#here with another parallel nobody asked for lmao

[zlobonessa]

also I'm about to get a bit more serious and a lot more annoying but it's really interesting to me how you can actually analyse regulus as a parallel to subaru in the aspect of patriarchy and toxic masculinity — and failing at it, actually.

subaru's issues with traditional masculinity are evident. arc 3 conflict is stemming from his inability to accept the fact that he cannot just be the great traditional hero saving a day and his lady without regards for her wishes. he grew up in a shadow of his father, a man who succeeded in getting everything that is promised by patriarchy — a loving family, a career, respect from his community. subaru cries a lot and scared for his life. he is a loser, he is vulnerable, he is insecure. he is everything that a patriarchal man shouldn't be.

so what does regulus have to do with any of this?

from a first glance at regulus you could assume that he is the one who played patriachy and won. he has a harem! he is violent and he can afford to be violent, he disregards other people's opinions and other people's lives. his wifes are supposed to obey him and if they don't, they are prostitutes snd whores and traitors. his rights are the only ones that matters. he is the one in charge. he is The Man.

but what if we look a little closer?

under scrutiny you can notice he is not actually completely secure in himself — rather the opposite. he directly tells as much:

he also compares himself to reinhard, yet another perfect man (just like subaru does) and not in his own favor:

his wives also notice the pattern:

and subaru puts the final nail in the coffin:

in other words, everybody can see through his scrawny ass.

we can still dig deeper here.

regulus appearance is described as averege (absolutely not impressive enough to get a girl he likes to llke him). he is not physically strong, he immediately loses the confidence that he'll win the fight the moment subaru and emilia take away his main advantage. he is the youngest son, a problem child. he is not particularly liked in his hometown. he is poor, which is a very important detail: combination of poverty and patriarchy produces its own type of helplessness, insecuity in masculinity. you forced to take unrewarding, most often physical, exhausting jobs that destroy your human dignity AND do not pay enough for you be a successful family provider. regulus is a failure in patriarchal society and he desperately wants to escape this position.

unfortunately, the only way he sees is up, and the only climbing technique he knows is the same patriarchal violence that put him down in the first place.

[also, sidenote: it's really funny how he is is only archbishop who gets the fanciest clothing and a whole ass manor.

class traitor.]

the authority of greed for regulus is a way to fight his insecurities by establish his dominance — patriarchal among others. he is the strongest now, nobody can humiliate him. he uses extreme violence to get his way. he forces a woman he likes to become his wife, knowing him, probably under the pretence of saving her from these incomplete swines. he knows better what is best for her, right?

well if it doesn't sound familiar.

that's also who subaru can be. cruel, cold, unable to ask for help and allow himself to be vulnerable, uncaring about what women he supposedly does all this for actually thinks about that. we can clearly see this in the if routes, but a lot of it is present in the main route too, to less extreme degree.

(also..... harem if lmao)

but as we established earlier, all of this doesn't actually makes regulus happy. he is still insecure, he lashes out at the barest hint of threat to his ego, he still deeply discomforted by interaction with reinhard. upholding the ideal of traditional masculinity doesn't help him and eventually leads to his doom. regulus is another dark reflection of what subaru could be — if he had not found another way, if he had been way too stubborn to change, to find support and to free himself from harmful, cruel ideas.

#re zero #i was thinking about this parallel for a long time and the lecture was really boring so #anyway i love my problematic babygirl #natsuki subaru #regulus corneas

[esther-dot]

Hi Esther, I hope you are free of your MCU marathon (but enjoyed time with your nephew).

One of the ideas I've been toying with this morning is that the reason Jonsa is Like That in the show is because it's free(r) of sexualisation. That ask from another anon about incest being morally reprehensible because it is the ostensible place girls and women should be free from the encroachment of sexual harassment/sexualisation made me wonder if the reason so many of us oscillated with Jonsa in the show because a) it was, genuinely, the only dynamic set up in any way that had emotional catharsis and relief without power dynamics until S7/S8 (even then Jon entrusts his power to Sansa); up until this point Sansa had nobody she could be honest with - this is conveyed by Sophie's acting alone, and b) the writers, the misogynists they are (the show is really a travesty for me but let's not go there), wrote Jonsa as a more loving and equal dynamic because they couldn't objectify her as a love interest. If I were to go into examples here, let's just focus on the reunion: it is completely and totally earnest and rewarded relief for both characters, and both perspectives are emphasised. We are usually shut out of the woman's in a male-driven romance.

Objectification is the problem in male-driven romance and really shows through with Jon/D/aenerys and I don't think it's just an issue of chemistry. There is something structurally deeper there that's wrong, and they failed to write it as a Gothic romance (which I think they sortttt of went for with Dragonstone and the tone of the relationship) and as an enemies-to-lovers dynamic (aka riffing off the 'hate to love' romcom expectations, less so any true tension as actual political enemies). The fans who enjoy JD in the show are really attracted to this element and it's no coincidence that this is the predominant archetype in romance genre fiction (and it's no coincidence JD attracted normies hgdjhgfi).

So I wondered if we picked up on the romantic elements in Jonsa... because it's not the misogynistic male view of romance. Which is kind of ironically counter to what that ask was trying to say - but I think this is actually argument for why women can be attracted to the motif in literature, the romance genre, fanfic, etc. because it is where there should be freedom from objectified sexualisation, and by virtue that is attractive, because the characters can meet each other with vulnerability and the female character can expect she should be safe with him (and the forbidden love is attractive lmao). This is only really possible with same-age/non-intergenerational incest and whilst I do think the incest motif in Victorian literature is not necessarily down to these elements, I do think there is a persisting reason on both sides (male writer side and female audience side, in this instance) that this dynamic might have attracted us? Obviously they're more aware of the incest motif in GOT, and probably teased parallels to other incestuous relationships for a reason, but is there the possibility they didn't even really know what they were doing?

This is with the hypothesis in mind that Jonsa either doesn't happen in the books or GRRM, for whatever reason, held that card to his chest, or they discarded the idea altogether.

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts, because whilst I do feel Jonsa is Romantic in the show, I think it's potentially more to my sensibilities. No way did I ever expect D&D to write a compassionate, mutual romance lol.

P.S. to address the refutation - 'Then why does Kit Harrington look at his sister like that' - I don't know what was going through that man's mind. I am not familiar enough with his oeuvre to say one way or another - in terms of comparing his romantic acting choices - but I would still potentially write that off as the reasons I've described here. Women's view of romance in fiction is often quite different to men's. (I am not prescribing gender here, just speaking generally, and speaking to specific traditions between men and women's spaces).

(related to this ask)

I’m fascinated by this message. Yours is the first, “they didn’t mean it to be romantic” take that I’ve heard and found believable.

it was, genuinely, the only dynamic set up in any way that had emotional catharsis and relief without power dynamics until S7/S8

Dude, even at the end of s8, other than the Lannisters, it was the relationship that escaped with any dignity. It still blows my mind that they didn't allow Jon and Arya any bonding time in s8, and that their last scene is Jon telling Arya to come visit, and her basically being like, "thanks but no thanks bro" with the audience getting the distinct impression, this is the last time they'll see each other which is actually what D&D wanted to convey based on the script. Mind boggling! I've said before, Jon and Sansa's dynamic and the themes of their relationship carried through the last three seasons in a more coherent, meaningful way than any other relationship. One could argue that's because the actors cared and carried that emotional journey through with their acting, but I think it's in the writing too.

the show is really a travesty for me but let's not go there

I'm a show fan, I still enjoy show verse fics/art/meta, but I understand! I haven't watched an episode since the finale, and I didn't/wont watch HOTD either.

wrote Jonsa as a more loving and equal dynamic because they couldn't objectify her as a love interest.

This has merit because apparently in the script of when Jon met Dany they describe Dany as "cute as a bug" or something, so to them, they did reduce Dany to her beauty, the dynamic to "hot people meet, hot people bang" without regard to the political reality that were meant to be working in (as in, a marriage alliance was something Dany mentioned before coming to Westeros, would have made sense in s7 to resolve their stalemate and was only discussed in s8 because people realized they were interested in each other, but at that point it wouldn't have been beneficial politically??? WTF?) and also without care for the ramifications of what they did to Jon "I will not father a bastard" Snow immediately trying to father a bastard with an invader who blithely talked about letting his family/people die and massacring everyone in KL. I too see genocidal conquerors who don't give a shit if my loved ones die a horrible death and Westeros as a whole is conquered by ice zombies as romantic prospects, but I expected better of Jon! The idea that that registers as "mother of my child" to him might even be considered a red flag as to his mental state.

Obviously they're more aware of the incest motif in GOT, and probably teased parallels to other incestuous relationships for a reason, but is there the possibility they didn't even really know what they were doing?

I think it were it were only the jaime x cersei and jonsa parallels, we could conclude they exist to tell us, "jonsa is the good/non incestuous sibling duo." Or, if it were only braime and jonsa parallels, we could conclude, well this is to show what mutual care and respect can do for people. Or if it were only nedcat and jonsa parallels we might conclude, these exist simply because it will help the North rally to them/to show them as the new heads of House Stark. But,what are they getting at with all three, all romantic pairings? What can possibly be gained from the sam x gilly and jonsa parallels? There's no connection there unless it's romantic, no? Or the robb x talisa and jonsa parallels, why shoot them the same way? Now that I think about it, the recreation of SamGilly scenes with Jonsa may be the most damning, because I can come up with explanations for the others (Robb is KitN, Jon is KitN, maybe they wanted to film them in the same way?), but the SamGilly stuff is just romance tropes they used once and then reused for a sibling duo. The fact that all these other pairings had sex is a little sus. At the very least, it wasn't only accidental actor chemistry. Some of those writing/framing choices show intent.

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts, because whilst I do feel Jonsa is Romantic in the show, I think it's potentially more to my sensibilities. No way did I ever expect D&D to write a compassionate, mutual romance lol.

I'm gonna say something outrageous here, I don't know that D&D are as dumb as most of the people in the fandom claim. A lot of fans blame them for things that I believe are a version of plot points Martin gave them. As in, they were holding him responsible for "destroying" Stannis the same way they hold them responsible for "destroying" Dany, and they were blamed for King Bran too, but all three of those things are gonna happen in the books. What else…they also hated Jaime dying with Cersei. That’s happening in the books too! SO, it's possible that a lot of the crimes we hold them responsible for, were them trying to pull together a story Martin is still expanding, and mow down developments that even in his hands, I'm simply not gonna care for. I mean, maybe we're getting the ideal Jonsa in the books, but it's possible that Jon has more parallels/contrasts to Rhaegar in store for him and that he was meant to agree to a political marriage to Dany although he's in love with a Stark girl (which would tie in with the Jace/Sara stuff), and D&D thought, show Jon simply isn't dark enough, they couldn't do that, so instead they discarded the acknowledged Jonsa romance and the Jonerys political marriage and tried the weird, enemies to lovers/forbidden love thing with Jonerys that made no fucking sense and was universally panned by critics. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I do not know the beats Martin wants to hit, so I bitch about D&D while also trying to give them room for feeling helpless when it came to delivering on what might potentially be, a pretty convoluted wrap up. That doesn't change the fact that they mischaracterized my favs and really fucked up the landing, but before and after s8, Martin has compared it to the adaptation of Gone with the Wind, and I've pointed out before, that's one of the best book to screen translations I've seen. I'm not sure that I've seen a movie that remained as tied to the source material, so that lurks in the back of my mind in a positive and a negative way. Negative, Jon may go through a lot more shit I don't want him to experience. The positive, they understood some significance to the Jon and Sansa relationship even if they never fully clarified the nature of what was happening there.

P.S. to address the refutation - 'Then why does Kit Harrington look at his sister like that' - I don't know what was going through that man's mind. I am not familiar enough with his oeuvre to say one way or another - in terms of comparing his romantic acting choices

I actually did watch several of Kit's movies and some appearances in TV shows after s8 purely for Jonsa reasons. 😂 I wanted to know if he was a very limited actor so he couldn't express different types of love or if his anger/intensity always comes off a little sexual etc. Jonsas have posted comparisons of some of this, I can't find all the gifs now but Kit acts the forehead kiss similarly to how he kisses a romantic lead, he hugged Sansa in the same way he hugs his character's romantic partners in The Eternals and Testament of Youth (his fingers splayed across their backs and dipping his face into their neck). I didn't think he was a great actor, but I also didn't think he was incapable of delivering on the expected emotion. Other fans have said that he had personal issues during filming of the last seasons which explain his acting struggles, but in s7-8, he did just fine in scenes with Sansa, Tormund, Gendry, Tyrion... The only time he was consistently not delivering were Dany scenes, so I don't fully buy that. In fact, the specific look he gives Dany when he declared her his queen is one he uses on the red carpet for pics, (it's def his version of Flynn's "the smolder" lmao) it isn’t one I saw him using in a movie to communicate sincere emotion, love or vulnerability, so I think it's more likely D&D knew Dark Dany/dead Dany was going to be so hated they opted not to pull the trigger on Jon's story. It makes sense to me that they screwed him over in the edit attempting to appease Targ fans and keep them around for HBO's spinoffs.

I'm totally fine with that not working as an explanation for others, it’s an unpopular opinion, but the other factor here is that Sansa was incredibly jealous in s8. Sansa looked at Jon with heart eyes and then walked away in a huff when Jon looked at Dany during the feast (8x04). After that, I did see people who hated Jonsa and even professional reviewers questioning the nature of Sansa's feelings, and yet, nothing came of it. Sophie was always great, her acting was never criticized so what to make of that other then, she was instructed to deliver that performance, I don't know. Makes me wonder what instructions D&D were giving Kit, cuz Cogman was out there after s8 defending them by saying they’re responsible for crafting every performance that we loved. 😐Sansa had clear reasons to dislike/distrust Dany, the jealousy issue was clearly personal and about Jon/his feelings, so, like some of the parallels, this speaks to D&D's intent, not to the actors being bad. Some said it was just another example of D&D's misogyny that Sansa and Dany couldn't get along, obviously, I disagree. Sansa wanted the North's freedom, of course she wasn't going to be fine with giving it up, but there was an entirely different thread through their interactions and in the Jon/Dany scenes which inevitably involved Sansa in s8, all of which was entirely unnecessary unless there was more, something unspoken, there.

If you accept that, there's an awful lot of stuff that suddenly makes sense. That's where I always end up because imo, D&D wanted to do Dark Sansa, they teased it, they didn't do justice to her perspective even when she was right, they were critical of her treatment of Tyrion making him out to be the good guy even though he married a little girl and murdered his gf, and they wrote in their finale script that Jon couldn't forgive Sansa. On their own, would they also write the hero coming to have great respect and trust for her? Would they write her coming to power unprompted? Would they write her having an inexplicable power over Jon? Would they write Jon killing the most popular character to protect her for lolz? I don't think so. I think they were caught between a rock and a hard place and tried to deliver on certain Martin ideas without alienating the entire fanbase. As a lover of characters, I think that was a huge mistake, but judging by the success of HOTD, clearly, their calculations were correct.

#jonsa #anti jonerys #long post #dot chat #<<< for filtering

[just-here-for-iolaus]

Hercules in the Maze of the Minotaur

The great HTLJ/XWP/YH (re)watch continues!

Real talk, I watched this March 11 (it is now June 20) and then some things happened but I'm back now to type up my thoughts and my notes don't currently make any sense, so I'm going to have to skim through the movie again to remind myself.

Before I reorient myself, I want to highlight my favourite no-context notes I made to myself:

HORSE

Dei looks HOT tits out at dinner lmao

CLips show

Now to remind myself what the hell this movie from 3 months ago was...

OH RIGHT. Okay.

So these chuckleheads traded cows for a map to this place, and they think they're gonna get the treasure of the god or something. I immediately noticed that the door was locked from the outside, and (to his credit) one of them also realizes this halfway through trying to open it, and they have a moment of debate about opening the door, but sadly the titular Minotaur busts out!

From my notes: "That guy fainted haha" Seriously IDK why the one guy just fainting while the other runs for his life tickles me, but it does.

I think the "HORSE" note was just about the massive horse that Hercules has at home because that was my reaction on this rewatch as well haha.

Hercules's sons are fighting, and when Herc tells them the rule is no fighting they argue with him that he fights people all the time. Herc says he only does that to keep people from getting hurt, and when he asks if they understand they're just like "No" and shake their heads like "you make no sense" and honestly that's such a real scene kid reaction. "I am choosing not to accept this rule, thanks!" XD

We then get the first of many extended flashbacks to prior movies.

HILARIOUSLY, it did not occur to me the first time that this was going to be a recurring thing. I was like "huh that's weird they're referencing the last movie. I guess this will be important".... Ugh.

Zeus shows up and asks Hercules if he misses adventuring. He says he does, which I thought was interesting! He first starts off saying nobody has come to him for help in a while, but then he sort of implies that he's staying at home with his wife and kids because of an agreement he made with her? I felt a bit weird about his line delivery there because I think we're just supposed to think he misses the fun of the adventures, but it comes off as a little like "well, I love my kids, but...". (Even tho in the last movie he got distracted staring at them.)

Anyway then Zeus gives him a sea serpent scale (which I was immediately very suspicious of, because I don't trust Zeus) and then we get another flashback, which I literally fast-forwarded through, and this is where I went "oh no..."

I'm not a fan of clip shows. 😅

Then we get the tits-out dinner scene I noted before. Damn, Dei is pretty (though her hair is a bit untamed here). How do they only have 3 kids?

We then get a bunch of shots of the Minotaur's lair and a few teaser shots of the Minotaur.

Then it's back to the house, Herc is putting his kids to bed. They request a story before bed, and since the first two the boys suggest didn't happen in the movies, we instead get a flashback to the movie where Herc meets Dei.

(Fast forward...)

The kids fell asleep, but Dei was into it and she takes our man to bed.

SURPRISINGLY, Herc didn't have a flashback dream overnight! So Herc is going about his morning and BAM!

Iolaus attacks him in the barn. (Playfully.) Now, can I just say, as someone coming from having watched the beginning of Young Hercules first, how nice a callback this is? Like, I realize they were conceived out of order, so the Young Hercules episode 1 scene where Iolaus attacks Herc (playfully) is a reference to this, but what a lovely little parallel! ♥ I love them. Look at how they look at each other.

They start talking about their farms, which honestly seems like exactly what they would talk about since they're both trying to manage farms? But I guess they thought the audience would be like "this is boring" because Iolaus launches into his own "remember the time"...

They then chat fireside and there's so much like, flirtatious vibes from Iolaus? Though I thought their banter was really cute, platonic or otherwise. They kinda tease each other but they're both so happy, it's really nice. I just love when characters clearly like each other this much.

But Iolaus manages to goad Hercules into a sparring match, which leads to the best line in the movie: "Mommy, what's Daddy doing to Uncle Iolaus?" And not just because it's a hilarious line, but also the little girl's line delivery is so precious.

We then get a really sweet scene where Dei and Iolaus talk privately and she confides that Herc has been going a bit stiry crazy. I really believed the worry Dei had for her spouse and her genuine grattitude for Iolaus's friendship with Herc for Herc's sake. We then find out through Iolaus confiding his own hardships to Dei that he's struggling with losing his wife and having to raise their child (I think just the one?) alone. Dei comforts Iolaus a bit. I really liked this whole part.

Then it's ruined by the original guy (who ran) coming to get help from Herc with the Minotaur.

Hercules turns down the request for help - shocking both Dei and Iolaus. And also, understandably, disappointing the dude who came for help.

Dei convinces Herc to go - more for Herc's sake than the people he'd be helping (such a good wife!). Iolaus invites himself along. (And is cute about it, trying to get Herc to admit how helpful he is.)

Another stupid flashback about the giant Herc fought.

Brief interlude where Zeus shows up, and then it's another fucking flashback. (I was fast forwarding so much, my husband thought I didn't like the movie.)

There's a little fireside scene with the three of them where Zeus mocks them for acting like kids when they have kids, and I again got this weird vibe of like "we don't like being parents" which I honestly find really uncomfortable. I understand that parenting is hard and some people genuinely don't enjoy it, but it's kind of a weird impression to give because of how into his family Herc was in the movie before this one. You can love your kids and still like adventure, no? Anyway it's a subtle thing, they don't come right out and say "I wish I'd never had kids", it's just a weird vibe that I think is more meant to convey the desire for adventure.

Zeus then gets weird when he finds out where the boys are going, and immediately fucks off after a half-assed attempt at dissuading them. By now the audience would know this means Zeus is hiding something about his involvement/knowledge of whatever is going on there.

There's a brief bit where a couple is sneaking away from town to boink and they end up in the Minotaur's lair and he captures them. It's kinda gross as we see them put into these weird coccoon things.

The boys get to town but are told there's no monster and everything is fine.

The Minotaur is then shown to be stoked Herc has arrived, and talks about how much he wants to kill him. Zeus then shows up where the Minotaur is and it's revealed that Zeus turned him into this monster as punishment for something, and that they haven't seen each other in 100 years. Zeus says he should have killed the Minotaur before, and tries to again, but just can't bring himself to do so. The Minotaur announces that he just keeps getting bigger and stronger and he won't be satisfied until he hurts Zeus (which Zeus doesn't think he can do). We as the audience know that the Minotaur is after Hercules, but does Zeus?

Then we cut back to the boys in the pub and get the worst flashback of all!!!

Iolaus apparently tells this random woman all about the plot of Movie 1, which he absolutely should not remember, because the plot of that movie ends with Hercules going back in time to NOT let the plot pan out as it had (in order to save Iolaus's life). The memory he relays is one from the series of events that was undone by the time rewind, so Iolaus should not have been telling this story.

It's bad enough to have a clip show, but the internal logic doesn't even make sense. Not that this series of movies has been really careful with "canon" anyway, but dang!!

Anyway then there's a really long fight scene where the whole pub gets thrashed and all the patrons decide to try to fight Hercules for... saying his name is Hercules. Herc wins (Iolaus also does well but gets knocked out at the end) and then takes Iolaus to bed. No, I'm just kidding, he rents two rooms, and deposits Iolaus into one before taking the second for himself.

While Herc is sleeping, some of the losers of the bar fight decide they're gonna kill Hercules, but the Minotaur kills them and frames Hercules for it. The entire town sees Hercules standing over their dead bodies holding a sword (that he literally picked up at the scene) and they mob after him.

Hercules wakes up Iolaus and punches a hole in the wall so they can escape. The mob catches up to them anyway, though, because they head down a dead-end alley (in a rural village?). Luckily the ground swallows some guy and also Iolaus and the mob is confused enough to pause. The brother from the beginning of the movie shows up and Hercules asks if he knows where the monster lives, so off they go.

They run into Zeus on the way. Zeus tries to warn Herc not to go down there, the thing is a terrible monster, etc. He reveals that it was once a very handsome man, but eventually tried to turn a bunch of people against the gods, etc. Zeus cursed him to be "as ugly as his heart". Zeus bemoans not being able to kill him when he had the chance. Hercules knows there's something more to the story, but Zeus won't say what.

Zeus then claims to have never asked Herc to do anything for him... which... I call shenanigans on? What about the previous movies? The Circle of Fire in particular comes to mind. Anyway. Whatever. Zeus wants Herc to kill the monster.

Herc enters the lair with a couple guys from town who the Minotaur kills and it's kinda gross.

Once Herc gets to the Minotaur we finally get a full reveal, and because they seem to have used practical effects, I actually think the visuals on it aged really well! His mouth moves when he talks and he really moves in the space in a believable way (which is not always the case in these movies/shows).

The Minotaur claims that Herc's been "given" everything his whole life, like fame and glory... which Herc denies, saying he's worked for what he has. I think you could probably unpack a lot there, but I think we've seen Herc's life hasn't been easy by any stretch, demi-god abilities or not.

Eventually the Minotaur reveals that he's Hercules's brother, that he's the son of Zeus and that Zeus couldn't kill him because he couldn't kill his own son. At this point, Hercules refuses to fight him, despite the Minotaur insisting.

But the Minotaur forces his hand, saying if Herc won't fight him, he's gonna kill Iolaus. This is enough for Hercules who then kills the Minotaur in a fashion similar to a death we saw flashbacked early on.

Zeus then shows up, and it's kinda cold? The Minotaur is still dying, and Zeus is just like "Sorry son" to Hercules and they just talk like the Minotaur isn't there? DYING? Hercules says he understands why Zeus couldn't tell him, and says he's just sorry Zeus had to lose a son.

I was really surprised there was no mourning for the loss of the possiblity of getting to know his brother or change his nature or anything... which I assume was why Herc didn't want to fight him a minute earlier? But whatever, they beat the bad guy...

Zeus then is like "I loved you, son" to his dying monster kid, but like, in a "and I don't now" tone. The Minotaur begs Zeus not to let him "die this way" (I think meaning ugly?) and then dies, and then Zeus turns him back into a (dead) man, and says "You're free now" and IDK MAN, it just didn't really work for me... Did not like.

Then Hercules saves Iolaus from the pods, and they let everyone else free. They decide to go home.

On the way home, Hercules remarks that he doesn't want to go on any adventures for a while, and Iolaus agrees...

...which makes me SO CONFUSED how the show ends up starting after this movie, so I can't wait to see!!

Final thoughts:

A bit thin on plot? I clocked that the Minotaur was Zeus's son right away, and it felt like a weird reveal.

Herc and Io were soooo keen on an adventure, but then came home wanting to not do that for a while... When do they decide to go on their Legendary Journeys? I'm starting to wonder if I'm stupid and these movies take place after the show chronologically haha.

On that note, Herc still has a wife and 3 kids, and Iolaus has at least one kid (no wife tho...)

Boo to clip shows. I hope there aren't many in the show proper. I kinda forgot they were a thing.

Hercules and Iolaus are a great dynamic! I love Michael Hurst.

I trust and like Zeus less the more I see of him. I don't think he will protect my boys and I don't like that haha.

What is going to happen to Dei????? I like her... I'm scared haha. Anya got written off without even an explanation just "she's gone" kinda thing.

Overall I'd say the relationships between Herc, Dei, and Iolaus were the standout bits. 🥰

Now I get to start the show proper!!

#htlj #htlj movies #hercules in the maze of the minotaur #the great (re)watch #hercules the legendary journeys

[potatowitch]

For OTP Relationship Asks! 😃 8, 10, 26 & 30

doing this for fenders because. obviously.

8. What’s one way their personalities compliment one another?

I think about this one a lot. They both have wicked senses of humour. They both love so, so intensely. They're both angry and regretful and neither really know how to be a Normal Free Person and have to learn on the fly - and they learn in different ways, and could help one another with different perspectives. They both understand what it's like to be owned, and to reject that ownership. They both understand what it's like to have to fight tooth and nail for your freedom, and to always have the threat of that freedom being taken away hanging over your head. They're both very intelligent. They could understand one another in ways nobody else could. They each bring their own brand of protectiveness and strength to the table, they each bring their own brand of gentleness and comfort too.

10. What are some non-sexual activities they do together? 

They read together a lot - whether it's reading to each other, or reading a separate book while on the same couch. They like to parallel play a lot lmao, and I think Fenris in particular is a Hobby Experimenter - he's trying to figure out what he's into, so he tries everything. There's nights where Fenris will sit on the couch with a sketchbook while Anders has his head on his shoulder and is fixing a hole in his sock, or embroidering a wonky little cat on a blanket, or is scribbling down ideas for his manifesto. They take baths together. They go out to grab potion ingredients together. Fenris likes to hang around the clinic and help fold bandages and wash sheets and bottle potions. They stargaze/cloudwatch on occasion. They eat dinner together. They cut the backs of each other's hair.

26. How do they comfort each other?

Anders finds physical touch really grounding, so a lot of the time when he's upset, Fenris knows to touch him in some way, even if it's just squeezing his hand. Fenris also appreciates being held when he's upset - sometimes. Sometimes it makes things worse, and it takes a while for Anders to figure out a system for that, and for Fenris to learn that sometimes it's easier to just ask when he needs a damn hug. On a lesser scale, verbal reassurance is really important for the two of them too. Even if they don't know what to say, just saying "I'm here, whatever you need" works a lot for the both of them.

30. What is their favourite place to kiss the other? (Cheek, hand, closed eyelid, neck, nose, etc.)

Fenris: Anders' nose, his throat, or his knuckles. Anders: Fenris' forehead, the corner of his mouth, or his shoulder.

Ask me OTP questions from this list!

#can you tell i am obsessed. #otp relationship asks #fenders

[prismaticpichu]

Tag 9 people you want to get to know better!

Thank you so much @altocat for including me!!! Plz plz go drop your dinner and check out her blog! There is SO much effort and heart poured into everything she writes—stories or asks. They’re really gems!

Now, let’s see how these questions fare against my stunningly metaphysical intellect *plops laptop in water to see if it floats*

Three (Friend)Ships

Soooo I actually don’t dabble with romance *dives behind a couch.* It’s never been my jam. My jelly tho? That would be the interactions between characters and exploring how deep their bonds go! The words “best friend” send me to another world <3

1 ~ Zack Fair & Sephiroth (FF7) If you know me, even just the most microscopic tad, then you prolly know these two have organized the Louisiana Purchase on my heart. They are BEANS! I love them SO MUCH!!!! Adorable polarity aside, I’m just absolutely infatuated with the story these two share. I will always imagine their mutual tie to Angeal being what draws them together, able to empathize with each other’s grief in a way nobody else can. They need each other: Zack needs someone to look after him, protecting his enthusiasm, and Seph needs someone to mend his trust… and make him smile <3 <3 They become inseparable, all that bitterness Banora and Modeoheim stirred faded into nothingness. Come Nibelheim, and those books and mumsy have nothing on these two. Sephiroth already has too much to cherish to throw it all away <3 Poor mumsy. Can’t brainwash someone who’s gotta pupper who loves him more than you :3c

2 ~ Hiccup & Toothless (HTTYD) There is NO animal-human friendship that beats this one. Nope, nope! Sorry! Vetoing that thought (pssst your opinions are wonderful and valid). I think what makes these two SO powerful to me is that Toothless is never treated as a pet; he is Hiccup’s bestest friend and they are equals. They love each other to death and would do anything to protect the other <3 Seeing their bond evolve and the parallels unfolding between them is magical. I don’t think there will ever be a scene that tops Hiccup and Toothless walking towards the door, Toothless with his prosthetic tail and Hiccup mirroring that with his leg. It is godly <3 (I’m also always using these two as springboards for my writing. Small details like Zack always referring to Seph as “bud” are plucked right from here!)

3 ~ Mikey & Leatherhead (TMNT) Their friendship begins with Mikey spoon-feeding soup to the adorable, scaly bean, who’s plopped right on his bottom. The frequency of the SQUEAL I made. This is just one of the healthiest, most wholesome friendships to ever exist and I will love them forever!!! Mikey has unwavering trust in him from the moment they meet, helps him gain control of his rage, and offers his teddy bear for emotional support <3 Nothing but not judging a book by its cover and earning a true blue buddy as a result.

First (friend)ship: Hmmm… ig any two smash bros characters I visualized having a movie night lmao! l got my hands on a controller when I was 4. The first character dynamic I fell in love with tho was prolly Ash & Pikachu!

Last song: Hailee Steinfeld/DNCE, Rock Bottom

Last movie: Malignant & Ferdinand (watched back to back for some genius reason. The shift in tone was like being slapped with a trout)

Currently reading: The Catcher in the Rye

Currently watching: Inside Job (I’m verrry slow and hardy watch anything shdhdh. I suck)

Currently consuming: Nada! Already brushed my teeth and that’s my personal moral

Currently craving: Anything because I brushed my teeth and I’m hungry. Maybe like a mozzarella stick or something

Passing along to @zimithrus1 @polaris-talks-fandom @aerislei! I knowwww that’s not 9- I passed kindergarten by a hair- but most of my mutuals have already done this lmao! For those who did fall into my lasso, no pressure at all, and plz only hop in if you’re comfortable! I know how annoying tags can be if you’re not into them.

Plz tho, if you see this and want to join in, you are welcomed to with open arms! Share your wonderful, weird and beautiful tastes with the world!

#thingy #tags #the ship of friendship #sephiroth #zack fair #toothless #hiccup #leatherhead #mikey tmnt #my beans

[funnywormz]

Hey hi hello!!! for 003 of that ask game! I would like to know your opinions on either the funky cat man pls <3

im not sure if there was meant to be another character name here since you put "either"? but regardless i am happy to have an opportunity to talk abt my beloved kitty cat let's gooooo <3

003 | give me a character and i will tell you...

how i feel about this character:

I LOVE CAT i love him so so much. he's so funny and iconic and just. a pleasure to witness. it's always so fun to see what new outfits he wears in each episode hehe. im always a sucker for humanoid characters with animal traits as well, im kind of a furry/furry-adjacent so obv that aspect of him appeals to me too........ he was actually my favourite character for a while before he got beaten by rimmer and then by lister but he's still very dear to my heart

any/all the people i ship romantically with this character:

nobody! my personal headcanon for the cat is that he's aromantic so i don't ship him romantically with anyone, he's expressed multiple times that he gets confused or revolted by the idea of committed romantic relationships and i can't imagine that it would be something he'd derive happiness from. just my personal headcanon though ofc

my favourite non-romantic relationship for this character:

oh definitely his friendship with lister! i love love love how they can be partners in crime sometimes and how cat seems to have a weird kind of respect for lister (at least compared to how he feels abt rimmer lol). it's very very funny how lister is technically the god of cat's species and the whole reason why he's even alive in the first place and yet cat just Doesn't Care abt it. i love how in earlier seasons lister would treat cat more like a cat sometimes...... ik it's definitely not canon but i like to think that he still does cat stuff with him sometimes like getting him to chase laser pointers and string. i also think cat should snuggle up to lister sometimes and complain abt his smell the whole time but he also spends hours like that bc he enjoys it. imagining rimmer walking in one day to see lister playing video games with the cat just curled up on his lap and he immediately turns 180° and walks back out of the room LMAO

my unpopular opinion about this character:

call me a sap if you want but i do think he cares abt his friends. i think he loves and cares abt them deep down and idc what anyone says, even canon. if you've ever been friends with a real kitty you'll know that they can be extremely affectionate loving creatures, and although cat himself is pretty aloof i like to believe he has a loving side deep down. very deep down.

one thing i wish would happen/had happened with this character in canon:

i would love to see more of the other cats! also the whole thing of "coolness" being an expression of atheism in cats is so funny and i would have loved to see more of his fellow Cool Cats that don't follow "cloister's" teachings. i also would love to see him doing more cat-things in the modern series like he used to do back in the first two seasons especially, like playing with his food and scent marking by spraying perfume on everything and stuff like that. he doesn't do as much of that stuff as the show goes on and i miss it

favourite friendship for this character:

(see the above "favourite non-romantic relationship" answer, it's the same for this one)

my crossover ship:

not really a ship, or a crossover since they're in the same show lol (sorry i rlly am not meeting the brief here lmao), but i would love to see him hang out with dog from parallel universe again. maybe become close buddies with him despite their initial differences. their dynamic was so fun from what we got to see of it

#i had so much fun doing this one also im so glad i finally had an opportunity to talk abt cat <3 love him sm #ask game

[hillerska-official]

The Frog Prince

Hi, hello, okay I’m no longer out of it so here it is. In episode 1, just before the 25 minute mark, we see a shot of this absolutely sick snow globe that Wille has.

(Side note that if this is a snow globe u can actually buy someone tell me where cause it's cool as hell)

Unmistakably this is in reference to the classic fairy tale, ‘The Frog Prince’, and this is a show about a prince, so bear with me while I analyze.

The version I read to compare is from ‘The Macmillan Treasury of Nursery Stories’, published 2000, retold by Mary Hoffman. Don’t ask me to write a proper citation over break lol.

We open with the princess (this will be Wille) playing with a golden ball by a well, doing her own thing, she makes a mistake and the ball falls into the well, which results in her meeting the frog (this will be Simon).

Wille starts off at public school kind of doing his own thing, he gets into the fight that results in his transfer to Hillerska & by extension his meeting Simon.

When the frog, having been promised by the princess that he could be her companion, arrives at the palace, she says “I didn’t imagine he could leave the well.”

This is Wille not fully thinking through the consequences of his relationship with Simon going beyond Hillerska & not being a secret.

The promise is enforced and they eat together.

Wille and Simon eat together a few times, but first and unexpectedly at forest ridge (“I have to eat somewhere”)

Finally the story ends happily, the princess “married her frog prince and lived happily ever after”

We did not get this part lmao. 

So okay, that’s just my lil comparison, and just based on the version of the story I have, but the parallels are there for u lol. Originally, this story was part of Grimm’s Fairy Tales, which made me like ‘oh god, they don’t usually have the happy endings do they oof ouch my boys, my hopes for a happy ending have been dashed’ but actually, while the original is, of course, more violent, it actually apparently has the same outcome! The difference in the Grimm’s version is that the princess doesn’t kiss the frog and instead throws him against the wall, and for some reason that breaks the curse. This actually greatly affects the message of the story, which is about keeping promises. In modern versions she does kiss the frog & thus keeps with her promise to be his companion, but in the original she does not, & the ending is the same.

The original ending, I think, fits better with Wille and Simon. Wille does not tell the truth, as he told Simon he would, because like the princess kissing the frog, it would be deeply uncomfortable, and unfair to force. In lying, Wille has tossed Simon at the wall. 

I see two paths from this: 

After this, Wille admits he loves Simon (:’[), equaling the princess changing her mind about the frog once he has become a prince OR

We have only seen the wall throw and in fact the curse is only about to break. (please god let it be this).

I know the comparison isn’t one for one, obviously the princess is disgusted by the frog at first whereas Wille is pretty much immediately in love with Simon from the moment he first sees him lol, but I think in terms of messaging and overall plot points there’s something there, and I think Willes snow globe is proof that its not a huge reach to overlook places where they aren’t exactly the same. That shot is so fucking pointed I can hardly take it lol.

Alternatively, and more simply (but less interestingly), wille is the frog and the one who is cursed (we see him holding it after Erik's memorial - ep 4 around 15 min mark). I'm not super keen on this one cause I dont really see how Simom could fill the role of the princess in the story.

It's also possible that I'm WAY overanalyzing this and it's just supposed to be the crown & being trapped in the snowglobe, not an actual comparison to the story, but in this case I wonder why they chose the frog specifically, since it so clearly references another story.

Ultimately I guess this doesn’t really offer any insight going forward for what might be planned besides the fact that both the modern and original versions of the story provide a happy ending, so this is long winded for nothing lol, but idk the snow globe just seems so cool to me and I feel like nobody is talking about it (credit to this thread on twitter for being the only place I've seen it talked abt lol, and for presenting the alternatives to my idea)

#young royals #wille young royals #wilhelm young royals #simon young royals #analysis #comparison #the frog prince

[spencerhotchner]

Alternative {spencer reid}

Chapter 1 

summary: Since quarentine was announced, Y/N decided to rewatch all seasons of Criminal Minds. On a lonely night she wished she could be in that universe instead of this. What happens when she wakes up in 2008 in Quantico?

warnings: angst, a very confused reader, regular cm stuff and my grammar (if you find anything else pls lmk

word count: 2k

a/n: i have this idea while watching a movie about parallel universes and all, so i just wanted to try this out. it will be a 10 parts series! im not really sure about this, i think i kinda hate it but im posting it anyways lmao. i hope you gonna enjoy!

series masterlist

part 1 | part 2

You woke up feeling dizzy and with a major headache. At first you thought it was because you drank a whole lot of wine last night but then you saw yourself in a room you never saw before. You stoop up quickly trying to understand where you were and how did you end up there. You were sure that you have never been in this place before, and it was scaring you that you showed up in there.

There was a mirror nailed to the wall in from of you almost forcing you to look at your own body, that made you notice that you were still wearing the same clothes from last night, but you weren’t home. Not being home was odd given by the fact you stayed there with your family and two friends you invited over, since there’s a whole freaking pandemic going on and you for sure did not want to get sick or get other people sick. 

“Did I get kidnapped?” you think out loud. “No, I just watch too much Criminal Minds.” you tell yourself, trying to calm down.

You reach for the face mask placed on the nightstand, getting ready to leave this random place and go home. You tried not to freak out when you realized your phone was gone and the only cellphone in there was probably as old as your grandmother. You dialed your moms number about five times and all of them went on voicemail, making you curse mentally. 

This can’t be happening. Not to me.

As soon as you leave the apartment you were in you realized you weren’t in your hometown, definitely not. It was crowded, like, really crowded and no one was wearing any face masks. Where did the freaking pandemic go? You wondered while you felt like a misfit for being the only one wearing it. 

“Excuse me, can you tell me where I am?” you ask an old lady walking by.

“You’re on Main Street, sweetheart.” she says.

“No, um, I mean the city.” you watched as the old lady looked at you with a funny face, as if she was calling you crazy on her mind.

“We’re in Quantico, dear.”

“Quantico?” you repeat, mostly for yourself then for her. The lady started at you like you were an alien. “Thank you so much, ma’am.”

The air started to go low on you, how did you get to Virginia, anyway? That was across the country from where you lived, Bellevue in Washington state. You started lost walking, trying to understand what the hell was going on. It felt like you were on a parallel universe, like you were in a dream but couldn't wake up and it sure felt very real. You stoped a jornal shop taking a lot at the last newspaper in there, trying to figure if something happened that you were missing. However, nothing reported there shocked you, what did, though, was the date. 

July 1st, 2008

You were about to ask someone about it when you bumped into a blonde woman, falling on the ground. As soon as you looked up, you almost chocked yourself. If the day was already weird, this was even weirder. A.J Cook was standing right in front of you with a concerned look. You couldn't really say anything, just staring at her like she wasn't real. It was weird seeing her in front of you after only seeing her through screens. 

“I’m so sorry!” she said as she offered a hand for you to get up. “Are you ok?”

“I- um, yes! I’m fine.” you san, getting the dirt out of your outfit. “I’m a big fan of yours! Wish I had my phone here to take a picture but- sorry.“ you stoped talking, realizing she probably doesn’t care.

“Big fan of me? Wow, howcome somebody’s a fan of me?” she sounds surprised.

“Well, you’re on Criminal Minds.” you say as it was obvious. 

She looked at you as if you were out of your mind. Not that you weren't thinking otherwise at the moment, anyways. 

“I’m on what now?” she asked.

Maybe you got confused and she was the wrong person, but she looked so much like her to not be her. If they were not the same person, then definitely twins. This was so weird, once again, you found yourself asking ‘what the hell’ mentally.

“You’re JJ, Jennifer Jareau, FBI Agent and all.” you say, trying one more time. “Behaviour Analysis Unit...”

“Yea, that‘s me.” she let a nervous laugh comes out of her mouth. “How do you know me?”

��This is weird’ you thought. How does she not understand where you know her from? Literally Criminal Minds, like you said at first. ‘Maybe this is all a dream.’

“I saw you on tv” you try.

“Oh, I see! You like law enforcement?” she asks you.

“Oh yes, I’m in law-school to be a judge someday.” you answered. “The show, all of it just makes me wanna put all them bad guys in jail.” you say, laughing a bit. 

“The show...? What?” you hear her whisper, but decide to ignore it. “What’s the mask about?” JJ asks, making you look at her surprised.

“Um, covid-19?” you say like it’s obvious, because it is.

“Oh, sure...” she smiles as she says it, almost like she's only agreeing because she won't discuss it. “Great talking to you, really, but I gotta go, FBI duty calls.” she jokes.

You smile at her watching carefully as she picks up her phone from her pocket and pick up a call. That phone looked awfully old, like 2000’s old. Why would a famous actress have that kinda of phone? Then, you looked around trying to understand more about what was going on. It was all too out of place.

First, nobody wearing masks, not even a single person but you. Second, you were in a city in which is miles away from your own. Third, a famous actress acted like she’s nobody. And fourth, the date on the calendar said 2008.

If it wasn’t just impossible I would say I time travelled into Criminal Minds universe.

After standing there for literal 10 minutes trying to figure it out what you were going to do, you decide to go to the police department. After all, you may have been abducted, right? Because you didn’t have any knowledge of the place, you took quite some time to get there. As soon as you got there you sigh in relief, that has been quite a walk and damn, you were tired of this situation. 

“Excuse me, ma’am, can you help me?” you ask to the lady standing behind the counter.

“Sure, dear. What do you need?” she looks up at you, taking her glasses of her face.

“I think I might have been abducted?” you start. “I woke up in this random apartment.”

“Maybe you had a one-night stand.” she said putting back her glasses.

“No! I am sure I didn’t because first of all, there’s a pandemic going on, second of all I was in Bellevue in Washington state when I went to sleep.” you yell, involuntarily, desperate to make her believe in you. 

“Miss, I’m gonna need you to calm down or you will be escorted out of the building. You’re probably on drugs, there's nothing we can do for you.”

“Fuck you.” you say as you watch her face get all red.

Frustrated. That could define what you were feeling, scared and worried could do the work, as well. What were you going to do now? Go to the FBI to see if they could freaking understand why you simply appeared in Quantico? Didn't sound like a bad idea in your mind as you decided to just try it out. After all, you were already pretty screwed up, it would worth a shot.

You reached for your back pocket, hoping that the money you shoved in there more than a week ago would still be in there. Bingo! You pull out a 20 dollar bill out of it and the next thing you know you’re getting into a cab asking him to take you to the FBI. Now that’s something you never thought would happen. The travel was quite quick, in 20 minutos you were standing in front of that big isolated building. It looked like it was taken straight out of your favorite show, that was insane. 

The wind blew hard on you when you got out of the vehicle, making you shiver a little, that reminded you that you did not have any clothes nor money to buy more. God, you did not even have where to go. You didn't even get the chance to get into the building as a big man steps in front of you, blocking your way. 

“Miss, you're not allowed in this building.” he said without much expression. 

“But, sir-” you started, as you saw he was about to interrupt you, you go on. “Ive been abducted and I don't know where or how the hell did I get in here, I’m completely hopeless... Please.” you beg him.

He started at you for a couple of seconds, that felt like centuries for you, just to sigh at you.

“Ok, follow me.” he said. “Do not make me regret this.” 

“I-I won’t, sir.” you were quick to answer. 

The agent asked another man to cover up for him as he led me into the building. Once again you found yourself admired of how much it did look like a Criminal Minds episode in there, if you weren't totally desperate you'd be amused. Soon, you two were out of the elevator on floor 8, leading with the words Behavior Analysis Unit quite big. 

“Can you take her to Agent Jareau, please?” the man said to someone who passed by, who simply agreed. 

Now, that's a funny coincidence, there's actually an Agent Jareau in the BAU. 

You followed the woman with questioning trying to stay calm when you saw Matthew Gray Gubler sitting on a desk reading some book in Reid style, almost like he was Spencer himself. If you had any doubts you were going crazy, that was the final proof. You stoped walking, taking a stare at him and then at the Agent that stared a you like you were an alien.

“Is there something wrong?” she asks you. “Miss, are you ok?”

You were unable to answer for a few seconds when you finally opened you mouth, still trying to figure it out how to say what was on your mind without sounding completely insane.

“Is that Dr. Spencer Reid?” 

And that was all you’re able to say because as soon as you let his name out of your mouth he looked up at you, trying to somehow recognize you. You were sure, that time, that you never looked - and sounded - as insane as right now. 

“Yes, that's me.” he answers. 

His voice was the last thing you could hear before everything go black. Maybe you were finally going to wake up. Maybe. 

#spencer reid #spencer reid x reader #spencer reid fanfic #spencer reid smut #spencer reid imagine #criminal minds #criminal minds x reader #bau #fbi #spencer reid x you #spencer reid x y/n #Spencer Reid fluff #angst #self insert #aaron h #derek morgan #jennifer jareau #Penelope garcia #emily prentiss #x reader #Matthew gray Gubler x reader

[eremiie]

i saw this post here and just wanted to dissect everything lmao

aot 139 spoilers 

“Eren admits that he literally killed 80% of the world’s population, he then says he only did it so it would look like eldians stopped a threat”

eren admit to killing 80% of the population bc he did... he’s admitting to what he did, and he says that he wanted to paint them to be the heroes— but not only did he do that, he ended the curse of ymir and gained freedom for his people. it wasn’t just to paint them as heroes

“He also did it so the rest of the world couldnt murder them”

he didn’t “also” do it for that reason, it was an effect, the rumbling ended up killing so many people that they can’t wage war on the eldians like eren says, it keeps them a little safe which they needed especially since some of humanity knows that paradis is what started the rumbling. it’s a cause and effect type thing. because eren killed 80% of the population that remaining population won’t be able to retaliate and try to kill the eldians since there are so little of them

the tybur family is treated like some of martyr and apparently pulling the strings which led to the deaths of millions of innocent eldians was actually a GOOD thing

this scene was interpreted wrong, armin says “...so you want us to be like the tyburs after the great titan war? we’re supposed to protect paradis from reprisal from humanity outside the walls?” he’s asking eren if that’s what they’re gonna do, he never says it’s a good thing. then that’s when eren explains that either way so much of humanity is destroyed that they wouldn’t be able to retaliate if they wanted to

Armin THANKS him for it

armin thanks eren for doing what he did to free them. not thanking eren for for mass murder period. it’s because of eren that the curse is lifted and that they are free and that’s what armin’s thanking eren for. mass murder is inexcusable, and eren knows that. that’s why after he panics and goes “but i dont want to die!” he comes to a realization that all the people he killed didn’t want to either, that the only way to atone for his sins is by dying himself. even if he didn’t die he would’ve probably been executed, or imprisoned for the rest of the life. just like in mikasa’s ova, “eren’s death is inevitable, no matter what reality you go to eren will always die because he carries death within himself.” 

in another translation of the chapter armin thanks eren for being the bad guy so that they could win. he knows what eren did was bad. he’s not excusing it, he just understands why eren had to do it and that eren had no choice if he wanted them to be free. 

from the get go freedom was one of the themes of eren’s character. if eren lived the whole entire world would be ruins and eren would’ve been even sadder than now, there would be nobody and it would’ve been worse than it is now. eren killing everyone was definitely not the ending to go. the ending we have could’ve been executed differently, sure, but in my eyes since i get the gist i think isa did an amazing job portraying what he had in mind. 

“Armin is more upset with Eren saying he doesnt know how he feels about Mikasa moving on than mass genocide”

once again, armin isn’t all that upset with eren because he understands that eren had a path laid out for him that he had no choice to follow. the point of eren committing mass genocide keeps getting brought up as if it’s not know that mass genocide is a terrible thing. it is and that’s why everyone was so angry about it from the get go, that’s why that one plan of blackmailing humanity with the rumbling and not actually go through with it was brought up once— because they knew how cruel it is. armin knew how cruel it is as i believe it was him who brought that up

he’s upset with eren about mikasa’s feelings in like a banter kind of way. it’s like “this whole entire time this is how you felt but you couldn’t tell her that and let her suffer???? don’t forget what you said to her, she went through hell!” kind of thing. they had already talked about the whole mass genocide thing, mikasa was the next topic of discussion

“Eren then finally shows some fucking emotion and cries abt how he doesn’t want mikasa to be with anyone but him”

in another post i say, "okay so first i think the issue is that a lot of people fail to realize that the way eren acted all throughout season 4 isn’t eren really, that is him putting his emotions at bay so that he can complete something that he laid out for himself for his friends.eren from season 1-3 still exists, and that’s lowkey the eren that was talking the whole time in chapter 139— you can see the how he cares for his friends, you can see the desperation again, the compassion, everything in between.” 

eren is still that s1-3 eren, season 4 eren just had to put his emotions aside so he could walk on the path that ymir put in front of him. 

him crying over mikasa was one of his selfish desires coming to light, and it was realistic. it’s finally dawning on him that he’s gonna die, he’s finally getting to sit down and ponder about mikasa, he’s getting desperate, he’s panicking, and that compassion that he’s always had for his friends is showing through again. this gives realism to his character— it makes his character all the more human. one second he’s complaining about how he doesn’t want to die and wants to be with his friends bc its crashing on him, and the very next second he’s trying to be at peace with himself, realising that the only way to atone for what he caused is by dying. one second he’s complaining about how he wants miksa to be with anyone but him, the next second he’s coming to terms with himself and that mikasa needs to move on, because he loves her and wants her to live a long and happy life even if it means without him. the selfishness that showed for that mere second makes his character realistic. it shows that he’s still whiny, that little whiny angry boy from s1-3. he was never heartless and he was never cold. he was and is still eren jaeger, and you get a glimpse of the eren we know in that scene.

The founder ymir was apparently in love with the king???? another women stupidly devoted to a man, great.

i’m not too in depth with ymirs story so im not gonna speak too much about this because i myself do wish that whole love thingy went more into depth. i get how mikasa and ymir parallel each other, but other than that i’m not too sure myself, and i’ll admit that. it could be a case of stockholm syndrome, it could be that bc ymir was infatuated with living and she was confined to such a familial role she wanted to live in that role again with the king bc he’s the only person who gave her that familial lifestyle. i’m not sure. but if anything mikasa was im pretty sure the only character “devoted” to a man in aot. and it was because of the role eren played in her life, she’s not a bad written character, she has her developement. which i explain here

apparently mikasa’s unhealthy devotion to eren is what took her out of it????? in fact the series overly romanticizes mikasa’s love for eren despite the two having no chemistry and eren being an ass to her

in a sense, but that’s a simple minded way of saying it. ymir’s devotion to king fritz was unhealthy, eren describes it as “agony of love” because it was pretty unhealthy obvi. like i said ymir and mikasa parallel each other, and seeing mikasa be able to let go and kill the one she loves was that realization for ymir that she was able to do the same thing— that’s how i interpret that scene personally.

and in mikasa doing so, killing eren lifts that curse of ymir and frees ymir regardless, so ymir was happy about that as well. thanks to mikasa for cutting eren’s head off. 

the series doesn’t necessarily over romanticize mikasa’s love for eren in my opinion. how i see it is that since eren is a big part of mikasa’s character he was necessary for her development as well, and her development was to let eren go because of how infatuated she was with him. this being said the series points out how unhealthy the way she loved him was especially in s1-3, and her love becomes more healthy when she gets her development in chap 139, finally being able to let eren go and move on. compare that to in the s1 when eren almost dies and she’s ready to die as well. thats development if you ask me. 

one of the themes of the show is sacrifice, and almost every character has made one, mikasa sacrifices eren— she kills him and she chooses to go through with that decision despite how much she loves him. 

eren was definitely mean to mikasa in s1-3 because she was overbearing, and thats one reason why i say the way she loved him was unhealthy at first. eren wasn’t able to reciprocate her love in the way that she loved him because it wasn’t healthy. eren also wasn’t able to reciprocate it because the last thing he was focused on was the concept of love. once again he had a path laid out for him that he had no choice but to follow, and mikasa didn’t have any play in this path until the very end, so the boy who keeps moving forward does just that and doesn’t pay her much mind, doesn’t get to sit down and think about his feelings for her, what she is to him.

(and i dont think i even need to explain the “mikasa i’ve always hated you seen, the chapter covers that enough)

they do have chemistry time to time, the eren v dina fritz scene, the scarf scene, “what am i to you”, little stuff like that goes into play and gives them these little sparks of chemistry. they couldn’t always grasp onto the full scope of the relationship they had and it was only some times they were able to do that with everything going on.

apparently the titans are just gone now….??? i cant even tell if its because Eren died or because Mikasa really made Ymir calm down

... eren controlling rumbling, eren dies rumbling stops, ymir finally lifts curse bc 1) eren died 2) shes able to come to realization that like mikasa lets eren go, she needs to let fritz go and the curse go. ymir lifts curse, eren’s goal is complete, if titan curse is lifted there are no more titans

Characters who murdered thousands and were the cause for AOT’s entire plot in the first place are now treated as heroes to the eldians… despite the shit that they did.

everyone in aot did some “shit” they all are murders, eren commited mass genocide, reiner commited mass murder, annie murdered so many people, reiner, armin destroyed thousands of people in one go, they all have killed somebody. they are seen as “heros” because they stopped the rumbling that was going to kill everyone else...... idk about you but if you just saved me from a horrid death, my racist opinion on you doesn’t really matter because you just saved my fucking life lmao, yes despite the shit that you did— because they have killed people too, and they were ready to kill the eldians still until armin told them that they killed eren, that they saved their lives and eliminated titans for good.... like whew???

the series went from “The military is cool” to “the military did a lot of fucked up shit” to “the military is SUPER cool”, and buffed it up

i’m not really sure where you got that tbh,, like the military wasn’t really a big thing up until the whole marleyan thing??? and they didn’t have much plot in the story besides it existing so like i’m not sure what to say ab this, i can’t really remember many times the military was even mentioned until now, but if anyone wants to elaborate on this for me that’d be nice

oh and they buffed up the military because since paradis had eren jaeger who started the rumbling, just in case, they had to be ready to fight again if the rest of humanity wanted to do something. after marley they updated all their technology, why can’t they update the military as well? it’s realistic, new weapons, new military, and all that

The military was buffed up bc the eldians are scared of the rest of the world retaliating, so Eren didn’t really fix shit except giving the Eldians an upper hand in the war

eren jaeger was the one who always screamed “i will kill all titans, we will get freedom” ya de ya de ya.... didn’t he do both of those things????? i thought those were some of his main goals as a character, he fixed those issues, the issues that have been issues since the start of the show

the rest of humanity don’t know the full scope like the eldians or marleyans, they’re probably just as scared and like in real life not all nations are at peace with one another. this is just another realistic factor— attack on titan is becoming a world closest to the real one we live in, there are militaries, there are still conflicts, there is still all these little aspects that bring the manga even more to life.

in my opinion it’d lowkey be weird if the rest of the world was just like “oh yeah those mfs that started the rumbling we love them haha” no... it killed 80% of the population like eren said... that’s not something to love.

Historia has a really disturbing speech about how the fight isnt going to end until either the Eldians or the rest of the world are exterminated, despite Gabi has an entire arc about her being deradicalized and learning to see the other side of things.

and yes i am not kidding, the heroic conclusion is that there’s still going to be a war, eldians are going to commit mass genocide (which was proposed by eren) and people straight up thank eren for the evil shit he did.

“this fight will not end until either eldia or the world dissapears. this is what eren said and he may be right.” she doesn’t say that it’s for sure gonna be a fight until one or the other is wiped out, she says there’s a possibility of this being the case because of the fact that these nations aren’t at complete peace yet. 

not everyone is gonna be able to see the other side of things, and this applies to the whole word— us as humans will never be able to agree on one thing, and that’s what this shows. no matter what the cycle of hatred will always continue, and this applies to real life and this manga. we are human beings and that’s what makes what historia says even more real. “this is the world we live in, a world without titans.” titans are no longer their conflict. now it’s only like the real word— humans against humans, and as far as humanity existed it’s always been humans against humans. historia’s speech shows that.

the heroic conclusion is that as a human race nothing will always be agreed upon, eldians are going to fight if they need to like our military fights when they need to. people are thanking eren for freeing them and ending the curse of titans that they suffered with for 2000 years. nobody’s thanking him for his actions of mass genocide, they are thanking him for the motive behind his actions, and thats what makes him so heroic.

that he endured and did something so terrible so that anybody who lives after him can be free, and humanity can continue existing as humanity should’ve existed from the beginning.

and that concludes this for me, thanks for reading<3.

#attack on titan #snk 139 #aot spoilers #snk spoilers #aot 139

[vintageseawitch]

severus snape was not just a bully he was a literal racist and that did not change over the years unlike other characters' attitudes 🙏🙏🙏 what the fuck how are you pro-snape

hmmm. i feel there's an extremely back-handed compliment here. are you a lurker? are we mutuals? do i follow you or do you follow me? whatever the capacity, it feels silly to ask, but: are you new here? my bio, though novella in length because keeping things in a tiny, succinct packages is not my forte, clearly states at some point that Severus Snape is important enough to me to be mentioned a considerable amount. i'll be very sad if i follow you & enjoy the content you post because tbh this anon is super disappointing. the most common types i tend to receive are snaters who are too cowardly to tell me to my face they have nothing better to do than judge people doing the least harmful thing imaginable: loving/liking/appreciating a controversial, FICTIONAL FUCKING CHARACTER.

"he was a literal racist and that did not change over the years unlike the other characters' attitudes" ummm fucking WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT. what canon evidence do you have for this except your own warped headcanons?? Snape said the word "mudblood" fucking ONCE, as a teenage boy, while getting sexually assaulted by more than one person, in public, with no one there attempting to stop them. then Snape's one friend tries to defend him & Snape snaps something stupid because he was afraid & pissed off & ashamed. don't tell me YOU'VE never said something you're later ashamed of while in a temper or feeling cornered. don't tell me YOU'RE not allowed to make mistakes. that's right, it was a mistake, & he realized immediately so he tried to fix it & in the end his friendship wasn't worth it to her so he was alone, surrounded by people who won't help him, who let some other teenage boys get away with attempted murder, & adults who don't give a shit about him making him ripe for plucking. Snape fucking CRINGES then yells at Phineas Nigellus for calling Hermione that while the trio's on the run & Snape is an unwilling headmaster!!! have you forgotten this???? if anyone is racist it's Molly Weasley for her treatment of Fleur which was never given a legit reason why she behaved the way she did. i don't even want to try to count how many times Draco Malfoy calls Hermione a mudblood; are you harassing people with hateful anons for liking Draco? is he somehow more deserving of a redemption than Severus? if you think that, go fuck yourself.

Severus Snape made a mistake when he was very young. he was alone, traumatized, full of bitterness & anger. he first came over to the side of the light for selfish reasons but then so did Regulus & Narcissa & i never see people attacking THEM. Snape made a mistake & worked to atone for this & for 17 years most take for granted he was the puppet for two megalomaniacal masters, neither of whom gave a damn about his life (Dumbledore was worse in SO many ways). in the end, it seems like snaters feel like no matter what you do, no matter what is in your heart & everything you do to try to make it right, your mistake will always define you & death is all you deserve soduspsjapxjosn FUCK THIS SHIT. FUCK ANYONE WHO BELIEVES THIS.

"Severus Snape was not just a bully" yeah you're right he was also honorable, good-at-heart, brave as fuck, fucking brilliant, & while sharp-edged, was dryly hilarious. also, don't you get tired of this same fucking "argument"?? because Snape wasn't the only bully in canon. Molly Weasley is one. so is Dumbledore. so is Hermione. so is Draco, Crabbe, & Goyle. SO WERE THE MARAUDERS. Peter Pettigrew turned out to be one of the worst; do you ever anonymously bully anyone for liking them if they do? while not counting for taste, if anyone DOES like his character, IT'S NOT. MY FUCKING. BUSINESS. nobody is hurting me for liking that character. i am not hurting YOU for liking a character. it's just easier for you to pull this fucking performative, fake-woke, absolutely repulsive purity-culture enabling bullshit than to speak up about things that fucking ACTUALLY MATTER.

do you want to know some characters i like that are ACTUALLY disturbing/toxic/any negative thing you can think of?? i like Acton from the Doyle & Acton New Scotland Yard book series by Anne Cleeland & he is a LITERAL FUCKING STALKER who plays vigilante & takes advantage of his privilege to get away with his crimes lmao. i like Father Konstantin from the Winternight Trilogy even though (or maybe because of is more accurate) he's a younger, prettier, blonder Frollo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame with his behavior towards Vasya who is very much an Esmeralda parallel. it drew me in immediately, their dynamic in that trilogy; so poisonous & twisted & depraved was his obsession with her but it was so PASSIONATE i couldn't look away. i like Krennic from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. if you've seen it, he's the smol, angry man who thinks seeing a planet with historical Jedi sites get destroyed by a previously unknown super weapon is BEAUTIFUL. he has no qualms against forcing someone against his will back to helping to build this weapon, even if it meant killing his family.

so there are just a few that i can think of at the moment who are considerably darker than mere shades of grey; do you send hateful anons to people who like Darth Vader? what about Sauron? Morgoth? what if someone likes VOLDEMORT?????? omg (spoiler alert: they exist, & some have created some of the best hp fanart i've seen, but that's not the point right now). do you attack people for liking other morally grey characters like Kylo Ren/Ben Solo or Lestat? snaters are pathetic. if you don't like Snape, that's perfectly fine; it would just be really cool if you can take your toxic, purity culture mentality & if unable to shove it up your ass at least go haunt the places dedicated to bland, rich white boy bully-loving spaces. go on with your horrid belief that all people who are enduring trauma are only allowed to process/handle it in a set way otherwise they are the Worst Person To Exist (or... not, in this instance, seeing as Severus Snape is a FICTIONAL. FUCKING. CHARACTER). do you not realize this says so much to people in your own life who may see some similarities between themselves & a character you believe makes you a superior entity for hating & judging?? do you not give people you care about another chance after making a mistake???

i'd rather continue loving this prickly, snarky asshole than attempt to "earn your good opinion" or some fucking similar codswallop thank you VERY much. cheerio & all that, & i hope you're able to find something to do you enjoy that doesn't involve judging people for things that really don't matter. if you have an issue with what i post you can always unfollow/block me. complicated controversial comfort characters make for better things to think about than fake wokeness. toodles~

#anon #Snape #Professor Snape #Severus Snape #gtfo snaters #this is not a marauder safe space #there WILL be marauder bashing #i love my feral northern boy #i love my fav morally grey characters #Acton #Lord Acton #Doyle and Acton #Anne Cleeland #Father Konstantin #Vasya #The Winternight Trilogy #Krennic #Orson Krennic #Rogue One #Rogue One A Star Wars Story #Ben Solo #Kylo Ren #pro Ben Solo #pro Kylo Ren #anons like these are the epitome of cowardice #gtfo with your asinine purity culture #morally gret character supremacy

[nelavili]

I'm still processing Season 6 and as an unpopular opinion I'm not too happy about it as a whole. I feel horrible for not enjoying it as much as the Cast/Crew would like me to, but I just can’t change this feeling I have.

Just to clear my head I'll write the things down that irked me. I don't want to start any discussion, they're only my thoughts on stuff ‘n thangs. Huge spoilers ahead, please don’t read if you haven’t watched.

Michael

I admit it, I have probably more sympathy for the bad twin than I should. And after the whole S5 I thought we get a bit more closure with him. I didn’t expect a redemption arc, after Michael killed Remiel, Dan and Chloe it would have felt wrong. But after the “Everyone deserves a second chance” the dude is down in hell, scrubbing the floor with a toothbrush. Really, Lucifer? That’s cruel after such a righteous line.

When Luci realized he could help everyone, even if he hated them, I hoped for a dive into the twins’ relationship but it was like Michael didn’t even existed anymore. And if someone needed therapy it would be the twin with the huge inferior complex. That could have been so interesting. (I had hoped that he'd sat on the couch at the end, but noooo we get the Frenchman.. such a disappointment.)

Maybe Tom Ellis didn’t want to play 2 roles again, or there was no time, but I feel that was a huge opportunity wasted.

What even was the plan of Michael? To get God to retire and wreck havoc on earth to get Dad back, so Mickey can take over as the new God? And then what? Wipe out humanity? I see no endgame here.

Ella

I liked Ella’s Story so far. But she stole the personal file of Carol and even broke into his house.. and everybody is cool with this? Carol might be crushing on Ella pretty hard but if somebody tells you they broke into your house, because they feared you were hiding something bad, You run for the hills. But the dude isn’t even phased.

I’m glad Carol is a good guy, though. Even if he’s kind of bland.

Ella finding out the truth on her own came out of nowhere. I would have found it better if they would have her act a little suspicious over the whole S5. But since they wrote S6 while S5 was shot, a little to late for this.

The scene at the wedding was amazing. I had so much fun with her outburst there.

Dan

Ghost!Dan was my favorite by far in this season. And I really liked how he wanted to help and tried to find out what he still felt guilty about.

I am so glad he got to spend his afterlife with Charlotte and I laughed so hard with the pudding. Didn’t expect that, in a positive matter. :D

The scene with Trixie killed me. Bawled so hard as soon as Kevin got teary eyes. That really gripped at my heartstrings.

But how could he go to heaven while in a body of a killer when his daughter stands right next to that killer?

Comedy-wise Dan is top notch

Trixie

I missed her so much.

It felt like she was an afterthought with everything. She recently lost her Dad and Chloe spends most of the time with Lucifer. I really missed the scenes with her and Luci, they always were so adorable.

They explain it later that she’s at a science camp, but I honestly thought Chloe chooses Lucifer (and later Rory too) over her.

She wasn’t at Chloe’s deathbed but here I’m not sure if the scene with Rory isn’t placed somewhere at the threshold to heaven where only celestials are able to enter. But if she wasn’t there because Chloe sidelined her in favor of Rory, then I can understand her absence.

Linda

I love Linda, she always gives good advice but nobody’s ever took it.

Her book probably would fly under the fantasy tag if she ever published it. Still, it felt cringey.

It was so sad that she thought she was a bad therapist.

Apparently she wants to keep helping celestials because it’s better than helping humans. In the end, celestials have the same problems as humans just on a bigger scale. But okay.

Amenadiel

Amenacop was good, and a nice nod to Dan who put in the application.

It made him realize that he only can change things when he has more power. I’m white and no american so I don’t know if the BLM theme there was well enough executed. Got me wondering.

The apocalypse just being Angels who are incompetent was a letdown. Like this whole season.

I really like him as god. And I am glad he took the position in the end. Even if he could have decided this a bit earlier.

Rory

I like her sarcasm and her character.

Didn’t like the whole time travel, time loop and daughter spiel. I’m not a big fan of time travels or couples getting a kid just for the sake of a happy end or to add extra drama. I could have lived without a Deckerstar baby. Instead they could have focused on Trixie for a change.

The time she spent with Lucifer on the 4th August was precious though.

How in hell did the Frenchman capture her? How did he even know how she looked? IIRC Dan hasn’t seen Rory while in that body. Dan just went over to Trixie that’s why I thought he’d capture her and not Rory.

Lucifer

He found his calling to help the souls in hell only because Rory traveled back in time? No man, he already took the step with Jimmy Barnes in preparation to take over as god. I don’t think it’s far fetched to believe that he would have the same epiphany without Rory there.

But without Rory, he wouldn’t have been helping Ghost!Dan to go to heaven. Though, before Rory traveled back in time, Lucifer was already trying to help Dan. They probably would have needed more time to figure out about what Dan felt guilty about, but figure it out anyways.

How did he even got Chloe pregnant? Was it his subconscious deciding he was ready to be a father? Amenadiel had to believe that he was human to get Linda pregnant. Or maybe it’s because they always thought they couldn’t impregnate a human and self-actualized it that way. Anyways, it’s a tiny hang-up I have with it.

Somebody else besides me thought that the scene in the panic room was awkwardly long? I know they thought Lucifer would vanish somehow, but it seemed too much to me.

His singsong while the magician talked about the trick. :D

I don’t want to even get into the whole time loop thing because I think it’s ridiculous(ly bad).

It took a lot of time for him to realize that he didn’t want to be god, after he put it on hold for a second time. Even Chloe could have asked him if that is really what he wanted. Could have spared us an episode or so. Why is the communication on this show so bad? Q.Q

I loved that he helped Maze with Eve to get the wedding back on after their fight.

He didn’t say goodbye to Trixie  - again. What a nice step-devil..

It’s been Chloe, Rory and his family since he found out she’s his daughter. Not even mentioning the one kid who probably loved him before even Chloe fell for him.

For someone who is all about free will and led a rebellion against God for it, he was quick to accept that he has a “fate”. I thought he’d find another way, or at least try to. Nope, he just did what his child wanted. And they disguised it at his “choice”. Doesn’t look like a choice to me if your daughter begs you for it and you have to promise it. Just getting along with what your child wants.

Why does everyone need to shoot him? Just cut him until he bleeds. The Americans and their fixation on guns. Nice parallel to Chloe though.

Lucifer trying to fix the relationship to Rory with gifts was so cringey. I don’t know why but I couldn’t watch him sing/dance in that scene.

Both him and Amenadiel didn’t want to become like their Dad because of the reasons stated in S5, yet Lucifer exactly did. Another letdown.

 

Chloe

As soon as she knew Rory was her and Lucifer’s daughter it was all only about Lucifer and Rory. No thought of Trixie? I understand she was worried about being a bad mother to Rory, but come on, you’re being a bad mother to your first child right now.

She was ready to go to heaven with Lucifer. And Trixie does what exactly without her parents? Living with her Grandma because one of her parent died and the other one is abandoning her? It’s like the writers forgot about Trixie while forcing Rory on us.

The addiction to the necklace got old pretty fast.

And that whole fight against Lucifer felt unnecessary just to add more drama.

She gets mad at Lucifer for not telling her everything while not telling him that she went back to the LAPD. It’s Lucifer, he always has things on his plate. Double moral, pretty much.

She looked so gorgeous at the wedding, oh my god.

Most of the Deckerstar scenes were good. I got tired of the obvious naked cuddle times, surprisingly. Somehow it felt not like the ones in S5 and it bothered me.

I thought Chloe would finally get to know about everything Lucifer did for her, but I didn’t expect her to read it in Linda’s book. And that she only took away that he left her every time they had an emotional breakthrough.

They spend Lucifer’s last day at the beach and once again, no thought of Trixie. I’m sorry I repeat myself here so often. But this whole season wronged Trixie so much.

They face the baddie without any backup.  At least get Amenadiel with you.

Other things

The use of music between scenes was too much for me. Got annoying at some point.

I appreciate that they wanted to show us snippets of past Deckerstar scenes but here too, I felt like it was too much.

Couldn’t really follow the timeline. Maybe it were the cuts.

What’s been the point of bringing Adam into the mix? Just to wrap up Maze and Eve’s story? For Linda having another celestial to therapy?

The animation in the Jimmy Barnes Hell loop was AMAZING. I laughed so hard.

I’m not saying that Deckerstar shouldn’t have sacrificed everything for the time loop to stay intact, I say that the whole daughter-time travel plot shouldn’t have had happened. They never even talked about having kids, and then ignore the whole existence of the one kid that’s already there.

I really need all the Michaella fanfics, please. My first ship that’s actually a raft, because they never officially have met. RIP lmao

The acting was great as usual, all my problems come from the writing and the plot.

In the end, I really feel frustrated, underwhelmed and disappointed by the whole season. I didn’t have high expectations other than the same writing quality like S5. My excitement for that Season died as soon as Rory told Lucifer that she’s his daughter, to be honest. I waited for a plot twist that never came. Then the whole time loop shit.  I’d rather have waited one more year for S6 if the plot would have made more sense, since this felt like a first draft of a whole other show. And now I wished that S5 would have been the last season. If I could travel back in time, I’d rather not watch S6.

I can honestly live with the fact that Luci and Chloe are in hell, trying to help souls to get to heaven. (But hello, not the murderers perhaps? Or I want Michael sitting on that couch right now.) But the fact that both “chose” to sacrifice their time together with their family and friends just because it’s fate now and parents have to make sacrifices for their children; and anyways there’s an afterlife because (human) life is just a blip in our existence… nah thank you. I do not want it.

I’m probably not gonna rewatch S6 anytime soon.

#lucifer spoilers #lucifer s6 spoilers #lucifer netflix #deckerstar

[yenforfairytales]

Assuming that Silver comes into S4 just as rich, bored, and unhinged as he was in KK3, my One Fear is that if the co-dojo loses the tournament he would ask for something like Daniel to be his servant or return to him as a student, etc. Like Kreese hates him and wants him dead, but Terry seems invested in metaphorically scooping out Daniel empty and replacing his insides with something else. People are like his bonsai that way, but Terry isn't interested in shaping Daniel to be his best self...

That is a very valid fear... Hoo boy you got me deep in the feels.

First of all, yes, I one hundred percent believe Terry has been just as bored as he's ever been. Probably moreso than in KK3. From the little we were shown he seems to find the business side of things and people in his life very dull. There's no challenge. He holds the power in every relationship and situation he's in. It's not until he starts scheming and hanging out with Daniel that he seems to be really living instead of just existing.

I think we're going to see a s4 Terry having the time of his life. He's going to go from his world being a black and white television to full on technicolor. Especially after being around Daniel again, in whatever capacity that is. Whether it's more aggressively antagonistic or appearing as a friend again. I think it could go either way.

Secondly, I think that Cobra Kai WILL win the next tournament. Mostly because the writers have planned up to six seasons and I don't see Kreese peacing out after losing in s4 like he promised lol. Season 5 will probably be more training for another tournament in Season 6. And all the drama in between.

And adding those together, your One Fear is extremely plausible. Cobra Kai is going to have the leverage and the power. They'll have Robby. And if there's one thing Terry knows how to do it is exploiting a weakness.

I'm sure he'll threaten Daniel with hurting Robby if he doesn't do as he asks. And Daniel is the self-sacrificing type that he wouldn't hesitate to submit. Although, I'm hoping that when Robby witnesses how they treat Daniel and what Daniel is willing to give up for him, Robby will return to the light.

There's several ways like you mentioned it could go. Kreese and Silver could use Daniel as a punching bag, but I like the idea of Silver wanting Daniel to be his student again. It's so dark and angsty. It's so perfect.

Terry seems invested in metaphorically scooping out Daniel empty and replacing his insides with something else.

THIS. You gave me chills. What a great line. Watching KK3 it's clear that Terry revels in bringing out Daniel's dark side-- the killer instinct as he and Kreese call it. It all started off as a ploy to hurt Miyagi by hurting his student, but Terry's sole focus quickly becomes all about Daniel. Miyagi who? Lol.

I have this theory that Terry genuinely liked Daniel. There's several instances of Terry being surprised at how quickly Daniel learns something. How fast he heals. How Daniel enjoys Terry's little jokes and sayings.

"You like that, Mr. LaRusso?"

Terry happily says that twice to Daniel. It's like he really enjoyed having a student. And the sheer amount of glee and pride he shows when Daniel broke the wooden dummy. When he punched that guy in the nightclub. It seemed genuine to me. And that's without all the gay subtext. KK3 is so gay you guys. I have to make a separate post about the nightclub scene. You will not believe. I'll link it to the bottom here. There was literally no reason for Terry to follow Daniel that night, to take him out back into the alleyway alone. Like what was your plan Terry. Where were you going.

And then of course later that same night when Daniel tells Terry he'll no longer be fighting, Terry looks so disappointed. Disappointed and then pissed. Nobody says "no" to Terry Silver. Nobody. Not even Kreese. Gone is the proud sensei. Silver becomes even more unhinged when Daniel tries to leave him. I swear KK3 plays out like a Lifetime Original Movie about stalking and abusive boyfriends.

Anyway, I got a little off track there. My point is I can easily see Terry trying to corrupt Daniel once again. Someone that thinks like he does and can be shaped how he wants him? Perfect. And I think Terry sees a little of himself in Daniel. How he used to be. And like Kreese, Terry thinks his old self was weak, and can be something more. In a parallel to how Kreese thinks of Johnny.

This brings me to what you said about Kreese's motives in comparison to Silver's, and how that might affect their relationship.

I think it's safe to say that Kreese is also obsessed with Daniel lol. I mean who isn't heh. But it's definitely more hate-fueled than anything.

If the show goes the way of Silver hyper fixating on Daniel again, I think we'll see that put a huge strain on the friendship. They won't be on the same page.

I mean I think it would be amazing and ironic to show their war forged bond break after all these years in a mirror to Johnny and Daniel coming together and uniting.

And possibly, either Kreese or Silver could be redeemed. It depends on who cares about their student more. Hear me out lmao

If Kreese really cares about Johnny, he's not going to like what Terry does to him. Because let's face it, Terry isn't going to have any great love for Johnny Lawrence. Those two are going to butt heads and trade insults and I can't wait. So it's possible Kreese could turn on Terry if he goes too far in his attempts to destroy Johnny.

And the same goes for Terry and Daniel. How far will Terry let Kreese push things, especially if Terry tries to bring Daniel over to the Cobra Kai side(you can't tell me Terry won't be proud of Daniel's rent hike). Terry is a control freak and if Kreese doesn't do as Terry thinks he should, I can see Terry betraying him. A rift is inevitable y'all. There's a reason CK gives us young Terry and Kreese in flashbacks and it's not just so we'll feel sorry for them. One of them is going to pull a Darth Vader and see the light. But probably not until the end of the series.

There's a line in the kk1 novel:

They'll be their own downfall.

How fun. It's going to be a wild, painful ride. My body is ready.

Another thing I'd like to see in the show regarding Terry and Daniel, is their music together from the KK3 movie. Terry manipulating Daniel again is the perfect opportunity to callback to their old themes. @wantedtourist made a beautiful post HERE about a couple of the songs and I'd like to talk about it more but I'll make a separate post, linked below.

Thank you for the ask! I could talk about these boys for hours.

--

Part Two: Terry Silver's Theme Songs

Part Three: The Nightclub Scene

#this got ridiculous and long im sorry #all in good fun #who knows what will happen #it's just fun to speculate #i know nothing jon snow #cobra kai #cobra kai spoilers #cobra kai season 4 #lawrusso #silverusso #daniel larusso #johnny lawrence #terry silver #john kreese #ive watched KK3 a hundred times #send help #asks

[stupid-stew]

Alone Again

pov me when the

idek how to describe this i just couldn't sleep until it happened um-

what if eda was the last person living at the owl house?

AO3 link LMAO

Eda didn’t like the quiet.

She never had, probably never would, it just didn’t suit her. Rarely was there any joy in the quiet. Yet that was exactly what she was stuck with. The quiet. More accurately the silence.

She stepped through the door to find the owl house empty for the first time in as long as she could remember, well empty was being generous. The owl house had been empty one time, and that was before Eda had moved in. Pretty quickly after that King had shown up, then Hooty, then Luz, and eventually Lilith, and even now with them all gone, it wasn’t empty.

It was worse than empty, it was full of reminders.

Eda sat down on the couch, ignoring the glyph paper and stuffed animals that she had to step over to get there. She had no use for them anymore, but it felt wrong to throw them out.

Luz had finally gone home.

It was going to happen eventually, but it still hurt to see her go. Luz had promised to visit, and there was no doubt that she would keep her word, but it wouldn’t be the same without the kid around the house all the time, without anyone there at all. Luz had been such a light in the house, and had become like another child to Eda, not having her around felt wrong, no more loud noises out of nowhere or screams of excitement at a new discovery or parallel arm things.

It hurt.

King had left a bit ago, after searching for his dad for so long, he hadn’t been able to refuse the offer to go live with him. Eda had been skeptical at first, she didn’t like the idea of King living anywhere else, but the little demon had seemed so excited to have a family outside of just Eda, somewhere he really felt that he belonged. That had probably hurt the most, his excitement to leave. Of course Eda knew that he wasn’t exactly excited to leave her behind, more ready to move on to bigger and better things for himself. It didn’t lessen the blow.

She had raised King since he was maybe a year old, and even though she made fun of him sometimes and threatened him with rent, she’d never go through with it. She wanted him back.

He still came around sometimes, but even then it was mostly to see Luz. Eda was happy for him, truly she was, seeing the way he lit up when asked about his new life, but by titan did she miss him.

Eda wiped her face, when had she started crying?

Lilith had just never come back. Living with their parents seemed to be good for her, a way to make up for a lot of things she’d missed out on. Neither of the sisters were particularly fond of the way they had been brought up, but it was nice seeing Lilith get something out of it that she’d needed. Her and Lilith were used to not talking, a few decades of it seemed like nothing, but oh how she missed those days when Lilith was at the owl house.

It had been brief, but finally having an adult around who was starting to understand what she was living with, what the curse does to a witch? It also didn’t hurt that it was her big sister, yeah sure Lilith had spent the larger portion of their time apart trying to capture and reform her, but Eda missed her still, the way they were when they were kids, how close they were. It had all seemed so sudden at the time, Lilith leaving. Just as she had gotten the curse, boom her closest friend was ripped from out of her hands and thrown into a new life, leaving Eda to struggle alone.

Alone, exactly like she was now.

Hooty leaving had a bigger impact on Eda than she would ever admit to anyone else. He had left not long after Lilith, taking up residence in the door of Gwendolyn’s house. He really had needed Lilith, and they were good for eachother, but she even found herself missing his horrifying screams. They were better than whatever unnatural silence had settled in his absence.

Eda felt herself starting to sob. Here she was, almost 50 years old, sitting alone on the couch, mourning the loss of people who weren’t even dead, they had just left her alone again.

Alone exactly like she was before she’d found King.

Alone exactly like how she’d felt after Lilith left for the coven.

Alone exactly like how it had been in the chamber in the Emperor’s castle before Luz had saved her.

There was nobody around to comfort her. Nobody to tell her it was going to be alright and tell her a stupid bread pun or talk to her about demons or their day at school, nobody to even aggressively apologize for all the pain they’d caused her. Nobody at all. Instead, she hugged her legs tight to her chest and began to rock herself back and forth gently.

It was a habit she had developed over the years, a way to make herself feel small. Smaller things were easier to fix. Easier to hide. She had cried like this after her first transformation in the woods, after running away from home for good, far too many times to count in the years before she met King. Eventually it became more a way to hide the fact she was crying in the first place, like after the first time she thought she had lost king at the park and panicked for about 5 minutes before locating him, or the first time Luz had accidentally called her mom, or the time after Lilith and her had a long talk for the first time in far too long.

Eda was used to solitude, one doesn’t run from the Emperor for decades without learning how to be alone, maybe she had just fallen out of practice. Nothing like being thrown back in the deep end. But that was the thing, she didn’t want to be alone anymore, she wanted King, she wanted Luz, she wanted Lilith, titan, she even wanted Hooty.

And now here she was, without any of them.

Alone in a silent house without anyone or anything.

Alone again.

#eda clawthorne #lilith clawthorne #luz noceda #king toh #hooty #fanfic #oops oh well #the owl house

[gingersnapwolves]

thank you to everyone who answered my question about the Sunshot Campaign ... the general consensus seemed to be “eh probably not but through fanfic all things are possible” lmao

now as to why I was asking ... I’ve been working on the outline of the Mingli fic and am running into a dilemma

the whole first part is fun school shenanigans, which, okay, isn’t really different from the series itself, and I thought about just stopping it there but that leaves kind of an ominous “but we all know the Sunshot Campaign is coming” feeling ... like, yay, everyone’s happy, but storm clouds are on the horizon ... which isn’t really the way I want to end a fic

so that leaves me with three basic choices

say ‘fuck it, this is one of those universes where the Wens aren’t evil because I don’t feel like dealing with it’

I did this in An Atypical Courtship and nobody seemed to mind

this also gives me the bonus of that I could have Wen Qing and Wen Ning at the lectures in The Unclean Realm, which I can’t have otherwise since the Nie and the Wen hate each other

but it also cuts out some of the fun I could have later, like at the banquet with JGS trying to put the engagement back on and JYL being like “um, I think my husband might object”, as well as JYL insisting that WQ be allowed to come to The Unclean Realm and be NMJ’s doctor to help him prevent qi deviation

have the fic proceed through the Sunshot Campaign basically with a parallel to canon

this is marginally difficult because if the lectures aren’t at Cloud Recesses then I don’t get LWJ and WWX pulled into the cave together

additionally, WWX wouldn’t meet WQ and WN at the lectures

so okay, I could stray more into book canon here, have WN’s motivation for helping WWX be solely that WWX was nice to him that one time at an archery tournament, and maybe even say ‘fuck it’ to the yin iron in general because it’s not really necessary to the plot

smaller additional problem is that the stuff that happens in the first half of the fic will prevent NMJ and Meng Yao’s messy divorce, but I’ve gotten around that before and I can get around it again

the real reason I’m not wholly thrilled with this option is really just because I’ve already written so many fics centered around stuff that happened during The Sunshot Campaign, it’s honestly a little boring ... WWX lost his golden core again, oop

I could skip over it entirely and just give a brief summary but that seems kind of cheap

the last option is that I could use the changes in the first half of fic to dramatically change the trajectory of the Sunshot Campaign

the first thought I had was that JC could go to Qinghe for help, instead of Lanling, while WWX and LWJ are trapped in the cave of Xuanwu, and then NMJ could actually escort them back to Yunmeng (as an excuse to visit JYL) and he would actually be there during the Wen’s attack on Lotus Pier - LWJ could be there, too, because NMJ would pretty easily persuade him to travel together, maybe send a message to LXC, who’s currently on the run/hiding out with MY, to all regroup together at Lotus Pier

Canonically, WZL can fight both YZY and NMJ to a draw, but could he fight both of them together to a draw? Doubtful

But then I started asking, if I prevent the sacking of Lotus Pier, JC keeps his core, WWX doesn’t end up in The Burial Mounds - is the war against the Wen sect even winnable at that point?

So it’s like, on the one hand, this is way more interesting than yet another ‘and then poor WWX got fucked over six ways from Sunday’ (if nothing else, imagine LWJ being there when YZY is like ‘I’m going to cut off WWX’s hand’)

But on the other hand, it might end with everyone getting murdered and the Wen sect overrunning the world

Or if I do find a way to win The Sunshot Campaign, I have a different problem, which is that if the sacking of Lotus Pier doesn’t happen, the Yunmeng trio don’t end up sheltering with Wen Qing and Wen Ning, so there’s no reason they would be spared later, which makes me sad

tl;dr I can’t decide where the eff I want this fic to go

any thoughts, opinions, additional plot bunnies?

#just rambling #fic stuff

[handthigh]

Yet another 19 Days discourse nobody asks for

After seeing call-me-ala and badidead ‘s posts with valid criticisms about the pacing of 19 Days and where we are 342 chapters in, I too decide to bite the bullet and express a critique I’ve been having for this series - while it is clear that 19 Days is not all sunshine and rainbows, I question the justification for introducing serious themes like mafia and abuse (more of the dynamics between She Li and Guan Shan) to drive the point of the story. Here’s the disclaimer before we dive in: I still enjoy the series very much and many of us are free to express our thoughts. Regardless of the purpose and intentions behind He Tian’s actions, I think it is clear to many of us that his behaviour has been even more intense these past 3 chapters, which is the catalyst to this post

Based on last year’s time-skipped Christmas chapters and chapter 339 where Jian Yi mentions that they are in their final year of middle school, many have theorised that He Tian’s actions towards Guan Shan are driven by his sense of urgency as he may possibly have to become involved with his family mafia business after this, which is literally child labour but okay not the main point lol.

Now, for the main point of my critique and the (literary) meat of this post: I think the introduction of these themes are hurting more than aiding the current storyline.

Firstly, these are literary themes that require higher levels of nuanced understanding as they may not be as relatable. The concept of underworld business in itself is already so complicated that if the author doesn't do the due research, it can either come across as cliché with many predictable tropes; or at risk of writing blocks as the plot points become so entrenched and specific there is no reasonable way to explain or progress the story besides time skip or reality warping.

Take She Li for example - he is clearly a villain and foil to supply conflict and Guan Shan's backstory. But he has been depicted to be such a Satan spawn with almost no redeeming qualities. If he is going to be around for awhile, idek how he'll progress or have a redemption arc without seemingly breaking the bounds of fictional reality Old Xian has already set up.

The pushing and pulling dynamics of Tianshan is not unfamiliar to many of us, especially when it’s still happening. This is clear as day even before the current post-camp arc. Would introducing the mafia or She Li into the picture aid in this? Personally, while Guan Shan has come to He Tian for help at times, I believe the main factor for this dynamic is Guan Shan’s changing and conflicting perception of He Tian, and (possibly) denial of feelings due to the homophobic culture of East Asia in general. While perhaps I shall give Old Xian the benefit of the doubt that maybe he couldn’t explore the latter topic due to censorship of Weibo, I question the need to include the above mentioned themes in order to keep the story ~spicy~. 

Secondly, the themes of the story so far do not seem to gel well together. The elusiveness and inaccessible impression of mafia is currently contrasted with the very nature of the main characters - “commoner” middle schoolers in a public school, whereby the latter setting is often thought to be more approachable and accessible. So far, I’m not seeing any attempts of reconciliation or integration with these themes in the story, but rather a parallel development of themes that seem to ignore the realities of each other. For fuck’s sake, neither Zheng Xi nor Jian Yi seem to even KNOW that Jian Yi’s family is involved in a mafia, and that his father is allegedly one of the top dogs in the underworld???? What????

Lmao Idk dude this is a messy mess my head’s a mess. Sorry for the long post, and if you read till here, thank you, really. :’)

#long post #attempted literary analysis #19 days #old xian #zhan zheng xi #jian yi #he tian #mo guan shan #she li #zhanyi #tianshan #oxian

[bigskydreaming]

That post about "I'll keep reading a fic that mischaracterizes Dick even if it angers me because the plot is interesting" but with Scott McCall. I'll come across genuinely interesting concepts and plots and power through for that even when Scott is portrayed negatively in the story, he's there at least and it's either that or wading through 99% of fic which centers Stiles/Sterek and the most common Scott tag being "Scott's a bad friend" ya know?

Honestly, what is it about Scott McCall and Dick Grayson that gets them (mis)treated so similarly by their respective fandoms?

Oh yeah, definitely. Tbh, part of why I’m so loud and obnoxious in Batfandom is because in TW fandom it eventually got to the point where I just had to stop reading fic completely, because I wasn’t finding anything that was Scott-friendly outside of the handful of writers I was already friends with and I just got fed up. And I’m too stubborn to do the same thing twice in two separate fandoms so I just....refuse to give up on DG fic by way of a rousing morning “Not today Satan” pep talk. fhslakhfkal

But honestly, the parallels, there are more than a few:

1) Obviously I do think the racism element has plenty to do with it. Especially in the way “is Scott really even Latino on the show though, I mean did they ever actually SAY it” arguments could be swapped out almost word for word with the “is Dick really even Romani in the comics though, I mean it was just a retcon” arguments. With the primary aim of arguments against this being a factor focusing on just invalidating the idea that either are characters of color in the first place, rather than examining the way people engage with these characters for signs of racism. Instead of trying to refute that there’s anything wrong with certain ways people interact with these characters, people jump right into “well there can’t be racism if the character in question isn’t even REALLY a character of color, y’know not like, a board-certified one with proper accreditation and everything.”

But its definitely interesting when you look at how Dick Grayson’s been perceived by fandom overall, like, in terms of looking back over the years. As someone who’s been in and out of DC fandoms to various degrees since the late 90s, as in before Dick was retconned as being Romani in the first place, and as I’ve said before, he used to be a LOT more popular and forgiven for stuff in the past in fandom.....like, I maintain that if you look back at the early 2000s-2010, aka when that retcon was not just written, but gradually and more fully spread into the fandom’s overall awareness and perception of the character....you can almost like, SEE the empathy gap suddenly click into place once he was more fully solidified as a character of color in a lot of fans’ minds. Even if they won’t admit it because that would require admitting to the racism that then began to seep into how they interacted with this character now, compared to how they’d interacted with this character in the past.

And I think the empathy gap - and the complete refusal to admit that’s even a thing, because its not like these are REALLY characters of color so why would it even apply - like, I think that goes a long way to explaining the way both Scott and Dick consistently have their traumas invalidated and ignored by large parts of their fandoms, with the focus always being shifted to how bad things that happen to them are really MORE bad for how they affect the people around them, etc.

2) It also I think has a lot to do with their personalities and the archetypes they both embody as empathetic caregiver types. I think I described it pretty well here in my BUABS fic:

“What do you know about Impostor Syndrome?"

"It's a term sometimes used to describe over-achievers who have trouble internalizing their accomplishments. Perfectionists who think they're frauds because they don't know how to take credit for their own achievements and say its because of luck or timing or something other people did," Dick frowned, puzzling through both the question and the aim of it. He raised an eyebrow. "Doesn't sound like something that applies to someone as arrogant as me."

"Don't be a little shit, Dick," Dinah said with small smirk. "And you're right, I don't think any of that applies to you. However, it's also used in another capacity, to describe trauma survivors who are unable to internalize their own trauma. Who deflect from it, or mitigate it, treat it as less than it is on the basis that it wasn't as bad as what's happened to someone else. It's especially common in trauma survivors who are noted for being especially empathetic or who have caregiver personality types. People who are so used to self-identifying as someone whose role or purpose is in helping others, that they find themselves unable to identify as traumatized because it might shift the focus to themselves instead of people they feel need it more. Does that behavior sound a little more familiar?"

(For the record, that fic is set in the YJ universe, not the comics, and I go with the approach that Dick and Bruce have a much better relationship there than they do in the comics, and thus overall Dick’s mental health and self-esteem are better than in the comics, generally speaking. I only mention this as a tangent, but like....I think Impostor Syndrome as an issue for perfectionists and over-achievers with low self-esteem DOES pertain to comic book Dick Grayson as well as its trauma interpretation. But anyway).

But point is, I think that describes both Dick and Scott, and their respective approaches to dealing (or not dealing) with their personal traumas. This isn’t a problem in and of itself, as its a valid survivor reaction and issue plenty of people deal with....the problem lies in the willingness of fans to capitalize on the OPPORTUNITIES this presents, as fans of other characters, to keep the focus trained on the characters around these two, and THEIR issues, even at the expense of these two.

Basically, its not in either of their natures to ASK for help and forcefully DRAG focus and awareness to themselves and their issues, for a number of reasons including the fact that I don’t think either character feels they ‘deserve’ that focus or need that help more than other people need theirs. 

And because these characters are the empathetic caregiver archetypes in their respective ensembles, ie the ones who usually take the lead in reaching out to even characters who don’t normally ask for help themselves....there’s often no one else immediately popping up in reader awareness as like, a likely candidate to extend that same awareness and offer of aid to Dick and Scott even without them actually asking for it.

(Which, is a large part of my commitment to the theme “Stop assembling your ensembles with just ONE of each archetype, mix and match more, or like....use more hybrid archetypes so you don’t HAVE this problem, and also, stop limiting characters to JUST their archetypes, three-dimensional people aren’t confined to only acting upon a limited menu of actions and impulses, and neither should three-dimensional characters be.”)

And then of course there’s the additional component, linked to point #1, that a lot of people refuse to write other characters seeing their need for help or support or offering it even when they do see it, simply because like....they don’t WANT these characters to HAVE help or support.

3) The Intelligence Factor - as in, do they really have it? Both Scott McCall and Dick Grayson are repeatedly and consistently established in their respective canons as being extremely intelligent, and no, not JUST in emotional intelligence. I don’t like sounding like I’m undervaluing that particular form of intelligence, I’m just really irritated by the way people go about saying “oh I do admit they have very high emotional intelligence” like they’re throwing them some kind of a bone. LMAO. No. They both have high emotional intelligence, true, but they’re also extremely intelligent across the board in all other ways. Both are excellent strategists, quick-thinking and repeatedly out-maneuvering even other noted strategists, both display a quick grasp of new information and an ability to see how and where and when to PUT that information to use in practical applications, etc. These are not dumb characters, at ALL.

But fandoms have this weird committment to the idea that only the Smartest Person In The Room REALLY matters, and like, there can only be one of those per room, or like, at most two, so that they can be a matched pair and make kissing noises and then very smart babies, or like, they can be the doting (smart) father and his adored (smartest) son, all others can go home now.

Like, no, that’s not how that works. A room full of geniuses does not suddenly become a room full of ONE genius and a bunch of random and irrelevant cuz they’re dumb non-geniuses the second someone deemed King of the Smarties enters the room. That’s not a thing. Stop acting like that’s a thing, fandoms. Nobody’s intelligence is actually threatened by the presence of more than one character with notable intelligence. Also fuck off with the adoration of notable intelligence like people have more value the more decimal points of pi they can recite off the top of their head. That’s not a more evolved human being, that’s just a nerd. Nerds have value but no more than people who like, chose other life pursuits aside from nerddom.

(Not actually intended as a slight against nerds, just for the record. I say that as both a self-described nerd and also a self-loathing nerd and also lol I’m not a nerd. Look, I’m a very nuanced person okay. I put the complex in complex organism).

But the point here is not just that people are weird about there only being one true genius allowed per ensemble, its that people are WEIRD about how in order to ACTUALLY be smart, you need to like.....accurately match the factory specs for “this is how a smart person looks and behaves.”

And Scott and Dick do not look and behave that way. The sheer number of times - and similar ways - people try to completely discredit the idea they have more than one brain cell by pointing to times they’re being INTENTIONALLY goofy and being like “oh yeah, would a smart person do THAT, hmmmm”.....

Its like...yes? LOL. There is no law that says that a smart person can not be a goofball, or that they are no longer smart if they fulfill a certain quota of actions deemed ‘dopey’ by the official arbiters of smartness.

Similarly the way people like to point at stuff like “my mom buys the groceries” when the writers BEHIND the characters were intentionally trying to play up a comedic moment rather than make a sealed declaration of IQ, and be like, “see, would a smart person be THAT dumb, hmmm?”

First of all, yes, even going off the same canon people try and cite as proof Scott and Dick are too dumb to actually be smart.....you can literally find similarly ‘dumb’ moments for every other TW character....the Sheriff expressed incredulity that Stiles didn’t know what a pendant was, and Lydia was like wtf how are you this dumb at Stiles when he asked if she read the movie the Little Mermaid because he didn’t know there was also a book.....Allison made the same mistake about bestiary as Scott did because the writers were so impressed by that joke they literally had to do it twice....and do not get me STARTED on the number of moments I can point to in comics AND movies AND cartoons where everyone from Bruce to Tim to Jason to Damian and more, like, make utter bonehead moves or utter completely bonehead sentences.

Despite what rumors of my being an ancient eldritch being might have some believe, I did not actually know Albert Einstein personally, but I can still with complete confidence say I GUARANTEE that at more than one point in his life, even he did things that might have been pointed at by time-travelers on vacay as evidence that geez, old-timey smart people were really dumb, huh.

And I think we would all agree that Albert Einstein was actually a very smart man.

But yeah, point is, both Scott and Dick are very smart characters who for a lot of reasons - including personal choice, as in, they don’t really see the appeal in conforming to standards of what a smart person is SUPPOSED to be like (especially when those standards have a weird amount in common with tendencies often described as elitist or condescending or like, having or pertaining to the qualities of an asshole) - like, they just don’t typically behave or conduct themselves in ways that match up with a lot of the assumptions people have for what ‘makes’ a genius or what that’s supposed to look or sound like.

And because they don’t SEEM like they’re that smart, a lot of effort then gets put into insisting that they’re definitely not, and they can’t be, because see look how dumb here and here and here.....which then leeches over into other aspects of the characters and their stories and dynamics, and then combines with the issues resulting from Point 1 and Point 2 and probably two more I’m not thinking of at the moment but are definitely there so that by their powers combined.....fandom summons Captain Dumbass to take over most interactions with these particular characters. And thus repeatedly and insistently engages with these two and their stories only in very dumb, very limited, and VERY annoying ways.