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sunseteyes · 4 years

Text

HELIUM - S. TODOROKI

theme/s: aged up!shoto, developed relationship, nsfw, smut with plot, fluff, mild sub/dom play, oral masturbation, gender neutral

this was birthday present for a friend of mine, angelica. she enjoyed it btw haha. feel free to listen to the song whilst reading~

Being vulnerable was something you have never expected of yourself. There were just some things that had made it complicated for you to express much of yourself and not build a wall to separate you and the others.

Yet he is different.

The warmth of his hand envelops yours as he gently pulls you along with him; walking side by side, peacefully and almost in a serene way.

As you look up, a beautiful orange shade, with a hint of pinkish red welcomes you, enticing you into its beauty. Although, it made you remember of the very day you could never forget, the scenes replaying on its mind like a vague movie.

There, the skies were painted of a brilliant color that shadows the unforeseen of what was to happen. Not a single one expected the capacity of the attack nor the changes that would happen after. Laughter and smiles were replaced by screams and cries, voices hoarse and laced with fear for someone to save them.

It was hot, due to the fire that had emerged from the explosions of exchange of quirks and the attack of the villains. Despite the sweat lacing on your skin and the wounds that decorated your arms and legs, those were not what seemed to be circling your mind. Your eyes tried to focus on the figure not quite afar from yours, wondering why it seems far away at the same time. You could remember how you tried to call out for help, but your vocal cords doesn’t seem to cooperate well with you. Not that you use it most of the time anyway so maybe that’s why it’s not working that time, when you need it the most. Though that doesn’t seem to be the right answer, it was what you believed it to be.

Now, the wide view from below were different. Yet, the memory was still there, hanging like the clothes you’re trying to dry under the sun back at your apartment in the present. It was truly an unforgettable experience, especially for a child. You even wonder if you’re thankful or spiteful of it to be honest.

Well, maybe both. But mostly the last option.

You were glad you had been alive after that day, but that emotion wouldn’t even last long for the same reason. You’re the only one alive. No one else in your family had survived due to the fire and the collapsing of the buildings. You watched in dread as each of your love ones died in front of you.

That’s how your quirk was. That was how you survived before you were saved.

The ability to control air was something you should be proud of. It is a constant element in Earth and you could have unlimited use of it since it doesn’t really vanish after you use it like any other quirk that’s not part of the four elements. If things were different, you would have loved your quirk.

But the thing is, you don’t. Because that day, your weakness covered up your strength, and you were not able to use your quirk to save your family from losing breath or be hit by debris caused by the destruction of the buildings.

Fire. You used to hate it the most. With fire, smoke can be emitted and it was your greatest weakness. Smoke is the one thing you could not control and if you inhale it, you’d have a hard time controlling the air around you. Your quirk was simple; breath fresh air and you can control air. Yet that time, it was inevitable and you felt completely useless.

You were thankful of All Might for saving you but you’d rather have burned into ashes with your parents and siblings without feeling like she had not done something to prevent it. She was a child, yes, but it’s unbearable.

Nevertheless, it drew you to the idea of being a hero. To somehow attain that sense of not being able to do something to save someone.

Everything had truly changed ever since you met Shoto Todoroki. You saw the beauty underneath the smokey fire, especially when it’s his doing. You knew he would never use it against you to do something terrible even if he’d known it was your weakness.

His touch, it leaves a tender and loving expression in you, one that could lift you up higher into the clouds like your quirk. His warmth that radiates from his body, it would never fail to make you feel secure, like the sun that heats you up somehow when the cold of winter comes by after the months of spring. You had never expected to feel this way after what had happened.

But it was when you studied heroics that you met him. Sometimes, you would even think the what ifs of not deciding to go to Yuuei and pursue being a hero. What if you did that? Would you have met Shoto either way? Would fate tug and pull you two together like the red strings do when their soulmates are near in the books that you’ve read?

“Is there something wrong, love?” his voice was sultry and alluring, one that he always use on special occasions much like this one. However, you could see the tinge of worry in his unmatched eyes, replacing the hoodedness in it once he had probably noticed your unresponsiveness.

You smile assuringly, raising a hand to touch his cheek and look at him lovingly. “It’s nothing. Don’t worry about me.”

He looked skeptical but he only leaned down, placing a gentle peck on the pulse of your hand, entangling his fingers on yours before bringing it across his lips and kissing the back of your palm.

You’re supposed to be used to it by now, however a rush of heat spreads on your face and chest, wondering in your mind again how you could have gotten a sweet guy like him.

Your skin tingles as he peppered you with kisses; from you forehead, down to your nose, pecking each of your cheeks, before looking at you right in the eyes, a small cheeky smile on his face.

“Why do you look so red, love? Is something the matter?” he asked the same question yet his tone was different from the previous one, supporting the curve of his lips as it sends a different sensation in you.

Gathering up your courage, you found yourself twisting and entangled in Shoto’s warm body as you straddled his pelvis once you got into the position you wanted.

He didn’t look surprised, nonetheless. Actually, he looked like he kind of expected it with the smug look on his chiseled face that is now brightened by the moonlight coming from the window of the room. He looks stunning, handsome. No matter how much you look at him, his own kind of beauty is not just something you can compare to others.

You marveled upon the sight in front of you, and it looked like he did too as his hand raises to softly caress your bare arm, tracing it towards your cheek. You unconsciously lean to the comfortableness and intimacy under the confines of his touch. It felt like you were floating in heaven—but once again, there was this anxiety, questioning you if you ever deserve this—him or not.

You shook of the thought away as you brought your face down to meet his lips on, pulling yourself back to reality at the same time.

Every time you two kiss, it always felt like the first time; breathtaking, making you feel that familiar lightheadedness. Before, it took awhile before any kind of intimate touches were done and yet now, with all of the restraints undone, you have never expected you would feel this way towards a certain person. With both of you sharing a difficult but different family history, there was a sense of completion in being in each other’s arms and expressing your emotions physically.

It did took awhile, but it was worth it.

You pulled away and gazed his beautiful eyes, the words flowing out of your lips easily, “There’s no problem, love.” you respond, using the same endearment he did. “I have you with me so there’s no problem at all.”

Shoto’s expression was unreadable, yet as someone who had been with him for years, you already know every quirk of his eyebrows, every tightening of his jaw, or the smallest curves of his lips. By this time, you know he was touched by what you have said, and as a man of few words, he responds with a gentle push on the back of your head, bringing you close to him as he plants a peck on your lips, gazing at your eyes with a gaze full of emotions.

This man... is truly someone you could call as your “home”; every inch and crevice making you feel that comfortable warmth and welcoming aura that you have never felt for a very long time.

Drifting downwards and making a trail of kisses on your way down, you could hear his heavy breathing as you did so, his unmatched eyes following your every movement.

You look up at him and playfully batted your eyes, making sure he kept eye contact with you as you gently traced the hem of his sweatpants, only pulling it down when you heard that familiar grunt on the back of his throat, indicating the lack of patience at your antics.

You couldn’t help but giggle at his reaction, despite already knowing about it.

“My, my, Sho-kun, I didn’t know you’re already this excited.”

It was his turn to turn beet red at your comment, almost resembling the redness of his hair. This side of Shoto never fails to amaze you. It must be coming from the pride of having one of the top heroes into putty under your hands—and other parts of your body, to be precise.

It was a struggle between you and the sweatpants he wore, but after that, the sight that was displayed in front of you was nothing but extraordinary and just so appealing; Shoto covering his eyes with an arm as it was evident that he was still flushed and quite embarrassed for being so exposed, that shyness doing nothing but increase that drive inside of you to being pleasure to the man in front of you.

He peaks from his arm and before he could even speak, his thighs tenses at the sudden touch of your hands on it, treading its way upwards. You didn’t gave the place where he aches the most to be touched attention though, for your hands trailed towards his abdomen, gliding through the ridges of extremely defined muscles, a result of training throughout the years of his life. You could even remember that time you first saw his bare upper body during that Sports Festival in your first year. Truly, seeing it up close is different than at that time.

“Y/n...” his voice was hoarse and it sounded more like a plead than a demand. If there was something no one else knows, it was Shoto’s inability to be patient whenever you are teasing him—that’s also why it’s entertaining for you to lengthen the foreplay before he loses his mind and just snap to fuck you into oblivion. Sometimes, he would just stay on the bed and let you do it but most of the times, it would be the first scenario. Either way, you’re not really complaining.

“Yes, Sho-kun?” you inquire, looking up at him once again. But this time, a hand sneaks in and slowly tracing the baseline of his cock.

He visibly shudders, almost like he was at the maximum of using his quirk—this time, he wasn’t though.

“What did you want to say, hm?” you speak, watching him underneath your hooded eyes as you drop down, inches away from the tip of his manhood.

He looks at you, about to spit out whatever he wanted to say when you brought out your tongue to do kitten licks on just the tip, from the sides then to the slit, where you could already see precum oozing out of it. The reaction you got was a hiss and tensing on his inner thighs, being able to feel the muscles underneath it as you caress one of your hands on the skin. Then, your tongue was already trailing upwards the length of his cock, from the base and upwards to give the head a generous but quick suck.

Shoto is the kind who’s not very loud in the bedroom; muffled grunts or moans, continual panting, soft whines, surprised hisses. However, with the variety of his reactions, you didn’t have the time to be dissatisfied. There were times when he’d moan out loud when he’s really into it but those were just rare times—mostly when he’s on the verge of coming.

So when he made a low but above normal volumed moan under his throat from your ministrations, you just knew you had to reward him by taking him fully into your mouth, relaxing your jaw and throat, taking in whatever you can and holding onto whatever you can’t reach with a hand. You’re still not used to it since it’s not like you’ve done this with any other man before, but you always push yourself to give your best to give him the pleasure that he deserves.

He chokes at nothing—probably his own saliva. He was panting heavily as he looks down, finding that you’re already staring at him—always been, looking after every twitch and sound he makes, every slight tingle and rush of blood, observing.

“Y/n...” he mumbles, caught in a daze. “-shouldn’t you be the one on the receiving end?”

He’s also more of a giver, making your pleasure and happiness his top priority more than his. However, you truly enjoying teasing the life out of the poor guy when you find yourselves in this position.

You didn’t mind his words as you bring yourself back up, breathing, sucking, then back down again. The tip of his cock reaches the back of your throat and instead of you that makes a noise, it’s him. For some reason, he’s extremely sensitive tonight.

“It’s-“ he tries to form a sentence as you busied yourself. “-it’s your birthday, isn’t it? Shouldn’t you-Ah!-be the one I should-“

“Shhh” you muse, removing yourself from his cock as you place an index finger on your lips. You crawl yourself up to his face, pecking his forehead that was slightly covered by a sheen of sweat, making him look even more alluring.

“I know it’s my birthday,” you start, giving him one more peck on his cheek. “-that’s why I’m enjoying my present now, aren’t I?”

A hand finds its way to his exposed chest, caressing it softly, tracing different random patterns as you kiss the side of his face, just under his ear. Letting your hand travel down, you went back to your previous position and did not resume immediately. Kissing on the side of his pelvis, just on the skin that connects his leg and upper body, you down to his inner thighs, softly massaging him with your fingertips before nipping at it with your teeth.

Neglecting his the glistening genital once more, you shift towards the other inner thigh, doing the same thing as you did to the other. You then moved away to look at his eyes once more, scanning it while caressing his thighs with feathery touches.

The gray and turquoise in his orbs were glazed with an emotion that made your stomach churn and breath hitch in a millisecond. There it was again, the warmth that crawls towards your heart that could resemble the fire that wraps around his left arm whenever he uses his quirk. It made you wonder if this is what he feels too—whenever he looks at you with those eyes.

Pulling away from his magnetism, you focused on your task at hand once again, your hands travel slowly and meet at the middle; one hand massaging lightly on the underside of his cock while the other sweeps the precum on the tip before wrapping her palm on the shaft, using the liquid as a lubricant to make the work easier and more pleasurable.

One thing more about Shoto was that he tends to be quite messy especially when aroused properly. When you noticed it the first time, you didn’t expected it although after a bit of thinking, it might have been something to do from being touch-starved.

You continued to watch his reactions, hovering as you took not and reveled on the way his brows furrow and bite his lower lip to prevent any loud noises to spill out. You wanted to change that thus you dove down with your eyes still focused on him, lightly sucking on the head while trying your best to move your hands at the same time.

A low grunt along with the releasing of his lower lip came out of Shoto’s mouth and you felt a hand by the back of your head, realizing that he’s probably worked up now that he couldn’t handle gripping the sheets anymore.

Deciding not to give him pain anymore, you grip on his base once more as you breathed before going down his cock. His fingers interlaced with your hair but didn’t make a move to push your head, being the gentleman that he is.

“Y/n-“

Your ears perk up at his muttering, motivating you even more to go back up and down, tongue pressing flat on the shape of his shaft. Saliva dripped down to your chin and to your hand that was gripping the base of his cock, yet you continue, urging him to make even more sounds that sends tingles down to your own core.

“Y/n, I’m close... don’t-“

You move up, your hand using your saliva to move up and down his shaft as you focused on sucking the head, tongue swiftly lapping on the right places that you knew would make him lose his mind.

He moans and his hips slightly spasm, but with your free hand, you press him down, even for just one side, palms open. The hand that grips on your hair did not make a move, but you know better that he’s just trying his best not to push with his pelvis and with that same hand to urge you to take him deeper.

You gave him what you wanted, setting aside your hand once again to descend your mouth on his cock. You had to go back up to take a breather before dropping down to fulfill his silent wish and take him deeper than your previous ministrations.

“Y/n... Y/n...” Shoto chants with a breathy voice, his teeth gritted, as if stopping himself from spilling any more sound. By this time, you know he’s near to his release.

You let him go with a pop, accompanying it with a, “Don’t come yet, Shoto.”

His eyes shot wide, “What?”

“Don’t come.” you repeat, licking your swollen lips as your eyes flickered to his, a hint of caution in both your tone and look.

“You’d want to save that later, don’t you?”

Shoto jerkily nods his head, as if trying to convince at the same time.

You offered him a smile, hands gently caressing his inner thighs. “You can do it for me, right baby?” your tone softens, the pet name—one that you rarely use, saving it for private matters and ears only, like this. Both of you are quite reserved people, that’s also why the whole class back then were honestly surprised when you two revealed that you’ve been seeing each other for awhile. You never intended to keep it, you two never just cared whatever people say about the two of you.

Probably sensing you’d need a verbal affirmation, Shoto speaks. “Yes. Yes, I can.” his voice was determined, but you know he’d have a hard time controlling his release.

“Good boy.” you retained your smile and he stared back at you in wonder. Gazing at him one last time, you leaned down, hovering above before pressing your lips unto his cock. With his juices gushing over your lips, you sucked onto the head of his cock, both hands now turning and gripping onto the shaft. It went on for awhile before you let go and without warning, swallows Shoto down until the head of his cock brushes the back of your throat.

Shoto weakly gasps, unable to control his hips at the sudden intense pleasure you’ve given him. Both of your hands held onto each side of his hip while his gripped the hair on your back tightly. It was painful, yes, but it only urged you to go deeper and farther, opening your throat until you reached the base of his cock.

You stayed there before shifting back just a bit, giving you time to recover before going down again, slowly but surely. Then, your tongue presses and licks on whatever it can reach, tracing on the veins and skin of his shaft.

“Y/n, I-“

“Hmm?” your hum vibrates into his entire system and you felt his cock twitch inside your mouth. You pull back finally but you didn’t give him time to recover before you stick your tongue onto the tip of Shoto’s cock, focusing on the slit.

“I’ll come—don’t, Y/n.” he pleads, strained and almost like he had already lost the battle.

You teased him still, sucking on his head as you felt a rush of liquid drip down from his cock.

“No, Y/n, I’ll-I’m gonna come—“

And you stop, raising your head to wonder on Shoto’s state; a hand on the side of his head, his chest going up and down with his heavy panting, a blush adoring his handsome face, his lower lip swollen from likely biting himself and his eyes half-open, staring down at you, hooded with desire. He’s so handsome, so beautiful. And he’s all yours. What have you done to deserve this?

All of a sudden, Shoto sits up and pushes your head to meet his with the same hand behind you, pressing your lips to his urgently, like his life depended on it. The kiss was rough, but you can see through his intentions and energy, already knowing what comes next.

He pulls you onto his lap and you obliged, hands pressing down onto his pectorals and soon travels up to his shoulders, his arms, and anywhere it could touch. An arm circle around your waist, urging you much closer to him until there’s no space left between the two of you—chest to chest, skin to skin, body to body. You could feel the difference in the temperature he emits on each side of his body, as a result of his quirk. You didn’t mind though, it was one of the things that made Shoto unique and different from the others—made him who he is.

He flips you over then, and even if you knew he would, you still couldn’t help but release a slight yelp. He places your head gently on the pillow, like a piece of glass he’d hate to shatter or break. Shoto pulls away from the kiss and looks right into your eyes, almost like he was marveling the way it stared back at him with the same fervor and passion and love.

This time, he presses his lips onto yours softly, filled with the burning intensity of his emotions, pouring it out into you. You kissed him back with the same fervor, closing your eyes like he did and just opened yourself into him. It was always been a give and take for the both of you, and you appreciated him for that. You didn’t mind being vulnerable with Shoto, because he would be willing to expose his own too, making you realize that it’s okay to be vulnerable—to love, to express, to give. It was a silent assurance and a promise; that he’d be there to always lift you up like helium.

He pulls away, a smile adoring his handsome face, never failing to entice you even more.

“Are you done teasing me now, my love?” he questioned in a gentle tone. “Is it my turn now?” he follows, making your heart skip a beat.

Your smile mirrors him as you nod at him with a blush on your face, unable to contain the happiness and joy that spreads on your heart like a wildfire.

And with that, you enjoyed the night with the company of a person you love—an emotion you’ve never thought you’d feel again after that same birthday almost a decade ago. Now, it was just a bad memory, which led you to the person and hero you are now.

i honestly cannot believe i’ve written it that long but well, things i do for friends haha. anyway, feel free to send requests too and i’ll also be posing the guidelines for birthday dedications soon (ones like this) so please check it out!

#boku no hero academia #bnha #mha #my hero academia #bnha headcanons #bnha x reader #shoto todoroki #shoto x reader #todoroki x reader #aged up shoto #shouto #shoto oneshots #shoto smut #shoto is best boi #bnha shoto #nnr nightdream #nnr bnha

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moon-yean · 3 years

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could u elaborate what was so bad about the barbarians? i saw the show and thought it was ok but i don't have enough knowledge to know what are the ideological implications of it? sorry, just really curious and wanna learn more

*takes a deep breath* oh boy, where to even begin? Thanks for your question as I might finally get this off my chest! Okay, fair’s fair, anyone who likes the show should look away now because I’m not going to mince words. And I want to reiterate that there were things about the show that I liked, mostly on a superficial aesthetical level. Generally you could tell from the get-go though that the writers are hacks who know nothing about history or good storytelling for that matter. I could’ve dealt with a show that was historically inaccurate if only the character drama had been written well. I might also have enjoyed the show more if the character drama had been mediocre but if there had been a sense of historical authenticity (not accuracy, mind; but still something tangibly more substantial than the patina they tried to throw onto their frankly embarrassingly lowbrow attempt by having parts of the dialogue translated into Latin by an expert and by hiring a good crew for the costume and props design - of the Romans at least... putting lipstick on a pig and all that, although pigs are great and the writing here is not).

Since you asked about the ideological implications specifically, I’ll start with that and work my way towards other criticisms (this is going to be LONG):

19th century nationalism: The story of Arminius and his merry band of brothers who defy the big bad Roman empire is a narrative that became especially popular in Germany in the 18th and 19th century, both with liberal patriotic movements that were advocating for the unification of the “German cultural nation” in a modern nation state (spurred by the Wars of Liberation against Napoléon Bonaparte and French occupation) and later with the völkisch movements where that nationalism segued into the pseudo-scientific racial ‘theories’ of a ‘superior German race’ which in turn was part of the ideological foundation of the genocides and atrocities committed by Germany in the 20th century (not only in WWII, see also the colonial genocide of the Herero in 1904). We cannot disentangle this predominantly racist reception history that re-invented Arminius (”Hermann der Cherusker” - “Hermann the Cheruscan” - or, indeed “Hermann the German” ha!) as the founding myth of a German people from the way this story has been depicted in media, entertainment and culture and, as evidenced by Barbarians, continues to be to this day.

Barbarians pays lip service to the fact that actually there was no German people at the time by having the tribes meet at the Ting in the first episode and have someone outright state it. These kinds of tidbits literally voiced by characters give off a strong whiff of the authors googling something, reading something on Wikipedia, and then putting it in there. I’m sorry (actually not sorry) to come down harsh on this but given what we’re talking about here, that’s just not good enough. It’s an embarrassing level of “writing”. The authors clearly have NO idea what they’re talking about or what they’re dealing with because despite their lip services, they actively reproduce the harmful narratives that were spun around this actual historical event and these actual historical figures in the 19th century. No effort was made to depict anything complex or realistic here. Case in point: Even though there’s a pretense that the tribes aren’t part of the same people, they don’t look much different from each other, they all speak the same kind of modern high German that sounds like they’re at a costume party in the year of our lord 2020 (and in the case of Folkwin, drugged out of their mind; he sounds like a guy who’d throw beer cans at passersby). They come across as basically just being separated by the few acres between their villages. And then when the big bad evil Roman empire wants to squash their resistance (Asterix did it better change my mind challenge), freedom fighter Arminius rallies them together with a heroic speech and they charge at the Romans RAAHWWHR! ... no, just no.

There would have been SO MANY ways to reframe and retell this story in a fresh, new, and exciting way that would have made for amazing character drama. The premise is so good. If we were to look at the basics of what is known, there are so many personal AND political complexities in there that just beg to be coloured in with a little imagination. I just... I don’t even know where to begin to fix the choices that the show did go with since most of them don’t make any sense, don’t contribute anything to the narrative and are just. there. Have y’all noticed that there is ZERO dramatic tension in any of the scenes? Like, what? How?? Culture clash, divided loyalties, identity issues, the way that a militaristic upbringing might warp the mind, feelings of home and belonging and displacement, the return of the lost son, the betrayal of a high-ranking officer, just, there are so many themes that the show could have focused on but it botches all of them, nothing of it feels real, earned, or logical. Characters behave in idiotic ways for the sake of the plot (I wanted to like Thusnelda, I really did, I’m always here for female characters but she was so painfully obviously written by 3 dudes who thought that feminism = praying to the good sisters of the forest and slashing your face aöldksfaökdjf plus the actress could not sell any of it, she sounded ridic).

I’m exhausted just thinking about the many ways in which the writing on the show sucked. Impaired character used as a symbol~ for other characters instead of being a character on his own? Check. Weird mystical shit? Check. Earthbound tribal people who are one with nature? Check. Death on the cross to get that Christian imagery in there? Check. Lack of female characters except feisty!badass!Thusnelda, scheming!conniving!pulling-the-strings!wife, weird!mystical!seer? Check. Varus doing a Herod by demanding first-borns to up the Christian persecuted ante? Check. (All he was missing was the mustache to twirl. Was he even a character? He looked vaguely concerned and sceptical. That was his character.)

Look, the actor Arminius was great but even he couldn’t make sense of any of it. The character work was so shoddy, it was shocking. One minute he’s still all-in with the Romans, ordering lashes for “German” mercenaries without being very conflicted about it, reminiscing with fellow Roman soldiers about the good old times in some fireside bonding, asking his foster father to go home to Rome, and then when bad!dad is like “lol no” (surely they would have had that convo before??? surely Arminius would have known how far his career could go???), Arminius turns around and goes “let’s kill 3 Roman legions!! I’M MAD!!” ... lmao dude, just...

Another favourite of mine: The romance between Thusnelda and Folkwin is supposed to be illicit and against her social status. Does anyone even notice? Does anybody even care? Why did the writers come up with Folkwin in the first place? (His name Folkwin Wolfspeer is a hoot and an embarassment in itself. I wonder whether they used some kind of Germanic name generator. They certainly did use a generic speech generator for the battle speech Arminius gives in the last episode lol)

Back to the topic of a lack of tension. Of course there can’t be any tension if the characters suck. But it’s also because of the design of the scenes and plot points. The cliffhangers are so telegraphed and artificially constructed, it’s almost hilarious. My “favourite” has got to be the one of the first episode: The “hi dad” one. Not only does Arminius go to the village with other Romans in tow who then disappear because nothing in this show makes sense but this kind of revelation also goes against everything we know about good storytelling. There’s a famous quote by Hitchcock and I’ll quote it in full because I think it absolutely applies here (and it is valid for character tension as much as it is for suspense):

There is a distinct difference between "suspense" and "surprise," and yet many pictures continually confuse the two. I'll explain what I mean.

We are now having a very innocent little chat. Let's suppose that there is a bomb underneath this table between us. Nothing happens, and then all of a sudden, "Boom!" There is an explosion. The public is surprised, but prior to this surprise, it has seen an absolutely ordinary scene, of no special consequence. Now, let us take a suspense situation. The bomb is underneath the table and the public knows it, probably because they have seen the anarchist place it there. The public is aware the bomb is going to explode at one o'clock and there is a clock in the decor. The public can see that it is a quarter to one. In these conditions, the same innocuous conversation becomes fascinating because the public is participating in the scene. The audience is longing to warn the characters on the screen: "You shouldn't be talking about such trivial matters. There is a bomb beneath you and it is about to explode!"

In the first case we have given the public fifteen seconds of surprise at the moment of the explosion. In the second we have provided them with fifteen minutes of suspense. The conclusion is that whenever possible the public must be informed. Except when the surprise is a twist, that is, when the unexpected ending is, in itself, the highlight of the story.

I hope you can see what I mean here. Barbarians continuously springs surprises on its audience but it has absolutely no tension/suspense in any of its scenes. The only time where the show even comes close to having any kind of genuinely dramatic moment is the conversation between Arminius and Varus where Arminius tries to hide his hurt and disappointment, and all the emotion in that scene is completely due to the actor since the dialogue is fairly idiotic for what is supposed to be the turning moment. Let’s go back to the basics and imagine what the show could have done differently, even allowing for the way in which the writers wanted to tell it (which, as I mentioned, is not appropriately sensitized to the misappropriation of the material in the past - but even if we go with THAT kind of freedom fighter / lost child narrative, it ought to be done well). And here now follows my actual essay of grievances:

The premise of the story, in as much as we know from history, is amazing: An officer of the Roman army, delivered to the Romans by his tribe as a child, returns to the "country" of his birth as part of the invading Roman army which oppresses the natives of the lands. He switches sides, unites different tribes and leads them to a decisive victory against the Roman army in a battle in a forest that lasted for several days and was cleverly planned by the "Germans" who end up outsmarting the Romans who are victims of ambush and the terrain, being split up and stumbling through the forest exhausted and without finding a way back to the other troops (love that the show as we have it managed to squeeze in the cliché "two armies standing on opposing sides decide to just start running towards each other, epic clash, chaos" (which is militarily so fucking stupid and nobody ever did that)).

Anyway, that premise is amazing. You could do so much with it. And if you wanted to make a miniseries about it, the biggest question would surely be: Why did Arminius switch sides? That’s the key plot point. And themes of otherness, oppression, exploitation, identity, and so on, would be a good fit. The first problem with the miniseries is that it has nothing to say about any of that. Arminius doesn’t even feel like the main character (aside from his actor being a cut above the rest). We don’t get to see much of his POV. We don’t get many meaningful conversations between him and Varus (actually just one after which he has a total character transplant). Instead, we get to spend lots of time with characters that don’t add anything in particular to the central plot nor to any of the central themes. Literally, why? 6 episodes is already pretty fucking short to make Arminius’ turn believable, so you’d better spend most of them on him. This is not material for an ensemble show (nevermind that the other characters suck and are not well-acted and written to behave stupidly... that’s just ON TOP of the fundamental issue of this show lacking a POV).

Like, you can turn this into a big Hollywood action movie about the battle or you make it a character drama where the battle is also told from a character perspective (i.e. focusing on the mounting fear and desperation of the soldiers as the battle drags on for days etc but more importantly focusing on why the battle takes place and why it’s important to both the Romans and the “Germans”). As it is, in the show, we don’t get any idea why the Romans are even there in the first place and pestering the people by demanding some tributes. And we don’t get any idea why the Germanic tribes are so opposed to this or why others of them might not be. We don’t get any of the broader political implications, we just get some eagle-stealing pranks (defiance!! cool, just agitate them in a completely stupid and arbitrary way, why don’t you) and a few people executed because the “Germans” were being stupid. That’s not the scale that’s needed here. And I don’t mean that we needed to see mass executions. In fact, I would have preferred if there had been no such hackneyed and emotionally manipulative device.

Arminius is basically absent for all the early encounters of the Romans with the “Germans”. So while we suspect that the mistreatment of the “Germans” at the hands of the Romans would be a strong motivational factor for him, we don’t actually see him witness any of few hints in that direction that we get, so it doesn’t actually matter for his character arc. I have so many issues with how his arc is written. In the first episodes, we don’t get any sense that he’s not a happy Roman. When a “Barbarian” mercenary ridicules Rome, he has him whipped and we don’t get much of a sense that he’s very conflicted about it. Even just moments before he ends up destroying his effigies of Roman gods, we see him trying to get Varus to send him back to Rome. Earlier in the same episode, he prays to those Roman gods. I’m sorry but wtf? How the turntables... If you want to make it believable that he would turn on Rome, why not start with him already being frustrated with the way that things in Rome work? With the way the army is run? And why not give him a careerist streak and make him frustrated that he can’t advance much further because of his lowly birth and background? And instead of Varus being an asshole to him about it (he’s supposed to be his foster father, surely Arminius would already know how Varus thinks about his people and surely he’d already know how far he can climb up the ranks), have Varus be sympathetic but basically like “sorry, there’s nothing I can do.”

Arminius betraying Rome shouldn’t be about Varus saying something mean~, if anything a personal connection of his with Varus should just make the betrayal harder and be something that he does despite the fact that there are Romans he cares about. If you start out the show with him already having significant doubts about his place in the Roman army and identity issues, you just need to add something to it that will finally breaks the camel’s back. Have him become increasingly agitated by the way the "Germans” are treated by the Romans. Start the show with him making to leave Rome, someone asking him whether he’s excited to return to his place of birth and him joking about it but obviously being conflicted and then overwhelmed when he actually gets there because it totally destroys his sense of self which he has built for himself (and for which we would have needed to see the contrast, even if just for one scene, of how he is treated in Rome – perhaps snobbed by others, not treated equally in some sort of social setting, could be something subtle – to show us and him that as much as he wishes, he is not and will never be accepted as a Roman).

And then when he gets to the provinces, we need to see that from his perspective. What’s his reaction to arriving there? To seeing the familiar landscapes? (Or maybe he was taken as a younger child and doesn’t actually have that many memories of it but feels a sense of belonging anyway.) There are so many scenes in this show that seem to hint at these things but they are completely random and unfocused and interspersed with the stupid village people shenanigans. Varus talks about burning down villages in retribution. Well, why don’t we see any of that? (Nevermind that it’s comic book villain level of evil, but I’m working with a fix here and not a total rewrite as would be better.) Surely it can’t be too expensive to burn down a few huts in the night. And having Arminius ride along / witness it but not say anything even though we can see these things having an effect on him. As mentioned: The worst offense is the scene when he rides to the village (with other Romans in tow!) and announces “hi dad!” just to have that cliffhanger. Wtf?

Characters doling out information that the viewer doesn’t have is the absolute worst way of telling a story and maintaining tension. It should be the other way around. How about instead you have him be part of a Roman delegation that rides into the village and demands [random, whatever, the fucking eagle if you must keep that shit] and when the Reik (whom the audience already knows to be Arminius’ father) doesn’t want to give it (because he’s not actually a weak fucking clown as almost everyone in the actual show is aside from feisty Thusnelda who’s a fierce~ fucking clown rmfe), the Romans begin beating the dad or whipping him or whatever, completely humiliating him and his people, and we see Arminius on his horse watching the show with growing unrest until the realization really hits him that this is his father (cue flashback to a very young Arminius being dragged away) and the tension keeps ratcheting until he shouts in German “that’s enough” before correcting himself to give the same command in Latin (maybe he still thinks in German, would be an interesting idea) and the Romans look at him with suspicion, like wtf was that, and the "Germans” are like, why tf does this Roman officer speak German, and it’s super awkward and shit and maybe Varus is also there and he looks at Arminius like, oh shit I need to protect my boy he’s actually all up in his feels about these wildlings let’s go back to the camp and have a talk, and so the Romans end up leaving and the “Germans” are like “wait, was that... could it have been.. remember lil Ari who you gave up... but it couldn’t be...” and meanwhile the beaten dad doesn’t want to hear any of that because he actually has never dared hope he would see his son again and also he kind of doesn’t want to see him again because he would be too ashamed to meet his eyes.

And then later we see Arminius pacing up and down in his tent because this won’t let him go, even after he had a talk with Varus, and after some agonizing he steals away in the night to go confront his father (if you want to keep that German mercenary noticing shit, have him notice that). And then we see the father in his hut and everything is quiet and we are waiting for Arminius to show up because we know he’s on his way. But we don’t know whether he wants to talk to his father or just kill him in revenge for the trauma he’s caused him. You’d show the dad and if it were a good actor, you could see so much in his unrest, maybe despite not wanting to think that that guy could be his son, he kind of knows in his heart that it must be and he’s unsettled and whatnot and then we hear someone outside the door and the door opens and there stands Arminius in a cloak and there’s none of that ridiculous music that wants to scream “epic” but falls way short. Have it be quiet. Have Arminius enter and pull back the hood and they just look at each other. And the dad looks like he wants to hug him but he doesn’t move. And Arminius looks like he wants to murder him but he actually moves to sit down, all the while they keep an eye on each other because who knows, they might actually end up murdering each other. That’s the kind of confrontation you need with a reunion like this jfc. And then they talk and it’s an important scene and I’m not going to write it all out but I hope y’all know what I mean.

I feel like you’d have to rewrite this whole show to actually give the character drama the weight that it needs and deserves because what’s happening in the show is dramatic af but you wouldn’t know because it’s so unbelievably stupidly written. I CANNOT believe that when Arminius is back in the village, he’s standing around with Thusnelda and Folkwin in a field as if they’re catching up at a high school reunion. “So, how’s it been?” “My name is now Arminius lol” “You’re kidding lol” ... uhm hello ??? Is this show a meme or...???

Actually as a last thought, I would have kept Arminius’ mother alive and killed his dad. His dad is irredeemable. He gave him away. But if we assume that he never had a substitute mother, then meeting his mother again (who was against giving him away) would make for much more interesting scenes and would also have a much stronger impact on Arminius. I’ll stop now but I just wanted to note how much I hate the writing on this show and everything it chooses to be. Thanks.

#anonymous #ask #reply #barbarians spoilers #barbarians meta #tv: barbarians #txt #i feel like there is so much more to say #actually the show would need to be rewritten from scratch to be either a good character drama or a good period drama or both #forget my fix here #you can't fix stupid #the whole motivation for arminius' betrayal would need to be revamped #with an eye towards the ways in which it has been misused #in history #but at the same time the story DOES need to be told from his POV imo and it's not here and that's the biggest issue #the conflict within the Roman army would have made for the most intriguing approach #and all that childhood sweetheart bs has to go #that was the worst #so soapy and plain bad #can you imagine how amazing it would've been for roman officer arminius to meet germanic princess thusnelda for the first time?#(if she had been written and acted well)#what could have been...#imma cry #(also WHY is varus the actual foster father of arminius instead of just a higher-ranking officer who takes him under his wing #when he joins up bc he takes a liking to the kid? just... aöldjsfaökdjls)

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asksythe · 7 years

Text

FtGoG Snippet: Rated R

Warning: this snippet is rated R. Children, avert your eyes and cover your ears!

She is drowsing in the bath when he comes in. He closes the door gently, takes three steps to sit on the rim of the ivory tub. The water is cold and smelling vaguely of honey and vanilla when it should have been hot. The floor was wet with condensation under his bare feet. It means she has been in here for longer than she should, sleeping deeply from exhaustion. He looks at the clock on the wall. Ten til eight, it tells him. Through the window, the moon is up. Pale gold light streams from the wooden frame, dusting her naked shoulders with a wash of diamond dust.

He touches her with the barest gesture. She stirs awake, sleepy eyes blinking before focusing on him.

“Oh…” he hears the surprise in her voice and fights the urge to smile.

“You’ll be late,” he says as he pushes the button to drain the tub.

“Oh!” This time, there is the tint of panic as she looks at the clock, jerks. The meeting with the satellite town representatives is at 8:30. In a day where her schedule runs from 6:30 in the morning to 6:30 at night with maybe an hour and change of down time in between, it’s a bit of an overkill.

“Nobody woke me up?” she moves to get up, but exhaustion drags her limbs and already her eyelids droop. A massive yawn shivers its way through her body.

“I’m going to be late!” she says again, her words slurred with grogginess. “I’m going to be late! Oh! Why did I even insist on this time? I’m going to be late and they are all going to be mad at me.”

For a moment, he watches her flail sluggishly in the tub, amusement and a strange fondness warring in his chest. This silly creature, he thinks, worries about the strangest things. To the people outside this little bathroom, she is goddess. If the Wind Daimyo is mad because she is late to a meeting, even he will be quiet and take it without complaint. Such is the power of the name Higurashi now. But here she is, the divine maiden, on the edge of panicking because she maybe a minute or two late to a meeting with a bunch of second-rate bureaucrats. So what if she is a little late? He should bring her to bed now and order those paper pushers to wait until tomorrow morning.

But he doesn’t. Instead, he reaches into the tub - the cold water soaks right through the sleeves of his Kage robe, not that it matters because unlike a certain somebody, he doesn’t normally bring work home this late - slips one hand underneath her knees and the other behind her back, and with one smooth move pulls her from the bath. She is shivering in his arms, skin prickling from the cold air coming in through the window.

He sets her gently down a sitting stool, takes a fuzzy white towel from the rack, fluffs her dry. Despite the urgency, he works slowly, methodically, as if he has all the time in the world.

Mid-way through it, she gives a half-hearted protest.

“I can…”

But he stops her there. “You can barely stand on your feet,” he says.

Her lips are turning blue from the cold, and he hears the barest rasp in her voice. He is sometimes amazed by the careless abuse she does to herself on a daily basis. But he knows how she will react if he ever mentions it, so he says nothing, instead quietly dapples sweet lotus absolu on her temple and behind her ears and rubs the colors back into her cheeks and pale lips. On a whim, he bends down and press a kiss on her lips.

Then he takes the rose balm from her cabinet and rubs down her extremities. Despite the veritable forest of green life she has grown in and around the village, nothing changes the blistering heat of desert day and the cutting, bitter cold of desert night. That extremes of temperature and environment do terrible things to unprotected skin. Not even the most hardened, the most grizzled and foolhardy of Suna nins ever attempt to brave the outside in only bare skins and clothes, much less a soft, sheltered, little thing like her.

He starts from her fingers, which were blue-tinged and pruned from having been left in the water for too long, then works his way up to her wrists, up to her elbows, up to her shoulders. He traces his fingers on her collarbone, lingering at the dip and the hollow of her throat. She quivers, this time not from the chill in the air.

He feels the beginning of a smile fighting to surface.

Her legs are smooth and near to freezing. He makes a mental note to replace the bathroom flooring with some better heat conducting material before working the warmth back into them. He rubs the balm into the arches of her feet and little toes, traces circles around her ankles, peppers the back of her knees with long, slow strokes. Her supple flesh yields easily under his hands.

And then finally when he is done, when she is rendered clean and dry and warmly fragrant, he leans back, admires his handiwork. In the bathroom low light, she is a glistening thing made of warm, silken flesh and glowing moon dust. Her face is flushed red and she is looking at him with eyes so blue they can melt glaciers and turn hardened men of wars into fools. He takes her right foot into his hand again, brings it up, and kisses the tender place between her toes, in that sweet spot that he knows makes her want to curl up and scream his name with abandon.

And… there it is. A hitch in her voice. A stuttering of breath. It holds the sweetness of honey, the intoxicating sting of wine. Why is it that men can hunger with all their being for such simple, innocuous things? He gazes at her and thinks of all the things he can do… all the things he can do to her. He thinks of taking her into him, of drinking her sweet breath from her mouth, greedily gulping it all up because it’s all for him, it’s all his and nobody else’s. He thinks of drowning in her…

She leans into him, calls his name in a voice that all but loudly announces that all thoughts of making it to the meeting with the bureaucrats on time have fled her head for the moment.

Ah… the benefit and folly of youth. So eagerly the fire is lit, so easily it is teased and brought out to play. But that he has the same thing…

He leans close, hears her breath quickening in anticipation, and… flicks her on the nose. Then he withdraws and, without bothering to hide the amusement in his voice, says.

“You’re going to be late if you keep dawdling… Miko-sama. What will those representatives say?”

He stands up as she gapes at him in shock, turns his back to her, walks out the door, and closes it with a muted click. On the other side, he stalls for a second and listens. He doesn’t have to wait long. Soon enough, he hears a frustrated noise that quickly builds into a shriek.

“You…!” he hears her through the door, hears the naked frustration squirming in her voice. “... you BASTARD!!!”

He doesn’t fight the smile that breaks wide open on his face when he leaves.

A/N: how many brains did I fry with that little morsel up above?

Anyhow, this snippet is just a snapshop of the relationship between... well... our Miko and our Kazekage during the 3 year time skip right after the end of arc 2 (which is yet to come). At this point in their relationship, they have become very comfortable with each other, not at all like how it is in the beginning.

Well, needless to say, Kagome doesn’t get much done in the meeting following this... incident. Rasa, on the other hand, spots a vaguely smug smile the entire day after.

This snippet really doesn’t hold much if any significance in terms of advancing the plot. Most likely I won’t feature it in the main storyline at all. I merely wish to write it to illustrate a point (and to tease my dear RasaKag shippers that seem to have grown in number lately).

I don’t do smut. Mostly because I think it’s heavy handed. There are better ways to showcase sensuality and eroticism. If you have to resort to describing the explicit act itself, then you have already failed the erotic part. The pleasure is in the tease, in the wanting and the waiting, not in the instant gratification.

#From the Garden of Gods #Excerpt

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