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#for context... well the uncle situation is still happening
ghostflowerhotpotch · 8 months
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Clinging too much to the Mask
Or Miles' is neglecting his civilian life for his hero one.
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Something I love about Across the Spider-verse, is that no one is truly evil, but that doesn't justify their actions. Likewise, the heroes aren't perfect, in some cases they actively need to work to own their mistakes, and in others, they need to learn a more simple lesson.
I think this last one can apply to Miles. Because while he is doing his best, I feel the story tries to point out that despite "balancing" his double life, he may be prioritizing one over the other.
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We get to see this before we properly get to see Miles, who instead of being in this meeting-
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He is going around the city.
Not gonna lie, in my first viewing, I felt Rio and Jeff needed to cut Miles some slack; like sure they were being kind of harsh because they didn't know what was going on, but Miles was truly trying hard!
However, the more I rewatched the movie, and the more I keep looking at certain things, the more I realized that Miles' parents are being WAY nicer about all of this than other parents I had seen, and also, that even if you have the context he is not handling this very well.
Let's start with this scene, shall we?
So, Rio and Jeff want to talk about university opportunities and scholarships, which I feel is a bit early for a fifteen-year-old, but if he wants to get into the best Physics program in the nation, I guess it makes sense needing to start early. I am assuming Miles had at least mention wanting to do big things; which is of course what his parents want because they know what he is capable of; so I wouldn't be surprised if they arranged this meeting SPECIFICALLY because Miles set his future on this.
But regardless if it was Miles's idea or his parents, the fact on the matter is this: he should be here.
Because let's remember, he isn't skipping this meeting because the Spot or a villain with a bigger profile was causing a ruckus, we saw him slinging around the city as if he was strolling, and when he goes to get the Spot, he first does this:
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I know Spider-man is known for witty remarks and Miles is definitely not an anomaly on that front, but you cannot tell me he didn't explicitly want a patty and it just so happens to have a bad guy in the place; he may have not grabbed himself hasn't the Spot not being there but I bet he would have gone to this shop ruckus or not.
Even if that wasn't the case, he is already late for the meeting; but he still took his time to patrol the city for, as far as we can tell, no real reason besides just checking around.
I get that he is Spider-man and has responsibilities with the city, but when Miles has an important meeting to be in, and he decides just swinging across the city is more important than being there; we have to admit that this is a problem.
And the longer we spend in 1610 the more that shows.
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This monologue feels like it can be unrelated, at first.
Miles doing the Spider-man presentation makes sense; it has been established in this franchise as a device to present the characters, so having him update on his spidey-situation while following the trope presentation they had done before it's perfect to match the tone of the first movie.
But I am also a firm defender of "weaponize tropes to press further the message of the story" and I think having Miles do this presentation can support how much emphasis he puts on his hero life.
Last time during the first movie, he did his own spidey-presentation at the end, but he also talked about finishing his essay, and doing art with his dad. In this one, we only get mentions of things related to being Spider-man, you can argue that including his uncle on the recap may also be involved because he died just in the time he was becoming Spider-man.
(This is also to remind the audience of this plot point for the ending but shhh we are focussing on other things here.)
This is nothing new for Spidey-people, Gwen the more repressed she is the more she clings to her duty, which only makes her repress more and makes the cycle continue. Peter B was okay with the idea of staying behind even if it meant dying, and let's be real here, part of the reason he was okay with it was that dying as a spider-man is an idea he made peace with years ago, but confronting MJ about what happened was scarier.
This also happened in the first movie.
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This is before they know they may die if they stay, however, you have to admit is a tad unsettling that after being told "You will need to destroy your only way to get home," everyone IMMEDIATELY says they will do it.
Forget being superheroes, no one has any doubts? Any fears of how long it would take to go back home, if at all?
Peni and Gwen worry me especially because I know why those two may just prefer to ditch their home dimensions for a good while (Gwen because she already lost her Peter, was in a flaky relationship with her dad, and probably was neglecting other people too. Peni if you had read some of her comics is not that surprising, heck I want to get her out of that dimension myself.)
I could go on, because I don't think we had seen a Spidey person in this franchise who isn't putting way too much emphasis on their hero identity; but you get the idea. This is a common problem.
And Miles is no different.
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When we go to the Party for his dad (something his mom reminded him of before he bolted out to capture the Spot,) we see that the Party is in full swing. Music is in, people had already started digging in the food, and kids are playing.
Look, growing up my family had parties like this, fairly often growing up. This one is to celebrate Captain Morales obviously, but I had been at family reunions that are easily this size.
Considering the size and for who is the Party, I am surprised they didn't call him non-stop when he didn't show up to help put everything up (because I am having a hard time believing he wouldn't be expected to help to put everything,) it was already late when the first person showed up, so by this point, this is beyond lateness.
And where he is at?
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JUST NOW he is picking up the cake, AS SPIDERMAN.
Miles, mijo ¿Qué estás haciendo? Para este punto de la partida yo ya estaría haciendo mi testamento.
(Trans: Miles, son, what are you doing? By this point I would be doing my will.)
Ok jokes aside, I don't know what's more unbelievable, that he is just now getting the cake, or that he is doing it in the Spidey costume.
This tells us EXACTLY what he was doing before coming up to pick this cake.
Last time we see him, he told his dad he didn't believe The Spot would come back, which means he didn't exactly think there was any danger. Nothing in the movie shows or tells us there was another big emergency he didn't need to attend to, either; and it has CLEARLY been a few hours since that moment since the lightning has changed.
Don't tell me he came in with his Spidey suit to get a better deal or something, the woman clearly doesn't care about it; and even then, at any moment he seems to find a way to change just so he can move around the city more easily.
Not to mention that while he was trying to come to the Party, this happened.
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In case you need to make sure what's happening, since this moment happens in a few seconds during Jeff speech; because someone was stealing shoes (with a guard who is clearly not giving a shit,) he sent a web to stop him.
And rather than just, going on with his day, he stops to sign some autographs and pics, to the point someone else thinks the taxi is waiting for a new client, which the guy obviously accepts.
Honestly, once this moment clicked for me I feel a little dumb to not realize that this is actually a thing Miles needs to confront about himself and not just the natural back and forth that is expected with this life.
And you can see it in other things too.
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Miles isn't a loner, or at least he wasn't one in Into the Spider-verse.
I remember that when I saw the movie the contrast surprised me, like many other people, I had grown up with plenty Peter Parker adaptations, where he is most of the time, a nerd that deals with bullying to some degree. Even with Miles being his own character, I was surprised that at least in his old school and neighborhood, he not only has friends, he is basically a popular kid.
Now in ATSV? That seems to have gone away.
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Is such a small detail in both movies, but it still shocks me every time I think about it hard enough.
Miles had tons of friends, or at least people he definitely got along with; people who said that miss him and such. Even if we never hear a name from him; look at the people greeting him at the beginning at ITSV, go to see the movie and see how much Miles scrolls on his contact list; there is no way in hell he wasn't close to some of these people.
But all of them seem to have gone away by this movie, not only did neither of his parents think of asking about anyone in the neighborhood, Miles himself only scratches the names of his spidey-friends. This either means Rio and Jeff know enough of the people in the neighborhood to be aware Miles is not going out with any of them; or the relationships had deteriorated enough that neither party even thinks of the possibility of being with any of them.
That's...that's a lot.
Look, I am not going to say Miles changing school wouldn't affect his previous friendships, I know exactly how that works.
But in ITSV, Miles said it himself, he still lives here, none of them look like they live too far to be impossible to hang out with; and despite that, the only friend he seems to have is Genki; who aside from being his rommie, is the only person he has that knows his secret.
Which is probably, the only reason they are close enough for Miles's parents to know about him.
To top it all off, this shows that Miles isn't exactly shy, he may have not been fitting too well with his classmates at first but it has been over a year, and he should have been able to make more friends. If he wanted to.
And is not the only thing suffering.
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I am not sure if the joke is that Miles is trying to soften the blow and the teacher is telling on him, or, that he legit forgot the number of classes. Considering it was obvious the woman was going to know and had no incentive in hiding this from his parents; I am inclined to believe Miles actually forgot how many classes he lost.
Considering how spidey emergencies work, 6 classes isn't that big of a thing, assuming this is the only class he has lost classes on. Knowing how the hero gig works you could expect more, but for my own sanity I will pretend it has been only these.
There is a big chance he missed those classes for really, bad situations where he needed to be there. However, we aren't actually sure; and considering the direction this movie is going, it is very feasible he may be messing around a few times.
And look, Miles grades are freaking amazing; seriously I was doing a lot worse in school without any hero business involved. But even if he obviously puts some level of priority in his studies, you can see that this is a struggling battle.
Not to mention the elephant in the room, that is the fact that the reason we know he is working so hard to have good grades, is because he wants to go to Princeton University.
Miles can't give the exact reason as to why in this scene, but this is really all we need to hear:
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I really don't need to explain myself further, but because I already had the image at hand from something else, here it is.
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The only not related to Spider-man is that he is somewhat prioritizing, and has to do more to see the other Spiders than his actual future.
I think this becomes more obvious when you remember that as smart as he is with Physics, in the first movie he wasn't really interested; despite what he knew he was trying to fumble that class like the rest of them, trying to quit. The only thing he seemed passionate about was his art, which is the other class that he is doing amazingly.
I had seen people argue Miles' dream will probably be related to art, if it wasn't because seeing the other spiders has become even more important than that, deciding to try to get into the best Physics Program in the country just to see if he has a chance to meet them again. That's a lot of time, effort, and work; and is not even about him or what he wants to do for the rest of his life.
In a way, this movie comes to a conclusion about it, but I think I want to talk more about that when we focus on Miles' parents.
Thank you for reading, hope this gives you guys some perspective about Miles; I feel I don't see a lot of people picking up on this, which is a shame since I feel the story with his family gains a deeper layer by having both parties struggling in their own areas.
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tall-glass-of-nope · 11 days
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Let’s talk about “the lady doth protest too much,” because it’s a phrase I heard and used before I knew the actual context. And now, after I’ve finally gotten the context, I find myself continually thinking about its intent.
When I first heard it, (and pretty much exclusively how I still hear it) it’s been used to mean “it is suspicious that this person is denying something waaaay too hard.”
Ex. “The PR people keep insisting this chemical won’t harm the environment. They doth protest too much, methinks.”
And I never questioned that usage, because it makes sense.
Then I read Hamlet, and found that the line comes from a scene wherein Hamlet is trying to trick the people around him into revealing their guilt by having actors perform a thinly veiled parody play of his current predicament as he sees it.
In his actors’ play, the character that parallels his mother is solicited by her husband’s killer — who is also her brother-in-law. And the actress in the show denies her solicitor several times before succumbing to him.
When Hamlet turns to his mother and asks what she thinks of the show so far, he’s looking for her to see herself in the part. To react, or provide some kind of recognition of what she’s done. To condemn the clearly uncomfortable situation her character is in. But all she says is
“The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”
And I LOVE analyzing that, because my personal takeaway is like.
You know how you can write a whole poem or story about someone who’s wronged you, and they’ll read it and not see themselves in it? Yeah. (If you don’t know: this happens. A lot.)
So, whether or not she saw herself in the character onstage, My interpretation is that Gertrude (Hamlet’s mom) is revealing that her decision to marry Claudius (Hamlet’s uncle) was not a tearful and tormented decision made under coercion and duress. (Which is how Hamlet has experienced seemingly every major decision in his own life, and explains why he’d find this lack of passionate waffling to be offensive.) For better or for worse she’s revealing she just… didn’t say no to her brother-in-law.
And from there you can get into the why behind all that and her motivations and whatnot but that’s beyond the scope of what I’m trying to get into here.
“The lady doth protest too much” doesn’t read to me like condemnation of insincere delivery. Not exactly. The difference is kinda subtle, I guess.
A more parallel usage of the phrase is difficult to imagine, then, because there is some amount of self condemnation that it should invoke.
Me: “I baked you these cookies”
Them: “I shouldn’t; I’m watching my figure”
Me, knowing full well I ate five of the cookies before boxing the rest up to give: “The lady doth protest too much. Take the cookies.”
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snickerdoodlles · 6 months
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Macau&Chay you got mail AU? Please tell us more!
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lil late to answering but!! YES!! time for some good ol' AU nostalgia, which is really funny to me because what I know about that movie I learned exclusively through this being a really popular fandom AU like 10 years ago or whatever. anywho!!! the fic:
Macau and Chay know each other vaguely as "that guy (derogatory) from my school"
they don't actually dislike each other. there's no reason for it. this isn't even a rivalry, just that somehow, somewhere in their years of overlapping schooling, they rubbed some shoulders somewhere and went "ugh nope, wrong vibes."
'fuktong1' and 'free waifuuu'* meet on videogame chat boards. it started as a need for an extra player to round out a team, but they like each other best out of the group and soon start coordinating to play together regularly.
its a solid friendship!! neither has any particular desire to bring their friendship out of the videogame/chatroom context yet, but Macau does once send Chay a bundle of games for his old system that Chay wouldn't have been able to afford otherwise.
this changes after Yok's bar.
Chay is…not so fond of shooting games now. being slapped in the face with his lack of awareness is a large part of it, but learning Porsche was literally in a shoot-out while he was tucked away ignorant and oblivious is similarly bad for him. it's a rough time to be Chay basically :(
luckily for him, fuktong1 has never been overly fond of shooting games and has so many recommendations that are much more palatable for Chay's current tastes. they play together more and more, and naturally chat more and more, and overall get much closer.
Macau and Chay's relationship also change. for the worse specifically.
Chay's really going through shit right now -- loansharks and low grade mafia thugs have been beating down his door all his life, and now Porsche is running a mafia branch. (the branch that specifically deals with shaking down people and cleaning up the main family's mess, no less.) he's isolated in the family compound and cut off from everything he's known. somehow his mother's back from the dead (kind of). he's still barely seeing Porsche. Kim's giving him mixed messages. he's really fucking pissed at everything, and Vegas (Macau's brother) was also responsible for (or at least tied to) his kidnapping, second attempted kidnapping, and Porsche's new injuries. Chay has zero sympathy to spare for ANY mafia-related people, and Macau is part of mafia-related people.
Macau is ALSO going through shit right now -- Vegas was shot up and is now bedridden in the hospital. the father who never cared for them is dead. the uncle who cared even less took away their men and home to give to Porsche. the same uncle may or may not being looking after him and Vegas to either kill or use them later. Macau, who was also iced out of the mafia business by a protective brother, has absolutely no idea what's happening as everything spirals out of control. his only support is his (bedridden!) brother's maybe boyfriend, who was previously only known to Macau as his eldest cousin's head bodyguard. he probably has finals to deal with too. it's a rough fucking time to be Macau, ex-fucking-cuse him if he doesn't give a shit about Chay suddenly getting what was previously his and Vegas's wealth and security.
someone more well versed in videogames will have to give me suggestions for what games they play, idk enough about those because ultimately this whole situation is just to force Chay and Macau to see each other in a new light. because they don't have any reason to like each other in or after canon! Vegas and Porsche have their weird friend-enemy dance, because they're bros and like each other, and Porsche can't hold a grudge to save his life and Vegas's relationships are so fucked up that anyone who genuinely likes him bypasses any other complications, but their relationship doesn't translate to Macau or Chay. at all. Macau and Chay both have only ever had their older brother as their support their entire lives and absolutely hold grudges against intruders (for themselves and their brothers).
Chay figures out who fuktong1 is first. (how? no clue! maybe they planned to meet up and it went bust, maybe one of Macau's usernames gives a clue? idk.) initially, Chay's outraged, because he keeps dealing with his life suddenly going "and it's mafia!" for fucking everything, and Chay's so, so angry about it all. but he also can't help but put the puzzle pieces together. suddenly realizing his friend fuktong1 has also had to dance around the mafia issues every time they talk and the general recontextualizing of everything his friend ever told him with what Chay now knows about the Theerapanyakul family takes almost all the heat out of Chay's anger towards everything and all he can feel is sad. sad about the circumstances forced on him and Porsche and Macau (and Kim and Khun and Kinn and even Vegas), sad about their loneliness, sad about the trials and burdens the mafia (Korn, Korn and Gun) have put all of them through. it's…a lot to deal with.
(whether this realization happens before his reconciliation with Kim and facilitates it, or happens after it and he has Kim's shoulder to cry on is tbd. depends on which one is the more emotional spin cycle really, it could go either way.)
on Macau's end, he has a brief spike of anxiety and self-pity when his friend free waifuuu abruptly disappeared on him, but he doesn't think anything more on it after he pops up again (he doesn't). their friendship grows deeper as they both open up to each other about more of their personal lives and they're both very sympathetic to each other without ever falling into pity. idk how Macau and Chay's relationship progresses after Chay's discovery or how the 'free waifuuu is Chay' revelation comes about yet, except that there are a lot of tears, a lot of yelling, and ultimately they become proper friends both on and off the chat boards, weird mafia family relationships and that time Chay called Macau 'daddy' for a week after he gave him a bunch of turnips in Animal Crossing aside.
*usernames are a work-in-progress, as usernames are NOT my specialty, esp not in a different language. Macau is playing with 'fuk'--he actually learned 'fuck' from Vegas before he learned the thai 'fuk' (gourd), and he's been having fun with it since. Chay's is a play off the phrase "sleep with me, free wifi" which i am told is slang more or less equivalent to 'netflix and chill' (i think? someone might be playing with me, idk). anyways, Chay greets Macau with "hey pumpkin~" when he's feeling flirty. they have so many husband/wife in-jokes.
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longclawshilt · 10 months
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Benjen gave Jon a careful, measuring look. “You don’t miss much, do you, Jon? We could use a man like you on the Wall.”
Jon swelled with pride. “Robb is a stronger lance than I am, but I’m the better sword, and Hullen says I sit a horse as well as anyone in the castle.”
“Notable achievements.”
“Take me with you when you go back to the Wall,” Jon said in a sudden rush. “Father will give me leave to go if you ask him, I know he will.”
Uncle Benjen studied his face carefully. “The Wall is a hard place for a boy, Jon.”
“I am almost a man grown,” Jon protested. “I will turn fifteen on my next name day, and Maester Luwin says bastards grow up faster than other children.”
“That’s true enough,” Benjen said with a downward twist of his mouth. He took Jon’s cup from the table, filled it fresh from a nearby pitcher, and drank down a long swallow.
“Daeron Targaryen was only fourteen when he conquered Dorne,” Jon said. The Young Dragon was one of his heroes.
“A conquest that lasted a summer,” his uncle pointed out. “Your Boy King lost ten thousand men taking the place, and another fifty trying to hold it. Someone should have told him that war isn’t a game.” He took another sip of wine. “Also,” he said, wiping his mouth, “Daeron Targaryen was only eighteen when he died. Or have you forgotten that part?”
“I forget nothing,” Jon boasted. The wine was making him bold. He tried to sit very straight, to make himself seem taller. “I want to serve in the Night’s Watch, Uncle.”
In fandom, we often talk about Jon’s antics in his first AGOT chapter - e.g., boasting about being the better swordsman than Robb, his admiration of Daeron I, his insistence that he is a man and not a boy - as evidence of his immaturity. And there’s nothing wrong with that interpretation at all - I for one think that it’s very valid - but I rarely ever see this exchange with Benjen put in its full context; more specificallyy, the full context of what’s happening this entire chapter (and honestly what’s being going on in Jon’s life up to that point).
Because there’s something so…depressing and tragic about a fourteen year old boy desperately trying to grow up faster than is necessary because once he is a man, then there must be a place for him in this world. Because this exchange with Benjen is not happening in a vacuum. It arises out of the situation where the delineation between Jon’s social status and that of his siblings has been made ever more clear: his siblings get to sit at the high table with the visiting royal family whereas Jon has to sit with the squires far away from familiar company. But more importantly, he is a Snow and his siblings are Starks. They have a place of belonging (afforded to them by their Stark name) whereas he does’t (because he’s a bastard).
So Jon has to nurse his wounds with the belief that despite his bastardy, there has to be something he can do to belong. And what can he do, except grow up and be a man? At…fourteen years old?
So even though Robb can sit among royalty, Jon can still hold a sword just as well (in fact better) and ride a horse. He can be great too, not because of his name but because of his ability; but I do have to quibble with Benson’s (seemingly) sarcastic response to Jon’s answers here. Are you even bothering to actually listen to what Jon is saying, Uncle Ben?
And I have to admit that it makes me quite angry that the notion of bastards growing up faster than trueborns is not at all challenged among the characters. Do bastards actually grow up faster, or are they forced to fend for themselves faster than trueborns naturally would, just like Jon is in this chapter? It certainly doesn’t help that Benjen agrees with he statement, despite literally contradicting it just some few minutes earlier (by saying that Jon is just a boy and thus too young to make any life decisions for himself - like joining the Watch).
And as I was pondering on this, I realized that Jon really has been getting contradictory “advice” all his life: he’s a bastard so he has to grow up faster and cut his childhood short so he can make use of himself, but he’s actually a boy so his abilities and desires to advance are only a boy’s delusions, but then he has to join the watch and be a man and do a man’s job (and make a man’s sacrifices as Luwin would put it 🙄), but then he’s still a boy at the end of it all.
Given all this emotional and mental whiplash, Jon is actually quite well adjusted. I couldn’t imagine having to be pulled into 1000 different directions because at the heart of it the question is: is he a man or is he a boy? And what can he do, boy or man that he is, because he’s still a bastard?
I think this chapter shows that no one really bothered to sit Jon down and tell him that it’s okay to be a child, and that he doesn’t have to age far beyond his years because there’ll be someone to look out for him.
Worse yet, this chapter shows a young boy desperate to find a place for himself in the world, because no one else bothered to do so.
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flydotnet · 5 months
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Bad Things Happen Bingo! The event where you send me requests according to this marvelous card! (Red cross is the completed prompt, character headshots are prompts I’ve already filled).
He's a child with the brain of an adult, the biggest moron you've ever seen!
I cannot get over the fact I somehow didn't write for Detectice Conan until this week. This franchise was my actual gateway into whump when I was 6 and my ass still didn't write any juicy stuff with it. I got back into DCMK back in 2017, have rewatched select episodes and/or movies of it (mostly the 1st and 2nd ones, which are both part of my formative whump experience lol) every year… but nope!
Actually, this prompt was supposed to be for IDOLiSH7, and I had the idea for it written down for two years; but let's be real, I was never going to write it, especially this late, and instead, I jumped onto the first other opportunity to get rid of this prompt.
That opportunity came in the form of Tekiro who, to my surprise, actually paid attenion to my stupid ramblings about my stupid bingo card for whomst knows what dark purposes, and handed me an idea on a silver platter: DCMK, Shinichi as Conan and Ran, post-falling-into-some-water-during-a-case. I was smitten with the idea and ran with so hard.
I think the final product did diverge from Tekiro's original idea, unfortunately. Ran was meant to play a much more proactive role in this, but instead, I ended up with mostly Shinichi doing what he does best: overthink absolutely everything and also simping for Ran while he's at it. The image of Conan buried in blankets was fun though!
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Blanket Statements
Summary: Shinichi, buried underneath three and a half blankets, ponders upon the orb (his feelings on the situation and also how cool Ran is).
Fandom: Detective Conan Relationships: Shinichi/Ran
Word Count: 1.7K words
AO3 version available here.
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Somewhere through the haze of fever, between two approximate tons of blankets covering from chin to toe, one statement rings through his mind: this is somewhat humiliating.
Well, Shinichi supposes being a genius sixteen-year-old stuck in a six-year-old’s body is embarrassing to begin with since nobody takes you seriously anymore (except, like, two cops, a fugitive from the criminal organisation who got you there in the first place and one jackass from Osaka who somehow guessed you were a genius sixteen-year-old stuck in a six-year-old’s body). Being treated like a child has certainly not stopped irking him, even if with time, the mask has started sticking with a little less discomfort to his face; but this is another humiliation altogether, even compared to what’s sadly become his daily life.
For all of the mishaps he’s had on cases and outside of his favourite activity in the whole world, Shinichi had never pictured himself buried in a pile of blankets, with just his face sticking out from there, in the Mouris’ flat of all places. Maybe Prof Akasa’s lab would’ve felt less shameful, since that man has seen him in states Shinichi can only hope to forget the memory of, but the Mouris’? Where Ran lives? Mortifying.
The way he ended up in this situation is a farce in itself – that much he knows from how Hattori mocked the hell out of him on the phone when he had to explain the context behind one of Ran and Kazuha’s conversations that stupid Osakan had caught word of. He wouldn’t have needed said Osakan’s opinion to think that, of course, but it only serves to corroborate what he already deducted.
It was just a run-of-the-mill criminal case in Beika: suspicious death near a river, three suspects without any alibi and possible motives all around, foul play clearly involved. Truth be told, it was almost insulting how easy it was for Shinichi to untangle the whole thing and straighten it into a single timeline to take everyone along for the side with Uncle’s cigarette-laden voice.
Or, well, it’d have been, if he hadn’t fallen straight into the cold waters below when trying to showcase something to Inspector Megure.
Instead, it very much had the opposite effect: not only did it then take Inspector Sato around fifteen minutes to deduce what he was trying to hint at, it also threw the whole situation for a loop because, for all of his athletic prowess, Shinichi had trouble swimming with the heavy winter gear Ran had dressed him up in and drowning became a possibility much too fast to his liking.
Ran did save him from the waters, at least, but not before he was thoroughly soaked and had to stew in his own juices for a little while. There was no hiding behind the bushes to pretend to be Sleeping Kogoro either, so it was a long, drawn-out time session of whodunnit – one Shinichi was very frustrated not to be participating in and very satisfied to leave.
If it had stopped at an uncomfortable half-hour spent watching not-that-sharp-witted detectives (and Inspector Sato) try putting together a puzzle that wasn’t that complicated because nobody had noticed the clue left by the riverbank, Shinichi wouldn’t be stewing in his frustration and pile of blankets. No, that’d have been too easy, and someone in the skies above has something against him, he’s certain of it.
It’s a cliché. It’s such a cliché and he’s certain hypothermia isn’t supposed to do that to you aside from, well, hypothermia – but Shinichi has fallen ill after a dip in the water and it pisses him off.
Yeah, okay, he’s caught what can honestly be called a nasty cold, but this doesn’t mean Ran isn’t going overkill with it. He loves her, he really does, including when she gets protective over him (even when she doesn’t know it, courtesy of his current form); but this really is too much.
Ran’s always been like that, though. Once she gets into caring mode, there’s nobody that can stop us. Not even a tsunami could, Shinichi is certain: if he, or her father, or Sonoko, or Kazuha was trapped in the midst of a deadly flood, a wall of water heading for all of them, Ran would swim back to them, put them to safety, and only then maybe think of saving herself. It’s nerve-wracking to be around her, sometimes, when you know she’ll absolutely destruct herself if it means saving someone.
Long reasoning short, it’s not surprising that she’d bury him under a bazillion blankets too much for a simple cold; so imagine one where his voice, usually so childish and disgustingly high-pitched for a teen (let alone impossible to take seriously, let’s be real there), has almost gone instinct on him and where he can spike a fever whenever his body feels like it’s not doing enough damage to the virus inside it. Delightful, really.
It’d be more delightful if it didn’t feel like being smothered in a thousand heavy blankets by the strongest arms in the world – but what can Shinichi say? That he doesn’t like the attention? That’d be a lie. He couldn’t even say that without breaking into a terribly tense smirk. That’s ridiculous.
Ridiculous, but also somewhat humiliating. And also, he’s dying from blanket overdose.
Time to do something about it, he supposes.
“Raaaaan,” he takes on his whiny little snotty brat voice (even if it sounds more scratched than Prof Akasa’s dust-covered records that he still uses, for some reason), “do I really need all those blankets?”
She turns around in half a second (Shinichi refuses to think for even a second this fever and the mucus in his brain are slowing his mind, he’s more than above that) and rushes in a swift run, hair flowing behind her and picking all of the daylight in the room.
“You’ll be cold if you take them off!” She replies without a single grain of reluctance. “And you need to be warm!”
“But… I’m way too hot, Raaaaan…”
Instead of getting at least one blanket off him, out of three (a meltingly comfortable plaid, a scratchy blanket Uncle keeps in his office for some reason and Ran’s favourite, he can tell by the fragrance, it’s very pleasing), she kneels in front of the couch with a worried frown that’s both endearing and infuriating.
“Let me see,” she tells him in that voice she always gives the Detective Boys, always gives Conan.
Maybe it’s because having a head cold is making him snappier, but he can’t jive with that tone as well as he usually does. Most days, he can just bypass the infantilization of it all to focus on what matters (Ran paying him her upmost attention and spending all her time with him).
Ran does what she tends to do when confronted with someone with too red of a cheek: she puts her left hand on her forehead, palm against skin, and the back of her right on someone else’s forehead. Strands of his hair, soaked with sweat, are clinging to the base of her fingers, but she doesn’t complain, doesn’t as much as frown in disgust or discomfort, not even slightly.
“Your fever’s gone down a little,” she concludes with a slightly less concerned voice and alleviated features, much to his own relief. “But we need to keep it in check!”
“I know, Ran, I knooooow.”
She gets back up and stares at the pile in front of her, tilting her head left to right and back to left, a pout on her lips.
“On second thought, if you’re feeling better, maybe we could take off a blanket… Do you feel too hot, Conan?”
He vigorously shakes his head to the point of dizzying himself. This would be embarrassing if he wasn’t too busy trying to get himself a little freer, and also, dealing with a stupid head cold that has turned everything about his sharp senses into nothing but meaningless mush.
“I see,” Ran muses, fingers dancing on her chin before she finally goes for the top blanket – the scratchy one Kogoro keeps in his office. “Is it better?”
He nods again and, to his pleasure, it’s both cooler on his overheated skin and bringing a smile to the girl he’s officially dating when not obligated to be in a six-year-old’s literal shoes.
“That’s good, then! Do you need anything else?”
Shinichi hesitates on that one. Ran’s pretty much been hovering him nonstop for two days, and it’s starting to show on her face. Not so deep down, he knows he doesn’t need much: he has water near him, there is no painkillers he can take for a couple more hours, his eyelids are drooping again and he’s, at the end of the day, a teenager used to living alone.
However, being Conan has a couple perks; most importantly, if he wants to be a needy brat who just has to have big sis Ran by his side during a boring Sunday while sick with a killer head cold, then he gets to be that brat all over again. Ran can barely say no to Conan, much more than she’d be with Shinichi, and there just have to be perks about his current situation. Moreover… Faded memories of frankly lonely days spent wasting away in bed or on the couch with barely any attention other than Prof Akasa’s have left him wanting for more, and if usually he can keep it at bay with a passion for crime mysteries, now, it’s a whole other story. A distraction is always welcome.
All in all, with a dashing uniform vote from all of his sides, Shinichi decides being whiny as Conan is the best use of his stupidly boring sick day.
“Can you stay with me?” He asks, sniffling, as miserable as the most cliché Victorian child possible.
As always, to his upmost happiness, Ran’s face softens and she gives him the sweetest smile as she comes to sit next to him.
“Of course I can do that, Conan,” she replies with words like honey. “Anything else?”
“No, that’s good enough.”
He lets his head droop on her shoulder and falls asleep right here and there.
He can think about this being humiliating or not when it doesn’t feel as fuzzy and warm to be bundled in so many blankets.
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yuesya · 10 months
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Not to be as oblivious as Shiki, but what was Geto getting at with his questions to her? When he asks if shes bothered about being asked to kill, and she goes not really, what's the context she(and I) are missing? Shiki gets the excuse that she's too young to understand the underlying meaning but I don't 😂😭. is it bc it's unsettling for a little girl to be so nonchalant about murder?
What's with the whole saving satoru and shiki bit, how in the world is killing a bunch of non sorcerers gonna save those two. Don't worry shiki, bc I sure don't understand geto's actions either LMAO. This is why I'd never survive in political situations bc social things just fly right over my head.
Hello! So, there's a few things going on here haha, unfortunately which were not really elaborated on in the story:
As we all know, Geto's mindset has been pretty conflicted and in a lot of turmoil recently. Unlike in canon, where it was solely 'non-sorcerers' that he laser-focused on, in zenith of stars he's also become uncomfortably aware of something Very Wrong with the way the jujutsu world does things. How they shove unsuspecting children onto a sorcerer's path without even batting an eye does not sit well with him, either.
When Geto asks Shiki, “If you were able to choose freely, would you still decide to become a sorcerer?” It's mainly because he wants to know if there was any possibility of Shiki just... being able to live as a normal little girl. Because he remembers how Nanami had described his little niece to them before, and he remembers the first time he met Shiki himself -just a tiny little girl clinging first to Satoru, and then to Nanami. A sweet, quiet little thing.
Who then turned into a creature who saw nothing wrong with holding onto a decapitated head, sitting in a pool of blood.
'If you were not forced onto a sorcerer's path by the Gojo Clan. Would things have turned out differently?'
This then leads into his subsequent question:
"Does it really not bother you that you’re being asked by your clan to kill?”
This question. It's a question that's more important to Geto than he lets on.
Somewhat similar to Nanami, he's also having trouble reconciling the image of a sweet little girl to an unrepentant killer. And the thing is, he's genuinely concerned about her. Geto has first-hand experience with the jarring moments he experiences with Satoru's worldviews, after all. The blithe way his friend reacts to blood and violence and the like. He's concerned that Shiki is going down the exact same path, given recent happenings and her lack of reaction to it all. Is she just repressing everything? Is there something he can do to help?
"Not really," Shiki says.
(Ah. Is she... already that far gone?)
It's not even like Shiki is a cold, unfeeling robot, either. She smiles. She laughs and cries. She cares for Nanami, she gets upset when her uncle is unhappy. She likes playing with Panda and doesn't mind running barefoot through the tall grass in the school mountains with him for bug-hunting.
Which makes her nonchalant answer all the more terrifying to Geto. Because despite everything, she's just a kid.
A kid who doesn't see any problem with killing, and that raises some major red flags in his mind.
Is this what growing up in a sorcery clan does to people? Satoru... was it the same for Satoru as well?
The duality of Shiki the innocent child and Shiki the natural killer, the duality of Satoru the cheerful friend and Satoru the merciless sorcerer... Geto has a front-row seat to it all, and this disturbs him greatly. It disturbs him even more that the two of them can't see anything wrong with it.
Geto blames this on the Gojo Clan. On the existing system in the jujutsu world that focuses on making the most out of each and every sorcerer that they can field, in humanity's endless fight against curses.
If there are no curses, there would be no need for any sorcerers. If there's no need for any sorcerers, then there wouldn't have to be any more Satorus or Shikis.
Curses are born from non-sorcerers.
If Geto kills all the non-sorcerers, then he'll be able to rid the world of curses.
.
... So yeah, that's the general gist of things here haha. All of which sails straight over Shiki's head, and Satoru's as well.
Shiki's answer only confirmed to Geto that something needed to change, a realization which he was already on the way to affirming on his own (see Geto POV in interlude 1).
The "answer that Geto needed" to his question would've been some hint of discomfort, or hesitation in Shiki's response. Because it would've shown him that Shiki wasn't "broken." It would've restored some of Geto's faith in the Gojo Clan, and the higher ups of the jujutsu world. It would've given him hope, and it would be entirely possible that Geto would later decide that change is best enacted from the inside, rather as a rogue curse user. He might be more callous towards non-sorcerers than he used to be, but not outright 'slaughter them all,' in terms of his attitude. Which may put him at odds with Satoru sometimes, but they'd still be working together to change things in the jujutsu world.
But that's only a 'maybe' of what might've been possible. ;3
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bleachbleachbleach · 1 year
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Hi! I don't know whether you're interested with the topic I'm about to discuss, it's about the relationship between Kyouraku and Nanao. Lol. All we know until the end of TYBW is Kyoraku and Nanao are officially revealed as uncle and niece. Only to that point, no more no less. But yesterday I scrolled over Instagram and found somebody commented in a post about Kyoraku, asking 'Kyoraku and Nanao are married right?'. Of course, people are denying it (some even said he's married to his zanpakutou lol). Later, there's this one guy went 'YES THEY'RE CANONICALLY MARRIED AND YOU PEOPLE JUST DON'T ADMIT IT'. Then he got himself explaining about the moment in chapter 651 (when Nanao asked Kyoraku to gave her sword back, when she said something about 'The man I adore will laugh at the curse'), there's a kanji word on that scene that defining Nanao's love confession to Kyoraku that leading into their marriage (sorry I forgot which word, but it's on the exact scene I wrote before). At first I was certainly sure this guy most likely misinterpreted the situation. But later on, I asked myself, what if I'm the one who didn't understand what I read? What if they're actually married and I didn't realize it. Idk, but if it's true I feel like it somehow ruin the atmosphere of the story (plus I'm sure both of them never thought about marrying each other because WHY SHOULD I MARRY MY OWN UNCLE/NIECE??). That's why I wanna ask for your opinion since you're indeed a thorough reader of Bleach, are they indeed married? Or is there any indication they cross the path and begin as husband and wife? I'm sure none of us wanted it, imagine marrying our own uncle lol. Your analysis lighten up my soul as a die-hard fan of Bleach who loved to contemplating every simple detail of the story lol. Thanks before!
I’ll begin by admitting that I am not someone who is bothered by fictional cartoon ghost incest, so if Kyouraku and Nanao want to be married, sure, go be married! I’m 1000% certain weirder marriages have and will continue to happen in the Seireitei. But the part about this conversation that’s interesting to me is—
Well, let’s start from the beginning!
"Marriage" is on the table here as a thematic concept because of the Ise Curse, wherein Ise women marry men, and the men always die (and their children are always women). Nanao’s mom tried to cheat the system by marrying out of the Ise Clan and into the Kyouraku Clan, but her husband still died anyway.
Nanao’s line isn’t inherently about marriage—she uses the phrase お慕いする人 (oshitaisuru hito). お慕い (oshitai) is an honorific way of expressing admiration/respect/adoration/pining. But, especially with those last two, you can see the valid potential to read the line romantically. However, it can also be used in reference to a grandparent, a teacher, or other non-romantic partners for whom you feel deep admiration.
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Bleach 651
Given that the context is Nanao’s mother’s love life, and a curse that governs the love lives (and/or marriages) of Ise women, I think it’s reasonable to read that context into Nanao’s line, as well as into Kyouraku’s response (a small but witting smile), and to understand this exchange as romantic.
She's definitely talking about Kyouraku to Kyouraku here. But is she talking SOLELY about Kyouraku, or is she also referencing some future hypothetical man? I think that’s more open to interpretation.
As far as her message to Kyouraku, I’d personally read it less as a confession of love than as an assertion of agency. This is the part love so much about this scene: She and Kyouraku are losing this fight. Soul Society is losing this war. They’re probably all gonna die and it’s all beginning to feel a little preordained, a little like just deserts, a little like past romances being crushed by a cruel and inescapable family curse. For Nanao to say this now, in this moment, is to ask Kyouraku to stop protecting her and to let her join this fight―no matter the odds, no matter the sense of inevitable and pre-governed fates. Because the Kyouraku SHE knows doesn’t take shit from "fate"! He laughs at such things, and he believes, in the deepest core of his being, in a mutable world. This is what Nanao loves and admires about him. 
She reminds him of this, and he smiles. They did not come here to die at the hands of the Wandenreich, or to fall to punishments meted out for crimes that are and are not theirs. If they have crimes to answer for, the answer is not death. There’s other work that must be done, on the other side of this. If Kyouraku can believe that about the Ise Curse (and Nanao's future love life with this future hypothetical man) and give Nanao her sword, then he can believe that about this Thousand-Year Blood War.
Can that faith and devotion also be read romantically? Yeah, sure go for it. Can it be read entirely platonically? I’d say yes, that too!
Personally, I think Nanao probably dodges the Ise Curse by being Extremely Lesbian, but whatever she ends up doing I’m pretty sure it involves a lot of sex and even more forms of love than that amount of sex that don’t have anything to do with sex OR romance. But that’s all beyond the purview of this scene. XD
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sepublic · 2 years
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Lilith and Hunter (and Kikimora’s?) Redemption Arcs
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I find the difference between Lilith and Hunter’s arcs interesting. Both are abused victims learning to break away from the Emperor’s Coven, but there’s the clear differences, beyond the superficial ones like Lilith being a grown adult and Hunter a child and Belos’ favored nephew;
Lilith is someone who came from the outside. She started with an actual support system, she grew up knowing what life outside of the coven is like, what it should be like! We see her debut with full motive from this fact; Lilith wants to cure Eda, and she cares for her sister and wants her back! Lilith is driven by her pre-existing connections to the outside world that the coven has begun to overtake, but it really is a matter of deciding between the two when she’s forced to choose; And we see how Lilith’s episodes with Eda help her remember life before the coven, and understand her sister’s choices. So it’s really only the one person she needs to leave the coven.
Hunter is... different. He’s never known any better. He’s started off as Belos’ nephew and it’s all he knows; He has zero context for the outside world, so unlike Lilith in Covention, he’s crappy at appealing to people who started off living normal lives and getting them to join the coven. Lilith is about remembering but Hunter is about learning (and unlearning); He needs to meet a wide variety of people, and gradually be given avenues to leave Belos and exist away from him. Hence Flapjack, a support system, and even something as simple as a scroll with connection to the internet, a big no-no for isolationist tactics.
Hunter is more difficult because the coven has been his entire life, and so we’re seeing him build this understanding of the world outside of the Emperor’s influence. And that’s why his arc is more drawn-out and involves him meeting different people who continually show him how things are different. He’s finding this stuff out for the first time, so it reasons that Hunter needs a lot more encounters to change his mind; Whereas Lilith still remembers life before the coven, and it’s in fact her driving motive in Season 1, that desire to go back to the past. She just needs to be reminded and it’ll all fall back into place.
But Hunter has only known his uncle and the coven. So it’s an arguably more painstaking, bumpy process for him; He’s a teenager as well, so it’s even harder to make those choices for himself, and unlike Lilith he’s never had the chance to do so either. Hunter needs to consistently be shown that there’s chances outside of the coven, so he can learn to trust and depend on the outside world as a consistent form of support; Compared to the proven security of the coven, which he knows and can rely on to be that way. And I think that’s just fascinating, and it really makes me wonder if Kikimora would’ve gotten a similar exploration on redemption and what she needs, even if it ended with her choosing the coven anyway; Probably in Season 3, but we all know what happened.
With Kikimora, she knows what life outside the coven is... But unlike Lilith, her support system doesn’t seem any better then than it is now. Kikimora’s mother imposes a very unhealthy ultimatum, despite knowing Belos’ power and influence. Which makes me wonder if the key difference between Kiki and Lilith is that unlike Lilith... Kikimora’s family isn’t something she can count on. They weren’t a reliable source of validation, or at least weren’t that much better than the Emperor’s Coven, if even at all.
So when comparing both situations, the EC may as well be a step up because it at least grants Kikimora some authority, right? Kiki could’ve leapt from the pan and into the fire here; So like with Hunter, the coven is all she has... Which makes it all the more tragic that the outside world failed her like this, and THAT’S why she chooses the coven. Kikimora got to know life outside the coven and her frame of reference is flawed. She’s an adult who knows she made her choice and she has no reason to go back, because Kikimora has been taught that the outside world is just as bad via her own experiences growing up.
Which, given how Kikimora is beside the Emperor’s castle in the Season 2 intro, Lilith beside the Owl House, and Hunter square in the middle... It perfectly reflects their standing this season, but also potentially foreshadows how Kikimora won’t get the chance to leave. Or at the very least, will be left with nothing at the end, when the coven is destroyed; An open-ended conclusion to her arc that leaves Kikimora free to find a new life, but we won’t get to see that.
There’s still hope but there’s a reason why Kikimora was last, and only implied at that. Lilith already knows of a fond life outside of the coven and just has to remember; Hunter is learning how life outside of the coven is better; Kikimora already learned that life outside of the coven is worse or just as bad. If we got Kikimora’s arc in Season 3, then it would’ve been a gradually rising scale of difficulty in helping an antagonist learn/unlearn things for their own health, which fits the rising action of a story and all. Each arc more difficult than the last; And this could parallel how on the protagonists’ side, each season follows a member of the main trio... Eda, then King, and finally Luz!
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aella-targaryen · 1 year
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I guess for me it depends on the context of how he calls her “weak” by frustration but idk if I still like it. I think the writers were trying to make a parallel with him calling viserys weak. I’m just mostly nervous because this is the last episode before season 2 and who knows if the writers are going to mess it up with mysaria or even nettles. Ryan doesn’t seem to like them either with the way he said daemon abused rhaenrya and it’s shapes her to how she is so I wouldn’t be surprised if he ruins the relationship moving forward. Also apparently they don’t talk about it afterwards according to the leaks which is weird in my opinion and how he doesn’t apologize. I’m sure we’ll get the context of why he wants to go to war in the scene but idk… I can’t help but be nervous cus this could be the downfall of their relationship. Who knows if we’ll get any touching moments anymore
DAEMON AND THE ABSOLUTE LOVE.
Well, there is a possibility that their romantic relationship will end, yes.
Which would be stupid considering that Daemyra is the best couple ever created in the entire GOT universe.
And yet one thing I've learned from Daemon is that: Once he loves someone, he loves that person forever. Just like he did with Viserys.
The more I analyze Daemon the more I am convinced that the fundation of his emotions is not romantic love, the fundation of his emotions is absolute love. That kind of love that exists only for itself, regardless of any relationship and appreciates all aspects of the people Its directed to. Daemon will always be what Rhaenyra needs: her husband, her lover, the father of her children, her consort, her family, her soldier, her uncle, or her warrior. She just has to ask him honestly and if he opposes her wishes I think he will be to protect her or their family.
His romantic feelings for Rhaenyra are only the effect and not the cause of his absolute love for her. Daemon will never stop loving Rhaenyra no matter what happens and whatever she does.
We have all been somehow contaminated with Disney fantasies and children's fairy tales where the prince always has to profess his love with dramatic speeches, kisses or sexual acts and emotional talks of apology if he offends his delicate princess.
But we usually forget that those things are not the only ones that show that a person truly loves us.
Still, unfortunately we always hurt those we absolutely love, sometimes in irreparable ways that cause us to take differents ways . And that's fine. We should never stay close to someone who hurts us. But but we can always love someone from the distance, even if we never see them again but, if our hearts allow it, we can always love someone who has hurt us.
Honestly, at the moment, romance is the last thing I care about Daemyra. Yes, I enjoy it. But I can also enjoy true and unconditional love stories even if there is no romance involved.
I understand that there are many who do not like that idea. So don't feel bad if the course of their story disappoints you. Trust me, I have experienced the same situation and the truth is that no one has ever died for disappointment. It is better not to take things so seriously, after all it is only a television series. I am sure that at some point you will find a couple in fiction that you completely like.
And i don't think Daemon will ever apologize in words for his actions. He seems more like the kind of person who apologizes only through his actions.
He never told Viserys "I'm sorry"
And for that reason his relationship with his brother was "ruined" ?
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littlegnome145 · 8 months
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I'm back in my Starter Squad brainrot so uh.. here's some speculation + Squirtle character analysis:
I got back to the Starter Squad brainrot and I decided to rewatch it again in the backround while I did some routine stuff and there's something on my mind that I haven't seen ppl talking about yet. Spoilers ahead:
So, I was watching the compilation of the 10 episodes (I usually just watch them separately, so I think that's why I hadn't noticed it till now), and in the switch between ep 9 and 10 it's not just them stiched together, but there's this little noise. An echo of a saved file and a glitch, and then bam episode 10.
I was honestly mostly surprised bc I expected them to show that one post-credit scene in ep 9, with the caterpie wearing Charmander's head as a hat, but they didn't, instead there's those sounds.
Now, it might just be a cool indication that 1) that moment had consequences (save file sound) and 2) of Missigno still being around (glitch), which is not a problem at all tbh, if that's the case it's a pretty neat way of showing it, but idk there's something scratching at the back of my mind about it.
Now, this isn't really a theory as much as it is speculation, and I'll be honest, I'm most likely ovethinking this, bc there's not really a bunch to go off of, but eh it's a fun concept to think about so I'll do it anyway:
I think episode 9 might have more than 1 ending.
And I think this will have to do with whatever Wartortle is gonna ask at the gods in the mountain.
So, episode 10 is mostly centered around time. There are alot of things that it talks about, but time is like the little bow that ties it all together.
Specifically it's mostly about being stuck in the past, about how the past affected the present, usually with too much or too little time being the biggest issue.
Too little time to save Charmander, too much time letting the war continue.Too little time spent on actually getting to know the kids you decided to take care of (what drove Turtwig away), too much time to actually see results in training (what drove, between other things, Chimchar away)
Squirtle is mostly shown to be a character here that either does too little or too much as well, especially after Charmander's death.
He did too little to save his friend, he did too little/pretty much nothing to stop caterpie over the years, he did too little to actually be a good father/uncle figure to Chimchar and Turtwig in the ways that mattered.
He did too much when trying to apprehend Charmander, attacking him to the point the guy was almost dead even BEFORE Caterpie stabbed him; he did too much during the war, having it implied that he was the main fighter, to the point where the conflict only actually ended when Squirtle was let go; he did too much trying to protect the kids, he was sheltering them because he was terrified them getting hurt like his friends did, but that only drove them apart from him further.
And he already did that before, but it was in contexts with fewer consequences. It's usually that one song and dance of doing too little and then bam, something happens and the guy goes all out (either on purpose or on accident).
With his human trainer? He does very little to get out of his situation, even trying to fake that he's actually 'very happy here, no really stop laughing, guys'. And then bam, he screams at him and is overjoyed to see him dead later.
With the first caterpie encounter? 'Welp, sucks to be them', then bam Bulbasaur accidentally guilt-trips him into saving them and he shows up running with a shiv, taking almost everyone down accidentally, but still, the guy went in swinging.
Hitmonchan? 'Bulbasaur is with a real trainer now, we're not bringing him back, he's better off without you', and then bam, Charmander apologizes and says he needs his help and he decides that 'hey how about we break a frigging pokeball. No idk what's gonna happen, but it will probably be bad, so we win right?'
The forest king? He keeps waffling the whole episode, going along with the forest king's antics and talking about empathy, and then bam, the guy starts being too annoying and he just holds him down and tells Charmander to kick his ass. Bonus points in this one because he is totally against raiding a pokémon center and at the end he just let's it happen.
And the thing is, Squirtle/Wartortle is somewhat aware of this flaw, even as a kid, but he doesn't really understand the full thing. He knows he does too little, but didn't seem aware that him going all out immediately afterwards was usually just as harmful.
With Charmander it's where we see this in full affect, as soon as he becomes friends with him, he goes all out in trying to make him a better person. He usually fails, but still tries, and we can see that Charmander becomes more mellow because of this, either because he genuinely wants to become better or because he doesn't want Squirtle to be disappointed. It goes to the point where Squirtle seemingly sees Charmander's actions as his own fault just as much as it was the fire-type's, which he says in his episode 9 speech:
"How did I ever thing I was making a difference with you, you took so many innocent lives, and all I did was stand there!"
"… We were supposed to be a team, Charmander, but you were only in this for yourself and I couldn't fix you. But thanks to them I can finally fight back!"
He lectures Charmander alot, but he never actually fought him. He never genuinely tried to hurt him after they were on the same team, because he was the voice of reason. In his mind, this was him doing too little, and like always bam, he goes to the other extreme and does too much.
Like yeah, Caterpie did the finishing blow, but Squirtle did most of the damage, not just because of the type advantage, but because Charmander didn't seem to even TRY to fight back as soon as his friend showed up.
His flame was almost extinguished. Squirtle almost killed the guy, a mixture of him wanting to make sure Charmander wouldn't hurt anyone else, pent up anger and him wanting his friend to know what it was like to be on the other side of the fight ( "Oh, I'm sorry, did you want a turn?" "Seems kind of unfair, doesn't it?!").
In episode 10, he doesn't really talk about that part, he just says that he wished he could've done things differently at Turtwig's "you didn't just jump in and save him?" (Which implies that they probably heard a censored version of the story before, which highlights how much he shelters the kids)
And I think it's probably because he doesn't see it as THE issue. Again, he is aware that he does too little, which is his reason on going all out at everything else, something he never outgrew. Even at the end of episode 10, he has his big revelation, but it's still incomplete:
Again, he only realizes that he does too little. He did too little to save Chimchar, he did too little to stop Caterpie. Too little to stick by his own choices.
And caterpie was right in that flashback, I mean they also say some ouchie stuff, like how they pity whoever gets control of him next, but Squirtle sees this moment as him doing too little. Caterpie, however seems to understand that it's a mixture of both too little and too much:
It's not just 'You let me do whatever I wanted', it's also 'you gave me complete loyalty'
They also seem to at least somewhat understand why he does it, out of fear.
And Squirtle goes back to his pattern, but this time seemingly about his own self preservation and his guilt.
He's first, willing to go back, doing what he was told like he's a soldier again. It's the best thing for his self-preservation, but for him and his morals/ideals? It's a step backwards.
Then he has his revelation, and he goes all in, clearly screaming at the other pokémon as if he was screaming at himself. Not just that, he goes all in and bam, not only finally evolves, but legit kills the guy.
And the most important aspect of it all in this scene:
"If I'm gonna make bad choices, they're gonna be my own."
Because after this, yeah the episode pretty much ends, but he does not go back to the old song and dance. Squirtle usually follows his pattern of too little, too much, too little, too much,…
And he did the "too much" aspect, so you kind of expect him to calm down a bit, but he doesn't.
He looks at his dead kid, he talks about how if he had evolved he would've given them hell (Which let's be honest, it's not true at all. I do think he was already seeing the kids for who they were a bit, but it was clear that he was still putting him in that "Charmander" box. No offense to Chimchar, but Abomasnows are at least level 40, he was at most level 13.)
Anyway, he talks to his frozen body, and instead of going back to his "too little" thing, he remains on too much, and this is one of his biggest to date: he literally goes and decides 'actually, I'm sick of this, I'm gonna go up there and fight the gods or die trying. No I don't have a plan, no I don't know what I'm gonna ask them yet, what of it?', which was cool as hell to see, but let's be honest here, half of his main problem is still alive and stronger than ever.
"Okay, Babz, but what does this have to do with the sounds between episode 9 and 10?"
I'm getting there.
So they were going up Mt. Coronet, and Wartortle is going up there because he wants to talk to the gods, and in that mountain there are three: Arceus, Dialga and Palkia. It's where Arceus made those two even.
And yeah, Arceus is all powerful, but I'm gonna focus on Dialga here since them and Palkia are pretty much the mascots of the Sinnoh region.
Dialga is the god of time.
Time began flowing when they were born, and they can turn back the clock.
(Like okay Super Smash Bros trophys are not the best place to look into but this was the quickest example I could find so bear with me):
If you're ever running late, maybe you could ask Dialga to turn back the clock… Just a little bit?
Arceus in recent stuff is shown to turn back the clock too, but idk if that should be considered.
Anyway, what I'm saying is, turning back time is something Wartortle could potentially do if he wanted, especially if he wins a fight. It's extreme, sure, but the guy is still in his "too much" gig, so if given the possibility he would most likely accept it without much thought.
And yeah, again, this is mostly speculation. I was thinking about alot of this since last year (a bunch of ppl here were also talking about possible time-travel, but like me, it was mostly in a "cool idea"/"fix it au" kind of context), but since there didn't seem to be foreshadowing aside from the character arc and location (which again, can JUST be a character-arc, it's not just bc something CAN happen that indicates that it WILL), I left it alone for the most part.
But idk these little sounds almost seem like a clue.
And okay, I'm mostly someone who focuses on themes when talking about story theories/possibilities, and episode 10's is, again, centered around time and regret. Regret for the past, not enough time to change it fits a little too neatly you know?
The fact that episode 9 ends on a cliffhanger also doesn't help. At the time it came out I was not just wondering if Charmander was still alive, but also WHO was stabbed. It was one of the reasons why I was so interested when ppl started talking about "what if Squirtle was the one who was stabbed" scenarios and drew/wrote stuff for the shiv au, because back when the episode came out I genuinely thought it was a possibility and I wanted to explore it.
Anyway, this could all be wrong lmao, but I missed talking about the silly warcriminal starters so eh sfgdfhhdf
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volturiwolf · 1 year
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Exiles - A Felix Volturi x vampire!fem!reader - part 5 (final)
Felix Volturi Tag List:
@xxx-wounded-angel-xxx @venusdelaroix @justsvtmxaddicted @iloveslasher @paisley-37 @heartrise @duchessofvolterra
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(Y/N)’s POV
Somewhere in Tromsø, Norway…
Loneliness. Complete and utter loneliness. So, this is where my life came to, huh? Not that everything was great before all of the things that led me up to this moment, but still, I wasn’t alone. In our big coven, nobody was ever alone. Lonely? Most likely. But never alone.
It was getting harder and harder to get used to this situation. Day by day, I was wondering what would have happened if I had just set my pride aside and gone back to my coven. And yet, I still couldn’t stop thinking that, no matter how good and sometimes fulfilling it was to be in a coven, it was mostly hard work, patience, and endurance.
I had established my position in the coven, yes, but I was also under constant scrutiny from others getting jealous of my authority. I was never one to back off from a good fight if they dared to question me. But I was tired of this. It was Nettie who gave me this responsibility; I didn’t take it upon myself to be the one ordering the others - not that I would mind. 
So, one would have expected them to back down, which they never did over the centuries. And I wasn’t one to keep up with their bullshit anymore. Not when I saw there is a better way of living. I wasn’t referring to the Volturi; I would never do anything for them. But, I would do anything for Felix. I should have known he was my mate before he even came close to me.
There was something about him that made whatever kind of substance I had in me yearn for him, not just physically but, above all, emotionally. I didn’t realize it then, but I felt something awaken in me the moment I saw the tall executioner, and while I should have set my feelings aside for the sake of the coven, I eventually chose myself for once.
I had never once done anything for myself; I always thought of the coven: what’s good for the coven; what can help the coven; how to benefit the majority of the coven. And only once, one time, I thought that I should probably take care of myself for a change, and my coven turned against me and rejected me - or, at least, the majority of my coven.
I wouldn’t have cared that they treated me this way because I may have sided with the enemy. But, I cared, because it was the fact that we all saw each other as a sort of family - not just a coven - that hurt the most. If it was like what we thought of the Volturi - a government, a corporation, a company, I wouldn’t care. But it wasn’t. Our coven was so close to each other that I thought of the others as brothers and sisters.
I thought of Nettie as my mother and Zenobia as my aunt. When Nettie found Ion, I accepted him, in my mind, as my father, and Sergei, Zenobia’s mate, as my uncle. I was barely 18 when Nettie found me, running through the woods, my own blood having stained my ripped dress, after being attacked and bitten to death - well, almost death. Nettie was the one who took me under her protection - she told me something inside her made her want to help me; maybe that was the effect of my later-discovered gift.
Regardless, I always considered myself part of Nettie’s coven; I didn’t know anything other than Nettie’s coven. I felt safe and wanted there, until many, many centuries later when I started feeling like I was suffocating.
I tried to leave a few times - and Nettie would let me leave for a while. But I’d always come back because that’s where I grew up in a way. That was all I had ever known; I couldn’t live on my own, despite my powerful gift. I needed company; I needed friends; I needed to be loved; I needed to feel.
I had always been feeling apathetic, though I never wanted to feel that way. I was just one of the four vampires in our coven that never had a mate - until now. I tried to fill this void, this emptiness in my heart in various ways. I searched for lovers all over the country and in many parts of the world as well; human lovers; vampire lovers; even werewolf lovers, which nobody from my coven knew.
And yet, I never met someone to move me, to touch my soul the way Felix did. I couldn’t stop thinking about him, no matter how hard I tried. I knew that he and his coven mates would be Nettie’s prisoners by now. And, though I wanted to help him, I still couldn’t go against Nettie. She had provided me with this amazing, extraordinary life, and, despite my need to make sure Felix was okay, I couldn't and wouldn’t go against my guardian.
So, I decided the only solution would be to just leave. If I took no position on the matter, I wouldn’t hurt either side, so nobody would benefit over the other. That was why I decided to come to Northern Norway. Around this time of the year, the sun was scarce, and, though the food was scarce as well, I still managed to make things work. It was an environment that a vampire could live in, with some adjustments and organizing. 
At least for 6 months, because the next 6 months after that would be the exact opposite: over half of the day would be sunny, and I wouldn’t want that. I had no idea what I would do after a while, or where I would go, but I thought I’d have something figured out until then. It wasn’t like I owed anyone anything, and despite the obvious debt I had to Nettie for saving me back then, I thought I had already repaid her plenty of times in the past.
Thus, I could move wherever I wanted after that. I was thinking that the obvious answer would be the Southern Hemisphere but I was wondering what my destination should be. Could I go to Brazil, for example? South Argentina or Chile? Maybe Australia or New Zealand?
Honestly, I was getting bored and tired of having to organize all these beforehand already. I was used to staying somewhere for so long, despite instances of obvious disdain. But, I had to move on and change everything now; now, I had to survive on my own. I had to make things work for me and not expect anyone’s support through this.
I took a deep breath to help my vampire brain work, though I knew this wouldn’t help. I just wanted to feel nothing for just a minute. I wanted my brain to stop going on overwork and just relax for a second. A second was all I wanted, but I knew I couldn’t afford even a single second right now. Now, I had to work twice as hard to help myself.
Through this rumbling in my brain and self-meditation, I hadn’t realized someone was a few meters away from me until I smelled their musky scent. It was delicious and hypnotic, and put me in a temporary state of euphoria, though I knew it was not human. I turned around quickly to come face to face with none other than Felix.
I was in complete shock. I would have never expected to see him again after that day in Crete. He was looking just as beautiful and majestic as the day I first saw him. His face was calm, with his sculpted cheekbones and chin, though it was obvious that he’d been through a lot. His face looked rougher and his eyes more sunken, the blackest black I had ever seen. Yet he still held a kind of innocence I had never seen before in anyone else, as if he wasn’t an executioner.
Out of pure instinct of seeing him again, I ran forward and jumped on him, wrapping my arms and legs around his torso. He stood shocked for a few seconds until he realized what was happening, and he hugged me back.
I ran my fingers through his thick, brunette hair, enjoying the way they felt under my own touch. They were voluptuous, full, shiny, and healthy. His skin was soft and smooth under my fingers, despite the slight marble-like feeling and roughness. I took a big whiff of his scent; the musky, delicious, and hypnotic scent that I never had the chance to enjoy before had me mesmerized and lost in my own little world.
His hands were holding me tight against him as if he was worried I’d slip away. I could feel his hands wrapped securely against my back and waist. I could feel his breath on my neck, as he slid his lips across the nape of my neck; it made my whole being shiver with delight. Was that what absolute happiness felt like? Because I could get used to this. 
And then, suddenly, I realized this wasn’t a dream, and Felix was really here. I quickly pulled myself out of his embrace, despite his small protest. I stood a few meters away from him, looking with disbelief at the man in front of me. I couldn’t really believe he was here because I doubt Nettie and the rest of her coven would allow anyone to just leave, without any consequence.
“Why are you here? How did you find me?” My tone came out harsher than I intended to, despite my actual concern and worry.
Felix didn’t flinch, but he looked saddened as if he was slapped across the face. “Demetri. He got worried about me, about you, and he wanted to tell me so I could come and find you.”, he simply stated.
“Of course.” I didn’t know if I should be angry about it, or if I should have expected it. It wasn’t that I didn’t want Felix - I wanted him desperately, but it was the fact that I knew the moment I would be happy, the happiness would, somehow, be taken away from me. “Now, again, can you tell me why you are here? I wasn’t expecting you.”
“Long story short, it was your leader. I had to leave.”
I wasn’t expecting that. “Why? What did Nettie do?”
“Your leader, Nettie, decided - among other things - that I should be the one to get exiled from the Volturi. ‘An eye for an eye’, as I was regarded as the reason why you left your coven. So, to call it even, she decided that I should leave my coven, just as you did.”
“She did what? That’s not like her! I don’t know, but that doesn’t look like Nettie’s doing!”
“There’s no need for you to take her side, still, even after everything you’ve been through with them.”
I looked at him, trying to threaten him, but the giant wouldn’t flinch. “You have no idea what I’ve been through, and you cannot judge me or my coven for any of that. You don’t know us. You don’t know me.”
“I know enough to understand that you were never truly appreciated there; that they never thought of you as a kind of authority; older, and more experienced, and gifted.”
The initial wave of anger had passed, but I was still annoyed. He was right; I never felt respected or appreciated enough when I was there, despite the extra effort I always put in because of my position. I was older and more experienced than the majority of them - with the exception of Nettie and Zenobia, but I was never treated with as high regard as these two. It was annoying that Felix had to remind me of that though.
“Can you please stop doing that?” He sounded slightly irritated.
“Doing what?” I sounded just as irritated, if not more.
“Looking angry and disappointed. Rolling your eyes. You really didn’t want to see me, did you?” He became quite saddened quickly, and tried to put a bigger distance between us.
I felt like acting out of instinct. “No! No, I did want to see you!” That made him look me deep in the eyes, and I tried to keep my composure as they bore into my soul. “It’s just…that I didn’t want you to go through all this, just because we are mates. I didn’t want you to see me like that.”
“Like what?”
“Like the mess that I became. Not that I wasn’t one before, but, this time, it’s different; it’s more prominent and evident. My mind is running a million kilometers an hour, trying to think what to do and where to go next. Maybe, I’ll stay here forever, I don’t know.”
“You know you can’t stay in Norway forever, right? Because in a few months it will be mostly sunny, right?”
“Right. Then, I’ll just go. Somewhere else. Away.”
“Can I come with you?” His voice was soft, sensual, and genuine.
I looked at him, doubtful of the intentions behind his words. “Why?”
“Because I love you. I need you by my side. And I’ll do anything to make you happy, and make you love me as much as I love you.”
“Who said I don’t already? But, I told you. I am a mess. And I can’t let myself fall for you. Not when I don’t even know the true me.”
“Well, I don’t fully know myself, either. But, if you are willing to give us a try, we can help each other discover ourselves together. How does this sound to you?”
I bit my lips, trying to think of a scenario with Felix in my life. It didn’t seem bad, not bad at all. “It sounds good. But I want to take everything slowly. This is new for me, and I don’t know how to act accordingly.”
He walked towards me, taking my hands in his. “Don’t worry, cara. Honestly, this is new to me, too, and I don’t want and won’t rush you or pressure you about anything. But you can always count on me for whatever you want.”
“And you, big guy, can count on me.”
Felix let out a loud laugh, looking genuinely happy at the moment. “I almost forgot.” He passed his hand under his cape and pulled out a book, which he gave to me.
I quickly realized it was my favorite book, “Love Letters” by Peter Washington. I placed it against my chest and embraced it. “How did you know?”, I simply asked, assuming he knew.
“I wanted to bring you something to remember your life before us. It looked the roughest of all your books, and your scent was all over it; strong and intense. I thought that that must have been your favorite of all your books?” He smiled sweetly.
“Yeah. Yeah, it is my favorite.” I had nobody before Felix thinking of me or doing such a thing out of sympathy or love for me. He had already managed to capture my being, just by this - seemingly - small gesture. “Thank you,” I whispered, smiling back at him.
He kneeled down, sitting on his knees, and looking up at me. I felt secure and safe enough to walk towards him and hug him once again, though, this time, I didn’t let go. And, in that moment, I could actually start thinking of a new life with him; a kind of life where we’d finally be both equal and happy. Just him; just me.
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waitmyturtles · 10 months
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Well. Okay. The Promise, episode 10 (finale), gave us… stuff to think about. Lots of mismatched, incongruous, random, unconnected, any other synonym — stuff.
I’m in mourning, not for the show ending (I’m so glad it’s over), but for the damn potential of the show. It could have been SO. MUCH. BETTER. Would it have been better if it weren’t a commercial? Likely. Would it have been better if the show cared for its characters? VERY LIKELY.
I was hooked originally for the nostalgia aspect of the show, the reflections on Nan and Phu’s childhood, how Phu stayed in Chiang Mai during those 10 years away, the connection to village life, how that reminded me of my childhood while visiting SE Asia. I was hooked to learn about a slice of Thai food culture in coffee cultivation and how beautifully it was depicted.
The show was filmed gorgeously! Khom Kongkiat, my otherwise dear Uncle Tong, clearly has respect and awe for this slice of Thai rural life.
But, fuck, man. The characters and their stories were clearly secondary to the priority of selling the damn skincare, but ALSO — I’d argue that any sensible journey of emotional growth was rendered secondary to this seeming NEED for these UNNECESSARY spikes of INCONGRUENT DRAMA that, I don’t know, maybe Uncle Tong thought he needed to juice up the show, to mix it up from the commercial aspect?
SO MUCH of the finale was unnecessary. Khunkhao in a knife fight?! Nan’s plane inexplicably disappearing?! And then, PHU (should we be surprised?) having the SHEER. AUDACITY. to scold Nan for trying to surprise Phu on his birthday, and like, LITERALLY getting himself ACCIDENTALLY (not on purpose, PHU) in a disappearing plane situation? Phu — are you my mother? Even in times of utter relief and joy, you’re still gonna be a titchy, whiny B? Get TFOH, PLEASE, MAN.
Mayyyybe I can understand how things reconciled between Phu and Khunkhao, but even that played out inconsistently fast. I mean — they were fighting over the same guy. And then you’re huggin’ it out. Now, I get that finding your missing brother, and finding FAMILY, would be important. That could have been a key point that the show could have leveraged — that, if Nan were to decide to go to China, that Phu would not be alone, as Khunkhao himself said.
But then — the show sends Khunkhao away? And gets him into a knife fight? Only to meet another guy named Nan Fah? Good lord, OKAY.
And then? Nan is throwing ALL THE BONES to Phu for Phu to declare his committed love to Nan, awlll of them. How can Phu POSSIBLY MISS? TELL NAN YOU WANT NAN TO STAY! You two can have a reasonable conversation about careers and whatnot! But, Phu! Nan — FOR ONCE, OMG — wants to hear that YOU, PHU, DO NOT WANT TO BE SEPARATED FROM NAN. Just tell the homeboy, one time!
Phu can’t even pull that off. (As @respectthepetty rightly noted, all of this bullshit is not the actors’ fault — they did fantastically for the crap writing they got.)
And finally, FINALLY (IT TOOK YOU 10 EPISODES!!!), Phu can tell Nan that he promises to wait for Nan, to NOT LEAVE, that he will support Nan in Nan’s career. My gawd. Listen — if the writing was truly meant to indicate that Phu was a whiny, selfish B, at least THAT came off accurately and successfully. GAH.
And then Nan tries to do something sweet for Phu, coming back to surprise Phu — then gets himself lost in the air (???) (with no explanation as to how that all happened!), and Phu SCOLDS him — and then they bonk. OH. KAY.
Jeezus. It’s making me madder as I’m writing about it, ha. (And unfortunately, due to being in public places at the time of this writing, I haven��t even enjoyed the sessy parts — DOUBLE GAH!)
Listen, I LOVED the actors in this show. Take this show with Step By Step, and we’ve had some candy for those of us who really want to see more actors in their 30s and 40s in BLs. I really loved having a show with two fabulous-looking dudes working in work lives, and figuring out their shit in that context.
But The Promise undermined real emotional growth here. Unless Phu, this entire time, was MEANT to be, say, an Arthit-like character from SOTUS — all brick wall, not a single emotional point to give, totally self-absorbed — I mean. Now that I write that, I realize it’s true. He WAS intentionally written like that. I don’t want to believe it, but it has to be that way — for a character to scold his partner after the partner got into a near-death (we assume) plane situation. I’m shaking my damn head.
This show has so much potential. I am absolutely throwing my cup of kopi at the screen. I haven’t felt this negative about a show in a while — and I’m watching SOTUS S. I’m really bummed, because this show could have done so, so much more about internalized fear, maybe even internalized homophobia, and ran with it. It ran away from it.
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gregorygerwitz · 1 year
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Always asking for elaboration! This time on the soldier, poet, king post, regarding the mice!
I'm gonna guess Brandon poet, mouse Soldier, Gregory king?
I can't tell if the boys or me are the predictable factor in this scenario, because you're the second person to get it exactly right.
Mouse is the soldier. Brandon is the poet. Gregory is the king.
I was already thinking about this in the car on my drive home yesterday, and then I'm getting a bunch of videos about the quiz and what the results mean on my tiktok fyp, so I only thought about it more last night instead of writing or sleeping. Two videos in particular (I screenshotted one and have the other burned into my brain, but no links, sorry) really solidified my choices for each of the Mice, and that's where the elaboration/essay comes in:
One of the videos was about trauma, and how each type (soldier/poet/king) does or doesn't process and work through it. And I was already settled on Mouse as the soldier and Gregory as the king, but Brandon, up until that point, had been the poet by default because that's the third option. But this tiktok...
Kings, like Gregory, are "people who compare their trauma to others' instead of reflecting to find their own answers." And... yeah. I talk about Gregory basically wearing a mask and pretending to be something he's not for his parents' approval. He's constantly being compared to others and their accomplishments and what they have and don't have, even if he's not necessarily being hard on himself. He's held to a higher standard, by his parents and by society. And he has all this money and this comfortable life, so really, he shouldn't be miserable. He has to push down the ache that comes with pretending so often and be this representation for his family legacy, and that is what matters, not trying to figure out if he needs therapy or not (he does he does he does he doe-)
Soldiers, like Mouse, are "people who don't think they deserve to process their trauma and struggle alone." And, I mean, as soon as I looked at the options for this little personality test, I knew Mouse was gonna be the soldier. He literally says it himself in canon. He was born to be a soldier. All of his trauma is from his childhood or a war zone - situations he got out of, he got to escape, he got to start to heal from. But the way he sees it, he's not in those situations anymore, so why is he still upset about them? Why do they still affect him so much? He hasn't talked to his parents in years. He's been in Chicago again for half a decade again before he reenlists. Even when he reenlists, he's too busy facing new trauma and danger to worry about the old wounds.
Poets, like Brandon, are "people who painstakingly think about their trauma to help others while inevitably avoiding their own trauma." I think this fits Brandon, especially, when I consider how he grew up. He grew up watching Trudy walk out the door every morning not knowing if she was going to come back, with his uncles doing the exact same thing, listening to the police scanner when he got home from school just to have on in the background while he did homework or laundry because it was some hollow reassurance that he could know what was going on if something did happen to go wrong. He grew up doing favors for Uncle Hank - picking up Erin when she got into some trouble, doing the same with Justin, eventually playing undercover himself to sit in the back of the theater and keep an eye on things when Lexi went on dates. He played the role of well behaved son, protective cousin, reliable nephew... he was too busy worrying about everyone else to take the time to worry about himself.
The other tiktok I haven't stopped thinking about for almost 24 hours was just one line: the king is just a poet who had to be a soldier. And in the context of the Mice... it just really hurts to think about too much. I love suffering.
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masakia · 1 year
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Hey sorry I saw ur babyfic tag and I just wanted to ask what u thought the situation w Emma (Dean’s Amazon daughter that Sam kills) would be like in context of the babyfic
Is it like holy shit Uncle Sam killed my sister?! Does Emma not die?? Is Dean suddenly 100% less chill about the whole thing because that’s his other daughter?? Is he haunted by his living child, the ghost of what his other little girl could have been?
I’m sorry I’m very normal about this I look forward to hearing more about the story (The little girl is 2?? Which is around the time Dean last bothered his brother in the ep01?? Was the last time he “bothered” Sam his attempt to tell him that he was an uncle??)
Oh I was not expecting an ask about the babyfic this makes me really happy, thank you!
And I was actually thinking about Emma earlier and while her fate would sadly be the same, I do think Dean would get a lot more pissed at Sam about it and he would have tried to reason more with Emma about what the fuck was happening. Like I could see this situation driving them to put some distance between each other and while Dean knows that Sam wouldn’t hurt his not amazon daughter, he still really pissed off cause “monster” or not, that was still his kid! If given the opportunity Dean would totally have raised her alongside his other daughter and for sure he would be haunted by the thought of Emma, especially when his daughter gets older and starts to look similar to what Emma did when Sam killed her (I don’t think the actress really looks like Jensen but I like to pretend that she looks a lot like Dean, if that makes sense).
Also for the baby (she doesn’t have a name yet, but I’ve been leaning towards Mary even if it’s a bit cliche) she would still a bit young, around 8 if I made the math right, and her reactions depends a lot on if she was with Dean and Sam at the moment the whole Emma thing happened, I imagine that Dean leaves her with Bobby when possible (and in the future maybe Cas but he is dead right now, so not really an option) especially in cases where they are pretending they are fbi (but I do think that Dean makes a joke about “take your kid to work day” at least once when she has to tag along because they don’t have anyone to take care of her after Bobby’s death). But let’s say that she was with them, I think that she would be confused initially when Emma says that Dean’s is her father cause like “He is not you dad! He is my dad, you are old!” and while I want to say that she would warm up quickly to Emma, I think she wouldn’t trust her, especially after Emma tries to kill Dean, she is a little kid after all and kids usually see the world very black and white when it comes to bad and good, so in her head her dad is good an people who try to hurt him are bad.
This is getting really long but I have so many though please, this is all to say that I think in the moment she would see things as normal just her uncle killing the bad guy because her dad couldn’t, but when she grows up she realizes how truly fucked up it was and I like to think that she takes a moment to truly mourn the sister she could’ve had, because yes while in a way she has Claire and Jack as her kind of step siblings (by Dean and Cas being a couple or whatever they decided to call that thing between them), it’s not the same as having this sister who shares the same dad as you by blood. (Her biggest moment of rebellion is when Sam refuses to kill Jack cause he has the chance to not be a monster and she is like “Well, so did my sister but you still put a bullet in her!).
Also, I do think that when the little girl was born, around 2003 which according to google is one year after Sam goes to Stanford, Sam was just not picking up any calls that came from his brother, not wanting to hear how he should come back to the family and whatever, so I do think the last time Dean really tried to contact Sam and even thought about just showing up on his doorstep was maybe a month or two after the baby was born, after this his whole focus went to his daughter until John goes missing and he does shows up at Sam’s doorstep, forgetting to tell him “so you are a uncle now so please be careful to not wake the baby at the car”.
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edoro · 2 years
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Also when do they get teleported out of belos' mind cause I assumed that it was when babybel was summoning the palisman souls, when Luz grabbed him she just didn't let go so she and Hunter scream for Eda to take them out and luckily she could but Luz didn't let go of babybel when grabbing Hunter so now Hunter knows the truth (probably still going to have his panic attack sadly :( ), but Luz realizes that she also brought the 'kid' with her. Now to think about it wouldn't babybel kinda be out of it for a while, since the form came from the dream realm so his body is literally trying to exist.
this is one of the questions i am trying to answer for myself! because when they get taken out really changes some things - well, mostly it changes what i think Hunter's attitude towards Babybel and the whole situation is.
so i'm considering it in terms of those three memories - the staged 'wild witch' attack, the first attempt at coven sigils, and the Collector conversation post-Eclipse Lake.
they should definitely, i think, see at least the first one. i want Hunter's perception of Belos to be shaken for sure, and for him to be confused and uneasy about the previous Golden Guard(s). he knows he isn't the first, but they didn't just have the same rank - they sounded exactly like him! and he clearly noticed.
the more i think about it, the more i feel like my sweet spot here is after the coven sigil attempt memory?
it gives Luz enough info that Owl Team more or less knows what Belos is planning (genocide) although she doesn't have the context of why (witch hunter), and it's something that Hunter can't actually excuse - he was trying, but in the end the best he could do was 'well maybe i'm completely wrong about everything i know to be true', which is not solid grounds for long-term denial.
so Luz has her confirmation of Belos's plans that she can tell Eda and Lilith, while still leaving room for her to realize/find out that Babybel is a human and therefore Philip in the way i outlined in this post
and Hunter also has all of these doubts and fears - suddenly Belos isn't the harsh-but-fair benevolent Emperor who is leading the Boiling Isles into a utopia, but a liar and a manipulator who's been hurting and killing people for a very long time and is clearly trying to do it on a mass scale.
Hunter can say he was 'just perfecting sigil magic' (he's not even wrong!) but they both heard Belos say those witches still being alive meant he had more work to do. and there was that Guard - same voice, slightly different clothes, but we don't know how much time passed between those memories, so it could still be the same guy under the mask.
but there's that seed of doubt there too, that little nagging sense of existential horror. who is that? is that his uncle's brother - his own father? a son he never knew Belos had? is that the same Guard who was Darius's mentor? how many of them have there been? what happened to them? who were they?
so i think cutting it off there, between that one and the scene with the Collector, puts Hunter in an interesting place. his faith in Belos has been badly bruised and his sense of self and purpose suddenly taken away. he can't deny that whatever Belos is planning, it's bad, or that he's been complicit in it. he can't deny that Belos has been lying to everyone, including him, for a very long time. and he doesn't know what's up with those other Golden Guards, but there isn't a non-horrifying answer, really.
however, his perception of Belos hasn't been completely shattered, nor has it been revealed to him that he's just the latest in a long line of murdered clones. he doesn't know that the 'Titan's plans' for him are just a lie Belos uses to make him easier to manipulate.
he knows he's seen things he wasn't supposed to see, but he's still loyal. he doesn't know that previous Golden Guards have been killed for 'betraying' Belos. he doesn't know that he's just a replaceable object to Belos. he's hurt and betrayed and scared and confused, he isn't sure what his place is anymore, he isn't sure if he can or wants to go back to the castle, he doesn't want to help Belos bring about the Day of Unity anymore, and the residents of the Owl House definitely aren't going to let him take Babybel back
but i think that because those crucial revelations have been withheld from him, it means that he might fall back on his position as his uncle's caretaker when he's faced with Babybel. with almost everything he thought he knew turned on its head, he might cling onto what feels familiar.
his relationship with his uncle has been forever changed, but by taking care of Babybel the way he used to take care of Emperor Belos, he can still have some vestige of a relationship - a simpler one, even, where he doesn't have to fear being hurt, where he can care for and love this man who he's spent his life serving without suffering for it.
which also sets him up for Babybel to be able to try to manipulate him into helping him back to the castle and into his adult body. normally he would get rid of Hunter after what Hunter saw and just make another one, but he really doesn't have time, and right now he can't give up such a powerful ally
(of course, he'll have to play his cards right - Hunter doesn't trust the real him anymore, and similarly to Luz, sees his child self as kind of a do-over. he can't just reveal it right away, but he's going to have to manage Hunter's wounded expectations and sense of betrayal from being strung along and lied to when he does, so he's going to need to have Hunter wrapped very firmly back around his nasty little fingers, or else find some way of convincing Hunter to take him back to the castle without actually revealing that he's For Real Belos)
it seems like Hunter really wants to find a way to be loyal, so who is Belos to deny him that? at the very least, he can try to play on Hunter's loyalty and love for him to get back to the castle so he can continue with his plan, and then figure out what to do with Hunter from there. maybe this one is salvageable. maybe this one will finally turn out right. maybe this one is the version of Caleb who loves him more than anything else.
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36, 38, 41, and 42 for the ask game please:D
Ship: Linzolt
Of course! Thanks for the ask!
36. How do they feel about having kids? Are they in agreement?
Neither of them actively want kids. They both feel like having them could get in the way of their goals, and probably would clash with their lifestyle, so they're in agreement about not having them...
However, if something happened and Lin were to end up pregnant, Zolt certainly wouldn't mind raising a child with her. Lin on the other hand would probably need some convincing.
38. Who’s got a quicker temper?
Damn, this is hard because they definitely both have that side to them. I'd probably say Zolt in general, but Lin in the context of their relationship.
41. What would they do if they lost the other?
If they lost each other because they broke up or something similar, I think they'd both try to cope by throwing themselves into their work. They both made incredible progress towards their career goals in the months and years after they stopped seeing each other.
However, if they lost each other to death, things would probably play out differently. Lin would still try to cope by working and wouldn't really let herself grieve, but she wouldn't find as much fulfillment in her job as she did before. I think Zolt would lose all motivation to make his Triple Threats the most powerful syndicate in the city, and might end up walking away from organized crime altogether.
42. What’s their relationship like with each other’s friends/families?
Kya and Izumi (especially Izumi) like Zolt a lot. They were there the night Lin first met him and thought they were cute together from the start. And he's earned uncle status in Opal's book; she was skeptical of him at first, but once she saw how much that man adores her aunt, she was like "welcome to the family." Lin cares less about Toph and Su's opinions than those of the previous three, but they're mostly ambivalent towards Zolt. Su can't really move past the irony of her straight-laced older sister falling in love with a crime lord, and Toph doesn't really care enough about the situation to form an opinion.
Given the nature of her role as police chief, Lin doesn't really have a relationship with many of Zolt's contacts. However, she does end up meeting Sola—Zolt's mentor—at one point, and they get on really well.
Ask me about ships!
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