah so like I said, Deku is walking very slowly a few feet in front of Endeavor, who’s telling him to wait up. yep. we’ve all gotta be so careful to not just jump to conclusions. I know we’re excited but still

anyway, so! welcome back to Mt. Lady and Kamui Woods (ARE YOU GUYS DATING) and Edgeshot! have fun walking into this obvious trap lol

dammit Deku why are you so determined to tempt fate

[monkey puppet meme faces]

OH MY GOD THIS IS PURE GRADE-A CHEESY COMIC BOOK VILLAIN 101 SHIT AND I’M HERE FOR IT

that’s such a weird way of clapping who claps like that

unlike certain other people who shan’t be named, AFO doesn’t feel the need to inexplicably take his shirt off when recording sinister villain monologues. I think we’re all pretty grateful for that

high fives to everyone who called it!! yep yep

anyway so this whole scene has major booby-trap vibes, which I’m enjoying immensely even though I don’t think anything is really going to come of it lol. probably just another long-winded AFO Speech. but wouldn’t it be funny if like the ceiling started lowering down to try and squish Deku afterwards lol

(ETA: well the explosion was still pretty funny too ngl.)

ffff

[“Dekuangst is the trap” intensifies]

anyway so yeah. he’s just hitting up all of his usual villain talking points. we get it, you’re so smart and you see right through the thin veneers of society and people who don’t conform are left to fend for themselves and labeled as villains and history is written by the victors, and blah blah blah dude are you just jumping randomly from one soundbyte to another lol. literally what are you talking about. what does this have to do with you blowing up Nagant

-- holy shit??

[”Dekuangst is the trap” intensifies MORE?????]

LOL WHAT

BRO. WHAT IS WITH YOU. DON’T YOU KNOW HOW TO LAY ANY OTHER KIND OF FUCKING TRAP GOOD LORD

“YOU’RE NEXT” THE CALLBACK?? THE PARALLELS?? THOUGH WHEN ALL MIGHT POINTED HE MADE IT LOOK WAY COOLER. AFO’S POINTING JUST LOOKS LIKE SMOKEY THE BEAR

HAS ANYONE CHECKED IN ON KAMUI WOODS I HEAR HE IS WEAK TO FIRE?? THE ONLY ONE WHO IS, APPARENTLY

r.i.p. to this particular forest mansion. don’t worry they have a ton of backups

remember last week when I said maybe AFO thinks explosions are gauche. well never mind. he fucking loves explosions

anyway so that’s the end of BnHA, everyone. hope you enjoyed. it was a good ride while it lasted. see you all, good luck in your travels

#bnha 316 #hawks #takami keigo #lady nagant #midoriya izuku #all for one #bnha #boku no hero academia #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #bnha manga spoilers #makeste reads bnha #manifesting 317 opening with a slightly modified version of my previous fantasy scenario lmao #'WHADDYA MEAN THEY BLEW UP THE NERD'#that's *his* job #sorry lol I kid I kid

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