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stardustizuku · 3 months

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Unfortunately I came across a very strange and misinformed video about Black Butler.

It’s not good. Don’t watch it. Unless you wanna ruin your day, in which case have fun.

Despite it all, I watched it. What left me wondering, however, was how off the mark the person who made the video was on, well, everything.

From their insistence that the Book of Circus Arc theme or point is non existent, to reading Ciel’s character so badly they genuinely thought the Green Witch Arc did nothing for his character development.

While baffled, it also made me think on how someone could read Black Butler so badly.

Sure, you can say that there’s no real way to read or interpret something “in the wrong way” but interpreting The Hunger Games as a pure battle-royale action story would make you believe it’s bad.

“Why are we focusing so much on how the capitol preps them?” Or “Why isn’t Katniss winning everything?” Or “I wanna know more about the rebellion” All questions that miss the actual point of the story - which is criticizing (not solving or ignoring) the way that media distracts us from violence via spectacle.

The same thing applies here. While there is no “right” way to consume media, there’s things that the author makes clear they wanna focus when creating a story. Things that, if you understand, make the story you’re reading actually make sense.

And in Black Butler there’s three things that you have to understand to properly get what Yana is saying.

Sebastian is the protagonist

Ciel and Sebastian’s relationship IS the story.

And that relationship is, fundamentally, a positive one.

A quicker version of it would be:

Black Butler is a love story from the POV of Sebastian, and you have to ship it to get it

- but that’s not entirely true.

You can still look at it as a complex but ultimately positive rship and get in broad strokes of what it’s conveying. It doesn’t have to be romantic. Although, it helps much more than a platonic framing.

(That said, interpreting their rship as father and son, still isn’t the best way to go about it. Mostly because by its very nature of “soul consuming” their relationship is extremely sexually charged. And hey, if you’re into that I don’t judge. However, if you’re desperately trying to interpret their rship as NOT romantic to the point you fall back on heteronormative patriarchal ideals of nuclear familiar as framing device, I don’t think this interpretation bodes with you)

Now, having all that ground work:

Why do I say these are the key components to understand BB?

Okay so, first,

1. Sebastian is the Main Character. The protagonist.

There’s a lot of people who wanna argue against it, claiming he’s either the villain or the antagonist. Both wrong.

He does not function as an antagonist. Even if, and an emphasis on if, you consider Ciel to the protagonist, Sebastian isn’t a narrative antagonist.

If you wanna go back to Creative Writing 101, be my guest. An antagonist is directly defined by the protagonist. It’s the opposing force. If the protagonist wants A, the antagonist wants to stop them from getting A.

Sebastian’s catchphrase is “Yes, my Lord”. He never opposes Ciel, in fact quite the contrary. By the mere fact they’ve created contract, it means that they’ve both agreed in the inevitable outcome.

People want to frame Sebastian as the villain, because Ciel having his soul taken by a demon, would be a BAD END in the context of their moral compass. They see Ciel as a frail victim of abuse, who’s being tricked by Sebastian, who wants Ciel’s soul.

Which is an. Interpretation. A bad one. But still one.

The narrative (and whether the narrative fits your personal moral compass and lack of critical thinking is irrelevant) treats Ciel as an agent in his own destiny. The abuse he suffered was the moment in which he had no control. It’s only after he meets Sebastian that he can rid of both his guilt and his despair, and do what he wants.

In this case though, it’s revenge.

The famous “Asthma” scene shows this. If Ciel is taken back to his past, he becomes helpless. Swarmed with pain and memories that make it so that he can’t even react. Sebastian is his saving grace. If Ciel didn’t have him, and the power he wields to rebuilt what’s broken, he would crumble once more.

If Ciel has a panic attack, because of all the pain he has, Sebastian picks him up and says “you are not a helpless child anymore, you are not a victim anymore, you have the power to do anything. So, what do you wanna do?”

Ciel’s answer is to kill them.

A proper analogy would be to say that, if Sebastian offers a gun, Ciel pulls the trigger. They are both at fault. Sebastian, strictly speaking, is not here to directly cause Ciel’s downfall, but as a tool Ciel uses to plunge into the abyss.

If, again if, you were to frame Ciel as a protagonist, Sebastian falls closer to the “Voice of reason” character. Not a literal voice of reason, but a literary one. If you have a protagonist and an antagonist exchanging ideals, the Voice of Reason serves to engage with the protagonist on their own ideals.

That said, Ciel isn’t the protagonist. The story quickly falls apart if you interpret it as such.

Things such as Ciel’s character arc being…shall I say odd?

It’s not that his character arc isn’t there, but it’s never lineal. His goals stay the same, the only thing that happens is that we start to peel back the “why”s of his goals. Throughout the series it’s never about Ciel understanding himself better, he knows who he is, he knows what he wants, he knows why he wants it. He doesn’t ever need to uncover these, but simply remember them. Because it’s always about the audience understanding Ciel.

He knows he wants revenge.

In the Circus Arc: He knows that he needs Sebastian because without him, the pain of the abuse he suffered would be too much to bear. But WE are introduced to it.

In the Book of Atlantis: He knows that with this new lease he does not want happiness and peace, he wants revenge. The one being told this is the audience.

In Green Witch Arc: He knows that their revenge isn’t for his family, the real Ciel or guilt. It’s because he wants it. He’s angry, he’s upset, and this is entirely for him. The one being told this is the audience.

Except. Not really. The one either discovering or remembering these key moments - is always Sebastian.

Sebastian is the one who reassures him that he now holds the power of a demon to override the pain. Sebastian is the one who remembers that to override that pain, Ciel wants revenge. And Sebastian is the one who discovers that that revenge isn’t built out of grief or guilt, but for himself.

We are witnessing it all, through the eyes of Sebastian.

This is why we have an extremely vague idea of who Ciel is, Sebastian does not have the whole picture.

If you haven’t been reading this manga with your eyes closed, you’ll realize we have a better grasp at Sebastian’s character than that of Ciel. We get a lot of insight on how he thinks and what he values through light hearted dialogue he has with the servants. You even see the character development in these little interactions.

Think about how when he first arrived to the mansion he magically created food with no regards to taste, but when he meets Bard he states that food is created to see whoever will eat it, smile.

That is character development, more than you will be able to see from Ciel.

Because Ciel’s character, while not static, doesn’t go from point A to point B. Mostly, cause it doesn’t need to. He went through that when he lost the real Ciel and got Sebastian. Everything we are watching is the falling out.

Now, given the fact that I’ve told you that it makes more sense for Sebastian to be the protagonist/main character, and that he 100% isn’t either a villain or antagonist in ANY of the interpretations you can get:

Do you believe me?

If you don’t, you’ll probably believe Yana herself.

This is from the first Volume, where Yana herself describes the process of making Black Butler. The primary idea behind the creation of BB was a butler as a “hero”.

If you go back to the introductory chapter, you notice that Ciel is barely mentioned. He’s simply the one to give Sebastian impossible tasks and standards that Sebastian must find how to overcome.

Ciel is properly introduced until the NEXT chapter. The second chapter has this formula too, introducing Lizzie as a problem to overcome. Although, to Sebastian the best way to “get rid of the problem” is simply to indulge her.

The issue here being that the problem isn’t as simple as a business meeting but something directly tied to Ciel and Ciel’s past. Each time that Sebastian has to solve a problem, it chips away at Ciel. While with Lizzie he shows a persona, once he’s alone with Sebastian he acknowledges the toll it took on him. It serves to build Ciel as Sebastian’s master, and how some problems aren’t as simple as discarding a tablecloth.

The third and the fourth, are a unified narrative, with a similar premise to the first chapter. Ciel gets kidnapped and Sebastian must find a way to retrieve him without raising suspicions.

If the first chapter is to set up what Sebastian must do as a butler, the third and the fourth serve to set up what he must do as a demon.

The entirety of the volume, and up to Book of Circus Arc, is about how Sebastian tries to follow the increasingly absurd orders that Ciel has - it is not about Ciel trying to solve them.

That’s how they work, we follow Sebastian for the most part, because he’s the one having to come up with the solutions.

If anything, in early Kuro, where the emphasis was more on a slice of life conflict, Ciel is the antagonist. He’s the one creating problems for Sebastian to solve.

What’s more, in the second volume, the very first chapter is one from Sebastian’s POV. So far, we hadn’t gotten an entire chapter from Ciel’s POV. In fact, I would find it hard to point to a single chapter where Ciel is the POV throughout. The reveal of real Ciel and the flashback is the closest contender.

But once we move past early Kuro, and into Book of Circus, this set up changes.

It’s fairly easy to assume that Ciel is the main character, because from this point on the conflict of the plot sorta surrounded him. We spend a lot of time with him and with his story. The enemies start being people directly tied to Ciel and Ciel’s trauma. Rarely, if at all, we get to see Sebastian before he met Ciel.The framing device for the story, is Ciel.

This is where point 2 gets intertwined.

2.- Sebastian and Ciel’s relationship IS the story.

The story begins at the point where Sebastian and Ciel met. Who Ciel was before he met Sebastian, informs why he’s the way he is when he does. You have to know all he went through to understand why he’s a brat, why he lashes out. However Sebastian’s past doesn’t matter…because Sebastian himself doesn’t care much for who he was, before he was “Sebastian”. That’s also part of the narrative.

Unlike Ciel, he doesn’t seem opposed to revealing information from before the contract. He talks about how pets from where he is from are gross, he talks about how he knows how to dance because of other places he’s been to, and alludes to the life he's lived before.

Just that, to him, they're footnotes.

He makes allusions to a very bland, uninteresting life, up to the point he meets Ciel.

That’s why we don’t know more about his past.

As for why we focus on Ciel’s story…okay maybe we need Creative Writing lessons 102

I studied Dramaturgy for about 3 to 4 years. And something you notice is how play-writing is the quintessential story telling. It’s making it work with the bare bones of a story.

Some other mediums have more finesse, more depth, or more spectacle - all amazing things that work for whatever they’re created for. But understanding a play, how and why it works, helps understand the fundamentals of any derivative story telling medium.

Particularly, conflict.

Conflict is dialogue and dialogue can take many forms. A story, in its essence, is a dialogue between two opposing ideas.

Take Batman, for example, who embodies the ideas of justice and order. On his own, he’s not a well rounded character.

If you ONLY present him, in a vaccum with nothing else, you don’t have a character. You have a list of characteristics that you’re supposed to know.

You only know who he is when you have dialogue with another character.

I say Dialogue, but it doesn’t necessarily mean spoken language at one another. Dialogue can mean fist fighting, playing tabletop games, talking to other people about the other, or even just a competition. The idea is to simply to compare and contrast both ideas.

If you want an example on how tabletop games serve as dialogue, watch the video “Well, Someone Had to Explain the Liar’s Dice Scene” by Lord Ravecraft

Another example, were we to retake Batman, you have him fight Joker. Who’s the embodiment of chaos and randomness.

In the following picture, you get far more information than the one previously shown. While the Joke fights with daggers and fake guns, Batman only uses his fists. He doesn’t use the tricks that Joker does. His serious demeanor, contrasted with Joker’s glee at the dangerous situation. The fact that Batman has a deathly grip on Joker’s shirt, while the Joker doesn’t, which shows a desperation to catch him.

You are being shown, through a dialogue, who Batman is.

It’s so much easier and much more effective to explore a character through another character.

This is the reason why Shonen has a tendency to make incredibly good gay ships. If you want to explore Naruto’s personality, and his feelings of inferiority, you HAVE to have him interact with Sasuke.

If you wanna understand Hinata’s passion for volleyball, you have him enjoy himself the most with the only other crazy motherfucker who’s as obsessed with volleyball - Kageyama.

And I think that originally, Yana had this problem.

Sebastian was the protagonist, but she had little room to develop him as a character in the confines of the manor, dealing with random enemies.

She likely tried to create Grell as someone of the same stature as Sebastian. Someone who could be this other person to engage dialogue with and show or allude to his past a bit more.

The problem being that Sebastian didn’t care for his past. Or really, engaging with anyone. He sees everyone as below him, but when confronted with Grell who isn’t below him, he doesn’t wanna talk to her.

So you’re stuck in conundrum.

How do you have dialogue with a character, that as a character trait, doesn’t really wanna have dialogue?

Well, Grell also solves the problem. Because only the moment she gets him to start any semblance of a dialogue - is questioning why he’s serving Ciel.

And this is the moment when it’s perfectly cemented that the focus of the story is their relationship.

Why is Sebastian here? Why does he stay? What did he see in Ciel that made him want this extremely convoluted contract?

THATS the dialogue.

THATS the conversation we’re having in Black Butler.

We need to know Ciel because understanding who he is, let’s us know WHY /Sebastian/ is here.

Then slowly, with the introduction with the Undertaker, we find out Sebastian’s conflict.

Which is…

He’s scared of losing Ciel. It becomes apparent with the constant imagery of the Undertaker taking away Ciel and at some point even obtaining r!Ciel’s body, that he’s worried it might happen.

But he can only be worried that Ciel might be taken away if he wants to stay near Ciel.

And that’s his character arc.

Realizing that he actually likes Ciel, cares for him and the role he plays a butler that he doesn’t want this to end.

In the first chapters, he doesn’t feel a need to protect Ciel anymore than what’s strictly necessary. Just don’t die, that’s about as deep as his involvement in chapter 4 gets.

But by the Green Witch Arc, he feels a need to protect Ciel from ANY harm.

This is why I also said

3.- Their relationship is fundamentally a positive one.

In broad strokes, Sebastian to Ciel is the person who allows him to survive. He’s not worried about giving up his soul since he’s already dead. While Ciel to Sebastian, is someone who’s making him have fun. He’s slowly becoming more and more attached to Ciel and the life he has with Ciel.

Their relationship is not that of just a predator and prey, but also of master and pet.

In the terms that Black Butler itself would call: Sebastian is a wild wolf acting like a collared dog.

Ciel is aware that the wild beast will eat him at the end of the day, but if he clings hard to leash for now, he might just be able to have Sebastian maul his abusers.

Sebastian as a dog, currently finds that he enjoys being a chained dog.

(This is demonstrated in the Green Witch arc where he quite literally says, he doesn’t wanna be a wild beast and prefers to be a butler)

And much like the actual DOG Sebastian, Ciel constantly interprets his attempts to get close and protect him, as an act of aggression.

This push and pull of Ciel’s perception of Sebastian and Sebastian’s true motives is what feeds the story.

And the briefs interludes were that isn’t the case (what other people call the “plot”, but I would refer to as the connective tissue) such as Sullivan and Wolfram, the other servant’s past, the grim reapers and the like, serve as a parallel to Ciel and Sebastian relationship. Either to signify how they care for each other, highlight their weaknesses or fears, or explore how they feel.

It’s no surprise that Sullivan and Wolfram are parallels to Ciel and Sebastian. A sheltered sickly child who seeks the protection of a cold hearted machine that only knew how to kill, but who eventually found he cared for her genuinely.

Undertaker and Claudia’s relationship being heavily paralleled with them, even though we aren’t 109% sure what they had but heavily implied it was a romantic attraction from the undead supernatural creature and a Phantomhive.

Everything is a parallel.

That’s why, like the approach of the terrible original video, is flawed.

Trying to interpret Black Butler as action scene after action scene, with mystery after mystery with the only connective tissue being the mystery of who burned down the mansion - is missing the trees for the forest.

That’s not the point.

And if you’re too much of a prude to engage with gothic horror in its gothic horror game, I see little point as to why you even bother to engage with it at all.

A lot of people, including the person who create the video, simply refuse to acknowledge Black Butler IS the story of Sebastian and Ciel as a close and positive relationship, romantically and sexually charged. The reason for it being that they’re “put off” by it.

Part of me wonders how much that is genuinely true, and how much is just performative outrage. It’s like ignoring the fact that Cersei and Jami are in an incestous relationship and try to frame it as “platonic love”, because the idea of it is THAT off putting.

But regardless of that, if you don’t like the fact that it’s as canon as canon can get, I would reccomend you don’t engage with the story at all.

As I’ve explained, the entirety of the series is about them. If you refuse to see Sebastian and Ciel as, at the very least, a duo that cares deeply for the other - you aren’t reading Black Butler.

I have no idea what you’re reading.Perhaps your own biases and subconscious stigma with British aesthetic. At that point, watch the fucking British Royalty Gossip Magazine. You’d find more substance there.

Just don’t be like the person in the video, please? Don’t play dumb. Don’t ignore the fact that Yana is a Shotacon, don’t ignore the fact Sebastian is a hero, don’t ignore the fact that the entirety of the story is based on Sebastian and Ciel’s dynamic.

Because if you do, you are ashamed. You are ashamed of what this story is about. You don’t wanna engage with the text, you want to engage with yourself. You wanna project into Ciel whatever traumas and experiences you have, for the sake a vanity project, where you come out as the morally superior.

You don’t wanna talk about Black Butler, you wanna talk about how good YOU are. How you “don’t sin” by watching it “without all the gross unholy stuff”.

Which is the exact opposite of what BB is about.

So, if you don’t want to, save us all the humiliation fetish and leave.

#Kuroshitsuji #black butler #sebaciel #essay #loli speaks

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astrojulia · 10 months

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PAC - How to improve your sleep

Navigation: Masterlist✦Ask Rules✦Feedback Tips

Askbox✦Sources✦Paid Readings

DISCLAIMER. These general free readings are made in good faith for entertainment purpose.

How to pick a pile

The pick a pile order is Pile 1 - Pile 2 - Pile 3. When you have different cards to choose from in pile 1,2,3… look at each of those cards. Wait until someone reminds you of a memory. Perhaps a character’s outfit resembles one of your own. It is this pile that has its message. What if they all remind me of something? Go for the one with the strongest memory, one might look like her earring but another might be the favorite candy you got from your grandma when you vacationed at her house. But what if none reminds me of something? Take a deep breath and wait a little longer, without charging yourself or creating worries. Relax, some will awaken some memory in you, I promise!

Pile 1 - Cinnamoroll

(King of Pentacles - Temperance - Six of Swords - The Lovers - Five of Swords)

Your nocturnal habits are the ones you love the most in your entire day. You naturally love to sleep and have recently added ways to improve your nighttime ritual, such as skincare, reading a book, meditating, and taking a nice shower… anyway. We can say that sleeping is even your hobby.

Are you feeling disconnected with your sleep because sleeping is something to be calm and natural? You can't force it (I'm not talking about drugs, okay), and the lack of control stresses you out a bit. You love to sleep, but you're the type of person who takes a long time to fall asleep and would like it to be faster, but unfortunately, it is not possible.

To improve your sleep, let's remove what's disturbing you on the way – which is the cell phone and electronic things... It's no use doing a ritual that, in the end, you'll spend 2 hours on a cell phone screen. The basics are useful for a reason...

"But you don’t understand…" Yes, I understand that you must be talking to your crush/boyfriend before bed, or you keep thinking about her for hours and creating scenarios in your head. Okay, do it with your eyes closed and in the dark; sleep is VERY necessary for our life as a whole. You need to know that the next day that person will still be there. You are responsible for the events in your life; do not allow other people or unexpected situations to influence your decisions.

Herbs you can use to help with your nightly ritual: Orange and Onion.

Pile 2 - Pompompurin

(Queen of Pentacles - Six of Cups - Seven of Swords - High Priestess - Seven of Wands)

Sleeping is something refreshing for you, but you can't do it 100% because this struggle is for parents of children (so yes… if you are not a parent, it will be difficult for you to identify, please choose another struggle). You're a person who benefits a lot from sleeping, who enjoys doing it, but you've been a light sleeper for a long time because you need to be constantly aware of your surroundings, checking if someone else is okay.

The reason for your difficulty sleeping is clear: children… You're either watching over them, or when you finally fall asleep, someone wakes you up to attend to something. This gradually undermines good sleep, and there isn't much to do about it.

What I can give you as tips now is to make a “tent/fort” for the children to sleep inside (I don't know how to write it, but that would be it). Also, take advantage of the naps that the children take during the day to get some rest yourself. Remember, “ah, but what about the house?" – Well, look, you're sleepy, and the mess will still be there when you wake up. Prioritize rest.

The feeling that may be undermining you is that with each decision, you ask yourself if you are being a good mother/father. You know… you will be criticized by everyone, by people outside, and even by your own children when they grow up. No one will understand your efforts, but you can, so you need to create more confidence in the whole process you are going through and stop second-guessing every decision you make. Energies need to be renewed, cycles close for others to begin, with vigor and vitality. Accept with gratitude the changes that the Universe proposes.

Herbs You Can Use to Help with Your Nightly Ritual: Fennel and Pomegranate.

Pile 3 - Pochacco

(Strength - Three of Swords - Two of Pentacles - Knight of Cups - Two of Wands)

Your sleep is complicated because your body wants to rest, but your mind is racing. You don't stop thinking; your reasoning is quick and very useful in everyday life, but not at bedtime. You are also a person who is more disconnected from your own body; you can be tired mentally but not physically, and vice versa, and this interferes with your bedtime. It seems that when you put some effort into creating a sleeping habit, it doesn't work.

We also can't erase the sentimental part that disturbs your sleep; all the feelings you had during the day are processed at night. Memories of the past cause tightness in the chest, a storm in the mind, thinking about what you could have done, crying, and creating new arguments in your mind. Often, you sleep because you are mentally exhausted.

What can really help you is to put all your plans that you think about at bedtime on a scale to know which ones are just delusions before going to sleep, and what can work out. Do a real planning of the things you can or cannot do to put everything into practice. You are a mental person, and you think a lot, but you are also a procrastinator. You will sleep much better knowing that you did all your responsibilities that day. You can do it!!

Now entering a more intimate part, many of the negative feelings that you have before bedtime are the feeling of rejection and exclusion, of people not accepting your feelings and your most intimate needs. That is why you feel that people do not accept who you really are. This most intimate part needs to be resolved, and it will be resolved when you leave things behind – all the past where you were rejected – and try once again with passion to live your life being yourself. Passion arrives to ward off fears and warm the heart with an extra dose of enthusiasm. The act of falling in love brings motivation and freshness to life, whether for someone, for yourself, or for something new that begins.

Herbs you can use to help with your nightly ritual: Snake plant and Mugwort.

(CC) AstroJulia Some Rights Reserved

#astrojulia #astrology #witchblr #astroblr #astro community #witch community #all about tarot #divination #tarot reading #free reading #tarot witch #tarot readers of tumblr #pick a card #pick a pile #tarot pick a card #pick a card reading

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sharptoothed-gaze · 21 days

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Rant about qsmp management below:

After reading the testimony of the ex-head writer of the qsmp and other past admins I’m so confused. Like,, who the fuck was the one making calls saying “this specific task has to be done within a day” out of nowhere???

For what purpose?? It makes zero sense to me how you could require /any/ team to come up with so many assets so quickly when the head writer, designers, social media accounts, AND translators all had no clue what they were ultimately going to be used for. Where the fuck was the crunch coming from? There isn’t a rule saying mc servers must have a rushed event every specific number of days, so nothing /had/ to be done this way.

I’m just so fascinated by the short sightedness of this system?? Especially because these dates and deadlines were made up entirely internally. Fans didn’t make up when Purgatory /must/ go live. The social media accounts were only told about the event a bit before us, much to their panic and confusion. Then, that sudden announcement results in fans getting excited for a new event, all while the head writer was being told they had a day to write scripts for everything. I’m so confused how a project could so consitantly create its own issue. Workers were clearly suffering this way and for no reason. A basic level of scheduling, a simple calendar, would fix this. Hell just put dates on the discord server in a shared channel only used for announcements so people can see.

This entire failure is something so solvable too which is probably what gets me! Like wtf, person at the top of the pyramid, you’re the one making the rules?? The dates are what you make them to be higher ups! Nothing was stopping the decision makers from pushing their expectations back a bit and giving people even just a week to work.

This entire thing reads like a non-creative with zero management experience being in charge of the project. That’s the only way I can wrap my head around someone thinking script writing, modeling, and website design could happen /consistently/ within a few hours notice.

That’s the kind of opinion my mom would have about anything art or creativity related. It’s disheartening as fuck when someone essentially thinks you press a button and then you just instantly spit out work. It shows that they don’t understand the time and effort required to make something good.

Such a blatant lack of understanding or appreciation like that grinds my gears. No matter how you cut the cake, after a certain point it shows an unwillingness to care and a lack of respect. WHICH SUCKS BECAUSE THIS IS A CREATIVE PROJECT!!! The qsmp /required/ a high level of care about these fields if they wanted to maintain the image they had.

—-

Anyway, I know this is a negatively skewed rant and it’s very frustrating, but I want it to be clear that Creatives will always deserve better. Everyone deserves better than a manager who doesn’t understand/give a shit about their craft. If that is the case, they at the very least, need to hire someone who does.

#y’all let me know if these needs other tags #It is pretty much a frustrated rant about management #which I understand not everyone wants to read #dispite this all I love you qsmp community and admins #I see your work and I appreciate it daily #qsmp #qsmp discourse #qsmp neg #qadmins situation

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highfantasy-soul · 3 months

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Ok, here's my breakdown of Jessie Gender's video on NATLA. I decided not to post this as a comment on the video because I just don't feel like it would be productive, but I needed to refute the points she was making as she's a quite respected (at least, I really respect her opinions on things) video essayist and I felt like this video was...wild.

So, I guess it's best to just watch along with her video and read my commentary side-by-side because I don't give much context for my points, this is just a stream-of-consciousness style response.

To be perfectly clear - this is not intended to be a 'hate post' about her, this is just me feeling very strongly that the interpretations of things she had in her video needed to be talked about and another perspective given.

I shift from saying 'you' to 'Jessie' like halfway through (when I decided not to post this as a comment) but I don't feel like going through and changing all those, so yeah, just ignore it.

1) you insulted a martial arts kata as 'a mildly choreographed dance' - it shows a complete lack of understanding of other cultures and a desire to take a quick dig at something you didn't like in a way that insults a cultural practice. I really didn't expect to hear that sort of comment from you so it was pretty jarring when you said it. Ironically, you say that Sokka was wrong to assume the Kyoshi warrior's kata was a 'dance' because that's 'a girl's place' when...you literally made the same insult with not a hint of recognition just a few minutes earlier about a movie you didn't like…

2) I felt that the live-action really deepened a lot of the themes from the OG - take Iroh's storyline for example, fleshing out Suki's character so she's...you know, her own character and not just there to teach Sokka a lesson, and delving into how hard of decisions you have to make during a century long war. Idk, I'm just really curious as to how you felt quite literally the polar opposite of me

3) Sokka's sexism: the animated show handled it one way, but Sokka's treating women as 'less than' wasn't a core part of his character - in all honesty, it doesn't actually make any sense as he was raised by Hakoda (who we never see being sexist), Gran Gran (who left the NWT due to its sexism), and was surrounded mostly by older women. The sexism storyline in the cartoon was to teach a very blatant lesson to kids "don't be sexist, boys!" while the live-action made Sokka's struggles much more realistic and in line with the world building: he struggled with non-traditional masculinity and if he was 'allowed' to be that way while they were at war. For me, it's a much more important message for young men today than the very dated 'women can fight, too!' message that was needed in the early 2000s. It's very odd to me how you claim that Sokka always taking charge isn't ever challenged when...in literally the scene you're showing when you say that, Katara challenges him.

4) I'm sorry, but I cannot possibly see how Suki is her own person more in the animated version than in the live-action. She was literally created solely to teach Sokka a lesson and have no character traits other than 'I'm a strong woman warrior' where 'woman' means 'I like romance' rather than...I'm a whole person with my own wants and desires and fears that have nothing to do with a love interest as is shown in the live-action. You keep comparing the animated and live action as though they were trying to tell the same story about Sokka's journey with his role in the world, but they weren't. Of course Suki's attitude toward him is going to be different, of course he's not going to need to tell her 'you're right, I'm a dumb, terrible man, pretty please could you teach me', because it's a different dynamic they're going for in the live-action.

5) When Sokka pinned her in their lesson in the live-action idk how you got that she was 'demuring herself' to Sokka? Just as in the cartoon, he managed to get the upper hand - which she promptly took back, teaching a lesson along the way. She didn't make herself less so Sokka could feel secure in his masculinity - it's a bit odd you feel that showing respect to someone and helping them learn is 'demuring yourself'. I much prefer them respecting each other than the animated version of them seeing each other as less than and then...her giving him a kiss to prove 'see, I'm a romance-loving girl, too'.

5) To me, Suki beating Sokka in the live-action when the first sparred wasn't her being mean, it was her not understanding how much less experience Sokka had fighting - she genuinely thought he would be able to hold his own against her because he had told her he was the best warrior in his tribe. Her face clearly shows 'I have no idea what I did wrong - I thought that type of sparring is what everyone did for fun, why was he uncomfortable with it?' Not really sure why you made the connection that us seeing Sokka's abs was meant to indicate that his insecurities are unfounded when...literally the whole season shows us that Sokka's struggles aren't "end goal = big strong warrior" but rather "you don't have to be a big strong warrior to help, you are allowed to delve into other aspects of who you are and those are just as important". Just because he has muscles, also doesn't mean he's a competent fighter - those two things aren't the same.

6) It feels like you took certain scenes and made wildly left-field interpretations of them and then claimed that that's what the show was intending you to take from it. It's like saying that the scene that cuts from Sokka saying he bets Momo tastes like chicken and cutting to the scene that shows people cooking meat actually means the showrunners are saying Sokka is going to cook and eat Momo this season and that will then give him the powers of the Avatar. It's very clearly not what the showrunners were saying, but if you interpret it in the least forgiving way and then make a wild leap off that, then yeah, you might get upset with that made-up interpretation. Same with the reasons they didn't put Sokka in the Kyoshi outfit - there is 0 evidence of them nixing that part due to transphobia. I didn't see it as any malicious intent, just a streamline of the plot so Sokka doesn't have to go change before running away on Appa.

7) I feel that the live-action DOES challenge the Fire Bender's colonialist rhetoric in the Kyoshi Island episode, but the animated...doesn't? At all? It's solely about girl power - and as we see with Azula and all the women fire nation soldiers, the fire nation doesn't seem too caught up in sexism. You know what they are caught up in? Which you mention? Bender supremacy. And that's what the live-action directly addresses with Sokka being so surprised that Suki is able to hold her own so well even though she isn't a bender. He's seen just how powerful benders are (they destroyed his home, killed his mom, and beat his ass last episode) and it's in line with the worldbuilding that he feels like he's already several steps behind in being a good enough warrior because he doesn't have bending (a storyline that isn't brought up until an episode in season 3 of the animated show). To me, the live-action Kyoshi storyline refutes the Fire Nation's imperialistic themes much better than the animated show does.

8) The live-action's lesson wasn't that might makes right - Suki never did any strength training exercises with Sokka, she taught him how to control his body and use his opponent's strength against them. Fight smarter, not harder. Know what you're fighting for, not just that you want to fight. Even if you don't have the resources of your opponent, it doesn't mean you're doomed from the start. That last one is particularly poignant when we look at how much stronger the Fire Nation is than the other nations they're subjugating: it's the classic 'oppressed rising up against their oppressors and not winning because they just punched harder, but because they used what they had to fight for a righteous cause and didn't just give up because the other side was more powerful'. That's quite directly what the live-action was saying - the exact lesson you thought it should be saying. You have to do some serious extrapolating from the animated episode to get to those themes while the live-action drew that concept up to the forefront immediately.

9) Aang's journey to accept his Avatar responsibility and the previous Avatar's enforcing this is directly from the animated series. Like, directly. It's not the live-action show saying 'colonialism good'. Showing the Avatar power wasn't the showrunners saying 'see, this OP is good and cool', it was to show the magnitude of it - something the animated show does too. The live-action does talk about how terrifying and damaging that power is - literally the previous episode has Aang almost toss Katara and Sokka off the mountain and they mention it. Just earlier in that episode, Sokka talks about Aang almost killing them and Aangs major hang up about embracing it is that he might hurt someone. Kyoshi argues that not learning to control it will hurt more people and - y'all, individuals are allowed to have their own views of the power that everyone doesn't have to agree with. What happened to 'make strong characters with flaws in their world view?' did you all of a sudden decide that's NOT actually good writing? So having the Avatar who used her powers liberally, and as the video states, used them maybe too much, telling Aang that he needs to use his own powers a lot is…consistent characterization? Which is then challenged by Roku later as he tells Aang that all the Avatars are different and have different views on the power of the Avatar. Why is Kyoshi's opinions suddenly taken as wholly accurate in representing what the show overall is trying to say? She's giving her opinion to Aang - an opinion that has some truth to it, but also some flaws that Aang will need to navigate on his own journey. Kyoshi and Roku's stories are not compressed all into Kyoshi - only the aspect of Roku taking control of Aang and using his body to fuck shit up in the Avatar state is compressed - not the ideological aspects of it

10) Sokka supporting Katara's fight against Pakku is a culmination of his arc to let go of obsessively protecting her and actually letting her decide her course of action herself - because his arc was different in the show than in the animated series. Trying to say that the reason he told her to kick Pakku's ass didn't fit because he was never sexist wasn't the reason - it WAS a culmination of his arc, you just refused to see it by clinging to the old one.

11) The whole argument as to 'why show genocide' I already made a post about, but to condemn the depiction based on the way you interpret the showrunner's quote is disingenuous. Again, it's taking something and making up a narrative around it so you can feel justified in hating it. It's important to show a culture before they are killed because they deserve to be seen as people, not just martyrs. They had lives. They lived and were happy and had a rich culture. They were not just 'fated to die and be told of in history books'. Genocide is disgusting and hard to watch - it's calculated and brutal. Showing that drives home just how awful the actions of the fire nation are in practice rather than just theory. Yes, the airbenders fighting was 'cool' to see - in the way that all action is 'cool' to see. But no, the genocide wasn't played as 'look at neat fighting!' in the live-action. It was shown as brutal and terrible, horrifying and surprising, and the airbenders didn't deserve what happened to them. It also gives you a direct view of what the fire nation is capable of when they come to the south pole and the northern water tribe: you've SEEN the devastation first hand and you DON'T want to see it again. The threat isn't theoretical, it's very real.

11.5) To take a CHILD'S quote about the sequence being 'so cool' is absolutely WILD to me. GORDON IS A CHILD! No, he's not going to have the most sophisticated and politically nuanced sound bite to say about the action sequence in an interview. HE'S A CHILD! Holy mother of god. To use that to bolster your point that 'that's the way it was intended to be viewed and how everyone is going to view it!' is just…..holy shit. You're taking media interpretation from A CHILD??????? Do you think, if we interviewed a child about the OG show, they'd talk about the fucking colonialism??? How Azula was abused too and didn't deserve her fate?? Or do you think they'd say "The fight between the Fire Lord and Aang at the end was so cool!" Honestly thought Jessie Gender wouldn't try to bolster her interpretation with a quote from A CHILD, but I guess here we are…

12) It's wild that she makes the point that conservatives are incapable of reading deeper than just the surface-level visuals of a story while…she's doing literally the same thing just in the opposite way. The live-action depicted the genocide, therefore they MUST just want to 'cool' visual of firebenders fighting airbenders! There can't be any other things at play here! No story being told whatsoever because all it is is spectacle! That's all I see! Ironically, she's falling into the same trap of not looking deeper at why one might depict the horrors of genocide and the battle against people with no army.

13) Aang actually treats the genocide as more immediate in the live-action than he does the animated show. Most animated episodes, you can forget that it even happened, while in the animated show, it pops up a lot in some unexpected ways like when he's uncomfortable waterbending because Gyatzo had always been his teacher, when he yells at Bumi for making light of the genocide, his desire to get to the north to keep it from happening again, when Zhao proclaims that he can wipe out an entire race of benders and Aang says he knows exactly what that's like, when he constantly stays to help people because 'I couldn’t help my own people, but I can help them'. Not only through Aang, but also through every child in the series - like with the animated show, the live-action shows how kids are shaped by the generational trauma of the war plus the immediate effects of it: Teo ready to fight, Jet making compromises to fight back, Sokka shouldering too much responsibility so young, Katara's trauma around her mother's death and her waterbending, Bumi losing his faith, Zuko and Azula being shaped by their father to be the perfect weapons to continue the war.

14) Interpreting Zuko's comment of 'sometimes the weak can become strong' right after his father mutilated him for showing compassion is not meant to be taken as a thesis that 'Zuko just needs to get better at fighting, this is what the story is saying, I am very smart'. It's showing HIS CURRENT view of the world - the idea that his father has taught him that he needs to be strong and Zuko has bought that and wants desperately to earn his father's love. Zuko's story through the series is showing that 'strength' isn't what his father defines it as (or what Jessie defines it as in her video) but rather it's strength of character - compassion is not weakness, it's strength, and no, that doesn't mean if you have compassion you punch harder.

15) The live-action show makes the Fire Nation MUCH more nuanced than the animated show - we see how Ozai and Azula aren't just maniacal villains, but we see the pain and torment their upbringings deal out to them, and in turn, deal to others. It shows the cycle much more clearly and showing fire nation citizens who disagree fleshes out the culture even more.

16) Jet was much more nuanced in the live-action as he's RIGHT about the mechanist being a spy and the king being lax in his duties. He's created a community of people to try to heal from the harm the fire nation has caused them and he gives actual good advice to Katara, helping her emotionally heal and remember the good aspects of her mother.

17) The argument that 'the live action is trying to ignore the past' is a massively simplified narrative. The live-action is showing Aang stuck in the past, unable to take large steps into the future. Pain, trauma and loss can anchor us in the past - it's HEALTHY to keep moving forward rather than only thinking about the pain in the past (ie Jet's advice to Katara). Aang was continually trying to avoid the genocide happening again while simultaneously trying to get past Avatars to do the big hard work for him. His lesson is not to 'forget the past just live in the now' but rather, don't let fear of what has happened in the past stop you from making a difference in the future. Yes, war is loss and suffering, but if you get paralyzed by not being able to prevent that, the fire nation will just keep marching across the world. It's about not letting the past immobilize you to the point where you stop fighting back against oppression - or getting together with a community to help you fight for fear they'll die just like those in the past did.

17.5) Letting go of the past is a buddhist philosophy that is a lot more complicated than Jessie is making it out to be here. Just as in the animated series, characters can come to realizations about lessons they need to learn while still taking seasons to fully learn the lesson - just because Aang said he's ready to let go of the past doesn't mean he's now ignoring it and all will be smooth sailing. It means he's ready to start taking steps to do that and approach life in a healthier way. It's wild that Jessie took the direct quote "I need to let go of the past to focus on my future" and then states that the show is saying "the character's aren't seeing future possibilities and hope, they're focused on the now" when, quite literally, the quote she just referenced….is talking about building a better future.

18) Then, she references later seasons (Aang in the fire nation school) a lot to indicate that the live-action is ignoring those concepts from the OG when….we're talking about season 1 here - not season 3. Why is the world not allowed to organically grow? Why would you make the argument that 'season 1 didn’t explicitly deal with these concepts that aren't brought up until season 3, so therefore they are ignoring them'?

19) Jessie uses a lot of clips from a Daily Wire (conservative talkshow) guy as if that has anything at all to do with the live-action ATLA. She's trying to draw a line between that ideology and the ideology of the show and I feel like she had to bastardize the NATLA show in order to do that so horribly, her interpretation of the story and themes is completely unrecognizable to what is actually shown on screen.

I usually agree with her takes on media, but this video was not it. Every interpretation she had, I interpreted the scenes/lessons in the exact opposite way and, I believe, I interpreted it closer to what the showrunners intended.

Oh no, i just had a thought: this is The Last Jedi all over again! I saw so many negative interpretations of that movie that I just sat and scratched my head over like "How in the WORLD did you get to that conclusion??" when I thought my own interpretation was just...the obvious way to view the movie. I had no idea my views on it would be so controversial. Here we are again. Time is a flat circle. Life is a meaningless cycle of disappointment and confusion, neverending.

#natla #natla positivity #netflix avatar #netflix atla #this isn't intended as hate to Jessie Gender - only a response to her publicly posted video

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1533-secrets-from-history · 10 months

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Mistakes in the Magnificent Century part III

(title, ranks and traditions)

Some facts might be the same or very similar to the ones in previous parts,but they will be discussed from different angle.

1. Valide Sultan title

As I have spoken in the previous chapters, pre 1520 mothers of sultans were not sultans at all, they were titles as hatuns, though treated with utmost respect. In 1520 as Suleiman the Magnificent ascended the throne, he bestowed the title of Sultan to her mother Ayşe Hafsa, thus making her the first person in the ottoman history to become sultan from slavery. However, for Ayşe Hafsa being Sultan was not the same as the Valide Sultan that we know today. She was sultan yes, and she was the mother, so "Valide" was the proper address,from her children, as it was for every mother in the Ottoman empire, she was registered as "the mother of Sultan Suleiman", therefore in some sense, we can say she was not "Valide Sultan".

The first person,who actually made the "Valide sultan" a thing and officially registered herself was Nurbanu. So, the first Valide sultan with its full meaning was not Hafsa,but Nurbanu, who was registered as Valide Afife Nurbanu Sultan.

2. Haseki Sultan and Hürrem's marriage.

There were more than just several miscon- ceptions about the subject in the show.

First and foremost it was created specifically for Hürrem,so neither Hafsa nor Mahidevran have ever had the title. It also brought another mistake about Hafsa,that I will explain below,but now I will just make clearer how, when and why the status was created.

It was almost definitely created in mid-1534 after the death of Ayşe Hafsa Sultan and was probably legalised by their marriage, which by some sources is mentioned to be in 1533. If this is right, then it would mean, Suleiman married Hürrem before he gave her the status of Haseki and the marriage only freed her,but the most common and for me the most logical version is that after the death of Hafsa Sultan, Suleiman married her and gave her the title.

The death of Hafsa Sultan is a crucial part in the story, nor because she had some kind of objection towards Hürrem or her promotion,but the legal status of Hürrem reached its peak of necessity after her death. As we know, Ayşe Hafsa was a trusted ally and Confidant of uprising Sultan, even during his time as shehzade, so during the campaigns, his mother was the supervisor of the capital and his family, so the sultan could go to war without worrying about what he was leaving behind. However, after Hafsa's death things changed, Süleiman lost beloved mother and most trustworthy person around him, he needed to act immediately,as the campaign was near. He needed someone,whom he could entrust Harem, Family and the capital. His children were little, Sisters(whom by the way he trusted very much) were all married and Hürrem did not have a proper rank. It is said that he also discussed the candidate of high ranking harem servants, one and most promoted one of whom, in my opinion, would have been Gulfem, but he finally found the best possible solution that would affect his empire for centuries. He married Hürrem, gave her the rank of Haseki Sultan and left her in charge of the Harem, Family and the empire.

Hürrem became the first Haseki sultan in history.

Misusage of the title did not and here and there, not only the status and function,but even relevance of achievement was changed here. In the very first episode, Nigar kalfa made it clear that giving birth to a son, was enough to achieve it however, originally only the chosen ones could become Hasekis until its relevance faded during Murad's reign and completely lost exclusivity during Ibrahim's.

Essentially, the original function of haseki sultan was filling the absence of Valide, therefore only Hürrem and Nurbanu can be considered as the "original Haseki Sultans". Later many women were given the status, however the show made it wrong. Mahidevran,Mahfiruz and Halime never held it, however Şevikar, referred as Şevikar hatun in the show, was actually Haseki Şevikar sultan, the fifth Haseki of Ibrahim, three of whom, Ayşe, Mahinerv and Saçbağli, were left out, which is kind of understandable, because they had no importance in plot, unlike Turhan, never became Valide,unlike Saliha Dilaşub and Muazzez and had no influence on Ibrahim,Unlike Şevikar and Humaşah.

Their social standing is also misportrayed in the show, where Haseki ranks below and bows to imperial princesses, while in real life it was the other way around.

3. Daughters of Ottoman Princesses

In the show, we met three daughters of the ottoman princesses: Esmahan,Huriçihan and Humaşah. They are referred to as Sultans,but in real life the daughters of imperial princesses were not called so,instead they had the title Hanimsultan and ranked even below the imperial consorts. The only exception to that was Humaşah, the daughter of Mihrimah Sultan, who received the title and prestige of the Sultan.

4. Harem Kalfa

In the show, they are just giving people the rank left and right. Nigar was already a high ranking, trusted servant of harem,but it turned out that she had only been there for 6 years. Fidan hatun was banished for attacking Sultan,but after a while she returned and became Kalfa, in Kösem melek hatun received rank out of the blue etc.

In real life, however, becoming kalfa was a long process. As we know,there were hundreds or even thousands of girls in the harem,but only a handful of them would become favourites,but what would happen to others? After ten years of being a harem resident some of them would have been transferred from harem and soon married off, some could by freedom, while others, usually the smartest and most responsible ones,would go to a special school that lasted two years, they would revive extensive training, both intellectual and physical, after that they could return in harem as teachers and overseers and if they were good enough they could promote.

There was actually quite a complicated hierarchy of harem servants,not only there were Kalfa's who had duty to supervise certain works like food or laundry(later even coffee),but there were administrative ranks, that they could achieve:

Mistress chief treasurer(Baş Hazinedar usta): she was head of the harem treasury.

Treasurers(Hazinedars): there were other hazinedars as well, who worked in harem treasury. Baş hazinedar usta was their direct superior.

Imperial Kalfa(Hünkar Kalfası): Personal kalfa of the padişah.

Lady stewardess(Kahya kadin/Kethüda Hatun): she ranked below imperial consorts,but her role raised during sultanate of women, when Gülfem and Çanfeda held the office, they were right hand women of Chief Harem managers(Hürrem and Nurbanu) therefore second in command of the Harem.

Senior Kalfa(Büyük Kalfa): Head of Kalfas, she was responsible for literally everything that was happening in the harem, sultans and şehzades treated her with respect and called "my kalfa" or "your grace"

Lady secretary: secretary of administrative organs of harem.

Junior kalfa( Küçük Kalfa): Senior kalfa was their direct superior. They had ranks within( second- ranking, third ranking, novice etc.) They were sometimes teachers and daily overseers.

Çanfeda for example entered the harem with Nurbanu, so in late 1530's or early 1540's. Nurbanu became favourite and went to Manisa, while Çanfeda remained in the old palace, in 1566 she was already a high ranking kalfa in the old palace, when Nurbanu called her. That would mean she was sent to train as kalfa in late 1540's or yearly 1550's, therefore she would have a decade or two to raise in ranks.

5. Princely harem.

In the magnificent century, prince usually gets his harem, whole in Topkapi palace, which is the lie through and through. They went even further and made up with the rule that the prince can not have a child with their concubine until they get their province to rule. Why would they be allowed to have concubines,but not having a child, when contraception is still unreliable.

Actually, their case was far more easier, princes would revive their sanjaks while still very young, their mothers, governesses and close servants would carefully choose their harem and leave the palace with their mother and full sisters. That also brought another mistake in the show. In the flashbacks, we can see Ayşe Hafsa and Hatice visiting Suleiman in Manisa, however Ayşe Hafsa along with Fatma and beyhan left for Manisa with Suleiman in 1512, while Hatice,being 4 years older than Suleiman, got married the same year.

6. Regency

They introduced Kösem's regency as something unheard of,while completely neglecting Handan and Halime.

Handan was the first woman ever to rule as regents in her son's stead. She appointed viziers, discussed political matters and built a trusted circle for her son.

Halime was not officially registered regent but due to the insanity of her son, paşas asked her to rule the state after the rebellion she herself organized.

Kösem's and Turhan's regency is well known, so I will not speak about it.

7. Kösem's wedding

Not exactly the mistake as it is not proven, but as the event is highly unlike, I'll just put it there.

In 1609 it is said that Ahmed had four children with two women,but neither of them were married to him. In the two latters, one form 1612 and other from 1616, the 1612 letter straight out mentions her as sultan's concubine, who he loves the most and in 1616 she is mentioned as juts Haseki,but nothing is said about the marriage( I am not adamant about him not marrying her,I am just saying that it's unlikely, however I admitt she might indeed was concubine in 1612 and after the death of Mahfiruz, Ahmed married her and raised her stipend),however early in Kösem's regency vencians questioned ottoman practice, that mother of sultan was honoured and even given the regency,despite not being married to his father. As we know in Venice and generaly in Europe, source of power for woman was her marriage and not just motherhood. That is a time, when it was "unrevealed" that ahemd married her before he died,(if that latter is to be believed than Kösem and Ahmed did not marry in 1613), now it was actually thought that it was false information used by Kösem to strengthen her position in the eye of Venice as they needed friendly relation with them. That is not widely accepted,but it can be strengthened by the fact that Vencians still did not believe it, so perhaps they knew for sure that it was lie?

8. The death of Halime sultan and Mustafa.

In the show Halime, like many others, is victim of making Kösem seem more powerful, while Mustafa was killed by Murad. In real life, Mustafa died of natural causes, probably because of epilepsy in 1539, he was buried in Hagia Sophia and the coffin was placed in a mosque built for him. Halime is buried next to him and no permission of reburial was asked or granted, therefore Halime was not killed by Kösem, she went to the old palace and lived a long life.

9. 1517-1540

I'll be honest, I don't remember much of those episodes, they were boring and monotonous for me, but what I remember is one part from Kösem's iconic " The state you are talking about is mine" speech. She mentioned that she took over the reins of the state from Ahmed 15 years before the event, well that is a huge lie. Though the show runners tried to make Kösem all powerful, the invincible mastermind behind every single breath people drew in the empire,but she was actually quite powerless from time to time and the period between 1617 and 1623 is one of such. She was still young and inexperienced that time and main powerhouses in the empire were Halime and Osman's faction and she was not the leading force during any of the rebellions, she was allie of Halime, who, according to many historians, had major influence that time and the great impact on Kösem. Some even go as far as claiming that she persuaded Osman to kill Mehmed, so Kösem would take her side.

In short, Kösem did not have reins of sultanate for 15 years,but only about 10.

As I said, I don't remember much about the episodes, but from what I remember, Kösem had something to do with Murad's death. I'll be short on this: that's a lie.

10. Coup of 1648

The show made Kösem something of a filicidal tyrant. However, In real life her tyrannical tendencies appeared only after the death of Ibrahim, which he had nothing to do with. The ones behind the incident were Turhan and her faction. Kösem indeed took part in the Ibrahim's dethronement for the good of everyone,but mainly because she had seen the mad sultan dethroned,but lived. Mustafa had a similar situation,he was dethroned and locked in kafe, while his mother was sent to the old palace, which Kösem was absolutely willing to do. However, Turhan made her move and had Ibrahim executed to get rid of opposition for good, or perhaps because of the old resentment. Things did not go exactly as she had planned though, Kösem became regent and visibly started to avenge Ibrahim's death, it became clear that she was not going to hand over any power to Turhan and after she started to oppose even went as far as attempted dethronement of Mehmed(however she was not going to kill him.)

Therefore the child killing monster the show made her become is straight out a lie. One of her sons died of natural causes and the other was killed by outer forces, that she tried to avenge.

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shoezuki · 12 days

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Ok thinkin of that sampard superhero au i kinda mentioned way before so heres random words bout it cuz its in my head.

Gepard:

Gepard has a lot of prosthetics: his entire right arm and leg, his left foot, either his entire left arm or part of his arm im not sure.

He also has many metallic implants and synthetic organs: his right lung and part of his left, some of his ribs are metal on his right side. His right eye is a cybernetic implant, but looks like a 'normal' glass eye when inactive. His skull is reinforced with steal. Most of it is unknown to everyone but him/serval and lynx

(Likely due to a major incedent when younger: not entirely sure on it yet, but my thoughts is that due to his father's proclivity as a former police chief or current crooked attorney or something, a bomb was planted at their home. Lynx was young and approached it, gepard took the brunt of it to protect her when shoving her out of the way.)

His high tech cybernetics are extremely strong, all but his right arm are mistaken as real limbs (unless you get up close and personal and. Yknow. Tear into his cybernetics) his right arm generates ice and so it is much more visibly a cybernetic

His cybernetics are Extremely draining his body. They charge when he removes them at home, but they also draw power from his still existing/biological nervous system in order to properly send inputs through his nerves and be controlled by him properly. They are FUCKING HEAVY and he becomes exhausted if he wears them too long

Gepard, of course, constantly wears his cybernetics too long and sometimes collapses and falls unconcious under the weight of it

Much of his internal implants and cybernetics were funded by his father. Initially his father was desperate to save his 'only son' but once the full extent of his injuries became more clear, the father dismissed Gepard as a lost cause.

He still used gepard as a way to bolster his public image for a long time though.

Serval developed and created all of his advanced cybernetic attachments, including his eye

His eye operates as an analytical tool, allowing him to record visuals, enhance images, etcetc. As well as it sends live feed to a computer system lynx often operates. She usually communicates with him and assesses the state of his cybernetics while he's doing vigilante work.

Lynx has some burn scars as well

Gepard has no life outside of being a hero. He only really stops and puts on his everyday prosthetics when he pushes himself too far and serval forces him to rest. He lives in the apartment with serval above her workshop

Eventually gepard becomes very, very aware of how much serval is struggling. He tears up his cybernetics constantly and serval is draining her savings to get questionably legal supplies and materials to fix them. Not to mention he feels horrible for 'imposing' and living with her constantly since hes basically been sleeping on her couch for years

Serval argues against it but gepard eventually moves out and gets a night job at a gas station/convenience store. He doesnt stop or slow down with vigilantism though.

Gepards powers are largely super strength and enhanced reflexes. He manifests ice to create shields, barriers, and apprehend people. Serval modified his ice to also create a sort of frost shield around himself and others via touch. (Was an attempt to get gepard to protect himself more. He uses it for others but not himself though)

Hero name? Something like 'The Shield' or 'The Captain' and is given to him by journalists/fans. He doesnt pay attention to how hes seen by the public though

Gepard's 'costume' is extremely simple

Black leather with blue accents, his metallic arm, and a full coverage helment spmewhat like a motorcycle helmet. Its not flashy but people obsess over how 'mysterious' he is

Sampo:

Gepard's 'arch enemy'. One of a number of villains in Belobog that have powers and is absolutely the most elusive one

Is known as 'The Fool'. At one point newspapers kept calling him 'The Tall, Dark, Handsome Blue Magician' for a good couple weeks. No one knows how this kept slippin in right after editing and proofreading. Hes sometimes called 'The Magician' now though

Hes extremely flashy, dressed up like an over the top magician in purples and blues and golds, a checkered domino mask that makes his eyes white and a fucking top hat with feathers on it. the feathers change every time hes seen.

Hes the only current major villain in the city that has never been fully apprehended at any point. He lets himself get handcuffed sometimes or even led into police cars but he always vanishes at some point. Lets gepard get closer than anyone else

His powers are (assumed) to be teleportation, enhanced speed and reflexes, creating illusions, clairvoyance, conjuring objects, persuasion, etc. A lot is speculated due to his illusions

The reality of his powers is. Kinda fucked up. Hes extraordinarily powerful and capable of altering peoples minds and perceptions. He could to an extent make peopel do what he wants and feel certain ways, make them see things, only when he is present/can see the person. He rarely alters peoples minds or makes them do things though because thatd be too easy and really boring.

Some people are inherently more difficult to manipulate/influence to do things, though. Likely to do with mental fortitude and self confidence and how assured people are with themselves.

Sampo is completely incapable of making gepard do or feel things. He doesnt know why and is extremely intrigued by it. (Its the cybernetics.)

Sampos motives for anything he does are... unknown. Sometimes he interferes with other supervillains' exploits, sometimes he trashes cop cars and fills them with paper cranes, sometimes he steals from banks without ever being seen, other times he creates entire complex and showy museum heists without stealing a thing.

(A lot of what he steals actually ends up at nat's clinic, anonymously donated to orphanages or hospitals in the rough parts of Belobog. He volunteers in costume at a few senior homes sometimes and its become so normal no one there blinks an eye anymore or questions when hes bloody)

He has, absolutely, killed before. He has his own moral system, but its not obvious to general people. He never kills or hurts people if he isnt attacked first, but he isnt afraid to kill those he sees as corrupt or immoral, whether cops or other criminals.

Its assumed he heals quicker too, but its not true: he goes to Natasha

Natasha runs a clinic as well as Wildfire, which sampo is a very valuable informant to. Wildfire is an underground organization that essentially acts as the authorities in the Underground of belobog in place of cops.

Natasha doesnt exactly have the ability to heal. Rather, she can accelerate the condition of someones wounds: if she tends to someone first, her power will often heal them. Otherwise she can accelerate infections and cause death. If shes not careful she can make people bleed out in seconds.

Sampo is a conman still outside of being a villain. He carries out scams, forgery, etcetc. He leaves the more flashy and daring things to when hes under a mask

Most of it is that he is just... seeking out some thrills. But he also helps Nat and the people of the underworld, isnt afraid to target people and corporations ruthlessly. A lot of it is selfish, though. Hes quick to put on the mask and track down people whove wronged him

#superhero au #sampard #honkai star rail #in the bones #do i tag anything??? idk #i like the idea of sampo being extremely fucking powerful but not actin on his powers #cuz itd be too easy n thats boring. sure he could make most people jus do what he wants but whats the fun in that

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rtofbs · 1 year

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astrology notes 1.

note: these observations are based on the people around me and how I perceive and observe them. please let me know your thoughts and experiences with these placements too!

Aquarius in 10th house could mean that it’s crucial for the person in their career to have like-minded people around, to be a part of a community, and hates and dislikes the work environment where there is no unity between peers and sense of comradeship.

for Libra placements the notion of the Other is very critical in their existence. for example, Mars in Libra can make a decision or take an action easier if there is another person with them. also, Mars in Libra feels confident dealing with stuff when they have a partner next to them. The notion of doing something alone stresses the fuck out of them.

the Libra Ascendant people always use the Other to navigate through life, and it shows when they ask a lot about what other people think about this or that, and take these opinions as something that they can use to make a decision, about themselves as well.

the Mercury in Libra is a very versatile placements as it depends seriously on what the sign of its ruler, Venus. Meanwhile generally they might have an eloquent speech, if the Venus is on Scorpio, then this placement spices up the Libra Mercury to be more spikey, more investigative, more obsessive, more blunt, preying, sometimes to the point of rudeness and raw honesty.

Mars is strong when placed in Sagittarius, however it’s necessary for the Sagittarius Mars to have a clear vision and goal to make a best of this placements. without the clear goal, they can procrastinate a lot.

i noticed that females with Mars in Scorpio tend to project this placement outwardly, and wait for the person with these qualities (cool, collected, passionate, problem-solving and good at decision-making) to come to their lives and handle all of their inconveniences. when they don’t project this placement outwardly, they are a power house.

Virgo placements in my opinion are the most emotional out of the Earth signs, while the Capricorn is the least. Virgo’s are great at creating an image of collected person who is in charge even when everything is getting out of control, and during these periods they are especially emotional. the wonderful thing about them, that these Queens and Kings of Chaos at the end of the day manage to bring everything under their control and complete everything with flying colours.

Virgo placements also have a huge stalker potential with their amazing investigative skills. they get easily obsessed with their partner, and think that they are inferior to what their Partner had prior to them, so they might become fixed to make sure that everything is ok, and no one is gonna take their beloved one. this might be because their second ruler, Proserpina, is in Scorpio.

Moon in Sagittarius with heavy water influence in their chart, especially Scorpio, can get easily obsessed and fanatical in love to the point of building a whole fucking altar in their soul that they will cherish and worship for a very long time. these two placements mixed in one chart are definitely not about the limits and boundaries: it goes deep and wide.

I noticed that Capricorns love sweets and candies very much, and this can be their guilty pleasure as it gives a sense of comfort for them. Capricorn can compete with Taurus when it comes to being a foodie.

#astrology observation #astrology notes #astro notes #astro placements #astro observations #astro thoughts #zodiac #astrology signs #sagittarius #virgo #capricorn #libra placements #Aquarius #scorpio #natal chart

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crithaus · 1 year

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I wanna make some things like very clear to the new Vox Machina fans coming from the animated show to our humble home. Really I wanna settle some of the score about my best girl Vex'ahlia.

Now I know, I know that with so incredibly much source material to try and condense into just 36 22 minute episodes naturally some stuff is gonna be cut out or missed or edited, and TLOVM is it's own canon true, but what with it being Vox Machina but abridged it makes sense to me that it can be directly compared and perhaps found a bit lacking in regards to its source material, and so here I go.

They're not treating Vex with total fairness to be honest. A lot of her best early moments in VM are taken out or given to other people in TLOVM, like her first brush with death with Delilah in the Briarwood arc (it was her that got attacked by Delilah and almost died, not Keyleth, but like this one I get ig. The Twins and Percy held like the campaign record for being down and hurt the most like Sam had to deliberately change that so this wasn't hours of the twins just being near death like I'm not happy but I get it), or season two changing how she found Trinket (Vax was nowhere near her when she ran into those poachers) and mainly the portrayal of Vex as this snippy, mean, jealous, callous, unfeeling bitch without any of the uncertainty inherent in her or the tender moments to flesh her out.

Like in VM proper she's rude and a little snippy sure but that's borne of an established backstory of emotional neglect and the crushing trauma of poverty and Vax literally being the only other person who genuinely loved and cared for her after the mother who's arms she was ripped from was burned alive, (y'know after Syldor the worst dad god ever created literally abandoned them with their mother for 10 years while they were dirt poor (but happy, Elaina is the best mom to live ever), dragged them away from her for 5 in which time he destroyed her and Vax's self esteem, let the whole racist ass town he was ambassador of harass them along with harassing them himself and forced them to be the perfect quiet little doll heirs he only decided he wanted after 10 years of no 'true blooded' kids of his own) and then when they ran away, saw their mother had been murdered in her home by a fucking dragon had to spend the next several years at only like 15ish stealing (in Vex's case haggling and hunting) to survive! Like Vex's hangups around money are from the period in her life where she as controller of her and Vax's meager finances was in charge of making sure they didn't starve to death in the woods somewhere, at 15 she and Vax had to keep themselves alive with no help from anyone but each other, her haggling any and everyone down is a direct response to that.

And oh boy Syldor? Syldor? And his bullshit expectations and neglect are the reason she's so chronically unsure of herself and so desperate to keep being Vax's favorite. You think Keyleth is unsure of herself? Buddy you have seen nothing. Vex's confidence in herself is a facade and literally the longer you know her the more obvious that becomes. She's so slow to let other people in and equally slow to trust cuz she's been hurt so brutally and the few times she relaxes enough to do something for herself (side eyeing the broom incident), she gets narratively punished for it! Bro, the night before meeting with Syldor Percy finds her in tears obsessively polishing her armor cuz she's so desperate even after all this time to prove to Syldor that she is someone, that she isn't the diluted little half-breed Syldor always looked down his nose at (and then Percy, who never again was fooled by her false airs and stepped up to do The Sweetest thing god ever created), like...she's fucked up! And lonely! And wants nothing more than a stable home and people who genuinely like her.

Them leaving their home in when the conclave first attacked Emon drove her to tears because it was the first home she'd had in so long and now they had to leave it. She's got so much depth and she is so endlessly kind too. Every time she sees someone whose circumstances mirror her own she doesn't hesitate to open her purse for it. (her freeing those kids??? Anyone???) She's no Keyleth or even Pike to be sure but she's so sweet. Keyleth goes tearing off up the Sun Tree, Vex follows. Grog gets swindled by some punkass merchant? Vex goes tearing off after him, all her interactions with Vax to be honest she might have Little Sister disease but still, she is so endlessly kind and good and it's not as overt as Pike's genuine goodness or Keyleth's earnestness, it's slightly more subtle but always present. She's the beating heart of Vox Machina, she encourages them all, (just look at what they tell Pelor I mean.... And and I could go on and on about how the fact that she's the champion of the god of Life, Light and the Sun means so much narratively but I mean I doubt I need to I mean it's Pelor), They all look to her and Vax for guidance, look at what they do to fucking Saundor for him merely taunting her, (yes it's more deep than that I know), they literally get stuck in hell and wait there, in the middle of HELL for her cuz they can't/won't move on without her.

She's brilliant, and clever, and broken and 'greedy' and a bitch yes true, but she's so much more than that, and I'm not even gonna tell you to watch the podcast cuz fuck Orion tbh and y'know I am a hater and a gatekeeper both and am totally fine being in the little niche of of vox machina likers, but if you want substance, if you want all of her because god is she compelling, then take your cues from the podcast and not the show.

The show is new, and still ongoing, and I hope they start letting her shine as she was always meant too in later episodes, but she is the heart and soul of Vox Machina and y'all better put some respect on the name of Lady Vex'ahlia De Rolo, Champion of Pelor, Baroness of the First House of Whitestone and Grandmistress of the Grey Hunt, Coinmistress and Treasurer of the Tal'dorei Council.

#vex'ahlia #critical role #vox machina #vex'ahlia de rolo #the legend of vox machina #the legend of vox machina spoilers #vox machina spoilers #i guess #I'll not sppil the show it was only out like 3 days ago but VM ended like 5 years ago and i dont think i need to tag it but whatever 😒

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lesbiannancytruther · 1 year

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no but hear me out:

i want robin to kiss a girl in season 5 so badly and no matter who it is, in the end of the day i will take it because she needs a gf already BUT

it has to be nancy. like it has to be. it's not that i dislike vickie or anything but i just (i better not get canceled for that one) feel like her character was kind of poorly written? no hate to the actress at all, but to me it just felt like they copy-pasted robin's entire personality and turned it into a new character?? i don't know maybe that's just me? robin deserves a complex character by her side (nancy god damn wheeler) and i am dying on that hill. nancy is and has always been such a complex character and giving her a girlfriend would only EMPHASIZE this complexity. from s1 one until now nancy has been captured in this love triangle and it is pretty clear that she never felt fully understood in neither of those relationships. like she always had to prove herself you know what i mean? with both steve and jonathan. now guess what? she never had to prove herself around robin. ROBIN EVEN PUT HER IN CHARGE HELLO??

and robin...well the way she rambled around nancy?? the way she looked down when she saw the way nancy was looking at steve?? the way she called for nancy when she went after steve?? the way they held hands??? they both deserve each other so much. i could literally talk about this for HOURS oh my god. the ronance hyperfixation is going strong!

hello anon i understand u so strongly, and im sorry this took me so long to get to! i promise it wasn't intentional!

i will forever be on the train that even if vickie was done better than she was, she will always be a character introduced to give the lesbian character a love interest, she was doomed to this position from the start because she had no other real purpose! rockie will always feel inorganic because vickie is nothing beyond a love interest for robin.

this is. such a common problem, ESPECIALLY in wlw ships, and that's why i love ronance. nancy wheeler is immune to this phenomenon because she and robin were both created independently and with different purposes, and their stories come together so well its actually insane

nancy wheeler is one of those characters that is so hard to understand if you don't look at her through a queer lens, or at the very least an anti-misogynist one. i think the best thing the duffers could do for her is finish the arc she started in season 1, which is focused on self-realization and discovery.

the entire show she has been told who she is, what she should do, who she likes, who she loves, by everyone! it is never nancy who says these things, it is other characters telling her, even barb, even robin. how insane would it be if she came to the conclusion on her own that she liked women? or at the very least had looked at her own feelings not through the lens of someone who didn't understand her or the situation they were talking about.

robin falls into these same patterns, but the more she gets to know nancy, the more she really understands her, the more she backs off on those kinds of comments and the more she uplifts nancy's voice. there is SO MUCH POTENTIAL in them and the fact that it will more likely than not be ignored is so. agonizing. please duffer brothers see the vision

#stranger things #nancy wheeler #robin buckley #ronance #anon #anti rockie

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arsonists-oatmeal · 2 months

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I had finished watching Transformers: Earthspark yesterday. Got a few notes, spoilers below:

-"Malto-bots" awwwww my heart -shit starts ramping up after the halfway mark of the season. which is classic and I did not realize how much I missed that type of pacing -oh, hello body horror in a kids show, didn't expect to see you here! -did not expect to get as invested as I did in the human parts of the plot, like how the rest of humanity is reacting to the Terrans. I think for a kids show they wrote that bit pretty well -speaking of: its clear from the get-go that the whole Terran plot is allegorical to a lot of things. Immigrant families, biracial families, being a first generation citizen, etc. I've seen a lot of media try to use aliens as a plot device for "bigotry is bad", but very rarely have I seen it actually like, show how it hurts people and effects how they see themselves, and show that you have to shut that shit down if you want to be an ally, and not just tolerate your racist uncle, friend, etc. I think this show did a pretty good job of that. It had made parts of me feel seen and heard for the first time ever. -The way they handled the Starscream thing was kind of weak though, imo -Man i wish we got to see Hashtag having more moments with the seekers, she'd fit right in -Nightshade!!! I like Nightshade, I think some parts were a little on the nose (like how they're the only person who introduces themselves with their pronouns), but its not as some people are making it out to be. Idk if its just me but I also feel like they got sidelined more than the rest of the characters, which is suspicious. But anyways, every group needs a mad scientist character who can be slightly unsettling and I'm glad Nightshade is there to fill the role. -Ok i get this is a kid's show, and there was already more nuance than i expected (which was none) about the decepticons, but I do feel like they didn't make the final leap in logic here. -"Ok not all decepticons are bad, but we still wont stop surveilling and locking some of them up because they chose to do bad with their second chance". Has anyone here heard of the word "REHAB"?? -Megatron is cool. Cool theme, no comments there -Really liked the fight scenes as well, especially the shots of the transformers fighting it out in the background where the camera focuses on the humans running away. It really shows the scale of things. Small detail but the fact that we've got several bots using their inbuilt guns' recoil in fights is really cool! Megatron essentially did a rocket jump. One critique however is that nothing really looked like it had weight. -Also I wished that they kept Karan Croft as the lead antagonist till the end. Like idk, show that this whole oppression thing is systematic in nature. Could have had Dr. Meridian change sides given the fact that he was being put in a similar position to the transformers by the humans in charge (he was also fighting for basic resources to live after his first defeat). -Also this one may be unpopular: It looks like at the end the Terrans get their own symbol/badge. Which I think sorta breaks the whole "the war is over, there's no more sides and factions" things that they keep repeating throughout the show. It just feels like they've created a third faction now, and the continuing dynamic is now autobots vs decepticons vs terrans. Which, no. You're going to replace your war with another.

Overall, good show, 8/10, I think it fumbled the ending. I know im not the target audience here but also its not like kids are stupid.

Also representation matters. The choices of having the lead human characters be a non-white biracial family, having the first nonbinary transformer, having the terrans be allegorical, it may not mean anything to some viewers, but for others it could be the first time someone has actually acknowledged them, has said "I see what you've gone through and I know it to be real and I will take it seriously". The diversity in the show only serves to make it better

#transformers earthspark #transformers earthspark spoilers #the show isnt perfect but it has potential #I also hear they're making a season 2 so I hope this potential is realized #Also i apologize for how much i jumped around in my review can you tell i probably have an undiagnosed something?

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sewerpeaches · 1 year

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The Answer to the Age Old Question:

Who is older, Donatello or Raphael?

The long answer that you didn't come here for is: it depends on the continuity. So you can find my breakdowns for each continuity here (eventually).

The short answer:

Donatello

Why?

#1. "Word of God" #2. IDW Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2011), volume 5 #3. Character/family/team dynamics #4. Aesthetics

~ 1 ~

For those unfamiliar with the term, the Word of God is "A statement regarding some ambiguous or undefined aspect of a work, the Word of God comes from someone considered to be the ultimate authority, such as the creator, director, writer or producer of a TV show / video game / film / etc."

With that in mind, Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird co-created Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in 1984. Unlike a fair amount of co-created series, TMNT is actually an evenly split brain-child (ie neither Eastman nor Laird seems to be any more responsible for or involved in its creation/production/etc than the other).

On August 14, 2014, Kevin Eastman stated "I'm going to take a bold step and say Donatello is older" during a Reddit AMA .

I couldn't find so much as a whiff of Peter Laird's explicit opinion on the matter (for all my searching... and there was a lot), but that also means that I never found him contradicting Kevin Eastman's statement. (More subjectively, Laird seems to have essentially directed the 2k3 run and I'll post my take on why 2k3 has peak little-brother Raph energy here (eventually))

At any rate, if you're the type of person who accepts the "Word of God" at face value, then continue no further! I, however, don't do that—hence why this is only reason 1 of 3 (4).

~ 2 ~

If you're not familiar with IDW Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2011) then read it, because it's phenomenal, it's the franchise's longest running piece of media ever and up until volume 100, original co-creator Kevin Eastman co-wrote the series and collaborated on page layouts. The much acclaimed Last Ronin, the first thing written by both Eastman and Laird since the original Mirage run, is set in the IDW-verse as its own version of SAINW.

The premise of the IDW run is that Splinter's and the Turtles' souls are reincarnated from those of a human family that lived in feudal japan (yes it sounds stupid, but it's touched on very little and is executed surprisingly well). And that means that the Turtles' corresponding human-selves are all visibly different ages (because unlike turtles, it's not so common for humans to have quadruplets).

So when we see the Turtles' human selves in volume 5...

It's clear in both appearance and mannerisms that Don is older than Raph.

They're definitely the closest in age of the siblings, but still most assuredly different ages.

Besides Raph being smaller than Don with shorter and chubbier limbs, his hairstyle also strikes me as more baby-like (kinda like the ancient version of the ponytail parent's give their 1 year olds when they don't have enough hair yet to actually do anything with). His mannerisms also lend themselves to that of a younger child—more sleepy, much more oblivious to his surroundings, and more clingy. Don's also shown to be able to stand, while Raph seems like he might not be able to yet.

~ 3 ~

This reason is subjective, which is why I've listed it last and need more space to elaborate on it. You'll find the unabridged version on my blog at some point under this tag (eventually), because I simply have Too Many Thoughts™ to contain within a post not dedicated specifically to it.

The short of it is: Donatello's character has always seemed to be designed around being second-in-charge—both in team and family contexts.

I don't think anyone would argue against the fact that Don is the go-to turtle. Doesn't matter what continuity you look at, when Leo anyone runs into a problem, they turn to Don.

You could argue that Donnie's the smart one and "so it only makes sense to turn to him to fix a problem" (and that's a bit of a catch-22 that I'll talk about in more detail in the unabridged version!). However... he's not a real person and so him being the smart one that characters always turn to when Leo falters (including Leo!) is a deliberate choice by the creators. And in the context of the The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle's very traditional operating style—with heavy emphasis on hierarchy by age, blood, etc.—it's very telling.

Were they a real family, yes, they would have developed their personalities/aptitudes mostly independently of their birth order, but given that specifically assigning children roles/ideals based on birth order is a significant player in Japanese culture (especially ancient Japanese culture which pertains to ninjitsu on which TMNT is based)... well... (I mean just look at how Splinter treats Leo).

Anyway, looking at the TMNT franchise as a whole, the advancement of the plot, in 9/10 cases, hinges on Don coming up with a solution either (1) via Leo coming up with something, pointing him in a direction, and asking "Don can you make [insane thing] work?" or (2) when Leo stalls entirely and Don has to take over. And though it's a formula, it's a formula with a million different permutations so it stays interesting.

Raph's role is to go into a berserker rage and brute force a second-wind powerup when when fighting is the only option. He's as the one who makes the first option work when Leo & Don are stuck and he has to, not the one who comes up with the second option. And, narrative-wise, it would be boring and lazy for the Turtles to only ever brute force plan A. (Happy to say I wrote this before I saw Laird say the same thing about Raph (bottom of #55))

That very distinct chain-of-command is why we get things like this, which is much more interesting and satisfying than beat-the-thing-until-it-stops:

The same follows in terms of family dynamics. Leo & Raph are simply too similar for the family to feel "balanced" if they're the two eldest brothers. There's no functionality in a family where 1 & 2 are providing nothing different or, worse, butting heads. Don holds the emotional stability of the family in the palm of his hand, largely just by existing as the buffer between Leo & Raph (we all know what happens in SAINW).

And, just from a characterization perspective, it seems much more natural for Raph to turn to Don for comfort than vice versa.

(Again, I'm gonna just... aggressively point to IDW.)

I'll go into this much more in the unabridged version, but I wanted to touch upon it here: setting Don aside for a moment, I see so many people argue for Raph being the second son based entirely upon his attitude towards Leo and ignoring everything and everyone else. It sorta drives me insane, tbh. I think it's a wildly shallow interpretation of his character.

Raph's entire hang-up is not around being second best, it's around being denied authority/autonomy in general—you know, stemming from being a mutant and being banned from doing 9/10 things he'd like to? That's why we see him fighting with Leo; Leo is the only authority he can fight (putting aside crime syndicate-type authority which he also fights obv). But more importantly, we also see him exerting as much power as he can by playfully, not cruelly bullying Mikey //glares at 2k12 (and in more source-compliant adaptations, yes, it is only Mikey that he truly messes with //glares harder at 2k12) or going off solo.

As much as I love 2k7, specifically the Leo/Raph dynamic, it's not actually a good representation of their real relationship—more of a spin-off "what if" (which Laird has also said). And 2k12 is ok plot-wise, but as far as I'm concerned it mostly fails at creating any compelling character dynamics and it crashes and burns in terms of staying true to source material. C':

~ 4 ~

Finally, I will end this post with my strongest argument for Don being second-eldest...

Sunset Aesthetic

#tmnt #teenage mutant ninja turtles #tmnt donatello #tmnt raphael #raphael tmnt #donatello tmnt #tmnt don #don tmnt #raph tmnt #tmnt raph #donatello #raphael #tmnt age discourse #the age old question #sewerpeach prose #Kevin Eastman

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tvlandofficial · 1 year

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🖤 I always knew that my creator didn't know everything. And I knew that I didn't know everything, either, but… I thought I knew more than he did, at least. That's been my purpose all along, haha. If I can't know everything… at least I know everything that's important for me to know. Right?

🖤 But… it's just become more clear to me lately how little I actually know. About myself, or my own abilities, or… or about the way the world works. Haha.

🖤…

🖤 Hey. If I'm right about how your role functions, you're here, listening, aren't you? Narrator?

🖤 Or should I call you Chara?

[ Ralsei stands in the middle of the hall, looking up at the torn painting. Desperate clawmarks cover its face. ]

[ It’s seen better days. ]

[ … ]

[ “Chara” is acceptable. ]

🖤 Haha, sorry. I'm not able to hear you, so I don't know what your answer will be. Sorry. But… I'll be sure to read whatever gets posted, later on, and that'll have your narration in the text. It'll be a little bit like we're having a conversation backwards and forwards through time!

[ I suppose it will be. You are very good at using the mediums we are provided with to your advantage. ]

🖤 If you're here, that is. I can't tell that either. You haven't narrated many of the posts for Tenna lately, so… well, I just have to hope you are here. It would be a bit embarrassing to say all this, knowing the PLAYERs are listening, and not gain anything from it.

🖤 Anyway, could you tell me how your role works? Do you know innately when you're needed? Are you the one in charge of what gets posted? Or… is that up to fate? What are the rules?

🖤 Because I've been thinking. If there's anybody who knows a lot about the inner mechanics of our world's interactions with the PLAYERs, at least through this Internet medium, it has to be you. I don't know how you ended up where you are, or what it's like to be there… but you're clearly sapient, and you have been for a while. That means that you're probably pretty aware of the world you narrate.

[ I would say it is up to fate. ]

[ Think of it like this – I was created for a certain “role”, just as you and TENNA are. I am not a Darkner, mind. I lived in the Light World once, and had the same power the Lightners of your world would. I have more “free will” than that of an object. ]

[ I resemble someone from the world this one was shaped in the image of, as well. That, I imagine, grants me some degree of “specialness”. I would call it some power of perverted sentimentality. ]

[ But I was, still, created to fill a role I can no longer fill. And so, when I ceased to fill that role, this world deigned to assign me a new one. ]

[ One that, like the one before it, mirrored the “me” I had never met. ]

[ And so, here I am. My fate guides me along the path it sees fit for me to have. My role mirrors the one my predecessor had before me. ]

[ Those are the “rules”, in my limited understanding of them. ]

🖤 And, um. Like me, you probably don't have too much control over your actions, do you? That's alright. As long as I know what you can do, I can use that knowledge.

[ I can narrate the goings-on of this world, on my own whims, more or less. Occasionally, through the medium of this narration, I can also communicate with the PLAYERs. ]

[ However, I cannot directly influence events. I can merely describe them. It is not a terribly exciting purpose. ]

[ … do those also count as “rules”? ]

🖤 …And, um, something else. I don't know if you knew this, but in the world our reality was based on, there was someone like you. Chara. They died, but… you know, they ended up exactly as you did. They narrated the story to the PLAYERs. I don't know too much about that world… but I know that, at least, haha.

[ Such is the aforementioned “specialness”. ]

[ … It is a little tricky to have a conversation where one end cannot hear from the other, isn’t it? ]

🖤 So, if, um, what's happened to you is the same as what happened to the person you're based on… that's fate, right? It has to be. The story that's told echoes another story. It doesn't matter how incompetently any world is created, or who is behind its creation. Even in other versions of DELTARUNE, the world follows a similar path…

[ I would call it fate. ]

🖤 Umm, I'm rambling. It's not important for you to hear, sorry. You probably couldn't come up with an answer for me even if you wanted to. Besides… I think I'm already beginning to understand.

🖤 …Thank you, for looking after Tenna so much. You defended her even though you didn't have to. You're a kind person. It's, um, nice knowing that I'm not the only person who can help her.

[ You are welcome. ]

[ She is remarkably tenacious for someone in a world this cruel. As are you, Ralsei. ]

🖤 Whatever you have to say, or even if it's nothing at all… I'll always be grateful, haha. Umm. Thanks for talking to me? Or not, if you didn't? I don't know… so, um, I'll just end off by saying that I'll pay close attention even if you don't respond at all! And maybe I'll talk to you again later, if that's something you'd like.

[ Maybe. Ironically, talking has never been my strong suit. ]

[ I’d much rather leave this story to you and TENNA. It’s the least I can give you. ]

#BROADCAST

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taurussoulastrology · 8 months

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Protection Crystals for Negative Energy, Spiritual Attacks, and for Intuition and Psychic Awareness Increase

Below are some protection crystals for negative energy and psychic attacks that I personally use and find super helpful. There's absolutely more out there but this is information from my favorites that I can personally say have helped. Quite a few of these stones can increase intuition and psychic gifts too. This is part 3 to my previous posts.

Keeping yourself balanced and protected during your journey whether it's spiritual or healing is so very important, I can't stress that more! Being a victim to both psychic attacks from living people and spiritual energies is not fun, it's downright scary and can cause lots of stress, anxiety, and LOTS of sleepless nights! Keeping your crystal's cleared and charged through selenite, the Moon, and using smoke from bundled herbs/incense is such an important part of using stones in healing and for protection. Water, the earth, sunlight, or fire is also used but depending on the stone they may actually get ruined so if you're unsure the first 3 methods I mentioned are ALWAYS safe!

Your stones are absorbing this negative energy so for them to continue doing their jobs, they need to be cared for or you will render them useless. You must clear them out, I can't stress that enough either! You must also set your intentions into these stones. Although they are listed to do specific things putting your energy of intentions into each stone is SO IMPORTANT!

Below is a list of some of my favorite and most used stones. They're easy to find, even the real ones, and are fairly inexpensive. Each stone is associated with a Chakra so meditation with these stones placed around you and while holding can go a long way to clearing out negative energy that's holding you back and increasing your intuition and awareness. Some of these stones you may already even have in jewelry form, so it may just need some charging and clearing to get it working to its full potential!

♡Selenite- Love, love, love this stone! I own so much selenite, it's my number 1 favorite stone! So I'll start off with it! Selenite vibrates at a very high frequency, it’s one of the most powerful crystals in the universe. Selenite promotes psychic ability and intuition. It also protects you from negative energies both from spiritual attacks and psychic attacks. Selenite also removes negative energy from your environment. You don't even need to charge this crystal it holds so much energy that it will charge up your other crystals! Although, I will still place it out under the full moon with my others since I do use it to charge my other stones, it won't hurt only enhance it's power! It opens up your intuition and allows you to access inner guidance more easily. It is a powerful healing stone and promotes alignment, peace, mental clarity, and well-being. Its name comes from the Greek word for “moonstone,” and it’s associated with Selene, the Greek Goddess of the Moon. That said, selenite isn’t related to the crystal known as moonstone. Due to its connection to the higher consciousness, it's associated to the Crown (Sahasrara) Chakra.

♡Amethyst- This is probably my 2nd favorite crystal! Not only for its beautiful looks but also for EVERYTHING it can assist you in. Amethyst is an ultimate all-purpose stone that dissipates negative energy by turning it into positive energy. In your home it will absorb negative energy and create an air of tranquility in the space. It also helps increase intuition, clear the mind of negative thoughts, stress and anxiety. Amethyst activates spiritual awareness, opens intuition, and enhances psychic abilities. It helps you tune in with the divine! It aids in feelings of serenity and calmness; encourages selflessness, and spiritual wisdom. It produces soothing dreams, and helps with anxiety and insomnia. It is also said to help with sobriety! It can be placed on the forehead to stimulate creativity and relax the mind. It can also be balanced on the palm or held in the hand to gain clarity and focus, and boost awareness. Associated with the Crown (Sahasrara) and Third Eye (Ajna) Chakra's.

♡Tiger's Eye - powerful and effective for blocking psychic attacks directed from others, it repels and leaves the attacker powerless. It aids in inner strength, creativity, and emotional healing. Associated with Solar Plexus (Manipura), Sacral (Svadhishthana) and Root (Muladhara) Chakra's.

♡Black Obsidian- very powerful stone (a favorite of mine for protection and the Root Chakra, plus I like wearing black jewelry), it wards of negative spiritual energy and psychic attacks from someone, best used in a form of jewelry or kept on person, even used on your pendulum is helpful too. It's an inexpensive stone and black matches everything as well. It has a strong grounding energy, promotes alignment and balance and is associated with the Root (Muladhara) Chakra.

♡Black Tourmaline- another ultimate protection stone! This stone neutralizes and breaks negative energy coming at you in form of psychic attacks or through negative spiritual energy. It increases physical vitality, promotes a sense of peace, and aids in grounding. It enhances spiritual awareness and is a wonderful stone for meditation. Associated with the Root Chakra or the Muladhara Chakra.

♡Lapis Lazuli- this beautiful stone filters out negative spirits and energies making them weak and harmless. It will protects against psychic attacks too. This stone is dubbed the "wisdom keeper" as it promotes wisdom, inner peace, focus, motivation, and enlightenment. Lapis lazuli is also said to invite self-expression and creative thinking. It also enhances intuition, clarity, and self-awareness. It stimulates the Ajna Chakra or Third Eye Chakra, which is associated with spiritual insight and perception. It's also connected to the Throat Chakra (Vishuddha) the place from where we speak our truths and how we express ourselves in the world.

♡Turquoise - another favorite of mine! Guess i have a lot of favorites... This stone will protect you from negative spiritual energy and psychic attacks. It dissipates any negative energy that comes into your space. This is a fantastic stone to increase your intuition and awareness by meditating with. It promotes inner peace and positive energy. It can also help control anxiety and prevent panic attacks. It's wonderful in stress relief and aids in anxiety. This stone is associated with the Throat (Vishuddha) Chakra.

♡Hematite- an extremely powerful shield to protect you from negative energies attempting to go after you by blocking and then absorbing it. It enhances concentration, ficus, memory, and clarity. A wonderful grounding stone to use during meditation and keep near you while exercising your gifts. It strengthens your connection to the earth. Hematite is connected to the Root (Muladhara) Chakra.

♡Peridot- This stone is great to wear for protection while performing magick as it will protect you from negative energy and spirits. A beautiful stone to protect you from the living's negative energy. This is a wonderful stone for an empath! Perfect to wear for on the go or to that family member that sends you nothing but negative vibes yet you can't avoid especially during the holidays! It helps you have the courage to act out your heart's desires and be generous to others. It's associated with the Solar Plexus (Manipura) Chakra and Heart (Anahata) Chakra.

♡Garnet - represents the fire element! Protects the wearer from negativity and evil thoughts. This is a stone of protection and manifestation. Enhances meditation and spiritual awareness. It balances energy and boosts self-confidence. Garnet removes inhibitions and taboos. This is also a great stone for manifestation! It's associated with the Root (Muladhara) and Heart (Anahata) Chakra.

♡Clear quartz - similar workings to the amethyst and a powerful stone to use! It's known as the “master healer” because it amplifies energy, thought, and the effects of crystals that are close to it. It draws off negative energy, neutralize background radiation, stimulate the immune system, and bring the entire body back into balance. It absorbs, amplifies, stores, retrieves, focuses, transmits, and channels universal energy. Make sure to purchase this stone from respectable metaphysical shops as this stone can be sold to you and its really a chunk of glass sanded down a bit. I could go on about this stone and it's properties but you would be stuck reading like a full page of info lol. This stone is associated and used for EVERY CHAKRA! Now that's an ultimate stone...

#psychicprotection #psychicattacks #psychicawareness #psychicadvice #AstrologyCommunity #IntuitionIncrease #intuition

#mysticalmoonsoul #taurusmoonsoul.com #i love astrology #taurussoulastrology.com #astrology community #psychic senses #protection crystals

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wixelt · 1 year

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...On a much brighter note, we've somehow missed how much Marcy would love the hermit TCG, even if the only cards available would be the ones directly on the hermits' persons.

Until the drop ships, since the pilots probably account for a desire to shift the meta the Hermits have presumably been stuck with in the games they may or may not have been potentially playing.

Which leads into something else, because she may or may not be around when those cards come into circulation.

It's been all but stated that False was, Well, but you haven't told us and no one asked where that leaves Marcy.

Because False doesn't seem like The Core's first or even fifth choice. Hermit or human. So why was it bereft of options?

Oh yeah! As soon as she gets her hands on TCG cards - whenever that is - Marcy becomes a near-instant expert, & gives all but the best Hermit players a once over. Post-Season 3, Beef arranges a "re-release", & adds an expansion featuring the Calamity Trio & a few of their other new friends.

But you're right. Marcy may not be immediately around when the cards come into circulation.

And that's something i've been trying to decide on.

I don't know if i've said it before, but my plan's that after True Colors, all three of the Calamity Trio are seperated from their mentor. For Anne & Sasha that's simple: Scar ends up on Earth, while False is left behind in Amphibia. But Marcy's been undecided for me for a while.

Because wherever Marcy is, Mumbo isn't.

And I already implied Mumbo was with the resistance, which leaves either Newtopia or Earth for Marcy.

And because of that I felt I should finally make a chart so I can track where each character is going into Season 3 (see at the end).

And from doing that, I came to a decision.

Marcy isn't with the resistance, & there are certain reasons she's not in Newtopia, either.

And the leading reason comes in the form of False Symmetry.

Its the middle of the climactic battle of True Colors. Gem's brought most of the Hermits back to their senses, but with Anne now both freed from Andrias' control & burnt out, that surge of ability has faded. Between that, Andrias' field generator & his other anti-Hermit countermeasures, things aren't going in the good guys' favor.

Half the Hermits - Grian, Doc, Mumbo & others - stand by Sasha & hold the line against Andrias, whilst the other half - Scar, Zedaph, Etho, etc. - stick with Anne & Marcy, creating a second defense line while Marcy gets the portal to Earth to open so they can all regroup on the other side.

Ultimately, the first line with Sasha are the Hermits that remain in Amphibia, while the second line mostly wind up on Earth.

False is in the second line, having stuck by Anne, the two fighting back to back.

That's until the last moment, at least.

False is the last member of the second line to make it to the portal, & is about to shout for the others to follow - not yet realising they've just been scattered by Andrias - when she sees the giant newt king charging toward an unwitting Marcy, burning sword raised as Anne calls desperately for her friend.

A million images flash through False's mind. Memories both good & bad. Recent & distant.

Among them, the visage of a woman who looks very much like False herself.

"No more."

Marcy yelps midsentence as she's suddenly shoved forward - Calamity Box dropping from her hands - tumbling into Anne's arms as she crosses the event horizon of the portal.

She hears Anne cry out in shock & despair... and turns in time to see False impaled through the chest by Andrias' blade, the newt king surprised but not deterred, sighing disappointedly.

"...Now look what you've made me do."

False meets Anne's eyes one last time, smiling confidently despite the clear levels of agony she's in.

"...A-A promise is a promise, huh?"

Anne can only shout in fear as everything goes white.

So it comes to pass that, thanks to False, Marcy doesn't get backstabbed, but now has to live with the guilt of the sacrifice someone else made to save her.

And that brings me to your second point. Why False for... that?

Well, Marcy was the first choice, & neither Sasha or Anne are on hand either, so rather than default back to Andrias, the Core decides that - maybe - one of these Hermit creatures would be a viable & powerful host, dampened abilities or not.

Among the Hermits, their first option would've been Mumbo, but he's gone dark, among those who fled Newtopia to form a resistance. And most of the other genius level Hermits are out of reach.

But those aside, the blonde they have recuperating in a tank - without respawn, False held on by sheer force of will for long enough to be hooked up to healing things - is actually a pretty viable host. False is smart & strong in equal measure, & will bring new ideas to the collective.

Whether she likes it or not.

The only real issue is that - like most Hermits - False has experience with false simulated worlds. But that's only a minor thing.

After all, False had her friends with her, then.

Now, though, she's all alone...

(Note: I'd known False was going to shove Marcy out of the way for a while - the whole Core!False idea coming not long after - & it was just what happened to Marcy because of that which I was undecided on.)

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writethelifeyouwant · 2 years

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Made For You | Chapter 17

Summary: Dean and Sam like what they have together, and if screwing your brother screws with the universe’s “grand plan” while they’re at it, then even better. Neither of them has ever cared much for tradition or fate, but it turns out there are some destinies you can’t escape. Sometimes, someone is just made for you.

Pairing: Alpha!Dean x Omega!Reader / Alpha!Dean x Omega!Sam Rating: 18+ Warnings: Incest, Dub Con Tags: Dean x Reader, Dean x Sam, alpha!Dean, omega!Sam, omega!Reader, fuck or die, sex pollen, love triangle, star-crossed lovers, destiny, true mates, primal urges, angst, mating, kissing Bingo Squares: @spnabobingo - Sex Pollen | @anyfandomkinkbingo - Love Triangle Word Count: 2.8k

Series Masterlist

Dean’s POV

Dean barely has any idea how it happened. Everything is a blur in his memory as he stands outside the two contamination chambers containing his brother and his daughter, both pacing irritably and visibly sweating, glancing through their windows periodically towards Dean, though somehow never at the same time. He supposes it’s lucky for them that the county coroner’s morgue resides within the county hospital and not in some random laboratory across town. At least when they’d been exposed to… whatever the hell is killing people around here, Sam and Y/N were almost immediately taken in for medical care.

Their heavy-duty decontamination showers hadn’t solved the problem, according to the doctor. He’s explaining why to Dean, but the hunter is only half listening. He knew it was a long shot. The spores had erupted from the corpse’s lungs, which made it pretty clear to Dean that once you breathe it in, the damage is done, and no amount of soap or natural astringent is going to cleanse that. He, of course, had been in full-on Hazmat gear while he was examining the body, carefully cutting through the autopsy stitches to reveal the chest cavity once more, letting him poke around the afflicted organs. Shouting reached his ears only moments before the doors to the morgue had burst open, Y/N charging through with Sam stumbling after her, hot on her heels.

Dean tried to warn them, but as if the spores had sensed that new hosts had just made themselves available, the swollen and discoloured lungs of the open corpse ruptured and spilled out veritable clouds of pollen. Fucking sex pollen. The doctors at the hospital have been seeing cases for a few weeks now, utterly unable to find the root cause or to stop its spread, which seemed random in the most specific way Dean has ever encountered. The pollen is somehow picking out unmated omegas and alphas. The odd mated couple had been exposed but as they all had fairly ready access to the recommended treatment for this particular ailment, they’d only wound up severely dehydrated at the end of it all, rather than dead.

Which is why Dean is panicking pretty severely right now, because both Y/N and Sam are unmated. The only survivors the doctors have records of weren’t casually dating couples or friends with benefits, they’ve all been properly mated couples. In love couples. Couples where the omega sported a very visible claim bite along the dip of their clavicle.

Even if he and Y/N are true mates, they aren’t in a relationship. They aren’t in love, and Dean certainly hasn’t even contemplated the idea of claiming her outside of the possessive haze of his rut last weekend. Would Sam even allow something like that to happen – allow his older brother to claim their daughter? The universe certainly has a sick sense of humour, Dean thinks without mirth. Bringing him and Sam together, letting them think they were in love, all to create the one person on this Earth that is truly made for him. And he’s half of what made her. There’s something fascinatingly carnal about that idea, and Dean can’t deny it, even in the silence of his own thoughts.

Y/N is perfect for him, a match in every way–especially biologically–because Dean and Sam made her that way. And Sam carried her, brought her into this world, raised her; all for Dean, even if he didn’t know it at the time. If that wasn’t an act of true love, Dean doesn’t know what else could possibly qualify. He feels a confusing surge of longing for his little brother, his heart beating frantically, even as his cock throbs at the prospect of getting to be with Y/N again.

Dean’s mind reels through the possible outcomes of their trio’s current predicament. He might be able to help Y/N through the exposure, but what about Sam? He can’t just abandon Sam to succumb to the effects of the pollen, although he’s almost positive that as soon as Dean presents the options to the pair of them, Sam will insist that Dean saves Y/N and leaves him to suffer his fate. Dean would say the same if their positions were reversed.

Or maybe Sam will surprise him and just tell Dean to fuck off, let him and Y/N die in peace, rather than condoning any kind of relationship between Dean and their daughter. The way Sam is glaring at him through the contamination room’s little window tells Dean that if it was just a question of Sam dying here, he wouldn’t hesitate to refuse Dean’s help out of pure spite. The little shithead.

“Let me in to see them,” Dean interrupts whatever the doctor has been drolling on about. He hasn’t been listening to any of it.

“Wh–” the greying man in a rumpled lab coat blinks at Dean in surprise before he catches up. “But, Agent, if you’re in the room with either omega while the pollination persists, you’ll be infected as well.”

“Yeah, I figured that one out for myself, doc,” Dean shrugs out of his suit jacket and drapes it over an arm, reaching up to loosen his tie and undo the top button of his dress shirt.

“But–”

Dean cuts across his protest. “The girl is my true mate, I can help her,” he clarifies, and the doctor’s eyes brighten.

“Oh! Well, that makes things considerably easier,” the man sighs in relief, and Dean recognises the look of someone who has seen too much death and isn’t eager to see any more, despite his awareness that it’s inevitable. “Her father, though. I shouldn’t let him in the same room. Two omegas in this state could easily resort to violence, even if the girl is your true mate or claimed.”

“Hey, man, look at her,” Dean grabs the doctor’s shoulder and steers him towards Y/N’s room. She’s sitting on the edge of her bed now, hospital gown billowed around her like a circus tent and her knees drawn up to her chest. “She’s terrified right now. Let her see her dad!”

The doctor gives him a doubtful look, and Dean practically growls against his ear. “If you don’t open the door for him, I guarantee Sam is gonna kick it down when he sees me go in there to be with her. At least let me explain it to them both together, because if we don’t figure something else out for Sam he might–” Dean gulps around the words, unable to force them out. “It could be the la– Just open the goddamn door!”

Shakily, the doctor pulls a remote from the pocket of his coat and punches in a code. A mechanical beeping sound is followed by the whoosh of air releasing from a vacuum seal, and a second later Sam is barrelling through into Y/N’s room and pulling his daughter into his arms, rocking her soothingly against his chest. With a final look at Dean for confirmation, which the hunter answers with a stoic nod, the doctor punches in a second code and unlocks the door to the clean room between the hallway and Y/N’s sealed room. Once the hall door is closed behind Dean the door to the hospital room unlocks and he shoves through urgently, running to join Y/N and Sam, crouching down on one knee in front of the huddled omegas.

Y/N’s POV

“Dad, what’s happening?” You look up at your father plaintively as he wraps himself around you, hugging you close to his warm chest, and the hazel eyes that you’ve known your whole life stare back at you determinedly but unable to conceal the worry he’s so clearly feeling. You know the expressions of Liam Campbell all too well after twenty years. Sam, you mentally remind yourself of his real name, Sam Winchester. Somehow, it fits him better than the name you’ve always thought was his.

“It’s gonna be okay, sweetheart,” Sam mumbles against your hair, holding your head to his shoulder and pressing small kisses against the crown of your head like you’re a baby again.

“What was that stuff? The doctors wouldn’t tell me anything!” you whine, looking to him for answers, and Sam sighs heavily, about to elaborate, when the door to your room explodes open and Dean rushes inside, immediately dropping down in front of you and his brother.

“How are you guys feeling?” he asks, swallowing anxiously, and you and Sam share meaningful glances.

“We’re hanging in there,” your father responds tightly, his grip around your shoulders flexing noticeably as Dean’s eyes rake over the pair of you. “What’d the doc say?” You notice Dean’s grimace before he controls his face into a more neutral expression. “That good, huh?” Sam scoffs, rocking you a little more vigorously.

You’re beginning to overheat though, your skin breaking out in a cold sweat that makes all the hairs on your body ache. You pull yourself out of your father’s embrace and try to stand up to shake some movement back into your muscles, which are cramping uncomfortably the way they do when you feel your heat coming on. That doesn’t make any sense though, seeing as you’d just gotten fucked through a heat last weekend. Taking a moment to scent the air, you realise that you can detect the stronger aromas that your dad gives off when his cycle comes around, though you’ve always tried not to think about that too hard.

Another deep breath has you dizzy and spiralling as you’re assaulted with Dean’s scent, entirely overwhelming anything you’re picking up from Sam. The warmth of leather, bourbon, and sandalwood engulfs you and sets your nerves tingling and your muscles to disintegrate. Collapsing forward, you wind up in Dean’s arms, cradled against his chest and the fabric of his white dress shirt. It’s dampened with sweat, but that only serves to strengthen the scents that are calling to you, and you bury your nose into him greedily, pointedly ignoring the fact that you think you just whimpered out loud.

“I gotcha baby girl, it’s okay,” Dean soothes. He lets go of you with one arm and bends down to sweep it under your knees, collecting you up into his arms and carrying you back to lay on the bed. Your dad stands up to make room for Dean to lay you down on top of the covers, and then both men step back, examining you with the utmost concern.

“It was the pollen, yeah?” Sam asks Dean, and the older brother rolls his eyes but nods grimly.

“Well, duh, Sam! What else would it be? The ice cream you had on the way here?” Dean demands sarcastically, and if you weren’t feeling so faint you would laugh at how much he reminds you of your dad. “It’s sex pollen. Great find for a nearby hunt, not something bad for Y/N to get mixed up in at all.”

“Hey! I sent you after this, she was never supposed to be here! I tried to stop her if you didn’t notice,” Sam hisses in aggravation, and you feel yourself blanche guiltily. This is all your fault, isn’t it?

“Well fantastic job, little bro,” Dean scoffs and Sam goes to punch him but Dean’s reflexes are faster. He catches Sam’s wrist firmly in his fist, staring hard at the younger man, green eyes dark with challenge. Sam’s chest heaves as he struggles to control his breathing, not moving to break Dean’s grip on his arm. It feels like the heat in the little room ratchets up another several degrees. For just a moment, you imagine that the brothers are about to kiss, but then a roll of pain breaks through your abdomen and you moan, your eyes rolling back behind your lids as you sink against the flimsy pillow beneath your head, and the spell is broken.

Sam and Dean both rush to you. Your dad sits at the top of the mattress, pulling your head into his lap so he can card his fingers through your hair soothingly, and Dean moves around the bed to sit on the opposite side. One of your hands grabs blindly for him, and Dean takes it between his without hesitation, squeezing hard in promise–though the promise of what, you still aren’t quite sure.

“This stuff is specific, Sam,” Dean’s words rumble low in his throat, caught against swollen muscles trying to force them back in.

“Yeah, I know,” your dad sighs heavily. “The patterns in the survivors. They were all couples.”

“They were all mates,” Dean emphasises, and you feel Sam’s breath catch low in his stomach, then bleed out in a motion you recognise as his admission of defeat.

“I know,” Sam whispers even more quietly. “You’re sure? You’re sure it’s her? You can save her?”

“What? Save me? Dad wha–” your questions are garbled and quiet, your chest feels weak, the air flowing into it too thin.

“Yes.” Dean’s answer drowns your words out, instantaneous and unequivocal.

“Then do it.” Sam squeezes the hand of yours that he’s holding and brushes the hair from your cheek, leaning down to kiss you on the forehead. “I love you, Y/N,” he whispers. “You’re gonna be okay, I promise. I wouldn’t trust anyone in the world to do this besides my brother…” Sam’s voice shakes, cracks almost imperceptibly. “Besides your father.”

“Sam, hang in there,” Dean leans over you and grabs your dad’s chin, forcing his face towards him. “I’m not giving up on getting you outta this either. You’ve still got time, you hear me?”

“Will someone tell me what the fuck is going on!?” you demand, startling the brothers apart from yet another intense bout of eye contact that seems to harden the air between them to the density of concrete.

“It’s uhm–” Sam looks down at you in obvious embarrassment, his neck flushing red to match the heat in his cheeks beneath the light dusting of stubble on his jaw. “We got dosed with sex pollen, Y/N. And the way to fix it is well. You know,” he clears his throat awkwardly.

“For us to mate,” Dean fills in for Sam, picking up the baton and looking at you seriously. “And like, permanently mate,” he adds after a brief pause. “Y/N, I need to claim you if you’re gonna get to the other side of this without shrivelling up from dehydration and whatever fucking magic was in that shit.”

“Oh.” You blink up at Dean and consider his words briefly, letting the full weight of their meaning sink in. “But what about Dad?”

You look up at Sam, immediately understanding the dilemma. Dean is your true mate. Sure, it’s definitely fast for him to claim you after only knowing each other a week but you suppose it’s inevitable between you two. But Sam… Sam, who you know is still in love with Dean, because you’d very rudely listened through the door while he spoke to Ellen back at the Roadhouse. Dean had been so hesitant to believe you were true mates because he had always thought that if he had one, it would be someone from his past, and you know now he must have meant your father. Where does this leave the two of them, if you and Dean become mated? Does this pollen stuff mean that someone needs to claim your dad, too, if he’s going to survive? Surely, then, Dean should claim him. Not you.

“I’ll be fine, Y/N,” Sam reassures you, but once again, you recognise the uneasiness behind his confident expression.

“No, Dad, I’m not gonna let you go all hero on me and sacrifice yourself or something stupid like that,” you protest, hating how childish your voice sounds to your own ears.

“Hey, Y/N, look at me, sweetheart,” Dean tucks a finger under your chin and turns your face away from Sam and towards him. “I promise, I’m not gonna let Sam play the martyr, we’ve got time to figure something out for him too. But we’ll both think a lot more clearly once we know that you’re safe, okay?” The alpha’s voice takes on the heady timbre of authority that zings unfairly straight to the base of your stomach and you have to fight the urge to clench around the emptiness inside of you. Suddenly, you’re very aware that you’re soaking through your panties and onto the sheets beneath you.

Physical need, once you’ve acknowledged it, drives all other thoughts from your head except for getting Dean inside of you again. Based on the widening of his pupils and the sharp intake of breath as he holds your gaze, the same urgent desire has washed over the alpha too.

“Okay,” you nod, the word trembling on your tongue in a delicate whimper that you try to swallow down but fail spectacularly at concealing. Without hesitation, Dean surges forward, body blanketing yours, and crushes your lips together, your heads now both cradled in Sam’s lap.

Chapter 18 posting on November 1st or head to my website to binge read the rest of the fic today!

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