#case and point i scared you into drawing your sword on an unarmed man

[silverskye13]

random thought, but i had a vivid image of, if helsknight and welsknight ever saw each other without armor (or just helsknight out of his armor tbh), helsknight showing welsknight the scar tanguish gave him and saying "this was intended for you."

i don't know how in character that is, but tbh it's haunting me. maybe it's part of helsknight's revenge against welsknight or something, calling out his unknightly behavior and unhonorable conduct.

"You didn't answer my summons."

Helsknight froze. It was a quick, momentary startle, a short-circuit of normality. The moment he did it, every instinct told him to keep moving. That old command [Do something.] blared loud in the quiet surprise of his mind. So he moved his hand to pick up the brush on his table, and pretended to be unconcerned.

"I'm not a dog. You can't call me to heel," Helsknight said simply. He smirked and growled, "Though if you feel like losing some limbs, feel free to try."

Behind him, Wels shifted uncomfortably. Helsknight liked making Wels uncomfortable, he didn't handle it well. He was a creature used to comfort and ease. Inconvenience often galled him more than a sword to the throat. Different tactics for different battlefields, and this battlefield was a delicate one.

Helsknight was cleaning his arms and armor, which was one of several reasons why he hasn't leaped for a fight when Welsknight had called him to one. He was only in a tunic and breeches. It was luck he even had his boots on. He had offered to run errands with Tanguish, but Tanguish had said he was visiting his church and wanted to go on rooftops. So Helsknight stayed home, and he left his boots on. That was the other reason Helsknight hadn't answered the call: Tanguish wouldn't know where he was, and he knew Tanguish got paranoid about being left behind. Besides, Helsknight had chores he could do at home [like cleaning his arms and armor] so he stayed. Cleaning the chainmail was almost a formality. Hels was hot and dry, and he wore it often enough that the rings clattering together cleaned themselves. But sometimes he just liked putting an extra shine on things, so he took out his brush and oil and started brushing it down for any miniscule specks of rust or broken links he could find.

Wels, always keen on the times he wasn't wanted, decided now was the perfect time to show up in his living room. He stood awkwardly, waiting on Helsknight to make some aggressive movement. When none came, he cautiously stalked further into the tiny living space. His emotions were loud and uncomfortable without the distance between their respective worlds to dampen them, and they clung like smoke against Helsknight's skin. Caution at an unfamiliar space. Disgruntlement at being ignored.

[Guilt, like ash on a burn.]

"Is this... Yours?" Wels asked, glancing around.

"No, I'm just squatting in a random house. Sounded like a fun way to spend a Tuesday."

Helsknight felt the ant-bite sting of vicarious agitation and smirked. He was already getting on Wels's nerves.

[Good.]

"Couldn't build something nicer?" Wels snapped impatiently.

"I'm a fighter."

Helsknight found a place on his chainmail to brush down and got to work. The rough, grating twinge of the coarse bristles on chain made Wels wince. Helsknight always found the noise pleasant. Like scratching an itch.

"So?"

"I have better things to do than spend hours building the perfect house."

Wels scoffed and looked around the room with renewed disdain. "Where's your little devil?"

It took Helsknight a moment to place what he was asking. He sneered, a quiet bearing of teeth, and caught the flicker of red in the reflective shine of his chainmail. Wels looked pointedly away from him.

[Like ash on a burn.]

"Not feeling remorse... are we, crusader?" Helsknight asked, finding a new place to polish. The coin-drop clatter of chain, and the shrill scrape of bristles filled the silence like an accusation.

"Of course not," Wels sniffed disdainfully, still refusing to meet Helsknight's eye.

"Careful." Helsknight murmured, that red flash reflecting off his chainmail again, anger simmering. "Lying's a sin."

"Why would I feel remorse for protecting my home?"

"A crusade well fought I'm sure."

"It's not a crusade!" Wels snapped, his own anger a living thing raising hackles. "A crusader invades! A crusader fights a holy war just for the principle."

"Right. And you're fighting because--"

"Because I'm protecting Tango."

"-because it's for his own good?"

Wels didn't exactly wince, but he did still, as though he'd heard someone draw a blade from its scabbard. Helsknight might as well have unseated his sword. He had stopped scrubbing, all pretense of work falling. The need to pace, to circle, to corner, rose up in Helsknight like a waking beast.

"Interesting choice of words. Protecting." Helsknight said, his voice low, his hands still. "I was under the impression they were friends. Do you often protect Tango from the people he's begging you to spare?"

"That doesn't matter." Wels said so firmly it was almost convincing. Almost. "People are convinced they need an abusive relationship. That doesn't change the fact it's bad for them."

"So many interesting words today," Helsknight hissed. He stood like a dark tower rising, all embered fury slowly stoking. Wels didn't bother turning to face him. He could feel his intent like thunder. "Abuse. Brings to mind the image of power. I do have a question."

"I didn't come here for your stupid questions."

"No, you came here looking for a fight."

"I didn't."

"You really do need to tame that lying tongue."

"I didn't come here for a fight."

"Did it feel powerful?" Helsknight demanded, pacing a step, and loathing the tiny room for denying him the space to circle. "The voice. The command. How did it feel."

"Shut up."

"To have someone begging you not to hurt them," Helsknight continued relentlessly. "Not your stupid play fighting on your stupid little server. True, shaking, terror. Did it feel good, crusader? Just?"

"I told you to shut up!" Wels shouted, taking a threatening step forward only to find Helsknight had closed the space between them and stood looming like a rook on a tombstone.

Fear, a caged thing howling, battered against Helsknight's anger. It made Helsknight feel almost giddy, the crash of malicious schadenfreude and self-righteousness against Wels; a flickering thing of brittle will. They made a terrible ouroboros together, fear feeding anger feeding elation feeding fear. They were always like this. No matter how calm either of them tried to be, once anger kindled in one, their emotions burned until there was nothing left but fury and loathing. Helsknight had been made to cut Wels down to size.

"Do you know what that kind of fear does to people?" Helsknight demanded again, his voice so near a whisper it was smothering. They were so close together, but they made so little noise, all will and wide eyes. "What happened to mercy for the helpless, crusader?"

"He wasn't helpless," Welsknight said, trying very hard not to back down. "He stabbed me."

"And a drowning rat bites. I wouldn't call it an apex predator. Certainly I wouldn't call it a danger to you, with your full armor and sword." Helsknight bared his teeth at Wels, something like a bitter grin. "I wasn't wearing armor."

Wels looked down, where Helsknight had drawn up his tunic to reveal the new scar in his abdomen. Wels looked like he'd stopped breathing.

"This was intended for you," Helsknight said. "You should thank me."

"You're-- you're here telling me he's harmless," Wels laughed nervously. "But he almost killed you. You."

Something in Helsknight snapped, and in the moment it took him to reach for it with white knuckles and compose it again, he'd shoved Wels hard in the chest. It didn't knock his other half off his feet, but he stumbled back hard enough hit the opposite wall. Not hard enough to hurt, but certainly hard enough to warn.

"He did," Helsknight snarled, pacing forward slow steps. "That's what terror does to helpless people, crusader. It makes them bite. It makes them beg. It makes them clamor to live. You. Did. That. What did it feel like to abuse that kind of power Wels? To turn someone into a scared animal? To make someone so desperate they would almost kill a friend? Did you find your righteousness there crusader?"

Helsknight didn't know what he planned on doing. Violence was in his blood like a serpent, and he wanted it. And Wels knew he wanted it. There was the ring of drawn metal, and the silver-bright glint of an enchanted blade in a dark room. Helsknight's advance stopped at the top of Wels's sword, not close enough to hurt, but close enough to warn.

"Stop." Wels said. A command. A plea.

"I'm unarmed."

"That doesn't matter."

Helsknight smiled, and there was loathing and euphoria in it, and the wine-dark dread of Wels right on the other side of it. The knowledge of a line crossed, a battle he hadn't even realized he was fighting made forfeit.

"Fine." Helsknight said. "My blood's already been spilled once on your behalf. At least this time do it with your own sword, coward. I'll make it easy for you."

He took a step forward, and nudged the blade with a knuckle, resting the point against his scar. The metal was cold, even through his shirt, the enchantments alive and writhing so close to his skin.

"How cruel have you gotten while I wasn't there to keep you in check, crusader?"

There was a long breath of silence between them. Helsknight stood, precarious and predatory, daring Wels to kill him. And Wels stood there, and dared himself to as well. And the room was dark, lit only by red anger and blue dread, and the pale, languid flicker of enchanted steel. And neither of them breathed. And the universe watched.

A loud clatter sounded on the roof. Both knights looked up towards the ceiling, Wels in startlement, and Helsknight in resignation.

"And he stays my hand once again," Helsknight sighed.

"What--?" Wels didn't get his full question out before Helsknight moved. He knocked the sword aside and lunged forward to grab Wels's shirt. In a move that would've made Martyn proud, he dragged Wels forward into his knee, knocking the wind out of him. In the time it took Wels to collapse to the floor, Helsknight had taken his sword, and held the point beneath his other half's chin.

"Go home Wels," Helsknight said, "before I send you there the hard way."

Wels, breathless on the ground, let out half a strangled laugh. "Why don't you?"

"Because I was asked nicely not to go running off and killing you."

"Helsknight?" A loud knock sounded at the door. Tanguish's voice, a bright comfort even in spite of its concern, called to him. "Is everything okay? I thought I heard something fall."

Helsknight glared meaningfully down at Wels, who only hesitated long enough for Helsknight to draw back the sword before slipping back to his world. The moment he did, Helsknight felt his breath leave him, the great void of being left to his own thoughts and emotions. In the wake of everything that was Wels, he felt ridiculous.

[What in hels had he even been about to do? Die on someone's sword to prove a point? Idiot.]

"Helsknight? The door is locked."

"I'm coming," Helsknight called, pausing only long enough to hide Wels's sword beneath the couch, where Tanguish couldn't see it and inevitably worried about it. He checked his tunic to make sure he hadn't managed to actually stab himself [he hadn't] and went to let Tanguish inside.

#rns ficlets #helsknight #welsknight #tanguish (kinda) #this one feels very dense and dramatic #i feel like wels actively seeks out hels when he feels guilty / bad / self loathing #its like a compulsion: punishing yourself because you did wrong #even though its ultimately unproductive #also something something helsknight making some kind of point about how #instilling terror in something to confirm your bias that its dangerous #is more even than the terrified thing causing harm #case and point i scared you into drawing your sword on an unarmed man #i dont know im tired and that was a really badass phrase to just drop on me anon #*evil not even alskdjfjf im going to bed

[wonderful-writer]

12 - Strangled

Summary: Everyone is on edge with the looming threat of the grounder army. Murphy takes Bellamy and Y/n hostage in the dropship for a talk and attempted murder, and Finn and Clarke come back to camp with important information.

Word Count: 3.14k

Based Off: 01x12, “We are Grounders, Part One”

Everyone who was readily available was building foxholes and digging up holes for Raven’s landmines. You helped Octavia provide camouflage for the foxholes, giving you a better vantage point so the grounders didn’t spot you as easily.

A gunshot went off, scaring the hell out of you and everyone else, before realizing one of the men on guard fell asleep and accidentally shot one of the bullets. Bellamy got angry at him and started yelling about how that was one less dead grounder, so you stepped up.

You intervened when Bellamy shoved the guy up against the pole he was leaning against.

“Bellamy, stop!” You yelled.

“Everyone’s on edge, and you not giving people breaks is making everything worse. So just shut the hell up.” He let go of the man and backed off. Once you realized you had made a scene, you yelled at everyone to get back to work, before taking the gun from the man. 

“Take a break, I got the next shift.” He looked gratefully at you and you smiled, leaning up against the pole he was at, looking out into the trees for grounders. 

You were standing by the fire near the dropship when you heard the doors start to close, and Bellamy sprinting towards them. You ran with him and some of the others, drawing your sword as Bellamy yelled for Murphy to open the door.

“You try to be a hero, Jasper dies!” He shouted back, ceasing your movements. You dropped your sword and a gasp slipped past your lips. Your brother could die again, and it all depended on the actions of the man you could barely stand to look at. 

You waited for the rest of the night and into the day outside the dropship doors with Bellamy, although you didn’t dare look at him. “I just heard Murphy has Jasper.”

“Yeah,” Bellamy replied. “Is the south foxhole done?” 

“What? My friend is in there with a killer.” She raged.

“O, look around, no one’s working. If the grounders attack us right now, we’re all dead.”

She sighed at her brother's response and marched up to the door. “Murphy! Murphy if you even touch Jasper, I swear to God, you’re dead.”

“Octavia! I got this.” Bellamy told his little sister.

“Really? ‘Cause it doesn’t look like you’re doing anything about it.” She snapped.

“Bellamy, you’re right.” Raven approached the pair, while you stood underneath the scraped American flag. “There’s a loose panel in the back. If I can pop it, we can get in through the floor.” 

“Good. Do it.” He told her as you walked up to them. 

“You do realize that if you’re caught, my brother dies. Murphy told you not to be a hero and look at you, Bellamy. Breaking the one rule he set, just like every other one. For a leader, you can’t follow orders very well, can you?”

Raven rolled her eyes and walked away to see what she could do, while Octavia smirked at you before walking off.

“Murphy, I know you can hear me.” He spoke into the walkie talkie. “All of our food and ammo are on the middle level. You know that. You’re leaving us vulnerable to an attack. I can’t let that happen.”

“Yeah, well in case you haven’t noticed, you’re not exactly in control right now.” Murphy’s response came out of the walkie slightly garbled and staticky, but still clear enough for you to hear. 

“Come on, Murphy, you don’t want to hurt Jasper. You want to hurt me.” He smirked. 

“So what do you say? How about you trade him for me?” He bargained. A look of shock passed your face. You knew exactly what would happen if Bellamy went in there alone. 

“All you have to do is let him go, and I'll take his place.”

“How?” Murphy asked.

“Bellamy, don’t.” You protested his actions.

“Oh, so now you care?” He countered. 

“Bellamy, we can do something else.” You disregarded his comment. “Anything else. You know what’s going to happen if you go in there and none of us can afford to lose you. Please, don’t go in there.”

He ignored your pleas and spoke into the radio. “Simple. You open the door, I walk in, he walks out.”

The doors opened and Murphy yelled. “Just you, Bellamy! Unarmed!” 

He handed the radio to Octavia and his gun to someone else, exchanging a few words with her and walking into the dropship as Jasper stumbled out, rolling onto the ground tied up. You and Octavia removed his restraints and you hugged him, watching the dropship door close. 

Jasper then went to help Raven and you and Octavia got everyone back to work while you both stood anxiously outside the doors. A shot rang out and you grabbed the radio from Octavia’s hand before she had a chance to use it.

“Bellamy? What was that?” Your anxious voice rang out through the dropship, causing Murphy to smirk.

“Oh, it’s your precious little Queen. How about we get her to pay us a visit?”

A late response echoed from the radio, but it wasn’t the voice you wanted to hear. “He’s fine, it was just a misfire.”

“Now, about your precious Queenie.” Murphy chuckled. “I want her in here. She’s gonna want to see this. Same rules as before. No weapons, and alone.” 

The silence that followed was thick and heavy in the air, until you gave your weapons to Octavia, along with the radio. 

“Y/n, no-” Octavia began to protest.

“I’ll be okay, Tavia. Don’t worry.” You assured her as the dropship door opened again. You ran inside as fast as possible, Murphy aiming his gun to you.

“Well, well, well, look who finally joined us! You know, I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time, but seeing the way you two act around each other really will make this so much better.” A maniacal smirk crossed his lips and walked around you, kicking your knees and sending you to the ground.

“Now, Y/n, I want you to do the same as Bellamy, here, and tie some ropes together for me.”

You did as told and ignored the worried look on Bellamy’s face as he finished tying his together. You followed Murphy’s instructions and finished quickly, realizing that he had forced you to fashion a noose. You just made the weapon you were to be killed with.

“Bellamy, get up and toss it over there.” He pointed with his gun to a beam and then told you to do the same, but on the opposite side of the ladder, near the door.

He smirked at Bellamy, who now realized that you were both about to die. “What do you want me to say? You want me to apologize? I’m-” He stopped himself when Murphy aimed his gun at him.

“I’m sorry.” He said genuinely. 

“You got it all wrong, Bellamy,” Murphy told him. “I don’t want you to say anything. I want you to feel what I felt, I want you to watch Y/n die, and then… then I want you to die.”

You looked at Bellamy, terrified. You had no idea what to do, and you didn’t either. You were just glad that Raven had ignored your request to do as Murphy said. You both got makeshift stools and put them under your nooses, as instructed, standing on them.

“Put them over your heads.” He demanded, and you obeyed.

“Now Y/n,” Murphy smirked as he put the gun down and picked up your end of the noose, along with Bellamys, which was in his other hand. “We’re gonna have a little… talk, the three of us.”

“Go to hell, Murphy.” He tugged on your noose, lifting your feet from the stool and choking you.

“No!” Bellamy yelled, resulting in Murphy letting his grip go slack, turning to the man.

“You’re so brave, aren’t you?” He asked. “I mean, you came in here thinking you were gonna turn this whole thing around, that you were stronger than me, and maybe one of your friends would come and help you.”

As he walked closer, he tightened the grip on the noose, pulling it up ever so slightly as he talked. He let go of Bellamy’s noose and turned back towards you. “Now how about that talk, hmm?”

“What do you want to talk about, Murphy?” You asked, hands around the noose.

“Why, you and Bellamy, of course.” He smiled. Your heart skipped a beat out of anxiety. “See, I know how you feel about him, Y/n. And I also know how he feels about you. So you’re gonna tell him, or I’ll choke you out until you do.”

You exhaled shakily, tears forming in your eyes. “I have nothing to say, Murphy, so you might as well kill me. You’re going to do it anyway.”

He pulled harshly on your rope, sending you into the air, kicking around hopelessly. He put you back down after about 20 seconds. “Let’s try this again. I heard you talking to Jasper, Y/n. Don’t lie to me.”

You refused to speak, and Murphy hauled you into the air again Bellamy yelling for Murphy to put you down “Okay! Okay,” You rasped, Murphy setting you down again. “I’ll talk.”

“Finally! Now, I want you to tell him everything, don’t leave anything out.” Murphy demanded.

“Okay, okay. I don’t know how to tell you, but I guess just saying it will work.” You locked eyes with Bellamy. “I think I'm in love with you. And not in the ‘you’re my best friend’ kind of way; in the ‘I feel like I’ve known you my whole damn life and can’t go a day without seeing you or hearing your voice or talking to you’ kind of way.”

“I don’t know when, and I don’t know how, but I love you. My mother told me that sometimes falling in love is fast and unexpected, that you don’t see it until you’re already at the bottom and you can’t get back up. And I can’t tell you how much it hurt when you slept with Raven. When I saw her and you in your tent, it killed me, Bell. That’s why I was so cold to you. Because I thought that maybe you loved me too, and then you did that and I- I didn’t want to believe it.”

The tears that streamed down your face were unstoppable, and Bellamy just wanted to wipe them away, but it would get you both killed. “Y/n, look at me.”

You looked up at him and he smiled at you. “I... I think I love you, too. I can’t even begin to think of my life without you, without the 100, without Earth. Because it all brought me to you. And I am so thankful that it did. Because I don’t know where I’d be if I hadn’t gotten on that dropship and come to Earth, because I wouldn’t have met you. Hell, I’d probably be dead if it weren’t for you.”

“Aw, how sweet,” Murphy mocked. “Too bad it won’t last long.” 

“You know, Bellamy, I gotta hand it to you.” He commented, changing the direction of the conversation like flipping a light switch. “You got ‘em all fooled. They actually look up to you. Almost as much as they look up to Clarke and Queenie over here,”

Bellamy’s feet were barely touching the stool, teetering slightly as he attempted to keep himself on it. 

“Yeah, well, we know the truth, don’t we? You’re a coward.” He accused. “I learned that the day you kicked the crate out from underneath me.”

“Isn’t that what you said?” He asked the man. “That you were just giving the people what they wanted, right?”

“I should have stopped them,” Bellamy admitted. 

“Yeah, it’s a little too late for that now,” Murphy explained. 

“How do you think this is gonna work, Murphy?” You asked. “You think they're just gonna let you walk out of here?”

“Well, I think the princess is dead… and I know the king’s about to die, along with his oh so precious queen, so who’s really gonna lead these people, huh?” Murphy asked rhetorically.

“Me, that’s who. And yeah, maybe I’ll have to kill your grounder-pounding little sister-” Murphy stopped himself when Bellamy kicked at him, retaliating by pulling on his rope, which was now tied up along with yours on the ladder. 

“Bellamy! Murphy, stop!” You yelled, straining against your noose. Everything went silent when Raven yelped from underneath the floor, catching Murphy’s attention. He let Bellamy go and grabbed his gun again.

“I’m guessing that’s her right now.” He smirked, shooting at the floor. You and Bellamy yelled at Murphy to stop shooting blindly until he ran out of bullets. Bellamy began to get himself out of the noose and Murphy noticed, yanking on it again to get him to stay in place.

“You’re gonna regret that.” Murphy smirked. He moved from Bellamy to you, aggressively kicking the stool from underneath your feet.

Your face grew hotter and hotter as blood and oxygen were becoming limited for your brain, tears welling up in your eyes as you scratched at your own throat in a feeble attempt to break free. Bellamy was calling out your name as your vision went blurry, attempting to use his hands as an advantage.

“Using your hands is a cheat.” Murphy pulled Bellamy’s hands away from his neck. “Mine were bound, remember?” Bellamy managed to punch Murphy away from him, but he just got back up and began to pistol-whip him instead. 

“Stop, no! Please don’t!” Your voice was raspy and barely audible, but that didn’t stop you from using the air you had left to protest Murphy’s actions. The door started to creak open and Murphy made his escape up to the second level as your vision darkened and your muscles felt entirely too weak for you to move anything. Your hands slipped from your neck and you closed your eyes, stopping all protests of being hung.

Jasper was the first through the door, grabbing Bellamy’s legs to support him and give him air, while Miller did the same for you. They cut you down and lowered you to the ground, eyes still closed and body completely limp.

“Murphy!” He yelled, voice even deeper and rougher than normal. Which is something that’s to be expected after almost being hanged. He struggled to get up and Octavia assisted him, while Jasper moved to your body.

“Y/n?” He asked quietly. 

“Y/n wake up!” He yelled, capturing Octavia and Bellamy’s attention. Bellamy put your head in his lap, taking note of the purple and yellow bruises forming around your neck. Octavia pushed everyone back and not long after, your eyes fluttered open, taking a deep intake of air.

A loud bang echoed from the second level, taking Bellamy and Jasper’s attention. Miller got the hatch open and Octavia came to support you as you sat up, allowing Bellamy and Jasper to investigate.

Everyone else went back to their stations and Octavia helped you stand, giving you a cup of water. 

“Thanks,” You rasped out. She smiled and helped you get your voice back until Bellamy and Jasper came flying down the ladder and out the door. You followed after them, skidding to a stop beside Bellamy as the doors began to open.

“Wait! Hold your fire! It’s Clarke and Finn! Open the gate!” Miller yelled at the approaching crowd. Clarke and Finn ran in, out of breath.

“We heard an explosion, what happened?” Were the first words out of Clarke’s mouth.

“Murphy is what happened.” Bellamy sighed. Jasper hugged her tightly as soon as he made his way towards her, and she accepted it gratefully. 

“Where have you been? Where’s Monty?” He asked with a hopeful smile.

“Monty’s gone?” She asked, but Finn interrupted.

“Clarke, we need to leave, now.” He said with urgency. “All of us do. There’s an army of grounders, unlike anything we’ve ever seen, coming for us right now. We need to pack what we can and run.”

“Like hell we do.” Bellamy protested, his voice still raspy. “We knew this was coming.”

“Bell, we’re not prepared,” Octavia reasoned.

“And they’re not here yet.” He countered. “We still have time to get ready. Besides, where would we go? Where would we be safer than behind these walls?”

“There’s an ocean to the east. People there will help us.” Finn informed the group. 

“You saw Lincoln.” Octavia stated. 

“You expect us to trust a grounder?” Bellamy asked his sister. “This is our home now. We built this from nothing with our bare hands!” He addressed the delinquents.

“Our dead are buried behind that wall in the ground! Our ground! The grounders think they can take that away. They think that because we came from the sky, we don’t belong here. But they’ve yet to realize one very important fact: We are on the ground now, and that means we are grounders!”

“Grounders with guns!” One of the delinquents shouted.

“Damn right!” Was Bellamy’s response. “I say let ‘em come!” If there was one thing he was good at, it was firing up the crowd.

“Bellamy’s right! If we leave, we might never find a place as safe as this.” Clarke spoke up. “And God knows, in this world, we could be faced with something even worse tomorrow.”

“But that doesn’t change the fact that if we stay here, we will die tonight. So pack your things. Only take what you can carry, now.” You interjected, seeing where Clarke was heading with her speech. She looked over at you and you looked back at her, nodding in agreement.

Everyone moved into position and began to gather whatever they could, while Bellamy looked at you and Clarke disappointedly. You stood with them and watched the others as Raven came through the back entrance. 

“Help me!” She shouted, holding a bloodied hand to her abdomen. You, Finn, and the others raced over to her, looping her arm over your neck to help support her.

“Murphy shot her,” Jasper said, Finn taking her from you and into his arms. You followed them into the dropship but was stopped by Bellamy.

“Y/n, you know that leaving here is a big mistake.” 

“I do, but it’s one I’m willing to make so our people don’t die.” You looked him earnestly in the eyes and went into the dropship to see how you were able to help. 

Raven was brought to the table where you once lay, Clarke lifting her singlet to reveal her wound, Finn holding her hand and Bellamy standing by to help if he could. As you looked around you, the daunting realization came that things were about to get rough really fast.

Taglist:  @soullessbabee​ | @hyperion-moonbabe-art3mis​ | @dummythiccwitch​ | @sireddobrev​ | @gxvrielle​

#bellamy blake #bellamy blake imagine #bellamy blake series #bellamy blake x reader #bellamy blake x you #bellamy blake x y/n #this is war series

[mianite-season-3]

Unofficial Season Three

Chapter 2 - Home Sweet Home?

Thank you to everyone who read and left comments on the first chapter - this one is for you! 

Tom gaped at the girl. He finally broke out of his admiration for her strangely colored eyes and got into a fighting stance. “Who the hell are you?” he growled, ready to throw a punch if he didn’t like her answer.

She laid a hand on the sword at her side but didn’t draw it. The girl regarded Tom coolly, her golden eyes calculating and slightly unsettling. She lifted her hand and he tensed, ready for an unarmed blow.

Instead, she brought her other hand to her mouth and whistled shrilly.

At once, four of the five wolves sat back and cocked their heads innocently, as if they hadn’t just been growling menacingly. But one, the smallest of the bunch, continued to growl. Its tail swished back and forth and its head sat in its front paws.

“Silly!” the strange girl called. The small wolf’s ears perked, and it sat back happily with the others.

“Sorry for the scare. Can’t be too careful, you know?” She shrugged, brushing a stray hair back into her hood. “Silly’s just a bit excitable.”

“Tom! Are you alright?” Martha called from the base of the hill. The mystic seemed to want to move up to his aid, but was unsure whether the wolves would turn hostile.

A quick whistle solved that problem, and sent the five animals trotting back up the hill towards their master. Although, the smallest’s movement would be better described as a scamper.

“Sorry! They won’t hurt you, I promise. May I come down to them?” The girl called to the group, then directing her question at Tom.

He stared at her for a while, debating whether he should knock her out or not. Instincts told him not to trust this girl, but a glance at the wolves by the girl’s side told him right now was not the time.

Maybe later. When he had some more gear.

“Yeah...” he started climbing down the hill to get to his friends first. The stranger made a hand gesture to her wolves, and they all laid down and put their noses in their paws.

“Tom, who is that?” Sonja hissed to him as he approached his friends. Behind him, the girl expertly climbed down the hill where the drops were more sheer.

“I don’t know!”

“You... don’t know...” she raised an eyebrow and sighed at him, firmly pushing him aside as the other girl approached. “S’cuse me, but my friend here,” Sonja stressed the word ‘friend’ as she glared at Tom, “seems to have forgotten his manners and didn’t ask your name.”

The girl blinked, her golden eyes confused for a second. “My name... my name is... Star.” Her eyes swept over the group and landed on Jordan, who was staring through her with blank eyes. “Is your friend ok?”

Sonja looked over her shoulder back at him. Jordan was shivering, his hair hanging in strings in front of his eyes. His glasses had fallen off in the water, so the glassy look he had in his eyes was all too easy to see. But who was this girl to care?

Star began searching her pockets for something, and a moment later came up with a potion bottle, pink with a soft glow to it. She held it up by her face, the potion casting a strange reddish tint across her cheek. “Here, give him this. Should get him up and moving for you guys.”

Sonja took the neck of the bottle and went over to Jordan, popping it open and helping him take miniscule sips.

Tucker chose this moment to emerge from the cave he’d been digging, holding a wooden pickaxe. “Dude, I don’t know what’s up with this world, but I just dug through like three different blocks and found no stone underneath. Anyone want some pink clay?” He threw the offending blocks on the ground, glaring at them like they’d killed his family.

“Oh, hello! If you need stone, there’s a bit there! And If you dig underneath the jungle wood slabs, there should be some as well.” Star piped up helpfully.

He looked around for the source of the foreign voice, and his eyes widened at the white-hooded figure standing amidst his friends. “Who the hell are you?”

Star laughed a little, a soft ringing that warmed everyone to the tips of their fingers and toes. “My name is Star. So, how long have you all been travelling?”

“Too long!” Tom groaned, stretching his arms out. “I haven’t slept in forever!”

At the mention of sleep, Star tilted her head back and studied the sun, sitting low on the horizon. The motion knocked her hood back from her head, and Tom and Tucker both let out an involuntary gasp.

The girl was young, her skin smooth and the color of melted caramel and complemented by her glinting golden eyes. Her face was thin, almost princess-like with her angular chin and jaw. Star’s hair was pinned tightly against her head, plaited into a braid and then wrapped around on her scalp. The color surprised them the most. With her skin and eyes, the brilliant silver-white of her hair stood out like a beacon light. It matched the unstained white of her robes, giving her the ethereal image of an angel. And when her hair glinted as she turned her head, they noticed golden thread braided within the silver.

“Damn, night already? Where are you guys based? I can help you get back, if you want.” Star offered, pulling her hood back up onto her head.

Jordan stood up, his breathing under control and color returned to his skin. “We actually just got here, so we don’t have a base yet.” He used his sweet voice, the one he always uses when he wants someone’s help but won’t ask them directly, to be polite.

Star looked at the group with mild surprise, caught off guard. “Oh, well, in that case... you all can bunker down in mine for the night, if you want. I have food and you can... regroup. I have some extra materials too, since it looks like you don’t have any tools or armor?” Her voice carried a question of why, but none of them volunteered an answer. The girl’s offer was genuine, and the heroes barely gave it a second thought. Free food and gear? Hell yeah.

She took their silence as a cue to turn and sprint back up the hill. She shouted a single word, “Home!” and her wolves jumped to their feet. The smallest yipped excitedly, and began prancing around the others as Star scaled the cliffside up to where they waited.

“You guys coming?” the girl called down to the group of heroes, who broke away from staring and gathered themselves to begin the climb.

At the top, Star began running ahead as the sun finally sank below the horizon line. Sonja and Tucker fell in line together, and Wag hung back to keep pace with Martha.

Tom came up beside Jordan, who was trying to avoid trampling over the youngest wolf, who seemed bent on tangling between his legs. He was laughing, and there didn’t seem to be anything wrong with him now; the potion had restored his bluish skin to a healthy tan, and his breathing was back to normal.

He shot out and grabbed his friend’s arm when Jordan lost his balance after the wolf knocked against his foot with its strong tail, protecting him from more injury. Wag and Martha ran past them as they stood, hand in hand, waiting for Jordan to regain his balance enough to continue the run.

“I’m glad you’re ok...” Tom murmured, more to himself than Jordan, looking into the distance instead of the man next to him. Jordan smiled, the corners of his eyes crinkling.

“Of course I’m ok. Thanks to you, anyways.” He punched Tom’s shoulder with his fist, though it was actually just a light tap. “C’mon, mobs are spawning.” He pulled out of Tom’s loose grip and began running again, following after the shadows of Martha and Wag.

Tom stared after him for a second before following. “‘Of course I’m ok’, really Jordan?” He grumbled to himself, feeling like Jordan didn’t quite understand how close he had come to death.

‘Stupid man,’ he thought, with just a touch of fondness underneath his harsh words. Even in his mind he couldn’t pretend to be mad for long.

Running through this quilted world was a much different experience with twilight descending. Each step was a surprise texture, since Tom couldn’t see well enough to discern what he was stepping on. Once, he fell into a one block deep hole because he had thought it was black wool. And the skyline was extremely odd, with skinny tall peaks towering high above the more rounded, slopes hills. And some of the mountains looked unnatural, as if someone had built them by hand and messed up somewhere along the line.

Tucker and Sonja, leading their ragtag group, followed Star up to the base of one of the tall mountains they’d seen earlier, just as quilted as the rest of the world. It was at this point that they’d lost Star, her footsteps fading rapidly away. They looked around. It was extremely hard to orient themselves when the world offered no landmarks aside from the mountains and hills. “Star?” Sonja called, her hands cupped around her mouth and carrying her voice. Jordan and Tom finally caught up as the girl appeared again, her illuminated eyes alerting them to a two block high opening they hadn’t noticed before.

“Come on!” She motioned for them to follow her, then disappeared back into the opening.

The heroes ducked into the dugout base, and the sight they walked into was oddly... normal.

The walls and floor were all dirt and grass, with chests lining the walls up to the ceiling made of cobble. To their right through a two block wide doorway was an open area full of tilled soil, with wheat, carrots, potatoes and beetroots planted in neat patches and lit well by glowstone in the ceiling. Beside them, Star had allocated land to crops with different growing conditions like sugarcane, cactus, pumpkins and melons. And beyond that, they could see splashes of soft color from flowers lining the back of the farming area. Some of them caught some soft moos, oinks and clucks from somewhere within the room.

To their left, a staircase down through the earth was the only reminder of the strangeness of the land outside. The blocks changed horizontally every five blocks, but there was no order to how they were split on the vertical axis. Some blocks extended the full height of the staircase wall, but others broke up into two or even three different levels.

Tom spotted a bright blue block about halfway down that he immediately recognized as diamond. His eyes widened and he elbowed Jordan and pointed at them. Jordan noticed the mischievous glint in his eyes and thought to keep Tom away from anything of Star’s, lest he take something with his five-finger discount.

Star leaned past the heroes and replaced the blocks of the door, two inconspicuous pieces of sand that hid this little place from the outside. She then calmly walked back into a room they hadn’t noticed before, the entrance being in the corner of the dimly lit base. They vaguely heard sniffling and shuffling as Star’s beloved wolves settled down.

They stood there awkwardly, not knowing what to do with their limbs and unsure if they were allowed to take anything.

Well, almost all of them. Tom began rummaging through chests as soon as Star left his sight.

“Tom! We’re guests, you can’t just take her stuff!” Martha scolded, which Tom promptly ignored. After a few squeaky chests had opened and Star hadn’t poked her head out to yell at them, Tucker and Wag followed Tom’s example.

“Guys...” Sonja sighed, not really doing anything to stop them.

“Come on Sonj, she’s got everything! Look, this entire chest is full of diamond and iron blocks!” Tucker told her, holding up the blocks in question. “She won’t miss a couple, right?”

Jordan rolled his eyes as he watched his friends stuff their pockets. “If she sends her wolves on you, I’m gonna watch you guys and laugh.”

“Noted. Look, she’s got a bunch of leather and eggs in here.” Wag grabbed a handful of pieces of leather and rabbit hide and hid them away in some hidden inner pocket in his robes.

“Dude there’s like five chests over here full of health and regen pots. Who the hell needs this many potions?” Tom exclaimed, sneaking a few into his own pocket.

“Aw, fuck yeah, horse armor and spawn eggs! How the hell did she get these?”  Tucker exclaimed.

“Hey!” The rummagers shrunk back as Star poked her head out of the other room. “You guys can take what you might need, but leave that wall alone. Those things aren’t replaceable.” She pointed to the wall of chests Tucker had been searching though, motioning for him to move away.

Tucker very reluctantly put the items back into the chest he’d taken them from. Star then tossed a diamond pickaxe to him, which he clumsily caught. “Here, use that and you can grab some stuff from my mine if you need it.” With that, she left the room again.

“Give me that!” Tom demanded, grabbing at the tool in Tucker’s hands.

“No! Get away from me Tom.” Tucker retorted, rapidly descending down into the mine. Tom followed closely on his heels. Their arguing voices echoed up through the tunnel even after they turned down a mineshaft and disappeared from the group’s sight.

“Lively pair, aren’t they?” Star approached them again, this time meddling with her hair and unthreading the gold from her braid. “You guys don’t have to stand there, come on in! I’ll make some beds.” She lead the group, minus Tucker and Tom into the room she had been coming in and out of.

There were a couple more chests, though nothing as intense as the first room. The real draw in this room was the walls of books. Floor to ceiling, three walls out of the four were built in bookshelves and full of leather bound books.

Jordan and Sonja stood to the side as Star bustled around, clearing away the furniture she’d had in the room and placing down beds in a row, six in total. They examined the books on one of the shelves. They looked relatively new, judging by the leather covers, but it was cracking along the seams and it was clear the books were well loved. Sonja lifted her head and rested a finger below tiny gold letters printed on the spine of one book.

“‘Sunni - 3’? What’s this, a weather report?” Jordan snorted.

“Yeah, she kept a log of every time she sees the sun. Who knows, maybe it rains like every day in this world and we just got super lucky,” Sonja giggled, then gasped slightly as something ran into the back of her knee and made her stumble.

“No!” Star shouted at Jordan and Sonja, and they both spun around and brought their arms to their sides in an instant. Star glared in their direction and they both took a step away from the wall.

Then Sonja noticed the animal jumping around at her feet. Her face lit up when the wolf put its paws up onto her legs, and she dropped to her knees beside the excited animal and scratched it behind its ears and under its jaw. She talked to it in a soft, higher pitched voice as it jumped around in her lap, rolled over to have its belly rubbed, then eventually settled down between her crossed legs, resting its tiny head on her knee.

“Silly, I said no! Sorry, here I’ll move her,” Star sighed, holding her arms out for the pup.

“Aww, she’s fine, she can sit here, I don’t mind,” Sonja cooed, petting the wolf protectively. The girl shook her head and opened her mouth to say something, but when Silly whined happily and flicked her ears at Sonja’s loving touch, she decided not to.

“So, her name is Silly?” Jordan squatted beside Sonja and rubbed the wolf’s ear. The tiny creature leaned her head into his hand and nuzzled his palm. His heart melted a little at the adorable animal.

Star placed a final bed in the line of six beds and turned to nod at him. “Yes. Well, her full name is Epsilon, but I call her Silly.”

“It suits her,” Wag pipes up, breaking away from his whispered conversation with Martha to approach the other wolves, sleeping peacefully in the corner in one big pile. He reached out a hand to pet the bottom one on its nose. “So, what about these guys?”

“I wouldn’t get too close to them. Alpha tends to bite when she’s woken up from her nap,” Star deadpanned, staring seriously at Wag. He cast a glance at the unassuming dog pile and slowly retracted his hand. The wolf he’d been about to pet snorted and flicked its ear. Then it raised its head when Star began laughing.

“I’m kidding. Alpha’s a softie, really. But still, I wouldn’t wake any of them up. It’s been a long day.” Her eyes shifted to Alpha as the older wolf raised her head and looked at Star at the sound of her name. “Night, Alpha.”

The wolf cocked its head, but she did what they assumed was a wolf shrug and laid back down again, asleep in mere seconds.

“They’re tired.” Martha remarked. Then she stifled a yawn of her own, her cheeks turning slightly pink with embarrassment. Star just smirked and waved the four heroes in the room towards the row of beds.

“These aren’t here just for show, you know. Get some sleep. Tomorrow you guys can explain to me who you are and what the hell you were doing drowning in a tiny pond.” She jabbed playfully at Jordan, sauntering towards the doorway. He flinched at her comment, but bit his lip and smiled past it.

As she ducked out the door, she immediately threw herself back into the room and against the wall as two hooligans by the names of Tom and Tucker sprinted in, arms full of diamond blocks and smiling like lunatics. In Sonja’s lap, Silly woke up and sprang out of her embrace to investigate the new people.

“What did you two do, clear out my entire mine?” Star’s eyes widened as they dumped their loot on the ground, and mumbling something to herself that none of them caught.

“Tucker, why? We don’t need this much!” Sonja gestured to the stacks of blocks floating on the ground.

“You can never have too much, Sonja!” Tom countered.

“Besides, armor and weapons and tools for all six of us are going to cost a lot.” Tucker reasoned. Martha rolled her eyes at the greedy look in his eye. Going to cost a lot, yeah right. Those shiny diamonds were just too tempting to resist.

“Alright, you crazies. I don’t really care that you cleared out my mine, but please, worry about weapons in the morning. Your shouting is giving me a headache. Silly, follow!” Star groaned as she left the room. The wolf pup pranced around for a second, then decided to follow her owner.

Tom quickly gathered the scattered blocks and stowed them away, then he yawned loudly. “I’m beat!”

Jordan stretched his arms above his head. “Falling through the void for months without sleeping will do that,” he mumbled, sitting down on the edge of a bed.

“And knocking me out, that might have been a cause as well.” Tucker saltily snarked at his friend, who grinned back.

“What an asshole,” Sonja muttered, fighting a grin at her boyfriend’s expense. She took his hand and gently tugged him towards the two center beds, gratefully falling backwards onto one with a happy sigh. “Come on, Tucker, get over it and let’s all get some sleep.”

“I’m not sleeping next to you,” Tucker told Tom flatly as he climbed next to Sonja. The zombie man shrugged and flung himself into the bed on the end, next to Jordan. He was out before a minute passed, if his throaty snores were anything to go by.

Wag and Martha then claimed the final two beds, on the other edge of the line. As they settled down, Wag cautiously wrapped his arms around Martha’s waist, pulling her close. He brushed a stray hair out of her face and pressed a light kiss to her forehead.

“Love you, Martha,” he mumbled into her hair, nuzzling her with his nose.

“Love you too.” Her voice was thick, and in no time they were both asleep in each other’s arms.

Sonja and Tucker quickly followed their friends’ lead, mostly keeping to themselves as they slept, save for their fingers intertwined between them. Sonja’s hood had ridden up her neck, pushing her hair out at odd angles, and Tucker’s hat, still damp, fell back from his head and slowly toppled to his side.

Jordan laid on the bed silently, comforted by the sounds of his friends’ calm breathing but not tired enough to sleep. He supposed nearly dying might keep him up.

Sighing and turning over, he came face to face with Tom. The normally hyper man’s face was more serene than Jordan had ever seen before. A small smile crept across his face. This idiot was always able to make him smile, whether it was with his stupid shenanigans or his soft sleeping face.

The man felt something brush against his side, and when he looked down Tom’s hand had wandered, and was now resting on top of Jordan’s hip.

He rolled his eyes. Even in this dead sleep, Tom still invaded his personal space.

And yet, in this dim room with only the sound of sleepy breathing and his own heartbeat, he didn’t mind the touch. He turned over to face his back to his friend, and when the arm snaked its way back up to his waist and rested there, he decided to let it slide.

In this new, unfamiliar world, he liked that at least one thing stayed constant.

#mianite s1 #mianite season 1 #mianite s2 #mianite season 2 #saphira writes s3 #mianite s3 #mianite season 3 #captainsparklez #synhd #syndisparklez #iijerichoii #omgitsfirefoxx #waglington #mianite

[velkynkarma]

Okay. So. I’ve had some time to come down off the mind-is-screaming-internally S2 high and think about a lot of stuff that I saw on my first playthrough. I still intend to go through and re-watch more closely for details. And I have NOT hit that level of ‘instantly knowing when and where scenes and tiny minuscule important details happen’ yet like I have for S1, so some thoughts might be jumbled or more explainable on a second pass. But for now, my reactions, my pros, my cons, my thoughts, and whether or not I’ll still be writing for this series.

Buckle up ‘cause like everything else I write this is gonna get long.

So as I mentioned last night, there were things I liked about this season, and there were things I didn’t. Let’s start with those. PROS:

Everyone gets a moment of sheer badassery. Everyone. Both in their Lion and on their own. Shiro’s combat scenes, Keith’s fights, Lance’s sharpshooting, Allura’s staff fight, I mean the list goes on.

One of my favorites was Hunk when mind controlled, though. Because holy crap—did you see how brutal he was when he had no inhibitions holding him back? He went to town and he messed Lance up pretty good. This says quite a lot about his character that I thought was really interesting. Hunk has has a lot of combat ability and potential, but he holds himself back, partly out of anxiety or that he doesn’t really believe he can do it, and partly because he doesn’t prefer the fighting method when there are other options. Hunk can absolutely fuck you up if he really wants to. He chooses not to. That’s big.

In general, just...absolutely gorgeous fight scenes. The choreography and movement of the characters was superb. As someone who studied animation I was blown away. Beautiful work.

All the Lions got an upgrade of some kind, some kind of special weapon. It kind of bothered me in S1 when the Red Lion got its giant super-gun at the last minute because it felt kind of deus ex machina, but I am glad at least that it’s become more established this is a thing all the Lions can do as long as you connect with them enough.

The Black Bayard has been recovered. Hell. Fucking. Yes.

There were just so many great character interactions and bonding moments. I love that we had a variety of different team-ups to see how different characters interacted with each other, especially in cases where they hadn’t previously. Hunk and Keith, Lance and Pidge, Lance and Shiro, Keith and Shiro, Lance and Hunk...just a lot of great interactions

There were so many “what the actual fuck am I watching” moments for me but I was laughing through all of them, so no complaints there. (Space mall. Just. Space. Mall).

Lots of moments when I laughed out loud or grinned wildly

Shiro losing his fucking cool because he’s human, yeah, I like seeing that haha

Slav. I just. As a person with obsessive compulsive disorder I related with this guy on a fundamental level. I’m not quite as bad as Slav is but man do I get what it’s like to have to do really stupid shit to just progress on a day to day level. (Also, he’s funny).

Zarkon and Haggar’s relationship was explored a lot more, which I really found interesting. In S1 they were a well-oiled machine and worked together perfectly. They also clearly trusted each other. S2 changed that up with Zarkon’s Lion obsession and Haggar wanting to focus on the internal spy and finishing off Allura. I’m curious to see where this will go and if it will form a rift.

Also: Haggar can be tricked. Her magic is not infallible. I suspect the Blade of Marmora has a technique or something to resist druid magic, otherwise they’d have been hardcore fucked centuries ago, but I find this intriguing all the same.

Blade of Marmora: “Come unarmed.” Haha but okay unless you literally disarm Shiro you can’t disarm Shiro and they know that so I’m genuinely surprised they didn’t throw more of a hissy fit over this one.

Not gonna lie I actually really liked the design of Zarkon’s armor-mech. Almost more than Voltron. Dem wings, man. Dem wings. Also, on that note, why the heck does he even need Voltron or the black lion when he’s got his own single-person mech that he can control without having to recruit four other people to work with him?

They basically confirmed false memories are entirely possible for Shiro since Hunk gives us a breakdown of how that arm actually works a little better. The Blade of Marmora may have been real but there is still so much fic potential here I’m foaming at the mouth over it.

CONS:

I’ve got a few cons, but well, let’s get the big one out of the way first. Galra Keith. (And since I know this can be a controversial topic and my feelings on this one are complicated, let me first preface this with an assurance that I have zero shade towards anyone who liked the Galra!Keith theory in S1 or likes the canonization of it in S2. This is just my opinion and in no way does it invalidate yours).

Okay, unpopular opinion time: I’ve never really been on board with the Galra!Keith theory (which I guess is no longer a theory, but yeah). I’ve never really made a big deal of it though because frankly it’s not my place to lecture others on what they want to like or not. I mean, hey, it’s fandom. Like what you like, just don’t cram it in my face. I was content to ignore Galra!Keith tags and go about my business. But the reason I was never really fond of the theory is I could never make it work, with the details presented in S1. And lord knows I tried, anyone who knows me at this point knows I love theorizing and analyzing this stuff. But it just felt so circumstantial. Most of the “evidence” people would point out in S1 could have supported a dozen different kinds of theories. The only real unexplained piece was Keith’s inexplicable draw to the Blue Lion at the beginning, but even then, I didn’t consider this an immediate indication of Galra blood per se. The show also has magic in it, after all; he could have also had some kind of sixth sense or other ability. It just wasn’t enough to go on. And above all I simply could not reconcile any kind of Galra presence on Earth when in S1 they were fully presented as devourers and conquerors. There was no way Zarkon could have known about Earth, especially if the Blue Lion was also on his radar, and not shown up to just take what he wanted and blast it out of orbit. Zarkon takes. He doesn’t have patience for stealth and subtlety when he owns half of the known universe, and I couldn’t see him having a single soldier on Earth without immediately taking advantage of it. Whether that was Keith, or some parent/ancestor of his, didn’t really matter. It just didn’t mesh with Zarkon.

S2 drops a few new details that flesh this out a little better. The existence of a stealth-oriented resistance certainly would justify how some Galra individuals could theoretically have been to Earth without immediately summoning a full fleet to blow it out of space. If they knew the Blue Lion was there they might even have a reason to target Earth specifically, if only to keep it hidden for as long as possible. I am mollified by this, at least, since it does provide some possible answers to the big plot hole issue I had with this theory. But I don’t know. Galra!Keith still feels too��contrived. Too convenient. It just doesn’t feel natural to me, in a series and plot that has otherwise put a lot of focus on naturally developing story as it goes. Each episode drops details that lead to the next episode, smoothly and subtly, but something about Galra Keith just feels very ham-handed. I’m having a little trouble coming to grips with it. Maybe they’ll drop more information in season 3 that will smooth this out more, but right now I’m just…really not a fan of this piece. On the plus side, while I am not really a fan of Keith having Galra heritage, I do kinda like that most people on the ship are just like ‘oh okay you’re part alien whatever.’ Like it isn’t drawn out into a huge drama spectacle. When it’s first officially revealed only Shiro is actually present and I half expected Keith to beg Shiro not to tell anyone because he’s scared of their reactions, just because they’d want to play up the reveal drama for a few episodes, but there wasn’t any. Everyone just knew. Learned off screen even, other than for Shiro, because there is no scene when Keith comes forward and says ‘hey so yeah, turns out I’m part Galra?’ to the team. And with the exception of Allura, nobody really reacted. Hell, there wasn’t a “reaction episode” like you would have expected with a theme like this. It almost felt underplayed. Or, treated as not-really-that-weird-a-thing, like in Keith and Hunk’s episode together, in which Hunk continually draws attention to the Galra heritage but not really in a hateful way. And I kind of liked that, because while Galra!Keith feels a little on the cliche side, at least that kind of response shook that up a little. And, not gonna lie, on a completely aesthetic reaction, I am just super fucking glad that Keith didn’t like…hulk out Galra style. I’m not a fan of Galra designs in general, I’m glad Keith didn’t just magically turn purple and all that. (Though this really does beg the question of how much his biology is affected by that Galra heritage. We know it’s affected his sixth sense at least somewhat since he appears able to sense and interact with all the Lions, and we know it lets him interact with Galra tech which is…weirdly convenient…but otherwise he looks perfectly human). Anyway. That’s my thoughts on Galra Keith, which was the biggest con for me. The rest are less controversial. OTHER CONS:

Pidge and Lance didn’t get to use their bayards to create new solo weaponry for Voltron. This makes me sad as I really wanted to see Voltron get a badass sniper rifle or a chain-whip thing like Zarkon had. I did like that everyone got to work together to make the super huge-ass sword, but I would’ve liked seeing some new weaponry too.

Thace. I just wasn’t feeling it with this guy. I know we’re supposed to feel sad when he dies, but honestly? They didn’t give us any chance to bond with this character or establish anything to really connect to him with. We see him resisting the Galra and tricking Haggar which is cool and all, but it just kinda felt like he was there. There was no emotion there, no connection. When he makes his heroic sacrifice I didn’t feel any kind of heartache because it was just like ‘oh...that NPC died. Eh, that sucks.’

We only got 1 Shiro flashback. Granted it was a big one, but like Shiro said, I still have so many fucking questions.

Hunk and Lance kinda got a little flanderized. I get that Hunk likes food, and I get that Lance is kind of the obnoxious-hormonal-teenager trope, but I think it got pushed a little too far in some scenes. They also got less development this season than the others, which wouldn’t really bother me as much if it had been fairly even across the board, except it wasn’t. Half the story was about Keith. Look, writers, I know we asked for more character development for Keith because he needed it pretty bad, but whipping it to the other extreme end of the spectrum wasn’t quite the solution?

The Red Lion’s abrupt change in attitude just seems…strange to me. I’m not sure how I feel about it. This is a Lion that you really have to work to get to like you and it’s ‘very unstable.’ It’s rather abrupt about face to the point when it just randomly keeps rescuing Keith was…well. The first time was awesome, but after a while it kinda felt overused. *flat sarcastic voice* “Oh boy. Keith is in trouble. I wonder how he’ll get out of this one.” On the other hand, I almost wonder if this is in part a reaction to Keith piloting the Black Lion, if only for a short while. I wonder if Red is trying to do the same thing right back—prove itself to its partner? I don’t know. I’m conflicted on this one. But to me it lacked subtlety in the same vein as Keith’s story.

That cliffhanger. Just. That cliffhanger.

RANDOM THOUGHTS, QUESTIONS, AND WISHLIST ITEMS

Okay. The final plan. Cool and all, but like...the fuck didn’t they just wormhole Zarkon’s ship into a sun or black hole? Like. C’mon. Even corrupted-Alfor-thoughts thought of that plan. They didn’t even have to re-imagine it. They had precedence. They were ultimately planning to destroy the ship anyway, and at the time they made their plan they hadn’t even considered trying to recover the black bayard, which were the only things they’d lose. They could have saved so much hassle. (The answer is of course that there wouldn’t be much of a show after that, but still).

As stated I’m not really a huge fan of Galra Keith but man, if I am being asked to accept this as canon, I fucking demand that he gets to dual-wield his Blade of Marmora with the Red Bayard. Because we already know he’s ambidextrous in with his sword. And that would be too fucking cool.

Okay so Matt’s not a prisoner anymore. He got rescued by rebels or something. Cool. Uh. Where’s the love for Sam Holt though? Where the fuck is Pidge’s dad? Please tell me somebody rescued him too? The man just wanted to find existence of life outside Earth he didn’t sign up to be a fucking war prisoner give the guy a break.

Also I kind of laughed when Shiro was all “hey Pidge don’t worry it’s okay Matt’s a survivor like you” because this is literally the same guy who was like “yeah Matt you gonna die unless I fight this guy for you since you have zero combat survival capability and both of us know you’ll be dead in like ten seconds.” And now he’s with rebels. Escaping. In a violent situation. I wonder how that’ll work.  

They were really pushing Multiverse theory in this season and I find that very intriguing. I wonder if anything will come of that.

Okay but the presence of a human-themed shop on a random space mall really both intrigues and puzzles me. ‘Cause this means there are regular visitors to Earth, or at least people know about it outside our solar system, when previously it sounded like we were in the space boonies and no one had ever heard of us (which is why it was a great place to hide a Lion). Earth obviously did not have robust inter-planetary trading since the Kerberos mission was all about discovering life outside Earth, and Lance thinks Pidge is crazy for believing in aliens waaaay back in S1Ep1. So. What gives? How?

The insane animation style change happened again for Shiro using his bayard and then everyone screaming. I guess they have a 1-pivotal-moment-per-season rule with that.

So we knew Altean Haggar was coming, that one just seemed kinda obvious. What I actually find more intriguing is that Haggar’s hair is white. Now granted we only have a few Alteans to work off of (Alfor, Allura, Coran, and now Haggar), but Coran has repeatedly implied Allura has extra abilities and has referred to her (or other Alteans who did the Balmera ceremony) as “sacred Alteans.” Presumably, this is something linked to the royal line, and so far every royal Altean we’ve seen has had white hair. I’m wondering if Haggar is a relative. Of course, this is all circumstantial evidence and pure conjecture. It’s also possible that hair color can be shapeshifted, or white hair isn’t associated with the royal line, or a dozen other things. I’m not holding my breath, but I am curious how Haggar fits into the planet destruction.

Overall I did like the theme they were going for this season, which is that your blood does not define you or decide what “side” you’re on. We had some good Galra (or just neutral ones, like the restaurant owner, or ones that just did not fit the ‘cull the weak, be the best warrior’ mentality we were largely led to believe the Galra were in S1). And we have Bad Alteans, although honestly I’m sure everyone saw that coming already.

I feel like there were a LOT of subtle nods to or jabs at the fandom in S2 too. Lots of theories came true of course, but there was also a lot of dialogue that seemed to deliberately poke fun at some theories or fan favorites. Sometimes it was funny and sometimes it felt kind of insulting or trollish. But this is hardly a surprise, I guess, considering how much they played with us right before S2 dropped.

ON WRITING:

So am I still planning on writing for Voltron? Well. I’d like to. I liked the majority of this season, it was fun, my heart was pounding through most of it, and it left my mind a screaming wreck by the end. It was intense. But it was mostly good. I enjoyed it. There are a few problems I need to figure out though.

Galra Keith is probably the biggest wrench in my fic-writing plans at the moment. I’m not…really sure how to process this. Characterization is the most important part to me when I write, and I always try to stay as true to the characters as possible based off the canon material we’re given. To me it is absolutely vital to do that character justice. I feel that is what a responsible writer should do. So even if I write stuff that isn’t centric to his heritage, or even to Keith, it’s now still a core part of his character that needs to be considered when determining his actions, thoughts, goals and motivations, especially considering some of his actions in S2 as a direct result of that. It’s something I need to keep in mind when I write him, but it’s also not really a theme I’m a fan of. I am certainly not petty enough to write it out of existence because I don’t like it—that’s not fair to the character either, and I detest that kind of blatant disregard for a character’s core traits, it’s not responsible writing. It’s leaving me a bit puzzled as to how to proceed. I’ll need some time to think on it. I need to figure out how to get on board with Galra!Keith in a way that still leaves me comfortable writing it.

(Plus, not gonna lie, it totally tanked an idea I had in mind where I was intending to use Keith as the main POV. Okay, I may be a tad bitter about that. I liked this idea. Oh well). That cliffie is another issue. At least we can work with the S1 cliffhanger. What do you do when a character has disappeared? Are we gonna have to establish they got him back every time? Or set it at an indeterminable point somewhere between all the action? Except there wasn’t really any point during which they slowed down. Just. Gonna need to think on that one. And as previously mentioned in this post, I’ve got a nasty case of the obsessive compulsive disorder, mixed with being an insane perfectionist, and it’s driving me bonkers now that some of my fics are canon inaccurate. I’ll get over it but man. It bothers the hell out of me.

ANYWAY. There’s my thoughts. In one long, super post. If you read through all that, congrats.

#voltron #voltron spoilers #voltron season 2 #velkynkarma thoughts