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bthump · 9 months

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Idk I too want better for Casca but I really dislike the hype for Casca potentially becoming an apostle, these users put it far better than i would:

https://www.tumblr.com/deripmaver/723418827650727936/why-i-am-a-hater-of-the-apostle-casca

https://www.tumblr.com/deripmaver/723493450382802944/im-so-happy-to-find-another-casca-apostle-hater https://

I skimmed these posts to see whether there were any points made that I felt like "responding" to, and there's a few.

First, Casca being a good person has nothing to do with anything except people not wanting her to become a monster, which I obviously don't vibe with because I think the concept of a good person becoming a monster fucks hard, which is one reason I like Berserk a whole lot. And I think a potential Moonbaby sacrifice would fit perfectly with one of the "good person" sacrifice examples they give: the 'person you loved the most and hated the most' sacrifice motivation, since it's intertwined with Griffith in some metaphysical way and it could be a two for the price of one deal. It's almost too on the nose.

Second, I don't think it necessitates Casca joining Griffith. Griffith seems to be out of the Godhand now, incarnated on the physical realm, presumably no longer presiding over sacrifices, and my favourite worldbuilding pet theory is actually that the godhand and Griffith will be at odds. Something's gotta threaten the godhand's existence since something wiped out the last cycle that we saw in Skull Knight's memory, and an incarnate fifth that appears right on schedule seems like just the thing.

Third, Casca's apostle trauma is, if anything, a sign in favour of her becoming an apostle since like, everyone in Berserk is at least tempted to symbolically become their abuser/rapist/nemesis as part of gaining power, eg:

Why can't Casca get in on the interesting and complicated moral and emotional greys here? This is good shit, I want it for Casca. I want her to be tempted to become what she fears, to escape her own sense of powerlessness through abandoning her morals. It's just a more direct version of Guts wanting to become a monster since that's rooted in rape trauma and both the narrative and Guts himself equates monsters to both his rapist and abuser.

I didn't see them mention the fact that apostles are compelled to love Griffith which to me seems like one of the best arguments against it (though again, I skimmed so maybe I missed it), but Ganishka resisted that, and Casca has a long history of repressing her love for Griffith so I think it could actually be a neat, and overcomeable extension of her human feelings.

Another big and better argument against it, particularly after the last couple chapters, is that Miura clearly just did not give a shit about Casca lol. And I mean I already knew that, one reason I thought the apostle Casca theory held water is that it would be a way for Miura to avoid writing Casca's trauma realistically and instead veer into one big dramatic moment followed by fantastical metaphor while keeping her a less nuanced plot point, albeit a more active and fun one than she had been so far. Instead his way of avoiding writing Casca's trauma realistically was to have her faint any time she thinks about it and then take away her personality AGAIN. So yeah, unfortunately I just don't think Miura wanted Casca to be badass and actively affect the plot. Idk if he ever knew what to do with her after deciding not to kill her off just to motivate Guts post-Eclipse.

Finally I just don't know if there's really time for that anymore. My vision was an Empire Strikes Back style end of second act downturn. Casca becomes a monster and sets a new arc in motion, Guts falls into despair and succumbs to the armour, shit gets real and interesting again for a while. Instead Guts' second act downturn is being mad that Griffith is still a god lol. She could definitely still go apostle at the climax of the story, and you better believe I'm still rooting for that, but idk if it'd be as satisfying lol. But I guess we'll see.

Anyway yeah you're free to disagree with any of my hot takes, but you're not gonna convince me Casca shouldn't become an apostle, because my reasoning ultimately boils down to "I would enjoy it." I would certainly enjoy it a hell of a lot more than fainting damsel in distress Casca which is what we're dealing with right now lol. If your reasoning boils down to "I would not enjoy it" then I probably won't convince you either, and that's fine. We'll find out what's going to happen eventually.

And finally I want to err on the side of caution and make it clear that I have no interest in arguing with the user you linked, and I hope you're not planning to be like, some kind of anonymous go-between linking posts back and forth. I used the linked posts as a bouncing off point to explain some of my reasoning, and that's the end of it as far as I'm concerned.

#character: casca #theme: speculation #theme: behelit #theme: sacrifice #theme: inner monster #ask #anonymous #theme: revenge #a #b #also at the end of the day there is still the question of 'who the hell else is gonna use the behelit?'#guts has his armour he's spoken for in terms of manifesting inner darknesses #anyone else would need their motivation to be both established and executed between now and then which feels intrinsically #unsatisfying to me and a waste of a lot of time we could've been spending on foreshadowing #the exception being serpico who has motivation if farnese dies lol which lbr would suck. and who would he sacrifice?#casca is the only character with a thoroughly established reason to despair plus 3 potential readily available sacrifices #(moonbaby griffith and farnese) plus heaps of ominous foreshadowing surrounding her #plus hey she just got an animal motif to utilize

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thyandrawrites · 2 years

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Shouji's logic and reasoning, and by extension the hero's, kind of sucks honestly, if this was all that this plot line was building up towards.

'The next generation will do/be better', really?

I mean, it's not as bad as 'you hurt people so your argument is invalid' but it's still not great.

It's kind of a circular logic that turns baby steps into milestones, that then keeps feeding into itself over and over. The people who are truly against the changes that the mutants (minority) need are just going to ensure their children feel the same way as they do, some may break away but we've seen (even in bnha's story) how powerful a narrative taught since childhood can be. And even when there is real improvement (like written laws), all it would take to undue such slow and peaceful change at a societal level is one too many (or too powerful) A-holes coming into prominence in government to undue it.

Do you feel the same or differently ? And what do you think about it either way?

I am kinda of feeling put off by Spinner and Shoji's treatment these last chapters. it feels weird, like Spinner is being silenced by the narrative when put against Shoji.

Two different asks, but I'm answering them together.

So, my thoughts on this are the same as my thoughts on the Shouto vs Dabi fight. None of this was news (with the sole exception of the added quirk racism angle).

The tl;dr version is that the heroes are responding the way they always respond to any criticism aimed at the system: they're shutting down the argument instead of addressing any of the points that were raised.

Shouji is not an exception. Shouto, Ochako, Deku and Mirio have done it as well. It's a pattern, and the fact that their knee-jerk reaction is always to defend the system without blinking twice is meant to be part of the problem. I'm not stating any of what follows to judge them, or to expect the impossible from them. But the kids are parroting the kind of narrative their society is based on, because they grew up as part of said narrative, and can't see past it.

Shouji roots his argument on the idea that Spinner (and his followers) are not channeling their anger "the right way." Because they've elected to use violence, they've automatically "lost" the debate, because violence is always bad and unjustified.

This idea echoes Shouto's words to Touya. Every time a villain who fell through the cracks attempts to have a dialogue with heroes, the response they receive is the same: your reasons are good, but you dragged innocents into your path, so I won't even pretend to listen to your demand for social justice.

The problem with this reasoning is that heroes routinely use excessive violence, too, and just as routinely get away with it. Even foregoing how the number one and two were exposed as a violent abuser and a murderer respectively, and got no consequences because they're hereoes... There's also the fact that the institution behind heroism has been killing people with opposing political views for decades, and keeps doing so even now. The whole first war arc was set in motion by Twice's extrajudicial murder, and several attempts were made to extend the same treatment to Shigaraki as well.

So. "Violence bad" is a losing argument when both sides have bloodstained hands. Both sides have shown a lack of remorse for the methods they used when they were fighting for a cause they deemed worthy. In the heroes' case, it was "the greater good." In the villain's, some sort of social retribution for their suffering.

But let's take it one step further. In the specific context of mutant discrimination, Shouji's words ran particularly empty imho.

The kid claims that this ambush "sets back their cause 30 years." I find this a malicious scapegoating. Why?

The mutants are *not* responsible for their own oppression. Similarly, they're also *not* responsible for the punishment they receive when the privileged class in change decides they were existing a little too loudly for their liking.

If I'm honest, I found this rhetoric abhorrent when I first read the leaks. I'm still holding out hope that it was a mistraslation because the phrasing was... Pretty bad. Like, echoing real world bigotry bad. But this hope seems pretty thin, considering how Shouji also submits that the solution to that discrimination is to just... Lay down and take it until things get better.

Now, here's where I'm conflicted because Shouji was also a victim of that quirk racism. He was covered in bandages, and now has scars to match. He was called slurs, singled out as carrier of "tainted blood", made to feel like he was lesser, monstrous, and like he had to mask up for other people's comfort as well as for protection from further harm. It's not even fatfetched for him to normalize the bigotry he suffered and shrug it off as something he's just "used to." But I think the mistake he makes is demanding that all victims of anti-mutant discrimination should feel the way he does, and adapt the way he did. But I think it's also important to note his bias here.

[Edit: I'm switching the angle of my analysis a bit here because I realized the flaw in my reasoning. Please share this version of this post instead of the one where I fell for the trap of "who is the more oppressed" mentality that... Leads nowhere because it's not a competition]

Shouji seems to think that since change won't happen during their lifetimes, mutants should all work with their current circumstances instead of working to dismantle them. He wants to affect change from within the system because he believes this to be a better alternative than seeking, and I quote, "retribution."

Basically, like all of class A, Shouji is an idealist. Even if he doesn't have all the answers yet, he believes that individual battles can one day turn the tide for the cause.

He's obviously motivated by a wish to move past senseless violence and bloodshed, and his ideals are not wrong in theory. However, the irony here is that by shutting down fellow heteromorphs and siding with the system over the voices of his people, he's unconsciously promoting in-fighting.

As I've stated elsewhere, he's not offering them a dialogue, but just serving the interests of the oppressors by creating differences between himself and the villains. Instead of acknowledging their common ground, he says "I was persecuted too, BUT." The but is the problem. He's seeing a fundamental difference between them, and blaming fellow victims for the "set backs" of the cause, instead of addressing why would non-heteromorphs want mutants to stay quiet about their oppression in the first place.

For so many people, that prejudice and discrimination is still their daily reality. The threat on their lives doesn't go away simply because some kids in a hero school are determined to make the distant future a better place. It's all nice and well that Shouji aims to be the kind of hero who can affect change for heteromorphs from inside the heart of hero society, but it doesn't stop nazi-coded cults like the CRC from harming people in the present.

When you see how bad things are outside the city, Shouji's words of reassurance about the next generation are just an empty platitude. They might come from the heart, but they don't mean anything to those who need the heroes' help right now. Those people need shelter and security. And the point is, they're not currently getting it.

Chapter 370 shows the crowd parading around CRC masks on pikes. So long as people are granted the freedom to reunite and discriminate against heteromorphs, there's no such thing as advocating for non-violence. It's people like the CRC that threw the first (non-metaphorical) rock. It's not the same thing and it cannot be the same thing when people fight back for their right to live. Protesting, fighting back, even when the circumstances dictate the use of violence for self-preservation, does not have the same magnitude as the violence perpetrated by the oppressors who literally want to wipe you out.

In other words, we're facing what's known as the paradox of tolerance. To truly have a tolerant society, you can't tolerate hate crime.

Incident 6/6 was a massacre against "innocents", too. Heroes don't get to use that word as moral ammo only when it supports their narrative, and elect to ignore it when it doesn't. If violence against defenseless people is always bad on principle, how come the only time they decide to enforce it is when it makes them put villains behind bars?

#Bnha #Bnha spoilers #Bnha meta #Meta:bnha society #Bnha 371 #Spinner #Shouji mezou #My post #Meta:shouji

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sage-nebula · 4 months

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I've decided to make my own post because I am not an idiot, but full disclosure that this post is 50% based on thoughts I was having while I was driving home from the auto repair shop yesterday and 50% a response to a post I saw just now that conflated "redemption arcs" (things fictional characters go through in fictional stories) with "community support" (things real life people offer to other real life people in real life) and how this relates to "fixing people" (making someone who mistreats or abuses themself or others not mistreat or abuse themself or others anymore).

Read my words very carefully.

In fiction, it is more than okay to like whatever type of toxic or fantastical relationship you want. If you like to read stories about toxic, codependent people who are absolutely horrible to one another and will never, ever change, you read those stories. If you like to read stories about a tortured man who just needs The Right Person to teach him to be better, and then he is, sometimes exclusively only to them though, then you read those stories. Sometimes you want to read stories where the main character says "I can fix him" and fails spectacularly, and sometimes you want to read stories where the main character says "I can fix him" and succeeds spectacularly, and either way, you read whatever stories you want, whatever makes you happy, I'm sure it's somewhere in this vast Archive that we call Our Own.

However, in real life?

First of all, "arcs" aren't things real life people have. An arc is something that has a beginning, a middle, and an end. Real life people don't have those, because our stories don't end until we die. Unlike a character, whose life presumably continues even after their story ends (except in circumstances where they die at the end but you know what I mean), we have to keep living day by day, with all the rises and falls that come with it. Now, this does not mean that a person cannot change, or that a person can't get better and learn from their mistakes; but it DOES mean that we can't have a "redemption arc" where we complete a checklist of story beats and then suddenly we're a better person who has experienced the necessary growth to be forgiven. First off, no amount of growth or change ever requires any victims to forgive. And second, that's just not how life works. That's not how change works. Change and growth are baby steps taken each day, and sometimes you go backwards, and you get angry with yourself, but then you pick yourself up and you try again the next day, and the next, and the next. It's an ongoing journey that does not end until you die. That's life.

But second and more importantly, the real idea that I think the original post was trying to get at, but missing the mark on was . . . okay.

So, the original OP of the post (and the person who replied to OP) got angry at the idea that the strawman they had invented (the person who had theoretically said "you can't fix him!") would deny support to someone who needs that help to grow and change as a person. The person who had replied in support of OP added that the strawman clearly believed in punitive justice over rehabilitative justice as well. On the surface, I can see where they are coming from. After all, on the whole humans are a social species and do need support networks in order to not only thrive, but survive. People such as drug addicts need support and assistance in order to get into better places in their lives, and the prison system has been proven to be far less effective at preventing repeated offenses than rehabilitative programs. This is all true.

However.

The reason why "you can't fix them" is still true, and needs to be said and understood particularly by those who are susceptible to falling into abusive relationships (e.g. people who have been abused before, particularly in childhood or adolescence) is because of free will. Specifically, the free will that each of us has, but specifically the other person. Person A can want so, so, so badly to "fix" Person B so that they stop being an abusive alcoholic 75% of the time. But if Person B doesn't actually want to stop being an abusive alcoholic (even if they say they do during the 25% of the time they aren't smacking Person A around), and refuses to put in the work that it takes to become sober and be a better person, then guess what? Nothing Person A does will ever make them be a sober, non-abusive partner. They will be unable to fix Person B. It doesn't matter how much time, energy, money, or commitment they pour into that person. It doesn't matter how much they genuinely, honestly, earnestly love them. Because unless Person B wants to change, and will put the work into doing so, then they will not change, and Person A, for their own health, safety, and sanity, needs to exit that relationship.

Now, does that mean that if, ten years down the line, Person B decides they are ready to put in the work to get their alcoholism under control, no one should help them? Of course not! They should absolutely be put in touch with sober counselors, support groups, medical professionals, friends and family who can help them. Person A could potentially forgive them, if Person A chooses. But that willingness to change and put in the work has to come from within Person B first.

I've been in the position where I've seen people in awful situations just tanking their lives, people I loved and cared about, people I begged to just listen to me and get help, only for them to not . . . and ultimately I had to accept that I couldn't fix them. I could be there to offer support when they were ready to fix themselves, but the core work that needed to be done had to come from within themselves. I couldn't provide that. Not because I was inadequate, not because I didn't love them, but because I couldn't force them to do anything they didn't want, or weren't ready, to do.

So at the end of the day, "you can't fix them" isn't about not giving support. It's about recognizing your limitations as a human being. It's about knowing that:

You cannot force someone to do something they do not want to do.

You cannot force someone to do something they are not ready to do.

Not being able to help or save someone is not a moral failing of yours.

Not being able to help or save someone does not mean you do not love or care about them.

Providing support should never come at risk of your own health and safety, physical or otherwise.

When you love someone, it can be really hard to accept this. You think, "I know I can make them want to try. I know I can inspire them to want to change. I know they love me, so if I just love them a little harder, they will want to change." Nine times out of ten, though, that is just not true. And if someone is abusing you, it is not worth the literal risk to your life to keep trying. You are worth more than that. You are more than just someone else's band-aid.

Keep yourselves safe in 2024.

#not an abuse scenario but: my mom died of covid-19 #it's relevant to this discussion bc she was a trump-supporting republican who refused to get vaccinated #bc the far-right propaganda shows she watched told her the vaccine ''wasn't a real vaccine''#and i know this bc when i literally BEGGED MY PARENTS to get the vaccine my mother LAUGHED IN MY FACE and TOLD ME ''it's not a real vaccine #so anyway both my parents got it. my father almost died from it #my mom seemed like she was doing much better . . . except she CONTINUED to smoke heavily while both having covid #and recovering from covid #and once again i said hey don't you think you should not smoke cigarettes while recovering from a serious respiratory disease #and once again she laughed at me #anyway 2 months later her heart gave out in her sleep and she died #bc her body couldn't handle the stress of the cigarettes + alcohol (she was also an alcoholic) after covid had done its thing to her #she was only 56yo #so this was a case where i wanted to fix my mother. i tried so hard. and i've similarly tried to fix my father (who is still alive)#but i can't! my dad almost died and my mom DID die and my dad STILL won't get the vaccine #I HAVE BEGGED THIS MAN. WHO IS NOW 73. TO GET VACCINATED. AND HE STILL WILL NOT.#you can't fix people!!! you can't!!! you can offer them support if they want to fix themselves #you can help them fix themselves but you can't fix them. you just can't. no matter how much you love them #and in abuse cases it can be really fucking dangerous to keep trying.#anyway. that's my TED talk. thanks for attending or w/e it is they say

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debb987 · 1 year

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TEB Shredder/Karai arc

Heya! Heya! So, and I'm saying this now so you know what to expect… after musing it over, in the end:

I am shortening/summarizing TEB Shredder/Karai arc 🫣

My original idea (and reasons why this won't happen anymore lol) it's below the cut!! Possible TEB Spoilers for Ch 21 - 24(?) you've been warned!

Also, this makes more sense after reading Ch22! So I'd suggest doing that first 😂 it's coming up this Saturday 13th! Just resist temptation for 36HR! XD

So! For the 21st my original idea was for Raph to accompany Bradford all the way to Shredder's lair. Raph would cross paths with them right before Shredder and Karai leave to meet the 12 family. Raph realizes he was tricked, he tries to keep them from leaving the building…

But then (and this is an idea born from the comments of times long past lmao) Mikey's ninpo starts to act up.

What had started as warm love, a reassurance that "we're here with you" had turned into a desperate "don't leave." The orange wrappings were overcharged and starting to burn through the red projection, scolding chains reaching green skin.

The orange energy burns.

So Raph suddenly can't use his ninpo anymore and his arms are injured, so he gets knocked out and imprisoned. Shredder and Karai leave and the ending of canon TEB 21 happens. They encounter the 12 fam.

Shredder lets Splinter know he took Miwa. Other than that, nothing much changes from canon, the fight is a stalemate, the Hamatos manage to escape, and Shredder and Karai return to their base. They need to know where the 12 fam is hiding and the fastest way is to get answers from the turtle in their dungeons.

Karai passes by Raph's cell to go to her "room" (because her Ch21 POV would have remained) so she speaks with the trapped turtle, a bit teasing, a bit taunting, tries to see if she can get some intel by getting under his skin.

Except that's not Raph anymore, but Puffs.

Puffs, who is internally counting down the minutes it will take for him to regain movement in his injured arms so he can wreck the whole place, starting with her, the most cheeky person he's encountered so far. He regards her with a sharp gaze…

…that softens minutely the moment she tells him her name.

Karai was the one that protected them (system), gave up her life for them, the one they failed to protect.

Puffs decides to remain a "prisoner" for a short time, because at the beginning it's easier that way. For as long as he gives off the impression of weakness, then his questions are answered, and he gets to know more about this version of Karai, that only keeps getting more and more relatable for him.

At some point, he and Karai would have gotten to talk about their very similar circumstances, about how not all kinds of love are good.

The man that raised me wanted me to be a soldier, in an upcoming war against humanity.

I have no value to the man who raised me, not beyond my reseamblance to my mother, my worth as kunoichi.

Essentially, this was meant to be a healing arc for both, Karai and Puffs… the parallels of their circumstances.

The exploration of Karai as she unlearns Shredder 's teachings, cope with her trauma, understand that her real father is a rat that could also project onto her the memory of Tang Shen, even if to a much lesser degree than Shredder. She has brothers that are turtles, in her ignorance, she was trying to kill her real blood-related family…. and that's without delving into the Karai of Rise and how Raph (not Puffs) would react!

Can you imagine how long this arc would have been? 🫠🫠🫠

So that was the plan! But alas, longterm story-wise the most important piece of their arc was the healing journey of Puffs, who finds kinship in Karai.

And that healing can be shown in other ways.

Also, in the long run their arc doesn't affect the story. Shredder dies, Karai flies back to Japan... their presence was never meant to be longterm or a main focus in TEB.

Hence, I'm "killing the darling" cool concept, sounded so pretty...

If you're not familiar with what this means, this post is a good reference! (Expressed a bit like a vent tho! xD)

Thus the revised version of this arc! Very summarized~ sorry for those that wanted a more in-depth Karai bond, this is all I can do!

If you'd like to explore this though, feel free to write and add to the TEB AU collection in AO3, I'd love to read you 💕

And that's all, I believe. Thanks for reading me if you bothered to. Hope the story continues to be enjoyable even with the change of plans 🤗

I just wanna reach sooner the part where my Rise turtles come into play!

P.D. Casualties to this "cut" are, among others I'm probably forgetting: the plans for Leatherhead & Baxter Stockman (uwu)

#the eldest brother tmnt #Deb writes #the eldest brother #12 Shredder #12 karai

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rabbiteclair · 1 year

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lobotomy corp update:

oh sure in addition to time loop fuckery and sad robots, this game also has soldiers in rabbit gas masks who make rabbit puns as they murder people. and nobody even told me, I had to stumble onto it myself. demerits for everyone

I've only had Evangeline for twelve days, but if anything happened to them I'd kill everyone in this facility and then myself.

speaking of murdering everyone though, I have in fact hit the point of 'ah, the start of the day. [readies pistol] let's kill all the clerks while they're still bunched up.' listen, I've got Mountain, CENSORED, Blue Star, two abnormalities I can't necessarily prevent from breaching, and a few more that are gonna kill a dozen clerks when they breach. I leave exactly enough clerks alive that if CENSORED or Nothing There breach, they'll linger for a while killing clerks and give me time to gather my forces. at that point, even if Mountain does breach, it doesn't have enough victims/bodies around to become a problem.

core suppression complete up through Tiphereth, at which point I rewound because I'd hit day 46. I really did not expect Tiphereth(s) of all people to have just a downright painful conclusion to their main arc, but here we are. every minute that A spends doing literally anything except groveling on his knees sobbing 'OH MY GOD I AM SO SO SORRY' is a moment wasted. I do however find it really funny that the Tiphereth meltdown was a one-girl show. Tiphereth, it's time for your character growth. Not you, boy half, you're already perfect and I love you. Go watch cartoons for a while.

I just finished Gebura's missions, and goddamn. if the game asks me to do another fucking Midnight I am going to blow up the entire goddamn planet. if I have to put up with that I'm taking you fuckers with me. I know this is kinda Arbitrary Deaths: The Game, but every Midnight I've done so far has been some real bullshit in that department. at best they are tedious right up until I make a mistake for two seconds and somebody gets vivisected. the 'suppress 3 unique Alephs in one day' one was a pain in the ass too, but Mountain and Nothing There are fairly easy to pummel as long as I prepare beforehand, so the only real challenge was CENSORED. and getting them to breach without killing someone in the first place.

every sentence out of Binah's mouth is more concerning than the previous one, which is pretty impressive considering that she starts out fairly concerning to begin with. Hokma would probably be just as concerning if I didn't spend every conversation with him going 'wait what. what the hell is he implying??' Instead he's just concerning because he likes A. nobody who likes A can be trusted. Except post-suppression Tiphereth, but she's a kid.

the time fuckery though. THE TIME FUCKERY. practically every line of Angela's takes on about three different meanings as you progress through the game. there's stuff early on that seems perfectly innocuous until you loop back around. the straight linear path through the story is incomplete because there are parts that only really make sense when you're reading them a second time. it's the kind of narrative trick I don't think you could pull off in any medium but a video game. hell yeah. this is the content I'm here for.

although, gameplay-wise... I respect the conviction to go 'this is a game where all the characters are trapped in tedious and painful cycles, so let's get the player in on that,' but actually i would like to be done with the tedious and painful cycles now thanks. I have 119 hours logged in this game and, judging by a friend's comments, I probably have another full loop through the main plot ahead of me, since apparently it's very hard to do both Binah and Hokma's suppressions in a single iteration. At least days 1-30 are downright trivial at this point, and I'm far enough into the game that I can afford to go 'eh, that dead agent was only a level 4 wearing Waw gear, I can let it ride.'

plot-wise, we have reached the point where I've started taking notes, because thanks to all the looping, things not necessarily being told in order to begin with (especially with the weird route I took through the first half of the game), and occasionally clicking through cutscenes at top speed when I should've been in bed 5 minutes ago but the day just kept going and I didn't want to lose the progress, there are a lot of parts I've had to go back and reference anyway. I still feel like I've got a fairly decent overview of what's going on here, although there are some clear intentional holes in the information they've given so far. I think I'm also a single critter short of 100% codex completion, and I've been assured that will help a lot with making sense of things.

#lobotomy corp

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circle-bircle · 1 year

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just finished fire emblem: the last promise. i gotta. i gotta talk

play tlp.

ok well don't if you don't want to. but the sheer SCOPE of this is un-freaking-REAL. i think one that really shines out to me is chapter 26 where it's basically a fe4 map in fe7 - you're going around conquering places and also THE SCENERY CHANGES FOR THE TIME OF DAY!!!! plus holton is basically a bootleg valter. always appreciate that. gosh. i just. hnng.

the plot? it's definitely fire emblem. i won't get into spoilers too terribly much but one of the main lords... isn't even playable in the final chapter, where he really should have been to complete his character arc. all i'm saying. but other than that it's good. you fight a dragon in a gaiden chapter

the gameplay? WOOAOW it's fire emblem alright!! lots of characters. gba supports though so i didn't really learn about most of them. but they're all fun and feel like their own characters. but there's lots of weapons, you don't get the convoy until CHAPTER 17!!!! though so be prepared to manage items. a lot of items. i didn't think it was UBER hard but there were definitely some challenging points in it. of course i talked about chapter 26 but one i also liked was with the next chapter; 27 was a DOOZY. it was very tough but very very fun and the boss can teleport (he's also sexy - yes, i have a thing for blondes. obviously.) and kill your convoy!!! so. RIP convoy man but not really. :P there's a few 'solo' fights, where shon (a lord) fights some guys and he goes on a sidequest if you choose to do it which is very cool i think. and kelik fights literal zoro from one piece (no, I am not kidding. it is Zoro from One Piece) and someone else who is a spoiler but it's sick as hell. not to mention the creator really loved the kaga sagas. like, really loved the kaga sagas.

the technicalities of this game? wow. it's built in fe7 - roms nowadays are usually built in fe8 due to... storage, i believe? or just because it's the most polished gba fe - but i haven't played much with fe roms so i wouldn't know for sure. there's voice acting! VOICE ACTING!!!!! and there's even dynamic voice acting for a character where they say something different depending on how far they are in the story. not to mention this was created when fe hacking at all was pretty underdeveloped - it still holds up today IMO. of course there's some jank but it's relatively minor.

ok have to talk about the characters now. first, not actual characters but there are... fe4(?) characters here. claud and julius.

or well. "claud" and "julius". no, i never met claud again. so. :/.

i can't really talk about kelik without going into spoilers. but he is unabashedly sick asf!!! he goes through a great character arc and gets a fairy sword :). there's also a difference in his ending whether or not you win/lose a very specific fight for vengeance or whatever. in his world of worlds every step meets the rest. inb4 weight of your sins. something something. play tlp.

spoilers spoilers spoilers:

i love galagar. he's just very cool. except when you get an infodump right before the final... chapters.... about his life...... you know it'd be nice if we learned a little bit more beforehand but c'est la vie.

tl;dr: tlp good. play :)

#the last promise #fire emblem

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crimsonheart01 · 2 years

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Since we are now halfway through the year what has been your fave movie and tv series you’ve watched? You can pick more than one!

My sweet, sweet anon. I promise I haven't been ignoring you. I've been sitting on this ask for a while now because I needed to think.

Since you didn't specify if they needed to be new or not here's what's been on my watchlist lately:

Chocolat. I adore this movie. I don't like candy and don't really have a sweet tooth, but chocolate is my go-to when I have a hankering. A whole movie about my favourite sweet? Yes, please! Juliette Binoche in this movie is to die for. I aspire to Vianne Rocher. She's a force to be reckoned with but walks through her everyday life with kindness. She's observant and takes her time to get to know the people around her. However, instead of using the information she finds with malice she chooses to help others (and guess their favourite chocolate). She stays true to herself, her beliefs, and her morals even in the face of adversity. She enters every situation with kindness regardless of how she's being perceived. And, she doesn't come off as a Mary Sue like a lot of women get written off as. She has faults, and she makes mistakes, and you get to see them. Everything about her is exceptional. Come on! How could I ask for more? I watch this movie at least once a month, if not more. Not to mention that I also am determined to dress similarly to Vianne in this movie. I just need to find myself a quaint French town to live in first.

Looking past the glaring issues of the latest season, Stranger Things is definitely one of my favourites. I'm an absolute fraidy-cat. I can't watch this show at night by myself. I need my husband to watch it with me, or I binge it during daylight. Regardless of all that, I think overall, this show is really great. From the soundtrack to the originality of the story. I love the progression and the antics. While this latest season was a lot mellower in terms of the comedic aspect, I do adore the daily lives of the kiddos in this show and watching them grow in real-time. The intricacies of all the relationships is also amazing. Plus, the characterizations of the people in general. The actors themselves brought these characters to life, and I'm better for it. I honestly can't pick a favourite from the bunch because they all have a special place in my heart.

Honourable mentions:

I tried getting into Euphoria. I liked it but never made it past episode 3.

I enjoyed Eternals (Drukkari 4 Life).

WandaVision & Loki

The Book of Boba Fett. I know it gets heat because the last couple of episodes are Mando heavy, but altogether I really liked the show.

Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. This was alright. I loved Wanda's story arc but tbh as a major MCU film, it was a bit lacklustre. I didn't really care about Dr. Strange in it at all.

Sailor Moon Crystal (I got my oldest hooked on this by accident and now we're watching it together)

On my To Be Watched List:

I've seen and heard great things about Ms. Marvel, but tbh I'm MCU'd out right now.

Top Boy. I loved the original British series, and my husband watched the Netflix season of 2019 and liked it, but I never got around to it. Now that there's another season, I'm considering it. I'm worried, though, because I don't care for Drake, and I know he's the executive producer on this revival. It's said that he's just bankrolling it, but anything associated with Drake I tend to ignore.

Yellowjackets. I don't know much about this one besides that a lot of people have liked it. I'll maybe get around to watching it.

The Boys. The first season was great, but I just haven't felt the pull to watch the subsequent seasons. I want to, I just can't focus on it long enough to actually sit through an episode. I miss Frenchie!

Finally, new content for Atlanta! I can't wait to dive back into this series all over again and then catch up with the newest season.

#asks #crimsonanswers #anonymous

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fivekrystalpetals · 2 years

Text

I actually forgot this tiny detail:

Now that it is confirmed that this intruder is indeed Chuuya, does it mean Fyodor sent for Chuuya before/at the same time Gogol (and Sigma) entered the scene?

So, was Fyodor trying to escape prison independent of Gogol or are all of them involved in his plan?

(*brings out the three scenario flowchart again*)

1] Gogol turned against Fyodor in the last minute and Fyodor realized this only after the duo arrived at the prison: his face of absolute confusion makes sense then lol yeah if this is the case, then Fyodor is screwed high-time.

Going by what the story tells me (and not reading too much between the lines) plus assuming that Fyodor didn’t know of Gogol’s escape during Wretched Chair Arc and that he was making independent plans to escape prison using Chuuya, ig Gogol popping up out of nowhere and throwing him a curveball like this must have thrown a big wrench into his plans, right? Either way, why did he bring in Chuuya, of all people? Just so he can flaunt his escape plan before Dazai--see, see, it’s your ex-partner! He has come to my rescue, not yours XP

or, as Ranpo says: (yeah I added this panel just bc he looks pretty here)

2] Gogol is still working as per Fyodor’s plan: in that case, Dazai is screwed lol

Because it’d mean Fyodor has moved all his important pieces to where he is--the prison. Why? The only reason I can see: they want to eliminate Dazai. No one in their enemy side is as much of a formidable opponent as Dazai. Ranpo is highly intelligent but as we saw through various occasions, Fyodor can easily beat him. No, the only thorn in their side is Dazai and they must have made this elaborate plan to trap him.

ETA: Oh, and I might be seeing too much into this panel but I still can't tell if this was a mere coincidence or a cue for Gogol to start his part of the plan.

No wonder, Dazai immediately chose the one guy on their side who was questioning his existence.

I still do believe that one reason he chose Sigma is because he can use him in some way to force Fyodor to make an impossible choice but that’s just my self-indulgent theory and I don’t have enough proof to back it up.

As to how Dazai is gonna use Sigma for now? My guess: he is gonna apply his logic from this panel:

(Aaannd, it is already working for him lol)

Bet he is gonna get the brunt of the prison break done by Sigma. He will dance around, waste his time until Sigma gets fed up and starts to walk through the death traps one by one and then, Dazai can simply waltz along hah

Also, there are lot of doubts if the antidote is the real poison; wonder if he will make Sigma test it out on himself first and if that’s how he forces Fyodor to show his hand I Will Scream. Okay, but now I am giving ideas to the author so I will stop lol.

3] Gogol is here only for shits and giggles and oh, to learn important life lessons through live examples (this is a crude explanation, but if you want to know what I am talking about this post explains it nicely)

In this case, everyone except Gogol is screwed (jk)

Or, to put it simply, the game is really left to Fate (as Gogol wants) and whichever team-up has the slightest edge over the other will win. Time only can tell.

So I say, but if anything happens to Sigma or Chuuya, time will tell how the fourth wall was mysteriously broken and two of the greatest masterminds in history were mysteriously shot dead with a bullet to their skulls

Well, whatever be the case, I can easily predict no matter what, Dazai will be the one to escape in any of the three scenarios (to move the plot forward assuming this isn’t the last arc)

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recurring-polynya · 3 years

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Once again, I am thinking about the dubious claim that people make from time to time that Renji would have gotten better character development in the TYBW arc if Byakuya had died. The thing is, though, that Renji did get excellent character development in this arc, particularly with respect to his relationship to Byakuya, it was just very subtle and I want to talk about it.

So, the first thing I want to point out is that the captain-lieutenant relationships is one of the major themes of the TYBW. A lot of this is sort of weird and awkward, but this is perfect, actually, because captain-lieutenant relationships are, for the most part, weird and clunky and awkward. Take for example, the part that I always make fun of, where the captains are told not to go to bankai, and Hitsugaya, Komamura, Byakuya and Soi Fon immediately go to bankai-- but they all do this on the assumption that they are luring their opponent into a trap to see how this works, and that their lieutenant will somehow ??defeat them anyway?? (well, except Soi Fon who seems to think she can one-shot her Quincy). There’s Sasakibe’s funeral, where we find out that Yamamoto cared far more for him than we ever imagined. Kyouraku returns Nanao’s zanpakutou to her and stands behind her as she defeats an opponent he can't. Iba carries Komamura’s body off of the battlefield as he loses the last of his humanity. Isane struggles to keep her head above her grief because that’s the burden Unohana left her with. Rose avenging Kira. Hitsugaya and Matsumoto fighting and (sort of) dying together. The Zaraki-Yachiru thing. The Mayuri-Nemu thing. Momo and Shinji actually got to have a relatively normal one, which they each deserved, but at least they got to have normal one together. Anyway, that could be an entire essay, but as usual, I only want to talk about Renji and Byakuya.

Renji’s introduction as a character happens in stages. Initially, he sort of appears to be Byakuya’s sidekick-- he's here to do the dirty work during Rukia’s arrest, while Byakuya stands by and calls the shots, but even early on, it’s clear that Renji’s a little hung up on Byakuya. He’s trying to impress him, and gets more embarrassed and self-conscious as things go progressively pear-shaped. When Byakuya finally enters the action, Renji’s thought bubbles reveal that he’s watched Byakuya for a long time, that he knows all his moves. When we get the Renji backstory reveal a few issues later, we learn that Renji’s goal is to defeat Byakuya, which he seems to feel is necessary to seeing Rukia again, even though there has never been any sort of causal link revealed between these two things. Don’t get me wrong, if Young Academy Renji had tried to continue to be friends with Rukia, I think Byakuya would have kicked him out on his ass, but it’s clear that a lot of Renji’s hang-ups are internal-- he doesn’t want to face Rukia again until he can stand against Byakuya. I think the origin of this is that he simply wants what’s best for Rukia, and he can’t stomach the idea of asking her to leave her rich, noble family for him, unless, of course, he’s somehow better than Byakuya in some dimension, and the only thing Renji’s ever considered himself good at is fighting.

Even more interesting is that he’s chosen to go about this by... studying the man’s every move and becoming his lieutenant. But for as much energy as Renji has put into learning Byakuya’s favorite combat moves, he doesn’t actually know anything about him as a person. He’s shocked when Rukia predicts that Byakuya won’t lift a finger to help her, and then horrified when this actually comes to pass. A few chapters later, as he’s running Hinamori through, Aizen comments that “Adoration is the state furthest from understanding.” I would probably classify Renji’s feelings towards Byakuya more as admiration or idolization, rather than adoration, but I think this statement is also very true of Renji and Byakuya’s relationship. Unlike poor Momo, Renji gets a little more time and opportunity to do something with this information. With a little Ichigo-forced soul searching, he realizes that he’s not going to come out the hero of this story no matter what, but if he doesn’t do something, Rukia’s not going to come out of this story at all, and even if he’s not really ready, he’s spent 40 years trying to figure out how to beat Kuchiki Byakuya, let’s hope all that was good for something.

The Byakuya-Renji fight has no direct impact on the events of the Soul Society Arc. It makes Byakuya show up to Rukia’s execution 5 minutes late and without his scarf. Renji gets healed, so it really doesn’t matter all that much to him, either. You could argue that they both wasted a bunch of energy (that they could have used to fight Aizen later) but it’s primarily a character-driven moment of them both drawing lines in the sand about where they stand, vis a vis Rukia. Byakuya wins this fight, and he wins it handily, but he’s wrong, as he comes to realize a few issues later, when Ichigo kicks his ass and tells him he’s a bad brother, a lesson that Byakuya will take to heart for the rest of the manga. Byakuya claims that the difference between Renji and himself is class, but the real difference between is the heart, and in the long run, Renji is the real victor of this fight.

The hospital scene is an interesting footnote to this. Byakuya defeated Renji, but Byakuya was the asshole and everyone knows it. There’s an expectation that perhaps Renji will quit or perhaps Renji will give him an earful and perhaps even Rukia will choose to leave the family, either to go to the Living World or to be with Renji (and Byakuya would deserve this), but instead, both Renji and Rukia give Byakuya another chance, which is not, I think, a place Renji ever expected to be.

Rukia and Byakuya building up a sibling relationship after this is fairly straightforward (although I’m sure it had its weird moments), but Byakuya and Renji now have this profoundly awkward relationship where Byakuya is obviously in charge, but he sort of depends on Renji as a personal compass because he’s shit at dealing with people and he doesn’t want to screw stuff up with Rukia again. Take for example, the part of the Hueco Mundo arc where Orihime is kidnapped and Rukia and Renji desert their posts to come help rescue her. Kubo takes to the panel-space to tell us that Byakuya has tacitly approved this. As a clan head and a captain, a person who is entrenched in the hierarchy of Soul Society, Byakuya couldn’t possibly go to Hueco Mundo-- but he can turn a blind eye while his sister and lieutenant scurry out through the Kuchiki family senkaimon. Renji, for his part, tried to go to Hueco Mundo through official channels and got shot down. We don’t know what Renji would have done if Byakuya had explicitly forbidden him from going, but it doesn’t matter-- Byakuya enabled Renji to follow his heart here, because Byakuya can’t. Rukia would have gone to Hueco Mundo regardless. She cares about Byakuya, but she doesn’t depend on him for validation the way Renji does.

I said this was going to be about the TYBW, so let’s get to that. Early in the arc, we’re shown several scenes where it’s clear that Byakuya respects and values Renji as a lieutenant, but he’s also pretty damn patronizing to him. Renji is the first one to engage As Nodt, and when Byakuya shows up, he acts surprised that Renji hasn’t taken him out yet, but then proceeds to take over the fight (real, “stand back, fives, an eleven has arrived” energy). After Byakuya then loses his bankai like a doofus, Renji wants to take point so that Byakuya can figure out As Nodt’s attack and Byakuya won’t let him... and then proceeds to get thrashed.

This has to be one of the most emotionally charged fights in Bleach. Byakuya is losing, and Renji jumps in, absolutely incensed that As Nodt would use Senbonzakura against Byakuya. Renji isn’t doing great, but he’s not doing terrible when Byakuya gets up and tries to help Renji, even though he’s a big bloody mess. As Nodt reacts by shredding Byakuya into chunks, and Renji just loses it, and if Mask de Masculine hadn’t shown up and kicked him halfway across the Seireitei, I daresay Renji would have killed himself trying to take down As Nodt.

This is where I usually make the point that if Byakuya had died to here, it would have broken Renji into little pieces, but that’s not today’s essay. Instead, everyone goes to the Royal Realm, and by virtue of the fact that Byakuya is injured worse than everyone else, Renji has to go forward without him or his approval.

In typical Renji fashion, the thing that motivates Renji here is not glory or heroism, but the desire to accompany Ichigo, the need to be with his friends in their times of trial. In fact his companionship here is absolutely essential-- at Hikifune’s, Ichigo expresses deep doubts that he’s doing the right thing, and Renji reminds himself that if he wants to protect others, he has to take care of himself first.

At Nimaiya’s however, Renji and Ichigo are split up because they must follow their own paths. The other extremely interesting thing that happens here is that Renji’s sword is reforged. Byakuya shattered one of Hihio Zabimaru’s joints the very first time Renji used them in combat. Renji brushed it off at the time, saying that he could get by without it. Even though Byakuya has long been his motivating force and his mentor, he’s also been held back by his connection to him. And at this point, it’s gone.

I really wish we got to see where Renji and Rukia meet up again, but we don’t. Unlike with Ichigo, though, Rukia doesn’t seem to need anything from Renji. They travel together, fight together as equals, wear matching outfits, like you do. Oh. Wait. After all this time, in the 493 chapters between Needless Emotions and Blue Stripes, Renji can finally see himself as an equal to Rukia. They get. bankai. Together.

I want to emphasize that it’s not really anything about Rukia herself that allowed Renji to make bankai, it’s the fact that he’s finally managed to move past the feeling that he’s not enough. Defeating Byakuya would not actually have solved this problem, and having Byakuya dying in front of him wouldn’t have either. Renji gets criticized for losing a lot of his fights, but that’s such a key to his character. He’s not always the strongest, he doesn’t always win, but he keeps fighting for what he cares about. He struggles with his need for approval, for external validation, but Renji is at his best when he doesn’t have time to think about that, when he’s just fighting by his friends’ sides against impossible odds, doing what he knows in his heart is right.

I think people tend to make a little more than is strictly necessary of the line where he tells Mask that he’s “a villain”, I think he’s most just making fun of Mask’s own self-aggrandizement. On another level, though, this is just Renji being at ease with himself. Byakuya typically enters a fight bloviating about the honor of Soul Society and “how dare you raise your sword against me, the 28th Head of the Kuchiki” and even Ikkaku had the whole deal about telling people your name before you kill them, but Renji is more like “you beat up my friends, so I’m gonna break your face,” like there’s no ego in it, just you’re there, and he’s there, and then you’re lying on the ground and he’s taking a nap somewhere. This is so different than the insecure, posturing young man he was at the start of this series and I love this growth for him.

Even after he eventually meets up with Byakuya again, something has changed about their dynamic. The group gets split up and rejoined two or three times, and Renji and Rukia always stay together while Byakuya ends up fighting alongside others, Hisagi and later Hitsugaya and Zaraki. This is cemented in their last scene together, where Rukia and Renji try to stay with Byakuya and he sends them off to fight with Ichigo by saying “your help is not needed here.” In some ways, it’s an echo of Byakuya sending them off to Hueco Mundo, but in other ways, it’s acknowledging that they are their own people, not just an extension of him.

Hitsugaya follows it up with this:

There’s more here than meets the eye, though-- Byakuya and Renji have maintained a pretty strict superior-subordinate relationship, because that’s the easiest way for them to make sense of the world, but the fact is, they do care about each other and are important to one another.

I know there would be a certain narrative satisfaction in seeing Renji make captain at the end-- he’s one of the hardest working people in Bleach, and it frankly seems weird to see Iba get the haori when he doesn’t. But Renji has never wanted to be a captain. Renji becoming captain would, in some ways, be a failure. He spends years pre-canon chasing rank and prestige because that’s what he thinks will make him worthy, and it didn’t. Instead, he found worth in being himself, in loving his friends and being there for them, in learning things from Byakuya and teaching him things in return. Renji doesn’t need to be Byakuya’s lieutenant anymore, he just does it because he likes it. It makes him happy. What better character development is there than that?

#renji abarai #byakuya kuchiki #tybwa #god i love to get up on a saturday and write essays about renji's character development #tldr: renji checks off all the gotei career milestones *except* making captain and then proceeds to lean in to his true calling: malewife #we stan legends only

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captnjacksparrow · 3 years

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So does Kishi officially hate NH and SS? Because I can't help but think like that when I see them in Boruto. Like no way he wants them to be seen as happy or content. Also, it seems like he still hates Sakura because just just look at her, she hasn't really changed. Her dynamic with Sasuke hasn't really changed. She gives chase, Sasuke ignores. Except Sasuke looks more depressed.

Hey, after fifteen years of us chasing after the story and characters we invested in so much, at least give us some indication that they are least happy after sooo many sacrifices, like they deserve that happiness.

But no, if anything, they seem totally miserable. What made Kishi do that? Yes, he can't show them ooc, but Sasuke marrying Sakura is already ooc. Naruto being a bad father is already ooc. Like why go to the extent of showing Sasuke trying not to touch Sakura and pointedly showing that they never kissed? That's just like a determined effort on Kishi's part to show that their marriage is not working. Naruto works way more than any of his predecessors and sleeps in the office or couch so as not to disturb Hinata, when Hinata is specifically designed to accommodate anything that Naruto might require.

Don't get me wrong, I think Boruto is trash. But I am still in interested in SNS in Boruto because that's still canon. Just makes me wonder how Kishi will finally conclude SNS, because their bond still shows clearly in Boruto. Do you think he will kill them any time soon?

Good ask, Anon☺️☺️❤️❤️

Before answering this, I am going to tell you that I don’t watch Boruto. But I know what happened so far, vaguely. Like, Gaiden arc, Karma seal, Kawaki adoption, Kurama’s death, loss of Rinnegan, Time travel arc. Anyways, I might have missed many interactions between Sasuke & Sakura in the filler episodes or other canonical episodes. I would be happy If you send me an episode list or timestamps in where they interact, so that it saves my time instead of me, watching that entire shit show.

So does Kishi officially hate NH and SS?

In this post, I dissected SS from a non-SNS perspective. It seems Kishi went all out of his way to make their interactions too insincere, blunt and toxic. I mean Sasuke’s absolute lack of interest in her was very evident even until chapter 693. That is right before, their final VoTE fight. And even after Sakura comes to heal their injuries, he just said ‘Ummmm..... I guess Sorry’...

Kishi could have made Sasuke say some corny shit to Sakura like how he felt bad inside for hurting her, how he missed her, wiping her tears or whatever (Puke!!!! 🤮🤮🤮). Because in the previous chapter, Sasuke basically confessed to Naruto internally about how he felt about Naruto when he was a child. Kishi could have done the same for Sakura in just 4, 5 panels. But anyways, my point is, Kishi’s moment to salvage that ship is chapter 699.

But he didn’t.

Did Kishi tried to build their bond after marriage?

He definitely could’ve. But he didn’t.

This shows his clear distaste in SS.

As for NH, Kishi is indifferent. He neither hates them nor loves them. Kishi created Hinata as a pairing fodder and she still is.

Also, it seems like he still hates Sakura because just just look at her, she hasn't really changed. Her dynamic with Sasuke hasn't really changed. She gives chase, Sasuke ignores. Except Sasuke looks more depressed.

Hmmm, I don’t know whether Sasuke hates her, anon. Again, maybe I’ve missed those parts. But when he looks at her, it’s always filled with regrets and an urge to avoid her (like Itachi avoided Sasuke, but for totally sad and genuine reasons).

But this again begs the question, ‘Why feeling regret or hesitant even after 12 years?’.

Believe me anon, Love/Bonds/Understanding can happen at anytime of your life. From where I come from, not everyone marries out of love. Arranged marriages are common. But still, many couples make effort and work out their difference, and find love. Kishi could’ve done the same for SS too.

Is Sasuke that heartless? No.

He was once a boy who bear hugged his brother every time Itachi comes back from the Academy. Itachi’s presence itself made Sasuke so happy.

Did he become heartless after the massacre? Also no.

Even after the trauma, Sasuke just became aloof and cold. But he always becomes a child who can pout, be silly, becomes animated, bicker around Naruto. So, he can be lovely, but only around the people he choose by himself.

Still, Sakura is not that person. So, he looks like he is depressed and wants to escape from her at any given chance because of a certain guilt.

What made Kishi do that? Yes, he can't show them ooc, but Sasuke marrying Sakura is already ooc. Naruto being a bad father is already ooc. Like why go to the extent of showing Sasuke trying not to touch Sakura and pointedly showing that they never kissed? That's just like a determined effort on Kishi's part to show that their marriage is not working.

To answer, this goes way back, anon.

Kishi is a person who prefers to write love through intense friendship, sensei-student dynamics and brotherhood. He can occasionally write cute and sweet romance but it can only be short like 2 or 3 pages... or a chapter, max. He can’t go on doing it for 70 chapters for romance. Which was evident from Minato & Kushina, Dan & Tsunade, Obito & Rin.

But the real deal of Naruto manga is the bond between Naruto and Sasuke. The bond between Itachi and Sasuke also played a huge role in this series. And then comes Hashirama and Madara, Jiraiya and Naruto, Kakshi and Obito, Kakashi and Naruto and many more. So, Kishi pretty much gave an ending he wanted for a long time in chapter 699. He successively pulled off a great manga without corny and shitty romance but with just friendship and brotherhood alone. He didn’t give two shits about NH or SS before chapter 700.

Naruto series’ another success lies on it’s characters tragic backstories. I simply loved them all and most of them made me cry.

Kishi wanted to move on from Naruto.

But then Money played a big part. Naruto series can be milked in a lot of ways. Editors wanted all the characters to become some baby making dolls. So you have to create pairings. Based on the popularity polls, they decided NH and SS.

In my opinion, Sasuke is a goal-oriented person. He is a wanderer who works on his own accords. Ever since he left Konoha when he was 13, that was his path, so you can’t make him stay in one place. At every stage of his life, he had different goals.

At age 8-15, he had one goal. To kill Itachi. Can he have a romance here? Nope.

At age 16, his goal is to destroy Konoha. No chance of romance in that dark path.

At age 17, he wanted to Revolutionize the shinobi system. Since he wanted to be alone for that goal, no possibility of romance.

At age 18, he adopted Naruto’s dream as his own. To make all shinobi cooperate and look out for Kaguya remains. Romance cannot happen here as he was constantly wandering around and he prefers to work alone.

This is how Kishi designed Sasuke’s character throughout.

Now all of a sudden, if you ask Kishi to go OOC by asking him to write corny romance for his favorite character Sasuke just for the sake of making him relevant to Boruto series, what will he do?

Since Boruto is a series which is a sequel to Naruto, you pretty much know everyone’s backstory. Those 12 year old New Gen kids possibly can’t have tragic stories like Naruto or Sasuke.

Kishi being a troller, used this opportunity to create a piss poor sob story for Sarada by making Sasuke as an absentee father and an unloving husband.

He created a sad story for Sarada and he gets to shit on SS ship. Two birds, One stone!!!!

Now, Sasuke being an unloving husband is OOC ? Nope. He was never a marriage material in the first place. So he is perfectly in-character.

Sasuke being an absentee father is OOC? No and Yes. No, because it’s the effect of the cause I mentioned above. Yes, because unlike Naruto, Sasuke once had a father. He can try to reach her out now and often. but he prefers not to do instead he cares more about Boruto. LOL.

Sasuke being not family oriented is OOC? Nope. He is a goal oriented person. His goal is same as Naruto’s dream. He will go to any extent to fulfill it, even at the expense of his family’s happiness. Because that’s what he learnt from Itachi. What Itachi taught him was, even at the expense of his own happiness and Sasuke’s trauma, he preferred Konoha and Shinobi World’s peace. That’s what Sasuke is doing now.

Naruto works way more than any of his predecessors and sleeps in the office or couch so as not to disturb Hinata, when Hinata is specifically designed to accommodate anything that Naruto might require.

As for Naruto,

I think it’s very funny. And I guess, I know why.

Just like Sasuke, Naruto is also a goal oriented person.

Remember, in that Boruto movie, Sasuke knocks Naruto’s door at the midnight?

Imagine if Naruto opened the door.

Sasuke will be like, ‘Alright mothafucka!!! I wanted to die in the VoTE itself. You wanted me in your dream world. Am working my ass off for your stupid dreams and trying to reach you without even meeting my own family. And yet here you are, sleeping well and sound. Am just gonna Chidori you!!!’ LOL.

I think you get my point.

If you make Sasuke to be an hardworker, then Naruto must work even hard to fulfill his dream. So you possibly can’t have Naruto playing duet with Himata or whatever trash.

So kishi pulled his Two birds, One Stone for NH here!!!

In short, Kishi gets to make his New generation shine through this pathetic sob stories and at the same time, kept his favorite characters without going OOC.

So, it’s a polite way of Kishi showing middlefinger to SS and NH for making him do this. He is saying, ‘Alright folks, you wanted this all along. But this is what you will get!!!’.

Just makes me wonder how Kishi will finally conclude SNS, because their bond still shows clearly in Boruto. Do you think he will kill them any time soon?

I think about this all the time. How will they end?? How will they die??

Now, don’t think I am some sadist for wanting them to die. I am just being practical and honest here. This is a new generation series. Of course, at some point, Naruto and Sasuke has to die for the sake of character development. And I will be happy if they die because I don’t like their miserable portrayal in Boruto at all.

Naruto series has a pattern when it comes to death portrayal. Meaningful characters (except Neji) always die protecting someone/something they cherish. Jiraiya died for Naruto, Yahiko died for Konan & Nagato, Itachi died for Sasuke & Konoha, Haku died for Zabuza, Obito (younger) died for Kakashi & Rin and so on.

Ever since Naruto became Hokage, his death is pretty much plastered on his head. He will die protecting Konoha just like all the Hokages from First to Fourth who sacrificed their life for Konoha.

But Sasuke???

I am going to say he will die protecting Naruto or the village. But for Naruto mostly. Either way, Sasuke will die first.

Dying for Naruto, the reasons are crystal clear. He already died protecting Naruto once in the Zabuza arc. He will never hesitate to do it again. Which was evident from the way he told Naruto in the Boruto movie while giving his Susanoo, ‘If they capture the real you, then everything is gone’. Somewhere in Boruto Manga chapter 38 (I don’t remember properly), Sasuke was yelling at Naruto, ‘If you are gone, it’s pretty hopeless’ and was praying ‘Naruto, don’t you die’.

So it’s pretty much Sasuke saying to Naruto, ‘I’ll protect you, You protect everyone’

But why the village?? Why will Sasuke die for Konoha which caused him so much pain?? I know anti-konoha stans wont like this, but that’s the reality.

It seems many Sasuke fans never paid attention to his character. After hearing the story from all the Hokages, Sasuke said, ‘I will not let Itachi’s life and this village into nothing’. He really meant it. Because for Sasuke, Itachi was more precious. Itachi died saying, ‘I’ll have protected my village as Uchiha Itachi of Konoha once again. I have no more regrets’. Sasuke wanted to respect his brother’s wish finally and that’s why he openly claimed in the battlefield, ‘I am going to protect Konoha and become it’s Hokage’. Sasuke’s another precious person is Naruto. He is the Hokage now.

Don’t you think Sasuke will die protecting something Itachi and Naruto values so much??

He even claimed it openly in Boruto Manga. ‘I would die anytime for Konoha, as has your dad (Naruto)’

Sasuke even said to Boruto, “I will stop you even if I have to kill you”. And do you think Sasuke is just pouring out some empty words??? Sasuke will not let Boruto to turn into an Otsutsuki monster and destroy the village.

Like I said, Sasuke will go out first. And eventually Naruto will follow him. Or they both die protecting the village together. I don’t see them dying for their wives or children. Because, their relationship with their family is not too strong and their ambitions are far beyond their own families.

Maybe for this reason, Kishi is trolling NH and SS in Boruto. LOL.

Naruto’s bond with Sasuke was formed even before his birth, when Kushina asked the 3 month old Baby Sasuke to be friends with Naruto.

However, One thing is for sure. One will not live very long without the Other or Both will die together. That’s how their bond should end.

#naruto analysis #ask #sasuke uchiha #naruto #naruto uzumaki #sasuke

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dallonm-archive · 3 years

Text

[image description: a wideshot of the san francisco skyline, tinted orange by a sunset. Above the skyline, in a white serif font reads "REVELATIONS, REVELATIONS." in all caps. below, in lower caps reads "update #2" /end id]

Revelations, Revelations | Update #2

Hey besties! I've got a funky little RR update

I've had a little bit of a love hate relationship with this book in the last two months but I am loving it right now! I think my struggles came from how I didn't really accept that this book is Hard to write. like it's complicated! and it's set in another country in another era like idk what to tell you! And accepting that was such a weight off my shoulders because I'm not putting the blame on myself. I also was really stuck in part one's problems and I had to be like <3 bestie <3 abandon it til post draft editing. So right now it's like:

Part one: I see it as a little stray cat in an alleyway that I kneel down in front of like pspspsp :) and then it hisses and bites me because it is actually a feral raccoon. Definitely not where I want it to be but like I can fix him

Part two: super fun!! A lot of deeper (and messier) elements are introduced here and I feel like the story's ~vibes~ have clicked. It's a lot of fun and it's getting complex. Whilst there's conflict going on in part one there's definitely this false sense of stability and then part two hits all of them like a baseball bat

My drafting has been much more chill and non linear too, just writing the scenes I want to and then connecting them together. I've been focused less on rich prose/descriptions and more on prose that explores character and it's been very refreshing! I love my flowery prose but I think it's easy to get caught up in. I'm also no longer going to do chapter by chapter updates, both for plot privacy but also because this story is very delicate both in content and the drafting process and I don't just want to expose the bare bones of that, you know? So I'm just gonna do some sectioned rambles and talk about a couple chapters under the cut!

also no longer doing multiple taglists because i can't keep up so! general taglist, ask to be added or removed! ; @kowlazovdi @avi-burton-writing @ryns-ramblings @kitblogsthings @ezrathings @aetherwrites @radiomacbeth @bijouxs @bookphobe @haldimilks @alicewestwater @bookpacking @shaelinwrites @onlyganymede @theelectricfactory @write-like-babs @oceancold @veiliza @sidhewrites @wolf-oak @oasis-of-you @coffeeandcalligraphy @cecilsstorycorner @howdywrites @keira-is-writing @flip-phones @svpphicwrites

Only major change to report is I switched to alternate POVs instead of multiple chapters at a time in one POV because I'm insane <3 I had a lot of fun braiding POVs in Life Cycle of Massive Stars and wanted to try it here and it works much better! Though at this point I am simply ignoring the existence of part 1 because it really was the guinea pig part LMAO i experimented so much with structure and form and now it's a mess but it's <3 a future problem <3 i'd rather have one messy part than a whole first draft that's behind on my growing ~vision~ of the story.

[image description: a slightly purple tinted photo of two arms extending from the top and bottom of the photo, cropped to only show their hands. Their index fingers touch. in the middle, in a white serif font reads "dorothy" /end id]

Not a chapter, I had a lot of trouble with Dorothy in part 1 but I still love her so instead y'all are getting a mini character ramble! I felt really bad about her for the longest time because I've only been writing her since last summer whereas I've known Felix since like 2018 so there's naturally an imbalance, but I Do Not like that!! And she's really taken her time revealing herself, but I am ~fascinated by her.

I feel she's best summarised by this disillusionment for her life but mostly herself, because she's framed her whole identity by illusory perceptions of other people: a mother she doesn't remember, a girlfriend she breaks up with every six months but still shares a bed with, a twin brother she hasn't seen in person for four years and still sees as a teenager drenched in religious manipulation. It's a lot! She assumes that she feels dissatisfied with her life because she's without her twin, but then Felix returns to her life and shockingly this does not fix all of her problems??? She also doesn't know how to be alone, which definitely will not get better after Felix returns oop

The day her brother decides to leave, Dorothy is home alone.

Her San Francisco apartment is hollow like a hungry stomach. Three days ago, she drove Jolie to the airport then came home to cover the bathroom mirror with towels. On the first day she took an extra shift at the book store, drove through Sea Cliff at sunset, bumped into Mona on the stairwell and joined her and Margot for wine and slipped out when they began arguing over rent and office interns, started then discarded a portrait of a fictional girl and slept from two to five in the morning. On the second day she worked and spent an extra hour designing a window display on science fiction that she put together on the third day. Cut and painted a rocket ship on cardboard that she’ll have to scold kids for tugging, then get scolded herself by their mothers.

The day I finalise a design for their apartment it's over but I call this trick Trying To Get Around The Fact I Made Characters In Their Earlier Twenties Live In San Francisco (cw: drowning)

The apartment is nicer than her, but it’s been home for three years and they get $100 off rent each month because Jolie tends the garden and looks just like the landlady's daughter that drowned in the Pacific.

I don't think I've talked about Jolie much here which is funny because she is probably the most well-received amongst my friends! They love her so much and it's because she's a hot but slightly toxic lesbian smh, I'm like no seriously she does some fucked up things and they're like you promise?? Some funky facts:

Her real name is Jolene and she hates it except when the Dolly Parton song came on, that gives her a god complex

We are going to ignore how I accidentally named two characters after words for beautiful and pretty in French we are going to pretend it was intentional because when this gets published a uni student could get some good analysis out of that in their Intro to Literature class

She joined the cult with her mother at 13 and left as soon as she turned 18 LMAO. She was Dorothy's only connection to the "outside world" and the only reason she was able to leave

Her dream job is gardener/florist! We get it I watched Bly Manor last November. She's also a bartender

would probably have this on her car /j

[image description: a close up of a car sticker of a frog above "MILF" in green caps. below "MILF" reads "Man I Love Frogs" /end id]

Dorothy and Jolie have always been on and off and building tension but Dorothy realises this can't keep going when Jolie gets into a barfight at work and Dorothy feels Insane because she's the only one concerned?? (cw: blood, mild violence)

“You’re lucky it’s not broken.” She angles Jolie’s face, hand under her chin. Even with red blotted around her nostrils and lips, mulberry lipstick smudged, she still smiles like her bruises are a trophy. It’s a surprise she doesn’t dwell on it: it’s just some blood, doll, nothing to worry about. She didn’t even strike that good. Her technique was all off. If she shows her face back here I’ll just teach her how to punch properly. The worst part is over and I’m a big girl. Do I look upset? Am I crying? When they drive home, she’ll ask to stop and see if she can get free cigarettes or beer by holding her nose and making herself cry. She’ll probably ask Dorothy to hit her so it starts bleeding again. But she’s quiet, leans against the basin and lets her dab damp towels on her face. It doesn’t take long to clean up. It was just some blood.

“Nursing,” Jolie says.

“What?” “You keep saying you want to go to school but don’t know what for – nursing. You’re too good at taking care of people.”

That ending is like Top Three dialogue lines that made me really Concerned for how this character arc is gonna go :) but don't worry about it y'all. I do think Jolie genuinely loves Dorothy but that does not mean! the relationship is healthy!

Basically I love her a lot now that I know her better and I am excited to see where she goes! I think the biggest part of her arc is motherhood/daughterhood and TBH as a recently realised trans dude it took me a Minute to feel entitled to write her story? But being a cis woman shaped my life for two decades and getting to navigate that and being a daughter from a perspective that's totally distanced from myself is very helpful. It's about the inherent admiration and pain that comes from being a mother's daughter! (cw: blood, diet culture/disordered eating)

She lies next to the table and presses her forehead to the glass corner and imagines what would shatter first: the glass or her skin. And she imagines being a girl again, with French braids and too much baby fat in her cheeks and being picked up by a mother before the blood stains her hands and then her dress. She’d tell the mother she just wanted to read her magazines, the dog-eared articles about divorce and top tips for menopause and the benefits of eating half a grapefruit before your calorie-counted meals. And the mother would just brush the bangs out her face, press a pack of thawed peas on the wound and let her choose between the band aid with hearts or the band aid with flowers. And maybe the mother would know she did it for attention because they both know a daughters cry slices oxygen like glass to skin, but she’d still detangle her curls in the evening and kiss her forehead goodnight and serve her breakfast in the morning with half a grapefruit – the other half on her own plate, untouched and left to rot.

[image description: an orange firework exploding against a black sky. across the photo, in a white serif font reads "the last 10 hours of 1986" /end id]

This is technically two chapters, one in each POV and they close part one! Title is v explanatory and they're meant to be framed like a countdown - my plan was for the scenes to get shorter as it gets closer to midnight and that didn't really work but? The twins def get messier as the countdown goes down and THAT is what we like to see. This is also the only end of a part where the twins are separated but don't worry about it hehe :)

Dorothy

This chapter is like the First Time Dorothy does something for herself and. Good for her!

She’ll publish poetry under a pen name and horror short stories under another. She’ll paint indigo mountains and magenta oceans and not care when the colours stain her clothes. She’ll teach Felix how to blend acrylics and he’ll teach her how to remember piano notes and they won’t argue about who abandoned who. When Mona and Margot break up, she’ll go down to comfort Mona or Margot and then kiss Margot or Mona. She’ll move out and tell neither of them. She’ll find a landlady with a dead daughter and get a discount on an ocean view apartment with wall-length windows. Isaias will move in next door and they’ll have weekly dinner parties with wine that costs more than $10. She’ll go vegan. She’ll be so in tune with herself she won’t need to read magazine horoscopes or pay $50 for a psychic reading that assumes she knows her grandparents. She’ll know when she’s happy sad angry and why. She’ll take portrait commissions so she can afford a therapist. She’ll love her life and ignore that there’s no space for Jolie because she wants there to be. She’ll need nobody except herself. She’ll try and make things with Jolie work. She’ll kiss a random girl at midnight to see if it’s any different. She’ll go home after the countdown.

I had the revelation (aha) of Isaias and Dorothy as besties and I am OBSESSED! I love Isaias but struggled with his role so I'm really happy about this. Like he practices calligraphy and writes poetry titled after his favourite plants is he not the ideal character!! Hoping this will make it easier to learn about him so we can get that fun content

Felix

Felix's is fun because he makes the best decision of his arc but also the stupidest fucking decision of his arc. He truly has the range NOBODY is doing it like him. Here's a part that mirrors the excerpt above because even when they're apart Felix and Dorothy are like hmm we Will Be Intrinsically Connected (cw: drug, vomit and sex mention sorry he's going through it!!)

Two hours before midnight and Felix is alone in the bathroom. The party he abandoned synths through the ceiling. He plays Love My Way on his Walkman. Highest volume. Eyes closed. Imagines 1987 and decides he’s going to be honest about everything and nothing. He’s going to tell strangers at bars that he studies Literature at Stanford. He’s going to date a girl and pretend he has parents to introduce her to, that he grew up on a farm in Ohio and was secretly raised atheist, lie about what lies his parents told him. He’s going to grow out his hair and and blend cyan on his eyelids and send polaroids to his father with no return address; burn his fingertips on a candle flame like Michael will burn the photos of his son. He’s going to adore himself. He’s going to quit smoking and start jogging. He’s going to fuck Pacific Heights husbands whilst their wives sleep in the master bedroom and maybe they’ll angrily call him when they’re served divorce papers and hang up when he laughs. He’s going to get promoted to Assistant Manager and not care that his job is dead-end. He’s not going to kiss anyone at midnight because he doesn’t want to. He’s going to flush the cocaine because he doesn’t want it. He’s going to stare at his reflection until it moves for him. He’s going to vomit in a minute. He’s going to pierce his right ear with a sewing needle.

Felix at the end of part one: I give no more fucks!!! I am going to do whatever I want!!! Life is too short!!!

Felix at the end of part two:

[image description: screenshot of a tweet by @/idksomedumbshit. the tweet reads, "i can't mansplain manipulate manwhore my way out of this one boys" /end id]

I do think it's iconic that this time last year Felix was a repressed Christian boy and now his dream is to be a homewrecker THAT is growth. I also got to write Felix and Jolie which was fun because they do Not like each other <3 but they respect each other <3 but only sometimes <3 They have their first little bonding moment where Jolie pierces his ear in their bathroom but then Felix says something to piss her off so Jolie is like hmm okay time to chose Violence. This dialogue is funny because Felix does not really hate himself at this stage Jolie just knows she's gonna fuck him up by saying that !! My life would be so much easier if these twins had a normal relationship with the concept of being a twin but also this story would be very boring

The needle pierces his skin and he doesn’t feel it. Only the tequila swirling behind his eyes. The sting of the light-bulb. Jolie speaks again, “but she looks just like you, doesn’t she? Not the same of course, but enough to see each other in each other. That’s the worst part, right? To see the person you hate on the face of someone you love?”

[image id: a photo of the ocean with cliffs in the background, tinted orange by sunset. in the middle, in a white serif font reads "1/10/1987" /end id]

This chapter is so CUTE and also my first successful attempt at a different form that I can consistently keep in the narrative <3 I really like the idea of a fluid novel form that's adaptive to how the character's perception of the world would change which? Idk how much I can maintain that but this definitely follows it. I need to fine tune the execution but the concept is shots and transcript from a camcorder recording and playing with what the camera sees/doesn't see. The title is what the tape would be labelled, and on 1/10/1987 (american dates throw me off omfg) Beau takes Felix to a seaside town for his birthday and yes it's gay <3 but it's also just a lot of stupid dialogue which was very refreshing because I overthink dialogue so much I always think it has to have deeper meaning when sometimes its like....characters can sometimes...have Fun together. They are simply displaying Relationship Dynamics!

BEAU: Okay, give me a second…(the camera zooms on Felix) There we go! Right, okay, so it’s Saturday, January 10th, 1987, what’re doing out here today?

FELIX: What is this, an interview or something? You sound like a TV host on those morning shows.

BEAU: Oh my God no they’re so annoying, don’t compare me to those.

FELIX: No but I can imagine it perfectly. You’d just be all (holding a pretend microphone) Gooood Morrrning from sunny San Francisco! My name is Beau Teixeira and—

Beau: (laughing) Shut the fuck up!

I love this chapter a lot because you can definitely tell that their dynamic has Shifted but also! They are still just friends being friends and I really want them to just kiss already but also I love the natural progression of friends to lovers....falling in love and not realising it and then suddenly it all makes sense...

BEAU: You wanna try filming? It’s easier if you hold it on your shoulder. Like this. Put your hands where mine are.

[How their fingers whisper against each other. How Beau’s cologne smells of lime and tangerine. ]

Beau steps back into view, runs a hand through his curls. Leather jacket flutters in salted wind. Behind him the sunset flickers over waves like a candle flame. He smiles at the camera.

BEAU: I think you’re a natural! You’re definitely gonna be first choice for cameraman on my shitty morning show.

[How Felix smiles at him.]

(cw: next paragraph talks about the AIDS crisis)

Whilst this is a Fun And Cute Chapter there is more depth to it since the last time we see Beau and Felix before it is the first time they open up about the AIDS Crisis and their fears surrounding it. I have a lot of complicated thoughts about writing this part of history that I could write about all day but it boils down to the fact that "so many queer stories are centred around queer trauma and tragedy and queer people deserve to read stories centred around love and happiness" and "with a queer novel set in 1980s SF it'd be just as bad to completely ignore what happened" are two things that can coexist. I definitely think stories centred around the crisis are necessary (recently read The Prettiest Star by Carter Sickels and highly recommend! Also has a similar camcorder function and an emphasis on preserving. Also made me cry) but shouldn't be the default, especially in a story that if published would have a queer readership, so whilst it's something I want to explore I want to do it in a way that ultimately celebrates queer happiness, love and life. Definitely way more that could be said about this and the function of queer trauma in queer narratives but! Both Beau and Felix feel a need to not only capture as much as possible, but to capture it specifically with the intent to look back in the future, as well as a general We Are Going To Try And Find Happiness Wherever We Can. Also feel like a lot of Beau's character clicked whilst writing it which was very fun!

[How Beau wouldn’t say where they were going but cracked before they left San Francisco because he had too many stories to tell: five year old burning his tongue on café tea, six year old falling into waves and being unbothered, seven year old plucking chrysanthemum petals from stranger’s gardens. How Beau has an orange car freshener and missing headrest on the passengers seat. How Beau drove a longer route because it was closer to the coastline. How Beau played Pet Shop Boys’ Please and knew the words to every song. How Felix realized that he did too.]

[image description: a man and a woman sit next to each other on a bench. the photo is taken from behind them. in the background, you can vaguely see water, hills and the golden gate bridge. across the image, in a white serif font reads "everything the same about dorothy and felix" /end id]

Little title explanation: part 1 has two chapters, "Everything Different about Felix" and "Everything Different about Dorothy" which introduce their relationship + impression of each other after not seeing each other in person for four years (and also how they have images of each other in their heads that are false but they're attached to and it's really not helping the whole complicated twin relationship thing but don't worry about it) and I'd like to expand on that in part two so! An attempt was made. This takes place the day after the above chapter on the twins' actual birthday, the first one they're celebrating together since they were 18 and the first one in the "outside world" so it's a moment!

I'm not happy with how this chapter came out but I think it's just because it's an important one to me! Partly because it helps cement the idea that in spite of their complex relationship, Felix and Dorothy never stop being twins and they never stop loving each other even on the days they dislike each other. But mainly because: these are two adults who lost their childhood to trauma and they finally have the freedom to live their life and! Sometimes that means living for the inner child that never got to be a child. As a certified Adult With Childhood Trauma having a chapter like this was v important because trauma never leaves you but that doesn't mean you can't be happy!! Also it's just. cute. They run around San Francisco, bake a really shitty birthday cake, talk about whether or not San Francisco is real, I want what they have. There is underlying conflict because hoo boy there is Shit simmering rn! But it was nice to have this and the previous chapter as just like. Two little golden moments you know. Calm before the storm if you will

Midnight. Dorothy lies on a mattress on the floor in an apartment in San Francisco. Her brother’s head in her lap. “You know what’s crazy to me? Nobody ever asked us what we wanted to be when we grew up. That just wasn’t something we were allowed to think about. I know it’s depressing, I just think about that a lot.”

Felix keeps his eyes on the ceiling. The clock ticks. “Well, what do you wanna be when you grow up?”

“Astronaut, of course.”

“I was gonna say astronaut.”

“You definitely weren't,” she says. “Besides, I already claimed it.”

He looks at her. “I was thinking it. Before you said it, I claimed it in my mind.”

“That’s not how it works. I can’t read your mind.”

Felix sits up. “Wait, you can’t? Gee Dotty, some twin you are.” He grins. So does she.

Usually I am like. I don't think they would care too much about the twin thing. But I also think they would definitely joke about it, like if someone asked a stupid question Felix would be like "well of course we can read each others minds, dont you know how twins work?? like right now my twin sister who is my twin is thinking about giving me, her twin brother, $200" But lets end this on an excerpt where Dorothy doesn't give him $200 but she does think Oh How Did I Spend Four Years Without My Brother

(cw: death mention + missing persons mention, plane crash + boating accident mention)

Dorothy is used to his presence, has been for a year: coffee stains on the table, cupboards left open in the kitchen, clustered ashtray in the living room, hair gel and Jazz aftershave behind the bathroom mirror, Queen or Bowie or Alphaville sifting from his room. His voice. How he always knocks on her door to say goodnight. How he weaved himself into the ecosystem like air but tonight she watches her brother do nothing but breathe and she remembers waking up every January 11th in 1983, 84, 85, 86, and chucking a towel over the bathroom mirror. How she told strangers at bars that she’s an only child; or that she had a younger brother, but he died in a plane crash or a boating accident or went on a hiking trip and never came back, was likely immortalised as a John Doe in Oregon or Nevada records. How she went four years without coffee stains and open cupboards and goodnight knocks and Queen or Bowie or Alphaville renditions when he forgets that she exists in this space too. How hollow those four years were.

And that's all I have to share! I'm not sure when the next update will be, but I much prefer this format of talking about the story! If you read this far I love u <3

#revelations revelations #atlastracking #writing update #i wrote most of this update at 5am so ignore any typos god bless

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emachinescat · 3 years

Text

I've decided to watch MacGyver from the beginning (again), and I'm live tweeting the experience with every tweet tagged with #savemacgyver. I thought it would be fun to share my collected thoughts from the episodes on here as well.

My Thoughts on S1E1, "The Rising"

Good old Lake Como.

"How do I look?" Always amazing, Mac, though here you are so bebby. Gosh, tiny Lucas is tiny.

Ugggh, Nikki. My least favorite story arc in the show. Even with her redemption arc, even her face makes me mad.

I am soooo glad this awkward flirting is only in this episode. Mac and Nikki have never vibed with me.

JACK DALTON

"Who loves ya, baby?" We all do, Jack.

I always wished they would have played more into the original Mac's reason for not carrying a weapon - not just so he doesn't get caught but because he doesn't like them. That was actually one reason I used to be so upset at the reboot when it first came out. I still feel like Mac's character was off for this first episode - a little too cocky, not super developed. But still lovable, and with so much potential!

It's so cool to see how much Lucas has grown into this character over the years, really making it his own while still holding on to its essence.

Lol "serious bad-assery" - Nikki thinks she's so cool. (Spoiler: she's not.)

Lololol Nikki is the Walmart brand of Riley.

Mac in glasses. Adorbs.

Man, I'm already so ready for Matty. Patti is the off brand version of her.

I always love watching Mac rifle through stuff to find his improvisation supplies!

First MacSplaining session! Electromagnets!

"Is this George Clooney's house?" I miss Jack so freaking much.

Mac kind of looks like a penguin with that waiter outfit on and I'm living for it.

The second Mac hack is so Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew.

"Why don't you ever flirt with me like that?" Um, Jack, do you want your partner's girlfriend flirting with you, daddy fixation or not?

There are two kinds of oops, accordng to Jack Dalton: Oops - I just stubbed my toe / Ooooooops - Zombie apocalypse initiated.

Mac's hair is so shaggy.

"START THE DAMN BOAT!" Classic.

"Hold this and get out of my way." Dang, Mac.

The bad guy is the dude from Galavant hahaha. I know this guy has been in so many things, but he will always be Gareth to me. (That's his name, right? Gareth?)

W H U M P

I actually love the consistency of Mac always having that scar even seasons into the series (except for the last time, in the river). Overall great attention to detail!

That is a LOT of blood in the water.

Lol I'm pretty sure Grandpa Harry didn't say that in so many words, Mac.

Poor traumatized bebby. What am I saying? I live for this stuff.

Awww, lil Bozer. So smol. So pure. And now I want waffles.

"Eat your waffles." Three words I will never say no to.

"Give me Wang." -Bozer, 2016

Am I the only one who finds these intimate scenes between Mac and Nikki hella awkward?

QUARANTINE, sounds familiar.

Lol "cyberteam." Once Riley Davis comes along, they will be obsolete.

Jack just wants a hug.

I always hated the clinical white room in the pilot. Can't wait for the War Room.

I love the interactions between Jack and Riley.

Mac and Riley EYE CONTACT.

"You two are on timeout from now on." 😂😂😂

THE MOMENT WHERE HE GRABS HER HANDS

Lol, thanks for telling me that's a paperclip. I was so confused.

"Riley has so much hair!!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️

I love how Riley takes charge. Her confidence is 🔥🔥🔥

"You know what, never mind, I'd be pissed at you too." 🤣

Jack's so proud of his daughter. 💕

"Is that real?" Bless Jack's heart. He's such an old man.

Patti is a square. Pretty, competent, but boring. I miss Matty.

"My man never jokes about tin foil."

Ooooo Nikki is alive. Poor Mac. His whole world keeps getting turned on its head.

Jack can be scary when he wants to be.

Poor, poor, Mac. When he faces Nikki, he looks like a kicked golden retriever. (Also, NEVER kick a dog.)

I'm just eating up all this angst.

Mr. Wizard lololol

Mac hanging from a plane is soooo iconic.

"Don't get cocky. You're the only other one here." Haha, the SASS on this girl.

"Go ahead, you aready had me killed once." Also, oof. Undercover or not, Nikki is cold. I can't stand her.

Excuse me, Patricia, but I would consider running over your neighbor's dog (or any dog) a damn catastrophe, too.

"Sometimes a purge is necessary to fix what's broken." Codex, anyone?

Love this whole chase/fight sequence so much. The music, action, everything... perfect.

The sweat on Mac's forehead when dangling out of the 🚁 - such a great detail!

"YOU GO KABOOM, I GO KABOOM"

Kind of weird to me that Mac seems to be using so much guesswork with this bomb, especially when we know that he's one of the best specialists out there.

That fight scene in the back of the vehicle is one of my all time favorites. The whump is excellent.

Okay, but when does MacGyver ever do anything the way Jack has in mind?

DIY or die. Still so lame, lol. The parachute is awesome, though.

Oof. That landing looks painful and the whumper in me loves it. Even more, I can't get over how worried Jack is as he rushes to Mac's side. ❤️❤️❤️

That break in his voice when he asks if Mac's okay is just... AYSKTUFYIFUYliIIGUOG

Mac burning Nikki's pics like that old Taylor Swift song.

Bozer calling Jack his bestie is so weird and funny to me.

I am so ready for Bozer to get over Riley. They are so much better as friends.

Lol "Those fries won't cook themselves." The crack of a whip, man.

Jack calling Riley a little rascal and then gently asking Mac if he's doing all right there, pal ... taking care of his kids, and I am DYING.

The Three Amigos... come on, Jack. You can do better than that.

Is it bad that I'm actually a little surprised that Jack knows what a Phoenix is? Just seems like something he wouldn't care to learn, especially since he's a sci fi junkie but I never really hear him talk about fantasy.

Oooooooo Nikki's on the loose. Gotta end with suspense, to hook those viewers and make them want more. Well, I want more of this show, but not because of her.

Well, awesome re-watch of episode 1. Definitely not my favorite by a long shot, but so iconic and with some amazing moments! It just makes me that much more excited to get to see the show and the characters grow!

If anyone wants to join me in my re-watching and tweeting adventure, please do! It's my way to take about an hour a day in my busy, busy life to commit to the #savemacgyver movement. (And to enjoy my favorite show yet again!) If you do tweet as you watch, make sure to tag EVERY tweet with ONLY #savemacgyver so we can keep that hashtag trending! :)

Thanks for letting me share my (numerous) thoughts on this episode. This was really fun, and I hope it's something you all enjoy, too. I'll probably go ahead and post episode 2 tonight since I just watched it. I'd love to know what you all think of the episode in the comments! ❤️

#macgyver #jack dalton #riley davis #wilt bozer #macgyver rewatch #my thoughts #episode review #tweet compilation #with minor edits for an easier tumblr experience #savemacgyver #please join me in my rewatch and tweeting on twitter #using the hashtag savemacgyver #we can save our show #pilot episode #emcatreviews #s1e1 #the rising #spoilers

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firelxdykatara · 3 years

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Reader anon here!

Hi it's been awhile, I hope you are doing well! I know I am! I have successfully bought more books and filled another shelf in my bookcase and it is just so satisfying to see! I have a shelf dedicated to each genre I like, so one shelf is just erotica and downright smut, while another is high fantasy/YA fantasy! Then at the bottom are my books on mythology and languages!

I am so proud of my collection 😩 and can't wait to get more books. That new book smell is just-🤌🏻

Do you like books that focus on romance or do you like books that focus on more mystery/conflict and have a good chuck of romance? For me, I like both!

Oh omg reader anon I am in awe at your organization skills akflgjhdkfjghdkjfgh

Right now my 'to be read' pile is a literal pile of books (well, multiple piles, but) scattered around my room and the living room and every once in a while I'll pick one up and actually start reading it (I recently started The Lunar Chronicles, in fact, and I'm already fully in love with Linh Cinder, best girl) and then sometimes I'll get halfway through and pick up another book and sdfklghdkfjhgkjdgh ANYWAY IT IS A WHOLE MESS IS WHAT I'M SAYING. I wish I could have an organized bookshelf but I ran out of space in mine ages ago and it is covered in yet more piles of books (though the ones on or around my shelves are mostly ones I've already read, although I've been eyeing Mistborn and The Wyrd Museum for a reread cause it's been so long, but I think if I started rereading old books right now my unread book piles would coalesce into an autonomous figure and beat me over the head with my own readerly ambition lmfao)

As for your question, honestly it really depends on the book! I absolutely love a good romance-focused narrative (emphasis on 'good', bodice rippers don't usually do it for me but sometimes when I'm in the mood I go to my mom's bookshelf and raid it for something cheap and tawdry (affectionate) that hits just the right button I need pressed at that moment, so y'know, it varies), but I also love books where the romance is incidental to the actual plot. In that case, though, I like it best when the romance and character arcs are woven into the plot rather than forcing the plot to conform to them, you know?

Like, I'll use the Grishaverse trilogy as an example here, because I've been rather hyperfixated on it and the extended world lately, but part of the problem I have with that series is that the romance the author clearly wants you to be invested in and root for at the end of the day is the most boring part of the entire story--and yet it quite literally warps the universe of the books around it to make it the most important part of the main character's journey.

You have a world on the brink of full-scale war where the main character has just discovered she is part of an oppressed minority group that are primed for literal annihilation--she is in the only country where her people can get even a pretense of agency and a fulfilling livelihood (Fjerda burns their witches, Shu-han vivisects them, Kerch sells them into slavery, and even in Ketterdam they aren't really safe unless they can make themselves useful enough to earn protection from one gang or another; the Wandering Isle and Novyi Zem may be the exceptions to the rule, but Fantasy Ireland and Fantasy Australia/Africa never matter enough to the story for any of the characters to find out), and yet even when she is suddenly a target for assassination purely because of what she is, there's never any real sense that she actually cares about Grisha as a whole.

Instead, the only thing she really cares about is her childhood romance. Getting back to Mal is the only thing that matters to her. The show tried to give her a little more agency (where in the books, she was pretty much just buffeted this way and that by the whims of the plot and very rarely made her own decisions about anything; and when she did, they were rarely based in any actual logic, and I say this as someone currently forcing my way through the books so that I can more accurately critique them.... it is intensely aggravating as a reader lmao), but they couldn't change the plot too much, so she winds up coming across as even more stupid than in the source material. And still, Mal and the meadow is a constant refrain, for reasons that, as far as I can tell, are never actually explained beyond 'these two kids traumabonded over their experiences growing up in an orphanage in a war-torn country, and they are dangerously codependent as a result'.

In order for the books to end as they do, Alina can't actually give a shit about the plot going on around her. The romance completely overrides the sense that anything else in this world matters, and when the romance is the most boring part of the plot, focusing on it to the exclusion of all else just makes the entire thing fall flatter than a house of cards in a stiff breeze. And that's the kind of romance I usually don't like--which gets thrown into much sharper relief when you go over to Six of Crows and find romances that actually work with the characters and the world and the plot surrounding them, rather than against it.

So that said, tl;dr: I like both too! But if the narrative is going to be romance-focused, then that romance needs to not be the least interesting part of the plot (traumabonded childhood friends to lovers working through that pain and coming out the other side healthier and happier for it can work really well, if you haven't plopped them in the middle of a world and plot that is much more interesting when they are apart), and if the romance is secondary to the plot, then it needs to take a proper back seat and work with the characters and their individual arcs as they move through the world, rather than attempting to force the plot into a different shape so the romance can work.

#reader anon #asked #grishaverse salt #malina salt #anti malina #just in case

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dramionediscussion · 3 years

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I'm the one who sent in the prev ask about children in the epilogue, and while I do agree with you that in some cases, babies are a nice epilogue (esp in fluffy fics/marriage laws) but what I can't STAND is when they add in babies to a voldemort-wins/war fic epilogue. the plot is probably dark and angsty, and adding in an epilogue that revolves around a baby just distracts the readers from the trauma the characters went through.

(2/2) I think this is kinda personal for me though-I come from a family where the one solution to any problem you're having, any mental health issue, troubles in your marriage is to have a kid. husband cheating on you? have a baby, he'll stop. you're depressed and have anxiety? have a baby, they'll cheer up your life. they basically think babies are a "healing balm" to the families, and I HATE that. don't put your troubles/trauma on a newborn's head.

(3/3) and what fics like these should focus on is healing YOURSELF. it's accepting that no one is going to get you through your trauma, not even a bubbly, happy child, except yourself. it's about how to begin again, even after a torturous past. but like I said, this is personal for me. that's why I'm so desperate to see more epilogues focused on other aspects of relationships, not just the "major milestones".

(4/4) JKR comes from a generation the majority of which whose mindset is like my family's. they believe the biggest achievement in life is "creating a family", and she's one of them. and, frankly, considering the plot holes and unfinished story lines and redemption arcs in canon, authors shouldn't be trying to write like her-they're better at it.

(5/5) what so many people dislike about the epilogue is that it jumps straight to them being all happy and excited with their kids, which doesn't even fit. they fought a war. they saw family die. they saw friends die. and now they're all whooping around in king's cross, where apparently EVERY couple has lasted long enough for marriage and babies. I feel people would have responded much better to a "five years later" epilogue where we see how they're getting over the horrors of war.

(6/6) as for dramione being a heterosexual couple and therefore having kids, I (respectfully) disagree with you. if anything, heterosexual couples who decide NOT to have children need to make more appearances in fanfics, and in other media. again, it's just my personal opinion-people who enjoy child-centered fluffy fics should feel free to enjoy them. but there should ALSO be an equal balance of them just "being" without kids (if that makes sense). ____________________ No, people should not have children to fix their problems. Yes, people should focus on healing their own trauma before having children. If women want to have goals and experiences that they value more than parenthood, that’s fine. If women value parenthood and want to have children, that’s fine too. To each their own. It IS possible to have a family and a career and to value them both, and it IS possible to have a totally fulfilling child-free life. Fanfiction is not real life and does not have to depict some predetermined ideal or be ‘unproblematic’ in a certain way. Not everything we write - and I am speaking as a writer - is meant to depict an idealized life or situation. Many of my stories don’t depict any kind of idealistic scenario. Often those complicated, messy situations make for far more interesting stories. This is a big, diverse fandom, and there is something for everyone. Generally speaking, most of us are writing to a select subset of that fandom because we know that not everything will appeal to everyone. Frankly, a long, drawn out story about Dramione going to therapy and working through their issues sounds excruciatingly painful to me, and I have no desire to read or write it, but I have no doubt that there is an audience for it.

You don’t get to dictate what other people write. It’s fine if you don’t want to have children or don’t want to read stories involving children, but it’s not up to you to decide what the “right balance” of child-free Dramione vs. Dramione with kids should be. We aren’t obligated to produce a set amount of certain types of content because that’s the message you think the rest of the fandom should have. Frankly, my gut reaction to someone telling me what I “should” write is...not positive.

Many of us got into writing fanfiction because we couldn’t find the exact story we wanted to read. If you feel this strongly about the need for more child-free Dramione content, I hope that you’ll put fingers to keyboard and write some of your own stories to share with the world. If you do, please share them with DramioneAsks.

- Elle

#anonymous #dramione

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sometimesrosy · 5 years

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Do you agree that the fandom has spun PrincessMechanic to be something it's not? I really can't see their great friendship when I rewatch the series, if anything it's very one-sided with Clarke trying. Raven holds C to impossible standards, blamed her for Finn's deserving death, she brings up her dead dad in an unnecessary, cruel way (not talking abt ALIE!Raven) and this may seem small but the fact that she could smile and laugh about Zero-G mere minutes after they left Clarke to die wtf?!

I do not agree. I love princess mechanic. But Clarke has been very isolated and withdrawn from everyone except Bellamy. And that’s been happening since season 3.

I believe it’s part of the story. The BIG story, so it’s not wrapped up in one season. It’s part of Clarke’s long term journey and part of Raven’s too. If you watch JUST their scenes, you can see how separate they become, culminating, actually, in that scene at the end of s4, where Raven feels like she can’t do it, and unlike in the first season where Clarke can inspire her and tell her she’d pick her first, Clarke just sits there going….???…. until she looks at Bellamy for help, and he comes and sits with Raven and inspires her and tells her what she needs to hear.

See, that is an illustration of Clarke and Bellamy’s individual character arcs, and how Clarke started out as the golden girl heroine and fell into the darkness and became “the monster,” that Bellamy was in season 1. Now she’s wanheda, bringer of death right? Did her father raise her to be better than this?

Listen. I know this isn’t directly related to princess mechanic, but I’m trying to draw a picture of the overall structure of Clarke and Bellamy’s heroic arcs, and how they switched places. Remember when he was the selfish ass protecting only the child he loved? Now Clarke is being called out for allowing who she cares about to be shrunk down to only one person, the child who she loves.

How Clarke relates to the 100 is part of that. In season 1 she was THEIRS. They were hers. In season 2, she stepped back and was the person who saved them as a princess. She ran away and pulled back more in s3 as the princess in the tower. And when she came back they loved her but they did not forgive her for leaving them. Raven did not have a chance to really make that clear to Clarke until s4, where yeah, she just got more critical. But to be honest, that says something about Raven’s character development too, because she forced Clarke to be responsible for everything that happened as if Clarke actually WANTED to. And then she blamed her for going too far or making the wrong choice or having to make the wrong choices. Raven has never actually forgiven Clarke for killing Finn. She knows why she had to do it, but she keeps holding Clarke accountable for it.

I wrote something recently that had me realizing that Clarke and Raven are written very much like sisters who don’t always get along. Raven is the older sister who is not the favored one, and scolds the younger one whenever she falls short of being perfect. Which happens pretty often.

Princess Mechanic has been completely ignored, or almost completely, in season 3, and rather than a sign that it is not important, I actually think it is MAJORLY important. I think it’s a sign that in season 6 we’l have a real reunion of princess mechanic where they get out the anger and resentment and expectation and disappointments between them.

Why do I think it wasn’t simply dropped or ignored or not that important? Because of a few things. The radio call between Raven and Clarke was reminiscent of the one in 4.01, but Raven’s face didn’t really look happy, more shocked and horrified and guilty. Raven didn’t leave her there to die, she ABANDONED her. That’s worse. She left her to suffer. But we didn’t see any of that yet. I think it’s there. And I think it’s important. We already know she felt guilt about not getting spacekru home, but that was when she thought everyone was okay. She didn’t know that Clarke was there ALONE waiting for them to come home.

ALso.

Clarke betrayed spacekru and let Raven be tortured and their face to face meeting was not heartwarming. But EVEN SO.

All Clarke had to do was pick up the shock collar trigger, look Raven in the eye, and start a countdown and Raven just KNEW WHAT TO DO. They were, as a team, a perfectly honed weapon that only worked together. That is not a relationship that is unimportant. That’s a relationship that is almost as connected as Bellarke. They can get angry. But they know each other.

Actually Clarke doesn’t get angry at Raven, she always accepts her scolding, probably because she AGREES with her. But you know what? It might be time for Clarke to get angry at Raven. it might be time for Clarke to get upset about being left behind. At depending upon Raven to come back down and being DISAPPOINTED because she didn’t. Being abandoned. At being discarded.

What happens next? When Raven finds out that Clarke Griffin, wanheda and princess did it again and has made some other girl’s boyfriend fall in love with her? THIRD TIME Clarke. Her Finn. Gina’s Bellamy. And now Echo’s Bellamy too? THE NERVE! Whose side is she going to be on?

Logic says Echo’s. it’s the same story as Clarke/Finn/Raven, right? And Echo has been her friend for 6 years while Clarke’s been gone. Clearly she’s on Echo’s side.

And Clarke will take it, won’t she? She did it again?

Or did she?

All right, i’m going on too long. I think princess mechanic is an important dynamic to The 100, and that it has been ABSENT is part of what contributes to– or perhaps it is a symptom of– Clarke’s struggle through the darkness. She’s been so alone. Her closest connections, even when there, have been distant from her. Raven accused her of horrible things… things she believed of herself. She withdrew more.

Clarke lost herself and she lost her people.

Season 6 should be about Clarke being reunited with her people like she was reunited with Bellamy last season, and Clarke will find herself again. And then Clarke can be the good guy, the good guy that she used to be. She lost faith. Lost love. Lost her people, but never lost her hope.

Watch. It’ll come back and it’ll make sense. Losing Princess Mechanic is one of the things that hurt Clarke in seasons 2-3-4 and 5. Raven doesn’t want to admit it, but her feelings about Clarke and the grudges she holds against her are also keeping her from really being happy. Putting all the blame on Clarke was never fair. Not having her back wasn’t fair. Clarke had Raven’s back and gave her life for her, and Raven left her down on earth alone, and didn’t get them home to her.

I am convinced that is going to be a Big Thing in season 6. For Raven. It won’t be main plot. But it will be Raven’s character development subplot. And it will feed into Clarke’s main plot of being a hero.

#the 100 #princess mechanic #i'm a big fan of princess mechanic and i think they tanked it and avoided it ON PURPOSE #because clarke needed to feel alone and isolated. it's her struggle. and raven needs to learn empathy is important not just pragmatism

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